| Number 8 | October 29, 1998 |
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This Week: |
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Greetings, Sorry I'm a little late this week. Did anyone notice that I've been trying to get the Notes out on Tuesday every week? I have been frantically working on a complicated piece on deadline, so I'm behind. You'll probably see it next week. So, for this week, we have a poem, but I also want to include a couple of recommendations, two for subscriptions. ‘Til next week, Nygaard |
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First Recommended Subscription: a small (in physical size) newsletter called the "Left Business Observer." It's Published by a guy named Doug Henwood, and if you don't know who he is, you had better check it out. Excellent and funny writer on business and economics, his newsletter comes out whenever he feels like it, but it seems to be every couple of months. Want to get a grasp on what the "Asian meltdown" or the European Union?" This is the thing to read. I'm also reading a book of his called "Wall Street." I'll undoubtedly publish a review of it if I ever finish it. Check out the LBO website at: http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html For an easy but informative read on the Internet, check out a publication of the Economic Policy Institute called "Reading Between the Lines." It's a more-or-less weekly review of economics reporting in the NY Times and Washington Post which points out errors and ommissions in their coverage of the world of money. Written by staff economist Dean Baker (who's a good guy, I've been in touch with him about Social Security), it's fun to read. Go to their home page and click on "Reading Between the Lines": http://epinet.org/ Second Recommended Subscription: I can highly recommend the Covert Action Quarterly. They just had their 20th anniversary, and I have been reading it for all those years. Started by Philip Agee and some others in 1978, they originally focused on the secret operations of the CIA and the rest of the intelligence establishment, with excellent reports on Iran, Central America, Afghanistan, Grenada, etc. They still do that kind of stuff (see their current issue for an excellent background on the conflict in the former Yugoslavia), but they also focus more these days on a broader range of issues that are routinely ignored or distorted in the media and academia. This is just an excellent publication, and everyone should know about it. Check them out at: http://www.covertaction.org/. I have lots more links of interest, but I don't want to overwhelm anyone. But check these ones out; there will more reviews of interesting sites and publications as we go along. Let me know if you find these ones interesting. |
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Now, here's a poem that I read at a "Poetry Picket" called by the National Writers Union local in July. It was called in support of the workers at the Loring Bar who have been treated very poorly by management there in regard to their attempt to unionize. Anyhow, a bunch of us read poems at a picket there one Friday night, and I read three, including the following. You will note the presence of a word or two which some people consider obscene. This is important because the police actually arrested one of the picketers for reading the following poem over a bullhorn, and since reading poetry is not illegal (I don't think), we have to speculate that it had to do with saying "fuck" over a bullhorn. Every time I tell this story it seems more surreal to me. Anyhow, management wanted this particular union activist, Blake Harwell by name, out of the picture, so they fingered him to the cops on the poetry rap. Even though he didn't read a single poem that night, and I freely admit to everything. Some of you may have seen a garbled account of all this in the City Pages at the time. There was actually a hearing in court on this a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't heard the outcome yet. If you want to know more, give me a call. Anyhow, in the interest of union history, here is the entire text of the offending poem: Elevator Downtown Minneapolis, Pillsbury Center. Me and two suits in the elevator. 'Cause that's what it said that day The upper-middle-class reporter, The Objective New York Times Keith went on to report that "Rich getting richer?" WELL THIS ISN'T JUST A FUCKIN NEWS STORY I didn't say that. I just looked A cherished part of America's But there it is |