tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-263487832024-03-18T15:52:09.182-05:00Roman Numeral JA smattering of blathering amounting to nothing special.seegerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07111452429314988140noreply@blogger.comBlogger350125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-73544360560305292152024-02-29T14:23:00.314-06:002024-03-06T16:07:23.663-06:00What is it That Must Be Said?<p> I've just finished an obscure essay of Walter Benjamin's about art history, and approaches to the study of art (but also the study of literature and also history and even, somehow, botany) that may turn out to be among the most profound, and, at our current moment in history, among the most important of all of his writings.</p><p>At first glance, he seems just to be in the weeds of an argument about whether a new 'modern' interpretation of how to do art history has replaced the 'classical approach' of antiquity in the early 20th Century, but I think he is more gesturing toward his eventual <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theses_on_the_Philosophy_of_History" target="_blank">theories of conceptualizing history</a> and the great potential of the fragment, which are already in his mind, but he hasn't clearly articulated in 1932 when he's writing this essay.</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">"So began a train of thought that I am no longer able to pursue. But its last link was certainly much less banal than its first..."</span></blockquote><p></p><p>"..., and led on perhaps to images of animals." (is perhaps less than the conclusion for the pull quote that I was hoping for, but there it is). This quote is actually not from the essay I was talking about, rather from the subsequent one in the collection I'm reading, "Hashish in Marseilles", but it hits on (or is at least adjacent to) what I am finding here (here in this post, and all around the whole blog generally). That is, that when I start to write a post that is trying to get across an idea (rather than one that's just <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2024/02/you-have-no-idea-torment-and-torture.html" target="_blank">a response</a> to something or <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2023/12/top-five-or-so-christmas-movies.html" target="_blank">a compilation</a>), I begin a train of thought that turns in to a (compelling) black hole of ideas that starts to connect to and pull in whole bunches of texts and ideas that I'm reading now or have done in the distant or recent past, and the connections and rhymes and implications become bigger (and yes, less banal), and better, but begin bouncing beyond my basis from back at the beginning of the post. And so I pull up short in all of these begun, and possibly one day done posts, which I occasionally open up, and ask myself, "what was this one going to be about again, really?"</p><p>But maybe not this time - if I just decided to say what I meant to say, instead of going back and being sure I was saying the best way I could or should - </p><p>And so, Walter Benjamin was writing in the early days of an era of crisis, 1932 in Germany, and he was of a generation of artists (and of Artists, if you subscribe to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory" target="_blank">Strauss-Howe generational theory</a>, which I do for the moment, having recently finished <i>The Fourth Turning is Here</i>, by Neil Howe) who had thought to shake up and change the world with their avant-garde art and politics and thoughts only to watch it all seem to begin to unravel as they were entering middle age and the crisis era was ramping up and threatening to destroy the whole world. </p><p>That <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Generation" target="_blank">generation</a> of, not just artists, but all walks of life, came of age just in time to witness (and largely participate in) the horrors of World War I, and then bask in the wonders of the Roaring Twenties, and seemed to be living through a time that would see things on the upswing and a world forever changed (in this case, cured of war) while at the same time harboring deep divisions and animosities that were being largely glossed over (rural poverty versus Flapper culture; Teetotalers getting Prohibition passed in America... versus Flapper culture {and mobster culture!}; race stuff...).</p><p>That era of the 1930s is having a moment, not just because it's the Nazis and World War II, and it's always what our stories turn to. Rather, Neil Howe would suggest that we are in a parallel historical moment of crisis now, starting with the 2008 Great Recession (he marks that previous crisis era starting with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, and through to the Great Depression, and through the conclusion of WWII). As Benjamin, a Jew writing in 1932 Germany, he's in the midst of the crisis, but seemingly doesn't know it yet. So too we, here in 2024, can't tell what the nature of the real disaster we are about to experience will be.</p><p>We feel like we know who some of the main characters of the coming disaster might be: Vlad Putin seems a good candidate for a villain on that side of the pond, and we have our own possible seat filler over here, oranger and dumber to be sure, but not that much less menacing. But we don't have any idea, yet, how this one turns out over the next decade or so... whether it's another world war, like (and very much unlike) the last one that ended the last crisis cycle (for the record, Star Trek future history records World War III {or 3, as we may have progressed beyond a time when we can rely on most people to be able to read Roman Numerals...} as starting in 2026, and 2024 is among the most tumultuous years in all of Star Trek history), or perhaps this cycle will end in another American Civil War of some kind, like the one that ended the cycle prior. Or perhaps it's something wholly new, that we haven't even considered before that results from improved AI or Quantum Computing or ____________.</p><p>But we're here for it, and if history rhyming (or repeating itself) is indeed a thing, better days are ahead (but after a big terrible thing first... sorry.) </p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-14570694974426554212024-02-24T16:38:00.000-06:002024-02-27T16:39:16.219-06:00You have no idea the torment and torture...<p> So, I saw <i>Madame Web</i> yesterday with my bro, against my better judgement (but well within my <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-post-of-lost-lasts.html" target="_blank">completionist</a> tendencies...), and while it was mostly very much no good as expected, I had the chance to couple it with a new (to me) kaiju film on Max: <i>Invasion of Astro-Monster</i>.</p><p>While I'm not a massive connoisseur of kaiju films, I understand the formula (albeit almost as much from <i>Mystery Science Theater 3000 </i>as from seeing them on the their own). I get that you're not meant, necessarily, to question the structural logic or motivations of characters in kaiju, but when that kaiju half of your Double Feature Challenge is the movie that rings truer, has characters with more realistic emotional lives and motivations, and more intellectually satisfying plotting, then if you are ready to embrace the camp and absurdity of your day of movie-watching, you could, potentially, be in for something of a treat... probably not, but I'll see if I can unpack it here a little bit.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjitJzIuZLXZzdlWVRb_f4mJzf2mEYXOaZGw_-v6Zr-7Plo9H9s5Th3TOhjgTwEfyiFQn974ViGjOOzKFttPGZlvHRyjiMKt4NXrClCW32ZnhetDujgvzDUKgTdv4WpcRdpXJ2hwphofvVYf7Y5gEfavU6y8ZTxs-POfcLHMfmbkR2_WKz8s7oR/s467/mWeb.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="314" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjitJzIuZLXZzdlWVRb_f4mJzf2mEYXOaZGw_-v6Zr-7Plo9H9s5Th3TOhjgTwEfyiFQn974ViGjOOzKFttPGZlvHRyjiMKt4NXrClCW32ZnhetDujgvzDUKgTdv4WpcRdpXJ2hwphofvVYf7Y5gEfavU6y8ZTxs-POfcLHMfmbkR2_WKz8s7oR/s320/mWeb.png" width="215" /></a></div> The post title here is a line from one of the more obscenely, absurdly dumb sequences in all of <i>Madame Web</i>, where our villain, Ceiling Guy is lying in bed (just like Brian Wilson did) with a woman who he just met, and we are meant to believe seduced a scene earlier at the opera by picking up a piece of garbage from the floor and handing it to her, then watching some of the opera. This woman who is seduced by Ceiling Guy('s I wanna say evident sensitivity or intelligence {or possibly wealth?} because he's at an opera), turns out to be a spy who no one will miss or notice that her password is being used 24/7 by Ceiling Guy's ??Executive Assistant?? to access every camera in the city (in the world?, it's never quite clear), and our Spy Woman's susceptibility to sleeping with 'super' villains moments after meeting them is only the second dumbest thing about this whole sequence. The worst by far is Ceiling Guy's continued use of the phrase "you have no idea..." or "if you only knew..." or such similar to imply that he has good reason for doing all the dastardly things he's doing, but really only serves to have the viewer say, "right, I don't know... are you ever going to show my or hint at some further reason?..., but no, they aren't going to.<p></p><p>The aliens from Planet X (Xiliens) by comparison have pretty clear (if insanely overcomplicated) motivations... Upon revealing themselves to the human astronauts, they befriend them by sharing their deepest fear of King Ghidorah (a giant, flying, laser / lightning spitting monster), and then ask for Earth's help by loaning them Godzilla and Rodan (I'm not sure why, exactly, they wouldn't then just be harried by G & R if they succeed in chasing KG off)...</p><p>With kaiju, the camp is baked in - to be expected - and even if <i>Madame Web </i>wasn't made meaning to lean in to the camp, I think if you watch it the same way you might watch a kaiju film, there's something here to enjoy. It's dumb (like, for some reason no one ever goes looking for a stolen taxi and first aid solely consists of chest compressions... just do that forever, and you can save anyone, no matter what has happened to them), but if you just go with it, and assume that they're doing all of this intentionally for comedic affect, I think it might actually be enjoyable.<br /></p><p>My advice, if you're taking on this challenge is 1) drinks, lots of drinks; and 2) start with <i>Invasion of Astro-Monster</i>, and <i>then </i>move on to <i>Madame Web</i>, to sorta get you in the mood...</p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-83076644208962674292023-12-22T10:48:00.005-06:002023-12-26T10:48:12.533-06:00Top Five (or so) Christmas Movies<p><br /> In the grand tradition of holiday list making, I offer my list of absolutely go to every year holiday movies to watch, and when. Brooke and I have differing tastes for these, so I (and she) end up watching a lot more that maybe wouldn't make our own lists, but here we go with: </p><p>Top Five Christmas Movies!: </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Elf </i>(this one lands near the top of both our lists)</li><li><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigQmRfNhcNahyVlEzAvFDY_JpsWfqoJu4CjRi7Ljj9954UzXexM70jatDCBQbx_GTCWibDdl4jxyRo8MZMnNkJSwtQ5KEyeV2horA53XCqu3i4ZjXE8cHCrcVJ2xP38phwqTNEf28kdkZ0F9SYJgBilImFnIgIpsfNeJHfNSbCmel_3GCRmrEV/s300/xMasMovies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigQmRfNhcNahyVlEzAvFDY_JpsWfqoJu4CjRi7Ljj9954UzXexM70jatDCBQbx_GTCWibDdl4jxyRo8MZMnNkJSwtQ5KEyeV2horA53XCqu3i4ZjXE8cHCrcVJ2xP38phwqTNEf28kdkZ0F9SYJgBilImFnIgIpsfNeJHfNSbCmel_3GCRmrEV/s1600/xMasMovies.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><i>Love Actually </i>(after some post Me-Too hemming and hawwing over this one, I've brought it back into my fold - of course not every character is fully virtuous nor all their actions blameless, but name me an interesting movie where that <i>is </i>the case! It's such an overall emotional build-up, absurd and completely unrealistic and I love it!)<br /><br />Both of these first two movies are ones that we often first watch early on in the season, and then again closer to Christmas Day (although Brooke's love of #2 has not recovered much after taking a hit around 2017...<br /><br /></li><li><i>Die Hard </i>(Sorry, Obama, but this is definitely a Christmas movie, and it's a banger!)</li><li><i>National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation</i></li><li><i>The Holiday</i></li></ol><p></p><p>I'll finish this post later, but wanted to get it up and running to start the conversation!... </p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-31881678608990151022023-09-04T01:49:00.002-05:002023-09-12T10:23:52.737-05:00It’s really a Medieval Fair…<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS407CXdykpJBDwMhmYCJZ3xOlfRVhu7ExkFvoV0OgyHLNvYeQOl6-b7E4B4VItv7_kM7_d1DMzOXSlFJaZgD_16hvMuxoZ_2WfTU-NyEY0hZfNTEiNkRYcxATTZXOiSf2i5BnNDjjZgpX7MqVgiZU7GyQPGaY5dPa7JDfwntKh1OpUbBoAmDQBA/s4032/2A8266BD-046F-4136-9CE3-828C552272AA.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS407CXdykpJBDwMhmYCJZ3xOlfRVhu7ExkFvoV0OgyHLNvYeQOl6-b7E4B4VItv7_kM7_d1DMzOXSlFJaZgD_16hvMuxoZ_2WfTU-NyEY0hZfNTEiNkRYcxATTZXOiSf2i5BnNDjjZgpX7MqVgiZU7GyQPGaY5dPa7JDfwntKh1OpUbBoAmDQBA/s320/2A8266BD-046F-4136-9CE3-828C552272AA.jpeg" width="240" /></a> We’re now Ren Faire adjacent people - 2 years running, that counts, right? I am pretty sure that I have the capability to be an all out-in on Cosplayer be it LARP-ing or theater or more RenFaire situations, but I married in to a life where it was quite clear early on that I wouldn’t be allowed (it was a different time …), and over the years I’ve gotten her to a place where she’s the one who gets us to the Renaissance Faire, not me…</p><p><span style="text-align: center;">Forget about trying to parse this but it’s a bridge (classical construction), over an ancient (or perhaps Anthropocene-constructed, hard to tell) body of water. It certainly feels like it all might collapse whilst we traversed (so again hard to say if that’s a product of it being so old or too modern and flawed because of the curse of capitalism…)</span></p><p>There was a man, a man named Crack, <a href="https://www.winrichwhips.com/" target="_blank">Adam Crack</a> (it might’ve been Ethan), and woh, could he whip. Whipped it good, he did. This sounds underwhelming (or at least whelming, in Europe, if <i>Clueless</i> is to be believed ), but it was not only a whip show, but a fire whip show, and like time, you add fire in front of anything and it improves, measurably.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje4m5gAc0-UNRjSscrue5Rr44QG4hIoG9skaj9G0g1fHuXKpxXWs1kzoamJO6ZnHncozXdFhSHbnyLaTSaxVBMI327tKopHF9NKgRsAh6rTitEZsPKrwYCzwECYjyvYG6ithMqNdtkAbmIabo90nq_BbvidX7TG3LNVaxaOkcBbd9TU9CVQaaH7A/s4032/2DA7BF2D-F126-4F3D-92F7-82E90978E15E.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje4m5gAc0-UNRjSscrue5Rr44QG4hIoG9skaj9G0g1fHuXKpxXWs1kzoamJO6ZnHncozXdFhSHbnyLaTSaxVBMI327tKopHF9NKgRsAh6rTitEZsPKrwYCzwECYjyvYG6ithMqNdtkAbmIabo90nq_BbvidX7TG3LNVaxaOkcBbd9TU9CVQaaH7A/s320/2DA7BF2D-F126-4F3D-92F7-82E90978E15E.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>And yes, it mostly was, but we were at the Ren Faire (Fire Ren Faire?) and so looking forward to good stuff that we were part of a pretty amazing demographic. <p></p><p>The highestLight was by far was the<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=dungeons+and+shakespeare&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS600US601&oq=dungeons+and+sh&aqs=chrome.0.0i512j69i57j0i22i30l8.18147j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=OLkbQ6NngGwB8M&vssid=l" target="_blank"> Dungeons & Shakespeare</a> show, which brought four willing and thespic Fairegoers up on stage to randomly choose Shakespeare characters from across the Ouvre or monsters from throughout the Manuals (or the Folio, presumably), and act out the Host’s (Public DM?s) narration as Regan from King Lear teamed up with <br />The Nurse from Romeo & Juliet to defeat a bugbear en route to find The Necronomicon locked away high in an Elven tower guarded by Yeti who killed them. </p><p>And then over by the jousting fields, we find The Insult Artist who spends all day hurling insults at the humans who step up to thrown tomatoes at him. </p><p>It’s definitely my people. </p>seegerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07111452429314988140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-50077373307874514262023-07-25T11:07:00.004-05:002023-07-25T14:43:29.552-05:00Row, Row, Row your Desk!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMrzI4Cj5Hmiy7bGcY2D3LYimtF_55V8grZMQw2si0YPLVvq-IhO-ZTHEzDvxahnU5w1-qlsNWhXNVAZhbRxhMmEWZAuCQbNT7mvpb4xifHcDNjyIni4NV_Th3c4sDLHhemSp1nl9erqpnrO0swJd4yh2Ao0D7zphHKxEgrNDd4IkOBosUHMhG/s4032/canoebicle1.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMrzI4Cj5Hmiy7bGcY2D3LYimtF_55V8grZMQw2si0YPLVvq-IhO-ZTHEzDvxahnU5w1-qlsNWhXNVAZhbRxhMmEWZAuCQbNT7mvpb4xifHcDNjyIni4NV_Th3c4sDLHhemSp1nl9erqpnrO0swJd4yh2Ao0D7zphHKxEgrNDd4IkOBosUHMhG/s320/canoebicle1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> I have the privilege today to be taking part in what I expect will soon become the hottest new trend in remote work and a bold new path in the search for true work life balance, the <a href="https://www.leinie.com/canoebicle" target="_blank">Canoebicle</a>.<p></p><p>As work itself has become more and more absurd, with the very latest trends of the corporate landscape^ on the one hand beginning to mimic the trappings of the educational system that many of the trendier employees have so recently left behind, while at the same time seeking to fulfil a kind of performative community of woke <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Space_Theory" target="_blank">third space</a>, the need arises to find creative and restorative outlets for working in your own context.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0taQQj74pQPEyTYhdXhjk1oT8QVOEa1GwTCCM0r5q5GCtTYoMnR59RUr0_dFnalhATYFIegi4YH-4SClg0lH9bPBGvl-o4K07TGmbunB7sur-d8LL7i8O9-It5df8h2O7tqqU2XEUWzYp5UVU0VCHvDshjDx4VjaIjWzZabhbFWHFbrdlmSgz/s4032/laptopReflections.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0taQQj74pQPEyTYhdXhjk1oT8QVOEa1GwTCCM0r5q5GCtTYoMnR59RUr0_dFnalhATYFIegi4YH-4SClg0lH9bPBGvl-o4K07TGmbunB7sur-d8LL7i8O9-It5df8h2O7tqqU2XEUWzYp5UVU0VCHvDshjDx4VjaIjWzZabhbFWHFbrdlmSgz/s320/laptopReflections.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>I have been a long time advocate for the Work-From-Canoe lifestyle as an option, to allow people a better work / canoe balance. I am glad that, at last, Leinenkugel's has decided to recognize this important demographic.<p></p><p>Having been a pioneer in Work-From-Beach, Work-From-Motor-Boat-With-Questionable-Fuel-Line, Work-From-In-Laws'-Driveway, and <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2019/04/beautiful-day-for-beautiful-game.html" target="_blank">Work-From-Bar</a> lifestyles long before it was made all the rage by the COVID-19 Pandemic, I appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this bold new experiment. </p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">^ I know I know what you're all thinking is that, "Joel, you don't really have a real job anymore do you? And haven't had for a few years now? Who are you to critique working conditions in America?" And while this may be technically true, in the overeducated white middle class sense that I have not been invited back into the corporate life after <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2020/08/star-dnp.html" target="_blank">my untimely demise</a>, I am still an observer of the lifestyle (that is, having jobs), and I feel connected to the current moment of work</span></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-60704664551677039302023-07-04T14:25:00.002-05:002023-07-04T14:25:12.203-05:00Characterization of the New Generation^<p></p><div>^Ordinarily, I would hide this footnote away at the bottom of the post in tiny print, but in this case, I think we need a bit of opening throat clearing for this post... I came across this brief fragment by Walter Benjamin as I continue my way through <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Walter-Benjamin-Selected-Writings-1927-1934/dp/0674945867" target="_blank">volume 2 of his collected writings</a>, and thought, here is a bite-sized (aka <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">RNJ</a>-sized post) work of his that was unpublished during his life that probably hasn't received too much attention over the years, so maybe I'll re-create it, postulate for postulate and sentence for sentence for a modern audience. He was on the verge of 40 looking at the new generation of writers coming up, and I am starting out on the back 40 seeing what's next for us, but instead of rephrasing his comments, I found as I started to re-read them that they were in fact quite on point, albeit a little out of context, so instead of rephrasing, just a little reframing was what was called for <b><i>(my comments)</i>.</b></div><div><br /></div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li> These people <i><b>(that's seriously how his starts!)</b></i> make not the slightest attempt to base their activities on any theoretical foundations whatsoever. <i><b>(OK, yes, I would say this remains true today, although I'm not sure our contemporary sensibilities know quite what this means. But I will say it seems a common thread that youth tend to assert, and perhaps, act, without taking much time to consider the underlying basis for all activity that came before).</b></i> They are not only deaf to the so-called great questions <i><b>(YES, this feels even more apt than that last)</b></i>, those of politics or world views <i><b>(young people - and this is probably Millennials or maybe even starting with my generation, which is the youngest of the Gen Xers, LOVE to say how not in to politics they are, although this is probably a result of </b><a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-radical-grace-of-dolly-parton.html" target="_blank"><b>our r</b><b>ecent conflation of the political with practical politics</b></a><b>)</b></i>; they are equally innocent of any fundamental reflection on questions of art <b><i>(yes, again, although what we mean by this today probably resembles something more like, "they don't even like to watch whole movies anymore, just YouTube clips!")</i></b>.</li><li>They are uneducated. <b><i>(Well, no, or yes, depending on what we think education is. They certainly have a whole hell of a lot more degrees than any previous generations have had, but they are for the most part in specific applied fields - I know a guy, for example, who is a professor in Healthcare Communications, which it seems there is a whole degree in. Anyway, they are certainly uneducated in the sense of having an accurate understanding of the larger world around them.)</i></b> Not just in the sense that their <b><i>(general)</i> </b>knowledge is very limited, but above all because they are incapable of extending their diminishing knowledge in a systematic manner <b><i>(again, I think this is exactly right, but is a little hard to parse in a modern context. I would say this is something like being outraged by all the over-woke causes like personal pronouns and land acknowledgements {which are overall good and decent things}, but failing to bank any outrage whatever at current exploitation of the developing world or the underclass by capitalism)</i></b>. Never has a generation of writers been so oblivious to the need to understand the techniques of scholarly work as this one <b><i>(I guess so..?)</i></b>.</li><li>Although these writers stride blithely on from one work to the next <b><i>(Tik-Tok)</i></b>, it is impossible to discern any sort of development--and above all any consistency--in their work <b><i>(also Tik-Tok)</i></b>, except at the level of technique <b><i>(still Tik-Tok)</i></b>. Their efforts and their ambition seem to exhaust themselves in the acquisition of a new subject or a grateful theme, and this is enough for them <b><i>(I think Benjamin wrote #3 all about Tik-Tok somehow)</i></b>.</li><li>Popular literature has always existed--that is to say, a literature that acknowledges no obligations to the age and the ideas that move it, except perhaps the desirability of presenting such ideas in an agreeable, fashionably packaged form for immediate consumption <b><i>(is all of the rest of this thing about Tik-Tok?)</i></b>. Such consumer literature of course has the right to exist; in bourgeois society at least, it has its place and its justification. But never before, in bourgeois or any other society, has this literature of pure consumption and enjoyment ever been identical with the avant-garde at its technically and artistically most advanced. This is precisely the pass to which the latest school <b><i>(i.e. Influencer Culture)</i></b> has now brought us.</li><li>Give respect to economic necessity where it is due: it may well force the writer to produce much inferior work <b><i>(click bait is oh so much more profitable than those good, nuanced Tik-Toks)</i></b>. The nuances of his writing will then show what stuff he is made of. However dubious much literary journalism may be, there is hardly anything so bad that it cannot be salvaged from the worst excesses by certain aspects of its content and especially its style. Where a writer succeeds, he owes it to his grasp of technique; where he fails, it is the moral or substantive foundation that is lacking <b><i>(yeah, this all may seem a bit out of date and out to lunch...)</i></b>. What is astonishing is how completely alien to members of the new school the salutary, protecting reservations are--not just the moral ones, but even the linguistic ones too <b><i>(but THIS is definitely a reference to safe spaces, right?)</i></b>. And how these new writers absolutely take for granted their right to display an infinitely pampered, narcissistic, unscrupulous--in short, journalistic--ego <b><i>(this feels definitely on point, the world has gotten these last few years to feel a lot more personal)</i></b>. And how their writing is imbued to the very last detail with the <i>arriviste </i><b>(arriviste:<i> a pushy upstart - and isn't that what is good about youth culture in the end, is that no matter how exasperating it may be, it does push us forward, we take the good, and eventually {hopefully} cast off the silly fads, and are better--improved--for it)</i> </b>spirit!</li></ol><p></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-44032187383073870932023-06-01T15:48:00.002-05:002023-06-01T15:48:21.592-05:00the Radical Grace of Dolly Parton<p> As you may have noticed, I've been on a bit of a Dolly kick lately. We re-orchestrated a road trip to Georgia to include an evening and a night in Pigeon Forge, TN in order to experience the Dinner Theater Insanity that is <i>Dolly Parton's Stampede!</i> </p><p>En route to Pigeon Forge, we listened to <i>Dolly Parton's America</i>, a WNYC podcast that asks the question "Just what is the deal with Dolly Parton?" (or, "why is it that <i>everyone</i> {and by everyone we mean every constituency of the American populace} is pro-Dolly?")</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1OFrSxDt-UhCOkSk-JkRMlDfAAUmaX1j_HwmVqmTkNyb6XLYCa_mqIKNCeuONMv3mButnonF7_sQHjDn4yMl6yg0vhuUFqhq5ERmmzDZAaylh9bnQfs0W34gJ_e2aNeiUMj8AHnC-MRo-Cqif9EMWio8ylTx_gVvXF-qbF5x21Q7iioGrTQ/s355/dollyNpiggy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="355" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1OFrSxDt-UhCOkSk-JkRMlDfAAUmaX1j_HwmVqmTkNyb6XLYCa_mqIKNCeuONMv3mButnonF7_sQHjDn4yMl6yg0vhuUFqhq5ERmmzDZAaylh9bnQfs0W34gJ_e2aNeiUMj8AHnC-MRo-Cqif9EMWio8ylTx_gVvXF-qbF5x21Q7iioGrTQ/s320/dollyNpiggy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>At one point in the podcast (<a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america/episodes/dollitics" target="_blank">"Dollitics"</a>) they are talking about Dolly's refusal to talk about politics, but digs in to the political bent of her music, and they come to a moment during an awards show (CMAs, I think) in recent years when there was the first reunion of the <i>9 to 5 </i>trio of stars, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly. <a href="http://www.jadabumrad.com/" target="_blank">The host</a> talks about a moment when first Fonda and then Tomlin lay in to a newly elected Donald Trump, and when Dolly's moment to speak comes she makes what could be read as a painfully banal statement about "why don't we just pray for President Trump [and all of our political leaders] rather than defaming them?"<p></p><p>It makes me think a little about <a href="https://hatehasnohome.org/index.html" target="_blank">those yard signs</a> you see around that espouse a hate-free space (a space with grace, in other words). I like those signs (we've talked about getting one, but haven't as of yet), but they make me think about the real level of commitment to such an ideology. Not hating is easy when it's object is something you're aligned with (refusing to hate based on race or religion or because of who someone loves, etc.), but I would be curious to have genuine conversations with the raisers of those signs about being anti-hate when it comes to Donald Trump or white nationalists or other people who are committing acts of hate in our world. That is where Dolly's brand of radical grace comes in: it's meeting and accepting people where they are. It doesn't mean accepting the bigotry and violence perpetrated in its name, because grace isn't about thoughts and feelings (or even actions), grace is about the humans that do all of those things (and also do all the good bits, too).</p><p>Radical Grace, in the form that Dolly seems to embody it, is about being willing to meet people where they are, and engaging with them, and understanding with them that just being in the world is a fairly hard damn thing to do. Hate isn't created in a vacuum - it is fed by flames of inequality and resentment, but also by avarice and isolation and spite.</p><p>I think that the reason that we feel so on the brink (of a hate-pocalypse, of a neo-fascist era, of a cold civil war) is largely due to the fact that we have forgotten how to talk about politics (or economics or history or anything really). Saying Dolly Parton is a-political is a complete misunderstanding of politics. We have come to think of the word "political" as meaning only 'practical politics' (or electoral politics, featuring party politics), when in fact the political is just about anything that has to do with people. Dolly Parton is one of the greatest political songwriters of all time (having inspired not just humans, but oppressed, down-trodden civilizations <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TheOrville/comments/x6kzlq/the_orvilles_working_9_to_5/" target="_blank">across the galaxy</a>!) In the same way that politics is not just the biennial tradition of casting a ballot for (and usually against) someone or another - in fact that's the worst part of it, so too we have come to think of the economy in an equally toxic way - as if it is only the financial sector that is "the economy" and not all of the activities of our daily lives. <br /></p><p>It hurts us to think only in terms of practical politics or practical economics, because then, when our efforts don't show up on the scoreboards (our bank accounts or the outcomes of specific elections rather than the outcomes enacted for us in the world by our elected leaders) we are each of us diminished. I found it interesting, when I was looking for links for some of my various Dolly Parton, and first exploring the term 'radical grace' I found a lot more out there about radical <i>self</i> acceptance than I did about radical acceptance of others, and I think that's also telling given the era of mental health crisis that we also find ourselves in.</p><p>So let's all be hyper-political like Dolly in our daily work and lives. Like Dolly would have said, "Be Excellent to Each Other..."</p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-6269410543224287492023-03-15T14:26:00.061-05:002023-06-07T12:50:42.680-05:00This is COVID-2 of COVID-19, not COVID-1...<p> I have once again contracted the hottest not so new infection, COVID-19, and similar to <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2020/11/state-of-shame.html" target="_blank">my last encounter</a> with the biological assault, I am finding the social ramifications amongst the most noteworthy. </p><p>But first, at the strictly physical level, man this version that I had this time is so much worse than the 2020 model. I'm feeling okay now (thanks), but these new strains really kick your butt - even your vaxxed and boosted butt...</p><p>The confirmation process of "having COVID" has changed a lot - In November 2020, I drove to Miller Park, and sat in my car in in hundreds - of - cars - long line, and had an armored (in PPE, as if for a minor nuclear disaster) health care professional stick a seemingly far - too - long swab up my nose, and collect a sample that would eventually confirm my diagnosis (which was, pre-vaccine, to be sure, a very very minor case).</p><p>This time around, when my wife suggested I take a test because I was coughing and sneezing on Friday afternoon, I walked upstairs and grabbed the little box - read through the instructions (this was just the second time I'd taken an at - home test), and set all the bits and bobs out to be ready to take it.</p><p>And so I took my test downstairs in the kitchen whilst Brooke was working in our upstairs "home office"* and I stuck a short-ish swab up my nose and rooted around a bit (quite a bit, as the instructions encourage). And then I was standing there downstairs and I had (one line, two lines? a dot and and a line?) a positive result... And I was like, "oh fuck" [not, to be clear, because I was any longer worried about getting COVID having been vaxxed and boosted^), "I am going to be in trouble with my wife" because her work had specific protocols for close contacts testing positive.</p><p>So I thought - I have a choice here... Obviously, I had COVID, but that knowledge was now entirely in my own control. I didn't report my positive test to the State or Federal government (and didn't have any sense of how to do that if i had wanted to), and it was entirely up to me to whom or whether at all I report this latest contraction...</p><p>See, as we enter the post-pandemic phase (and I think the US government is planning to make it official in a couple month's time) and the disease itself is no longer a terrifying and life threatening affair in most cases (at least for those properly vaxxed and boosted) the disease has become a socio-economic one. Because I am presently working health care adjacent, a positive test necessitates missing work (unpaid) until I secure a negative test. Similarly, the day I tested positive preceded a week for my wife's work where she was meant to be heading out to several in person events (and not the fun, celebratory kind, but the work your ass off for whomever happens to be in charge of this one kind).</p><p>As an earnest and conformist person, I followed the rules, and missed out on a week of work (and also forced my wife to renege on her work obligations... but it easily could have been different had I made a different choice. I think this has become a common theme for me here, but we seem to be building a culture that is primarily driven by resentment and shame. When I was back at work a couple weeks later, and telling people why I had been absent, the most common question I heard was "where did you get it!?" (even from people who had had it several times!) as if it were a social shortcoming to have gotten it once again. As long as this is our collective response to COVID (to ills of all sort, really be they medical, cultural, economic, etc.) those people who 'just have allergies' are going to creep back in to workplaces all over, and we're going to continue to get unhealthier in all sorts of ways... </p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-614531735996154052023-02-23T16:19:00.338-06:002023-07-11T15:36:55.329-05:00a books report<p> Writing fiction is a thankless endeavor - I think - really any writing at all,,, putting words out there in the world for others to read and think about and judge. To be a "best-selling" author, with hundreds and thousands of people buying (as Kai was told, "<i>nicht geraucht, sonder <b>gekauft</b>!</i>") and then judging your stuff... </p><p>I recently have been reading fictional <i>essais</i> by a couple of former clients of mine (two who I genuinely enjoyed as humans and who I felt might actually have some insight and understanding as to what at least part of the human condition was all about^), while also reading a few parallel novels by more established writers (or at least more universally accepted books in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleishman_Is_in_Trouble_(miniseries)" target="_blank">book and adaptation world</a>...)</p><p>I have long been a student of literature (and I guess humanity?) - but my interest I think was always really about understanding the disparity between 1) Human Experience, which is (I think) an idiosyncratic, personal, and (possibly) unshareable experience [and a small aside here, but I think this is quite fundamental - I'm not saying that we as humans can't share our experience, but that the overall total version of our worldview may be different for each and every one of us {kind of like the what if when I see blue, other people are seeing red...} and this separation may in fact be the source of our larger inability to cohabitate on earth.] and that of 2) Human Expression, I'll admit, my initial bias here has always been through the written (and sorta spoken) word, but this is everyone's expression of musical, conversational, comedic, artistic(al?), filmic, poetical, historical, sociological, personal...</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoPyO5vVHj2sOvQxhtBAbBwy30Pm7vCcnF8yD_5MXWr1ZIXIS-lYY3_sxel2tljfMw3sVBkvWA-xiBDvPwhEuI8P-Je-6G2N1dAo99zPtqK3p4nwwAgDTWQQkEE9U88yoT3MSVVmbcCCMpFSS_OZuORSNjBSr5j48V1jzfnRwnPH-qq5agRsc/s2113/cloudCuckooLand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2113" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoPyO5vVHj2sOvQxhtBAbBwy30Pm7vCcnF8yD_5MXWr1ZIXIS-lYY3_sxel2tljfMw3sVBkvWA-xiBDvPwhEuI8P-Je-6G2N1dAo99zPtqK3p4nwwAgDTWQQkEE9U88yoT3MSVVmbcCCMpFSS_OZuORSNjBSr5j48V1jzfnRwnPH-qq5agRsc/s320/cloudCuckooLand.jpg" width="212" /></a>This may shock you, but I am a very judgmental reader - I think of things pretty harshly as very well written, not very well written, horribly written, etc.. I am simultaneously a voraciously omnivorous reader, willing to read not only across almost any genre, but also any quality. I love bad writing almost as much as I like good writing - certainly I have learned a lot more from bad writing than good. It's a lot easier to identify what exactly is bad in bad writing (and thereby try to excise it from your own writing) than it is to identify what exactly makes good writing good - it's all good or great, but what is it, exactly, that they just did there? </p><p></p><p>In conversation with my wife about "needing a new book", I have tried to have her parse out a bit what it is <i>she </i>is looking for in a great reading experience, and she framed it this way:</p><p></p><blockquote>"I don't like it when writers are writing obscurely, just for the sake of being obscure. Neither do I like it, though<i> (this isn't really how she talks)</i>, when writers just come out and say what they mean, like Stephen King <i>(she's not a fan)</i>, he has a thought, and then he just writes it right out there for everyone to see. I want a writer to couch <i>(clearly, this is me, but I </i>am<i> summarizing her)</i> their point within their prose a bit, but not to be too obscure."</blockquote><p></p><p>A couple of recent examples of books that fit this bill that she (and subsequently I) both really enjoyed are <i>Cloud Cuckoo Land</i>, by Anthony Doerr and <i><a href="https://erinmorgenstern.com/the-starless-sea/" target="_blank">The Starless Sea</a> </i>by Erin Morgenstern. Clearly she likes a little bit of magical realism too, and it certainly helps for a book to be about books, too... In both of these example books, the reader feels a bit adrift in the early going, wondering just what is going on, and how the disparate chapters &* characters might fit together with one another, and what it all amounts to. </p><p>Another book that we both recently read (this one my choice, rather than hers) was <i>The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle</i> (which I have just learned is also alternately titled <i>The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle</i>, which is exceedingly strange to me). This book, though not about books, was largely satisfactory to Brooke's books* criteria up until the very end, when the author, one <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Turton" target="_blank">Stuart Turton</a>, comes out and tells us just precisely what's been going on here. I still quite liked the book, and highly recommend it, although it did feel a bit M. Night Shylaman-y there at the end.</p><p>Another book I read recently that purports to be about a strange, scary phenomenon happening in the sewers (among other places) of a fictional small town near the coast was <i><a href="https://www.terrifictomes.com/" target="_blank">Phantoms</a></i>, by Dean Koontz, and man-oh-man does he shit the bed whilst fully explaining the phenomenon that has been haunting the town with a "scientifically viable" (he assures us in the author's note afterward) account of what the characters discover. And this is not remotely the worst part of this book. While the similarly summarizable* novel, <i>It</i>, has seven kids at the center of it who we get to know and care about, there is exactly nobody in Koontz' novel to care about and so the story has no stakes. I think this is because the characters, rather than acting like (or being) thinking, feeling humans, are more akin to walking talking resumes of humans (or maybe they're more like LinkedIn profiles). So too in those novels by my clients, never, anywhere in them, do I get a sense that anyone remotely real is nearby the narratives. </p><p><i>It Happens in the Hamptons</i> is a (sometimes shockingly) tawdry novel of manners set within the Old Money / New Money / No Money world of the Hamptons, but despite the constant crashing together of characters from widely differing backgrounds nothing ever really feels at stake, I think because all of the characters really feel more like summaries of backgrounds, rather than anyone who resembles</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5svSplHcRDC7b2sm24mdb2hSTHsSspZMXhqawTZjOlIWwCl1_bfsRrDmicFJw8WRYhGgiziAhl5XGZDc9-JWsFvlenZl9ni9-_X_tCHi-8GSQyYlvaWUv2FS6wpVPI9qWb2ZYlxrNqME541PKyBTEj2LVJlFCCaJiMegXJZkQEbxz26R-YBC/s1102/diary.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw5svSplHcRDC7b2sm24mdb2hSTHsSspZMXhqawTZjOlIWwCl1_bfsRrDmicFJw8WRYhGgiziAhl5XGZDc9-JWsFvlenZl9ni9-_X_tCHi-8GSQyYlvaWUv2FS6wpVPI9qWb2ZYlxrNqME541PKyBTEj2LVJlFCCaJiMegXJZkQEbxz26R-YBC/s320/diary.png" width="213" /></a></div>anyone who might be real. Contrast it with the similarly set <i>Fleishman is in Trouble</i> or even <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22284" target="_blank">Diary</a></i>, by Chuck Palahniuk. In that last, none of the characters feel at all real, both because the novel is written all from one perspective - one voice, but mostly because we're in the midst of a nightmare fairy tale, but the stakes for everyone involved are such that we care about the characters in those books. <p></p><p><i>The Last Ember</i> is a (sometimes shockingly)* Jewish clone of <i>The Da Vinci Code</i> where every character who enters any scene is literally handing everyone else in the room their resume^^.</p><p>And, even after all that effort of putting words to page, you find my surely-soon-to-be-defunct blog that is drawing more attention to your prosal* efforts, never quite coming out and saying anything, just commenting on it all, generally negatively.</p><p><i>*sigh*^^^</i></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">^After several occasions meeting both of them it became eminently clear that neither of them in fact did, but it was also obvious that it was very important to both of their senses of self that I thought that they did (even though it was also obvious that in their account of the world what I thought mattered not at all). In fact in all of my decade plus at MPS I only ever encountered one single client who seemed to have any insight into this at all).<br />* Then there's me, who uses an Ampersand just because the "ch" sounds in two neighboring words are different, and that's fun to draw them a bit closer, or uses unnecessary words in sentences to make fun rhymes </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(both literal and thematic)</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> happen, or creating words that should be (but probably aren't).<br />^^No, they aren't.<br />^^^These asterisk brackets are unrelated to the previous footnote usage of the asterisks earlier in this post, and any similarities are incidental^^. </span></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-56148656049288379492023-02-04T13:39:00.000-06:002023-02-12T13:41:09.883-06:00The Games; a foot!?!<p>What do semicolons do, really? (That being said, it seems a real missed opportunity in modern American prose {modern poets use semicolons constantly - I assume, I haven't <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2007/04/work-of-poet.html" target="_blank">read a "new" book of poetry</a> since around 2004, but I'd guess it's rife with them - because it's a way of "splitscreening" a sentence and can be liberating for poets because you can avoid a bit further fully saying what you're saying with a half a contradictory sentence} what with all this postmodernity going around...</p><p>Anyway...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6W-TNB1sB160AZXMwTZ9HHbz4WjllTVCAPVrmI2Z5c9Lcf2sldjLx-3jnIQ47AUXXr30U1yjjIpv9etwNT8EK7whFkiUroLE0xFZvVo9wWUCYM86KYe88bgh23QYIXA6ZHZ4rX4BS55WBsbUGixntvCa_l5fUltCBYTNa9cBwPRgurOkY_w/s2560/Berg-Seeger.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1706" data-original-width="2560" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6W-TNB1sB160AZXMwTZ9HHbz4WjllTVCAPVrmI2Z5c9Lcf2sldjLx-3jnIQ47AUXXr30U1yjjIpv9etwNT8EK7whFkiUroLE0xFZvVo9wWUCYM86KYe88bgh23QYIXA6ZHZ4rX4BS55WBsbUGixntvCa_l5fUltCBYTNa9cBwPRgurOkY_w/s320/Berg-Seeger.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Sports! or; more properly; Sport!</p><p>That's why I was coming here today - to celebrate the official start of the 2023 SeegerOlympics with our Event Selection "show" on February 1st.</p><p>So far, only two events are "live" and they're the two (new!) Musical events: 1) a <a href="https://musicleague.com/" target="_blank">Music League</a> event with 5 Rounds to work themselves out over the next 10 months and 2) a Christmas Song-Writing Competition, where pairs of Seegers (<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reese/Claire, Davin/Jen, Brooke/Andy, Joel/Tim) </span>will compete by composing and recording a Christmas song to be judged by a panel (to include Shane {sorry/thanks Shane} and others to hopefully be determined soon!) of judges who've earned the respect of (at least most of) the competitors in Christmas Song Appreciation...</p><p>This year's Competition will include an Exhibition Event - "Clinton Scotland Yard" (CSY), where one team is Mr. X and goes and parks a car somewhere in Clinton and walk from there and has to text their location every so often to all the other players and stay "hidden" for a certain amount of time. CSY is one of seven (7!: CSY, "Trivial Pursuit Glory", Basketball One-Shot Challenge, Farkle, 8-Person War, Croquet, & Casino Night!) total synchronous events being declared, where all 8 competitors have to be together to play, whereas there was only one last year, which was the final event to be played on the penultimate day of the year, so we will randomly determine the order of those events, and see how many we can get in.</p><p>Familiar (but slightly changed) events from <a href="https://seegerolympics.blogspot.com/2023/01/how-about-that-one-folks.html" target="_blank">last year</a> include a Strategy Board Game Tournament, an Arcade Console Tournament, a FIFA Women's World Cup Pick-'Em and a <i>Sorry! </i>Tournament with the competition being rounded out by Throwing Cheeseballs and Catching Them in Your Mouth, Mini-Golf, Tennis TieBreakers & Competitive Wordle!</p><p>It promises to be quite a year, with up to 16 points available!</p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-15986402978849888362023-01-25T23:55:00.327-06:002023-04-01T12:21:54.824-05:00Vengeance, Naked<p>Tonight we had the rare opportunity for An Uncorrupted <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/search/label/double%20feature%20challenge" target="_blank">Double Feature</a> (viewing two new {to me} movies, one after the other, thereby linking them forever in my mind and creating thematic linkage). </p><p>As an unchilded human, this might seem on offer more often than to others, but it is, truly, a real rarity... The first offering was <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vengeance_(2022_film)" target="_blank">Vengeance</a></i> - a 2022 dark comedy by B.J. Novak, who quite possibly might turn out to be the most talented person to have been on <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Office_(American_TV_series)" target="_blank">The Office</a></i>. <i>Vengeance </i>is Novak's directorial debut, and in addition to being highly entertaining, it's possible that it may also turn out to be a defining film of the era. It's the best kind of lowkey potentially great movie where it is surface level charmingly clever, spreading some sort of message that feels sort of important and profound (in the case of <i>Vengeance</i> there are 3 or 4 of these differing, but related messages), but nothing too scathing or cynical; and then on further reflection and examination it starts to dawn on you that this movie may in fact be not only deeply meaningful and great, but, in fact, <i>important</i>.</p><p>"Important" works of art are ones that are not just elegant or profound or even sublime, but I think most importantly they are the ones that are exceptionally timely. What the world needs now, is aptness, sweet aptness. Very often the messages that are needed at any given time are political (which is why so many "important" movies or "important" art generally is often political), but I think just now the messages we might most need are cultural and critical (in the academic sense) in nature. </p><p>At one point in <i>Vengeance</i>, Ashton Kutcher's character (Quentin Sellers) says by way of critique of our current moment we find ourselves in: "Everything means everything, so nothing means anything." The quote diagnoses the extent to which we have entered, just in the past few years, a postmodern cultural era. Postmodernity is a complicated thing to define (just ask Fred Jameson who spent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism,_or,_the_Cultural_Logic_of_Late_Capitalism" target="_blank">500 pages or so</a> in an attempt to do just that). Possibly my favorite attempt at a definition is in Jameson's introduction to his book (and in postmodern studies, you only ever have to read introductions to books... or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-samuelson-53b82013/" target="_blank">even just the marketing blurbs</a>!). He offers it somewhat glibly, but I think we can retrospectively now take it somewhat seriously... He says something like:</p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">"the Postmodern is thinking about the present historically in a world that has forgotten its history"</span></blockquote><p></p><p>We are living in an era of supreme subjectivity where everyone's thoughts and identity have become significant and actual meaning and complexity and depth have become tertiary. We have fully blown past Colbert's Era of Truthiness, briefly paused at the moment of "alternative facts", and now exist in a time when claims of "I feel that ____" and "I know the __<u>{insert expert here}</u>___ says ________, but <i><b>I</b></i> believe that ___________" have equal epistemological standing to previously 'absolute' truths like 3 + 3 = 6 and "water is made up of 2 parts hydrogen to 1 part oxygen". And this, I think, is closer to a postmodern sensibility:</p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">"Nothing means anything, so everything means anything"</span></blockquote><p></p><p>That mentality is perhaps more akin to a less thought about branch of postmodernity called supermodernity (which itself is thought of as a branch of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermodernity" target="_blank">hypermodernity</a>) which I think of as the notion that the meaning of the whole of anything can be ascertained by closely examining and understanding any part of it. It's what Walter Benjamin was on about in his unfinished master work <i><a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2017/08/mind-gaps.html" target="_blank">The Arcades Project</a></i>, but I think it's also what's going on, in a satirical way, in <i>Vengeance</i>. In the movie, one of the Shaw daughters primary aspiration in life is to be famous - when this gets interrogated, and she is asked what she wants to be famous for - does she want to be a famous singer, or a famous actor, she decides she wants "to be a famous celebrity" - and this pretty well encapsulates the thesis of the movie, but is a throwaway joke line, soon forgotten.</p><p>And so (i haven't forgotten) we come on to <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliet,_Naked_(film)" target="_blank">Juliet, Naked</a></i>, a bizarrely <i>un-</i>timely movie that came out in 2018, but is about email - in a moment after "email is over". It's based on a book by Nick Hornby from 2009, a time when email ruled - and the adaptation took the material straight (which is generally the best choice when adapting Hornby - who has kinda always already gotten it...), but that makes for a weird unmoored feel to the movie.</p><p>Given its excessive untimeliness, <i>Juliet, Naked </i>is anything but important, but as is so often the case with Nick Hornby, it captures aspects of the modern human experience, and interrogates them from a myriad of angles. Here we find an investigation of highly curated fandom - questions of who owns a work of art, the artist or the appreciator of the art. The movie is about the fraught-ness of an artist putting themselves out there, but also the fraught-ness of putting yourself out there - committing yourself to someone despite all their foibles and obsessions and insecurities.</p><p>As with Horby's best works - really all of his work that I've encountered, whether in writing, film, or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jze2xTcukc0" target="_blank">song</a> - the central question being asked is, "what is a life?" or maybe, "what should I do in my life?" What to do <i>with</i> your life feels all-encompassing, and final, but what to do <i>in </i>your life feels like a good question to ask - where to spend your energies, what (and who) to give your attention to.</p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">Life is like a weird dry run where only at the end of it we realize it was practice for a performance that's never going to happen</span></blockquote><p></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-27086896711815929202023-01-03T14:55:00.130-06:002023-07-20T10:57:42.125-05:00baby please hang on...<p>I have undertaken <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire" target="_blank">A Song of Ice and Fire</a></i> (now that I'm driving most nights I couldn't come up with any more excuses why not to start {except for the fact that the books [at least the first two!] are ridiculously popular on the library circuit with a typical wait time of several months}) and am attempting to watch along again the HBO adaptation as I'm reading along.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/5koif4/everything_reading_the_book_and_watching_the_show/" target="_blank">My understanding</a> is that this is easy to do with the first season and first book of the series, and damn near impossible to accomplish thereafter. I'll try to do it anyway - watching as much as I deem aligned from what I've read, and will try to comment along the way as I go.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjghv9E0prQBuj-pw8O6bBaOhizx0Zu3L4eTjw4os58JakF_iFVB5cBe02KkW_8VMZSYBrFdSizHCy-LSa3XxiuDE4vF6a-G7xca1NxIvx_DPq-kuI-LyTaCIViNOsmtwlFhtnyEeIa6adqa6PCwqY9Xc5lp1ctFu-hpN7-rCfmBtXRiLCA4w/s750/tyrionAndGeorge.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="750" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjghv9E0prQBuj-pw8O6bBaOhizx0Zu3L4eTjw4os58JakF_iFVB5cBe02KkW_8VMZSYBrFdSizHCy-LSa3XxiuDE4vF6a-G7xca1NxIvx_DPq-kuI-LyTaCIViNOsmtwlFhtnyEeIa6adqa6PCwqY9Xc5lp1ctFu-hpN7-rCfmBtXRiLCA4w/s320/tyrionAndGeorge.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>But as I am approaching the end of the first book (and first season), I'll make some initial comments, and observations then add (either to this post or in the comments) as I make my way along.<p></p><p>Unlike some <a href="https://vocal.media/geeks/i-read-and-watched-game-of-thrones-at-the-same-time" target="_blank">other recent takers</a> on of this challenge, I watched all of <i>Game of Thrones</i> as it was airing, and highly enjoyed the series (and yes, even the deemed bad last season, which seemed in a damned hurry, but I thought was overall satisfying). As it turns out, I may never watch through the entire series again, although all reports are that Mr. Martin is in acceptable enough health he still has two doorstops to write to round out the (planned) 7 book series. After Stephen King's near death <a href="https://ew.com/books/2019/06/19/stephen-king-car-accident-20-years/" target="_blank">encounter with a van</a> in 1999, I think I sort of made an agreement with myself to not risk an epic fantasy series again that hinges on an author's mortality. Better to deal with authors who are either safely dead or series that are neatly wrapped up, <br /></p><p>But here we go again - and so far, I'm quite enjoying the ride.</p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>A Game of Thrones </i>(Book 1) / <i>A Game of Thrones</i> (Season 1)</p><p>My favorite surprise discovery so far has been the characterization of Tyrion, which I thought as I've been reading through the first book was quite different than the tv series. I thought of all the casting and acting decisions made for the series that perhaps they had made with Tyrion one of their few mis-steps. Not that casting Peter Dinklage was a mistake - he is magnificent in this role - but I thought as I was reading through that his take on Tyrion was more grand and epically heroic than the novel was making him out to be, but I realized as I watched the first few episodes that I was mistaken and my memories of Dinklage's take on the character must have been from later seasons. In this early going, Tyrion is quite as small, in every sense, as he is made out to be in the novel. Clever and cunning to be sure, but also petty and pitiful - a far cry from the "I drink, and I know things" hero he will grow in to.</p><p>The show and novel have some differences to be sure (e.g. in the novel it is Catelyn who insists that Ned Stark must take on the role of Hand of the King, whereas in the show it is Ned's own honor that compels him), but for the most part this is a one-to-one transliteration of the novel, both equally enjoyable and well executed. <b>(7 January 2023)</b></p><p><br /></p><p><i>A Clash of Kings</i> (Book 2) / <i>A Game of Thrones </i>(Season 2)</p><p>By something of a fluke of schedule, I began this round by reading nearly a third of the book before even starting in on episode one. When I did finally get back to the show and watched episode 1 (the only I've revisited up to this point) it felt a bit like a speed round of the book, quickly covering nearly everything I'd read up to that point.</p><p>As the season and book have moved along, it has been a fairly even split, and it seems like they may eventually catch up with each other. There is a lot (as always) that has to be skipped or skimmed over for the filmic version, but what is shown is mostly shown as it was in the novels except for a few specific choices:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>when Arya is brought to Harrenhal, in the show she serves as cup bearer for Tywin Lannister because it makes for better for TV with her interacting with a primary character rather than the way she takes up the role once Roose Bolton and the north take back the castle.</li><ul><li>This difference is exacerbated when Arya asks Jaqen H'ghar to help them free the Northmen to take over Harrenhal in the book, but only asks him to help them escape (which totally is not nothing!) in the show</li></ul><li>So too where Jamie Lannister finds himself in the show in a war camp prison is not so nearly as horrible as the dungeon he is being held in at River Run when he is freed by Brianne of Tarth & Catelyn Stark.</li><li>A fascinating conversation between Davos Seaworth and his son a few minutes into episode 9 of Season 2, where his son is blindly faithful to the Lord of Light and their imminent success, where in the novel Davos's sons are all on separate ships and far from him, but he worries for them as the battle for King's Landing is about to start.</li></ul><p></p><p>in every iteration (so it seems) Tyrion turns out to be a hero of the night of Stanis' attack on King's Landing. The Hound - it seems - might be a different case, where he is heroic in battle, but ultimately loses his position (but mostly, like all of us, because he deems himself unworthy rather than anyone else doing it for him...).</p><p>The TV show ties up most of the loose threads and aligns fairly well with where this second novel ends, with a few exceptions. Bran's party remains together at the end of Season 2, whereas in <i>A Clash of Kings</i>, Osha takes Rickon while Bran & Hodor head off in another direction (to keep at least one of the boys safe, the hope is). Robb Stark also marries a woman in the final episode who (I think) has not even been introduced in the novels as of yet... but mostly we are still aligned at this point. <b>(7 March 2023)</b> </p><p><br /></p><p><i>A Storm of Swords</i> (Book 3) / <i>A Game of Thrones </i>(Season 2:10 - Season 3 - Season 4 - Season 5:1 - 6)</p><p>The opening chapter is the perspective of Jamie Lannister (his first of the entire series), and is almost entirely (although very differently) portrayed in this book 3 while he travels south to King's Landing under the protection of Brienne of Tarth, which almost entirely occurs in the final episode of Season 2.. This final episode of Season 2 also seems to contain a lot of storyline that feels a ways off in the novelization (and the third novel's early chapters seem to have a lot of filling time that never made it to the show). </p><p>As Season 3 of the show begins, the scene north of the wall seems to echo the prologue of <i>Storm of Swords</i>, but the Nights Watch who are far north of the wall are heading home rather than planning a stand against the Wildings - much of the other scenes in the first episode match up to the first 20% of the novel or so.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Theon Greyjoy's narrative seems to moving forward more quickly in the show than the novel, but it's possible that this is just an illusion as he no longer has any chapters following his progress in the book. It's possible that as he makes his transition to Reek, he may no longer get a perspective in the book, so his story is ended...</li><li>In this novel - <a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Wedding" target="_blank">the Red Wedding</a> happens just past the half way point, whereas I just started episode 5, and we won't see it on screen until the penultimate episode of this season. In many ways, though, this season seems again a straight-up adaptation of this third book - some things are happening out of order from the other, but I think these versions of the same story are both unfolding at about the same pace.</li><ul><li><a href="https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Purple_Wedding" target="_blank">The Purple Wedding</a> is just a short while after the Red one in book 3 (and in actual show time, I think ends up just being a few episodes after it), so it seems that Book 3 will be taking us well in to Season 4 of the show, without any major noticeable storylines that are far behind the novel.</li></ul><li>Gendry gets taken by Stanis' Red Woman in episode 6, and here's maybe the first point where the show is starting to conflate portions of the novels - Gendry and Robert's bastard from Storm's End whose blood the Red Woman uses get condensed into one character</li><li>As I enter the final 10% of the third novel it has already blown past the end of the third season of the show, and further (I'll figure out exactly how far once I get there as I'm currently on episode 3:8). The one aspect of the book that is much farther ahead of the show at the end of the third of each iterations is the Wildings and the Wall - the battles at Castle Black and trying to take the Wall have progressed much further in the book and seem to be leaving the show behind. </li><li>The "Mhysa" moment is a lot more affective in the show because it is the finale of Season 3, whereas its buried in the lost middle of Book 3. However, Daenerys's story seems to occur in a different order in the books from a show, but hits all of the same notes. </li></ul><div>Book 3 ends AMAZINGLY, and it did not make the show (might have made the Tom Savini version of the show). I do appreciate that the show gives us the chance to see a lot more perspectives, not just the points of view of the primary characters. We see the Wildings build-up to their attack on Castle Black and the Wall in a way that it only gets explained afterward when Jon goes to play diplomat / assassin after the attack. And we get an insight into what Theon Greyjoy's transition to Reek has been like (although, I do sense that this storyline is moving faster in the show than in the book - just as Night's Watch {and particularly the White Walker's} storylines are further ahead in the book than in the show).</div><div><br /></div><div>Now that I am well finished with the book, and just catching up on episodes it looks like I will reach the end of Season 4 before I run out of material from <i>A Storm of Swards</i>, and while that is undeniable, I am not sure that there is anything happening in the show that hasn't happened in the book yet. It occurs to me that what is ahead in the show as I watch episode 4:4 seems to be Tommen & Margaery's story - in the book, Tommen is a boy of 8, and while all of the children in the show are older than in the novels (lest the show be banned!). Jamie also sends Brienne out in search of the Stark girls (or at least Sansa) to bring them to safety in a way that never happens (yet) in the books, and we get the adventures Brienne & Podric! Stannis and Davos also venture to Bravos in the show (to try to get a loan, exciting banking adventures)</div><div><br /></div><div>Bran is also way ahead of schedule in the show - he is reaching the Children / (the big GodsWood) by the final episode of Season 4, but isn't anywhere near that in Book 3. (The Three Eyed Raven seems a lot older and a bit more "Big Trouble in Little China" than I recall him being...). Right on schedule as the Season 4 finale closes is Tyrion who is in a box on a ship leaving King's Landing with the aid of Varys <b>(24 May 2023)</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><i>A Feast for Crows</i> (Book 4) / <i>A Game of Thrones</i> (Season 4:10 - Season 5:1 - 10 - Season 6:6)</div><div><br /></div><div>Season 5 of the show begins much as Book 4 does - in part - Tywin Lannister's funeral and power-brokering in King's Landing, but the other storylines feel a long way off (either back from Book 3 or things that seem a long way off). Interestingly, there are no chapters in Book 4 for Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Bran Stark, nor Daenerys Targaryen - whose stories are moving forward in Season 5, so it seems some of the storylines will be a long way off by the end of this book.</div><div><br /></div><div>Book 4 has had a lot of storyline that mostly never made it in to the show for Brienne on the trail of Sansa Stark (a quite long storyline in the book that gets wrapped up neatly in about 11 minutes of screen time in Episode 2); Cersei recombobulating her power basis in the wake of her father's... wake; the politics of Dorne, and the fate of Princess Myrcella and her King's Guard protector (which seems to have gotten translated into Jamie Lannister heading southward to insert himself in their scene); Samwell's trip to Old Town, which is just a carriage ride in the show, I think (I haven't seen it again yet), but is an arduous boat trip in the book, where he runs in to Arya Stark!; and the Iron Born's sorting out of their new king.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The religious fervor around the new, more lowly, High Septum and all of his Sparrows is evident in both the book and show, although in the book the church's army is explicitly rekindled by Cersei, whereas their power in the show is a bit more looming and lurking and softer power. (Oh, no, it turns out it's just as explicit on the show once we get a few episodes in to Season 5).</li><ul><li>The battling through this religious fervor is fought through Marjorie in the books, but Ser Loras takes the initial brunt in the show</li></ul><li>Sansa's story is far ahead of things in the show, getting married to Ramsey Bolton, and sending Brienne off.</li><ul><li>And now, after having just finished the book, frack!!, I know TV series (or movies) have to oversimplify plots and sometimes combine characters, but the TV show seems to mark any character with a Valerian Sword for the Last Battle (at least as I recall it now), but a lot has changed here...</li><li>Also, Sansa's betrothal in the book, is all to do with the politics of The Vale (maybe the Boltons are off in her future, but for now), she is being promised to the future heir to Jon Arryn's domain...</li></ul><li>Jorah Mormont takes Tyrion captive to bring him where he's already going in the show, which is a delightful moment that hasn't happened in the book at all.</li><li>Arya (aka Cat of the Canals) seems to actually be on track here in Season 5 / Book 4... she gets blind, and I haven't seen the results of that in either version yet...</li><li>In the book, Jamie Lannister heads to take out the Blackfish (instead of rescuing his daughter from Dorne), and that happens in episode 6 of Season 6</li></ul><div>This is the best guess of episodes (Season 5: 1-6 & Season 6:6) for this book, and I've honed and revised as I watch more and start in to the next book, but because <a href="https://boiledleather.tumblr.com/post/24543217702/a-proposed-a-feast-for-crowsa-dance-with-dragons" target="_blank"><i>A Feast For Crows </i>and <i>A Dance With Dragons</i> happen concurrently</a>, there is just too much happening in the show that hasn't been hinted at yet in the books, I am going to stop watching any more episodes for now, but I feel like episode 6 of Season 6 is worth watching (even if it's a big jump for some bits): </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Sam is arriving home (in the last chapter of Book 4 he arrives at Old Town, with a plan to return to Horn Hill next)<i> </i></li><li>Margaery is playing the devout prisoner, which she is also beginning to do just as Cersei is first imprisoned (not sure if that has happened in the show yet or not). Margaery's crimes in the books are much more inflated and Ser Loras is the one who is truly accused in the show, rather than him being killed retaking Dragonstone</li><li>Jamie gets sent off to Riverrun...</li><li>Benjen Stark saves Bran & Meera (which may never happen, or is at least a long way off in the books), but it seems to fulfill his role that he had for Sam & Gilly in Book 3, I think <b>(16 June 2023)</b></li></ul><div><i>A Dance With Dragons </i>(Book 5) / <i>A Game of Thrones</i> (Season 5:1 - 10)</div></div></div><div><br /></div><div>It's funny, the first scene from Book 5 that happens (kind of) in Season 5 is Tyrion getting out of his box, and immediately finding some wine to drink, promptly vomiting that wine, and then drinking some more wine. While this happens, Vaerys is explaining whose house they are in, and the large cabal that he is a part of (which becomes a huge part of Book 5 with a second Targaryen claimant to the throne, Griff, {aka Prince Aegon Targaryen} none of which will happen in the show).</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Drogon shows up at the end of episode 5:2, which is being hinted at a lot by the book, but ever seems no nearer. Given the title (<i>ADWD</i>) I suspect all 3 will be running wild, and protecting Dany's interests by the end of Book 5, and probably at least by the end of Season 5 </li><li>There is a lot less religion in Book 5, at least a lot less of The Seven - maybe there's a bit more of the Lord of Light, and in the mid-going of Book 5, Bran Stark is learning a lot more about the Old Gods & the Godwood Trees than we ever learn in the show. </li><li>Sansa (the real Sansa) is the substitute in Season 5 for a fake Arya in Book 5 who is set to marry Ramsey Bolton. In the books Sansa is disguised as Alayne, and Arya is actually Jane Poole.</li><li>The death of Ser Janos Slynt in the show feels a lot more shocking having seen in on the show (Season 5:3) and the politics of The Wall are more complicated in the book, more factions and betrayals (and re-betrayals?)</li><li>For Daenerys, it seems things happen a bit out of order - Ser Beresten dies in episode 4 (or just before episode 5) of Season 5, but he's still alive and kicking through nearly 90% of the book. And Drogon shows up very excitingly in the book, whisking her away, which I remember now will happen in the show (but hasn't yet in episode 6).</li><li>Tyrion, meanwhile has almost completely caught up to his narrative in episode 6, getting captured by Ser Jorah Mormont, and then sold into slavery with him (minus Penny, which is a whole other thing), and then blows right past the books in the show, taking up the role of advisor to Queen Daenerys.</li></ul><div>I'm not sure how to follow the goings on in Dorne - with Jamie Lannister and Bronn there - a lot of the political machinations surrounding Myrcella seem to rhyme, and I expect they will both end similarly, but having Jamie there, when in the books he is up retaking Riverrun (and MEETING AN OLD FRIEND!!!) tends to muddy the adaptation a bit. The Iron Born's story has also been almost entirely ignored in the show so far, except for Theon's suffering. It seems to me that I need to watch at least as far into the show to see some of that. Theon & Yara Greyjoy have just been reunited in the book with just a few chapters to go.</div></div><div>I've just about finished up the book this evening, with just the Epilogue to finish, and as I now begin my long wait, here is where things seem to stand:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The trip to HardHome has been much talked about in Book 5, but has now happened in the show (Season 5: Episode 8)</li><li>Stannis's camp is attacked in the night by Ramsey Bolton in the show (5:9), while in the book Ramsey sends a dire letter to Jon Snow, claiming to have killed Stannis, and ended his claim to the Iron Throne. In the show, his attack on Winterfell fails, but his ultimate end comes from Brienne, who avenges Renly's death.</li><li>So there's some stuff in the books that could never make it into a show, it's so horrible, but the one thing that isn't in the books (yet at least), but happens in "The Dance of Dragons" (5:9) is that King Stannis burns his daughter alive, as a 'blood of kings' sacrifice.</li><li>While Tyrion did get to her a little early, Daenerys gets saved by Drogon in 5:9, too.</li><li>Cersei makes her walk of atonement in episode 5:10. Interestingly, in the Epilogue of Book 5, her uncle, Ser Kevin Lannister promises that his niece Cersei will get up to no more in the future. Needless to say, in the show, she does, a lot, so we will see how that plays out in the Books to Come...</li><li>John Snow is left for dead at the end of episode 5:10, he hasn't gotten up again in the books after he met the same fate in his final chapter, so if Season 6 ever sees him rise, I will perhaps pause, but there is more (I think more from Book 4 than 5) that is missing in the show from what has happened in the books, so I'll venture forward at least a bit, as I finish Book 5.</li></ul><div>And so, the book has ended, and now my watch begins - the Epilogue (as several of them have been) was full of unexpected twists and turns. Lord Varys makes an unexpected appearance (at the end of the show as well), but half a world away), and seems to be throwing King's Landing into chaos. I will start Season 6, but feel like I won't get very far before almost everything gets ahead of things from the books. </div></div><p></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-38866146407500926692022-11-29T12:18:00.004-06:002022-11-30T14:32:58.995-06:00I Love The World Cup<p> This particular version, while hugely problematic due to its occurring in Qatar for a myriad of reasons including the government's penchant for hateful intolerance, human rights problems, the despicable corruption that led to a tiny but wealthy nation with virtually no soccer culture being chosen by FIFA to host the World Cup despite the lack of infrastructure and proper climate to host a summer-time tournament, has had an awful lot of really brilliant soccer (albeit, a lot of my favorite brand which is underdog and upset soccer).</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9lR9L_oqQlmdkgAEuJD944kkBu3Mgwhb5AWxb8YosBTTGYh-DO7oNVhrxHYTB_KwfNl5NzMGjjwWyO7sRD8sWWuWGpMD_QVvhSTPfCsH0TPOsT8UnaeRR3IKloF0bOKyALUI6-BkGb89WN1COryCgDxpAERbkrRzkQXjKCGwz9YHDuhpRQ/s225/underDog.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9lR9L_oqQlmdkgAEuJD944kkBu3Mgwhb5AWxb8YosBTTGYh-DO7oNVhrxHYTB_KwfNl5NzMGjjwWyO7sRD8sWWuWGpMD_QVvhSTPfCsH0TPOsT8UnaeRR3IKloF0bOKyALUI6-BkGb89WN1COryCgDxpAERbkrRzkQXjKCGwz9YHDuhpRQ/s1600/underDog.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>I am delighted that the host nation lost all three of their matches, and were embarrassingly and appropriately dispatched from the tournament before any other team, and we now sit an hour before the kick-off of the US Men's National Team final group stage match against Iran. It's a simple proposition for the US - we win and we move on to the knock-out stage tournament of the top 16 teams. We are ranked higher and truly are better than Iran's team, and we haven't won a match yet (just 2 draws), so if you can't win at least one of your group stage matches, then really, you don't deserve to move on.<p></p><p>I've got high hopes, and although it now looks like we'd most likely be matched up against the Netherlands in our Round of 16 Match (unless Wales win their match against England that kicks off at the same time or we win by more than 4 goals today and England - Wales ends in a draw), the Dutch have seemed a bit beatable this tournament so it wouldn't necessarily be the death sentence it might have been in other years for us.</p><p>To enhance the tournament, I've been listening to <i>After The Whistle</i>, a World Cup podcast with Brendan Hunt (Coach Beard from <i>Ted Lasso</i>) and Rebecca Lowe (an NBC Premier League commentator). The two make a superb pairing with a British expat who talks about football professionally, but is an unabashed partisan for England on this show and an American fake soccer coach who used to live in and learned to love soccer in The Netherlands and is rooting for "The Guys" (his term for USMNT) and has a side thing for the Dutch. It's a good listen...</p><p>But for now, it's all about this match this afternoon, and getting through. I'm not usually a rah-rah fan for the US teams in Olympic or other competitions, but at the World Cup, because we <i>are</i> Underdogs, but I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN (is that still a chant that we do??)<br /></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-2397590396233960832022-10-11T15:54:00.003-05:002022-10-11T15:54:33.143-05:00Gooooaaaaallll!!!!<p> <i>11 October 2022</i></p><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">I've heard it said that it's important to write down your goals, or better yet, tell people about them, and therefore create some semblance of <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/search?q=accountability" target="_blank">accountability</a>. I've never been a big fan of the stuff, myself (although I was for a while trying to create some regular accountability meetings with JP et al, which for one reason or another never stuck).</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">Well, ever since I read Stephen King's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Writing:_A_Memoir_of_the_Craft" target="_blank">On Writing</a></i> (which is not yet being catalogued here*, but could be) I have had in the back of my mind Steve's tautological assertion that if you want to think of yourself as a writer, you have to write, and his definition of that was 1,000 words per day "when you're working on something", 6 days per week (although he himself he said didn't tend to take a day off he allowed for it if you're so inclined). I took this one small slice of King's great book about the craft of writing, and have at various times committed myself to producing just that amount of writing, though only very occasionally and in fits and starts. This blog, in fact, is the result of that effort (<a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2006/04/z-is-for.html" target="_blank">zombies notwithstanding</a>), although some of you who are particularly strong in the art of arithmetic may catch on to the fact that this blog does not, in fact, always publish 1,000 words of content every day. "Very astute, hm!?, Dodger," as Sol Cohen might say. There have, indeed been other outlets for the word count dump - including journaling and free-writing, a not inconsiderable quantity of drafts that have not yet been posted to this blog, the fiction and the academic and non-academic non-fiction drafts that sit in the various stacks or sacks or hard drives or cloud drives of my biographical path - although for the most part the days these last 22 years or so since I read King's book have been without 1,000 words, and I am therefore not, sad to say, a writer, perhaps, most notably, perhaps, because, I have not really<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFOfBDBtyHQnFiFgBrbhrrMzcKrHZ-d0eCW9H2gLp1IJY9fhK-zwH0H_ZshejG78A2df2fr-fEQQw9gjfxkMP8b9jFg8mv-Bc1jqu9BkdUpX3sin8MqxFZ3ZuJnxvxovagVKFXLRcb184GpfjO6P1bqZWJHwHOjVusLJ-Ik9Gc45bSAZelg/s524/YountRobin-Topps.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="388" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPFOfBDBtyHQnFiFgBrbhrrMzcKrHZ-d0eCW9H2gLp1IJY9fhK-zwH0H_ZshejG78A2df2fr-fEQQw9gjfxkMP8b9jFg8mv-Bc1jqu9BkdUpX3sin8MqxFZ3ZuJnxvxovagVKFXLRcb184GpfjO6P1bqZWJHwHOjVusLJ-Ik9Gc45bSAZelg/s320/YountRobin-Topps.png" width="237" /></a></div><br /> published any of the quantity of prose that I've been accumulating and producing lo these many years.</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">But then, I once again read the introduction to Stephen King's <i>Four Past Midnight</i>, which I'm planning to start reading again shortly again some 20+ years after first encountering it (and could also rightly include here*, but because I'm revisiting <i>in toto</i>, I won't, at least for now). In the intro, King talks about publishing this book of four novellas, and some of the financial implications (in passing) of publishing this book and another, similarly structured one some 7 years earlier (and also, oddly, about Robin Yount). But then King talks about the <i>writing</i> of these novellas (and of his writing in general), and how he does that just for himself (and to keep himself sane, he says), and it occurs to me (not for the first time) that I don't really need to publish anything to be a writer - to be an author, maybe, but not a writer. All I have to do that is to write, right? </div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">And so (as I guess I have done at least once before here), I commit myself again to the 1,000 word goal, and the goal of being a writer.</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">My, that was easy. I'm done now.</div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">* Initially, my plan had been to post this as part of my <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-post-of-lost-lasts.html" target="_blank">Post of Lost Lasts</a> (an ongoing post project whereby I list all the things that would belong in my Arfives {an archive of all past <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2006/04/favorite.html" target="_blank">Last 5s</a>}, but I either saw / read / etc. in their entirety before the beginning of the archive or was otherwise missed) as a joke about accountability, because no one in their right minds would still be reading updates that I am making to this post in October 2022 nearly 3 years after the original post^, and so the idea of writing goals to be accountable to in that post would be pretty funny. But then, as it turned out, I thought this post was actually kind of valuable and so re-post it here.</span></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">^ for more quixotic perpetual posts that nobody will likely ever read, see <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2014/04/star-trek-chronology.html" target="_blank">The Star Trek Chronology</a>.</span></div>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-11873735192326553962022-09-22T00:39:00.000-05:002022-11-16T01:23:34.439-06:00Potentialities, or Could Walter and Martin have been friends?<p>Earlier this year (about a month or so before squirrel* {BS}), I started again to read works by one of my top two <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2006/04/favorite.html" target="_blank">"favorite"</a>^ writers, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin" target="_blank">Walter Benjamin</a>, whose first volume of his collected writings in English I finished <i>in toto</i> last July. To be sure, I've read a lot of these three collections that I own (I have Volumes 3, 2 & 1 in my collection the first {or the 3rd, depending on your perspective} of which I received as a "gift / bribe" from <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2006/04/malynne-zombies.html" target="_blank">Malynne</a> at the end of the first course I took with her "Cults of Personality: Hitler, Stalin Mao"). </p><p>This second volume has begun with quite a lot of short reviews and happenings-related short pieces rather than the deeper philosophical pieces that he's most known for (if Benjamin can be said to be well known in any capacity). The reason for this is clear, with Benjamin as a young man in is mid-20s he was struggling post university to find work and publishing these short, timely works wherever he could. Two such articles published just a couple weeks apart in a couple different newspapers were both clearly derived from one single meeting / conversation / interview with André Gide, and another couple were (very) short reviews of a book by Karl Gröber. What's amazing to me is not the brilliant extent to which he so brazenly double dips (nor the fact that you used to just be able to do book reports and send them to a publication and get paid for it!), rather it's the way that all of it is dripping with intentionality, but so rarely concerns itself with execution.</p><p><i>Por ejemplo</i>, in Benajmin's interview with André Gide, Gide repeatedly discusses the lecture that he had planned to given while he was visiting Berlin (his visit to Berlin being the occasion of Benjamin's meeting with him), but that he has been so distracted by such visits and because of the nature of Berlin life, "the leisure [he] had counted on never arrived," and he never got the chance to write the lecture. And so, instead of giving a lecture, he just vaguely outlines the ideas <i>he had intended to cover</i> to Benjamin, who dutifully laps them up and writes them up for two separate German newspapers, and his (Gide's) work is "complete". </p><p>I love this concept of doing something just by saying it out loud. Come to think of it, this is rather the same method of work employed by Peter from <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2020/08/star-dnp.html" target="_blank">my time at MPS</a>, a deep underlying faith that if you just talk about what you want to have happen it will come into being (although in this latter case it involved employing an entire staff of people who were basically there to just try and discern his wishes, and then carry out all of these whims as much as possible). In the earlier case of Benjamin and his contemporaries, the focus is much more on the potentiality of having had a great idea, and then thinking about how great it was, and not concerning yourself terribly with the fact that it never came to fruition.</p><p>Another thing that I find compelling about Walter Benjamin is that he is a near exact contemporary of my grandfather, Martinus Kvidt. Born just 9 months apart, Benjamin on the pre-anniversary of my own wedding on 15 July 1892, and Martin on MKE day 14 April 1893, they were both part of <a href="https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/12/all-generations-from-1890-to-2025.html" target="_blank">The Lost Generation</a> of their respective countries, and while my grandpa was off to Europe to fight in World War 1, Benjamin was a country or two away studying away at university. </p><p>I'm not entirely sure why, but I have always been interested in synchronicities - the phenomenon of things things happening at the same time in different places (and in different worlds, even - fictional and historical and historical fictional or futural historical...). For years, I have tried to find (or create) a calendar app that would allow for historical events to be created throughout the past (weirdly, google calendar seems to have an odd glitch {or maybe it's actually iCal that has the glitch} where you can create some events in the far distant past and they will <i>sometimes</i> reappear, so I sometimes am able to re-discover that <a href="https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/George_McFly" target="_blank">George McFly</a> was murdered on March 15, 1973 {or it possibly could have been early in the morning of the 16th; anyway the same week as when the Watergate break-in guy was being paid off...} while looking through my calendar, but other times not, as the event appears and disappears unpredictably on my Calendar app).</p><p>I like to think about contemporaries in history, art, cinema (like, for instance what was going on in <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-obligation-of-cinematic-nostalgia.html" target="_blank">1999 cinema</a> that made it such a spectacular sampling of content while the history of that moment wasn't especially exciting - although we were on the brink of a lot that would happen in just the next few years and ultimately set up much of what we find around us today...), literature and also to consider the generations looking back at their influences from prior generations (a process that I would have thought I could have generalized as a faster and faster process, with TikTokkers citing Taylor Swift as <i>major influence </i>{some 10 years earlier}, whereas Benjamin and many thinkers of his era largely looked back Centuries, and in particular 150 years give or take to the Romantic Era of German literature {your Goethes & your Schillers, etc.}, but I think this tends to over-generalizing the history of cultural influencers {ikr!?}.</p><p>Perhaps the greatest of these Influencers of the 19th Century (don't worry, I'm bringing this in for a landing) is the Kurt Cobain or Jim Morrison of his era, John Keats, who died at 25 and then suddenly thereafter became a famous and great poet. Keats is of course most famous for writing the poem that you read in high school, "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and for aggrandizing the concept of Negative Capability.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"> <span face="nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-size: 20px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_capability" target="_blank">Negative Capability</a>, Keats called when one is “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after facts and reason.”</span><span face="nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif" style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-size: 20px;"> </span></p></blockquote><p>More than anything, this concept seems like the philosophical equivalent of the thinking without necessarily doing life philosophy we were talking about before (rather like the "Harold Hill Think Method" of marching band instruction!, "la-di-da-di-da-di-daaa").</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*We had a moment this past spring, where we encountered a full-on squirrel nest in the engine block of our erstwhile Ford Edge, a vehicle that had had (before and after) A LOT of other issues once it was rapidly wandering out of warranty. It took some help, but we have finally found our way out of that Capitalist death trap, and are generally on to lower and worse things, but at least out of that!</span> </p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-1594477461773669172022-07-12T03:25:00.000-05:002022-07-12T03:25:06.735-05:00an interregnum<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzRy7tXMTKEqog-J-2KNXoiThekFZHHRP2c1p2eEQSJi2xmKnZ-k1qPoL04AagloEICqo9rqamk-Q7aZcLAlA_-dnPp3V7Tkf3lhea_r1MuqxbuqRF0KIt4RCMRGyhdEM6zNmp84NN663stPkPLAwoexwf0xrRnHeq4ju8vXTYK5rWSKZvA/s4032/sisterHazel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbzRy7tXMTKEqog-J-2KNXoiThekFZHHRP2c1p2eEQSJi2xmKnZ-k1qPoL04AagloEICqo9rqamk-Q7aZcLAlA_-dnPp3V7Tkf3lhea_r1MuqxbuqRF0KIt4RCMRGyhdEM6zNmp84NN663stPkPLAwoexwf0xrRnHeq4ju8vXTYK5rWSKZvA/s320/sisterHazel.jpg" width="240" /></a></div> I am currently existing within a time period where I know which ubiquitous 90s song Sister Hazel is responsible for. (hint: "It's hard to say what I see in you--u-u!")<p></p>They, evidently, had a song on the <i>10 Things I Hate About You</i> soundtrack (they announced that at their show before playing said song, and I shouted, unexpectedly, "I LOVE THAT MOVIE!!!" which I do, but nonetheless didn't expect to yell), but Brooke & I went and watched <i>10 Things</i> the very same evening that we got home from seeing Sister Hazel, after hearing that very same song after they announced it was the song, and still was not able to pick their song out of the movie lineup.<div><br /></div><div>I'm convinced every 90s one hit wonder band (and maybe some 3/4 hit wonders) should learn and perform the hit songs from Sister Hazel, Del Amitri, Deep Blue Something, Blind Melon, etc. and play those songs throughout their set and then be like, "nah, that one's not ours!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Much better sets overall, I think - without the pressure of playing every song you've got in your arsenal when everyone is just waiting for your last song before you leave so they can hear the one they know.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[this post feels a bit like a really overly long mean tweet and i am sorry for that.]</span><br /><p><br /></p></div>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-36675260098061322282022-06-19T13:00:00.002-05:002022-06-19T13:00:58.334-05:00Birdwatching in greater San Diego County...<p> We were sitting in the hot tub of the pool area at our (?) resort (?) [not pictured - you're welcome] with another couple from Des Moines when four green parrots flew overhead seemingly on a mission in a perfect straight line formation.</p><p>At first we all speculated as to whether the animals were recent escapees from the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park (which we had each dutifully visited one of earlier in the week). After all, a dog had just a few days prior <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tko6sIgIK4w" target="_blank">broken <i>in</i> to the San Diego</a> zoo to meet some gorillas, so it didn't seem outside the realm of the probable that an escape had occurred.</p><p>After a little googling, though, it became clear that wild parrots have lived in and around Ramona, California, possible since as far back as the 1950s. Non-native, for sure, but hell, it's California - everyone is from somewhere else!</p><p>After spying the same pack of the parrots the following evening at about the same time heading along the exact same path, we decided that they had a daily pattern, and we could capture some photographic evidence of them the following evening... Best laid plans, and all that:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghu-S8LCZuAgl0OY4LksLXCWwueJeABoTKDbMg8FCcsLAa7ZHER69tEoKxhxQa-nlLlSiZ-_Gm8NVj-nxyrt7o41ukCLa_77QlRbepax2FH-wSuW1FkiRlx1iYmEP7IDNheGHKVdNgxk-Q4LivAQjsB3OF09_VnHzIWse_VlOjv4EIWbG5KA/s4032/Cali_parrots.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghu-S8LCZuAgl0OY4LksLXCWwueJeABoTKDbMg8FCcsLAa7ZHER69tEoKxhxQa-nlLlSiZ-_Gm8NVj-nxyrt7o41ukCLa_77QlRbepax2FH-wSuW1FkiRlx1iYmEP7IDNheGHKVdNgxk-Q4LivAQjsB3OF09_VnHzIWse_VlOjv4EIWbG5KA/s320/Cali_parrots.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p>These are they, truly, even though they're hard to see and don't appear at all green in this picture it's a pair of the set of four (or similar compatriots), but I barely caught them. They tricked me, you see - by flying overhead in the opposite direction about 30 minutes earlier than when we had decided was their appointed time. We were in the pool, and although I did make sure we got out of the pool to be closer to our phones at their appointed time, I didn't really fully expect them to come back the other way as they had the previous two nights - but indeed they did, and I scrambled for my phone and snapped this pic (and another one of entirely empty blue sky).</p><p>So, it seems obvious to me now that each day at about 4:45pm PT the parrots fly east into the desolate nowhere land beyond San Diego Country Estates, and hang out there doing something for about 30 to 45 minutes - whereafter they immediately bee-line it back westward to wherever they are most of the rest of the time. Nuts, right!!??</p><p>Unfortunately, we won't ever get to find out what it is they do, because a mile or so east of here seems to be where the world ends... Even though google maps seems to think that <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=33.002560294817094%2C+-116.7541389914588&rlz=1C1CHBD_enUS877US879&oq=33.002560294817094%2C+-116.7541389914588&aqs=chrome..69i57.1239j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">there's a road there</a> (and there is something that looks a bit like a mediocre driveway that's marked with an ominous {and very non-official looking} sign that reads NO EXIT), I didn't attempt it. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6VbkcDiLciOZGnhOMZd2NLQMAeLaay78ZP25CLWk4Y6XvxH5ilRfODQHlh8_o8KDOG8Z9wxGtJMDl54pEJQtAV80AjKgm4X2CXaJpJO7AQ8ImejKtayuJKh8JOtYxuuDmuCIZpV3JM5FdOnMAyFJAPr-h6xY-Hn13fH0AivJSWtz8LiRStw/s4032/acornWoodpecker.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6VbkcDiLciOZGnhOMZd2NLQMAeLaay78ZP25CLWk4Y6XvxH5ilRfODQHlh8_o8KDOG8Z9wxGtJMDl54pEJQtAV80AjKgm4X2CXaJpJO7AQ8ImejKtayuJKh8JOtYxuuDmuCIZpV3JM5FdOnMAyFJAPr-h6xY-Hn13fH0AivJSWtz8LiRStw/s320/acornWoodpecker.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>It was reminiscent of a "Private Road" I encountered in Platte County, Wyoming when I was heading home from the <a href="https://stogie10.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-eclipse-hegel-and-american-road.html" target="_blank">Great American Eclipse</a>. I, and approximately 400,000 people from Colorado and California, had just witnessed the astounding event, stood around for a few minutes looking at each other appreciating the grandeur of nature, then got into our cars and started heading home on one of the approximately 4 roads in the entire county. I'd been planning to head south get on the interstate and run in to I-80 to cut across Nebraska on the way home, but it soon became clear everyone was heading south, and there would be very little progress that way today. So I asked google for a detour to take me back north to I-90, and it kindly obliged with a route that seemed a lot less trafficky than the one I was on. After a turn off (where I was following a dozen or so industrious detourers and followed by a dozen or so more) and a half mile on a very minor road, we passed a sign that read "Private Road", but I didn't think much of it. I'd been on lots of "Private Roads" which in the East and Midwest generally meant a bunch of rich neighbors paid a community to get their actual road listed as "private" and also to pay cops to harass anybody in a non-luxury vehicle. In the West, though, it turns out that Private Road can mean "my road" as in "my driveway" that passes directly between my house and my garage and as our impromptu caravan approached the homestead we saw that the whole family (at least 3 generations, it seemed) had come out to watch us drive through their yard as they angrily shook their heads or at times yelled at each of us drivers in turn. This was Wyoming, after all, the sort of place someone is as likely to shoot you as anywhere for approaching their property. But there was safety in numbers and collective stupidity and American tourism.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHzEPLAKxQh9eKK_gcX1CWcApuv7TnvulyVrn3rg6EIbS8Iu7tfU7mu9jOuyx36N2BtnI5EjxocLytzcKpxIEvQC9uh_6seQaQJyAOnrhDAr6EKo6cH89zv3uakS_NaaD4-z0gXcPhvOr7ZBfve2i1_YWJ-TzHFfdQ_iy6hbeln-wRciX3Q/s4032/westrnBlueBird.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVHzEPLAKxQh9eKK_gcX1CWcApuv7TnvulyVrn3rg6EIbS8Iu7tfU7mu9jOuyx36N2BtnI5EjxocLytzcKpxIEvQC9uh_6seQaQJyAOnrhDAr6EKo6cH89zv3uakS_NaaD4-z0gXcPhvOr7ZBfve2i1_YWJ-TzHFfdQ_iy6hbeln-wRciX3Q/s320/westrnBlueBird.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>And so we play tourist once more, this time particularly enjoying the birds (our favorite, Big Black Bird, is not pictured here, but are a couple more that we've gotten to know this week {I think an Acorn Woodpecker and a female Western Bluebird, but I could be wrong}). These we've enjoyed as much as anything here - the puzzle and the pool and a <i>Harry Potter </i>marathon and a couple games of Scrabble (I won both) and Shuffleboard (Brooke won both) and all of the other things that we are supposed to do when traveling.</p>the eating the drinking the shopping the viewing oh my indeedUshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-73564092630273089282022-05-30T12:39:00.000-05:002022-06-05T00:41:32.928-05:00Forest are Magic! (or, So Long and thanks for all the Fish)<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgX1fv8GCtOAKpXvpAVLon5ohjrObIc506iFOj-s-u88jr0vVi3M9wxZo-De1waqWr2EoPAu2kdYgS-c9Uvs4f9wA9jNgHQMmo87cCW4xgj0q55Nois-XH8TND4_Y5it5NKoFkdebU6zUIovsEWKWVx0j9F4E4ePeH3TyA5Tvwac9lIcAnA/s810/worldCupMascots.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="810" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxgX1fv8GCtOAKpXvpAVLon5ohjrObIc506iFOj-s-u88jr0vVi3M9wxZo-De1waqWr2EoPAu2kdYgS-c9Uvs4f9wA9jNgHQMmo87cCW4xgj0q55Nois-XH8TND4_Y5it5NKoFkdebU6zUIovsEWKWVx0j9F4E4ePeH3TyA5Tvwac9lIcAnA/s320/worldCupMascots.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <a href="https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ranked-every-world-cup-mascot-worst-best">fourFourTwo.com</a></td></tr></tbody></table>Lower tier football fandom from across the pond has been a <a href="https://twitter.com/MKE_nffc/status/1531068941770149888" target="_blank">work in progress</a> these last many years... I've been a fan of international soccer since 1990, when I was in Germany with my family during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_FIFA_World_Cup" target="_blank">Italia '90</a> (the first World Cup Final that the United States had qualified for in my lifetime {and in fact the first time within the living memory of almost all Boomers!}). The US fared poorly in that tournament, but West Germany ended up winning, and we were staying in West Berlin on the night that Germany qualified for the final. There was an impromptu parade of joy and humanity that lasted all night, and I remember waking up in our hotel room, brushing my teeth on the balcony and looking down on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurf%C3%BCrstendamm" target="_blank">Ku'damm </a>the next morning as the festivities continued, and some German fan who'd been partying all night raised his beer can to me.<br /><p></p><p>The concept of club soccer first occurred to me, I think, on my visit to Nottingham, England nearly a decade later, when I had a stopover at the start of a spring break in Europe, and we watched a match out at the pubs. It's only now, 23 years later, that I'm realizing the match on TV had to be a <a href="https://www.11v11.com/teams/notts-county/tab/matches/season/1999/" target="_blank">Notts County</a> affair (because Forest didn't have a match that mid-week that I was in town). Watching a fan base come together over soccer felt different, because of the limited chances and scoring within a match, so I decided to become a fan of Nottingham Forest, and they were subsequently relegated from the Premier League a couple months later. Following a Premier League team in 1999 and into the early 2000s was hard enough, but lower tiers - forget about it, so yahoo.sports.co.uk became a near constant tab on my computer for the next decade or so, repeatedly refreshing the browser during big matches to get score updates.</p><p>Meanwhile, I spent the remainder of that football season in Münster, Germany, which is Borussia Dortmund country, so I selected them as a Bundesliga club that I would follow, although I was never as invested in their success. But I did enjoy their success, and when their bad-ass manager, Jürgen Klopp, moved into the Premier League in 2015, I decided I should be a Liverpool fan for the Premier League - because clearly, Forest were still a long long away from top flight competition, and as much as I was enjoying following Forest's progress (now on Twitter instead of Yahoo), Liverpool had matches I could actually watch on a regular basis. </p><p>Just a couple years later (at the start of the 2017-2018 season), ESPN+ started to show matches from the lower English leagues, so for the first time, once every 4 or 5 weeks, I got to watch a Nottingham Forest match. It was also the first season under the new ownership of Greek oligarch Evangelos Marinakas (he bought it from Kuwati oligarch Fawaz Al-Hasawi in May 2017), and in just over five short (long, long, long) years - we are back in the Premier League!</p><p>And so it is, that I have to say goodbye to a "favorite" team. While my selection of Liverpool was fairly arbitrary - a coaching hire - I've come to appreciate their fan base (not least <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/CCScousers/about/" target="_blank">here in Milwaukee</a>!), and to cheer alongside them. Thus, my (sub)title - which I now understand to be a malapropism - Scousers (people from Liverpool, but also more specifically Liverpool FC fans) are named after a local stew called scouse (or originally lobscouse), which I mistakenly thought had fish in it, but instead is a beef (or lamb) stew that is traditionally eaten while out to sea!</p><p>So, while I have been a lousy under-performing fan of Liverpool and Dortmund (and don't even get me started on Minnesota United FC!), I've been here for some years now of Nottingham Forest, and watching nearly every match these last several years on iFollow and ForestTV (with full, elaborate, BBC Nottingham radio commentary from <a href="https://twitter.com/coiinfray?lang=en" target="_blank">Colin Fray</a>). The <a href="https://twitter.com/GaribaldiRed_" target="_blank">Garibaldi Red Podcast</a> has also been a huge friend since it started in early 2020 - just before the world went bonkers, and I hope you will follow along with me at Three Lions Pub in Shorewood, or wherever we land to watch matches: <a href="https://twitter.com/MKE_nffc" target="_blank">MKE_nffc</a> on twitter...</p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-21397052709549264842022-04-18T15:40:00.004-05:002022-04-18T15:41:39.511-05:00This is truly terrifying...<p>Rumi is one of the world's most beloved poets, and his influence can be seen in many different aspects of culture. His poetry has been translated into numerous languages and his work continues to inspire new generations of readers. Rumi's message of love and tolerance has resonated with people from all walks of life, making him one of the most important literary figures of our time. It is not surprising that Rumi's influence can also be seen in the works of one of the world's most famous writers, William Shakespeare. Many scholars believe that Shakespeare was influenced by Rumi's poetry when he wrote his plays, and it is easy to see parallels between the two authors. Both Shakespeare and Rumi explore universal themes of love, loss, and humanity in their work, and both use beautiful language to bring these themes to life. It is clear that Rumi has had a lasting impact on literature and culture, and his influence will continue to be felt for centuries to come.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5iI3GwMy1EO-jxUTCDHgxXW-jDqo7zS8PRc5fBd9saysTT20aN0RDVA7ofPeZoCutWSrGbh6jQ-4_VNiCYMcPIFFbUyGYU9_1Yw9kUS5aDJ-KXD4YWMQ-z_OPVTwJh-ugFpxAEEVGxtxQxS42TolGhswtUyrNz7Y2QFpg77hHIIwz5ls00w/s261/mrRisk.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="180" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5iI3GwMy1EO-jxUTCDHgxXW-jDqo7zS8PRc5fBd9saysTT20aN0RDVA7ofPeZoCutWSrGbh6jQ-4_VNiCYMcPIFFbUyGYU9_1Yw9kUS5aDJ-KXD4YWMQ-z_OPVTwJh-ugFpxAEEVGxtxQxS42TolGhswtUyrNz7Y2QFpg77hHIIwz5ls00w/s1600/mrRisk.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mr. Risk (source: The League of Utter <br />Disaster, Chaos, and Insanity Wiki)</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Global politics are a hotbed of Shakespearean drama, with plenty of tragedy, comedy, and even a little bit of history thrown in for good measure. In particular, the works of Shakespeare have had a profound influence on modern day culture, with his stories and characters providing endlessly fertile ground for debate, analysis, and reinterpretation. Even those who are not fans of the Bard can find themselves unwittingly caught up in his web, as he has been responsible for introducing countless phrases and concepts into the English language that are now commonplace. Whether we love him or hate him, there is no denying that Shakespeare continues to exert a powerful hold over our culture hundreds of years after his death.<p></p><p>The world would be a very different place without the poet Rumi. His poetry has inspired people for centuries and his words continue to resonate with us today. Without Rumi, the world would be missing out on one of its most important voices.<br /></p><p><br /></p><h1 style="text-align: left;">I didn't write this brief essay above,</h1><div>nor did I plagiarize it. Instead, I invoked its creation in a matter of a couple minutes by typing a few instructions into a computer program. Those instructions were:</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Write a persuasive statement about the cultural influence of a literary figure.</div><div>2. Write a speculative statement about Rumi's influence on Shakespeare. </div><div>3. Write an emphatic statement about the current state of global politics and Shakespeare.</div><div>4. Write a speculative statement about how Shakespeare has influenced todays culture. </div><div>5. Write a conclusion paragraph about how the modern world would be very different if not for the poet Rumi. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, the text above is fairly banal, and it didn't exactly come out like I wanted it to - I didn't tweak it at all (though, I did attempt a couple of instructions that rendered no results in the program - I think because of logic problems).</div><div><br /></div><div>But, I was able to create it all less than 10 minutes after <a href="https://beta.openai.com/playground" target="_blank">first learning about GPT-3</a> as something that exists, then googling it, finding one online and signing up for a free trial, reviewing a brief tutorial, coming up with some general sense of what I wanted created, and starting to test out these instructions.</div><div><br /></div><div>I would also add, that the brief essay on Rumi and Shakespeare at the top is not dissimilar in quality, depth, and style to the average freshman composition student I was teaching at UW-M from 2007 - 2013 (although the content is of course much different, as I don't expect most of those students know who Rumi is, though most have probably heard of Shakespeare).</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of months ago, I started a post (which I haven't finished yet!) called, "I must say I'm worried...", and it hit a lot of the same notes as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/" target="_blank">this <i>Atlantic</i> article</a> from last week (anticipatory plagiarism has always been a problem for me) about our present state of mind and implications for the near future. America is on a bend and trend toward something, I'm afraid, is going to be quite unfortunate. </div><div><br /></div><div>Best case scenario, is that it is a momentary setback which leads us to something much greater (<a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2014/04/star-trek-chronology.html" target="_blank">see ca. 2024</a>), but more likely it's not, and we will be finding out that Hannah Arendt was right, but not right enough in her <i>Report on the Banality of Evil</i>. It's the banality itself that <i>is </i>evil - as in a wholly negative force in the world and a danger. Take care to keep it interesting out there, folks - embrace the unexpected and unfamiliar. Be weird. Do good. Be better.</div>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-53384245472571867612022-04-09T22:59:00.005-05:002022-04-09T22:59:56.218-05:00"I Remember A Time"... when this blog was a lot more about golf!<p>Someday, I may finish this post, but as I've been watching Tiger Woods make an amazing comeback (although it has fallen short of filmic script level) at this year's Master's, Brooke decided today, after our boozy brunch with Brig, that we would watch all golf movies (basically until we fell asleep)...</p><p>So far, we've watched <i>Caddyshack</i> & <i>Happy Gilmore</i>, which are two of the classics of the genre, and I'll try to continue to update, but wanted to harken back to a time <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/search/label/golf" target="_blank">when Jackie hated my blog</a>...</p><p>Happy trails, everybody!</p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-39625301267886227582022-03-30T10:28:00.001-05:002022-04-01T14:18:42.054-05:00Synchronicity (or the Baader-Meinhoff Principal)<p> I am fairly confident in saying that I am the only human in the universe to be reading (now or ever) "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_on_Maple_Street" target="_blank">The House on Maple Street</a>" & Chelsea Handler's <i>Life Will Be the Death of Me: ...and you too!</i> simultaneously, and this is the stuff that feels like it's not whatever this is....</p><p>Allow me to explain. There is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity" target="_blank">phenomenon</a> that all of us have experienced (although you may not be aware that you have experienced it - and if that is the case, once you read this post, you will notice very soon that you have just experienced this again, which will surprise you). It is the phenomenon of acausual meaningful coincidence. Let's say you learn a new word (or rediscover a word into your vocabulary that you don't hear used very often, but newly firmly understand the definition of). Within a very short time of this (re)learning, you will come across this same word again in a completely different context. This will surprise you somewhat, but then you will stumble upon that same word in yet another way (say, the solution to next Wednesday's Wordle), and you are going to be like, "whoa. This is too weird. Like it can't be a coincidence, something is going on here." And yes, what is going on is the Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon.</p><p>Don't believe me? Do you know what the word "craic" means? No? Go look it up, and then get on living your life and come back once you do believe me. And then I'll finish the post...</p><p>In both the (nonfiction) book and the (fiction) short story that I'm reading, we have the matter of <i>siblingicity </i>- a large set (6 & 4, respectively) of brothers and sisters that are all relatively close in age who demonstrate a kind of pack mentality (with various children taking on various roles {protector, confidant, foil} depending on who they may be paired with at the moment, and those roles shifting in time). Although the two works are working toward completely different with Chelsea Handler on a personal journey toward accessing vulnerability and improving her mental health while Stephen King is exploring a house that has a growing alien presence in it,* the depictions of the sets of siblings not only rhymes, but feels like these two sets create something almost archetypal that might be classified as The Modern American Balanced Gendered Large Set of Siblings type. I consider 4 to be a lot of siblings (probably because it's one more than we had, so "whoa, over-do it much?", right?) and ages being that they're likely not at more than 2 different schools. </p><p>Myself, my brothers and I are each 7 years apart, so while we are close we never had the kind of pack mentality that I felt in each of these two works. So too families like my Campbell Cousins who were 4, but all boys and also 3 in a cluster then the much younger Michael don't quite mesh with what I saw in these works. The other examples I come up with from literature are the kids in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia </i>who are aged and gendered correctly for this match-up, but from a different era and geography (I'm not sure whether it's their old-timiness or their British-ness, but the set of Peter through Lucy are highly hierarchical with roles defined in a way that is actively worked against in both of the depictions by Handler and King). The only other example I could come up with is David Sedaris's family dynamic, but even though I know of them almost entirely** from one single perspective who is mostly playing it off for laughs, I think that what I do know more often matches up with the other two families considered here than goes off course.</p><p>I'm not sure what this all adds up to - maybe I'm just warning us all to be aware of any larger packs of kids as they may well be up to something and because of this unique dynamic have the wherewithal to pull it off. In any cases, my brothers and sisters and all human siblings, this has been a synchronistic reading of a couple of (seemingly) random things that I was just reading.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">* my goodness look at the work that this lowly comma is doing - it's absurd really, sitting there trying to balance the gargantuan dependent and independent clauses sitting there on either side of it. Well done, little comma, keep up the good work.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">** Amy Sedaris tends not to talk or write much about her family, but has done so over the years occasionally in interviews and live performances I've seen of her, and it helps to give a fuller perspective (although still another very strange and skewed one!) on the overall Sedaris brood.</span></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-19210653148335484432022-03-17T15:09:00.003-05:002022-03-17T15:09:42.988-05:00Stop, Commemorate and Listen<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiaJ0u4TPiRTymfV3BqokJz7L4xM9tbeDF4vG33MNWCEV2pT8iDkKNUPufttpZ99zfh__0Lt8hxHO_WYrq442knn0j-FgV9x9rrJh1h6UUiiJl8OXfb9VoleqIQxbZl-sMnOnPvrlUwda67foTydy8kKoR07ew-fWu4M2GWSmgBridWOkah5g=s1912" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1434" data-original-width="1912" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiaJ0u4TPiRTymfV3BqokJz7L4xM9tbeDF4vG33MNWCEV2pT8iDkKNUPufttpZ99zfh__0Lt8hxHO_WYrq442knn0j-FgV9x9rrJh1h6UUiiJl8OXfb9VoleqIQxbZl-sMnOnPvrlUwda67foTydy8kKoR07ew-fWu4M2GWSmgBridWOkah5g=s320" width="320" /></a></div>I got an email today from my Microsoft OneDrive storage drive, and its sole purpose was to have me remember my pictures that I took (or that I saved) on this particular day in history. At first I was bemused, and set out to craft a "get-off-my-lawn" style old man screed at the absurdity of technocratic induced nostalgia that we are currently living under... but then I saw this picture of Rex Grossman as a puppy, and was remembering this day in Iowa City in 2007 when he had his first coming out (we had met up with my parents & Tim & Jen & Family {and also, separately, with Nate & Lissa & Sandy & Angela} for Tim's Birthday).<br /><p></p><p>This dog literally stopped traffic, with at least one occasion of a driver pulling over and getting out of their car just to greet & meet Rex on the side of the road before proceeding on with their errand & their day.</p><p>Man, I loved that dog...</p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-83585865852496844172022-02-23T12:49:00.000-06:002022-02-23T12:49:03.659-06:00Memories...<p> ... colored PIC--tures</p><p>inthebottomofmymind...</p><p><br /></p><p>13 years ago today, Matt Trease suggested I follow a set of instructions on Facebook to determine <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random" target="_blank">1)</a> the name of my band; <a href="http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php" target="_blank">2)</a> the title of our first album; and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days" target="_blank">3)</a> the picture on the cover of that very album.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I give you (opening for Iron Maiden) Provost of Cumbrae!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiED7GLAF0i3EIoFPg_531cEoefPOdQosbo96qDz4XSrZ0vA4obPybmemtosdo-RWpm_8XXX-zQtwZ9E8w7NU3mYlHtM905quxMZUFapJjiiQMvAz9MmUlqCAFTw8oNWe3WXRSbh2V3ZZdHp0b3QQQQKF-wMOjsLbpuGogOzEK1J2Qz3c18Iw=s1425" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1425" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiED7GLAF0i3EIoFPg_531cEoefPOdQosbo96qDz4XSrZ0vA4obPybmemtosdo-RWpm_8XXX-zQtwZ9E8w7NU3mYlHtM905quxMZUFapJjiiQMvAz9MmUlqCAFTw8oNWe3WXRSbh2V3ZZdHp0b3QQQQKF-wMOjsLbpuGogOzEK1J2Qz3c18Iw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>I post it here, for your consideration, because I don't like Facebook all that much, and I like Meta even less (even less than MetaWorldPeace), and because I have become a dearth of content in recent months (Oh, I'm writing - just not posting, rather, tweaking and deleting and reconsidering; just like Dan Carlin's <i><a href="https://www.dancarlin.com/product-category/common-sense-with-dan-carlin/" target="_blank">Common Sense</a></i>). <br /><p><br /></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-90635485746477207982022-01-26T22:38:00.119-06:002022-03-06T21:08:01.429-06:00The Obligation of Cinematic Nostalgia<p>2021 was a banner year in content creation - content maximization, really - for the MCU with 4 new movies (its most ever) and 5 original series on Disney+. In 2022, 5 separate <i>Star Trek </i>series will release new episodes: FIVE!!! </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDRCqTmcoFbR5MtLqm35P2RIl4zVN8C8jdieDQv_bskyQNJD0fnYZzCCwa0S8f-fgRMYapYti1WDNmHLk8Y1a5AkQAeRGCV5AWLRu0HtktOTzq0bNLQrHoQEkh5xgXc4LoSOzrXwf6NOtZ_hbMOYy3DUV9_au_JRHnYTk0Avo2L71GBAVdbQ=s994" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="994" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDRCqTmcoFbR5MtLqm35P2RIl4zVN8C8jdieDQv_bskyQNJD0fnYZzCCwa0S8f-fgRMYapYti1WDNmHLk8Y1a5AkQAeRGCV5AWLRu0HtktOTzq0bNLQrHoQEkh5xgXc4LoSOzrXwf6NOtZ_hbMOYy3DUV9_au_JRHnYTk0Avo2L71GBAVdbQ=s320" width="206" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: medium.com</td></tr></tbody></table>When <i>The Matrix: Resurrections</i> was released on HBOMax, I decided to sign up for a month of the service to see the new movie. Before I did, I decided to watch <i>Reloaded</i> and <i>Revolutions</i> again, because I was sure I had seen the original movie several times, but each of the sequels maybe as few as twice each. Upon starting <i>Reloaded</i>, I was completely lost, and realized what I was expecting to see was actually the back half of the original, so I went ahead and took most of my month's purchase time to get through the full trilogy again, and then - finally - watched <i>Resurrections</i> on the last day that it remained streaming on the service (for now). The reboot / sequel / most recent installment was... okay. Pretty good in fact, with a fun and inventive central conceit... but really just the same again as before (which I really think is kind of the central unintended theme of <i>The Matrix </i>franchise).<p></p><i>The Matrix</i> was released in 1999, which was hands down the peak year of movies in America (and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/books/review/hollywoods-greatest-year-brian-raftery.html" target="_blank">don't take my word for it</a>). My personal filmic consumption was also at an all time high, so I was hooked on most anything that was being doled out. Ergo, <i>The Phantom Menace</i> (which I first saw pirated on a desktop computer because I was living in Germany, and it wasn't releasing there until the fall {by which time I was going to be back in the States!}) was such a pleasure when I first saw it - seeing the Jedi at their peak (or their early decline) - rather than something to be scoffed at. <div><br /></div><div>In a year when <i>Fight Club </i>and <i>Office Space </i>were working to undermine contemporary late capitalism in America from opposite ends of the spectrum (and at a time where the political spectrum wasn't the only spectrum - rather the spectrum in this case is Fight Club's chaotic, anarchic direct action on one end and Office Space's radical, satirical inaction on the other) and realities of all sorts were called into question (whether it's cyberspace v. meatspace {<i>The Matrix </i>& <i>eXistenZ</i>}; spiritual reality {<i>The Sixth Sense</i>}; temporal {<i>Run Lola Run</i>}; documentary v. fiction {<i>Blair Witch Project</i>}; cosmic {<i>Being John Malkovich</i>}; or gonzo-comedic {<i>Man on the Moon</i>}), most of the main modern mythologies were at or near their (then) peaks. <br /><p>Since that time, of course, we've had the dawn of the MCU, plus the continuation of the <i>Star Wars</i> prequels and expanded universe, <i>Star Trek </i>trying out a prequel series and then a reboot, before its full establishment of an STU, <i>The Walking Dead</i> becoming a cable tv phenomenon and then (likely) overextending its reaching to create a fuller, awesomer universe, and now everything wants not just a movie deal, but a whole universe that can be endlessly capatilistically exploited. The Harry Potter Universe (HPU), the DCU, even the dream of the SKU. Did you know, for example, that <i>Breaking Bad </i>and <i>The Walking Dead</i> <a href="https://www.looper.com/146984/how-breaking-bad-and-the-walking-dead-are-connected/" target="_blank">happen in the same world</a>?</p><p>But it's not just that the maximal capitalistic exploitation feels so oppressive - it's the compartmentalization of it all. Streaming has only made it more ex-stream! - the ability to only consume the same thing that you always want to consume. Discovery+ is the most extreme version of this (only because most of it is not my speed), but it's the logical, cultural extension of the political media self selecting that has been talked about for decades.</p><p>And the outcome, like the natural outcome of late capitalism, is alienation... we will forever become more separate from each other (on a referential level, but also a relational level), and that alienation is helpful for capitalism (especially late capitalism). The less we notice the suffering of those immediately around us (not our families, but our neighbors - or if you're weird and still friendly with your neighbors, then I mean the people who live two houses down from your neighbors... yes <i>those </i>neighbors) and the more that we feel that we are alone in our own*.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDMKwB73Z6kQhojM3fkExhj7RRUKGIgkaSjkFsPzvkbxhNjN8fMcAPu1zr_FzmstVrVy-mL4bDKBls1nHHN-lhBVSRdZ9DEbA_ktTV5e24747MEvc6nO3LtW68oYgjGt8AIrPRcaffy2afgV9uGcO5WZuMuy8bkZz081JJIKKvzkGERdWAGQ=s360" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="360" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDMKwB73Z6kQhojM3fkExhj7RRUKGIgkaSjkFsPzvkbxhNjN8fMcAPu1zr_FzmstVrVy-mL4bDKBls1nHHN-lhBVSRdZ9DEbA_ktTV5e24747MEvc6nO3LtW68oYgjGt8AIrPRcaffy2afgV9uGcO5WZuMuy8bkZz081JJIKKvzkGERdWAGQ=w200-h200" width="200" /></a></div>So, as I'm watching an episode of <i>Star Wars: Rebels</i>, and two Lasat survivors identify a location of a new homeworld for their people, my first thought is <<what is a Lasat again? Have I encountered these before and why do I care?>> and then <<ok, yeah, I care even if I don't know who they are, because I'm a) invested in this universe and b) generally care about the well being of anyone who isn't <i>always already</i> known to be a prick>>. <p></p><p>It turns out it's easy to love what you love. When <i>Discovery </i>zapped its characters into the late 32nd Century, the emotionality of the series ramped up to 11 - at least for those who were invested. The dismantling of The Federation in the 900 years or so since the crew came through is tragic, but the melding of Vulcan and Romulan species in the newly formed Ni'Var is sublime.<br /></p><p>But the trick, i think, is </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">* our own suffering, that is...</span></p></div>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26348783.post-9447095629036542012021-12-01T22:31:00.120-06:002022-01-06T11:46:40.173-06:00this is a prat<p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> <a href="http://stogie10.blogspot.com/2006/12/semi-celebrity-sighting.html" target="_blank">15 years ago today</a>... I saw a dude at my <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a> (is that link still working?) who I knew from TV...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I guess it's possible that I have grown up (just a small bit), but in reading my proto-hot-take on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgeiler/" target="_blank">Mr. Matt Geiler</a> from that day in 2006, it feels a bit judgy (or at least a bit dismissive of his interest in astrology). It's not to say that my feelings about astrology have evolved any (although the world's penchant for bullshit and pseudo-knowledge has expanded exponentially since 2006, so maybe astrology should be given a lot more space today than then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). We are so enmeshed in an era of faux-expertise where wealth is misidentified as success, credentials are misunderstood to be knowledge, and time passed in any capacity (regardless of quality) merits respect. </span></p><p><span><span style="color: #33475b; font-family: trebuchet;">We are in an era where scientific certainty is on the wane (to be clear, scientific knowledge is - and almost literally always has been - at an all time high, so while our scientific models get better and better, the more data we have the less sure we can ultimately be about the final answers or outcomes. Ergo, the best scientists try to ask better and better questions, rather than giving better and better answers.), outward statements of certainty and expertise, from basically anybody are at an all time high. In fact, our economy (and essentially our entire culture) is one of grift - figure out a way that you can get people to think you know what you're talking about and then fleece them for everything you can. This is most obvious in our new crypto and NFT economies, but also in the job market (see "recruiting" as a "profession), and especially consulting, and then again most definitely in the retail economy and in the RobinHood app options economy and in the real estate inflating economy.</span></span></p><p><span><span style="color: #33475b; font-family: trebuchet;">And so our lives are now such that you would be an absolute utter moron (economically speaking) if you didn't spend all of your working life trying to scrape and take and fleece every shred of value from any customer or company or rube, rather than spending any of your working life (idk) doing something good or worthwhile in the world, let alone something you care about or enjoy (ha!, as if). Perhaps best most recently said by <a href="https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1474827626976063491" target="_blank">Mr. Ken Klipstein</a> (who I do not know).</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #33475b;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And bully to Mr. Geiler for carrying on with the comedic career! Best of luck to you!</span></span></p><p><span face="AvenirNext, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #33475b; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></p>Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01625616681685224829noreply@blogger.com0