S.O.S.

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

On the other hand, Adrian Romero, who identifies as a queer immigrant originally from Mexico, called the Trump administration’s actions “the beginning stage of a modern-day Holocaust. … This is not patriotism, this is white nationalism.”

Read article. 

What a world cup!

The excitement is building relentlessly. Puts the American football playoff to shame. Only sporting event this extraordinary is the Olympics.

Two great games this morning, France beat Argentina and Messi 4-3 and Uruguay beat Portugal and Renaldo 2-1. So two superstars are going home.

Uruguay could go all the way.

I still don't understand penalties. A crash is not called, a relative nudge is called. It seems so arbitrary and if committed close to the goal, with a penalty kick, it can determine the game. An aspect of the game I don't like. Or probably I just don't understand it.

Knockout round

Teams that have reached the last 16

• Uruguay (winners of Group A)
• Russia (runners-up in Group A)
• Spain (winners of Group B)
• Portugal (runners-up in Group B)
• France (winners of Group C)
• Denmark (runners-up in Group C)
• Croatia (winners of Group D)
• Argentina (runners-up in Group D)
• Brazil (winners in Group E)
• Switzerland (runners-up in Group E)
• Sweden (winners in Group F)
• Mexico (runners-up in Group F)
• Belgium (winners in Group G)
• England (runners-up in Group G)
• Colombia (winners in Group H)
• Japan (runners-up in Group H)

Senegal tied with Japan but lost because of getting more yellow cards. Close but. I think Mexico is my sentimental favorite, because of you know who. I like Sweden. Impressive are Uruguay and Colombia. Some are calling this one of best World Cups ever because of the close competition.

Cooking

Joined NY Times cooking club, very inexpensive, adding some structure to my cooking responsibilities, which are making sure Harriet eats. I'd just wing in more myself, sandwiches and breakfast twice a day ha ha. But Harriet has higher standards.

Jazz workshop

The ukulele workshop last night was good. Good instructors, a couple, Chee and Maisel. Turnout was large, I thought, about 40 ... 25 women, mainly old ladies, and 5 men, mainly old men. Very interesting! Apparently about the same number attend Thursday morning jam sessions, and I may check them out. In fact, much going on at the Milwaukie Center that we'd likely enjoy. Need to get more plugged in.

Lots of ukulele to catch up on and learn new, and my hands are "usable" so far.

Journalists in the Trump era

From WBUR:

But when someone guns down your peers in cold blood and the far right cheers, something inside you breaks. You realize that the stories you sought to amplify as a journalist — stories that question unchecked power, from the streets all the way to the White House — are stories that a lot of people in America not only don’t want to hear, but want to kill. And when the president of the United States encourages his followers to antagonize journalists by painting targets on our backs, you start to wonder how much longer you can keep doing this.

Read the article. 

Journalism is an honorable profession that is not the villain of the American people, as Trump maintains. I've done a bit, mostly freelance features, not investigative. You don't get rich. You can get considerable satisfaction. Once you knew you were important to the culture, and you still are, despite recent challenges, as the hate-monger poisons minds.

Cordoba Ukulele

My hands are hanging in, and I am having a blast playing again. Learning some solos at Ukulele Underground. Take a jazz class tomorrow. This is good for my attitude, which sucks lately.

Poor Arkansas

Arkansas has never won a college world series. Tonight looked like it would happen. 9th inning, 2 outs, a one run lead, Oregon State has the tying run on third. And a foul pop up along the first base line. Catch it and be a champion. Three go after it: first baseman, second baseman, right fielder. No one calls for it. The ball drops. Not an out, a strike. Batter still alive. Naturally he drives in the tying run.

But there's more to this game that should have been over. Two pitches later, a 2 run home run! And Oregon State wins 5-3.

3rd and deciding game tomorrow. And Arkansas can weep tonight about turning an easy foul out into the 3 stooges on the ball field. Amazing.

Great games

An exciting morning. Sweden upset Mexico, South Korea upset Germany, so Sweden is in the 16 and Germany goes home. Maybe Mexico will go all the way, as in Fuck You, Trump!

World Cup

Germany and Sweden are fighting for the second spot behind Mexico in their group, both playing this morning. Will be fun.

Dusted off the Cordoba. Going to play as much as I can when the arthritis isn't too bad, and I did sign up for the workshop tomorrow. Also going to revisit Underground and learn something new.

The novel back in focus, progress. Are things looking up? Heavens!

What empathy?

Beachgoers enjoy a Zumba class in Pozzallo, Sicily, as the Maersk migrant ship sits in the background.

Back in the day

Arthritis and the ukulele

I stopped playing because of arthritis in my hands. But it comes and goes in severity. Not too bad today so I took out the Cordoba for the first time in weeks. Not too bad. I wanted to see because there is a local jazz uke workshop Thursday. So I signed up, hoping hands won't be bad that day.

Maybe I can get back to it. Anything to get me off my inactive ass.

The light

Out of sync

 I don’t wish a serious writer’s life on anyone. I agree with screenwriter Paul Schrader, who said the only reason to be an artist is that you’re incapable of being anything else. The meshing of the work and the life into a quilt of whole cloth is full of complications for every step of “a normal life,” from relationships to employment.             
 In America, it’s not clear what the purpose of literature is other than to be swept into a marketplace driven by star and money worship. If literature mattered, wouldn’t Graham Greene’s novel The Quiet American have made the Vietnam War impossible? Philip Glass has suggested that all works of art should be anonymous to rid the field of hero worship. I agree with him.

Deemer, Charles. Whole Cloth: the Quilt of Literature

A teacher speaks out

This caught my eye at Daily Kos:

I have taught government for many years.  When I am not teaching government, I am usually teaching American History.   I am well aware that our history is full of problematic actions by our government.  We have too many examples of separating children from parents — in slavery, in te use of Indian Boarding Schools. In the past we taught explicitly Protestant religion in public schools, one reason Catholics founded their own system of schools.  We have a history of religious bigotry even in place where we pretend we were celebrating religious freedom. Maryland’s Act of Toleration prescribed death to anyone who denied the Holy Trinity and Jews were denied the right to hold public office in the state until the Jew Bill in 1826 gave them (but no one else) that right. We still had established religions in states, supported by tax dollars of ALL residents, until Massachusetts finally disestablished in 1833  (New Hampshire moved in that direction in 1819, but I believe that technically the law was not fully changed until 1877).  We put American citizens in concentration (not extermination) camps because of their race and heritage.  We regularly see those who proposed denying rights to those who oppose them politically (gerrymandering is only one method:  voter id laws is now the more common method, combined with making it more difficult to vote; and strip away rights of appeals, of access to counsel, use of high bail to incarcerate before conviction, etc.).

I am aware of the historic failings of American society. Yet what I see now scares me.

Many people have commented on the recent Trump tweet about denying due process to “illegal” immigrants, but missed a key part of that tweet, where Trump talked about an “invasion.”  As a teacher of government and as a student of American history that word caught my attention.  Allow me to offer the relevant portion of the Constitution, the 2nd Clause of Article I, Section 9:The

 privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

This is a restriction on Congress.  There have been cases dealing with how far a President can go going back to the Civil War period.  In Ex Parte Merryman then Chief Justice Taney ruled that Lincoln could not suspend habeas in Maryland (done to prevent secessionists whom Lincoln had arrested to prevent them from going to Annapolis to vote to secede) but it is not clear if Taney did so in his capacity as Chief Justice or as a serving judge in Maryland- in any case, Lincoln ignored the order.  Also tangentially relevant is Ex Parte Milligan, in which SCOTUS ruled (but not until 1866) that a person could not be tried in military courts/commissions when civilian courts were open and functioning.  It is worth noting that in 2006, SCOTUS ruled in Boumediene v Bush that prisoners at Guantanamo could not be denied habeas.

In the Civil War era cases, it should be clear that Congress had the right to suspend habeas because there was an insurrection.

I know that most people argue that Trump’s tweets show a total ignorance of constitutional principal, but the use of the word “invasion” troubles me -I have no trouble believing that Trump may have been told (?by White House Counsel?) of the limits of suspending habeas and by using this word he is establishing the predicate to ask Congress to suspend habeas.  But would it be just for those coming across the border?  Is it too far fetched to consider that were Trump looking at the possibility of losing control of both House and Senate he might move for such power now?  After all, does not he admire Erdogan in Turkey, who took a very similar approach to guarantee his control of power.  And remember, a recent poll showed a majority of self-identified Republicans willing to suspend the 2020 election to keep Trump in power.

And later:

 I have lived 72 years.

I do not know how much longer I may have.  I hope to teach for at least five more years.  I want to continue to think and write and reflect and engage with others and try to make a difference.
I knew men who were imprisoned because they refused to violate their consciences.  I knew others, from WW II and from Vietnam, who because they chose alternative service rather than going into the military were forced into doing work intended to be humiliating and demeaning, although for them they fulfilled those responsibilities with humility and dignity.
I am going to attempt to follow my conscience.
I do not know what the costs may be for me.  That is inconsequential.
What matters is the cost to me if I do not follow this path, if I do not do what I can in my actions, words, and living, to try to “preserve and protect” the Constitution of the United States, and some sense of a nation that actually cares for all of humanity. 

Peace.

I, too, fear Trump will act in panic as he loses power, declaring martial law. It's in the man's unfortunate character.  

Bedrooms & Bars

Bedrooms & Bars

a play in two acts

by Charles Deemer

First performed at the Raindog Playwrights' Project in Portland, Oregon, on February 13, 1998. Directed by Charles Deemer.

Finalist for the 1998 Oregon Book Award.

THE CAST:

Quinn, a barfly, ex-teacher, 30s

Deadra, a barfly, 30s

Megan, Deadra's twin sister (played by same actress)

THE SETTING:

Table in a bar. Quinn's small studio apartment. A hospital bed. A ferry deck.

THE TIME:

The 1980s.

ACT ONE

1/ The Bar, Saturday Night. Early 1980's.

(AT RISE: QUINN and DEADRA sit at a table. Each has a fresh drink.)

QUINN: Thanks for the drink.

DEADRA: You're very welcome.

QUINN: I'm Quinn.

DEADRA: I know. Deadra

QUINN: I know. Cheers.

DEADRA: Cheers.

(They drink.)

QUINN: Where's what's-his-name?

DEADRA: I'm not sure who you mean.

QUINN: The guy I always see you with.

DEADRA: You'd think someone like that would ring a bell, wouldn't you? I have no idea who you mean.

QUINN: The guy you go with.

DEADRA: I don't go with anyone.

QUINN: You're in here a lot together. He's always betting on games.

DEADRA: George?

QUINN: George, right.

 DEADRA: He left town last week. He got a new job.

QUINN: You two aren't an item?

DEADRA: Heavens, no. We're just buddies.

QUINN: That's encouraging.

DEADRA: In what way?

QUINN: When you make your move on me, I can say yes without a guilty conscience.

DEADRA: You don't beat around the bush.

QUINN: Bullshit's not part of my nature.

DEADRA: Sorry to disappoint you, Quinn, but I won't be making a move on you.

QUINN: Win a few, lose a few.

DEADRA: Are you always so direct?

QUINN: Always.

DEADRA: At least you're not "a secretive Scorpio." I have this thing about meeting Scorpio men. It always gets me in trouble.

QUINN: Bingo.

DEADRA: No.

QUINN: November 1st.

DEADRA: Please tell me you're kidding.

QUINN: Would I kid about being the sign of the genitals? What about you?

DEADRA: Guess.

QUINN: Actually, I've never asked anyone their sign before.

DEADRA: Don't ask — guess.

QUINN: Not a clue.

DEADRA: You've seen me in here a lot. You should have some impression about me.

QUINN: We've never talked before.

DEADRA: Why is that? Are you shy?

QUINN: You're usually in here with George. And now suddenly you're foot loose and fancy free.

DEADRA: I've always been that. The question is, how come you never talked to me before?

QUINN: We never ended up on adjacent barstools.

DEADRA: Which is surprising since whenever I walk in the door, you're here.

QUINN: Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?

DEADRA: I see you have a great affection for clichés.

QUINN: Only great writing becomes a cliché. Otherwise we forget it as soon as we hear it.

DEADRA: And you're a student of great writing.

QUINN: I'm a writer of bad verse, which gives me great appreciation for the good stuff.

DEADRA: Do you publish?

QUINN: I don't even send anything out.

DEADRA: That sounds like fear of rejection.

QUINN: I write for myself. It's a very noble tradition.

DEADRA: But you deprive the public of enjoying your work.

QUINN: If you'd read my stuff, you wouldn't say that. I write for an audience of one.

DEADRA: Too bad. If you had a book out, I could take it home to bed.

QUINN: Why take the poetry when you can take the poet?

DEADRA: I'm not picking you up, Quinn.

QUINN: The night's still young.

Read the play.

Germany

Hearing the German anthem played  before the match with Sweden, I am reminded of an obscene version sung with gusto by a comrade in the Army Security Agency, early 1960s. He aspired to be an opera singer and always brought down the barracks with his naughty rendition.

Baumholder 1961 tells the context, which amazingly enough is accurate.

Football = soccer

Fewer than ever Americans are watching the World Cup with no team in it but I have gone overboard, missing only a few games live and recording everything. I understand more and more why this is the most popular sport in the world. That American football is the "real" football is another myth to add to the long list of national hallucinations. The rest of the world is right.

At the same time, there are a couple of things my novice eyes don't appreciate. I don't like games decided by penalty kicks, when it happens. The game is so rough that penalties strike me as arbitrary, giving refs a lot of power to determine outcomes. I also don't like the histrionics of injury, even as rough as the game is. Too much trying to persuade a ref to call a foul.

But otherwise, what intense constant excitement! What conditioning the players are in! A remarkable sport indeed.

I'm still rooting for Jamaica and Senegal. I wouldn't mind Mexico taking it all. Might get a tweet out of that ha ha.

Andrew Sullivan on Trump

From New York Magazine:

There are times when I genuinely wonder whether I can hold up psychologically in our current politics and culture. My shrink tells me I am far from alone in this, and that everyone she listens to is consumed with a depression that swings from despair to rage to what can only be called learned helplessness. There are moments when everything I have come to believe in — reasoned deliberation, mutual toleration, liberal democracy, free speech, honesty, decency, and moderation — seem as if they are in eclipse. Emotionalism, tribalism, intolerance, lies, cruelty, and extremism surround us (and I have not been immune in this climate to their temptations either). Trump has turned the right into a foul, spit-flecked froth of racist reactionism, and he has evoked a radical response on the left that, while completely understandable, alienates me and many others more profoundly with every passing day. Hell, there have been many moments in the past couple of years when I have alienated the better part of myself. There is something about the current toxicity that has seeped into everyone.

Read the article. 

Krugman on Trump

From Alternet:

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued Thursday evening that President Donald Trump's rhetoric and policies toward immigrants mirror some of the darkest elements of historical anti-Semitism.

"What’s almost equally remarkable about this plunge into barbarism is that it’s not a response to any actual problem," he writes in a column titled "Return of the Blood Libel." "The mass influx of murderers and rapists that Trump talks about, the wave of crime committed by immigrants here (and, in his mind, refugees in Germany), are things that simply aren’t happening. They’re just sick fantasies being used to justify real atrocities."

He continued: "And you know what this reminds me of? The history of anti-Semitism, a tale of prejudice fueled by myths and hoaxes that ended in genocide."

Headline

From att.net:

George Will Leaves Republican Party, Urges Conservatives To Vote Against Donald Trump

No insignificant development. Gets more interesting every day.

When this momentum grows and comes to a head, either Trump will quit or he will fight, the latter very ugly.

World Cup

To my eye, no powerhouse or favorite has emerged. I'll root for sentimental favorites like Senegal and Jamaica, which easily eliminated Iceland. Russia, the host, is looking as strong as anyone at this point. Home team fans love it.

Say what?

From The Daily Beast:

President Donald Trump told Congress in a letter on Friday that North Korea’s “provocative, destabilizing, and repressive actions...continue to constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States. The letter, which notes the country’s “pursuit of nuclear and missile programs,” comes just over a week after Trump boasted on Twitter that there “is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” “Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,” he said. 

The man doesn't have a consistent bone in his body. This would be an hilarious farce if he didn't have nukes at hand.

Charging the battery

Been brooding a lot about the transition point in the novel in progress, close to getting back to it with renewed enthusiasm. My first fifty pages are fine. But they set up some complicated options. Key, it turns out, is a minor character, CJ's former student, a fringe writer/artist, whom CJ finds in the retirement center after the man had a stroke. He will join the suicide/protest expedition and frame it in a challenging way.

About ready to roll again.

Goal now, finish a showable draft by end of summer, get feedback from my publisher, and rewrite for publication before end of year, maybe even on my birthday in late October.

LAST RIGHTS is the perfect title.

The genius of Tom Lehrer

Appalling ineptitude

From The Washington Post:

Even though the Trump administration has halted its policy of separating illegal border crossers from their children, many of the over 2,300 youths removed from migrant parents since May 5 remain in shelters and foster homes across the country. The U.S. government has done little to help with the reunifications, attorneys say, prompting them to launch a frantic, improvised effort to find the children — some of them toddlers.

One legal aid organization, the Texas Civil Rights Project, is representing more than 300 parents and has been able to track down only two children.

“Either the government wasn’t thinking at all about how they were going to put these families back together, or they decided they just didn’t care,” said Natalia Cornelio, with the organization.

Trump is a showman. He has no executive skill. He can't lead folks unless they kiss his ass, he can't run a government, he can't deal with details, he can only strut and pontificate his fantasy reality. Just incredible. More incredible, so many buy into his con job.

A play of mine has the curtain line, "What the people expect, they get. What they get, they deserve. Always." Not quite as good as what Mencken said in 1920 but maybe close. 

Wishful thinking?

Business Insider headline:

'This dude has all the tapes': Tom Arnold says he and Michael Cohen are teaming up to take down Trump

Golden opportunity, lost

I woke up this morning thinking about what a unique, challenging time this is in American history. With creative leadership able to lead a significant national will, amazing progress could be made on urgent issues, such as repairing infrastructure and preparing for climate disaster. America has done this before. In a war against superior forces in WWII, we created ship building and weapons communities. We created a scientific community to build an atomic bomb. During the depression, we created any number of communities to build and fix and even to put on plays and write state guides. In a crisis, we don't have to sit around with a thumb up our ass. We acted during times of crisis in the past.

We don't have the leadership to do this, of course, and I don't see any on the horizon. I see only more conflict, more violence and, finally, before our Moron In Chief leaves office, an over-reaction against dissent, including martial law. That's the future I see in the U.S.

But how different it could be! First, realize that immigrants are an asset, not a threat. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." True in the depression, true today. The Moron In Chief's greatest skill is creating fear to get his way. But communities of immigrants could earn citizenship with important work screaming to be done. This doesn't take away jobs, it creates new jobs. We can fix things, we can feed people, we can teach immigrants English, we can do all number of constructive things, like a WPA and Peace corps (and Diggers and Black Panthers!) rolled into one.

What a fantasy! The Great America that supporters of the Moron In Chief want to return to never existed, of course. But problems visible today were invisible in the past because the media didn't report them, we weren't bombarded with news, most of it bad. America's greatness was an ostrich. When a book about poverty in America was published in the 1950s, it shocked everyone! What? Poverty in America?

Michael Harrington

Man, I am so glad I am an old man. I should be dead before the worst of impending shit happens. I think the gods daily for my old age.

First meeting

Merle

Doc

Una Furtiva Lagrima

A divided America

Quote of the day

About the man in the White House:

"It's extraordinary how he is completely indifferent to truth. There's just no relationship between his statements - anything he utters - and the actual truth of the matter," said Thomas Murray, president emeritus of the Hastings Center, the founding institution in the field of bioethics. "As far as I can tell, the best way to understand anything he says is what will best serve his interests in the moment. It's irrespective to any version of the truth."

British bangers

Picked up some British bangers from Otto's Sausage. Breakfast, with scrambled eggs, outstanding.

Last night had Swedish potato sausage, also from Otto's. Eating well is a great distraction.

Bold creative action

How about using the WPA model to create a community work force of immigrants and tackle our huge and growing infrastructure repair issues? Manage it with recent college graduates, working off their student debts. These communities include schooling, especially English. Another job for recent graduates.

Welcome immigrants instead of rejecting them. We need them!

The huge numbers, climate refugees, are yet to come.

Of course, none of this will happen. Seems to me we are doomed, taken down with the crashing white racist sexist folks who can't accept an inevitable future.

Prediction: before he's gone, Trump will declare martial law. Then the shit will really hit the fan.

A proper canvas

Ha ha! Projected on SF Federal Building (but for how long?):

On Rain (poem)

ON RAIN

Bill Deemer

All morning I study rain:
solemn on the shingled roof,
bubbly in the puddle!

Preliminary finding:
many kinds of rain to hear,
many shades of gray to see.

The yin & yang of rain:
filling up the sparrows' basin,
knocking down the apple blossoms.

What patriotism is not

“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” - Samuel Johnson, 1775

Juneteenth

Our lying President

Many don't give a shit.

Round one

I've seen all 32 teams in the World Cup with this morning's conclusion of first games, round one. Who stands out? Iceland's defense, but do they have an offense? I like Senegal's speed and recklessness. I like Mexico's heart. Argentina and Brazil look superior but didn't win. I think it's a pretty open competition.

At this point I'll most closely follow Iceland, Senegal and Mexico, I suppose.

A Trump Symphony of voices

Peter Handke

The World Cup reminds me of a favorite novel title, THE GOALIE'S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK by Peter Handke. His first novel translated into English. First rate.

His play OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE, a production of which I saw at the Univ of Oregon in grad school, does exactly that. A writer who takes many risks. I dig him.

Supporting the arts: the argument for a lottery

Prizes, fellowships and awards in the arts have become a cottage industry. In literature, I've received prizes, fellowships and awards. I've not received them after applying. Note that word. Applying! Most require an application from the writer or artist, and therein is the rub.

Many of these are money-making affairs for the organization giving them out. For example, in the early days of the Internet, when I hosted the first comprehensive website for screenwriters and playwrights on the World Wide Web, I could have made a few bucks by sponsoring a contest. Say I held an online screenwriting contest, which were growing in popularity, charge a twenty dollar entry fee (undercutting the rate to assure lots of entries), say I only got 100 entries (500 would be more like it), and gave a thousand dollar prize. I'd make a grand profit.

In other words, more than support of the arts is at work here. And a business consultant once told me, the quickest way for a new arts organization to gain credibility is to give an award or have a contest.

Of course, the pitch is that awards and such move your career forward. Well, yes, it does give you something to brag about, to put in your resume or pitch letter. For example, I won an international play contest with several thousand entries. Hot stuff! However, I did not get a single production from this prize. Not one. However, I must say, grants and awards let me get through much of the 1980s without traditional employment, a godsend for a serious writer. I got lucky.

Yes, winning also helps one's ego, giving a certain validity to one's work. But many of these affairs are hyped to high heaven, defining an arts landscape that is false. To begin, the arts are not competitive. It is always, always, comparing apples and oranges when you begin judging works of art and literature. And it always boils down to opinion, to the values of a judge or panel of judges.

An example. I was one of three judges hired by the Illinois Arts Commission to award ten fellowships to scriptwriters, among 73 finalists selected beforehand. Okay. Each of us read them and selected our own top ten, then compared notes. We did not agree on a single top ten writer. Think about that! NO AGREEMENT WHATEVER. We were all "qualified" judges. But we were very different: myself, a practicing playwright and screenwriter; a black woman theater professor; and a gay man artistic director of a theater company. A politically correct panel! And we couldn't agree on anything.

What does this say about the intrinsic value of a script or work of art?

If you get the idea that these awards are crapshoots, you are right. So let's own up to it. Make awards a crapshoot literally.

So I propose this.

Get rid of all prizes and awards that requires application from the writer or artist. If organizations want to give awards, fine, but no one applies for them.

Instead, hold art and literature lotteries. Invite entrants and pick a winner from a hat. Do this at every level, from local to state to nationwide. Let arts lotteries support the arts.

I think the result would be a more dynamic, more risk taking, more vibrant arts scene because "winners" would be divorced from arts politics and fads, from academia, from bureaucracy.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTS LOTTERY.

Mexico upsets Germany

Love it!

From CBS Sports:

The 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia has its first absolute stunner. Mexico, behind a first-half goal from Hirving Lozano, upset reigning champs Germany in the group stage opener, 1-0. In a tense, hectic match that would make anybody shake from the nerves, El Tri bent but did not break in the second half, withstanding chance after chance from the European giants for arguably its greatest World Cup victory ever. 

Hyperdrama

Trump as Frankenstein

From The Atlantic:

Trump is a Frankenstein’s monster of past presidents’ worst attributes: Andrew Jackson’s rage; Millard Fillmore’s bigotry; James Buchanan’s incompetence and spite; Theodore Roosevelt’s self-aggrandizement; Richard Nixon’s paranoia, insecurity, and indifference to law; and Bill Clinton’s lack of self-control and reflexive dishonesty.

Milwaukie

I really like Milwaukie. Like the neighborhood, like the location, especially like Main Street downtown, which reminds me of another town I like, Lewiston, Idaho. Like the Farmers Market, which isn't too big.

I barely have explored various opportunities here, including the nearby Milwaukie Center, where there is live jazz every Friday noon. I did read poetry at a First Friday event, but was not impressed with the readings, only several really with the voice to read and only one other beside myself writing with attention to traditional poetic values like rhythm and rhyme. I kept being reminded of Gertrude Stein's comment to Hemingway, "Remarks, Ernest, are not literature."

In other words, all things considered (like having to remain in Portland area, which I'd leave in a  heartbeat if I was alone), this is a great place to be.

Crossing Kellogg Creek into downtown Milwaukie

Main Street

Willamette River, a block from downtown

First Friday

Farmers Market

Audience

As a writer, my relationship to my audience has covered the wide spectrum of possibilities. In the beginning, writing literary short stories, I sought the literary audience who reads literary journals, small and specialized, to be sure, what today would be called elitist. It took a while but in time I began publishing in the literary journals I admired -- Prism International, The Literary Review, others -- and received the unexpected (but wished for) honor of having three Roll of Honor stories in the Best American Short Stories anthology in four consecutive years. Agents wrote if I had a novel, and I was working on one. But for a variety of reasons I changed my focus to theater before I finished it.

Although I had immediate success as a playwright at the national level, most of my first decade as an MFA Playwright was in learning theater language and dynamics, primarily as an actor. I was fortunate to have a mentor and director to guide me. Then I ended up in Portland in the late 1970s, in the right place at the right time, and became a resident playwright, the best of worlds. This was the most popular decade of my career, as traditionally defined. I was a regional star.

Ironically, it was a commission in this period that changed my direction, driven by an obsession for what now is called hyperdrama. I even produced my own, and COCKTAIL SUITE was an artistic and commercial success from which I should have built a permanent company but I hadn't yet figured out how to root hyperdrama in a static, permanent location.  It was still too "space" driven. At the same time, it was clear that a greater audience for the new form was across the ocean, and I ended up focusing my efforts, via the internet, overseas. This resulted in considerable artistic success but not much financial reward. A one act hyperdrama commissioned from a company in Chile, and never performed in English to this day, is now considered to be "in the canon" of early hypertext literary work.

I had no sense, however, that I was this successful overseas. The book Canonizing Hypertext that devotes considerable discussion to my work and puts me in the canon was published in London years before I discovered its existence. In other words, my esoteric fame was completely unknown to me. My esoteric overseas audience was unknown to me. I did hear from several foreign graduate students who were writing dissertations on my work, no small pleasure, but otherwise I was writing in a vacuum, or so it seemed.

So audiences can exist without knowing about them. The important thing is to have work available, and the internet makes this much more possible than earlier. But even publication in obscure places can pay later dividends, such as the discovery of my essay on teaching writing decades later by someone who ran with the controversial themes I proposed.

This, perhaps, is why my favorite historian, Morris Berman, says that the only way to be a serious American writer is to write for posterity. The culture has no place for us. I wouldn't go this far but he does have a point. I have no sense of an audience today, really, but I keep writing and keep putting it out there. I remain excited about a novel I am working on, though my energy in old age is a fraction of my past writing energy. I want to finish it before I pass! I think I will.

So I've had a visible audience, a time of popularity, and a time of overseas fame without knowing about it, and a constant sense of writing for invisible literary folks who may or may not exist. I don't think my situation is different from many others not interested in pop culture.

The secret is to keep the faith. For me, in old age, this sometimes is a struggle.

Iceland's defense

Most impressive thing I've seen so far, holding Argentina to 1-1. Argentina had possession 90% of the time, it seemed, taking shot after shot that was blocked. Iceland goalie spectacular, blocking two penalty kicks as well from great Messi, one so close it should have been automatic. Not sure if Iceland has an offense, they never had the ball long enough to develop anything. A great victory for their defense.

A professional regret

I wish, in the late 1980s when I was writing, directing and producing my own hyperdramas, like COCKTAIL SUITE and TURKEYS, I had the later insight about designing a theater space specifically for the form. I wish I had founded a company on the insight and produced a season of hyperdramas. I feel confident audiences would have responded positively. Alas, the insight came to me as an old man when I have no energy to do it.

You can learn about the design in the NUTS AND BOLTS video here.

World Cup

Halftime, Iceland hanging in against a superior Argentina team, 1-1.

Man, I am really into it. Recording all the games, watching most live. With Russia the host, I can watch live games at 5 in the morning, a morning person's heaven. Despite FIFA's corruption, I like almost everything about this event and sport, from the opening ritual to the relentless action, which can be exhausting to watch.

I wish I had seen the engagement of this sport earlier. My first memory of the World Cup is driving into a small southwest college town late morning in early 1970s, camping all summer while in grad school, looking for beer and a burger, and finding a tavern with a large loud crowd of international students. The World Cup was on. I was amazed at the enthusiasm for a sporting event I had barely heard of.

Half a century later, I get it. 

Orwellian

A veteran editorial cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was fired Thursday after  

he and the newspaper’s management clashed over some sketches critical of President 

Donald Trump.

Rob Rogers, a Pulitzer Prize finalist who had been with the Post-Gazette for 25 years,

announced his own ouster on Twitter. (Huffington Post)

World Cup

Wearing American blinders, I came slowly to the realization that the rest of the planet is correct and the WORLD CUP is the greatest sporting event on Earth. Oops, next to the Olympics!

I am watching with great interest this year, despite no U.S. team. I'll be rooting for Iceland, Denmark, Australia, England. I know of no sport where a zero to zero score can be so exciting.

Dick Crooks

My best friend from 1960 onward. Inspired Hooker in my novel KEROUAC'S SCROLL. 20 years since passing!

Found online his.obituary.

Plaque in White Bird, Idaho, cemetery, his ashes scattered at top of hill overlooking town, scene of famous Indian battle.

Nature wins

Amateurs but worth doing:

Clawhammer ukulele

With arthritis in hands, playing days are over. Nice to have a record of once upon a time ...

Our delusional President

From Jack Holmes column, re parents of Korean vets coming to Trump:

This is truly a vintage Trumpian lie. As many have pointed out already, assuming the parents of a Korean War veteran were 18 when they were born, those parents would be a minimum of 101 years old today. More likely, they'd be at least 110. The idea that multiple 110-year-old people came up to Donald Trump on the campaign trail to ask him to bring home the remains of their son killed on North Korean soil 63 years prior is just absurd. It's a stirring story, a noble enough sentiment, and, in this case, completely nuts. The president is just saying things again.

In that way, this is a quintessential Trumpian lie: totally shameless, easily verifiable as false, and rooted in the notion that "many people"—who are never defined further, and who you'll never be able to find—are telling the president something that he just happens to agree with himself. How many times in this troubled period in our nation's history have we heard how "many people are saying" something about Donald Trump?

Reference 

Oh really?

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

But the reality is ...

Want your heart broken?

Check out this series of tweets by journalist Jacob Soboroff that begins, "I’m a part of the first group of journalists to go into the shelter for detained child migrants in Brownsville Texas since the zero tolerance separation policy was announced. 1000+ boys here."

All this happening to make America great again!? What's it say about the character of the man who permits it?

At the entrance: