02-01-09 LA CA: 2129 hrs. A very uneventful week has ended. I have a feeling that this coming week will be as grinding. Last week, Heidi and I worked every day on a book project that we hope to release in November. We worked on it every day, even when I had a lot of other things to do. The goal is to get ahead on the project every day we can. I got some work done on it last night but don’t know what I’ll be able to get done tonight. I am going to try to put in at least an hour. This weekend, I cleaned and worked on radio broadcasts. With the added time allowed recently, I have to get a lot more music together so that takes time. I was able to get a lot of that done as well as some much needed house cleaning but that’s about all I got done and now it’s Sunday night and I am not good for much.
I am looking forward to two shows I have coming up at the end of the week. One is Friday in Santa Rosa CA and the other is in Arcata CA on Saturday. The press people I have been dealing with have been mentioning that I am performing in Humboldt, which is near Arcata I guess. These one-off shows are always a little strange for me. I am fine by the time I am walking onstage but until then, it’s hard to get my head around things. It’s not a tour so I am not setting up for a long run. It’s a strange thing to do a couple of shows and then walk back into the office. I will work this week, getting my ideas together and seeing what’s there. The shows will give me a chance to talk about the recent trip to Mali although I don’t know what the story of the trip is yet. I have not yet thought about what it is exactly that I learned there. The “story” often takes awhile to find itself. It’s only after I have thought of the entire journey and been allowed to have some time to put it in context with other things does the lesson of the thing make itself known. I am confident I will have something to expound upon by the time Friday rolls around. Northern California is a nice slice of America, I’m looking forward to getting up there.
Most of last week, I been worked on the chapter of the book from my recent trip into Burma. I came out of the place with every available copy of their national newspaper called The New Light of Myanmar that I could get my hands on. Why they print it in English is beyond me. It’s one insane read. I have been spending hours transcribing sections that I had made note of last July. Some of it is almost funny but mostly it’s misguided and pathetic. It’s been making me think of what is propaganda and what is real news and where the line is, etc. The last few years have made me look at the American media differently. At this point, it seems almost up for grabs to the highest bidder. Somewhere in the last few years, truth in reporting to a certain degree was abducted. I am sure it was a long time before then and I am not trying to nail down and exact date but when you consider the invasion of Iraq and how so many news outlets seemed only to report what they were told to and didn’t go further than that, made me think that we were dangerously close to entering some Orwellian nightmare. Perhaps we are in one now. Some of the most insane stuff I pulled out of the newspaper seemed very Fox Newsy to me. I still have a few more editions to go through. I reckon our job is to call it as we see it as best we can and never shut up.
How boring was this to read? Please, don’t tell me. I am sorry that there wasn’t more to remark on. I have been getting up early and working on the book every day and have not been doing much else.
There’s an interesting organization that’s bringing awareness of the landmines still strewn all over the world, who gets the bad end of the deal, and instead of just pointing out this very huge problem, offer a very viable avenue for progress. They are called Spirit of Soccer and I think they are very cool. Many of you have traveled to a part of the world that is plagued by the constant danger of landmines. If you can imagine rolling the dice every time you walk off the path into a field or forest, then you can see what millions of people deal with every day. Mines are still being detonated and still killing and maiming people. Here’s the Spirit of Soccer site address: http://www.spiritofsoccer.net/. Seems to me that more often than not, the overwhelming majority of people in the world want to heal up and move on. You offer a solution, look how many people jump on it. From alternative fuel sources to peace, we want it now.
I swear, next week’s entry will be better. Next week’s radio show is already in the can and the broadcast notes will be posted Friday morning for the Saturday night broadcast. I do hope you get a chance to check it out. Thanks for reading this. –Henry