WISDOM OF THE
SAGES
EPISODE
ELEVEN – FALL 2015
Hello People of the World;
I guess I still do not understand why people are
always surprised that Fall happens. It recently snowed and every one acted like
the world ended. Me? I took a little time to watch the first snowfall of fall
2015. Through the glare of the softball field lights, the fat flakes floated
down and filled every space of the sky. It was a quiet, amazing thing to stop
and watch for a few minutes.
On that note, let’s get this month’s edition started,
shall we:
1
:[ I wish
that my family from Wyoming can to see me more often here in Chicago. I must
now admit that it has been here in Chicago that I made a home, a family, and
where I found an identity away from the reservation. I make every effort to go
back to the reservation but sometimes I wish I could show my family around
Chicago. I think it would be fun….
2
:[ WHY
HAMLET: Part Two – Many folks still cannot understand why I would try to make a
full-text, full-length Hamlet movie using a Native American cast. I do my best
to explain the reasoning behind it but some still seem disinterested and others
plain do not get it. So, I made a video to explain it all….
3
:[ So,
recently, when I went to see “He Named Me Malala” at the Landmark Century, I
discovered a place nearby called Stan’s Donuts & Coffee. It was there that
I had my own sort of “Ratatouille” moment when I bit into a glazed doughnut
there. No, I did not flashback to my youth, but I did flash back to when I was
living in Riverton, Wyoming and my sister Val and I, went to the “Daylight
Doughnuts” after work to get a pack of fresh-made glazed doughnuts and a couple
of cream-filled ones.
Now, this was at 4:30am and we just got off work.
We used to work as Security Guard for the then-unified Tribal Housing and we
had to work the graveyard shift – 9pm to 5am. It was rough. Everyone hated you
and you never, ever were able to do enough. I have been threatened with
beatings and once or twice had my life threatened. That is how it goes.
The job was made easier because my older brother
Dalco and my older sister were on the job too. We would try to stay up after
work and sometimes we would go to breakfast after. On this occasion, Val and I
went to the Daylight Donuts on Main Street because they were one of those
early-bake donut shops. They opened at 5am and we figured we should get a dozen
and get a couple of cream-filled right out of the ovens. They were awesome.
So, I found Stan’s the other day and ordered a
glazed and the taste and texture took me back to that early morning after shift
on the rez….
4
:[ I am in
a very strange headspace now days since I have been reading five very different
books. I have been reading:
-The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, compiled by
Incite! Women of Color Against Violence – Madonna Thunder Hawk essay is
probably one of the best things I have read on non-profit exploitation of
social justice causes. So, I have been seeing this type of exploitation in the
world today. My eyes have been opened to how the opposition to social issues
have been coming from all ends of the political spectrum, of how these causes
can be co-opted by corporations as well as non-profit organizations, and that
becoming a non-profit could actually be the death knell for your cause.
-A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George RR Martin
takes place over a century before the events of “A Song of Ice and Fire”
following Aegon V Targaryen when he was squiring for Sir Duncan the Tall and
all of their adventures in Westoros and beyond. Duncan is not a real knight and
is playing at being one. Yet, he is the one that is truly ACTING as a knight
should because this world is filled with a lot of false, self-serving, or
terrible knights. So, the ideas of chivalry and doing the right thing have been
swirling around my head.
-Hamlet by William Shakespeare – the Cambridge
edition, which is basically and actor’s notebook with staging and thematic
questions and acting and writing exercises throughout. So, my head is filled
with constantly breaking this play down for my movie.
-The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander discusses
how the War on Drugs fuels a new way of keeping ex-convicts from voting and how
the system is bent toward keeping and putting certain sectors of our society
into prison and it opened my eyes in that this extends across the country. It has also awakened me to being more aware of my ways of enacting social justice in my art, my job, and in the films I make. So,
there is that.
-Three Kingdoms by Luo Gunazhong – of course, I am
constantly reading this and my head is filled with the honor of fighting for a
cause, heroism, seeing the bad guys as not-really the bad guy and seeing how
you have to make your choices and fight for a cause you believe in. So, that is
constantly floating around my head.
So, my head is in a funny place right now. Thanks
to books. Which is how it should be, right?
5
:[ Nature
At Work: Dudes being Dudes: As an introvert, one of the things I enjoy most is
People Watching. The main thing I have learned from this is this: dudes with
always be dudes. No matter the race, religion or age. No matter who they are,
they will always check out chicks. Look, I admit that I look at the ladies that
pass me by, especially if I think they are attractive. It is human nature. It
is not sexism or patriarchy to simply look at a lady who has some appeal. I
however do not leer or make rude comments or harass. I don’t.
I find it funny at how many dudes will simply leer
at a woman getting on the train. I usually look the lady in the face,
sometimes, I will get a smile form them, and I will immediately look at the
dudes nearby or sitting across from me. They just stare and stare, and NOT at
her face. Then, they turn and see me looking at them. They act caught. I have
to laugh.
Then, there are those idiot dudes who are not
sitting in open seats because they are afraid to catch the Gay. Seriously, they
will actually be in the way of everyone else on the train by simply standing in
the aisle because they are too squeamish to sit down between two other dudes. I
also hate it when dudes dump all their shit on the seat next to them just so no
one sits next to them. It’s PUBLIC transportation, which means they all have
the right to sit next to your stupid ass if the seat is open. Let them, or, SIT
DOWN and make room! Sheesh!
6
:[ It has
been surprising that I have been to the movie theater nearly 65 times this
year. That is over one movie a week. Many were rescreens, special events, but
thanks to cheap seats and matinees, I am able to see a lot more movies now on
my meager income. On FB, I started a photo project of taking a picture of the
ticket stub and writing up a quick review and recommendation. So, here are a
few really quick reviews for your reading pleasure:
“Speck-Tree” Review: Meh. I really hate that they
are taking the very good Craig Bond Series and swinging them back to Status Quo
where all the stupid stuff happened.
“Spotlight” Review: Great. One of the best movies I
saw this year. It is about the Boston Globe reporters that uncovered the
Catholic Priest scandal. It is heart wrenching to see what tried to get in the
way and block this story from getting out. Go see it.
“Until the End of the World” Review: Finally! I
have always wanted to see this version on the big screen. I own the 3-hour cut
on VHS. It has never been released to US DVD. This actually plays better as the
“Epic Road Movie” as Wenders wanted. They added footage does not slow the film
down at all, and it clocks in at nearly 5 hours! If you can see it, do it. It
works well on the big screen though.
“Creed” Review: Very Good! This is simply a story
set in the world of Rocky Balboa and is NOT another Rocky movie. Another great
movie, as it is inspiring and fun. Stallone slips into that old persona easily
and Michael B Jordan is great as Adonis Johnson. I was anticipating this and
“Until the End of the World” the most this year. Yes, even more than Star Wars.
It has been a very good year so far. One more month
of movies left for my Ticket Stub Photo Project!
7
:[ Why is
November Native American Heritage Month, is it only because of Thanksgiving?
The fact that I am a Native American for more than one month a year seems to be
lost on the citizenry. The accurate history of the holiday is never taught in
schools, neither is an accurate history of the country’s interaction with
Native cultures. When I taught my Native American in Media class at UWP, I had
to state upfront at the beginning of every semester, that my class was NOT a
Native history class, that, that should have been the duty of their elementary
and high schools to teach. But it never was. So, to the disappointment of my
students, I never taught them history because I also know that they would only
be interested during the course of the semester, then they can forget all about
it. Which is why Native American Heritage celebrations are relegated to a month. So
we can forget them for the rest of the year.
However, hypocritically, I will never advocate for
the removal of Thanksgiving. It is a time for families to gather and to reflect
and be thankful for everything they have. We should all take time to do that,
more so on a daily basis. Native love gathering with family and do so whenever
they can. So, no, do not change or end Thanksgiving, we should simple consider
its history….
8
:[ This
woman holds the train car hostage with her voice alone. Obvious is the mental
anguish this woman has been through; her random shouted words, at no one in
particular, at everyone in particular, give us the picture of having been
evicted from her home. So, now, she is “dragging my refrigerator around”.
The car falls silent, tries to ignore her, he
presence, her story. Yet, she speaks softly and earnestly to the people she
interacts with, with whom she means to speak with, “oh, excuse me”, “thank
you”; the mental anguish she went through, goes through now, we all try to
ignore her, to pretend she is just another rider on this train. She then
screams about witchcraft and Jesus. We try to ignore. Me, safe in my homeward
trajectory, act like she is another person, some one normal who just has gone
through something I cannot imagine, I should think of her as another human
being. But, in my heart of hearts, I will not offer any help. No one on this
train will. Should I? Do I have any right to force my egotistical charity on
her? Or is this just my own reasoning not to help her?
She then gets up to get off at the next stop. You
can feel the weight lifted off the rest of the people in the car. But, all the
people getting on only slow her down, she has so much to drag behind her. They
block her way. I can feel the giggling teenagers praying that she makes it off.
When she finally is able to drag her carts and bags and homelessness off the
train, the teens laugh out loud at her strangeness, recounting in mocking
voices, all the things she shouted. While, those of us that know how the game
goes, who are maybe closer to her situation than we dare to think, than those
laughing teens cannot imagine, remain silent in her absence.
It is all we can give her. Those of us who know;
our respect in our silence and her dignity in allowing her any space she needs
on this train. – 11.12.2015, 9:45pm Brown Line north.
That will do it for this month.
As always, feel free to comment, correct, or
contradict anything you read here. My ego is such that I think I can take it. I
dare you. “Think you can take me? Well go ahead on. It’s your move.”
Until next month, remember “I try to show the
schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2015 Ernest M Whiteman III
