Welcome to justthoughtsnstuff

I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.

New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.

Saturday, 26 May 2012

sutter, marti, lineamientos, time passing, sf city hall

Sitting in the Sutter Pub on Taylor, after a day at the LASA Congress. A pint of Sierra Nevada IPA is going down well and a house special burger is on the way. The four TV screens, each showing a different channel make the solo widescreen in Bampton pubs look a bit tame but apart from that, this is a pretty authentic US take on the pub theme. Very warm and welcoming.

Saw a great film late this afternoon: Marti, el ojo del canario, directed by Fernando Perez. As the LASA programme says:

'The formative years of Cuban national hero Jose Marti are explored in a historical epic set during the 1890s in colonial Havana. The film follows "El Apostol" from the age of nine to seventeen, as he experiences firsthand the often brutal inequalities of Spanish colonial rule, feels the fire of injustice rise within him, and navigates personal conflict with his Spanish father.'

The film was compelling from a historical point of view but also from the point of view of its portrayal of conflicts within a family. You could really understand Marti's determination to affirm his Cuban identity but equally you sympathised with the plight of his father and mother as their family got dragged into the terrifying consequences of their son's political activism.

Meanwhile, a great panel earlier examined the fascinating economic changes going on in contemporary Cuba: What does the future hold for Cuba?: the Lineamientos, guidelines for economic change in Cuba, (approved, April 18, 2011) and Cuba's VI congress. Lots of info and food for thought during this panel discussion, some of it contradictory. Check out an intriguing blog, written by one of the speakers: thecubabug.blogspot.com.

Can't quite believe how fast my time in SF is passing.

Pic btw if City Hall, just up the road from where I am staying.
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