Barry Graham's Blog, page 112

Salon published a piece by Matt Stoller called “The Progressive Case Against Obama.” Then they published a piece in response by the actor and Zen priest Peter Coyote called “The Progressive Case for Obama.”

Mr. Coyote is a talented actor, but as a thinker he is embarrassing. He is unable to rebut Mr. Stoller’s indictments of President Obama, and actually concedes that he agrees with them. He also rightly addresses the crimes of Bill Clinton, but then goes on to - nebulously - defend President...

Legal justice today has at least as much to do with criminals as with crimes.
- Foucault

I once wrote about a man on death row who was old, and was physically and mentally infirm, but the state wanted to execute him anyway. (He died of natural causes before that could happen.) Someone angrily wrote to me, “He still did it, so what does it matter how old or sick he is?”

But punishment is unrelated to the crime, always. This is why, as Foucault has pointed out, criminals are expected to explain th...

Big Maria by Johnny Shaw - How can a novel set in Arizona, one of the most desperate places in the U.S.A., be so much fun? Shaw’s dialogue, characterization and storytelling verve make you feel less like you’re reading a novel than taking part in a doomed adventure with hilarious, dangerous reprobate friends.

Murder Mile by Tony Black - I haven’t read everything by Tony Black, but I intend to. If you want to know why he’s talked about so much in the darker regions of the Scottish - and, more a...

Nothing I Say Is True, calligraphy, 2011

The Good Son: The Life of Ray “Boom Boom” Manciniby Mark Kriegel

This astonishing book establishes Mark Kriegel as one of the great boxing writers. A meticulous work of reportage and analysis, it stands along with the best of A.J. Liebling and Hugh Mcilvanney - but, as a piece of storytelling, it also stands along with the novels of Leonard Gardner, W.C. Heinz and Eddie Muller.

Presented as a biography of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, the ferocious World Lightweight Champion of the first...

TO BE CONTINUED

A couple months ago I re-read William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. I enjoyed it so much, I’ve decided to write a story about Thomas Carnacki, and publish it on Kindle on Halloween.

This will be the first time I’ve written about a character created by someone else, and I think it’s going to be fun. It won’t be set in England at the turn of the 20th Century; I’m setting it in contemporary Scotland, with Carnacki living in a flat in Glasgow. But, a...

Reading U.S. political commentary online, I’m fascinated by the way candidates and elected officials are referred to by their first names. Gingrich is “Newt,” Romney is “Mitt” or “Willard,” Obama is “Barack” or, sometimes, “Barry.” In Arizona, Brewer is “Jan,” Giffords is “Gabby” and Arpaio is “Sheriff Joe.”

I don’t see this trend in European political commentary (though one exception I’ve...

Raeberry Street, Glasgow. The street where my life began. This picture was taken in the early 1900s, but little had changed by the time I came along in 1966 except for the addition of rats, broken windows, graffiti and faces slashed with blades. It was the model for Hunderdun Street in Of Darkness and Light. I remember the songs children sang:

Robin Hood in the nude

ridin’ through ra glen

Friar Tuck ran like fuck

tae get ra merry men

And:

Dis yer maw drink wine?

Dis she drink it aw ra time?

Dis she e...