Be careful, Egypt

acornnut1 RT @tony_hartin: so what now? We have military rule with vague promises once everyone goes home. Doesnt the military torture also? #Egypt #Tahrir #jan25


RedPleb RT @Tom__Paine: Power is in the hands of the military. Not #Suleiman nor Mubarak. May the people take the power soon!#egypt #tahrir #jan25 #dsot


Uncucumbered RT @Reemao8: #EGYPT STATE TV just announced #Suleiman is in charge of 'political policy' #jan25 #tahrir


nmoselhy Egypt Is Freeeeeeeeee #egypt #tahrir #jan25less than 20 seconds ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
Careful, careful.

Breaking: Mubarak Resigns - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Breaking: Mubarak Resigns - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan:

"'People were crying, some people fell to their knees, praying immediately on the floor. The tears are everywhere, the smiles, the dances.'"

A good first step but the transition is far from over. I think they know that.

Battle Lines (poem)

Battle Lines

sometimes it feels like the genders
are divided into two armed camps
until I am honest with myself
and realize it's not women in general
who upset me so much today
but my wife

--Charles Deemer

Twitter traffic

The tweets streaming in from Egypt are staggering, at the rate of hundreds, maybe thousands, a minute! Extraordinary to witness.

Wouldn't it be lovely (poem)

Wouldn't it be lovely
if there was world peace

and if I didn't make a rolling stop
and forget to count the morning donut
and swear at the driver who cut me off
and sneak a gander at her cleavage
and forget to put the cash gift on my taxes
and lie that I was sick and had to stay home
and pretend to admire her new hair style
and forget to mention that he's a real ass
and access the porn site
and steal a ballpoint from the bank
and exaggerate my credentials
and pretend everything is really great

wouldn't it be lovely
if there was world peace


--Charles Deemer

Twitter updates

advorec_II RT @AJArabic Thousands of demonstrators heading towards t television build. surrounded by troops #jan25 #Egypt#aljazeera #Tahrir #Mubarak


MikeFWT210 RT @JomanaCNN1: #CNN 's Fareed Zakaria:#Mubarak seems to be trying to bait protesters into violence.#EGYPT #JAN25 #TAHRIR


Sohamohsen RT @Egyptocracy: They kept us on the edge all day ... now they just pushed us off the edge. #Egypt #Mubarak #Jan25#Tahrir


MYTAHRIR RT @jamesmb: Never let it be said that Mubarak did not have the *chance* to leave Egypt in dignity. That time has passed.#jan25 #Egypt #Tahrir


ProtoInfinity @YaraElSiwi Please tell the Egyptians not to be manipulated by Mubarak into violence. Instead.... STRIKE!!! #Egypt#Tahrir #Mubarak


nvilakazi RT @Egyptocracy: Whoever wrote #Mubarak's speech intended to tick the people off. This is deliberate. #Egypt #Jan25#Tahrir


Uncucumbered RT @abdu: It's not yet Friday and there are 3 million people in #Tahrir square and the surrounding area #Egypt#Mubarak #Jan25 #P2


omally176 #Egypt #Tahrir #Jan25 #Aljazeera People are going to die possibly, and the blood is on #Mubarak and #Suleiman's hands.


rebroger RT @WMPost: @monasosh Psychologic warfare#mubarak #suleiman want to get #Tahrir protesters angry and violent so can use Army against them as excuse


anissahelou hope not- RT @binbreik i have strange feeling about the army's role, i think they will be used for something ugly soon #egypt#tahrir #jan25

You are there

Watching Al Jazeera English in my office, the Egyptian crowd more furious than ever that M won't step down, I'm reminded of the old TV show hosted by Walter Conkite, You Are There, which covered historical events in the same manner that history gets covered live today, and who would have known then how predictive this kind of coverage was? I loved that show. It seemed so real. And now, when real is real, it seems a tad surreal. Fascinating.

Tweet of the day II

Angry crowds in #Tahrir, watching#Mubarak on big screens, waving shoes in the air. Crowd erupts as speech ends: http://aje.me/ajelive

Man, this sure raises the stakes and increases the chance for violence.

Al Jazeera English is doing a great job in covering this.

King Lear in HD

I've sung the praises of Live at the Met in HD and now other arts events have become available. Play from London, for example, and in a couple weeks we'll be seeing King Lear with Derek Jacobi. These opportunities are extraordinary.

King Lear in HD in Portland

Tweet of the day

Poems

I've been writing a flood of poems lately. If they continue, I'll put together a small book -- and call it "In My Old Age." We'll see.

The Waking Hour (poem)

The Waking Hour

The mind crawls out of bed
and stretches toward euphoria
time stands still
in the glow of possibility

my back hurts
my knees ache
and reality barges in
like an uninvited house guest

an existential moment
I ache therefore I am
throws euphoria out the window

and for this old man
a new day begins
encouraged by a necessary thought

it could be worse

--Charles Deemer

Power to the people?

How can you not love the resolve and sacrifices of the Egyptians in the streets? News appears to be breaking this morning, maybe the prez will step down. But if he's replaced by the current VP and the same ruling party, I doubt the protesters will accept this. It can still get very violent. But damn, those protesters deserve to get their real lives back. I wish we'd help them without causing an all-out war with all those other crooked regimes, who must be shaking in their boots now. It's a complicated mess in terms of realpolitik.

UPDATE. He ain't stepping down. Oh my.

What really mattered

Protesters gain ground. But have the Western powers forsaken them? - Africa, World - The Independent

Protesters gain ground. But have the Western powers forsaken them? - Africa, World - The Independent

Yes, I would say we are forsaking them.

Recently read: American Prometheus -- the Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Perhaps the finest biography I have ever read.

---

Robert wrote a friend wistfully, “My two great loves are physics and New Mexico. It’s a pity they can’t be combined.”

*

“Had Oppenheimer gone one step further and compiled his lectures and papers,” argues one colleague, “his work would have made one of the finest textbooks on quantum physics ever written.”

*

He was not seeking to escape to a purely spiritual realm. He was not seeking religion. What he sought was peace of mind. The Gita seemed to provide precisely the right philosophy for an intellectual keenly attuned to the affairs of men and the pleasures of the senses.

*

“He’s a genius,” Groves later told a reporter. “A real genius. While Lawrence is very bright, he’s not a genius, just a good hard worker. Why, Oppenheimer knows about everything. He can talk to you about anything you bring up. Well, not exactly. I guess there are a few things he doesn’t know about. He doesn’t know anything about sports.”

*

No one can be certain of Oppenheimer’s reaction had he learned that on the eve of the Hiroshima bombing, the president knew the Japanese were “looking for peace,” and that the military use of atomic bombs on cities was an option rather than a necessity for ending the war in August. But we do know that after the war he came to believe that he had been misled, and that this knowledge served as a constant reminder that it was henceforth his obligation to be skeptical of what he was told by government officials.

*

No one left the auditorium that night unmoved. Oppie had spoken to them on intimate terms, articulating many of their doubts, fears and hopes. For decades afterwards, his words would resonate. The world he had described was as subtle and complicated as the quantum world of the atom itself. He had begun humbly, and yet, like the best of politicians, he had spoken a simple truth that cut to the core of the issue. The world had changed; Americans would behave unilaterally at their peril.

*

one day when Oppenheimer happened to be up on Capitol Hill he stepped into an elevator and saw Senator McCarthy. “We looked at each other,” Robert later told a friend, “and I winked.”

*

Einstein, of course, didn’t think America was Nazi Germany and he didn’t believe Oppenheimer needed to flee. But he was truly alarmed by McCarthyism. In early 1951 he wrote his friend Queen Elizabeth of Belgium that here in America, “The German calamity of years ago repeats itself: People acquiesce without resistance and align themselves with the forces of evil.” He now feared that by cooperating with the government’s security board, Oppenheimer would not only humiliate himself but would lend legitimacy to the whole poisonous process.

*

IN THE LONG RUN, however, Strauss’ strategy backfired; the transcript revealed the inquisitorial character of the hearing, and the corruption of justice during the McCarthy period. Within four years, the transcript would destroy the reputation and government career of Lewis Strauss.

*

Afterwards, John F. Kennedy’s grieving widow sent word that she wanted to see Robert in her private quarters. Robert and Kitty went upstairs and were greeted by Jackie Kennedy. She said she wanted him to know just how much her late husband had wanted to give him this award. Robert, in describing the moment later, confided that he had been deeply touched.

*

Senator Fulbright gave a speech on the floor of the Senate, and said of the late physicist, “Let us remember not only what his special genius did for us; let us also remember what we did to him.”

My Mother Wept (poem)

My Mother Wept

My mother wept when she read
the report from school
and it was years before
I found out why

She assured me at the time
it was nothing
a fit of sadness
not a thing to do with me
which wasn't true

but I didn't find this out
until years later
talking about something or other
not as mother and child
but mother and son
(I'm now in graduate school)
and something brought to mind
the time she wept when she read
the report from school

and so I asked her
what was it about?
and she told me

it was the results of
your IQ test

I'm married to your father, she said
so I know how it is
that the more intelligent a man is
the less chance he has
to be happy
and so I wept for you

and now so many years later
so much time since her passing
I realize how wise
my mother was

and I weep
for us both

--Charles Deemer

Seeing Orion On A Winter Night (poem)

Seeing Orion On A Winter Night

i

seeing Orion on a winter night
stars shivering in the same familiar pattern
I've known since childhood when my dad
back from the war in the Pacific
taught me the constellations
in Dallas 1947

the great hunter's belt
three stars in a line
and below it on the sword
the slightest smudge
like hot breath on steel
a nebula called Messier 42
(I remember to this day)

and above, left, to the west
the reddish star my dad called
"beetle juice" to make me laugh

and behind the great hunter
his dog, Sirius
no star brighter but the sun

The Orion I see tonight looks the same
as the Orion I saw in Dallas in 1947
or in Pasadena in 1953
or in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1961
or on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1976
or in Portland in 1984

and saw on every winter of my life
the same pattern of shivering stars
in the frosted night

what comfort to know that
despite wars and disasters
despite divorces and drunks
despite anything that happens underfoot
there remains stability overhead
in Orion and his brethren
the unchanging constellations

ii

if only this were true

in fact the stars are wandering
constantly and what we call "stability"
is a kind of optical illusion
due to our limited perspective

the great hunter Orion
who watches over us
knows we long for God
and so keeps Sirius on
a short leash that we may
see today the same pattern
we saw yesterday
shivering in the long
cold night

and in recognition find order
find comfort find God
and forget
if only for a moment
our lost befuddled selves

--Charles Deemer

Singer Chris Smither Enjoys Being Recognized for Who He Is - NYTimes.com

Singer Chris Smither Enjoys Being Recognized for Who He Is - NYTimes.com

Egypt VP: Protests must end soon - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Egypt VP: Protests must end soon - Middle East - Al Jazeera English:

"Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian vice-president, warned on Tuesday that his government 'can't put up with continued protests' for a long time, as tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square for the sixteenth day in a row."

And where will we stand once the crackdown begins?

Breaking news

Rumors of my imminent demise are greatly exaggerated.

Egypt: Tahrir Square’s Mini Utopia · Global Voices

Egypt: Tahrir Square’s Mini Utopia · Global Voices

The Teacher (poem)

The Teacher

"those who can, do
those who can't, teach"

those who can, do
it their way
one way

while those who can't, teach
this way and many others
the ways of all the different ones
who can

and in so doing they show the student
there are many ways
not just the tyranny
of the one way
of the one who can

and this is why those who can't
are better teachers than those who can

--Charles Deemer

Protests Swell in Rejection of Egypt’s Limited Reforms - NYTimes.com

Protests Swell in Rejection of Egypt’s Limited Reforms - NYTimes.com

And we're on the wrong side once again.

Wouldn't It Be Nice (poem)

Wouldn't It Be Nice

wouldn't it be nice if
I lived in a culture
where death could be chosen
as a celebration
of life?

(hear me out)

old age is a time of reflection
(with me so far?)
much of which for me is gratitude
(the details don't matter)
which means my situation is
rather like a jock's at the end
of a fine career

man we played some great games!
man we gave it our all!
man the memories are sweet!
(want to see the press clippings?)

but, you know, the stories get old
the 99-yard run and all that
and the audience gets smaller
and eventually I bore even myself

let's face it
my jock days are over
and there's nothing else I really
want to do

(this is just a comparison, remember)

at this moment, wouldn't it be nice
to have a farewell party
a wake with the (future) corpse
as host
(a farewell wake, get it?)

and everyone would have a grand time
sharing special memories
saying goodbyes
hugs and tears
and then everyone would
go home

except for the doctor and a special few
and I'd go to bed where the doctor
would administer the shot
and that would be that

sweet dreams, the end

wouldn't it be nice if
death could be a celebration
of life?

(instead of life being what it is
this interminable waiting
for the bus, wondering
why the hell it's so late

and where the hell we'll be going
if it ever gets here)

--Charles Deemer

Oppenheimer

There are so many incredible stories framed by the journey of J. Robert Oppenheimer. I know of no work that has done justice to so many as the recent Bird and Sherman biography American Prometheus, which I've been reading. About 2/3 through this morning, I had to stop reading about the hearings that revoked his security clearance, this McCarthy witch hunt got me so upset. Although different works have focused on parts of this story, I think it would take an opera to capture the grand sweep of all the tragic themes here. Dr. Atomic gives a try but its reach is narrowly defined. I think the full dramatic power here is still unexpressed in opera.

If I were to name two figures who essentially define the "coming of age of America" in the 20th century and beyond, they would be Pres. McKinley, visited by Christ in a dream and thereby led to define American foreign policy for the ages, which is the policy of missionaries, and Oppenheimer, the very bullseye of the long American anti-intellectual tradition, who was the first to understand the full terror of the nuclear age. (In this latter regard, Durrenmatt's brilliant play The Physicists comes to mind as well.). I know of no contemporary figure who embraces these traditions -- missionary and anti-intellectual -- better than Sarah Palin. And this scares the hell out of me.

In My Old Age (poem)

In My Old Age

in my old age
I read constantly
a gesture toward
some semblance of
literacy

it can't be done
there are too many books
too many poets, novelists
too many, too many
(and this counting only those
worth considering)

in this zero-sum universe
no wonder there's such
horror and atrocity
to stand against such
accomplishments of the spirit

now and again
i add my own work to the pile
and the next day remove it
in a fit of despair

I go back to reading
in my feeble attempt
at literacy

and wait for more horror
from the daily news

--Charles Deemer

Paul Haggis Vs. the Church of Scientology : The New Yorker

Paul Haggis Vs. the Church of Scientology : The New Yorker

Arianna Huffington: When HuffPost Met AOL: "A Merger of Visions"

Arianna Huffington: When HuffPost Met AOL: "A Merger of Visions"

This might also be called "Selling Out".

Recently viewed: True Grit

I was disappointed. Not that it's not a good movie. But it didn't strike me as good enough to justify a remake. I was expecting more.

John Kerry Breaks With Obama On Afghanistan, Calls For Fewer U.S. Troops On The Ground

John Kerry Breaks With Obama On Afghanistan, Calls For Fewer U.S. Troops On The Ground

Hear, hear.

Despite Obama’s Urging, Policy Stymies Science Students, Teachers Say - NYTimes.com

Despite Obama’s Urging, Policy Stymies Science Students, Teachers Say - NYTimes.com

Daily Kos: U.S. Siding With Egyptian Regime (Updated)

Daily Kos: U.S. Siding With Egyptian Regime (Updated):

"“America doesn’t understand,” said Ibrahim Mustafa, 42, who was waiting to enter Tahrir Square. “The people know it is supporting an illegitimate regime."

The Bottom Line (poem)

The Bottom Line

lying in bed awake
at 3:17 a.m.
my wife's heavy breathing
the weight of the dog on my leg

I am visited by the ghosts
of past mistakes
and dance to a symphony
of regrets

I wouldn't change a thing

this is who I am
counting my blessings
in the dark morning

==Charles Deemer

David Mamet's Master Class Memo to the Writers of The Unit | Movieline

David Mamet's Master Class Memo to the Writers of The Unit | Movieline

Ah, Mamet does it once again.

Amanda Knox lawyers move to block Lifetime TV movie | OregonLive.com

Amanda Knox lawyers move to block Lifetime TV movie | OregonLive.com

Lovers (poem)

Lovers

What is extraordinary about
lovers

is that they can share moments
so physically intense that the mind
which is to say consciousness
loses awareness of itself
and for a moment the lovers embrace
their animal natures
when language is grunting
and grunting is quite enough
and no one explains
anything

Unfortunately
not only do these moments
pass quickly
but for all their mystery
for all their mind-blowing possibility

drop out tune in and all that

these extraordinary moments
apparently have no consequences whatever

and life goes on
as if they never happened

--Charles Deemer

Mellowing out

Finally coming down after breakfast with M. Takes me a few hours to come down after an hour conversation with him because he tilts the brain cells in so many different directions. It's actually refreshing and cool. But also a tad tiring.

I have little interest in the Super Bowl tomorrow and may see if H wants to go to a movie. I want to see Blue Valentine but she's not too hot for it so we may see True Grit instead, one we can agree on.

I need to pay bills tomorrow. It's so easy to forget.

Breakfast with Mark

Off to Vancouver this morning for breakfast with Mark at Joe's on Main Street, one of the few old "spoons" left in the area. Look forward to it. Then another day of reading, a little working, a little banjo practice.

Mark hosts the First Sound Press blog, one of the "heavier" blogs you'll find as Mark explores his philosophical and socio-political interests in commentary and poetry. No small talk here. Lots of great links, too, even to jazz greats and tango lessons! He also has a new wilderness blog.

Monster bio

In Kindle, instead of pagination you have % read as your record of progress through a book. I've been reading the Oppenheimer bio for a week but am not yet halfway through, so out of curiosity I looked up the print copy to see how many pages it has. Almost 800!  Man, I'm glad I don't have to lug that book around. And the thing is, I wouldn't want it to be a single paragraph shorter, it is so damn engaging. I love it.

Quotation of the day

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

– Desmond Tutu

Applegate (poem)

Applegate

Under a warm sun in a blue sky
we spread my mother's ashes in the Applegate
at her favorite fishing hole.

This was a special place.
When we returned, we knew we'd find her
perched on a rock
line dangling in the river
crossword puzzle in her lap
oblivious to all cares
(oblivious even to the fish)
This was the way we wanted
to remember her.

But it was not to be.

Years later I returned
(living far away)
and struggled to find the spot
finally driving through rain
along a new road by a lake
brown and foreboding
against a dam.

I rented a boat
but no matter where I rowed
I had no sense of her rock
or the fishing hole
or her spirit below me.

How I wish we'd given her
a marked stone in the golf course
of a cemetery.

Graveyards belong
to the living.

--Charles Deemer

Health police Q&A

Dear Mr. Deemer: I regularly read your blog and enjoy it. However, I am concerned about how often you praise scrapple and how much of it you seem to eat. Do you know how bad scrapple is for you? etc etc etc.

Dear Blog Reader: I suspect that I know considerably more about scrapple than you do. After all, I make it myself.  You say it is bad for me but this is true only from a certain perspective. It is not bad for my mind, my attitude and my sense of well being. With regard to my body, which is what you refer to (I assume), by any rational consideration of my relationship to my body, I should have been dead 15 years ago. So I don't consider myself living on borrowed time but on bonus time. The gods, for reasons quite their own, have been very kind to me. If I die in ten minutes, I have been blessed with far more time than I expected or deserve. Thus I enjoy each day of my bonus time as much as I can, and on many mornings this enjoyment includes scrapple for breakfast. Obviously the gods understand even if you don't.

Now let me ask you a question. Do you know how bad it is for your mental health to butt into other people's business?  Sincerely, Charles

Incredible breakfast!

Just made myself an incredible breakfast:

• a slice of toast smothered with salsa verde
• topped with a slice of fried scrapple
• topped with an egg, up
• fantastic!

A few tweets from Egypt

latinfirecrzy1 RT @DominicKavakeb: It's so vital that world understands this is not a divided #Egypt. This is the state attacking the people. #jan25 #tahrir


top_tw_tech RT @ramadan: Can't sleep. Maybe because I slept too much in the past years. Today is the day to wake up. #Tahrir#Jan25


ima2406 RT @amradelamin: They're manipulating the images from#Tahrir to make it appear that the mere 1000 or so in Mohandesin outnumber the million in #Tahrir.


tokyoQuest RT @Vesheccrumbs: Let's keep #tahrir trending people! This has turned into a waiting game, which is when people lose interest - prove the world wrong & DON'T.half a minute ago via web
prettyflamingo_ On days like today, I'm so glad I follow people like@andersoncooper who are still going live despite the attacks on reporters. #tahrir
dustincohen It's still not clear what KIND of #revolution is transpiring in #Egypt... Who will step in and unify the masses in #Tahrirsquare?
TellDeBatz RT @abdu: AJ: the number of pro-democracy protesters in #Tahrir Square is nowmore 2,000,000 #Egypt #Egyptians #Cairo#Mubarak
Go to live tweets

When will we ever learn?

Seems to me Obama is negotiating a transition that will just piss the protesters off.

Mr. Mubarak Holds Egypt Hostage | The Middle East Channel

Mr. Mubarak Holds Egypt Hostage | The Middle East Channel:

"The actions of the Egyptian government should not inspire confidence. If the regime is willing to employ such violence in front of rolling cameras and worldwide attention, the international community should contemplate what the regime will be capable of doing once that attention has faded."

Seth Shostak: A Bucketful of Worlds

Seth Shostak: A Bucketful of Worlds:

"But here's the promise. If we crudely do the numbers, these early results from Kepler indicate that approximately 3 percent of all stars could boast a habitable planet. Within a thousand light-years of Earth -- a distance that could be bridged by transmitters no more powerful than equipment we ourselves can build -- there are at least 30,000 of these habitable worlds."

Gary Hart: Catching Up With History

Gary Hart: Catching Up With History:

"From the beginning of the Cold War, we adopted a policy (some called it political realism; I call it unprincipled expediency) described as 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Thus, regardless of how repressive and anti-democratic a potentate might be, if he were anti-communist, he was our friend. We gave dozens of these types a lot of money and political support even though it was used to build up security services that locked up and tortured anyone who quoted our Declaration of Independence in the national square."

Perspective

 

A summer of music?

I usually do a video project in the summer but I find myself with increased energy to do composing, a routine of spending long hours at the keyboard. This is what it will take as I've made no real progress in this direction. Composing may be the summer focus. We'll see.

The corporate mindset

Typical corporate bottom-line insensitivity.

Safe haven

I very much like my office today. Feels like a safe haven from the chaos of the world, though of course it isn't. But there are times when self-hallucination is acceptable. This is one of those times.

I have this sick feeling that the Egyptian "rebellion" is going to go the way of the Chinese and Iranian rebellions, put down with military might. By the gods, I hope I'm wrong.

The thing is, when you live long enough, and see this pattern repeated and repeated again and again, it gets very old. It's appalling how little we learn from history.

It's appalling how little we even own up to our own actual history.

Irony upon irony, none of this matters much in the long run if Nature decides to do what Nature does and has us reap what we've sown. I don't know much but I do know this: Nature wins. And she's getting pissed at our betrayal of her.

Maybe it's a horse race: will we destroy ourselves before Nature gets around to it? I'm not taking any bets.

I'm just glad I'm old. Man, I'm glad I'm old -- both for what I was fortunate enough to experience in the past and what I will be fortunate enough to miss in the future.

But, in a shorter less morbid view, this IS a zero-sum universe, after all, which means there is a lot of positive energy around to balance out all the negatives, and at times like these wallowing in positive energy is not the worst response. It's like those musicians playing as they went down with the Titanic. Good choice.

Wallace Shawn: Why I Call Myself a Socialist: Is the World Really a Stage?

Wallace Shawn: Why I Call Myself a Socialist: Is the World Really a Stage?

ABC News Producer Brian Hartman Threatened With Beheading In Egypt

ABC News Producer Brian Hartman Threatened With Beheading In Egypt

Inspired by a Revolution in Our Midst, Worried About a Revolution in Our Atmosphere | CommonDreams.org

Inspired by a Revolution in Our Midst, Worried About a Revolution in Our Atmosphere | CommonDreams.org:

"Welcome to our planet, circa 2011--a planet that, like some unruly adolescent, has decided to test the boundaries. For two centuries now we've been burning coal and oil and gas and thus pouring carbon into the atmosphere; for two decades now we've been ignoring the increasingly impassioned pleas of scientists that this is a Bad Idea. And now we're getting pinched."

Escape

A few more midterms to grade, then into the office early, escaping the news from Egypt.

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

Amazing, and important, story about the perception of art.

Historical flow chart

Autocrat-->Incident-->Protests-->More protests-->Goon squad-->Violence-->Necessity for order-->More violence-->Emergency response (might makes right)-->Protests beat down -->Autocrat

Nostalgia (poem)

Nostalgia

With violent chaos in Cairo
a gigantic cyclone in Australia
monster winter storms across the U.S.
all on the news tonight

(Yes the revolution will be televised)

I think how nice it must have been
to be outside on that distant afternoon
working in a field on my farm
in the recent state of Oregon
all cares underfoot

when a wagon approaches
a neighbor visiting
and I walk to the wagon
where the neighbor says

Did you hear the news?

which I had not
so he tells me

President Lincoln was shot!
President Lincoln is dead!

and I can hardly believe it
and ask when? how?

Last month
the neighbor begins ...

--Charles Deemer

Mona Lisa model 'was male lover' - News, Art - The Independent

Mona Lisa model 'was male lover' - News, Art - The Independent

The Minimalist Chooses 25 of His Favorites - NYTimes.com

The Minimalist Chooses 25 of His Favorites - NYTimes.com

Great recipes!

Invisibility Crystals Make Small Objects Disappear | Wired Science | Wired.com

Invisibility Crystals Make Small Objects Disappear | Wired Science | Wired.com

The 9 Best Places To Have A Cup Of Coffee Around The World (PHOTOS)

The 9 Best Places To Have A Cup Of Coffee Around The World (PHOTOS)

Only U.S. city on list = Seattle.

Quotation of the day

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.

– Mark Twain (1835-1910)

When Corporations Choose Despots Over Democracy | CommonDreams.org

When Corporations Choose Despots Over Democracy | CommonDreams.org

Tweets from front lines

Al Jazeera English reporter tweeting from the action in Cairo.

About the poem below

Today it appears that burnt orange will be turning red. Very sad.

If the protesters are going to win, the army will have to stop being neutral and act against the thugs attacking the protesters. The army, it seems to me, is the key, as it often is.

I think the govt strategy is to cause violence, hoping the U.S. and others will then back the govt against violence (even though they caused it) -- an old trick. I hope we resist taking the bait! A great, great blunder if we do. Surely Obama is smart enough to see this. I am optimistic in this regard -- but in the long run, I think the army will determine the outcome.

Al Jazeera (poem)

Al Jazeera

i

these streaming images from Egypt
at night, burnt orange
in Cairo and Alexandria
crowds refusing to go
anywhere but forward
to freedom
waiting, waiting

thrill and frighten me


ii

as the old song says
something's gotta give
and so here, burnt orange
becomes white like day
or red like blood

waiting, waiting
something's gotta give


iii

how easy my life is

a professor's routine
a writer's routine
revolution on paper
(if at all)

street protests
a fuzzy memory
of the 60s
even the sting of tear gas
forgotten


iv

but how i feel for
Egyptians in the streets
a cacophony of dreams
waiting, waiting

will dreams turn white?
will dreams turn red?

waiting for the change in
these burnt orange images
streaming from Egypt

--Charles Deemer

Go Ahead, Write Your Memoirs - Peter Osnos - Culture - The Atlantic

Go Ahead, Write Your Memoirs - Peter Osnos - Culture - The Atlantic

Conferences II

My student conferences, one-on-one with each student, make for a very long, exhausting day but are well worth it. My focus is the tech aspects of screenwriting, format and rhetoric, so they can focus on storytelling for the remainder of the term. It gives me a chance to sit down with each and give personal advice about where they're at in these areas. Helps me remember their names! I'm bad at names. A good moment in the class.

On rereading my memoir

My memoir Dress Rehearsals came out in 2004. I haven't looked at it in 5 years or more, so it was interesting indeed to reread it over the last couple days. I come away with a few impressions.

• At times my candor is shocking -- even to me. But it also is dramatically functional, so I wouldn't censor anything today.
• I do a good job of showing how my personal experiences get reshaped in my work, with many examples. Hopefully useful to writing students.
• My closing reflective chapters remain true to me today.
• So much has happened since 2004! Indeed, I almost feel like coming out with a new edition, adding The Filmmaker chapter (2007 on). I may do this. I may not. If I do, I think I would rename it It's All Material.
• I'm a tad "darker" today than I was then, I think. Maybe it's just getting older.
• I own up to it. That's the bottom line.

There is no significant audience for this, although it has garnered a few fans. That's in no way surprising, of course. But here are two fans at Amazon.

Conferences

Today is my full day of conferences. Tomorrow is a full day reading midterms. That sums up this week ha ha.

Arctic Current Warmest In Over 2,000 Years, Warning Of Ice-Free Seas

Arctic Current Warmest In Over 2,000 Years, Warning Of Ice-Free Seas

Reading

I've always read a lot but through most of my life my reading has been utilitarian, "assigned" by some exterior need or other, whether assignments in college, both as an undergrad and grad student, or later research for a writing project -- I seldom had time to read "just for the hell of it," for pleasure as its own reward. And since I became so prolific as a writer, and this for over 40 years, my reading time had to be squeezed in between writing sessions.

So now, finally, I have time to read for the hell of it and I am enjoying myself immensely, especially since reading on the Kindle makes it so convenient. In fact, it's hard to put down the biography of Oppenheimer I'm reading at the moment. So let me get back to it.

Paul Nurse: science under attack | Hot Topic

Paul Nurse: science under attack | Hot Topic:

"“As a working scientist I’ve learnt that peer review is very important to make science credible The authority science can claim comes from evidence and experiment and an attitude of mind that seeks to test its theories to destruction…Scepticism is very important…be the worst enemy of your own idea, always challenge it, always test it I think things are a little different when you have a denialist or an extreme sceptic. They are convinced that they know what’s going on and they only look for data which supports that position and they’re not really engaging in the scientific process. There is a fine line between healthy scepticism which is a fundamental part of the scientific process and denial which can stop the science moving on. But the difference is crucial.”"

Armed gangs free Muslim militants in Egypt - Africa, World - The Independent

Armed gangs free Muslim militants in Egypt - Africa, World - The Independent

The other shoe

I fear the worst in Egypt. I'm reminded of the buoyant sense of victory that filled China, particularly among students, before the Army ended all that in terrible scenes. It would not surprise me if the protesters meet a similar defeat in Cairo and throughout the country. I hope I'm wrong. But it's too easy to under-estimate tyrants.

Recently viewed: The King's Speech

A fine film, of course. But I had an interesting memory watching it: how much more powerful and more engaging oratory is on the radio than on television. My first experience of this was hearing Adlai Stevenson. But even earlier, with sporting events, I remember hearing Joe Louis fights on the radio with my dad, a far more engaging experience than watching sports on TV later. Television is more hypnotizing, and radio gives freer reign to the imagination. Even today I'd rather hear a baseball game on the radio than watch it on television. During the Cuban missile crisis, stationed in Germany, I heard JFK on the radio, not TV. Powerful moments indeed.

A Navy Wife (poem)

My mother was good
with her hands
fixing the toys
of me and my brother.
A good thing, too
with dad so long
at sea.

Whenever she told me
the fleet was coming in
I rushed to round up toys
and took them to her
to fix
before dad took a stab
and broke them.

When dad was home, she
forgot how to fix anything.
Take them to your father,
she would say.

And this made the twilight
before his arrival
flush with urgency, fixing
whatever needed fixing
before she forgot how
capable she was
and became
a Navy wife.

--Charles Deemer

American impotence

The first protest of people in the streets that got my attention was the Hungarian uprising in the 1950s, which was brutally put down by the Soviet Union. I remember thinking, Why don't we do something to help them?

Over half a century later, it's Egyptians in the streets with the same desire for more freedom, and once again I wonder, How can we help them? But it's harder in Egypt because our ally has now become the popular enemy. Time and again, we have sided with regimes that become corrupt, an enemy of the people. We often know going in that this government is not what we prefer but we have "interests" to protect in the area, including commercial corporate interests. We are driven by short term vision with short term results, and when the longer vision comes into play, when the chickens come home to roost, here we are on the wrong side of a popular uprising, trying to babble our way onto the new right side. It's unfortunate we don't often put our policies behind our rhetoric for freedom. We talk a good game but walk a very different one. It's sad. And it's appalling.

Watch Egypt live

Live stream from Cairo, watch the protests live.

Latest Updates on Protests in Egypt - NYTimes.com

Latest Updates on Protests in Egypt - NYTimes.com

When Twitter isn't trivial

I remember how blown away I was, reading live tweets from Iranian students being attacked by police a few years ago. So again in Egypt, when Twitter becomes a tool of live communication during moments of historical significance. What a far cry from the trivial info usually carried there. Certainly makes the tool an important one.

Egypt's Internet Shut Down, According To Reports

Egypt's Internet Shut Down, According To Reports

It's worth nothing that this sudden surge of democratic energy across the Middle East is not a result of our middling into their affairs but of native reactions to tyrannical practices, a few brave souls taking a stand, and an eruption of sympathetic populations. Progressive changes can happen even when we don't try to strong arm them. Even when we back the wrong side, as alas we often do (keeping tyrants in power because they are "anti" something we also are against).

Arab World: New Media and the Egyptian Demonstrations · Global Voices

Arab World: New Media and the Egyptian Demonstrations · Global Voices

Nice surprise

Primus St. John, on his first term of retirement, dropped by the office. He's still shooting video for the review. More than I am lately, to be accurate. Great to see him!

Once a writer ...

Even though I tell myself I'm "retired" as a writer, I find myself engaged in a new writing project, a new novella (I think), another story about an old man in the world, etc etc etc, and it's structure rises from vignettes, making it easy to write in a mellow sort of way, and even though I'm only a few pages into it, eight I believe, the two major characters interest me enough to continue writing, so we'll see where this leads us.

I suppose "retired": really means retired from the marketplace, not retired from the work.

My working title for the new novella is What Have You Done Lately?, and the story follows two retired professors, quite along in years, who decide to resurrect a radical folk song group they had in the 1960s, which leads them into some disastrous and darkly comic situations.

Advertisements for myself: Fine-Tuning Villainy -- Salieri's Journey from Stage to Screen

In his NY Times article "How Amadeus Was Translated From Play to Film" (September 16, 1984), critic Michiko Kakutani writes that director Forman considered the stylized theatricality of Shaffer's play to be an advantage for the adaptation:  "The fact that 'Amadeus' was so stylized, so theatrical - well, so uncinematic, he argued, was actually a blessing - it meant they wouldn't be tempted to merely translate the play to the screen, but would be forced to demolish the original, then totally reimagine it as a film"

Read the essay.

A poem?

The trouble with writing

poetry

is the presumption

of insight

of significance

of meaning

of wisdom

of truth

in the cascade of words

down the page

Sometimes words

mean nothing

Single Payer, Arabs, Vietnam Vets, and the Internet | CommonDreams.org

Single Payer, Arabs, Vietnam Vets, and the Internet | CommonDreams.org:

"All throughout the Arab world, the despots are on the run.

Fueled by Facebook and Twitter, the Arab street is aflame.

In the United States, instead of fueling the resistance, social media is like a hypnotic drug.

A young Arab in Tunisia gets slapped around – the story goes – by a police officer.

He lights himself on fire.

And the whole Arab world is engaged.

Here in the United States, we get slapped around daily by the corporate elite.

And we take it sitting down in front of our computers."

Opposition in Egypt Gears Up for Major Friday Protest - NYTimes.com

Opposition in Egypt Gears Up for Major Friday Protest - NYTimes.com:

"Raising the stakes, the Muslim Brotherhood, long the country’s largest organized opposition group, intends to end days of official inaction to enter fully into protests on Friday. On its Web site, the group said it would join “with all the national Egyptian forces, the Egyptian people, so that this coming Friday will be the general day of rage for the Egyptian nation.”"

Barnaby Conrad Revisits John Wilkes Booth - NYTimes.com

Barnaby Conrad Revisits John Wilkes Booth - NYTimes.com:

"CARPINTERIA, Calif. — The last time Barnaby Conrad saw Sinclair Lewis, three years after he served as Lewis’s personal secretary, they were at a bar in Paris and, by Mr. Conrad’s account, Lewis was thoroughly drunk. But not so drunk that he couldn’t chastise his former secretary for failing to execute a book idea that Lewis had handed him one morning at breakfast: a novel based on the conceit that John Wilkes Booth had escaped capture after assassinating Lincoln and had embarked on a secret life in the American frontier."