Major Malik Nidal Hasan Shops at Local Convenience Store

An FBI press release (reproduced in full below) provides an update: government investigators cannot find an elephant in this room.

Passing strange.

Please suspend common sense and do not jump to any unwarranted conclusions — about political correctness, for example — while experts examine the obvious.  Even if it strikes one as more than a bit like children pushing Brussels sprouts under other food on their plates.

For another approach, check out this story about the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s more . . . umm . . . aggressive analysis.  Or the hard-core opinion (“Sometimes an Extremist Really Is an Extremist’) of Los Angeles Times columnist Jonah Goldberg here.

Investigation Continues Into Fort Hood Shooting

The FBI continues to work closely with the Department of the Army in the joint, ongoing investigation into the tragic events that occurred last Thursday at Fort Hood. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the victims and their families.

With respect to the investigation—the Army Criminal Investigative Division is leading a coordinated criminal investigation with the support of the FBI and other components of the Department of Justice and the Texas Rangers. The investigation is in its early stages and the information we can provide now is limited.

With respect to what the FBI is doing—personnel from the Counterterrorism Division, Laboratory Division, and the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) are on site in support of the tragedy. The personnel deployed by the Laboratory and CIRG are specialists in crime scene analysis, evidence collection, and shooting incident reconstruction. Our victim assistance teams are working closely with their counterpart Department of Defense specialists, and we will continue to provide whatever resources are necessary to support the investigation.

Experts at Work: "The investigation to date has not identified a motive, and a number of possibilities remain under consideration."

At this point, there is no information to indicate Major Malik Nidal Hasan had any co-conspirators or was part of a broader terrorist plot. The investigation to date has not identified a motive, and a number of possibilities remain under consideration. We are working with the military to obtain, review, and analyze all information relating to Major Hasan in order to allow for a better understanding of the facts and circumstances that led to the Fort Hood shooting. Understandably, there is a large volume of information in various forms and it will take us some time to complete this work.

There has been and continues to be a great deal of reported information about what was or might have been known to the government about Major Hasan prior to the shooting.

Major Hasan came to the attention of the FBI in December 2008 as part of an unrelated investigation being conducted by one of our Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs). JTTFs are FBI-led, multi-agency teams made up of FBI agents, other federal investigators—including those from the Department of Defense—and state and local law enforcement officers.

"Investigators on the JTTF reviewed certain communications between Major Hasan and the subject of that investigation and assessed that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Major Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center."

Investigators on the JTTF reviewed certain communications between Major Hasan and the subject of that investigation and assessed that the content of those communications was consistent with research being conducted by Major Hasan in his position as a psychiatrist at the Walter Reed Medical Center. Because the content of the communications was explainable by his research and nothing else derogatory was found, the JTTF concluded that Major Hasan was not involved in terrorist activities or terrorist planning. Other communications of which the FBI was aware were similar to the ones reviewed by the JTTF.

Our top priority is to ensure that the person responsible for the Fort Hood shooting is held accountable. The ongoing investigation includes forensic examinations of Major Hasan’s computers and any Internet activity in hopes of gaining insight into his motivation. But the investigation to date indicates that the alleged gunman acted alone and was not part of a broader terrorist plot.

After meeting with the president, FBI Director Robert Mueller ordered a review of this matter to determine all of the facts and circumstances related to this tragedy and whether, with the benefit of hindsight, any policies or practices should change based on what we learn.

Again, this is a joint, ongoing criminal investigation that continues to move forward on many fronts. There is still much to learn. As a pending criminal case, the government remains limited in what information can be disclosed publicly about a United States citizen under investigation. As with any criminal investigation, all suspects are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty of a crime in a court of law.

At the Gates of Vienna

OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was a boring sort of day, when I did -I DON’T LIKE BANKSY THERE I SAID IT! Yeah, I know, as a middle-class guy with vague pretensions towards being bohemian in some half-arsed way I’m supposed to like Banksy’s work, but I just don’t.

It’s not that I think his stuff is bad per se, I just don’t think it’s all that good. I mean, some of it’s kinda funny, in that if you saw it on a greetings card half an hour before you were due to arrive at a friend’s birthday party you might consider buying it. But I don’t think he’s half so clever or witty as the critics make him out to be.

The thing is, he’s safely subversive. He’ll make some sort of point, but he won’t take you out of your comfort zone. He won’t implicate you, dear patron of the arts. He’ll keep things nice and subtle, often to the point where it’s not clear what his message actually is. Take the above piece, wot I encountered in Islington the other day. It’s called Saluting the Flag. It’s about capitalism, right? Kids… worship Tesco’s? Something like that? Tesco’s is a country in its own right, but is only regarded as such by children? No, you’ve lost me.

Nor is his work particularly original. Take this one here. DO YOU SEE WHAT HE’S DONE THERE? He has combined Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald with a famous photograph from the Vietnam War to make a comment on American foreign policy and commercialism or something along those lines. Except both Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald have been subverted in the exact same way about nine million times already. Seriously, subverting those two is actually no longer considered subversive. How old is the idea of subverting these characters? Well, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Ralph Steadman included a shot of Mickey Mouse wearing a swastika. That book  was published a year before that famous photo of Phan Thị Kim Phúc was actually taken.

“Ah!” you could say. “But that’s not the point! Banksy is forcing us to reevaluate the famous photo, which has become over-familiar and lost its original shock value by taking the central figure and placing her in a new context!” Well, perhaps, but even that’s been done before. Take Marcus Harvey’s Myra, pictured right. The famous photograph of Myra Hindley is recreated using children’s handprints. This painting caused so much outrage that it had to be removed from display on the very day it was put on public display after being attacked twice by members of the public. The only people who ever attack Banksy’s work are council jobsworths, because nobody else feels even remotely challenged by the stuff he does.

This one here is one of his non-graffiti pieces, Elephant in the Room. What he’s done here, you see, is taken the expression ”elephant in the room” and portrayed it literally. This represents the things that are very obvious but which we choose to ignore. Do you see how clever that is? He has portrayed a metaphor literally! Along those lines, here is an artwork of my own, which I call Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth.

The second cook along represents AIDS. The ladle represents Tony Blair. The fact that the fourth cook’s torso doesn’t go all the way down is a subtle comment on our society.

Ultimately, the reason I don’t like Banksy is that he’s Anarchist-U-Like. He won’t upset people or freak them out too much. He’ll give them a bit of a giggle. But he won’t put any kind of pressure on them, he won’t force them to reevaluate themselves. How many of the people who chuckled at The Elephant in the Room are going to leave the gallery and say, “Well, actually, I do exploit developing countries quite a lot”? I mean, and then do something about it. By being so on-the-face-of-it subversive, but so when-you-get-down-to-it safe, he enables people to pretend like they give a shit about real issues without actually doing a goddamn thing. Meanwhile, he himself edges closer and closer to becoming one of the brands he so often attacks. Here’s a tip for you, Banksy - if your graffiti actually adds thousands of pounds to the value of the place you target, you’re no longer dangerous. See John Lydon in those Country Life adverts? That’s you, that is.

I am tired of honest citizens such as myself, and Kanye being the bad guys just because we are the ones to point out the elephant in the room. You all see the damn elephant. You feel the damn elephant is there. Yet when the elephant keeps knocking you in the forehead with it’s truck, you STILL choose to ignore it. I’m in a less than desirable mood so I’m going to lay it out there…..

10 TRUTHS BLACK AND HISPANIC PEOPLE KNOW, BUT WHITE PEOPLE WON’T ADMIT:

1. Elvis is dead. 
2. Jesus was not White. 
3. Rap music is here to stay 
4. Kissing your pet is not cute or clean. 
5. Skinny does not equal sexy. 
6. Thomas Jefferson had black children. 
7. A 5 year child is too big for a stroller. 
8. N’ SYNC will never hold a candle to the Jackson 5 
9. An occasional BUTT whooping helps a child stay in line. 
10. Having your children curse you out in public is not normal. 

10 TRUTHS WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE KNOW, BUT HISPANIC PEOPLE WON’T ADMIT:

1. Hickey’s are not attractive. 
2. Chicken is food, not a roommate. 
3. Jesus is not a name for your son. 
4. Your country’s flag is not a car decoration. 
5. Maria is a name but not for every other daughter. 
6. Jump out and run is not in any insurance policies. 
7. 10 people to a car is considered too many. 
8. Buttoning just the top button of your shirt is a bad fashion statement. 
9. Mami and Papi can’t possibly be the nickname of every person in your family 
10.Letting your children run wildly through the store is not normal. 

10 TRUTHS WHITE AND HISPANIC PEOPLE KNOW, BUT BLACK PEOPLE WON’T ADMIT:

1. O. J. did it. 
2. Tupac is dead. 
3. Teeth should not be decorated. 
4. Weddings should start on time. 
5. Your pastor doesn’t know everything. 
6. Jesse Jackson will never be President. 
7. RED is not a kool-aid flavor, it’s a color. 
8. Church does not require expensive clothes. 
9. Crown Royal bags are meant to be thrown away. 
10.Your rims and sound system should not be worth more than your car.

RFID has evolved into a key technology for tracking goods and assets around the world, and is becoming critical to an efficient supply chain.

With the feature piece for the fall edition of the quarterly magazine – Keeping Track of your Assets – Lindsay James uncovers how RFID has evolved into a key technology for manufacturers with insights from S3Edge, Xterprise (a provider of custom /point solutions on the Microsoft platform for Retail), and a feature of the GKB Hi-Tech customer scenario.

http://www.onwindows.com/Portals/0/prime-issue-18.pdf 

Enjoy!

Cheers

/a

You are evaluating multiple options to deploy a scalable RFID system (hardware + software) for your enterprise – and all you come across are point solutions that are unable to articulate (or show) how the infrastructure that you are looking to deploy can be easily customized and evolve with your changing requirements over time…“Not to worry, we’ve got guys who can to take care of it” is the likely common refrain you hear….

A nagging question remains in the back of your head..How is this going to scale with my growing needs for years to come, let alone work as expected for my near term needs?

You’ve basically met the Elephant in the room  and unfortunately there only seems to be more of the same… Now, this is a HUGE problem, as:

• Elephants are really heavy and hard to move once they settle in
• Elephants move extremely slowly, making you adjust to their pace (vs. the other way round)
• It’s a laborious process to get them to do anything other than what they want…and
• Elephants eat a lot of grass over their lifetimes (which happens to be green also)

And unless you do something different, you may very well end up with a solution that (unfortunately) looks something like this….

Source: http://www.utopiatheory.com/?p=77

Well, take heart – all’s not quite doom and gloom yet – this is the problem that the team at S3Edge have been working on, and have a solution that will help you overcome the above obstacles while putting in place an infrastructure that effectively prevents the elephant from ever entering the room!

The S3Edge approach to systematically breaking down the barriers to adoption and enable a scalable infrastructure for your RFID application needs works as follows:

 Source www.istockphoto.com

• It all starts with the humble, yet all powerful device The first thing we do is to systematically attack problems starting at the device layer: This means a deep understanding of the low-level device operations and architecting the solution with device independence in mind. The BizTalk RFID platform provides an abstraction layer to interact and leverage device features in a uniform manner (think windows device drivers) and at S3Edge we build these device providers for a multitude of hardware vendors (Impinj, Motorola – fixed, hand-held and forklift, Unitech, thingMagic, Omron, Magellan, Kinetics, Time Domain etc. to name a few) – a list which includes various types of h/w from passive to active RFID devices – because if this layer fails, all else fails.

We are in some sense ‘tied at the hips vs. the ears’ with the devices we support and recommend to our clients as this strategy enables us to stand behind the devices the application works with, and state with a high degree of confidence that this (the RTVS business applications we develop) will scale from 1-10-100 devices..all while giving the client the piece of mind that there is no proprietary mechanism to discover, connect / communicate, and manage heterogeneous device environments on Windows.

This is an area we take immense pride in (being the best BizTalk RFID provider writers on the planet!) and have often been called ‘market enablers’ by our hardware partners and customers – sometimes for enabling ‘PnP’ of their devices with other s/w applications on the Microsoft platform! But perhaps the more subtle fact that may often get missed (or sometimes unfortunately misrepresented due to our body of work in the provider enablement area) is the ‘market leaders’ tag that we enable for the end users by taking full advantage of intimate device knowledge and the BizTalk RFID platform in the application software (Real-Time Visibility Systems) we develop and deploy.

• This is then followed by a structured 3 phase approach to solution deployment To achieve near term results and longer term strategic differentiation with Real-Time Visibility Systems software, we recommend a three-phase deployment model: Observe, Direct, Improve. This approach starts with the deployment of an Observational System followed by integrating more directional business logic to handle exceptions and finally using the system as a framework to improve your business processes over time.

We are very big on getting data in and out quickly, efficiently –  and it all begins with an Observational System (“Tag & Illuminate” as a customer succinctly put it) to allow you, the end-user to start seeing real-time information with zero lines of code once your devices are installed. In other words, the observational system (in the ‘Observe’ phase) clearly identifies and measure points in the existing material flow where high-cost errors occur, while the ‘Direct’ phase provides real-time alerts and direction to catch errors as they happen and prevent them from cascading – and finally the ‘Improve’ phase lets you build out a central business information platform that grows with your evolving operational needs for real-time data.To learn more about how the Observe, Direct, Improve methodology is working today for customers, check out my presentation at S3Edge RTVS Software Explained post.

• While always using standard development tools to implement customer-specific business logic The S3Edge Real Time Visibility Systems for Warehouse Operations, Discrete Manufacturing, and Supply Chain Asset Tracking are packaged in that they are easy to install and deploy and allow you to start seeing results from RFID data right away. It has been designed from the onset with the understanding that this is a mission critical component of your overall system. It includes all the enterprise ready characteristics you would expect from any business application: scalability, security, fault-tolerance and designed to grow with you changing needs over time. But perhaps the most significant differentiator is the fact that the solutions are built ground up on the Microsoft Application Server and Mobile platforms which essentially translates to no proprietary development environment to learn and support for the end user while connecting to controlling enterprise applications using standard connectors – there is no custom middleware or glue code and you get full leverage of the enterprise and mobile functionality that the Biztalk and .NET environments support, resulting in much lower TCO over a solution lifespan while taking advantage of built-in enterprise ready features for scalability, performance, and fault tolerance.

All of the above is always preceded by a detailed discovery session spent learning about your scenarios and requirements in deep detail followed by a ROI analysis that results in a “Investment vs. ROI profile”. In other words this is the clear articulation of what the investment (which encompasses hardware, software, services and YoY maintenance which is often overlooked) profile looks like side-by-side with the ROI profile in terms of hard $ numbers for ROI by year due the reduction in errors, and increase in labor utilization for your organization. Only if there is hard and tangible ROI for the end-users in terms of $ nos. from cost reductions do we typically even get into a deployment vs. betting on hypothetical or intangible ROI in terms of “if we do this i.e. deploy the RFID application, we are going to help you sell 3x more blue jeans and green sweaters”… not really our cup of tea

In summary we’ve seen why custom solutions are almost always bad news for RFID applications, and how the differentiated S3Edge approach helps solve issues caused by these solutions in the following manner:

1. By putting in place a packaged turnkey solution that can be easily customized for your needs,
2. While enabling a “solution infrastructure” that evolves with your needs over time

Give us a call or send us a note at info@s3edge.com if the above resonates with your needs – we’d love to hear from you and show you what we’ve got!

Next week, I plan on switching tracks a bit to talk about “Optimizing your RFID deployments for success: The top 5 factors that most influence a successful deployment of RFID applications in your Enterprise”, following which we’ll take a closer look at some of the scenarios that our packaged applications address in the discrete manufacturing and warehouse operations area (with detailed use case analysis and a focus on the ‘R’ in the ROI from the same). If you have any specific areas you’d like me to talk more about, would love to hear more!

Until the next post.

Cheers!

/a

Skypeme @ “allthingsRTVS”

Despite the numerous advances we have made in the areas of hardware capabilities (pertaining to performance, capabilities and costs – see “The changing landscape of RFID – Then and Now”), the big question mark that still hangs over us is around the availability of scalable software solutions that address end user needs – in other words:

What are the factors still hindering the rapid adoption of RFID – especially since the value to end users are well documented for a long time now?

The biggest risk for the end users today as I see it is the fact that to date most solutions are all custom developed from the device layer up – what does this translate into for the end user? ….Consider the following risks:

• Custom solutions often requires wide range of skills to deploy a working solution (RF, device specific, business process consulting, connection to enterprise applications, etc.)
• Custom solutions do not ‘evolve’ easily as technology advances– and hardware technology as we’ve seen continues to evolve by the day!
• Custom solutions result in high risk and high on-going support

These solutions are normally point solutions that are difficult to implement, deploy, resulting in numerous issues in ability to distinguish Hardware, Software, or System design errors when they are deployed in production (i.e. troubleshoot, maintain and scale).

At the end of the day, you are left hanging at the graveyard of unsuccessful ‘process re-engineering’ projects that cost too much, are hard to implement, don’t really work, and look something like this…

Source (elephant and blind men picture): http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/elephant-with-blind-men.jpg

Perhaps most scary is the aspect that most (if not all of these solutions) are often found trying to replace an existing Line of Business (LoB) layer vs. extending and complementing the existing electronic system to be ‘real-world’ aware i.e. change in process at the same time as change in technology is almost always a bad idea. 

In other words, enterprise applications have been shown to maintain a precise view of the physical world they control. However, it’s also been shown that they do not have visibility into the real world events [a great example is the lack of visibility in warehouses in terms of what the WMS system has as system of record, and what’s actually on the floor]. It’s this loosely coupled nature of interaction between Electronic Systems and Physical World that results in a big gap between Actual vs. Expected, and if we optimize the solution to solve these requirements with a packaged real-time visibility system, we’ve avoided the above pitfalls altogether.

In summary, the real barrier (to deploying real time visibility systems today) has been the lack of packaged software solutions that connects all the parts and get them to work in concert with the enterprise applications. The only option today unfortunately (as illustrated above) all along has been to develop a custom solution from scratch which, as all custom development efforts, can be a time consuming and risky proposition for a typical end-user customer to take on… What is needed today is a solution that can be easily configured, and deployed like any other enterprise business application to gather and utilize real-time data with minimal or no disruption to existing enterprise applications.

Stay tuned for my next post this week where I will illustrate a proven approach to address the above issues.

Until then, Cheers!

/a

Next post: The Elephant Movers – S3Edge’s approach to systematically break down these barriers and deploy a scalable, enterprise-wide RTVS

Longing to be whole....and so are you.

You know what I have noticed recently? There is a growing number of individuals (or perhaps, the phenomenon has been “the elephant in the room” all along) that are leading two lives (or more).  My hypothesis, based on my observation/experiences/informal research is that many of these cases spawn from folks who:

• Do not openly express  wants and needs.
• Do not believe that their own happiness is important (for themselves or to others).
• Are afraid that parents, spouse, friends, employer, etc would not approve of or accept actions.
• Have financial concerns – For example: “I hate working here but I need the paycheck”, “I am unhappy with this relationship however; I do not make enough on my own to handle the bills”, “My apartment is in a terrible neighborhood but I can’t afford to move”.
• Are afraid of failing?
• Are concerned about what others think.

If those close to you don’t know much about “the real you”  then you are likely living two lives to one extreme or another. There is one life which is believed to be acceptable by all and another which is kept on the “down-low”.  One keeps everyone other than you in a safe, happy, naive bubble and the other becomes your “free space”…the place to be yourself. You either lead two lives or you spend a ridiculous amount of time repressing your innermost desires, hiding your frustrations, ignoring you urges until one day…..you can’t anymore, and you explode .

Your happiness is important…..what YOU want is important….how YOU feel is important….or at least it should be to those who claim to care about you and to love you unconditionally.  Hmmmmm, “Unconditional love”…can humans achieve it?” Consider these questions:

Will your “love” allow you to let go and wish your spouse happiness when they tell you that they no longer want the relationship?”

“Will you love and support your child when they announce that they are homosexual?”

“Will you still love your brother, even when you find out that he has committed a heinous crime?”

“Will you still accept a loved one when they announce that they have chosen a religion that you don’t approve of?”

Or, would you rather your child/spouse/parent/friend/sibling/(and the list goes on) live an alternate life that does not include you?

I wrote to President Obama today (via the White House “Contact Us” page). I said:

At a recent town hall meeting, you estimated that your national health care plan would cost $90 billion over 10 years. You also estimated that “about two-thirds” of it could be obtained by things “like eliminating subsidies to insurance companies.”

I’d like to remind you of the “elephant in the room” that is always standing there when the federal government seems to be strapped for cash. The budget for FY2010 includes $533.7 billion for the Department of Defense. This is a staggering number: about $1,800 for every man, woman and child in the United States; $7,000 for a family of four.

In one year.

If there are sources for two-thirds of the $90 billion that the new plan will require in its first year, the remaining $30 billion can be obtained by trimming the DoD’s allocation by six percent. Six percent! And think of the symbolism: we’re moving toward the well-being of all citizens, by stealing just a tiny bit from the Department of Death. It would be one of the most beautiful, humanitarian decisions our country has ever made.

The King Salmon (commonly referred to as Chinook) has disappeared from many rivers in Alaska in 2009. No one is sure exactly why, but here are some possibilities, as reported at redorbit.com;

• availability of food
• predator/prey imbalance
• changing river conditions
• changing ocean currents
• plankton blooms
• incidental capture of Kings in pollock trawl nets

Any other ideas? Oh yeah, we’ve got one!

Alaska’s salmon ranching program pumps out billions of salmon (mainly Pink and Chum species)that compete with wild salmon in the ocean for food, but only produces minimal amounts of King salmon. Could ranched salmon, given the head start in a hatchery, be outcompeting wild King salmon for food? It’s seems a little too coincidental that the one species not heavily enhanced is the one not returning at historic levels.

Please welcome the elephant that just entered the room.

Check out another tear sheet featuring Asher Roth photographed for Rap-Up Magazine in NYC.

My previous post prompted a commenter of some pedigree Ben, to suggest it may be worthwhile trying to measure exactly how big the gap is between clinicians and management. Interestingly there is not that much in the literature of either medicine or management attempting to quantify this situation. After some searching however I unearthed this little nugget: “Views of doctors and managers on the doctor-manager relationship in the NHS” Davies et al BMJ 2003;326:626-628

The study was a postal questionnaire carried out in 2002 of Chief Executives, Medical Directors and a stratified sample of Clinical Directors randomly selected from 75 Trusts. Responses were received from 103 Chief Executives, 168 Medical Directors and 445 Clinical Directors. It is pertinent to explain that Chief Executives are purely from a management origin and Clinical Directors are Consultants heading up a clinical grouping known as a Clinical Directorate. Importantly, the latter group are clinicians, undertaking a management role in addition to their clinical role. These doctors will share most closely the opinion of the majority of clinicians although it should be noted that their role identifies them as having a bent towards management that other clinicians may not share. So they will have a more positive view of management generally than the majority.

A series of questions were posed and the answers assessed to see how much (or little) the respondents agreed with the question. The results of the study are clear and are summarised by the the authors,

” Clinical directors were easily the most disaffected, with many holding negative opinions about managers’ capabilities, the respective balance of power and influence between managers and clinicians, and the prospects for improved relations.”

I have uploaded a spreadsheet of the results here with the questions and the responses from the two groups discussed. I’ve also done a little additional work of my own calculating the distance between the answers of managers and clinicians. Allowing a 5% error each way (ie >10% difference is significant) it is intriguing to see that of  the 26 questions in only 4 was there any similarity of opinion.

So, how big is the elephant in the room? I think we need to address a few other issues now apart from its size…

Today I was supposed to be good to family.  Well, it’s only fair. Family’s been good to me.

***

The best part of my day by far was my conversation with my father about a book. He & I haven’t always been in touch over the years, but we reconnected for good last summer & since then I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know him & his sweet, intelligent sons much better.  I called him in Washington, DC this afternoon to discuss “Aguantando”, a short story from Junot Diaz’s collection Drown.

My father chose this collection because, he told me, “It’s the hardest form to do well– this particular guy is a master of it.”  My father is a photographer who holds that photography’s goal is “to tell a complete story in a single image,” & he sees a similar effect created in Diaz’s work (those yellow dress socks!).  Dad & I both agreed that the story is moving, simply written, & evocative.  A pleasure to read.  Etc.

Summer of '88

After 21 years of schooling, it’s strange to discuss a book in terms of “feelings.”  It’s something I never do.  & feelings? I’ve never had.

If it were a book club, we’d start wrapping up our leftovers & putting on our coats.

But the first sentence of our story is “I lived without a father for the first nine years of my life,” & in the last, certifiably heart-breaking paragraph, the child narrator imagines his father’s homecoming with poignancy that almost brought me to tears– & my father to, I imagine, the grown man’s equivalent.

Why did he choose this particular story?  At first when I asked him it seemed there was no particular reason.  But I’m big on destiny lately & I have to tell you: the story choice means something.  Even if it didn’t, we made it mean something.  The elephant in the room often turns out to be a kind & gentle one, & we bonded about our unconventional childhoods & absent (emotionally or otherwise) fathers.

Most of that should be kept private, I think. Not that there’s anything too scandalous.

He did tell me a story from his boyhood that is too good not share, especially considering that Hemingway played an awfully big role in my life during Week 2.

Below is the account, essentially verbatim, of what happened to my father in the summer of 1956.  As some of you more educated folks may know, this was a politically volatile time for Cuba.  When the story takes place, Castro is a guerilla fighter publicly backed by Hemingway.

When my father was sixteen he had just graduated from Harvard School in Los Angeles.  Fred Zinnemann, my grandfather, had been hired to direct the film adaptation of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, & they were all to spend the summer in Cuba on set.

By the time my father arrived, Zinnemann was off the picture.  Hemingway, who wanted him as the director, got into a fistfight with the producer–  but, as we know in these more civilized times, violence doesn’t solve anything. As a consolation, Hemingway invited my father & grandfather to go fishing with him.  On the same boat from the story, in fact.  With the same Old Man.

A mile or so off the coast of Havana, they put their lines in the water & started to troll.  “The first fish that comes, you take it,” Hemingway told my father.

Soon fish started jumping all around the boat, & the water was crazy with splashes.  Hemingway jumped to the top of the boat & began steering the craft in insane zig-zags through the water, causing my father to think he’d lost his mind.

In fact, they were being machine-gunned from the shore by Batista’s men.

Once the shooting stopped the first fish bit.  My father began to reel it in but Hemingway pushed him out of the way & took it himself.  It was tiny, my father says.  “No bigger than a minnow.”

I’ll leave you all to make whatever sense you like of that.

I find it interesting that Diaz’s work has prompted both my interviewees to share stories about their own families.  A good story, I think, encourages its readers to want to share their own.

***

Does this feel like a lot of reading?  Imagine being the one writing it.

***

Another task of mine today was to bake something for a family member. Well, nobody lives in my town & I’ve stopped eating.  I suppose I could have rolled some dog food in cold halibut & seasoned it with pepper– that’s really all I have in my cupboard.  I’m a little over budget this week, so I reached an ingenious solution:

I baked a virtual cake for my brother & emailed it to him.  Isn’t it beautiful?  it must taste delicious too.  Much better than getting old halibut in the mail.

***

Spring of '07

Also on my list, I had to make a mixed CD for my mother & send her a note telling her why I chose 5-10 songs.  My disk drive has been broken for months & I obviously don’t have the time to take it in, since the project requires me to have my computer every day!  So I reached another ingenious solution: I made an iTunes playlist dedicated to her.

I’ve been attempting to turn it into an iMix periodically over the past four hours, but they’re undergoing “system maintenance” — yeah right.  I know the devil’s work when I see it.

[ed. note: iMix now available here]

Note taken care of below with the playlist!  & soon the “CD” is “given,” if you take a loose definition of “to give.”  Once the iMix is up I’ll share it here & then everyone– including my mom– can enjoy it.

Here’s the playlist:

1. “Love & Communication (Acoustic Version)” – Cat Power – because the first words of the song are “Love & communication you will hear from me” — so this is an obvious one to begin with, right?
2. “Someday You’ll Want Me to Want You” – Ricky Nelson
3. “People” – El Perro del Mar — because you wouldn’t normally like this song, but you will REALLY like it if you imagine that it’s Bella’s interior monologue
4. “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” – Ella Fitzgerald & the Ink Spots
5. “White Winter Hymnal” – Fleet Foxes
6. “You Love Me” – Kimya Dawson
7. “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be)” – Doris Day
8. “Never Had Nobody Like You (feat. Zooey Deschanel)” – M. Ward
9. “Manhattan” – Ella Fitzgerald
10. “Two Sleepy People” – Fats Waller
11. “Baby Love” – Annie Philippe — because it’s funny to hear a French cover
12. “(Hey) Big Spender” – Dorothy Fields
13. “We’re All Mad Here” – Tom Waits — because we are
14. “Sentimental Heart” – She & Him
15. “The Fairest of the Seasons” – Nico
16. “Not Dark Yet” – Bob Dylan
17. “Cabaret” – Louis Armstrong — because one should never end a playlist with any other song.  I think I want this to be the first song my baby hears, if I ever find a decent man.
    

Does this count as a failure?  You tell me.

I made a video of me whistling “Que Sera Sera” but this post is already way too content heavy.

***

I’m also supposed to compliment 20 facebook friends, ten of whom I dislike or don’t see often.  I’ve made a list.  I’m not complimenting anyone I dislike because I’ve already defriended them all!  Ha.  I purge regularly & mercilessly.  I am the Stalin of facebook.

Sorry if you’re reading this & I’ve defriended you.  Assume I did it for other reasons (maybe your status updates are stupid).

Anyway, I have a list.  For compliments, not purges.  They’ll be going out within the next few hours.

***

There you have it.  Another day in the life of Emily Zinnemann, complete with dead roses & an Oedipal black cat. Oh & of course there’s always

P.S. One of my readers wants to know more about boys & kissing.  I’m sorry, but it’s not that kind of blog!

This is the extended Remix of Ain’t Sayin Nothing,mixed by me.

It features Fat Joe,Lil Wayne,The Game,Plies & Dre(Of Cool and Dre)

Note:I’m not a Fan of Plies but i thought i add him to the remix for a change.

Fat Joe,Game,Lil Wayne,Plies and Dre of Cool and Dre – Ain’t Sayin Nothing Smu Remix

If you’re anything like me, your first reaction to that headline goes something like this:

“Say WHAAAAAAA?????”

That’s what I did when my wife told me about it. She apparently got the info from Perez Hilton at 9:15 this morning…the day Perez gets the drop on me when it comes to geek culture (gay or no) is a sad day indeed. Some people are trying to say its a publicity stunt, but  writer Peter David says its the real deal.

“It’s not a fake out. A number of people seem to be concerned that Star is still under Cortex’s control. Or that Rictor is going to freak out the next panel and say, ‘Dude, what the hell?’ That would be cheap. I don’t do cheap. Okay, sometimes I do, but not this time. I’m not interested in having people say, ‘Peter David introduced this and then chickened out.’"

Apparently there have been hints to their relationship before now, and the latest issue of X-Factor confirms suspicions. Not to shit in anyone’s cereal here, but I don’t think this is going stick. It’s not going be David’s fault. Kudos to him for having the stones to pull this shit off. But anyone who reads my blog knows that I don’t read Marvel because they have continuity issues. Some writer will come along after David’s moved on to other projects, and either explain the whole incident away or ignore it completely and give one or both of these characters female romantic interests.

Still, this fact does not cheapen the fact that mainstream comics has addressed the gay issue. Way to deal with the elephant in the room, guys.

The groundbreaking moment takes place in X-Factor, 45 which went on sale today. I’ve uploaded an image of the last page for your convenience.

On an unrelated note: Does it annoy the fuck out of anyone but me that Rictor’s name is misspelled??? His mutant ability is to generate seismic energy waves (basically the guy can create earthquakes.) One would assume his name is taken from Charles RICHTER, the man who invented the RICHTER magnitude scale that we use to measure earthquakes, but Marvel insists that his name is RICTOR. Sorry about that. The English major in me reared his ugly head.

DS Out.

[Source: Peter David]

Readers of No Applause know that the romance of the gypsy forms an important part of the perpetual fairy tale circulating in my brain. “Travelers”, as they are often known: free spirits, outsiders, artists. Maybe it’s a stereotype, but it’s a glamorous one. Singing, dancing, drinking wine all day, banging a tamborine.

In reality, it’s not so pretty. The real life Roma continue to maintain their itinerant culture and are among the poorest people in Europe, still ostracized after centuries of persecution. Wagon Wheel, a new musical recently presented at the “Planet Connections” festival, purports to tell their story. I use the arch verb with reason. While a program note informs us that it is “Post World War II Eastern Europe”, there is no reference whatever to real events either historical or contemporary in the show.  It really seems set in a cocoon of fairy tale timelessness, which is okay by me (just don’t claim otherwise). “Eastern Europe” is a clue: Hungary? Poland? Romania? Vast differences among their cultures; even among their Roma cultures. (Recommended reading: Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey, by Isabel Fonseca)

I am an advocate for authenticity and folkishness on the stage. This is why I am a fan of Viva Patshiva — who bring real gypsy melodies and dances to their productions unalloyed. (Full disclosure, I appeared in their Surf Reality “Under the Highway” incarnation as the token rich white guy). This is prefatory to saying that, to my surprise, I didn’t hate Erato Kremmyda’s mongrelized approach to the music for Wagon Wheel…a little gypsy flavor mixed with a lot of “Broadway musical”. Half way into the first number I went from gritting my teeth at the piano flourishes…to admiring the pretty melody. While there are twice too many of them, the songs are consistently gorgeous throughout. I would even play the CD.

The book’s problems are greater. Robin Sandusky’s story is fairly hackneyed; the entire arc of the plot can be discerned within the play’s first five minutes without the assistance of a crystal ball. Young Laszo ( Michael-August Turley) is unexpectedly vaulted  to King of the Caravan when the death of his father (Yoav Levin) reveals that the eldest brother Zjohai (Christopher Johnson) is of suspect parentage. A stickler for tradition, Zjohair insists that the unprepared Laszo (who looks about 14 years old) not only the assume the post, but also assume his arranged bride (Rebecca Odoriso0). Which might be okay if his own girlfriend (Ani Niemann) wasn’t carrying his child. Fiery people + jealousy + knives. You do the math. At any rate, something didn’t quite add up in this production. In spite of the tragic ending, the three Cockneys in front of me couldn’t stop giggling.

And yet…I can’t say why, but I think there may be potential in this show. It needs to be worked on. The Robert Moss Theatre (where I saw it) is too small, for one thing. I’m not sure if I even saw the show that is latently there. Perhaps if the singing and dancing were “let rip” on a much bigger stage, it would be easier to engage with it.  And the book has snags that need to be ironed out. Is this the real world? A gypsy folk tale? What do I look like, a mind reader?

]]> http://ibelieveubuntu.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/perv-p-o-w-crushes-and-remaining-negroid/ Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:52:50 +0000 ibelieveubuntu http://ibelieveubuntu.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/perv-p-o-w-crushes-and-remaining-negroid/

Ambiguity is key.

So, I definitely have my creep radar bleeping. He is way too old, inappropriate, self-absorbed and gross to be trying slip sweet nothings into any conversation.

Shot to the head. Ew to the nth. Hell to the naw. Et cetera.

Newbie isn’t synonymous with willing. Or interested.

Definitely employing silence and monosyllabic responses.

Anyway, I met the most interesting man earlier.

I stumbled across his shop, which happens to be a former printing press/ apartment complex. It was the niftiest little spot, with his son’s paintings on the walls, figurines from all over the world, an antique piano and signs in Latin.

I’m so coming back to interview the owner, who happens to be a former German P.O.W., jokester and a phenomenal pianist and charmer, in general.

It is interesting because since my grandfather passed away about four years ago, every now and then I interact with elderly men who remind me of him.

Grandpa was not German. He wasn’t a P.O.W. He did spend time serving in Germany. And that’s about the extent of it.

I can not wait to collect more information from this man and write about him, his history and the 83-year-old perspective many of us will able to benefit from.

As far as remaining Negroid, I was definitely offended for an intense five minutes today. A man waltzed into the newsroom and said that Mike Vick needed to be deported back to Africa with no shoes and no money.

As if Vick’s ancestors willingly hopped onto a cruise to the New World. Deport? Really?
As if he hasn’t paid his supposed debt to society for dog fighting?
As if the message being sent by society isn’t placing dogs before a black man?
Inprisonment, house arrest and community service?
As if the prison industrial complex isn’t profiting from brothas, day in and out?
As if every African country consists of bare feet and poverty?
As if there weren’t two black journalists in the office who could be offended by his nonsense?

My face was hot for a few minutes.
We made eye contact.
I glared/snarled at him as intensely as I could.
I twittered it.
Then I went back to my story due that day.

I guess a week in a not-so-diverse town, and only one inflammatory comment isn’t the worst. I expected a daily battle.

Occasionally I get the looks of disbelief as I walk about and meet people.

Most people are friendly though.

It’d be interesting to see the political demographics of the area.
Maybe I’m in an Obama haven full of people who are just as excited to see my beaming brown face as I am to maximize this opportunity.

I miss my family, but I’m blessed to be here.

Sidenote: For whatever reason, I’m an enthusiastic listener to other people, but have noticed that some people aren’t nearly as interested in my triumphs as I am in theirs.

Note to self: Haters are your motivation.
But sometimes I don’t even see it as hating.

I think people sense that I’m going to be all right, so they try to drain whatever resources I have for the moment. Time, dinero, cerebral analysis.

Whatev. Later!

I just realized that I didn’t write about crushes. Well, I’m about 7-years-old when it comes to them. Aside from the fact that I’m consistently uninterested in anyone.

See what had happened was:

I arrived today to the town I will be working/living in for two months.
My editor and his wife picked me up from the airport.
We chatted nicely through the tolls, mountainous terrain and fast food chains.

They seemed open to new people and not appalled by my pigmentation.
If anything my height was discussed more than my hue.
I didn’t mind.

Fast forward to the less p.c.:

At first I didn’t notice many looks. I made a Wal-mart trip with the boss and his wife. No one appeared to be particularly interested in what we had going on.

However, when I returned about an hour later with my Black roomie and her Black novio, the audience became blatant.

Eyeballs danced with interest in the whereabouts of the three 20ish, copper physiques.

I caught an overweight, sandy blonde woman with a hairstyle curiously resembling a mullet, glaring at me in the cereal aisle.
Um? Did my $2.68 box of Froot Loops offend someone?

The many stares prompted me to create a formula.
About half of the citizens were friendly or at least didn’t appear disturbed by my existence.
A quarter seemed impartial.
And the funniest quarter took the effort to furrow brows or stare in disbelief.
( .5F+.25I+.25D) = amusing 8 weeks.

I enjoyed imagining their subtext with poor diction, clarifying of a lack of exposure.

Really? People STILL stare at Blacks? Isn’t that so … (insert appropriate year to do so?)

But, I am excited about the newsroom. They’ve had (colored) interns before. So it’s not as if I’m trekking a pathway not broken in by brown.

Ummm. What else?

My parents’ relationship is just about the cutest thing ever.
They are methodically shipping all of us chirren off to different locations so they can do what grown people in love do. Though I gag when they are overly affectionate in my presence, I can’t help but look forward to the day that I form part of as wholesome a whole as they form.

I’m PMSing. Emotional. Analytical.
And avoiding the first draft of an abortion piece.
Later!

By the way, we counted like 2 other Black people, an Indian guy and a couple of Puerto Ricans who would fit in at any of my family reunions. Oh, the diversity! Haha.

Also, it sucks to see bi dream guys.

You know what, I have nothing to hide. I am who I am. And this is about singing… nothing else [Adam's first public response on Idol to 'the question', at the top 13 party, after photos of Adam kissing a man had surfaced on the internet].

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

A  TMZ.com reporter ambushed Adam during the competition: 

Q – So, you could be the first…

Adam – [smiling] The first what? [Awkward silence]. Friend of… you?

* * * * * * * * * * *

Q – I want to just get this question out of the way first, something that’s been dangling a bit over you for the whole season: Would you like to put to rest all the speculation about your sexuality?
A  – It’s not dangling over my head. [Laughing] It may be dangling over yours, but it’s not over mine. Yeah, I think speculation keeps things really interesting. [EW article ].

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Q [female reporter] – Now that Idol is over, will you clear up the question about your sexuality?

A – Keeping everyone curious is kind of interesting, if you know what I mean. I think that time will tell… It’s really no-ones business, to be honest with you.

Q – We’re bi-curious.

A – Oh, well you’re helping me with that!

[an exchange just hours after the Finale result]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Q – What has been the strangest question you’ve been asked now that the show is over? Have there been ridiculously overt roundabout ways to get at you about the ‘elephant in the room’, the topic?

A – They’ve been pretty straightforward, actually. To which I go, “Ha, mrmp”. Yeah. So. That elephant, man, it’s pink, isn’t it?

[TV Guide exit interview several days after the Finale result].

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Q – Who will take the top bunk on the American Idol tour bus?
Kris – Um, I don’t, I don’t care.
Adam – I like the top. [Kris gives Adam a look; they crack up]. Sorry. That’s inappropriate.
K – [Still smiling]. That was good. That was good.

[US magazine interview]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Q – I’m here with an exclusive interview with American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert who has agreed to answer the question that is on everyone’s mind.

A – That’s right.

Q – The question that all of America has been dying to know the answer to for months.

A – Yep.

Q – The question that no one else has been able to get Adam Lambert to definitively answer.

A – You’ve got it, Paul. And you know I’m really excited to finally address this issue once and for all.

Q –  All right, here we go. Adam Lambert, are you… informed about the transition from analogue to digital television?

A – Yes Paul, I am. America, on June 12^th the Federal Communications Commission will require all television stations to broadcast in digital rather than analogue signals. What this means for you… if you live in Pennsylvania you can pick up you broadcasting transmission box at… and just hook up your HTMI cables and bam! You’re all set for the digital transition.

Q – Well that settles it! Adam Lambert, I can’t imagine there is any other question people could possibly want you to answer.

A – Me neither! [Awkward silence as Adam & Paul smile into the camera].

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Q – Did you see the Bill O’Reilly segment about you?

A – I did. I did.

[picture of Adam kissing a man; voice-over of O'Reilly: “On the internet there are embarrassing pictures of Mr. Lambert”]

A – They censored it! It was censored

Q – It was [laughs].

A – I was like, is that indecent?

Q – They called them embarrassing pictures. I was like, what? Embarrassing to who?

A – I wasn’t embarrassed. I guess he was.

Q – Embarrassing to Bill O’Reilly.

A – Yeah, Bill was embarrassed.

[Adam on Idolatry with Michael Slezak].

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Adam =   “It’s surprising [the media obsession], because I don’t think twice about my sexuality. I’ve been living this way for the whole time that I’ve been living in L.A, for the past eight years. It’s a funny reminder that not everyone is as comfortable with it as I am.”

 “I am gay, and I am very comfortable with it. I have been for a long time. I think it’s funny that people are like, “He’s been hiding it”. I’ve always been out. I just chose to avoid it [during the competition]. I wasn’t ready to address everything that I’d ever done and reveal the most intimate details of my personality because I was just getting used to being a figure of the public eye. And I feel like, “Okay, now people see me as an entertainer, and now I’m willing to let them in a little bit more on my personal life”. It feels really good [now that I’ve addressed my sexuality to the media] to just state the fact and just move forward, [so that people don't] keep wondering about, “What does he do?” you know, “With whom?”

 ”[As a kid] I loved singing and dancing and playing dress-up and it’s really not a big surprise. I had like an odd fascination with glitter, so there you go. See, now I’m stereotyping myself. Great.” [Laughs].

 “When you are a young man or woman, and you are in the closet, chances are that you might not be experiencing things that other kids in high school are experiencing. I mean, in high school it’s the first time that you have your first date, and your first love, and your first kiss. I didn’t have any of that”.

* * * * * * * *

When Adam came out to his Mother:

“We were driving home from this event and [Mom] looked over at me and she was like, ‘So, do you have a girlfriend?’ And I said, ‘No’, and she said, ‘Do you want one?’ I was like, ‘Mmmm, no’. She said, ‘Well, do you want to have a boyfriend?’ And I went, ‘That could be nice’. She was like, ‘Oh, I’ve always known’. And I was like, “Well, why didn’t you ask me sooner?” And she was like, “I didn’t want to push you!” [Adam's mom: "all of a sudden the gates opened, and he couldn’t stop asking me questions, ‘When did you know? How old was I? What are the things that you noticed?’ It felt really good because there were no barriers.”].

* * * * * *

Adam supports Gay Marriage:

“This civil rights movement is near to my heart, and it felt really good to sing [A Change is Gonna Come]. I’m not asking to get married in your church, but you don’t have any right to tell me I can’t do it”. BUT “I’m trying to be a singer, not a civil rights leader,” Adam says.

* * * * * * * *

Adam talks about Discrimination & Stereotyping:

Discrimination, though usually minor, is a fact of his life. The other day an American Idol chauffeur told him that he had no problem with him, “because at least you’re not girly”. Lambert shudders. “Man, it’s so ignorant. Why can’t some men have strong feminine sides? Does that make them less of a man? I don’t know why our society has so much emphasis on masculinity and femininity – it’s really gross. I don’t think you’re truly sexy until you don’t care about that”. He is uncomfortable with some of the ways that gay culture has evolved. “Middle America thinks that what I am is gay, but here in Hollywood, gay guys are all about trying to fit in – they’re obsessed with looking and acting hetero. Clay Aiken’s gay, and I’m gay, but we couldn’t be more different.”

* * * * * * * *

Getting naked in PE class was nerve-wracking:

In middle school he started feeling awkward around his classmates, “I started to realize I wasn’t like every other boy, and I was just in my own head, tripping myself out”. PE classes stoked his anxiety, “I didn’t want to be naked and vulnerable. I was scared of my sexuality.”

* * * * * *

Adam discussed religion with Gokey:

Adam says he discussed religion with Danny a few times, but “Danny is by the book, and the book is The Word. And I respect that. Just don’t try to push it on me, and we’re cool.”

* * * * * * *

Adam on wearing drag: “That’s not me”

“I’ve only dressed in drag three or four times – and of course I took pictures, because I looked amazing – but I don’t tuck and I don’t wear breasts, that’s not me. Sucking my boy’s face? Yes, that I will own,” he joked.The photos were never directly addressed by Lambert until now because he was afraid they’d “be so sensationalized that it would overshadow what I was there to do, which was sing … It shouldn’t matter. (sighs) Except it does. (shaking head) It’s really confusing.”

* * * * * * *

Adam talks about the kissing-a-man photos that came out when he was on Idol

As for the scandal over photos of Lambert in drag that surfaced on the Internet in March, he says, he forgot to remove photos from his profile on a social network for the Burning Man festival in Nevada. He was worried that people would think the drag ensemble was typical of him. “I’ve only dressed in drag three or four times. … I don’t tuck and wear breasts, that’s not me. Going into Idol, I assumed, `OK, people are going to talk,”‘ he says. “I mean, I’ve been living in Los Angeles for eight years as a gay man, I’ve been at clubs making out with somebody in the corner. But photographic evidence? Didn’t count on that. Wasn’t ready for that.”

* * * * *

Adam talks about Kris: “Shit, they put me with the cute guy. Distracting!”

“I was like, `Oh, shit, they put me with the cute guy,”‘ Lambert says. “Distracting! He’s the one guy that I found attractive in the whole group on the show: nice, nonchalant, pretty and totally my type — except that he has a wife. I mean, he’s open-minded and liberal, but he’s definitely 100 percent straight.” [Kris responded to People magazine: "I'm flattered. And I think it's hilarious"].

* * * * * *

Kris talks about Adam’s boyfriend (LaBry):

 “I think he’s happier that he can be himself and it’s nice. Adam is who he is and he’s not afraid. I support him in whatever he does.” Allen says of Lambert, 27, stepping out with his friend Drake LaBry.” Kris Allen calls Lambert and LaBry’s friendship a “cool combination,” because they’re so different. “Drake’s from Louisiana and Adam is from L.A.,” he says. “But they click well and they’re really nice together.” Kris says he has met LaBry, and, “he’s a really nice guy.”

In a new interview with TV Guide, Adam Lambert discusses the “Pink Elephant” in the room, foundation and “Guy-Liner” tips… and more!  Check it out!  xoxo