Steven Barnes's Blog, page 53

Ice Sculpture in the Desert

A friend came to me and asked me to help his mother, who, in her 70’s, had injured herself and lost the will to go through the pain and discomfort of rehab.  He was frightened for her, loved her, and although I offered to do it for free, he paid me quite well for a series of sessions.

 

I began speaking to “Emily”, who had had a hard life.   An abusive marriage which broke her down, and a work life in hard physical mill work that had taken her body to the breaking point.  As is true with many...

Octavia Event

I was scheduled to speak at an Octavia Butler event at the Pasadena Library, and because of my family time in Santa Barbara, it became impossible to make it. This morning, I realized that the sponsors might reasonably have expected me to write a note to be read to the attendees, and that I’d forgotten to do this. So this morning I wrote this, and hope that, if it is appropriate, it reaches the right hands in time. ###[image error]

 

I’m so sorry I cannot be with you at this program today.  If I could, I...

“The Mummy” (2017)

 

There was a specific moment in Tom Cruise’s THE MUMMY when I knew it was in trouble.  The movie begins with a narrative flashback, where thousands of years ago an evil princess is mummified alive.  So incredibly dangerous is this sorcerous princess that they carry her body a thousand miles away (To Iraq) and bury her in a pool of mercury beneath a giant slab of rock.  Clearly, she is HORRIFICALLY dangerous.

 

O.K.   Tom Cruise and his friends accidentally uncover the grave and rappel down. ...

The Cause and Effect of Justice

The founding fathers understood that each state in the union needed representation. No one says: let Georgia decide for everyone. Obviously this would lead to problems for California.

But the same people who understand this, if you say “the answer to inequality is proportional representation among the decision makers” will accuse you of terrible things. How DARE you suggest that X’s cannot know as much about Y’s and their concerns as Y’s do! How DARE you suggest that X’s might hue to their ow...

Straying from the path

One there was a great  hatha yogi named  Bikram Choudhury. He created an amazing exercise system, and people flocked to him.   He began to imagine that he was a great spiritual leader, above ordinary morality, and used his followers for sex, and power, and money.  His followers, equally blinded by ego, excused his actions to remain close to him.   Eventually, he spiraled into self-destruction as accusations of rape and abuse flooded in, and he  fled the country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...

On Wonder Woman and T’Challa

Still thinking about why Wonder Woman and Black Panther (and there’s a team up someone should do…) seem to evoke such a different response from moviegoers than, respectively, female and black moviegoers.

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Let’s remove from the equation the qualities that are obvious. And here we’re going to compare a finished film with a trailer.  Its hard to do, but still interesting.   (For the sake of simplicity of speculation, we’re going to assume BP gets as positive a response in its completed form.)

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W...

Being your own hero

I never know what I’ll write about every day.   Just wait to see what is needed. This morning, I received this note (information redacted and altered to protect identity):

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I have a question which requires some set-up – “context,” as you say – but I know you are a busy man, with many, many people clamoring for your time and attention, so I’ll try to keep things concise.

I love your Lifewriting program concept. It makes perfect sense to me. But the answers it has provided me (“What is tr...

Could have used a talking stick…

A few months back, I was asked to lecture at a public event, and agreed.  I noticed that it would be a hardship, as the schedule would conflict with family events (I’m deliberately being oblique here) and decided I could finesse it, despite the increased stress: the contribution was more important.

 

The organizer reached out to me via PM a week before the event, asking me if I was still attending, and I said sure.   They then began criticizing me, saying that it didn’t seem that way, as I ha...

Happy Father’s Day

I didn’t know my father very well.  Because of factors I didn’t understand as a child, which in fact I didn’t know until about five years ago, he couldn’t be a real part of my life.  And that absence left a hole in my life that took a dozen other men to fill: teachers, martial artists, mentors, therapists, friends.  And my son, Jason.

 

I’m not even sure if some of my memories of him are real or synthesized or combined.  I’m VERY sure I saw him perform at the Greek Theater with Nat King Cole....

I Tried, dammit

Twenty-five years ago, I was living in Vancouver Washington  during a snowstorm.   Due to an emergency, and against the advice of my wife and friends, I made a desperate attempt to drive to California.   I got about ten miles down an icy, snow-blinded freeway when a gust of wind hit me, and my car broke traction with the road, and I slewed in a 270 before coming to a stop.   Behind me, coming right at me, was an eighteen wheeler with its brakes locked up.   I was looking directly at my death,...