The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

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  • Marc Cohn in Carnegie Hall

    I am not really much of a “joiner” and I don’t have many entertainment things about which I get passionate. Long ago, however, I decided that I would pick an artist and follow them closely. I chose Marc Cohn, whom you might remember from a 1991 hit “Walking in Memphis”, which still gets significant airplay, at least on the sort of stations I listen to. 🙂 Anyway, Cohn has continued to release albums at a gushing dribble (three in fifteen years) but also tours a lot and plays intimate, small venues.

    Last night I rode NJ Transit up to NYC to catch his show at Zankel Hall, a small 600-person adjunct to Carnegie Hall.
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  • Review: Echelon

    Echelon
    a novel
    by Josh Conviser

    InstaRating: 2 out of 5

    This book\’s title caught my interest because I keep up with surveillance tech and its social implications, and ECHELON — the alleged US NSA electronic sifting program — is the monster of all surveillance programs. Although I knew this was a spy thriller, I thought there was a chance that it would delve deeply into some of the issues revolving around the invasive new technologies coming online. Alas, it didn’t pan out that way.

    More below the fold — warning: Spoilers to come.

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  • Snow Day!

    The sweetest two words to any teacher’s ears (well, other than “summer vacation” :)), and the only good reason to receive a phone call at 5 in the morning. 🙂

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  • Testing stats

    Today I found a plugin called Lightstats that compiles some WordPress statistics.
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  • Health of the Republic down, 1% to 29%

    The Health of the Republic bar has shifted downward another percentage point. This follows the promulgation of a presidential decree that gives the White House a greater say over the issuance of policy guidelines by agencies. Previously most such documents were crafted by civil servants but now, they must pass through a politically-appointed gatekeeper (a so-called regulatory policy office) before they can be issued. The clear intent is for Bush to “regain control” over rogue agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, which for some reason seems determined to ignore presidential philosophy and, you know, do its legally-mandated job.

    Not surprisingly, the new policy — demanding an aggregate estimate of costs and the determination of a “market failure” before any new regulation is promoted — was hailed by financial backers of the Bush administration, primarily businesses who find it irksome that regulatory agencies actually regulate.

    This is only a 1% drop because — believe it or not — this administration has done such other egregious damage to American freedoms, that this Kremlinesque gathering-in of economic control, in comparison, ranks as a relatively minor matter. How we lived in diminished times!

  • Review: World War Z

    World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
    by Max Brooks

    InstaRating: 5 out of 5

    After the debacle that was The Stonehenge Gate, I was looking for something good to read, to wash the taste of failed prose from my mouth. Happily I picked up this piece of psuedo-history. Written by the author of the offbeat, tongue-in-cheek The Zombie Survivor’s Guide, this book purports to be an oral history compiled and published ten years after the end of The Zombie War, a global outbreak of the undead as in The Night of the Living Dead.

    Spoilers and more after the break.
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  • Review: The Stonehenge Gate

    The Stonehenge Gate
    a novel
    by Jack Williamson

    InstaRating: 1 out of 5 … maybe less

    During those moments when I delude myself that I’m a writer, I pursue an odd oscillation in my reading. I like to read great works of fiction, to have something towards which to aspire. But I like to leaven that mix with bad writers, people so hackneyed or incompetent that I can realistically say, “Well, if even Writer X can get published, I have a real shot … at least my stuff is better than that.” After reading Oryx and Crake, I was in a bind, because I hadn’t read anything truly bad for a while and I felt the usual intimidation rising up again.

    Luckily, then I picked up Jack Williamson’s The Stonehenge Gate and now all is right with the world: This is a truly bad book.

    More details, including spoilers, follow the break.

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  • from 2003: Synchronicity, in memoriam Robert Hauter Myslik

    [edited 2007 0130 to correct Rob’s middle name, which was Hauter and not Hunter.]

    This piece dates from around 2003 February 10. I wrote it about three weeks after the death of a legendary colleague and true friend, Rob Myslik. Rob taught at Hun for nine years, including two while I was there, and then went off to pursue his dream of being an even-more-world-class writer. He went to Missoula, MT in the summer of 2001 with Susan Bogue, the love of his life; in summer 2002, they wed. Rob came back to the East Coast in 2003 January to catch up with his relations and friends. Then, on 2003 January 21, while heading out to the Sundance Festival, Rob was involved in a tragic car accident and killed. It was devastating to many people, and I count myself among them. I wrote a quick piece that day but it took three weeks before I could truly find my voice.

    By the way, some people quibble with my opinion on the Pink Floyd connection. If you’re one, I hope you’ll keep reading anyway.

    God keep you, Rob Myslik, wherever you are now.
    -=-Bernard HP Gilroy
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  • The true America-haters

    I’ve been meaning to write this for a long time, but it turns out that Cenk Uygur got there first and said it well: The people in power, who wrap themselves in the flag, don’t really love America. They don’t even understand America — and so, not understanding it, they hate it. They hate it virulently and passionately, with all their might and will. They wish it would go away, revert to an ordinary nation. They identify America with the patch of land it happens to occupy, but they don’t grasp the true identity of America as a beacon of human dignity and freedom. Freedom offends them, unless it’s carefully circumscribed so that only the “right people” have a say.

    Here’s where he hits it dead-center:

    I mean that they philosophically never bought into the concept behind the country. America isn’t a bunch of rocks that happen to be on a certain longitude and latitude. America isn’t a bunch of people who happen to live in certain states between 1776 and 2007. America is a noble and grand idea. And it is that idea the Dick Cheneys of the world work hard to tear down every day. It is that idea that they do not trust, do not believe in and that they commit ideological treason against.

    I know that, in the next two years, there will sadly be reason to revisit and resay these fundamental truths. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one out there seeing and saying them.

  • Review: Oryx and Crake

    Oryx and Crake (a novel)
    by Margaret Atwood

    InstaRating: 4 out of 5

    In brief: Snowman is the last (traditional) human alive in a world curiously empty. He bears the secret of what happened to civilization and slowly reveals it to himself as he watches over the successor species: humans carefully designed to thrive in the ecologically-devastated world of tomorrow.

    Spoilers and a more complete review follow.
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