Well, if He really likes it....

Found at a Korean-run shop in China, according to the folks who run the Engrish.com website.

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The Katrina Anniversary & The Memory Hole

[I had intended this blog post to be a short introduction to a video from New Orleans, offered here as a reminder for you FotM readers of what we are losing down the memory hole. As I wrote, it expanded and grew angrier, and became, I hope, a reminder that, well, reminders aren't enough. So I want to encourage everyone reading this, in the strongest possible terms, to check out the article "Join the Fight on the Second Anniversary of Katrina" posted at the website of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization / Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad. It focuses not on lessons, but on the practical tasks Katrina and its aftermath put before the Left today.]

Today, only two lousy years later, it takes an actual mental effort to recall what a massive impact the devastation and death in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast had--or seemed to have--on the consciousness and the consciences of the people of this country.

People from coast to coast were stunned, and mobilized themselves to help. Comparisons with the 9/11 attacks were commonplace. Even that little toad George W. Bush had to speak about poverty and the legacy of racism! The cover of America the Beautiful, the City on the Hill, was not merely twitched back but torn right off.

In those horrifying days, some of us lamented the inability of the weak, divided Left in this country to respond with program beyond issuing fliers that pointed out the fairly obvious workings of racism and capitalism in the catastrophe. We hoped against hope that the shock was so great that many white folks would not drift quietly back into the fog of privilege.

We all know how things turned out.

Katrina did serve as a wakeup call, a kind of national-scale DWB (Driving While Black) incident for some Black professionals and youth who had been lured by the system's okey-doke. But the ability of the Black nation and of Black elected officials and their allies to deal with the disaster, let alone use it as springboard to advance the struggle, was just not there.

The Left, eager to criticize the criminal ineptitude and conscious racist neglect displayed by the Bush administration, did not cover itself with glory in terms of practical organizing. After the waters receded, the bodies were picked up and the teevee cameras had moved on, the white blindspot of too many in this country kept them from seeing what has been going on since. The ethnic cleansing of NOLA. The warehousing of many of the displaced in toxic "refugee camps." The failure to come to grips with the poverty, the racism, the environmental causes, the governmental neglect--everything we all saw in that uncovered moment.

Sure, two weeks ago we saw broadcasts and articles and photo ops on the 2nd anniversary, but I was struck by how much the sense that Katrina was a moment of historic change has eroded. In two lousy years. Contrast that with the bright line ---that was then, this is now--drawn between the world before 9/11 and the present day. You'll get plenty more of that as the anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks engulfs us (and is trotted out by the administration to justify continuing the unjust and unjustifiable occupation of Iraq).

Apologies. I hadn't planned to post a rant, just a short introduction to a video, by Sess 4-5 (featuring L.O.G.), a NOLA native who uses images not of the flooding but of the subsequent struggle, in his conscious rap "The Black Man." (The project setting and collective spirit are reminiscent of the video by Glaswegian hiphoppers Steg G and the Freestyle Master that I blogged here in May.)

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Big Luciano is Gone: Opera Singer for the Masses

I have to confess to a ridiculous degree of sadness over the death of Luciano Pavarotti—“Big Luciano,” as the Italians call him. As an avid opera fan—indeed I sometimes feel like an opera queen trapped in a woman’s body—I noted that Luciano, over the 30 years I’ve been listening to him, has given me more sheer joy and pleasure than some men I’ve known a lot better….

But it’s difficult when there’s no real political or intellectual rationale for this emotion I’m feeling over the death of a stranger. Pavarotti was not the left-leaning son of Spanish anti-Fascists like fellow tenor Jose Carreras, or the all-round singer, director, conductor, disciplined musician that Placido Domingo is, or a premature anti-fascist like the brilliant conductor Arturo Toscanini. But he was born with one of the most beautiful voices of the 20th century. As a Marxist, I view this voice, like all great talent, as an expression of our “species being” or human capacity; its beauty is a sort of spiritual experience for me.

And more than any other artist of his time, Pavarotti made opera alive and accessible to the masses.

Sure, Pavarotti got careless and self-indulgent as celebrity and wealth corrupted his artistry. But anyone who tries to dismiss his fame as a product of hype is just plain hatin’. People are not so stupid as to make this man a gigantic global pop star for over 30 years for no reason.


Check this out—two masters, in the twilight of their careers, performing their totally different schticks together and making it work. It’s a duet by Luciano Pavarotti and James Brown! The concert is a benefit for Angolan refugees in Pavarotti’s home town of Modena, Italy, in 2002.

I’m no music critic but when I’ve tried to describe Pavarotti's voice, the images that came to me were red wine and honey. (I later read actual music critics who described it that way.) It was rich and full-bodied and smooth and sweet and deeply colored—ruby, golden. You couldn’t confuse it with any other voice. And the way he married the words and the melody was incomparable, sustaining the meaning of the phrases and the lines while uttering each sound perfectly.

And the other thing, if you ever heard Luciano Pavarotti live, is that you really felt he wanted you—personally-- to have a great time. He wanted you to share the joy that he took in using his beautiful voice. I think this quality is what pulled people in. You can feel it too from the videos of performances, especially in the early live operas that PBS stations are showing this week, from before he became grossly fat . He was never slim but he had the grace of a former soccer player, a compelling physical presence with plenty of stage business, a light comic touch and timing, a melting smile, and those big, warm brown eyes. Nice-looking, not extraordinary, in a very Italian way.

On the weight thing, by the way, I kinda subscribe to the hypothesis put forward by Fritz Perls, the founder of gestalt therapy, in Ego, Hunger and Aggression. He posits that opera singers may tend to over-eat out of some self-protective impulse to replenish and repair. Because they give so much of themselves orally, they tend to take in too much orally.

For me, the emotional intensity around opera and Pavarotti has to do with the records my mother played and the stories she told us about my grandfather the chef, serving the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso at the Waldorf and catching opera from the cheap seats. (I don’t know if it’s really true that once, when Caruso hit the high note, it shattered the flask of olive oil in my grandfather’s back pocket that he had filched from the restaurant—but it’s a great story.) And then the many seasons beginning in the '80s when my mother and sisters and friends got subscriptions to the Met together.

My mother died over a year ago and the times when I hear something and think I need to call her are less frequent. But it happened when I heard, on the 7 a.m. news, that Pavarotti had died. My sister heard it at the same time and called me 30 second later, and we spoke about him several times throughout the day.

When we heard Pavarotti and his homegirl, the soprano Mirella Freni. perform La Boheme in the mid ‘80s at the Metropolitan Opera, I felt that I had experienced perfect beauty and could die happily at that moment. (Pavarotti and Freni grew up together in Modena and, because their mothers worked in the cigar factory which turned their milk sour, they were actually breast-fed by the same wet nurse.)

I was also present at what I think turned out to be Pavarotti’s last good Met performance, (since the 2004 Toscas didn’t work out too well) in Aida in 2000. It was the his last show of the season, and he’d received poor reviews for the previous ones—not in good voice, lumbering around the stage virtually held up by two chorus members because his legs were so stiff. But he somehow got it together for this last performance. He stood on his own two feet and though the high notes were muted, that beautiful legato line was mostly sustained and there were glimmers of the maestro in his prime.

Grazie, Luciano. Non ci scordiamo di te.

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Bill Davis, ¡Presente! [Updated]

Memorial Day, Chicago, 2006

Too much death. I just yesterday posted an announcement of Vicki Garvin's memorial service in NYC, Saturday week. Now comes the bad news about Bill Davis, a guy I've known since the '70s. My bud Sully from Chicago had hipped me the day he was suddenly rushed to the hospital last week, with a weird lung infection--he was slapped on a ventilator and they tried to stabilize him for an emergency lung transplant. Yesterday he died.

I saw Bill just two months ago as he escorted a delegation of Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, on a tour sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace, to the UFPJ national assembly in Chicago. We barely got to speak.

As in the cases of Vicki and Gideon Rosenbluth, I can't get myself focused to assemble the tribute Bill deserves, but I am certain others who knew him better and and are better writers will, and I will link to them here.

In some ways, Bill's death hits hardest, because unlike Gideon and Vicki he was my age, pushing 60. When Vicki and Gideon died, some of us who had known them since we were in our 20s shared the grim jest that now we are becoming, by attrition, what they had been for us--elders. That's a hard enough prospect to come to grips with, without Bill's reminding us that one of the things that elders do is die.

Still, it is not his death that I will be thinking on in coming days, but his life. A Vietnam vet, he became part of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the spearhead of the anti-war movement that did so much to end the US occupation of the South of Vietnam. He spent his life thereafter building and supporting a whole range of struggles. He was a union activist and eventually local president of Auto Mechanics Union Local 701 in Chicago, and never ceased to play a central role in VVAW and veterans organizing. When the rulers of this country chose to use 9/11 as an excuse for unjustifiable, criminal--and doomed--acts of imperial aggression, he spoke out loud and clear, drawing on his own life experience to mobilize protest.

As with Bill, so with his wife Joan, who I hope will derive some comfort from the outpouring of love and respect for Bill I expect in coming days. Last year, when the new SDS held its inaugural convention in Chicago, and some impoverished student types I know wanted to go but couldn't afford accommodations, I called Bill and Joan with little notice. No problem.

All of those who came forward and fought for another world in the upsurges of the '60s and '70s and still hold the values of those days I count as my sisters and brothers, but there should be a special place in all of our hearts for people, like Bill Davis, who never ceased to build resistance and struggle.

Veterans Day, Chicago, 1977

UPDATE:

Vietnam Veterans Against the War has put up a memorial guestbook at the VVAW website. Those who knew Bill, in particular, should go and put down a word or two in his memory.

UPDATE 2:

The Chicago Sun-Times today, Sunday, September 9, carried a very positive and moving obituary for Bill.

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Remembering Vicki Garvin

I miss Vicki Garvin.

Like Gideon Rosenbluth, who also died this summer, Vicki was both friend and inspiration. She lived her whole adult life fighting for revolutionary change. I tried to write a piece about her, but had trouble assembling the words. Those who wish to remember her in company with other friends or to learn more about her would do well to attend this memorial service at the House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn on Saturday, September 15.

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Iraq Moratorium "Empty Call"? Not Really

[Last week a post on this site got a comment from anonymous, which I copy here:

So... is this Iraq Moratorium thing gonna jump off in a few weeks or is it another empty call for "local actions everywhere"?

Are there any meetings or public forums scheduled in the New York area? I have not seen anything about it other then the website and some emails.

This is a legitimate question, considering that one of the early proposals for the Iraq Moratorium was floated on this site.

What follows is a short overview of ongoing activity that was sent to me and other folks working on the project a week ago or so. So, "empty?" No. What it will be remains to be seen--- on September 21, and October 19, and November 16 and...]

Wind In Our Sails

This is just a quick post to spread the word on a slew of what seem to be very positive straws in the wind that've blown our way lately. If you visit the website regularly, you'll have seen some of this.

(So it's a little long...You can't skim?)

On the cultural front:

The Dreamtime Circus, based in Northern California, is planning a free Moratorium Day public performance on September 21 prior to their tour of South Asia.

On the labor front:

Via Mike Eisenscher, USLAW has printed up and is distributing Moratorium stickers!

Please share this announcement with others. Apologies for duplicates.
Order your stickers for the Iraq Moratorium!





USLAW has endorsed and encourages all affiliates, members and supporters to participate in the Iraq Moratorium, which begins on Friday, September 21st and repeats on the 3rd Friday of each month thereafter.

On each Iraq Moratorium day, all those who oppose the war and occupation in Iraq are asked to take some action to give evidence to that opposition. This could be wearing an armband, button or sticker to work, calling or writing members of Congress, attending a vigil, rally or other demonstration, participating in a sit-in in a Congressional office, or any other action designed to communicate your desire to end the military occupation of Iraq now and bring all the troops safely and rapidly home.

The objective is to get a growing number of the 70% of the population that opposes the war but have yet to demonstrate their feelings to break with business as usual to show their opposition to the war.

In support of the Moratorium, USLAW is making available two stickers that can be ordered in quantity and distributed to be worn on Moratorium days or to promote the Moratorium. Please order some and ask coworkers to wear them on Moratorium Day.

Please place your orders early. Order extras for coworkers, colleagues, friends and family.


On the labor front, part 2:

The Los Angeles Central Labor Council issued the following statement (Moratorium content in red):

The LA County Federation of Labor passed this resolution at its Delegate meeting on Monday, August 20, 2007.

Resolution on Fall Anti-war Activities

Whereas , the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has expressed its opposition to the ongoing occupation in Iraq and military operations in Afghanistan; and

Whereas, these conflicts continue unabated, and over 3700 US troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and fighters opposed to the occupation have lost their lives, and countless others have been wounded, and

Whereas, the costs of the war, both in its operation and expected costs in healthcare and benefits for returning troops is projected to be over 1 trillion dollars, while other pressing human needs at home such as healthcare, education, housing, and disaster recovery (such as Katrina) are neglected and under funded, and

Whereas, major labor leaders have recently condemned the actions of the Iraqi Oil Minister in declaring public trade unions illegal, adding to the attacks on workers in that country,

Whereas, President Bush and the Congress continue to fund the war despite the fact that over 60% of the American public feels we should bring our troops home from Iraq, and

Whereas, several national, regional, and local organizations are calling for a variety of anti-war campaigns, educational programs, and mobilization efforts this fall, designed to put more pressure on the administration to end these conflicts,

Therefore, let it be resolved that the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor renew its call for the immediate beginning of the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and

Resolved, that the Federation promote and endorse fall anti-war activities, specifically the September 15th, September 29th, and October 27th national, regional and local mobilizations, and the September 22-29 Tent-Cities at the Westwood and Downtown Federal Buildings; and

Resolved , that the Federation will encourage its affiliates and members to break their daily routine and to take some action to end the war, such as organizing programs in their workplaces or union halls, the wearing of armbands, and other forms of participation in the Iraq Moratorium, beginning on September 21, 2007, and continuing on the third Friday of each subsequent month.

Finally Resolved, that the Federation will publish this resolution and circulate it to its affiliates and members through its various communication vehicles, and send copies to other county federations, the CA State Federation and the AFL-CIO, urging them to adopt similar motions.

and the large and powerful LA teachers union followed suit (excerpt):

At its Board Meeting on Thursday, August 23, the Board of Directors of
United Teachers Los Angeles passed the following resolution:

Support for Fall Anti-War Activities

Moved, that UTLA renew its call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and

Further moved, that UTLA promote and endorse fall anti-war activities, specifically the September 15th, September 29th, and October 27th national, regional and local mobilizations, the ILWU (San Francisco) sponsored Labor and the War Conference on October 20, and the September 22-29 Tent-Cities at the Westwood and Downtown Federal Buildings; and

Further moved, that UTLA will publicize the Iraq Moratorium to our members, giving them opportunities to break their daily routine and take some action to end the war, beginning on September 21, 2007, and continuing on the third Friday of each subsequent month.

Finally moved, that UTLA will publish this resolution and circulate it to its affiliates and members through its various communication vehicles, and to inform our Congressional Delegation of this resolution, encouraging them to vote against further allocations of funding for the Iraq occupation, except for the safe and immediate removal of our troops there.

On Left websites:

The influential CommonDreams carried this on Friday.

Blogger lao hong han is trying some shit-stirring in the anti-war movement and left blogosphere.

And if you add this Technorati link to your bookmarks, you can check our growing blogosphere presence daily.

In the media:

Eric See was interviewed on a Harrisburg, PA radio station recently.

Out among the masses:

Paul K reports from the road in Northern CA:
Our trip across California has been tremendous. I've talked to scores of people in towns and villages up the coast of California (we're almost to Oregon) about the IM -- peace and justice organization activists, bookstore, cafe and inn owners and others (several were flying peace flags in front of their businesses) and many say they will try to do something on IM days, beginning Sept. 21. I got their names and numbers and will follow-up with them when I get home.

Out among the masses, part 2:
A bit of explanation--this next exchange is excerpted from a DailyKos thread entitled "I joined a union today" which blogger lao hong han used to plug the LA CLC resolution:

1. Hey, I've worked union and I've worked not-union--and believe me, union is better. (h/t Sophie Tucker)

And my union good news for the week is that the LA Central Labor Council has backed the Iraq Moratorium, calling on locals and members to take steps like "organizing programs in their workplaces or union halls, the wearing of armbands, and other forms of participation."

by lao hong han on Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 07:34:47 PM EDT

2. That's great that they're backing it!

:)

"I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth." - Molly Ivins

littlesky on Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 07:40:15 PM EDT

3. joined the Iraq Moratorium? Way cool!!!!

littlesky and I came up with our Iraq Moratorium idea. She has a big front porch so we're going to hang signs on it that say, "Mission Accomplished!" and "Oh yeah?"

After the (s)election in 2000, we posted signs there that had the popular vote totals. :)

Turn the Mountain West blue! Support Gary Trauner (WY-AL) for Congress!

by kainah on Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 07:43:37 PM EDT

4. Excellent! That's the whole idea of the Moratorium--do something where you are, with others or by yer own self. But littlesky, and presumably the porch, are in WV, right? How come you've got "Turn the Mountain West blue!" as your sig?

Iraq Moratorium! Sign On Now!

by lao hong han on Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 08:06:44 PM EDT


5. She's visiting from WY

Go Gary Trauner! :)

"I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth." - Molly Ivins

by littlesky on Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 08:09:28 PM EDT

6. back in Laramie for Iraq Moratorium they will be displaying our peace group's IRAQ WALL at our regular, going-on-five-years Friday protest.

Turn the Mountain West blue! Support Gary Trauner (WY-AL) for Congress!

by kainah on Fri Aug 24, 2007 at 08:28:00 PM EDT


[Just to sum up, two sibs, littlesky based somewhere in WV and kainah in Laramie, WY have 1. heard of the Moratorium 2. are excited that the labor movement is aboard, and 3. have already made their plans for September 21!]

Local Mobilizing, part 1:
Some SDSers in NYC have taken the initiative to call a city-wide planning meeting for the 21st next week, to draw in all sorts of forces. They will need help with outreach.

Local Organizing, part 2:
The early birds in Sewanee, TN, did it again! Third Friday in August--and they doubled their July numbers!

And Saving The Best For Last:

Check out Moratorio Irak!

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A New One On Me

Maybe I'm just late to the picnic again, but here's a tune I found last night by one of this country's best songwriters, Tom Russell. I wanted to pair it up with another tune by an Anglo living in Aztlan, James McMurtry's "Safe Side," but I couldn't find it on YouTube.




UPDATE

Shoulda thought to look for this cut by Molotov. I've had the tune, "Frijolero," for a while but now find out it's got a cool video too. (Note to impatient Anglo types: it is bilingual, don't check out after 30 seconds.)

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