Excuse my recent absence! I’ve been on hiatus in the midst of moving to Boston and starting a new job, but I am soon to return. Because in addition to all that business, I’ve been brainstorming a plethora of things I have to say and want to tell you about! Plus, Boston is already providing a smorgasbord of new things that I’m excited about (definitely stay tuned for a things-I-love-about-Boston series). This weekend, I’ll be back for a more regular schedule of posting. ‘Til then!
Air America, the progressive talk-radio station that launched Rachel Maddow’s national career and featured the voices of other liberal personalities like Al Franken, has folded. Filing for bankrupty, Air America will cease its programming and go off the air at 9:00 pm EST on Monday, January 25.
Air America was a great and hopeful alternative to all the conservative talk radio out there (again, I think I mentioned that it aired the Rachel Maddow radio show? I still miss the “Ask Doctor Maddow” segments.) So I actually take back the whole rest-in-peace thing. I am actually hoping for some unrest―more progressive voices fighting for a place to be heard, in local and national media, in independent and mainstream media.
The beginning of Air America’s official statement:
“It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.
“The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America’s business. This past year has seen a “perfect storm” in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry’s long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.”
Read the rest over at the Air America website.
Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir
Do you feel like the addiction to stuff—buying stuff, owning stuff, wanting stuff— is too much? Sick of being a customer, a consumer, and want to just connect like a simple human being? Feel like ever-creeping consumerism is going to bring on the shopocalypse? Well, Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping gospel choir—a group of creative and enthusiastic performance artist-activists—are right there with you. Back in December, a friend and I attended a Shopocalypse Revival performance at the always awesome Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York. Check out two video pieces from the service: Shopocalypse and Beatitudes of Buylessness. These people are fun, they’re talented, they’re hilarious, and they’ve got a really serious point or two. If you can’t catch them live, you can find out more about them and what they’ve got to say in the documentary What Would Jesus Buy?—one of my favorite lines: “Are you people or are you sheeple?” In the words of Reverend Billy, “Peaceallujah!”
US Senate Special Election
For any Massachusetts resident readers, Tuesday (January 19) is the special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. Strangely enough, the race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown seems to be really close (oh, you unpredictable Massachusetts), so it’s incredibly important for us to get out there to the polls on Tuesday to vote for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and health-care reform (read: vote for Martha Coakley).
Want to know more about Martha? Check out her stances on the issues.
Need to know where to vote? Find out.
Polls are open from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm, so there’s lots of time to squeeze this really important vote in.
Uganda
In case you haven’t heard about it yet, in Uganda there is currently horrific legislation—the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009″—under consideration that has proposed the following:
- Death penalty for LGBTQ people (this part of the legislation is apparently being removed from consideration, but is included in the original legislation)
- Life imprisonment for LGBTQ people
- Substantial jail time for people who actively support LGBTQ people
- Substantial jail time for anyone who knows LGBTQ people and doesn’t report them.
The insanity is beyond comprehension, and I’ve been meaning to mention it here earlier. I’ve been keeping up with the status of it through in-depth reporting that Rachel Maddow has been doing on the matter, including the role of anti-gay American evangelical religious activists in helping influence the Ugandan legislation.
It’s so important that all American politicians and religious figures with ties to the Ugandan government (and there are many, I’ve learned over the past month or so—the “Family,” in particular) vociferously speak out against this legislation and do all that they can to press the Ugandan parliament to get rid of this bill, which is an abominable threat to fundamental human rights for the Ugandan people. Uganda may seem really far away, but the right for all people—gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer included—to be who you are, love who you love, and be free to express that should be inalienable, and that right transcends miles and borders. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Find out more:
- Rachel’s latest coverage
- New York Times article
- Full text of the legislation (or at Box Turtle Bulletin if you can’t do pdf)
Prompt: I come from . . .
Time: 10 minutes
I come from the earth. From the mud, from the grime, from the moss. The moss with its teeny, tiny, tree-like structures. I want to be a millimeter tall and climb them. Look out from the top across the wet, green mini-forest, the damp, brown earth below. More green, more brown above.
I come from the air—the expansive, deep breath of air I take in at the top of the mountain or just above the water as I rise from underneath the surface of the lake—or my bathtub.
I come from the fire—the smoky wood smell, the red- and orange- and blue-flamed fire. The fires I’ve seen of a house across the street, of the hotel where my parents worked—flames shooting up from the roof. From the fire of emotions—of anger, of love, of something equally strong but in between. From the fire deep within me, inextinguishable, sometimes raging, sometimes crackling, sometimes merely quietly smoldering.
I come from everywhere. And anywhere. And some places in particular. A dark corner in a carpeted closet. A warmly lighted entryway into a cozy apartment. A dream.
Curtis Sittenfeld's newest novel
Curtis Sittenfeld is a brilliant writer. I was first introduced to her work by the short essay “Your Life as a Girl,” a heartbreakingly poignant—and arrestingly well-written—piece about what it can be like to grow up as a woman in this society. I was captivated by Prep, her coming-of-age novel about a girl with working-class roots that attends an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. Sittenfeld’s adeptness at conveying the anxiety and pain and wonder of adolescence is remarkable. I am especially interested in the class and gender dynamics that inform and are repeatedly examined in Sittenfeld’s work.
In her newest novel, American Wife, she takes on the perspective of a certain American first lady. Loosely based on the life of Laura Bush, the novel follows the life of Alice Lindgren, a polite girl from Wisconsin who survives a tragic accident in high school and, through a series of events, finds herself in the White House. The narrative shows how, little compromise by little compromise, a person can get so far away from certain values they hold dear, in service of others, and what it’s like to live your way into a life virtually unrecognizable to oneself. It shows what it is to be charmed, swept away, and the long-lasting effects of that. It shows how hard it is to live a life of contradictions.
This is a book that’s hard to put down and hard to let go of when you’ve turned the last page. That I would ever say that about a book loosely based on the life of Laura Bush is testament to Curtis Sittenfeld’s serious talent for effectively portraying the complexities and nuances of a person’s life, including the rich inner life.
I just ordered the anthology This Is Not Chick Lit, a collection I’m excited to check out that includes a piece by Sittenfeld. It will have to wait until I’m done with my newest read (which I just started and am already mesmerized by), though—The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery.
Amelia Earhart and her plane "Old Bessie"
While on a recent adventure, I saw the new film Amelia, all about the life of Amelia Earhart, an amazing, pioneering female aviator who captured the attention of the nation and the world before her 1937 disappearance in the midst of an around-the-world flight. While I’m glad I saw the movie, I have to say that I was disappointed. As so many mainstream films do, especially when women are the main characters, it seemed to unfortunately overemphasize her romantic entanglements. From what I’ve been told of Amelia Earhart’s life, there are myriad aspects that could have been expanded upon—and all for the purpose of more compelling storytelling. I would have loved to see more of her childhood and gotten a clearer vision of where her love of flying and her independent spirit stemmed from and how they took root. I would have loved to have a more nuanced sense of the role her family played in her life and the effect that they had on her—good and bad—more than the few throwaway lines that were mentioned. I would have loved to get a wider view of the professional work that she was up to and her work with the Ninety-Nines, a group of women aviators that still exists today. And if you’re going to spend all that time concentrating on her romantic relationships, I would have liked to see some development of their foundation so that when they’re being played out on screen, I actually am emotionally invested in them. Whether it was acting chemistry that was off or whether there just wasn’t enough introduction or set-up, I wasn’t pulled in by either of the romantic story lines, which made the focus on them even less tolerable.
There was one moment in the film that actually had emotional resonance and stuck with me: Amelia is flying solo across the Atlantic, and it seems as if she’s not sure she’s going to make it. The look on her face as she finally sees land, all the emotions conveyed in a series of seconds—relief, joy, amazement—that whole sequence was really well done.
So why am I glad that I saw the movie? I think it gave me a small taste of Amelia, and despite its flaws (perhaps in part because of them) made me eager to learn more about her, to gain a fuller picture of her life and all that it contained. I’d like to seek out more well-rounded and richer accounts of her life and work. Any suggestions for further Amelia reading/viewing? And if you’ve seen the movie, what’s your take?
Feel free to check out the film, the official Amelia Earhart site, and the Amelia Wikipedia page (which includes theories on her disappearance).
