My Memorial (poem)

My Memorial

when I'm gone I won't know
what happens so maybe it's
not worth mentioning but

I hope a few people gather
and read from my work
to send me off

my wife knows what
to do with my ashes
which is a private affair

but something more public
would be nice though of course
how the hell will I know?

and anyway most the people
inclined to do such a thing
are dead or long gone

you couldn't fill a room
with those who remember
anything I've done

or so it seems to me
but honestly I don't know
if I'm right or wrong

and will never know
so what the hell
what happens happens

it's been nice

--Charles Deemer

With praise like this ...

"I really liked your film. I fell asleep in the middle of it but what I saw I liked."

Gee, thanks.

Around the clubhouse turn ...

A few more projects to evaluate this morning. To the university to pick up finals this afternoon. They are easier to grade, should get through them tomorrow and Thurs and turn in grades before the end of the week.

Then lots to do before school starts again.

Daily Kos: Wife Plans to Sign Recall Of Wisconsin R Senator.

Daily Kos: Wife Plans to Sign Recall Of Wisconsin R Senator.

The maid already signed it.

Daily Kos: Why There Are So Few Scientists And Engineers In Politics

Daily Kos: Why There Are So Few Scientists And Engineers In Politics:

"Given that all of our serious challenges have a scientific or technological component, and that half of all economic growth over the past century can be attributed to technological advancement, and that the US is rapidly losing its scientific and technological edge, this lack of scientists and engineers in government is a serious problem for our country. "

Daily Kos: The New Corporate Media: $315 Million for Huffington Post Owners Costs Pink Slips for 200 Americans

Daily Kos: The New Corporate Media: $315 Million for Huffington Post Owners Costs Pink Slips for 200 Americans:

"Huffington Post celebrated this acquisition by announcing a ramped up corporate team as their 'contributors,' but do you know what they have to say about this AOL layoff? Nothing, except the syndicated AP report. That's right. A website famous for its opinions and 'fighting' cojones has nothing original to say about its new corporate overlords laying people off."

Greed knows no political boundaries.

Parenting

I have no experience in parenting, which puts me in a minority of those without one of the basic human experiences. I decided half a century ago that my "children" would be my literary works, for better or for worse -- and it's been for both over the years. As I've gotten older, I occasionally regret this decision but whenever I do the gods expose me to the dark side of parenting, parents suffering incredible grief over addict kids and worse, and my own regret turns to counting my blessings. I am godfather to two grown men I've known since they were babies, sons of my late soul brother, so I enjoy this small part of the experience. All in all, I suppose I would do the same thing all over again. Yet, it would be nice to have grandkids playing sports to watch etc.

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

Here's a major form of mindless television entertainment, drooling over amazing food concoctions from around the country. Now and again a Portland joint is featured but, alas, I've been disappointed when I visit the place myself. It always looks better on TV than it ends up being in person. I keep waiting for a place to feature scrapple but not yet.

Jordan Hasay

His Death (poem)

His Death

His death was a stone
dropped from a great height

shattering on the sidewalk
to startle a few passersby

by its silence

--Charles Deemer

Coover's story is "stunning"

That's how a writer friend in Paris describes it after I sent her the link. Man, it has been a very, very long time -- since the 60s and Gilbert Sorrentino's story "The Moon In Its Flight" -- since a short story has hit me so powerfully. I keep rereading it in total awe at the literary accomplishment. This story, like Sorrentino's, reaches a level all its own and makes "realistic" fiction seem, well, almost quaint. The truth here is delivered in such an original, quick, instant way, it's yes stunning. Stunning. Best story I've ever read about what Thoreau called man's "lives of quiet desperation."

In contrast, the Sorrentino story is about first love. I can still remember the last line, at least to paraphrase it. The first love doesn't go into the future but many years later the lovers meet and go to a hotel room. Then he goes home to his wife. Sorrentino writes something like, I know you'll accuse me of sloppy writing when I say she told him he was white as a ghost but that's exactly what she said. Art cannot rescue anybody from anything.

Pow! I stand in awe of Sorrentino and Coover.

Robert Coover: “Going for a Beer” : The New Yorker

Robert Coover: “Going for a Beer” : The New Yorker:

"He finds himself sitting in the neighborhood bar drinking a beer at about the same time that he began to think about going there for one. In fact, he has finished it. Perhaps he’ll have a second one, he thinks, as he downs it and asks for a third. There is a young woman sitting not far from him who is not exactly good-looking but good-looking enough, and probably good in bed, as indeed she is. Did he finish his beer? Can’t remember. What really matters is: Did he enjoy his orgasm? Or even have one? This he is wondering on his way home through the foggy night streets from the young woman’s apartment"

The best short story I've read in decades! Brilliant.

Undaunted! More Than 100,000 Wisconsinites Rally "To Take Our State Back!" | Common Dreams

Undaunted! More Than 100,000 Wisconsinites Rally "To Take Our State Back!" | Common Dreams

Greensboro, NC, war stories

Greensboro always comes front and center during March Madness, always hosting games. And I knew this years ago when I took my one and only trip there. Their community theater company was doing my play Christmas at the Juniper Tavern and they flew me out for several days to see the opening and also to visit a number of colleges in the area and talk about playwriting. It was a good gig.

To my surprise, the theater was in the same huge complex as the basketball court -- so when I was asked what I wanted to do in town, the first thing I wanted to do was see the court! They found a janitor to open it up and I got to peek at the basketball court where I'd seen so many games on TV.

Later I also visited the memorial where the Greensboro sit-in at the lunch counter happened and also O. Henry's house. But the first thing was the March Madness court.

It was an amazing production because the actor playing Swami Kree was dying of cancer. On opening night, he decided scene by scene whether he had strength to come out or to pass to his understudy. He did over half the scenes and he died before the run was over. Given the content of the play, and the Eastern attitude toward death, this made for a pretty unique experience for all involved.

I remember a party with the actors when, as guest of honor, I was given the worm in a bottle of whatever it was called, like tequila. I took it but didn't swallow, figuring to spit it out later. Shortly afterwards I was talking to an actress and she suddenly screamed. One end of the worm was peeking out between my lips! There went my image as Mr. Cool.

It was a very good gig in Greensboro and a trip I'll always remember.

Sunday morning

NY Times on Kindle & coffee ... breakfast (scrapple & eggs on toast) ... read a project ... TV special on March Madness ... back to projects.

Each year the Madness has more hype, more greed, it may not be worth watching down the road. Very sad. Greed and hype ruin more good things.

NCAA Indoor Championships: Tough, determined, Jordan Hasay leads Oregon to the NCAA women's title | OregonLive.com

NCAA Indoor Championships: Tough, determined, Jordan Hasay leads Oregon to the NCAA women's title | OregonLive.com:

"COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- No. 1 Oregon landed the knockout punch when Jordan Hasay led a 1-3-4 finish in the mile, and the Ducks won the women's NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship going away Saturday in Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.

Hasay broke a 29-year-old school record by finishing in 4 minutes 33.01 seconds, then came back to outkick Villanova's Sheila Reid and win the 3,000 meters in 9:13.71.

It was a dominating performance before a crowd of 4,487, by both individual and team."

I saw her run in Eugene as a high school student -- and the crowd maintained a deafening chant, "Come to Oregon! Come to Oregon!" It worked.

Oregon high school girls: Jesuit 42, Clackamas 39

Caught audio on the net and rooted for Jesuit all the way. Boys team also in  finals, be great if they sweep.

Day's end

Think I've done enough projects for the day. Back at it first thing in the morning.

Didn't see as much basketball as I would've liked but just saw Washington upset Arizona in OT for the Pac 10 crown. One of my few winners today. Harvard lost. UCLA and Portland State women lost.  I also had Navy women winning.

Need to get out and get a pepsi, stir crazy and blurry eyed.

Etc Etc Etc (poem)

ETC ETC ETC

here's another politically
incorrect opinion:

I was never impressed with
male jocks who had sculptured
bodies unless, of course, they
were weight lifters
(weird enough but not as weird
as those Japanese wrestlers)

but I want mainstream jocks
football basketball baseball
to look like normal joes
somebody I'd have a beer with

and this being the case

just imagine my opinion of
WOMEN with sculptured
arms legs torsos
bulging muscles shiny
with their sweat

it's enough to turn my
stomach and that tells you
what a dinosaur I am

etc etc etc

--Charles Deemer

Basketball

As expected, the Stanford women came roaring back but UCLA helped them considerably, losing composure and permitting an 18 pt turnaround, Stanford winning by 9. The Bruins will get to the dance but they need to learn how to stay focused for an entire game. They made really stupid mistakes in the 2nd half.

Portland State women, in contrast, played a terrible first half but only trail by one. They need to win to get to the dance.

The Harvard men, who have never been to the dance, lost a last-second heart-breaker to Princeton. Damn, I wanted them to go.

LATER. The favored Portland State women also are shooting themselves in the foot and looks like they'll miss the big dance, losing against Montana.

Nikki Caldwell rocks!

UCLA's recent women's basketball coach has taken a team that hasn't been competitive in decades and turned it into a team to be reckoned with, who has a 9 pt halftime lead against Stanford at the moment. Amazing! It's going to be exciting to see UCLA women enter the national picture again. Meanwhile, I know Stanford will come roaring back -- I picked them to win the Big Dance! -- but UCLA is clearly making a game of it. Caldwell played and mentored under Pat Summit at Tennessee and it's paying off. Go, Bruins!

Will the GOP outlaw gravity?

Boo hoo

I love it when LaLaLand loses its shirt on stupid movies.

But the movie that all of Hollywood was talking about Friday is Disney's lamely titled Mars Needs Moms 3D. Why? Because the Dick Cook leftover is going to be one of the biggest money losers of all time. It cost $150M but, even with the higher 3D ticket prices, it'll be lucky to pull in $10M this weekend -- that's rightall weekend. "It's about as bad of an animated miss as possible," one rival studio exec emailed me. It's rare that any Disney toon flops at all, much less this badly.

Michigan Governor Plays Fast and Loose with Democracy, Invokes Radical New Powers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes

Michigan Governor Plays Fast and Loose with Democracy, Invokes Radical New Powers - E.D. Kain - American Times - Forbes:

"Perhaps lost in the Wisconsin shuffle is the story of what exactly is happening in Michigan. Newly elected Republican governor, Rick Snyder, is set to pass one of the most sweeping, anti-democratic pieces of legislation in the country – and almost no one is talking about it.

Snyder’s law gives the state government the power not only to break up unions, but to dissolve entire local governments and place appointed “Emergency Managers” in their stead. But that’s not all – whole cities could be eliminated if Emergency Managers and the governor choose to do so. And Snyder can fire elected officials unilaterally, without any input from voters. It doesn’t get much more anti-Democratic than that."

Rain, gray, daylight savings, projects

A very wet weekend. Keep my nose in the projects with occasional breaks to check basketball scores or maybe pick the banjo.

GOP Assault on Environment Defeated — For Now | Wired Science | Wired.com

GOP Assault on Environment Defeated — For Now | Wired Science | Wired.com

Slow start

Divided the term projects into piles but am very slow to get to today's pile, finding it easier to practice banjo and watch basketball. Ah me. What else is new?

It's official

In 2011-12 I teach noon-two. I really look forward to the change. Get to see campus in the daylight!

Common Sense

Banjo III

New class starting, and I want to take it. Would miss first class, but that should be okay. We'll see if I can work it out. This is just what I need for spring term.

LATER. Signed up!

8.9 Earthquake In Japan (poem)

8.9 Earthquake In Japan

no matter how selfishly
viciously the powerful prey on
the vulnerability of others

Nature waits in the wings
ready to take suffering
to a new level

and remind us
who's boss

--Charles Deemer

A brief survey of the short story part 32: James Joyce | Books | guardian.co.uk

A brief survey of the short story part 32: James Joyce | Books | guardian.co.uk

Alma mater v. alma mater, or home sweet home

Great to be home! And home with a pile of term projects to grade.

But tonight it's the Pac 10 tourny and UCLA v Oregon, the latter with a 10 pt lead in early 2nd half, a huge upset if it holds. I guess I don't care who wins.

I'll read half a dozen projects a day for the next five days. Rain, rain, rain, so it's not as if I'd be doing something outside, though I am eager to do a spring mowing when weather permits.

My dad's favorite saying

"Don't let the bastards get you down." Nice to keep this in mind.

Hobbling to school on the last day of class

Thinking along the way to my office, I've been doing this routine for 12 or 15 years, same days and times, so it will be a tad exciting to teach at noon next all. I actually look forward to it. Spring term, though, it's the same routine, Tues and Thur, 440-630 class, 3-4 office hrs. I suspect I miss out on a lot not being on campus in the heart of the day.

Idaho blew a basketball game, just tossed it away. Amazing.

Owen Laster, Literary Agent, Dies At Age 72

Owen Laster, Literary Agent, Dies At Age 72

Laster was the first agent to take interest in my fiction. I was in grad school, had published literary short fiction, was working on a novel THE IDAHO BLUES and he loved my early chapters. Alas, I got stuck (the idea later became my 1974 Roll of Honor story The Idaho Jacket) and ended up changing my emphasis from fiction to theater and got my MFA in playwriting, not novel writing. Sometimes wonder how my career would have been different etc etc etc until I realize those kind of mind games bring no rewards and possible false grief. But I have fond memories of Laster for his early encouragement of my writing.

History Lesson (poem)

History Lesson

if we look at history
over the long haul
the clearest common
denominators are these

powerful cultures decline
powerful cultures die

thus our own decline
should surprise no one
and wishful thinking will not
keep the dream alive

what is unfortunate
what is new
is that now we can take
so many others with us

I won't be here to learn
if we do or not
I'm happy to miss
the end game

in the meantime
I hold tight onto
the people I love
the things I treasure

and I cherish the time
I spend with my dog
because more than anyone
my dog makes me

laugh

--Charles Deemer

The Experiment (poem)

The Experiment

as I watch the news this morning

angry citizens in Wisconsin
suspicious senators questioning Muslims
wars hither and yon
and your kid getting bullied
not to mention floods and
the usual "natural" mayhem

I wonder if it might not be
time to admit that this
gallant experiment called
homo sapiens
(homo consumerus)
is a failure

though there has been much
to praise about our efforts here
(Brahms Beethoven Bach and such)
this zero-sum universe still feels
negative, which is to say
much less than zero

we survive if at all
by embracing survival cliches
by wearing blinders
by burying our head in the sand

yes, the world is too much with us

under the circumstances how fortunate
to be the old man that I am
than young and trying to find
level ground in a world tilted
toward extinction

how much better to have
a memory than a life

how sad to say so

--Charles Deemer

Missing Morse and McCall

It's been a while since we've had politicians like Wayne Morse or Tom McCall -- Morse, the Oregon senator and very early opponent of the Vietnam war, like Obama a Constitutional scholar, who was in order a Republican, an Independent and a Democrat (who in the Eisenhower administration sat in the aisle of the Senate because he refused to join either side!); and McCall, the moderate Republican famous for saying visit Oregon but don't stay (famous last words), whom I profiled in Oregon Business Magazine when I worked there, honored to spend a week with him with a tape recorder on, an extraordinary experience, whose desk was messier than mine and who said, so my boss could hear, "empty desk, empty mind" (which shut up my boss on this issue); two principled politicians who were not ideologues, which is the occupational hazard today. I miss them. Moreso, the country misses them.

My play about Wayne Morse, 1989, originally commissioned as a teleplay by Oregon Public Broadcasting, which fell through the cracks for political reasons after a changing of the guard and which I later revived as a one-person stage show, which toured the state a few years ago.

Weigel : Wisconsin Senate GOP Tries Nuclear Option for Passing Anti-Union Bill [UPDATE: It Worked]

Weigel : Wisconsin Senate GOP Tries Nuclear Option for Passing Anti-Union Bill [UPDATE: It Worked]:

"In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten. Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government."

PSU students move on in the TBS and Rooftop Comedy National College Comedy Regional Rival Competition last week | OregonLive.com

PSU students move on in the TBS and Rooftop Comedy National College Comedy Regional Rival Competition last week | OregonLive.com

Duncan: 82 Percent Of US Schools May Be Labeled 'Failing' Under No Child Left Behind Policies

Duncan: 82 Percent Of US Schools May Be Labeled 'Failing' Under No Child Left Behind Policies:

"The Department of Education estimates the number of schools not meeting targets will skyrocket from 37 to 82 percent in 2011 because states are toughening their standards to meet the requirements of the law. The schools will face sanctions ranging from offering tutoring to closing their doors."

Is this country dying on the vine or what?

Jay Inslee: Republicans Suffer From 'Allergy To Science And Scientists'

Jay Inslee: Republicans Suffer From 'Allergy To Science And Scientists':

"'If Copernicus, Galileo, Newton and Einstein were testifying today,' Inslee, an environmentalist with a knack for confrontation over green initiatives, posited, 'the Republicans would not accept their views until all the Arctic ice has melted and hell has frozen over, whichever comes first.'"

Among the Assisterati: Bottoms Up with the Highbrow Bottom Feeders | The New York Observer

Among the Assisterati: Bottoms Up with the Highbrow Bottom Feeders | The New York Observer

Ethics and student athletes: BYU v. Ohio State

An interesting contrast, two ethics issues at two universities in two weeks. BYU suspended its star basketball player for the rest of the season, this by a ranked team just before the tournament starts! The player had sex with his girlfriend, violating the team's code of conduct at this Mormon school. Whatever you think of the rule, the player knew it and the university owns up to it.

In contrast, the football coach at Ohio State was caught lying to the NCAA and received a slap on the rest, missing two games next season, this for a violation more flagrant to the game itself.

Conclusion: at Ohio State, winning matters more than ethical behavior, and at BYU the opposite.

I'm not a big fan of Mormons, or any organized religion for that matter, though Benedictines impressed me when I did a story on their seminary once, impressed me with the rigor of their high school classes, but despite this I plan to root for BYU as far as they can go without their superstar. I like how they walk the talk.

Teaching change

A dozen or more years ago, whenever it was that I was invited to start undergrad and graduate screenwriting classes at Portland State, and the timing couldn't have been better, I accepted under one condition: I didn't have to teach in the morning, which was my writing time.

Ever since then I've taught TuesThur 440-630 pm. Now for fall 2011 I am changing, having been invited to do so due to conflicts ... I'll be teaching TuesThur noon-150. I really look forward to it! I can see the school at the height of its rhythm. I think the change will affect the demographics of my class but we'll see. Less older students with jobs, I would think.

Almost feels like the good old days

Up at 3 a.m. to write, most of a poem in my head, and I haven't done that in a long time. Almost like the old days when creative insomnia was the norm. However, my knees remind me soon enough that it's not the old days at all.

A good day, I think. I have Soldier's Joy down on the banjo and I am about ready to tackle Arkansas Traveler.

The Birth of the People’s Party? | Common Dreams

The Birth of the People’s Party? | Common Dreams

Summer Solstice 1967 (poem)

Summer Solstice 1967

it was 1967
the first night of summer
and P and I drove from Portland

to the Stonehenge replica
along the Columbia River
high on a bluff
on the Washington side

P's brother and friends
drove over from Seattle
engineers at Boeing
and arrived with a case
of strong homemade mead
and we'd brought pot brownies
and the party was on

we partied the long warm night
above the river under the stars
drinking eating laughing
and laughing some more
and had Stonehenge to ourselves
a revelry ahead of the curve
a night never to be forgotten

finally the sun rose and someone
decided to test the shaft of sunlight
through the placement of stones
but the beam was placed wrong
the stones were out of joint
these builders were poor Druids
but it didn't ruin the party

we crashed into sleeping bags
on the hard ground above the river
but slept only a few hours
before the interstate traffic below
filled with trucks and woke us
and I remember a frowning tourist
not pleased with our party scene

did they report us? who cares?
the party was over
a night for the ages
and it wasn't just the mead
it wasn't just the pot
it was mainly the laughter
loud and repeated into the night

we didn't think we were Druids
we were young and alive
and thought we could do anything
so when P's brother had the idea
we gathered at Stonehenge
for the summer solstice
and had our all night revelry

and P and I were happy
so it didn't matter
if the stones were out of place
or a morning tourist disapproved
P and I were happy that summer
the divorce still years away
oh yes P and I were happy

--Charles Deemer

The Writing Life II: My Portland

The Writing Life II: My Portland

Memories, memories. R.I.P. Portland of the 70s-80s.

But this is why I really need to get out of town. I relate to Portland very little any more, not for years.

I am stumped

This blog has a hidden counter and among its features is a way for me to see who gets here via a particular search at Google or somewhere. Lately most people getting here via a search engine have made a search for "jiminy cricket" (who I grew up on and mentioned in an old post) -- and I can't figure out why in hell so many folks are searching for jiminy cricket at Google! Fascinating. Sort of.

Dropping Dead (poem)

Dropping Dead

my mother dropped dead
in a hospital lobby

my father dropped dead
in a cousin's hallway

if this is the family pattern
I might drop dead

in a restaurant
before I'm served

in a theater
before the movie ends

at the computer
before the page loads

in this poem
before the last line

but on the other hand
I may drop dead from

exhaustion after racing
down the highway nude

pursued by rabid Republicans
who mistake me for a Democrat

when I'm really just shedding
the strait jacket of civilization

and hoping to catch a rare whiff
of fresh air before I die

if such a miracle is possible

--Charles Deemer

Last week of classes

Show them Dreams On Spec today, an excellent docu about 3 screenwriters trying to make it in L.A. Thursday I pick up final projects -- and the rest is history, well, after a ton of reading and grading.

Then a short break, a trip to the coast, come back for spring quarter and do it again. Only I'm adding a new book, Write Now! Screenwriting and I'm also adding The Kids Are All Right to analyze as film and next fall I'll add the script as well. Too late to add it this term.

Have I ever taught the class the same way twice? Not really. About 90% the same, usually, but I'm always tweaking it.

Matt Damon: Obama Has 'Rolled Over To Wall Street Completely'

Matt Damon: Obama Has 'Rolled Over To Wall Street Completely'

I would have to agree.

What countries value teachers?

Half price sale

For one week, read an ebook week, Writing the Spec Screenplay.

Recently viewed: Tender Mercies

Stumbled on this on cable -- man, what a fine film. When's the last time a movie like this came around? Screenplay by Horton Foote. Character-driven, leisurely development, true and sensitive to its characters. 1983. A different film world indeed. I miss it.

A broken-down, middle-aged country singer gets a new wife, reaches out to his long-lost daughter, and tries to put his troubled life back together.

Director: 

Bruce Beresford

Writer: 

Horton Foote

Stars:

 Robert Duvall, Tess Harper and Betty Buckley

The superiority of women's basketball

I increasingly find women't basketball much more engaging to watch than men's basketball. In fact, I no longer watch men's professional basketball at all. Here are the reasons I prefer the women's game and prefer high school and college ball to professional ball, regardless of gender:

• greater teamwork
• basket proportionately higher compared to height (men's game needs to raise the basket 18 inches or so)
• fewer assholes playing the game (an  impression that may be wrong because the women's game is covered less, i.e. less data)
• far fewer dunks and other boring show off antics
• fewer assholes -- oh, I already said that
• fewer off court antics

Consequently I'll watch the women's tournament far deeper into play than the men's, where I generally lose interest after all the smaller longshots are eliminated. My rule of thumb: root for the team with the highest GPA!

And once again let me plug my solution to all the corruption in college athletics: eliminate athletic scholarships. IMMEDIATELY. PERIOD. Make the pros set up their own goddamn farm system and pay for it themselves.

Sign of the day

Prayer (poem)

Prayer

thank you, gods
for another morning
in my old age

now for a moment
I can forget
how angry Nature is

and justly so
at human insolence
arrogance and greed

now for a moment
I can forget
impending disaster

I can scratch the dog
I can feed the birds
and enjoy the morning

and most of all
appreciate the gift
of my old age

and thank you again
that I am not
younger than I am

--Charles Deemer

Harvard wins share of Ivy title - The Boston Globe College Sports Blog - Boston.com

Harvard wins share of Ivy title - The Boston Globe College Sports Blog - Boston.com:

"There is still a chance that Harvard could claim the league title outright, but for that they have to be patient. Princeton still has a game remaining on their schedule, at Penn on Tuesday. If Princeton were to win that game, the two teams would share the crown and would meet for a one-game playoff to determine the conference's NCAA tournament bid."

UCLA, Harvard

UCLA getting upset by Washington State, and Harvard beating Princeton (to win its first ever championship) but time remaining in both games. Mixed feeling re my alma mater Bruins because I also like upsets esp by NW schools. And I didn't cry when Princeton upset UCLA years ago. All the same, an alma mater is an alma mater so I'll root for UCLA in the stretch. 4 pts behind with a tad over a minute left.

LATER. Tied, 9 sec, WSU ball ... overtime.

LATER. 58-54, UCLA. Whew. Now on to the Pac-10 tourny, UCLA #2 seed.

Recently read: World On The Edge -- how to prevent environmental and economic collapse

This book from the Earth Policy Institute will not make your day. The forecast here is to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2020 or pay very dire consequences. What is needed, says author Lester Brown, is mobilization like what we saw in WWII, but now it's a fight for civilization itself.

Unfortunately we appear to be going in quite the opposite direction, making things worse, not better. The Republicans don't buy any of this. I'm not a scientist so I don't know if the case is over-stated here but I do know that the vast majority of scientists agree with the urgency and danger of our man-made changing climate. If it's not this bad, it's close enough.

2020 is less than ten years away. Fat chance to change much by then, given the political climate. Even if the environment becomes a major issue in 2012, an election year, and the scientists win, it's a late start. Better late than never, I suppose. Here comes the "by the skin of our teeth" Thornton Wilder argument again etc etc etc.

I've stopped buying it. I'm afraid I see the situation as hopeless. I think we're doomed. I think we'll survive as a species but I think very ugly times are ahead -- and I think I'll be dead and miss them. Luck of the draw.

So I find myself being a puzzled spectator. Puzzled that so many folks can be so loud and so stupid. Puzzled that they don't even seem to want to educate themselves for the benefit of their children. Great family values there. Not so puzzled at the consequences when stupidity becomes a cultural value but puzzled that it actually came to this.

I hope to hell Sarah Palin runs for President. I really want to hear her debate all this.

Recently read: City of Dust

This book's subtitle says it all: illness, arrogance and 9/11. Here is the story of responders and others on the scene at 9/11, of their subsequent health problems, and of the nasty litigation (still ongoing) that resulted between city and workers, city and other victims. It's not a pretty tale and not an encouraging one. At one point the author points out that much more interest and constructive energy has gone to rebuilding the area and building a memorial than to rebuilding the shattered lives of those who were there. There's considerable truth here and, as so often in this country, the truth is depressing.

Weill/Brecht

Brauereisterben: The sad state of German beer culture. - By Christian DeBenedetti - Slate Magazine

Brauereisterben: The sad state of German beer culture. - By Christian DeBenedetti - Slate Magazine

Hollywood's Crush on Obama Cools - The Atlantic Wire

Hollywood's Crush on Obama Cools - The Atlantic Wire

Join the club. No audacity, after all.

The question

Is the glass half full or half empty? Perhaps this is the central question in life. In Man's Search For Meaning, Franck, who spent time in a concentration camp, writes that the one thing the Germans could not control was his attitude. If you can see the glass half-full in a concentration camp, well ...

We are bombarded with news that the glass is half-empty, surely more frequently than at any time in our history. Probably there's no more bad news than ever but media permeates our existence more today -- and as any writer knows, bad news is more dramatic than good news. In such an environment, it's good to be reminded of good news and the most accessible good news is in the arts. Hence the uplifting story on NPR this morning on violinist Janine Jansen. To be on the same planet with such a talent! Read the story.

The challenge of the day is not to let "the news" get you down.

Morning, afternoon

Good morning, got a little writing done. Lousy afternoon, falling into a funk. Endless gray. Endless rain. Endless parade of dying. The diversion of March Madness can't come too soon.

Wes Leonard Dies: High School Basketball Player Collapses After Game-Winning Shot

Wes Leonard Dies: High School Basketball Player Collapses After Game-Winning Shot

Death pervades III

No sooner did H's dying friend get to a hospice than -- she died last night. So for H it's a scrambling day with other friends of the deceased, still tying together loose ends. The Big C doesn't mess around when it gets its clutches in you. Once again, from my distant vantage point, the attempted cure looked worse than the disease. I know people recover from cancer. I also know many suffer more than they need to in failed treatment. It's a crap shoot and each individual must decide. But I already know where I stand.

Home sweet home

Glad to be home. Exhausting few days.

Daily Kos: In praise of teachers

Daily Kos: In praise of teachers

Daily Kos: The War on Teachers

Daily Kos: The War on Teachers

Daily Kos: Go to Wisconsin, President Obama

Daily Kos: Go to Wisconsin, President Obama

It must be getting close

Hobbling to campus through the rain today, I noticed the marque at the campus tavern has begun a countdown to March Madness. Now that would be a loud energetic place to see a few games.

Should gays have marriage rights?

Bill Gates On States' Accounting: 'The Guys At Enron Never Would Have Done This'

Bill Gates On States' Accounting: 'The Guys At Enron Never Would Have Done This':

"'[R]eally, when you get down to it, the guys at Enron never would have done this. This is so blatant, so extreme,' Gates said of state governments' accounting practices generally. 'Is anyone paying attention to some of the things these guys do? They borrow money -- they're not supposed to, but they figure out a way -- they make you pay more in withholding to help their cashflow out, they sell off the assets, they defer the payments, they sell off the revenues from tobacco.'"

British UFO Files Reveal Shocking Sightings And Hoaxes From 1950 To Present

British UFO Files Reveal Shocking Sightings And Hoaxes From 1950 To Present

Hillary Clinton Calls Al Jazeera 'Real News,' Criticizes U.S. Media (VIDEO)

Hillary Clinton Calls Al Jazeera 'Real News,' Criticizes U.S. Media (VIDEO):

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Al Jazeera is gaining more prominence in the U.S. because it offers 'real news'--something she said American media were falling far short of doing."

Go, Hillary! I'm beginning to think you would have made a stronger President than No-Drama Obama.

Office sweet office -- and dry!

Quite a little rain storm I walked through to get here. Fortunately I was wearing my good rain coat. Unfortunately I was wearing my comfy summer shoes.

Memoir v. Fiction

Interesting to compare the same moment as written in a memoir and as written in fiction:

Esther passed away this afternoon. She was 90. (Dec 31, 2009)

From my memoir:

I was very close to Dick’s mother, Esther. She was a short woman, under five feet, with red hair that turned silver as she aged. Feisty and funny, she’d grown up in logging camps and bars and took no shit from anyone. She was very active in Democratic politics in Clearwater County and for a time served as Orofino’s mayor.

The first time I met Esther, during a trip when Dee and I drove up to visit Dick in Moscow, where he was attending the University of Idaho after getting out of the Army, we’d gone to Esther’s house in Orofino for dinner. I found the address and knocked on the door. When it opened, I looked down to find this short woman grinning up at me. “So you’re fucking Deemer,” she said. This was Esther.

Access the memoir.

And fictionalized, in my novel Kerouac's Scroll:

Hooker was staying with his mother while looking for a house in nearby Moscow, where the University of Idaho was, so he could bring up his wife and young sons, who were waiting in California where Hooker had been discharged. I was looking forward to partying with Hooker to forget my marital troubles at home, though separation from Helen was still several months away. I’d made the trip to Idaho alone. I was worried, however, that his mother might dampen our style. But I couldn’t turn down a visit when I was only a long day’s drive away, having moved to Oregon to start graduate school.

I found the address Hooker had provided on a wooded street in the hills above the river. I parked behind two cars in the driveway and went to the door.

When it opened, a woman barely five foot tall was staring up at me, grinning. She had red hair and a mischievous glint in her eye. Hooker’s mother.

The first thing out of her mouth was, “So you’re the fucking bear.”

Her name was Flo. A feisty woman who used the vernacular of a hard-drinking logger, she didn’t dampen our party style. She inspired it. She kept up with us drink for drink and kept me in stitches with stories about cooking in a logging camp as a young woman and later dealing cards in one of Orofino’s whore houses. Flo rattled off ribald one-liners all night long. Some of them I remember to this day. “She's so fat if she had a broom stick up her ass, she could sweep both sides of the street.” 

Esther complaining about her nurse, spoken when Esther was in her late 80s!

Take a deep breath

Caught up, I think ... some email things to check to see if they are duplicates. But time to take a breather and figure the rest out later in my office. Showing some short videos today, I decided, incl a good interview with William Goldman.

If spring is coming, then summer can't be far behind.

Economy

I see the stock market is up 172 pts this morning. This has to be the screwiest way to run an economy ever conceived by man. Guess that makes me a commie socialist or something but capitalism strikes me as a RELIGION based on, and determined by, FAITH more than anything else. They always have reasons, the high priests we call economists, for why the market goes up and down but they always end up contradicting themselves and exposing their ultimate ignorance. All you have to do is look at the floor with everybody screaming in the old days to think, Is this any way to run an economy? And now with the computer programs buying and selling ... consumers are victims, I swear.

Odds and ends

One script to go. In class will try and tie together a few loose ends before the last week upcoming, when we watch a doc and student videos and maybe I'll show one of mine. End of the road is close now.

Sex Is A Bird (poem)

Sex Is A Bird

sex is a bird
that lands on the windowsill

and needs coaxing
to come inside

before it flies off
into the night

--Charles Deemer

Rudest cities in world

Portland #8.

Old Age Is The Season (poem)

Old Age Is The Season

old age is the season
of dying friends

some older, some younger
than I am

and with each death
my own mortality flinches

like the time I dodged
diving black crows

who were pissed about something
as if I'd wandered close

to a nest and endangered
their young

--Charles Deemer

Eastern cougar declared extinct, confirming decades of suspicion – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Eastern cougar declared extinct, confirming decades of suspicion – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

An exhausting day

And not done yet (reading student scripts) ...

Robert Reich: How Democrats Can Become Relevant Again (And Rescue the Nation While They're At It)

Robert Reich: How Democrats Can Become Relevant Again (And Rescue the Nation While They're At It):

"The bottom 90 percent of Americans now earn, on average, only about $280 more per year than they did thirty years ago. That's less than a 1 percent gain over more than a third of a century. Families are doing somewhat better but that's only because so many families now have to rely on two incomes."

The New Lost Generation | FrumForum

The New Lost Generation | FrumForum

How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us | Common Dreams

How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us | Common Dreams

Wednesday is a full day

Tomorrow will be the longest day of the term for me, I have all the scripts in draft and give final feedback before they submit for a grade. A few are in great shape, I may be able to give them an A on the spot. A few are still not near where they need to be.

Death pervades II

You reach a certain age and it seems like every time you turn around you get word of someone you know having died.

Self-Published Author Amanda Hocking Makes Millions From eBook Sales

Self-Published Author Amanda Hocking Makes Millions From eBook Sales

Deconstructing Sally

Just watched this for the first time in months. I like it a lot. A keeper.

(After watching something like this, however, I always feel a certain panic: can I ever do something like this again? I feel the same way reading some older short stories. They take more chances than I've taken in short fiction more recently. Maybe when one is new to a form, before one figures out the craft so to speak, there's greater recklessness -- and when it works, it's special. At any rate, my reaction is Wow! and that's about all one can ask for.)

You can watch Sally here.