Cuba on the Map
I grew up never seeing Cuba on TV weather maps. I saw it in atlases and on globes--never on broadcast TV. 2007 has ushered in a new era.
When network TV does the weather now the island of Cuba is visible. Can you imagine what is to be blanked out of people's consciousness for four decades and then poof!, you exist?
Can it be that Fidel Castro is near death? Does Cuba have a successor? When Castro finally makes the transition what will become of the biggest Caribbean Island? Will the populace run head long into consumerism? Will the ex-patriots living in Florida and elsewhere acknowledge patience has its virtues? This reminds of how patiently the Greek and Romans waited to infiltrate and then, take over Kemet (aka Egypt). They waited thousands of years for the "lotus and papyrus."
After contacting professors of Latin American Studies in and out of NYC, it amazed me how no one had an answer to the return of Cuba on network weather. The closest remark addressing it was that the Weather Channel used maps that included Cuba.
Computer graphics are something else: airbrush out and airbrush in.
Labels: Cuba, maps, media, politics, weather
Tribute To Lou--Louis Reyes Rivera
Louis Reyes Rivera teaches a writers workshop at Sistahs Place in Bedford Stuyvesant for at least five years now. The workshops are the first and third Saturday of each month except August. He mixes the technicalities of various genres with discourses in history, politics and culture. The official workshop duration is 12 noon to 4:oo PM but he's known to hold court until 6 PM. Literary form, history, politics and culture for a small charge of $20.00. You can't beat that.
I'm a technology reporter and wasn't sure whether this workshop would be suitable. He assured me that he would include journalism in the mix. Rivera said that learning other literary styles would enhance my journalism. He's right. My column got decidely more witty, which is extremely important to gain and keep the attention of the average newspaper reader. Say "tech", and people cry, "It's over my head."
To give him a proper introduction, Louis Rivera is a poet extraordinaire. He has a radio program, Perspectives, Thursday, 2 PM on
WBAI-FM that features jazz cuts, interviews and art talk. He brings on lesser known and world reknowned wordsmiths. He taught and counseled at
Pratt Institute for seventeen years. His poetry has been featured in radio commercials. I believe he's published fifteen books and simultaneously works on four additional books. While I say his poems are very long, taking up many pages, they are well crafted. He once recited a poem about a tree that amazed me because revealed the complexity and depth of the tree's existence as if it were human.
He celebrated his 62nd birthday, May 19th --right along with Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm X. It was the third Saturday in May and he ran the writers workshop. One regular feted him with red velvet cupcakes, sparkling white wine and imported mineral water. Another sang a jazzy birthday tune to him. He was so humble about the matter.
We closed the workshop around 6:00 PM. Someone pressed him about his nonchalantness about his birthday. He explained that he was not 'a favored one' by his stepmother. She didn't do much celebrating of her stepchildren's lives. He recounted his 11th birthday where this lady didn't like any of his friends. Imagine that, 11 year olds disliked by an adult. That must have had some impact on their impressionable psyches.
Mr. Rivera doesn't see me often at the workshops. I want him to know that I value his time and his craftsmanship. To the other workshop attendees: could we all come close to the 20 spot? He deserves not to see one dollar bills in the basket.
Labels: jazz, journalism, Louis Reyes Rivers, poet, taurus, WBAI, writing
Selective Perception & Media Blackouts
This morning, I got charged up by WBAI's airing of speech clips from Free Press Media Reform Conference. It was held in Memphis, Tennessee and featured Bill Moyer, Danny Glover, Geena Davis, Jane Fonda, Amy Goodman, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Helen Thompson. I heard snatches of Jane Fonda, Bill Moyer and Jesse Jackson. The underlining theme was media consolidation and the monopoly of the Fourth Estate, which is media. I came down from the high of 3,500 people converging on Memphis to strategize media reform when I heard that the conference took place January 7, 2007. Hey, that's four months ago. What happened since that time and how did I miss that event notice? The good thing is that I'll receive a DVD of the preceedings very soon.
Jane Fonda and Geena Davis. After years of film-making and publicity and paparazzi, these women wiped the stardust out of their eyes to talk about images and control of information and knowledge. Jane began her evolution in the 70's; Geena Davis, probably in the 90's. Danny Glover seems to have been a conscious actor from the birth of his acting career. This wasn't much of leap given he's a tall black man who doesn't receive a huge bank of film projects to consider.
Though four months passed, it gives me pause to consider what are the options on cable or broadcast. Bill Moyer remarked that PBS and NPR get pressured to reduce programming that provides critical review of social, economic and politic issues. Without naming any programs, "Frontline" came to mind with its weekly look at critical issues that go unaired in many other media outlets.
If you don't know about something, you don't have a position and without a position or knowledge you have no reason to take action. Two cases in point: the continued aftershock of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. How many Americans know that approximately 700,000 people have died since the start of this war in 2001? PBS evening news does a silent roll call of US service people that have been killed in the line of duty, thank goodness. Those number, however, don't come close to 700,000. The Vietnam War was last war that American would have such an extensive and extended view of the facts of war.
As for Hurricane Katrina, 200,000 can't return to New Orleans. This 200,000 does not take into account the rest of the affected Gulf Coast. What can Americans do about it. Nothing because Americans don't know about it. I guess I'm bit of a Mary Poppins. She believed in taking the good with the bad--"...just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down..." Americans can stomach the medicine, don't you agree?
Labels: Bill Moyer, Danny Glover, Free Press, Geena Davis, Hurricane Katrina, Iraq, media, news, Rev. Jesse Jackson, truth
