John Ross at Bubba

Last night I got the night off work, even though I've only just started back, to go and see John Ross give a talk at Bubba, a little cafe/bar place on Albert Road. I'm so glad I went, was fascinating not only to hear about the Zapatistas but also to see such a consummate storyteller go through his paces. It somewhat reminded me of my visit to Swansea to see Ken Kesey with Neil, another memorable occasion. Next stop, see Noam Chomsky speak!
The guy is quite a character, I was surprised to see how frail he looked when I arrived. Wearing a Mexican white shirt with embroidery around the neck, his brown leather waistcoat and blue jeans kind of reminded me of my dad. His face looked like he had been through a lot in his life, wrinkled and light tan in colour with a strong nose, a white goatee beard and one eye larger than the other. This was due to a beating by police in which he lost his retina, but "I am not a victim" he said. He talked for a long while, I am not sure of time but he held my attention throughout, I was sitting close and he spoke with intensity and passion, using a battered old eyeglass to see the printed texts of poems and extracts he sometimes read from. He talked mainly about the Zapatistas, the reason for the lecture tour and the centre of his work for the last eleven years or more. But interspersed with tales of the achievements towards autonomy of indigenous Mexican Indians were autobiographical anecdotes giving flesh and life to the politics of Mexico and Latin America.
"I'm a poet at heart" he said and along with his two most recent books, on the life and death of the US Left and the latest in his chronicles of the Zapatista struggle and reform, was a volume of poetry printed in Mexico City titled "Against Amnesia". Powerful personal poems dealing with the injustices and triumphs of Latin America, including one about the late Cuban pianist Ruben Gonzalez, are within as well as black and white photographic portraits of Ihuatzio elders. In fact the occasion made me wish I could have taken some shots of Ross himself, exuding energy and with his wizened, battle hardened features he would make the perfect subject for not only a posed portrait but some animated shots of him mid talk.
Once he had finished some questions lead to more discussion about the situation now US attention is distracted by the Middle East and Left wingers are gaining power all over Latin America, as well as the recounting of some details of the human shield operation in Baghdad, which he joined in Istanbul and which Pete Van Dyke was also part of. Some brief comments were made by Pete but I felt that he was taking a back seat at this meeting, letting John 'do his stuff'. A throng of people gathered around to get copies of the few books he had with him and I'm sure he would have sold a lot more if he had had enough copies to go round. As it is I managed to get copies of the two I mentioned earlier "Against Amnesia" and "The War Against Oblivion". I bought Tab a copy of "Murdered by Capitalism", I'm sure I can borrow it from her when she has finished it. I am really looking forward to reading about the Left in the US, a subject about which I know little but am ready to delve into. He signed the books of poetry with a quote "la poesia es el pan de todos" "poetry is the bread of everyone". He was quite happy to sign all the books, though I wasn't really after an autograph, to see him talking was I think quite enough to make the evening a memorable one both for the experience itself and as a catalyst to find out more about the situation in Latin America in which the past plays such an integral part.

Partay

Well need to get this day down before I fall asleep on the keyboard. Am meeting Andrew Owen tomorrow after a wake up phonecall from him, haven't seen him in so long, he is moving to Ireland! Busy chap. Today hung out on the common at a barbecue that Amy was having with some of her friends from Human Geography. Met a girl called Jess that comes from Somerset, that's three Jess's I know now. Of course she's "all about" the cider, but she has some stuff she calls apple wine that her dad makes. It excited me to think it may be like Apfelwein so she is going to bring me some, hope it is but suspicion, and others comments, make me think it will be rank. I had to decide whether to go to the Go-Off or to see Ong Bak at the cinema, not exactly a no brainer. In the end decided to go to cinema but went to a party I was invited to by Spanish friends before the film that started at 11.35. Once I was there though, a flat above the hardware store on Marmion Road, I ended up getting first to the point where I thought "I could call a taxi to get there" to the "bollocks theres no chance I've missed it" stage. But I think it was then that I decided screw it might as well make the most of the party and chatted with lots of people there.
Had a good chat with a girl called Emma who did Geology A Level and went on field trips to the Borrowdale Volcanic Group as she grew up in the Peaks and now is doing International Business and spent two years living in Russia. She has seen Night Watch!! Wish I could have picked her brains more about the lesser known Russian filmmakers she was talking about though. Briefly spoke to an Italian guy Alessandro who is an engineer in Hilsea working for the military. He said it is pretty commercial but has to keep it secret, silly military regs. Met guy who drums and whose band Thea and Emmeline are in, interesting. He seemed to like the gadgets and was telling me about the souped up 2Gb memory card he has in his phone, the same one as Alice's. But had a great chat with Angels about comics, movies and books which involved lots of recommending of stuff. I told her to read The Invisibles, always with the Grant Morrison, and Jeff Noon, ooh and Confederacy of Dunces. She told me about a couple of Lars von Trier films, Dogville and Breaking the Waves, and also about a book called Momo and a Spanish cartoonist called Ibañez. After checking out on the imdb I realise I need to see a lot more Lars von Trier films, Europa sounds excellent. Also Momo is by Michael Ende the guy that wrote Neverending Story. I now want to watch some Bunuel and saw a couple of DVD collections of short films that look tasty and a DVD set of all Jean Vigo's films and some documentaries. I am pretty sure I remember watching L'Atalante years ago, am sorely tempted to get the DVD now...
All of this quite intense discussion was to the backdrop of loads of Spanish women dancing around and drinking, bongos being played and an underpanted neighbour putting his head out the window asking to keep the noise down. Oh and a joke about a green gorilla playing tag with Sigourney Weaver! I am glad I went though I still wish I had seen Ong Bak in the cinema, not too bothered about the Go-Off though. V tired now, sleep will be good, I would like to watch Rules of Attraction, know I would fall asleep though.