-Sex in the Church
By the Reverend Winston "Bello" Bell
I had a lively, full of laughing and telling discussion with Bello today.
It was exhilirating to hear his fresh approach to a variety of subjects.
His religious interpretations was fulfilling, very fulfilling.
If anyone heard the show today and wants to get a hand on his book, they can email Bello at winston.bell@gmail.com.
I can't talk enough about this interview, I am going to have to find a way to upload it.
In between the interview I played music from another man of the cloth, the Reveren Al Green's new cd, Lay it Down.
" Lay it down, lay it down, lay it down
put your head on the floor
lay it down, lay it down, lay it down"
Monday, September 8, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Today's Show
Today's show was a testimony to the comfort level I am at with Covered and Bound.
When I produce a tight show, and every minute is used. The last few minutes was for Ruby, I miss you old girl.
And the first fifteen minutes I have down to a science..I played Eric Schlosser's Reefer Madness, for half and hour and then on to Ruby's fifteen minutes...I love my Uncle's song...If I Could Rule The World.....that started off the minutes dedicated to Ruby...I miss my mother so much.
Publish Post
When I produce a tight show, and every minute is used. The last few minutes was for Ruby, I miss you old girl.
And the first fifteen minutes I have down to a science..I played Eric Schlosser's Reefer Madness, for half and hour and then on to Ruby's fifteen minutes...I love my Uncle's song...If I Could Rule The World.....that started off the minutes dedicated to Ruby...I miss my mother so much.
Publish Post
Thursday, July 17, 2008
On Air Give-a-ways
1. A Passion for this Earth
Inspired by David Suzuki, Writer, Scientists, and Activists explore our relationship with nature and the environment.
Listener Asheda, received this book.
2. An Ecology of Enchantment: A year in the life of a Garden by Des Kennedy
I am glad that Jane of Evergreen gardening got this book. I enjoyed reading it.
Des Kennedy lives in B.C. and his writing is full of humour and passion for the art, yes the art of gardening
3. Gardens: A Literary Companion edited by Merilyn Simonds - this collection of essays went to listener Rebekka.
4. Deserts: A Literary Companion edited by Wayne Grady
and
5. Shining Big Sea Water
The Story of Lake Superior by Norman K Risjord
Last week's show was pre-taped, we featured the lecture on Tupac Shakur by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, this I got from Alternative Radio which by the way is having a huge sale on their MP3 downloads.
The week before that I featured a radio Netherlands Radio books, a series of audio books by Dutch and Flemish writers in English translation. I played Tom Naegels' Arusha a disturbing look at the chasm between different cultures, and Janice Levy's The Scorpion wore pink shoes, about Soledad, who works as a cleaner at the Harrington hotel in New Hampshire. In one of the rooms Soledad finds a discarded pair of shoes and she thinks of her life back in Costa Rica, of her estranged husband and especially of her daughter who is about to celebrate her quinceanera - her 15th birthday. Then I played some Celia Cruz. An Anglo-Japanese teenager is being bullied at her English school and turns to her Japanese ancestry to find a sense of identity in the story by Stephen Loveless called Hikabusha. Next week on Covered and Bound, I plan to feature my own audio books, of Canadian authors beginning with "June" by Dionne Brand which I plan to read, it was part of last years Luminato festival, a series of stories on Toronto commissioned by the Globe and Mail.
And more on air give a ways.
Thanks for listening and reading.
Inspired by David Suzuki, Writer, Scientists, and Activists explore our relationship with nature and the environment.
Listener Asheda, received this book.
2. An Ecology of Enchantment: A year in the life of a Garden by Des Kennedy
I am glad that Jane of Evergreen gardening got this book. I enjoyed reading it.
Des Kennedy lives in B.C. and his writing is full of humour and passion for the art, yes the art of gardening
3. Gardens: A Literary Companion edited by Merilyn Simonds - this collection of essays went to listener Rebekka.
4. Deserts: A Literary Companion edited by Wayne Grady
and
5. Shining Big Sea Water
The Story of Lake Superior by Norman K Risjord
Last week's show was pre-taped, we featured the lecture on Tupac Shakur by Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, this I got from Alternative Radio which by the way is having a huge sale on their MP3 downloads.
The week before that I featured a radio Netherlands Radio books, a series of audio books by Dutch and Flemish writers in English translation. I played Tom Naegels' Arusha a disturbing look at the chasm between different cultures, and Janice Levy's The Scorpion wore pink shoes, about Soledad, who works as a cleaner at the Harrington hotel in New Hampshire. In one of the rooms Soledad finds a discarded pair of shoes and she thinks of her life back in Costa Rica, of her estranged husband and especially of her daughter who is about to celebrate her quinceanera - her 15th birthday. Then I played some Celia Cruz. An Anglo-Japanese teenager is being bullied at her English school and turns to her Japanese ancestry to find a sense of identity in the story by Stephen Loveless called Hikabusha. Next week on Covered and Bound, I plan to feature my own audio books, of Canadian authors beginning with "June" by Dionne Brand which I plan to read, it was part of last years Luminato festival, a series of stories on Toronto commissioned by the Globe and Mail.
And more on air give a ways.
Thanks for listening and reading.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
I know, and isn't it good to know?
I know why the caged bird sings
by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.
But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.
But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.
Forgiveness
Forgive Them
-Lauryn Hill
The Mis-education of Lauryn Hill
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us
Although them again we will never, never, never trust
Dem noh know weh dem do, dig out yuh yei while dem sticking like glue,
Fling, skin, grin while dem plotting fah you,
True, Ah Who???
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Beware the false motives of others
Be careful of those who pretend to be brothers
And you never suppose it's those who are closest to you, to you
They say all the right things to gain their position
Then use your kindness as their ammunition
To shoot you down in the name of ambition, they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Why every Indian wanna be the chief?
Feed a man 'til he's full and he still want beef
Give me grief, try to tief off my piece
Why for you to increase, I must decrease?
If I treat you kindly does it mean that I'm weak?
You hear me speak and think I won't take it to the streets
I know enough cats that don't turn the other cheek
But I try to keep it civilized like Menelik
And other African czars observing stars with war scars
Get yours in this capitalistic system
So many caught or got bought you can't list them
How you gonna idolize the missing?
To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition
Even when they comin' gunnin'
I stand position
L's known the mission since conception
Let's free the people from deception
If you looking for the answers
Then you gotta ask the questions
And when I let go, my voice echoes through the ghetto
Sick of men trying to pull strings like Geppetto
Why black people always be the ones to settle
March through these streets like Soweto
Like Cain and Abel, Caesar and Brutus, Jesus and Judas,
Backstabbers do this
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
It took me a little while to discover
Wolves in sheep coats who pretend to be lovers
Men who lack conscience will even lie to themselves, to themselves
A friend once said, and I found to be true
That everyday people, they lie to God too
So what makes you think, that they won't lie to you
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them, forgive them
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them, forgive them
Gwan like dem love while dem rip yuh to shreds,
Trample pon yuh heart and lef yuh fi dead,
Dem a yuh fren who yuh depen pon from way back when,
But if yuh gi dem yuh back den yuh mus meet yuh end,
Dem noh know wey dem do,
Dem no know, dem no know, dem no know,
Dem no know, dem no know wey dem do
-Lauryn Hill
The Mis-education of Lauryn Hill
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us
Although them again we will never, never, never trust
Dem noh know weh dem do, dig out yuh yei while dem sticking like glue,
Fling, skin, grin while dem plotting fah you,
True, Ah Who???
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Beware the false motives of others
Be careful of those who pretend to be brothers
And you never suppose it's those who are closest to you, to you
They say all the right things to gain their position
Then use your kindness as their ammunition
To shoot you down in the name of ambition, they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Why every Indian wanna be the chief?
Feed a man 'til he's full and he still want beef
Give me grief, try to tief off my piece
Why for you to increase, I must decrease?
If I treat you kindly does it mean that I'm weak?
You hear me speak and think I won't take it to the streets
I know enough cats that don't turn the other cheek
But I try to keep it civilized like Menelik
And other African czars observing stars with war scars
Get yours in this capitalistic system
So many caught or got bought you can't list them
How you gonna idolize the missing?
To survive is to stay alive in the face of opposition
Even when they comin' gunnin'
I stand position
L's known the mission since conception
Let's free the people from deception
If you looking for the answers
Then you gotta ask the questions
And when I let go, my voice echoes through the ghetto
Sick of men trying to pull strings like Geppetto
Why black people always be the ones to settle
March through these streets like Soweto
Like Cain and Abel, Caesar and Brutus, Jesus and Judas,
Backstabbers do this
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
It took me a little while to discover
Wolves in sheep coats who pretend to be lovers
Men who lack conscience will even lie to themselves, to themselves
A friend once said, and I found to be true
That everyday people, they lie to God too
So what makes you think, that they won't lie to you
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them, forgive them
Forgive them father for they know not what they do
Forgive them, forgive them
Gwan like dem love while dem rip yuh to shreds,
Trample pon yuh heart and lef yuh fi dead,
Dem a yuh fren who yuh depen pon from way back when,
But if yuh gi dem yuh back den yuh mus meet yuh end,
Dem noh know wey dem do,
Dem no know, dem no know, dem no know,
Dem no know, dem no know wey dem do
Monday, June 23, 2008
Books
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~Author Unknown
Greystone Books have sent me some gardening books...want one?
Check out the show for the question, know the answer? just call the station, 416-736-5293
1. A Passion for this Earth
Inspired by David Suzuki, Writer, Scientists, and Activists explore our relationship with nature and the environment.
2. An Ecology of Enchantment: A year in the life of a Garden by Des Kennedy
3. Gardens: A Literary Companion edited by Merilyn Simonds
4. Deserts: A Literary Companion edited by Wayne Grady
and
5. Shining Big Sea Water
The Story of Lake Superior by Norman K Risjord
And Bethany House Publishers, thanks for the Edge of Recall which went to listener Katherine Fournier.
Greystone Books have sent me some gardening books...want one?
Check out the show for the question, know the answer? just call the station, 416-736-5293
1. A Passion for this Earth
Inspired by David Suzuki, Writer, Scientists, and Activists explore our relationship with nature and the environment.
2. An Ecology of Enchantment: A year in the life of a Garden by Des Kennedy
3. Gardens: A Literary Companion edited by Merilyn Simonds
4. Deserts: A Literary Companion edited by Wayne Grady
and
5. Shining Big Sea Water
The Story of Lake Superior by Norman K Risjord
And Bethany House Publishers, thanks for the Edge of Recall which went to listener Katherine Fournier.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Last Monday on Covered and Bound this is what I talked about...
On June 16, 1976, 20,000 students marched in Soweto to protest being taught in Afrikaans the language of their oppressors. They were fired on by the South African authorities and some of them were killed. June 16 is now acknowledged as the International Day of the African child by the international community and is also a public holiday in South Africa.
Music - South Africa's Lady Smith Black Mambazo with Paul Simon
"Homeless" and "Under African Skies" with Miriam Makeba.
Born in Johannesburg in 1932, the South African Diva is called Mama Africa.
After she testified agains the South African government in 1963, her citizenship was revoke and her right to return to her homeland. After 31 years in exile she was persuaded by Nelson Mandela to return to her home.
Music - Pata Pata -by Miriam Makeba
I played another story from Radio Netherlands Radio Books, Janice Levy's story, "The Scorpian Wore Pink Shoes."
Music - Yo Vivire by Celia Cruz
Music - South Africa's Lady Smith Black Mambazo with Paul Simon
"Homeless" and "Under African Skies" with Miriam Makeba.
Born in Johannesburg in 1932, the South African Diva is called Mama Africa.
After she testified agains the South African government in 1963, her citizenship was revoke and her right to return to her homeland. After 31 years in exile she was persuaded by Nelson Mandela to return to her home.
Music - Pata Pata -by Miriam Makeba
I played another story from Radio Netherlands Radio Books, Janice Levy's story, "The Scorpian Wore Pink Shoes."
Music - Yo Vivire by Celia Cruz
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Love, Love, Love.
Touched by an Angel
by Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Today on Covered and Bound
I talked about Motion in Poetry...by Spoken Words Artist Motion, I played a track from her called "Life Sentence" I read this poem by Nikki Giovanni, "choices" and I spoke of the Truth and Reconciliation that Canada has started with it's First Nation People, then I stopped for a moment and acknowledged that we are on Native Land. I played a song for Asheda, "Love The Life You Live," by Midnite and played two Linton Kwesi Johnson tracks, From his album, "More Time" Poems of Shape and Motion and Mi Revalueshanary Fren, from "tings and times" I found out that Linton Kwesi Johnson became one of only two living poets to be published in a Penguin Modern Classic in 2002.
Today I was UNSTOPPABLE
Choices
if i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do
it's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do
if i can't have
what i want...then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want
since i can't go
where i need
to go...then i must...go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral
when i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that's why mankind alone among the animals
learns to cry
by Nikki Giovanni
Today I was UNSTOPPABLE
Choices
if i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do
it's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do
if i can't have
what i want...then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more to want
since i can't go
where i need
to go...then i must...go
where the signs point
through always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral
when i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that's why mankind alone among the animals
learns to cry
by Nikki Giovanni
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I love Poetry
I told Dionne Brand that she wrote this poem for me, and for my mother and now it is also for Tanya S.
I am not that strong woman
I am not that strong woman on the mountain
at Castle Bruce
the mountain squarely below her feet
the flesh bursting under her skin
I cannot hold a mountain under my feet,
she dug yams and birthed a cow
I am not the old one
Boxes on her head in Roseau
the metred street, she made one hundred turns in it
the pee streaming from her straddled legs
she stood over the gutter,
the hot yellow stream wet her ankles
and the street
nor the other one on church street
skirt tied around her waist
mad
some aged song shared her lips
for many years with a clay pipe.
I am the one with no place to live
I want no husband
I want nothing inside of me
that hates me
these are walls and niches
park benches and iron spikes
I want nothing that enters me
screaming
claiming to be history,
my skin hangs out on a clothes line
drying and eaten by the harsh sun
and the wind threatens to blow my belly
into a balloon
to hold more confusions,
alone is my only rescue
alone is the only thing I chose,
I'll gather my skin like a washerwoman
her hand insisting the wind out,
I will bare my teeth to the sun
let it feel
how it is to be dazzled.
Dionne Brand from "Chronicles of the Hostile Sun"
I am not that strong woman
I am not that strong woman on the mountain
at Castle Bruce
the mountain squarely below her feet
the flesh bursting under her skin
I cannot hold a mountain under my feet,
she dug yams and birthed a cow
I am not the old one
Boxes on her head in Roseau
the metred street, she made one hundred turns in it
the pee streaming from her straddled legs
she stood over the gutter,
the hot yellow stream wet her ankles
and the street
nor the other one on church street
skirt tied around her waist
mad
some aged song shared her lips
for many years with a clay pipe.
I am the one with no place to live
I want no husband
I want nothing inside of me
that hates me
these are walls and niches
park benches and iron spikes
I want nothing that enters me
screaming
claiming to be history,
my skin hangs out on a clothes line
drying and eaten by the harsh sun
and the wind threatens to blow my belly
into a balloon
to hold more confusions,
alone is my only rescue
alone is the only thing I chose,
I'll gather my skin like a washerwoman
her hand insisting the wind out,
I will bare my teeth to the sun
let it feel
how it is to be dazzled.
Dionne Brand from "Chronicles of the Hostile Sun"
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The wait is over
The wait for another entry, it's the lack of accountability, so I am going to mention my blog again on Covered and Bound. I feel a great way to restart this blog is with a poem but this is really about the way I feel about Pablo Neruda and I wanted an excuse to add another one of his poems.
XVII From: 'Cien sonetos de amor' by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were brine-rose, topaz,
or barbed carnations thrown by the fire.
I love you as certain hidden things are loved, secretly, between night and soul.
I love you like the flower-less plant carrying inside itself the light of those flowers,
and, graced by your love, a fierce perfume risen from earth,
is alive, concealed in my flesh.
I love you without knowing how, whence, when.
I love you truly, without doubts, without pride,
I love you so, and know, no other way to love,
none but this mode of neither Your no I,
so close that your hand over my chest is my hand,
so close they are your eyes I shut when I sleep.
XVII From: 'Cien sonetos de amor' by Pablo Neruda
I do not love you as if you were brine-rose, topaz,
or barbed carnations thrown by the fire.
I love you as certain hidden things are loved, secretly, between night and soul.
I love you like the flower-less plant carrying inside itself the light of those flowers,
and, graced by your love, a fierce perfume risen from earth,
is alive, concealed in my flesh.
I love you without knowing how, whence, when.
I love you truly, without doubts, without pride,
I love you so, and know, no other way to love,
none but this mode of neither Your no I,
so close that your hand over my chest is my hand,
so close they are your eyes I shut when I sleep.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Covered and Bound
It has been a few months, and there has been so many things happening with Covered and Bound and I am happy to say it is poetry month. I will begin with a few of my favourites, starting with Pablo Neruda.
Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto in Southern Chile on July 12th, 1904
His life was charged with poetic and political activism.
His work reflected the political struggles of the left and the socio-historical developments in South America.
He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971 he died in 1973, on my birthday!
The White Mans Burden
Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.
Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent
Pablo Neruda
Born Ricardo Eliecer Neftali Reyes Basoalto in Southern Chile on July 12th, 1904
His life was charged with poetic and political activism.
His work reflected the political struggles of the left and the socio-historical developments in South America.
He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1971 he died in 1973, on my birthday!
The White Mans Burden
Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.
Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind
as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent
Pablo Neruda
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Covered and Bound January 21, 2008
Literature and Drugs
How literature looks at drugs, is usually in the context of (broadly speaking) human relationship to drug use. This literary study, The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon asks, why literature and drugs came to be associated and shows the different literary experimentation with drugs and how the writers on drugs describing their experiences, almost sound and act as scientist?
Opium use was widespread in 19th Century European and American societies and in this study Marcus Boon does not limit himself, in terms of time frame and the diversity of the works covered. In the prologue Marcus Boon says, "I have written this book not from the point of view of literature, or from the point of view of science, but the way an ethnographer would, studying how society came to believe certain things. Literature and drugs are two dynamically developing domain of human activity that have coevolved alongside and interpenetrated with many other such domains, human or not. As Such, this is a history of books that were written and published, but equally of the lives of those who wrote them, the substances they took, how those substances became available, what those substances were. The histories of religion, literature, and science all intersect in the production of the artifact know as the writer on drugs."
How literature looks at drugs, is usually in the context of (broadly speaking) human relationship to drug use. This literary study, The Road of Excess: A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon asks, why literature and drugs came to be associated and shows the different literary experimentation with drugs and how the writers on drugs describing their experiences, almost sound and act as scientist?
Opium use was widespread in 19th Century European and American societies and in this study Marcus Boon does not limit himself, in terms of time frame and the diversity of the works covered. In the prologue Marcus Boon says, "I have written this book not from the point of view of literature, or from the point of view of science, but the way an ethnographer would, studying how society came to believe certain things. Literature and drugs are two dynamically developing domain of human activity that have coevolved alongside and interpenetrated with many other such domains, human or not. As Such, this is a history of books that were written and published, but equally of the lives of those who wrote them, the substances they took, how those substances became available, what those substances were. The histories of religion, literature, and science all intersect in the production of the artifact know as the writer on drugs."
Monday, January 14, 2008
Covered and Bound
Today on "Covered and Bound" we continued the lecture "Reefer Madness" by Eric Schlosser, this was after we paid a small musical tribute to Canadian Jazz GREAT Oscar Peterson. We discussed Family Literacy Day being sponsored by ABC Canada and we discussed our book for the Month, "The Road of Excess." It is a literary study of Writers on Drugs by Professor Marcus Boon of York University. We, Jacky and I liked that Eric Schlosser ended his lecture on a religious note, we all have a responsibility, regardless of faith to help those who need it. Eric Schlosser is trying to bring awareness to the plight of the immigrant workers in America whom are mostly Mexicans, and he tells us that they are treated no better than the slaves were. They are just that, modern day slaves as fellow human beings there is a responsibility that we all have to help the poor, no matter what faith we profess.
Monday, January 7, 2008
First show for 2008
Today Covered and Bound featured "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labour" a look at America's black market by investigative reporter, Eric Schlosser. Schlosser looks at three of the black market's main supports; pot, porn and illegal immigrants. These obscure economies have a wide range of influence on American society, they comprise 10 percent or more of America's overall economy and they are growing. These undercover economies are a mainstay of what represents American culture; hypocrisy, greed, and idealism. This award winning author also wrote, "Fast Food Nation:The Dark Side of the American Meal" and "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food.
The Eric Schlosser lecture will continues next week.
We are looking forward to our Book Club reading for a month or two, The Road of Excess:A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon which is part of our goal, featuring York Writers for the New Year. Professor Boon's book, is a fascinating read which deals with the subject of writers that use drugs from the time of Homer's Odyssey to William Burroughs Naked Lunch.
Marcus Boon is an Associate Professor of English here at York University and he teaches contemporary literature and theory.
The Eric Schlosser lecture will continues next week.
We are looking forward to our Book Club reading for a month or two, The Road of Excess:A History of Writers on Drugs by Marcus Boon which is part of our goal, featuring York Writers for the New Year. Professor Boon's book, is a fascinating read which deals with the subject of writers that use drugs from the time of Homer's Odyssey to William Burroughs Naked Lunch.
Marcus Boon is an Associate Professor of English here at York University and he teaches contemporary literature and theory.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Books
Medicine for the soul.
~Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes
Covered and Bound is a radio show by James O'Hearn, who has left a legacy of interviews with a wealth of authors, available on his website, Engaging The Word. In February of 2007 I started volunteering for this Literary Collective, by using the interview by James O'hearn, and bringing writers, readers, poets and talkers live into the studio, Jacky Tuinstra and I share our love for books and reading. Covered and Bound remains a most rewarding experience for me.
We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate. ~Henry Miller
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