parting is such sweet sorrow

This is late.  I jotted most of this all down in August but never revisited it as I was crushed with everything I needed to do to leave Missoula.  So here goes:

As you all well know by now, Pie Guy Industries has picked up its Missoula base of operations and relocated back east.  Buffalo, NY to be more precise.  Now I say back because although I never baked a pie in my life until coming to Missoula, Maryland and the East Coast will always be my home.  Not that Buffalo is home, although I suppose it soon will be, more like I am moving to the region (and time zone) I will always consider home to me and "my people".  Now no disrespect intended to Missoulians, but I don't think it was an accident that my inner circle of guy friends at least are all dudes from back east.  Tim, Keith and Fred, from New York, New York and New Jersey, respectively.  As a matter of fact, my other great friend Brendan is from Colorado but his folks are from Jersey so I can connect those dots too.  These are guys with similar sensibilities as my own, perhaps characterized by shorter fuses, sharp sarcastic wit and a no-nonsense approach to life that is bred from growing up on top of one another and dealing, from an all-too-close proximity, with too many people's shit.

Yet I digress, Missoula has been so kind and good to me (cue Sammy Sosa?).  In the weeks leading up to my departure I would get extremely sad to think of leaving the oasis that is Missoula and my life without the market and the relationships I've established with so many of my customers.  Yet I must admit my spirit does cartwheels now on Thursday and Friday nites when I'm not standing up running around like a crazy man baking til the wee hours of the morning.  I certainly don't miss that but then again, I didn't miss East Coast humidity either.  Sheesh.  So life goes on for all of us and I have to always consider my future and it is with that in mind that I moved from Western Montana to Western New York.

There are so many thank-yous to give out that I apologize if I miss anybody by name.  Thank you to Mary Ellen and Franco for managing the Clark Fork Market so well over the past four plus seasons.  Thank you to Kate for always paying me cash for my tokens.  Thank you to Chris Lafley for encouraging me to sign up to sling pies in the first place.  Thanks to Peter and Sue for letting me know that my rhubarb was crunchy and offering the suggestion to marinate it before baking it in the oven.  Thank you Dawn for helping me develop a more reliable vegan crust as well as a killer custard that works well with any complimentary fruit like blueberry, raspberry, huckleberry or rhubarb.  Thanks to Fred "The Machine Gun" Dealaman, Jr. for helping me with crazy wedding catering jobs and for selling pies/slices on an as-needed basis.

Thanks to Brendan Stewart for letting me use his kitchen to the tune of well over 1,000 pies baked since 2009.  I'm sure it will falter soon - in fact you've probably already replaced it by now - but who knew Kenmore's were so damn durable?

Thanks to all my friends and family who've encouraged me, the assistants who have helped me over the years - from my parents to my brother Mike to Shea and Tim.  Most of all, thank you the customers, even though you were customers I am happy that so many of you have become my friends over the years.  Thank you Derek and Julie for almost single handedly underwriting my production with their own consumption.  As well as to David and all the others who have turned out to my stand nearly every Saturday for four plus years.  I truly wish I could still offer you guys gluten-free pie that is surely lacking in that town now in my absence.

Before I left, I could hardly envision what life would feel like now that I don't have the Clark Fork Market to hang out at.  I'm getting a better understanding now.  It's more than ok, but I do miss Missoula specifically and Montana in general because it is full of so many real, down-to-earth, salt-of-the-earth, warm, genuine, unique, caring and community-minded individuals that made it so sad and difficult for me to leave.

Yet there are more opportunities that I simply could not pass up.  Bigger and better things to strive for, more pies in the sky that I must chase down knowing full well that no matter where exactly I end up, I will always treasure and cherish the journey, the good times, the life-affirming moments along with the heartaches and the heartbreaks, but particularly I will treasure and cherish all the of the diverse, amazing and wonderful people I've had the good fortune to encounter and befriend.

Lastly, I must thank Miss Betty Lou Vilnius for without her none of this would've been possible.  As crazy as that may sound, those who know me know this to be true.  As always, it's all for you, Lou.

Thanks again for everything, Missoula, I'll never meet a town just like you and for that I will always hold you near and dear to my heart and perhaps one day down the road I may seek shelter again on the banks of the gorgeous flowing river that they say "runs through it".

With all of my love, respect and utmost appreciation,

Peter

stop the violence, bro

Thoughts on domestic violence from Baltimore to the U.S. Military to Cleveland and back to Baltimore

So we've come to this.

They say that pyromania and cruelty to animals are the two telltale signs of serial killers.  I'll say something even more obvious - violence against women denigrates the society we live in and our inability (or unwillingness) to protect them is tearing right at the fabric of our society.  We're teaching our kids from their earliest days that not only is violence against women normal, it is also accepted and permissible...and this shit has got to stop.

Where to begin?

RIP Katie Hadel (1979-2013)

Let's start in my homeland of Baltimore County.  Sadly and tragically, three months months ago a girl I went to high school with; was friends with; hung out most weekends with; Katie Hadel, was murdered by some loser who unsuccessfully tried to date her since the 7th grade.  I also knew this guy back then and I could always tell he was up to no good.  This was no great insight of mine, all of my friends who knew him always kept him at arms length as well.  I didn't and don't know any particulars about his family, his upbringing or his circumstances but he was always trouble.  Yet despite Katie obtaining several restraining orders against him over the years and receiving various threats from him while he was still incarcerated, she was ultimately unable to stop him from physically entering her house and murdering her in front of her children.

Read more on the story on the preventable murder of Katie Hadel

I bring this up because this week has been a particularly bad one for domestic violence, abuse and torture of women across the United States.

For starters, there's a new report which shows more than 7,000 estimated cases of sexual assault in the US military from 2011 to 2012 (26,000 in 2012 vs 19,000 in 2011).  Should we be surprised?

Read more on the sexual assault crisis in the U.S. military

From there we get to Cleveland, Ohio where Ariel Castro illegally abducted and imprisoned three girls over the past ten years.

Read more here on the long and sordid history of kidnapper Ariel Castro

Among all of the sundry and godawful details and storylines that came out of the heroic rescue by Charles Ramsay and Angel Cordero one thing stood out to me.  It's this quote by Ramsay:

"So, you know, I figured it was a domestic-violence dispute" - Charles Ramsay

This statement reveals so much of what we already know and/or assume - and it goes along with black on black crime - that American society expects domestic violence so therefore when it occurs it doesn't really shock us into thoughtful or meaningful action.  Let me say that again, as a society we have come to expect domestic violence therefore we become inured to it and fail to act proactively to help prevent it or in the case of anti-Charles Ramsay's out there, there are those who will not get in the middle of neighbor's domestic dispute because it's not any of their business.  Well, I'm saying that that attitude has to cease.

Look, we have t-shirts affectionately named wife beaters (of which I will be the first to accept having used in daily vernacular in the past but no longer) and then we, as men, consume all of this bullshit that somehow women ask for it or even worse that these damn women make the shit up.  Of course women consume this bullshit too, which is why in the aforementioned case of the rise of sexual assaults in the U.S. military we have staggering numbers of estimated assaults but much smaller actual reported cases.  In fact, as that article states we have 6% of those 26,000 cases that are actually reported (or 3,374 out of the approximate 26,000).

Why are women afraid in the military (and in all of society) to report said crimes?  It's because most believe people will not take them seriously - and can we blame them for that?  Of course there are fabricated sexual assaults (see 2006 Duke University lacrosse scandal) but the very fact that a small percentage of abuse claims could be, and are, warrantless does not dismiss the overwhelming and abundant evidence of gross violence perpetrated on women by men.  I mean are 26,000 U.S. military servicewomen just making shit up?  Of course not.

Back to Cleveland and quoting from the above cited article above from the Cleveland Scene magazine: "Castro broke his ex-wife’s nose and ribs, dislocated her shoulders, knocked out one of her teeth and battered her so hard that a blood clot formed on her brain, according to filings in court. In an interview with investigators after the fact, Castro denied ever being abusive toward her".  Naturally, rather than being arrested for assault and battery much less attempted murder, he was charged with disorderly conduct.  I mean what is wrong with the American justice system?

Why doesn't our justice system take life-threatening domestic violence seriously?  Treating domestic violence as the crime it is on the books could have protected this man's wife, his daughters, and the three young women he eventually kidnapped.

When we allow women to be beaten in any situation, we are allowing more violence against women in every situation.  Look no further than my friend Katie Hadel.

How was Ariel Castro never thrown in jail?  

Luckily, at least those three women are still alive.  Going forward - how do we as a society protect women?  Clearly there is a disconnect between the justice system and the prevention of violence.  Is the Cleveland PD negligent?  Were Castro's neighbors negligent?  Maybe laws need to be written and judges need to sign more court orders so that the cops that never got an answer at Castro's door after fifteen or twenty knocks could actually go in and investigate?

At some point the cops and the legal system saying that our hands are tied is not enough for the victims (female and male) of all this violence. 

How will Katie's (and the hundreds or thousands of other children who lose their mothers to this type of violence) kids grow up under such trauma?  

Sadly, there's more.

Yesterday in Baltimore, an off-duty Baltimore police killed his fiance and mother of his child.  Read some the depressing details here: Baltimore Police Officer Murders Girlfriend

What do I take away from the article?  It's this:

James Smith and Kendra Diggs in happier times

"The minute he fired at that young lady and our police officers — he was treated as a suspect," Guglielmi said.

Does anybody else see the faulty logic recurring here?  How do we proactively deal with men who are threatening women?  Why does it take a fucking gunshot to the head until they treat the man as a suspect?  I know in this case the "suspect" is a police officer but let's not pretend that corrupt cops only exist in comic books, movies and Noir crime fiction.  

We need to start teaching kids that is never okay to lay your hands on a woman.  I know the NRA would say we need more guns to defend "our" women but I'm of the opinion that de-escalation is key to preventing homicidal situations but what do I know...

It seems to me that we need to change the way laws are written so that men who are threatening women cannot lay their hands on them.  In the case of my old friend Katie Hadel, all the cops can say is "hey, we couldn't do anything more".   Did they not know he was writing threatening letters from the bowels of their own institutions?  We spy on our own innocent citizens, can we not spy on our inmates?  I think its high time we start to proactively address domestic violence instead of the typical American reactionary (i.e. too late to save a life) bullshit.

Thank you NRA for affirming our manly priorities

If anyone has any good ideas how to make this a reality please let me know and maybe we can start something.  All I know is I am sick to my stomach losing women when the perpetrators have already been accused and yet cops have no legal recourse to act preemptively or just straight up fail to do so.  

Lastly, what cannot be overcome physically and materially we must battle philosophically and ideologically.  By this I mean, and am referring to the ex-girlfriend shooting dummy unveiled at an NRA convention in Houston last week.

Read more on the NRA vendor's 'Ex' shooting target

It is precisely this type of haywire masculinity and its ultimately destructive thought processes that feed into an American culture of domestic violence.  It's time to take steps to revolt against this backwards male dominated culture and let the "men" out there that perpetrate such hate face some accountability for their violent at worst, careless and juvenile at best, behavior.

Thanks for reading.

-PPG

Blast off Missoula - Market Menu for Saturday, May 4th

It's been a long time, I know. Now don't be mad it's just that I've been busy steeling myself for the forthcoming farmer's market season here in Missoula at the #1 market in town - The Clark Fork Market. (you can follow the goings-on all year long at the CFM right here: http://www.clarkforkmarket.com/)

Throughout the market season I'll mostly be providing weekly menus along with a few choice blogs that I have time for with topics that I really want to talk about. Starting this week, I lose most of my free time (i.e. reading and writing time) so there will be much less blogging and much more baking. But rest assured I do have some stuff in the que - like my take on Jason Collins' (gasp) coming out party, resource extraction and public (un)health and corporate/capitalist indifference tied in with money's corrupting influence on American "democracy". But hey until then, you don't start a pie guy website exclusively to write...

So without further adieu and to set the mood, here's a track from the Talib Kweli's upcoming Prisoner of Conscious album due out next Tuesday, May 7th. My main man The Rza lays the track and Busta Rhymes shows up to help them both out. So with all apologies to Jay-Z, this track is hip hop at its finest.

Having said all that, here at PPG Industries we're moving at the speed of the fast approaching warm weather. Last night as I picked the first fresh rhubarb of the season, Fizzy laid out in the middle of street while Betty followed her nose down a block or two. In other words, a typical early Spring evening at the Church as the oven preheated. What is not typical however, is that all the pies listed below are all baked and cooling as we speak. So here goes, Market Menu for Saturday, May 4th:

2 Betty Lou-Berry (blueberries and raspberries - one gluten-free)

2 The Darryl (strawberry-rhubarb - one gluten free)

1 Violet (blueberry)

1 Fizzyberry (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries)

Looking forward to seeing y'all tomorrow for the first farmer's market of 2013. I'm excited for what should be a banner weekend in Missoula: starting with tonite's First Friday, tomorrow's opening of the market season, tomorrow afternoon's 21st Missoula Brewfest at Caras Park from 12 to 8 pm and Cinco de Mayo on Sunday with lots of sunshine and temps in the 70s to go around the whole time.

Time to blast off Missoula.

-PPG

The Magic is Back - Chris Davis and the 2013 Baltimore Orioles

"You put him in the Grand Canyon, he'll hit it out" - Adam Jones

As the spring sun shines and temperatures reach the 60s, sure enough Major League Baseball is upon us once more.  This season, the Baltimore Orioles are tasked with living up to the expectations that result from last year's magical playoff run.

Show 'em your badge!  You can call him one-pitch Chris or just The Deputy

Their start has been nothing short of historically prolific.  The Birds are 3-1, perched atop the American League East and while baseball is a team game, they have gotten there largely on the strength of first baseman Chris Davis.

Davis was brought to Baltimore two seasons ago, along with Tommy Hunter, in the midseason Koji Uehara deal.  His expectations have been minimal yet his production at the plate increased greatly last year as he split time in right field, the designated hitter role and first base.  Hitting 33 home runs in 515 at bats helped earn Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter's trust in not picking up the club option on first baseman Mark Reynolds' (known as the Sheriff) contract or seeking out a high priced free agent to come into town and claim the job.

As such, Davis was offered the first base job by Manager Buck Showalter in spring training.  Davis ended last season hitting seven home runs in the final seven games, then earned the first base job after a strong spring and has continued his upward trend in a major way to begin 2013.

His eighth-inning grand slam yesterday put the O's up for good, 9-5.  Thus far, Davis has 9 hits in 15 at bats and an exclamatory 4 home runs and 16 RBI overall.  He ties Willie Mays, Mark McGwire and Nelson Cruz for hitting four home runs in each of the first four games of a new season.  His 16 RBI breaks the old record of 12 for most in any four game stretch (since stats like these have been recorded since 1920).  While all paces are ridiculous, Davis' current one reaches the height of absurdity: After four games, he projects to finish with 162 home runs and 648 RBI in 2013.

No player has ever hit five home runs in five games to open the season and that is the history Davis chases tonight as the Orioles take on the Minnesota Twins for the second game of a three game set in Baltimore.  Until then, here's video from Davis' heroics yesterday at Camden Yards:

Here's some more cool stats on Davis' start, courtesy of ESPN's great Stats & Info blog:

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/category/_/name/mlb-2

'Til next time, Go Birds!

Peter the Pie Guy Pie Academy

You too, can craft delectable pie art with the help of Yours Truly

Opening Sunday, April 7, 2013 and running until Sunday, June 16, 2013

It's Friday, March 29th which means it's almost that time of year again for High Pie Season at the Clark Fork River Market here in Missoula, MT.

The Clark Fork River Market begins five weeks from tomorrow, Saturday, May 4th.

In the meantime, beginning next week I will be offering Peter the Pie Guy Pie Academy classes in my kitchen on every Saturday and Sunday beginning April 7th and then switching to Sundays ONLY from May 4th running up until Sunday, June 16th.  So if you have any desire to learn the art of baking pies from Missoula's #1 Pie Artist, you'll have to take advantage of this academy for this limited three-month window only.

Here are the Pie Academy parameters:

• I will be teaching as many as/no more than three classes per day.  
• These classes will run for two hours.  
• Academy attendance will cost $50 for the class for one person 
• Groups will be limited to three people.  
• The two additional people in a given group can attend for an extra $25.  
• So for a group of two and/or three people you'd be looking at $75 or $100 respectively.  

What your payment entails:

• PPG Perfect Pie Crust instruction & construction
• The Original PPG Perfect Pie Crust Recipe in one of my three varieties: Traditional, Gluten-Free or Vegan
• One PPG original recipe of your choosing that we (you) will practice and work (bake) with.

I will provide all requisite baking ingredients and materials.  Therefore, you just show up ready to bake and I will be sure to send you home with a concoction of your own preference.

So to summarize, for one person you pay $50 and you get two recipes and two hours of pie crust/pie instruction and one pie (9") to take home.

To book a Pie Academy class, please contact me through this website's contact tab, or here by blog posting, or through Facebook per usual.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-the-Pie-Guy/146144544227

Scenes from the Pie Guy's Rhubarb Patch (March 28, 2013)

Lastly, please bear in mind the first Sunday, April 7th the Academy Kitchen/Pie Lab is already fully booked but there are plenty of open spots going forward.

Otherwise, my rhubarb patch is sprouting and I am beginning to warm up the pie machine...

Spring Greetings to all my pie peeps!

-PPG

a serving of cherry pie to go with your big dance

Well it’s that time of the year again people.  March Madness.  Yes, that illustrious time of the year where thirty-two games are played in the following two days as men and women alike across the country track scores and stream games online or head to the bars on their lunch breaks to get a taste of the Madness.  I definitely fall in with that crowd although with each passing year I find myself more and more out of touch with college basketball and the actual teams that are playing out on the floor come the beginning of tourney time.  Yet I should say I did win my bracket pool last year so I’m no sack of rocks when it comes to picking the winners.

  

Senior Guard Will Cherry will not be denied

This year marks the first year I haven’t watched a single college game all season until this past Saturday when I attended, for the second consecutive year, the Big Sky Conference Championship at the Adams Center here in Missoula.  My alma mater hosted, and the University of Montana Men’s basketball team didn’t disappoint.  Honestly, I could care less about Griz football, one of the best perks of successfully matriculating through the University of Montana is finally having a bona fide rooting interest for March Madness, i.e. a school capable of participating in the tournament given that my undergraduate institution (Bloomsburg University) is Division II.

This year’s Griz squad features two players, Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar, who are key to their success in winning the Big Sky Regular Season and Conference Championships as well as any future Big Dance success.  Cherry plays point guard, or the 1, while Jamar plays shooting guard, or the 2.  Truth be told, I intended to begin writing my blog a year ago at this time and the first blog was to be dedicated to the prowess of Cherry.  That never got off the ground for various reasons but one year later I have finally righted my blogging ship.  As far as the Griz go, one year later Jamar is now the ascending star of the program.  I say that simply because Cherry is now a senior and while he was largely responsible last year for all things backcourt (with help frontcourt from bigs Brian Qvale, Derek Selvig and Mathias Ward), this season he has battled the effects of a foot injury suffered in the preseason and has missed some action. 

Here is an ESPN profile piece on Cherry and his recovery:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8947545/montana-grizzlies-cherry-fights-adversity-college-basketball

Coach Tinkle advising Kareem Jamar on the fly

In his absence, Jamar handled the role of ‘star of the show’ well.  Good enough for second on the team in scoring (points per game).  Yet after another injury scare for Cherry against Davidson a few weeks back, the smooth as silk point guard from California has come back with a vengeance.  This was on full display in their two tournament games where Cherry totaled 39 points (to go along with four steals) in the two victories.  He also nailed a crucial three point shot to put the Griz back in command with a five point lead with little more than a minute remaining in the championship game against Weber State.  Not to be outdone, Jamar matched Cherry's scoring output in those two games and further contributed fifteen rebounds and nine assists.

Yet Cherry remains very much the straw that stirs the drink while Jamar is a more battle-tested weapon than the player last March who was still growing into a supporting backcourt role on the squad.  Now instead of the obvious comparisons to Batman and Robin, this dynamic duo is more like 1 and 1A.  As such, with these two stellar guards, who very much possess pro potential, the Griz stand a markedly better chance at making some noise Thursday night in San Jose when they take on the Orange of Syracuse University.

Montana’s team is coached by Wayne Tinkle, a former Griz graduate and player as well as owner of a lengthy overseas career playing hoops.  Tinkle came back to Missoula in 2007 and has built a program over the past seven years that is becoming something special going 141 -77 overall (.647) and 85-31 (.733) in Big Sky league action.  This was on display Saturday night against Weber State.  This year’s Griz squad is incredibly deep unlike years prior.  Their power forward and leading scorer (and Academic All-American) Mathias Ward is out for the year with a foot injury suffered against Davidson.  In his absence, players like Spencer Coleman, Michael Weisner and Kevin Henderson have stepped up to shoulder the load in the paint.

Under Tinkle’s daft leadership, the entire squad has overcome injury adversity this year and proven no worse for the wear as evidenced by their 19-1 Big Sky Conference record (25-6 overall).  Watching Tinkle roam the sideline is a sight to behold for a few reasons: one is that he is 6’10” and towers over everybody else on the court including the uniformed athletes.  Second is that he is a personable dude and treats his players like any great coach should – he can be seen on the sideline after a player makes a dumb play beginning to loudly admonish him, then he resorts to correcting the player’s technique or specific decision and then ends the process by wrapping his huge wing around his player’s shoulder, consoling, cajoling and reassuring him of his deserved place out on the court.

Pie Guy Photo Archive: The Griz celebrate the 2012 Big Sky Title

This approach has led to two consecutive Big Sky regular season and conference Championships and three Big Sky Championships/NCAA Tournament appearances in the past four years.  The only thing “Tinks” has yet to accomplish is to produce a magical Big Dance victory.  Last year the Griz were clobbered by the University of Wisconsin, known for their physical and stifling defense.  This year they draw Jim Boeheim and his Syracuse squad who have reached the tournament for the 30th time during Boeheim's tenure. 

Needless to say, the Griz have their work cut out for them but count me among the believers.  Guard play is absolutely critical when it comes to the tournament and specifically tournament upsets and while the Griz program may be devoid largely of the Division I talent floating around this tournament, Cherry and Jamar are very much among the most talented players in all of college basketball.

Here's a link to the local Missoula newspaper's feature on the dynamic duo:

http://missoulian.com/sports/college/montana/mens-basketball/montana-thunder-and-lightning-dynamic-backcourt-one-for-the-record/article_e30d2082-90f2-11e2-be2f-0019bb2963f4.html

Cherry at 6'1" has been named a Mid-Major All-American and Mid-Major Defensive All-AMerican, leading the Big Sky in steals in his sophomore and junior years) and he can get to the rack against the biggest of bigs and  he can also stop, pop and shoot against any opposing point charged with covering him.  Jamar at 6’5” has game that is similar to Lebron James in that he is just as comfortable setting up a teammate for an easy two as he is stroking a three or taking it hard to the glass.  Jamar also has a Carmelo Anthony-like smoothness when it comes to scoring and uses his physical frame to get shots off against guys who are often four or five inches taller.  These allusions to pro players (and two of the best) are no accident.  I will stop short of guaranteeing Cherry and Jamar’s NBA career success and surely they can go overseas to Panathinaikos, Zalgiris, CSKA Moscow or Real Madrid and any other of the talented European squads and have solid ten to fifteen year careers. 

Jamar taking it to the opposing D as Cherry watches on

But I will leave final judgment up to you my readers, college hoops fans and those in the national television audience who will tune in tomorrow night.  Cherry and Jamar are two players that Syracuse must neutralize if they hope to squash the underdog and advance to the second round.  In the end, I will make the safe assertion that I fully expect the Griz to make it a game and if it does come down to a final Montana possession, Syracuse (even in their famous 2-3 zone with man-to-man principles) will be hard pressed to stop Cherry and/or Jamar from getting the game-winning shot off. 

We shall see.  Thus the beauty of the sports and the beauty of March Madness.  Schools big and small across the nation meeting up to settle who's best out on the hardwood.  Until then, if you’re in Missoula, you can find me at Flipper’s sipping a PBR watching the big game.  Should be entertaining...

Go Griz!

-PPG

Ç, audioslave & the ides of march

Music plays an incredibly large role in my life.  Without knowing how to play a single note of anything on any instrument it still informs my approach to life on a daily basis. So much so that I earned my Master’s Degree in Literature at the University of Montana in large part by focusing my thesis project on the role music plays within literature.  It’s a passion that’s become a professional pursuit.  I listen to every kind of music and that diversity extends into my kitchen every Thursday and Friday nights when I’m baking for Saturday’s market.  Listening to Patsy Cline or Charlie Parker is a great way for me to relax starting off when my nerves are frayed from worrying about the task at hand.  As I work my way into a flow, I tend to usually cue up some harder music like Wu Tang or Jimi Hendrix and on those especially longer evenings, heavy doses of Black Sabbath or Audioslave.  I’ve seen all of those hard rock acts live actually, save for Jimi, and my life is much richer for it even if my hearing is not.  Of those performances one stands out the most if only for, shall we say, the murky circumstances surrounding that evening and this time of the year...

The following is an excerpt from a short story I read this past Saturday at the Crystal Theatre here in Missoula as part of the greater 6th Annual Ç (pronounced sa-dee-ya) literary arts journal release party:

I always get jittery come the beginning of March.  Perhaps I read Shakespeare at too early in life when my brain was still soft in the cotton-brained infancy of the emotional bewilderment that is pubescent American life.  Though with most of my early Shakespeare experiences, the meanings my 9th grade teacher Ms. Cadwallader tried to impress upon me were mostly lost on me until some years later.  The madness of March has perpetually imposed great consternation, trials and tribulations upon me.  One such experience dates back nearly ten years ago to the day when I was a punk 24 year old paralegal living and working in D.C. and otherwise trying desperately to break out of my shell. 

my boys

One place I always honed my shell-breaking was rock and roll music.  In those days my bread and butter was hard driving music, the louder and more aggressive the better.  My favorite band at that time was Audioslave.  Surely you all remember Audisolave.  They were comprised of the lead singer from Soundgarden, Chris Cornell matched with the musicians from the then newly defunct Rage Against The Machine, lead guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk.  As a devout fan of both of those two previous bands, Audioslave from the jump was a musical match made in heaven for me.   

This super group hooked up in the late summer of 2002 and dropped their self-titled debut later that fall to much fanfare in the world of hard rock.  Me and two of my best friends, ZigZag and Wilson, were a part of that wider audience thirsting for a new totally kickass record and performing act.  Audioslave, the album, was a platinum-selling masterpiece, blending driving and bullying rock with delicately soulful ballads for twelve tracks.  To put it mildly, this band was everything we dreamed it could be.  So when tour dates got set up, we naturally went ‘all in’ to attend. 

Our motley crew consisted of ZigZag & Dub.  Zigzag was my childhood friend and oldest child born to a Pakistani family living just outside of Baltimore.  His given name was the same as his father’s, Zulfigar, and while that is a truly great name, we could never comfortably abbreviate it, so we borrowed the nickname from the Wu Tang Clan’s Rza which was ‘Rulah ZigZagZig Allah’, and shortened it to ZigZag.  For a Muslim, ZigZag sure did love to drink and smoke.  Then we had Wilson, better known as Dub.  Dub and I hooked up while working at a firm just off DuPont Circle a few years prior.  Dub hailed from Blue Grass country, raised on the mother’s milk which around those parts meant none other than Kentucky Bourbon.  He was a decade my elder but if you got him wound up on the milk there was no telling where that spinning party top might stop.  As a child Dub was tossed out of elementary school for sipping moonshine on his lunch break – I kid you not. 

So, Audioslave first announced two exclusive shows before they would hit the road for an official tour later that spring.  The first was a Thursday night jam at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City while the second was appropriately placed in Philadelphia’s Industrial District at the Electric Factory.  As epic as the New York City show would be, we couldn’t really get the time off work so we decided it’d be easier to just bop up to Philly.  Dub was a professional concertgoer/ticket haggler so when I gave him the green light for me and ZigZag, it was only moments later he was printing off electronic tickets from his office computer.  Our three way date with rock and roll history was set for Friday, March 7^th.

One might say a harbinger of things to come was the night four days prior to the show when I slid my car into a curb making my way home from work in the driving snow.  It wasn’t too damaged but the alignment did require some shop time.  Graciously, my insurance agency comp’d me a replacement I was to pick up the day of the show.  So, on my lunch break that day I walked down to the rent a car spot to claim my ride.  I looked forward to and even romanticized the possibilities a rental car may afford me outside my daily functional reality of a Nissan Maxima.  Turns out they had me pegged for a goddamned Lincoln Continental, indeed befitting of its own continent.  At this point there was no turning back, I asked for compact economy and I got the four-door Executive.  While at the helm of this massive land beast at no point did I feel too big to fail. 

I cruised down L St feeling self-conscious and insecure.  When I got close to Wilson’s office I called up and requested he hightail it downstairs: “Dub my man, hustle your ass ‘cuz I’m afraid I’m going to need landing signals to parallel-park this mofo.”  With Willie in tow, I swerved down Connecticut Ave and did the same for Zulfigar at his office: “Yo Z’s, get down here pronto ‘cuz I may have to wait for you at the bus stop.”  After a few end arounds, a couple of hazards otherwise known as wayward hot dog cart vendors and only one roundabout, we had finally made it on the beltway to Philadelphia. 

Once we cleared the district, we took the first highway off ramp to pick up the few remaining outstanding rock and roll roadie essentials.  These essentials came in the form of a twelve pack of Miller High Life, two packs of smokes and a pack of cigars.  Before we could get to the register, Dub impatiently ripped open the fresh cigar pack and one’s end off , chewing it up, spitting it out then smiling maniacally as he made our final impulse grab of the afternoon - a 24 oz can of Steel Reserve.  He was positively (and oddly) giddy about that Steel Reserve.  Back now in the Executive, Dub as elder statesmen of our delegation took the back seat.  The distance between us from drivers to back seat was nearly six feet.  This gulf made me feel like we were transporting the head of state of rock and roll fandom and as ZigZag rode shotgun beside me I also felt as if I was now in some fucked up Driving Miss Daisy trip. 

We now had 140 miles to go in a sailboat with the wind at our backs.  After we hit full speed on the interstate, I lit up the twelfth letter and we all cracked open the first of our fresh cold ones to celebrate.  I leaned back to pass the freshly lit J to Wilson but he was so far away I had to throw it to him.  The trip up was some kind of exhilarating.  The best part aside from the celebratory smoking of everything smokable and the drinking of the cheap cold beer was rocking out to a host of albums from Vol. 6 Dylan Live 1964 to Audioslave to the Very Best of Deep Purple. 

Approximately two hours later we arrived triumphantly at the Electric Factory high on rock and roll and actually we were just high.  Once we got to the parking lot, we ripped our final few puffs of the Mary, had a quick cigarette and made our happy way into the club.  The Factory scene was grungy and intimate, just the way we liked it.

The crowd buzzed with anticipation chattering amongst themselves: How’d they sound in NYC last night? Did they cover any Rage or Soundgarden tracks?  Soon the rock gods came onstage heavy on swagger and light on banter.  Brad mashed the drum twice, before Tim struck the pulsating bass line followed by Tom leaping in the air as high as he could, synchronizing his descent back to earth with that of his right arm across the guitars face.  Cochise was kicking in and Cornell stoically paced the front of the stage. 

The show was incredible.  They played every song on the album and even covered Rush’s Working Man, and hell I don't even like Rush.  It was loud, it was intense, it was 90 minutes long and it was everything we hoped it could be.  Yet now the show was over and our night was just beginning...  

===============================================

I'd like to thank everybody for coming out this past weekend and if you weren't there, well you just missed a literary party like no other.  The 6th Annual Ç literary arts journal release party showcased twenty poets and writers, two photographers, one musician (thank you Eric Bostrum for setting the mood, kicking ass and also for covering Townes Van Zandt), one keg of beer as well as three tables of food catered by two of the best chefs in town who operate under the radar, Alex MacKay and Fred "The Machine Gun" Dealaman, Jr.  

Singer/Songwriter/Musician Eric Bostrum

The event also included original promotional posters painted by artist B Stew and most importantly 105 copies of the baddest literary journal around that you've probably never heard of unless you know me personally.  Last but not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center for sponsoring the event (we could not have it done it without your support) and the Rhino bar for donating a delicious keg of Blacksmith Brewery's Amber Ale.

Here's a bit of local press from the run-up to last weekend's party:

http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/literary-kegger/Content?oid=1732282

and some post-game from the previous year's event:
http://www.kpax.com/news/missoula-celebrates-poetry/

If you'd like to read the rest of the story, stay tuned to Pie In The (big) Sky for further details on Ç 7 to be published sometime this Summer 2013 under the editing stewardship of Alex MacKay.  More details to follow and if you'd like to submit a poem or a piece of prose, please send your submission or any questions to cedillavii@gmail.com.  Submission deadline is May 15, 2013.

Guest Editor, Dr. Casey Charles

Dr. Lisa Simon

Many thanks again to all who attended.  Thank you to all the readers who presented as I am honored to have shared the stage with all of your beautifully diverse and talented selves.  Tim, Casey, Lisa, Mark, Alex and myself cannot thank you all enough for contributing to such a special evening.

-PPG

while you were out drinking (the official PITS weekend in review, vol. 2): revisiting the women's suffrage movement

Suffragists marching down Pennsylvania Ave.

In case y'all missed it, this past weekend marked the 100th anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC.  The parade was staged from March 1st through March 3rd and highlighted the lack of political enfranchisement (i.e. voting and running for public office) for American women.  While the 19th Amendment wouldn't come until seven years later, this Parade served as one of the first nationally organized protests.

You can read further about it and see more cool pictures from the events of that weekend here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/100-years-ago-the-1913-womens-suffrage-parade/100465/

I bring this up because it is historically significant and important to note given the political stance of some of our less progressive federal and state representatives.  For example, we can look at the state of Texas where draconian family-planning budget cuts to planned parenthood are now thankfully being reconsidered.  Seems some conservatives are rethinking their defunding stance in the name of fiscal sanity and it strikes me as funny how social conservatives parade as fiscal hawks:

"In the fiscal crunch of 2011, the Legislature cut the state’s family-planning budget by two-thirds, with some lawmakers claiming that they were defunding the “abortion industry.”  Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, found that more than 50 family-planning clinics had closed statewide as a result.

Now, amid estimates that the cuts could lead to 24,000 additional 2014-15 births at a cost to taxpayers of $273 million,  lawmakers are seeking a way to restore financing without ruffling feathers."

You can read the entire article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/texas-may-restore-some-family-planning-budget-cuts.html?_r=1&

Beyond protecting women and their reproductive rights and the long term fiscal benefits of such a political stance, we've also recently had to endure the congressional debate for reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.  This measure was mercifully approved, most graciously advanced by the wholly reluctant and largely culturally backwards House of Representatives last week.

It's important to raise these issues because living in a patriarchal society as we do, it is easy to dismiss claims about discrimination against women as invalid or otherwise commonplace and therefore, not newsworthy.  Which is exactly what this fine Princeton administrative official does here, in defending the University's policy to not publish the findings of a study that find 1 in 6 women at Princeton claim they have been sexually assaulted:

"I don't know that there is a real benefit to releasing it," Sandoval added. "I think if we had found something very different from the national average, that would be one thing, because that's a real story. A story that Princeton's rates of students who have been assaulted is on line with national averages is really not a story, but I mean in this news environment, people would make a big deal about it."

No, of course not Ms. Sandoval, routine sexual assaults are never newsworthy?!  The results were ultimately leaked outside of the official administrative channels because the University seems entirely disinclined to actually raise awareness.  These are precisely the conditions that contribute to social and cultural amnesia when it comes to addressing social justice in modern day America.

You can read the report of the survey's findings and see the actual data summary here:

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2013/03/04/32954/

Lastly, the above report lends itself to further exploration into the issue of sexual violence on college campuses and there are notable events happening right here at the University of Montana that I will have to follow up on later.  

For now, time is running out on this blog post so I leave you with this final graphic for y'all to consider the present state of affairs for women's earnings compared to their male counterparts in present-day America. 

While great progress has certainly been made in the past 100 years, there are clearly more steps to take to advance the protection of Women's rights and aid their total enfranchisement in the United States of America today and into the future.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

-PPG

jukin with jacoby

"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." - Emma Goldman

jacoby mid-squirrel

While the late 19th century/early 20th century revolutionary political activist was certainly not talking about American football in the above-referenced passage, long since the days of Storyville and Harlem, dancing has always played the role of subversion in American culture.  Though football has never been known to question much in the way of authority, dancing in the spirit of true postmodern expression serves to revere, revise or mock authority (and usually all three simultaneously), or at least peers and/or predecessors.

I bring this up because it was announced yesterday that Baltimore Ravens wide receiver and New Orleans native Jacoby Jones, fresh off his starring role in the Ravens Superbowl victory in his hometown, would be one of the sixteen contestants to star in ABC's Dancing With The Stars.  In case you weren't aware, I was born in Baltimore and despite at present the great distance from my homeland I remain a proud and loyal Baltimore sports fan.  Rest assured this will not be the last mention of anything Ravens or Orioles related in this space.

So in honor of the MVP-calibur #12, we're here to showcase his electric moves and hopefully he can incorporate a few of them into his Stars competition.  I know now that PITS will be covering (and watching) Dancing with the Stars for the first time ever.  Stay tuned for that but until then, let's get on with Mr. Jones' bad self:

This first dance is popularly known as the Chopper City Juke but is arguably a 1990's New Orleans dance known as the Beanie Weanie.  The first video features Jones busting a move post-touchdown:

The next video is an example of the Beanie Weanie as demonstrated by this random dude, whom I thank for the tutorial:

This following video is the official video for the Choppa City Juke and offers viewers a how-to:

After viewing it easy to understand one's confusion as to which dance Jones is performing.  There is also confusion in the nomenclature.  The Choppa City Juke was popularized in the NFL by Mike Sims-Walker and Chris Johnson, both natives of Orlando.  Choppa City refers to the city of New Orleans so I remain at a loss how Orlando can claim the Choppa City Juke at least with the Choppa City prefix but I'll defer to any of my readers to properly enlighten me in this regard.  As such, Sims-Walker and Johnson have both performed this dance throughout their careers.  After the Philadelphia game where Jones did the above dance, he was quoted as saying afterwards “I kind of did something like that when I played in Tampa. It was a little different twist to it...(t)hat’s how everybody knows I’m happy. I come in and I’m singing and dancing and I go about my day.”*  Choppa City Juke or Beanie Weenie?  I'll let you the readers decide...

Regardless, there are plenty of examples for us to choose from of the Juke, be it from New Orleans or Orlando, and they are all awesome.

So speaking of awesome and back to Jones, here is the entire catalog of his touchdowns and dances in the Baltimore Ravens 2012-2013 Championship Season condensed into slightly less than three minutes of viewing pleasure.  Enjoy.

You will notice that he starts out jukin against the Eagles, appropriating Deion Sanders' Primetime touchdown dance in reverence to the Hall of Famer against Sanders' old Dallas squad, while overall employing several variations on the juke theme, most notably this one here with mocking effect:

This comes against the Ravens biggest rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Jones' touchdown was ultimately the difference in the game and his celebratory post-touchdown tour de force begins as the Choppa City Juke and then midstream incorporates The Bennie Biggle Wiggle made popular (in NFL circles anyway) by Steelers receiver Antonio Brown before reverting back to finish and flourish with the Juke.  Brown, as the rest of Pittsburgh that day, must've felt sick watching this.  I, on the other hand, will never grow tired of the video or the memory.

Of all of his scores and dances the coolest to me is the Giants touchdown dance where he shakes his lower body along with the upper body and arms herky jerk.  This touchdown play however did not stand as it was ultimately overruled via replay.  No matter, style points here at pie in the (big) sky count and they will on Dancing as well.  You'll also notice that after scoring on the Mile High Miracle under such drastic circumstances, all Jacoby could muster was a simple jump bump with fellow teammate Anquan Boldin.  Lastly, Jones' final touchdown and dance of the Baltimore Ravens season is most appropriately the Squirrel Dance which served as fitting tribute to Ray Lewis, who made that dance famous over the course of his seventeen year Hall of Fame career.  Maybe you've seen that one once or twice by now.

So there you have it.  Jones' touchdowns and dances served to honor the great ones like Neon Deon and belittle his competitors like the Pittsburgh Steelers who struggled all season and failed to qualify for the playoffs.  Meanwhile, Jacoby's team won the Vince Lombardi Trophy and thrust the colorful Mr.  Jones into the national spotlight.  The spotlight as bright as it was on the first Sunday evening in February and the one awaiting him on national television beginning Monday, March 18th.  Let's see if Jacoby's moves on the gridiron translate to the dance floor.  We here at PITS certainly believe in #12 and will be watching, rooting and reporting accordingly.

-PPG

*http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Late-For-Work-919-McCoy-Says-Ref-Asked-For-Fantasy-Help-At-Ravens-Game/e51fd808-7422-4879-9d64-c18276f9e2d0

while you were out drinking (the official PITS weekend in review, vol. 1)

and then this happened:

"A prominent Brooklyn assemblyman defended himself on Monday after attracting attention for wearing blackface to a party he hosted this weekend to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim.

The assemblyman, Dov Hikind, a Democrat who has been a longtime power broker in the Orthodox Jewish community, wore an Afro wig, orange jersey, sunglasses and brown makeup or face paint as part of a costume that Mr. Hikind said represented a “black basketball player.”'

Read the whole story below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/nyregion/hikind-defends-wearing-blackface-to-purim-party.html?_r=0

celebrating el hajj malik el shabazz & black history month

On February 21, 1965, less than two months from his 40^th birthday and a year removed from his pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X was gunned down at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.  He was in the process of writing a new chapter of his life post-hajj, which is precisely why he was taken out.  The world is worse off for his loss considering what a more politically seasoned Malcolm X, as venerable statesman and illustrious champion of his people, could have done and helped to achieve by influencing and shaping domestic and international politics over the past 48 years.  Despite his life being tragically cut short, in 39 years he accomplished many things yet his two greatest legacies were reconnecting the American Negro to his/her African past and for restoring the collective dignity and self-respect of his downtrodden people.   

It’s why boxer Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammed Ali, why poet LeRoi Jones changed his name to Amiri Baraka and moved uptown to start the Black Arts Repertory Theatre School in Harlem after his assasination.  The Black Arts movement spread across the country and with it, the Black Power Movement.  It’s what he’s getting at in this short video clip below:

The essence of Malcolm’s argument here is that it was time for the American black population to wake up, shake off the yoke of ideological and physical oppression of white supremacy, discard the dysfunctional legacy of self-loathing and self-sabotage brought about by their slaved and jim crowed past, reconnect with the motherland of Africa and stand up to their white oppressors.

Malcolm Little went from petty street criminal (Detroit Red) to Nation of Islam (NOI) spokesperson (Malcolm X) to champion and redeemer of black humanity (El-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz).  He was the late bloomer who shone so bright and so quickly and so unrepentantly in opposition to the powers that be that he ultimately paid for this rapid ascension with his life.  He was a great man worthy of veneration and scholarship.  

I credit Malcolm with cracking my untapped and unsuspecting psyche when first reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1964) in 9th grade.  He turned me on to thinking critically though I wouldn’t have been able to articulate it as such if you had asked me then.  He turned me on simply by looking at things from a different perspective.  Since then, I’ve spent some years studying and training myself to think critically and engage society in a discursive manner.  I have made some progress but there is always more to learn and more to do and that is what I would stress to any student of mine studying in any academic realm or plying any artisan trade.  Never stop learning. As the late great Max Roach (and let us never forget Max Roach) was known for saying, you got to put in that time.  In other words, devotion is not borne overnight.

What specifically registered for me when I first read the few speeches of his I could get my hands on was his assertion that there is a “corrupt, vicious and hypocritical system that has castrated the black man” here in the United States of America.  Malcolm's words here were as bold and true as the sun is hot and bright.  The force of clarity he spoke with always impressed me and this clarity indicated to me he was well-read even if he was not an “accomplished” professional intellectual. Back then, there weren’t many accomplished African American intellectuals.  This being the Post-war consensus Era of McCarthyism of the 1950's that turned into the hosing of protesters and firebombing of black children in churches of the civil rights era of the 1960's.  It is important here to note that Duke University, the home of Mark Anthony Neal (a contemporary scholar worthy of your attention) is currently celebrating its 50^th year of having black students in the student body!!!(!!!) http://spotlight.duke.edu/50years  I mention this to reiterate to the younger generation that American social progress that may be taken for granted in 2013 is only most recent.  Separate and unequal was the America Malcolm grew up in, that our parents and/or grandparents grew up in and this is the same country we were born into.  It is this collective conscious of American history that informs our society culturally today whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

(1899)

What African Americans have had to overcome historically and strictly symbolically-speaking, to restore their pride and dignity and what alternately passed for white entertainment is disgusting, degrading and impressive in its scope: The old minstrel show of Jim Crow, minstrelsy in general, the Black Sambo, shucking and jiving, Stepin Fetchit - all images depicting the black as a dandy, but the dandy as dumb and comically (i.e. commercially) valuable.  Behold the magical coon!  This uniquely American history is as vast as it is virtually unacknowledged today.  Many white folks don’t consider the racial history of America.  Americans have been aided and abetted by a power structure that prefers our history wiped clean like a blank slate lest we remember the original sin that America was conceived upon.  Whitewashing is a political act the State enacts against its citizens (and therein citizens sometimes engage in themselves with encouragement from the State) and it is up to artists to reinforce the images of a history that must never be forgotten.  It is who we are for better and for worse.  Most Americans want to live in a colorblind society – yet for every genuine expression of people hoping for such, there is also an ideological scheme at work that plays to such naïveté, that stirs racial resentment even further for the "how dare they" aspect of re-conjuring these offensive images and implicit (mis)characterizations.  Make no mistake, this is an orchestrated effort against the citizenry to quell any legitimate dissent all the while maintaining the status quo which simply means to keep their money and political influence in perpetuity.

the dancing sambo (1940)

If any citizen assumes the ideology of the State nonpareil, then one is nothing more than a tool of the state, a mouthpiece and a lackey flag waver – I believe nothing in life should be accepted nonpareil – except for love.  And even that will get you into all kinds of trouble as evidenced by the grim reality of Malcolm’s demise 48 years ago to the day. Make no mistake, Malcolm was not born a hater, he merely and strategically matched a society’s propensity to hate him and his people commensurately.  It is also important to distinguish that reacting is the not the same as provoking.  The following passage is taken from a speech given by Malcolm on February 14, 1965, one week before his assassination:

"Why, he's advocating violence!" Isn't that what they say? Every time you pick up your newspaper, you see where one of these things has written into it that I'm advocating violence. I have never advocated any violence. I've only said that Black people who are the victims of organized violence perpetrated upon us by the Klan, the Citizens' Council, and many other forms, we should defend ourselves. And when I say that we should defend ourselves against the violence of others, they use their press skillfully to make the world think that I'm calling on violence, period. I wouldn't call on anybody to be violent without a cause. But I think the Black man in this country, above and beyond people all over the world, will be more justified when he stands up and starts to protect himself, no matter how many necks he has to break and heads he has to crack.”

Don’t get it twisted.  The mock outrage of the whites of those times convinced no one outside of blind racial allegiance or (senti)mental weakness.  As Malcolm said, if he was as violent as they claimed him to be, he would’ve been put in jail.    

One of the most admirable aspects of Malcolm’s personality was his love of books and passion for knowledge.  His desire to read even in the dim light of his jail cell remains a strong political statement following in a tradition of fellow African American social and political activists.  This pathway to knowledge through literacy has always been central to the struggle of African American people since the days of the prohibition of literacy amongst the slave population.  The best example being the story of the great Abolitionist Frederick Douglass who taught himself how to read as outlined in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845).  To bring things current – fundamentally capitalist as we Americans are, we find ourselves in a results oriented society that doesn’t always value the process of knowledge acquisition rather merely aggrandizing the economic bottom line.  Today we teach our children to tests instead of teaching better ways to empower them through independent problem-solving skills. 

Too often in American society, fellow citizens follow only the bouncing ball of consumer culture, get caught up in the solipsism of immediate gratification; of material wealth and petty drama and internalize everything the way an infant wants things their way, right now.  American society mandates more exquisite consumers not more exquisite thinkers.  This is something that needs to change if our society should continue to improve for the next generation. 

There is little subtlety and nuance, if any, in satisfying the immediacy of urges, from smartphones to fast food to pornography to the media and its slash and burn news cycle. And this is the cultural climate in which our children come of age today.  Make no mistake, all of these “conveniences” come at a cost.  Costs associated in how we mentally calibrate and physically function in relation to them i.e. how we’ve been socialized as well as costs in terms of the method and means of production.  How can we as Americans sulk over hourly rates (and I can give you a good answer but I won’t) when just below us geographically in our own hemisphere lies a nation so economically disadvantaged such as Haiti where men and women subsist on less than a dollar a day.  Perspective is always key and perspective is one thing that the powers that be don’t want you to maintain. They want to blind you with their razzle dazzle, the bling bling, the streets paved with gold.  Now of course there is some truth to that archetypal “rags to riches” narrative, moreso than any racist and genocidal narrative such as Manifest Destiny. 

Another Malcolm gem: "I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands even if he’s wrong than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil".  In essence, this is the complicated racial history of the U.S.A.  America was founded on lofty words yet with sundry practices that contradict outright those words declaring independence much less the universal rights of man (ladies?) vis a vis its citizens.  “Democracy equals hypocrisy” as again X would say.  For what its worth I don’t believe American democracy as a project is irrevocably broken but the point he makes is clear enough.  He boldly highlighted these obvious contradictions on a highly public and national level at a time when no one outside of Martin Luther King would.

State ideology, replete with signs, songs and slogans, has been etched into the collective conscious of this county and a large part of this symbolism centers around white supremacy.  This ideology is only constructed by the State to leverage one arbitrary group of citizens over another and for what? For profit.  So for me, to listen to Malcolm and to read his autobiography, I didn’t know the system back then but his rhetoric had me on his side.  He seemed more logical and real to me than the hooded dudes burning his family’s house down.  

Harlem

In a culture where symbolism informs us and we as adults are not properly equipped to critically engage it or at least acknowledge that fact, certain groups rose from the vacuum of Malcolm’s leadership to carry the torch of waking their country and its people up.  His legacy carried on through the actions of people that came out of that era, artists and thinkers and foot soldiers in the Black Arts and Black Power Movement.  What those twin movements were about was not simply about wielding shotguns, it was more about autonomous control of the black community – black self-determination.  It was a movement that Malcolm embodied when he called for blacks to stand up for themselves, to not turn the other cheek, and to have some dignity and self-respect.  Because at that time, American society was ruled on segregated measures that openly exploited the black community, as it did all other such non-heteronormative communities and were never to be acknowledged as any kind of normative (and normative as defined by that State).  There was no room for gendered, racial or sexual minorities in the first two hundred years of American history.  

 

So in this context and on this day in American history and in honor of Black History Month, it’s important to remember that reading is very much a political act, studying history is a political act.  Writing new histories is a political act to combat against the unyielding whitewashing of history.  So while we all may not be out there standing in the way of the Keystone pipeline or picketing the White House trying to force President Obama’s hand on climate change legislation or the practice of surveillance drone killings, there are still yet other ways to affect social and political change.  We must make these facts associated with the legacy of Malcolm X remain common knowledge, to not let them fall in the dustbins of our collective conscious going forward because doing so would be doing a great disservice to not only Malcolm but to ourselves as American citizens.  We must take our diverse collective history, tragic, triumphant, hopeful and maintain it and develop it further into a strength.   

We must never become debilitated by fear of judgment as it relates to the discourse of race relations in America.  If you're scared, say you're scared and speak up for yourself.  To America’s credit, nobody talks race as often and as well as we do.  In this country, thanks in major part to the efforts of Malcolm X, the honorable Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and poets like Amiri Baraka and other intellectuals like Cornel West, Melissa Harris-Perry and Michael Eric Dyson, we have been able to at least have conversations.  Clearly we are stronger than ever as we stand together and it is with this love that I write this on the occasion of Malcolm’s passing.  Love can overcome all but love has to be fought for like anything else in life, along with always fighting for the basic tenets of universal human dignity and respect.  Because as always there is still so much work yet to be done and we surely have not arrived as a society nor should we ever stop trying no matter the protests from those who just want us to leave things well enough alone.  No struggle, no progress.

Thanks for reading.

PPG

ps - Here is Malcolm's 'By Any Means Necessary' Speech given on June 28, 1964 where he announces the creation of the Organization for Afro-American Unity (OAAU).  This speech came roughly one month after his pilgrimage to Mecca at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem where he would be murdered the following February.

The full text of this speech can be found here:
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1964-malcolm-x-s-speech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity