So the other night, we're at this "tapas" jernt, and I see they've got big ol' paella pans haging up for sale: so I figure, hell, let's go for it: Paella it shall be! I researched a few dozen paella recipes online, got a feel for it, and went at it on my own. My paella was indeed a unique (and incredibly yummy) creation. I can't wait to make one for you!!!

My First Paella  ¶ 11:45 PM (0) comments

 
Brian and Eliot, and the Paella


YUM


As Brian said, "Buuuuurp!" ;-)  ¶ 11:44 PM (0) comments

  FUNNY JOKE:

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to replace a lightbulb?
The Answer is SEVEN:

one to deny that a lightbulb needs to be replaced

one to attack and question the patriotism of anyone who has questions about the lightbulb,

one to blame the previous administration for the need of a new lightbulb,

one to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of lightbulbs,

one to get together with Vice President Cheney and figure out how to pay Halliburton Industries one million dollars for a lightbulb,

one to arrange a photo-op session showing Bush changing the lightbulb while dressed in a flight suit and wrapped in an American flag,

and finally one to explain to Bush the difference between screwing a lightbulb and screwing the country.
  ¶ 12:19 PM (0) comments

 
Eliot LOVES hanging out in the windows -- even though they don't have sills!  ¶ 2:39 AM (0) comments

 
Here are some beautiful flowers Brian brought home for me: they didn't last very long, but they were gorgeous while they were here.  ¶ 2:38 AM (0) comments

 
My plants are getting bigger! I had to replant them today: here they are in their new window-boxes; the peppers are beginning to bud!  ¶ 2:36 AM (0) comments

 
POETS BEWARE

Article below:

The Embedding of America's Poets

In the midst of the Vietnam War, a small group of recently discharged American veterans sent out a call for poems and stories written by active duty personnel and veterans like themselves. The result was an avalanche of submissions, some supportive, many deeply critical of the war effort. Winning Hearts and Minds, an anthology of some of the submissions edited by Larry Rottmann, Jan Barry, and Basil T. Paquet was published in 1972, winning high praise from the nation's literary journals and spurring the Nixon White House to start investigations into who these writers were.

Winning Hearts and Minds was a grassroots effort, its gathering of poetry a powerful expression of the frustration, anger, and alienation soldiers and veterans felt at the conduct of the war in Vietnam. Now, as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq inch deeper and deeper into troubled territory, one wonders at the shape of this generation's returning war narratives. Will this war have its own "Winning Hearts and Minds"? Perhaps not, if Washington has its say.

In what might be considered an act of tactical preemption, last month the National Endowment for the Arts announced "Operation Homecoming," a collaborative effort of the nation's arts agency, the Department of Defense, and the Boeing company, a project which will send poets and writers to military bases around the country and abroad to conduct writing workshops for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The announcement boasts that the best works will be published in an anthology to be distributed throughout the military and to schools.

No matter what one's views might be, it would seem that, with recruitment and retention significant issues within the military, it's doubtful that the Pentagon will be putting its imprimatur on work critical of the war effort or the military. Despite disclaimers that "submissions will be based on artistic merit, not on whether they're pro- or anti-war," stories of sexual harassment, racism, incompetence, overflowing hospitals, casual companies, and collateral damage most likely will not make their way into the table of contents. Perhaps the military has changed, but it is difficult for me to imagine some young corporal, sitting in a workshop with his officers and platoon leaders watching, writing a fiercely critical story or poem.

Most likely, the enduring works of past wars, the poems of Wilfred Own, Isaac Rosenberg, Guillaume Appollinaire, George Trakl, Randell Jarrell, Howard Nemerov, Lucien Stryk, Alan Dugan, Michael Casey, John Balaban, Bruce Weigl, Bill Ehrhart, or Yusef Komunyakaa, would not have passed immediate muster at the Pentagon. Serious fiction writing takes years to get sorted out. Yet, All Quiet on the Western Front, A Farewell to Arms, and the works of the novelists Heller, Jones, O'Brien, Heinemann, and Caputo would not likely have passed muster either.

The NEA's pledged $300,000 is not a large amount of money as things go, but it is deeply problematic when it comes from an agency whose budget has been continuously cut by Congress and offered in support of agencies with the cost overruns and budget and spending excesses of Boeing and the Pentagon. If it is simply a way the agency hopes to cozy up the administration for a future budget increase, then we all should be reminded of the roots of the word pandering.

Beyond the language of self-help and the "therapeutic" aspects of writing, beyond the back-patting, it is not difficult to see in the project an effort to establish an official canon of writing from the century's first wars, neatly packaged, ready for mass distribution and classroom use, complete with a web-site to write into and post writings on, and an accompanying CD for schools.

There may be good intentions behind the initiative, but we know what road they pave. If the NEA, the Pentagon, and Boeing really wish to see returning soldiers get the best opportunity to render their experiences into print, they should be lobbying for a good GI Bill, like the one which allowed World War II veterans to study and travel in Europe and other places abroad, or the one which brought the Vietnam writers into the new writing programs at university campuses. Returning soldiers might be better served by grants to community colleges, community centers, and to universities, where they might be welcomed into communities where their voices would be fostered over time and not immediately co-opted.

Most alarming to many of us, "Operation Homecoming" threatens to move the NEA into the business of supporting the generation of propaganda, a wartime exercise that is not part of its mission, and does writers, veterans, and the public a great disservice.


Kevin Bowen is Director of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, which has offered writing workshops for veterans since 1987. A Vietnam veteran, a poet and translator, he received an NEA Fellowship for Poetry on 2003. He served in Vietnam in 1968-1969. You can email Kevin at Kevin@interventionmag.com

Posted Thursday, May 20, 2004


I'VE LONG THOUGHT that what makes poetry special, among the arts, is that it is the one practiced today that holds no material rewards for those who write it, not even really prestige, since no one knows who they are (until -- IF THEY'RE LUCKY -- they're long since dead), and since it is (and this is the important part) USELESS: poetry can't sell soap. But I guess someone somewhere thinks it might be able to sell a war. Grody to the max.  ¶ 2:22 AM (0) comments