VISITORS!

COUSIN REDWOOD:



Dead

-------and still

standing.



— JD Whitney, All My Relations
(Many Voices Press)





Nothing like a Sunday morning with Roberto Bolano, hangover and all. Start anywhere, he's ready for you. I was intrigued by the last story first: "Meeting With Enrique Lihn". You will, too.

Robert Bolano, The Return
(New Directions)





Then, there's nothing like reading aloud the snap and crackle of "Three-Ten To Yuma", as alive and full as the original film (skip the remake), read in what seems a matter of moments. This is the cheesy book club edition. A bang-up copy for the saddlebag.


Elmore Leonard, The Complete Western Stories
(Morrow)






Heading into the whole summer with Nathaniel Mackey's three in one volume cries to the 'Angel of Dust'. Now if I could only hook up with the Crossroads Choir.


Nathaniel Mackey, From A Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate
(New Directions)

50 ELEPHANTS

Thanks, Whit,

one more strong article about the Gulf oil tragedy, from in-field research and understanding:

www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jun/19/naomi-klein-gulf-oil-spill



But ~

The wider subject hasn't quite been touched on yet.

Those of us grown up inside a Vietnam experience already knew 40 years ago about the depths and criminal nature of those "In Charge".

BP is hardly a new reaction on the block.

It's been forming for decades, and all the while a larger portion of Americans have gone drunk drinking oil and buying vehicles (in many households EVERYBODY has a car, and if you're Jay Leno the sky's the limit) and heating their homes with the sweet tooth of a crazed adolescent.

Ever follow a Winnebago pulling a pickup truck trailed by a family member in a car?

This is the much tougher and dirtier picture than a continuous dumping upon the executives of the world.

They are already a dead species on this organic and leafy planet, despite their overbearing powers.

The vast majority have allowed their existence.

This is the 50 elephants in the room moment.



If you can't live with oil destroying your world:

start bicycling

start walking

plant a tree every week for a year

plant something / get the hands dirty, dirty is involvement

make a garden even if it is in a shoebox

know every time you fly in a plane you are spewing a ton of fossil-fuel garbage into the atmosphere

recycle recycle recycle

shut off the damn lights in every room in the house

pack a lunch

hang your wash out on the line

get on the bus!

remember how your grandparents lived

and, recognize finally true criminal behavior

and try those fairly where they will be shown prison

obvious is obvious

and set the unlucky and unfortunate free

the cruelty has gone on long enough







Those who can make you believe absurdities

can make you commit atrocities
VOLTAIRE