John Hughes, Rest in Peace

John Hughes, the American film director/writer/producer died Thursday of what appeared to be a heart attack while taking a walk in New York City. He was 59 years old.

OK, so another death, another RIP post, what’s the point with Hughes?

Hughes was best known for his ‘80s movies about teen life in suburban America. While Hughes was my age (a year younger), his films hit the movie theaters just as my oldest son was entering his teen years, so I watched a number of the Hughes films, The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, with Aaron.

The films seemed at the time to resonate with my son, but they did with me as well. Hughes, who spent part of his youth in the Chicago suburbs, as did I, set most of his movies in the Chicago area. Despite not having lived in Chicago since 1979, I still have an intensely romantic image of the city that I carry with me throughout my travels in Asia. And, even though Hughes’ films mirrored the realities of ‘80s teen angst, I could see a lot of my own ‘60s angst there (not surprising as Hughes attended school at the same time as me, and in somewhat similar sociocultural settings).

As someone who has just gone through a stroke, I’m at the stage where I notice the deaths of my peers. Hughes created some memories for me, and for that I’ll remember him and his work. Looking around the internet, there are dozens of tributes to Hughes on You Tube. He obviously affected a lot of folks. Here’s one of the tributes.

Time Passes Too Fast in Paradise

It’s Sunday already, and time has eaten up 15 vacation days. I’m just hanging around working on my new ebook, doing some reading, and checking up on the kids. Right now, I have this feeling of incredible laziness – not wanting to do anything in particular which I notice happens sometimes when I spend too much time writing and not enough getting out and around. And distractedness. It is so easy to get distracted here – I start one thing, someone comes and wants something, and I end up forgetting about what I had originally started.

I reviewed two international schools today and sent out a few emails. I upgraded some software on both Macs. I started a few letters and spent a lot of time keeping on eye on the new kittens that still look like oversized baby rats. I need to start working on my new lesson plans for next term, but I’m waiting until next week when I’ll start feeling more urgency to getting it done.

My two eldest daughters took off yesterday to go down to Denpasar to visit family there and for “refreshing” as my oldest daughter calls it. In the meantime, I’m spending time outside on the balcony writing on the MacBook. I love having the ocean breeze to cool me while I sit here writing rather than the fan when I’m inside working on the iMac.

A few folks bought my Retiring in Bali eBook today, and it’s always nice to have a sale or two while I sit here writing another book. , as well as working on some updates for the Bali book.

The photo today is the balcony where I’ve started doing most of my writing. I can gaze at the sea when I’m at a loss for words, although the afternoon sun can get a little intense. Kind of like being an old hippie sitting out here writing, having a few beers, and listening to the Greatful Dead. Plus, I’ve figured out that my cable will reach through the window so I can get internet access out here, and connect to a power cable as well when I need one. Time for retirement again, I think. This setup is better than it was before.

I stopped by the local mini-market to buy some beer and hotdogs, and there was an expat there that I think that I know, but I couldn’t quite make out where I knew him from so I didn’t say anything – I hate the memory loss that seems to be accompanying my advancing age. So far it seems selective though; my long-term memory is fine, I just can’t seem to remember who people are. This could be a problem when I forget my wife and kids.

I bought a new battery today for my handphone, as cell phones are called here in Indonesia. After 5 ½ years, the battery kept dying on me at very inconvenient times like when my wife is trying to figure out where I am. Hmm, makes it seem like I’m trying to hide, or that I am up to something fishy.

I’ll get around to the ghost thing in a day or two when I get most of it sussed out.

The View of American Politics from an American Abroad

As the election for the next US president enters the final weeks and heats up, more and more American nutcases crawl out of their paranoid cocoons. As an American expatriate who spent the first forty years of my life at home, and the past nineteen over in Asia, I find all of this troubling, irritating, worrisome, and, somehow, vaguely hopeful.

I’ve been alternately amused and horrified by how McCain and Palin have responded to an economic crisis that is rapidly spreading outward from America to the rest of the world. Starting with McCain’s initial grandstanding (I’m suspending my campaign…) to Palin’s inability to demonstrate that she understands anything about the US economy or the rest of the world generally, they have tried to awaken and energize the worst in the American national character – racism, xenophobia, isolationism, and ethnocentrism in order to avoid addressing the most pressing problem throughout the world today. The images coming out of the Republican rallies are beginning to get frightening. That Americans are openly exhibiting this type of behavior publicly is worrisome. That supposedly responsible journalists and politicians continue to justify the McCain/Palin rhetoric that is bordering on the dangerous is irritating to say the least.

But, there are rays of hope in all this. The hope? The hope is that an African-American is so close to becoming the President of the United States. The country has come so far from my days as a Middle School student supporting JFK and then as a High School student working in the Civil Rights and anti-war movement. Will Barack Obama be the leader who can address the many problems still confronting American society? Maybe not (time will only tell), but he offers the hope that he can energize the young people in America to move from the culture of greed and individualism to the culture of service and participation.

I’ve watched the prestige of America drop precipitously over the past eight years as the Bush/Cheney administration has created a rift between America and most of the rest of the world. Even those countries that have traditionally had ties with us have moved away. Most of my colleagues during my years overseas have been non-Americans, and I have watched them take on anti-American attitudes as the US has pushed its own agenda on the rest of the world. Not surprisingly, they are almost completely pro-Obama because, in part, they see him as willing to develop an era of partnership with the rest of the world. I’ve already done my job and voted in this election. If you are an American overseas, make sure that you put your vote in as well. It’s our responsibility to the United States and the rest of the world.