this one about AIDS education in southern Africa.

It doesn't touch me as much as the other issue, which was more about exploring the premise of visual anthropology. However, one anecdote stood out:

In Xai Xai, a small village in Mozambique, A MINER'S TALE (a film about a migrant laborer who is HIV+ and returning to his village after 13 years. He is torn between not infecting his senior wife with HIV and the tradition that men *must* inseminate their wives and give them more children. The elders of the village are adamant that he must do his traditional duty and give his wife more children despite the fact that he is HIV+) was screened on the same night as HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS.

A MINER'S TALE was better received than HARRY POTTER. In doing follow-up interviews with residents of Xai Xai, the anthropologists tracking the film found that "while they [Xai Xai residents] identified with Joaquim from A MINER'S TALE, they felt confused about the message of HARRY POTTER. Audience members tried to make a connection between the films about HIV and harry Potter. A few people worried that the Italian government (which sponsored both screenings) was somehow involved in forcing them to consult with western practitioners...It could be argued that local interpretations of Harry Potter were linked to understandings about the relationship between illness, black magic & cultural imperialism in the form of national health policies, advocacy of modern hosptials and the undermining of traditional healers."

There are a couple of articles that make reference to the 1980 film THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY. I've never seen it: can someone clue me in on what the film is about (and what the politics of and behind the film were)?

an anthology of writings by young women of color on feminism. I was helping a friend put her books on the shelf she just bought and she handed me a thick book.

"have you read this?" she asked and insisted that I borrow it. At first, I was thinking that I don't have time to read anything that's not either escapist fiction or studies related to any of my writing projects. But I accepted it and dutifully stuck it in my bag.

I started reading it the other day and it is AWESOME!!!

I also just finished reading the zine "Rad Dad" which is also fairly good, although I wish it were longer.

finally got to Inconsolable last week.

just finished re-reading Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. brilliant play.

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tenderfoot zine * mamaphiles!

I brought home books from my mother, hit the bookstore, and hit the library. I am reading *everything*, it feels like.

Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father. Very illuminating so far, for someone who is my senator and for whom I'd like to vote for president. I hope a lot of people read it as he becomes more visible. It's all too tempting to think of POC in public service as being "just like whites." Obama makes it clear that race issues affect him just as much as the next person -- he didn't get some kind of "get out of racism free" card.

Mary Pipher's Letters to a Young Therapist. I don't agree with everything she says -- I think she doesn't give enough weight to biologically based mental illness -- but it's an illuminating book.

Neil Gaiman and more Neil Gaiman, because I finally got curious.

minding the body: women writers on body and soul, a collection of essays. Excellent essay on breast cancer.

My very first Jasper Fforde novel, followed by my second one. As soon as I can pry it out of B's hands, that is. A friend decided that it was time for me to be introduced to Fforde.

A Lesson While Dying. Excellent so far. The story of a young man wrongly convicted of a murder in the American South. The local teacher is asked by the young man's aunt to teach him "to be a man," because during the trial, the defense lawyer claims that he shouldn't be convicted because "he is no more a man than a hog." Fascinating conflict within the teacher.

Now all I need is someone else to do the housework while I sit on my butt and read and eat bonbons.

Right now, I'm reading "Diane Arbus: Revelations" a huge volume of
her photos and essays about her work. Now that I'm a mother, I'm enthralled by her: She was not only an awesome photographer, but also a mother and, for quite a bit of her life, a single mother. She took her younger daughter Amy with her on a lot of shoots, especially to Coney Island to photograph the freaks. In the one existing biography of Arbus, Amy recalled having mixed feelings about her mom's work until high school when one of her teachers showed Arbus's work
and pointed out what made it so significant. (I'm sure before then, Amy just thought, "Why do we have to keep seeing all these weird people? Why can't we do something *normal* instead?")

And now Amy Arbus is also a photographer. She made a name for herself by photographing the freaky bohos and artists of the LES in the early 80s. Hmmmm...

So far I haven't found anything about Arbus and motherhood, but this book is HUGE and so I'm sure I eventually will.

Sometimes paper is the only thing that will listen to you.

i recently finished Aimee Bender's new short story collection Willful Creatures. i liked it, but not as much as her novel, An Invisible Sign of My Own, which is my favorite novel from the past 5 years, hands down. even though i didn't love this book, she's definitely worth a read - her writing is wholly imaginative & unexpected, and unlike any other author i can think of.

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tenderfoot zine * mamaphiles!

I just read "Running With Scissors," Augusten Burroughs, which I'm one of the last people to read, I think-- it was a much-buzzed about memoir a few years ago, and deservedly so.
It made me think that I just don't have the memory to ever be a good memoirist!

I also read Davy Rothbart's book of short stories, "The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas," which was excellent, perfect for me right now since I'm thinking about short fiction a lot but getting intimidated by my lack of formal training or wildly interesting life on which to draw. Davy's been all around the country and it shows, but his stories are really about the people we don't see much in mainstream fiction, just like zines are (he's one of the guys behind "Found" zine) which is inspiring to me, in a lot of ways.

which is more of a how-to-do your own zine and less a history of zines, which I thought it might be.

But she has samples of zine pages throughout her book. One is a gust column by Hillary Carlip in which she quotes a teenage girl, who wrote, "Sometimes paper is the only thing that will listen to you."

Today, especially, that quote strikes me. A lot.

I read about a book a week, and the last really good one was Brick Lane. I just finished Minarets and wasn't as thrilled. Now I'm reading a book about a new mom in Los Angeles who used to be a war correspondent -- I thought it sounded okay but the rich women are starting to bore me. I just can't relate to all that money. (She inherits 10 acres on the beach in Malibu, that should have been a clue for me to stay away.)

Still reading the same issue of "Visual Anthropology Review":

Visual anthropologist Asen Balikci filmed the Netsilik Inuit in 1959-1960. At the time, these Inuit were still primarily using harpoon & spear, although rifles had entered the area 40 years earlier, which dramatically changed their way of living:

"The seals killed with a rifle were not shared [whereas the ones killed by harpoon and spear had been]; they belonged [exclusively] to the hunter." (Balicki, 1995)

"One month after our shoot among the Netsilik, large cargo planes brought building materials in the area for the construction of a modern village. In a very short time, the Netsilik moved from igloos to frame houses & their children were obliged to attend school. Collaborative hunting & fishing, together with regulated food sharing, came to an end, as did a number of communal customs. the sedentarized band fragmented into individual families. Large amounts of imported commodities beame suddenly desirable necessities." (Balicki, 1989)

I just finished Wicked as well, & what do you know but he *just* published the sequel called Son of a Witch & there it was beckoning me at Costco last weekend. :) It picks up where Wicked left off & has been pretty good so far. I'm avoiding one library book & periodically flipping through a book on living in small spaces that I can't remember the name of right now.

And, uh, a crapload of erotica. Ahem.

"Do not forget. Remember and warn."
-- Plaque fixed to the hollow shell of Sarajevo's National Library

last thing i read was Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys. a relatively compact continuation of sorts of his earlier, much more sprawling American Gods. my response was on the positive side of neutral, but definitely not one of my favorite Gaiman books.

before that, The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank, who several years ago wrote The Girls' Guide to Hunting & Fishing, one of the books commonly regarded as heralding in the damned "chick lit" label. i actually liked this one a lot. i think she's a decent writer, and it's funny - always a bonus. if that makes me shallow & mainstream, so be it. ;)

on to Specimen Days (Michael Cunningham) next - the reviews have been so mixed i don't know what to expect...

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tenderfoot zine * mamaphiles!