Havana Noir: A Short Review by Rickey Pittman Having read the New Orleans and Miami editions of the Noir series, I chose Havana Noir (Akashic Books, Achy Obeias, Editor) as the next edition to read and comment upon. Chaussures ASICS Gel Glorify pour Femme cheap albion gold I enjoyed this collection of 17 pieces of short fiction tremendously. nike air max norge nettbutikk I was especially interested in Havana Noir for several personal reasons. Here are three: 1) I learned the Spanish I know from Cubanos in Naples, Florida. nike air max I also used to listen to the Cuban radio station which I could pick up clearly in my car. bns gold albion silver 2) I personally knew and interviewed many Cuban immigrants, many of them emigres after Castro’s takeover, many of them from the Mariel Boatlift, all of them with stories that would break your heart. 3) I’ve read of Hemingway’s life in Cuba, read gripping novels like Los Gusanos, and several nonfiction books related to the Mariel Boatlift, Cuba’s history, etc. buy albion gold This anthology of stories will give you insights into Cuba, its history and culture, both past and present, into the lives of the privileged and the struggles and a revelation of the hardships of most of its citizens.

Centered on Havana, the tone is as dark as noir can and should be, the feelings it evokes are intense, and an appreciation for the Cuban writers selected developed. buy albion silver I have thought about creating a reader’s guide for this anthology, focusing on vocabulary and allusions that might be lost on many readers. The editor says this in her Introduction: “Havana has recently existed only as myth: a garden of delights, a vortex of tarantism . . .the capital site of a social experiment in which humans somehow deny the worst of our natures . . . 2015 new balance 530 cheap albion gold . cheap air jordans uk albion gold She says that need “inevitably turns the human heart feral. buy albion gold In this Havana, crime and violence, though officially vanquished by revolutionary decree, are wistfully quotidian and vicious.” The collection creates the feeling that Cubans live in an especially malevolent naturalism where the apolitical “protagonists are alienated and at risk, caught in ethical quandaries outside of their control, and driven to the very edge . cheap albion silver .

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Lee Cody has written a wonderful book entitled, The 14th Denial: A Civil Rights Memoir, edited by yours truly. nike pas cher cheap albion gold The book tells the story of how in the midst of the volatile times surrounding the Civil Rights Movement, two police detectives solved one of our nation’s worst hate crimes and paid for it with their careers.

Lee Cody, Jr. New Balance buty dziecięce worked with the Duval County Sheriff’s Office for seven years, reaching the rank of Detective Sgt. asics buty meskie gel sonoma albion silver The Jacksonville native helped solve one of Northeast Florida’s worst hate crimes, but he paid for it with his career. nike air max 90 pas cher buy albion gold In the years since, he has collected a mountain of evidence that reveals a horrifying conspiracy, a tale of blatant racism and denial of the rights promised citizens by the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. new balance md 1500 homme This book tells the true story of the murder of Jonnie Mae Chappell, a thirty-five-year-old African-American mother of ten. Air Jordan 13 Retro buy albion gold As told on Oprah, Dateline, Court T.V.

cheap albion silver and the History Channel, the story also reveals a massive conspiracy on the part of law enforcement and government officials and prosecutors—both state and federal—and even members of the FBI who were determined to cover up Ms. Adidas Superstar Schoenen Dames cheap albion gold Chappell’s murder, the governmental corruption and obstruction of justice, and the civil rights violations that Sgt. asics gel lyte 3 donna albion gold Cody and other detectives discovered. Maglia Anthony Davis buy albion silver This is a story that America needs to hear.

AN INTERVIEW WITH BOBBY BRIDGER . . buy albion gold . I’ve admired and followed the career of Bobby Bridger for some time. Well-known and respected nationally and abroad, Bridger is one of those multi-talented achievers one meets only once in a while. He is a singer, poet, songwriter, storyteller, artist, teacher—obviously brilliant and talented, but one who is not afraid of hard work, and as you’ll see in this interview, he works with a commitment that few have for any cause. Here are my questions and his responses. RP: Tell the readers about your current or upcoming tours. BB: I’ve clocked nearly 12,000 miles since late May…first to S. Colorado to perform Seekers of the Fleece and Lakota for contestants in a television pilot called The Real American Cowboy. Then I headed east to Knoxville, Tennessee for the annual Western Writers of America convention to take part in a symposium about songwriting. After Tennessee I headed to Lexington, Kentucky for a performance of Seekers of the Fleece at the University of Kentucky followed by three more wonderful weeks in Appalachia. After that I returned to Texas briefly before heading to Omaha to perform Seekers of the Fleece at the Joslyn Art Museum as part of their current western expansion exhibition. I’ve been home since mid-August working on the fine-tuning of my latest book. I head out again in early October. This time I head to Lone Pine, California for the annual Lone Pine, Film Festival. After Lone Pine, I head up to the Lake Tahoe region for gigs in Grass Valley and then in Carson City, Nevada. I don’t travel nearly as much these days as I did twenty years ago. RP: How many songs have you written? Share your songwriting techniques- i.e., how is a song written? Words or melody first? How do you get ideas for songs? BB: Those are all questions that you write a book about, but I’ll try to break it down simply. First, I have no idea how many songs I’ve written; when I was about 20 I think I completed the first one that I felt like I might sing in public. That was 45 years and hundreds of songs –plus, jingles, documentary and feature film scores, co-written with other songwriters, contributions to other playwright’s musicals, etc., I long ago stopped keeping track of such things. I usually noodle until I find a melody and then –and I’m a stickler for this- match the meter of the language with the meter of the melody. I find this leads me to the words I’m searching for. buy albion gold So many of my songs were written from historical events and impressions of historical characters I’ve had to carry the idea, or notion for a song around in my head for years structuring and restructuring it until it gushes out when I find its context in the narrative I’m constructing. RP: You’re not only a songwriter, you’re an author. Give us a brief synopsis of your book on William F. Cody. Do you have other books planned? BB: Well, my career as an author is definitely related to my songwriting. Back in the early 70s when I completed Part One of A Ballad of the West, Seekers of the Fleece, an English professor at the University of Texas suggested that I should write vignettes to accompany my epic ballads to explain to my audience that these weren’t simply tall tales I was making up but instead documented historical events that I had re-interpreted as epic Homeric verse and long narrative folk songs. Those vignettes kept expanding and in 1980 1982 were published alongside of the verse and songs of A Ballad of the West in a classy art magazine called Four Winds. This led to a publishing contract that produced a lovely hardback, slip-cased, limited edition as A Ballad of the West. St. Augustine Press published a paperback of this in 1991. cheap albion silver But the writing kept expanding –particularly with Part Two of A Ballad of the West, Pahaska. Pahaska, of course, is a Lakota word which means long hair, and was what the Sioux called William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. But my writing career was definitely launched by my best friend of thirty years, the author of Custer Died for Your Sins, God is Red, and scores of other books, the late Vine Deloria, Jr. Vine included essays I wrote in important anthologies about western literary lions John G. Neihardt and Frank Waters and introduced my work to incredible audiences. albion gold In 1996 Vine took my manuscript to the University of Texas Press and seven years later that multiply re-worked text was published as Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull: Inventing the Wild West. The book won Foreword magazine’s Gold Award as the Best Biography of 2002. In 2009 the University of Texas Press also published my autobiography, Bridger. cheap albion gold The book I’m working on now is my first with a so-called “commercial house” and is titled Where the Tall Grass Grows: The Mythological Legacy of the American West and it will be published by Fulcrum Publishing. RP: Share your history and interest in art. What mediums do you use? BB: Someone once said art is something about which there is much to learn and little to teach. cheap albion gold I think that speaks volumes about painting and sculpture –the forms of visual arts that most appeal to me. I’ve been serious about painting since I was 11 years old. I got my first set of oils and brushes when I was 12. I went to college with the intention of taking the first steps to a career as an artist and I think I’ve accomplished that objective –only I had to do it with multiple mediums. Mediums? An old friend recently described me as thinking that ceramic sculpture would “save the world” back in the mid-1960s. albion silver That’s an accurate description I’m sure. But I was also making records in Nashville during that same period. After college I turned to wood sculpture and I still do that. buy albion silver But painting always has and continues to infatuate me and I’m sure I’ll be looking at the color around me and thinking about a painting the day I die. RP: How does Native American history, ideas and imagery affect your work? BB: Since the mid-1960s those aspects of American Indian culture have been a cornerstone of my work. Even though my space fantasy musical, Aldebaran and the Falling Star is on the surface set on the ocean and in space, the concepts explored in the musical stem from Lakota religion and philosophy. I’ve spent most of adult life either in the company of bohemian Euroamericans or in the company of Indians. These associations are explored in depth in Where the Tall Grass Grows: A Mythological Legacy of the American West, my latest book that I mentioned earlier. I’ll just let that stand as a teaser for folks to encourage them to read the book when it is published in Summer, 2011. RP: What future projects do you have planned? BB: In May I announced that after 38 years of performances all over the world I am retiring performances of my one man theatrical shows of A Ballad of the West. I intend to continue writing books, painting and sculpting, writing and performing folk music. But at 65 I feel I can no longer properly honor the mountain men and horse and buffalo culture depicted in A Ballad of the West. My voice is still strong and so far I haven’t had to lower my keys, but when the one man shows are perfect it is like venturing out on a tight rope and doing a yoga headstand while polishing a diamond. Sixty-five year-olds aren’t as good as doing such things as even a strong 55 year-old. I’ve reached the time to make a dignified exit with performing the ballads. As for the future, I have been offered a small character part in a feature film called Fancydancer. It was written and will be directed by a long-time Quapaw Indian brother/friend named JR Mathews and is about contemporary American Indian culture. I’m also in the pre-production stages to work on a new studio album. RP: Is there anything else you wish to say to my readers? BB: Just to be strong, or as the Lakota say, “Hoka Hey!” Most believe that Hoka Hey means “it’s a good day to die”, and that is in fact one interpretation.

Recently, I was fortunate that Todd Owens granted me an interview. Todd is Commander of the Army of Trans Mississippi for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Every Halloween weekend, you can find him and others at the Battle of Mansfield State Park, http://www.mansfieldbattlefield.org/state.asp, where they will “reenact” field hospital procedures in the true spirit of Halloween and a haunted battlefield. In this interview, Todd shares a bit of information he has learned regarding Civil War medicine. 1. What misconceptions do people have about Civil War medicine and physicians? The main misconception is that the doctors were butchers, operating without any type of medicine to help relieve the pain. cheap albion gold 2. albion silver What was the job of a nurse in the Civil War? The main job of a nurse was the same as it is today, the care and comfort of the wounded soldiers. albion gold 3. Tell me about your persona and the work of a Civil War Doctor. I do the persona of the War Between the States undertaker/dentist. The late 1850 was when the use of embalming came into it’s heyday. buy albion gold The first well known case of the use of an embalmer was when the son of Union President Abraham Lincoln died in the White House. cheap albion silver President Lincoln would go to the tomb of his son, the workers would remove the lid of the vault and it is said that the President would sit there for hours just staring at the face of his dead son. 4. cheap albion gold How did the Confederate medical system differ from that of the Yankees? There was not that much difference in the medical system between the North and the South. The only main difference was that the South had a Dentist Corps. The North did not see the advantage to having dentist in the ranks. 5. buy albion silver What are some comments regarding your presentation you’ve heard from people that are interesting? The most often made comment is that they did not realize that there were undertakers during the war. I have even, while doing living history events, made several of the students on the school days sick to their stomachs when doing my demonstrations. buy albion gold That is when you know that you are doing something so good that the people think it is real.

A Short Review of The Borderland: A Novel of Texas by Edwin Shrake (Hyperion Pub.) This is the second novel of Edwin Shrake that I’ve read. adidas stan smith mid uomo The Los Angeles Times named it “one of the ten best books of 2000.” If you like reading of the West, and especially if you have an interest in Texas history, you’ll like this.

Strong at points in sexual matters, the prose is vivid, the characters are full of life and energy, and the plot held my attention. It is historical fiction in some aspects, and the style and strength of the novel reminded me of Larry McMurtry’s and of Cormac McCarthy’s westerns. Mochilas Kanken Classic Laced with epigraphs, some of which are quotations from Texas related letters and individuals, Shrake takes us into the world and mind of the Comanche and the early Texans and into the inner world of the characters. adidas yeezy boost 750 męskie Reading the novel is an object lesson in the political intrigue and conflict (such as the enmity between Houston and Lamar) that helped form Texas. One forgotten and rather shameful episode that is woven into the plot is Lamar’s dealings with Native Americans and the expulsion of the Cherokees. This was of interest to me because I work in the Texas Cherokees into my Texas history program. Overall, I’d have to say this is a fine novel. Here are a couple of quotes I liked: About the city of Houston: “But when it was hot, which was most of the year, the city lying on the same latitude as Calcutta, mosquitoes and flies rose out of the bayou in black curtains, and dogs rolled over, their tongues hanging out, and died in the sun . . . There were thirty-six saloons in Houston City . . Under Armour Pas Cher .There was not one bank or church in the town.” (71) The novel is full of little historical details and terms I’ve never encountered–sure to keep me busy looking them up as I go back through to firm up my new vocabulary. nike air max 90 hombre The prologue has this incident: “In February of 1839 a monster cyclone formed in the Pacific a Thousand miles off the coast of Sinaloa and whirled counterclockwise toward the continent, tearing the ocean in waves eighty feet high that smashed over the beach at the village of Teacapan and flung boats into the mountains. Every human within five miles of Teacapan was drowned. The storm collided with the Sierras at the ten-thousand foot peak of Yerba Buena. new balance 1300 acquisto Wind ripped goats out of the rocks and hurled them down into the jungle. Wooden crosses that had been planted by angels flew away from mountain passes they had hoarded longer than memory. Settlements of Indians vanished forever. nike air max italian camo The storm poured seven feet of rain on the ancient town of Zacatecas, eight thousand feet high at the head of a valley. Barefoot friars huddled and prayed with their human and animal flocks inside the slate-roof buildings of the college as the silver mines flooded and thousands perished in the tunnels.

Hailstones the size of grapefruits crushed the mud and timber breastworks of the rebels at Guanajuato and left them to be slaughtered by the soldiers of one-legged president Santa Anna . .

. .” Reading such prose is an experience.