 ESSAYS ON CULTURE:
TALK
KEVIN CAREY
I am sure that anthropologists have very long Greek or Latin names for the phenomena but when I was a child, before we had a television, we had fixed patterns of conversation. The first, for the dullest of evenings, was the round which started off with a theme and then went through a series of topical routines until it drew to an imperfect cadence before starting again, going through the identical series of topics with variations as mild as the change of light on a long Summer evening in the temperate zone. This, being the staple, was at once the most apparently plain yet the most subtle. On evenings of greater tension we had what might be described as the concerto, one dominant voice with a vibrant topic, sometimes in dialogue, sometimes in competition with the general orchestration of the rest of the conversants. This was a somewhat more cluttered version of the Pinter play in which characters forever talk past instead of to each other.
The most exciting form of talk, however, was that which took place on the great days when something really important had happened.
The theme would be explored at great length, with an amazing dynamic range, colour and subtlety. Having apparently burned itself out, secondary material would be introduced, like the second theme in sonata form, before the original would return, again, like sonata form, in a different key. It did not matter what new material was introduced, what old stories of past triumphs and humiliations were retailed, the grand theme was never far away. I re-discovered all three patterns many years later when I lived in Central and East Africa for some years without benefit of the television programme"Frazier.".. More
G21 NEWS:
A Quadrant in the Circle:
Serbian Journalism after Communism & Milosevic
ROD AMIS
 In June of this year, Milan Pantic, an outspoken journalist for the daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti(Evening News), was shot in the back in front of his own home. Pantic, a quiet, highly educated man was believed to have had "too sharp a pen." While the journalistic community in Belgrade mourned his assassination, it drove home something that every reporter and writer in Serbia know: things have changed, but they also remain the same. The memory of the heroic struggle for a free press in Serbia by Slavko Curuvija, the editor and owner of Dnevni Telegraf (Daily Telegraph), was still fresh in the minds of many. Curuvija had been murdered outside of his home in Belgrade on 11 April, 1999. His assassins were never found.
The story of the Dnevni Telegraf and Mr. Curuvija is an instructive one for anyone wanting to understand the nature of Serbian media today and the atmosphere in which journalists in the former Yugoslavia must work... More
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MY GLASS HOUSE:
Wings of Change
ROD AMIS
NEW ORLEANS - 26 AUGUST, 2001 - Everyone in Casa Matt this week is beat down. It's averaging 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Nawlins and Rod decided to change his name to Manuel Labor. When things get tough, you go back to your old haunts. Mine is roofing. A lot of roofs need work in this town, so despite the heat (I suffered as much in central Texas, when I met my ex-wife) I've gone back up on the roof. My boss is paying me $8 an hour to be a grunt. Matt says that I look more spritely now that I am busting my ass. He confuses spritely for mad-as-hell. Most roofers are. Ask any of them... More
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RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT: : AUSTIN, TEJAS - Well, The Shrub is down here in Crawford, Tejas, pretending that this "Western White House" is where he is being Commander-in-Chief, even as most of us think of him as His Fraudulency. And guess what? After waffling, wiggling and waggling on that there Stem Cell decision, he decided that he would move on to Medicare, Medicaid, and defending squandering the federal government surplus on his so-called tax cut. Meanwhile, the rolls of working people have gone down.
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!
A lot of us are already getting nostalgic about the era of Dollar Bill... "The American President" THOMAS HART More
RDR 08.20.01: RADIO RAHEEM has advice for anyone planning on dropping by "The Crib."
RDR 08.13.01: RON DIENER learns of the loss of a friend and shares with us "A Bad, Sad Place"
RDR 08.06.01: We liked his last essay so much we invited him back -- BILL STEVENS on what constitutes "Democratization"
MEMOIRS OF THE INFORMATION AGE: IRVINE, CA., Aug. 14, 2001 - Axcelerant Inc. today announced the extension of Axcelerant LifeLine to customers of Rhythms Netconnections Inc., the DSL provider that announced it is shutting down its broadband Internet access services... More
 VOX POPULI: From Kate C., Atlanta, CA, USA:
SUBJECT: Whaaaa?
I enjoyed your column, Seven Habits of Sensitive, Celibate Men, even though I am female. Amusing reading but for one truly idiotic comment (or were you still joking?)."We have reached a pinnacle of distaste for intellectuals--which our election of George Bush surely proves."
Apparently, you found his predecessor a more intellectually acceptable fellow. As a southern woman with friends who had first hand knowledge of the overwhelming misogyny of William Jefferson Clinton PRIOR to his presidency, exactly what do you find so truly intellectual about him? His abandoned Rhodes scholarship? (Brought about, I understand, by an accusation of rape by an female student at Oxford) His pathological behaviors? Accusations of assault? His capacity for lying? His serial adulteries? The Astroturf-in-the-back-of-my-pickup stories? Yes, it may be true that Bill Clinton may be smarter that some (or then again, maybe not!!!). But what a waste. And, in case you haven't figured it out, you would have to be something like an overweight, silly, 24 year-old goofy chick from a dysfunctional family to TRY to have a relationship with a man like Clinton. I say "try" because,of course, a man like him can't have one... Now, I do hear he got tons of nookie....but most decent women I know would GAG at the thought...(hmmm just think of the puns available with that one!) ... More
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A stunt man had an encounter with the Statue of Liberty last week, as you can see from this accompanying Associated Press photo. In August, even we acknowledge the dog days of the news. That doesn't keep us from publishing important articles about the world around us. And that's what separates us from the Mouthpiece Media. By The Way (BTW) you can now read The World's Magazine in Korean, Japanese and Chinese by clicking on our translation link. We keep working for you.
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