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Media
and other stuff Sherman is enjoying and mulling
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Check out the longshot candidate: thedailybeast.com. - posted 6.25.09
I read this intense blog post, theatlantic.com, and thought, of course, of the colonization of Native Americans. A few weeks back, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I said something similar to Coates. Native Americans love to think of ourselves as special, as a people whose specialness was partly and/or fully destroyed by European colonization. But what if we Native Americans are just as ordinary as everybody else? What if our genocide is no more or less special than anybody else's? If, as Coates suggest, there is a certain self-destructive glamour (for white and black folks) in being so attached to certain mythologies about slavery, then is there also a corresponding self-destructive glamour (for Natives and non-Natives) in being so attached to certain mythologies about genocide? - posted 6.23.09
A few parents think I am dangerous. Here's an in-depth story about the resolution of the Antioch book challenge. Does this group of people have any idea how chilling it is to think of putting warning stickers on books? Of course, as a friend of mine noted, those stickers would make those books even more popular among teens: chicagotribune.com.
Kudos to the school board and superintendent: blog.seattlepi.com. - posted 6.22.09
As the voting protests continue in Iran, as detailed here (thedailybeast.com), I am struck by the political power of current technology (tweets as revolutionary communication), and hope Iran turns more toward democratization (though I worry it's more likely to become even more of a fascist state). I am also thinking about the usefulness of technology, in regards to my recent flap over the Kindle and EBooks. I'm just beginning to formulate ideas on this, and am reading widely to get other folks' take on it, but I think that the Internet is a beautiful forum for immediate and egalitarian information-share, but by definition, it's disposable. A blog post, a digital report, any form of journalism, is almost immediately going to be replaced (or should be replaced) by a newer, more informed report. I'm worried that people are (inadvertently or not) carrying this click-and-read mentality into literature. A book is a physical object that takes up space in your life. It has presence. One must take account of it on a minute-by-minute basis. Right now, in fact, as I type this post, I can see five bookshelves in my house (and am aware there a few dozen other shelves I cannot see from where I'm sitting). That's a few thousand pounds of books. That's permanent. If one keeps their library (or increasing amounts of their library) on an electronic device, don't those books lose physical presence? Don't they, by definition, become easily erased, forgotten, archived in the electronic closet? Does digital technology turn fiction and poetry into journalism? Interesting debate. And while we are praying for the protesting Iranians, and marveling at the power of technology, let's not forget that the true power and glory resides with those people who are now so courageously and physically making their opposition known. They used technology to organize the protests, sure, but those protests are effective because they take up space and have presence. The ruling government can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell a protest. Oh, and by the way, a right wing paranoid freak friend of mine (he calls me a communist bastard) called to tell me that he's scared of eBooks and digital readers, too. I'll paraphrase him: "What government wouldn't love to have its citizens, and its best and brightest and most technologically adept citizens, carry devices that contain all of their correspondence, personal and business; the entirely of their address book; the collected history of their books and magazines read, movies and TV shows watched, music heard, web sites visited, and items purchased? And then add in the GPS tracking shit and you've got a perfect means of government control." Not being a right wing (or left wing) paranoid freak, I never even considered how the current technology could make its users so easily followed and defined. I'm a fool for not thinking about this because I'll soon be getting emails from friends and fans and enemies based on this post, and my Gmail account, after sifting through the key words in my messages, will ever so helpfully include a sidebar of web links so that I can purchase Kindles, GPS devices, cell phones, and hot chicken wings (left and right) from KFC. - posted 6.18.09
So Kobe won his fourth NBA title and I'm bummed about it. I'm a certified Kobe-hater. And I've never been able to fully articulate my negative feelings about him. But Bill Simmons does a great job of describing his negative feelings: sports.espn.go.com.
It has something to do with Kobe's joylessness. I don't get any joy out of watching Kobe. I don't even get any joy out of rooting against him (like I do rooting against the Raiders or Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Braves). I fully recognize that Kobe is one of the top five players of all time (MJ, Magic, Bird, Shaq, LeBron, Kobe, Kareem, Bill Russell, Wilt, and Oscar Robertson all have valid reasons to be included in the top five), but he's just not beloved like the others are. As Simmons notes, it's a bizarre phenomenon. Has anybody this great ever inspired so much ambivalence? - posted 6.16.09
If you watch the "Facebook the Past" episode of MY BOYS - tbs.com - you will be in for a surreal shock. I've watched it a few times now and I'm still delighted and weirded out. - posted 6.10.09
If we add up the leftness and rightness of Obama's appointments, I'm guessing he'd be pretty close to the midpoint. In essence, he seems to be ignoring the far left and far right. A wise move. But as I hear folks complimenting or complaining about his choices ("He's a shrewd politician!" "He's an appeaser!" He's a hypocrite! He's a genius! He's a socialist!"), I wonder why more people aren't thinking that his choice as detailed here (salon.com) might be the result of Obama's association with socially conservative Evangelical Christianity. Can we entertain a question here? What if Obama is opposed to gay marriage, not because he's worried about losing voters, but because he is, as a certain type of Christian, actually opposed to gay marriage? I've always been more worried about his Evangelical influences than most of his supporters. The Obama Presidency, in its infancy, has already been so dramatic and revolutionary in ways that none of us could have predicted. - posted 6.9.09
Even as I'm being insulted by hundreds of strangers, I am grateful that the Internet literary world is a bit abuzz with discussions about the negative and positive aspects of eBooks. Ed Champion interviewed me for his website: edrants.com. I am happy that I get to clarify a few things, and I'm very pleased that Ed noted that my comments on the BEA panels were theatrical in nature. I'm a performer and I was using theatrical techniques to make a point. I honor people's right to disagree or agree with my opinions, but I hope they also recognize that I was doing something old-fashioned: I was telling stories to a large group of people and I was using the tone of my voice, facial expression, and body posture to help tell that story. - posted 6.2.09
This is an absolutely ridiculous and testosterone-soaked guilty pleasure: spike.com - posted 5.27.09
Hilarious, intense, curious, fascinating: youtube.com. - posted 5.26.09
Over the next few Sundays, creationist preachers will be freaking about this: revealingthelink.com. - posted 5.22.09
I miss Sonics basketball so much. To think, if things had been different, that I could have been watching this guy 41 times a year in person: youtube.com. - posted 5.21.09
Compare and contrast these two articles: cnn.com and nytimes.com. So it's good to use DNA to find and convict criminals but not to exonerate them? - posted 5.20.09
On many days, Jon Stewart and his writers are the best journalists in the country. Comedy is the best disinfectant: thedailyshow.com. - posted 5.15.09
Here's distressing news: blogs.abcnews.com. I suspect that there are realpolitik motivations involved in the suppression of these photos. Perhaps it is politically and militarily wise to suppress these photos, but is it a moral act? Obama is, after all the hype, just another politician. Could be a good president. Might be a great one. But he is making moral and ethical compromises that his most ardent supporters are either ignoring or abhorring. - posted 5.14.09
This is very sad news: sltrib.com. I have mentioned before how much I love Arnold's poetry. And I did visit with him for a few hours when I was a guest writer at the University of Wyoming, and he was funny, smart, warm, and eccentric. He was great. His friends and family have my prayers. - posted 5.13.09
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I read this intense blog post, theatlantic.com, and thought, of course, of the colonization of Native Americans. A few weeks back, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I said something similar to Coates. Native Americans love to think of ourselves as special, as a people whose specialness was partly and/or fully destroyed by European colonization. But what if we Native Americans are just as ordinary as everybody else? What if our genocide is no more or less special than anybody else's? If, as Coates suggest, there is a certain self-destructive glamour (for white and black folks) in being so attached to certain mythologies about slavery, then is there also a corresponding self-destructive glamour (for Natives and non-Natives) in being so attached to certain mythologies about genocide? - posted 6.23.09
A few parents think I am dangerous. Here's an in-depth story about the resolution of the Antioch book challenge. Does this group of people have any idea how chilling it is to think of putting warning stickers on books? Of course, as a friend of mine noted, those stickers would make those books even more popular among teens: chicagotribune.com.
Kudos to the school board and superintendent: blog.seattlepi.com. - posted 6.22.09
As the voting protests continue in Iran, as detailed here (thedailybeast.com), I am struck by the political power of current technology (tweets as revolutionary communication), and hope Iran turns more toward democratization (though I worry it's more likely to become even more of a fascist state). I am also thinking about the usefulness of technology, in regards to my recent flap over the Kindle and EBooks. I'm just beginning to formulate ideas on this, and am reading widely to get other folks' take on it, but I think that the Internet is a beautiful forum for immediate and egalitarian information-share, but by definition, it's disposable. A blog post, a digital report, any form of journalism, is almost immediately going to be replaced (or should be replaced) by a newer, more informed report. I'm worried that people are (inadvertently or not) carrying this click-and-read mentality into literature. A book is a physical object that takes up space in your life. It has presence. One must take account of it on a minute-by-minute basis. Right now, in fact, as I type this post, I can see five bookshelves in my house (and am aware there a few dozen other shelves I cannot see from where I'm sitting). That's a few thousand pounds of books. That's permanent. If one keeps their library (or increasing amounts of their library) on an electronic device, don't those books lose physical presence? Don't they, by definition, become easily erased, forgotten, archived in the electronic closet? Does digital technology turn fiction and poetry into journalism? Interesting debate. And while we are praying for the protesting Iranians, and marveling at the power of technology, let's not forget that the true power and glory resides with those people who are now so courageously and physically making their opposition known. They used technology to organize the protests, sure, but those protests are effective because they take up space and have presence. The ruling government can see, hear, feel, taste, and smell a protest. Oh, and by the way, a right wing paranoid freak friend of mine (he calls me a communist bastard) called to tell me that he's scared of eBooks and digital readers, too. I'll paraphrase him: "What government wouldn't love to have its citizens, and its best and brightest and most technologically adept citizens, carry devices that contain all of their correspondence, personal and business; the entirely of their address book; the collected history of their books and magazines read, movies and TV shows watched, music heard, web sites visited, and items purchased? And then add in the GPS tracking shit and you've got a perfect means of government control." Not being a right wing (or left wing) paranoid freak, I never even considered how the current technology could make its users so easily followed and defined. I'm a fool for not thinking about this because I'll soon be getting emails from friends and fans and enemies based on this post, and my Gmail account, after sifting through the key words in my messages, will ever so helpfully include a sidebar of web links so that I can purchase Kindles, GPS devices, cell phones, and hot chicken wings (left and right) from KFC. - posted 6.18.09
So Kobe won his fourth NBA title and I'm bummed about it. I'm a certified Kobe-hater. And I've never been able to fully articulate my negative feelings about him. But Bill Simmons does a great job of describing his negative feelings: sports.espn.go.com.
It has something to do with Kobe's joylessness. I don't get any joy out of watching Kobe. I don't even get any joy out of rooting against him (like I do rooting against the Raiders or Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, and Atlanta Braves). I fully recognize that Kobe is one of the top five players of all time (MJ, Magic, Bird, Shaq, LeBron, Kobe, Kareem, Bill Russell, Wilt, and Oscar Robertson all have valid reasons to be included in the top five), but he's just not beloved like the others are. As Simmons notes, it's a bizarre phenomenon. Has anybody this great ever inspired so much ambivalence? - posted 6.16.09
If you watch the "Facebook the Past" episode of MY BOYS - tbs.com - you will be in for a surreal shock. I've watched it a few times now and I'm still delighted and weirded out. - posted 6.10.09
If we add up the leftness and rightness of Obama's appointments, I'm guessing he'd be pretty close to the midpoint. In essence, he seems to be ignoring the far left and far right. A wise move. But as I hear folks complimenting or complaining about his choices ("He's a shrewd politician!" "He's an appeaser!" He's a hypocrite! He's a genius! He's a socialist!"), I wonder why more people aren't thinking that his choice as detailed here (salon.com) might be the result of Obama's association with socially conservative Evangelical Christianity. Can we entertain a question here? What if Obama is opposed to gay marriage, not because he's worried about losing voters, but because he is, as a certain type of Christian, actually opposed to gay marriage? I've always been more worried about his Evangelical influences than most of his supporters. The Obama Presidency, in its infancy, has already been so dramatic and revolutionary in ways that none of us could have predicted. - posted 6.9.09
Even as I'm being insulted by hundreds of strangers, I am grateful that the Internet literary world is a bit abuzz with discussions about the negative and positive aspects of eBooks. Ed Champion interviewed me for his website: edrants.com. I am happy that I get to clarify a few things, and I'm very pleased that Ed noted that my comments on the BEA panels were theatrical in nature. I'm a performer and I was using theatrical techniques to make a point. I honor people's right to disagree or agree with my opinions, but I hope they also recognize that I was doing something old-fashioned: I was telling stories to a large group of people and I was using the tone of my voice, facial expression, and body posture to help tell that story. - posted 6.2.09
This is an absolutely ridiculous and testosterone-soaked guilty pleasure: spike.com - posted 5.27.09
Hilarious, intense, curious, fascinating: youtube.com. - posted 5.26.09
Over the next few Sundays, creationist preachers will be freaking about this: revealingthelink.com. - posted 5.22.09
I miss Sonics basketball so much. To think, if things had been different, that I could have been watching this guy 41 times a year in person: youtube.com. - posted 5.21.09
Compare and contrast these two articles: cnn.com and nytimes.com. So it's good to use DNA to find and convict criminals but not to exonerate them? - posted 5.20.09
On many days, Jon Stewart and his writers are the best journalists in the country. Comedy is the best disinfectant: thedailyshow.com. - posted 5.15.09
Here's distressing news: blogs.abcnews.com. I suspect that there are realpolitik motivations involved in the suppression of these photos. Perhaps it is politically and militarily wise to suppress these photos, but is it a moral act? Obama is, after all the hype, just another politician. Could be a good president. Might be a great one. But he is making moral and ethical compromises that his most ardent supporters are either ignoring or abhorring. - posted 5.14.09
This is very sad news: sltrib.com. I have mentioned before how much I love Arnold's poetry. And I did visit with him for a few hours when I was a guest writer at the University of Wyoming, and he was funny, smart, warm, and eccentric. He was great. His friends and family have my prayers. - posted 5.13.09
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