Octavia Butler, another great one passes

One of my favorite authors and friends of my mind, Octavia Butler, died at 58 on Friday. She was a brilliant writer, a recipient of the Nebula and Hugo awards, and the only science fiction author to be awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Award. If you haven't read her work, do. Her near-future dystopias Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents paint woefully possible pictures of what our world could look like if trends such as global warming, religious fundamentalism, and class division remain on their current trajectories. She utilized the genres of science fiction and fantasy to discuss race, class, gender, and the human condition, and she did so masterfully.



The one thing I saw in the news that said something about the depth of her work is this clip from the Democracy Now! website:

OCTAVIA BUTLER: "I'm going to read a verse or two. And keep in mind these were written early in the 1990s. But I think they apply forever, actually. This first one, I have a character in the books who is, well, someone who is taking the country fascist and who manages to get elected President and, who oddly enough, comes from Texas. And here is one of the things that my character is inspired to write about, this sort of situation. She says:

"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

And there's one other that I thought I should read, because I see it happening so much. I got the idea for it when I heard someone answer a political question with a political slogan. And he didn't seem to realize that he was quoting somebody. He seemed to have thought that he had a creative thought there. And I wrote this verse:

"Beware, all too often we say what we hear others say. We think what we are told that we think. We see what we are permitted to see. Worse, we see what we are told that we see. Repetition and pride are the keys to this. To hear and to see even an obvious lie again and again and again, maybe to say it almost by reflex, and then to defend it because we have said it, and at last to embrace it because we've defended it."

Read her work. You'll be better for it.

Blogligations

I promised my friend Shani that I'd write more, so here's another wee posting from yours truly. It's gotta be quick though because I gotta go see my girl Kofy and her all blackgirl rock band SISTAS IN THE PIT in like 10 minutes. Ok, I gotta go get my head bang on!

Blasted organics!

There's nothing worse than a moldy fungus. Just imagine my chagrine when I discovered that my hellof expensive organic oyster mushrooms had grown a layer of penicillin while awaiting their turn in the cookpot. Blasted organics! I just bought those mushrooms! Okay, I bought them on Wednesday and today is Saturday, so whatever.

My Saturday night supp is inspired by the stuff in my fridge: scallops, shrimp, a little bit of crab meat leftover from my Thursday night DIY sushi situation, oyster and shitake mushrooms and this little nifty little tool. I chucked the oyster mushrooms, typed the other stuff in the search box and landed here. I didn't have half the required ingredients or any past experience with Béchamel Sauce, but I have six wee tiny ramekins, so I decided to run with it. I made the Béchamel with soy milk, but I used a shitload of butter and the aforementioned creatures of the sea so I don't think this meal will appear in the Vegan Lunchbox anytime soon.

The entree is baking now; I'm pondering steamed green beans and swigging a Black Toad Distinctive Dark Ale. I'll post a picture when it's ready.



Ah, fine dining in the glow of my 15" Powerbook. Does Saturday night get better than this?

Two bridges and a pyramid

I just got back from a quick "get back in the saddle" bike ride along the Bay. If you look closely at the pic, you can see the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the pyramid of the TransAmerica building. Ok, even if you squint, you prolly can't see it, but it's there,I promise!

Apparently I'm it again.

Ok, so I tried to post this last night. It seemed to work and then it seemed to mysteriously disappear. Weird.

Tag, I'm it.

My friend Donna Jean tagged me, so I'm it. Here are my requisite lists of 3:


Three books I can read over and over:

1) Beloved by Toni Morrison.

"As soon as one strip of husk was down, the rest obeyed and the ear yielded up to him its shy rows, exposed at last. How loose the silk. How quick the jailed up flavor ran free. No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way that simple joy could shake you. How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free."

2) The Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra

"Cognition . . . is the activity involved in the self-generation and self-perpetuation of living networks. In other words, cognition is the very process of life. The organizing activity of living systems, at all levels of life, is mental activity. The interactions of a living organism--plant, animal, or human--with its environment are cognitive interactions. Thus life and cognition are inseparably connected. Mind--or more accurately, mental activity--is immanent in matter at all levels of life."

3) White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty

"Kicking off their dime store flip-flops the two badly coiffed bullies marched through the sandbox without a flinch or a grimace. A little diaper clad boy waddled up, blew a kazoo tribunal, and heralded the dyspeptic duo: 'That my sister Fas' Betty and her bestest friend Vamp a Nigger on the Regular Veronica. They fixin' to kicks yall's ass.'"

Three places I've lived:

1) Italy (Naples)
2) Ohio (Dayton and Columbus)
2) California (San Francisco, Palo Alto, Oakland, Redwood City, Mountain View)


Three TV shows I love:

1) Lost
2) Little House on the Prairie
3) Extreme Makeover Home Edition (good lord)


Three highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:

1) The Office
2) Everybody Hates Chris
3) The Family Guy


Three places I've vacationed:

1) San Juan, Puerto Rico
2) Whistler, British Columbia
3) Aspen, Colorado


Three of my favorite dishes:

1) Mom's spaghetti
2) Zachary's pizza
3) I used to love al pastor burritos with no beans and extra avocado from Taqueria Cancun, but me and the al pastor don't mix it up too much these days


Three sites I visit on the daily:

1) http://www.gmail.com
2) http://donnatroka.blogspot.com
3) http://www.nytimes.com


Three places I would rather be right now:
*(with friends and family!)
1) NYC (in the Bat Cave and Harlem!)
2) Washington, DC
3) Forest Ridge


Three bloggers I am tagging:

1) bomboniera
2) tyrus
3) peaches