gathering

Getting back to it

I haven't really done anything with this blog for a long time, but I'm feeling like I need to get back into it. So here goes. Updates to come.

Is it warm in here, or is it just me?

I know you can not draw broad conclusions from limited amounts of information – that you cannot directly link the occasional warm summer or late fall to something as complex as the concept of global warming, but still...

It is early October, and the trees in southeastern Wisconsin are still mostly green. A tree outside my office is yellowing, and I have seen a number of red maples and sugar maples turning crimson, but the predominant color of the landscape here is still green. For some twenty odd years, beginning in college, I used to organize a camping trip this first weekend in October. I have so many pictures from those decades of trees - all scarlet and gold against the bright blue, crisp skies.

I can't help but feel that we are already witness, each and every day, to the quickening march of global warming: In the birds which hang around most of the winter now, instead of disapperaring for months for warmer climes; in the longer growing seasons which have brought new invasive species; to the parade of pounding hurricanes; to the every-other-year hundred-year rains; and on and on.

If we step back a bit, we might see signs all around us. Across the world, scientists are documenting more and more of these incremental changes link. And the evidence is mounting that we may have already moved beyond the tipping point. It may, for example, be too late to save polar bears. A huge losss, certainly. But the impact of the loss of krill - tiny shrimplike animals which are at the very low end of the oceanic food chain - would be devastating in its domino effect.

What are we doing about it?

Another vision

Running a country is hard work, as W himself tells us often.
I find myself in disagreement with W almost constantly, but I will give hinm that one. It is hard work.
That is why, when I came across the text of a speech link given recently by Al Gore at a media conference, I was overcome by sadness. Six years ago, today, we were nearing the end of a biter campaign for the presidency. We then had no idea that the outcome would ultimately be decided not by a majority of the voters, but by the Supreme Court.
Read the speech. Imagine how different these past six years might have been.
And imagine how different tomorrow could be.

Gonzo is dead

Perhaps it is unfair to weight an individual act with symbolism, to remove it from its own context and examine it through your own filters. But it's all I can do.

Hunter S. Thompson killed himself this weekend. link. The pioneer of gonzo journalism is gone, having removed himself from these dangerous times.

It may be difficult, if not impossible, for people today to see how important he was, back in the day. After all, his image for the past decade or so has crept steadily toward parody and irrevelance. Uncle Duke and Johnny Depp and even Bill Murray all had their turn with him, all working to create a larger than life character - a boozing, paranoid, angry, even frightening figure.

Thompson needed no help being larger than life, of course, his writing did that for him. But the personna he – and they – created couldn't help but be rooted in an era, one that felt far removed from today's sensibilities.

In the college journalism classes I teach, I am surprised if more than one or two of my students know who he was. They were born long after Fear and Loathing, after all. For these students, 9-11 is a far more defining moment than Watergate or Vietnam, adn the world they are about to step into is vastly different than Hunter's. What use would they have for him?

I saw Thompson lecture a number of years ago. His talk sounded forlorn. He raged about the rise of AIDs, calling it an incredibly effective weapon in the war on passion, free love, tolerance and freedom in general. I struggled then to understand all that he meant, all that he saw ahead of us.

I think I know now. Ashcroft. Rumsfeld. Pre-emptive strikes. Abu Ghraib. Janet Jackson's nipple. Zero tolerance.

We have lasped into an era of blind anger, shit-filled-pants fright, and intolerance. We are in dangerous times.

Hunter's last published writings have been columns for ESPN's web site link

He wrote less regularly in the past year, and I read he was upset that his editors would cut much of the political diatribes from his writing. Perhaps he felt that this millenium had little need or use for him. Perhaps he was just tired.

I know it's of little use to try to decipher his intent. He killed himself, an intensly personal act and really none of my business.

Except that the world today is minus one totally-fucked, iracsible genius. The seventies are so long gone. Do you remember how much softer and open-hearted life felt then?

Mahalo.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

fiction update

This site is primarily intended as a way to share my fiction writing. At this point, there are five short stories posted, all of which can be accessed by selecting the short fiction category on the right. I encourage your responses, suggestions and criticisms and I will continue to update this site whenever I am possible. I have a number of other stories I will post in the future and am working on two new short stories at the moment.

Please enjoy the stories, share the site with friends if you wish. And, remember, the writing on this site is copyright Malcolm Woods.