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SMOKE & MIRRORS - BEGGAR'S BANQUET: ROD AMIS spends little time on his editorial this edition because he's spending so much time on his life.
SMOKE
"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.
10 January 2007: Tonight, George W. Bush, the President of the United States, (whose approval rating now stands at 26%) will make an address to his nation explaining his latest idea of how to make the world safe for democracy. As usual, his nation will be disappointed by the speech because they continue in the hope that a politician will be inspiring and inspired, moving, visionary. It will be fodder for the chattering class in the United States and the rest of the world - if not the entire universe - will be appropriately bored.
Meanwhile, chafing at their bits, people hungry to replace Mr. Bush will go on with their plotting and scheming, euphemistically called campaigning, in order to replace him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in the nation's capital. Exploratory Committees and new announcements of seeking the office from both political parties in the country are happening faster than shark attacks in the Atlantic Ocean these days. That Hillary and Barak are waiting to make dramatic late entrances is becoming a sideshow of its own.
The US attack in Somalia this week put a new Islamist government on the map, possibly inflamed a few Ethiopians to start their own War on Terror (WOT) campaign against the Union of Islamic Courts of Somalia who have popular support, but did not do enough to get major headlines here. It might as well have been a party in "Bum---k Egypt," as the trailer park crowd would say. (Tip of the hat to Thomas "Tabloid" Hart.)
Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, is now Speaker of the House of Representatives at the US Congress. I've written in this editorial before about what I think about San Francisco Democrats. I would refer you, Gentle Reader, to the rush transcript from DemocracyNow! of 9 January 2007's first major news interview. It speaks to how people of color, particularly Blacks who has consistently voted Democrat for decades, continue to be ignored by the new party in power. Considering that San Francisco's own Human Right's Commission has noted for years that city's overt efforts to decrease it's Black population and under-serve its Brown population, this entry of mine should not even be news.
The pretense we have here in the United States of being a fair, just, equal opportunity society becomes more a joke and travesty each passing year.
An army abroad is of little use unless there are prudent counsels at home.Parvi enim sunt foris arma, nisi est consilium domi. - Marcus Tulliius CiceroNews to Rod
14 January 2007: I only have one entry this week. I hope you don't mind.
ITEM ONE: Here's a fun (yes, I do believe in FUN now and again!) YouTube clip from the Media Reform Conference. In case you missed it, Gentle Reader, this conference was held in Memphis this weekend. You can go to the conference site and hear what people like Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman and many others - in a less humorous tone - had to say about the future of "The Media."
MIRRORS10 January 2007: I HAVE BEEN SLEEPING A LOT LATELY. (Yeah, I know what that means.) And all I dream about, at least in the dreams I remember, is women. My hormones are raging again. Lord knows I need a new girlfriend. Someone here in Austin. Someone I can see RIGHT AWAY.
In the meantime, I continue laboring away at writing, something at least a few people believe I know how to perform. Every day the blank page stares back at me and I attempt to fill it. Sometimes I get paid to do so. Sometimes, like now, I just offer you up this diarrhea of words that I couldn't stop even if I wanted to do so and then wait until the mind emissions stop and I can get more sleep.
On the good days, people say that this is a talent and a blessing. But they don't live it. Living it, I am coming to believe, is accursed. While I'd be last to say that I don't love talking across the stream that, I believe, is centuries of writers speaking to each other and their potential audiences, I must as adamantly say that what we are about is describing the world, recreating it really, in a manner in which it does not exist.
In non-fiction, as I've said before, we mediate between the actual reality and circumstances (whether journalism, academic or historical writing) and in fiction we project a new weltanschauung on something chaotic and tawdry, believing that we provide some inspiration to the world.
Now get ready for the kicker. No matter how you cut it, Gentle Reader, the world is TOO CROWDED. There are simply too many of us humans here depleting the planet's resources at break-neck pace. No matter what my friends at the Cato Institute have to say, there is no technological solution to the problem of over-population. NONE. Zero, zip, nada. We are draining this little blue marble dry. As much optimism as an Al Gore wants to bring to our potential for changing the disaster ongoing, we have no choice but to address other options.
Remember when I discussed the "wild" idea of cities in space two years ago. This is actually an idea that is quarter past time for consideration. The entire world should begin major investment in the initiative.
At least one Internet visionary I know, Esther Dyson, is starting to pour some of her investment funds into ideas that will facilitate this happening. She is planning a conference in Aspen, Colorado, this year to talk about actualizing space travel. Great Minds.
Is private investment in space travel possible? That's already been proven. Are colonies on the nearest satellite, the moon, feasible? Ask NASA, they already have detailed plans. Are the cities in space I advocate feasible? They have been for decades.
All that is needed is vision and will. We are actively killing this planet; it's impossible to doubt that.
My girl, Ella Fitzgerald, who my grandfather used to play for me at night fifty years ago, had a US Postal Service stamp released in her honor today, 10 January. Wow. Sweet. Nobody did "Love for Sale" better than Ella.
12 January 2007: IT'S ANOTHER RED LETTER DAY in the neighborhood. OSTG has provided me with a major and demanding assignment that should push me out of dire poverty by the summer. Yayy! I could make thousands of dollars this year rather than hundreds.
Stop laughing!
14 January 2007: A young Mexican family has moved into the apartment next door to my own, at the end of the building. What I hear outside my windows and door has changed. They have an infant who cries often. So now, besides the laughter of school children returning home or free to play, during mid-afternoon and on weekends, and the shrill arguments among couples - at night, usually - there is that crying baby.
When it rains, it usually seems, there are sirens. In the deep of night, close to three in the morning, there is the boom and bump of someone's car stereo system to rattle my windows and invade my insomnia. (I wrote this passage in my mind, after being awakened by the noise, nights ago, though I have only gotten around to typing it now.)
If you live in an apartment complex like this one, where people are piled, chock-a-block, over and under and around each other, you have a reinforced sense of how crowded our world has become; you are made too familiar with the constant noise of the human species. For a man of words, who treasures the silence to think, it is likely more apparent than for most people.
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ENJOY WHAT ROD DOES!Another bit of joy from our friends at Calabash Music:
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15 January 2007: IT IS MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY here in the US and I find myself with a sudden wealth of opportunity. I "spoke" - either telephonically or via e-mail with three (3) of my editors this morning, each encouraging me to work my butt off this year. It seems that the Rod 2007 Plan is bearing its fruit. I have more writing assignments than I could ask for.
Robin "roblimo" Miller, Editor in Chief at OSTG (Open Source Technology Group) and a friend of long-standing and generous support, was the first person I spoke with today. After bringing me up to date on his current projects and concerns, he said simply, "I liked your story proposals. You know what to do. So rock and roll." That's all I needed to hear.
My new editor at Leverage Social Media understood that the OSTG assignment was my priority but gently indicated a direction he'd like me to go in over there. My editor at Enterprise Leadership sent her congratulations and then provided me with a list of potential stories for her publication. (I could only grin.)
Thank you, Martin. This is appreciated. A Brother being appreciated for what he does because he loves it is particularly nice on your day.
Now, I have to live up to the respect and expectations of my peers. It would be nice if I could exceed those expectations.
So thanks, Robin, Tom and Dana! I'll try to do my level best to honor your trust.
(Okay. I can hear Bill in the pressroom calling up to me now: "Enough of all that! Get back to work!")
Post-script: Because of the foregoing, my new rule is to officially declare this a No Whine Zone. I am allowed to yell to high Heaven. I am allowed to be silly as All Get Out. I am allowed to be misguided, idiotic and foolhardy. I am DEFINITELY allowed to DANCE. But whining is off-limits. Hold me to it!
16 January 2007: I HAVE BEEN ACCUSED, usually in moments of anger, of being able to use words like a knife (think: long knives in a dark room,) which is likely true, though I would prefer to have the word "scalpel" applied.
This is to be expected, I think, since I have studied at the feet of Cicero, Bernard-Shaw, Bierce, Twain, Hemingway. The cut hurts, though, because I prefer to use my words benignly. Some will never agree to that latter statement.
This observation, oddly, came to mind when I was mentally composing a reminiscence about a private joke between my (ex-) wife and I. We had a little saying. I was Gwee and she was Mrs. Gwee.
This came from a childhood story of hers. Children, as they are wont to do, where she grew up in Hood River, Oregon, would refer to their mentally challenged friends as "gwees," she had told me one night. I thought it was a wonderful word, though created out of cruelty, euphonious and precise. Thus, privately, we became the Gwees. This is the first time I have shared this appellation with anyone.
You see, as I've mentioned in the past, one of my (ex-) wife's best qualities was bringing out the laughter in me. Because she came to adore me so, she could make me able to laugh at myself. It was okay, with her, for me to be Mr. Gwee, admitting how foolish I was. Therefore, I could refer to her as Mrs. Gwee. That is one of the wonders of intimacy.
I share this with you, my lovelies, because I know that some few of you have achieved this in your lives and I, among others, envy you having that in a world so confounding and cold. I wish for it again. I also share it for those who have not yet found your Mr. or Mrs. Gwee or are looking for another.
That was not a knife or a scalpel, I hope. I hope that was a butterfly kiss - my eyelash against your cheek - as they are called.
Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.
Thanks for coming back this week.
ROD'S FOCUS THIS WEEK
1 - Filing at least three new articles with my editor.
2 - Standardizing my sleep schedule.
3 - Spending more time on the novel.
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching ... "
Love,
Rod
ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at the (U.S.) Public Broadcasting System (PBS's) WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS Internet magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, r eaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.
He did stints as the Resident Philosopher at three separate gin mills in that city in the French Quarter and the Marigny, earning his stripes during two successive Mardi Gras seasons. Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. When he's not busy here, he writes technology columns for EnterpriseLeadership.org, IT Manager's Journal and NewsForge. Rod's more leftist writings can be found at Atlantic Free Press. (Don't tell his potential employers.) He writes a weekly column on social media issues for Leverage Social Media. He provides entertainment, political and media commentary at TimesSquare.com. Rust never sleeps.
Our Resident Philosopher has decided to return to Austin, Texas, after over two decades away. Wish him luck..
In his spare time, Rod chases women in the way a fly chases a spider..
He continues to be committed to integrity,
chastityand a dose of humility.
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