99 Olds Cutlass

Derek just bought his first car tonight. He's been in the market for a couple of weeks, serious about getting his own ride now that his paper route will soon be ending and he'll need to find an hourly-rate job somewhere. We had been looking at this 95 Ford Probe which we kind of stumbled across a couple weeks ago. It's a cool, sporty little car, a deep blue almost purple color that would be fun to drive. But we were stalled in our pursuit because the key broke off in the ignition for some strange reason and even though it's driveable "as is" (you just crank the key and it starts) I've been haggling with the dealer for him to fix the problem and he's just been willing to knock some money off the price tag. I called a local Ford dealer today to see about the availability and expense of a replacement part and he said flat out "Don't buy it!" Seems that now that the Probe is no longer produced, the parts are hard to locate and expensive when you find 'em. So that sealed that lack of a deal for me. Then just tonight we saw a listing in the paper for a 1999 Cutlass for only $1500! It has high mileage, but the owner is a woman just a mile or so from my house who showed us pretty thorough maintenance records. We hit it off pretty well and it just felt like a comfortable situation and for the price, I doubt we are going to do much better. So there you go, Derek has a pretty decent "first car," paid for by paper route money, the same way he paid for his trip to China last year.

I think his older twin brothers will be jealous. Curt's Intrepid (my old car, which put me through some adventures back in 2005, as long-time readers of this blog may remember) is on its last legs, and Brandon's S-10 pick-up just lost an engine due to overheating, so we're a family seriously in the market for quality used vehicles. One down, two to go!

Ram Off

So I got this email from iTunes just a few minutes ago eagerly announcing that Sir Paul McCartney has graciously consented to allow his music (solo stuff and Wings material, still no Beatles) through the on-line music service. That seemed pretty cool to me, so I followed the link eager to see their listings of his old classic albums and they are mostly there... but not "Ram" which I will unambiguously assert is and always will be his crowning masterpiece of his post-Beatle career. (Go ahead, argue with me about it, I dare ya!)

I am miffed. I was actually ready to download the album, especially with the tempting offer of new "bonus tracks" available nowhere else but from iTunes... ! Wow, what a coup that would be, if somehow Apple was able to score some long-buried relics from 1971. But as of now, that point is moot since only a few cuts from this project are available, as part of the greatest hits collections that have been legally converted to mp3 format (most notably, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.") So I am deprived of my opportunity to reassemble that glorious 8-track that I listened to over and over again back when I was 10-11 years old...

Apparently "Ram" was deemed unworthy to be released. What a tragic miscalculation. At first I thought that maybe it was because they had not converted the Apple Records portion of Mac's back catalogue, only the Capitol issues, but nope. The first "McCartney" album is there. So there's no excuse. Apple (the other Apple, that is) blew it here, sorry to say!

It's after Memorial Day - let the summer begin.

Here's a homey reflection for you - as either of my twin sons might say, "it's frickin' hot!" I've just been folding laundry and the sweat is covering my back like I've been jogging laps or something. It's 11:30 at night, the attic fan has been blowing for the past couple hours and I have a hunch it's gonna be a tossin' in bed with a sheet delicately draped over my lower torso kind of night.

Not that I'm complaining! I love this time of year - it's just a process that us Michigan dwellers have to go through probably later than most of the people reading this who've gotten accustomed to 80 degree temperatures weeks or months ago and don't have to come out of the deep thaw that afflicts our region for a little less than half of each annum.

Blockbuster Apathy

For what it's worth, I'm letting the world know that I have no interest in seeing any of the three colossal movie megahits that have been released in recent weeks - of course, I'm referring to Spiderman 3, Shrek 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I am not even sure that I'll bother watching them on video when they come out, presumably later this year. I never saw Pirates 2 and my kids go see those films with their friends anyway. I may go see the Fantastic Four movie later this summer but only because it stars the Silver Surfer. Come to think of it, I never saw the first FF movie all the way through, actually. Other than the new Michael Moore film Sicko, I'm not aware of any other movies in production that I'm actively looking forward to seeing later this year.

Memorial Day

For the last I don't know how many years, Memorial Day has included a trip to the Martin Cemetery on the eastern fringes of Grand Rapids. It's the site of our family burial ground. There's a big block with the name BLAKESLEE carved in it, and my grandfather, great grandfather and and great grandmother have all been buried there for the past two decades or longer. This past March, we buried my grandmother there as well, next to her beloved husband, who was a veteran of WWII (fought in the Pacific theater.) She was the one who necessitated that trip to the cemetery each Memorial Day, where she would freshen up the flower arrangements and have a few minutes of silent reflection on the years spent with the man she missed so much ever since he passed away in 1986. When my sister and I sorted out our photos of Grandma in preparing a video for her memorial service, we had to chuckle at how many pictures, year after year, we took of her standing behind or alongside of the gravestone.

With Grandma now deceased, and my own family grown up, I don't think we'll be heading out to the cemetery anytime soon. Today, my wife is at work, two of my sons are out with friends, my other son is sleeping on the downstairs sofa and my daughter is sitting behind me doing her own thing on her computer. So I have a free day to do whatever. I've been catching up on emails to my list this morning, and in a few minutes I'll go mow my lawn. I've also been listening to a special Memorial Day playlist that I created from my iTunes collection, featuring songs that have any of the following words in their titles: Memory, Sacrifice, Battle, Army, Soldier. I also threw in "In the Navy" by the Village People and "The Ballad of the Green Berets" by Ssgt. Barry Sadler for good measure.

Some of the musical highlights, in case you're interested:

Army Reserve by Pearl Jam
Battle of Evermore by Led Zeppelin
Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton
Battle of Kookamonga by Homer and Jethro
Battle Scars by the Chemical Brothers (not yet officially released, but I have my sources!)
Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley
Do You Remember Walter by The Kinks
Five Man Army by Massive Attack
Remember Me by Josh Groban
I Don't Want To Be A Soldier by John Lennon
I Forgot to Remember to Forget by Elvis Presley
I Remember You by The Ramones
Lord Remember Me by Sam Cooke
Memory Gospel by Moby
Memory Motel by The Rolling Stones
Moments to Remember by The Four Lads
Ogre Battle by Queen
Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello
One Tin Soldier by Coven
Remember by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Remember the Time by Michael Jackson
Sacrifice by Elton John
Sacrifice by Flipper
Set Adrift on Memory Bliss by P.M. Dawn
Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes
Soldier by Neil Young
The Soldier's Sweetheart by Jimmie Rodgers
Soldier Boy by The Shirelles
Soldier Girl by The Polyphonic Spree
Soldier Jane by Beck
Something to Remember by Madonna
Soul Sacrifice by Santana (playing at this moment)
Thanks For The Memory by Bob Hope and Shirley Ross
Toy Soldiers by Martika
Travelin' Soldier by Dixie Chicks
Universal Soldier by Donovan
You and Whose Army? by Radiohead
You Can't Put Your Arms Round a Memory by Johnny Thunders

That's only a partial listing... I didn't feel like typing all 107 titles and artists in, but if you are curious for more, or have any suggestions to add, leave a comment!

Accepting God in all things

Here's another Eckhart quote...

Accept God in all things, and accustom yourself to having God present always in your disposition and your intention and your love. Take heed how you can have God as the object of your thoughts whether you are in church or in your cell. (I take it he was writing to monks here.) Preserve and carry with you that same disposition when you are in crowds and in uproar and unlikeness... This true possession of God depends on the disposition, and on an inward directing of the reason and intention toward God - not on a constant contemplation in an unchanging manner; for it would be impossible for nature to preserve such an intention, and very laborious, and not the best thing either. You ought not have a God who is just a product of your thought, nor should you be satisfied with that, because if the thought vanished, God too would vanish. But one ought to have a God who is present, a God who is far above the notions of men and of all created things. That God does not vanish if a person does not willingly turn away from God.

F5

I suppose that anyone who visits here regularly is getting tired of looking at Christopher Hitchens' scowl. Yes, this blog is overdue for an update. I've been kind of indecisive of late about what to post here. My ordinary life hasn't provided the best fodder for writing lately, though it's been good and all. And even with some significant events in the news, like the passing of Jerry Falwell and the usual calamities coming out of Washington DC, I just haven't had all that much to say. My email list has occupied a lot of my computer free-time lately.

So, for your consideration, here's a quote from Meister Eckhart, who I've been reading over the past week or two (again, years after first making acquaintance with his works):

"People should not worry as much about what they do but rather about what they are. If they and their ways are good, then their deeds are radiant. If you are righteous, then what you do will also be righteous. We should not think that holiness is based on what we do but rather on what we are, for it is not our works which sanctify us but we who sanctify our works."

I will have more to say about Eckhart in the days ahead.

Christopher Hitchens is a meanie.

On the way to and fro work today, I listened to the podcast of the "On Point with Tom Ashbrook" where Christopher Hitchens was the guest. Hitchens is on the promo trail for his new book, "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." In it, Hitchens seems to be cashing
in on the upsurge in popularity that other outspoken militant atheists have found in response to their work (Dawkins, Dennett, Harris most prominently.)

Hitchens is a famously withering adversary for anyone who finds themselves on the other side of an issue he has an opinion on, so I wasn't entirely surprised when he dismissed the testimony of a pastor from Indiana who vouched for a life-changing healing miracle that saved his daughters life several years ago when she was told by doctors that she only had days left to live. It wasn't just that Hitchens wasn't persuaded though - he basically called the guy a charlatan, characterized his report as "disgusting" and later called the pastor's 10,000+ member megachurch "preposterous."

Tsk, tsk, Hitch... how un-irenic of you! That approach would certainly earn him a healthy dose of my moderating intervention on my email list. :o)

Has anyone else heard either this show or any of the other appearances that I'm sure he's made (or will soon make) on the talk show circuit? Or even read his book? I don't think likely to vault to the top of my list but I found his remarks interesting. The last guest on the program was a Baptist theologian based at Wake Forest (but calling in from Cincinnati) who took Hitchens to task for asserting that neither Dietrich Bonhoeffer nor Martin Luther King were really Christians. (His point being that they just used the language and symbols of Christianity to serve their social activist purposes.) The Baptist guy accused Hitchens of deliberatly slighting the dissident tradition within all organized religions because the examples they provide undermine the argument that C.H. wants to make, namely that religion is at its core a totalitarian force that serves up delusion, sanctifies hatred and intolerance, and subjugates the poor gullible fools who come under its sway. These points made by the caller registered with me, and I don't think that Hitchens was able to overcome the critique though he gamely gave it a try (it was leveled at him in the waning minutes of the podcast, to be fair.)

But this is essentially where I think that people like Hitchens, Dawkins and others fall off the ledge of credibility in my own estimation at least. Their zeal to indict religion in a definitive,
wholesale manner carries them to extremes that ultimately play into the hands of the fundamentalist overlords that they oppose. They want to draw a hard, firm, irrevocable distinction between faith and reason, and to me that just provides a kind of legitimacy to those who want to keep people inclined toward belief under the yoke of burdensome and fanatical religious authoritarians. Spirituality becomes a high-stakes, all or nothing game and unfortunately, that fear of death and anxiety over the conditions of the afterlife too
often tilts people toward erring on the side of what they consider "safety," even if that means putting up with horrible external or internal living conditions in order to "stay right with God."

What do you think of that? If Hitchens was nicer to people who disagreed with him, would his message have more resonance? Might we all be able to learn something of value from his observations?

Mother's Day

Yesterday was just pleasant. Weather was gorgeous, everything is greening up so nicely. We spent the day mainly driving from one mom's place to the other, making small talk and eating good food. Nothing terribly deep or profound to relate here but I thought this photo of me, my mom and my sister turned out nice.

Highlights from the past week

It occurs to me that I haven't said anything here lately. It's been a pretty basic working week, though one where I spent more than the usual amount of time staring at a monitor, which may account for the lack of computer involvement in my free time. (I did a fair amount of twittering though, but I can do that from my cell phone now.) But a few things come to mind that might be worthy of your informational digestive system. I'll let you be the judge of that.

I'm finishing up Seymour Hersh's "Chain of Command" - about the political and military events between 9/11/01 and the revelations of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses that took place in Iraq a couple years later (Hersh is the reporter that broke the story.) It was one of a flurry of books published in 2004 aiming to persuade readers that George W. Bush wasn't doing a very good job as president and didn't deserve re-election. I won't get into rehashing all that, but it's one of those volumes on my shelf that I've had for a little while and am now feeling compelled to read while the subject matter is still at least somewhat timely. Of course so much has happened since then, but this book provides a good long look at what set the stage for the quagmire that our leaders are now dealing with. After I finish this book, I want to start reading something that I can present here on the blog in some more depth. I'm thinking about Meister Eckhart at the moment...

I downloaded two versions of a new Chemical Brothers single. To me, that's pretty exciting. I love the music of the ChemBros and the new album "We Are The Night" will drop on June 19. The single isn't officially out yet but it's easy to find on the file sharing networks, and I will be paying for the plastic when it's available. The song is called "Do It Again" and it's a pretty straight-up minimalistic funky beat with sound effects and vocals that repeat the title over and over again. The chorus goes something like this:


Oh my God what have I done?
All I wanted was a little fun.
Got a brain like bubble gum.
Blowing up my cranium.

The perfect summer song for 2007! Coming soon to a beer commercial near you. (They are the same act that provided the song "Galvanized" to be the theme for the Bud Select ads where everything turns into that little crown...)

Also from the realm of pop culture... I was browsing a used book rack looking for fine substantial literature to add to the pile when I came across a cool little reprint graphic novel version of the original Fantastic Four comics that featured the debut of Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer. The stories originally appeared in 1966, and when I became aware of the Silver Surfer a couple years later, I thought he was the coolest looking hero ever, and I pretty much still think so. I'm even interested in seeing that movie coming out later this summer featuring the Surfer. So I bought the reprint of course, since I didn't have that particular story, and that led me to get out my other reprints of old SS lore, from his solo comic that came out in '68. It's oh-so-cosmic and philosophically pseudo-profound, I love it. So here's an image of the Silver Surfer at his best (I'm less impressed with the computerized renderings that are coming out these days, but I understand their necessity.)

Other things happened but it's time for me to move on. As The Thing might say, if he were to find himself in a domesticated suburbanite existence: IT'S LAWN-MOWIN' TIME!

Now Twittering

I heard about this on a podcast last week and it sounded interesting, so I've opened up an account on Twitter.com (as "pomoxian," of course.) If you join up with them (it's free, no ads) you can get frequent updates on whatever it is that I'm up to whenever I enter an update. I won't say much more than that unless I get comments but check it out and by all means if you decide to join Twitter let me know so that I can stay current and connected with whatever it is you're doing.

The Reckoning

We went to see a documentary this afternoon, "The Reckoning: Remembering the Dutch Resistance." What a heavy film, but inspiring all the same. It tells the story of six people whose lives were affected by the Nazi occupation of Holland from 1940 until the end of WWII. Most were involved in the resistance movement that sabotaged the occupying government, and one woman was a Jew who survived the trip to Auschwitz after being hidden by sympathetic Dutch for a couple of years. The website gives a fair glimpse at the movie's story and characters. It packs a punch as it brings one face to face with the horror and brutality of the Nazi regime and its efforts to exterminate the Jewish population - this is the kind of film that leaves you with that "punch in the gut" feeling at the end - we were all very somber as we left the theater. Even the kids gathering our trash had a mournful look on their faces, probably as much a reflection of what we all looked like as it was based on their own knowledge of what we were watching. Not the same kind of hubbub that was probably generated by all the Spiderman 3 audiences this weekend.

So watching this got me thinking about politics and war and current events and stuff. I have a lot of admiration for the people in this film, all in their late 70s or 80s now. I wondered why it took so long for this film to get made, but then I realize that these folks don't see themselves as all that special and none of them travel in documentary-making circles, or at least didn't throughout their post-war lives up until now. They aren't the type who go looking for agents or some other way to cash in on the money-making or publicity-generating aspects of their life experiences.

I was pleased to see this demonstration of courage and valor coming from the Dutch culture. Those are "my people!" (At least on my mom's side.) It's kind of cool to see this slice of history made available to a wider audience. I'd heard about some of this from older relatives and others over the years but this puts forth a pretty bold statement about the importance of resistance and non-cooperation with oppressive powers, even when one's life may be at risk.

My thoughts were drawn to our own nation's role in places like Iraq, Vietnam and elsewhere, and how heroic "tales of the resistance" might be told among the people who had to live under the authority of our own troops. I don't want to be too loose or broad with drawing moral equivalencies between our soldiers and the Nazis. Their missions are different and I respect that - but I still know that when a land is invaded and the locals are subjected to rule by foreign powers, resentment and subversion are going to quickly arise in response.

The underwriters of this production are a virtual who's-who of Grand Rapids-area philanthropy. They're all involved: Meijer, DeVos, Van Andel, Cook, Prince and many others... most of them bastions of political and religious conservatism who probably wouldn't appreciate my comments in the previous paragraph. I thank them for making this film available for all of us to view, study and reflect on. I just hope its lessons are applied as carefully and rigorously in our own circumstances, as we all stand to benefit from the examples these heroes set before us over sixty years ago.

Gotta give it to Floyd

Congratulations to hometown (Grand Rapids) celebrity Floyd Mayweather who did pretty well for himself last night in a big-time boxing match.

I didn't watch the fight and wouldn't even consider mentioning it here if it weren't for the local connection. But actually, I do have a slighter-than-usual degree of separation between the superstar and myself. Years ago, I worked with a relative of his in the residential treatment setting. Confidentiality precludes me from saying any more than that, but I suppose it's worth mentioning while the glare of publicity is still shining somewhat in this direction.

Whatever you say... don't call Muslims violent!

Some grim irony in this article here... courtesy of al-Jazeera.

The quote that really got me: "Soon after the article appeared, an Iranian cleric - angered by its depiction of Islam as a violent religion - offered his house to anyone who killed the journalists, Reuters reported on Friday."

And if that's not clear enough: "If he had been an unbeliever (Kafir), he is considered as someone who has insulted the Prophet and in any case, given his confessions, it is necessary for every individual who has an access to him to kill him."

Immigration

We made another TV show last night at IGE. This month's topic was immigration, a subject that hasn't really impacted my personal experience all that much but that I know is about the second hottest political potato in the country right now, after the Iraq war.

Our panel featured an immigration lawyer, Rick, who represents people dealing with deportation problems. He brought with him a young man from Mexico, Cesar, a father of two young girls who entered the US illegally several years ago. He originally did not intend to stay here as long as he has but he got married, began a family and then his desire to stay here and raise his children in this country increased. He has been working steadily, has no criminal record and is by all accounts a model citizen. A few months ago, INS officials came to his residence asking about an undocumented immigrant that was on their list of criminal offenders. Recent legislation and funding increases have stepped up enforcement efforts to pursue illegal immigrants who present some kind of security risk. The person they were looking for was a complete stranger to Cesar and it's likely that he hadn't lived at that address for a few years at least, but under that pretext, the officials asked to see Cesar's documents, which of course he doesn't have. So they took him into custody, he spent over a month at a holding cell in Battle Creek, and was only granted a cash bond to get him out of jail if he promised to leave the USA and return to Mexico within four months. That presents a terrible dilemma for Cesar, who does not want to leave his family behind, but also does not want to bring them to Mexico with him where he is uncertain about what kind of economic opportunities or quality of life he could provide for his family. So Rick is working with him and offering legal services and representation at Cesar's upcoming hearings.

That's just one small example of the human complexity and costs of this very large problem. I for one wonder why it is that it is so hard to enter the United States legally. I am not worried about foreigners coming in and taking our jobs. My opinion is that they bring energy and vitality into the local economies, creating products and services that in turn create other jobs. I'm also repulsed by the underlying racism and fear-mongering that seems to fuel so much of the anti-immigrant side of the political debate. I remember visiting Ellis Island a couple years ago and seeing the museum displays of hate-rally posters and statements made by prominent politicians, judges, clergymen and others - even though the intense vulgarity and overt racism has been toned down these days, they seem to be coming from the same emotional and intellectual space, and it pains me to see that kind of hostility embraced at this point in our nation's history. Most of the people making the argument to "kick out the illegals" are descendants of immigrants themselves, who took advantage of much more open opportunities than we offer people from other nations today. I don't understand the need for putting such a tight limit on the number of immigrants as has been locked into place, and I think that as the prevailing economic power, really an imperial force in this hemisphere at least, we even have some obligation to allow citizens of Central and South American nations to have relatively free access to come here and pursue opportunities, much the same way that American corporations and other interests have been free to reap the riches from ownership, plantation-building and controlling oversight of resources from those lands.

Just a few opinions that readers may want to agree, disagree or otherwise interact with.

Hip-Hop no longer ruling the charts?

I'm kind of amazed. For the second week in a row, a non-rap/non-R&B song is on top of the Billboard Hot 100. Last week, Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" took #1, and this week she was replaced by the Maroon 5 track "Makes Me Wonder." The last song that didn't fit the "urban" genre was Taylor Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud" which was the obligatory post-American Idol #1 that the program has produced each spring for the last five years. Other than AI-connected songs, you have to go back to 2001 when Nickelback put forward the last straight-up rock song to make it to #1 with "How You Remind Me."

This doesn't quite signal a sea change in popular musical tastes, but it does seem to open the playing field up a bit. Makes me wonder what's going on...?

Tigers Game!

I ushered in the month of May with a couple friends of mine. One of them got FREE TICKETS to the Detroit Tigers-Baltimore Orioles contest last night. The plan came together on short notice (Monday morning) but I was quick to jump on it. They were great seats... in the "Tigers Den" which is like a little patio level where you sit in an individual padded wooden chair (not a hard plastic row seat all scrunched in) with a table to sit your beer on (served by wait staff who take your order,) plenty of leg room and a great view right down the third base line, as you can see. We also had reserved parking, free, right across the street from the stadium. Pretty sweet deal! One of my friends works in the mayor's office in Kentwood and the tickets were offered to him. He thought of me and a couple other guys from our fantasy baseball league and voila, we took up the deal and had a fun night at the ball park. And it was an entertaining game as well, with the Tigers coming back to win it in the late innings, and two players on my fantasy team (Placido Polanco and Joel Zumaya) each playing significant roles and earning me points. Hard to beat that!

The picture of me is kind of weird - I got caught in mid-laugh but it captures quite well the mood of the night!