Author Archives: Tim Elhajj

Apr 07 2008
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movies

American Gangster

I had been interested in seeing this, but somehow never got around to it until this weekend.

I had heard about Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas when I lived in the Bronx. It seemed like every dope fiend had an opinion about who was the better businessman and who was nothing but a snitch. There was so much talk I hadn’t realized these guys were gangsters from the late 60s and early 70s.

Although it’s a true story, somehow the movie doesn’t seem to come together well. Lucas (Denzel Washington) is a smooth character, especially in contrast to the plodding Roberts (Russell Crowe). Lucas is held up as an icon of black entrepreneurial skill, despite being a gangster. I am used to movies with a bad guy that you sympathize with, but Lucas doesn’t really get a sympathetic treatment. He just is what he is. Roberts comes off like a mope.

Not sure what to make of it all.

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Apr 05 2008
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people

Michael Pollan Knows Food

If you want to know more about food, read Michael Pollan. The man knows his food. He’s written at least three great books, one of which I already posted about. I wanted to jot some additional notes on the others.

Omnivore’s Dilemma is a look at the food industry. I got through the first part about corn, but then I had to put it down. He’s a great writer, but the market forces he describes bearing down on the food industry just became too depressing for me to bear. If you want something a little more upbeat, go with In Defense of Food, which describes how best to eat in a world as depressing as the one described in Omnivore’s Dilemma.

But what I like best about Pollan’s work has less to do with food and more to do with his ability to clarify economic and sociological forces that come to bear on an industry. In Botany of Desire he describes how the War on Drugs inadvertently gave us better and more potent marijuana. I haven’t smoked pot in ages, but I remember when it was light green flakes and often cost less than $20 an ounce. Pollan offers an entire history of pot and how the drug crackdown forced pot growers underground, where they tinkered with hybrids until they were able to grow incredibly potent pot indoors. A lot of the hooligans pulling these underground shenanigans were people right here in the Pacific Northwest (Matt Briggs’s, Shoot the Buffalo has characters in the PNW that make a living growing pot indoors).

Fascinating stuff.

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Apr 05 2008
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family

Weary of Earth Song

My kids have become infatuated with Michael Jackson’s Earth Song. Holly and I have burned songs to disk for them prior to this, but the rate at which they are replaying this one is just ridiculous.

Dad grows weary.

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Mar 29 2008
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family

The Fort Project: 2008

I have been meaning to get a current picture of the progress on the fort. I got it to about 95% complete late last summer, and then somehow never got around to the rest. As soon as we get some sunny weather, I’m going to attach the rail around the front porch. Note the gable roof, rope ladder, mail box and street address. You can’t really see it, but there is a hatch on the far right of the porch, where the rope hangs.

The kids use my old wood ladder because the rope ladder is difficult to climb. Somehow they’ve managed to move chairs and a table up there. Holly doesn’t like the two-tone roof roll, but I think it gives the place a real down home feel. I still can’t believe I was able to pull this together. You never know what you can do until you try.

If you look close, you can see the neighbor’s tree fort down the block. Keeping up with the Jones ain’t easy.

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Mar 26 2008
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family

Present Tense Endorses Barack Obama

 

Have you read the speech Obama delivered in Philadelphia last week? I’ve got the full text posted after the jump. I read it this morning after seeing Sarah Churchwell’s response in today’s morning paper.

I am certainly glad I read both. Present Tense heartily endorses Barack Obama for president!

Continue reading →

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Mar 20 2008
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writing

Getting to Home Plate

Aaron is a talented baseball player, but this year his ability caused him problems. He couldn’t get onto the team he’s been playing on for the last five years because the coaches felt the teams would disproportionately matched. He was disappointed. I took him to his first practice on the new team. He didn’t know any of the other kids, but the coaches knew his name and seemed excited to have him. At home he moped and complained. This went on for a week or two. Holly and I were considering letting him sit out a year and then it all changed, almost overnight.

I came home from work one night and found him in the living room practicing his wind up. He seemed excited. He told me that on his new team if he was on third base and the pitcher accidentally stepped off the rubber he could steal home. I asked if that was a new rule for this year (each year the league adds new elements to the game, like stealing bases or allowing the kids to pitch). He said it wasn’t. In fact, the kids have been able to steal home like this for a few years, but his old coach considered it poor sportsmanship and wouldn’t let the boys do it. 

But Aaron has no compunction with getting to home plate this way and apparently neither does the new coach. This is what I love about Aaron. He finds himself in a new situation and finds a way to make the best of it.

I have been struggling to get my memoir moving forward. The last chapter I wrote was almost a year ago. Since then I have switched jobs, taken on sweeping life style changes, and even lost 30 lbs. I’ve poked around with submitting my work (and I feel good about that) and I’ve been toying with essays from different parts of my life, but I have to find a way to get to home plate with this manuscript.

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Mar 17 2008
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writing

The Sun Magazine

The Sun Magazine seems like my kind of journal.

This is a followup to my earlier effort, about figuring out how to submit my work. And a big part of accomplishing that is figuring out where to submit your work.

Short fiction and poetry dominate most literary journals, so it’s nice to find a magazine with as strong a commitment to personal narrative as The Sun. They seem to favor longer stories. And now they’re offering more money for work that’s accepted for publication.

But they take a long time to respond. I’ve had my story, Saved, out to them since November 3.

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Mar 16 2008
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movies

The Bank Job

I saw The Bank Job tonight, which is supposed to be based on a true heist story (aren’t they all!). The twist here is that some pretty heavyweight British political figures from the 70s had their asses on the line (literally and figuratively: blackmail is a big part of the plot), including one good looking princess cavorting with a few men somewhere in the Caribbean. Jason Stratham does a great job kicking everyone’s ass and getting the girl.

Mar 12 2008
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family

Blame It on The Wire

wire

After hearing a lot about it on NPR, I just started watching HBO’s, The Wire, on DVD. If you haven’t had the chance, each season focuses on one aspect of life in Baltimore. Season one focused on the West Baltimore drug trade. D’Angelo Barksdale, a fictional lieutenant and the nephew of Baltimore’s drug kingpin, was one of the key players.

Earlier this month I was selling Girl Scout cookies with Kennedy. My role as parent in charge of the sales site was much the same as D’Angelo Barksdale’s role selling crack in the Baltimore projects. I brought a lawn chair and settled discreetly into the background, watching out for theft or any untoward behavior. I also held the cookie money.

I wasn’t really paying attention and when I reached close to $100 in sales I got scared. Wanting to make sure our count was right, I made furious calculations. At one point, it seemed as if we were off by as much as $50! 

Probably a result of watching so much of The Wire, I felt certain one of those nice Safeway shoppers had hoodwinked my girls.

Turns out it’s just much harder to keep track of the money than I expected. As I remember, I was never any good at selling narcotics either.

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Mar 03 2008
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books

Michael Pollan’s, In Defense of Food

Somehow all my Michael Pollan library requests came through at the same time. I just finished his most recent book, In Defense of Food.

Something about this book touches the part of me that naturally mistrusts doctors (and varying degrees of eggheads all over). I have only just recently learned some of the nutritionist lingo, but who hasn’t been skewered by some smug nutritionists at some point in their life? Pollan’s big idea is to steer clear of foods (what he would describe as pseudo-foods) more than five ingredients, long chemical names, and (especially) any food with a health claim on its label. Why? Because you’re better off. The whole process of getting food to your table is highly politicized, with big business looking out for shareholder interests, instead of yours or mine. Trans fats anyone?

So I was totally onboard with Pollan’s smackdown of the nutritionist until I came to the part where he suggest we should make our meals more of a social event. He wants us to engage with food in ways that foster community and ritual. Yeah, yeah.

Sounds good until I realize this means we can no longer eat meals at our desks. What? That’s where I draw the line.

It’s funny how you don’t realize how important something is to you until someone tries to take it away.

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