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SMOKE & MIRRORS - A LION IN WINTER: Our Editor, ROD AMIS, shares doings inside the magazine, some amusing tidbits you've shared with him, and exits, stage left.
SMOKE
"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.
9 March 2007: It was with great joy that I received in the post this week an advance copy of "our" KEN KAMOCHE's new collection of short stories A Fragile Hope. As Long-time Loyal Readers know, Ken is from Kenya and teaches at university in Hong Kong. One of his wonderful stories was featured in our anthology Africa Fresh! New Voices from the First Continent last year and he has been a frequent contributor on a wide range of topics for Your World's Magazine over the years. I've always enjoyed his precise and elegant writing style and am chuffed that a publisher in the UK has decided to offer his work to a wider audience. The book will appear in stores this coming May. I'll provide you a review of itself myself in advance of coming release.
Tidbits from Rod's In-Box
ITEM ONE: My pal, Ric Williams sent me this link, which I found a complete satirical crack-up. I hope you do, too.
ITEM TWO: FLASHBACK, early 1990s: I am walking through the Mission District of San Francisco, where I am very involved in community activism. I am strolling past the bodegas and tacquerias and night clubs with a Latino activist talking about conditions in our community, matters of agendas and social conditions, the meaning of change.
We are an unusual couple of men to be walking through the Mission. He is tall, handsome in always a cinematic way. He is casually well dressed with that easy style of a Latin cosmopolitan. Well-educated, fluent in three-languages and committed to the better of the community. I, on the other hand, am rough-hewn, bearded, medium height and have the look of someone who is not unfamiliar with the lower elements of our district.
Two nights earlier, we had made the appointment for this promenade and lunch at one of those St. Anskar's parties that Jim Balderston, the political writer for the San Francisco Bay Guardian and my colleague, had organized so that the online community of the BG could meet and mingle. It was a roisterous affair where Balderston and I encouraged the participants to drink, throw a few darts - if they were so inclined - and see the face behind the online persona. We had picked "St Anskar" as the event title because he was the patron saint of futility.
I had hung with my Latin friend in the early part of the evening and that was when we had made out appointment. During that time a lovely woman had entered the establishment who I had made it my plan to meet. I introduced myself and flirted with her in a casual way. When I returned to my gaggle of pals, Balderston, this gentlemen, Matt and a guy who called himself "FunEGuy," I commented, "The man who has her is the luckiest man in San Francisco."
Balderston took me aside before we began to throw some arrows at a dartboard. "Rod, din't you know?" he asked.
"Know what?" I responded.
"That's your friend's woman!" He was referring to the activist.
Oops!
When I attempted to apolog ize for my faux pas, my friend said: "De nada, Rod. I am proud to be the luckiest man in San Francisco."
During our walk, he suddenly changes the topic to the fact that - since he has started reading G21 - he noticed that I have no problems talking about each person's individual spiritual quest.
"I know that you are not a man of faith, Rod," he says. "So I respect all the more that you don't flinch from talking about issues of faith, exploring them and encouraging others to do so. That's an interesting and attractive, I think, stance for a radical to take."
It is a blush moment for me. The best I can say is that I believe each person, in our heart of hearts, wrestles with these issues as with any others.
FLASH-FORWARD: This past week I have a back-channel e-mail exchange with one of the writers here. We are talking about her concerns and wrestling with issues of faith, custom and belief. We are looking at how straddle worlds, as it were, and she asks for my advice on an issue. I try to respond, as best I can:
Wisdom? If only. I wish I were wise.
I don't think I'm the appropriate person to help with your dilemma, either, if only because my stance is basically agnostic. In other words, I think most organized religions rather than enhancing God, so speak, diminish the very notion. Reason would dictate that if there is a motive force to the universe we would be incapable of contemplating It - let alone directly communicating with It. We can barely and usually fail to understand each other. So while I respect the faith(s) of others, I don't share it/them.
In my own studies, I found that each of these faiths sprang up as a reaction to some other system of beliefs. Often, they then co-opted symbols, rituals and festivals from that preceding system. While I understand that religion, like language, is a means of self-consciously attempting to place some order on the course of our lives, I also observe that it prescribes behavior in a means meant to create both exceptionalism and division. Therein, in my view, lies its greatest fault. While, on the one hand claiming to move toward a benign and compassionate result, with the other it sows the seeds of exactly the opposite - as history continues to demonstrate.
So, I suppose my personal philosophy has become that the further we move away from a structured or dictated stance toward simply attempting to benefit our fellow humans and the planet, all of its creatures and forms of life, the closer we move toward the divine.
Good luck with your own spiritual search.
To support G21, please send checks or money orders to: Rod Amis
G21: The World's Magazine
1500 Royal Crest Drive, #156
Austin, TX 78741-2709
USATo donate by credit or debit card, please go to the Western Union website by following the highlighted link. Should you donate via Western Union, please notify us via e-mail.
Please make all remittances payable to Rod Amis. Again, thanks.
G21 at FeedBurnerITEM THREE: My pal Matt, down in New Orleans, sent me this one. He's another Mac addict like myself, so this video resonates for us. Enjoy!
18 March 2007: Has US Attorney General (America's "top cop") got "pwnd" (punked and owned, in the parlance of 'Net kids?) I think so. Let's see, he's publicly signed off on torture, eavesdropping on the public, the end of habeas corpus, and now he finds himself being hung out to dry like - well, like an Iraqi detainee. Hmmn. I guess there is some justice yet left in this universe.
Dick Cheney, of course, will just give his usual half-smile as Alberto twists in the wind. After all, he was an uppity Latino trying to curry favor with Ole Boys Club. He wasn't one of "us." Around the tenth hole at the golf course, Cheney will comment how it was too damned bad about Alberto.
After all "Rummy" (former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) fell on his sword. Good man. Darned good man.
INSIDE the Magazine
I cannot recommend highly enough AJ's great piece in G21 Africa to you, my little loves. By my estimation, it's her best piece ever in these pages. It's personal, heartfelt and incredibly well written. The kind of article I'd love to publish every edition.
In another incarnation, when she considered me her mentor, she once said that she aspired to write like me, "heart and stone." Well, as you'll see from this article, the protÈgÈ has come into her own. Her voice is strong and true. I want to write like her if I can't "write like God," as Max Adams used to say.
MPUSH, before making the transition to his new home in Cape Town, from East London, South Africa, gained some insights and shares them with us at his DAY ONE chair this edition. MATTIE LENNON decides to go back to his trove of Irish history this time to celebrate our eleventh anniversary over at IRISH EYES.
The rest you can see for yourself, or check the navigational bar on the left side of every page except my own. More bricks in my ever-expanding Cathedral of Words.
Finally, I encourage you to see the film "After Innocence" and visit the Web site After Innocence. Having been wrongfully incarcerated myself, my heart goes out to the tens of thousands of people being held in the American gulag unjustly. Click on the "Get Involved" tag on the navigation bar and help us do something about injustice, please. Please.
MIRRORSAn Accounting
10 March 2007: You think I am doing well these days because I am getting more writing jobs. Let me explain to you why I can't sleep.
- I owe my best friend, Matt, a grand
- I owe my friend DC in Florida about $400
- I owe Bill $400
- I owe Dave $400
- I have a "PayDay Loan" as I type this that I owe $360 on that I already know I can't pay off in time. I used it to pay-off a more expensive PayDay Loan and lower my vig. But I'll have to roll it over because I'm not making enough money which means I'll ultimately pay $420
- I owe Lescek $200
- I owe Robin $200
This is how I am keeping a roof over my head. This is why I cannot sleep. Could you sleep knowing that you were this obligated to so many people and had NO idea of how long it take you to pay them back?
16 March 2007: I decided in the wee hours that, though my natural inclination is always toward hermitage, I would spend this anniversary of the magazine and my birth, next weekend, with Kent and Mayor Becky down in Shenandoah. I had talked about visiting them last month but then the Rod 2007 Plan kicked in and started eating my time. (Bad brother! Remember what's important in life, Fool!) So, I promised I'd visit them this month. We'd chill and just spend time together laughing, eating, catching up and enjoying each other's company.
So, depending on when you read this, I kicked myself in the butt and said I'd be foolish not to spend this fifty-fifth birthday with people I loved and who loved me. So, next Friday I'm hopping on a Greyhound bus and heading down to Houston, where I'll meet Becky after she gets off work and then head out into one of Texas's nicer cities to relax. We'll probably throw a couple of steaks on the Barbie and just hang out with the dogs (they have three resident pooches who are always starving for attention - and doggie treats.)
By now, I suspect the dogs will have only a vague memory of my scent. They won't remember it's me until I go out int o the back yard to enjoy a stogie. Then they'll all trot outside to do guard duty for me, pacing the perimeter and making sure that no snakes or other varmints come out of the woods looking to introduce themselves to me.
My pal, Tom, with whom I collaborate on Leverage Social Media believes it's a well-deserved bit of time-off from my daily routine and tells me that I should be happy that I have a place to go and friends to see when I am not in my constant work-horse mode.
18 March 2007: Yes, it is bitter and sweet for me, admitting that I am about to retire this magazine. I have spent 20% of my life, at least in the Web version, on this endeavor and nearly a third of my life in all its incarnations. Someone said, its best to walk away when you are at the top of your game, not after you've begun to lose it.
I suppose that is why I'm ready to retire G21 now and move on to a private Blog. The game no longer amuses me.
I would hope that most of the writers will stay in contact and let me know what they are about, share their accomplishments and growth with me. Nonetheless, I know that the adage "Out of sight, out of mind," has relevance. I think of this because, on the back channel, certain of the alumni/ae from years past intimated that they might have something for this anniversary edition. Never happened. Life goes on.
My commitment to BRAD BALFOUR to keep this going until the summer is also in question now. He has failed to be forthcoming toward some of his commitments and that makes me feel and understand that my first impulse, to end this soon, was probably correct.
What I'm saying, Kids, is that I shall likely produce only one or two - if that - more editions before I simply ride off into the sunset. The Old Magician is pulling his last best trick with this edition. Soon after this, very soon, you can consider me gone.
Yes, I shall lament the loss but I shall also have a sense of freedom. A little Blog, where I shall no longer have to nurture others, edit their work, or feel responsible for their lives is what I want now. As you read this, or days later, on the 24th, Harry Houdini and I shall be older. I shall be fifty-five (55) years of age and this medium, the Web, is a young person's space. I am better off writing analysis of what stronger energies bring to this place, in my Day Job columns, than trying to compete and (hoped) innovate.
Besides, I still want to write a novel. Finally. So take this as my good-bye.
This is the last SMOKE & MIRRORS column I shall write, though - should I produce another couple editions of the magazine - I'll give you the other writers here. But Elvis has left the building.
Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.
Thanks for coming back this week.
ROD'S PLAN THIS WEEK
1 - Peddle a few more stories so I can pay my bills.
2 - Scheduling some time for the novel.
3 - Getting out of town to celebrate my 55th Birthday.
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching ... "
Love,
Bogart
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.HIs work will appear this summer in print and online for PR TACTICS. 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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