Hurry Up, Please, It's Time

I liked this disturbing poem by Moustafa Bayoumi, Hurry Up, Please, It's Time in the bilingual journal Terra Incognita. Angry, but also intelligent. Maybe you'll like it too.

He's back! (David González in the NYT)

I had lunch with David two days ago (or maybe, like Joyce Wadler in Boldface Names, I should say "we" had lunch with David González), in my nabe at the Time Cafe on Lafayette & 4th.* I hadn't seen him since before his assignment as Caribbean correspondent for the NY Times, and it was great to get his take on such things as living in Miami (not great), what life is like in Cuba (also not great, but for different reasons), the operatic intensity of the political conflict in Venezuela (complicated -- Hugo Chávez is neither as popular as he claims, nor is the opposition at all coherent or rational). Now he is back in New York as a feature writer, and today his paper has announced that fact with a quarter-page bilingual ad (bilingual! When before have you seen a whole paragraph in Spanish in the Times?) in the Metro section. With a photo of him --not so scruffy as he looked last Wednesday -- too bad, scruffy is his normal look, and more fitting for his scrappy, down-with-the-pueblo style. David is no slave of fashion, sartorially or journalistically.

When he told me this ad was coming, his eyes widened, like he still couldn't believe all this attention. Why are they doing this? I asked him. Not to doubt that he deserves it, but "deserving" isn't usually enough reason for getting something. The reasons seemed pretty clear to him: since the revolution in The NYT (the overthrow of Howell Raines in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal), the new chief Bill Keller wants to bring up the paper's pathetic circulation in New York City (compared to the Post and the New), and David (a) wasa very popular columnist when he had the Metro page 1 "About New York" slot and (b) knows the Bronx better than anybody. And now he's planning to explore the other boroughs. So, the Times has lost a terrific Caribbean & Central American correspondent, and regained a knowledgeable and insightful city reporter. Welcome back -- oops, I mean, "Bienvenido, Sr. González."

*Who cares where we ate? But I'm just imitating Boldface Names. Maybe if I mention the place, they'll discover it (through Google) and mention that I mentioned them, and then we all help make each other famous for being mentioned. Ridiculous, but it is a kind of celebrity.

For circulation of New York City papers. The New York Times is the largest circulation paper daily or Sunday in the U.S. , but far from the biggest in New York City. I tried to find its NYC figures separated out from the national total, but after trying various Google combinations, I've decided I've spent enough time on this. If you happen to know, please tell me.

This has nothing to do directly with David González, but on U.S. press fumbling on the Venezuelan coup of April 2002, see Coup of Confusion by Javier Sierra

How far does Bush's arm reach in controlling media? Even into Al-Jazeera?

"Journalists on the English-language news site Al-Jazeera.net are considering a mass walkout in protest at the sacking of British editor Yvonne Ridley," begins this article by "jemima" at journalism.co.uk. The Al-Jazeera reporter interviewed for the article suggests that Ridley was fired because of pressure from the Bush administration.

"Yvonne has fabulous contacts and managed to get photos of US soldiers searching Iraqi children - but we were told not to publish them," the unnamed reporter is quoted as saying.

Interview of Yvonne Ridley (before she got sacked)
Also check out Al-Jazeera -- at the bottom of their home page you will find some semi-animated cartoons that need no translation.

Career advice for hispanos

I've just started writing for the Hispanic/Latino section of Monster.com. Here's the first article: A Little Support Offers Big Career Help. Future pieces will cover how to break into the broadcast news business, confronting employment discrimination, etc. Let me know if you have any ideas for related career articles: Geoffrey Fox.

From my notebooks

I just came across this old poem, written in pencil, 3/13/94, 11:40 a.m.

What We've Lost

All of us here, we are aware of what we've lost.
Jobs, career, a first wife and a second,
one of us even lost part of a leg,
but most of all we've lost
hope
illusions
joy.
Youth
It's all over, we mourn, embittered all
that we have lost.
Every night we see on television
people whose homes have been destroyed,
whose relatives have been murdered,
whose social system has been bombed
to pieces,
and we frown and wince and shake our
heads.
And when it's over, this brief distraction,
we go back to mourning our loss.

Writing success

Wise words from Duncan Murrell, a former editor at Algonquin Books: Measures of Success:What Publishing Your Book Really Means, in Poets & Writers magazine.

CBS wants to keep you in ignorant bliss

I borrowed the following from John Battelle's Searchblog. No point in rewording what he has said quite well.

Loads of folks have commented already on this, but I wanted to add what I could to the meme, if only to insure one more protest is lodged in this particular record in the database of intentions. It boggles the mind how deeply lame CBS's decision to deny MoveOn's ad is. CBS claims "the network has had a long-term policy not to air issue ads anywhere on the network." Uh huh. Lessig comments that somehow a War on Drugs ad from the Bush White House, a blatant piece of "issue advocacy", made it through the CBS filter. Not to mention all the presidential advertising lucre CBS will be happy to suckle over the next 10 months. You're telling me an RNC- or DNC-funded attack ad won't be an "issue ad"? Did CBS refuse the Willie Horton ad back in 1988? What the fuck is going on here?

Close quote. I (Geoff Fox, not John Battelle) just called Les Moonves, President of CBS, at (323) 575-2345; the receptionist transferred me to a "comment line" (attached to a tape recorder? Who knows?) where I could spout off. MoveOn asks that after you call (please do) you let them know by going here.

Getting the news from poetry

David González, an excellent reporter on the struggles of ordinary people facing crushing problems and a writer of more than ordinary talent, has a poetic report in today's NYT on one of our great reporting poets, Pedro Pietri, who alas is ill: When Life Is Art, Dying Is Simply Not an Option I've known David since he was a reporter in Philadelphia and contributing to a newsletter I was editing years ago, Hispanic Monitor, then he was in Newsweek (not a good place for a creative spirit), and now has found more space for himself to say what really matters in The New York Times, lately as Caribbean correspondent. I know he feels kinship toward Pedro Pietri, who has always said things that really matter. Somewhere I still have one of Pietri's visiting cards, announcing him as chief reverend of the "Church of the Tomatoes."

The far more conservative NYT columnist, Clyde Haberman, also waxes poetical on the same page, reporting on and quoting from Wall Street lawyer and poet Eugene Schlanger on the proper memorial to the dead of September 11 (New York's September 11, 2001, not Chile's in 1973, which Wall Street lawyers can't be expected to remember). Schlanger's verses show that even Republicans can have human feelings, at least within the patriotic range of issues. Who'd have thought?

William Carlos Williams was right: It is hard to get the news from poetry, but sometimes, that's the best place to find it.

For a very short sample of Pedro Pietri: Telephone Booth Number 905 1/2
For info on the coming Tribute to Pedro Pietri (to raise funds for his treatment), February 12 at Taller Boricua, Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, 1680 Lexington Avenue at 106th Street in Manhattan

Speak out!

Terrific poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti expresses my feelings about America and our leaders' contempt for the world. In milk magazine.

Memorable dates

First, this blog and our entire staff (Bear, Lion, Fox & Glib) wish you all good fortune in the year 4071, Year of the Monkey, which began yesterday (according to our Chinese friends). Second, we are reminded every time January 23 comes around of that momentous day in 1958, when Venezuelans changed their history. For photos and background (in Spanish) on the events of that day, January 23, 1958, see Globovision's 23 de enero, momento para recordar