The Tradition of Political Blogs
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 04/05/2006 - 18:30When I dropped out of college, I moved to New York to write socially relevant poetry as I supported myself working with computers. Computers took up more and more of my time as the poetry diminished. Now, over twenty-five years later, my writing comes back to gain new focus for me.
In college, I was told that there are three books you must read if you wish to be a serious writer. Ezra Pound’s The ABC of Reading. T.S. Elliot’s The Sacred Wood and Denise Levertov’s Light Up the Cave. They still sit on the floor next to me and I turn to them from time to time.
The other day, I thumbed through The Sacred Wood and found this passage: “In English writing we seldom speak of tradition, though we occasionally apply its name in deploring its absence. We cannot refer to ‘the tradition’ or to ‘a tradition’; at most, we employ the adjective in saying that the poetry of So-and-so is ‘traditional’ or even ‘too traditional.’ Seldom, perhaps, does the word appear except in a phrase of censure.”
Current blogging
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 04/04/2006 - 18:16March was a difficult month for me. I only got six blog posts up. I continue to be swamped this month, but I’m trying hard to do better with getting blog posts up here.
What has been taking up some of my time is posting on other blogs, so I thought I would highlight comments I’ve made to three different diaries over on MyDD.
Last week, I participated in a bloggers conference call with Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel of the DSCC and DCCC. There was a discussion about it here which wasn’t very impressed. I added my comments here where I talked about my disappointment.
The role of blogs in Connecticut Local Politics
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/02/2006 - 21:27(The following is a response to a comment to a post on Connecticut Local Politics. I think it stands pretty well as a blog post in and of itself.)
While I disagree considerably with turfgrrl’s assessment that ‘blogs, and the internet in general have very little effect on political campaigns, and especially here in CT’, I want to applaud her on her post. It is well thought out and the sort of stuff I wish we saw more of here.
With that, let me make various comments. First and foremost, I don’t view blogs and the internet is substantially different for other modes of communication. Turfgrrl is right to note that while the MSM is picking up more stories online, they’ve always picked up stories from “inside” contacts. Perhaps this gets to a little bit of how the Internet and blogs are helping turn politics inside out.
Thanks for the Roller skates
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 03/19/2006 - 22:03“Thanks for the roller skates”, she said as she climbed on the train back to school. I smiled to myself, knowing that I had given her something valuable.
I tried to remember back to my 16th birthday. My life wasn’t particularly happy at that time. Birthdays always came with some vague hope of something special happening, some unexpected gift that would make everything all right. They were always followed by a sense of disappointment. When I was 16, the tensions around the house had only gotten worse. My parents had separated. My older brothers had set off in hopes of finding themselves, and I was home, trying to care for my mother and spending too much time arguing with my sister.
Mairead, my eldest daughter was off at school on her 16th birthday. She came home for vacation while I was on the road and I ended up only getting a little time to spend with her. She has always been outwardly appreciative of the gifts she received and I’m sure she said thanks for various tangible objects she had received, but this was different.
As we got ready to head off to the train station, she fought with her sister. Her sister wanted more attention than Mairead was able to give. How well I knew that feeling. Sometimes it seems like that sums up my whole life. She was sitting on the couch next to me and I talked about some of the things that I had gone through during my divorce.
Participatory Democracy
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 03/12/2006 - 22:29(Cross posted at Greater Democracy)
In 1906, John Philip Sousa told congress, "These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy ... in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord left. The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape."
My daughters' piano teacher mentioned this at a piano party sometime back, and it has always stuck with me. She went on to cite the piano party as an example of how Sousa was wrong. This came back to me again on Saturday, as Miranda performed at a Young Musician’s Festival in Fairfield.
