“… he slipped into the first shadows trying to hide a shame which was in the public domain and which everyone commented upon on the street, it gave birth to an anonymous song which the whole country knew except him, even the parrots sang it in the courtyards …
“wild parrots learned it from tame parrots, budgies and mockingbirds learned it from them and they carried it off in flocks beyond his measureless realm of gloom, and in all the skies of the nation one could hear at dusk that unanimous voice of fleeting multitudes who sang …
“an endless song to which everybody even the parrots added verses to mock the security services of the state who tried to capture it, military patrols in full battle dress broke down courtyard doors and shot down the subversive parrots on their perches, they threw whole bushels of parakeets alive to the dogs, a state of siege was declared in an attempt to extirpate the enemy song so that no one would discover what everybody knew…..”
That passage, from Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel-Prize-winning Colombian magical realist who died yesterday, describes a dictator’s futile attempts to suppress a song that criticized and lampooned him. I always found that passage inspiring to me as a blogger (or venomous ankle-biter) … and it seems to have fallen on me (admin Vern) to put together this weekend’s open thread based on “Gabo” Garcia Marquez quotes, possibly because I named my third son after the novelist.
EVERYONE remembers the celebrated first sentence of his seminal masterpiece Cien Años de Soldad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) – one of the most famous first sentences which I’ll type from memory:
Many years later, as he stood facing the firing squad, Colonel Auerliano Buendía remembered that distant afternoon when his father took him to look for ice.
Got no time to write a big obituary, too busy on a Huntington Beach piece and an OC Water District piece, and you can find great obits elsewhere… let’s instead enjoy a bunch of wise sayings from the late King of Imagination:
Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry.
He who awaits much can expect little.
There is always something left to love.
Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability.
It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.
A true friend is the one who holds your hand and touches your heart.
All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.
Nothing in this world was more difficult than love.
Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.
A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth
Crazy people are not crazy if one accepts their reasoning.
Age isn’t how old you are but how old you feel.
No matter what, nobody can take away the dances you’ve already had.
Be calm. God awaits you at the door.
Just because someone does not love you as you want, it does not mean that you do not love with all his being.
Humanity, like armies in the field, advances at the speed of the slowest.
The only regret I will have in dying is if it is not for love.
A person doesn’t die when he should but when he can.
The heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good.
No medicine cures what happiness cannot.
OH. And here’s another Vern YouTube — this is me playing “Bumblebee Boogie” which 40’s big-band pianist Jack Fina wrote based on material from Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous “Flight of the Bumblebee.” I used to play the original “Flight of the Bumblebee, arranged by Rachmaninov, and people would always come up to me and say “You should learn Bumblebee Boogie instead.” I would tell them to go to hell and die, because I do the original piece. But then I finally checked it out, and decided they were right – Jack Fina’s piece is better than Rimsky-Korsakov … especially after I added a few improvements. This was one of Liberace’s favorites too…
Oh, and did I mention – I’m doing another concert next Sunday afternoon, April 27, 4-6pm, at the Huntington Beach Central Library – my Amazing Birthday Concert – more details to come! Hope to see you there…
Cien Años is my second-favorite novel after Catch-22. I’ve heard that the English translation is excellent, but I still wish that my conversational Spanish were advanced enough that I could enjoy it in the original. Do they teach the work of this man, who after all spent much of his life as a Mexican, in our Latino-majority high schools? They really should. He was only the second-greatest Spanish-language writer after Cervantes — and I’m being generous to Cervantes in thinking that he hasn’t been supplanted.
I should read the English version to see how the magic realism is reflected. Many consider Love in the Time of Cholera his masterpiece, which I haven’t read it yet. As someone said, the fictional town of Macondo is mourning but its yellow butterflies are freely flying in honor of Garcia Marquez.
BBRW, if you’re around here this weekend, could you please upload this video of Macondo 85 cumpleaños de Gabo? Thanks.
Academic studies catch up with what we plebians see every day, locally and elsewhere-
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/the-astounding-power-of–economic-elites-190548250.html
US agribuiz contributed ~$170,000 to congressman trying to block mandatory #GMO labeling http://www.hutchnews.com/opinion/columnists/being-gma-s-man-dangerous-for-pompeo/article_63fc71d1-ad39-5411-b3cb-0e0f6e029c6d.html …
This is the same guy who introduced a federal bill stopping states from labeling GMOs. Here is his Washington number. You can leave him a message ( 202) 225-6216.
The U.S. Is an Oligarchy
A new study finds that rich and powerful interest groups have a much greater impact on government policy than the majority of citizens.
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/04/15/the_us_is_an_oligarchy.html
Interesting in depth article on K Thomas.
Who made this Frankenstein Monster? ACLU? Bleeding heart liberals?
Which article?
sorry I left off a sentence. The article was in the newspaper.
By TERI SFORZA / STAFF WRITERS
Published: April 19, 2014 Updated: April 21, 2014 6:03 a.m.
Online petitions sometimes work :
More than 63,000 people sent emails to six of America’s biggest companies—including Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, McDonald’s, and Dunkin’ Brands—asking them to go deforestation-free.
It’s working! Three companies—Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, and Procter & Gamble—just announced new palm oil commitments that protect all forests and all carbon-rich peatlands. This is a tremendous step forward for the climate, tropical forests, and endangered species, and we couldn’t do it without you.
Together, we are transforming the palm oil industry.
Sincerely,
Sharon Smith signature
Sharon Smith
Campaign Manager
Tropical Forest & Climate Initiative
Union of Concerned Scientists
P.S. Join the more than 63,000 people who have asked America’s biggest companies to go deforestation-free. Tell Dunkin’ Brands, McDonald’s, and PepsiCo that now is the time to adopt strong deforestation-free and peat-free palm oil policies!
. . . and sometimes they don’t. I had really high hopes for the unBelibers.
Ooops – somebody is fudgin’ the ACA numbers.
Georgia insurers received more than 220,000 applications for health coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s exchange as of the official federal deadline of March 31, state officials said Wednesday.
Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, though, said premiums have been received for only 107,581 of those policies – less than half of “enrollees.”
“Many Georgians completed the application process by the deadline, but have yet to pay for the coverage,” Hudgens said in a statement Wednesday.
People signed up as the law demands, but are having trouble paying. How is that “fudging the numbers”? Lots of people have trouble paying their premiums.
Transfer wealth from the non-wealthy to the wealthy for 30+ years and this is the sort of thing you’d expect.
Vern said (on another post) –
“This guy you refer to is from a strong liberal Democratic district, but running against a good progressive, and picking up votes from Republicans, independents, and more conservative Democrats, he handily squashed the progressive, even though the progressive more faithfully represents the values of his district.”
That is exactly what Prop 14 was advertised as accomplishing – to diminish extreme partisanship. So you are wrong Vern, the ultra liberal did not represent the views of his/her district – or he/she would have been elected. He/she represented the views of the ultra liberal (progressive) wing of the dem party – which is a minority of the voting population of the district.
Of any interest?-
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-that-fishy-smell-the-feds-corrupt-policies-2014-04-23?siteid=yhoof2