An Exchange of Words: David B. Coe’s Weblog

Today, for the first time in my life, I hung an exhibit of my photography in a professional gallery.  Okay, it’s a very small gallery that is also a coffee house.  But it’s a gallery nevertheless.

The hanging of the exhibit was actually tremendously fun.  We pulled out all the photos — eighteen in all, from the year Nancy, the girls, and I spent in Australia and New Zealand — and laid them out so that we could see the space as well as the work.  I felt utterly lost; I had no idea where to begin.  But Katherine, the gallery director, who is very, very good at this, pointed out two walls that she felt were the most visible in the space, and therefore the most important.  So we figured out what to hang on each of them.  This only took care of five of the photos, but it gave us a place to begin.   

It was very much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  The first pieces are always the toughest.  But the more you get done, the easier it is to place the next piece.  Once those two walls were set, we were able to decide which pictures looked best adjacent to the first ones we put up, and then which ones to put next to this second set, and so on.  By the time we had finished, the exhibit looked even better than I had hoped it would. 

I have a couple of photos hanging in another local gallery, a space I share with other Sewanee artists.  But this show is entirely mine.  The show opens on Monday, though the opening reception isn’t until March 26th.  Already, though, I feel a little like a professional photographer.  I don’t usually fill in the “Mood” space, but if I did today, my word would be “thrilled.”

Today’s music:  Larry Carlton (Sapphire Blue)

 Okay, I’m sitting in a coffee house here in downtown Sewanee (such as it is)  because my car is in the shop for an oil change.  And I’m having my usual, which is a strawberry banana smoothie with yogurt and apple juice. (They call it “The Town Tramp” for reasons I’ve yet to figure out.)  Anyway, what comes on the stereo mix here in the shop?  Nickel Creek’s “Smoothie Song.”  Not sure what that means, but there you go.

Happy birthday to my brother, Jim.  If you’d like to join me in wishing him a happy birthday, check out his web site.  He’s an amazing artist and his work is well worth a look.

Should also mention that I’ve done a separate post today at http://magicalwords.net.

Many of you know that I used to have a dog — Buddy, the Wonder Dog.  He died a year and a half ago, while we were in Australia, and I miss him every day.  Some friends here in town are dog owners now, and they went out of town for the week, leaving their adorable dog, Violet, with us.  Turns out, while I miss Buddy and like Violet very much, I don’t miss being a pet owner.  I’ve gotten used to not having to walk a dog on cold winter nights.  I’ve gotten used to not  having a dog dig up the yard or bark at passing deer.  I’ve gotten used to not seeing or smelling dog food.  Good thing it’s only for the week.

I feel that I should have something intelligent to say about last nights primary results, but I really don’t.  I’m kind of conflicted about the whole thing.  I wrote yesterday that I hoped Obama would win Ohio and Texas and put this thing to rest.  I still believe that Obama is the one candidate who might truly fundamental reform our political system.  But I also think that the final few days of this weeks campaign revealed weaknesses in Obama as a candidate that could be a problem in November.  Now, I’m not saying that these are fatal weaknesses.  But I’d like to see him recover from them; I’d like to see him handle this situation with the economic advisor who spoke to the Canadian trade reps; I’d like to hear him address more fully his real estate transaction with Tony Rezko.  I don’t think Obama is guilty of anything.  I don’t think he meant to make misleading statements about the NAFTA thing.  I do think he handled these matters poorly in the days leading up to yesterday’s primaries, and I think that these blunders, more than anything else, led to his defeats yesterday.  People in Texas who made up their minds in the last three days before the primary broke for Clinton 2 to 1.  She didn’t win with advertising; he lost with indecision and a sudden, uncharacteristic lack of resolve.  People in his campaign are complaining about Clinton “going negative.”  Ha!  Wait until he goes up against the Republican smear machine.  I want to know that he can stand up to what the wingnuts on the right are going to throw at him, and I want to know that this week’s mistakes were hiccups, rather than harbingers of more serious troubles to come.  I don’t regret voting for him on Super Tuesday, but at this point I need some reassurance that he really is the right candidate to go up against McCain.

Gotta say, I love this wireless thing.

Smoothie’s gone.  Think I need a muffin.  Later.

Okay, at the risk of revealing myself as a total West Wing nerd, I’d like to ask if anyone else has noticed the amazing similarities between this year’s Presidential race and the Matt Santos-Arnold Vinick race that dominated the show’s final season.

I was in Australia for the final season of The West Wing and didn’t get to watch the episodes as the season unfolded.  Instead, the Christmas after our return to the States, Nancy gave me the complete 7 season DVD collection, which I watched from beginning to end over the course of 13 months.  That’s right:  I only finished watching season seven a few weeks ago.  And I was blown away by how closely the narrative of the 2008 race has followed that of the fictional election.

On the Republican side, you had Arnold Vinick, played by Alan Alda.  Vinick was from California rather than Arizona, but in other ways he was the television doppelganger of John McCain.  He was a moderate Republican who had bucked party orthodoxy on a number of issues, earning the admiration of centrists and independents, but alienating the party’s right-wing base.  Now the fictional Vinick was actually to the left of McCain on social issues — he was pro-choice, supportive of gay rights, and in favor of gun control — but he was also a fiscal hawk and someone who had extensive foreign policy experience.  As the campaign went on, he was forced to take stances on issues that were more conservative than he would have liked, but his appeal to the political center made him a formidable candidate.

The Democratic nominee, Matthew Santos, played by Jimmy Smits, was a Texas Congressman with relatively little political experience.  But in this fictional America he was perceived as being honest, he inspired voters with brilliant, passionate rhetoric, and he came to be seen as an agent of change. He was also a minority candidate, a Latino who was seeking to become the first Hispanic President in the nation’s history.  He ran an insurgency campaign against the better known establishment candidate and managed to win the nomination after a bitter primary battle that went all the way to the Democratic convention.  Any of this sound familiar?

I’m not going to give away the ending, though if you know anything about The West Wing and it’s creators you can probably guess.  But one of the things I always loved about the show was it’s uncanny ability to be utterly original while so closely mimicking real-life political circumstances.  Still, I never would have believed that the show’s creative team could so accurately predict what has happened so far this year. 

First off, I’ve blogged today at a new site that I’ve launched with fellow fantasy authors Faith Hunter, Misty Massey, and C. E. Murphy.  The site can be found at http://magicalwords.net.  Come over and take a look.

Second, a very happy Australia Day to all my mates Down Under.  Australia Day, January 26th (by the time any of my Aussie friends see this post it will be the 26th there), commemorates the establishment of the first European settlement on the continent.  It’s similar in many ways to our July 4th celebration, in that occurs in midsummer and is generally celebrated with barbeques, beer, and fireworks.  Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!  Oi, Oi, Oi!

I’ll be in Chattanooga tonight and tomorrow for Chattacon, the first of several sf/fantasy cons that come to the Scenic City each year.  I’ll be there for opening ceremonies tonight, and will be busy tomorrow with a reading at 10:00 am, and panels at 2:00 and 3:00.  If you’re in the area, come by.  Chattacon is always a good time.

Happy weekend, all.

Today’s music:  Soundtrack from O Brother, Where Art Thou?

For those of you who are growing weary of political campaigns and advertising, I offer this little gem sent to me recently by a good friend.

http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/83808/detail/

Less than three weeks until Iowa; just over three weeks until New Hampshire.  And yet the general election is still ten and half months away.  It seems like this campaign has already been going on for a year, which is probably because it has been.  What a ridiculous way to select a leader.  The recent elections in Australia that led to the election of Kevin Rudd took place after only a month or six weeks of active campaigning.  Can you imagine?  Wouldn’t it be amazing to live in a country where political leaders actually spent most of their time governing rather than campaigning?  I realize that comparing the U.S. political system to a parliamentary system like Australia’s is problematic, but still…. 

I’m a political junkie — always have been.  But this is too much.

Today’s music:  Sadao Watanabe (Remembrance)

Kudos to newly elected Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who yesterday followed through on one of his main campaign promises.  Rudd, the leader of Australia’s Labour Party, which swept to power in November’s national elections, ousting the utterly misnamed “Liberal Party” and its leader, John Howard, vowed throughout the campaign to add Australia to the list of signatories of the Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming.  Yesterday in Bali, at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, only a week after he took office, Rudd delivered the ratification papers.

In many ways, it was a symbolic act, since Australia was already basically in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon emissions targets.  But it was a powerful statement nevertheless; an acknowledgment that the previous government had been wrong to keep Australia out of the agreement, and a none-too-subtle reproof of the Bush Administration’s continued refusal to sign on to Kyoto or to pledge support for the treaty that will eventually emerge from the current meetings.

Look, before my friends to the right jump all over me, let me say that Kyoto was not a perfect document.  Not by a long shot.  And we can only hope for the sake of the entire planet that whatever agreement comes out of Bali will recognize that China and India can no longer be considered “emerging nations” when it comes to manufacturing or carbon emissions caps.  But the failure of the current U.S. Administration to take the lead on global climate change should be an embarrassment to every American.  We are sacrificing the future of our children and grandchildren, and risking the survival of the entire planet, all out of concern for corporate profits and the preservation of un unsustainable way of life.  News flash:  if we continue to lay waste to the planet, corporate earnings and the price of the newest Hummer model will be the least of our concerns.

Today’s music:  Michael Hedges (Breakfast in the Field)

The kids are back in school, Nancy’s back to teaching, I was back at the gym this morning and am now ready to get back to work.  There are years when Thanksgiving falls so late in November and Christmas break for the kids’ schools begins so early that the time in between is too short to be useful.  Not so this year.  Thanksgiving came early this year, just about as early as it could have.  And the winter break begins relatively late.  We’ve got four solid weeks, and I intend to make the most of them.

Beginning with this week.  I have a story to mail out — I want it off my desk by end of business on Friday.  I have a new project to begin — I want to be world-building by week’s end.  I have a manuscript to critique for the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop (I allowed them to auction off a book-length critique by me for their charity auction) that I want to finish in the next two to three days.  And . . . well, some other things that I might blog about later in the week.

Suffice it to say, I’m ready to be busy again.  I enjoyed the time off last week, but I’m rested now and ready to work.  WordPress doesn’t have those little “Mood” emoticons that some journal sites have for each post, but if it did, my mood for today would definitely be “energized”.

Today’s music:  Mike Mainieri (Wanderlust)

BTW, my entry yesterday about the Aussie elections was picked up by a political ezine/website in Oz as part of their post-election commentary.  Pretty cool!

On Saturday, the voters of Australia finally voted Prime Minister John Howard out of office.  

Howard, for those of you who don’t know, was the dominant political personality in Australia for the past decade.  He led Australia’s Liberal Party (the equivalent of our Republican Party) and continually outsmarted and outmaneuvered the hapless leaders of the country’s Labour Party.  He was, aside from Tony Blair, George Bush’s most reliable ally in the Iraq War.  He refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, making Australia one of only two Western industrialized nations to opt of the treaty.  He was the bane of Australia’s workers, he cynically coopted Australia’s burgeoning religious right for his own political purposes, using their issues when it suited his needs, and he was willing to do pretty much anything else that was necessary to hold onto and consolidate his political power.

In short, if you want to understand who John Howard is and was, imagine George Bush, but with a bit more native intelligence and no term limits.  I know:  it’s not a pretty picture.

Finally, though, after four terms of John Howard as their leader, the people of Australia said “Enough!”  And they said it emphatically.  The lower house of the Australian parliament, majority control of which determines who leads as Prime Minister, is made up of 150 seats.  On Saturday, Howard’s ruling coalition had a net loss of 22, going from an 82 seat majority to a sixty seat minority.  And best of all, John Howard appears to have lost his local parliament seat, as well.  Not only has he been voted out as Prime Minister, he’s been voted out of the government entirely!  The new Prime Minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has already vowed to sign Kyoto and improve industrial relations (we’d call it labor relations).  It remains to be seen what he’ll do about Australia’s military presence in Iraq.

After spending a year living in Australia and listening to my progressive friends lament of ever getting rid of John Howard, I find these results incredibly encouraging.  I know that George Bush won’t be on the ballot next November, but the fate of his right-wing agenda will be.  And if the good people Down Under can give such a resounding victory to their progressive political party, maybe, just maybe, we can do the same.

Fingers crossed.

Today’s music:  Roy Hargrove (Diamond in the Rough)