gotham_bound, posts by tag: history - LiveJournal

It might just be me, but there seems to be a meme going around in creative outlets to investigate America, particularly of the 20th century. I'm faintly tempted to purse my lips and think about the potential for ethnocentrism (not chauvinism, not with another look at the My Lai massacre underway). But on the other hand, I'm very much in the target audience of these programs. I have an abiding curiosity for history and stories in general. So I eat this stuff up with a spoon (when I can).

I say it might just be me because I've been turning over an idea for something that takes another look America. I'm not sure what it ought to be - that something I'm turning over in my head. It's a story. Mostly. It has characters I invented and several more than I didn't invent but can't help thinking of when I think of America. But it's not just literature. I don't feel comfortable with this being text, music is central to what is in my head. But maybe that's just because it's in my head. I can also smell and taste details important to what I would want to create. If I had a million bazillion dollars it might be a TV show. An experimental TV show.

* * * * * * * * * *

Loosely related, I've been thinking about the matter of points of view. For a while now I've been letting relativism inform how I listen to people, particularly those in the news with whom I don't agree.

Trying to consider how other people might exist as more than their few actions or words I know about is a practice I've worked on for absolutely ages. It's perhaps dangerous ground because it's the sort of thing that gets a person accused of being a lily-livered loosey-goosey Commie liberal. For ages a thief was a thief. He was not a person but a deed in the flesh. But... Jean Val Jean was a thief. If you read Les Miserables you get that this was a person who made several poor choices in a lifetime of many better actions. And this gets sticky when a. I consider real people who've committed real crimes and b. particularly crimes that physically hurt other people, whether assault, rape or murder. The thing is, civilizations tend to opt for locking up people who do these things or exiling them and never looking back. Cross the line and society would much rather forget all about you than struggle with the substance of your life, good, bad and neutral.

It's an emotional response, I think. It's fear, it's betrayal, it's fury. It's the response to fucking with a secure, civilized life. It's atavistic, it's tribal and it's extremely powerful. I certainly don't want to undermine it. I don't intend to say that it's wrong to lock up a rapist and throw away the key. But to some degree I want to consider the person-who-raped and the choices made that led to the crime. Because if we are going to continue to believe in the necessity of punishing crimes we have to believe that a choice is required to commit a crime. Sometimes the only way to really do that is the proverbial walking in another man's shoes.


( Collapse )

It's funny, the reason this comes back around to my mind is (really!) because the Dalai Lama is on Twitter. About every day there's a meditation posted reiterating a call toward compassion, peace, courage, etc. Lost cause bleeding-heart that I am, it matters to me to see what other people are seeing. If there's to be any effort put into preventing bad things like crime, war or generalized hatred there has to be a meeting of minds. And it won't happen as long as we think that "we" have nothing to do with "them."

Dear writers of historal references for pop culture audiences:

Internment of the Japanese was not the only time the USofA rounded up people who were different and relocated them for the "security" of the mainstream.

Reservations were concentration camps that lasted for generations.

OK. Going to lay down before i work myself into a really tizzy.

Every American knows the Kennedy name but mostly we know the mystique. We don't necessarily know the personal and political efforts of the remaining Kennedy boy. There's a reason liberals wear their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to the Kennedys. It's not just the glamour of Camelot (an idea that was really only born upon JFK's assassination, a decade before I was born). We just know they were a big deal but the details are missing.

The details are not inconsequential. This 2003 article in the Boston Globe Magazine has an indepth look at Sen Ted Kennedy's influence and activities over 40 years. From his inexperience when he took on the seat - a legacy from his older brothers - to the drowning of Ms Kopechne to his mastery of the Washington scene. It's a long article, taking me all afternoon to peruse, but eye opening and very worth it if you have any curiosity about politics of the last several decades.

If his name were [not Kennedy], Robert Bork might be on the Supreme Court today. Robert Dole might have been elected president of the United States. There might still be a draft. There would not have been the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which overturned seven Supreme Court decisions that Kennedy saw as rolling back the gains of the civil rights movement; the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, the most wide-ranging civil rights bill since the original ones in the 1960s; the Kennedy-Kassebaum Bill of 1996, which allows "portability" in health care coverage; or any one of the 35 other initiatives - large and small, on everything from Medicare to the minimum wage to immigration reform - that Kennedy, in opposition and in the minority, managed to cajole and finesse through the Senate between 1996 and 1998, masterfully defusing the Gingrich Revolution and maneuvering Dole into such complete political incoherence that Bill Clinton won reelection in a walk.

One of the more moving remembrances I've heard today came from Vice President Biden who's personal relationship to the late Senator is both remarkable and apparently common to anyone with some proximity to Kennedy. When politicians turn out to be merely human after all it's rare to find that they are also incredibly humane. (Really intereting stuff begins around 3:00)

The Hugo Awards were given last night - kylecassidy calls them the Oscars of science fiction. List of Winners

Big congratulations to Neil Gaiman for Best Novel, The Graveyard Book which has won way more awards than I can remember at this point. For now and who knows how longer, you can listen to him read the whole thing aloud. In addition to be master writer, Gaiman is a brilliant reader-aloud-er.

Also hearty congrats to Kaja & Phil Folio for their win in the graphic novel department for, of course, Girl Genius. You know, that science-y, steampunk-y, romantic & funny Web comic I keep demanding you read.

Other winners that I've had the pleasure of enjoying x1000 include the movie Wall-E and Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. You can buy both on DVD, but I would be remiss (after the above linkage) if I didn't note you can also watch Dr Horrible on Hulu for free (with commercials).

-------

Unrelated, the Indecision blog (spawned from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report) point out an article in New York Magazine noting that Newcons Love Jon Stewart. It takes a particular look at Stewart's interview with Cliff May, a proponent of waterboarding as a counterintelligence technique. Apparently May had to be talked into doing the interview by another neo-con, Bill Kristol. But once there May enjoyed the interview and said it was the best discussion he'd ever had on the subject. It's funny, the article quotes that line, but doesn't note Stewart's response which was (to paraphrase) because the so-called news people suck.

I love that Jon Stewart's penchant for critical thinking and intellectual curiosity is being recognized and disseminated. It may be a weird source for making curiosity cool but since the places that are supposed to spawn this curiosity - news programs and so on - have devolved into safe spaces for spittle-inflected opining, I'll take what I can get. The interviews are often some of the best things I can find on television (granted, I don't watch very much TV of any sort these days), but they're honest, informative and force me to listen to people who I'm usually virulently against.

Here's the Cliff May interview from last April. Take the time to look up other interviews such as will Bill Kristol, Douglas Feith, John Bolton or even Bill O'Reilly.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Cliff May Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Cliff May Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Cliff May Extended Interview Pt. 3
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

(Just FYI - I do think that if war criminal prosecution were applied across the board, whether a given side won the war or not, Pres Truman should have been put on trial for war crimes stemming from dropping the A-bombs. I was a little sad that in days after this interview Stewart recanted the Truman-war-criminal statement.) (Please don't tell my dad.)

Weekends always kill online conversations for me. Stuff comes up and by the time I get back to a discussion I usually don't care about picking them back up. Which kind of sucks because those tend to be really interesting conversations. 'Bout life, the universe and everything. Or close enough.

I sort of got a lot done, then again not remotely as much as I was hoping (as per usual). Highlights include starting on the Terry Jones collection where the former Monty Python star gives a really fun and funny review of different aspects of history. I got them for my dad who was a history teacher and a great lover of National Geographic/History Channel/PBS informational shows. I love them too, thanks to him. I was a little worried that he wouldn't cotton to the whimsical stylings of Mr Jones but I needn't have worried. Despite both of us being terribly curious about history and totally willing to investigate stuff we don't know, the History of Inventions in War and Military (or whatever the episode title was) still held a number of insights we had missed. It's not often an 83-year old history teacher learns something new. }:>

Today I met several good folks for an early dinner a lovely restaurant near Malibu called Abuelita's. Excellent, tasty food, comfortable and pretty environs all nestled up in Topanga Canyon. Afterward we attended Theatricum Botanicum's production of Julius Caesar. It was pretty solid even if it wasn't top of the line in every aspect. The actors were at minimum perfectly competent and several were really a pleasant watch. The direction made excellent use of the space, a gulch between two hillsides. The lighting design was sharp and rich and had great coverage even off the man-built part of the stage. Only the costuming was a little wacky and the general consensus was the budget probably couldn't put everyone in era-appropriate linens and possibly some, if not all, actors acquired parts of their costumes.

So..it was impressive and I recommend it. It's a lovely setting for outdoor theatre, a good company and it's hard to beat the Bard. (Though TB upholds my theory that repertories don't like to wander away from the mainstays of Shakespeare and Chekov. The only other play they have this season is by Moliere. The only Americans I ever seem to see in this crowd (and this is rare, all the same) are David Mamet and Sam Shepard.) Only problem is TB is really kind of far away. Took a while to get there thanks to traffic, but even at night the drive home took about an hour and a half.


This Tuesday John Dean will speak at the Fullerton Library. I'm not sure how eager I am to do that. I'm curious but I would have to fight to make the time. Currently the plan is to take the tyke to the ScienCenter in LA on Tuesday and I'm probably going to have to head out in time for rush hour traffic.

Otherwise plenty to do this week. As always a good chunk involves trying to convince other people that it would be a good idea to give me a lot of money. I really dislike this task. Like, a lot.

Let's see... I fell way behind watching Heroes during the season so I've been trying to polish off the season via Hulu. Unfortunately I think I just lost a batch if not all the rest of the episodes from about April on. Feh. Hulu doesn't archive shows at the same rate. Maybe because of space, but I suspect the license to have them at all depends on when the DVD of the season comes out. Hmph. Also have a bunch of Scrubs to watch in the next couple of days and some Fringe and Sanctuary to enjoy over the next several months.

With no strikes this year the Heroes arc was much more coherent and only came out all gunked up because my viewing habits made no sense. (Also because Hulu doesn't automatically queue the videos up by strict air date or episode number, but that's easy to fix now that I know about it.)

From Netflix I recently watched Transamerica which was really sweet in a kind of "oh right, life sucks" kind of way. Definitely could appreciate all the hype Felicity Huffman got. The other actors were fine also and some quite surprising. Still have to watch the extras and I'm looking forward to the interview with her. Last week I watched Brokeback Mountain. Definitely a heartbreaker, but beautiful. Ang Lee is definitely the master of stories where a love is forbidden. And it was a singular pleasure to watch all of the actors push themselves. Every role was tightrope acrobatics and every actor performed to the hilt. Wow.

At the movies I saw the latest Harry Potter last week. Hm. There was nothing bad about it and every scene was really quite entertaining. But there's something... It wasn't quite *spectacular* at least until the very end. Someone called it dutiful, and in that, quite delightful. And I do want to make it clear that I enjoyed it a lot. But rather than a trip to the moon, it was hanging out with terrific friends, laughing, singing with the radio and enjoy a great wine. ...this may all be me. For the first time I walked into one of these movies and knew what would happen. For the last Potter movie I hadn't read any of the books yet, now I've read them all. In any case, a good time. And YAY!!! finally we get Alan Rickman front and center being all awesome and Alan Rickman-y! "Take out your wand." YYAAAAAYYY!!!!

Also we got to see the trailers for Where the Wild Things Are and Sherlock Holmes which both look really awesome. Between you and me I'm *totally* looking forward to SH. Miss Brazelton spent about as much time squeeing over SH as HP once we left the theatre. Certainly a lot more explosions in the movie than either one of us remember in Conan Doyle's stories, but no matter. (I'm also wondering how/if they'll treat Holmes' drug use...but that he's played by Robert Downey Jr is really a delicious irony.)

Skipped Repo! tonight.

A couple of nights ago at the HP Haus the Glitterfaery played a DVD of music from the Asleep by Dawn people. It was a fun collection of metal, rock and medieval age music with a distinct dark bent. Ran the gamut from Loreena McKennitt to The Cult, Peter Murphy to Lacuna Coil. Got a peek at several acts I'd never heard of and I made a list of folks I definitely have to check out again. Otherwise not much new music these days.

Bookwise... I had been trying to read The Abstract by Goodloe Byron but I found it just tedious enough that I did something I've never done before: relegated it to bathroom reading only. That way I could move on to the next book in the pile (Mila 18 by Leon Uris - just started it today). The concept behind The Abstract may make for an interesting writing exercise but it's not a very fun reading exercise. The title is apt as all the scenes are abstractions of what the main character experiences but it renders the prose rather mundane. My six year old niece won't tell a story any better than this but at least I give a crap about what happens to her and how she sees the world. Note - I came into the book because at a small book fair in Central Park last year Mr Byron was giving the books away at his own table. (He had been traveling around the country giving the books away, the covers all state the book is free, not for sale.) Mine is signed and personalized with a note hoping that it is my "style." Well I have to say that I appreciate experiments and as someone who loves to fuck around with form I like that he gave it a go. Just can't say it was a success. If on some long bathroom break I find otherwise, I'll let you know.

Yesterday I did make it to LACMA's Pompeii exhibit. Weirdly I don't feel like I have that much to say. It's really good and if art from antiquity is your thing you should definitely check it out. It amused me to note how heavily Romans were Greek-ophiles, the way certain Americans seem to be Anglophiles or perhaps Japan-ophiles. In any case, I dug it. Also, there were several direct references to the Getty Villa in Malibu, including a few pieces borrowed from there.

What have you been reading, watching or listening to lately?

I don't do a lot of remembrancing on Veteran's Day because I wasn't brought up to do so. I don't know why that is. My dad is a veteran of WWII.

So is my uncle Roy who served in the Navy like my dad. So were my uncles Frank and Tony who served in the Army.

My dad, who'll talk your ear off if you give him half a chance, has war stories for every mood. From jolly like meeting Cesar Romero to interesting like befriending a man who turned out to be a Navaho codetalker. From creepy like the Apache who liked to collect Japanese scalps to near misses that make my skin crawl. He collected other people's stories and told them as if he were there, pacing them to hook his young, credulous kids and keep me more aware of the horrors and odd comradeship in a way a full marathon of John Wayne movies never could.

My dad never told these stories with any bravado, just the sense of informing us. Ever the history teacher, he just assumed we wanted to know these things. Because it's what I grew up with I never thought about not wanting to listen.

My OB, I think also counts as a veteran, I think, though he was in the Army reserve about a dozen years ago. Which is why my parents never freaked over him.

When my two younger brothers signed up my parents didn't like it. We had already invaded Iraq and it just didn't add up. My dad didn't look to his stories as a possible influence and my brothers didn't give them as a reason. But you've never seen an old man so broken as one who cries with fear over his sons who are off to war. I cried plenty, but I found a steadying source of strength both in my mom and the memory of my grandma who watched five of her boys get pulled away from her thanks to the draft. Three of my aunts too, waited at home, wondering if they were going to become widows so soon.

MB talks a little bit about it but BB is more closed off. BB is home for good, it seems, and studying criminal law. MB is out in the desert near Barstow going through field exercises. His contract is supposed to end at the end of winter but he could still be stop lossed and sent into Afghanistan. He once said on patrol they saved their tears for after they fished the remnants of their buddies' remains out of the ditches and got back to camp.


(If you're wondering MB jumps out of perfectly good planes, BB used to drive tanks. MB is typically stationed out of Fort Richardson, Alaska. BB was in Sweinfurt, Germany. Both did a tour in Iraq.)


There, I've remembered. It's not that I don't care to remember, it's that I find I'd rather do something with this. And supposedly Veteran's Day is not the day to hold forth if you have an approach that says that war is not the answer and violence can only beget violence.

So thanks to my brothers and my uncles and my dad for being there, willingly or not.



I'm hardly likely to get drafted and even if I wanted to I'd probably be too old and out of shape to join anything other than the reserves. So all I think I can do is steel myself, push away my fears and put my shoulder to the cause of keeping this land, your home, the land of the free and the home of the brave.


After all I owe my pacifism to the lessons from my dad.

DISCLAIMER: I have no interest in attacking my own country. Furthermore, I do not condone violence that hurts people, regardless of the rationale. I am, however very curious about people and movements and how folks get caught up and determined to make a difference. And thus far curiosity, thoughtfulness and idle speculation are not illegal. Thus far.

Thanks, of course, to the political environment we've been hearing a lot about Bill Ayers and his 60s group the Weather Underground.

( Collapse )

I'm not sure how much people my age and younger generally know about the Weathermen. I'm pretty sure most of them haven't read the books or seen the movie(s). I was kind of gratified to see them referred to in Julie Taymor's Across the Universe - but a musical like that can really only have oblique references.

The Weathermen were young and idealistic and very, very angry. They were an offshoot of the antiwar movement who decided it wasn't enough to demand a change in policy. They were determined to affect the government directly in the only way they believed they could get the government's attention - through violence.


If it weren't for that whole terrorism thing I would *heart* these people. I'd *heart* 'em good.


To jog my memory I looked them up in Wikipedia and found myself smiling a crooked smile. I know they're supposed to be the bad guys, or at least the dummies who WEREN'T HELPING. But I like it when people take a look around and, finding that the wayward direction of their world is unacceptable, do something. They didn't sit around and wait, hoping that a savior would show up and galvanize a political base and lead them to the promised land. They didn't remove themselves from the process. They didn't throw up their hands and accept a compromise of acting for the lesser of two evils.

They knew they were breaking the law. They knew they were taking terrific risks and they knew they were going to destroy property and see to the loss of American treasure. And the simple fact is, their efforts ran the course from dynamic to disillusioned to dissipated to institutionalized. The fairly regular path for idealism, as displayed in active and passionate people.

I learned I was wrong though - I told adularia that Ayers had done time. Actually, he and most of the other Weathermen were hauled up on charges as one might expect, except the charges had to be dropped as it was found that the government's case was predicated on evidence that was gathered illegally. I think a couple of Weathermen did see some time - there was one fatality of non-Weathermen, after all. But they all of course spent time off grid hiding underground through the Nixon administration. When they could surface they faced all the social problems of having no legitimate history and occasionally recognized as individuals who had tried to make war on the U.S. government.

In general, I applaud anyone who has the courage of their convictions to act. I won't tolerate harming people but I'm sick and tired of inactivity blamed on the twin concerns of it not making exactly the right and thorough difference and the fear that the change won't be accepted as intended. Life never works out the way you were expecting it would. This is a maxim I try to keep in mind even while I try to impose my will on my life.

Contemplating the choices the folks in the Weather Underground made I come to two poles of consideration. On the one hand is no consideration - just tossing the Molotov and letting whatever happens happen. On the other hand is so much consideration that action never happens.

As someone who's wondered aloud when we'll know it's time for revolution, I'm reminded again and again that there's no good time for it. Emergencies always show up at a bad time. And irrational reactions to emergencies are only to be expected. There's no sign when the line has been crossed and it's time to take action against the perpetrators. This is because the line is made up. It's only recognized on a subjective level and if the line hasn't been crossed for you then that's all there is to it.

But if it has been crossed (as far as one is concerned) what then? Maybe I haven't acted because I would never do much more than bang out my irritation onto my journal. Maybe in a group setting of like minded angry and impatient people I would be activated more readily. I can tell you, though, there have been periods in the last eight years where I've been so horrified by what my government was doing that lodging my displeasure by way of an incendiary device hasn't always sounded like an extraordinarily stupid idea.

But people are tuned in now. They've been turned on like no time I've seen in my life, and that is heartening. If that can be kept up we might not have people dropping out again - leaving in their wake folks who only want to bolster the status quo and don't think "hypocrite" is a pejorative.

I wish more people studied history more carefully, particularly recent history. We might or might not be Rome. We might or might not head into another Dark Age... But wouldn't it be worthwhile to know our prologue? Wouldn't it be worthwhile to know who the players are that are running the world? Wouldn't it be worthwhile to understand that while Sen Obama couldn't possibly be a terrorist via his connection to William Ayers, Sen McCain would of course have a chip on his shoulder for the founder of a group that was waging war on his government while he was in an extended stay in Hanoi Hilton?


Quick: inform yourselves before it becomes illegal.

------
Of course, it's hard to think of the Weathermen without having the Machines of Loving Grace song "Weather Man" stuck in my head. Even if it is more about the Bianca-Tate murders.

I'm not going to go in order so just keep up as best you can.

Stephen Colbert to have his DNA Sent Into Space

The remarks insinuate that, in the event of the total extinction of humanity, Man can be recreated in the likeness of Stephen Colbert. Which is really amusing if you're a fan of his show, annoying or puzzling if you're not.

I've often wondered how well sarcasm translates to people/cultures/languages in other parts of the world. I really wonder about its longevity. Sarcasm and parody come out of the English tradition (from what I've seen) of caricature that's been around for a few hundred years.

( Collapse )
All the same, if in the distant future aliens from beyond find copies of The Colbert Report and it utterly confuses them, they can resurrect Stephen Colbert and he can explain it all for them. }:>

ETA: Yes, this is what I think about instead of job hunting. Because it's WWAAAAAAYY more fun. Of course, so is flossing my teeth.

I love studying history and the movement of people, whether behavioral or actual physical movements, societal changes, evolutions, modifications, whatever. I love the things that people do, even when they make no sense. Being a hippy peacenik, of course, I like it when no one ends up dead because of it.

But I occasionally have to remember the things that are common and easy to dig into for me are ancient history for other folks. When your dad is a full generation older than all your friends' dads your sense of time can end up a little warped. Especially when he was a history teacher and still loves to tell stories.

Greatest generation aside, how many of you had a chance to study the Great Depression in history class - say, anywhere up through high school? How about the rise/spread of Communism? How far up to recent days did your (public) school history lessons go (if you didn't go to public schools then count anything before college)? For a lot of folks my age it seems to have left off somewhere around the Industrial Age. Not that we were paying much attention. If I recall correctly, academic rigors for most people dropped off after the Civil War. I say we mostly know about the Second World War thanks to John Wayne and the History Channel.

But that's a bit of a digression.( Collapse )

Just musing on the things I remember from my own long ago. I remember when the Berlin Wall was still up. I remember when there was a boycott on raisins because California growers wouldn't allow farm workers to unionize. I remember when protectionist sentiment drove a lot of Americans to buy Made in America which contributed to a serious obstacle in trade growth in the Far East - letting China gain on Japan. What do you remember that we're not talking about these days?