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April 24 A terrible week!Last week was an awful week. It began with the death of 5 MT SAC students in a car crash. The driver was one of my students. Then on Tuesday taxes were due. The on Wednesday morning I got a phone call from a computer firm wanting to verify the address in Washington I wanted the computer sent to...and I hadn't order a computer. Turns out someone got ahold of my AMEX card number. Lastly, I'd been plagued with an elbow that got progessively worse until I was forced to go to the doctor, only to find I had tennis elbow (oh the indignity). The saving grace for last week was a concert at UCLA, the Ash Grove 50th Anniversary concert. Holly Near was why I wanted to go, but the suprised guest was another of my favorites, Arlo Guthrie, who decided to drop in and sing a few songs! What a great concert it was. Also appearing were Taj Mahal, Dave Alvin, Ry Cooder (!!!!), Laura Love, Rambling Jack Elliot, Mike Seeger, and Culture Clash. What a concert! Four hours long! I had to leave the next day at 5 am to do a workshop in San Diego, so that was a drag, but totally worth it. And to my surprise, the workshop went very well the next day.
It's hard to believe the Ash Grove was that long ago. Since it opened in 1958 until it burned to the ground in 1973 (its third fire), hundreds of notable artists, reflecting various folk styles appeared on the Ash Grove stage – from Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters to Johnny Cash and the Byrds– making the club a unique home to the political and cultural movements of its time. It was a great place to listen to music and an iconic place to play music...all kinds of music. Almost unheard of these days, you might see both unknowns playing right next to "stars." Indeed, it always had the feeling of a jam session more than a performance. The concert on Friday had the same feel, from the beginning when Arlo appeared unannounced to the ending 4 hours later...folks who loved playing music just getting together to jam and the rest of us along for the ride!
At the end of a long week it was a great thrill to be there.
This week is second midterm week. Giving tests today and tomorrow and grading all weekend, except for Saturday when I'm at Southern California Quarterly Meeting all day. No rest for the wicked.
April 14 The Olympics -- Something StinksSo, as if the political implications of holding the Olympics in Beijing wasn't enough to make you wonder if it really was all about the athletics, as the IOC claims, perhaps you need to consider that Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The International Olympic Committee has said it will postpone any events that last more than an hour if the air quality is poor. China has said it will close down traffic and factories during the Olympics and there are shades of when the Olympics was in Los Angeles in 1984. Yet China is the same country that has shipped lead-based toys to our children, and sent us poison Heparin for those on chemotherapy, and whose pollution accounts for a third of the pollution in San Francisco. If the IOC was really concerned about athletics, as they claim, whatever possessed them to award the Olympics to a country whose record on pollution, human rights, and international diplomacy is so abysmal? There can be only one answer and it surfaced a few years ago when members of the IOC were caught selling their votes to the highest bidder. One wonders whether or not an investigation ought to be done into the finances of the IOC members. Perhaps an answer will surface there? Can there be any other reason they ignored the fact that hot, humid, and stagnant air often settles over Beijing in August? According to the Associated Press today: "Beijing is one of the world's most polluted cities. A mix of particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide often blankets the city at levels five times higher than World Health Organizations safety standards. "Beijing was covered in a moderate level of smog as Du made the announcement (of mandating traffic and factory cutbacks). "An IOC study released last month said that competition conditions would "not necessarily (be) ideal at every moment," but said Beijing's air quality was better than expected. "IOC president Jacques Rogge said earlier this month that the city's pollution will not endanger the athletes' health, but he's acknowledged performance levels might be 'slightly reduced.'" Performance levels might be slightly reduced? Can the Olympics really be about athletics when such a statement is made by the man who heads up the IOC? Let's get real! Something stinks in China and the IOC, and it's not just the air! April 09 The Olympic Torch IronyThere are a couple of ironies of the Olympic Torch runs so far. Considering that they were meant to glorify China and the communist Chinese system, they are actually doing just that. In what is so consistent with communist China, the torch must be spirited secretly through the streets of freedom, just as China has closed doors and the ability to see what is happening in Tibet. So the secretiveness of the run is totally consistent with the secretive Chinese govenment...bound and determined to do the run even if it means it must occur in secret, or protected by armed gaurds of the state. I laughed watching the run try to wend it's way through San Francisco in the same way the Chinese sent troops completely in secret to Tibet and the other provinces filled with Tibetan people. What a wonder to behold and so totally reflective of the Chinese government today. Secret, totalitarian, without freedom and dissent! And damn it, we're going to do this torch relay anyway!
The second big irony for me is the IOCC, as authoritarian an organization as one could find. Surely they knew what would happen if they gave the Olympics to China, but in typical IOCC fashion they decided to do it anyway. These are the same folks, including the US Organizing Committee, who decide that gay folks using the words Gay Olympics would threaten their hegemony. So they filed suit to keep us from using those word, which is how it became the Gay Games. These are also the same folks caught accepting kick-backs from governments. The vaunted Olympic Spirit really amounts to a for sale sign for the highest bidder. I, for one, was glad for the change. The Olympics has always been run by men too old to compete, who feel the need to legislate how younger men will compete, and for whom this has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with big business. So this "Damn you, we're going to do this" attitude by the IOCC is throroughly consistent with who they are.
So I just turned off the television and thought, whatever did folks think they were going to get here? A communist state, supported by an authoritarian committee, mouthing platitudes about leaving politics out of it. This has so little to do with sports it makes me want to throw up. Being a former athlete, I fell sorry for the athletes, for whom this really is a sporting competition, caught inside a business and political propaganda machine.
I decided I needed a nice warm bath, rather than see these two autocratic groups do what they have always tried to do...doing what they damn well pleased! |
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