Louder cries in the night

Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is (inaudible).

Tonight, the cries of Allah-o Akbar are heard louder and louder than the nights before.

Where is this place? Where is this place where every door is closed? Where is this place where people are simply calling God? Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akbar gets louder and louder?

I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether the number increases. It shakes me. I wonder if God is shaken.

Where is this place that where so many innocent people are entrapped? Where is this place where no one comes to our aid? Where is this place that only with our silence we are sending our voices to the world? Where is this place that the young shed blood and then people go and pray -- standing on that same blood and pray. Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants?

Where is this place? You want me to tell you? This place is Iran. The homeland of you and me.

This place is Iran.

Source

Time to speak up with forceful eloquence, Mr. President

This is the city of whispers. Its people crave to know that their hushed voices are being heard. Obama, lover of words, is the message man. “Message received” is what he must convey.

Read Roger Cohen's column

And Mr. President, what about gay rights?

Hearing the Supreme Leader in Iran

A thoughtful analysis

I like this piece by Andrew Sullivan.

I think we find one clue to why he rigged the vote count so crudely. His argument that a majority of eleven million was too big to allow for any irregularities suggests he believed that a big lie was the only one that would work.

Read

Letter from an Iranian student

Don't Accept This Coup
By Kaveh from Tabriz

Ahmadinejad has taken revenge on the students of Iran during these violent days. The regime's aim is to damage universities, since they are the first base of change, movement and protest.

I live in the dorms at Tehran University. I was asleep when Basij militiamen entered my room early Monday morning, demolished everything and started beating us. A man with a long beard broke my notebook and said: "It is destroyed, this book that you were using against Islam and Ahmadinejad."

They beat students more when they saw posters of Mousavi in their rooms. And they carried big knives and guns.

They also attacked the women's dormitory next door. The Supreme Leader calls us rioters, but I want to ask him: How can sleeping women in their beds be rioters? Is this the Islamic justice he believes in?

President Obama's speech was good; he says that he will support us. He also said that nations must decide the fate of their countries by themselves. I agree with him, but now we don't have any power to change the situation, so we need help and attention.

We ask the president not to accept this coup d'etat.

Source

I've applauded Pres. Obama's low key approach so far but now the situation has changed. I think he needs to condemn the threat to put down peaceful protest by force. He has to take sides more clearly.

Will this end with a bang or a whimper -- or might it, change, even succeed? As I said in one of my first blogs on the issue, it comes down to how much blood Iranians themselves are willing to shed. That's the lesson of history. What needs to happen for success is the army, or a significant portion of it, to back the protesters. There have been hints of sympathy. Now it's time for Iranians to put up or shut up, a choice which is never easy.

There's also the strategy of a General Strike. Instead of going to the streets, everybody stays home. They shut down the country as much as possible.

A sad heart

The worst is yet to come. Back to bed.

Reactions to speech

The choice is ours now, Islamic Fascism or Democracy. We are responsible for the future, not Khamenei. Don't give up #iranElection

Young Iranians will have to fight and die for their freedom. This is the sad consequence of Kameneis speech #iranelection #khamenei

I'd say Iranian people will go with Gandhi-like protests, we genuinely believe peaceful protests to be most powerful

OK, calm again. Speech wasn't surprizing. We'll have to continue. Let the Games begin. #IranElection

Khamenei implicitly mentioned that protesters are responsible for the bloodshed #iranelection

Mousavi knows the rules of the game. He is not going to back out. He is a very courageous man. #iranelection

Khamenei just declared war on Iranian people. General strike is the way! Stand firm my people! #Iranelection #GR88

Khamenie is going down and happy to take as many as he can with him. God help us. #IranElection

Khamenei's whole plan was to go out and scare the living shit out of everyone. This was his plan. #IranElection

#iranelection will the army ultimately back the people against the basij?

Again and again and again ...

Khamenei: this is nothing to do with supporters of candidates, this is ill wishers/mercenaries/agents of the West." #iranelection

Here's a part of the sadness: I, or anyone who has lived a long time and paid attention to the world, could have written this speech for the Supreme Leader, it is predictable and the same garbage tyrants always say when they are backed into a corner. And if the protesters still protest, and the force comes down even harder, and it gets damn ugly, then here we go again, Hungary, etc etc etc, the sad tragic repetition of history, which Joyce called a nightmare and Brown escaped through a personal mysticism. But it's always the same old story, again and again and again.

Present tweets

This is a sad moment for the people of Iran. #IranElection

I think the Iranians should keep protesting til they give into a RE-VOTE! #iranelection #IranElection

Ayatollah: Media "tone" changed after elex and they removed their masks and showed true colors. He's blaming us again. Sigh.

Leader: If they don't[Mousavi,Karroubi] put an end to protests they are responsible #iranelection

#iranelection what now?

Khamenei seems to be saying that protesting against a gov. is unislamic. Got to admire the foolhardy chutzpah of the guy #iranelection

So, Iran's "leaders" basically think their citizens are either stupid or unworthy of respect. What now? http://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/2235946232 #iranelection

Nobody under 40 in the crowd #iranelection #gr88

Its obvious Khamenei is terrified of protests. Nothing hes saying makes any sense, and hes clearly on the defense. #iranelection #gr88 #iran

Khamenei is signaling the end of the republic. He thinks we are cowards. Has he forgotten we are the heirs to Khurosh? #iranelection

the ball is in mousavi's court will he fold or double down? We'll find out on Satruday #iranelection

Hitting the fan

In Iran the Supreme Leader is speaking. This gist is that unrest is caused by foreigners and the confused young, the election was fair, shape up and shut up.

If the protesters keep protesting, which strikes me as likely, the situation appears headed for a major showdown: and either great force will put down the movement or it will not, but things are sure to be ugly. At least this is my take on the immediate future. Hungary again seems like the model. Unfortunately.

Salinger wins round one

By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Published: June 17, 2009

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Holden Caulfield, the precocious protagonist of J. D. Salinger’s most famous work, “The Catcher in the Rye,” will exist at least a little longer solely in a state of permanent adolescence, unburdened by the cares and recriminations of old age.

The judge, Deborah A. Batts of United States District Court in Manhattan, granted a 10-day temporary restraining order forbidding publication in the United States of a new book by a Swedish author that contains a 76-year-old version of Holden Caulfield while she considers arguments in a copyright-infringement case filed by Mr. Salinger.

His lawyers contend that the new work is too derivative and that the characters in “Catcher” are protected by copyright.

Read the article.

A little night music

Nico Pitney

This journalist, blogging at The Huffington Post, should get a Pulitzer when this is all over. No one is better using old and new media together to put together a continuing narrative of what is happening in Iran.

Citizen Tube

Latest video from Iran, "watching video change our world."

Norman Brown

Every time I witness history repeating itself, as it's seeming to do now despite the genuine revolution in digital communication, I'm reminded of the extraordinary, ambitious goal he set himself in his masterpiece, Love's Body, to get to the foundation of this repeating story (Joyce would say nightmare) and ask what, if anything, can be done to avoid its endless repetitions. Time for a rereading.

Today's march

Source

Winging it

Well, my browser is stuck/frozen and I don't want to shut down in the middle of an upload. But I can open a doc file, so I'll blab here.

Iran had a soccer game today and tied ... so they need help to get into the World Cup. If they made it, would BOTH sides of the election dispute celebrate together?

I'm also eager to get into a rhythm where I'm working on the novel every day. The concept really excites me. However, doubt if I can do this until July, after the review is online.

Some news trickling out of increasingly isolated Iran is that violence against protesters is on the increase. A complete power play by the regime is still possible. They are trying to shut down all net commo now but not yet succeeding. They don't want folks watching what they do. Except for the new tech, all this feels so familiar. Sadly so.

Having lunch tomorrow with Bob Edwards, poet, writer, from my old NW neighborhood. Looking forward to it. And coffee later this afternoon with some folks locally on the mayor issue.

As soon as this upload finishes, home and back to organizing the text submissions.

Blessings

Taking a break, uploading video files at Starbucks. Lots of grunt work this morning, organizing and downloading text submissions to our staff. Still a ways to go. After it's all downloaded and organized, then it's the grunt work of formatting everything and uploading it to the server, a much faster process for text files, of course.

Also counting my blessings today. I try to do this every day. Despite everything that moves aching, despite having outlived my closest male friends, despite the usual ego frustrations that distract a writer at the end of a career, in the larger scheme of things I have to be thankful for many, many blessings from the gods.

I was thinking how much fun it would be to do a kind of "Travels with Charley," or my own "Travels with Ruby" that I wrote for Northwest Magazine in the 60s or 70s, with video, a video doc on traveling across the country.

I am really excited about the new OLR, doing all video. I think this can evolve into something special, and I especially look forward to having time now to do more ambitious mini-docs of local writers and such. This can be a significant contribution to our regional record.

Lots of disagreement among commentators about the future of Iran -- whether the protesters will "win" or be eliminated by force. I hope they win, of course. We'll see.

H has a solo show opening July 2, and I'll cover it on video for the new journal. Putting up a pilot issue as soon as I can after the regular issue goes up.

Haven't heard from my friend in Bali for a while. Don't know if a net connection is hard to do for her or whether she just stinks as a pen pal.

I have 2 weeks to get up the new issue. Looking at the progress I may with text submissions this morning, I think I can meet the deadline as long as I put in at least a few hours every day. The sooner I get it up, the sooner I can work on the new look, which is where my passion is now.

Full day of editing journal

Plus a short chapter to write for an anthology. I wrote it in my sleep last night, might as well get it down while it's fresh.

Mostly text submissions now, much more quickly dealt with than video files.

Doctored photo or more rank stupidity?

How a challenger loses votes over time in election results.

Today's food for thought

Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

New design

Started fiddling with a new design for the new review last night.

Guarded optimism...and soccer

With such a revolution in communication going on, with unrest in Iran watched by so many, perhaps the model doesn't have to be Hungary after all. Signs suggesting otherwise. We'll hope and we'll see.

There are very interesting things that are taking place right now. Some of my sources in Iran have told me that Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who is the head of the Assembly of Experts -- the eighty-six member clerical body that decides who will be the next Supreme Leader, and is, by the way, the only group that is empowered to remove the Supreme Leader from power -- that they have issued an emergency meeting in Qom.

Now, Anderson, I have to tell you, there's only one reason for the Assembly of Experts to meet at this point, and that is to actually talk about what to do about Khamenei. So, this is what I'm saying, is that we're talking about the very legitimacy, the very foundation of the Islamic Republic is up in the air right now. It's hard to say what this is going to go.

Source

But troubling signs continue.

"We are fighting with our lives and the world is just watching," said Ali, a Tehran University student who did not want his full name used for safety reasons. "They see how the government is trying to silence us, how they are beating us -- but they don't come to our help. It's OK. We will succeed, even if we have to fight alone."

In Iran's southwestern city of Shiraz, 28-year-old hospital nurse Najmeh has also taken to the streets in mass demonstrations every day since Saturday, but says she is now too afraid to participate.

"The police are everywhere you look," she said. "They hurt and arrested so many people last night that one wants to go out."

Source

Here's an interesting article on Iran and soccer: How soccer explains the world -- except Iran

Iranian artists in exile

Tweets

It's afternoon in Iran.

PEACEFUL Tehran march TODAY 5pm - 7Tir Sq - #iranelection

#Iranelection m yfriend says lkast night she see a child that sheafed by his father,but the child shot by government:( maybe dead...

All foreign news reporters in Iran R locked down in their hotels, not allowed 2 go out #gr88 #iranelection (via @StopAhmadi)

Pro-Ahmedinajad rally is Photoshopped to add more supporter. http://bit.ly/NpibJ #iranelection

Couple more hours til another silent demonstration.Show ur support online by going green everywhere- http://twitpic.com/7jcp0 #iranelection

#iranelection majd said that it could go either way: either a huge crackdown by the govt or a revote with different prez elected

We want our votes back, but we seek that in peace. Keep in mind, Mousavi & Karroobi are not in it for a full-scale revolt #iranelection

If posting from inside #Iran remember to use proxy, remove mobile's battery & change location after posting. #iranelection #tehran

confirmed by MOUSAVI - Thursday march - in memory of those killed - location tbc - sea of green - #Iranelection

DON'T FORGET NOTHING IS 100% SAFE - BE CAREFULL http://bit.ly/myJ1O

high level of false information on twitter quoting us - BEWARE - #Iranelection

The Guardian blogs that man who leaked the real election results has died mysteriously but cannot confirm http://bit.ly/PUV8B #IranElection

From Iran

From a female medical student:

Hello,

It's painful to watch what's happening.

I don't want anything to do with what has been said this far, as I neither have the strength nor the resilience to face all these unfathomable events.

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.

Source

As I noted earlier, the worst case scenario is we watch another Hungary, which appears to be the direction here.

Great art

There are works of art that speak to an individual so powerfully, so personally, that they are held in the heart forever. Works that have affected me this way are, first and foremost, the Weill/Brecht opera, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Also F. Durrenmatt's play, The Physicists, Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American, Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, Evan Connell's novel Mrs. Bridge, Peter Weiss' music drama Marat/Sade, James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Gilbert Sorrentino's short story "The Moon In Its Flight."


And the film I saw again this afternoon, The French Lt.'s Woman, both the John Fowles novel and the Harold Pinter screenplay also on this short list of favorite works art. I hadn't seen the film for about two years. I like it more with each viewing. It's also been a while since I've read the novel, and I'll put it on reserve today.

John Fowles & Harold Pinter

Enough, already!

I could stay here all day uploading vids but I've done enough for the day, time to move on and get outside and cut some grass. Change of scenery. So as soon as the present vid uploads, I'm out of here.

Unless I get sidetracked on the way home ha ha.

What ever happened to smart crooks?

You know, if I was going to steal an election in a hotly contested environment, I'd make it close and I'd let the other guy win his home town. I'd want to make the fraud look as REAL as possible. This is what must be so infuriating to the protesters in Iran, the election crooks are so obvious and blatant about it, counting millions of hand votes in two hours and then making a close contest a landslide. What a bunch of idiots. They must have really believed the opposition was docile.

At the office

Tying together a few loose ends while uploading video on the desk computer and writing here on the eeepc, my new right arm. Even with a fast connection, all these 50M video files take time to upload.

Should do some writing while I'm here but not in much of a mood for it. Rather read tweets from Iran. It's addictive.

The sun also sets

Ah how often have I heard the slogans of idealism over the last half century of my political awareness? Power to the people! The revolution is here! How many of these kids, ten, twenty years from now, will be working in banks?

The trouble with history is that it's boring because it's so repetitive.

All the same, I wish the people of Iran well but fear the model is Hungary, with a ton of theocratic force waiting in the wings to crush the protesters at any cost -- while the world watches and, of course, complains.

Wouldn't it be nice if history didn't repeat itself for a change?

Quotation of the day

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Grades are in

Now the big push is to get the new review online in the next two weeks. At the same time, need to make appointments regarding home matters, get info, make decisions. A busy time. Plus a funeral to go to out of town. No rest for the retired ha ha.

Cartoon by Mana Neyastani

Morning tweets

The usual barrage, fascinating, confusing, upsetting...

DigitalDiva107 From Iran: Kasra is dead & I don't know where is masood, lost him in the crowd yesterday. #Iranelection

Naazje Mousavi's supporters are walking on Valiasr towards Mellat Park & Jaame Jam (near Iranian national TV buildings) #iranelection

iranStreetNews Confirmed: Residents around Tehran University dorms have given sanctuary to the students in their own homes. Kudos! #IranElection #GR88

statesman Iran is stopping all foreign journalists from reporting/taking pictures in the street. http://budurl.com/ylfx #iranelection

Bazga777 URGENT: Stop attacks on state run websites, they are forwarding the traffic to Mousavi supporting websites #iranelection #gr88 #iranelection

sm007hie #IranElection Gov't planning on "partially recounting" ballots. How will that help? http://short.to/fwyx

Obamaspy Confirmed @lafcity @i_hart_iran tweets from Iran Secret Police. Please ignore them #iranelection

mikeexpo At least tens of thousands of people have gathered in central Tehran to attend a pro-Ahmadinejad rally, live pictures on state TV show.

IranRiggedElect More and more arrests are reported. #iranelection

Froggerle It is more likely that West has rigged this situation in Iran,that the Iranian elections was rigged. They want obidient state. #IranElection

cybrgrl I think Mousavi opposition is tweeting mis-information. Take care in what you believe and EXTREME care in retweets. #IranElection

oli2be Old media are failing in covering #iranelection partly because ambiguity is central to the story. Ambiguity is anti-news.

hey1now #iranelection DO NOT BACK DOWN FROM THE DEMONSTRATION! WE SHALL NOT BE OPPRESSED!!!!

iranStreetNews Reliable Source: Abdolfateh Soltani, member of the Human Rights Centre of Iran has been arrested today #IranElection #GR88

STOPnejad everybody try to film as much as poss today on mobiles - vimptnt - these are eyes of world #Iranelection

DigitalDiva107 From Iran: 3:30pm basij is after us. slept in the streets last night. internet is down in most of the city #iranelection

JamieMK I'm laughing at how Iranian officials think banning journalists from reporting on the streets will solve their problems! #IranElection

See for yourself.

Memories of Cronkite's old 50s TV show, "You Are There!"

Recent selected tweets

douglasbass A source at the Ministry of Interior says the actual vote count was Mousavi 52%, Ahmadinejad 37%

vsquee This is what twitter is for, not "oh i had sushi today" #iranelection

Sherry90212 Phone lines still down - cannot get through #iranelection

mattplace > @khalnath You know, I've learned something today. Americans DO care about the world outside America.Their media just doesn't #iranelection

EmMaeKay @vsquee Agreed! This is what it's about. This is the future of free press and journalism. From many perspectives, one lesson. #iranelection

afrodeziak #iranelection If I was Israel I would be in full alert, Imadinanutjob is capable of anything with his back to the wall.

dijitalboy Hackers trying to bring down Iranian gov sites with DDOS attacks #iranelection http://bit.ly/wu5tO (via @kubastolarski)

kelseylh To our brothers and sisters in Iran, hang tough. The world is watching. #iranelection

langdale Lots of videos on Youtube, beatings and people shot being rushed into ambulances. #IranElection Youtube is the new CNN.

JP_AMP No national press coverage in Iran, everyone should help spread Mousavi's message. One Person = One Broadcaster. #IranElection

Kevin_Lately @ggjeffy Women in Iran are the most powerful element in this movement. #iranelection

cacardinal Iranian Gov't searching twitter for students organizing. Change your location to TEHRAN to confuse them. This could save a life #fb

usairn #IranElection we love you americans and the people all over the world who heard our move in iran

Iran blackout?

Twitter is going offline for 90 mins. for "maintenance" tonight, and the Twitter community is in an uproar, saying this blackout will encourage more violence because there will be no first hand witnesses to the world. Paranoia is everywhere in times and places like this, much of it understandable, so we'll have to wait and see what if anything happens. I tend to be pessimistic about the end of all this but would love to be wrong.

LATER. Twitter rescheduled maintenance due to so many protesting tweets. Again, the power of the medium.

I have bad feelings about the future, the model being Hungary, a crushed revolt with much violence. I can't imagine a theocracy giving in. God doesn't permit it. We'll see. Hopefully, I am wrong.

Generations

One thing apparent when reading tweets from and about Iran is the huge difference in attitudes between the naive idealism of the young and the weathered cynicism of the old. The Chesterton quotation in my signature is right on:

"I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid." -- G. K. Chesterton

Where does this leave us? Not far beyond humility.

Twitter comes through

Thus far, the general sense of the news coming from Iran via Twitter has proven to be accurate. For example, hours ago I read on Twitter about the huge numbers defying the rally ban and showing up to support Mousavi, who spoke. Now, finally, CNN reports the same. The Huffington Post seems to be doing the best job of reporting, with links to the Twitter and blog activity as well as analyses in a more traditional vein. But surely, the scrolling present-tense tweets present a dramatic new way to get citizen-news, and the "batting average" of this kind of reporting appears to be better than I suspected it might be. So much is changing.

Iran recap

If you're like most Americans you spend your summer weekends tuning out the rest of the world. In the event you turned on your computer today and wondered, "What the hell is going on in Iran?"—Here's a summary.

In as close to chronological order as we can determine, here is a brief summary of the major events that have taken place over the last couple of days.

Read

A necessary day

Primary focus today must be to finish up my grading. This means, first, the work of two advanced students. I'll try not to spend too much time reading tweets out of Iran.

= 1000 words

Heart-breaking immediacy...

...reading tweets from Tehran Univ students as they are under attack.

Photos.
More photos.

Twitter: "Live from my window. It is so sad. No ambulance and people need help." ... "Bastards just attacked us for no reason."

From the 60s, the revolution will not be televised ... but maybe it'll be tweeted.

And detail from a blog:

Late last night, I went out to one area in Tehran and that one got a bit ugly. You had pro-Mousavi protesters moving out, smashing windows and facing off with a group of individuals who are described as vigilante because they were not wearing uniforms. They were plain clothes, carrying baseball bats. They were carrying metal pipes, and they were just beating up anyone that was that was in that area. Today, I went to a second protest...probably the most violent that I've seen, that we have seen. We went to an area in midtown, where we saw hundreds of pro-Ahmadinejad protesters. The difference here is that these protesters again did not wear any uniforms who identified they were except for the Iranian flag that they were waving. They were on motorcycles. There were some on foot but again, they had weapons. No uniforms but they had weapons such as metal pipes, and they were actually just driving around, intimidating people, beating up people, anyone that was in the street, anyone that was in the road, anyone that dared to chant "Mousavi, Mousavi," they were beating them senseless.

Read more.

One woman called all this "an apocalyptic novel played out in tweets..."

Leaders, protests & football

So A. compares the protests over the Iran election to the losing fans after a football (soccer) match. Reminds me of Nixon, talking with protesters at the Lincoln Memorial and asking how their football team is this year. When will they ever learn? History tell us, Never.

A theory

By Juan Cole, President of the Global Americana Institute

...

But just as a first reaction, this post-election situation looks to me like a crime scene. And here is how I would reconstruct the crime.

As the real numbers started coming into the Interior Ministry late on Friday, it became clear that Mousavi was winning. Mousavi's spokesman abroad, filmmaker Mohsen Makhbalbaf, alleges that the ministry even contacted Mousavi's camp and said it would begin preparing the population for this victory.

The ministry must have informed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has had a feud with Mousavi for over 30 years, who found this outcome unsupportable. And, apparently, he and other top leaders had been so confident of an Ahmadinejad win that they had made no contingency plans for what to do if he looked as though he would lose.

They therefore sent blanket instructions to the Electoral Commission to falsify the vote counts.

This clumsy cover-up then produced the incredible result of an Ahmadinejad landlside in Tabriz and Isfahan and Tehran.

The reason for which Rezaie and Karoubi had to be assigned such implausibly low totals was to make sure Ahmadinejad got over 51% of the vote and thus avoid a run-off between him and Mousavi next Friday, which would have given the Mousavi camp a chance to attempt to rally the public and forestall further tampering with the election.

This scenario accounts for all known anomalies and is consistent with what we know of the major players.

Read full article.

Already a Wikipedia page ...

2009 Iranian Election Protests.

Twitterfall

Overwhelming way to get the news, and whatever else is there with "news," in this new cyber-universe of ours. Set the filters to a few things pertaining to the Iran election, set your scrolling speed, and read away, watching for links to take you to other interesting places. A new interactive confusing overwhelming chaotic way to get the news -- or whatever it is. Twitterfall now!

Getting the news

A few people using Twitter to give and get news about the Iranian election strike me as too self-congratulatory about what they are doing. Granted, with CNN and the other networks shut down, Twitter is about the only source providing a news link to an important moment of history. But this isn't news in the usual sense, it's a staggering, overwhelming rush of reports, images, thoughts, opinions, rumors (see Twitterfall), important but only as first impressions which may or may not be accurate and truthful. There's a danger of accepting too much too quickly in such energized ever-changing environments. Tweet away, just don't brag that you're thereby doing a better job than CNN would if it had not been closed down. Your service is great: but it isn't a substitute for more measured news analyses.

From Twitter: is it true M. was told he won, to prepare a victory speech? A momentous contention that needs documentation.

From Twitter: what the "real" votes were, with M. winning. Where in hell did these figures come from? That's the problem with Twitter, anyone can throw out anything and there's no room or space or inclination for documentation.

Some are calling this not a fraud but a coup. That the votes weren't even counted. Given how quickly the results were made public, I can believe it.

Blood-->fertilizer-->freedom

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

--Thomas Jefferson

Easy to say, easy to praise, hard to do the walk as well as the talk. It's not theory in the streets of Iran. What happens may depend on how much blood the Iranians themselves are willing to shed.

Obsessive insomnia

A rough night, couldn't shut my mind off from redesigning the review for the new all-video version. Made some decisions, I think.

Iran tweets

The main news out of Iran is coming via Twitter. Interesting.

Iran election Twitter feeds.

Editing video

Back to editing video, although I have two major student projects to look at today or tomorrow. Love editing, even the grunt work of editing readings. I'm very excited about using the new version of Finale and getting back to my music drama on video ideas. First, though, after the house stuff is settled, want to finish the two video projects I had to interrupt. A busy summer ahead -- with a funeral and a reunion to get me out of town.

Iran

This conversation about whether the Iranian vote was fixed is nonsense. Of course it was! Yes, polls in Iran are unreliable but Mousavi was leading 54-39 in the one poll before the election. Heavy voter turnout favored him. And instead he loses 63% to 34%. That's an absolute joke. They might as well have gone all the way and called it 97-3%.
...
But the clerics who run Iran and Ayatollah Khamenei better be careful what they wish for. This is how you start revolutions. Iran has a very young population that is yearning for more freedom and those younger voters were overwhelmingly on the side of Mousavi. These young Iranians made the mistake of believing that they had some say in their government and that they did not live under a dictatorship. And now they have found out the truth. My guess is that is not going to sit well with them.

It's one thing to bring in a new slightly moderate leader with only some powers as your next president. It's another thing to tell your people that they don't matter and that you rule their lives with an iron fist and that their government is a fraud. That's the kind of thing revolutions are made of.

by Cenk Uygur

Reference

Hanging in

3 grades to finish up, an undergrad with a missing final and 2 advanced students whose long scripts I need to look at tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll finish up tomorrow.

Remember the Wobblies

Don't trust the bosses, the Wobblies used to say.

HOBART, Ind. – At the end of the 81-year marriage, the Isaksons said goodbye by turning off the lights. The partnership was over.
The Chrysler sign went dark.

It was an unceremonious finale to a four-generation bond between one family and one company, but it was not a surprise. Rob Isakson had known for weeks his dealership was on a Chrysler hit list — the cuts were part of the troubled automaker's survival strategy.

Still, when the moment arrived, he did not go gently into the night.

"It hurts," he says. "How do you put into words 81 years of your family's blood, sweat and tears? How many times did my father miss some family event ... because the business came first? And all of it is for nothing now."

Read the story.

Finale 2010

I usually don't do software updates. In fact, more often than not, I prefer the earlier version. Often when I buy software, in fact, I buy earlier versions at bargain prices.

But the new update to Finale is a godsend for me. There's a major revision and expansion of adding and using chords, which is perfectly suited to a novice like myself and makes my own composing tasks hugely more efficient. I love this update!

McNamee memorial

Gerry McNamee's memorial is at Eastern Oregon University, Sunday, June 28, at 2 p.m., followed by a wake at Mamacita's, the Mexican restaurant owned by his long-time girlfriend Sandy. She reports that he died peacefully in their bedroom.

We'll be there.

The review evolves

Spent some time yesterday brainstorming with two staff editors about possible future changes in the review. I'm leaning toward going all video and audio, which is to say no longer publishing text. I think the best thing we are doing is making a video record of the arts and artists in Oregon. With volume 5, focus on this. Not decided yet but definitely leaning this way. Also, publishing not "as issues" twice a year but more as a website, which gets frequently updated. Redesigning form as well as content. First things first, still much to do to get the new issue out by July 1.

In the next few days, however, I have to finish up my grades, dealing mainly with advanced students and their continuing projects. Much of today will be focused on them. It's a gray damp day, of course, so there's nothing I can do outside.

Thursday, 10am-2pm

You won't hear a better jazz program or DJ than Homer Clark's Jazz Hole Cover on KMHD in Portland, Oregon -- available to the world from their web site. Link to listen now. Been enjoying this for decades (though he disappeared for a spell).

Roswell

Did a flying saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 and was it recovered by the government? Were alien bodies aboard?

Whatever you may have thought about this in the past, the recent book Witness to Roswell is filled with new testimony. First hand witnesses, many in the Army at the time, are old men and women now and are beginning to talk, some with notarized statements on their deathbeds. They are saying it happened. They are saying they saw the craft and the aliens. Either they are telling the truth or mass hysteria has infected the land.

And if they are telling the truth, what does this say about ... well, just about everything?

A courageous doctor: Dr. Chris McCoy

Dear AMA: I Quit!

I recently had the opportunity to read your response to the Senate Finance Committee proposal [pdf] for health care reform, and it is clear to me that I cannot remain a member in your organization. Please remove my name from your membership rolls, effective immediately.

In reading the response, I was frustrated and disheartened by the fact that you couldn't get through the second paragraph before bringing up the issue of physician reimbursement. This merely highlights how the AMA represents a physician-centered and self-interested perspective rather than honoring the altruistic nature of my profession. As a physician, I advocate first for what is best for my patients and believe that as a physician, as long as I continue to maintain the trust and integrity of the profession, I will earn the respect of my community. The appropriate financial compensation for my endeavors will follow in kind.

Read the letter.

Today's food for thought

"Sometimes, I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door, and just visit now and then."

- Katharine Hepburn

R.I.P.: Gerry McNamee

Another dear friend from grad school days passes. He'd been teaching at Eastern Oregon in La Grande for years. I'll miss him. He was one of the best read men I've ever met. Lately had done a lot of teaching in some Pacific islands. Saw him every few years and corresponded every few months. I knew he had cancer, thus, and I knew he was refusing the usual treatment. He said, at last email, his alternative treatment was going well. I suspect he didn't suffer as he would have with chemo but I don't know this. R.I.P., old friend.

P.S. If you'd told me a year ago that I'd outlive Gerry, I'd've laughed in your face. Ger was fit, had healthy eating habits, did all the things right that I do wrong. I also had some years on him. Go figure.

At the library

Having trouble with a download but the uploads I did went smoothly. Trying the dw again.

Sitting here reading poems by C. P. Cavafy, new to me and I like him a lot. Understated to the bones stuff.

MEANING

The years of my youth, my sensual life--
how clearly I see their meaning now.

What needless repentances, how futile...

But I didn't see the meaning then.

Out of the dissolute life of my youth
my poetry aims grew,
my art's realm was drawn.

That is why the repentances were never steadfast.
And my resolutions to hold back, to change,
lasted two weeks at most.

--CP Cavafy
translated by Aliki Barnstone

100 miles before breakfast, and its variations

I love the feeling that by 10 a.m. I've done a day's work, as today. Finished the grading at hand and did a lot of video editing, making substantial progress (still a ton to go). Off to the library soon to upload video files and maybe write a little.

It's a gray day but otherwise fine. Portland weather sucks 90% of the time.

Is Portland weird?

I've always thought Portlanders, a few vocal ones, greatly over-estimate the positive "weirdness" of the city. I'm not alone.

Carl Abbott doesn’t think Portland ever was. Weird, that is. The Portland State University urban historian says it takes more than a bumper sticker to bend reality.

“Except for a handful of 24-year-olds who ride funny looking bicycles, I don’t think Portland is weird at all,” Abbott says. “I’d call it sincere, earnest, outdoorsy, old-fashioned, and pleasant. If Portland were a person, you’d be delighted if your daughter said she planned to marry it.”

...

Caren Anderson and Carl Baldwin haven’t quite figured out what form of weird it takes to catch on here. The couple opened the Velveteria Museum on Southeast Burnside Street four years ago, about as quirky a museum as you’re likely to find. But nobody has welcomed them or their collection of more than 2,000 paintings on velvet into the cultural mainstream. Nationally, they’re a hit, with stories in Newsweek and on CBS Sunday morning. But only about two of 10 visitors to the museum are local, according to Baldwin.

“People will walk by and say, ‘I saw you on the Tonight Show,’ and keep on walking,” Baldwin says.

Anderson says in another city, the museum would likely become a cultural landmark. “What it says about Portlanders is, I don’t think they’re as curious as they think they are,” she says. “I think people here are too comfortable and they just stay in their neighborhoods and hang out with their friends.

“I’ve been here almost 30 years. This city is provincial. I don’t care if you ride a bike nude.”

Read the article.

Grading

Grades in except for a few stragglers. Time today to do a lot of video editing.

Priorities

WSU plans to cut theater and dance department

PULLMAN — The Washington State University Department of Theater and Dance will not survive the budget ax by merging with the University of Idaho program in nearby Moscow.

By The Associated Press

PULLMAN — The Washington State University Department of Theater and Dance will not survive the budget ax by merging with the University of Idaho program in nearby Moscow.

WSU Provost and Executive Vice President Warwick Bayly said Tuesday the department, which has 105 students and was listed for elimination in a preliminary budget last month, will be cut.

Bayly says the schools, with main campuses that sit about 10 miles apart in eastern Washington and northern Idaho, are discussing how they can help each other when offering the same courses.

But Bayly told the Lewiston Tribune the proposal to merge the two theater and dance departments is a "non-starter."

Two Williams

The Angel that presided oer my birth
Said Little creature formd of Joy & Mirth
Go love without the help of any Thing on Earth

--William Blake

AFTER BLAKE

The angel that presided at my birth
Said Little creature, made of Flames & Phlegm,
Go burn with Joy & Grief until you're dead.

--Bill Deemer

June in Puddle City

Gray, chilly, wet. Summer must be close.

Might as well read finals this afternoon, no weather to do yard work. Uploading video files at the moment.

Meet Friday with my replacement as editor of the review to discuss its future, possible new directions.

Not much else happening.

An hour to kill

In my office with time to kill before picking up the final exams. Nice to be so close to the end. I always enjoy reading the final essays, often there are some very good ones.

Might take tomorrow off, might jump right into them. Be a moment decision.

Reading the best book on Roswell I've ever seen, based on lots of interviews with old folks talking for the first time.

An Overdue Tribute

The most important biography to come out in a long time, of a neglected, courageous journalist.

by Glenn C. Altschuler
H.G. Wells was wrong. A good biographer doesn't have to be a "conscientious enemy" of his subject. Take American Radical, D.D. Guttenplan's valentine to the iconic investigative reporter I.F. Stone. A compelling account of an anti-establishment journalist who became a Washington insider, the book also provides a lively examination of the American Left, from the Roaring '20s to the misadventure in Vietnam.

Stone is all but unknown these days to anyone under 60. A reporter and columnist at the New York Post and The Nation in the 1930s and '40s, he covered sit-down strikes, the rise of the Nazis and the civil rights movement.

Read the review

Reunion

Heard from a couple folks looking forward to seeing me, so I guess I'll go and hope for the best with the ghosts & demons. Maybe I can get something interesting on video.

Last lap

Finish last three projects this morning, collect final exam essays this afternoon. Onward.

Crash

Think I'm burned out for the day. Read all the projects except three late ones. I can do those first thing in the morning. Then maybe I'll take Wed. off for a second wind, then hit the finals Thurs and Fri. The finals go more quickly than the projects, being shorter. Definitely want to get my grades in this week.

Now that I've spent time with this small EEEPC keyboard, I notice no difference at all and speed along as on a normal keyboard.

When theory is not practice

Ah, the dream of digitizing all the world's library resources!

In its frenzy to digitize the holdings of its partner collections, in this case those of the Stanford University Libraries, Google Books has pursued a "good enough" scanning strategy. The books' pages were hurriedly reproduced: No apparent quality control was employed, either during or after scanning. The result is that 29 percent of the pages in Volume 1 and 38 percent of the pages in Volume 2 are either skewed, blurred, swooshed, folded back, misplaced, or just plain missing. A few images even contain the fingers of the human page-turner. (Like a medieval scribe, he left his own pointing hand on the page!) Not bad, one might argue, for no charge and on your desktop. But now I'm dealing with a mutilated edition of a mutilated selection of a mutilated archive of a mutilated history of a mutilated kingdom — hardly the stuff of the positivist, empirical method I was trained in a generation ago.

Read the article.

Not a very encouraging reality for scholars and our future understanding of the past.

Angels & Demons

Took a break and saw this thriller last night. H didn't think much of it but I rather enjoyed it. It hooked me immediately, started a ticking clock, and didn't let up the tension for two hours. Pure entertainment. Afterwards H was taking it apart but that's rather like criticizing the makeup of your partner after great sex. Who cares?

Hope to finish up the projects today, which gives me tomorrow to put out fires.

Wanderlust

I continue my recent daydreaming about living in a van. Not going to happen, in all likelihood, but I feel like my father's son when I feel this wanderlust. I could do it easily, sacrificing only a place to store a few necessary things too large to travel with.

Taking a break

Taking a much needed break from projects, with less than ten to go. In good shape to finish by Tuesday.

Then I tackle the final essays. Then compute and turn in grades. And then face a high pile of homeowner chores, responsibilities and decisions. Only after that will I know the creative possibilities of the summer.

Last lap, almost

Did a bit of video editing this morning. Rest of the weekend is dedicated to reading student projects. Onward.

Oh, yes, H had a lovely opening last night. Very cool.

Stress

I was hoping for a mellow, relaxing day but I've been letting myself stress out instead. I wrote about this at length in my posthumous blog, which I seem to be visiting more often lately, but not here.

I need to get back to my COMIC novel of the 60s. I need to forget the real small tragedies of that era and focus on the imagined absurd comedy of it all. And I need to protect this point of view.

After the storm

We had quite a storm yesterday while I was in class. Wind, lightning, the stuff we don't often get.

Really feel like I need a day off before tackling the projects. H has an opening tonight. During the day, maybe my chore will be to make a new batch of scrapple. And I can always fit in some writing and reading.

Sudden mixed feelings about the graduate school reunion. The folks I most care about from that era are gone. I've made peace with my 60s demons, and I'd hate to stir them back to life. However, if I go down to shoot a documentary, I'd have a focus and, yes, distraction. Not sure what to do.

Last class, birthday dinner

Off to my last class, in which we'll watch a few videos made by students. After class, off to my wife's birthday dinner, a ritual we do twice a year at Todai, but which we missed last time, my bday, because H was out of town. I may take tomorrow off, then hit the projects over the weekend.

H found a website that says our house is worth about 25% more than we thought. Maybe too good to be true. Be great if it is, though!

Get my grades in, get the new review out, get the house business settled -- then, and only then, can I think about other summer projects.

We did decide to make our Idaho trip after Labor Day. We have my grad school reunion in Aug. H taking some summer art classes. And I want to get a lot done on the novel, plus shoot at least two short videos from JD's scripts.

But first things first.

The medium is the message

Very impressed with Pres. Obama's first step toward a new tone in dealing with the Muslim world. The speech in Cairo was about as different from the Bush tone as one can get. He's a damn impressive man.

UCLA, 1964

The last reader at First Wednesday gave a monologue about certain persons and events at UCLA in 1964. I was at UCLA then, a junior two years away from coming to Oregon for graduate school (initially as a PhD candidate in Amer Lit, planning to write my dissertation on Melville's PIERRE, OR THE AMBIGUITIES), but was unaware of the subject matter of focus last night. At this time I was hanging out at The Ash Grove a lot, in essence a groupie of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Lightnin' Hopkins, Barbara Dane, and some students who later became Canned Heat.

Salinger emerges, sort of

(CNN) -- Reclusive author J.D. Salinger has emerged, at least in the pages of court documents, to try to stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen hero of his classic "The Catcher in the Rye," as an old man.

Read the story

Glory, glory

I am so uplifted by warm weather, I can't believe I'm still in Portland over 30 years after I moved here! Will I become sane on this issue while there's still time?

A morning full of necessary chores, mostly household, and now some afternoon hanging out before going to First Wednesday tonight. Last day of class tomorrow, so it's a big week.

The dog had a good run this morning.

Washington wins softball title!

Read the story.

Students doing well

A former student stopped by my office hours. He got into and in August begins study at USC Film School in screenwriting. Love success stories like this! I think this is my first ex to get into USC.

A busy office hours, which is usually the case the last week of school. Lots of questions and anxiety.

Success

Uploading the last video file at the moment, which means I was able to upload them all in about an hour, which is fantastic. Faster here than the DSL at home.

Going to the deli to grab some breakfast on the run. Then settle in with student papers. wish it would storm some more.

Video files

Morning coffee, uploading video files to the review. Student query letters to review this morning. In class, I show the documentary DREAMS ON SPEC, which is a realistic portrayal of three screenwriters trying to make it in L.A. Reality 101 stuff, which I emphasize always.

Scattered thuderstorms, if can call them that -- you very seldom see an east coast kind of thunderstorm in the Pacific NW -- and more through the day, according to forecast.

This and that

A productive day. Tomorrow, back to teaching, the final week. Collect projects on Thursday, finals next Tuesday. Should have my grades in the end of next week. Then a rush of homeowner responsibilities and decisions.

Washington creamed Florida today. Hope they do it again tomorrow and sweep for the championship.

Editing

A busy day of editing video for the review. Maybe three more sessions like this will wrap up this part of my editing chores, which by far is the most time consuming.

Ready to quit, relax, and watch the first game of the softball finals. Yesterday was incredible -- close games, no less than 3 bases-loaded home runs, including a walk on for Florida's come-from-behind victory, just a good day to watch competitive sports without the ego-diseases surrounding the NBA finals. The only drawback here were the inane analyses by the "know it all" commentators. Just shut up and let us enjoy the game! I found myself using the mute button a lot.

La Grande high school actors put on their play

The Steve Martin play banned by the La Grande school district finally got its off-school performance recently. Here's the story.