Dreamways

Jim Wooten's non-fiction book, We Are All The Same (2004 Penguin Books, NY). is a moving and deeply disturbing look into the catastrophe of AIDS in South Africa. The impact of this decimating disease is given a touchingly human face in the telling of the story that was the short and courageous life of a Zulu boy, Xolani Nkosi Johnson, born with AIDS, and the white woman who adopted him, cared for him and fought for him, Gail Johnson.  read more »

In this version of the Sunday comics, the frazzled penguin, Opus, attired in a nightshirt and nightcap in his shadowy bedroom, is knocking on the closet door.  The door is open and a head pokes out. It is an odd, non-human visage: enormous, the size of Opus, purple with yellow spots, a fuzz of chartreuse hair over its large eyes, sporting an upwardly pointing, green snout with yellow dots "What can I get you?" it asks.

Opus clutches his hands in bliss: "Him!"

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In his editorial page essay, “Long on Rhetoric, Short on Sorrow” (New York Times, 25 Jan 07), columnist Bob Herbert responds to President Bush’s recent State of the Union address. He takes politicians in general to task for not stepping up to the plate on resolving the Iraq war or various other festering national issues. He concludes his essay with the following words:

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"...[President] Bush has never had to pull off a U-turn like the one he is contemplating now: to give up on his dream of turning Babylon into an oasis of freedom and democracy and instead begin a staged withdrawal from Iraq…“ (Time magazine, 11 Dec 06 pg. 44)

This would seem to be an example of how a waking dream that is not continuously fine-tuned and checked against reality (and against sleep dreams) can wind up creating a waking-world nightmare. Dreamfulness is held hostage by the war in Iraq.

It is utterly amazing that this movie, starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, appeared 25 years ago. A quarter century! Oi!

I was curious to see what I would think of it. I vividly remember going to see it in 1981 at the University Hills theaters. I went with Z and his sister who was in town visiting. It was snowy. This I clearly recollect, but I had almost no memories of the movie itself.

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Featuring Dennis Quaid, Hugh Grant, Willem Dafoe, this movie is a clever satire poking fun of the contemporary American political and social landscape. Grant is the host of a viewer-voted talent contest show called "American Dreamz." It is glitzy, phony and superficial. The U.S. president (Quaid), a George W clone, as part of a campaign to regain popularity agrees to appear on the show as a judge. Everybody is searching for their dreams, but the cultural dreamscape is flat and bland. The prez, guided by Willem Dafoe as a Cheney-esque figure, struggles for autonomy.  read more »

The first day of spring. Outside, it is blustery and snowing. Two to three inches of whiteness blanket horizontal surfaces. Jackson sits at the stove island, drinking ocffee and reading the paper.

A very social day yesterday. At noon we had lunch in Arvada with the W. Family. Daila was in good spirits. She is now crawling and easily sitting up. She has long, slender fingerlings.

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Teleconference this afternoon: me, Alvin, Millie, Bonnie, Randy, Elana. I realize, aftewards, that in difficult situations such as the EB finds itself, my default mode is to think / act as if I will have no allies whatsoever. So that when attorney Elana mentioned that she could attend the Recall meeting, part of me automatically wanted to say „No!“ But then I realized that I could, actually, have another ally there to help with keeping the meeting from being hijacked.  read more »

A song snippet that I heard yesterday is echoing in my mind’s ear this morning:
Do you really want to hurt me?
Do you really want to makle me cry?

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The foto on the opposite page quite accurately reflects the emotional state that has visited me for parts of the past 24 hours. Yesterday San Juan sent out an email that calls for an owners‘ meeting the 21st, to vote on removing the Executive Board. This on top of #1111’s visit did feel like a particularly large surge of emotional sewage to process.

I have lots and lots of powerful emotions to feel and try to understand.  read more »