tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-330332692024-03-05T10:41:32.035-08:00BroadcastVoiceIdeas and observations, from the worlds of media,
journalism, culture and the humanitiesJon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-69943148046839130862017-09-28T21:42:00.003-07:002017-09-28T21:42:56.110-07:00Etudes: Studies of Mt. Washington<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">I suspect that everyone has some attachment to their neighborhood. If you live in the <i>Rive Gauche, Beverly Hills, The Richmond District, Gramercy Park</i> - you have world class amenities. I sometimes envy people living in those barrios.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">But somehow after living on my little perch on the edge of Mt. Washington in Los Angeles, for over a quarter century now, my 'hood has become endearing and special to me. Never mind that I have to climb 90 steps to get in and out of my place, or that the cat is perpetually unhappy (she misses me). Our little treehouse. secluded as it is, 300 feet above the surrounding hillside, allows me some of the best views </span>around, and I share them here with you.</span><br />
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<iframe src="https://jbeaupre.exposure.co/etudes?embed=true" style="border-radius: 2px; border: solid 1px #ccc; height: 550px; margin-bottom: 5px; width: 100%;"></iframe><br /><a href="https://jbeaupre.exposure.co/etudes">Etudes</a> by <a href="https://jbeaupre.exposure.co/">Jon Beaupre</a> on <a href="https://exposure.co/" style="text-transform: uppercase;">Exposure</a><br />
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<br />Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-75950393899345631202017-05-31T20:45:00.000-07:002017-05-31T20:45:56.622-07:00A Gentleman in Moscow<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">For many Americans, their uninformed impression and expectations regarding the city of Moscow - whether they have been there or not - the expectation is that the center of the Communist world is dreary, gray, snowy sidewalks, long lines at virtually every store, and cranky, unhappy party members who would secretly all prefer to live in Miami or New York. Amor Towles graceful roman </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: center;">á</span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> chambre <i>A Gentleman in Moscow</i> sets us down in a sweet city of European traditions, old friends, and the genteel elegance of a classic world weary hotel. The protagonist, a former count, discredited by the new communist </span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">regime, is 'exiled' in 1922 to a room in the Hotel </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYaW_HtrFRplPyjlF-xu4gbSgnxxMhyphenhyphenAKGocRe4zGt98aLS55sn8R4zSSKN7Bv16QVdGs5CxQtAdaWogy81aoXVMWd3MHzYga_YfeTMD6SiYwbf7qkMUoHX5vo48zojNDaqI9e/s1600/Moscow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYaW_HtrFRplPyjlF-xu4gbSgnxxMhyphenhyphenAKGocRe4zGt98aLS55sn8R4zSSKN7Bv16QVdGs5CxQtAdaWogy81aoXVMWd3MHzYga_YfeTMD6SiYwbf7qkMUoHX5vo48zojNDaqI9e/s320/Moscow.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Metropole</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: center;">, </span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">where you can still savor a glass of Chateau d'Yquem and an excellent roasted duck. The Count, Alexander Ilyich Rostov, is an unfailing gentlemen who resists any force that might upset him. His cheerful outlook is unshakable. How his decade long personal life in exile entwines with the management of the hotel, his loves and friendships, and especially his improbable relationship with an infant he is pressed into service to raise, forms a moving, engaging tale. It's a sort of an old fashioned novel; not flashy or in any way experimental; just rich, graceful prose, that leaves you longing to be there in the Metropole with the count and his friends, enjoying a late night Cognac and sweet conversation. The ending is satisfying and appropriate, but really irrelevant. In the best possible way, the story is really about the journey; Rostov's ability to not only survive, but to do so in style and with endless charm.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The structure of the novel leads one to believe that A Gentleman in Moscow might make a good candidate for a TV series. Are you listening A&E?</span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-82411716153304579762017-05-31T19:39:00.000-07:002017-05-31T19:39:19.010-07:00I'll Sell You a Dog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b9dImCoPSVmJl1la2Yy38L3OzbaRAFgTXaLzk1a7XYkBgE6aQN28hu9EDux6WbdATK-0igPpowuEoMiA-nSnSQDvl2jwC9-tIrqzCaIthx7IjSrs_huUimib0f3CV_-JaE3K/s1600/Dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="326" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b9dImCoPSVmJl1la2Yy38L3OzbaRAFgTXaLzk1a7XYkBgE6aQN28hu9EDux6WbdATK-0igPpowuEoMiA-nSnSQDvl2jwC9-tIrqzCaIthx7IjSrs_huUimib0f3CV_-JaE3K/s200/Dog.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>(Review from Amazon.com)</b> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">Long before he was the taco seller whose ‘Gringo Dog’ recipe made him famous throughout Mexico City, our hero was an aspiring artist: an artist, that is, till his would-be girlfriend was stolen by Diego Rivera, and his dreams snuffed out by his hypochondriac mother. Now our hero is resident in a retirement home, where fending off boredom is far more grueling than making tacos. Plagued by the literary salon that bumps about his building’s lobby and haunted by the self-pitying ghost of a neglected artist, Villalobos’s old man can’t help but misbehave: he antagonises his neighbors, tortures American missionaries with passages from Adorno, and flirts with the revolutionary greengrocer. A delicious take-down of pretensions to cultural posterity, </span><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px;">I’ll Sell You a Dog</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 14px;"> is a comic novel whose absurd inventions, scurrilous antics and oddball characters are vintage Villalobos.</span></span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-38609079231918417082016-10-20T22:11:00.001-07:002016-10-20T22:11:44.284-07:00Home (Bitter) Sweet Home<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8aKa7iiKdWMtYsJGGDOSkYb60wXlyAkk6SWO4hg3XEPoD3nR141NCXy_d1r70Dl1NndsAVZBszdp8hvaxDDn4Eirovu3e7Jhck0H7DC3o50O-5QI8Nqtp2LVoMGJI7eDXxUH9/s1600/VCHouse3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8aKa7iiKdWMtYsJGGDOSkYb60wXlyAkk6SWO4hg3XEPoD3nR141NCXy_d1r70Dl1NndsAVZBszdp8hvaxDDn4Eirovu3e7Jhck0H7DC3o50O-5QI8Nqtp2LVoMGJI7eDXxUH9/s200/VCHouse3.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Too poor to be the Waltons...</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">t's a kind of landmark. With mom Carolyn Beaupre moving to Lakeside Manor (855 Brinkby Ave. #118, Reno 89509 | 775.827.3606), for the first time in 63 years, there is no one with the last name Beaupre living in Virginia City. Seeing the house we built as a family makes me tear up a bit. It was my mom's dream home when we moved in in 1959. It's way too early to know if things will work out in Reno for mom, or what's going to ultimately happen with the house. Just feels very strange to think there is no family in Virginia City. Many, many years of memories, celebrations, great food, and so much love, the walls could barely hold it all.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">"</span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">OMG, Jon! I was in that house in the summer of 1978 when I was traveling across country via Greyhound bus and dropped a dime (! ) in the payphone to look you up. You weren't around but your sister Heather answered and your folks took me in for a few</span><span style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"> days (and I went back a few months later for the Clampers (?) ball). It was one of the most unusual, enlightening experiences I've ever had in my sheltered life!!! I know that house!!!!!"</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"> - <i>Patricia Pippert</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Patricia, you make me laugh and cry at the same time. I'm so happy you got to see this place. I had forgotten that you stayed there! Much love then and now to you and yours.. </span></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I remember being at a bar with your dad and he asked me if I wanted another drink. I said, "I'm fine." He said, "I know that. But do you want another drink." Really taught me about the power of language/humor and how to accept a compliment.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"> -<i>Patricia Pippert</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I have some great memories of that house. It was just yesterday! Need to find those photos. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Oh man. We all got a large dose of "adult" in VC.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"> - <i>Vickie Wolfe</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Hey - you know the place as well as anyone! Do you remember that my dad greeted Birdie at the front door in his jockeys and just about nothing else but a glass of wine?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"> - <i>JNB</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I don't think I knew another way to open ones front door till I moved away...</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"> - <i>Desiree Davis</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I really have to wonder if you know the family of my best friend. The Jumps. I know there are many in the cemetery up there. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I'm actually originally from Miami, so it's not a completely new experience. I'm enjoying watching the leaves change that's for sure! I do miss my mountains, though.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"> - <i>Maureen O'Conner Weaver</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Maureen, belated happy birthday! I'll have to look for the 'Jumps' in the cemetery when I am next up there. How do you like living away from the west coast (well, away from Reno anyway...)?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;">JNB</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Oh, I so feel for you,Jon. My family lived in the same house in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, for 50 years. When we had to let go of the house, I felt utterly bereft. </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Truth is (and was) that a lot of complicated life took place in the house where I grew up....which for me, layers the nostalgia. Maybe this is true for you, too, with your childhood home. Everyone has a unique experience.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"> - <i>Melissa Hurst</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Melissa, I remember hearing about the Chagrin Falls house when we were in school together - sounds like a magical place (both the city and your home).</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;">JNB</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">I may have visited that house once or twice when young. Sad times when only memories are attached to a place.</span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>Donna Marmorstein</i></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody">I am so torn. Love the memories keep is informed</span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>KJ Johnson</i></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I loved living in V.C. And I love the Beaupre family dearly!!!!!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>Glenda Jenson</i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Remember you will always hold the home you loved and memories with you in your heart. It will bring those happy times to you when ever they are needed to bring you a smile. Just like a decamp bus line bus 33. I always think of excitement and stories it was holding to be told by its passengers. : )</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>Valerie Mays</i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Wow, that's quite the thought...</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>Jenn Violet Callahan</i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Nice post Jon ... memories ...</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>Jani Buron</i></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" style="color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Virginia City? I didn't know this about you. I had fun up there when my cousin lived in Carson. Lots of history.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"> - <i>Ellen R. Stein</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">"Jon </span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Thank you for the image of THAT House... The stories you've written and told... The amazing life-context you created of your childhood there rests vividly inside me. I recall my own visit to Virginia City, Nevada and how I walked down the street to see that home and to see the hotel that your family managed... It's so vivid and such a great family history Jon. My spirit is with you just now...</span><span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">Remember the story of the airplane in the basement? Remember the story of ice skating in the bedroom?</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> - <i>Lynn McLaughlin</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f6f7f9; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-41787810764616492082016-10-20T21:41:00.001-07:002017-05-31T19:33:36.488-07:00<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px;">It's a kind of landmark. With mom Carolyn Beaupre moving to Lakeside Manor (855 Brinkby Ave. #118, Reno 89509 | 775.827.3606), for the first time in 63 years, there is no one with the last name Beaupre living in Virginia City. Seeing the house we built as a family makes me tear up a bit. It was my mom's dream home when we moved in in 1959. It's way too early to know if things will work out in Reno for mom, or what's going to ultimately happen with the house. Just feels very strange to think there is no family in Virginia City. Many, many years of memories, celebrations, great food, and so much love, the walls could barely hold it all.</span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-70053057920355074842015-04-22T22:15:00.000-07:002015-04-28T20:46:34.386-07:00Stitches & Scars<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I’ve never had a significant surgery</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">…before April of this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Scared, anxious, utterly aware of the
seriousness of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> this surgery, so close to my spinal column, but it simply became a reality:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was unable to function ‘normally’ without
doing something about the shooting leg pain that never left.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp5rFvSGE-jtxmYLt47Qb-TYGgJWmKbUX6GlJwH6CfeoIwUuSSJ_OWhGMN8cdB-sE92gfFrk3HCfQr-wM0uvIbfil3ZMPK7MmH8aycAacxd00_n2U7zPPrL3TTzp_lcelFNxL/s1600/Keck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp5rFvSGE-jtxmYLt47Qb-TYGgJWmKbUX6GlJwH6CfeoIwUuSSJ_OWhGMN8cdB-sE92gfFrk3HCfQr-wM0uvIbfil3ZMPK7MmH8aycAacxd00_n2U7zPPrL3TTzp_lcelFNxL/s1600/Keck.jpg" height="106" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Keck is only 15 minutes from my home</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The staff at USC Keck were wonderfully reassuring and
supportive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Then they stabbed me full of needles, put sensors all over
my torso, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>drew a bunch of my blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plastic tubes hanging off my body, some
pumping stuff in, some taking fluids out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ok so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“You might feel a little pinch…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The neurosurgeon, Dr. Liu, not only explained what would
happen, he also reassured me of the effectiveness of this procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Finally, wheeled into the operating room, filled with
massive machines, and a very kind, friendly staff again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Head nurse – I think his name was Zac – covered
with tattoos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the eastside after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I surrender.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Dr. Chbeeb, the anesthesiologist, is impossibly young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked him why he specialized in
anesthesiology and would it make any difference that I taught at CSULA while
I’m in a USC hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He laughed and
said he liked taking people’s pain away, and no, they were happy to accept
patients from CSULA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bumped fists
(less infection possibility than a hand shake).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Someone said “Already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s put this patient under…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
body flooded with Valium and other nice things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m instantly warm, comfortable, very drowsy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is going to be no sweat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_V3jP0u0LfWko2iH1U97qXhyphenhyphenAC5JR8ppSyuCOQ3IVnN4v-U_-wuj-7_HDk9vKdc2LICuVe3YfSsJTqVCLRe5nUyhCjIP9G2Zf87QLvSrMKQlIv3rewm09X1DLchzTwczfEMlh/s1600/Xray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_V3jP0u0LfWko2iH1U97qXhyphenhyphenAC5JR8ppSyuCOQ3IVnN4v-U_-wuj-7_HDk9vKdc2LICuVe3YfSsJTqVCLRe5nUyhCjIP9G2Zf87QLvSrMKQlIv3rewm09X1DLchzTwczfEMlh/s1600/Xray.jpg" height="168" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Not MY X-Ray, but very similar.<br />Note the pinched spinal chord at the bottom.</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The operation is called a ‘Decompression of the Lumbar Spine.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was astonishing was that for the
complexity of the procedure, it took just two tiny incisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzmR1TaHV0Pjlnf2lKldtPxtUNMBhoBYCTKsiaH1co2-Q9N2od7kwBTsQDCb4XbvTY0i2gBqKG_yz0' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I awake screaming, tears squeezed out of my tightly closed
eyes, in more pain than I have ever felt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I squeeze the side of the bed so hard, I managed to jiggle around all
the tubes and needles in my arm so that I end up bruised from the back of my
thumb to my elbow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I thought these people liked me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now it just seems like they’ve found exactly
the nerves to inflict the most pain possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not true, of course, it just felt that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“Give him some more…” someone says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, screaming pain in the core of my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A bit more” the voice commands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Pretty quickly, the absolute worst of the pain subsides, but
I’m clearly in for the long haul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Working through the pain at home has been hard, as the
anesthesia has worn off, and I’m back to existing outside the all-encompassing
embrace of the hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">My former student Luis has temporarily moved into my place
to help<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtikpJN7yj4J3Zmgm0_qIaqBI65T3jGvIbAgDXIgy1IAmIBTkMW0A0hyyWpo12OEbCuCP5a2VkqOd2b0_IRv5Hzx6Q5aPz62ez2st8Dr2yf-BUoDJXfxTtm3-DUYgumDRuJ2gw/s1600/Luis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtikpJN7yj4J3Zmgm0_qIaqBI65T3jGvIbAgDXIgy1IAmIBTkMW0A0hyyWpo12OEbCuCP5a2VkqOd2b0_IRv5Hzx6Q5aPz62ez2st8Dr2yf-BUoDJXfxTtm3-DUYgumDRuJ2gw/s1600/Luis.jpg" height="200" width="148" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>My best pal and care-giver</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
me out for a couple of weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s as close to a son as I can imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have a long history, mostly of my mentoring and developing a close
friendship, helping him in any way I can, and he helping me numerous times by
staying in my place when I am out of town, shooting and editing news projects,
and in general hanging out with mutual friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right now, I’m really leaning on him as my main ‘wing man’, helping with
the heavier chores and cooking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">On that front, Luis is a grad of <i>Cordon Bleu</i>, and every time
I turn around, he’s cooking delicious, tempting food – this may turn out to be
the best thing about recovery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>T-Bone
steaks, grilled squash/eggplant/onion & granny smith apples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Potato leek soup with smoked pork neck
bones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chilaquiles, with salsa. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Croissant bread pudding with stewed
strawberries and pears. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luis is great
company; we have lots to talk about, and he laughs easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compared with what I would be getting in a
recovery hospital, I’ve struck it rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Luis brings friends over, which helps make my place a little more lively
– he’s a great room mate, and really puts me at ease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know if there was a problem, he’d be there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Which brings up the big issue of this post.</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">A week after the surgery is my birthday.</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I’ve finally attained 62 years, which a week
ago didn’t seem possible.</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Today, with back
brace, a walker, pain meds, and rehab on the horizon, I’m really feeling every
one of those years. The two hour surgery requires only two band aids.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwIBNizDncYaSLRfFyykRGK6Z481JdGAjkRzkIXHvnUno4-Mk5uIdN9bIAfVVBTgmnIhTRuL8NMypoAZqxo55kMYBhi9BWTlOKJafhmIae3Aq0u3i1LhAfDCUgwWmKt0YRc23B/s1600/wound+composite.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwIBNizDncYaSLRfFyykRGK6Z481JdGAjkRzkIXHvnUno4-Mk5uIdN9bIAfVVBTgmnIhTRuL8NMypoAZqxo55kMYBhi9BWTlOKJafhmIae3Aq0u3i1LhAfDCUgwWmKt0YRc23B/s1600/wound+composite.png" height="127" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazing, tiny incisions worked their magic</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
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</div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Despite the obvious care and concern of the great staff at
the hospital <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(especially to prep nurse
Simone, who kept up a steady stream of conversation with me that was both
funny, reassuring, and graceful in what she had to do and supervise in prepping
me for surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m quite simply in
awe.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The surgery and my birthday being
so close to each other inevitably raised questions of age, mortality, fragility
and how our lives are likely to be more and more impacted by health care,
medicine, examinations, labs and the like as we grow grayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Also, this is a big one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sixty two was the age generations before us were allowed to move off the
production line, and start taking life easier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For my generation, 62 will just fly by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As soon as I recover from this surgery, I’m back to work, and not likely
to even consider retirement for at least another decade or more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So I’m back to feeling a little anxious; not short-term,
like worrying about the surgery, which is done, but long term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How much productive time do I have left?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have I treated the people in my life with the
respect and affection they deserve?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Have I thanked people enough?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just regarding this surgery, but in life, in
general?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGpJoqHv7fM_3XS3pnfU9y8EzV1wONas2tmKHmXq-PeYV2m36T3v7erLYD2JNDZVufF9_sgaEEPdK4SBuzSBvHTAkuZkYlcU23Ln6yZvF8nEKmuWE0Cl4urhsZTdHGEN-M8gU/s1600/C&G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGpJoqHv7fM_3XS3pnfU9y8EzV1wONas2tmKHmXq-PeYV2m36T3v7erLYD2JNDZVufF9_sgaEEPdK4SBuzSBvHTAkuZkYlcU23Ln6yZvF8nEKmuWE0Cl4urhsZTdHGEN-M8gU/s1600/C&G.jpg" height="115" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">George, Cecilia & me (Ctr.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">On my actual birthday, April 19, my personal social media started
going crazy early in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
12:00N, there are 19 voice messages, 26 texts, and an uncountable number of
emails and FaceBook birthday messages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
lot are from students, both current and from the rest of my teaching career,
and from so many people from my past, some I haven’t seen in decades. I get a call from my friends George Lewis and Cecilia Alvear. George's birthday is a day before mine, and I've celebrated with their families for a number of years. Cecilia called me up so that the whole gang at her house could join in singing happy birthday to both of us (and Cecilia's sister Magdalena's 4 year old grand daughter Sasha). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The birthday messages move me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I’m a cynical journalist, media watcher and teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remind everyone that it takes just a couple
of clicks to send a birthday wish, usually from people who wouldn’t be reminded
if it wasn’t for the electronic wizardry of FaceBook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So as a media theorist, I’m jaded and
unimpressed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">On the other hand, no one is forced to send me these kind
thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On this count, I have to give
FaceBook my grudging admiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
simple ability to send a nice thought to someone easily is the internet at its
best. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I am virtually positive that there are folks who deserve
more recognition than I do, and I don’t see this long string of postings as
proof of my popularity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather I see
that long list of messages from people who took a few seconds to write me as
part of the rich web of relationships, shared experiences, and connections we
have stitched together over the past half century or so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Old pal Linda was a friend in high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had years of adventures in her VW bug,
getting into the kind of benign trouble you are supposed to at that age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had no connection to Linda and that
circle of friends for 45 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Students, like Carlos in San Diego, who has been a pal since he was my
student, nearly a decade ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve
always been proud of his accomplishments and love hearing of his adventures
(newly minted dad!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friends in
Pakistan, Singapore, Europe, and all across the country, from Hawaii to New
York, Australia to Canada check in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Each
of my siblings, who know me better than anyone, call to rib me and offer me
canes and walkers. (Sadly, I actually have the walker as part of my rehab.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rod, who was not only a student, but was also
a staff member of our department, and after that an extraordinarily generous
and successful producer at one of our major local networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s come back to school so many times to
give inspiration and advice to our students, I don’t know how I can ever repay
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The whole circle from a decade and
a half in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Undergrad school
(Univ. of NV, Reno) and Grad School (NYU), a students from a semester teaching
in Indiana – not just friends, but groups of friends; circles intersecting with
other circles; faculty friends at my current school, Cal State LA, from my old
life in radio at KPFK, KPCC and on NPR…representatives from all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * * <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpB4UO-qcKSGl66mCsED89kg-Hg6ksyGmkCQ_TZFIlAXl4O2H_C96vu805ZhJi4oeB6SV3CZNkFC6WAEmzy7F_B3-CbFMmKZnbwa2GEtHaPvqELiAn0RnNLybq_dHvb_B7BQ_t/s1600/62A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpB4UO-qcKSGl66mCsED89kg-Hg6ksyGmkCQ_TZFIlAXl4O2H_C96vu805ZhJi4oeB6SV3CZNkFC6WAEmzy7F_B3-CbFMmKZnbwa2GEtHaPvqELiAn0RnNLybq_dHvb_B7BQ_t/s1600/62A.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So, sure, it’s never been easier to pop out a Happy Birthday
and be cynical about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even from
that perspective, I get a lump in my throat as I read down the list.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">You didn’t have to write me, but you did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It’s not a competition, but I can’t help but feel that there
are a few people out there who remember me, who care about me, and in many more
cases than I can count or deserve, who love me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It’s humbling, but nourishing and about the best medication
someone recovering from surgery could ask for, regardless of age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It will never be enough, but I hereby post my thanks
nonetheless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-38837338658248092042015-04-22T21:03:00.002-07:002017-05-31T19:33:36.485-07:00Stitches & Scars<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I’ve never had a significant surgery</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">…before April of this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Out of body, scared, anxious, utterly aware of the
seriousness of this surgery, so close to my spinal column.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it simply became a reality:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was unable to function ‘normally’ without
doing something about the shooting leg pain that never left.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The staff at USC Keck were wonderfully reassuring and
supportive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Then they stabbed me full of needles, put sensors all over
my torso, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>drew a bunch of my blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plastic tubes hanging off my body, some
pumping stuff in, some taking fluids out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ok so far.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“You might feel a little pinch…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The neurosurgeon, Dr. Liu, not only explained what would
happen, he also reassured me of the effectiveness of this procedure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Finally, wheeled into the operating room, filled with
massive machines, and a very kind, friendly staff again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Head nurse – I think his name was Zac – covered
with tattoos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is the eastside after all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I surrender.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Dr. Chbeeb, the anesthesiologist, is impossibly young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I asked him why he specialized in
anesthesiology and would it make any difference that I taught at CSULA while
I’m in a USC hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He laughed and
said he liked taking people’s pain away, and no, they were happy to accept
patients from CSULA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We bumped fists
(less infection possibility than a hand shake).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Someone said “Already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s put this patient under…”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
body flooded with Valium and other nice things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’m instantly warm, comfortable, very drowsy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is going to be no sweat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOXCtu7eDm_QJnAw2RwYYbGoiw6uFcbjwkPHYVu-YADFJsDHoBGKerPEkiNOOP4uUg97gUoWRwacdWmUTLxgFUoQfGW9HqueXbEJ63gHVgE4_0guT_WHzRvI62EQhcm1ddE52/s1600/Xray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVOXCtu7eDm_QJnAw2RwYYbGoiw6uFcbjwkPHYVu-YADFJsDHoBGKerPEkiNOOP4uUg97gUoWRwacdWmUTLxgFUoQfGW9HqueXbEJ63gHVgE4_0guT_WHzRvI62EQhcm1ddE52/s1600/Xray.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not my X-Ray, but very similar - note the pinched spinal chord<br />at the bottom of the images; much like my spine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The operation is called a ‘Decompression of the Lumbar Spine.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was astonishing was that for the
complexity of the procedure, when it was all over, I ended up with just two
band.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I awake screaming, tears squeezed out of my tightly closed
eyes, in more pain than I have ever felt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I squeeze the side of the bed so hard, I managed to jiggle around all
the tubes and needles in my arm so that I end up bruised from the back of my
thumb to my elbow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I thought these people liked me!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now it just seems like they’ve found exactly
the nerves to inflict the most pain possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not true, of course, it just felt that way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">“Give him some more…” someone says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, screaming pain in the core of my body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“A bit more” the voice commands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Pretty quickly, the absolute worst of the pain subsides, but
I’m clearly in for the long haul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">* * *</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Working through the pain at home has been hard, as the
anesthesia has worn off, and I’m back to existing outside the all-encompassing
embrace of the hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">My former student Luis has temporarily moved into my place
to help me out for a couple of weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He’s as close to a son as I can imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have a long history, mostly of my mentoring and developing a close
friendship, helping him in any way I can, and he helping me numerous times by
staying in my place when I am out of town, shooting and editing news project,
and in general hanging out with mutual friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right now, I’m really leaning on him as my main ‘wing man’, helping with
the heavier chores and cooking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">On that front, Luis is a grad of Cordon Bleu, and every time
I turn around, he’s cooking delicious, tempting food – this may turn out to be
the best thing about recovery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>T-Bone
steaks, grilled squash/eggplant/onion & granny smith apples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Potato leek soup with smoked pork neck
bones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chilaquiles, with salsa. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Croissant bread pudding with stewed
strawberries and pears. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luis is great
company; we have lots to talk about, and he laughs easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compared with what I would be getting in a
recovery hospital, I’ve struck it rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Luis brings friends over, which helps make my place a little more lively
– he’s a great room mate, and really puts me at ease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know if there was a problem, he’d be there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Which brings up the big issue of this post.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A week after the surgery is my birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve finally attained 62 years, which a week
ago didn’t seem possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today, with back
brace, a walker, pain meds, and rehab on the horizon, I’m really feeling every
one of those years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Despite the obvious care and concern of the great staff at
the hospital <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(especially to prep nurse
Simone, who kept up a steady stream of conversation with me that was both
funny, reassuring, and graceful in what she had to do and supervise in prepping
me for surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m quite simply in
awe.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The surgery and my birthday being
so close to each other inevitably raised questions of age, mortality, fragility
and how our lives are likely to be more and more impacted by health care,
medicine, examinations, labs and the like as we grow grayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Also, this is a big one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sixty two was the age generations before us were allowed to move off the
production line, and start taking life easier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For my generation, 62 will just fly by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As soon as I recover from this surgery, I’m back to work, and not likely
to even consider retirement for at least another decade or more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So I’m back to feeling a little anxious; not short-term,
like worrying about the surgery, which is done, but long term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How much productive time do I have left?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have I treated the people in my life with the
respect and affection they deserve?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Have I thanked people enough?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just regarding surgery, but in life, in
general?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">On my actual birthday, April 19, my personal social media
started going crazy early in the morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By 12:00N, there are 19 voice messages, 26 texts, and an uncountable
number of emails and FaceBook birthday messages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot are from students, both current and
from the rest of my teaching career, and from so many people from my past, some
I haven’t seen in decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The birthday messages move me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I’m a cynical journalist, media watcher and teacher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remind everyone that it takes just a couple
of clicks to send a birthday wish, usually from people who wouldn’t be reminded
if it wasn’t for the electronic wizardry of FaceBook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So as a media theorist, I’m jaded and
unimpressed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">On the other hand, no one is forced to send me these kind
thoughts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On this count, I have to give
FaceBook my grudging admiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
simple ability to send a nice thought to someone easily is the internet at its
best. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I am virtually positive that there are folks who deserve
more recognition than I do, and I don’t see this long string of postings as
proof of my popularity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather I see
that long list of messages from people who took a few seconds to write me as
part of the rich web of relationships, shared experiences, and connections we
have stitched together over the past half century or so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Old pal Linda was a friend in high school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had years of adventures in her VW bug,
getting into the kind of benign trouble you are supposed to at that age.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve had no connection to Linda and that
circle of friends for 45 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Students, like Carlos in San Diego, who has been a pal since he was my student,
nearly a decade ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve always been
proud of his accomplishments and love hearing of his adventures (newly minted
dad!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friends in Pakistan, Singapore,
Europe, and all across the country, from Hawaii to New York, Australia to
Canada check in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of my siblings,
who know me better than anyone, call to rib me and offer me canes and walkers.
(Sadly, I actually have the walker as part of my rehab.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rod, who was not only a student, but was also
a staff member of our department, and after that an extraordinarily generous
and successful producer at one of our major local networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s come back to school so many times to
give inspiration and advice to our students, I don’t know how I can ever repay
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The whole circle from a decade and
a half in New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Undergrad school
(Univ. of NV, Reno) and Grad School (NYU), a students from a semester teaching
in Indiana – not just friends, but groups of friends; circles intersecting with
other circles; faculty friends at my current school, Cal State LA, from my old
life in radio at KPFK, KPCC and on NPR…representatives from all of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">* * * <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So, sure, it’s never been easier to pop out a Happy Birthday
and be cynical about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even from
that perspective, I get a lump in my throat as I read down the list.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">You didn’t have to write me, but you did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It’s not a competition, but I can’t help but feel that there
are a few people out there who remember me, who care about me, and in many more
cases than I can count, who love me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It’s humbling, but nourishing and about the best medication
someone recovering from surgery could ask for, regardless of age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It will never be enough, even though I try to answer all of them. I hereby post a thanks
nonetheless!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-30616708136964411062014-08-11T02:51:00.000-07:002015-04-22T20:57:07.919-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 19px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Can and </span></span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="font-size: 19px; line-height: 21px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Will</b></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">by Jon Beaupré</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">________________________</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Can’t and Won’t</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">by Lydia Davis</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Farrar, Straus and Giroux </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">© 2014 ISBN 2013033909</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-ee732378-c46c-74e7-d30f-415ad8e78e1f" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is no surprise that we live in an age of minimalism. With Twitter oeuvres in 140 characters, a limited attention span, and an irresistible drive to get to the punch line, many of our most provocative and engaging works are created by layering simple story on top of simple</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3waR7M1eREIHAzwxnkOowCGnVgIbExNEukJhJUi2DEJVVWKE8naI3dpVUW2NYPRfP0lwH120rd5JQi1uFDdznK0f72kStP3dkZlIg0uLlxD_9gnpzYFrfmPOv_MdbQBMIbr3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-11+at+1.57.18+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH3waR7M1eREIHAzwxnkOowCGnVgIbExNEukJhJUi2DEJVVWKE8naI3dpVUW2NYPRfP0lwH120rd5JQi1uFDdznK0f72kStP3dkZlIg0uLlxD_9gnpzYFrfmPOv_MdbQBMIbr3/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-08-11+at+1.57.18+AM.png" height="320" width="215" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> story. Immediately the work of Nicholson Baker comes to mind - </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vox</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> being just one of my favorites; a naughty book that gets to the point rather quickly, but nonetheless, traverses vast territory with its limited lines. There is a popular collection of very short stories, entitled appropriately, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">World’s Shortest Stories</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all of which are 55 words, no more, no less. The discipline of fitting into the 55 word rubric, not unlike a Twitter novel, forces the writer to make his or her points pretty quickly. There is no space for wandering, unlike Proust’s Macaroon (or was it a Madeline?), taking fourteen pages to swoon over the subtle memories of a storied pastry. No, every word has to count, and if those words are suggestive and evocative of a larger reality, all the better, one small minimalist idea suggesting or implying a larger reality.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Minimalist doesn’t mean that the entire work is made of few words either. Luc Sante’s masterful collection of the 19th Century news filler pieces by the French writer Felix Fénéon entitled </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Novels in Three Lines </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are gorgeous for their evocative simplicity, but the collection feels endless, like eating handful after handful of popcorn; an undeniable pleasure. The great works of the composer Philip Glass are often lofty and hypnotic, vast meditations on - well, just about anything - but made up of microscopic changes in chord, mood, rhythm; hence minimalist despite their over all length.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That brings us to the rich treasure of new work by the novelist Lydia Davis, that consist of several dozen observations on what might appear to be of the trivial and irrelevant, but in her hands become little gems, masterpieces of invention and reflection. Early in the book she writes a short piece entitled </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Dog Hair</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The dog is gone. We miss him. When the doorbell rings, no one barks. When we come home late, there is no one waiting for us. We still find his white hairs here and there around the house and on our clothes. We pick them up. We should throw them away. But they are all we have left of him. We don’t throw them away. We have a wild hope - if only we collect enough of them, we will be able to put the dog back together again.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">That’s the whole piece. In fewer than ten sentences, we learn of loss, longing, domestic life lived by a couple, irrational hope, and the unexplainable bond between a dog and his human companions.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In fact, many of the short masterpieces of Lydia Davis are tinged with melancholy; not exactly tragedy, but a kind of sad boredom that leaves us wondering in our tracks ‘where is that story supposed to go?’</span></span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Davis, who was married for four years to the author Paul Auster, has been the recipient of a number of literary awards; something which undoubtedly pleases her but also leaves her pondering whether or not she deserved the award, or rather she should have gotten the award for another work, or she wonders why she didn’t win a more prestigious award. Frankly, she’s a little bored and cranky about it.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In April of this year on the recently cancelled NPR program </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tell Me More</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, host Rachel Martin asked about this boredom. Davis replied:</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Actually, I don't mean I'm bored by old novels and books of stories if they're good. Just new ones — good or bad. I feel like saying: Please spare me your imagination, I'm so tired of your vivid imagination, let someone else enjoy it. That's how I'm feeling these days, anyway, maybe it will pass</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So along with the melancholy, there is a touch of opinionated and cranky curmudgeon. But the curmudgeon has a marvelous sense of observation and draws wicked conclusions from what she experiences. Even the ideas for the pieces - taken from dreams, verbatim snippets of Madame Bovary, and just plain off the wall, odd ideas - become hypnotic little gems, like a passage of Philip Glass, that you just want to let roll over you like a good idea.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think my favorite sequence in the collection is the 15 page story <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUm7xk8tfvOL2J_GjzEgjCIxrziAcqJUKJrAasV7aNtZBy1ukv93FlXVgVdgJKIF-HT-4cy5t-X8BESnWKaqYcjAf1fY6b1Qx_ehiOh6oJsQpFmcH_2od253P6zkEECrG6E43c/s1600/Lydia+Davis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUm7xk8tfvOL2J_GjzEgjCIxrziAcqJUKJrAasV7aNtZBy1ukv93FlXVgVdgJKIF-HT-4cy5t-X8BESnWKaqYcjAf1fY6b1Qx_ehiOh6oJsQpFmcH_2od253P6zkEECrG6E43c/s1600/Lydia+Davis.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lydia Davis</b></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Independent.co.uk</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
entitled </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cows</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which reports on the step by step progress of a group of cows during the course of a day. The account is detailed, accurate, and more anthropological journalism than fiction. (“ </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They are so black on the white snow and standing too close together that I don’t know if there are three there, together, or just two - but surely there are more than eight legs in the bunch…</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”) You get the impression that Ms. Davis is the opposite of cynical; there is nothing tongue in cheek in her 15 page report on the step by step behavior of this herd of cows; the report is detailed, filled with simple observations, and is ultimately seductive, because just as you realize that nothing special is going to happen with these cows - no denoument, nor climax to the story - you are too far into the story to pull away, asking yourself ‘why is she recounting the minute by minute behavior of a herd of cows, like Anderson Cooper in a Hurricane? The account is accurate (we assume), detailed, and consequential. But why cows? Apparently, Ms. Davis found the herd more interesting than any of its parts, but that you couldn’t describe the whole of the bovine hive without describing the behavior of the individual cows. I was reminded of a more literary Jane Goodall, bringing to our attention the fascinating behavior of a much more common species than the great apes of Africa. A minimalist fascination with a banal subject, raised to the level of an engaging, slightly cracked soap opera .</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 27pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After staying with the others in a tight clump for some time, one walks away by herself to the far corner of the field: at this moment she does seem to have a mind of her own.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I want to know why the cow walks to the other end of the field, but it may just be a mystery of cow reasoning and that’s all there is to it. Ms. Davis may be ever so slightly cranky, but she is also fanatically accurate in her observations and the combination of the two make the story, and the dozens of other little fragments like lovely little thought bombs that go off as you read them.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If only all the twitter messages I receive were so clever and pregnant with implication and meaning</span></span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-82135404576660016402013-08-23T22:08:00.000-07:002013-08-23T22:08:05.076-07:00Sex and the City
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">couple of recent films
set in Havana portray the Cuban capital as essentially an uncredited character
in the story. Both <span style="color: #0d0d0d;">Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío</span>’s
1993 political tale ‘<i>Strawberry and
Chocolate’</i> and Julian Schnabel’s 2000 portrait of the poet Reinaldo Arenas <i>‘</i><i>Before Night Falls’</i> give us a city that is decaying before our eyes, a
corrupt old roué, for whom even at this advanced age, sex remains the fuel that
keeps things going. People living
in ‘La Habana’, especially the young, are desperate to escape the lecherous
embrace that seeks to corrupt everyone.
At the same time, anyone struggling to escape, faces a gravitational
pull that is stronger than any dying star.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Ironically, even in the
current film, Lucy Mulloy’s ambitious tale of love and despair ‘<i>Una Noche’</i>, the specific sexuality in
question, as in the earlier two films, is the same-sex kind. Ironic, because perhaps one of the most
macho cities on the planet seems to be undercut by deep threads of homo
eroticism, usually unfulfilled, but simmering close to the surface. In ‘<i>Una
Noche’</i>, the sexuality is both easy going and casual and at the same time,
the source of motives that drive the story forward.</span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Courier; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">Brother and sister Elio (Javier Núñez
Florián)<br />and Lila (</span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><!--StartFragment--></span><span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anailín de la
Rúa)</span> </span></span><!--EndFragment--><!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><i>(The final irony about
gay Havana, of course, is that after decades of repression and reeducation of
‘Las Maricas’, one of the most visible and prominent LGBT activists in the
world has emerged there: Fidel’s
neice </i><span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><i>Mariela
Castro – President Raul’s daughter.)</i></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Mulloy’s
film, which was produced with the blessing of Spike Lee, and appears to have
been made without a cent of ‘commercial’ investment, has made its way to
festivals and film competitions, so that as it begins its main-stream run, it
hits the scene with an impeccable pedigree, and a raft of awards.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Mulloy
claims the film is based on a true story.
She lived in Havana for a number of years getting to know people,
looking for non professional actors for her drama, and in general, figuring out
the allure, the sadness, the sexiness, and general despair that pervade the
city.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">The
plot is simplicity itself: two
young men want to escape Havana (a pretty old story). The younger sister of one of the young men adores her
brother, and doesn’t want him to leave for the U.S. The sexual dynamics within the trio propel the story. The brother and sister, Elio and Lila,
have an easy going love for each other, a chaste loyalty that goes back to
their earliest childhood. Lila is
constantly teased for her long frizzy hair, the hair on her arms, and her
Frida-like eye brows. In fact, she
is a sultry, nubile beauty, unaware of her innate sexiness, more tom boy than
seductress. As Lila, </span><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">Anailín de la Rúa de la Torre is flat out wonderful. She reminds us of a very young </span><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">Anna Magnani, or Salma Hayek.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Into this
mix, drops Raul, a bonafide stud/hunk, who gets lots of screen time without his
shirt. Raul claims his chiseled brown
chest and arms are the result of not getting enough to eat. His sexuality is so strong, you can almost smell the pheromones coming off the screen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Mulloy
set’s up Raul’s sexuality as the ‘problem’ of the film; ‘problem’ not in the
sense of failure, but rather the source of the dramatic tension that drives the
story forward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">The
‘problem’, as it were, is that older brother Elio (a moving performance by </span><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">Javier Núñez Florián)</span><span style="color: #0d0d0d;"> is totally in thrall of Raul, and sets out to help
him escape from Havana, one assumes, more because of his love for the steamy
hunk, than any deep desire to escape.
He is torn, of course, between his love and loyalty to his beloved sister
Lila, whom he regrets leaving behind, and his lust for Raul, which seems
inescapable and doomed. Raul (a
heart-breaking performance by </span><span style="color: #0d0d0d;">Daniel Arrechaga)
for his part is both a romantic protagonist and a cad. He assumes Elio’s attention and help
escaping Havana is borne of brotherly affection, and not a late adolescent
crush. For his part, Raul instantly
hits on the Taekwando-practicing Lila, who will have none of his nonsense. She apparently has no particular
problem with her brother’s sexuality, but rather dislikes Raul because he
appears to be taking advantage of her brother. Her dislike of Raul, however, is not so strident that she
won’t allow herself to be caught up the boys’ attempt to escape Cuba, for
Miami, 90 miles away.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">There are other characters – the
young people’s families, co-workers and acquaintances, each displaying another
form of decay and corruption – are more or less incidental set pieces for the
story. Their contributions are
primarily to demonstrate the hellish nature of the life the youngsters want to
escape.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The great miracle of the film,
however, is Mulloy’s wonderful sense of observation. Her carefully chosen views of the intoxicating city, paint a
rich and moving picture of a metropolis rotting in on itself, falling apart at
the seams, and yet singing, drumming, dancing, having sex, seducing, and
getting on with life. In another
light, Havana would be a sweet paradise.
But life has become so shabby for most people, torn between desperate
survival and oblivion, that morals, ethics, civil behavior simply falls
away. It is the opposite of
innocent. Petty theft, disease, crumbling
buildings, barely functioning cars and broken lives are the back drop to Raul,
Lila and Eilio’s desperate efforts to escape. It is no wonder that the young trio sets out in the face of
enormous peril: compared to what
they are leaving behind, almost no danger would be too much.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #0d0d0d;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Mulloy is clearly a film maker to be
watched. Even though the ‘<i>Una
Noche</i>’ runs out of dramatic juice toward the end, it’s a work of enormous
promise, and a display of keen observation that really gets under your skin. The real star is none of the sexy trio
at it’s heart, but rather the ravishing and ravaged city of Havana itself.</span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-37976417657798581652013-04-23T00:19:00.001-07:002013-04-23T20:24:59.997-07:00Three Score Inventory<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">S</span></b><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">omehow, without grace or
dignity, I’ve completed sixty years of life. It seemed appropriate to write something about it, but it’s
been hard to settle on a form. Literarily,
there are many choices – essay, manifesto, autobiography – they all seemed too
self indulgent and narcissistic.
Considering who I am, I don’t need more encouragement in that direction.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I settled on an
inventory. I'm listing, more or
less, objectively what my life has summed up to now. The inventory doesn’t allow me much sensitive privacy, and
honesty has always been an important part of who I am. It’s not always what I do, but it is
what I aspire to. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">There are no secrets. There are only facts that can hurt you and facts that can't. It's only the facts you try to hide that can hurt you. Someone always knows. That's why I keep so few secrets. Plus, it's easier to keep track of the truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">So here’s the inventory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP39CuC4YrZ6bMF8xHOP1_nllzmM6aCIGqWl88YxnPzJz58mVo-0Pm6KurpP5bP97fjqNhTpvzn1nYT44MkYM1O5qc_bs6_L6mQkn9-XFr1H2l2S9cnzFe5c64_ODZVbDPox2p/s1600/Passport+Panel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP39CuC4YrZ6bMF8xHOP1_nllzmM6aCIGqWl88YxnPzJz58mVo-0Pm6KurpP5bP97fjqNhTpvzn1nYT44MkYM1O5qc_bs6_L6mQkn9-XFr1H2l2S9cnzFe5c64_ODZVbDPox2p/s400/Passport+Panel.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Passport photos, L-R 1967, 1970, 1979, 1985, 1996, 2006 - artifacts are due to passport stamp on photo</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I have two brothers and
two sisters. I love them more than
anyone on earth. The kinds of
engagement I have with them is different for each one. They are my best friends, and I haven’t
the shadow of a doubt if I called from Antarctica and said I needed any one of
them, they would be at my side as fast as the universe would let them.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFsyQfZqP-a6RiL8w5P5HIVRQcTp7R4LrGMg6mhf7xBvODQjCYZqn4kthRYI_2bpQ69gVvOaoZGXMiOuribe8D_EoORg5GMCt6Ru3PwxfDtRi1yMkz8X1ddiD5ByWjmWW85eCr/s1600/Beaupre+KidsProcessed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFsyQfZqP-a6RiL8w5P5HIVRQcTp7R4LrGMg6mhf7xBvODQjCYZqn4kthRYI_2bpQ69gVvOaoZGXMiOuribe8D_EoORg5GMCt6Ru3PwxfDtRi1yMkz8X1ddiD5ByWjmWW85eCr/s200/Beaupre+KidsProcessed.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Beaupre kids, circa 1960</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I have visited 129 cities
in 42 countries on four continents (although not Antarctica).
I’m way behind schedule. An
Ecuadorian friend once said to me <i>“…</i><i><span style="font-family: Courier; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">la vida es corta y el mundo es pequeño…”</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Courier; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"> (“<i>life
is short and the world is small…</i>”).</span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">It’s been a guiding principle. I will not have the opportunity to visit another planet in my
lifetime, so I should see as much of this one as possible. I’ve visited Mother Theresa’s tomb in
Kolkota, and swam with the seals in the Galapagos. I’ve walked the hallways of the Sydney Opera house, gone to
the 80<sup>th</sup> floor of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, meditated in the
ruins of the great theatre at <i>Mycenae</i>
in Greece, and ridden horse back in the Valle de Maravellas in Colombia. I’m mostly reminded how little I’ve
done, and how much there remains to be experienced.</span></span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I have shared a Long-Term Bed,
a decade each, with precisely two. The Home-Town girl went with me to live for a year in Paris
and moved to New York with me after that.
I moved to California with The Colombian, sending him ahead by air and
me driving across the country with all our belongings. Then I taught him to drive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The one common element
between each of those spectacular crashes is me, so I must carry responsibility for the failures too. It’s little consolation,
but it’s only fair. The best I can
figure is that I have a strong and suffocating personality, and each of them
simply wanted away from me. WHY we
broke up in both cases has been easier to understand than HOW they happened. It was likely not intentional, but they
each broke my heart, needlessly, pointlessly, in their own special way. It only proved to me that no matter how old you are, there
remains the capacity to be an impetuous brat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCD7U37eqnNLwAe0_8Nfq-J8hxYhr4zbucNXDoTvmOn7faWaGW2bY7GpaYSZSPex0ZZIrjgFudaqHDs2PSqdm9YoeQeHWG1PlqQ3LpnrtLR0Rzz_ow49z1t_HFBOjDkJjy_MG/s1600/Ashaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCD7U37eqnNLwAe0_8Nfq-J8hxYhr4zbucNXDoTvmOn7faWaGW2bY7GpaYSZSPex0ZZIrjgFudaqHDs2PSqdm9YoeQeHWG1PlqQ3LpnrtLR0Rzz_ow49z1t_HFBOjDkJjy_MG/s320/Ashaway.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The weird thing is that
neither of them held much of a sexual attraction for me. But sweetly, gently,
and in increments, we grew to love each other; both The Home-Town Girl and The
Colombian, a decade each, a decade apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In fact, it wasn’t until I
was out of both of those relationships that I came into my own, sexually. I grew up in Nevada, but I <b><i>GREW
UP</i></b> in New York. I’ve always
found it sexy, scary, intoxicating, addictive, inevitable; a place that knew me
better than I knew myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I’m not alone, or lonely,
even though I live by myself now.
I have a handful of really close and beloved intimates, and a huge
extended tribe of students, cousins, old friends and colleagues from the various endeavors of
my life. They console me, despite
the fact that I tend to hide out a lot and avoid everyone. I love them more than they know and attend
to them less than they deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The closest of those friends
is Ivy. It is impossible to
explain our connection, but it is deep, rich beyond measure, and a sustaining
fountain of my life. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivoanXK4cgOb5B2_4Tk6FS6_LGkE7h3vBHdqvzs6s0AeZMNyy921FqN4DeAbm89MleaukelLQdIKNfwsx3W2fVrAKyxLjBwHtjX1l8bY4Dw6TD_7Iv3MFgVO99wc1YFsSR5SDi/s1600/IvyProcessed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivoanXK4cgOb5B2_4Tk6FS6_LGkE7h3vBHdqvzs6s0AeZMNyy921FqN4DeAbm89MleaukelLQdIKNfwsx3W2fVrAKyxLjBwHtjX1l8bY4Dw6TD_7Iv3MFgVO99wc1YFsSR5SDi/s200/IvyProcessed.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Ivy, circa 1990,<br />photo by Ashkan Sahihi</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A friend
asked me if my passionate friendship with Ivy would change when she married
David. There wasn’t a moment of
hesitation. I figured if he loved Ivy as much as I do, then I had to love him too. Done. Easy. I love them both.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I’ve been HIV+ for over a
quarter of a century, my survival due as much to fate and physicians, as it is
to working constantly on the little things required to stay alive. There have been harrowing episodes, and
close calls. It has never been
guaranteed I would make three score years, but I must have
accidentally done some things right, considering that I am writing this now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngZ6qCxyiGUrLGE3h7Bi-ixNyOeJwlYCwyEcNo4QnXzeM7vMz7N61zkEmeLgchOaDNgg_lKJ-pNgh630mdTeGagMIBdoYaN5gTStM19eaeLQIogQyHtLY11jpVbcDEmhSPqtX/s1600/Saddest+Place.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngZ6qCxyiGUrLGE3h7Bi-ixNyOeJwlYCwyEcNo4QnXzeM7vMz7N61zkEmeLgchOaDNgg_lKJ-pNgh630mdTeGagMIBdoYaN5gTStM19eaeLQIogQyHtLY11jpVbcDEmhSPqtX/s320/Saddest+Place.jpg" width="194" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I try to bake my own
bread as often as I can. I don’t
always have time, but it’s it’s good for the heart and
soul; a useful skill to
have; one of which I am inordinately proud. It connects me with centuries of ancestors and civilization,
and makes meals as much a sacrament as a source of nourishment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The one person who has had
the greatest influence on me – with all deference and respect to my Mom, who
has loved me unconditionally, and my Dad who loved me conditionally – was my
beloved grand mother, Marjorie Hugo Tanner, known to her grand kids as
‘Mimere’. She died in 2006 at age
100 & ½. She was a huge, quiet,
creative force who never doubted that I would do something important, even while I did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">When you talk about most people, there’s always
a caveat: “…he’s a good father,
but…” - or “…she raised some great
kids, but she…” There was no
caveat or conditional explanation with Mimere. She was loved by virtually everyone. I
never knew anyone to have a beef with her, and even her sometimes sensitive
relationship with my dad was never communicated to us. I assume she wasn’t happy with the way
my dad lived his life and more important, how he treated her daughter, my mom. Nonetheless, she never showed anything
but respect and deference to him, and for his part, I think my dad worked to
try to earn her respect as well. I
don’t know how they felt about each other when they passed; Mimere outlived my
dad by half a decade. I don’t read</span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Courier; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgEs3FwoncKc7GAuQeAev1z7R4kJGKqHKQrXXjCJxXACoCl14MJMvRiv5qxfFSdIS_xpTX4ad4gTMPeYRVZkHGkcoTQQOlf8pQoFbSNkI3-szSqWtm33Ll_GjxusibfR2rS4Dl/s1600/MimereCropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgEs3FwoncKc7GAuQeAev1z7R4kJGKqHKQrXXjCJxXACoCl14MJMvRiv5qxfFSdIS_xpTX4ad4gTMPeYRVZkHGkcoTQQOlf8pQoFbSNkI3-szSqWtm33Ll_GjxusibfR2rS4Dl/s320/MimereCropped.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>With Mimere, Bar Harbor ME, 1981</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">
any special message in that; it’s simply the case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I have a
number of measurable accomplishments – awards, degrees, positions. I’m mostly proud of them, although
winning the earliest of my journalism awards was sometimes poignantly painful,
as the statue or plaque or whatever seemed to mock me saying “…see, you won
this award, but you live alone…”
I’m a bit more generous with myself now, and am genuinely proud of that
recognition.</span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Of all my current
accomplishments, however, I am most proud that for the past four
months, I’ve been swimming a little over three miles a week. I don’t go for speed; it takes me over
an hour, but I manage each mile without being winded or exhausted. The water feels sensuous and it’s a
good time to meditate, reflect, and focus my mind on the present. I can’t imagine not swimming now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">My two best friends died last year; neither making it to sixty. <a href="http://rememberingclaes.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">Claes Andreasson</a> was the finest audio engineer and
journalist I’ve ever known. We
travelled and worked together in Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Nevada and a number of
locations in California. He had a
heart-attack four days before my birthday last year. I miss him terribly.
He was the perfect friend at a perfect time in my life, the person I
could speak to without judgment, edit or censor.
He’ll always be a presence and guiding force in my life.</span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRLD-xqyu8dU_Khsr7GOkrTvfVTX-tX6uWBYg4Fu58UN1GpLgQWGHUX_8ohBCSweMGUG49lhaLYJ3jEmjcBnT6hvLD7YkdZociHyv4cyurtdenIBxsjC7NouhtQXf_9NJSLob/s1600/Claes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRLD-xqyu8dU_Khsr7GOkrTvfVTX-tX6uWBYg4Fu58UN1GpLgQWGHUX_8ohBCSweMGUG49lhaLYJ3jEmjcBnT6hvLD7YkdZociHyv4cyurtdenIBxsjC7NouhtQXf_9NJSLob/s200/Claes.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Claes, 2011</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The other friend,
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/blzd7w7" target="_blank">Christopher David Trentham</a> - everyone knew him as '<a href="http://cdt.bandzoogle.com/home.cfm" target="_blank">CDT</a>' - was one of the first people I met when I moved to LA with The
Colombian. We did our first
national radio stories together, and grew as journalists, radio producers, and
story tellers, pretty much learning on the fly, and winning a
shelf full of awards. Our friendship was as comfortable as an old pair of slippers – familiar, goofy,
filled with inside jokes and convoluted language. He would never ask me if I wanted to go to the movies;
rather he would inquire “Might there be a cinematic event in our future?” –
and invariably, when he purchased the tickets, he would text me “I have
acquired the elusive ducats…” My
life was richer and fuller with Christopher as a friend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Last July, Christopher announced that he was going to Paris and that I was
going with him. I thanked him, and
said I’d love to go but that I didn’t think I could afford it. He looked me in the eye and said “Money
(long hesitation) is no object…”</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; font-family: Courier; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GRWnCG-0rPtCvyWYvWKYsEGOnSqHwHpI-1rUY2ZxGn8QPHIfGvINCVLxn05aduj4VOqLngkIjEFF4IPuCDJT11BRnyMayjhxhnaS-AMQbqywmOo0rH5kzXmgA_DibaLkXyc7/s1600/CDT1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GRWnCG-0rPtCvyWYvWKYsEGOnSqHwHpI-1rUY2ZxGn8QPHIfGvINCVLxn05aduj4VOqLngkIjEFF4IPuCDJT11BRnyMayjhxhnaS-AMQbqywmOo0rH5kzXmgA_DibaLkXyc7/s320/CDT1.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>CDT, Paris 2012</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">An offer I couldn’t
refuse. Besides, the one thing I
love more than visiting Paris is showing it to someone for the first time,
watching them discover the <i>Ile de la Cité</i>,
my favorite (if touristy) restaurant <i>Chartier</i>,
and all the other highlights we could jam into 10 days. We hit <i>l’Opéra </i>(Garnier really was out of his mind), <i>Louvre, Champs Elysee</i>.
We visited the <i>Eiffel Tower</i>,
but with a six hour wait, didn’t go up.
We went to <i>Saint Denis</i> to see
the graves of Joan of Arc, Marie Antoinette and the succession of French
monarch. We even got to the <i>Marché aux Puce</i> in Clignancourt, which
is not exactly a tourist destination, but an favorite haunt of mine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">For the first time, to be
perfectly pretentious, I couldn’t remember how many times I’d been to Paris,
not including the year I lived there with The Home-Town Girl.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Six weeks later,
Christopher was dead from pancreatic cancer. I don't know if he knew in Paris that he had mere weeks to live; I don't think so. I sat at his bedside till the brutal end, but have some consolation in knowing the fun we had in Paris.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">His passing was different from losing Claes exactly seven months before, but sadness is
sadness. There are no variations
in flavor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Both Christopher and Claes
had become such pillars of my life, it had never occurred to me that they
wouldn’t be there; that they would pass so long before me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">But when
you think about it, you are going to outlive only half of your friends; the
other half will go before you and you will have to grieve for their loss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I expect to be promoted to
the rank of full professor within a couple of weeks. Teaching at this university is the
longest job – by far – I’ve ever had. Over the course of the past decade, I’ve moved through the
ranks, earned tenure, served on countless committees and boards, taught
something like 2,000 students. I
don’t know if I’m a good professor or not, but I think the students entrusted
to us leave better than when they arrived. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">If there is
anything about the inventory of three score years, it’s how little I really
know. My curiosity and
inquisitiveness has never been stronger, but as for drawing great
conclusion about life, I think I am more of a loss now than when I was younger. Wisdom is elusive, and doesn't come on command, like an obedient dog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">No matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">The big difference is that
it worries me less now. I’m more
concerned with accomplishment than achievement, more comfortable in my skin, and have most of my faculties intact. I assume that's a good way to look ahead to the decades I have left.</span><span style="font-family: Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-47104846193700130962013-02-01T21:41:00.000-08:002013-02-01T21:41:49.291-08:00Phish, Spam, and Eggs (on our face)Cu<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span></b>hile Macs are usually hit by Phishing attempts less frequently than Windows machines, it sometimes happens. This current version is remarkably insidious, as it has managed to get around a lot of Spam filters. I’ve even tried some pretty standard reverse-engineering of this shortened URL, without success, so the only way to find out who is sending this Malware, is to actually click on the link WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT DO!
I’ve received a number of these from friend’s email addresses, with a jocular ‘Hey’ in the subject line and an embedded, shortened URL, sometimes more than once from the same sender. Because they message looks so much like something a close friend would send, the temptation to click on the link is really powerful. It appears that once you do that, the virus relays the message to all the names in your address book. The destination site appears to just be a run of the mill sleazy finance company, so hopefully, the virus will run its course, like H1N1 as people get the word that this is a virus.
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjjKBJj3aAlEW0wO96uEwDJgbxy-M6avLQQaUjvpF302vgDzbc2xfQJeyYlAic5KoLfLfBgQumJsUGXwEZP_xjkW4A2dKUpB-rtHCMcPOWlzyNzL73RMn-ETJBobG__IRit5x/s1600/Email+spam.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjjKBJj3aAlEW0wO96uEwDJgbxy-M6avLQQaUjvpF302vgDzbc2xfQJeyYlAic5KoLfLfBgQumJsUGXwEZP_xjkW4A2dKUpB-rtHCMcPOWlzyNzL73RMn-ETJBobG__IRit5x/s320/Email+spam.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b>Current Phishing Virus is Insidious</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">At the same time, I am fascinated by this phenomenon as a journalist and would be interested in any help anyone can provide to ‘reverse engineer’ this ‘bit.ly’ address, and track backward at least to an IP address. If you are a good hacker and want to help in this effort, let me know. To be of any value, we would have to move fairly quickly, before the perps drop their effort and move on to something else. Also, let me know of any experiences you might have had with this particular phishing virus.
If not, this is just to warn you if an email like this appears in your mail box, don’t click on it; just delete it – if you haven’t already</span></div>
Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-15546045014282124872013-02-01T21:38:00.000-08:002017-05-31T19:33:36.473-07:00SPAM (& egg on our face...)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvse1qVUwr-Mg_07Hpsz2HVg-EULkGdr6aJgquxyx8ehbFkcq0ch5qMkflqbY-cjdOCI5IlNaWMX81fImfgIZWmG6FH6C2AbqwyHQ6pVWLmOkx3S6aS-MGKMUbT-JeXjUPthkM/s1600/Email+spam.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvse1qVUwr-Mg_07Hpsz2HVg-EULkGdr6aJgquxyx8ehbFkcq0ch5qMkflqbY-cjdOCI5IlNaWMX81fImfgIZWmG6FH6C2AbqwyHQ6pVWLmOkx3S6aS-MGKMUbT-JeXjUPthkM/s320/Email+spam.png" title="" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><h3>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Screen Shot of Current Phishing Virus</span></h3>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Courier, Courier New;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">While Macs are usually hit by Phishing attempts less frequently than Windows machines, it sometimes happens. This current version is remarkably insidious, as it has managed to get around a lot of Spam filters. I’ve even tried some pretty standard reverse-engineering of this shortened URL, without success, so the only way to find out who is sending this Malware, is to actually click on the link WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT DO!<br />
<br />
I’ve received a number of these from friend’s email addresses, with a jocular ‘Hey’ in the subject line and an embedded, shortened URL, sometimes more than once from the same sender. Because they message looks so much like something a close friend would send, the temptation to click on the link is really powerful. It appears that once you do that, the virus relays the message to all the names in your address book. The destination site appears to just be a run of the mill sleazy finance company, so hopefully, the virus will run its course, like H1N1 as people get the word that this is a virus.<br />
<br />
At the same time, I am fascinated by this phenomenon as a journalist and would be interested in any help anyone can provide to ‘reverse engineer’ this ‘bit.ly’ address, and track backward at least to an IP address. If you are a good hacker and want to help in this effort, let me know. To be of any value, we would have to move fairly quickly, before the perps drop their effort and move on to something else. Also, let me know of any experiences you might have had with this particular phishing virus.<br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier, Courier New;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
If not, this is just to warn you if an email like this appears in your mail box, don’t click on it; just delete it – if you haven’t already</span></span>
<!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-17040858479492066632012-12-25T18:14:00.000-08:002012-12-25T18:14:57.056-08:00Spirit<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">I</span></b> have always loved the spirit of this holiday season. This is not news - most people revel in the smells, the sounds, the sweetness of life around this time of year. I've been laying low for a number of reasons, but rest assured that Scrooge hasn't taken over, nor that for any intellectual reason I've given up on the holidays, it's just that circumstances this year have conspired to make it difficult for me to reach you personally.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93I8dfngmWfkYVV1o8dt03n4sX3jBns0iW4DVCBa10hn1mT-T4kzynVU5UJvzRoH6QZmWgMhN8vKkydz5ErGnrMjGiXtjAexfyEp6T8vsgSYgkqEzSHMdgOdCB69vY75cvQ5h/s1600/andreassonbeaupreXingu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93I8dfngmWfkYVV1o8dt03n4sX3jBns0iW4DVCBa10hn1mT-T4kzynVU5UJvzRoH6QZmWgMhN8vKkydz5ErGnrMjGiXtjAexfyEp6T8vsgSYgkqEzSHMdgOdCB69vY75cvQ5h/s200/andreassonbeaupreXingu.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Jon & Claes, Brazil 2011</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The deaths of two of my dearest and closest friends in 2012 have left me reeling. My travel companion and radio reporting genius Claes was stricken with a heart attack in April, and was suddenly gone. I had dinner with him on Thurs. night, and on Sat. morning, he was dead.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-w0ZsEHgUstmtbXPGRnWkxAX6Zfw0Y9Bw-4fXa_6UJ34q4kpztyM8_Ae-A2fcwPCIYCvSz6RQpreHJcD1CcUMcGSHYXvsIW8ePr2Yh35w8fsyRzg6jJ_4VgDI5d1d_HGYYmd/s1600/CDT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-w0ZsEHgUstmtbXPGRnWkxAX6Zfw0Y9Bw-4fXa_6UJ34q4kpztyM8_Ae-A2fcwPCIYCvSz6RQpreHJcD1CcUMcGSHYXvsIW8ePr2Yh35w8fsyRzg6jJ_4VgDI5d1d_HGYYmd/s200/CDT.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Christopher, Gare du Nord,<br />Paris, Sept. 2012</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Then, exactly seven months later, on Nov. 15, one of my dearest and oldest friends in Los Angeles, Christopher David Trentham died after a shocking short period following a diagnosis of Pacreatic cancer, which took him in about three weeks. I was at Harbor City Kaiser Hospital when he passed, and it was a profoundly moving experience.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Also, I'm putting together the documents I need to apply for promotion to full professor at Cal State LA. This is a grueling, time consuming process - like preparing a thesis or term paper. Fortunately, the deadline is Jan. 9, 2013, so it will be over soon.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">So, the sum total of all those things, plus my normal manic work schedule at school and tight funds (no raise since 2008; another reason to go for Full Professor: it comes with a bump in salary!)has kept me close to home.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I spent Christmas eve in the home of my beloved friend Magdalena Alvear Galt, sister of Cecilia. Their sister Rocio was down from San Luis Obisbo, as well as all their extended families. At the dinner table, you could hear Danish, Spanish, French and English - folks were visiting from many quarters of the planet. It was a beautiful, heart-felt evening. If you can't be with your blood family, (whom I love like life itself) you couldn't do much better than being with your 'chosen' family, where I have been welcomed and embraced for many years.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">So, that's a long explanation for why you may not have heard from me this holiday season, but please, please, please assume that I am thinking about you, I hope to hear from you, and I will work harder to get in touch with you during this coming year.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I wish you the merriest of Christmases and a joy filled new year. May 2013 find us surrounded by love, sharing good food and drink, and reveling in abundant laughter.</span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-82424205947508761482012-11-13T17:42:00.001-08:002012-11-13T17:42:32.745-08:00Mash Up Google Map<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Here's a great way to post a geographic 'info graphic' on your site: embed a portion of code from Google Maps that have posted on them addresses that you have chosen. Pretty easy too:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>Gas Stations Near School</b></span></h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="350" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&q=GAS+STATIONS+90032&fb=1&gl=us&hq=GAS+STATIONS&hnear=Los+Angeles,+California+90032&t=m&z=14&output=embed" width="425"></iframe><br />
<small><a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&q=GAS+STATIONS+90032&fb=1&gl=us&hq=GAS+STATIONS&hnear=Los+Angeles,+California+90032&t=m&z=14&source=embed" style="color: blue; text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small>
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This let you embed all sorts of interesting information right in your blog. Try using this info-graphic technique to customize information for your own site.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-64529772774028038632012-10-16T23:31:00.000-07:002012-10-19T18:13:49.853-07:00Simple Sound Slide Production<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="colorbox/colorbox/jquery.colorbox.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">// <![CDATA[
$(document).ready(function(){
$(".iframe").colorbox({iframe:true, width:"80%", height:"80%"});
});
// ]]></script>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><b>I</b>n fooling around this afternoon, I wondered how long it would take and how expensive it would be to put a sound slide presentation on my blog. There is a wide range of open source software available to make this a reality in very short order. Recording both the photos and the audio was a snap with the iPhone. They, they pictures and audio were emailed to myself (although they could be emailed to a newsroom just as easily) for further editing and prep. I cleaned up the photos in Mac's 'Preview' utility, and edited the audio in a free version of Audacity.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyI0lRVkD0vuXkkwk3Z69lyGgEE1szl3RMgUoJ92tV5_fYYbXUqP481Y00oZvHvYMfPD0G2MB8YxFo' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I assembled the elements in Wondershare's 'Fantashow' software, which was intuitive and super easy to use. There are undoubtedly other, perhaps better sound-slide production programs available - most notably 'Sound Slides' itself, but the main purpose is to give the content producer the ability to easily and quickly assemble sound slide presentation. Fantashow did this with ease, even though the templates and 'styles' they offer are a bit lame. In any case, it was a fast 20 minutes or so, and the presentation was up an operating. Take a look at the results...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Also, we're trying out an online database system. 'SodaDb' seems interesting and worth an examination:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" height="600px" id="loadHere" name="loadHere" scrolling="yes" src="https://sodadb.com/api.php?i=swTfGxHCeohkkFMscB8i" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% #ffffff;" width="100%"></iframe>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">We will continue to develop this idea to end up with a simple, usable open source online database.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><i>Wondershare 'Fantashow'</i>: rapid 'sound-slide' prototyping and production.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://www.wondershare.com/photo-software/photo-slideshow-mac.html" target="_blank">http://www.wondershare.com/photo-software/photo-slideshow-mac.html</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><i>SoundSlides</i>: the industry standard; widely used for rapid sound+slide show production</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://soundslides.com/" target="_blank">http://soundslides.com/</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><i>ProShow Gold</i>: well known, very popular and feature rich sound slide production software; not available in Mac version at present</span><br />
<a href="http://www.photodex.com/proshow/gold" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">http://www.photodex.com/proshow/gold</span></a>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-8534098779838299942012-10-08T22:53:00.000-07:002012-10-09T13:58:39.072-07:00Taking the Nation's Temperature: Fever of 108°<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><b>I</b></span>t’s not as if winning the debate last Wednesday means that
Romney will be our next president, but it was surprising that virtually
everyone gave the defeat to President Obama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real questions that should be asked, however, were never
seriously considered by the public:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>apart from winning the three ring circus that is the debate, who will
make a better president, and what are the substantive issues on which you base
that judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much has been made
recently about the war of ‘facts’ thrown around by both candidates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both are guilty of exaggeration at the
very least, and outright falsehoods in the extreme (Romney never said he would
gut Medicare).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The issue is so
critical that it made the cover of the Oct. 15 <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Time</span></a> magazine.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"><b>CSULA Grad Student Charles Ortiz</b></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">All of that aside, we’ve set out to get a series of
snapshots of people’s thoughts on how the debate turned out and how it affected
them.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Even for most students, the presidential debate has become an expected element of the election, even though they are mentioned nowhere in the constitution, nor have they been a part of the scene for very long. Most historians consider the Lincoln Douglas debates in the middle of the 19th Century the quintessential debates, with two stirring orators, who had a deep respect for each other, really got down to the ideas that would make a good president. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Run the calendar up to the present, and you are left with Kennedy v. Nixon, and essentially every election from Jimmy Carter on. Students, of course, may not remember those earlier debates, but they are convinced of their value and importance. CSULA Charles Ortiz noted that his interest began when he saw recordings of the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960, and he wouldn't think of missing them ever: they give a side of the candidate that on the street glad-handing and baby-kissing never does.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I still wonder, though: is this any way to elect a president?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><b>More:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #0b5394; mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="http://lakeville.patch.com/articles/the-2012-presidential-debate-schedule" target="_blank">2012 General Election Debate Schedule</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">List assembled by the 'AOL/Patch' news organization</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #0b5394; mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="http://www.museum.tv/debateweb/html/index.htm" target="_blank">Museum of Broadcast Communications</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Rich interactive source of information on the history of presidential debates.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0b5394;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><a href="http://news.discovery.com/history/history-of-us-presidential-debates-121003.html" target="_blank">Discovery Channel History of Debates</a></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Engaging and compelling history produced by 'Discovery' cable channel.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-84985786551749415642012-10-08T22:04:00.000-07:002012-10-08T22:04:47.945-07:00<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Abridged List of Online
Autonomous Agent Examples<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">V.
1.0 (Last updated July 11, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><i>'Diva Dance</i>' from <i>'The Fifth Element'</i></span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I've got a thing for androids.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Over the years of studying, reading about, and commenting on them, it was inevitable that I would put together a <a href="http://tiny.cc/gq1ahw">list of my favorite autonomous agents.</a> This list is by no means comprehensive or thorough, and I eagerly await your suggestions! The rules of what fits into this category are very broad, but essentially consist of some sort of human interface connected with an autonomous logic/language algorithm, pretty much interpreted however you feel.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Please suggest additional examples of bots,
avatars, androids or other autonomous agents. You can either leave a comment (pull down the comment menu
at the upper right of the page linked above) or send me directly your recommendations. Also, if you have any interest in
curating this page, let me know that as well. Have fun! </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-90863973652050591612012-10-02T19:10:00.000-07:002017-05-31T19:33:36.505-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This blog post is to demonstrate how to embed a graphic. We are examining a bar graph of Electoral college voters, with a special emphasis on the relative value of some key states in the electoral college tally. This is intended to show how important it is for the candidates to take notice of the so-called purple states. Here's the chart:<br />
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<br />Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-74478676258030461872011-09-28T21:13:00.000-07:002011-09-28T21:18:34.919-07:00Intro to Broadcasting<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The first class session for the Cal State LA TVF 220 Intro to Broadcasting class covers a nearly eight decade long history in about 15 minutes. This presentation put together on Google Docs presentation software is the thumbnail version of the early history of broadcasting. It is by no means a complete view, but a solid over view, putting all of broadcasting into some context as well.<br /><br /><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dfshf32h_62dg6twtc8" frameborder="0" width="410" height="342"></iframe></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">You may also visit a full sized version of this presentation at: <a href="https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dfshf32h_62dg6twtc8"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 8, 175); ">https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dfshf32h_62dg6twtc8</span></a></span></div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>19</o:Words> <o:characters>111</o:Characters> <o:company>Cal State L.A.</o:Company> <o:lines>1</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>136</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--><!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-30113367999530363392011-07-16T18:34:00.000-07:002011-07-22T00:58:01.331-07:00The Other Side of a Brutal City<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On June 15 of this year, the torso of a man was found inside a suitcase in the Tijuana neighborhood of Colonia Reforma. At the time, authorities could not confirm whether a decapitated head found earlier belonged to the same victim. For better or worse, Tijuana has a reputation as a dangerous, brawling, heavy-drinking, violent town, the destination of choice for tens of thousands of Americans, out for a good time on Saturday night, cheap and legal pharmaceutical drugs, and a little bit of la vida loca. With a population of roughly a million and a half, it is about the same size as San Diego, just to the north, and despite the grim nature of the street violence there, its crime rate is about the same as Washington DC. What most people don’t know, however, is that despite its much-publicized violence and alienation, Tijuana has a sweet, soft side: it is a city that is passionate about opera. </span><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div style="float: left; display: table;"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhr3yi5L4d3IWkzGFR4F_dbqDCBdngTFYxg-_LRz6-BBc5LF1fztioM4TOvsAXTZRvrHU-VYiWtPbiGQpqeGaQid-UU0IG3et6nzmPCx-O1u1ybebAY1ds41f7LdwhbDXSRPH/s1600/IMG_6636.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVhr3yi5L4d3IWkzGFR4F_dbqDCBdngTFYxg-_LRz6-BBc5LF1fztioM4TOvsAXTZRvrHU-VYiWtPbiGQpqeGaQid-UU0IG3et6nzmPCx-O1u1ybebAY1ds41f7LdwhbDXSRPH/s320/IMG_6636.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630143094056598434" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><p style="font-size: 10pt;">Opera en la Calle, 2011</p><br /></div><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In addition to the widely respected City Opera, there are a number of small companies doing work all over the metropolis. In one of the most remarkable demonstrations of the city’s passion for opera, a collaboration eight years ago between the Colonia Libertad-based Café Opera and the Tijuana City Opera, led to a summer festival of live performances on Calle 5, the rough and tumble blue-color neighborhood, smack up against the border fence in the north of the city, a historic barrio minutes from the San Ysidro border crossing, on the other side of town from the Colonia Reforma. Organizers assembled booths to sell food and drink, installed portable bathrooms, vendor tables and cast costumed characters strolling the street. They set up 300 chairs for guests to watch their program of scenes, arias and art songs. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Six thousand people showed up.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now in its eighth year, there is much that is remarkable about the Opera en la Calle, as the event is called. It is a full-fledged cultural phenomenon, a free celebration of opera, and art in general, written up in most major press and reported widely. It is a favored venue for artists who live in the area, and for many who ome to visit, just for the day-long party. The festival has never been interrupted, despite the surge of drug-related violence of the last three years. This year’s line-up included a traditional Japanese drum performance from San Diego Taiko, and a performance by an ensemble of Irish dancers from Lázaro Cárdenas Federal High School. There were selections from La Traviata and Boheme, as well as portions of the Phantom of the Opera, and Pietro Mascagni’s one act masterpiece Cavalleria Rusticana, which finished off the evening, the first full length opera to be presented in the festival.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="float: left; display: table;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiusF5nX-qH5sH5zghbhDLaIL8u2haRcI52gNLGGhCfLfF39G6WEKp1OQuKaEZbWLm2I3ckSY69fCf1SPJOaVB5t6VAfeebflYhC5N1EJPT6T1JHt-dMf3IvcqJbem0ieYzyGn/s1600/IMG_6707_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1euCqMciYhan_Dar4OuCTcRXpTgBsCmOaFqLQ-QypmetYaiOkSKzR0QzKgq-zWrOwpeA5vFFnZA6KF1he-8y77B2FGnajt9aEq7T5T60VOnN_Qq7vkGO-m1vJRh-b4uPAwZu/s1600/IMG_6706_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 184px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1euCqMciYhan_Dar4OuCTcRXpTgBsCmOaFqLQ-QypmetYaiOkSKzR0QzKgq-zWrOwpeA5vFFnZA6KF1he-8y77B2FGnajt9aEq7T5T60VOnN_Qq7vkGO-m1vJRh-b4uPAwZu/s200/IMG_6706_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630140087554978530" border="0" /></a><br /><p style="font-size: 10pt;">Elisabet Mendoza and Jacob Perez</p><br /></div><br /><br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHpmK1RAsyHerC4MNSjUr8il1eBeuLnrvPj6wWT0KLtPh5K7pfvn37w4xBuFcT7IcrUB6O7sdzU3wHjFWTScRCMobjrSlUKmPci6sdkgu1vLH9BgPFaEKVa7o1-7s_-inPMEq/s1600/IMG_6705.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHpmK1RAsyHerC4MNSjUr8il1eBeuLnrvPj6wWT0KLtPh5K7pfvn37w4xBuFcT7IcrUB6O7sdzU3wHjFWTScRCMobjrSlUKmPci6sdkgu1vLH9BgPFaEKVa7o1-7s_-inPMEq/s200/IMG_6705.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630140084078141026" border="0" /></a></span></span><br /><br /></div><div><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The event has even become an improbable destination for dating couples. Twenty-something Jacob Perez and his girlfriend Elisabet Mendoza snuggle in the cool afternoon air enjoying selections from La Traviata, with as much enthusiasm as they might for pop artists, like Café Tacuba, Los Tigres del Norte or Paulina Rubio.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br />Jacob explains “People will get even closer to music, and paintings and culture and all that stuff...I think if they go to the way of the culture, they can change.” Girfriend Elisabet Mendoza adds “To have you imagine other things that are not violence, is not our city. Just art, music, things like that…” Starting in 2004, as a cultural promotion of the city, and as an anniversary celebration of the tiny Café de la Ópera on Calle 5, part of the festivities celebrating the founding of Tijuana.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It soon became a renowned event, attracting up to 10,000 people from both sides of the border. In coordination with the State Government, the 22nd City Council, Tourism and Conventions Committee of Tijuana (COTUCO) as well as the private sector, the 2011 edition of the festival featured performances more or less continuously for 12 hours.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBmcanJ5U4-aXtu-50s8zo_XhJHp0DYXAf2aBAXeF5pBi7NvuFZEqIIHNkMAQHBpK2EBxMqQq3dqBICRDNoZ4YqbHV76Ckak_SjSHNuijf2fBB4dI3EpSnClnsnpxG33yUlY_j/s1600/IMG_6615.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 114px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBmcanJ5U4-aXtu-50s8zo_XhJHp0DYXAf2aBAXeF5pBi7NvuFZEqIIHNkMAQHBpK2EBxMqQq3dqBICRDNoZ4YqbHV76Ckak_SjSHNuijf2fBB4dI3EpSnClnsnpxG33yUlY_j/s200/IMG_6615.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630143994046159378" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br />Architects from the Technology Institute of Tijuana transformed the working-class street into a tiny Italian village, which becomes the scene of the festival. There were more than 150 singers, musicians, actors and other artists from the region, and under colorful canopies, a variety of restaurants offered a sampling of their food and beverage. The day started around noon and lasted till past 11:00 pm, on a downright chilly July evening. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Jose Medina is a much loved local music teacher and singer. He has been involved in the production of Opera en la Calle from the very beginning, and many of his students are singing today. Though he looks a bit tired from all the planning and rehearsals, he is practically beaming with pride. “Everything you read in the paper, first thing in the morning is assassination and drugs and everything. But this contributes to change the image. This is important…So that at least gives you hope! Tijuana is not just this dark side, we do have this, too. This culture, this hunger of growing up to something so positive!” He then excuses himself, to go help with the set up for one of the acts he has been working on.</span><br /><br /><br /><div style="float: left; display: table;"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNgHs5lsMGrgTdncIt_t6E4XuvfN25aX2SP0NPcDRYKjMqpGaNV1MMvWW-baJhJmDIDTlrXoIkJnMwKb1cvfGLw5rIcTT-lWAlZi1bsYbU8EoX3q-Wlru53KBOd0jZEfYLpzV/s1600/IMG_6661_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 298px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmNgHs5lsMGrgTdncIt_t6E4XuvfN25aX2SP0NPcDRYKjMqpGaNV1MMvWW-baJhJmDIDTlrXoIkJnMwKb1cvfGLw5rIcTT-lWAlZi1bsYbU8EoX3q-Wlru53KBOd0jZEfYLpzV/s320/IMG_6661_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630141563141642866" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /><p style="font-size: 10pt;">Maria Teresa Rique</p><br /></span></div><br /><br />Returning to run the festival, Opera of Tijuana Director Maria Teresa Riqué, described the rich offering of cultural activities the community offers, including for the first time a complete performance and the live transmission of the project via the Internet.<br /><br />"The festival is framed in celebration of the centenary of the historic defense of Tijuana in June of 1911. We are preparing a program based on research done by the group Los Californios, led by baritone Manuel Acosta. The main intention of the festival is the promotion of the Opera…I am sure they will enjoy it. You can see the huge amount of talent we have in the city,” Riqué added. "It is great to be able to present a full opera for the first time," said Riqué, noting the involvement of tenor José Luis Duval and mezzo-soprano Ana Rojas. " People who may not be physically able to attend can enjoy the event via a live streaming webcast …a revolution in progress." she added. The performances are presented in a way to attract families, and to welcome everyone and was especially directed to those who have never had opportunity to attend an opera recital or performance, and to attract a young audience.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Between 8,000 and 10,000 people attended throughout the day, enjoying the singing, scenery, art displays, drinks and food, as well as a range of children's activities. Fully a third to a half of the attendees at the Saturday event appeared to be under the age of 25.</span><br /><br /><div style="float: left; display: table;"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGmus6NgNPopBIsn01dhKAVTm2hkVzEeyehg_5Yk55IX949nukI3OLNz1NMJ1nICGvsd6oJBMdm01AOiWSgrOPtUEJrmaTmLMbeF5-SWkD9HF4LgZcjdgeeR9Sc2oqs6VRJKW/s1600/IMG_6677_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyGmus6NgNPopBIsn01dhKAVTm2hkVzEeyehg_5Yk55IX949nukI3OLNz1NMJ1nICGvsd6oJBMdm01AOiWSgrOPtUEJrmaTmLMbeF5-SWkD9HF4LgZcjdgeeR9Sc2oqs6VRJKW/s200/IMG_6677_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630142251362707362" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3yWvn8oOBO17kHXvMp1x5Usk-nq3Shg7rKHmu-lWO2xsEZj-cyVpBW5J5YIcTvvZKhBJCsNzb0foPeM2zU9TNRi2nYNPiROa1DN718Sit-SQMFcRd5xE9oBxM2FzH37pcXC6s/s1600/IMG_6674_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3yWvn8oOBO17kHXvMp1x5Usk-nq3Shg7rKHmu-lWO2xsEZj-cyVpBW5J5YIcTvvZKhBJCsNzb0foPeM2zU9TNRi2nYNPiROa1DN718Sit-SQMFcRd5xE9oBxM2FzH37pcXC6s/s200/IMG_6674_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630142250178358626" border="0" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /><p style="font-size: 10pt;">Julieta Mesa and Melissa Sanchez</p><br /></span></div><br /><br />Melissa Sanchez attended this year with her mother </span>Julieta Mesa. It gives her a lot of pride to be able to show off her city. “If you can show the other side of Tijuana, which is an innovative city, where you find that art and culture has much to offer to the country and the world,” she says, while resting in the afternoon sun. “Maybe it is the result that we are receiving so much talent from other cities of the Mexican republic that art and culture and the proximity to the USA makes as to have a fountain of talent. In this respect young people can contribute in art and culture” she concludes.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Singer Marco Antonio La Bastida is a local favorite, and a regular at Café Opera – he sings the title role in ‘Phantom of the Opera’ tonight, and has seen the changes that opera in general and this street festival in particular have brought to this little rough and tumble neighborhood. “This is a very nice event…with all this very bad situation with what’s happening in Tijuana, this is the other side of the coin saying ‘hey, you know we are making something good…’ I think they [the media] should always promote this kind of event.” La Bastida agrees with Maria Theresa Rique’s assessment that this community’s love for opera is not abstract or pretentious. There is an obvious, natural, and enthusiastic love for this art form they say. “It was a way to tell people not to abandon the streets, to tell them to not be afraid,” says Riqué. “Opera won’t bite you; it’s not elitist,” she insists. “You just have to feel it. After all…” she added, “this type of festival is a reminder that the streets belong to the people.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De5gmSWZjHI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Jose Medina Interview</span></span></a></div><div><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28015864@N05/tags/operaenlacalle/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Photo Gallery of July 9, 2011 Opera en la Calle</span></span></a></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:ariel;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28015864@N05/tags/operaenlacalle/"></a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:ariel;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0I5UwJPqfRMVzJU-1XxAe8pHa4nkOjlrJcN14ilmJecLNxbprDI9HTX8wSMGrmJP4updzBx2TbuY-K8evSx-9DhNki9GGB_pluN6k1AKK2su7ONBAwTaB9O3SBBXDU5jI7MdN/s1600/IMG_6764_2.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0I5UwJPqfRMVzJU-1XxAe8pHa4nkOjlrJcN14ilmJecLNxbprDI9HTX8wSMGrmJP4updzBx2TbuY-K8evSx-9DhNki9GGB_pluN6k1AKK2su7ONBAwTaB9O3SBBXDU5jI7MdN/s400/IMG_6764_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5630146724948983138" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:ariel;"> </span></span></p></div></div></span></span></span></div></div>Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-12107330815807764202011-01-31T02:03:00.000-08:002011-01-31T02:23:39.286-08:00…Sat on the Park Bench Like Book Ends<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Time it was and what a time it was,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> A time of innocence,</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> A time of confidences,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Long ago it must be,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> I have a photograph,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Preserve your memories,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> There all that’s left you...<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">- Paul Simon, ‘Old Friends’</span></span><o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;font-size:11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana;font-size:11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he term ‘old friends’ could be interpreted a couple of ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In common usage, it means colleagues, companions and acquaintances of long standing, people with whom you have a bond of affection lasting many years.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">But it might also mean those friends who are on in years, aged and wearing experience on their face and body.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">In either case, the idea of connecting with ‘old friends’ holds a special place in our hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With ‘old friends’, your shared experiences and memories come back with easy connection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>With little effort, we connect with life’s landmarks – births, weddings, deaths and the like – without the need for a lot of explaining.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">I had dinner this last week with friends of my family whom I hadn’t seen in perhaps 40 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Barney and Pat were so close to our tribe in Nevada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He’s 88 now and I guess Pat’s a bit younger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They lived for a while in our funky little town of Virginia City, and shared hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours with us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Barney was a geologist, with a big booming voice, a friendly grin and a kind of effortless enthusiasm that was simply magnetic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While we assumed that Barney was one of our dad’s endless parade of drinking buddies (and I don’t mean that sarcastically), as kids, we found him really cool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He could tell you anything you wanted to know about rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To this day, when I read or hear mention of the element ‘Beryllium’, it is inseparable from my memories of Barney’s expansive and engaging description of where this metal was found, how it got there, and why it was so important.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">His wife Pat had her eye on the former sailor when he came in to cash a check at Harolds Club in Reno, where she was working after the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Harold’s club is the real old Reno. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Later eclipsed by its neighbor Harrah’s, Harold’s club was where locals went to drink, gamble, and cash their checks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>We’ve had generations of relatives and pals who worked there, or had someone in their family who did as well, in their black pants and white shirts, as cashiers, waitresses, bar tenders, and Keno runners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If you don’t know what that is, you are obviously not from Nevada.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">There was a year-long gap between the time Pat cashed Barney’s check at Harold’s Club, and the time she ran into him in Virginia City.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She recognized the strapping sailor from the previous year and told her friends to pull over so she could say ‘hi’. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Pat was glamorous to us as kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She was kind of dazzling – beautiful, confident, and pound for pound, at least as friendly as Barney. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>One thing led to another, and now they’ve been married for about half a century.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">In the interim, there have been the foundation stories of my life:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Pat Hart and the Brass Rail, Gordon Lane and his legendary bar next door, which was officially known as ‘The Union Brewery’, but simply known as Gordon’s to anyone who had spent five minutes in Virginia City would know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>From Gordon’s, the great pantheon of drinking-legends from that town connected and became a community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was four-foot-ten Kelly O’Keefe, an Irish miner who could drink anyone under the table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Highway Harry, Bob Dufresne, Agalee Del Carlo, Mike Nevin…they all spent long hours tossing them back and telling what seemed to me the funniest stories in the world.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Barney worked all his adult life as a geologist, and by all accounts, it was a profession he loved with a passion that was almost as strong as his passion for his beautiful wife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He also came to love our eccentric little town in the mountains.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">They never had kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My own circle of siblings all grew up and had their own broods; life went on, and all of a sudden, it’s four decades later.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt">Pat and Barney live on the water in a small, comfortable apartment in Newport Beach, just off the Pacific Coast Highway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They don’t get around so much, because of their physical limitations, but Pat managed to cook up a fantastic meal when I came by for dinner this week – crab cakes, Italian bread salad, pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The food was great, but it was passing time with these two ‘old friends’ that was so moving to me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p>In a real sense, as kids we were exposed to a lot of personalities which we have ultimately combined into who we are as adults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Barney and Pat, along with Gordon Lane – who just passed away this last year - Pat and Penna Hart, and all the other characters who came into our lives each left a little something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A wicked sense of humor from one, a booming gregariousness from another, an unshakable need to stop and help out or, the ability to make an instant party from yet another; they have all become our ‘character’ as adults.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Barney and Pat’s open, honest and joyful embrace have contributed to who I am as an adult.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><o:p> </o:p>Driving back up the 405 San Diego freeway toward home after that dinner, I pondered how wise the native Indians were in this country, long before the white man, something that had never struck me as strongly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For many westerners, the concept of ‘our elders’ or ‘our ancestors’ seems quaint and archaic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But after my visit with Barney and Pat, I felt a very sweet and fierce connection not only to them, but to my brothers and sisters, my parents, and to a younger, more wide-eyed me.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi958z6xODKUlEgVCygZX1gOljjKJM8m60fO9n-9i57l6N4Fh0ub9yT5-KrhmvXc7BNCrJ1J40HH6g0CUyymrqBcSm7wjSNtMu1fD_sUWvEdSU51FtbHdl928o0Wi45mjMRq-L/s1600/Barney+%2526+Pat+Eglit%252C+Dec.+2010.png"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi958z6xODKUlEgVCygZX1gOljjKJM8m60fO9n-9i57l6N4Fh0ub9yT5-KrhmvXc7BNCrJ1J40HH6g0CUyymrqBcSm7wjSNtMu1fD_sUWvEdSU51FtbHdl928o0Wi45mjMRq-L/s320/Barney+%2526+Pat+Eglit%252C+Dec.+2010.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568289056594409090" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 178px; " /></a><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><i><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Barney & Pat Eglit</span></p><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-78922870776527036202010-12-18T15:06:00.000-08:002010-12-18T15:07:53.303-08:00Whatever...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB07ZIRUrfhN7gVcfJKbs7RXPfIyog7BiKEd3A_X3T2P4BaI3tD7FaBeS1mFEjwUzotlh4sIy5AcV0DKajLw0X8bXKEf55Toi3_ljAcgPosAZ4-5JpLW0I6OLHljCXAfzyCzUn/s400/ChoiPride.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB07ZIRUrfhN7gVcfJKbs7RXPfIyog7BiKEd3A_X3T2P4BaI3tD7FaBeS1mFEjwUzotlh4sIy5AcV0DKajLw0X8bXKEf55Toi3_ljAcgPosAZ4-5JpLW0I6OLHljCXAfzyCzUn/s400/ChoiPride.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">T</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';">he fact that our congress finally consigned ‘don’t ask – don’t tell’ to the dustbin of history is not that big a big deal.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Don’t get me wrong: it’s historic, it’s moving, it vindicates everyone who fought for this decision, and it endorses our beliefs that our brothers and sisters serving in the military can ‘access their integrity’, to quote Lt. Dan Choi, who was booted last year after coming out on national television.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I’m not saying it’s not important, but I’m a little leery about congratulating ourselves for doing what should have been done not seventeen years ago, but 50 or 80 years ago. To be sure, the battle for acceptance of sexual minorities in our military was a significant stop on the path to acceptance. But it seems odd to celebrate something that should have been done anyway, even without the battle.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We had no international celebration when our medical institutions defeated smallpox last century. We did not hold festivals for giving the vote to people who should have had the vote all along. We have held no celebrations when women began to earn equity in the work place (of course, they are still not earning at the levels of their male counterparts).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In the long history of the fight for civil rights of LGBT people, this military issue was not exactly at the top of the stack. The concurrent fights for the right to adopt, the right to fair and equal treatment in the work place and in accommodations, domestic partner rights which allow partners of LGBT people to visit their loved ones in the hospital, the right to inherit the estate of a gay partner who has died, and of course, the big, big question: the right to marry - these issues loom like skyscrapers over the landscape of public policy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">While LGBT people can serve openly in the militaries of nearly two dozen countries, including Australia, Canada, Israel and Italy, gay people are still persecuted, injured, jailed, and executed in Uganda, Iran, Russia and other countries just for being who they are.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">With a growing number of states in the US and countries around the world affirming the right to marry, gay marriage would have to be considered the biggest and most vital challenge in the fight for civil liberties. There is no issue more central, more vital, and more momentous that the right to legally choose who is allowed to marry whom. On that day, I will feel that the biggest hurdle to LGBT acceptance has been breached.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">My comment about the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask…’ is more of a rhetorical flourish than a deep feeling. News of the US Senate’s vote on the question made tears well up in my eyes, and a deep and emotional feeling of vindication wash over me. We will take whatever victories we can, and fight for the ultimate right: to marry whomever we wish. The repeal of ‘Don’t Ask…’ may not be the biggest victory for Gay rights, but it is certainly big enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When every person has the right to live their life openly, with dignity and standing in their community, then I will celebrate like it was 1999.</span><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-13857795855149228782010-12-18T14:59:00.000-08:002017-05-31T19:33:36.465-07:00Whatever...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB07ZIRUrfhN7gVcfJKbs7RXPfIyog7BiKEd3A_X3T2P4BaI3tD7FaBeS1mFEjwUzotlh4sIy5AcV0DKajLw0X8bXKEf55Toi3_ljAcgPosAZ4-5JpLW0I6OLHljCXAfzyCzUn/s400/ChoiPride.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB07ZIRUrfhN7gVcfJKbs7RXPfIyog7BiKEd3A_X3T2P4BaI3tD7FaBeS1mFEjwUzotlh4sIy5AcV0DKajLw0X8bXKEf55Toi3_ljAcgPosAZ4-5JpLW0I6OLHljCXAfzyCzUn/s400/ChoiPride.jpg" border="0" alt=""></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'" style=" ;">The fact that our congress finally consigned ‘don’t ask – don’t tell’ to the dustbin of history is not that big a big deal.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">Don’t get me wrong: it’s historic, it’s moving, it vindicates everyone who fought for this decision, and it endorses our beliefs that our brothers and sisters serving in the military can ‘access their integrity’, to quote Lt. Dan Choi, who was booted last year after coming out on national television.<o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">I’m not saying it’s not important, but I’m a little leery about congratulating ourselves for doing what should have been done not seventeen years ago, but 50 or 80 years ago. To be sure, the battle for acceptance of sexual minorities in our military was a significant stop on the path to acceptance. But it seems odd to celebrate something that should have been done anyway, even without the battle.<o:p></o:p></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'"><br /></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">We had no international celebration when our medical institutions defeated smallpox last century. We did not hold festivals for giving the vote to people who should have had the vote all along. We have held no celebrations when women began to earn equity in the work place (of course, they are still not earning at the levels of their male counterparts).<o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">In the long history of the fight for civil rights of LGBT people, this military issue was not exactly at the top of the stack. The concurrent fights for the right to adopt, the right to fair and equal treatment in the work place and in accommodations, domestic partner rights which allow partners of LGBT people to visit their loved ones in the hospital, the right to inherit the estate of a gay partner who has died, and of course, the big, big question: the right to marry - these issues loom like skyscrapers over the landscape of public policy.<o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">While LGBT people can serve openly in the militaries of nearly two dozen countries, including Australia, Canada, Israel and Italy, gay people are still persecuted, injured, jailed, and executed in Uganda, Iran, Russia and other countries just for being who they are.<o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">With a growing number of states in the US and countries around the world affirming the right to marry, gay marriage would have to be considered the biggest and most vital challenge in the fight for civil liberties. There is no issue more central, more vital, and more momentous that the right to legally choose who is allowed to marry whom. On that day, I will feel that the biggest hurdle to LGBT acceptance has been breached.<o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">My comment about the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask…’ is more of a rhetorical flourish than a deep feeling. News of the US Senate’s vote on the question made tears well up in my eyes, and a deep and emotional feeling of vindication wash over me. We will take whatever victories we can, and fight for the ultimate right: to marry whomever we wish. The repeal of ‘Don’t Ask…’ may not be the biggest victory for Gay rights, but it is certainly big enough.<o:p></o:p></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'times new roman'">When every person has the right to live their life openly, with dignity and standing in their community, then I will celebrate like it was 1999.</font><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--> Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-38635139613704389462010-07-31T02:32:00.000-07:002010-07-31T02:41:38.371-07:00Red Earth and Pouring Rain<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxaPlWRdAsqpg4724I51vaiGiJBimBbzf_cOV9eHsM1cdKCwvK1218W_HMdOPjOMjVD4aGsDH1mPyKYhiA7fshOAlTnWzPjvbyLg2kAyvUGiImBQzuk80RaAU2kC-ZQXyB3YR/s1600/REAPR.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 174px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxaPlWRdAsqpg4724I51vaiGiJBimBbzf_cOV9eHsM1cdKCwvK1218W_HMdOPjOMjVD4aGsDH1mPyKYhiA7fshOAlTnWzPjvbyLg2kAyvUGiImBQzuk80RaAU2kC-ZQXyB3YR/s320/REAPR.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500002824799147234" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The towering, sprawling masterworks of Indian literature – especially the love poem the Ramayama, and the Muhabarata, which includes the Bhagavad Gita – are unruly, shaggy dog tales that read like a combination of Beowulf, Dante’s Inferno, and Milton’s Paradise Lost rolled into one.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They are story upon story upon story, and to many westerners first exposed to them, they were seen as inferior literature, because they didn’t follow Plato’s unities of poetry.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But the authors of these great Hindu epics have produced some of the most soaring, transcendent literature civilization has ever produced.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We have advanced somewhat since those years of the Raj, an era which demeaned the great Indian literature, in a spasm of Victorian judgment one hopes, with an ability to appreciate these shimmering, epic tales of wars, gods, love and death, and all the rules that make up ethical living, the works have come to take their proper place in the pantheon of world literature.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Despite the west’s long standing ignorance, many have come to appreciate the awesome literary efforts that these works represent.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(57, 57, 57); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Vikram Chandra channels these ancestors in his novel Red Earth and Falling Rain, which in some ways out does even those two thousand year old Vedic texts.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The title of the novel comes from a Tamil poem nearly 2,000 years old, which at least in translation, echoes contemporary passions:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i>And how </i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i>Did you and I meet ever?</i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i>But in love</i></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i>our hearts have mingled</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i>as red earth and pouring rain.</i><br /><br /><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In post-modern western literature, we have become accustomed to stories within stories; wordsmiths shattering rhetoric and syntax for some deeper truth, but mostly we remain cued to the importance of one central story.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So as writers like James Michener and William Faulkner (not exactly post-modernists; but the point holds nonetheless) spin their complex tales, we always refer back to the central story to know where we are and what is the perspective from which we are observing.</span></span></span></span></span></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In Chandra’s epic work, our attention is constantly pulled, to the point we don’t quite know what is the central story:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">a young Indian, returning to India from California with a broken heart, a magic realism tale of a monkey pulled back from the brink of death by his ability to tap out fantastic stories on an old typewriter, visits from a number of the best known Hindu deities – most notably Ganesh the laughing Elephant god, and Hanuman, the monkey-like god of war, battle and alliances.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the tradition of those great Hindu epics, Chandra leaves our head spinning, unable to decide where the center of the story is.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In a playful way, we are always brought back to the story of the type-writing monkey, whose story – as fantastic as it is – is no comparison to the swashbuckling tales of the two young men – Sikander and Sanjay, born at the same time – as they travel across the subcontinent, facing adventures, growing up, suffering and becoming men.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Oh, and for good measure, Chandra even throws in a connection to Jack the Ripper in Victorian London.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Even if your brain is being stretched, trying to figure out which hand to watch while Chandra weaves his magic spells, the tales within tales, the endless stories within stories, are hypnotic, and somehow, deeply moving.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It is said that authors speak through their characters.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If this is true, then we can conclude that to Vikram Chandra, humanity’s ability to tell stories is what renders us something like gods.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Everyone has a story, and each one makes us a little more human.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The stories invest us with dignity, position, and the weight of history, with each telling.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#393939;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If you try to summarize what the book is about, you would be lost.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To be sure, there are some overarching themes of honor, duty, and the unshakable love of family.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But to say that, no less than saying the Bible is a book about sin, misses the point entirely.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Red Earth and Pouring rain contains the material for at least ten novels.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Each story is woven into the others and each leaves off where another begins.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Like the nearly endless cycles of life that Hindu tradition tells us is the fate of the world, Chandra’s masterpiece resonates with the vibration of life itself.</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Courier;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33033269.post-3301344016183356912010-07-05T00:56:00.000-07:002010-08-05T20:44:05.736-07:00Daniel Liebeskind’s Rocky Mountain High<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRYBC9ij8J08B6kua_onIV3Kv-Yzhc3l7zcWUbFfwQqVqyBuf0IpcRrLybwhaVYuWfWyp0aI6LnWEdjQGAEa7LiOPm4qMfsYm4LLqGDSpmae6ROLcTk2LJFrB-0KFxRE7n6r_/s1600/Denver+Art+Museum.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRYBC9ij8J08B6kua_onIV3Kv-Yzhc3l7zcWUbFfwQqVqyBuf0IpcRrLybwhaVYuWfWyp0aI6LnWEdjQGAEa7LiOPm4qMfsYm4LLqGDSpmae6ROLcTk2LJFrB-0KFxRE7n6r_/s320/Denver+Art+Museum.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490328337537769762" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Clearly, the standard was set by Frank Gehry’s gleaming museum in Bilbao and Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Much has been written about how Gehry and his associates used sophisticated computer programs to scope out the complex forms that make up those dazzling buildings.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It always seemed to me, however, that the interiors of those spaces would be so reinforced and engineered that they would make the spaces claustrophobic and alienating, with essentially no vertical walls to enclose the space and windows punched out at strange, vertiginous angles.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Daniel Liebeskind’s new Denver Art Museum faces many of these challenges as well.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Planted baldly to the south west of the older Hamilton wing, the prime motif of the new wing is enormous, slashing diagonals of space, bordering on the bombastic; and like the Gehry structures, sheathed in a gleaming metal skin.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">To be sure, the outdoor shape of the building is dramatic and eye catching, especially by comparison to the forbidding castle-like Hamilton building, which looks like a ten story prison tower, except for the use of the beautiful dimensional stone-like surface and the elegant clerestory windows punched into that surface.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But the Hamilton wing of the museum suffers in the way a lot of modernist/immediately post-modernist architecture does:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">while it may have looked grand when it was new, from the context of the times and the location, it has not aged gracefully.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Hamilton wing, which was completed in 2006, looks like it could join the ranks of those other modernist icons – Lincoln Center in NY, The Music Center in Los Angeles, The Kennedy Center in Washington, Empire Plaza in Albany – as dated and frankly, a little ugly.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is not to say that the Hamilton wing architecture resembles any of those other modernist milestones, but rather that the impulse of how you plan and build public structures is related.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The museum <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">is set </span><span><span style="font-size:12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> a bit outside of what has come to be called 'LoDo', the lively, popular neighborhood just south of downtown. The museum is in the Civic Center Golden Triangle neighborhood, adjacent to the State Capital, the Denver Mint, and the handsome Denver Public Library</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span>.</span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The great surprise is that inside Liebeskind’s angular prism-like structure, the interior spaces are lovely, slightly mysterious, in a playful hide-and-seek way, and they are quite welcoming.</span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">While there may not be a right angle in the building (except for doors and individual window panes), the spaces never feel threatening or disorienting.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Instead, they unfold in a series of surprising, graceful spaces, which seem quite happy to have humans within their volume.</span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It’s not easy to tell where you are, exactly.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The windows in the Liebeskind wing are narrow, and looking out them doesn’t help much to orient the viewer.</span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Rumor has it that Liebeskind’s ideas for the museum were inspired by the nearby Rocky Mountains, the same inspiration </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Santiago Calatrava’s is purported to have used as the basis of his Denver International Airport main terminal.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Their interpretations couldn’t be more different, but</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> while Liebeskind faced endless challenges to replace the World Trade Center in New York, civic leaders in Denver largely embraces his adventurous ideas.</span></span></span></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The result is one of the most eye-catching and welcoming spaces west of the Mississippi, and signals Denver’s arrival on the international scene, not just for it’s football team, mountains, and fresh air, but also for it’s art, culture and architecture.</span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">NB: Form Magazine has just announced that Calatrava will oversee additions to the Denver Airport; the designs for which are typically dramatic and compelling. Take a look at <a href="http://tiny.cc/bsseq">Form's</a> report for the details.</span></span></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Jon Beauprehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08310524743081817791noreply@blogger.com2