-> SMOKE & MIRRORS
KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis
New Orleans is the Lost City of America.A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need.
Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF Copy now!
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SMOKE
"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.
22 November 2005: The Buzz in the Mouthpiece Media (MM) over the last week has been all about the revelation that Bob Woodward, the Assistant Managing Editor of the Washington Post withheld for the months the information that he is himself up to his ears in the Plame affair. It's been interesting to watch this formerly lionized celebrity journalist follow his celebrity journalism peer, Judith Miller, down the slippery slope.
Talking Heads in Washington are in bed with Bush administration officials, figuratively if not also literally? Heaven forfend! I'm shocked! Shocked!
Like most of you, I assumed all along that it was talent and hard work that landed them the television talkfest seats and the million-dollar book deals, not some tawdry and shameless fawning to the rich and powerful. Now what am I to think?
That said, I suppose it's time to move on to this installment of
NEWS TO ROD
ITEM ONE: J.L. Chestnut, Jr writes eloquently in this article about how U. S, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice does not identify with the civil rights movement that took place in the South when she was growing up and disdains many of its leaders in an article over at CounterPunch.org that you can read here: Her Father Taught Her Well. It's an interesting piece of background about a woman that many of us have learned to loathe.
ITEM TWO: Longtime Loyal Readers know that I've avoided using that other F-word, fascism, for four years now. I've ice-skated around that word because, as I've said, as soon as you use it, a number of people close their ears to every sentence and argument you make after the F-word.
But it gets harder and harder NOT to use that word every day. I could not but think of that word, and the SS officers appearing on the streets in old movies depicting Germany during the 1930s and '40s, when I read the story of the Debra Davis case in Denver, Colorado. You can read it yourself at the PapersPlease.org Web site and cringe as I did.
ITEM THREE: One of the essays that I'm including in the "My Glass House" book is this one I wrote on globization back in 1998. Little was made of what I had to say at the time, though now I feel that it might have been a moment of prescience.
I thought of this article again when I read this recent post by Jane Smiley over at the Huffington Post Web site. Ms. Smiley seems to be thinking now along the lines I was seven years ago.
In this instance I'll share a brief snippet to whet your appetite to follow the link.
... To these corporate types, the public safety of one's own fellow citizens is as much a matter of indifference as the public safety of people ten thousand miles away.What most Americans, indeed, most people, normally think of as desirable, such as stable communities with histories, jobs, and a middle class, is not what the corporations have shown themselves to care about. They do not care about the actual substance of the US, a set of geographical areas with a varied population of human beings. The taxpayers present themselves to the corporation much as consumers do-a bunch of suckers to be fooled and robbed for the sake of shareholder profit. The way you rob customers is by dressing up something cheap and worthless to look desirable. The way you rob taxpayers is by constantly challenging them to defend their patriotism and their religion. The average American has a long history of being reflexively xenophobic, so getting him worked up about enemies from abroad, especially dark-skinned ones, has always been an especially effective way of distracting him while you pick his pocket. But I say, let me be exactly as patriotic as some corporate executive who has outsourced his American workforce to India, bought homes around the world, made sure his children don't have to fight in American wars, and banked his money offshore so that he can avoid paying taxes.
In exchange for the towns that Big Ag has depopulated, the cities that Big Manufacturing has hollowed out, the healthcare that Big Pharma has helped destroy, the environment that Big Chemical has contaminated, and the public school system that the corporate tax giveaways have hobbled, what has the average American gotten? Only the sense of grandiosity and self-righteousness that come from thinking of oneself as part of a "superpower."
"Ah, Cicero, must you continue to wail about the lost Republic?"
COMMENT on News to Rod 23 November
The G21 READERSHIP POLL
Yes, Kids, it's that time again! It's the time of the year when G21 readers start making their lists and checking them twice.No, I'm not talking about Christmas Lists. I'm talking about our now-notorious list of the Bottom Ten people of the year. It's time for the dish. As Longtime Loyal Readers know, our "Bottom Ten" list is much like Mr. Blackwell's "Worst Dressed" list. So I'll ask you the same question I've asked readers for the last nine years:
POLL QUESTION: What ten people could we have done without this year in order for the world to have been a better or happier place? Who were the Lowest of the Low?
DEADLINE for your nominations is 15 December, 2005. The results will be published in our final edition of 2005.
Send your nominees for the 2005 Bottom 10 to rod@g21.net with the "Subject" line "Bottom 10". Thank you!
MIRRORS
If you're like me, you have to hate this time of year. The holidays are that time when someone like myself is most reminded of how alone he is in this world. While others gather with friends and loved ones to celebrate and consume calories, I am most often doing what I'm doing right now.
Frankly, it's a toss-up between having an awful time with people I barely know who are trying to make me feel convivial but are only reminding me of what little actual connection I have with them and spending the time alone working on one project or another.
This year, for example, I'll be spending Thanksgiving, that old American holiday, alone. I'll most likely make myself a sandwich and spend the wonderful free time in solitude editing one or the other of the book projects I have before me. No seasonal cheer here. I'm trapped out in the woods. The nearest store is miles away and I don't have the money to purchase anything anyway.
My greatest fear right now is that I'll be forced to do something jovial on Christmas Day that - given my druthers - I'd prefer not to; what's the point? I hate pretending to be jovial when I'm not. Bah! Humbug! [Yes, Ngozi, writing is a very lonely life.]
The absolute best that I expect from this so-called Season of Giving is that I'll sell enough copies of the New Orleans book by the first of the year that 2006 won't find me in the same state of penury as 2005. SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: Still working on your Christmas list? This book makes a great stocking stuffer!
G21 Book News
My own edit (the Second Printing) of Katrina & The Lost City of New Orleans is now available at Lulu.com and will be available soon at Amazon.com. (They have to sell the remaining inventory of the first print first, I presume.) Early reviews tell me that it's a far superior product than the one rushed out by the other editor. It's actually the book as I intended you to see it.Yes, it was Huge Mistake allowing someone else to edit my book. I admit that. I've been editing and designing pages for a decade. I should have known better but it was my first foray back into the "dead tree" arena and I trusted the advice I was given. I certainly won't make that mistake again.
Meanwhile, I'm pleased to share with you that Katrina ... gets a mention in USA TODAY's Books section on Tuesday, 29 November, 2005, and is being considered for a stand-alone review there later in the year.
Also, thanks to the good graces of my friend Logan Bentley in Rome, it's being considered for a review by the Washington Post Book section. Light candles for me.
On Thanksgiving Day, LIONEL ROLFE's review of the book is scheduled to appear in the Pasadena Weekly out in California and thanks to MATTIE LENNON a newspaper in Dublin, Ireland, will run a blurb for me this weekend and a review as soon as the book crosses the great ocean.
(Thanks, Lionel, Logan, Mattie, MAX ADAMS and all the dear friends who have tried to help me make this project a success. We ALL know I can use the dosh.)
I'm still hard at work on the second title G21 plans to sponsor this year. It is an anthology of the works of writers you've gotten to know through our G21 AFRICA section. I had hoped to have that title ready for release by the 20th but am still awaiting suggested re-writes from two or three of the contributors. So, it looks like December for that title.
Also in December, I plan to have completed the long-promised "My Glass House" book version.
It seems that dead-tree versions of writing you've seen in your World's Magazine, by other writers here and myself, in the form of a G21 Books imprint, has become the order of the day. Wish me luck!
Has the Old Editor been busy? Hell, no.
LIFE OF ROD
Before Ron left to spend the holiday in Massachusetts last week, he had commented that we have many more weeks of temperate weather here in central North Carolina ahead.
Turns out he was wrong. The day after he left, we entered a lingering cold snap accompanied by rain and high winds. Not a good thing because, he told me, the fuel prices this year are twice what they were last year. I've tried to keep the heat on a low setting, use a little space heater he left me in my computer room when things get chilly sitting next to this window.
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New Orleans is the Lost City of America.A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need.New Orleans has disappeared as surely as the lost city of Atlantis or the lost city of Pompeii, which former mayor Marc Morial and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA.) have compared us to in their statements.
That New Orleans, the New Orleans I mean to tell you about, that will never, ever, exist again--that city of love, lust, death and sex--will never exist again.
Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF Copy now!
To order on Amazon.com, go here!
My hands, especially my right hand, have been cramping up painfully a lot, of late. Always a bad sign.
When coming East, I forgot about experiencing actual seasons and what that means for a person like me, who has had rheumatoid arthritis all of his life. I think that's part of the reason I've been so driven to write lately. My mind's eye shows me pictures of my mother's gnarled hands toward the end of her life. For a writer, the image of hands like talons that no longer want to type is a nightmare. I'm writing as fast as I can ...
The other thing about being here on the right coast of the country is that its weather doesn't suit my clothes. So I wear layers these days. I even sleep in the last layer on the colder nights rather than in the buff.
Of course, that latter makes it easier to dash outside in the morning, while the coffee is brewing, to have my first cigarette of the day. That's something, I suppose.
The first picture accompanying this paragraph is a Rod's Photo Album shot sent to me by one of my friends. I think it speaks for itself. (For those of you losing your eyesight as quickly as Yours Unruly, the captions above the figures read "No Brain," "No Heart," "No Clue," and "No Courage," respectively.)
I don't know about you but I got a chuckle out of it.
The second pic is from a series of posters you can find at MiniatureGigantic.com. You should check them out sometime.
23 November 2005: Woke up at 6:30 this morning (deadline pressure, deadline pressure) and went up the driveway to get the newspaper. Let me tell you something, it was fuggin' cold out there, Mate! Jeez! I couldn't believe it! Winter is in the air around here and I have a sense of dread.Winter! I don't really know what that's like anymore but from what I remember it ain't that much fun ...
As usual, by the time I come to this page, I'm quite exhausted. I tried to pump myself up for the Home Stretch with coffee but I think all I did was produce a temporary high and leads to a crashing low accompanied by the jitters. (Do you go through that One cup won't hurt dilemma? I sure do.)So look as I have for Grace Note on which to end this week, it simply isn't there. I shall simply make an end until next time.
Thanks for coming back this week. Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.
COMMENT On MIRRORS 23 NovemberTHINGS I PRAY FOR THIS WEEK
1 - Money.
2 - Successful completion of the many projects on my crowded plate.
3 - Seeing the end of the tunnel.
"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 L ondon, UK, r eaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.
In 2002, he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. 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.
Our Resident Philosopher has exchanged his legend mobility for a means of keeping your World's Magazine. Now he must become earnest about gaining a financial underpinning for this enterprise. (Read: Buy back his freedom and then go home.}.
In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.
He continues to be committed to integrity,
chastityand a dose of humility.
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