Dispatches from the Flying M

Make me wanna holler...

...throw up both my hands.

Yes, the lyric is Marvin Gaye’s. But as much as I like Marvin, it’s the genius of Gil Scott-Heron that made the Inner City Blues come alive for this white boy who only knew those blues second-hand, through artistic representations. In the same way, his cover of Bill Withers’s “Grandma’s Hands” directed me to that particular genius and his work, even as Scott-Heron sang it with the certainty of someone who had lived it. Scott-Heron brought a particular brand of radical politics together with a keen jazz sensibility and a poet’s heart. He wrote brilliant songs that took listeners deep into his world, and once there, one could only come part of the way back.

What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers know that when the producer names the tune...the consumer has got to dance. That's the way it is. We used to be a producer – very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers and finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your resources will control your world. This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now. They don't know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They don't know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same policy - of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster Dulles ain't nothing but the name of an airport now.

--B Movie

I first became aware of him back in the early 1970s, when he did a stint as artist-in-residence at San Jose State University. Later he appeared on the seminal “No Nukes” concert album with the haunting “We Almost Lost Detroit.” I never owned all his albums, but of the ones I did have, “Reflections” was my favorite, with its cover of Gaye’s “Inner City Blues,” the thought-provoking Storm Music, the frankly political “B Movie,” and the powerful, frightening “Gun,” among others.

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bills.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still
While Whitey's on the moon.

--Whitey on the Moon

Scott-Heron reflected his times, but he did more than that, because his poems and songs didn’t simply define the times he lived in, they stayed fresh and true decades later. He was able to see, back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, how events led from one to the next, inevitable to the rest of us only in retrospect.

Justice is coming on the wings of the storm
We resist in the present for those yet unborn
Freedom is spreading like the wings of a bird
and the message it carries has got to be heard
What’s that music
playin’ on the radio?
What’s that music
playin’ everywhere I go?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard
a sweeter feelin’ in the whole wide world
than that music playin’ in my heart

--Storm Music

Here’s an appreciation/obituary of Gil Scott-Heron from the Village Voice. We might have saved Detroit—jury’s still out, though indications are favorable—but Friday we lost one of American music’s most distinctive voices.

Comicon: First night

The Phoenix Comicon had a fairly inauspicious beginning. We drove up after work, had a yummy dinner at Culver's in Casa Grande, but didn't get into Phoenix until well after 8:00. We made our way downtown, found the hotel (directly across the street from the convention center, which is handy), but the garage the hotel uses was full. Had to park several blocks away, beneath a Bank of America building. With about a dozen heavy book boxes in the car, that doesn't work. This morning at 6:15 I moved it to the closer garage.

After dropping suitcases in the room, we went across the street, though it was 8:45 and the con closed at 9:00. We figured at least we could check in and get our badges. Lucky: there was no line at the guest check-in desk. Unlucky: They couldn't find my name in the computer, even though I'm on 7 panels (and have a table in the dealer's room that does have my name above it). Lucky: a helpful staffer handed us blank guest badges and a Sharpie, so we got badges and wrote our names on them. Mine's hanging on my Che Guevara lanyard instead of the boring red con lanyard, because I'm just that way.

Fellow guests I've seen so far include J. Scott Campbell (actually the first person I knew, called my name as soon as we walked into the hotel lobby the first time), Jon Lewis, Mike Dubisch, Mike Stackpole, Dan Wickline, Eric Esquivel, Whilce Portacio. Missed Wil Wheaton when he brought his family around to introduce, but I'll see them again over the weekend. Saw Shannon Eric Denton in the distance but he turned the wrong way. Also various dealers and publishers in the room as we were being herded out at closing time.

The room is huge, by Phoenix Comic-Con standards (which means, not by San Diego standards). Looking forward to seeing more of it today, before my non-stop afternoon paneling.

NIce Job, McCain

An open letter to my Senator, John McCain:

 

Dear Senator McCain,

Not every senior citizen is as wealthy as you are. In fact, most of them know how many houses they own. In the vast majority of cases, it's one or none. So while you married an heiress and may not ever need Medicare, most seniors will. Turning Medicare into a coupon plan that will raise out-of-pocket costs by at least double (when seniors can find private insurers that will even take them on as customers) is a bad idea. So voting in favor of it today was also a bad idea. But at least we know where you stand--with your rich friends, and against every working family in America.

I doubt that you can even remember the last time you shared a meal with someone who wasn't a millionaire or in your employ. Yes, the same goes for the rest of the Senators--the people you've been working with for most of your career. But not all of them came from privilege, like you did. Some of them have, at some point in their lives, had to worry about a mortgage, a medical bill, the next meal. Most, Democrats and Republicans alike, haven't had those worries for a long time. You never have. You have no idea what life is like here in the world, outside the bubble of wealth and influence and power that you move in. So you carry water for the wealthiest of us, at the expense of everyone else, and you don't even understand how evil that is.

Come on down to the Flying M sometime and we'll feed you dinner and let you know how real Americans live. I'm sure there are plenty of other Arizonans--not millionaires--who would make the same offer.

Until you take us up on it, though, stop voting for the interests of the rich against those of everyone else. At least try to pretend that you're an American, and a human being.

Phoenix Comicon Schedule

The Phoenix Comicon begins Thursday, May 26, and runs through Sunday, May 29. I'll be arriving late on Thursday, and don't know if I'll actually make it to the con that evening. But I'll definitely be there from Friday through Sunday.

Here's my panel schedule:

 

Adapting Licensed Properties to Comics: Friday 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Bruce McCorkindale

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Tony Parker

Michael Kessler

 

Writing Horror Comics: Friday 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Michael Kessler

Dan Wickline

Brian Pulido

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Christian Vilaire

 

Zombie Creators Reveal Their Secrets: Friday 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Cherie Priest

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

 

Getting Inside the Criminal Mind: Saturday 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Paul Cornell

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

 

Tie-In Novels for Games, Movies and TV: Saturday 4:30pm - 5:30pm

Marcy Rockwell

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Yvonne Navarro

Michael A. Stackpole

 

Horror Metrics: Sunday 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Yvonne Navarro

 

The Buffyverse: Sunday 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Phoenix Comicon Panel Staff

Yvonne Navarro

Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Casey Shultz

When I'm not on a panel, I'll be at the Mysterious Galaxy table (#627) or my own table, which is next to MG's but the number of which I have not been provided. Probably #626 or 628, but you make assumptions at your own risk...

Book Giveaway

My pal (and fine writer) Marcy Rockwell is hosting a book giveaway on her blog. She's giving away a bunch of books, many of them signed. One of her goodies is my teen paranormal adventure Carnival Summer (in which we learn about the monsters lurking on the carnival midway)! Go visit Marcy's blog and check it out!

And if you don't win, you can pick it up for Kindle or on a variety of other platforms, wherever you buy e-books.

Go, Mark, Go!

This morning I had to leave the house before the launch of the shuttle Endeavor, but I heard it on the radio. The bad news is that I had to hear most of it on a radio broadcast of Fox News, because that was the first place I could find it covered. And, not surprisingly, the hypocrites on "Fox and Friends" couldn't stop talking about the administration's terrible idea of ending manned space flight and the space program in general.

Hypocrites, because, of course, the real story is one that would be very popular with them if the president wasn't a Democrat. The real story is that, for a while, the bulk of our effort in space will be handled by private companies rather than a government agency (and this effort is expected to yield better results, faster and cheaper, than NASA could working alone).

But listening to the launch, and feeling a certain connection to it because shuttle commander, Mark Kelly is married to my beloved Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, I thought back to my previous two personal connections, however remote, to space missions.

The first was Apollo 11, which many, many people found fascinating, since it was the first time human beings had landed on the moon. That moon landing occurred on Sunday, July 20, for most Americans. But I was in France on a student trip that summer, living at a lycée in Strasbourg. Our organization had made arrangements with a French TV station across the street to allow we Americans into the station to watch the landing. I went to bed that night, and then was awakened sometime middle-of-the-night-ish by people screaming and whooping and hollering.  I dragged on some clothes and started toward the TV station. Apparently I wasn't sufficiently enthusiastic for one guy, who accused me of not being proud to be an American. I was. Extremely proud. I had also just been awakened from a sound sleep.

That was Monday, local time. And that night--which we christened Moonday--most of the guys (at least those in my circle) put on ties and the best clothes we had brought to France, and went to dinner in style. The Moonday continued every Monday evening after that, at least while we remained in Strasbourg.

The other event was the launch of Apollo 14, which my high school Astronomy Club (of which I was a member) went to Florida to watch. The bus trip, I recall, was 17 hours long.  I shot the launch on Super 8 film, which I still have. The launch went smoothly, and the trip is remembered primarily for Alan Shepard hitting golf balls on the moon. But it's remembered by me for being the time I watched a rocket standing on the pad at the Kennedy Space Center, watched the incredible power of its massivew engines, the ball of flame it seemed to rise up on, and the majesty of its arcing ascent toward space.

Here's a PDF of the Apollo 14 press kit, and here's one for Apollo 11--both pretty cool.

I've since had the pleasure of meeting Buzz Aldrin and Eugene Cernan, two fascinating, heroic individuals who are members of perhaps the smallest minority on Earth--people who have walked on the moon. I'm still intrigued by the space program, and a supporter of exploration, even if it costs money, even if the benefits are far off and sometimes hard to pin down. Sometimes, the sense of wonder, the feeling of awe, are benefit enough.

Saturday

Saturday I'll be at Mysterious Galaxy, for the store's 18th Birthday Bash, and the San Diego Noir launch party. The day will be full of great authors, readers, cake and good times. If you're within driving distance of Southern CA, be there!

Thank You, Senator McCain

During the run-up to the 2008 election, and since, John McCain threw many of his principles out the window, and snarled at anyone who asked him why. He's also largely responsible for inflicting half-term governor Sarah Palin on the country. Much to live up to there,

But on the topic of torture, he has been steadfast. He knows whereof he speaks, and he speaks plainly and with the authority of hard experience. Those who would embrace torture should read what he has to say about it in today's Washington Post:

"I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.

"In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator — none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee — information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden — was obtained through standard, noncoercive means."

and...

"All of these arguments have the force of right, but they are beside the most important point. Ultimately, this is more than a utilitarian debate. This is a moral debate. It is about who we are.

I don’t mourn the loss of any terrorist’s life. What I do mourn is what we lose when by official policy or official neglect we confuse or encourage those who fight this war for us to forget that best sense of ourselves. Through the violence, chaos and heartache of war, through deprivation and cruelty and loss, we are always Americans, and different, stronger and better than those who would destroy us."

Whatever else he has done, or not done, pressing this argument may be his greatest contribution to the nation's good. Senator McCain, today I salute you.

Does John Boehner Hate America?

I don't think so. I think he probably loves his country. He just has a strange way of showing it.

I don't know Speaker Boehner, but I get the feeling he's an old-fashioned pol, the kind of guy who would have been a big player in Tammany Hall machine politics in another era. The kind of guy who would hand out tobacco company checks on the House floor to members of Congress who had voted the "right" way, in fact.

But now Boehner is in a jam. He's stuck between the Tea Party and the Republican base, i.e., the very wealthy. To see where the Tea Party is coming from, check out a true moron named William Temple, chairman of Tea Party Founding Fathers. Temple is a yahoo who dresses in colonial clothing, as if he understood the first thing about history (or economics). Temple says the Tea Party will have a very simple rating system for politicians in 2012: if they vote to raise the debt ceiling, they get a score of 0. If they don't, they score 100.

Now, not raising the debt ceiling would be economically catastrophic for the country. The consequences would make the recession of 2008 look like a golden age. Temple's misguided "love" of his country looks a lot more like contempt, when you look at what he's really saying. And then he goes farther, offering politicians an out--if they demonstrate hatred for their fellow Americans, they might be able to skate on the debt ceiling thing.

So that's what Boehner has to contend with. In a season when dopes like Donald Chump are driving independents and rational thinkers away from the Republicans, he can't afford to lose the Tea Party, too.

But what the Tea Party wants is bad for the country. Not just a little bit bad...disastrously bad.

So Boehner appeared before a Wall Street audience today, and said this:

"Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt limit increase. And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in debt authority the president is given."

Boehner went on to say he's talking about trillions of dollars in spending cuts.

He added, "The mere threat of tax hikes causes uncertainty for job creators -- uncertainty that results in less risk-taking and fewer jobs."

Now, he is wrong here on so many different levels it's hard to know where to begin.

The main thing is, we do not need trillions of dollars in cuts. Especially now. Now we need spending. We need jobs. We need to push the slender recovery in the right direction, not squash it just as it's getting started.

Later--after the economy is running more smoothly--we should look at the deficit. We should deal with it in a balanced way that includes increased revenue as well as decreased spending.

But now we have millions out of work, we have a housing market that can't get its legs under it. We need the government spending on infrastructure, on education, on R&D. We need a government that can push money into the economy, because nobody else is. And what causes uncertainty for those job creators is not the threat of tax hikes, it's the fact that customers aren't walking through their doors.

And it's the idea--just the threat, never mind the reality--that we might not raise the debt ceiling. That we might let the government of the United States default on its obligations.

That terrifies job creators, and it terrifies those folks on Wall Street Boehner was talking to.

Just to claim that he's going to refuse to raise it is bad for the economy. No sane person would do that. Not if he had any understanding of economics at all.

Unless... unless his one and only goal is crashing the economy enough to damage President Obama's reelection effort.

So I ask again... does Boehner love his country, or hate it? Does he want Americans to suffer in order to help his party's electoral chances?

The jury is still out. But it's not looking good.

Republicans and Oil

What's hilariously predictable is that when gas prices rise into the $4/gallon range, Republican politicians invariably cry out for more and more oil drilling here at home. It sounds like an easy fix, right?

Except they're ignoring several important facts when they make their pleas:

With US consumption of oil at 25% of the global total, and reserves at 2-3% of the global total, we will never be able to drill our way to energy independence.

The time lag between being awarded a lease and bringing oil to market is on the order of 5-10 years, at best. According to the NY Times, tripling production here could result in lowering prices at the pump by 3-5 cents--in 2030.

The current pitch for drilling in the Gulf actually lowers safety standards below what they were before the BP spill.

Any oil drilled in the US goes into the world market, and is as apt to be used in China or India as here at home.

Most of the easily accessible oil has already been tapped. Now they want to go into ecologically sensitive places that could be forever ruined, in hopes of making a few more bucks' profit for the already filthy rich oil companies.

Lest anyone doubt what their real priorities are, keep in mind that we taxpayers continue to shell out billions of dollars in subsidies for companies making the biggest profits in the history of the world, because Republicans have blocked any attempts to roll those subsidies back. We the people are paying more in taxes to help the profits of oil companies. And Republicans are supposed to be the low-tax party? Give me a break.