Barry Graham's Blog, page 115

Is Village Voice Media in Financial Trouble? I Think So.

The Arizona Republic reports that Village Voice Media is being sold by its owners, Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin. Michael Kiefer, who wrote the piece, is, like me, an alumnus of Phoenix New Times, one of V.V.M.’s newspapers. (I was the front-of-the-book columnist 1997-1998. I quit when the then-editor, who is no longer in the business, spiked a column I wrote criticizing Janet Napolitano.)

Lacey claims that the company is still profitable, but I don’t believe it. I’ve suspected t...

Steve Shadow's On the Grift: Pulp Nastiness, With a Cover by Me

I did the cover design for Steve Shadow’s new novella, On the Grift, a cruel, filthy pulp noir.

Set in Chicago in the 40s, it’s written in the style of the pulp paperbacks of that era - but with the kind of sex and obscenity that couldn’t be published back then.

The blurb:The year is 1949. The place is Chicago in the dead of winter. The trauma of the war and its aftermath has yet to dissipate. The housing shortage is severe and the boom time of the 1950s still lies ahead.

Into...

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING (inspired by Kevin Drum)I do most of my...

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING (inspired by Kevin Drum)

I do most of my writing sitting in a recliner. This became necessary because my desk was commandeered by Jimmy.

Maryhill, Glasgow Gang Song

I happened across the cover image of this book online. It brought to mind a Maryhill gang song I learned as a child:

Ah went tae a party on Setturday night

Ra tongs wur therr an’ they waanted tae fight

So Ah pult ma blade oot as quick as a flash

An’ Ah shoutit, “Ra Young Team, ra Young Team, ya bass”

The furst wan thit came wis five foot four

Ah liftit ma boot an’ he fell tae ra floor

Ra cunt wis in agony, ra cunt wis in pain

So Ah liftit ma boot an’ Ah fuckt him a...

There Is No Immigration Problem - But Judge Approves SB 1070, Neo-Jim Crow Law

Michael Kiefer reports:A U.S. District Court judge today officially lifted an injunction against a section of Arizona’s immigration law referred to as the “show me your papers clause.”

So Arizona’s Jim Crow law is now in force. And was created by playing on the hate and fear of a misinformed public.

For the last two years, when I’ve told people that I will not be showing any cops any papers, and thatI think SB 1070 is evil, they’ve usually asked me, “Well,...

Zen Meditation Is Experiencing What Is, Not What We Think Should Be

A Zen student told me that in her meditation she tries to observe whatever thoughts or feelings arise “with kind attention.”

I suggested that this was just one more tyranny she was imposing on herself - instead of noticing what comes up, she was adding a condition, that the attention must be “kind.” That isn’t a real feeling of kindness, but rather a story about how she should feel and a rejection of the actuality of her life and her moment.

What if you observe ari...

Andrei Cherny Ignores Working Class People

This is the campaign sign for Arizona Democrat Andrei Cherny. It is a blunt appeal to greed, fear and self-centeredness. It appeals directly to those who have, and are afraid of losing what they have, and cares nothing for those who do not have. It is the classic capitalist strategy of pitting classes against each other in order to preserve the class system.

As Plato wrote in the Republic, "There are a lot of fake quotes on the Internet."

I’ve noticed two that are making the rounds this morning (and it’s only nine o’clock). In this column in The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald writes, “George Orwell famously wrote: ‘Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations’”. Actually, Orwell wrote no such thing; it’s based on something William Randolph Hearst is claimed to have said:“News is something somebody doesn’t want printed; all e...

Free E-books by Barry Graham

I learned how to read and how to think in the public library. If free access to books hadn’t been available, I would have had little access at all.

This is a time of hardship for so many of us. There have been brutal cuts to library funding… and more and more reading is done on screen, not on paper. My e-books are all priced at $3.99, but I realize that for many people that amount (or less) is dinner.

So, to help keep people from having to choose between eating and reading, I’ll...

Why I'm Reading Cory Doctorow (and Think You Should Too)

I’ve been reading two collections of essays by Cory Doctorow, Content and Context. I haven’t read any of his novels, since I don’t like much science fiction or fantasy, but I’m going to give them a try because his nonfiction is so great. I think he might be the most insightful commentator on technology and culture I’ve read, and his prose is startlingly clear. Both these books collect pieces he’s written for various publications. Context includes this conde...