Mickey Z

Cool Observer

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Pete's Gun

Posted by Mickey Z on 10/24 at 04:23 AM

I was horrified at the thought of starting junior high school because of the ‘gang’ fights and all the violence I heard about at the new school I would be attending. Crazy...we were afraid of getting hurt and afraid of backing down from a bully...Image...I thought at the time, it would be easier being a girl, though some ladies fought in the park across the street from school. [The right side of my head feels worst than the left side...should not have gone back to bed]

Being the youngest in the neighborhood, the older dudes entertained themselves by terrorizing me while walking home from school. One large guy who lifted weights, and showed it, even accused me of stealing his stick...a stick I found on the ground in the woods, I guess he was bad enough to claim the woods as his own...I later became respected by these critters because of my athletic ability...suddenly everyone wanted me on their team because they wanted to win and I wanted to be accepted. Gandhi is usually remembered for peaceful action, but somewhere he stated...fight back. If I would prefer to fight back, I would want this activity to be over very quickly.

The horror, the anxiety, the insanity of fighting can seem like a lifetime even when it’s only 15 minutes...no winners, all losers and only a stopping of violence...and right now the world needs Pete’s gun…

Posted by joe of maine on from 10/24 at 08:48 AM

Ummm, I dunno Mick. Sounds like youse guys shoulda notified an NGO and then formed a discussion circle to hash it out nonviolently. (Captcha sez ‘reason.’)

The shithole of a city where I grew up had plenty of violence and racism, but I didn’t look like easy prey so was able to stay clear of the worst (except for one brief period in 7th grade). The consistently violent elements of that world were the cops and the football team, though different ‘hoods could be dangerous.

The Series could go either way, but I think Red Sox in 6...5 if they’re lucky.

Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 10/24 at 09:41 AM

Picked up World War Z by Albert Brooks to read on the train yesterday, and I’m throughly riveted by it. Truly, an account of a war we are all too unprepared for. Let us hope this remains in the realm of “fiction”... speaking of which, I saw a copy of “A Patriot’s History of the United States” on sale for three dollars in the bookstore downstairs. While I don’t want to contribute to it financially, I almost want to buy it up so that it won’t be there for other people to read. Such small passive activism…

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 10/24 at 11:09 AM

Hello Expendables...from a damp Astoria.

Joe: A quote from a favorite movie of mine, Rumblefish: “Blind terror in a fight can easily pass for courage.”

Zen: If the Rockies can somehow beat Beckett in Fenway tonight, they have a good chance. Otherwise, it’s hard to pick against the Sox (as much as I hate to admit and accept it).

James: These days, it all seems like “small passive activism,” huh?

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/24 at 12:39 PM

Someone might beat Beckett? Funny, I was also in the middle of Malloy trilogy… and also trying to make sense of this after that other book:

http://www.tofutheveganzombie.com/

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 10/24 at 12:49 PM

They say Beckett’s last words were “Fight, fight, fight.” (Samuel, not Josh)

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/24 at 05:36 PM

Hearing Mickey mention rumblefish reminded me of a story. It’s got a bit of name-dropping in it, not the intention sorry.

After I graduated in ‘98 my first teaching gig was to do camps, I’d decided. I went over to Calgary, Canada for two fun years.

My girlfriend there worked in film production and Calagary was now a big location for cheaper shoots that needed the ‘Western look’ or mountains. As a result I ended up meeting a bunch of famous people when visiting my girl or attending functions with her.

I’m a Hong Kong film nut and my girlfriend was a native speaker of Cantonese so on one shoot the director, Tim Hunter, wanted us to show him around Chinatown and help look for laser discs as he tuned out ot be a huge collector.

He was a nice guy and we had a lot in common so he asked me and Rita to come to dinner with him and his friend that night.

Before the dinner I did a quick net search on Tim and saw, among other things, that he had directed the pilot for Beverly Hills 90210. I immediately thought of the funniest urban myth about TV from my teens.

I arrived at the dinner and after the introductions it turned out that the ‘friend’ was S. E. Hinton, auother of Rubmlefish and The Outsiders. She was a down to earth approachable person who had happened to work withy Coppola too.

As the dinner wound down and the conversations became relaxed there were any number of great questions I could thrown in, somany stories to be heard ..but I could only think of one thing ...

“Tim, it it true that Tori Spelling auditioned for BH 90210 under a false name or with a wig or something, no one knew who she was, and got on from her own merit even though her father dissaproved?”

“Let me put it this way Andy, when you walk into Aaron Spelling’s office there is a 20 ft high oil paintin of her on the wall behind his chair.”

Posted by Andy on from Shanghai 10/24 at 10:31 PM

hello all.

great stories.

i found this link and although it is not a major help it is a way to send free rice through the UN food program, skive[1] and improve your vocab at the same time…

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

[1]do u use that word in america? to ‘skive’ means to avoid work either by taking a long time to do anything, or taking excessive breaks or (a favourite of mine) wandering around with a piece of paper in your hand. there are of course many other ways to ‘skive’. procrastination, prevarication, delay, short-term disappearance, blaming technology - these are all vital skills learned by every schoolchild in preparation for the banal jobs that most of them shall be going to do when they leave.

another usage would be to ‘skive off’, which means to phone in sick when there is nothing wrong with you, which is also known as ‘taking a sickie’

if you don’t use the word what is the closest american equivalent?

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/25 at 06:55 AM

Hi Andy, James, Mickey, joe, Zen and all.

michael...in the usa we call people who people who
pretend to be productive but are not, CEOs.

An equivalent word to “skive” might be “malinger”. Many here cannot malinger because they would not be paid and therefore their families would starve. Things are a lot different in the usa than the rest of the industrialized world. Our economic system insures that a certain percentage will be kept unemployed. That strikes fear into the hearts of many.

Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 10/25 at 07:34 AM

that is the case here too (and almost everywhere) RMJ. however there are still some jobs you can do it and i am sure there are in the US too.

in fact, if the economic system forces you to work in a job that is harming the planet and creating adverse cohnditions in society one might consider skiving or malingering a civic duty.

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/25 at 07:43 AM

Good morning Mickey, Michael, Zen, James, Andy, Joe.

One of the problems that sticks me like a thorn in the butt...the divisions, the economic divisions, the class discriminatory, corrupt hierarchies...within all this man-made social idiocy...where meaningful communication is all but non-existent...people of higher incomes and of great wealth, don’t even know or consider relating to the experiences of those struggling simply to get by...the human, social disconnectedness is a man-made horror that a civilized society would NOT experience. Time for Pete’s gun...!

Posted by joe of maine on from 10/25 at 09:34 AM

Hello again, Expendables...from overcast Astoria. Welcome back, Andy.

Michael: I’ve never heard the word skive but I guess the American equivalent might be slack.

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/25 at 09:57 AM

oh yeah - back to the future, professor strickland, “you’re a slacker mcfly”

etc

Posted by michael on from scotland 10/25 at 10:02 AM

Does anyone read JG Ballard?

Most people know Empire of the Sun, but he mainly does sci-fi books about urban hell and the decline of the environment etc.

Anyway, he has a book calld Cocaine Nights where everyone is living in isolated gated communitys so the anti-hero decides that to save human society he needs to go on a crime-as-performance-art spree in said gated communities to shake them up.

I dont know why that just came to mind reading the posts but, anyway, it’s a good read.

Posted by Andy on from Shanghai 10/25 at 10:40 AM

I read his Concrete Island awhile ago… really cool and disturbing like few other s.f. or other type of story.

Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 10/25 at 11:10 AM

Good stuff from Parenti:
http://tinyurl.com/3ye9jr

Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 10/25 at 02:19 PM

16 yrs old—6’2”—175—cement mixer/block and brick layer deliver/set-up man—holder of 2 concussions at the time including o/n hospitalization—organized tackle football player in Catholic League—grades 4-8 .. then 9-12 no sub/divs—played tight end/d-end .. crushed right hand—hair-line fractured hip—BUT MA SAID IT WAS OK—THE WORLD IS TUFF OUT THERE—DON’T BACK DOWN—NEVER QUIT—so..... NOOGIE AND JIMMY—2 local dead-enders from GOOSE-TOWN—where my pa’s lumber-biz was located—pick me up DOWNTOWN in the royal blue—51’-FORD CONVERTIBLE—LOW-RIDER—w/ LAKE PIPES—big whitewalls --- and spotless WHITE LEATHER interior—“GET IN THE BACK—RALPHIE-BOY (nickname)...... there’s some MEXICANAS—from MORTON—who are messin’ with us and our CHICAS ..... —Here’s your TIRE IRON ......” ....... note—Noogie was a 5’7”—147#—GOLDENGLOVES BOXER—w/ a flattened nose—droopin eyez—ready for action stance—w/a pack of LUCKY’S—roll-tucked in his left-sleeve white t-shirt—blue-jeaned—super-high/roll cuff w/ motor-cycle boots—and a spit-curl—danglin’ from his slicked back pompidoro—nuff said’’’’—JIMMY was as sh*tless as me—smaller— (Noogie was his hero --)—but had a mouth .. and had been the thru the routine before—Our GLADIATOR AGAINST THEIRS !!!!! ------ Oh Jesus --- WHY’D THEY PICK ME --- ????? ......ALL MY SCHTICK—was dumb luck—clumsiness—MY GENE POOL MADE ME BIG FOR MY PEER GROUP—I COULD TAKE A HIT—cause’ I was not sharp enuf’ to duck—sway—or RUN AWAY IN THE FIRST PLACE—a very GERMANIC/LOW BRAU—farmhard/kind of guy—w/ my bottom teeth chipped to this day from asphalt/take-away-ball!! ..........TO BE CONTINUED ....... no .. not dead—just neuron-fire deprived ----- causin’ MS—(get use to it) doublevision—part of the territory MAN --- ALLPART OF LIFE IS A SERIES OF CONSTANT ADJUSTMENTS KIND OF THANG’ .... smile .. richiedeadhead ..

Posted by Richie on from N FT MYERS FL 10/25 at 07:37 PM