night cap
there is no avenging angel or red burning devil
there is only me sitting here
at the age of 70
playing with the word. [Read more…]
Bob Dorn: Requiem for a Renaissance Man
There’s a funeral toast, “Here’s to a man whose like won’t come this way again.” That’s Bob Dorn. Writer, jazz man, stone mason, gardener, cook, and maker of carnival masks; he was also a warm, witty, and constant friend. About that last semi-colon, Bob and I had two caffeine-fueled discussions on the semi-colon, which he put to bed with these words,
“I think the notion that language usage should (or could) be proper is
‘… a hobgoblin of small minds’ (Emerson). Communication is the proper aim of writing.”
When I met Bob early in 2013 he had been playing the trumpet for many years, and for me jazz informed his writing in ways wonderful and a little mysterious. After asking him about the process in a couple of different ways, Bob emailed on his 74th birthday,
“Music’s even more mysterious to me than
language but the comparison isn’t fair because language …. ? I was
gonna say it’s more like rocks fitted together and music has structure,
but that’s not good enough because there are musicians who can
can explain the system but they often can’t play as well as others who
nevertheless can’t explain the system. There’s a so-what in there,
someplace. One thing that comes to mind is
that there are alternative phrases in jazz and writing. A phrase like,
“dawn came a little slowly…” might be jazzy, but “he waited for a dawn
that never seemed to arrive” is more like writing.”
Updated Jan. 5, 2019: to include memorial service info [Read more…]
Political Love Affair | Geo-Poetic Spaces
I tried to leave
because she
can be cruel
to women and children
unkind to the strangers
she once was herself
Round corners
in a remote countries
and there she was
looking out of starry eyes
waving wind
Stowed in my suitcase
carried over seas of clouds [Read more…]
Isn’t It Good, Norwegian Wood?
I didn’t think much of the novel, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami while I was reading it. But just like the Beatles song of the same name, that became a maddening earworm for weeks after hearing it recently, the story keeps creeping into my thoughts and coloring my perspective of life.
Life is dark and sad and fraught with uncertainty, and yet buried in all of that sadness are bits of light and delight – like tasting the fruit of a Peruvian Apple Cactus that seems at first to be tasteless, but suddenly delights your mouth with an irresistible crystalline popping sensation.
Uncovering these hidden gems in a bleak life is the raison d’être of artists. We spend our lives with imaginary magnifying glasses extended, searching for the ubiquitous gems hidden in plain sight. That moment when a reader exclaims, “Ah yes, I’ve had that feeling!” or, “I never thought about it in this way until I read what you wrote,” is when I feel that I have lived with a purpose. [Read more…]
The Old Man and the City
Editor’s Note: Bob wrote this article on October 30 and intended to finish it while in Sant Joan, Mallorca, where he unexpectedly died. Nat Krieger, a dear friend of Bob and SDFP contributor himself, was able to find the article on Bob’s computer and sent it to us, at Deb Dorn’s request. We are publishing it posthumously.
By Bob Dorn
The old man used to ride his wobbly old bike every day up to the market on Park Boulevard where he preferred to shop. On his way north he would dismount as he approached the Georgia Street overpass of University Avenue because the climb was steep enough to make him uncomfortable. In fact, he not very stable on the machine under any conditions, and it looked nearly as old as him and seemed to weigh half as much as he did. On his way back the filled-up basket of the bike rattled loudly, which alerted the few people along the way getting out of or into their cars.
On some days the people recognized him and waved, some pointing their thumbs upward toward the sky because they knew he would pretend to think they meant something was up there and he would look up at the morning clouds as if he were following their directions. They always laughed at that. Others would aim their garden hoses at him so they could share a different laugh. [Read more…]
The Dorn Effect | Remembering Bob Dorn
By Donna Rankin
I met Deb first, a million years ago when we worked together. She threw herself into the lives of kids, developed their hurt, loss, hope, talent into stage performances that loosened your humanity. I liked kids, too, but from the safer distance of writing about them. Deb didn’t like goal attainment scales, office hours, meetings. Me neither. We formed an instant sisterhood.
Sisterhoods can be wrecked in a heartbeat by bringing in unbrotherly mates, but a few months in we took that nervous-making step of introducing the husbands. From the first day Tom and I met Bob Dorn, there was never a day we didn’t love him. [Read more…]
America’s Dark History of Organized Anti-Semitism Re-emerges in Today’s Far-Right Groups
By Bradley W. Hart / California State University, Fresno
Hours after Robert Bowers allegedly walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 people, investigators told the media that Bowers appeared to have acted alone and fit what experts call the “lone mass shooter profile.”
Weeks later, FBI agents arrested a Washington D.C. man who followed Bowers on social media. He had told relatives he wanted to pursue the same path and start “a race revolution.” [Read more…]
Bob Dorn: Rest in Power!
Last week, on November 28, Bob Dorn’s wife Deborah sent a brief email to the SDFP editors:
Very sad news….Bob had severe heart attack… basically cardiac arrest after a wonderful evening at a jam where he played with friends…..he passed today in a place he loved .Didn’t suffer at all….so sorry to tell you guys this way.
Love
Deborah
The news blindsided the SDFP editors who have been winding down our beloved publication, with all the emotions that engenders in each one of us. Bob’s death feels like a particularly incomprehensible blow, yet another grievous loss. We had imagined that our community would remain vital and connected after we ceased publishing, and then Deborah’s email informed us that our community had been diminished. Just like that.
Updated Jan. 5, 2019: to include memorial service info [Read more…]
Why Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ Should Be the Democratic Woman
By Sher Watts Spooner / Daily Kos
Each December, Time magazine announces its Person of the Year. It’s the individual (or group) who, “for better or for worse,” as the magazine puts it, had the greatest influence on the events of the year. This year, it should be no contest. The greatest influence in America this year came from Democratic women.
Time has been choosing the year’s major person of influence since 1927, when aviator Charles Lindbergh graced the magazine’s cover for the first time. It was usually a Man of the Year (Wallis Simpson broke through in 1936 as the Woman of the Year because of her romance with British King Edward VIII, prompting his abdication). In 1999, the magazine realized it had better get with the times and designated the achievement as Person of the Year.
Displaying his typical (yet undeserved) over-the-top egotism, Donald Trump announced that “I can’t imagine” anyone other than himself as Time’s Person of the Year. Timeusually picks the winner of a presidential election as Person of the Year, so he got the call in 2016, as did Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and other presidents before him.
[Read more…]
George H.W. Bush and the Imagined Moderate Republicanism of 1989
By Erik Loomis / Lawyers, Guns & Money
We are going to see a lot of liberal lament for Bush now that he is gone. Heck, we even see that for his terrible son now that Trump is president.
But let’s not forget that Bush Sr was part and parcel of the move of the Republican Party to the right. His actions were not as extreme as that of his son or Trump, but they helped pave the way for what is today an undemocratic party flirting with fascism.
I don’t find Bush a despicable or contemptuous figure, but there’s a lot unsavory aspects to the man and his policies that need to be remembered as so many liberals long for the Republican Party where Lee Atwater could race bait Bush into the White House. [Read more…]
Punjabi Remake of Titanic Dance Song – Drowsy Maggie | Video Worth Watching
From The Snakecharmer YouTube page:
When the foot tapping Irish dance party song from Titanic gets an unbelievable Punjabi revival. A multi cultural music video with Britain’s Castles, India’s streets, highland dancers, Bagpipes, Punjabi folk, bhangra dancers, Russian violinist and a crazy dhol player get together to showcase the amazing diversity in the world and how we all have something in common despite the distance and differences. Enjoy this brand new Celtic punjabi crossover with Bagpipes.
(h/t to my bro thebigbadbob) [Read more…]
Nina Simone – I Think It’s Going to Rain Today | Video Worth Watching
The recent weather had my beloved humming this tune. For us this has always been the Judy Collins cover, from her 1966 album “In My Life”, of this Randy Newman inspiration. But while searching for an online version I discovered a slew of other performers have been moved to interpret this work, including Nina Simone, another of our all-time favorite artists. This performance was somehow not yet included in our collection of her work, so I had to check it out. Listening to Nina’s rendition didn’t diminish the Judy Collins version and Nina’s performance stands alone in its own delivery and truth. If you’re unfamiliar with Nina or her version of this melancholy air, here’s your opportunity to enrich your musical repertoire. [Read more…]
