RANDA JARRAR

The new clorox bathwand commercial uses Yumeji’s theme from In the Mood for Love! Here’s a snippet of the song. It’s a beautiful piece which goes perfectly with the film’s aching longing. I don’t know what ad exec first thought, “God this song will make housewives want this bathwand,” but I hope he one day suffers from explosive diarrhea while in the bath.

“Room No. 12,” a short story by Naguib Mahfouz, is published in the Fall 2005 issue of Zoetrope (which is not online yet.) Check it out at your local bookstore. It’s really good, one of many that will be included in Supernatural Stories, which AUC press is bringing out in 2006.

In “Room No. 12,” a sharp-dressed woman takes a room at a Cairo hotel, and begins to accept dozens of visitors. I first heard of the story in Cairo last summer from Ahmad Aidy’s cousin Magdy, who told me it was a parable about the Nasser administration. But after reading it, I couldn’t help but think of it as a commentary on America and on capitalism and globalism, in general.

You must check it for yourself.

Bret Lott, editor and director of TSR, writes:

Strangely and beautifully and sadly enough, the latest issue of The Southern Review — mailed to subscribers just week before last, right as the hurricane was making way for the Gulf Coast — has turned out to be a very special issue for the artwork on the cover and that featured inside. The artist, Billy Solitario, lives near GULFPORT (and I trust you have seen the pictures of the devastation there); as of this writing, we have not been able to contact him. The paintings themselves are of the Gulf Coast –one of them is even titled “Spiral Cloud over Levee,” another one titled “Storm Over the Mississippi”; still others in the portfolio are of barrier islands on the Gulf Coast — places that don’t even exist anymore. The artwork was selected about a year ago, and the synchronicity of this is a little too much to think about — the issue, which went out just two weeks ago, celebrates a coastland that is, suddenly, gone. Also, and again the
synchronicity of this is too much to behold, the lead poems in this issue are by Peter Cooley, poet at now-closed Tulane University; we have heard that he is safe in Houston at the time of this writing.

TSR is trying to raise funds for hurricane student relief. If you can help, please send a check for $8 or more to:
THE SOUTHERN REVIEW
OLD PRESIDENT’S HOUSE
LSU
BATON ROUGE LA 70803

Make the check out to LSU Foundation, and write Hurricane Student Relief Fund on the memo line.

And in return, You’ll get a free copy of said issue of TSR.

Anyone else notice that the NYT spent about 13 of its pages today, between the magazine and the book review, on Benjamin Kunkel?

Mubarak wins. From the NYT:

Without monitors in place in most of the nearly 10,000 polling stations, it was Mr. Mubarak’s National Democratic Party that effectively ran the voting process. Whether they were told to or not, many people acted as if Election Day was an exercise in leader worship.

“I vote for President Mubarak because I could not find any candidate more handsome than Hosni Mubarak,” said Mohany Ziad, 48, as he cast his ballot in the Cairo neighborhood of Torah, and then pressed his neighbors to vote the same way.

At many polling stations, Mubarak supporters literally stood over voters as they cast their ballots. Murad Mahmoud Abdullah videotaped people in his polling station, and the message of intimidation was clear. Khalid Ahmed Muhammad stood beside voters chanting, “Hosni! Hosni!” in a threatening manner.

And in at least one polling station, the only person who appeared to be in charge was a governing party representative who wore a Mubarak button as he told people where to go to vote.

And according to the BBC, Ayman Nour is challenging the results and demanding a re-run.

I was listening to my iTunes today and this song came on, and of course it gave me a creepy feeling.

Yesterday I cleaned out the closet under the stairs and came up with a box of toys to donate to the poor kiddos at the convention center. On the way to pick up my son, I saw a sign by the side of the road that said;
“DONATION CENTER FULL”
and
“THANKS AUSTIN”
which is very cool. I guess it’s easier though to donate your old stuff as opposed to your time.

My father called me while I was cleaning out the closet and he breathlessly told me about these two ideas he has for books/movies. He doesn’t do this as often as he used to, tell me ideas for plots, but these two were particluarly good (they both feature cloning and or time travel). While he was telling me the ideas I found a picture of him, in a plastic box at the back of the closet. It was taken just over 7 years ago, so he was still in his forties, around 47 or 48, and in the picture, he is standing next to a little tree he’d planted when we’d first moved into that house in CT. The tree in the picture is shorter than he is.

I suddenly got an idea for a story then, as my father was on the phone and a picture of him was in my palm. I’ve been reading Colette lately and there’s all these funny stories about her insane father, and a part of that factors into the idea I have for my own story.

When we moved into that house in CT, none of discussed whether we were afraid that we’d lose it, as we’d lost our old home. Once, a storm blew in and we lost power and lit candles. It lasted a day. We were convinced we would have to move again. Now, my folks are selling that house, as though in a rush to get rid of it before it gets rid of us.

From El-Ahram, this merits quoting in full:

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish on Saturday published “a correction of statements by the press” in the London-based daily Al-Hayat, regarding a statement he allegedly made at the press conference he gave in the course of the 41st International Carthage Festival in Tunis, two weeks ago. By the time the “correction” appeared the statement had generated a wide-ranging campaign against the poet, largely due to a misunderstanding. Describing the Abbasid master [poet] Abul-Tayib Al-Mutanabbi as “more contemporary than any contemporary Arab poet”, Darwish was thought by many to be insulting fellow poets throughout the Arab world — something that prompted many a frenzied reaction.

First publicised in Al-Hayat, the “statement” was quickly taken up by Cairo’s foremost literary journal, Akhbar Al-Adab, which published a series of responses by Egyptian poets, ranging from mild admonition to harsh critique of Darwish’s own work. The issue has since spiralled beyond any reason. Few seemed to notice that, in honouring his greatest influence, Darwish was including himself in the phrase “any contemporary poet”; the statement was made in passing in response to a brief question about Al-Mutannabi (not about contemporary Arab poets). In the “correction” Darwish points out that he was “greatly surprised by the interpretations and responses, whether for or against, that my quick words about the poetry of Al-Mutannabi generated”. His statement had been purposely decontextualised, he added, and interpreted in a literate framework that ultimately runs counter to its “metaphorical intent”.

If you are here in the ATX, do what you can to help out the flood victims. From Ko-op radio:

The Burger Center shelter (877-929-1224) through the Red Cross still needs plenty of volunteers. Pets are NOT allowed but there is a temporary Pet Shelter set-up next to the Burger Center.

Food Donations

Capital Area Food Bank (282-2111) is accepting donations of food for both the Austin shelter and shipments to affected states. Please don’t take food directly to the Burger Center, per Red Cross instructions!

Needed: cans of tuna, bottled water, peanut better, granola bars, diapers

Donation Drop-off Sites:

Capital Area Food Bank – 8201 S. Congress (south of Ben White)
HEB – 11521 N 620 (620 and Anderson Mill Rd)
HEB – Hancock Center, 1000 41st St.
HEB – 12400 Hwy 71 W (Bee Caves Rd and Hwy 71)
HEB – 500 Canyon Ridge (From I-35, go east on Canyon Ridge, which is between Parmer and Yager Ln.)