Sunday, July 31, 2005

Blind Spots

On September 20, 1992, CBS 60 Minutes aired a segment on the violence of the industry-backed Wise Use Movement, focusing on the threats, intimidation, and assaults against parents and community groups in the US who raised concerns about water and air pollution. Caught on film were movement provocateurs Chuck Cushman and Skip Richards, as well as movement propagandist Ron Arnold--all based in Washington State--and interestingly, David Macintosh, White House staff representing President Bush at a national Wise Use gathering. On behalf of President Bush, Macintosh congratulated them for the role they were playing in shaping US policy. As Mr. Macintosh put it, “This is an important movement—one that reflects the American people’s desire to have sensible government.” Part of the footage of Clean Water, Clean Air was shot in Whatcom County, Washington where I lived at the time.

--from Reign of Terror http://skookumgeoduck.blogspot.com/2005/05/reign-of-terror.html a composite of excerpts from the book Shadow War available at http://www.lulu.com/content/135472

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Hall of Fame

It was on a serene May evening in 1975, at anchor in the fleet of tenders with skiffs tied along side, that our familiarity with the color-coding of our fleet would come in most handy. We were between openings, reveling in the rest and relaxation of food, beer, card games, and storytelling on the foredeck, and marveling at the beauty of Lummi Island from Hales Passage, between the island and the Lummi Indian Reservation. Only occasional eagles flying by, or radio messages from other vessels interrupted our solitude.

--from Living Legends http://skookumgeoduck.blogspot.com/2005/04/living-legends.html also included in the collected short stories titled Life as Festival available at http://www.lulu.com/content/135614

Friday, July 29, 2005

Back Woods Boy

And even although I was only six and in the first grade, by that time I had attended quite a number of them. This due to my parents separation and divorce and the usual too-ing and fro-ing that went with that sort of thing in those days. In reality I believe they were trying to sort out who was going to get stuck with me but this is only a supposition on my part and has never been definitely proven. But, as I mentioned before, my father lost and had to take me. And seeing as how this was not very practical, a small boy is about the last thing you need in a construction camp, I ended up in a tent, in a forest full of bears, with a very loving grandmother with a big cook stove and without hardly trying, had managed to get myself excused/expelled from school. How much better could it get?

--from the Biographical Notes in progress of Darryl E. Bowles found at http://www.grumpyom.com/archives/biographical_notes/index.html

Show and Tell

Ever since the bombing of Tehran in February, Ahmed had begun to notice more Americans hanging around the Beirut waterfront café where he’d worked as a waiter for the last thirty years. There’d always been Americans here, he thought to himself, at least since his earliest memories as a young teenager during the Six Day War when the Israeli Defense Forces took out Jordan, Syria, and Egypt’s air defenses in less time than he could collect two paychecks at Ali Baba’s. Now, at the age of fifty-three, Ahmed, who had seen three generations of professors, tourists, students, spooks and businessmen—the latter two distinguishable only by the volume of their arrogance—had grown accustomed to serving these masters of the universe, as they liked to view themselves, but his instincts told him to keep an eye out for characters obviously up to no good.

--from Deja Vu http://skookumgeoduck.blogspot.com/2005/05/deja-vu.html
part of the collection titled Meitheal available at http://www.lulu.com/content/137429

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Welcome

The impetus behind Archipelago is to provide a literary showcase for the unpublished, the self-published, and the uncelebrated islands of brilliance waiting to be discovered. Out of this collective luminescence, it is our hope that the pools of wisdom and currents of insight will carry thoughtful readers to their shores.