I Wish Paul Simon Had Helped Finish Out "Dance, Dance, Dance"

I really wish Paul Simon hadn't sung over this girl. I really wish he hadn't insisted on performing his song "the" right way.


I wish he had used his talent to skillfully back her up for as much performance time as he was allocated.

If he had the talent to do it, an extra level of wonderfulness would've been to keep the rhythm going but simultaneously encourage other kids to help make the song if they wanted to.

He was on a show for children. How awesome would it have been if he had spent his entire time block using his talent to help those children turn the chords & rhythm of "Me & Julio" into another really cool song?

I Picked Blog-Reading

Owwie! :-(

Blogosphere vs. Book vs. Chores vs. Bed

I really, really want to keep reading the internet, but my eyes hurt, my hands hurt, and I'm supposed to keep from that happening by staying off the internet. And I have to get up early tomorrow.

But the bookstore's closed, and I want new-new-new!

Plus, there are chores I should do if I'm awake.

:-(

G'nite, I guess?

Skidboot & David Hartwig

A nice video about a man & a dog & love. My partner said he wishes he lived in a world full of people like the man in this video.

Allied Commanders Trafficked Berber Women To Be Raped In Italians' Place

:-(

According to Rick Atkinson's The Day Of Battle, to "fix" the problem of Moroccan soldiers raping Italian women, American army offiicals (Wikipedia gives credit to French ones) decided to "transport" Berber women to Italy and stick them with those rapists.

They trafficked women away from home, into the vicinity of rapists, with the intention of having those rapists rape them.

What a horrific attitude: dividing populations of women into "women we don't so much hate seeing men rape" and "women we hate seeing men rape."

What a horrific attitude.

What a horrific action.
(With effects that probably weren't documented as thorougly as the effects of those soldiers raping Italians was. I think the Berbers then weren't highly literate or centralized. I guess by now, 2010, the effects just have to be...presumed via empathy.)

I Tried Not Taking Up So Much Space - Here's How It Felt

I want my behavior to reflect the lessons I think I'm learning from activist writers. Last night, I imperfectly tried behaving in such ways.

I had mixed emotions about the way I behaved.

I didn't get what I wanted, and I don't think that the result of me sharing power with others really resulted in progress towards a more just society like I hoped getting what I wanted would.

(How's that for a sentence?)

But gosh darn it, no matter what the outcome--no matter whom I shared power with (perhaps people more conservative than me)--I did it.

The quiet folks in the back didn't have to see me make a scene of two upper-middle-class healthy young white people in the front who've already talked all night going at it against each other for minutes on end (when there's a time limit to the whole meeting).

Maybe what I'm feeling right now--this dejected feeling that I could've done more if I'd just stood up for doing things my way--is one of the negative emotions BFP and others have said can accompany not taking up space. (Maybe not.)

But a fair life doesn't involve all joy, all the time anyway, right?

Maybe what I did last night is okay to repeat. And worth repeating.