Out On The Stoop is my exploration about things to know, talk about or experience these amazing times. The Stoop mantra is Think, think, it ain't illegal yet.
Parsnips and social distancing. I went to the other market because I needed a walk. Had my mask on. I'm over at the discount veggies looking stuff over. I grab about a pound of crookneck squash and some parsnips.
Woman with mask come up to me less than 20 inches and ask "What can you do with those?" I back up as I tell her she can use in soups and stews or as a roasted veggie. She picks up a bag and goes on her way.
Los Angeles Public Health Poster
Here is the thing. In normal times, there is only space for one or two people at the discount veggie spot. I honestly didn't think it hit her consciousness that she was too close.
I, however, are conscious of many things. I as a black woman cannot yell " get the fuck away from me" or, more likely "please maintain social distance from me' in any tone of voice without somebody pulling out their phone and calling 911.
Look how long and how many videos it took America to learn to wash their hands.
I also know that many markets have narrow isles, packed with food, for now. A person would have to wait for someone to leave a section of fruit and veggies before entering it. That ain't happening.
There are recordings in the store about please maintain social distancing. I kept hearing the recording, the other shoppers did not.
Not at the meat case, where we all were stunned at the new prices of soon to vanish bacon, sausages, and pork products. Beef and chicken have hit the $10+ mark.
Which now makes the imitation meat almost more affordable. I'm going to have to work on that concept for a bit.
So I'm just about ready to launch the audio podcast. I've had to speed learn about audio production, distribution and making it good.
My head hurts. It is like looking at the above highway sign. I know the
form and the shape I want the podcast to take. I can see it and almost
hear it in my head.
But I gotta get it out of my head and into the real world. I tell you, working with video is easier for me but you gotta try something new.
So, what have I learned:
Number 1.
I do not want to do an interview show. When you start to learn about audio podcasting 99.999% of it is geared toward creating interview shows. Nothing wrong with interview shows. Not a bit. But I don't want to do one. Okay, fine but many of the people teaching about building a podcast talk about Skype and interviewing.
There are audio theater podcasts. History podcasts. Educational, sci-fi and a whole bunch more than interview podcasts. I swear to Jeebus there isn't anybody left to interview.
Then again, if you learn the basics and chuck out what you don't need you can do anything you want once you ramp up to speed.
Which is why I want to give a shout out to the History Pocasters; these folks take history and sometimes craft it into visions of audio drama or edutainment. It is closer to the form that I want to try and it was really helpful.
Number 2
If you want piece of mind sometimes you have to pay for it. This means being more efficient with time and resources. I didn't have time to dog down certain photos, sound fx or music themes. I purchased royalty free music and images. I got what I wanted and got it off my to do list.
Number 3
Failure. Not a big fan of it. Here is the thing. I can work in Audacity. It is a great free audio editing program. But I can barely function in it. Part of that is trying to learn and use it at the same time. Never a good thing. I had to let go of ego and watch a couple of good and bad tutorials.
I was so frustrated that I used one of my video editing programs that can record audio to make prototypes. It was faster and I could test out ideas. That worked really well.
It just so happens that I had a music editing called Sony Acid Studio 10 on my computer that I like a whole lot better and found out that I can use it for podcast. I can move elements visually and bango chango it has made a huge difference.
So yeah, keep failing until you stumble into success.
I got a lot more failing I need to do so dig you later...
I'm still working on the not so secret project. I'm trying to create a limited series podcast on mental health and anxiety spectrum issues. I have everything I need but time. Actually, I have that too but allocating enough time is a challenge.
Just when I think I've nailed it down I learn something new that has to be included.There are now apps that help folks manage or control their anxiety. It is a freaking free for all with all kinds of players and dang near no regulation. And there is new fangled eletro-stimulation type devices and tele-mental health treatment, both valid and bogus.
I guess one of my challenges is to make a clear definition of anxiety. There is everyday anxiety, situational anxiety and then you got your Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classification no doubt about it you are somewhere rock solid on the Anxiety/Panic Disorder Spectrum.
Yeah.
I have to hook up with a podcasting distribution service and a few others things. Like finish writing the frigging scripts and then it is on to putting it out there.
This is a weird day. I have chores to do. I want to create something but all I got is cement in the brain. I'm looking for escapism and I am finding it.
Maybe I shouldn't be looking. Maybe I should. So much to do and yet not really.
Damn it to hell.
I have un-articulated hurt and pain and I have to find a way for it to come out. Making something would help but I have to figure out what and how.
So I watch videos from creative people and go, "Hmm, maybe I should go by some toilet paper or soap powder."
"Maybe I should hunker down and write something brilliant that would cause people to go "Ah, see that is what I'm talking about, clarity of vision."
No, I shouldn't On account I never have. Not intentionally.
I'll be fine. I just have to choose between buying toilet paper and being brilliant.
It is a fair week. No drama. No deep pain. Way too much to do and I am mastering the art of trying to find ways not to do half of it.
I've keep a steady pace on posting poetry videos to Twitter and by extension Facebook. I normally don't post unless I have some thing to say. This is counter to my day to day activities when I can't shut up. In case you haven't heard it is National Poetry Month.
Understandable if you didn't know. Whole lot of blovating going on.
I got slam poets and traditional reading the book poets and a cowboy poet and I can't for the life of me find enough middle age dames that read poetry on video. Young ones, old ones, black ones, Asian ones and a few I don't dare classify.
Freaking ought to let the poets take over CNN for a weekend. The book
readers and the explicit ones and the ones that we bring back from old
audios and videos files.
Anything to get their minds off the black box.
I recorded this dude, eh excuse me, poet and author Christopher Merrill at the L.A. Times Festival of Books 2014.
It is dense and there is a love of language. It isn't the kind of poem you whip out during a poetry workshop. You have to be quiet to tune into it and enter that world.
Which is why most folks don't have time to take in a verse or two.
Hence, my need to post poetry videos and video poems on Twitter. Because I should be working on my EAD final. And planing my next steps for vacations and trips I want to take.
And work on de-cluttering.
And find a new audio book to listen to as I sleep. I really liked the BBC Issac Asimov Foundations Series.
And, and, and those suckers keep pileing up and I got other stuff to do as well.
It is better to have things to do than to feel like you have nothing at all. That leads to people offing themselves.
Never a good thing. Nope.
So I'm going to work on my project. It will be okay. I know basic HTML. I understand enough XML to rack the stuff up and have tutorials coming out of my skin. I'll get right to it.
I use to love Halloween. I liked scaring kids on the candy prowl. It was about tradition and fun and reminding the tikes that surprises can happen at any time.
This past few days has soured me on Halloween. Adults behaving badly. Very badly. I have no desire to show you the photos of grown men in black face with psudo blood on their shirts with white men with a gun nearby. I use the plural because there are multiple photos. Not one, not two but more...
Yeah, it became a theme this year.
But it isn't all white folks acting the fool. I've seen the tweets attacking black women from black folks. Cruelty doesn't get near that slice of hell posing as humor. Not linking to that either.
I'm not a prude. But I am older. And I know what goes around comes around. There are rules of behavior that have been forgotten because of a keyboard and a screen. People will be found. Dreams will be deferred or will be awkwardly explained away with an undercurrent of remorse.
I do not fight with Karma. Her TKO record is legendary.
I almost miss the porn-y aspect of Halloween. Almost, except I noticed that some of the adult costumes migrated down to the the toddler level. Ewww.
Yet, I come with a found treasure to salve and redeem those of us stuck with the masses. I've been sucking in MOCA.TV lately because if I'm not watching network television what am I viewing?
This...
To be another is cool. To take an iconic uniform and tell a new story is also cool. Then again it might not be a new story but the passing down the line of the inner desire to bust out of L7.
I'm always up for it even if I'm busy being a drone at the hive. And that is why I like the true spirit of Halloween.
I recognize the name of Nonsuch Records from when I use to listen to radio station that played folk music. The performers are new to me, but I'm open to new grooves if you got them. I spent some moments on Devendra Banhart's site. There is a video clip with him and Biz Markie.
The Biz? Okay. I'm willing to check this guy out.
So maybe I don't hate Halloween. Maybe I hate what has been done to the day. Maybe I hate, dislike or I am very, very sad that many of my fellow Americans seem to take joy in scraping beneath the bottom of the barrel.
Then I see a video like this and maybe there are multiple ways to shine the light. Multiple ways to tell the tale. Hold on and that one step forward. Breathe. Repeat.
It is a day of memories. I'm downloading my older videos from Blip.tv. The web host is focusing on web series and potential money making activities. It is understandable because the commercial side of web video is about to break loose. Either through a merger with traditional media or as a destination in it own right.
There are talented folks on Blip.tv and I want and hope for the best for each and every one of them. There was a letter from Blip.tv e-mailed to some of the vloggers stating that they are removing accounts that don't meet the Terms of Service.
I didn't even rank that letter. I found out via Twitter when Schlomo told Trine who asked Jay and some other folks questions and I happen to see the post and then I found out.
I have 300+ videos on the service. I do have back up copies but there is a technical dilemma. Before broadband and high speed access there was dial-up Internet. 56k modems. 320x240 video was the accepted size and format.
Here, let me show you.
It is a great clip but it is too dang small for contemporary viewing. I need to dig out the original tape/hard drive/CD that it is stored on and stabilize that bad boy. I have hundreds of video like this; many posted on this blog.
Now true, I could upscale it; this one at 360p doesn't look that bad. I got others that aren't going to look good being stretched.
Come November 7, 2013 all of my Blip.tv videos will go dark unless I replace them with updated versions. 300+ of them. With the day job, my school class and my complete and utter failure as a keeper of home and hearth, I just don't know where I'll find the time.
So I download my memories that, however imperfect, tried to tell a small bit of the story of being in this place. Of living in this time. It is a part of my life experience, not a series for sale. I can't do a do-over on time gone by.
Someday YouTube might do the same thing. kick the generation 2005 type vlogs out the door because it doesn't fit in with the branding and evolution of the service.
I maintain that there is a place for us between cat videos and entertainment. Where we communicate unfettered by commercials. Where we lock into place those people who raised our thinking a little higher.
So I write a bit. Eat a sandwich. Download another video. Repeat.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at the BlogHer 2013 HealthMinder Day Keynote session.
In this clip, Ms. Sebelius talks about some of the preventative services
available to women under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act; often referred to as Obamacare.
Some of those services are:
An annual well-woman preventive care visit for adult women.
Contraception and contraceptive counseling: Women with reproductive
capacity have access to all Food and Drug Administration-approved
contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education
and counseling, as prescribed by a health care provider.
STI counseling: Sexually active women have access to annual counseling on sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Gestational diabetes screening: This screening is for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant, and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes.
Breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling: Pregnant and postpartum women have access to comprehensive lactation support and counseling from trained providers, as well as breastfeeding equipment.
This is one of many videos that I have recorded during the BlogHer 2013 conference. I will be uploading more clips of Secretary Sebelius keynote as time and Internet connection permits me to do so.
She had sparkle blue finger nails and blue crocs. The words came gushing out like a faucet about how she was homeless for a couple of years and now she is not.
How she picks the wrong men because they are exciting but regrets it afterwards cuz they are nuts, and have, in her much cleaned up words, small equipment. How 67 is not too old for Bestey Johnson attire.
There was a lot more but you get the drift. This is a woman with a life that is parked to the side.
I am reminded that all forms of crazy are not bad. Life is to be lived and not always suffered through.
There has got to be some fun and joy in it or damnation what is the point?
I met a Debbie Downer days earlier and there is toxicity in communicating with people like that; everything is lousy, everything is rigged, there is no hope only compliance.
Blah.
I was thinking about Madam Blue as I was going through my day at the Salt Mine. I was seeing my own constrictions of L7.
I grow tired of wearing the mask of conformity yet I'll never get tired of having a roof over my head. Not proud of myself but I understand why I am doing what I am doing.
I also keep reminding myself that I will be back in the wild, one way or another.
I mean the holidays. Which are no holidays for me when it is culturally jammed down my throat that you must be happy. You must be with loved ones. You must buy, buy and buy some more.
My peeve of the year? People who got royally pissed when someone said "Happy Holidays." Because Hanukkah or Ramadan or Winter Solstice don't count; this is a Christian time of year and we demand that you say it!"
Sez who? There is not a person living who knows for sure when the Christ Jesus was born.
Sigh, why bother.
I have no desire for fights of faith. It seemed like every dang day in 2012 was a fight of faith. One faith trying to have dominion over women's bodies. One faith trying to maintain guns over the safety of citizens with people still dying from legal and illegal use of weapons.
I did spy Valentine's stuff at two different stores. It is December 30th. What madness is this? We don't have time for President's Day anymore? No Martin Luther King acknowledgement?
Damn.
This is the opening scene of the 2001 version of Waiting for Godot. I been intrigued by the various actors who perform this play and change the energy of the piece. Some actors go for the comedy while others hug the tragic elements. The best is when the company straddles the fence.
If you want to go on a head trip watch the full version of the play.
I am not straddling the fence. I wish it was always summer. That's right. I'd wipe December off the map with no hard feelings.
Which is why I am not in charge.Who am I to say when people should break out and celebrate whatever they want?
I strive for tolerance when it gets on my last dang nerve. I hold on most of the time and then I get to repeat the lesson again the next year.
No, I will not be celebrating on New Year Eve either. I will be shaking off the last remnants of "I have failed, I've wasted another year, I've got to do better..."
Sad. No, more like SAD as in Seasonal Affected Disorder. Not the clinical kind but the kind that makes me long passionately for summer.
A summer day that allows me to breathe the smell of orange blossoms and Jacaranda trees. Where there is no holiday and I love the day I am standing in because I am a part of the universal tie that binds. A day of nothing-ness that is glorious because it is and I am in it.
Anything else that happens is gravy.
So if you made it this far in the cycle I encourage you to hold on a bit more until we get to summer time again.
We need to survive the dark times in order to appreciate the light.
I was that kid in the front row chomping down on popcorn during the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. There he was, Clint Eastwood, 10 feet tall blasting the hell out of somebody so some poor folks could stop cowering in fear about the weekly desperado coming to loot up the joint.
My desperados were closer to home. It helped to know some body was doing something about it even if it was in Italy.
Clint Eastwood has made really great movies. It is not like I did not know he was a conservative. But it seemed like this was a guy you could disagree with and walk away with an honest discussion for a memory.
I don't know what to think now. When I see the photo of Clint Eastwood talking down to a chair there is a twinge in my heart. I know what the chair represents. If you ever sat in a similar chair as a kid, you know that feeling. Who Did He Think He Was Talking To?
My adult pain is tied up in a political campaign that has sought to alienate a good portion of those of us that are not male, European American or wealthy. We have been told we really don't know or have been correctly educated to understand what this country stands for; and only those that have the privileged of a monetary perspective can truly understand how America should be run.
The current campaign has told me as much through media and coded speeches to the fearful and the opportunistic.
I can get angry because it is the usual suspects. I can ignore them because I want to focus on positive action. I even cut back on blogging my agitation on BlogHer and other places because I don’t want to stir up a heated useless fuss.
I want to share paths to solutions. I can’t do that when I am so very angry. I’ve slipped up a few time but I don’t want to add to the noise. I really don’t.
There is a part of me that flashes back to that kid in the front row chomping down on popcorn during the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. That guy was invoked at the convention. Somebody else showed up.
I am not stupid. I expect political hyperbole in an election year. I expect that racism will be used as a method to get out the vote. And yes, facts will be an impediment to an successful campaign so ditch them.
I just didn’t expect this mess to come out of this man’s mouth.
It is not the first time somebody has used the invisible chair routine. The Smithsonian blog has a good write up about how the political chair has been used over the years.
The Grid Doesn’t Lie
You have this film icon of imaginary gunfights and wars talking down to a chair. In that small chair is supposed to be the President of the United States of America. Reducing the image down to its core element you see:
Who is in power and who is the supplicant? Because when an 82 year old white man who has made his living off creating illusions of being the man that rights wrongs tries to chastise and speak for a sitting African American president using what he thinks is the vernacular:
EXCUSE -- WHAT DO YOU MEAN YO, SHUT UP?
I have to tell you it stinks. It is a familiar stench. I never thought that I’d see Clint do the “Old Massa” role.
The Rights of Free Speech
Yes, each citizen has the right to criticize and hold Obama accountable for what was promised and what was delivered. We don’t even have to be nice about it.
And dang skippy if some of y’all have been especially vocal in you disapproval.
There is just one fact that cannot be ignored. Obama is the President of the United States. Not your house boy.
And the icon used in that “performance” perhaps unintentionally, is a reminder of who intends to be in charge and how the old order will be restored.
A small message to those who fund and support the re-establishment of the old world order.
This is our place. Our country as well as yours. It is an inconvenient truth. For those of us that are not white, Christian or abstinent, we’d thought you had understood we live here too.
You might chose to be color blind or diversity hostile but this is where we shall continue to live, grow and prosper. Deal with it.
Mr. Eastwood, maybe you just got carried away in the moment. Maybe you truly feels the country should be rolled back to 1961. I don't know.
We Won’t Go Back.
There is this ember in me that wants to assert it is possible to find solutions that include grass roots networking and corporate relationships. It is possible to generate meaningful employment without giving multi-billionaires and corporations tax breaks or forcing people to work for impoverish wages.
I'm putting that ember in a safe place. America is not ready. Not today.
I’ll be better in a few days because good people will remind me that none of the work of a democracy is easy. This is a long distance run.
I just think we should not wait for something severe to happen that force people out of selfish, myopic visions.
I was having a conversation with about the Occupy movement came up. My friend said something to the effect that instead of occupation what the young folks should do is collectively buy stocks in corporations and effect change from within the system.
Now, I might be misinterpreting his words or not understanding conceptually what he meant. But I'm going with what I think I heard which is something to the effect of "there can be no change by what they are doing, get into the system and fight."
It is not a bad suggestion. Not a good one either. I get it that he is trying to find his answer.
I did point out to him that many of the people protesting can't find jobs or are locked out of employment. There was a gruff acknowledgement but then he said some of those people that support the movement could do it.
Not Really The Point
When I was broke, busted, unemployed and things where looking kinda dicey I can truthfully say that I did not have money to buy stocks or mutual funds.
I had choices like a bag of discount frozen french fries or toilet paper.
Off code meat or day old vegetables.
Finding soda cans that could get me bus fare to look for work.
I didn't have family to turn to. I did have people that took me to dinner once in a while. Thank Sprint for Craigslist. Other folks gave me good advice. . None of which involved going to a broker and putting a tenth of one percent of share on a company.
Being broke and fighting for survival is a full time job. It is more than just not having income. It is a feeling of being powerless. It is knowing that you are trying your best to do the right thing only to be told that you are a loser.
Gotta tell you that is a cultural mind fuck that hard to overcome.
Bootstrapping Is a Myth
I think people want to understand but we still have that mentality about bootstrapping. First you must have a boot. Then good laces. Then the foot to put into the boot. Libertarian 101 embedded in our fabric of influences.
That is not a bad thing. We as Americans pride or false pride ourselves as being self sufficient. And yet you need a community to support the making of goods and services. You need the infrastructure to be able to buy and sell. Skilled craftspeople are also necessary.
My point is that no, there is no self made anybody. We are interdependent with each other. We can chose the degrees of interdependence, and that is a good thing because there are some folks I want nothing to do with or held at arms length.
Yet applying the bootstrapping metaphore the questions still kick up. What do we do when industrial, manufacturing and many service jobs have been exported overseas? How do folks get a job when technological advancements have eliminated a range of labor and management positions?
You see, there is a space of disconnect that has to be talked about and damn if we are doing our best not to even try.
So no, I am not going to tell folks scared silly about where the rent is coming from next month where to find a good broker.
I want to know more about alternative infrastructures and financial systems. Not to get rid of capitalism but maybe find other systems that helps folks cope a bit better than being told to shut up.
I'm thinking that I need to go some place else. Do something different. I don't necessarily want to take a typical vacation.
I don't want to jump bungee of a bridge either.
I like the idea of a learning retreat. Then again I like the idea of going to a total new city and taking a photography or video workshop. Maybe to New Mexico or Washington State.
I don't know.
I do know that re-creation is important. I'm almost but not quite burned out.
There are a lot of "I" in the above sentence. This is a good thing. I'm usually thinking of what others require of me. What do I have to do to honor my obligations?
The obligations are wearing me down. I've been burnt out before and it takes way too long to recover.
I speak from experience. It is much better to not let it get to that point.
Trying to work out a few thoughts. A few weeks back I was in downtown Los Angeles. Mass transit is so much better than it was when I got here. There was a transit infrastructure until the late 1950s when the push for freeways and selling cars became to great to ignore.
By the 1960s the trolleys were gone and bus service was an oxymoron. You had to be a broke or a moron to ride the system. In the 1980s I caught the tail end of that era when some of the drivers really hated the passengers and didn't care all that much more for the RTD.
Not kidding about the hate part. There was this one drive that had an elaborate sign system rigged on the fare box. It went something to the effect that I am the driver, not customer service. The fare is fifty cents, a transfer is 25 cents, step behind the white line and do not talk to the driver.
He meant it. You didn't ask him for nothing.
Time passes, court ordered mast transit reform begins a new phase. There are new non-polluting buses, underground trains and express routes. This is a good thing but looking at that sign makes me queasy.
The water damage is apparent. The concrete has a rust seam and the tiles have seen better days. I try to forget that I'm underground but I notice details like this all of the time. It looks solid but there are fissures.
The train stations are ok. They are kept well for the number of people that flow through it.
It is just that I remember that I put up a mighty verbal fight about stepping foot on an L.A. subway. I got over it because I needed to go some place quick that involved getting money.
I find money is an excellent motivator for me. I do map out the escape doors and pathways so I know I can get out and back up to the street if I have too. I ride the train looking at the pipes and the hidden doors. In case of trouble I'm not staying underground for nothing.
People are talking more and more about escape routes. The number of people blessing me is on the uptick. Normally this is not a problem cuz I need all the help I can get. However, I get the impression there is some kind of quota system in effect.
Something like how many of the heathens can be converted by May 21st, October 21st or an as yet undetermined day in 2012?
I have Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents on my mind and it is kinda like looking and not looking at that sign. Good people will do bad things and worse people will raise them double or nothing.
Then again, I fully expect just another day. Except for the cracks and fissures.
My brain is mush. I'm supposed to be writing, creating and researching things for other posts. I want to. Really. And then thoughts of paying taxes, filling out forms, getting dressed, remembering not to order fatty foods at lunch and all of the grown-up things I am supposed to do.
It is a frigging drag man.
When does the fun stuff kick in? I mean, doing stuff for the joy of it without boundaries or time limits? When does the part where you have the time and energy for the kind of expansive thinking that embraces you so you can spark it up?
I don't blame my brain for wanting to go on strike. It is just that I need it to get dressed and go to work. Promising my brain the weekend is no longer enough.
The back-up system has taken over but it is clear that only limited tasks will be handled in the order received. I'm screwed.
Update April 5, 8:29PM - Folks I need to make it clear that I made a mistake in not separating my remarks from Mr. Colman's video. Unlike Dogbert's pappy, I do not take down posts once I've written and published them. There was a better way to write this post.
In hindsight, you should have seen what I ditched. Never tweet when angry and never post when your fingers are moving faster than your brain.
Original Post
I am a blogger. I am also a writer. I do a lot of stuff actually so I really don't like labels. But let's say for the moment that I am a blogger. I have to say I'm a little touchy about current blogger/journalist relations.
They suck.
I have had a few days to think about the citizen journalism session. The Pasadena Community Network has weekly meetings on Tuesday nights. The focus of the meetings is to develop journalism skills that can be applied to blogs, web sites, mimeograph reporting or how ever you want to do it.
There is also the Pasadenan which is also citizen driven content with an editor and staff moderating the content. That is cool. Works for me. I have no objection to anyone development better writing or reporting skills.
It is getting better but there is a long road to the junction of peace. This is reporter Andre Coleman speaking at the March 29, 2011 Citizen Journalism Speaker Series that was held at the main branch of the Pasadena Library. Mr. Coleman write for the Pasadena Weekly.
My Thoughts
First of all I support anything a person can do to make their writing better. Many bloggers take workshops, online classes and actively work on developing their skills. I am not a journalist but I do make use of some of the classes and webinars at Poynter's NewsU. Special shout out at the great tutorials at the Knight Digital Media Center.
Good writing and reporting transcend labels.
I do not hate reporters and good journalists. I was raised in a newspaper town with two major newspapers and six or seven alternative newspapers. It truly saddens me that we have lost a huge chunk of the respect and the importance we use to hold for newspapers in this country.
I have people around me that use that term blogger as a pejorative. (Not referring to Andre Coleman. I have other real world examples that like to point with pride the ink in their veins.)
Many of these people are ex-reporters, current reporters and soon to be ex-reporters that do not apply their training to find out what is happening with contemporary bloggers and technology.
You want to lump me in with the fat guy sitting naked at his keyboard? Go for it. That just shows ignorance. That is not a good thing for journalists to display but if that is what you want to do why should I stand in your way? But I am not the one that put the shiv in the back of newspapers.
Newspaper management did it to themselves.
Newspapers in the 1980s and 90s did not want to pay attention to people outside of their chosen proven money demographic. They did not court the next generation. They totally did not get the beginnings of early on-line communities or the Internet.
If you do not talk to me or connect with me in some way why should I buy your product or service?
Some of the current silly rabbits in newspaper management and related media companies think all they have to do is take a person previously known columnist and change the word to blogger and then people will come a running back.
Many in the industry blame bloggers for stealing content from their newspapers yet provide links to stories and want people to tweet the news story. However they don't want others to summarize or add additional context to a news story that omitted an important perspective.
News management wants bloggers to promote newspapers but you don't want us reading your content.
My admittedly limited understanding of the corporate news management perspective is that I should pay for content I do not read or cannot use, such as sports, that I should be grateful that said content exists and that I should not want or need to have any further communication with those that generate said content.
Oh, and don't tell anybody else where I found the content that does not interest me on account they might read it too.
Tell me again why I want to have a relationship with newspapers?
Back in my waning days of watching television I did try to get into some of the Korean televisions shows. They had more stuff going on in ten minutes than an American soap opera would have in a week. I gave up cuz you do need a cheat sheet to get a grip on the characters, culture and the speed at which shenanigans happen.
What lead me to the Korean television shows what that I saw a Korean movie that moved about the same speed but I knew what was going on because I was witnessing it as it happened. I've forgotten the name of the film; it was a long time ago.
This is to say that I stumbled into this trailer for the movie Poetry. There are a couple of stories here, I can tell. I'd lay dollars to donuts it isn't the one I think it is.
It is National Poetry Month, by the way. I'm sure Mr. Campbell and associates have got events lined up and I expect a video or two will be generated on the topic.
These movie clips reminds me that poetry can dig very deep into a person soul if you let it. It is still a one to one transmission method. You have to find your poem or poet. Not easy in a wham bam so long Sam world.
It is still possible. Poetry can be like holding out for your one true love that may or may not show up.
We keep going but we need attention. A poem can do that for you; provided you with a reason to keep going or understand why. This movie was released in 2010 so finding it might be a challenge. Finding an English subtitle version even more.
If you find out where it is please let me know. This film seems to need attention. Just like poetry.
This is a school of my own making by the way. Citizen Kane, Forbidden Planet Pressburger and Powell movies and just about anybody's film noir. I may have heard about the movie Johnny Guitar but if I knew that Joan Crawford was in it I would have passed it by.
Independent of her reported personal life I just don't cotton to her as a film star. She is the rough rider. Crawford is either bullet tough or spooky.
Not seeing this movie was a big mistake. Huge. This is one quirky kick-ass movie. It is not a woman's film. This is a film that has women in the lead and the men are in a subordinate character position. And yeah this is a shoot `em up western.
This is a segment of the film where the characters are introducing themselves to the audience. Check it out:
I gotta tell you this is a full flavor western. These women are playing for land, power and control. It is about the railroad, cattle ranchers and the new blood coming into the community.
Cattle ranchers don't like farmers or city folk. They don't want change. They don't want a railroad depot. What would you do to preserve in amber your way of life?
New kid in town sees the future and is getting ready for it. Nobody is going to get in her way. The railroad is the symbol of change, of money and opportunity. It is a way to obtain power and control.
The two lead actresses are fierce. Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge ain't sleep walking through this one. Each one is pitch perfect in their roles.
When you are not focusing on the story the eye notices the beautiful colors, the intensity of colors in the interior and exterior shots. The land is a bright dirt red. The sky a vibrant blue. I'm going to have to watch it again with the sound off just looking at the composition of the shots and the colors.
When we think about the 1950s and films it is brought up as the time of the happy housewife. The time when the men have the adventure and the women stay home waiting tending home and hearth. The movies of that time reflected that attitude.
Not this one. Yes, there is a love object. Sterling Hayden is a fine actor. Subtle. Sometimes he is there in the moment and sometimes he is the focal point of the scene.
I've been mulling this movie over and over again trying to understand the historical place in time, the one in the western and 1954. Much to think about and contemplate.
Anyway this is as good a start as any to Women's History Month.
You learn something every day. If you are open to it. I learned that I should not open my big mouth when I am riled up. I need space to figure out is it me or is it the situation. Most times it is me.
Again.
I keep failing the lesson and it is repeated. Just like the month of January. All the things I wanted to do in the prior year are hoovering like a specter going "Gotcha" before they fade into this years mission. January is the mark of the end and the beginning.
This is a poem by Angel Uriel Perales called January Dawn.
When I looked up Angel's name to find a web site or blog about him I got all kinds of stuff. If you would like to read more of his work you can check out his page at Poetry Diversity.
But learning about his name gets deeper. Apparently there is an anime character who is the Angel of Death. The series called Angel Sanctuary. The images from the video I've seen looks like a goth person with wings to me.
Not to be confused with the Archangel Uriel aka Fire of God, Flame of God or Sun of God. Special shout out to any and all persons, vessels, conduits and channels for entities so named on the other side of the vapors.
Today was a January day in March for me. Listing to the poem again did not make me feel better. But at least there is a realm of understanding.
I'm still looking for my poetry voice. It went into the poetry protection program. The next best thing is to hear someone read a poem that you would have liked to have been able to write.
Not the experience, the skill. I try to only pick one poem for each poet but Radomir made it too tough; his poems can be short but they have a powerful energy. In the two minutes you will spend watching the video he will take you a couple dozen places and move a brain cell or two.
