Acacia Tree (memoir Part 2)

Los Angeles/San Francisco/Bratislava/Budapest/Stockholm/Malmö - March 2023

March 15, 2023 12:19 p.m. Radisson Blu Hotel Malmö

I woke up at 8:30 this morning, and was able to do something I was never able to do during my previous, almost exclusively 24-hour trips to Malmö. I took a taxi to the Øresund Bridge. I took several photos of the water, with both color and black and white film. As I breathed in the fresh air, I remembered my first trip to Malmö in 1997, when my band had to take a ferry to get across the water to Copenhagen. A friend of mine, who worked with a company called TY Linn in San Francisco, a company that was working on re-building the Oakland Bay Bridge, had also built the Øresund Bridge, so she told me. The Øresund Bridge was not up and running until September 2000. I remember being here in March 1999, working with Peter Svenson of the Cardigans, when he went to meet his girlfriend at the time (who is now his wife) at the pier where the ferry dropped people off from Copenhagen. I get so nostalgic about things. I'm so grateful that I met Anna during that first trip to Copenhagen. To think that her and I almost didn't meet, because I almost stayed behind and napped, while rest of the band took the ferry to Copenhagen. I'm glad I didn't take that nap.

The neighborhood on the way out there changes every few blocks. Some single-family homes with Spanish style roofs. Some with slate roofs, some with blacktop roofs, some stucco houses, some small cottages, some large modern apartment buildings with balconies. All of the neighborhoods look so peaceful, that I could live in any one of them. On the way out there, I noticed a small black windmill tucked back into one of the neighborhoods. I wanted to get a photo of it, but figured I'd wait until the ride back. On the ride back, I looked for it but didn't see it.

March 16, 2023 3:20 2:21 p.m. Radisson Blu Malmö

I woke up at 8:30 a.m. Have been having nothing but nice dreams since I've been here. Except for this morning, I dreamed that someone stole my guitars; then I woke up and realized after a few minutes that I was in Malmo, and had not received any calls about stolen guitars. I kept thinking about the black windmill I saw, and asked a front desk person about it. She wasn't sure exactly where it was, but did tell me of another one nearby in a park called Kungsparken that had one. I walked over there. The black windmill there is called Slottsmollen. Not nearly as cool as the one I saw tucked into a neighborhood on the way to the sea yesterday, but I got some photos. If I get the energy, I'll hunt for it tomorrow.

Just back from a nice walk and a nice Chinese lunch with Anna. Chinese hits the spot when I've got a cold. I love this street, Östergatan. Great Chinese food, great Italian, nice cafes, two grocery stores behind the hotel, and a post office where I send my father postcards almost every time I'm here.

March 17, 2023 1:30 a.m. Radisson Blu Malmö

Finished Chapter 10 of Hurricane. The Book vs The Movie. In the movie, the young, poor black kid from Brooklyn, named Lesra, who is adopted by "The Five Believers," a group of white people who live in a commune in Canada, gets all the credit for discovering Carter's book The Sixteenth Round at a used book sale. In the movie, after Lesra reads the book, The Believers are skeptical of his belief in Rubin's innocence; there is a scene, where Lesra sits them down and explains how Rubin was railroaded by a white jury. Lisa Peters, the only female in the commune says, "All white people aren't racist." Another actor tells Lesra, "That's just a book. I mean, you can't be sure he's telling the truth."

According to the book, it was Lisa Peters, who had been an activist for black injustices, who immediately discovered the book (not Lesra), read it, then made the others, including Lesra, read the book, beginning to end. It was the first book Lesra read from front to back. I'm not sure why the movie had to spin it that it was Lesra who discovered the book first, and not Lisa. I don't have to finish the book, to know that Lisa Peters and Rubin ended up getting married, once he was free.

After I finished that chapter, I dozed off for maybe five to six hours, I don't even know. I called Caroline when I woke up, then walked along the canal and back, and now here I am, writing this down.

March 17. 1:05 pm Radisson Blu Malmö

Woke up at maybe 8:30 a.m., determined to go find that small black windmill that I saw on my way to the sea the other day. I got in a cab, and we went looking. Or, I went looking, while the driver was driving all over the fucking place. I kept telling him, "It's right between the hotel and the sea." He took me to the sea, alright, but bizarrely stopped at malls along the way, thinking I wanted to shop. I told him, "I'm not a tourist, I'm a photographer. I just want to find the windmill." He was playing me for a dumb tourist, but I didn't care. He was fun to talk to. It seemed like he was having a nice time, pointing out parks that I could care less about, and stopping at dumb malls, but we found no windmill. The guy thought he was getting one past me, taking me for the equivalent of sixty dollars, that should have been thirty. But what he doesn't know, is that I'm a poet. If inspired, I'll make more money writing a song about this experience than I spent on the taxi.

I had him drop me off at the lighthouse near the train station, took a few photos, and then walked over to Patisserie David for a latte, carrot soup, a salmon sandwich, and one of those custard things that they have all over Europe, that I could eat all day.

I fell asleep last night, mid-chapter 11 of Hurricane. After all of those Bob Dylan benefit concerts, and Muhammad Ali raising money for his defense, it's my opinion that it was the love of Lisa Peters, that ultimately got Rubin out of prison. "True Love Conquers All," as Neil Young says. This book was released a year after the Denzel Washington fluff-movie, so I'm not sure why the narrative behind Rubin's release was initially put on Lesra, the young adopted kid. Activist/Home-flipper, whatever she did, according to the book, Lisa read The Sixteenth Round, fell in love with Rubin Carter, and put her entire life aside, to make sure that not only he'd be freed, but that she'd become his wife when he was released. Look at this paragraph, which comes shortly after Lisa puts Lesra on the bus to go meet Rubin in prison. 

Page 197:

When Lesra returned to Toronto, he told everyone about the woman on the train, the terror of the prison, the Polaroid photo, - and the extraordinary man that was Rubin Carter. There was a sense of high excitement in the house, and all conversations revolved around what could be done for Carter. Everyone participated, but it was Lisa who made Rubin her project. This was not Nate Shaw, the wrongfully convicted but now deceased cotton farmer in All God's Dangers, and this was not Lesra, whose prisons of poverty and illiteracy could be overcome with money, hard work, and education. Carter was locked away in a real prison, right now, and he needed help. In the early months of 1981, Lisa told the other members of the commune, "I think we can get him out on a technicality." It was unclear if Lisa, schooled in conspiracy theories but not in law, knew what that actually meant. But it was obvious that Carter's freedom was foremost in her mind. Rubin Carter, she would say, "is my life's work."

The movie Hurricane was released in 1999, this book, 2000, and I can't help but to think that the producers downplayed Lisa's involvement, to not make it seem as if she had a biased, ulterior motive (attraction), to get him released. For some reason, the motivation to get Rubin released is placed on Lesra from the outset, and very little, if any, attraction between Lisa and Rubin is alluded to in the movie. However, the romantic relationship that developed between Lisa and Rubin, is all over the place in the book. 

March  17, 2023 10:52 p.m. Radisson Blu Malmö

Just spoke to Caroline, and a few friends from L.A. Flight from Copenhagen to SFO tomorrow a.m. I had a nice Chinese dinner tonight on my own, walked around a bit, and took what was my last black and white photo of the canal in Malmö. The very nice lady at the front desk printed my boarding pass for tomorrow.

March 18, 2023 9:18 a.m. Radisson Blu Malmö

Leaving for the Copenhagen airport soon, to catch a flight to Frankfurt, then home. I'm all packed. I have Rubin's book, Zak's book, and just told Caroline I love her. I'm all set.

March 18, 2023 4:17 p.m. Frankfurt Airport gate Z25 

I have the tiniest cold but my ears were hurting like hell on the plane to Copenhagen. I decided to stay at an airport hotel here in Frankfurt for a few days, drink gallons of water to avoid an ear infection, then I realized that I checked my guitar on the plane all the way to SFO and I don't want it hanging around an SFO carousel for the next few days. I just drank about a gallon of water, got some antihistamines, aspirin and gum, as advised by my Caroline, and my friend Kurt. And soon I will be on my way. 

I finished chapter 11 of Hurricane, and though I'm only 218 pages into the book (350 pages), I gotta admit the spin they put on the movie — I repeat — the spin they put on the movie that young Lesra was driving the ship on Rubin's eventual release, is vomit inducing. The best part of this book didn't make the movie, and that's the love story between Lisa and Rubin. They were so in love that they were having lover's quarrels while he was in prison. It was Lisa's love for Rubin, and her determination, that eventually set him free. Why they left this out of the movie, I don't know. Maybe they felt an interracial relationship would hurt the box office. If so, that pisses me off, because I'm in an interracial relationship. I'd hate to think that in 1999, an interracial relationship would be considered bad business in Hollywood. I just don't know. But Lisa Peters didn't get the love she deserved in the movie depiction, that's for sure. I saw the movie in the theater, in 2000, and what I remember most, was being one of maybe seven men in a theater full of women; women who were oohing and aahing over Denzel, every time he took his shirt off. The plot of the movie seemed irrelevant, during that showing of the movie, anyhow.

I'll end my journey from L.A. to San Francisco to Eastern Europe to Sweden, by quoting Rubin, from the last two lines of chapter 11:

"The ancient philosopher Diogenes spent his whole life searching for one honest man. I have found three. Thank you."