ambivalent images

Folksinging Mayor

Billings Mayor Ron Tussing plays guitar and sings a song he wrote for the Northern Plains grand opening.

Rearview Cyclists

The view in the rearview mirror as we drove up Beartooth Pass. There was a whole group of cyclists tackling the hill that morning. I have no idea where they started, but there's no doubt they were headed for an excellent downhill ride once they got over the top.

Tragic Possibility

Falun Gong protesters at the corner of Connecticut and Calvert last Thursday (April 20). The protest was sparked by the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to the U.S. Earlier in the day one protester was arrested and is being charged with “'knowingly and willfully intimidating, coercing, threatening or harassing … a foreign official performing his duties,' a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of $5,000.” I'm glad the potential punishment isn't any larger (and I assume if convicted she'd be more likely to get probation/fine than jail), but I disagree with the charge in the first place. Supposedly her “intimidation” or “threats” were: “Your time is running out,” and “Anything you have done will come back to you in this life.” Does that sound criminal to you?

I just don't know what to make of Falun Gong, but I am convinced that China (whether officially or not) is executing prisoners and selling their organs without their prior permission. Combine that with the fact that China executes more people each year than any other country in the world and you have what looks like a serious problem. (China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. together account for 97% of global executions in 2005. Good company we're in, huh?) I just recently watched “Dirty Pretty Things,” which is about illegal immigrants in London selling their kidneys for fake passports (oh, but it's a love story, too!) so the subject has been much on my mind. The film reminded me that this sort of thing is probably going on today, right now, somewhere in D.C., and probably in many other places around the country and world. How have we come to this?

The Poet at Work

Poet R.J. McCaffery (aka, the Scoplaw) reads from his new book, Ice Sculpture of Mermaid With Cigar, last night at GULC. The reading was excellent; it was sheer joy to just sit back, relax, and let the language of the poems fill the room and your mind. R.J. is a great reader and an excellent poet. I got there a little early and bought a copy of the book to snack on before the reading started. I read three or four random poems, chosen by how loudly their titles called to me from the table of contents, and then had the very pleasant experience of hearing R.J. begin his reading with those very same poems! Favorites for me included, “ Causes of Death in London, 1632,” “How To Move for Love,” “Expedient Mechanics,” “Lahar” and “The Great Molasses Flood” (an odd pair of unusual flood narratives), and “Watching a Former Lover Make Tea.” But my very favorite was one of the poems on poetry called “For Hannah.” I love it because it includes the vivid image off “the persistent unhappiness of the moon,” (the idea of that!), and because of its beautiful and demanding conclusion. “People use so many words they do not know”—indeed! R.J.'s poems demonstrate that he works hard to know the words he uses as well as he can, which is what makes reading them—and even better, hearing them—such a joy.

Monkeys on the Zoo

Kids play and pose on the big concrete “zoo” letters at the National Zoo. At right is a shot of the crowd at the entrance to the zoo about two weeks ago (click to enlarge). The weather was gorgeous that weekend and people were out and about taking advantage of it. Today? It snowed. Oh, and wasn't yesterday the first day of spring? The weather is so screwy sometimes...

Beer Box Hat

The Beer Box cowboy hat: A fashion statement that just might get you a free drink.

I actually thought this hat was great and also perfect for the Idiotarod, which is where I took this pic.

G Vogue

Young G, our friends' daughter, strikes a pose at the National Gallery. Ain't she sweet?

Gore at DAR

Al Gore calling the president to account at Constitution Hall yesterday in DC. For many much better pics, see Matthew Bradley's flickr set.

Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman speaks at the National Book Festival 2005. I mentioned this yesterday so I won't say more except that he's a great storyteller and it's fun to hear him read. Oh, in response to a question about how he writes he said that the first draft of a novel is something like throwing mud at the wall, stepping back, trying to find some sense in the mess, then rewriting to make it look like you knew what you were doing all along. With NaNoWriMo coming up again in just a month, it's great to hear this kind of thing. I'm feeling ready to throw lots of mud and really can't wait to get started again! That rewrite about making it all make sense? Nah, not so much...

Joseph Shepard's Legacy

A self-portrait by Joseph Sheppard makes an eye-catching banner for his joint show with 11 of his former students at the University of Maryland, University College. L. and I attended the opening exhibition on Sunday, which was much better than I'd anticipated. I liked much of Sheppard's work, but I also particularly enjoyed the sculpture by Akamu (see also da Vinci's Horse), Comas, and Harlow. The trompe l’oeil work by Molnar is also a trip as is the photorealism of Hofmann, Wilson, and Zuccarini. I'm no art critic or connoisseur, but it's always nice to see a good show. By chance, I also got to meet and talk to a fascinating character who retired from a high level government position after a 40 year career that began when he was 20 years old. This man graduated with a PhD in Psychology at the age of 20! His first job was working as a psychologist in Resurrection City, a tent “slum” on the Washington Mall that stood for something like 18 months in 1968-9 (according to this fellow) as an attempt by the nation's poor to draw attention to the problems of poverty and class inequality in the U.S. (See also here.) Have you ever heard of Resurrection City? I hadn't, and it's an incredible story. I got the feeling this fellow might be full of many more stories like this, including some from his time as a White House staffer attending black tie events night after night. DC is full of amazing stories, there's no doubt about that.

GW Law Revue

The cast of the 2005 GW Law Revue strikes a pose. The show, which ran last Saturday at the Lisner Auditorium on the GW campus, was called “Springtime for Transgrud,” after Roger Transgrud who is currently serving as interim dean of the law school. The show was hilarious at times, a little cringeworthy at others (as in, “oh my gosh, I can't beleive they just said or did that!”). But overall, a phenomenal effort from a huge and talented cast. Congratulations everyone, on a great show! Note: The photo blows, I know, but that's what you get from the cheap seats in the dark.

Luna

Luna rocks the house at the 9:30 Club last night. Much better pictures of the band available here, and hear sample stuff here. They played most of their new album, “Rendezvous,” plus old favorites from Romantica and miscellaneous other albums I couldn't keep track of. Very good show. Thanks so much to L. for buying me tickets!

Chris Baty

Chris Baty (pronounced “bait-ee”), NaNoWriMo founder, signs books at the Barnes & Noble in downtown D.C. I wrote here about seeing him and listening to him speak. No surprise: He seems like a terrific guy. I want to be him! Buy his book! Donate to NaNoWriMo! Support cool people doing cool things in the world! ! ! ! I am not an exclamation point! ! ! !

CVB live in D.C.!

Camper van Beethoven jamming last night at the 9:30 Club. That's David Lowery (lead singer for both CVB and Cracker) in the foreground w/his head just sticking above the speakers, Greg Lisher is behind him on guitar, then Victor Krummenacher in the red shirt on bass and also singing, and Jonathan Segel on violin and vocals (and yes, that's a 15“ Powerbook G4 sitting behind him and in the photo to the right—it controlled most of the sound effects the band wasn't able to generate on its own during the show). Unfortunately this picture cuts out Chris Pedersen on drums. All of them did a great job. Unfortunately, Segel didn't have his own violin for some reason and so was borrowing one from someone who lives in D.C. (and who I think was in the audience). This meant some of the violin parts were, um, not quite right, but mostly everything they played sounded terrific. More details and impressions about the show here.

Neal Stephenson

Author Neal Stephenson speaks at the National Book Festival. He devoted his entire 50 minutes or so to questions from the audience, at least half of which were devoted to Snow Crash., and roughly the other half were about the Baroque Cycle. L. generously gave me the first volume of the Cylce, Quicksilver, las Christmas, but I didn't get more than 80 pages in before school started and I just couldn't stay focused on it. Then during the summer I didn't want to commit to such a big book, both because it meant I would have to skip reading several other books, and because it's so darn big and heavy that it makes for horrible train reading (kind of like a law textbook). On top of that, Quicksilver is a little hard to get into. Some of the comments here suggest that it gets easier as you get into it, and that the first volume is important to set the stage for the second, which is supposed to be much better. Those thoughts echo what I've heard elsewhere so I do hope to get back to Quicksilver soon. I have high hopes for the series because every other Stephenson book I've read—including Zodiac, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicron—has been terrific. Hearing Stephenson speak was the highlight of the Book Festival for me, but it was a great just to be at an event that's all about writing, writers, reading, books. Here are a few more pictures from the festival. The short time we spent there made me want to read and write more than ever. My impulse is to quit law school and just find an 8-5 job so I could spend more time in the evenings and on weekends writing and reading. It sounds like a little dream. But then, I'm reminded that when I have free time, I don't use it to read or write, so the answer may not be in revamping my life to make more time for writing. That's part of it, but it's not the answer. Also, if I eventually end up producing a novel or some short stories, I wouldn't be the first person w/a J.D. to do so. The law is a profession that's all about people's stories, and it's about conflict and morality and ethical choices and life and death—all of which are the ingredients of great fiction. So a few years in this legal profession could be great in the long run for a writing career. At least that's the theory. I hope it's true.

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PIWIT: An unidentified but beautiful coastline on Otherward Photography.

Greg Palast

Greg Palast signs books at the Green Festival. Palast is a reporter probably best known for his work exposing how Florida disenfranchised thousands of black Floridians in 2000, much of which he collected in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. We heard him speak for about 30 minutes and he gave us plenty of reason to fear that the 2004 vote is already stolen. As he put it, "You've probably already voted; they just haven't told you how yet." What's he talking about? Off the top of my head, I recall he said that many if not all of the Floridians (most of them black) who were wrongly prohibited from voting in 2000 are still on the "banned" list in 2004, and hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots are going to be counted by hand (and possibly behind closed doors). Now the Pentagon is trying to keep overseas Americans from voting. Do we live in a Democracy? Hmm.