Author: stevekuusisto

I will never get tired of this city that’s blue as a shin bone, blue as a pair of false teeth, blue as the eyes of a fish, blue as my grandfather’s school book. And the children sleep in their prams, bundled against the cold, thin little vapors like smokey needles rising from their unformed faces–one sees them on every street, small, seemingly abandoned bundles devoting themselves to the subconscious. No sign of their parents: it’s a matter of common sense to put your baby out alone in the winter. City as blue as your dead mother’s curtains, blue as an old soldier’s wrist, blue and blue and blue and blue and blue and blue…

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No one knows where the crazy apple comes from. My friend Marvin Bellonce wrote a poem called “Crazy Apple”. Meanwhile the fruit, the literal, non-Miltonic, Luther Burbank fruit ticks and ticks in the orchard like thought itself. The world “worlds” as Heidegger would say–or he did say it, past tense, the world in the act of becoming but always yesterday. But the crazy apple is turning toward the future, sun baked in the pure silence of its growing. Look at it: imperfect and dark as an ancestor’s shoe.

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I woke to the waves and sand and realized I’d been dreaming of my father. We were in Finland back in the late fifties, a time when it seemed people didn’t laugh. The water had to do all the laughing in those days. Clouds watched the children. There were very few televisions. I remember the adults reading books by the sea. The ocean was everyone’s philosopher. Those were beautiful days. Everyone had his cup of sand.

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PARIS, FRANCE– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily] Progressive deafness profoundly influenced Beethoven’s compositions, prompting him to choose lower-frequency notes as his condition worsened, scientists said on Tuesday.

Beethoven first mentioned his hearing loss in 1801 at the age of 30, complaining that he was having problems hearing the high notes of instruments and voices.

By 1812, people had to shout to make themselves understood and in 1818, he started to communicate through notebooks. In his last few years before his death in 1827, his deafness was apparently total.

Writing in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal, a trio of scientists in the Netherlands dissected Beethoven’s string quartets.

Entire article:
Deafness shaped Beethoven’s music
http://tinyurl.com/85yywlw

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A new study reported by the BBCsays that brain function in adults declines after the age of 45. Well this seems rather self evident, eh? My own brain function began declining in elementary school and was almost destroyed in high school. Heck, I’m glad I can no longer remember the name of my eighth grade math teacher. No, I’m grateful.
Of course memory loss is no joke and I’m properly in support of research that offers hope to seniors. But I can forget with the best of them. Goodbye old birdie, fly away now to Mnemosyne and tell her you knew me when…

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The dog in me wants reassurances about the sun and stars. Let’s call him Proclus, the dog who models circles, mimic of the universe as he lies down.

He has come home from the woods; his fur smells of horse weed, a Scandinavian mid- summer scent, part hay, part flowers. That the dog in me has been roaming is clear. Less obvious is his uncertainty, for his instinct is to worship the body’s capacity for survival, but his cultural memory won’t have it–one of the things most people do not understand about him. Dogs do understand death. Meanwhile, the poor boy is epicurean. He knows how to savor found fruit. He does not temporize.

The dog in me likes Derrida on animals but he also likes to eat soap and turds. He does not like operatic music. He does not like men in suits or crowded streetcars.

He is in agreement with Jesus that our father’s house has many mansions.

He sweeps before him an invisible rod made of moonlight.

He stands on the stage of his memories and cannot see the audience.

Like my father’s father he has emigrated from one poor land to another.

In the fields, alone, watching the pheasants wings against a low sky, early, just a few minutes before sunrise.

Which does he prefer, the inflection or the innuendo? He does not like the blackbird any more than the canary.

Of his temperament there is little to say. Optimistic. Resists truth. Likes getting lost.

Nureyev said: “My feet are dogs.” The dog inside me has four dogs to dance on, but you see his tail is a dog, his ears are dogs, even his eyelashes have diurnal appetites.

Did anyone notice the dog in the high autumn grass?

He was like a cricket, rubbing his legs in the last warm sun.

Really, that was all, the sun like tea in a glass, his old magic body staying warm.

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I’m teaching at the low residency graduate creative writing program at Pacific University and right now I’m listening to my friend Claire Davis give a craft talk on how to write necessary scenes of violence. Hearing her marvelous reading voice–a voice that’s soft and simultaneously tough I’m reminded of how central literary writing is to our growth. Even the violence remembered is the stuff of our psychic architectures, each of us has survived the tough, acrid, half smothering hours of dark childhood or impoverished marriages or a war zone too gruesome for a hundred thousand lives. Hearing a shrewd, tough minded writer talk about incorporating the necessary facts into narrative is hard but gratifying. If you don’t know Claire’s work I urge you to look her up.

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Iowa’s caucus night proved the GOP is steaming through ice flows, ignoring the radio messages about an iceberg ahead. For iceberg read “election”.

I’m amazed by the utter collapse of the Republican party. I’m stunned by the number of my leftward brothers and sisters who are practically dewy eyed when talking of Nixon.

A party that believes the sole purpose of governing is to eliminate most of the government and liberate public money for acquisition by the rich is ludicrous. And this is the only agenda in the grand old party–thievery and a bushel full of social engineering aimed at undermining the rights of women, gays, the disabled, children, the elderly, and the poor.

No wonder Tricky Dick looks good.

No wonder Debbie Wasserman Schultz is looking so confident.

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GAO calls on the Department of Justice to protect students’ rights
Each year, millions of people take standardized tests in pursuit of a college education, graduate studies, and professional certification or licensure. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires companies that administer these tests to provide test modifications to best ensure equal access for individuals with disabilities. The high stakes testing industry has generated considerable controversy, a significant number of law suits and voluminous complaints to federal agencies and concerning who has a disability and how to determine what accommodations are necessary to provide equivalent access.

At the request of Representatives George Miller, Pete Stark and Cathy McMorris Rodgers the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined the process including the types of accommodations requested, factors testing companies consider when making decisions about requests, and how federal agencies enforce ADA compliance within the industry.

AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And Disability) and a number of its members participated in the GAO study’s interviews that helped provide a context for the GAO’s reviews of relevant laws and regulations, testing company policies, data provided by the testing industry, and federal complaint data.

The report recommends that the Department of Justice develop a strategic approach to enforcing the ADA in the high stakes testing industry to ensure the timely provision of accommodations to all eligible individuals. Justice has reviewed the report and agrees with its approach and conclusions.

This report, the amendments to the ADA, the regulations recently issued under Title I, II and III (particularly Section 309) along with a string of recent court cases clearly confirms an emerging approach to reviewing accommodations requests that is anchored to individual disability histories rather than the snap shots provided by diagnostic testing; more often asking “Why not” in response to a request for accommodation rather than “Why?”. This approach will require a more thoughtful and commonsense approach to determining accommodations relying more heavily on unique experience of the individual and the recommendations of clinicians and health care providers in order to achieve the broad goals of the ADA in connection with high stakes tests.

AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And Disability – http://www.ahead.org) has been revising its guidance on best practices in documentation and expects a Spring release. The revisions will place less emphasis on diagnostic tests to determine eligibility; focusing instead on the educational and accommodation histories (formal and informal) of individuals, their supporting narratives and the surrounding context including the development of new technologies. AHEAD encourages other organizations to review their practice and is happy to offer technical assistance; contact AHEAD via e-mail or call (704) 947-7779.

The full report “Higher Education and Disability: Improved Federal Enforcement Needed to Better Protect Students’ Rights to Testing Accommodations (Report to Congressional Requesters AO-12-40 United States Government Accountability Office) can be found at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-40.

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(USA Today)
December 28, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express) A new federal study criticizes the Justice Department for failing to enforce laws that provide disabled students with special accommodations for taking the SAT, bar exam and other high-stakes tests.

People with disabilities such as visual impairment, dyslexia or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder say they are entitled to extra time, special software or other accommodations that will best ensure that the test reflects their aptitude rather than their disability.

Testing companies say they don’t have to provide accommodations if they think the requests are unreasonable, or if they think the applicant hasn’t proved they need the accommodation.

The Government Accountability Office found that “almost all” of the nine testing companies it studied did not change any practices in response to regulations issued this spring designed to broaden the definition of disability and reduce burdensome documentation. It also found that the Justice Department’s hasn’t updated training manuals for the law since 1993, nor has it initiated compliance reviews to ensure testing companies meet the standards.

Entire article:
Study: Testing firms not complying with law on disabled
http://tinyurl.com/79lz86j

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