Decoration Day: Im Westen Nichts Neues

Coming at you from Saxapahaw, a salute on Decoration Day. Despite long wars of dubious worth fought in multiple tours by volunteer military forces supplemented by better-paid latter day Hessians; the Seaborne Toxic Event; and disarray, mayhem and general global weirdness -- all in all, it's been a good day in the here and now. Hope all are well out there, fighting the good fight or peaceably assembling something for the ages. Until next time, adieu. I made it!













These days, things are quiet not in the West, nor in the East, not in the North nor in the South.  Stay strong: there are many more fights to come, and on all fronts.  George Orwell and Aldous Huxley called it, both.

Today's Rune: Growth.

Giant Steps

On the road today, to the native land of John Coltrane. Giant Steps (1960): better than Humpty Dumpty in the Gulf of Mexico, certainly.  Hope y'all have a great weekend, everything being equal!

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Der Amerikanische Freund

Farewell to the American Friend, Dennis Hopper (1936-2010), last of the Rebel Without a Cause cast to go. A really worthwhile Hopper film to see is Wim Wenders Der Amerikanische Freund / The American Friend (1977); it's the kind of movie one can watch more than once and notice several different new aspects, angles. Let's not forget, besides Dennis Hopper at his best, the great Bruno Ganz, and Nicholas Ray (who directed Rebel Without a Cause) and director Sam Fuller, plus a key sonic role by the Kinks. Filmed mostly around Hamburg, perhaps inspiring Ripley, Hopper's character, to ask,  "What's wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?"  Indeed, what?

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Also Known As "Le Deuxième Sexe"

Existentialism keeps resurfacing in books, movies and art in general. Woody Allen certainly seems to go with it, and now we can get to an expanded and improved translation of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) / The Second Sex (1953) by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier (2010).  I'm glad -- bring them all back!   Existentialism plus gender issues -- both elicit interesting, compelling questions.  What goes around comes around.

Guess how many women are engineers? Last I checked, 11% of engineering graduates were women.  Last I checked, there was an even smaller group called The Society of Professional Women in Petroleum (SPWP). Would there be any differences in approaches to engineering if women were in charge, or better represented in terms of actual decision-making? 

I have no idea -- merely asking the question.

I do feel this: that the status quo is not nearly good enough -- not for highways, urban planning, education, infrastructure, transportation, social services, foreign policy, energy policy, military strategy, longterm thinking or much of anything else. The way things stand, as a Lousiana parish leader quipped recently, it's like the world is "being run by a bunch of 7th graders" (and 7th grade boys for the most part).  Or, better things are being blocked by those with the mentality of 7th grade boys -- maybe that is also true.

Do you prefer the detail from the first painting, or the second? Why?  Le Deuxième Sexe or The Second Sex?

Today's Rune: Movement.

Kill Shot Was Here: From SNAFU to FUBAR

'It's getting so bad that even people are complaining.' Mauldin, Chicago Sun-Times (1965), in No Laughing Matter (US HEW, 1966).

The Best of All Possible Worlds (Reprise)

Now seems as good a time as any for a reprise of this post originally dated July 15, 2006:

Oil. Is it worth the price?

Werner Herzog takes a unique approach to oil, war and their combined impact in his "window into another world," Lektionen in Finsternis / Lessons of Darkness (1992). Set in Kuwait (there's a breathtaking aerial view of Kuwait City before the Iraqi invasion and Coalition counterattack), he interviews Kuwaitis about torture and mayhem, then plunges into the desert and the oil fields, many of the them blazing. There are beautiful shots of what looks like an inland sea, a mirage, a massive oil slick, in fact. Herzog provides some trippy narration in English, but the real audio backdrop is provided, as in most of his films, with music. Here, his classical German and Italian selections fit the on screen images mesmerizingly. We see tire tracks, tank tracks, blackened and burned equipment, burning oil wells, operatic destruction caused by human beings interacting with their environment.

The latter sequences let us observe men, looking otherworldly in fire retardant suits, trying to contain and put out these primal fires.










Herzog the visionary simply wants to share his glimpses of the mysterious, arational world, and in the fifty minutes of Lessons of Darkness set in Kuwait, he succeeds.

Today's Rune: Defense.

Lost in a Roman Wilderness of Pain: Waiting for the Summer Rain

'Just think - once this was nothing but raw wilderness!' Mauldin, Chicago Sun-Times, 1965.*  And all the children are insane . . .








Iron Eyes Cody, 1971: GET INVOLVED NOW. POLLUTION HURTS ALL OF US.

*From No Laughing Matter: The Cartoonist Focuses on Air Pollution. National Conference on Air Pollution, December 12-14, 1966, Washington, D. C. Public Health Service Publication No. 1561. U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Division of Air Pollution, Washington,      D. C., 1966.  Cf. The Doors, "The End," The Doors (1967).

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.  

No Mr. Bond, No Happy Elves

Sad to say, no 007 came in time to stop the oil spill, no happy elves to plug the leaks. On the other hand, reality is sort of like a James Bond film, with BP directed by an Ernst Stavro Blofeld or an Auric Goldfinger. You may recall Blofeld's headquarters on a fortified oil rig, or Goldfinger's plan to contaminate Fort Knox and corner the market on gold? Whether intentionally or not, BP is now presenting a similarly clear and present danger to North America, only with more "success." 

British Petroleum or BP is, from its Banish Pinking to Beyond Petroleum sloganeering, the corporation formerly known as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company . . .  but all that's for another post: oil and the world wars, Operation Ajax/the 28 Mordad coup d'état (1953) in Iran, the Iranian Revolution as backlash and here we are in the oily present -- all sordid, all real.  Nothing much to do with the heroic (or antiheroic) Bond nor his helpful American sidekick, Felix Leiter.  No Mr. Bond, no happy elves.*  If there's a top kill now, it has more to do with messily doing in real nature than neatly thwarting the evil schemes of cartoon villains.  Still, will the real James Bond please come forward and do something?

Today's Rune: Wholeness.  *Cf. Iggy Pop, "Winners and Losers," Blah-Blah-Blah (1986).  

We Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

Woody Allen has two movies in the pipeline. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is set for widescreen release this fall, and Midnight in Paris is in process for next year. A strong cast will enrich both of them. Allen continues to inspire big gun actors, which speaks strongly of his international standing. In Stranger, Josh Brolin plays a floundering novelist, but why take my word for it? There's a detailed press kit available via the official website here: http://www.sonyclassics.com/youwillmeetatalldarkstranger/










And at least as of now, Oscar winner Marion Cotillard is set for a role in Midnight in Paris. As far as I'm concerned, she and Penélope Cruz have supplanted Angelina Jolie as the preeminent working movie stars of our time, mostly because of their professional choices and performances. 

Today's Rune: Strength.   Above: Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal / Det sjunde inseglet (1957).  Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) plays chess with Death  (Bengt Ekerot).

Freedom and Responsibility

Men cannot shrug and say, "we are weak." We must take full responsibility for our actions without such an excuse to fall back on. For, man is not inherently weak. The presumption that "man is weak" strengthens the conviction that we are inherently weak and therefore may as well resign ourselves to failure. No, man is instead usually disloyal to his own values. Men lose sight of their own values by not thinking through the reasons for or implications of their (individual or collective) actions. The are not paying attention to themselves - they are distracted by their own contingencies. Each act of the will must properly harmonize with the overall values of the individual, or that individual will betray his own values, and therefore everyone else with whom he is in social contract, directly or indirectly . . . One must be aware of what one's values are, and also what one is doing when he makes choices, at every possible conscious moment.

-- Erik D. France, journal, August 2, 1984, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Folks, I feel the same now as I did then -- a quarter century later. Tweak the language to make it gender neutral, and it still stands. Seems to me the existentialist ethos has not been refuted, just partly forgotten and replaced by . . . nothing.  We are free to act or not act, and we are responsible for ourselves within the context of our life situations.

Today's Rune: Fertility.   

New Directions: A New North American History

Recent proposals to change American history textbooks in Texas are moving in the wrong direction. I propose something very different: a new North American history, intertwining the history of North America in two sections, including the areas now known as Mexico, the United States and Canada, with extra chapters on the the Caribbean islands.

Why? In order to widen exposure to interconnected cultures and regions for a more effective understanding located beyond single-state nationalism.

How? Instead of the typical two-part course taught in the USA, from Pre-Columbian times to 1877, and then 1877 through the 20th century, try this:

1) Pre-Columbian times through 1900.
2) 1900 through 2010 or "the present."

The current way, essentially ignoring Mexico and Canada, badly distorts our understanding of American  history. Furthermore, it still ends in 1877 just as it did nearly half a century ago, even though much more has happened since 1877.   If we roll the first part forward, an emphasis can still be placed on segregation in the USA after the end of Reconstruction by ending just after the Separate But Equal ruling (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896).  Additionally, the Spanish-American War (1898) would be better seen as a continuum of the clash between outsider-insider empires that goes back to the very beginning of Post-Columbian times, when Spain first projected power into the Americas.  

In 1900, the USA replaced Spain's empire with its own, and was embroiled in the Caribbean and the Philippines, just as in 2010 it is embroiled in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. There is a certain continuity that becomes clearer from this approach. At the same time, Canada had troops (circa 1900) involved in the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa; and Mexico was ready to blow into its own full-fledged Revolution. 

Part II takes Mexico through its Revolution (1910-1920) and on to its present "Drug War;" while Canada is drawn into various British adventures, including the world wars, and Anglo-American adventures such as Iraq and Afghanistan.  Also in Part II, the struggle for control of petroleum and other resources becomes increasingly significant.  

In totality, North American history becomes more interesting, less like a vast sporting event played from the perspective of one modern nation. First Nations / Indian tribes are given more consideration in the vast mix, as well, both before the "Closing of the Frontier" (1890) and still now, in the present.

What do you think?  Constructive feedback would be helpful and very welcomed. 

Today's Rune: Fertility.

When the Music's Over: Brimstone Graveyard

You might think this is a Western scene in the USA. It isn't. This is actually an area near Ducktown, Tennessee, stripped of vegetation by copper mining and its attendant horrors. These were once Cherokee lands filled with vegetation, but the Cherokee were forced away or into hiding in the 1830s, and the mining companies moved in. Eventually, they left, too -- but what did they leave behind?










Mining for brimstone (sulfur/sulphur) and later, silver and gold.  As geologist Samuel P. Ellison, Jr., pointed out, nearly forty years ago:

Deposits of all minerals, including sulfur, are limited in extent. Once a mineral has been mined from a property and sold, its value to the property is gone. There is no second or third crop. The exhaustibility of minerals creates dramatic social distress situations. Ghost towns develop; unemployment and low living standards follow closely on the heels of mine and mineral depletion. Sulfur desposits are no exception for they, too, are exhaustible.

Ellison, Sulfur in Texas (UT-Austin Bureau of Economic Geology, Handbook No. 2, 1971), p. 35. 










"An example of complete destruction can be seen in the vicinity of Ducktown, Tennesee, where, in a short period of time when sulfur dioxide fumes were allowed to escape from a copper smelter, the entire countryside was denuded of vegetation."  (Ibid.)

Or, as Jim Morrison and the Doors mused in 1967:

What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down . . .

("When the Music's Over").  And presently in the Gulf, BP does not inspire good feelings. This weekend, the corporation will try its "Top Kill" approach to sealing the Deepwater Horizon puncture leaks on the ocean floor, still geysering oil more than a month after the initial explosion. 

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Un Long Dimanche De Fiançailles

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Un Long Dimanche De Fiançailles / A Very Long Engagement (2004), a sweeping tale, follows Mathilde Donnay (Audrey Tautou) in her quest to find out the real fates of her fiancé and four of his comrades sentenced to death for cowardice and thrown into No Man's Land between French and German trench lines in 1917. This lavish production includes everything but the kitchen sink, including the Spanish Influenza, polio, trench warfare, an exploding dirigible, a strafing Albatros D.III biplane, many colorful characters and several beautiful scenes set in Brittany.  It attempts the sweep and depth of a novel, and succeeds visually and morally to approximate one (which is a good thing, because it's based on an actual novel of the same name by Sébastien Japrisot).











Even without the intense story arc, one cannot help but be pleased whenever Audrey Tautou or Marion Cotillard appear on screen. Here, the latter, seeking revenge, is seen in the guise of a nun.  She has other guises. Also, Jodie Foster plays Élodie Gordes, another interesting twist. 

Today's Rune: Partnership.

And They Rolled Him In Petroleum

We swim in oil and its byproducts. Ever breathe in melting Styrofoam (Dow Chemical) or expanded polystyrene foam? Even little kids recoil from a smell they know contains poison. But that's just a random block off the petrochemical pyramid. How about methanol, formaldehyde, vinyl acetate, polyvinyl chloride, propylene, ethyelne, phenol, butadiene and benzene? How about ingredients in everything from records to drugs to the interior of a FEMA trailer, and much of it nasty stuff, especially when burning? How about chewing gum, synthetic rubber, paraffin wax or kerosene/kerosine oil, petroleum jelly or Vaseline/Vasenol? 

What flavor of petrochemical derivative do you prefer in the afternoon?  Do you love the smell of Napalm B in the morning?

Today's header is a variable nod to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry"  (Henry's Dream, 1992).  Disturbing song, but not nearly so much as skin-melting Napalm.  Still, "a warm arterial spray" disturbs more than enough for one snippet of song lyrics.



Today's Rune: Signals.

Cameras Without Action

I remember Civil Defense signs and stockpiles in lots of places; there was, specifically, a cache beneath Duke University's Perkins Library, where some pals and I filmed, using the tunnels for a short science fiction piece that remains raw and unedited decades later.







Today, we're more likely to be responding to broken infrastructure and big accidents than a massive thermonuclear exchange -- which is plenty bad enough anyway, thank you very much.













Energy conservation, more efficient use of what we've already got -- it can be done. It has been done. It will be done again -- when there's the will for it.  This is a US Government Printing Office poster from WWII: "Have You REALLY Tried to Save Gas by Getting Into a Car Club?"  We did  -- in the 1970s. 













What more to say than "Victory Waits on YOUR
Fingers --"   Whatever that means . . .  Type away-- "Keep 'em Flying, Miss U.S.A."   From Michigan lately, I hear.

Finally, Graham Parker and the Rumour from 1980: "Stupefaction" (The Up Elevator), Surely many are feeling the same way right about now.  Turn up the volume -- nothing seems to matter! 



Today's Rune: The Self.

The Volcano Lover

Susan Sontag's Volcano Lover: A Romance (1992) takes a long gaze at the intrigues, aesthetics and mores of British high society during the French Revolution and Napoleonic period. The story largely revolves around Emma, Lady Hamilton, Mount Vesuvius, and Emma's men, a circle including Sir William Hamilton, who died in 1803, and Horatio Nelson (Lord Nelson), killed at Tafalgar in 1805. 

Meanwhile, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull continues to erupt, just as it did in 1821, not long after the period Sontag covers.  Not the final days of Pompeii, exactly, but something spectacular still.  Ah, human nature and Nature, such a volatile mix, now as then and probably always.

Today's Rune: Possessions.  
  

The New World

Terrence Malick's new film The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, is in the works, so now is a good time to recommend (highly) Malick's The New World (2005), an evolving masterpiece of cinema. There are multiple versions, the longer the better. See it on as big a screen as possible!  

There's no way I can beat this enthusiastic take by Mick LaSalle:

Terrence Malick's one-of-a-kind film, about the life of Pocahontas and the dawn of American history, contains some of the best filmmaking imaginable - some of it beyond imagining. I have seen it at least five times and have no idea how Malick knew, when he put it all together, that the movie would even make sense. It's difficult to write a great short poem. It's difficult to write a great long novel. But to write a great long poem that's the size of a great long novel - one that makes sense, doesn't flag and is exponentially better than the short poem or the long novel ever would have been - that's almost impossible. Malick did it. With images.  -- "Top films of the decade," Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, January 1, 2010

Shot on location in the environs of Tidewater Virginia and England, cast includes Q'orianka Kilcher, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi (one of my favorites), Raoul Trujillo, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, Colin Farrell and David Thewlis. Much attention to detail; superb use of the prelude to Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold from Der Ring des Nibelungen -- a jewel also employed nicely by Werner Herzog.  Come to think of it, the other really great film covering the early contact period (so far as I know) is Herzog's  Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972) / Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1977).

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

History Teach-in II: War of 1812 and Its Fallout

I.  What might have been the impact if the USA had won the War of 1812 and annexed Canada? Consider the impact on economic development, population growth, Indian policy and Slavery in the history of North America.

Next, consider actual Canadian war plans to raid into the USA and actual US war plans to invade Canada in the 20th century.  War -- it's just a shot away . . . No status quo lasts forever . . .

II. The main objective of the United States force would undoubtedly be Montreal and on to Ottawa. The next important objective of the United States would be the occupation of the Ontario Peninsula, Including the cities of Hamilton and Toronto. The other objectives at which the American Land Forces would be moved would be Quebec, Winnipeg, the Island of Vancouver and South Western British Columbia, i.e., the area including Vancouver and New Westminster.

Great Lakes Command will, generally speaking, remain on the defensive, but rapid and well organized raids should be made across the Niagara Frontier, the St. Clair Frontier, the Detroit Frontier and the St. Mary’s Frontier, with sufficient troops to establish bridgeheads. 

-- LTC Buster Brown, Canadian Director of Military Operations and Intelligence, Defence Scheme No. 1 (1921).

III. Control of the Great Lakes waterway is vital to Blue, for the transportation of iron ore, coal and grain and such control will necessitate occupation of a bridgehead covering the narrow boundary waters at and near the Sault Locks and in the Detroit Area. The bridges over the Niagara River and the Welland Canal, connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are of importance to Blue for occupation of the Important industrial area of the Niagara-Ontario peninsula. The Welland Canal would become of importance as a line of communication if Blue seized the peninsula. While control of that area is of importance in crippling Crimson industry, it is probably of greater importance in denying the enemy Crimson and Red, a most convenient base for operations against highly industrialized areas in the United States.

-- US Army War College, G-2 Intelligence Division,War Plan Red: US Invasion of Canada (1935).

Keep it Simple: Petrol That Emotion

A salute to That Petrol Emotion, back in the saddle again after a fifteen year hiatus.

Albums:
Manic Pop Thrill (1986)
Babble (1987)
End Of the Millennium Psychosis Blues (1988)
Chemicrazy (1990) -- featured above.
Fireproof (1993)
Final Flame Live at the Grand and the Tivoli Ballroom 1994 (2000).

Name alone is worth the price of admission.

History Teach-in: Men in High Castles

One of the inherent limitations of teaching history from a single national perspective is that most nuance is lost in a largely fictionalized nationalist narrative. That's why teaching history is so much more interesting from an ethnic, gender or transnational perspective. Textbooks of the status quo bore students with tedious rehashes that lose sight of the bigger picture, or of other vantage points. One tree without others, let alone vast forests (or deforestations) of difference.

Look at one example -- the American Revolution. Consider that conflict from the perspective of: Loyalists, many of whose descendants now live in Canada and the West Indies; the tribes, now scattered from where they once lived or dwelling stationary on reservations; the Spanish, who with the French helped defeat the British in Florida and elsewhere (above picture: Spanish/French siege of and assault on Pensacola in 1781 -- missing from most school textbooks and completely unknown by most Americans, erased from history); and slaves and free blacks, the ones stuck in the USA and the ones freed by the British.


For purposes of this teach-in, here's my question: What might have happened differently if the British Empire had won the American War of Independence? Consider the impact on economic development, population growth, Indian policy, and Slavery in the history of North America. Instead of the American War of Independence, let's call it the American Rebellion of 1775 (like the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 in India) and go from there. . . 

An initial round of student responses turned up some real cool speculations, and really engaged them. Why?  Because they thought about what did happen, they thought about how things have been presented in textbooks as having happened, and they thought about what might have happened.

An inspiration for this kind of thinking came from Philip K. Dick's excellent alternate history novel, The Man in the High Castle (1962), postulating an Axis victory in WWII (maybe -- never understimate Dick's sly ways); Dick was in turn inspired by Ward Moore's Bring the Jubilee (1953) in which the Confederate States of America wins the "War of Southron Independence."  Now especially, I recommend this approach in Arizona! Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. 

Today's Rune: Flow.  (Image source: US Army Center for Military History).

The Future Is Now and We Are in Shock

I remember reading Alvin Toffler's Future Shock (1970) and The Third Wave (1980) and even though he well-prophesied "information overload" and all sorts of other things, it's one thing to muse about the future as a kid, another thing entirely to live in it, yesterday's future, as an adult. Anyone remember those ads from decades ago, "At Honeywell, the Future is Now"?  The rest of the world has caught up with yesterday's Honeywell. That Future is Now.



In case anyone's forgotten (older folks) or has no clue (callow youth), technology has gone miniature in just the past thirty years. Here's the beginning of the arc.  Check out this IBM TV ad for its 5100 portable computer (1977): "it weighs about fifty pounds."  Can you imagine lugging this thing around everywhere?

Below: MAC ad -- "You'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984."   No, 1984 will be 26 years in the past, and counting, never to return. 



Any surprises? Internet for global communications? Going digital? Cell phones? Wireless? Still having coal mine collapses and oil spills after all these years?  Every day above ground is a good day . . . (and by the way, Alvin Toffler is now 82 and still very much kicking).

Today's Rune: The Self.    

Vozvrashchenie: The Return

After a long hiatus, Father returns. Mother lets him take their two sons on a trip. Things happen. Could it be any more basic? Love it: the stark arc of the story, the imagery, the music. Four stars seems about right for Vozvrashcheniye / The Return / Возвращение (2003/2004): "A Film by Andrey Zvyagintsev" made for the equivalent of under a million US bucks. Official site is here: http://www.kino.com/thereturn/

Unlike the trailer, in easy-to-follow Russian with subtitles.  Father reminds me of Billy Bob Thornton without the wisecracks. Overall, sort of like Affliction in miniature or Deliverance without the intelopers. Trust me . . .

Tomfoolery in the State of Arizona

Tom Horne, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction, hates the very idea of ethnic studies. Why? Because they highlight historical oppression, and that's "a downer." A downer? Life is downer for a lot of people, man -- slavery is a downer, war is a downer, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a downer, the Holocaust is a downer . . . Is Mr. Horne suggesting some weird Disney-Hallmark version of history?* Yes, I think he is.  Mr. Horn's background is in law; mine is in history. He helped get his law passed in Arizona (AZ HOUSE BILL 2281); I advocate for all kinds of approaches to history everywhere and anywhere, including ethnic and gender studies. Somewhere along the line, Mr. Horne's mind seems to have shriveled in the Arizona sun.  And that governor, Janice Drinkwine Brewer (yes, her real name), who the hell is she? Tony Gallaher, a Naval Academy graduate and US Navy veteran who's been teaching history in Metro Detroit for decades now, has a perfect name for the likes of Horne and Drinkwine Brewer: soulless ghouls. 

*Mein Gott: that's the way American history WAS taught through the 1950s . . .

Today's Rune: Strength.

Meanwhile, if you want to know about the other weird Arizona, check out Wesley Treat's Weird Arizona: Your Travel Guide to Arizona's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (2007).

Oily After Dark

Excellent book, recommended for all audiences: Peter Maass, Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).

Reads like a series of adventures set around the world, the author mixing it up with folks, mostly men, high and low, all connected in some way to petroleum. A very male-dominated system, come to think of it. Which reminds me of Marlon Brando's quips as an oil tycoon in The Formula (1980) -- more on that, too, at some point, but one of them goes likes this: "Ah, Arthur, you're missing the point: We are the Arabs."  In any case, petroleum dependency is like Slavery (the human bondage kind mostly, belatedly, abolished in the 19th century): it gets worse before it ends.











In Crude World, Former Exxon-Mobil CEO Lee R. Raymond comes off as a decidedly creepy and very rich man. Maass calculates Raymond's income at $6,000 per hour, which may not sound like much at first blush, but think about it!  "Raymond fascinated me," Maass admits. "Despite his stature and power, he was nearly unknown outside the environmental lobby, which despised him; the financial industry, which swooned over him; and the oil industry, which feared him" (p. 117).  Raymond presided as Exxon's president during the Exxon-Valdez spill in 1989 and is now living "in retirement."*

Dig it: chapters titled Scarcity, Plunder, Rot, Contamination, Fear, Greed, Desire, Alienation, Empire and Mirage. That about sums up the role of petroleum and petrochemicals from Iraq to the Gulf of Mexico, from Iran to Alaska, from Russia to
Nigeria. . .  

*(According to Forbes.com, Raymond has served as a Director for J.P. Morgan Chase and Company since leaving ExxonMobil, drawing a $90,000 per year salary and $170,000 in stocks per year, except for 2006, when his stock awards amounted to $402,078.00.  What's a filthy rich man to do but pile up more wealth? Yes, he was there before during and after the crash, and still counting.)  

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. 

Something Good: High-Speed Rail

The petroleum disaster or Seaborne Toxic Event in the Gulf of Mexico continues unabated. I wonder if more people would pay attention if we had 24/7 TV and radio shows about it with names like Dancing With the Oil Spill, Celebrity Oil Spill, You're An Oil Spill!  or Lost in the Spill?  24/7 on all channels until it's dealt with, cleaned up, and we're all on board for a more rationally planned for future?

The Obama Administration, at least, is making attempts at longterm planning. I heartily support one such plan: the "Vision for High-Speed Rail in America."  High-speed rail exists in the Northeast Corridor, but fairly soon we can have access to better, faster service from North Carolina to New Orleans, for instance, and from Detroit to Chicago, and from Dallas-Fort Worth to San Antonio via Austin. The West Coast and Florida will get it, too.  This is common sense: preparing for alternatives to higher gas prices, higher costs of flying and driving. Alternatives. Proactive planning -- can you imagine, in the USA?  All aboard!

Today's Rune: Defense.

Larry McMurtry: Literary Life

Larry McMurtry's Literary Life: A Second Memoir (Simon and Schuster, 2009) is a quick, enjoyable read. I recommend it for anyone who writes or has an interest in the writer's life.

McMurtry is one of a rare breed in the USA: the writer who sustains a living almost entirely from writing; in his case, through novels, screenwriting and nonfiction. Money matters, McMurtry makes realistically clear, is always an issue for most writers; in this memoir, he evokes the pressing financial concerns of Honoré de Balzac and Charles Dickens, among others, as prime examples. He's frank about writing conferences and worshops, too -- they are done mostly for earning income.

Literary Life touches on a lot of topics, not only writing but also reading, teaching, history, book collecting, aging and matters of style. McMurtry also discusses in mordant, irreverent terms his presidency of the American PEN American Center (PEN being, by its own defintion, "A global literary community protecting free expression and celebrating literature"). Which reminds me to underscore this: Larry McMurtry, despite his Pulitizer Price and Academy Award, is an independent "man of letters" (just as he has aspired to be) and, really, an iconoclast or, as he puts it, a "Hobbesian cynic." His take on other writers is often hilarious.

How long will Larry McMurtry keep writing? "In most cases it's probably the Reaper, rather than the writer, who decides what the final book will be" (p. 168). He admits to being surprised every time he finishes another book, especially a work of fiction.

Of the many McMurtry books I've read so far, these are my favorites:

Horseman, Pass By (1961)
The Last Picture Show (1966)
In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas (1968)
All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers (1972)
Terms of Endearment (1975)
Texasville (1987)
Crazy Horse (1999)
Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen (1999)
Duane's Depressed (1999; McMurtry's stated favorite of his novels)
Roads: Driving America's Great Highways (2000)
Paradise (2002)
Books: A Memoir (2008)
Literary Life: A Second Memoir (2009).

What strikes me is how easy he makes them all seem to have been written -- because they're so easy to read. But we all know good writing is rarely as easy as it looks.   Cheers to Mr. McMurtry. I look forward to his third memoir, on Hollywood; and to a good biography about him. 

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Follow the Money Trail: Teapot Dome

As long as corruption exists, The Teapot Dome Scandal will have relevance. Which is to say as long as people exist. What was it? Teapot Dome is a Wyoming oilfield that was set aside for the US Navy as a strategic reserve before the First World War. The scandal was caused by Republican Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall's taking kickbacks from Sinclair Oil (and Mammoth Oil, a subsidiary) after, and in exchange for, arranging through his boss, President Warren G. Harding, for the Teapot Dome oil to be transferred from the US Navy to the Interior Department and then leased without competitve bidding to Sinclair/Mammoth. Secretary Fall's sudden wealth caused speculation and eventually conviction, but only because hard evidence was found after a lengthy investigation and attempted coverup. The aptly name Fall was finally nailed in 1929 -- just in time for the Stock Market Crash and Great Depression. Harding died in 1923, but his ranking as a US President took a nosedive after the Teapot Dome Scandal. As for Fall, after prison and a fine, he died in El Paso, Texas, during the Second World War.

Wyoming-based Sinclair Oil Corporation still exists; however, some elements were divested to ARCO and in turn later absorbed by BP.  

Which brings us to today's oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is calling its oil caps containment domes. Maybe they should be called teapot domes? In any case, let's hope they work in channeling the spew.

For more on the earlier scandal, see Laton McCartney, How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country (Random House, 2008).

Today's Rune: The Self.

David Byrne: "The Catherine Wheel"

Real cool album is this: David Byrne's "The Catherine Wheel" (1981) / The Complete Score from the Broadway Production of "The Catherine Wheel" Choreographed by Twyla Tharp (CD 1987, 1990). A mix of ambient music and bizarro songs, perfect for writing or spacing out to. Also as a backdrop for cross-country night driving, such as during a coast-to-coast trip with Linda in 1982.

Music by Byrne, Eno, Adrian Belew and many others, including Twyla Tharp on "water pot."  Tracks that stand out sharply in memory (had the vinyl and cassette, now downloading the expanded version via iTunes):

"His Wife Refused:" including the line, These people are savages -- Byrne's ear for human pronouncements is always right on target. Compare with former Blackwater mercenary tycoon Erik Prince's spewings at Ann Arbor this past January: "[T]hese people, they crawled out of the sewer . . . They're barbarians. . ."  Reminds also of Iggy Pop's wicked satire "Watching the News" from "Zombie Birdhouse," 1982: Where is the US Navy?!

"My Big Hands (Fall Through the Cracks):" Well, it ain't my fault . . . things gone wrong . . .

"Big Business:" Think you've had enough? Big Business, after the shake-up . . . stop talking, help us get ready . . . 

"Eggs in a Briar Patch:"   Lord, I've been such a bad boy . . .

"Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open):" Have I been dreaming or have I been sick? 

Looking around again lately, seeing what's going on, I'm thinking that last one is a very good question, indeed.

Today's Rune:  Partnership.

Arizona's SOLEASNA

A quick review of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (with amendments) indicates to me at least, though not at all a legal expert, that Arizona's "show me your papers" law violates -- or has the potential to violate -- basic human rights; certainly it is and will provide -- until overturned by legal or legislative means -- an opening for abuse by those most excited about enforcing it.  Snippets from The Civil Rights Act of 1964 below. For the whole thing plus all sorts of other cornerstones of American civil society (as well as some real stinkers like the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Dred Scott decision), see: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

TITLE II--INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION

SEC. 201. (a) All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, and privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin. [Since expanded to include protection against age, gender, disability and various forms of sexual harrassment].  

SEC. 202. All persons shall be entitled to be free, at any establishment or place, from discrimination or segregation of any kind on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin, if such discrimination or segregation is or purports to be required by any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, rule, or order of a State or any agency or political subdivision thereof.

SEC. 203. No person shall (a) withhold, deny, or attempt to withhold or deny, or deprive or attempt to deprive, any person of any right or privilege secured by section 201 or 202, or (b) intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person with the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by section 201 or 202, or (c) punish or attempt to punish any person for exercising or attempting to exercise any right or privilege secured by section 201 or 202.

Exceptions: private clubs.  Who opposed The Civil Rights Act of 1964?  One hundred years after the American Civil War, all-white male Congressional delegations from the defiant former Confederate States nearly all voted against it: 100% of Southern Republicans and about 95% of Southern Democrats, or Dixiecrats as they were sometimes called, voted against civil rights. So did Arizona's Barry Goldwater. Nice folks.

Arizona's "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act" is set to go into full effect on July 28, 2010.   At first, a majority of people living in Arizona and around the USA supported the Draconian law, but I suspect things will change.  This law cannot stand.  This law will not stand.

(Above image: Public Enemy, "By the Time I Get to Arizona" single from the critically acclaimed platinum selling Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black, 1991).

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.