Followers

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Write with a little help from my friend…

writingevie

If I can take a page from the the Beatles song book and modify it a bit, today was the kick-off of 6 weeks of poetry reading and writing focus for me.  As you can see, I wrote with a little help from my friend.

I'm reading from The Philosopher's Club by Kim Addonizio this week and while I've read Kim's poetry before as well as attended a reading by her, this book gives me a  different perspective on her voice. It's her very first book and notably a bit different in tone from  What is This Thing Called Love?, a newer title that I have of hers.

Evie pictured above, was not as intrusive into my space as it might appear. Actually for much of the time she perched herself on the arm of the couch next to me and I found the gentle purr and occasional nudging with her head against my arm to be comforting.

 

Saturday, August 08, 2009

The distance between Myth and Truth

As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth. ~ Boris Pasternak

 

We have a winner!

Mika1st

Mika proudly sports her first place ribbon (left) following her 1st place win in her first dock diving competition.

Mika is my daughter Shannon’s Malinios.  Dock diving is not her only talent, as she has been trained to sniff out drugs.

Congrats to both Shannon and Mika!

 

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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

 

In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder

Posted to: Blackwater Military News

© August 4, 2009

Two men who worked for Blackwater allege in a federal lawsuit that Blackwater founder Erik Prince or his agents murdered one or more people who were planning to provide information to federal authorities about criminal conduct by the company and its operatives in Iraq.

The two are identified in court papers only as “John Doe #1” and “John Doe #2” because, they say, they fear violent retaliation themselves for making the allegations.

“John Doe #1” identifies himself as an honorably discharged U.S. Marine who joined Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company now known as Xe, and deployed to Iraq to guard State Department and other American government personnel.

In his sworn statement, he says he observed “multiple incidents of Blackwater personnel intentionally using unnecessary, excessive and unjustified deadly force.”

“John Doe #2” identifies himself as an American citizen who worked for Blackwater and affiliated companies for four years.

“On several occasions after my departure from Mr. Prince’s employ,” he says, “Mr. Prince’s management has personally threatened me with death and violence.

“In addition, based on information provided to me by former colleagues, it appears that Mr. Prince and his employees murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct.”

In his statement, he says Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.  (click on link for entire article)

[these allegations are troubling but certainly I’ve not had a good feeling about Blackwater for a number of reasons.  If this is true, it even dwarfs my already poor view of Blackwarter]

In suit, ex-workers accuse Blackwater founder of murder | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com

Thought for the day….

“Art is not a handicraft, it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.”  ~ Leo Tolstoy

Monday, August 03, 2009

This and That

Sometimes I think constraint writing must be when my mind is drawing a big goose egg when I’m trying to write. Of course this isn’t what is generally considered as constraint writing.  Janet Holmes has an interesting comparison between the twitter of today and the telegraph messaging of the 19th century. Check it out on Humanophone 2.0

Copy of The Philosopher’s Club came in from an Intra-library loan program.  This is an out of print book that I need for later this month. It’s out of print & only was published in hardback used copies are running between $37 - $120 so I was fortunate to be able to come up with it in time. It’s the first book of Kim Addonizio who is an awesome poet.

I must confess that as I’m writing this I’m watching Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D List. She is so outrageously riotous. Ok, I really should be writing.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Disordering as a positive attribute…

“The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, and keeps only their quintessences.”  ~ Arthur Rimbaud