Garfunkel's a reader. Obama is a winner.

1.) Yesterday I got a message from my friend Nora regarding Art Garfunkel's online library. It turns out that Art has been keeping track of every book that he has read since 1968. He has the title, author, number of pages, and month he read it. Coincidentally, I have been doing the same thing for a little over a year now. Basically, I'm going to be the next Art Garfunkel (in a way...) If you are curious, you can check it out here:http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html

Also regarding the state of the "book", Ursula Le Guin has an article in the latest Harper's titled "Staying Awake: Notes on the alleged decline of reading." Le Guin is a Portland-based author and basically explains that book publishing industry and capitalism do not make good partners. Besides textbooks, many people do not have reason to purchase books other than the fact that they enjoy them, and Le Guin argues that there have never been that many of us booklovers anyway. Publishers should stop trying to cram "best sellers" down our throats or declaring books "unsuccessful" if they don't make a certain amount of profit in a short period of time. Realistically, the "midlist" or books in print that continue to sell a bit each year are really what should be publishing houses' bread and butter. When talking about "the decline of reading", Le Guin cites the same NEA surveys that I referenced a month ago, but while I read the statistics and found them demoralizing, Le Guin says "Even during the "century of the book," when it was taken for granted that many people read and enjoyed fiction and poetry, how many people in fact could make much time for reading once they were out of school? During those years [1850-1950] most Americans worked hard and worked long hours. Weren't there always many who never read a book at all, and never very many who read a lot of books? We don't know how many, because we didn't have polls to worry us about it."

2.) Obama beat Hillary 55% to 27% in the South Carolina primary yesterday. Obama is my candidate so I'm obviously happy about that result but I also liked what the blogger Average Bro (http://www.averagebro.com/) had to say about a black man actually having a real chance at the presidency. You can check out the latest post yourself, but what I got was that although blacks have becomes billionaires, headed companies, even been to the moon, the presidency is unique in the fact that it has to be "granted"...one has to be chosen/elected..you can't just work harder to obtain that achievement. Obama also represents the ability to dream...really. Black fathers would finally be able to tell their sons honestly and realistically that they too could possibly become president one day...(although you probably still need an Ivy league education and a certain level of wealth...but at least skin color maybe wouldn't be the negating factor..)

MLK and the art of being a human.

I don't feel like I have much to blog about this week. I'm very much in a stage of limbo in the interim time before moving. I sold my drums, have an actual date to go down to California to look at apartments, and am really broke. I feel acutely aware of which friendships I want to maintain and have been trying to spend time with those that I have an existing relationship with. Because of this state of transition, I've been especially fragile and prone to emotional outburst...

One example is a movie a saw last weekend, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I loved the film and you can read a review of it here:http://saxoneuro.blogspot.com/2008/01/divine-bell-and-butterfly.html. I have to say though, I began crying probably 30 minutes into the film, and did not stop until way after it ended. (I had a moment during the credits where I tried to gain my composure, wipe off all of the mascara, take some breaths...all to no avail...I began tearing up again on the escalator out of the theater). I know partially it hit home because of an accident that my dad had a year and a half ago, and honestly Diving Bell is a film that could make even the most stable person lose it..but also I think I'm just in a place where I've been preoccupied with the trajectory of my life, my plans, my relationships, my mortality (a little dramatic, I know). I was shaky for quite a while, but highly recommend this film even though I personally will not be able to watch it for some time.

I feel as though I should write something regarding MLK in honor of this Monday, but in some ways King is so iconic, his words so well known, his message still something to strive for that it seems unnecessary for me to add anything to the discourse. It's not surprising at all that presidential candidate Barack Obama would choose to align his fight for the White House with King's fight for civil justice. In some ways Obama embodies King's dream and vision for America. I think he was a great man, who has been obviously mythologized for good reason. I just hope that America's familiarity with him doesn't continue a complacency towards the racial inequality still present in our society. That being said, I still can't resist...in the words of the man himself:

"It is one thing to agree that the goal of integration is morally and legally right; it is another thing to commit oneself positively and actively to the ideal of integration- the former is intellectual assent, the latter is actual belief. These are days that demand practices to match professions. This is no day to pay lip service to integration, we must pay life service to it."

"When millions of people have been cheated for centuries, restitution is a costly process. Inferior education, poor housing, unemployment, inadequate health care- each is a bitter component of the oppression that has been our heritage. Each will require billions of dollars to correct. Justice so long deferred has accumulated interest and its cost for this society will be substantial in financial as well as human terms. This fact has not been fully grasped, because most of the gains of the past decade were obtained at bargain rates. The desegregation of public facilities cost nothing; neither did the election and appointment of a few black officials."

"I think the greatest victory of this period was...something internal. The real victory was what this period did to the psyche of the black man. The greatness of this period was that we armed ourselves with dignity and self-respect. The greatness of this period was that we straightened our backs up. And a man can't ride your back unless it's bent."