Enjoying the hell out of being here at Blue Mountain Center. The most remarkable part of a retreat like this is the ability to be just as private and busy as you want, but to be able to emerge and find really fun, interesting new friends who want to talk and hang out too. We’ve been having a good deal of rain (all day today, very dreary) but that’s been good for my writing. I have a link to give for a very interesting piece about developments in Bolivia forwarded to me by a friend. And I have a few pictures to tantalize you with… I took the half hour walk up to Lookout Mountain on Monday in the crystal clear sunshine (just like it was on Sept. 11 5 years ago when I was here too) and napped in the sun on a big granite slab, wrote in my journal and soaked up some nature. And then there are was my encounter with Bambi on my way up and my fascination with the turning leaves on my way down… see below for those. Also, below the pics I’ll post my Table of Contents to celebrate that I have the first eight chapters in solid first draft form…
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I’m far away from my normal routines, enjoying a beautiful stay at Blue Mountain Center in New York’s Adirondacks. Some beautiful pictures are below. But here’s a quick note on blocking roads, increasingly the practical form of a “social sit-down” spreading across the world. The Argentinean piqueteros made great use of it a few years ago, and the Bolivians used it to bring down four presidents in two years. Now the Mexicans are filling the streets of Mexico City, Oaxaca and other parts of the country, refusing to return to the docility that the ruling elite has built their power on for all these years. Check out a good piece from La Jornada by way of Narco News. Another interesting article popped up on the increasingly indispensable Asia Times today, regarding Hezbollah’s successful interception of Israeli battlefield communications, concluding that the the impunity that has ruled First World/Third World warfare up to the present is no longer possible. A notable leveling has taken place, proven in the recent conflict, which will either lead to more diplomacy or more extreme violence… guess which one the current crop of war criminals will opt for? Anyway, here’s a couple of shots from Castle Rock which is a half hour climb from Blue Mtn. Lake’s shore.
This picture shows where BMC is, on the adjacent Eagle Lake.
Got in to NY the past Monday night. A ridiculous flight plan through Phoenix and Chicago finally got me to Newark at 11:30. Waited a while for a bus and rode in to midtown Manhattan with a Chinese fellow who regaled me with tales of his family’s financial deals at home. He’s here to study business at NYU for a year and a half and then go back and join the ascendent Chinese bourgeoisie who are rapaciously exploiting every contract and development they can insert themselves into… News from Mexico continues to keep us all breathless with curiosity and hope. Just got sent a link to a very impressive website in Oaxaca. Here, for those of you who have visited Oaxaca as a tourist, is a shot that you may recognize, just to the side of the Zocalo, littered with the camping gear of the occupying teachers after they were attacked in July by police and troops. For fans of historic photos of Mexican revolutionaries this pic will resonate too:
Visiting New York for a week is always a blast, even if it means bleeding money everywhere you go. I’m staying with Chris W., one of my oldest friends, and it’s been sweet to hang out and talk late into the night, drinking and commiserating over the craziness of our respective lives and the larger world we’re still kicking in… here we are last night in a bar in the lower East Side after the talk I gave at Bluestockings on my forthcoming book:
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 NEW 2nd EDITION NOW AVAILABLE! Buy one here (Pluto Press, Spring 2025)  NOW AVAILABLE! Buy one here (Spuyten Duyvil, October 2023)  Shift Happens! Critical Mass at 20 (2012)  Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-78 (2011)  Nowtopia (2008)  After the Deluge (2004)  The Political Edge (2004)  Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration (2002)  Reclaiming San Francisco: History Culture Politics (1998)  Bad Attitude: The Processed World Anthology (1990)  Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco's Mission Bay (2nd edition: 2011) All books available at chriscarlsson.com/stuff. |
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