Political Neepery

I am happy to note that one of the Turner channels ran 1776 last night, I hope you all decided to watch. I popped in the DVD when I got home because it was on at 8 and we were out.

It is now fewer than 200 days until George III will be out of the White House. Yesterday, as we drove to a friend's house to have dinner and watch the Studio City fireworks, I heard the news report about the protest when George III addressed new U.S. citizens at Monticello, Virginia.

At first I couldn't make out what was being said because of the loud, interfering, whirring in the background. I realized that was the sound of Thomas Jefferson spinning in his grave.

Then I tried to listen to what the protester(s?) was actually shouting. I swear to god, it was the list of grievances against the king from the Declaration of Independence. If anyone heard a better version of what was going on, I would dearly love to know if that was it. How very appropriate if it was.

Even the L.A. Times ran an editorial about how relevant the Declaration sounds to our country today. Maybe that's why 150 members of the newsroom got axed this week.

I am not, by the way, shedding any tears for Jesse Helms. Anyone who looks at him as a hero is not someone I want to know. He was a racist and helped keep alive that kind of hate.

I'm also tired of hearing how Wesley Clark's remark that being shot out of the sky does not equate to being ready to lead this country is a reason to jettison Clark from any short list for VP. How that quip, made in response to a proposition by an interviewer, can be construed to questioning someone's patriotism is just plain silly--I thought it showed that the General is mighty sharp without a speech writer in sight. That the main stream media is letting this be the story of the week shows a clear lack of journalistic responsibility. Getting shot out of the sky does not mean you know how to be a leader any more than having your PT boat destroyed does (although getting your men to safety despite your own injuries and then doing what needs to be done to get word out for a rescue of the survivors has a lot to say about leadership.)

I'd like to know why the MSM doesn't stop and evaluate the situation. The remark was a humorous one and has been yanked out of the context of the interview. Running additional material from the interview shows that there was nothing said to denigrate John McCain's service.

General Clark graduated at the top of his class at West Point after getting in on merit, was wounded in Vietnam, and made a career in the military, including being the Supreme Commander of NATO (a title that West Wing's President Bartlett called the one that was almost as good as his.) John McCain graduated near the bottom of his class at Annapolis (his admission no doubt was a legacy because of his father and grandfather), crashed several planes either before or after spending 5 years as a POW (I can' t remember those particulars), and can't seem to "straight talk" if his life depends on it. But I get it. General Clark is an "elitist" and John McCain is "one of the guys." The guys have got to stick together.

John McCain is not fit to polish General Clark's boots and I am mighty pissed that Barack Obama let the Republicans frame the story as one that questions patriotism rather than one that questions training, experience, and competence.

Celebrating Independence

We saw our first ad for Swing Vote on television the other night. Swing Vote is a film we saw at a screening several months ago. It stars Kevin Costner. If they haven't screwed it up after getting feedback, it's a terrific film. At least it was in February or March. It opens on August 1. Go see it.

Tomorrow is July 4. Len's off being a guest of honor at CONvergence, in Minneapolis. If you happen to be there, find him and say hello. It means that he cannot participate in our long-standing tradition of watching the wonderful film of 1776, which we always try to do on July 4. I love the film, the music, and the performances. I saw many of the same actors in the original Broadway production back when I was in college. Somewhere in those boxes I pay too much to store is the Playbill from the show. For me, no one has ever done John Adams as well as William Daniels and I always hear and see Howard Da Silva when I think Benjamin Franklin. If no network is running it, I'll play the DVD before the day is over.

The temperature promises to be be in triple digits, so I'm planning an early visit to the Arabian Prince tomorrow. A friend wants to come by and visit him--it's been several years since she's had a chance.

He was really good during our lesson last night, but Gayle said he was a real pain on Tuesday when she tried to do a dressage test with him (she wants to take him to a training show in August.) So she dropped by to do a little "join up" with him on Wednesday afternoon before I got there and he wasn't particularly cooperative. She made it even more annoying for him by turning on the sprinklers, which he hated. Apparently, it did convince of the benefit of following the program. Unfortunately, when Gayle turned her back to open the gate to the paddock when they were finished, Ace dropped and rolled. When I got there to tack him at 5, he had a lovely dried layer of sand on top and lots of grit underneath the surface of his coat. That's probably the dirtiest he has ever gotten voluntarily.

Gayle's taking him out on a trail ride today with a group of her students and expects to be out about three hours. He should be exhausted today and tomorrow.

In the late afternoon tomorrow, a friend is having a barbeque over in Studio City and, when it gets dark, we'll walk over to Ventura Boulevard to watch the fireworks. The Radford Studios, where shows like Grace under Fire and Dave's World were filmed does a big July 4 event. We can't really hear the music, but we can watch the light show.

During the 15 years I lived in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, I saw a lot of fireworks to celebrate Independence Day. The first year we lived there was the Bicentennial and we went to the Pentagon to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately, there were a lot of "groundworks" and the Pentagon, which is across the Potomac from the Mall, was not a good vantage point. The folks watching on TV had a better view. Another year I was on the steps of the U.S. Capitol shooting toward the Lincoln Memorial--one of the photographs was licensed by the DC Yellow Pages the next year. For a few years, I just sat on the stoop in the front of the condo where I lived and watched the local display in our suburban town. The last summer I was in D.C., I worked for a law firm located on Pennsylvania Avenue. The firm held a party on the roof of its building for all the employees and their families and we had a great time and a great view.

So enjoy your celebration and take a few minutes to read the Declaration of Independence. Or do a sing along to 1776. Happy holiday!

The Reading Pile

There's a stack of books next to my bed. Actually there are several of them on my nightstand, divided into two with hardbacks and three with paperbacks. More than enough reading to keep me really busy for a few months. I read a little at night and a lot over lunch. Lately, I've forgotten to pack a lunch book.

Sometimes a book will jump the line and demand to be read ahead of anything in the queue, even books in progress. When Janis Ian's autobiography, Society's Child, arrived via express shipping on Friday, along with the special autobiographical Greatest Hits double CD, it definitely jumped the line. I finished it first thing Monday morning, after digging into it late Friday night when I should have gone to sleep.

Wow. What a life. And what an inspiration.

The first time I saw Janis Ian was on the 1967 Leonard Bernstein special, Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution. (Somewhere in my stored belongings is a reel-to-reel sound recording I made of that show.) She had a hit record at 14 with Society's Child, a song banned pretty much everywhere--certainly one that would not be played on my local sunrise-to-sunset AM station. Leonard Bernstein was determined to have people hear the song of the ending of an interracial relationship. In the prologue to the autobiography, she describes the scene at an Encino, California venue, where members of the audience start to taunt her with a phrase we could all hope was a thing of the past, but sadly isn't. At 14, it was terrifying. It would be frightening at any age.

What I also found interesting was her description of finding a place to eat somewhere in this "rural area" after the show. My law office was on Ventura Boulevard in Encino. Rural it no longer is (despite the one remaining farm and farm stand--Tapia Brothers--just north of the 101 freeway at Hayvenhurst Avenue), but a mere 42 years ago, it still was. I'm trying to picture that by remembering back to the days when Long Island still had huge potato farms which are now housing developments.

There was an interesting juxtaposition for me with this book: Saturday Night Live reran its very first episode over the weekend, as a tribute to George Carlin. Janis Ian was one of the two musical guests. She was riding high with At Seventeen, her second monster hit record. As I often do, I sat talking to the television. "Janis, the song is over. Smile." While it never works when I try to tell a Jeopardy contestant the answer, she did finally smile at the applause. In the one paragraph she devotes to this event in her life, it turns out she arrived in New York to do the show with a fever of 103 and a throat that felt like she was swallowing glass. No wonder she wasn't smiling.

At Seventeen is a song that just resonates with my experience as a teenager. I now really believe that most teenagers feel ugly and alone, but at the time I was 14, I knew I was an outcast. When Janis wrote the song, she did not think anyone would identify with it. Amazing. As I like to say, living well is the best revenge for being at the bottom of the food chain at any point in your life.

Janis' life is filled with incredible highs and lows. She's overcome a number of betrayals and serious brushes with death. She had a run-in with a sadistic IRS agent after learning her business manager had mismanaged her affairs and it took her years to work her way out of the debt that had built up. Her song This Train Still Runs is an anthem to overcoming adversity.

The prose is accessible and flowing. It isn't a long read--a little over 300 pages--but it is very entertaining and touching. Each chapter is a song title, with a few lines of lyrics preceding the text. It will be released later this month. Janis will be in New York for the release at an event on July 24 at the Columbus Circle Borders. She's on tour this year and does signings after most of her shows. She's a terrific performer and I recommend her live shows to you all.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Janis Ian at the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia in 2001. Robert Silverberg's wife, the lovely and talented Karen Haber, did the honors. She and Janis are about the same size and look like they could have been sisters separated at birth. Janis had just met Connie Willis and announced that to us, adding "I need to go to the bathroom and throw up." In her book, she talks about going to this convention and the emotional experience of meeting Connie and the other writers she had long admired.

A few years later, same convention, different city, Janis planned to sit in a line to get Harlan Ellison to autograph her much loved copy of Dangerous Visions. She had arranged for her partner, Pat, to sit in the growing line so Janis herself could see Harlan's solo event at the convention. As she told me of her plan, I said "no, no, no. There's no reason for you or Pat to lose that much of your day and Pat should get to see Harlan perform as well. I'll take care of it." Harlan was as thrilled to meet her ("I have all your albums in vinyl") as she was to meet him. It was adorable.

Janis was one of the first performers to sign on to iTunes and she makes some downloads available for free from her own website at this link. I particularly recommend Married in London, which is unreleased elsewhere. Donations for the music, and other purchase made on the website, go to the Pearl Foundation, named for Janis' mother. The Pearl Foundation funds scholarships for mature students at a variety of colleges. Since I myself once benefited from a grant aimed at women who return to school after time away (the grant from the American Association of University Women helped pay for my first year at law school), I think this is a very worthy cause.

It's a Small World

I'm not terribly proficient at Facebook. I've joined because Len did and I was curious. I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do on it. Blogging really suits me better. But this morning, when I dropped by Len's page with the intention of thanking him for the egg that hatched into an Arabian horse, did I ever stop short:

"Len Wein and Bob Woodward are now friends."

What the....? Half of Woodstein? The half that was an editor at the Washington Post when I was a freelance photographer? The one I'd see occasionally as I'd walk through the fifth floor newsroom on my way to the photo department? The one whose books I've actually read? Not that he'd know me from a hole in the ground, but he just might remember my photo credit--I shot for the Post for five years.

Oh, I can't wait to find out how this happened.

Does Bob Woodward read comics?

Virus

Gayle called to let me know that one of the horses in Ace's barn appears to have the same virus or flu that one of the horses in her barn had a couple of weeks ago. It's airborne and there isn't anything the vet can really do except give a shot of banimine and wait it out. The symptoms are similar to colic and there's a lack of interest in food. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Poor horse. Since the arena allows all the horses to touch each other, it will probably hit them all.

Comicon According to the Times

For those of you who might wonder about this Comicon thing I've mentioned a few times, here's an article in the New York Times. Mark Evanier, whose News from Me can be linked to over on the right, is quoted. We won't be standing out in the never-ending line with the poor people who don't buy tickets in advance. We've got ours and we'll be at the Eisner's sponsored by Lionsgate since Len is up for one. I hope that means Lionsgate is providing refreshments. You shouldn't have to pay for refreshments at an event where you are being honored.

Be Careful for What You Wish

Back in the days when I was the lawyer for the Science Fiction Writers of America, I volunteered to chair the Nebula Awards(R) Weekend in Los Angeles in 2001. I thought I could turn it into an classy event, and everybody says that's exactly what I did.

The banquet was at the Beverly Hilton,also the home of the Golden Globes and WGA awards. Sir Arthur C. Clark was my "guest of honor in abstentia," with, like Elijah, a place set for him on the dias, with a glass of Champagne. We read the letter he sent to his friends and colleagues in the year that resonates in science fiction because of the Hal 9000.

My Rollodex went into over-drive. Neil Gaiman let me twist his arm into being Master of Cermonies (and was even nominated for his script for the English version of Princess Mononoke that year) and Paul Guay, who co-wrote Liar, Liar, Heartbreakers, and the Little Rascals movie, was my keynote speaker. Nobody walked out (traditionally, the room empties when the keynote speaker speaks.) Robert Gordon was there to pick up his Nebula(R) Award for Galaxy Quest, the only time we've actually had the screenwriters present. Robert Burnett, who co-wrote and directed Free Enterprise handed out the screenplay award. My table gave me the wave when dessert arrived with the SFWA logo on white chocolate on every plate. It was quite a night, and a very successful weekend.

I had three years to plan and execute it. I offered to do it again, but nobody took me up on it. The closest I got was "well, you can bid for it." Not bloody likely, thank you.

Well, on Friday, I did get a call. The kind of call you get when you need Joan of Arc and some miracles. So now I'm chairing the Nebula Awards(R) Weekend again. In April 2009. I've got...10 months.

The first thing is to lock down a hotel for the weekend of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, April 25-26. The last time I did this, tying the weekend to the Festival of Books was a big hit with everyone. There was lots of autographing done.

Much to my surprise, two hotels are already back in touch, including the one where we booked our folks stayed in 2001. Since I don't have the flexibility to gallivant off during the day, checking out hotels will be a little more difficult this time out. Guess I know what I'll be doing in the evening this week.