Well, thanks to a very slutty slot machine at the Sky City Casino in New Mexico, I’m a few grand heavier than I was a week ago. Lucky? Neh – hear what I did tonight: I oriented myself to the Cosmos, then sat at the edge of the Grand Canyon as the sun set .. the stage for the moon and a trillion stars to dance and sing above me. Now that’s lucky… beyond words.
Hey folks – am here in Santa Fe for a weekend retreat / conference – with cold weather and extremely unreliable internet access. Once I had settled into my room, I was very pleased to see that the ethernet jack had been literally ripped out of the wall with just wires sticking out. No wi-fi at the hotel, either – but if I rest my laptop up against the wall near the window and the moonlight is just right, I can get a sip or two of wi-fi, when I’m lucky. Sorry, more will just have to follow.
After that awful video a couple months back of the US soldiers teasing the kid with the bottle of water, I wondered how widespread this kind of behavior is and what impact it has on the people of Iraq and the war overall, if any – and if the average resident sees our presence as benevolent or imperialist – or somewhere in between. I figured the best way to find out would be to ask a couple of people who live there and live with the madness on a daily basis – without the luxury of reading a sanitized newspaper version as they sip their lattes in Scottsdale (he says, doing so.) So, I interviewed an Iraqi woman, Faiza Al-Araji, about the conditions in Iraq and the impact of our daily operations. Faiza Al-Araji made a good subject because she is a civil engineer, she is a Shia married to a Sunni, and she and her sons have been writing about the war occasionally. Read the rest of this entry »
Howdy from the tiny old mining town of Terlingua, Texas. The place is as dusty as it is funky. I found a small cabin to stay in for a couple of days – as a base for exploring Big Bend National Park. Read the rest of this entry »
I was nearly arrested tonight by a belligerent lieutenant from the Bexar County Sheriff’s office. I’ll put up a more complete piece when I’m up to it (and I’m sure I have his name right and all that jazz.) The charge was apparently “taking pictures” and having an IQ higher than 70. He was a law-man unlike any I’ve encountered in a long, long time.
Oh well, at least I’m not Lisa Marie Nowak. Diapers? Nice touch.
My hotel is diagonally across from the “Sanitary Tortilla Manufacturing Company.” I suppose I was naive to think there were other kinds. It made for a funny smell the first day or so, but you get used to it. Read the rest of this entry »
