The Fall Of France

Sorry I’ve been neglecting the blog lately; I’m really busy this week and don’t know when I’ll be able to get my head back in the game. So in the meantime, here’s an old photo I found from my last trip to France. It was in 2000, and I’d gone to Paris and the south of France with my sister. One of our stops was Grasse, a town known as France’s perfume capital. Of course we visited a few perfumeries, including the famous Parfumerie Fragonard. Along the way I took this picture:

Ah, American culture. We are inescapable. At least you can order wine at a French McDonald’s! But seriously, anyone eating at a McDonald’s in France should relinquish their passport immediately.

I’ve been to the south of France many times. Forget the glitzy reputation, the area is filled with lovely little villages carved into the hills overlooking the Mediterranean. It’s picturesque and peaceful; no wonder artists like Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse were drawn to the area. I remember eating lunch at a restaurant in Vence and the walls were decorated with actual Matisse paintings; it was like dining in a museum.

Anyway, don’t know when I’ll be able to travel this year, but I’d love to go back to France. It’s been too long.

Travel Blogging v.2

Another image of subway graffiti:

NYC Subway Graffiti, 53rd & Lex

I remember back in the ’80s when the New York City subways were covered in graffiti. The cars in particular were like works of art, covered from stem to stern with brightly colored tags and graffiti art. You don’t see that anymore.

We’re home now. Air travel remains the usual exercise in dehumanization and authoritarian oppression. I still eagerly await the day when I can walk to my gate without taking my fucking shoes off.

Travel Blogging

Subway graffiti, New York City, 103rd Street Station:

The Time Is Now

I love this. “The time is now,” but that message could have been scrawled months, even years ago. The writer could have been a Tea Partier or socialist, we don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. The time is always now to march on D.C.

LOL.

Last Time I Was In Portland

It was the summer of 1980 and I was visiting a college friend who was working on John Anderson’s campaign. All I remember about Portland, Oregon was that the place was covered with ash because Mount St. Helen’s had just errupted. That, and the rose garden. That’s it.

Okay, so here I am back in Portland 30+ years later and let me say, it’s a weird place. A very odd rendezvous of hipster-cool and professional homelessness. Everyone in this city seems to be under 30, and they’re either annoyingly hip or lying in a bedroll in the bushes. There is very little in between.

Tonight at dinner I watched a “homeless” couple arrive at their street corner, unroll the bedroll, put out the dog like a prop, then unfurl a sign which read: “Hoping For A Cheeseburger.” After about an hour and a half, the lady in the party disappeared, only to return with a bag of sandwiches. They then picked up the dog and the bedroll and repaired to a shady spot beneath a tree, where they enjoyed their dinner break. There was something so perfunctory about the whole business, as if this was their job, which I guess in a manner of speaking it was. It was a complete 180 from the previous evening, where we enjoyed cocktails at a rooftop bar so hopelessly hip and cool, there was an actual stampede of black-clad 20-somethings trying to grab a seat when the doors opened at 4 pm.

I’m sorry if you live here and I’ve offended you. I just find this city incredibly strange. I don’t think I’d want to live here. But I will say this: we’ve had gorgeous weather, enjoyed the art museum, and ate a lot of really excellent meals. The city is clean and the public transit is efficient. So there’s a lot going for it.

A booth at the Saturday Market:

Hipster Hats For Sale

A homeless camp at the entrance to Chinatown:

A Fence Of Doors

At the Japanese Garden:

Peace In The City

How uncool of me to act the tourist and take pictures from Portland’s hippest rooftop bar! Oh well, sue me:

A River Runs Through It

Another Metaphor

Clatsop County, OR, Republican Party Headquarters

Yeah, that’s a flat Mitt Romney in the window. Mr. Cellophane himself.

[UPDATE]:

Today’s required reading.

Discuss in comments. Off to be a tourist for our last day of vacation. Be good.

This Land

Our ribbon of highway hit a few bumps ….

… so we roamed and rambled a road less traveled …

… from the Redwood Forest …

… to the Gulf Stream Waters … (well … almost! I’m still boycotting Florida!)

… the sun was shining …

.. and a voice came chanting …

This land was made for you and me!

And the final verse of that song which we didn’t sing in summer camp:

In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office – I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.

I always thought that Woody Guthrie wrote that song during the height of the Great Depression, but wikipedia tells me no, the lyrics were written in 1940 and the song recorded in 1944. That’s at the height of the World War II, a time when we’re all trained to believe the entire nation was uniformly pro-war, pro-America, the “greatest generation” of patriots sacrificing for the cause of freedom, etc. That Guthrie would record such a cynical message in 1944 (or be allowed to record it, I should say) is amazing to me.

It’s also interesting that the song went on to become such an iconic American tune, though I concede it’s primarily the first two politically correct verses which have been seared into the national consciousness and I suspect that all came later during the ’60s folk revival, anyway.

Still, this reminds me of the distorted view of history we all have.

More travels tomorrow ….

A Metaphor

Took this picture today. Something about the flag planted atop a lonely outcrop overlooking a deserted landscape while the road veers off in the opposite direction made me think of the Republican Party. Can’t imagine why.

So, my Twitter feed told me Ann Romney bombed, but I figured my Twitter feed is biased. But then I saw some media figures Tweeting about how “Ann Romney succeeded where Chris Christie failed,” so maybe Christie bombed worse than Ann?

On The Road Again

We’re traveling, which gives me a chance to avoid as much convention news as possible. But this headline from my local fishwrap made me laugh:

“GOP Aims To Show Diversity At Convention”

Ha ha ha ha ha! Yeah, the fat white guy and the skinny white guy. The Northern white guy and the Southern white guy. The tall white guy and the short white guy. So much diversity! And amazingly, every one of them is an expert on women’s health issues!

Good luck with that, fellas.

I’ve been talking to some interesting folks on our travels. Last night we chatted with a couple from New York and I heard something I hear often from New Yorkers: there’s a real fear of torch-and-pitchfork wielding mobs as income inequality in this country escalates. This guy said we could be looking at something like 40% unemployment in the next few decades just from automation and globalization. I learned of a software company that laid off hundreds of software engineers after they wrote the code that made their jobs obsolete. They had dug their own graves.

New Yorkers seem really scared that this many unemployed people will lead to riots and violence and instability, which is no doubt why Occupy Wall Street scared the crap out of them. But no one seems interested in a WPA-style “put people to work” program, so until people get over their fear and start doing more than just retreating behind their gates and guns, we don’t have any solutions.

And yeah, I’m thinking thousands of pissed off, laid off software engineers is a bigger threat than thousands of pissed off, laid off burger flippers. Y’all sure that was a solar flare that took down India’s grid? I’m not afraid of the torch-and-pitchfork mob, but I do think our conversation is totally on the wrong things. Someone needs to address these massive changes and formulate a plan. I don’t think tax cuts for the wealthy are going to solve the problem of mass unemployment because of technology.

Here are some pictures from our travels; we’re back on the road tomorrow to a place with even more spectacular scenery.

If I Had A Boat…

This guy wants my breakfast

Solar panels on a convention center roof, what a concept!

Words to live by

Memorial Day & Place

Sorry I’ve been out of pocket, Mr. Beale and I spent the past four days in New York City for our pre-Tony’s theater trip. It was unbelievably hot and muggy in the city for this time of year; it felt more like July than May. That’s true for Nashville as well, and while we were gone Nashville broke a record with 95-degree temps.

We’re in New York City at least twice a year for theater and other cultural stuff. This year we also visited the 9/11 Memorial. It was a rainy, gray morning when we visited, which seemed very appropriate. We both found the site very dramatic and emotional, and the two massive waterfalls cascading into the void make a powerful statement that hits you on a lot levels:

It was also really moving to see all of the names engraved around each pool. Some names were familiar — Todd Beamer, for example — but most were unknown.

What is really striking is the diversity of ethnicities represented in these names. It shows what a truly multicultural event 9/11 was, and still is. There were a lot of foreign visitors there, also a lot of foreign sailors since we were there during Fleet Week. Large boards surrounded the site where visitors could write thanks to the recovery workers who spent so many months on the site, most suffering debilitating lung disease as a result. These messages, too, were international in scope.

The 9/11 Memorial site is surrounded by intense security: you need to go through airport-style scanners to get in, there are at least three security checks plus chain-link fencing and security cameras. And this, too, seems appropriate, for 9/11 was ground zero for our modern security state.

With all of these powerful emotions and thoughts running through my head I was unprepared for the major buzzkill that was the memorial’s Visitor Center, which is really … a gift shop? Seriously? On hallowed ground we have a freaking gift shop? With 9/11 T-shirts, refrigerator magnets, keychains, and tote bags? Tacky, tacky, tacky. (You can see the stuff on sale here.) It seemed really crass to me, but I guess exploitation of 9/11 is another legacy of the event, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

Everyone seems to be jumping on the 9/11 memorial bandwagon. I just read that the Kingston Fossil Plant, site of Tennessee’s disastrous coal ash spill, will dedicate a 9/11 memorial using steel from the World Trade Center today. I find that very odd. But hey, whatever.

[UPDATE]:

More on my trip here.

Something Unexpected

Every time I come to New York I see something new. This is in Central Park, believe it or not. As I stood there admiring the tiles, an a cappella group began singing “Amazing Grace.” I’m quite certain that this could only happen in New York.

Regular blogging to resume tomorrow or thereabouts ….