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Unsafe Main Street Construction Site in Fort Worth

This dig site is on Main Street in Fort Worth. I was in the neighborhood and shot this quick video Saturday.

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Charles Malato’s Tales of New Caledonia

At the age of seventeen, Charles Malato, the son of Paris communards, was exiled to New Caledonia with his parents. That's perhaps a natural start for a life that would be largely dedicated to anarchism. Malato was an activist and a prolific writer, producing journalism, autobiography, anarchist theory, drama and fiction for both adults and children. It's probably no surprise that New Caledonia features in a number of his writings, or that those writings bear the mark of a youth in the region. 

I've started to collect and translate some of Malato's writings on New Caledonia, beginning with an odd little book for young people, the 1897 New Caledonian Tales, written under the pen-name "Talamo." Knowing Malato's history and politics, readers may find some of the details of that text curious, and they are perhaps even more so when compared with the section from the autobiographical From the Commune to Anarchy (1894), reproduced below. 

There are more New Caledonian tales to come. Malato contributed one more Kanak tale to Louise Michel's collection of local stories, wrote a serial novel about young lovers among the exiles, and contributed a serialized collection of "Memories of New Caledonia to L'Aurore in 1901. And that last serial includes another long account of the life of the indigenous chief Damé.
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The last great chief of the Nouméas was Damé, whose story, which strangely resembles that of the pious Æneas, can be told in less than twelve songs. The son, not of Anchises, but of Sésagni, — a civil state as honorable, — Damé was a great hunter and eater of men who, by exerting his terrible appetite on his neighbors, compelled them to take some protective measures. One evening, while his tribe celebrated a solemn pilou at Watchio-Kouéta, the Kamb'was a vindictive tribe, led by the fierce Ouaton’, fell upon them and massacred three quarters of them. Dame, escaped, not without difficulty, with Sésagni and his son Capéia who, just like Ascanius, promised to walk in his father's footsteps. He wandered for a few days in the mountains of the south, feeding there not on good human steaks, but on roots nearly as wild as himself. That diet would perhaps have suited a vegetarian, but Dame was not that. Very fortunately, old Sésagni recalled that among his numerous wives, one, the mother of Damé, belonged to the powerful tribe of the Touaourous and he enlisted his offspring to go ask for hospitality from that brave people. This was an excellent idea, and Damé hastened to execute it. In that era, the Touaourous had for their unconstitutional monarch one named Kaâté who welcomed the fugitives not with his stomach, but with open arms and made the neighboring chiefs grant them land. The son of Sésagni was not a man of straw: he built up a new tribe, soon augmented by marriages and by the constant arrival of Nouméas escaped from their vanquishers. Soon the exiles could taste, with the sweetness of vengeance, the tibias of their enemies, an eminently national dish, — for, from time to time, they would cross the central mountain chain to fall on the unsuspecting Kamb'was.
Damé recovered to such an extent that eventually he inspired serious misgivings among its neighbors, with regard to whom, however, he had always behaved with great honesty. Two small tribes, the Tyas and the Dodgis, combined against him, and one night they fell on new Nouméa villages, killing and burning everywhere. Damé, who in the midst of his adversity, certainly enjoyed good fortune, was awakened just in time by one of his own who shouted: “N'gon tôté, oushiot dé Dodgi iêt ghé!” a melodious sentence which means in the pure Touaourou dialect “You, sir, get up!” the Dodgis strike us!” The great chief hastily gathered some of his own, among them Capéia—-Sésagni had long since been eating the taros by the root—-and went to the forest of Goronourou. The next day, before dawn, Kaâté, informed without delay, as the telegraph did not exist, rushed with his warriors to the aid of his friend and Damé took overall command uttering these memorable words: “They struck us at night and by surprise: we will strike them by day and face to face.” In two battles, the traitors were exterminated: the survivors fled in their canoes, the Dodgis to the Ile Ouen, the Tyas to Kunié.
We could stop the story of Damé there, but it has a very Kanak epilogue: to treachery, treachery-and-a-half. The Dodgis, decimated in their exile by privations and nostalgia, eventually enlisted two of their number to go and beg the victor for permission to return. Damé, persuaded, as an Oceanian gastronome, that revenge is a dish that is best savored cold, pretended to give pardon and even accepted the little gifts offered by his repentant enemies. Those, numbering forty-eight, were gathered unsuspecting in the palisade surrounding the hut of the great chief; squatting on mats, they already chewed on bananas or sugar cane brought by the women of the Nouméas. Suddenly, Damé wrinkled his brows: at that Jupiterian sign, forty-eight war-clubs struck down the Dodgis, who didn’t even have time to protest against that singular manner of understanding amnesty. Some time later, the Tyas, pushed traitorously by the chief of the Kunié, who wanted to be rid of them, left for their country without first asking permission. They thought themselves invincible, having paid some European traders very dearly for a whole stock of old rifles; but, when they wanted to use them on landing, — for Damé was there awaiting them, — they could not make a single one fire and were exterminated to the last man.
These acts, as “heroic” as roguish, have been set down in legends that the natives tell in the evenings and that were taught to me, four years later, by a young Frenchman raised among the Touaourous. For the moment, the brave Simonin, proud to spread before me his encyclopedic knowledge, gave me some vague notions about the New Caledonian tribes, which he alternated with the tale of his campaigns in Mexico. When, on the second day, in the afternoon, we moored before Canala, he began again, for the tenth time, the story of the “battle” of Tampico.

The narrow nature of political words, and how that distorts discourse.

I know I’ve used this image before, but it’s perfect for this entry also. I have to re-examine the way I, and all of us, use words like “freedom,” because it is becoming increasingly clear to me that these words are incomplete and inadequate compared to what they are supposed to mean. And this, I …

Continue reading at The Prime Directive …

The Dark Ages in the United States

This is, well, I'm not sure if it's original since I'm building on others, but one perspective on the Renaissance and on its development was that it was a fusion of the rediscovery of southern classicism with a new sense of introspection from the north. South and north here refer to Italy, and Greece, on the one hand, and the domains of the Holy Roman Empire on the other. Northern Italy was key because it was in fact a border land between the two realms.

But the Holy Roman Empire was the remnant of the Dark Ages, of the barbarian hordes that invaded Italy and destroyed the Roman Empire, ending classical learning and putting back culture in Europe for hundreds of years. However, after being nice and medieval for a long period of time, there was a movement in art, and possibly in literature, to examining the everyday events of life in a naturalistic way, with Dutch and Flemish artists paving the way. This may have been made possible by the very barbarian sense of freedom that the people there still embodied.

However, the Reformation, as opposed to the Renaissance, shows what could happen if that sense of naturalism isn't tempered with an awareness of the classical past and of the range of scholarship and insight into the human condition that it brings. Martin Luther, and indeed most of the more Germanic reformers, had an awareness of the natural progress of life, but he yoked it to a regressive Christianity that instead of providing liberation, like the Renaissance in Italy did, brought people even more into a repressive denial of life than they had been in before. Fueled by religious fanaticism, the naturalism of the Germans became an obsessive examination of personal faith, salvation, and sin.

It seems that we in the U.S. have certainly got the Naturalism, via Protestant Christianity, but we are woefully unaware of the realms of human life that the classical heritage deals with, leading certain parts of the country to resemble Dark Ages feudal islands of backwardness rather than liberated, Renaissance, city states.

Arlington PD Confronts Copwatchers to Impede Filming

This public video of a police encounter filmed Thursday night shows Arlington police officers confronting local copwathers. Michelle Southwick Wood reports that Arlington police officers slammed a women to the pavement of Cowboys bar parking lot as the group of copwatchers arrived on scene. The video below shows officers proactively deterring the filming of the encounter. Unfortunately, we don’t know if the bar manager who requested the group leave was prompted to make the request.

Officers should welcome a record of the events be made promptly for public convenience and at least make an effort to assure property owners that it’s a good idea that filming be allowed.

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from g.w. bowersock's review  of the discovery of middle earth: mapping the lost world of the celts, by graham robb: new york review of books, feb. 20: "In Greek mythology Heracles was very special."

Pagan Film Series February-May 2014

                             Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In and Community Seed Presents:

Pagan Film Series
February - May 2014

This series is an opportunity to come together, to watch engaging films and also to engage each other, to share thoughts and experiences, and to create more of an overlap of the many social circles that exist in this town.

AGORA
Saturday, Feb. 22nd
8pm SubRosa

In the twilight years of Pagan Rome, Alexandrian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician Hypatia must navigate a world increasingly under the control of the Christian church and hostile to women in positions of power. Starring academy award winner Rachel Weisz. Rated R.
BLACK ORPHEUS (Orfeu Negro)
Friday, Mar. 28th
8pm SubRosa

A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro. Orfeo is a trolley conductor and musician, engaged to Mira. During Carnival week, he sees Eurydice, who's fled her village in fear of a stalker - it's love at first sight. But she is being stalked by Death, can Orfeo conduct her to safety? Don't look back. Portuguese with English subtitles. Rated PG


BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS
Friday, Apr. 25th
8pm SubRosa

Angela Lansbury, along with three plucky working class kids and the dad from Mary Poppins, put the smackdown on the Nazis with a broom and some hocus pocus. This 1971 Disney animated musical was so subversive, the House on Unamerican Activities had to reconvene and investigate. Just kidding. Rated G.


SORCERESS (Le moine et la sorcière)
Friday, May 16th
8pm SubRosa

A Dominican friar visits a 13th-century French village in search of heretics. Despite the opposition of the local priest and the indifference of the villagers, he finds a seemingly perfect suspect: a young woman who lives in a forest outside the village and cures people with herbs and folk remedies. French with English subtitles. Not Rated.








About Community Seed: Our mission is to provide the local Santa Cruz Pagan community with opportunities to create closer bonds of perfect love and perfect trust, and understanding with one another, through community service, publications, gatherings, and ritual celebrations. We organize, host, and promote events that enrich and improve our lives, our world, and our community at large in the Santa Cruz region.(excerpt from their website and more at http://www.communityseed.org/)

About Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In: SANTA CRUZ GUERILLA DRIVE-IN is an outdoor movie theater under the stars that springs up unexpectedly in the fields and industrial wastelands. Beyond showing great free movies year-round and bringing a broad community together, part of our mission is reclaiming public space and transforming our urban environment.  More Info at http://www.guerilladrivein.org/

With child you lose, childfree you lose.

12-year-old girl: I don’t want kids when I grow up.
Society: You’ll change your mind when you get older. You’re only 12. You’re too young to know what you want.

16-year-old girl: I’m pregnant.
Society: How could you be so stupid? Do you know anything about safe sex? You should be ashamed.

20-year-old woman: I’m a single mother with an infant son.
Society: You should’ve gone to college first. You need a stable career before you can support a child.

33-year-old woman: I’m married and my spouse and I both have stable careers. I have two young daughters now.
Society: You’re not staying home? Who’s going to take care of them? You’re just going to put them in day care while you work? That’s selfish of you. You can’t expect to raise decent kids with a full-time job.

45-year-old woman: I just had my first child.
Society: Why would you have a child when you’re that old? Do you realize the health risks of being pregnant at your age? When your kid is a teenager you’ll be a senior citizen. That’s inconsiderate of you.

60-year-old woman: I haven’t had any children.
Society: Your life must be so unfulfilling. Is there something wrong with you? Why didn’t you want kids? How strange.

From Woman On The Edge Of Tyne.


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Amanda Knox, anti-Italian sentiment in the United States, and racism

I'm very glad that Knox has been convicted, because the reaction to her trial, the fact that she was even put on trial, in the Seattle media and to a lesser extent in the media of the United States as a whole has been terrible. It's been riddled with the idea of Italy as a country where someone can't get a fair trial, where justice isn't in the 20th century but instead dependent on corruption...almost like in a Mafia movie.

In fact, Italy is a modern country like every where else in Europe, and the Mafia doesn't have as much influence as people in the United States would like to believe, but the stereotypes that Anglo Americans have about Italians were set long before Amanda Knox participated in the slaying of Meredith Kercher.

Take this as an example: when was the last time you saw a person of obvious Italian origin in a movie playing just one of the guys, as a generic character whose identity did not depend on his ethnicity? In other words, a group of friends where one is Joe, another is Nathan, another is John, and one of them, normal in every other respect, just happens to be Italian? It doesn't happen, for the most part. People who are obviously Italian are either cast as gangsters or as idiots, as emotional and stupid good guys who you wouldn't take seriously outside of the context of the film.

Being partially Italian myself, and having ancestry involving several Eastern European ethnicities that tend to have darker skin, I can tell you that the difference in treatment is derivative of racism, and not of much else. There are plenty of European ethnicities who have cultural patterns that are different from those of Anglo-Americans. Slavic cultures, for example, tend to be more expressive and less buttoned down. However, Polish culture, if it's thought of at all, isn't really regarded as being weird and overly passionate, as Italian and Hispanic culture is, despite in some cases sharing similar attitudes.

European integration in the United States is based on skin color and facial features. People who are Polish or from elsewhere in Eastern Europe do fairly well, despite having a pretty different culture, because there are many people from these backgrounds who have fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. They can meld in and assimilate to the dominant ethnic look. Others from Southern Europe can't.

I know from personal experience, often having been mistaken for being partially Hispanic or some other ethnicity identified as Non-White, especially in Florida, that the one drop rule is still in effect in different parts of the United States. Living in the "Fake South" of Northern Florida, it was pretty apparent in the small towns that if you looked like you could be something that was non-white, in part or in whole, then you weren't one of us, so to speak. The fact that that something might not be black, or even that it might not be non-European at all, made no difference, even if the people in question knew that. The attitude was based on who was 'one of us' and who wasn't, and who wasn't was pretty well defined.

All of these attitudes, in my opinion, come down to skin color, and are present throughout the United States, even in the great tolerant city of Seattle, where because Knox was accused of killing Kercher in Italy, in Perugia, the system had to be corrupt, it had to be unfair, because the Mafia is down there, and the people look like Al Pacino.  Somehow, I think that they would be a little bit easier on the justice system if it happened in some backwater of Germany, because they're civilized.

*on edit: a perfect example of who Italians are cast as on television and film when they're not cast as Mafiosi is Matt LeBlanc's character on friends: a complete moron who's mostly there for comic relief.



Officials investigate inmate death at Ely State Prison

How many more people must die alone, unexplained, without medical care, after very long time inside Nevada's prisons? Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, by Ana Ley, Las Vegas Sun State corrections officials are investigating the death of an Ely State Prison inmate who was found unconscious inside his cell earlier this week. Paul Skinner, 53, was discovered by prison staff on Tuesday.