La muerte en la biblioteca

More often than not, death occurs in a library, between books and carpet and dead air and silence, whispering children and a stern atmosphere, the crackling of pages turning, the tapping of keys on a board, the hum of multimedia, the beeping of materials checked out and checked in, the frantic wordless activity of a thousand nerds. Old people and schoolchildren, part-time students, and transplants. These are the tenants of the old public library, and more often it is here we come to die.

(Rain) Song of the Day: Jorge Ben - Chove Chuva

for the LA rain today...

In the beginning men worshipped stones

He said, "In the beginning men worshipped stones. Then fire. Today we find those practices funny. Wouldn't men tomorrow find the practices of today funny?"
--From V.S. Naipaul's Among The Believers

I Know Why The Caged Bird Loves

"And why does it make you sad to see how everything hangs by such thin and whimsical threads? Because you're a dreamer, an incredible dreamer, with a tiny spark hidden somewhere inside you which cannot die, which even you cannot kill or quench and which tortures you horribly because all the odds are against its continual burning. In the midst of the foulest decay and putrid savagery, this spark speaks to you of beauty, of human warmth and kindness, of goodness, of greatness, of heroism, of martyrdom, and it speaks to you of love."
- Eldridge Cleaver, Soul On Ice

Summer's Ended

Incognito - Summer's Ended






































































Santa Monica, June 26




















































































































Venice Beach, July 10































































Corona Del Mar, July 29






















El Segundo, August 18





















Santa Monica, September 1

"may my heart always be open" by e.e. cummings

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

An Inconvenient Patriotism

"The Conservatives, who had long claimed a monopoly of patriotism, were thinking of their social and economic privileges, not of the national interest."

This sentence comes from the French history book I'm reading (France: A Modern History by Albert Guérard), concerning the period where Leon Blum was in his first stint as Prime Minister, and defeated (in 1937) by conservative thinking that saw things in terms of communism versus fascism, both on the rise in Europe at the time. The Conservatives unhesitatingly preferred fascism: "Rather Hitler than Blum!"
We see now what a grave mistake, and a grossly immoral stance that was.

Reminds me of what we're going through now, where people making over $250,000 don't want to agree to Obama's plan to give up more of their money to fund healthcare reform, even though these same Republicans claim to love their country above all else. I just thought that was interesting.