That's Show Biz, Folks

The winds have shifted, there's a little of that north-country, Mackinac Island, coolness in the air; the humidity has vanished. I'm sitting, in the sun-room, typing into my laptop, the sun is breaking over the horizon. I am refreshed, recharged, wondering what the day will bring. Today, I plunge back into the world of high tech and commerce.

Yesterday was expansive. Left to my own devices, I can find a million ways to occupy myself. 'Homage to Catalonia,' is totally absorbing, Orwell illustrates how one man's story can illuminate the world. He admits to 'taking sides,' how it's difficult, if not impossible to be 'objective,' he admits to his own 'bias,' but he adheres to a strict code: tell the truth as he sees it. There are some jarring moments, for instance when he admits to the 'pernicious' feeling that war is a 'glorious enterprise.' Are there things worth living and dying for? Orwell chooses to fight 'fascism,' he wants to kill for the cause, he puts himself in harm's way, and gets badly wounded.

Military efficiency is in conflict with liberty and honesty. Orwell deconstructs the reporting and editorial disinformation. Today in Iraq, it is clear that the same smokescreen has over-laid events. John Burns and Dexter Filkins of the New York Times have done some phenomenal reporting from the streets of Iraq, but even they have a 'bias;' they are both Brits writing for newspapers in the West. They paint a complex, somewhat bleak picture, that totally contradicts the official narrative coming out of Washington.

You realize, the reality must be even bleaker, more complex, than even they convey.

Anyway, on the 'Goodbar' front, Phoenix has gone AWOL. We must scrounge up a couple of actors. We have many options, nothing will deter us, the show must go on.