Synchronicity (or the Baader-Meinhoff Principal)

 I am fairly confident in saying that I am the only human in the universe to be reading (now or ever) "The House on Maple Street" & Chelsea Handler's Life Will Be the Death of Me: ...and you too! simultaneously, and this is the stuff that feels like it's not whatever this is....

Allow me to explain.  There is a phenomenon 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.

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...

In both the (nonfiction) book and the (fiction) short story that I'm reading, we have the matter of siblingicity - 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.  

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 The Chronicles of Narnia 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.

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.

* 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.

** 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.

Stop, Commemorate and Listen

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).

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.

Man, I loved that dog...

Memories...

 ... colored PIC--tures

inthebottomofmymind...

13 years ago today, Matt Trease suggested I follow a set of instructions on Facebook to determine 1) the name of my band; 2) the title of our first album; and 3) the picture on the cover of that very album.

So I give you (opening for Iron Maiden) Provost of Cumbrae!

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 Common Sense).  

The Obligation of Cinematic Nostalgia

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 Star Trek series will release new episodes: FIVE!!!  

Source: medium.com

When The Matrix: Resurrections 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 Reloaded and Revolutions 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 Reloaded, 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 Resurrections 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 The Matrix franchise).

The Matrix was released in 1999, which was hands down the peak year of movies in America (and don't take my word for it).  My personal filmic consumption was also at an all time high, so I was hooked on most anything that was being doled out.  Ergo, The Phantom Menace (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.  

In a year when Fight Club and Office Space 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 {The Matrix & eXistenZ}; spiritual reality {The Sixth Sense}; temporal {Run Lola Run}; documentary v. fiction {Blair Witch Project}; cosmic {Being John Malkovich}; or gonzo-comedic {Man on the Moon}), most of the main modern mythologies were at or near their (then) peaks. 

Since that time, of course, we've had the dawn of the MCU, plus the continuation of the Star Wars prequels and expanded universe, Star Trek trying out a prequel series and then a reboot, before its full establishment of an STU, The Walking Dead 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 Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead happen in the same world?

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.

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 those neighbors) and the more that we feel that we are alone in our own*.

So, as I'm watching an episode of Star Wars: Rebels, 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 always already known to be a prick>>.  

It turns out it's easy to love what you love.  When Discovery 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.

But the trick, i think, is 

* our own suffering, that is...

this is a prat

 15 years ago today... I saw a dude at my Barnes & Noble (is that link still working?) who I knew from TV...

I guess it's possible that I have grown up (just a small bit), but in reading my proto-hot-take on Mr. Matt Geiler 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. 

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.

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 Mr. Ken Klipstein (who I do not know).

And bully to Mr. Geiler for carrying on with the comedic career!  Best of luck to you!

Bears-Giving (Bears-Taking)

 I had thought to post two new posts on Thanksgiving Day - the first a diatribe on the failure of modern society; and the second about the Chicago Bears, who no matter how lowly they may be just now, I was pretty sure, would win that day... and so they did, but as always, disappointingly.

I watched the finale of the Minnesota Loons' 2021 Season the same day the Bears pissed away a perfectly good chance to beat the Baltimore Ravens sans Lamar Jackson.  After that miserable game, I considered including the traditional "end of season" consumption for the Bears along with my Loons one on the Arfives, but at the last moment did not...

And now, after a single lowly win versus a winless opponent, the Bears find themselves technically one game back out of a playoff position.  And sure, they are behind in almost all of the tiebreakers at present, but as Hub Arkusch points out, that is in large part because two of the Bears' (merely 4) wins are against AFC teams, so if they wind up tied for a playoff spot at the end of the season, they will need to win some (probably most) of their remaining games that are all against the NFC, so tiebreakers would improve.

Now, neither Hub nor I think that is necessarily going to happen, or even very likely, but hell, it's the NFL.  I stopped making picks on fiveThirtyEight's Football Picks Contest after week 6, and my lead over their algorithm has increased significantly!  The NFL is weird this year (weirder than most years), and bad teams are beating better teams with frequency.  So why not us?

Sure, there are currently technically only two teams in the NFC that are in a worse position, the Seahawks (3-7) who the Bears have a matchup against upcoming, so technically an inferior opponent... and the aforementioned Lions who have yet to win a game, but did manage a tie (against the .500 Steelers, who might get to be the first ever .500 team in a season with an odd number of games {and also another team who the Bears almost beat, and admittedly [as in admitted by the NFL after the game] should have beaten had there not been a few mistaken calls by officials late in the game}).

So... Why Not Us? (And I know, I know, factories of sadness, and all that... I promise, I won't get my hopes up.  Unless... we beat Arizona at home on Sunday.  Then our chances to make the playoffs leap from 2% where they stand now to 9% {according to fivethirtyeight}, but then again, what the frak do they know!?)

GOBEARS!!!

Gracegiving

 Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

We're sitting here watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while our turkey grills out in the garage (yeah, turns out that a thing!!).  Hoda and her partner just tried to sell me a bunch of NFTs (it's ok tho, it's for a good cause), and a pirate gravy boat float sponsored by Heinz just floated by followed by the Sinclair Oil dinosaur balloon (causing Brooke to ask if that is their mascot because the oil is derived from fossil fuels, namely oil created from the bodies of decrepit dinosaurs!?, and yes, that is true, although they tend not to talk about it much anymore)...

And I KNOW iknowiknowiknow that American Thanksgiving has been commercialized and exploitative for generations now (this is the 95th annual rendition of it being Macy's Thanksgiving), but it's all just ew, right?

With the eldest Boomers turning 75 this year, I'd like to propose a modest adjustment to our American holidazzle traditions.  While the name of the holiday naturally suggests the lame tradition of going around the table and saying what we're thankful for, I'd like to submit that this practice is actually quite self serving.  Coming off of 15 - 20 years of New Deal policies in action as they came of age, the Boomers (who I expect started the bone-headed tradition of saying out loud what you're thankful for once each year rather than actually appreciating and being grateful for the civilizational wealth and prosper that you have been fortunate enough to be born in to) benefited from a society that valued individual sacrifice at the expense of our collective health and wealth.  Looking at everything you have, and saying thank you for it is well and good, but ultimately it's all about yourself and what you already have.

I'd like to propose, in this era of divisiveness, polarization, and derisiveness, that instead of thanks, what we really need to give everyone - and especially those who we are particularly divided from, enraged by, and/or derisive of - is grace.  Grace is the simple (and yet uncanny) ability to recognize and believe that every other individual human in the entire world is a total and complete being with their own thoughts, feelings, and drives, and to respect those entities - all of them... even the ones you very much disagree with and want not to respect.  Grace for the unvaccinated, the mean spirited, the lost and the over-woke.  Imagine there's no bad people... just bad information and bad outcomes.