Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

“Do you know who I am?,” George Zimmerman said, to the man in the other car.  “I will fucking kill you.”  Of course, “I will fucking kill you” is the kind of thing that people say all the time, but it’s a little bit more frightening when it comes from George Zimmerman, who has killed before and apparently has very little remorse over it.  In fact, he seems rather proud of it.

Yes, George, we know who you are. You really should not be proud of that.

“Do you know who we are?,” Sarah Palin shouted out when the owner of the house tried to kick her and her family out of his party on account of Track, the oldest Palin boy, starting a fight almost as soon as they got there.  Yes, Sarah, everybody knows who you are.  You are the extremely corrupt half term governor and failed vice presidential candidate who has exposed her abject ignorance on TV again and again and again, who couldn’t think of a single answer when a reporter asked her what newspapers she read.  You are the mother who goes on and on about Christian values and teen abstinence, whose teenage daughter got knocked up.  Yes, Sarah, we know who you are.

“Do you know who I am?”  It’s really a pathetic question.  Maybe if you’ve just woken up from a 6 month coma and your spouse is standing over your bed, trying to figure out if you’re conscious and whether or not there’s been brain damage, it makes sense.  Perhaps if you are at your 10th  High School Reunion, and you meet somebody you dated only once and she still looks pretty good, it’s a reasonable question.

One time I heard about (and this may well have been urban legend) a student who was taking an exam in college, in a lecture hall with about 200 other students, and kept writing after the professor had called time.  When he came to the front of the room to hand in his paper, the professor said “I’m sorry, you’re late.  That’s an automatic fail.”

“Do you know who I am?” the student asked, in a very sarcastic voice.  The professor looked right  back at him and said “No, I do not.”

“Good,” the student said,  shoved his test paper into the middle of the stack, and left the hall.

But, usually, when shouted in rage by someone who thinks they should be a lot more famous and important than they really are, it’s just kind of embarrassing.  Especially with people  like George Zimmerman and Sarah Palin.  They should be hoping people do not know who they are.

As an American living in Prague, I won’t be directly affected by whether or not Scotland decides to become independent or not.    In a way, I’m kind of hoping for a no vote, but that’s just because I’m used to the status quo and, despite my claims to be a liberal, there is a natural hesitation to embrace change.  I didn’t like it when Pluto lost its planetary status, either.  In a way, I’m kind of hoping for a yes vote, because Scotland, fuck yeah.

But  mostly I don’t think it will make much difference.  They’re not going to stop making whiskey or having a funny accent, either way.  I’m pretty sure Paul McCartney won’t need to sell his home. (What will happen to all of the royals’ Scottish  properties, though, I don’t know).

It’s  being decided by referendum, so there isn’t going to be any problem about it, either way.  England isn’t going to send in the tanks and bombers to force them to stay in the Union.  Horn-helmeted Norwegians are unlikely to come over in their longboats and start burning villages and carrying  woman and children off.

It’s what should have been done in Ukraine.  A bit late now.

It’s more like what  happened in Czechoslovakia in 1993.  Neither Slovokia nor the Czech  Republic sank into the ocean. (we’re nowhere near the ocean).

I’m interested in whether there will be a knock-on effect.  Will there be referendums in Catalonia and the Basque Region?  I suspect the Spanish government will not allow it because of the likelihood of them passing.

If the British government had thought this referendum would pass, they probably wouldn’t have allowed it.  Fooled them, huh?

I don’t want to write about the anniversary of 9/11 because, despite the fact that we all saw the same footage, over and over and over again, we don’t all agree as to what happened that day, specifically who was to blame for it, and probably never will.  I’ve stated my reasons for believing it was an inside job on many occasions, and will again, but not tonight.  I don’t want to start an argument during the middle of a memorial.

Do you know who I am?

I don’t want to write about the Pistorius verdict, because that’s just too depressing for words.  He murdered his  girlfriend, shot her deader than hell, and got  away  with it.  The final verdict isn’t in, but it will probably  be for some weak ass charge like negligence with a firearm.  The low-life murdering prick got  away with it.

No, I want to write about this because it’s funny.  Apparently, last Saturday night, the Palin family went to a party.  Sarah, her husband Todd, their oldest son Track, daughter Bristol, and grandson Tripp (Bristol’s kid) who is 6.  The party was at the home of Chris Olds, who races snowmobiles so probably knows Todd quite well.

Anyway, Track apparently had a disagreement with another guy there, a former boyfriend of sister Willow’s.  It got kind of noisy and Olds asked them to leave.  Sarah started screaming “Do you know who I am?!”  (Yes, Sarah, everybody knows who you are.  Did the thought cross your obtuse, little mind that maybe that’s WHY he asked you to leave?) Bristol punched Olds in the face.  Several times.  Someone from the crowd  shouted out “This ain’t some damned hillbilly reality show.” (Except, of course, it sort of is)

Eventually the Palins, severely outnumbered and clearly unwelcome, left.  Todd was bleeding from the mouth and Track was standing on the sidewalk, shirtless, giving everybody the finger while his proud Mama stood behind him.

Two observations:  First, it seems that their friends and neighbors in Alaska are just as sick of the Palins’ bullshit as the rest of America is.

Second, this happened Saturday night.  Today is Thursday.  Why is it taking so long to hear about it?  Would we have heard about it at all if some bloggers in Alaska hadn’t reported it?  Seriously, the first major newspaper to report it was the Washington Post and they wrote about it a full 5 days after it happened.  In this age of high speed communications, I cannot escape the suspicion that the main stream media is deliberately trying to NOT report the news.

I just read an article and I’m not going to link to it for two reasons.  One, because I totally disagree with the premise and, two, because it’s been floating around facebook for a while so, if you are interested in poetry, especially if you write poetry, and double especially if you read at poetry readings, you’ve probably seen it already and,  if  you’re not interested in poetry, you probably couldn’t care less about the topic.

The premise was that poets tend to read their poems in ‘poet voice,’ which the author seemed to think was fake,  pompous and annoying.  How does he expect poets to read their poems?  In a doctor’s bedside manner voice?:  I’m afraid I have bad news for you.  Sit down, please.  So much depends upon the red wheelbarrow…. Perhaps in a policeman’s voice:  Give me your license and registration…the wretched refuse of your humble shore.  Perhaps he thinks we should speak more in a teacher’s voice:  I think that I shall never see (Johnny, pay attention, please) a poem as lovely as a tree.

My point is that since we are reading poems, of course we use ‘poet’s voice.’  Whatever voice we use  inherently adopts the definition.  Of course, I know the voice he means.  A little bit pretentious, kind of breathy and dramatic.  It’s why Shatner and Franco, out of all the dramatic actors out there, are the ones who like to read poetry out loud.

But, still, I see it as fair enough.  A poem is not a conversation.  When I’m on stage, reading something I’ve read, where I intend every  word to count, I don’t want to sound like I’m in a casual conversation with a friend, or making small talk with the checkout lady in the supermarket.  I want to emphasize each word, I want to have pauses at strategic points, I want to make the audience think what I want the audience to think.

The author seems to think that ‘poet voice’ is one of the reasons nobody likes poetry any more (except, of course,  for those of us who do).  He’s wrong, though.  The reason most people don’t  like poetry is because most of the poetry being written today sucks.  It’s got nothing to do with the voice.

A common meme on facebook is to show a picture of some ancient device, like a typewriter or a rotary  phone, with the caption “share if you remember this,” and I wonder why they don’t just cut to the chase and say “share if you’re over 50 years old.”  I also wonder what kind of a kick people get out of this.  Is it a sense of solidarity?  I’m old, so I belong to this club of all the other old people out there.  Is it a sense of superiority? Ha! I know something you young punks don’t.  Or, is it a sense (and I see a lot of comments indicating this) that the past was somehow better than the present.

There’s no turning back

It was not.  Without mobile phones, there were missed appointments like crazy.  You’d have to wait for people forever, with no way  to contact them and say ‘where the hell are you?’ the way we do today if someone is 30 seconds late.  Without the internet, sure, we had more face to face conversations, but you can still have those if you really want.  There must be a reason we are so willing to spend so much time with our artificial friendships on-line.

In short, the present is better than the past and I’m reasonably confident the future will be better than the present, if  we can  avoid this  Ukrainian mess from turning into WWIII, and if we can avoid making the world uninhabitable because of all the carbon emissions and toxic chemicals threatening to extinctify the honey bee.

Which brings me to tonight’s topic.  The Mashco Piro are a tribe in Peru, deep in the western regions of the Amazon jungle.  They live much as their ancestors have for thousands of years.  They hunt.  They do not use telephones, or read books.  They know nothing of electricity, and have not had much contact with the outside world.

In fact, authorities are trying to discourage people from having any contact with them at all because they’re worried that contact could be fatal to them, because of disease.  But, it’s unstoppable.  They’ve seen us, they  know we’re out there.  They  sneak into logging camps and steal tools.  They will learn how to use some of them, and they  will not look back.  They will want more.

Many people, who no doubt are well intended, say we should respect their lifestyle and not try to bring them into the 21st century.  That’s possible any more.  They may not like all western developments – clothing,  I imagine,  will be unappealing.  But they’re going to love television, and chocolate, and motorboats.

People  want to move forward.  Not back.