Author Archives: Jeffrey A. Carver

I haven’t written anything until now about the disastrous hurricane and the terrible aftermath because, truthfully, I didn’t know what to say about this horrific event that others haven’t already said better. But I received an email from an SF fan in Germany, lamenting the devastation and the apparently incompetence of federal officials in dealing with it—or in preparing for it in the first place.

My friend Tobias deserves an answer, so I’m going to write it here. The problem is knowing where to start. Maybe not by answering directly, but first by praising the heroism of those who have been putting their lives on the line in search and rescue operations, and maintaining order in the face of despicable violence—or by bowing my head to the suffering of those who waited far too long for aid, or who lost people they loved or everything they owned to the hurricane. Or maybe extending a hand of solidarity to the millions of people who, like my family, have tried to help their neighbors in need by contributing in whatever way seemed best, usually a cash donation to relief organizations. (I was perhaps most moved by reading that a gift of $3000 had been forwarded from the people of Honduras to the relief effort, people who have very little, and who gave anyway.)

But that doesn’t really answer Tobias, who said, “I see a president far away in Washington, DC who is completely overwhelmed with the situation… Where was FEMA and the national guard, the military?” Well, yeah. Much of the National Guard—and their equipment—is in Iraq, where they were sent on a pretext by their commander in chief. As for the president being overwhelmed, that’s not much of a surprise, given his overwhelming incompetence. We all remember his deer-in-the-headlight reaction to the news of 9/11, don’t we? (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you really need to watch Fahrenheit 911, and watch the actual video footage of his paralysis when told of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. It’s frightening, it really is.)

Then there’s the head of FEMA, who didn’t know that there were a few thousand people trapped in the Superdome, and whose previous disaster management experience was in helping to run an Arabian horses association. And of course there’s the Bush administration’s recent cancellation of funds for improvement of the levee system around New Orleans. Not to mention the reversal of wetlands protections that had been put in place by earlier administrations. (Wetlands, in case you aren’t up on your estuarine science, help provide a shield against such things as devastating hurricanes.)

Tobias also says, “I wonder when USA will sign the Kyoto environmental protocol to stop the carbon dioxide emissions responsible for the warming of the atmosphere.” A lot of us wonder that, Tobias. I’m not sure we should necessarily blame this particular storm on global warming gases, but there’s little doubt that this sort of thing will only keep happening, and get worse, if the global community—in particular the U.S.—doesn’t start taking global warming seriously. So, Tobias, don’t be embarrassed to keep asking your American friends these questions. And we’ll keep asking our elected officials.

I keep telling myself, it’s got to change. The Bush people can only fool the voters for so long, until the people wake up to reality. This is my prayer. Please, God.

My last blog entry generated more than a dozen spam comments, most of them probably deposited by blog-prowling robot programs. Thank you, you jerks, for trying to ruin something that other people are supposed to enjoy.

Following advice from Blogspot, I have changed the comments settings to require “word verification” — meaning that you have to read a word in an image and type it in before you can leave a comment. I’m sorry, because this will be a pain for any of you wanting to leave comments. (A pain for me, too. I’m not exempt.) But it seems to be the only way to stop the scum spam robots.

Okay, I’ve survived a month of house guests (hi! very nice house guests!), home renovation, a new back yard construction project dreamed up by my wife and her dad, children who want to stay up all night “writing” (read, playing computer games), and a new, incomprehensible passion of my wife for somehow finagling a way to buy as “investment property” a house that’s laid out like something between Hogwarts and the Crooked House built by the Crooked Man. I have somehow managed to keep my sanity, though you could safely say that I haven’t gotten very much writing done during this time. But now…

Now, my daughter announces that she’s found a way to get free bagpipe lessons, and she wants to get on board. Bagpipe lessons!

That’s it. I can take no more. I’m acting on my long-standing threat.

I’m moving to a hotel—and I’m taking the cat.

The irony of my little acting job, of course, is that I’m following in the footsteps of both my daughters. And for that matter, in the footsteps of my 7-year-old nephew Garrett, who recently appeared in a movie on the Hallmark Channel. And now I find (see comments, next entry down) that one of my fellow actors in the cast list is a friend and acting-buddy of my daughters. Do you suppose we’ll be discovered by a Hollywood agent?

They’re gonna make a big star out of me . . . All I have to do is act naturally. Which is true. Sort of.

The owner of the Regent Theater, where Bye Bye Birdie was performed, approached me after a rehearsal and asked me if I’d be interested in doing a short acting stint. Very short. It seems I look just right for a character in a small indie film he’s producing, based on a play he wrote (and which was performed at the theater) about teenage homelessness. I said, “Umm…” and he told me more. It would only take one day, because the character is just in one scene, and only has a few lines. “Well…” I said, and before I knew it I was in the cast. I joined in on the first read-through with the rest of the volunteer cast (which includes a couple of professional actors, some acting students, and some people like me). So now I’m trying to let the character percolate into my brain.

I’m playing Pops. A street bum.

I’ll definitely keep you posted on the progress of my career in film.

We’ve been entertaining a young nephew and niece in our house for the last few days, which has been great fun, a real change of pace, and helps explain why I feel so tired at the end of the day. Actually got to the beach in Gloucester—first real summer thing I’ve done this year (unless you call home repair and mowing the lawn summer stuff)—and let me tell you, that water was cold! The beach was beautiful, though, and it always restores me to see the ocean. Today we took the Boston harbor boat out to George’s Island and traipsed around the old fort. It was fun. And kudos to my daughters, who were a great help in keeping up with their two very energetic young cousins.