Jane Goodall... Reason for Hope

Jane Goodall speaks in Bill Moyers Journal
Watch the interview.

BILL MOYERS: When you and David Greybeard were communing, what language were you speaking?


JANE GOODALL: Well, we didn't. I tried always not to use chimp language in the wild because we really do try and look through a window. And now we know how dangerous it is to, you know, transmit disease from us to them. So we keep further away, which is sad for me.

BILL MOYERS: But I ask the question, because it seemed to me, watching the documentary, watching the films, is that there was some language being spoken, some prehistory language. Means of communication without words that communicated even feelings.

JANE GOODALL: This was this wonderful situation when right in the early days, I was following David Greybeard. And I thought I'd lost him in a tangle of undergrowth. And I found him sitting as though he was waiting, maybe he was. He was on his own. I don't know. And I picked up this red palm nut and held it out on my palm. And he turned his face away. So, I held my palm closer, and then he turned; he looked directly into my eyes. He reached out-- hold out your hand with a nut on it. He took it. He didn't want it. He dropped it. But at the same time, he very gently squeezed my fingers, which is how a chimp reassures. So, there was this communication. He understood that I was acting in good faith. He didn't want it, but he wanted me to reassure me that he understood. So, we understood each other without the use of words.

Urgent Action: Stop the Execution of Zeynab Jalalian!

Urgent Action: Stop another execution!
"Ms. Zeinab Jalalian, a 27 years old member of a Kurdish party (PKK), has received the death sentence based on allegations of “Apostasy” and being a member of Kurdish group “PKK”.

She was arrested in Kermanshah city, Iran by security forces and transferred to Sepah Pasdaran’s (Guardians of the Revolution) intelligence office. Revolution court in Kermanshah city conducted a brief trial, lasting only a few minutes. Based on her membership of a Kurdistan political party she was accused of Fighting God and was given the death penalty.
She ran away from home at 10, as her family did not agree with her going to school and so it was that she joined PKK. She has never used a gun.
More...

Tomatoes!

As I’m reading my students’ plays for Experimental Playwriting course at SNL-Depaul University, I’m noticing a tremendous progress on their use of technique, structure and creativity. Students were expected to learn from multi-disciplined play texts, screenings, discussions and exercises. Most of them had never written a play, nor read or seen one. The explosion of their creativity through the course was astonishing! Now their plays are amazingly skillful!
In one of in-class writing exercises I asked them to write a direct-address monologue that uses the audience as a specific person or persons. Kevin’s monologue is one of the good ones!


"Tomatoes"
By Kevin Evanski

Louis:
"When, I came through the yard; I could see someone pulled them from the vines. It looked like someone took a hacksaw to them. Trampled around in there like it was a sand box. Well, my garden is no beach, and I know who it was that was in there to. She is always drooling over the tomatoes. She just couldn’t wait, probably wanted to use them for that stinky sauce I smell cooking all the time.

My tomatoes used for sauce, Huh! I won the first prize for quality tomatoes in the quality tomato championship. She did not know I am from the quality tomato capital. And, she uses my tomatoes for her stinky, garlicky, onion sauce. My tomatoes are for eating fresh, not boiled down into garlicky onion sauce. I know it was her, I seen the footprints, tiny ones.

Maybe I will put those crappy plum tomatoes out there; see how she likes that, for her precious sauce. She didn’t even have the decency to wait until they were fully ripe. I can hear her now, “Louis’s tomatoes aren’t all that good”. Anyone who is worth there salt in tomato growing knows that you have to wait until they are fully ripened. I can smell that repulsive sauce from across the street. I don’t want any of her crappy sauce.

What does she know, she better keep her dam hands off my tomatoes.

Like I have time to grow tomatoes for the whole neighborhood… What a joke, I just don’t have the time or the room to grow all these tomatoes. She comes, takes my tomatoes, and then starts bragging about them to the whole neighborhood, I can’t have all these people wanting my tomatoes.

I asked her for some of her onions last season, NO she said.

She offered me squash, I don’t like squash. I needed onions.

You think that she would invite me over for sauce, nope. Never invited me over for sauce. Who wants that stinking sauce anyway, I don’t want that sauce. I wouldn’t have gone if she did ask me. She just better stay out of my garden. NO! NO onions for me. One little onion I asked her for, one stinking little onion, and she said no. But now, but now she is after my tomatoes, sneaking in here. I should go out there and pull all the tomatoes right now.

Oh, there they are, I see her and her stinking garlic sauce-eating friends. Hey! Keep your dam hands off my tomatoes."
17 November 2009

Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith in Bill Moyers Journal.
"While politicians and the media war over "the public option" and "bending the cost curve," acclaimed actress-playwright Anna Deavere Smith and her one-woman play "LET ME DOWN EASY" give voice to questions of life and death, sickness and healthcare."
More about Anna...
Anna in Four American Characters

Thanksgiving? or Thanks Taking?

I received this email today:
"Achomawi Indians, Chemakum Indians, Chukchansi Indians, Clayoquot Indians, Coast Salish Indians, Cowichan Indians, Haida Indians, Hupa Indians, Hesquiat Indians, Karok Indians, Klamath Indians, Koskimo Indians, Kwakiutl Indians, Lummi Indians Makah Indians, Nootka Indians, Puget SoundSalish Indians, Quileute Indians, Quinault Indians, Cochiti Indians,

Havasupai Indians Hopi Indians Hualapai Indians Isleta Indians, Jemez Indians,Jicarilla Indians, Keresan Indians, Laguna Indians, Maricopa Indians, Mohave Indians, Navajo Indians, Pima Indians, Qahatika Indians, Taos Indians,Tewa Indians, Tigua Indians, Tohono O'Odham, Indians Yuma, Indians White,

Mountain Apache Indian, Tribe Yavapai Indians, Zuñi Indians,Cahuilla Indians, Chemehuevi Indians, Comanche Indians, Cupeño Indians, Diegueño Indians ,Mono Indians, Northern Paiute Indians, Shoshonean Indians, Washo Indians,

Arapaho Indians, Arikara Indians, Assiniboine Indians, Atsina Indians, Brule Indians, Cheyenne Indians, Chipewyan Indians, Cree Indians, Crow Indians, Dakota Indians, Hidatsa Indians, Kainah Indians, Mandan Indians, Oglala Indians, Osage Indians, Oto Indians, Piegan Indians, Ponca Indians, Quapaw Indians, Sarsi Indians, Siksika Indians, Teton Indians, Wichita Indians, Indians, Cayuse, Chinookan Indians, Kalispel Indians,

Klikitat Indians, Kutenai Indians, Nespelim Indians, Nez Perce Indians, Salish Indians, Salishan Indians, Spokane Indians, Tlakluit Indians, Umatilla Indians, Walla Walla Indians, Yakama Indians, Kato Indians, Maidu Indians, Miwok Indians, Pomo Indians, Wailaki Indians, Wintun Indians, Yokuts Indians and Yuki Indians."

Sankofa -

Reach Back into Your rich Past.

This Land is your Land

"Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land", which is regularly sung in American schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk..."
Tear the Fascists Down

pina bausch mon amour

A short film on Pina Baush, the German dancer!