There's a level I'm trying to find with this blog, some balance of personal commentary with astute observation and analysis. (ha. pull the other one, why doncha?) Actually, I generally try to leave my more personal items aside unless they're pertinent. I'm not too successful at it. I'm sloppy in attempts at pure distance and that whole omniscient narrator pose thing. Tonight I'm feeling disgruntled at nothing in particular, restless of mind, lacking focus.

I'm casting my gaze around the internets, looking for a subject, looking for a story to write about but I'm left wanting. Oh, I could certainly pick something out and work up a post. This is somewhat contrary to my wish that this blog remain fun for me. I work best when I don't feel it's work at all. Then I'm all research this and cite that, damn I'm a clever bugger, isn't this fascinating, isn't this sad? Then I'm all Clothos over it, spinning and weaving threads together. Tonight nothing seems to come together, just disparate items jangling against each other, lacking a catalyst.

Item: I saw a film on Howard Zinn, You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train. I wasn't aware of his history of involvement in activist causes. Duh! I'm not stupid, I just act like it. A lot. Considering I spent much of the seventies in the Boston area generally consorting with leftish activists and he was in the same area, you'd think I could have panhandled a clue. Until now, I've not been particularly impressed with Zinn's personal presentation. Perhaps it just took a longer exposure to him. I've always thought his "A People's History of the United States" was an excellent breakthrough in conceptualizing history from differing viewpoints. But. I've never done more than skim it. (hangs head) I've been a bad, bad intellectual.

Item via Bitch. Ph.D.: A blog called Coming Out Colored is really worth checking out.

Item: The previous item also led me to Globe of Blogs, another clearinghouse of blogs.

Item: Bedtime for me.