Miscellaneous Notes #3

One of the local Louisiana newspapers, The Daily Iberian, publishes information regarding hurricanes, deaths (with front-of-the-paper obituaries), and police arrests, sports, local politics, and regional culture events, such as festivals aligned with churches, agriculture, and music. There has been significant crop damage, hundreds of millions of dollars in damage--different crops, cane, cotton, sweet potatoes--and seafood industry damage due to the recent hurricanes. There is little national news, though there used to be more, apparently: with the increasing popularity of the internet, there has been less. Recently, there was a short article, I think from Associated Press, on a Southern University chancellor who will be paid $295,000 annually, with $35,000 in addition for his housing expenses and $15,000 for his car expenses. I'm fascinated that it is understood that someone's housing or transportation expenses may need to be subsidized; and that is very likely for such an important representative of an institution (who may do business traveling and entertain at home for professional reasons)--but I wish something similar were more understood for ordinary workers, and, of course, I wish cultural workers, such as writers and artists and teachers, were more valued...

Someone was telling me about a time in the past, in this area, when Americans of different ethnicities, Negroes and Caucasians, that is southern Louisianians, had very friendly relations, visiting each other (not necessarily sitting inside but sitting on each other's porches or in each other's yards and talking)...That things began to change with the increased importance of the catholic church, and the increased movement to the area of French Canadians (Cajuns), with more separation and prejudice and hostility developing...Also, that blacks had fairly solid economic lives, that they worked regularly, especially in farming--but that as things developed, with increased dependency on machines and farm loans, black farmers began to be marginalized...

...This past weekend, I watched more television than I had in the previous eight or nine months together. On Saturday, I saw Three to Tango, with Matthew Perry and Neve Campbell, Naked in New York, with Eric Stolz and Mary Louise Parker, and One Last Dance with Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi, and George de la Pena (all on the CW network). Each film has something genuine about it, but I had reservations about the cinematography and production design. I found myself thinking that controlling for color (choosing to limit the quantity of color in a film, and being careful of the quality of color in a film) is very important, and why some people thought black-and-white was superior to color. I liked seeing the city of Chicago in Three to Tango, and the attempt to do a contemporary romantic comedy that was a bit like those done decades ago with people such as Doris Day and Rock Hudson; and I liked the subjects of Naked in New York--creative ambition, young love, friendship; and I liked the strong choreography and dancing in One Last Dance. I have watched black-and-white film at different times in my life and there were moments when I missed that, while watching these color films on televison, though the quality of the television's picture was clear, good. Sunday night, on Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I saw a PBS mystery, "The Ruby in the Smoke," and a PBS/Point of View film, "Calavera Highway," about a Mexican-American family, their memories of their strong loving mother and absent father, and late Sunday (early Monday morning) I saw a favorite of mine, The 13th Warrior, starring Antonio Banderas. Banderas plays a devout Arab who becomes involved in a battle waged by northmen, in what will be Europe, against a beastly enemy--the myth is of a fireworm, of bearlike beings, of eaters of the dead. The movie is about working and living across cultures and seeing the reality behind the myth and rising to challenges; and I think it is beautifully made. (During the weekend, I also saw a political talk show, "Washington Week" with Gwen Ifill, and a bit of the Superman series, "Smallville," and also Anthony Michael Hall in "The Dead Zone." It was, after more than a decade of little-to-no-television, nearly television overdose.)

...I have observed others and been myself observed. Today, I stopped by the post office in Loureauville, and an African-American man was getting out of his truck, and he asked me if I was from around here, and I said I hadn't been here in a while; and he said, he didn't recognize my face--and I asked him if he knew everyone in town, and he said, basically yes, that he'd lived in town all his life...Last week, when I began walking to St. Martinville, a white horse, near a fence, followed me with his eyes (and further down the way, a group of cows did the same); and days later, coming back from St. Martinville on bike, the white horse was deeper in the pasture, saw me, looked at me, I slowed down, and the horse ran toward me, the fence between us--and I stopped and talked to it for a few minutes...

There is different music I have found attractive for one reason or another during the last few months: work by Apples in Stereo, Grizzly Bear, Anthony Hamilton, Lyrics Born, Aimee Mann, Josh Ritter, Jill Scott, Angie Stone,...but this past weekend I have been listening to Death Cab for Cutie's album Narrow Stairs, and I like it very much. The instrumentation is distinct and creates a mystique and the lyrics are articulate, intelligent, and there is a subtext of sadness to the music and I like the lead singer's sensitive sound...

...After hurricanes, and days of sporadic rain, it is a beautiful, clear day today, which is, in Louisiana, reason for more than aesthetic appreciation (the land is gorgeous). It is an important fact...