13 posts tagged “ann arbor”

Readers of this blog surely know of my love for public radio.  I have been blessed to live in cities where the public radio is good.  Ann Arbor, MI featured WEMU from neighboring Ypsilanti, MI.  Boston of course featured NPR flagships WGBH and WBUR and here in ABQ I am fond of KUNM and KANW.  This morning while lucid sleeping/dreaming I was listening to KANW and a great program called "Justice Talking" which is according to NPR is an "award-winning radio that engages listeners in timely, refreshingly honest debates on the current legal battles that capture our nation's attention" ... I love this show.  Today's episode was EXTREMELY provocative it was titled "The Cuban Embargo - Should U.S. Policy Change?"  The show covers several topics that are very poignant in light of the future of Cuba given the current health situation of Fidel Castro. Two that struck me as very interesting were host Margot Adler talking with NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten about the Bacardi family (yes the Bacardi of rum fame) and its long and complex history with Cuba and the story of Lillian Holloway  from Philadelphia who is a fifth-year medical student at Doctor Salvador Allende hospital in Havana, Cuba. In September 2000, Fidel Castro announced the implementation of full scholarships for American students of little means to go to medical school in Cuba.  Very interesting.  If you are interested at all in Cuba then you must visit the website and listen to this show.  I was transfixed.  I have long had an interest in Cuba and hope to visit there in the very near future.

I like to communicate via email.  I consider myself a pretty good writer and find the written word to be an effective means of communicating.  I try to stay in touch with all the friends and colleagues I've made over the years through college in Atlanta, Georgia, my service in the Peace Corps in Africa, my time as a graduate student/bookseller in Ann Arbor, MI, my life as a book publisher in Boston, MA, and now here in my new home of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The Internet, Email, my blog, and sites like MySpace (I only have an account there and not an actual working page) have all served pretty well in this effort to help me stay in touch with the numerous people I've met through the years. 

Yesterday I emailed my friend Ingrid to find out where she was and what she was up to.  She nudged me to try out the micro-blogging site Twitter.  I joined Twitter and I must say while I am a sucker for most things Web 2.0 and social networking sites via the web, Twitter really really impresses me.  Only time will tell if I actually make use of Twitter but for now it's a pretty cool new tool.  For more info go to twitter.com ... my user name there is james3neal.

I've been following with great interest the saga of Newark, New Jersey and its new mayor, Cory Booker.  I met Cory several years ago at a Thanksgiving event on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina and consider him a friend of my family.  The "New York Times" has given great coverage to Cory and the currents of Newark.  I was a bit upset to see this story in today's "New York Times".  I wish Cory well in what seems to be a thankless job and I hope that Newark can make a comeback and be a progressive and positive American city.  I recall a conversation I had with Amiri Baraka several years ago in Ann Arbor, MI about the history of Newark.  Newark needs to survive and succeed.

 

My mind has been on Africa and food these days. Africa is on my mind almost constantly.  Food is on my mind because I am enjoying the glories of summer vegetables and I am on a pretty good steady diet these days.

Not a day passes that in some way I don't reflect on my time spent in the Peace Corps in Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo). I loved eating fresh fish and dried fish there along with rice and beans, wild greens, fresh pineapple, fresh mangoes, and goat among other things.  Reading the New York Times these past few days I've been apprised of what seems like a truly sad story in the case of Zimbabwe where it doesn't look like anyone will have anything to eat if things keep going the way they are going with Robert Mugabe's and Zimbabwe's dire economic policy situation.

On a brighter note ... when I lived in Ann Arbor, MI I was a habitue of a local restaurant there that came and went with much fanfare.  It was called Latdior.  The cusine was from Senegal, the West African country pictured above.  If you have never had Senegalese food then you are truly missing a culinary sensation.  The people of Sengal do things with fish, chicken, and lamb that make you want to slap your mother as they say.  Latdior in Ann Arbor featured many of the traditional Senegalese dishes done in a very authentic style. I ate there several days a week because the food was so good.  Traditional Senegalese dishes include thiebu djen (fish), yassa (chicken), and mafe (meat w/peanut sauce).  The New York Times just reminded me of how much I love the food from Senegal.  Please visit this very infomative article about a often overlooked and underappreciated cuisine.  To my friends Michael and Keisha who live in Harlem, I look forward to exploring some Senegalese joints the next time I find my way up past 116th Street ...

 

If you' ve read previous posts on this blog you know that I lived for six years in Ann Arbor, Michigan and six years in Boston, Massachusetts. Those are some tough weather places for a young man that loves the sun and heat of his native South Carolina. 

After recently enduring the most brutal winters of my life in Boston, making the move to Albuquerque seemed to be a logical choice for warm weather and sunshine.  Well when I moved here on July 31, 2006, Albuquerque witnessed torrential downpours and my neighborhood even flooded.  The weather was pretty mild through the fall but this past winter in Albuquerque gave me a subtle reminder of New England ... there were several significant snowfalls in ABQ this past winter and lots of pretty cold weather ...

Now here in the middle of June after a brilliant spring, Albuquerque is HOT!  I am loving it. There's even a bit of humidity in the air.  We've been reaching the mid 90s the past few days ... I hope summer never ends ...

 

While working at Shaman Drum Bookshop during the late 1990s in Ann Arbor, MI, I was priveleged to witness readings by and meet many outstanding authors.  One of them was Sherman Alexie who visited Shaman Drum while I was working there to read from and publicize his work Indian Killer.  Meeting Sherman was a pleasure and I found him highly entertaining, witty, and extremely intelligent.  He blew me away with his knowledge of blues music.  If you are not famliar with Alexie please visit his wonderful website ShermanAlexie.com.  Alexie is a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian who has written great literature regarding Native American themes.

Today Sherman Alexie was featured on the public radio program Native America Calling to discuss his latest work Flight.  While listening to the program my interest in Alexie's latest novel concerning Native American themes was provoked.  Alexie is a great storyteller.  If you have not read him yet I highly recommend starting with The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

The New York Times book review of Alexie's latest Flight is here.

I am really starting to get into my Spanish language study.  One of my favorite things to do to keep me in a Spanish speaking mindframe is to listen to music that features Spanish lyrics.  Hence there is currently a great deal of Cuban music in my rotation and one of my most prized teachers is Celia Cruz.

I first learned of Celia Cruz during my Ann Arbor years (1992 - 1997).  Thanks to Afrobella for bringing Celia back into my realm of knowledge.  There is a great deal of information via the Internet on Celia Cruz.  For further information one may also check in with The Smithsonian National Museum of American History web site accompanying the current traveling exhibiton entitled "Azucar! - The Life and Music of Celia Cruz".  The exhibit is currently in Miami at the Bass Museum of Art and will be moving on to venues in New York and Texas. 

 

Thanks to Tayari Jones and her blog for this disturbing but insightful tidbit. 

Apparently HBO Films has decided to broadcast a film version of the 1971 Native American classic text Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.  While living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I worked at Shaman Drum Bookshop which had a significant inventory of Native American studies texts.  I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee during this time and was deeply moved by the account of the displacement and annihilation of Native Americans by the United States.  Now HBO Films does the work a great disservice with it's "adaptation" of the text.  This "adaptation" will feature at its center and progtagonist, a male character who was part Sioux, educated at an Ivy League institution, and married a white woman.  Charles Eastman is his name.  I could think of other characters from this historical period to highlight but Charles Eastman has been so annointed by HBO Films.

Why did HBO Films do this?!?!? ... Let's let Daniel Giat, the writer who "adapted" the book for the film speak ...

“Everyone felt very strongly that we needed a white character or a part-white, part-Indian character to carry a contemporary white audience through this project,”

Oh give me a break Daniel Giat ... perhaps you should reread Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and then check out this New York Times article about your "adaptation".

I have ever only once walked out on a film in a theater during my life and that film was Dances With Wolves starring Kevin Costner.  I am still eagerly awaiting the day "Hollywood" and the mainstream film industry feels it can tell and represent the story of "the other" without having to feature a central white character or pander to "the white audience".  Has their ever been a "Western" done from the perspective of Native Americans with any merit?

This one really upset me Tayari as I continue to negotiate and deeply immerse myself in the culture and wonder of New Mexico where native issues are at the fore. I'll say a prayer for my white brothers and sisters in need of enlightenment if not "enwhitenment"!!!

I did find this interview with Daniel Giat that made me feel a little better but still ...

 

I have a good friend that dates back from my freshman year at Morehouse College.  We reconnected during the years that I lived in Boston as he lived in Boston for awhile as well.  Steve Grevious has been there for me through the proverbial thick and the thin and I know that he always has my back.  Steve now resides in the Bay area of California but not a week passes that we don't communicate via email, instant message chats, or by phone call.  I truly appreciate this brother's friendship.

One of Steve and my greatest bonds is a passion for music and especially the music of Sly and The Family Stone.  Steve and I consider Sly's "If You Want Me to Stay" to be one of the greatest pieces of music in any genre.  I was recently made aware by another good friend from my Ann Arbor days, Marty Gosser, of  what must be considered a treasure for fans of the music of this seminal funk/soul musical group.  Legacy Recordings recently marked the 40th anniversary of the band's signing to Epic Records this week with Sly and The Family Stone: The Collection, a limited-edition box set of seven newly remastered classic albums.   I look forward to hearing this work as soon as I can muster up the funds to purchase it.  Thank you Legacy Recordings for bringing this music to the world.  From what I have been reading about this release there is more to come from the vaults.  Now if someone could just find those supposed tracks of Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix playing together, I would be oh so happy (talk about an urban legend/myth).  Nonetheless I'll take this new and remastered Sly stuff and enjoy for awhile. 

 

 

I have big a life long listener of public radio and can't see life without it.  As a child I remember my mother picking my sister and me up from school and listening to "All Things Considered" from NPR back in the late 1970s and early 1980s during our rides from school to home.  I was too young to appreciate what I was being exposed to then but in retrospect, a template was cast and I grew to appreciate this early influence.  When I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan I was blown away by WEMU, the jazz, blues, and news NPR affiliate broadcast from neighboring Ypsilanti, MI and the campus of Eastern Michigan University.  When living in Boston I was constantly tuned to WGBH and WBUR which are the be all and end all of public radio in my opinion.  Now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico and currently without cable television or Internet access at home, I find myself constantly tuned to KUNM-FM.  KUNM is amazing in it's broad array of broadcasts related to local issues and affairs germane to Albuquerque and New Mexico in general.  Kudos to KUNM and keep up the good work.  As I continue to develop roots in this town of ABQ, I plan to become a more active supporter of KUNM.