rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

thats what i get out of being a writer - i want to be there

WEDNESDAY

wow, has it been a week, family got me rolling

only got a minute now, still in the delta et al

i see that sryacuse grad ed osundu won the caine prize

way to go ec, looking good, looking real real good

caine prize big african prize, big dinner at oxford, 10,000 pounds, month at georgetown, bragging rights

the 5 finalists were

• Mamle Kabu (Ghana) ‘The End of Skill’ from ‘Dreams, Miracles and Jazz’, published by Picador Africa, Johannesburg 2008

• Parselelo Kantai (Kenya) ‘You Wreck Her’, from the St Petersburg Review, NY 2008

• Alistair Morgan (South Africa) ‘Icebergs’, from The Paris Review no. 183, NY 2008

• EC Osondu (Nigeria) ‘Waiting' from Guernicamag.com, October 2008

• Mukoma wa Ngugi (Kenya) ‘How Kamau wa Mwangi Escaped into Exile’, from ‘Wasafiri’ No54, Summer 2008, London

way to go ec, looking good

arf

WEDNESDAY MORNING:

about to hit the road for the delta, heard from oneko arica this morning when i did my last email check
drummer with band senta lain in kenya, hes in the states, hitting with pato banton

me and oneko hung tough one kwani/sls kenya couple of years ago

i did a performance with senta lain at the carnivore club in nairobi and it was one of the most

complete performances i ever did, it was amazing, 1st the carnivore itself is an amazing venue, hard to describe it, then the band, we did a full hit, and at one point michel played counterpoint to every word on his guitar, it was just incredible, one of the top 5 performance experiences ever for me and ive had some good ones

i bootlegged it so i had this terrible sound quality tape and have dreamed of bringing them to the states one day to hit with them again, if i die before doing that and folk trying to show some respect for my contribution, bring senta lain over to play at the throwdown

so anyway oneko tells me they have an cd out, he will send me a copy

i go on i tunes and download it right away cause i believe in supporting the arts and i want to encourage the industy to do more senta lain but im looking forward to a hardcopy from oneko

and i dont even collect cds anymore, ive sold most of my 1000s and only kept the ones that i consider special, a couple hundred, or ones that i would not be able to find easily should my digital collection ever get eaten by computer demons, but senta lain i want hardcopy

that performance was the 1st time i publicly performed as mganga maua, i had done a ritual performance earlier that day, this woman came up after and annointed me mganga maua, witchdoctor flowers she said, thats who you are

i tried some things that day, threw my little divination chain as part of the performance, the venue drove me to higher ground, specially since i was in east africa, i felt like higher ground was called for, birthplace of humanity and all that

it was reading about east african prophets that i was informed that the difference between a diviner and a prophet diviner in many of their cultures was that the diviner did private readings for clients, the diviner prophet also did public readings for the whole tribe

every since then i been trying to publicly manifest the prophetic, mganga maua in the house

it was senta lain that took that evening over the top, they provided the beat and i climbed on top of it

and we took the roof off the carnivore club, not that it has a roof anyway, it was a magical evening

im gone, i got to get on the road, all my love

rdoc

MONDAY

clocking pages more or less - look here, never ask god what next cause you liable to get an answer
sister has took sick down in the delta, my mothers full time care person down, that mean both of them in jeopardy

i got to go south

dont get no work done when i go to the delta, nothing but 1 family crises after the next
but what can you do except what you can, im gone, have to try to keep the big mo,

this morning i been listening to hugh masekela, there is one song of his remind me of safiya henderson holmes

when she was dying of cancer, some friend offered her a coolout weekend in hamptons so i drove her out
and it was one of the highpoints of my life, it took all day but me and safiya had a wonderful time

it was a memorable memory, the kind you live for - she died fairly soon after but there one masekela
everytime i hear it i think of safiya - she heard it 1st time that day & loved it, forced me to play it over and over

i complained vociferously but now everytime i hear it i feel the love -
i dont know the name of it, i call it trekking w/safiya

another favorite masekela of mine is send me, where he talk about struggle, say he want to be there when the people
turn it around, when they triumph... on a hunch i went to youtube and there it was, masekela, send me, talk about oldschool

must be masekela, cause im feeling the love now
for all of you, for my family, the world, everybody

thats what i get out of being a writer, writing books i hope
will serve the generations, its all about the love

i want to be there

rickydocs top 10 list of gualag states: the global order and the human condition

SUNDAY

okay, 1st somalia cut off 1 hand 1 leg of the teenagers in photo for stealing
thats digusting, as is the stoning stuff too,

also disgusting is michael beys transformers gratuitous racism in rotf
i have to confess that i wasnt going to pay good money to see that movie anyway

but what i have heard about skids and mudflaps makes me feel bad
its like why in this day and age would he go out of his way to dump on blackfolk

and then he say, they just robots, lighten up, i guess old redwhiteandblue optimus prime
is just a robot too, signifying nothing, the whole movie is robots

not only are they little jar jar me so crazy, ghetto kids but they are cowards that cant read, was that necessary

apparently upon reflection he got some other rightwing kicks in there too, a gratuitous slap on
obama, some jockstap misogomy, i dont support rightwing screeds no matter how entertaining

ist 1 i looked at it when it came on hbo, this 1 i wont bother

what offends me is that he thinks he can take a gratuitous punch at blackfolk and not pay a cost for it
well they wont be getting my money, though i have to admit they wouldnt have gotten any of it anyway

SATURDAY

system back but now i got a pinched nerve in shoulder,
im a 1 handed typist now, what next lord, what else i got to fight

supreme court say strip searching 13 year old girl over ibuprofen over the line, 8 to 1 against
it, everybody except for, you guessed it, clarence thomas - he is such an embarrassment

saw this wonderful movie last night, a john sayles movie, honeydripper, about a delta jook
and magical guitar players, danny glover plays oldschool piano player in need of new tricks

he enjoys those worldweary roles, and establishing himself a nice little legacy, keb mo plays this blind bluesman see all, some young boy plays one of the earliest bluesmen to electrify his guitar, him and chinabell take the show

delta blues family & the little community come thru nicely, it was a wonderful little blues movie

made my little delta heart full (i think it was actually alabama but what the hell)

well, im gone, clocking pages 1 handed require a little more time,

been listening to little axe this morning, what i call them wolf house blues

that was a damn good movie

im out

rdoc

THURSDAY

well the king is dead, ive always liked his music but he was just too wierd
i once read that writers are judged by their worst when theyre alive, their best when theyre dead

my fav mj song is the man in the mirror, speaks to my own struggle to be
"im starting w/the man in the mirror, im asking him to change his ways..."

then i would think when he looked in the mirror what did he see, and what did he do with it
and it would kinda ruin it for me

now that hes dead i guess i can enjoy it w/o feeling somehow soiled

i grew up with michael jackson, from the jackson 5 to his faded out maturity
and if he has strayed at times too far afield in his journey, well so have i

ah but look at the legacy

michael jackson, the passing of an era, R.I.P.

WEDNESDAY 909 AM

i think dear regulators that im going to deal myself a hand in the healthcare reform bill
in terms of trying to back obamas play here, send him some money for it, put some

strategic analysis on it here, i feel like such a fool when i try to contribute to a realworld struggle
my total lack of influence on the way of things becomes glaringly apparent, but what can you do

except be a teamplayer and play your little part best you can

my sister doesnt have heathcare, i cannot imagine a life w/o healthcare

i see the forces of evil trying to derail obama on this one, dont worry bout it man, i got your back

ima do my part on this one, neglible though it be, more on this later but right now i got to clock my pages
i been strong last couple of days, might make my deadline after all, pray for me

all my love

rdoc

WEDNESDAY  6:22 am

clocking pages, back in the game

okay, since iran got it on my mind, rickydocs top 10 gulag states
where its citizens are repressed and yearning to be free

ima big scifi fan and in those spaceoperas you often have the free systems
and the slave systems and the free folk always trying to free the slaves

im reminded of the american civil war just now

so anyway let me label what ima call the worlds gulag states, that chokehold their own
this has got to be controversial, a couple i know are going to irritate folk if i had commentators

which i dont so here we go, i will do them alphabetically, dont want to get caught up in rating repression
i notice i dont have any western democracies here, that dont seem politically correct do it but i call it as i see it,

the west way of rule is by trickery not outright repression, rule by game and, if its trick to trick i will take my chances

i call myself a player too and if you outtrick me and mine, i consider that my fault, that just mean i got to step up my game

i could put america down as an oppressive empire if that make you feel better, the case can be made that it represses the world and if im going to call out israel for repressing palestinians, i guess i should call out america for repressing its minorities, but its not military repression its trickeration, i feel like thats a level playing field, i got tricks too - i am rickydoc trickmaster, horse of the conqueror

everything is relative, states that call themselves democratic, islamic, marxist, socialist, capitalist,  jewish, etc, they all on the list - basically my criteria is states that i personally wish would set their people free, cases like sudan and israel, a reasonable portion thereof

ima keep this down to 10 cause even as i speak i think of little repressive states that fit my criteria but arent big enuf to be strategically significant, bunch of african, arabic, east bloc countries - i want to free them too

some choices arbitrary, could have used egypt where i put saudi arabia but they feel like the basically the same and egypt repression based on politics, saudi arabia repression based on religion and that seem to offend me more - the old hoodooman cannot abide a thief of souls

i fear (if folk took me seriously) ihis list would offend old allies in struggle, jews (israel) and the left
(venezuela/cuba) but what can i do, my geas say call it like i see it, chavez be repressing, israel too

i think venzuela got in because i am personally disappointed that chavez use such a hard
line, i approve of his game, but i dont think i approve of his means

somalia is an awkward choice, not really repressing its people but the system is hostile to the human
condition and i would like to set the people free, and its african too, put this one down as a personal

what i need to do is go to some human rights org and get a ready made list but that aint my style
if the process doesnt clarify for you your own sense of justice what is the point

1)   burma
2)   cuba
3)   china
4)   iran
5)   israel
6)   sudan
7)   north korea
8)   somalia
9)   venezuela
11)  zimbabwe

doing this i realize how subjective this judgemnt is, this the list of countries rickydoc personally find most problematic in terms of the global order and the human condition

the states i personally wish would set their people free, i suspect there are countries you think shouldnt be on this list, some you think should

what would your list be

rdoc

the koran and the ballotbox by reuel marc gerecht: keeping a finger on the pulse

TUESDAY

computer still down, techs still telling me today art at noon it will be ready - this is really throwing me off my game, but whose fault is that, if im so weakminded i cant handle a little distraction

iran still in crises, theyve lost ruling legitimacy and we will have to see how this play out

only false note i think obama hit was when he said no difference between moussavi and current leadership

moussavi is not somebody id vote for but in iranian context hes it, hes become a symbol of openness to them, and he has embraced that symbolism, it would be different, not perfect but different, pragmatist like obama oughta respect that, he probably regrets that cal

i probably have more to say but i need to get my day going

clock me some hours and i will feel the space for commentary

was telling buffalo soldier by email that he should do a blog, how i feel like its a component of struggle to generate words and commentary and eventually ima sit down and make them into a book because i will have already generated the wordage

and even if you dont ever get around to it its about leaving an account of your strategic vision for future generations, or something along these lines

starting to feel like everything i got to say youve heard me say it before

my loyal few, i love you so, without you what would i be

id be the fool reality says i am if i didnt have you to believe in the me i want to be

im gone, back to the cotton field, tough row to hoe

rdoc

MONDAY

i apologize world, i should digest this for you but i just dont have time for that
but i thought it was an insightful look at the strategics of the iran situation

and thats the old hoodoomans preferred approach, what are the strategics here
whats going on behind the scenes, i like to know whats really going on under the surface

i like to know secrets, secrets that are empowering, thats my stock in trade

these strategic analyst pieces turn me on, when i do political
commentary i call myself manifesting strategics

giving my readers the real deal, some strategic posture
keeping the players informed of the rules of play

i would digest this, give it to you tight but i dont have the time right now

ima have to give it to you straight- god is great

--------------------------------------------------

The KORAN AND THE BALLOT BOX  by Reuel Marc Gerecht NYTimes Week in Review

WHATEVER happens in Iran in the aftermath of this month’s fraudulent elections, one thing is clear: we are witnessing not just a fascinating power struggle among men who’ve known each other intimately for 30 years, but the unraveling of the religious idea that has shaped the growth of modern Islamic fundamentalism since the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1928.

The Islamic revolution in Iran encompassed two incompatible ideas: that God’s law — as interpreted by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini — would rule, and that the people of Iran had the right to elect representatives who would advance and protect their interests. When Khomeini was alive and Iran was at war with Iraq, the tension between theocracy and democracy never became acute.

Upon his death in 1989, however, the revolution’s democratic promise started to gain ground. With the presidential campaign of Mohammad Khatami in 1997, it exploded and briefly paralyzed Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the theocratic elite. God’s will and the people’s wants were no longer compatible.

To the dismay of Ayatollah Khamenei, who remains supreme leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, the candidate whom President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “defeated” in the rigged elections, has become the new Khatami — except he is far more powerful. While Mr. Moussavi lacks Mr. Khatami’s reformist credentials, he is a far steelier politician. And the frustrations of President Khatami’s failed tenure have grown exponentially among a new generation that is less respectful of mullahs and revolutionary ideology.

Yet in the current demonstrations we are witnessing not just the end of the first stage of the Iranian democratic experiment, but the collapse of the structural underpinnings of the entire Islamic approach to modern political self-rule. Islam’s categorical imperative for both traditional and fundamentalist Muslims —“commanding right and forbidding wrong” — is being transformed.

This imperative appears repeatedly in the Koran. Historically, it has been understood as a check on the corrupting, restive and libidinous side of the human soul. For modern Islamic militants, it is a war cry as well — a justification of the morals police in Saudi Arabia and Iran, of the young men who harass “improperly” attired Muslim women from Cairo to Copenhagen. It is the primary theological reason that Ayatollah Khamenei will try to stop a democratic triumph in his country, since real democracy would allow men, not God and his faithful guardians, the mullahs, to determine right and wrong.

Westerners would do well to understand the magnitude of what is transpiring in the Islamic Republic. Iran’s revolution shook the Islamic world. It was the first attempt by militant Muslims to prove that “Islam has all the answers” — or at least enough of them to run a modern state and make its citizenry more moral children of God. But the experiment has failed. The so-called June 12th revolution is the Iranian answer to the recurring hope in Islamic history that the world can be reborn closer to the Prophet Muhammad’s virtuous community. Millions of Iranians said in the presidential election, and more powerfully on the streets since, that they want out of Ayatollah Khomeini’s dream, which has become a nightmare.

No matter what Ayatollah Khamenei does — and at his most recent Friday prayer sermon he gave no inclination he’s ready to stop hammering the reformers — this message isn’t going to change. In the nine years since the reform movement around Mr. Khatami was crushed, it has only grown stronger. It brought within its ranks Mr. Moussavi, a favored lay disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini, who clearly has no regard for either Mr. Ahmadinejad or the supreme leader.

What may seem more surprising is that so many prominent first-generation revolutionaries have sided with Mr. Moussavi. There are many reasons for this, but among the most salient is a growing belief that the Islamic Republic and the revolution are finished unless Iran becomes more democratic. This hope may be naïve (once glasnost starts ...), but it is a powerful motivation for those who gave their souls to overthrow the shah.

It’s not clear what Mr. Moussavi thinks about democracy, but it’s a good bet that he’s willing to entrust the people with more power than was Mr. Khatami, who despite some differences could neither really break with his ruling clerical brethren, nor free himself from the age-old Islamic belief that the faithful need clerical supervision. And even if Mr. Moussavi isn’t the ideal reformer — he was prime minister in the 1980s — he is surrounded by the best and brightest of Iran. The regime has lost almost all the country’s intellectual capital. Even among the clergy, the best minds — the ones faithful Iranians talk about, like Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri — have distanced themselves from Ayatollah Khamenei. I can’t think of a serious book written by an Iranian since the fall of Mr. Khatami expounding the Islamic Republic as a model for Muslims.

The reverse parallels here with the rest of the Islamic Middle East are striking. Where secular dictatorships rule, the best and the brightest are often attracted to the Islamist cause. The moral repugnance of these regimes trumps the appeal of their Westernization. Muslim fundamentalists often espouse democracy either because it is the only peaceful means of dethroning their rulers or because they really do believe that most Muslims are “good” Muslims. Democracy would make their societies more virtuous, they feel, more likely to preach and practice the traditional injunction to command good and forbid evil.

Until now, the Islamic Republic has had a propaganda heyday among devout Arabs, depicting itself as a virtuous state with a workable level of democracy — just enough to give the regime legitimacy and stability. Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament and the wicked genius behind the crushing of the reform movement during Mr. Khatami’s presidency, loves to emphasize Iran’s democracy when he travels abroad, always highlighting America’s preference for secular dictatorships.

Now the clerical regime can no longer make this argument. As Iranians have come to know theocracy intimately, secularism has become increasingly attractive. Iran now produces brilliant clerics who argue in favor of the separation of church and state as a means of saving the faith from corrupting power.

Indeed, Iranians are on the threshold of turning the Koran’s ethical injunction into a democratic commandment: nothing good can be commanded without a vote of the people. The democracy-supporting clerics of Iraq are trying to do the same thing, but the Iranians, much further advanced in their thinking about church and state, will surely be much bolder. Whether he intended it or not, Mr. Moussavi — and indirectly Ayatollah Khamenei because of his crude determination to keep the former prime minister from power — has probably begun the final countdown on the Islamic Republic.

We can only guess about the effect of an Iranian crack-up on the rest of the Middle East. Although the region’s Sunni rulers were spooked by the aggressiveness of Mr. Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei (not to mention the idea of a Shiite state with nuclear weapons), the birth of real democracy in Iran, always the most dynamic state in the region, cannot but cause acute anxiety. Sunni Arab fundamentalists, whose day has not yet arrived, will be fascinating to watch. They will surely see the awesome power of democracy; they will probably conclude, however reluctantly, that God cannot be the sole legislator of the laws and ethics that good Muslims want to live by.

And American policy? For starters, many of America’s supposed allies may welcome a Khamenei crackdown. This may complicate matters for President Obama. But he should take note: inside Iran, the nuclear issue isn’t what the people are fighting about. They are fighting for freedom. Even if Ayatollah Khamenei proves triumphant in this round, the president should get on the right side of history. He has nothing to lose: the supreme leader is never going to give ground on the nuclear issue. And as the clerical regime gets nastier at home, it will become nastier abroad. Mir Hussein Moussavi is Mr. Obama’s only hope.

back in the game: in struggle we trust

SUNDAY  11:17 PM

fathersday shoutout to dr arthur flowers sr, doing what i can dad, to be the man you taught me to be, and to babajohn killens, my mentor in the longgame, for teaching me not only how to write but how to be a writer - good looking out

rdoc

SUNDAY 11:36 AM

what ive decided i have to do is  keeping driving forward like i still think i can win this
thats all i can do, keep driving forward in the state of acute desperation that gets the work done

and see how far it takes me, i got about a month that i can give this a full court press
before i have to start thinking about family and schoolhouse matter

when i realized i wasnt going to make it i immediately started chilling, start taking it easy, and realized i had
been in an acute fever of work, that amadeus working himself to death scene, and thought how unhealthy
that was and that i was better being more paced about this, thought about that great line in shogun
where the shogun tell the aggressive young prince patience puppy, then i start thinking about the manuscripts

i need to read, the books i need to read, the projects i need to do, movies i want to watch, but this state
of bliss does not last long, my mind still racing, i still got the fever, i need to stay on the sungun, i need to stay in the zone, drive myself to creative madness and see what happens, 4 more hell lets say 5 more weeks of the madness, see what happens

all my love

rdoc

SUNDAY

look like that window of opp in iran is closing, without  benefit of those huge numbers
it will be easy for the mullahs to pick off the bold ones, but the state has lost critical validity

it will be interesting to see how they go about reestablishing their authority, hard or soft

the window may be closing but this is still a seminal moment and i have to say im not sure
how this is going to play out, kinda depends on what the state does at this point, i just dont know

i suspect moulavi will want to retain his insider status and back up but i just dont know

i hate it when i just dont know

im at a crossroads of my own here, i have to decide if im still going for a moneydraft or just a coherent 2nd half, i dont believe i have much choice, coherent 2nd half and hopefully have a couple of weeks in august for a desperation redpen before school start

if i get a coherent draft i can do redpen over the semester, raw manuscript is what i dont want to be trying to do during the schoolyear

i am really discouraged, computer down, woodshed down, slogging thru the narrative mud, and
folk will be asking me arthur you finish the novel, and ima have to say no not yet and ignore the doubt

in their eyes, ohwell, life goes on, just keep slogging thru the mud rick, keep the faith

rdoc

SATURDAY

this slow computer is killing me, i  feel like im in some 3rd world cybercafe
got to have 3 screens up in order to move at a decent pace

okay, a couple of comments about obama, been disappointed in his handling of the financial
crises, does not appear to me that he putting those financial boys in sufficient check

obama play his game a little more cautious than i would but then he aint me is he
at the end of the day i assume his game will be tight and he will have left a good legacy behind

i still assume he will do me proud , i got your back brother

as for flak he getting on iraq i think he calibrating that about right, he got players game
any opportunity for the mullahs to blame america for the unrest will be counterproductive

iranians doing just fine on their own, oama and the wests position is clear, they know they being watched, the know they being judged and found wanting, inside and out
interesting how many of those signs in english

 i believe the hammer is inevitable,  i speculate when it come
to velvet revolution or tiananmen square the mullahs will square

i am constitutionally opposed to theocracy, among which i include saudi arabia, israel
and americas own fundamentalist attempts to impose their religious dogmas on the rest of us

in my ateempt to be a literary instrument of the human condition

i am always going to be in favor of democratic impulses over the autocratic,
this iranian election seems to be, in its own context, as significant as the election of obama

in many ways democracy just a facade too
but such in life in the human condition, you take what you can get

like this slow computer

ol boy wading thru the literary muck now, that soulsucking bane of literary existence - raw manuscript

raw manuscript: you go into the old draft you pull out everything but the few sentences/passages (sometimes just a bunch of notes to yourself) that might still be useful, you take that skeleton, you read it over, then you reconcept, what is this passage trying to do, what is it doing,  what could it do, what dynamics at play, you do this on paper, or screen rather, freethinking, you start writing down random metaphors, you run random characterriffs, dialogueriffs, stagedirections, et al, you try everything, you keep doing this until you got a good stock of material to work with, you do this until you just cant take the standing still no more, until your soul is crying for momentum, but you need multiple pages because cutting out the chaff will cost you about 80%, the remaining 20% you use to start the whole process over again and again until you got viable manuscript - so the only question is how many drudgery hours a day can you take, 

does it make sense, no, its just a bunch of mess, but you keep wading thru the muck until you

until you remotely got something look like a viable scene, thats when you got something to work with

redpen time - those 1st redpens are brutal though, what i call bleeding all over the page

this is when it shapes up into real manuscript - you have to do them over and over until all you doing is

working the poetry

thats when it becomes fun, when one or two words/phrases/passages can add layers of meaning to the whole novel

basically what im trying to do stylistically at this stage is have every passage every paragraph be a
 piece of flash fiction unto itself - one big epic narrative poem, its taking me forever

i thought i was at redpen, had all the holes filled in, but it turns out whole 2nd half is a hole and i been pushed back to raw manuscript - what a revolting development this is

im out - this post has become a diversion - you know what i want to do, i want to just quit, just be a teacher and not try to be a novelist no more and just coast thru the rest of my life, i make a decent paycheck, i got tenure, i dont have to do this

i got folk so trained to me not delivering this novel i can tell them im still working on it for the next 10 years, until im too old to care

live a normal life like everybody else in the world, get me a little rest sometime

but my pride wont let me, my pride wont even consider that

punk out like that i couldnt hold my head up amongst my peers and students
much less future generations

i will make my destinic bones as a novelist or i will die surprised

i saw a colleague at the grocery store yesterday, she said how is the summer going
i said im trying to get a little work done, she said you supposed to be having fun

i am i said, this is what i call fun - this what i live for

ever reach the point i cant struggle with the work id put the shotgun in my mouth too

rdoc

THURSDAY

hello world, system crashed, with all the work ive done on that rough passage

my bad, hadnt backed up, my bad, IT dept trying to bring my system back, one can only hope my work is
still there, so anyway i decide no sense fiddling with that passage no more till i see whats what

so i move on to the next one and its worse than the previous one, i read thru more passages and they getting worse and worster

i realize then not only is 2nd half of novel rougher by definition but cleaning up previous chapters have
rendered much of 2nd half no longer viable, critical movements no longer work, im thinking oh hell

took me damn near two weeks to fix last passage, if remaining passages are as bad im dead in the water
theres no way i will be thru  with a clean draft by end of summer, i will be lucky to have a draft period 

IT keep telling me we will have your computer fixed by tomorrow art but its been 4 days now and i been sitting around having a pity party - then i decide if one of my students came to me talking about my computer crashed i cant work - i would be so not wanting to hear that, i would be so intolerant of that - what you mean you cant work, what kind of punk bullshit is that

so i dug out an old computer we had just not gotten around to throwing away just yet and im back in the game, balky and irritatingly slow but back in the game, that pity party wasnt working for me, ima professional - limping, lame, whatever it take

realized during my downtime that whats fallen apart is not the passages but the concept of novel
ive taken 1st half so far beyond what i had that 2nd half just doesnt work anymore

thats life in the literary lane

i dont see a chance in hell of making my deadline now, but that wont stop me from trying
im looking for a miracle now, im looking for 12 hour days now, im looking for a miracle, lord

if i thought i was on defcon 1 before i didnt know the meaning of defcon 1, its fucking total war now
facebook, sociallife, housemaintenance, blogging, family - everything got to go - fat chance of that but ima try

i been noting how twitter and facebook et al been used in iran in the eternal conflict between
authoritarian/democratic forms of government, in the ongoing effort to enhance the human condition

thats one of my things you know, enhancement of the human condition, ima have to monitor that

and im realizing ima have to twit too at some point, but twitting/facebooking/blogposting
all that, thats gon have to wait till i get back down to defcon 3 - right now its total war up in here

had to go on campus to take my computer in and somebody saw me, start talking about lunch, i told them,
this aint me, this a fucking mirage, this just my traveling spirit, you just think you talking to me

god this computer is slow, i will be glad when i get my instrument back, then ima have to go thru the hassle of rebuilding it - ohwell, at least im back in the game

in struggle we trust

as for iran its more complicated than it appear, but then what isnt

im outta here

rdoc

out of the loop and how to write about africa by binyavanga

SATURDAY

once again a transgression, an entire article from granta from binyavanga

if i get jacked up behind it ima blame mikael awake, he told me about it
also found binya interview here if you interested

How to Write about Africa

Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'People' means Africans who are not black, while 'The People' means black Africans.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.

Taboo subjects: ordinary domestic scenes, love between Africans (unless a death is involved), references to African writers or intellectuals, mention of school-going children who are not suffering from yaws or Ebola fever or female genital mutilation.

Throughout the book, adopt a sotto voice, in conspiracy with the reader, and a sad I-expected-so-much tone. Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can't live without her. Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.

Your African characters may include naked warriors, loyal servants, diviners and seers, ancient wise men living in hermitic splendour. Or corrupt politicians, inept polygamous travel-guides, and prostitutes you have slept with. The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas. The Ancient Wise Man always comes from a noble tribe (not the money-grubbing tribes like the Gikuyu, the Igbo or the Shona). He has rheumy eyes and is close to the Earth. The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas. Or he is an Oxford-educated intellectual turned serial-killing politician in a Savile Row suit. He is a cannibal who likes Cristal champagne, and his mother is a rich witch-doctor who really runs the country.

Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no history; such diversions ruin the dramatic moment. Moans are good. She must never say anything about herself in the dialogue except to speak of her (unspeakable) suffering. Also be sure to include a warm and motherly woman who has a rolling laugh and who is concerned for your well-being. Just call her Mama. Her children are all delinquent. These characters should buzz around your main hero, making him look good. Your hero can teach them, bathe them, feed them; he carries lots of babies and has seen Death. Your hero is you (if reportage), or a beautiful, tragic international celebrity/aristocrat who now cares for animals (if fiction).

Bad Western characters may include children of Tory cabinet ministers, Afrikaners, employees of the World Bank. When talking about exploitation by foreigners mention the Chinese and Indian traders. Blame the West for Africa's situation. But do not be too specific.

Broad brushstrokes throughout are good. Avoid having the African characters laugh, or struggle to educate their kids, or just make do in mundane circumstances. Have them illuminate something about Europe or America in Africa. African characters should be colourful, exotic, larger than life—but empty inside, with no dialogue, no conflicts or resolutions in their stories, no depth or quirks to confuse the cause.

Describe, in detail, naked breasts (young, old, conservative, recently raped, big, small) or mutilated genitals, or enhanced genitals. Or any kind of genitals. And dead bodies. Or, better, naked dead bodies. And especially rotting naked dead bodies. Remember, any work you submit in which people look filthy and miserable will be referred to as the 'real Africa', and you want that on your dust jacket. Do not feel queasy about this: you are trying to help them to get aid from the West. The biggest taboo in writing about Africa is to describe or show dead or suffering white people.

Animals, on the other hand, must be treated as well rounded, complex characters. They speak (or grunt while tossing their manes proudly) and have names, ambitions and desires. They also have family values: see how lions teach their children? Elephants are caring, and are good feminists or dignified patriarchs. So are gorillas. Never, ever say anything negative about an elephant or a gorilla. Elephants may attack people's property, destroy their crops, and even kill them. Always take the side of the elephant. Big cats have public-school accents. Hyenas are fair game and have vaguely Middle Eastern accents. Any short Africans who live in the jungle or desert may be portrayed with good humour (unless they are in conflict with an elephant or chimpanzee or gorilla, in which case they are pure evil).

After celebrity activists and aid workers, conservationists are Africa's most important people. Do not offend them. You need them to invite you to their 30,000-acre game ranch or 'conservation area', and this is the only way you will get to interview the celebrity activist. Often a book cover with a heroic-looking conservationist on it works magic for sales. Anybody white, tanned and wearing khaki who once had a pet antelope or a farm is a conservationist, one who is preserving Africa's rich heritage. When interviewing him or her, do not ask how much funding they have; do not ask how much money they make off their game. Never ask how much they pay their employees.

Readers will be put off if you don't mention the light in Africa. And sunsets, the African sunset is a must. It is always big and red. There is always a big sky. Wide empty spaces and game are critical—Africa is the Land of Wide Empty Spaces. When writing about the plight of flora and fauna, make sure you mention that Africa is overpopulated. When your main character is in a desert or jungle living with indigenous peoples (anybody short) it is okay to mention that Africa has been severely depopulated by Aids and War (use caps).

You'll also need a nightclub called Tropicana, where mercenaries, evil nouveau riche Africans and prostitutes and guerrillas and expats hang out.

Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care.

FRIDAY

so rev jerimiah wright tries in recent sirius interview to backtrack on his them jews comment
he doesnt really address it as much as try to change the subject, he says he meant zionists

and that fundamentalism is the problem, jewish, christian, islamic fundamentalism, the fundamentalism

he doesnt mention is african american fundamentalistism, which is just as often left as it is rightwing
if anything its more leftwing than it is right, as evidenced in folk like wright and black agenda report

both of them got like these ideological blinkers that dont take human nature into consideration
and are lacking in the flexibility that the human condition demand

i have to agree with him that fundamentalism is the problem, its the sourge of our times far as im concerned

its just that i count him as one of them, not ready for prime time - ive heard that he done a lot of good work, that hes a good man, and i recall when i used to hang with folk like him

but now he feels like hes an anachronism, stuck in the 60s and not using 21st century game

i suspect barack wishes he would chill

i got some questions for barack myself, he seem to be allowing the bankers to walk all over him

ohwell, i got to go, no wait, another beef while im at it

was reading in the washpost this morning some guy say the national anthem is unsingable
and suggested all these replacement options, finally saying america the beautiful would be best

this cause me to think about the one i have never related to, the black national antheum, lift every voice and sing, talk about unsingable, to this day i dont know what the words are and have to lip sinc when i do it

who chooses these things anyway

so i want to see if i could find the lyrics for you and damn if listening to it didnt move me -

i guess national anthems are supposed to be unsingable - so they mean something when you sing them i guess

Lift every voice and sing,

'Til earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on 'til victory is won.

rdoc

 WEDNESDAY

i am seriously out of the loop - and thats the way i want to keep it

but a couple of points, mikael awake sent me a notice about saro wiwa case
and the 15 million dollar settlement by shell

he reminded me of its significance, i had noticed it but not noted it, 15 million
doesnt go very far towards rectifying that situation for all those folk affected

but its a good start

and i saw this youtube drum solo by manu katche on greg tates facebook,



just going thru the motions here, still struggling w/that passage

not in a good space

rdoc

literary organizing and self promotion

MONDAY

did not work sat or sun, got this section so bad im going to have to go longhand and totally redo it
longhand is when what i have just doesnt work and i have to make it stronger w/stronger narration

when redpen wont get it, when online generation wont get it, when only pen in hand will do
this will be decon 2, but then what will be defcon 1, basically total war

okay, these are the defcons according to wikipedia

DEFCON 5   normal peacetime military readiness. 

DEFCON 4   normal, increased intelligence and the heightening of national security measures.

DEFCON 3   force readiness above normal. (9/11)

DEFCON 2   force readiness just below maximum readiness. (cuban missile crises)

DEFCON 1   maximum readiness. attack on US military forces or US territory by foreign power.

so my defcons will be:

defcon 5: lifemode: minimum maintenance: schoolweek mode: doing what i can, aspiration 3 hr day

defcon 4: basic production mode:  weekends, xmas break - 3 - 6 hr shifts

defcon 3: summer woodshed mode: cleaning up existing manuscript, x pages a day - 6 - 9 hr shifts

defcon 2: woodshed/zone mode: structural changes, filling in raw manuscript holes, major revision 6 - 12

defcon 1: zone mode: longhand, critical raw manuscript generation and enhancement 6 - 12

gnerally woodshed mode is defcon 3 w/defcon 2 being the zone, but the kind of desperation, the kind of focus im feeling now, thats defcon 1 -  do or die

i suspect you dont find this as interesting as i do, playing w/production, little tricks to enhance production, this little trick will be good for about 3 weeks before it loses its power to drive, then i will come up with something else, till then, defcon 1: do or die

rdoc

SUNDAY

so bonnie drags me kicking and screaming to some play last night - crowns

its about church women and their hats she say all enthusiastic

to say i am not enthusiastic about this play would be an understatement

but im working i say, what is the book about i say, what is the story

i am attempting of course to make a point with this series of questions

she say its a coming of age but there is not much of a story

i sneer what is it one of those tyler perry plays, a your arms too short to box w/god play

so she say well i will find somebody else to go with me and i know then its a command performance

specially when she go ahead and buy the tickets in spite of all my grumbling

i realize then not only must i go but i best quit grumbling about it

but i get there and its one of the few plays when its over i wish it was still going on

it was wonderful, made you appreciate our history, our struggle, our grace, i enjoyed it immensely

the actors were incredible, singing dancing acting fools - theater folk at their wildchild best - you could tell they enjoyed the roles - the set and customing was exquisite, and it took some bold moves for a church based work

started off with the preacher dude in a redsatin lined dr strange cape, a magicians staff and a red velvet tophat, a black herman mystic w/african witchdoctor overtones and he made it work in a church based format - i was impressed - in fact i took notes

the audience full of hatted churchfolk, which gave the experience a certain flavor - o i enjoyed it immensely - ima trip value junkie you know

and that play had trip value, its been a good weekend

i have to say it took me back to my southern black baptist days as a child

what would i say its about, famiy legacies and female bonding in the church maybe - it covered some ground

novel on the otherhand is breaking my heart, ive hit another brick wall of bad

last passage this bad i fixed it by taking it out of the novel, this one is too critical to extract

this one i got to fix - almost 10 days into june, damn near half way through the summer woodshed

this one is going to take me at least a couple of days, maybe a week - assuming i can fix it - a luta continua - a luta continua

rdoc

SATURDAY

still moving, still moving slow but moving

so me and bonnie both fans of karen savoca, one of my library finds

so we see she and pete heitzman playing at the local unitarian church

turns out she a local, so we trot on down there this evening and its one of the
most memorable concerts ive ever experienced

and i really liked petes guitar playing, you dont really hear it on the cd like you do in person

they give a better show than their cds and the cds strong - they had the folk house rocking

now whenever i hear them, i see them too, now that was what i call a performance

me and bonnie both count that one of lifes memorable experiences - they live in oneida now but the

crowd was heavy w/friends and regulars in an intimate venue, it was a very warm and toasty evening

i shamelessly stood on the love your work line, told them i came here tonight as a fan, now im a fanatic

they liked that, they thought that was cute

they gon be at some local jook called the red house nov 7, rickydoc gon be there too

all my love

rdoc

FRIDAY

hello world, the text of obama muslim speech here

i might go thru at some point and note the highlights

but not today, clocking pages, basically a full court press all day

yields a page or two, which just barely gets me to the promised land

by the end of the summer, everything else has fallen by the wayside

im in a ruthless state of mind, too close to the finishline to do anything but

hanging in there

rdoc

THURSDAY

bummer, just heard from george that toby wolff had a stroke, two strokes actually, wife say when the doctor was giving them the news what happened

his recitation sound like a passage from tobys story: bullet in the brain, toby say next time he will

write about winning the lottery - hes doing well enuf to be cracking literary jokes, thats a good sign

impaired vision and speech, what he calls his dr strangelove arm, but hes been moved from icu to

rehab and one hopes for the best

this is a bummer, toby the one brought me and george into syracuse, toby brought me out of the cold

into the mfa world, otherwise i was still a starving artist at 45 years old, this is kinda deep for me cause i been talking about john o as my mentor and i consider toby a mentor of my literary maturity

brought me and george into syracuse, spent about a year or so training us and told us it was time for him to move on, he was passing it on to new blood and a different aesthetic - this more or less verbatim

i remember when i came here for the audition, im dancing, im jumping thru the hoops, im not that confident cause my credentials shaky but toby was the man then

and when i waa leaving after it was done, toby pulled me aside and said dont worry about it, you got the job

every once in awhile i bless toby wolffs name

and i am glad he survived his strokes with his sense of self intact

my prayers are with him and his wife catherine, and all the folk who love toby wolff

toby one of these hearty but socially awkward folk, brooks say with toby its always like you on the 1st date

1st date with the proverbial heart of gold, toby only 5 years older than i am, man im glad he took that hump in style

im glad he cracking literary jokes  -  look like he still showing the way

all my love

rdoc

TUESDAY

there i was this morning clocking pages when i ran up on a passage so brutally bad it broke my spirit

it was so bad it made me want to crawl under a rock and i tried to remember if i had shown it anybody

i fear i have

okay, let me take a deep breath and wade thru it, make it work

those of you been keeping up will see i have edited down last couple of days postings

sorry about that but they struck me as intemperate - too much information

basically im in the zone and im kinda out there - best i restrain myself

im gone, clocking pages

hanging in there

rdoc







IS IT MONDAY AGAIN, I THOUGHT YESTERDAY WAS MONDAY

been fallow last coupe of days

was reading one of the 2009 folk, becca fishows musings on fame in the internet age
cause me to ponder that for writers its about promotion, a literary skill ever more important

thought about how babajohn trained his students in the arts of literary promotion
how we were all politicos when we came to him he just transformed our organizing skills

made us literary organizers

taught us successful writers master the skills of self promotion
the internet has just added tools to the mix

these days you build your name on the web like you do in the print world
it was jeff parker made clear to me a 21st century writer has to work with both hands

its always a blend of promotion and substance, hopefully w/emphasis on substance

depends on what your definition of literary success is -  fame and fortune - or writing good books - or is it
aesthetic, destinic, cultural influence - influence on the way of things through the power of art

is it all the above

literature to babajohn killens was a sacred calling, i feel the same way about it, i dont treat the literary life lightly, i treat it like the blessing it is

i got to figure out how to best use facebook as an instrtument of literary organization

maximal impact, minimal effort, the minimal effort is always key, who got the time

two days off im feeling a little panicky, if i dont make this draft deadline i will feel bad
like im not serious, like im just spinnng my wheels and dont really have a great novel in me

2 days off and my fears, my desperations, rise up in me

but you know im not going to pay any attention to that, that kind of fear can cripple you, stop your flow,
i tell my students, doubts and anxieties, they never go away, you just ignore them, you write thru them

let me see if i got any quick commentary for you

abortion doctor assassinated- in church no less - bummer

penn paper runs personal ad suggesting assassination of obama - bummer

suffering in darfur grows after aid orgs expelled - where is barack hussein obama - bummer

forget this, im just depressing myself

artwork is john killens as long distance runner by tom feelings, tom sent original to me right before he died - like an acknowledgement of me as babajohns protege, that touched my heart

babajohn supposed to be getting respect thru me, i gotta get busy

all my love

rdoc





MONDAY

winter 2009 issue of the literary review is out, contemporary african writing,

guest editor is jeff allen of pan african literary forum

not sure whats happening with palf, jeffs bout with malaria has thrown us off our game

i look forward to picking up a copy of this one though, met most of the folk in it

i see mildred barya is there, she will be coming into syracuse mfa with the 2009 crew, im excited about that

i also have to get my hands on rob spilmans gods and soldiers, the penguin anthology of contemporary african writing, been intending to do that for awhile now

ive decided what im going to do is powerdrive thru these manuscripts on my plate, just added another, that makes 5, im just too behind on that, and the mlk, i really want to clear my decks so all i got to think about is mine, but i feel guilty putting these folk off until spring

im outta here, might not be able to work today, im feeling weary

i always schedule 2 days a week off during a push, otherwise i will take them anyway and feel bad

today might be a day off, we will see

trying to think if i got any commentary before i sign off but i dont think so

probably should be keeping up with the battle to define sotomayor but ive kinda learned something stepping back from engagement with obamas struggles

too close in that and you go up and down with the daily calls of the brutal news cycle

step back like a player should and keep some perspective and you dont get caught up in it like that

applying that to sotomayor too, keeping my perspective, take a hand when i can, but as far as the trenches go, not going to happen

with obama ive decided i will let him handle his game, i will handle mine

with sotomayor, ima let the hispanics carry the ball on that one

still trying to figure out how to use that facebook as an instrument

i dont have time or inclination to be socializing - who got time for that

im out

rdoc

sotomayor and refresher research: black soldiers during civil war

 
FRIDAY

washpost interviewer asking author of the hemingses of monticello about barack obama and her ansswer:

Given your research into this racially mixed family, how would you answer this: Is Barack Obama the nation's first black president, or the nation's first biracial president?

Well, going by his own self-designation, and by the history of this country, he's the first black president. He was treated as a black person growing up, and a majority of black Americans have some white ancestry, we know that now from genetic research . . . blackness in America is by definition multiracial. I wouldn't have any hesitancy in describing him as the first black president.

-------------------

as long as blackfolk are the despised of the earth racial identity will be a fraught decision

but listen o ye travelers to the geas of rickydoc and i will give you a mission greater than your adversity

i will give you a destiny

rdoc

 THURSDAY

had a  scare yesterday,

picked up book of night women by marlon james

jamaican writer, in which he uses a lot of the narrative innovations im using in rest for the weary

im like god help me some young turk has done 1st what i was going to dazzle the literary world with

but the more i look at it i see where

we doing enuf different that im only losing maybe 30% of my dazzle,

also picked up bolanos 2666 and drood by dan simmons

now the question is do i actually read them

i dont know that i want this boy james in my head while im trying to do closure

i got manuscripts on my plate ive agreed to read for people too

you always planning big blocks of writing time and life never cooperates - you end up squeezing out what you can, just like always

im gone

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

so Im in my historical section now and last time i worked this was years ago - so this morning i realize my civilwar campaign dates are off, i got the battle of brice crossroads before fort pillow and that aint historically correct - so im doing some refresher research on black soldiers during the civil war and ran up on this account of the stone river campaign

---------------------

While the generals planned, then men lay down in the mud and rocks trying to get some sleep. The bands of both armies played tunes to raise the men's spirits. It was during this "battle of the bands" that one of the most poignant moments of the war occurred. Sam Seay of the First Tennessee Infantry described what happened that evening.

“Just before ‘tattoo' the military bands on each side began their evening music. The still winter night carried their strains to great distance. At every pause on our side, far away could be heard the military bands of the other. Finally one of them struck up ‘Home Sweet Home.' As if by common consent, all other airs ceased, and the bands of both armies as far as the ear could reach, joined in the refrain."

---------------------

that was kind of poignant i thought -

believe ima have to use that in rest for the weary - research, dont you just love it

research for a novel, in particular a historical one, is unrelenting, i enjoy it myself, if anything you have to discipline yourself or you will just keep Researching when you should be Writing

that painting is of a victory of the 1st kansas, when they rose up out the grass to stop a rebel calvary charge

kinda like obama with that sotomayor supreme court nomination, thats as deft as bush 1 picking clarence

throws the opp off their game, they dont want to alienate the hispanic vote so they wont be able to mount a fierce enuf defense to derail her

obama got his game on with this one

threw the repubs off and mollified hispanic resentment over cabinet appointments - payback for their electoral support last year, soft support, slack, tardy, and tentative - depending on what obama do w/immigration, this lock them in for the next go round - you go boy, you the player

my understanding is the admin have a three phase strat for getting her thru

1st shape the initial 48 - 72 hour news cycle

then two more phases which i have forgotten, cause im feeling fidgety, didnt get a lot of work done today, spent damn near the whole work day on refresher research - damnit

i got to go

rdoc