At Guerica, Xiaoda Xiao: Prison Paintings, and earlier piece, Nixon’s Nose.

Post and paintings by Xiaoda Xiao, the activist, painter, violinist, and author of The Cave Man, and the forthcoming book The Visiting Suit: Stories From My Prison Life

Xiaoda Xiao is a former political prisoner, sentencedat at age 22 (without benefit of a trial), to a 7 year term in a labor camp, for defacing a poster of Chairman Mao.

check it out

A comment free lunchtime posting.

I’m not as well schooled on the Vietnam era as I am on other things, though I know more about it than most people my age, if only because I find it more interesting than shopping for Jim Choo’s — they are out of my price range and my legs look quite fine without heals because they are fairly long.

I gather, from what I’ve read on McNamara’s passing, that people think he owns Vietnam, or he should. So they’ve assigned it to him. Understandable, but I’m not convinced he should be sole owner. It’s as convenient, and right, to blame Vietnam on the likes of McNamara as it is to blame Iraq on Bush and friends (liars), a congress unwilling to listen to the sense of Robert Byrd (cowards), and complicit or incompetent journalism (caught in the middle with you). Next time it will be our fault.

History has changed things. So has the internet. We saw that with the presidential election, we are seeing it in some way now with Iran’s Executives of Construction Party dismissing the vote and siding with the opposition. Next time we will be to blame. As the internet continues to grow, and access to real and substantive sources of information increases, there will be fewer excuses for complicit apathy by way of intentional ignorance. Yes, it is still a free country, and everyone should be free to practice both ignorance and apathy as they see fit. No one should be denied their preferred intent. This is merely a reminder that we should enjoy the scapegoats while we can.

I’ll have to do more reading on Vietnam. Not immediately, as I have my second summer session, work, and Infinite indiJestion, along with My Sister My Love, will consume most of my summer reading time. I’m am up for general or academic reading suggestions on Vietnam though.

Speaking of Infinite Jest. I haven’t been an end note virgin for years, but now I am an end note whore, having given myself up to my first 9 8.4 page end note experience. Isn’t this a rite of passage? Shouldn’t there be gifts and parties, or at least a dinner out, for this?

Infinite Jest:

This is for anyone considering an attempt at this gargantuan novel. With more characters on the first two pages than in the last ten books I’ve read, this is novel of a future dystopia (or five future dystopias, it’s hard to tell at p. 120, but I fear the worse) that only a genius who has forgotten to take his Adderall could have written. Reading Infinite Jest has made me realize it may have been a mistake not to have taken up a friend’s invitation to check out the Tibetan Meditation Center situated the mountains not far from here. I was not completely unprepared, having resumed my Yoga classes in May, but be forewarned, reading this book requires the taking or doing of something to sedate thoughts and mollify the spirit. No getting through it otherwise.

The neither here nor there:

There is much we should know, and even more we should be spared. Sanford Calls Mistress His ‘Soul Mate’, and anything written after such a title, is in the later category.

I’m one of those non twittering twitterers. Most of my life occurs offline, and I prefer it that way. I’ve never really felt the need to twitter, but when a bandwagon full of such a diverse variety of virtual humanity called I was more than willing to jump on it for a short test ride. I got off quickly the first time, but jumped on once more when the wagon got larger. It’s still too difficult to manage to fit into my real life, but this twitter for busy people might be just the thing to help with that problem.

Check out the new theme and post your complaints. You can open the menu and the footer with the tabs at the top right and bottom left. Let me know if you prefer them permanently open, as that can be managed. I can also remove all the posts from the first page and make it just as a regular blog, though those who read me from their reader won’t really be affected by this. I aim to please. Especially on Tuesdays.

Peace