Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and all the usual shit people say to each other.
All I got today is a nice little tune, it's so good not even the famous "Conor" himself could screw it up...
i'm waiting for the train
the subway that only goes one way
the stupid thing that will come to pull us apart
and make everybody late
you spent everything you had
wanted everything to stop that bad
and now i'm a crushed credit card registered to smith
not the name that you call me with
you turned white like a saint
i'm tired of dancing on a pot of gold flake paint
oh we're so very precious, you and i
and everything that you do makes me want to die
oh i just told the biggest lie
i just told the biggest lie
the biggest lie
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
all our fears fall on deaf ears tonight.
I went to see the USS Intrepid, or maybe it's just the intrepid, I'm not sure. It's a retired naval battleship if you couldn't guess from the name that enjoyed a rather notorious run during world war II when it sustained five kamikaze attacks and several torpedos during a battle which was not named specifically at the museum. I went because I had to, before you all start assuming I'm into world war II which would be the worst assumption anybody could possibly make about me. I have to write a paper on it now and turn it in the monday after thanksgiving, shouldn't be too hard and I was looking foward to going until I got there and they had a piece of paper on the window to the main entrance indidcating that the flight deck was closed due to inclement weather.
That's just great. The whole reason I wanted to go was to see that stupid flight deck, to stand on its mighty surface and take in the majestic view of the city would have been something nice right? Instead I got gray skies, lots of rain, and a museum with dummy soldiers that really freaked me out (more on that later). Or maybe I'll talk about right now, as soon as I stepped into the museum (which is sort of located in the vital organs section of the ship itself) I felt like I was walking into a graveyard. I got the eerie feeling that this was a ship of ghosts, everything felt very much lived in, even though no one has seen the inside of this ship during battle for well over two decades. The replica/original air craft they stowed inside the museum had these dummy soldiers re-enacting bomb loading procedures, and while they were by no means life like they had a supernatural quality to them that could only be described as someone being turned into a statue by a spell. The memorial inside the ship with all the names of the men who died while serving on it, did not feel like it was honoring the end of their lives, but rather honoring the lives they had on the ship. The warm yet distant nostalgic memory photos of the men living their routine lives on board were so heartbreaking because you forget sometimes that these men lived with each other and not just the enemy for years at a time.
I swear it felt like their voices still echoed through the engine rooms, then I looked up and saw that it was just chatter coming from the mess hall sponsored by McDonalds. Yes, those brave souls certainly fought and died protecting our freedom, our freedom to eat toxic chemical sludge. I'm sorry that's very simplistic and general, but I can't help myself, couldn't they have hired some mom and pop store to be their lunch supplier, did it have to be mcdonalds? It's just a little hard to swallow when you're walking around this historic and epic battleship only to see a sign suggesting that I "Eat chow just like the soldiers did in the McDonalds mess hall." It really took me out of the whole experience, and it cheapened the museum a little bit. Besides aren't there like ten mickey d's in times square alone? DId they really need to spread the seed of their evil empire all the way out to the west side highway? I guess they did and they must have known that history buffs get extra hungry when visiting naval landmarks.
Something else that I found really interesting about the musuem, was the small but nicely ogranized section examining the lives of the Japanese soldiers (no Germans were profiled but I guess that's because Americans did most of the naval battling with Japan). It didn't really examine their lives actually, more like what they were like when they were bombing the American ships. They talked about the Kamikaze pilots and how the idea behind it was not only complete and utter anihilation of enemy combatants, but also that coupled with the glory of self sacrifice for the Nation of people you were defending. It's an interesting paradox to consider, on one hand there's the idea of a shared sacrifice, that your death will be felt by every single person living in the nation you have sworn to protect for the rest of their lives. On the other, your sole desire is to kill and destroy every living thing that is unfortunate enough to be in the closest shade of existance of your enemy soldiers. It's like you have your noble purpose and your kill crazy psychotic purpose and which was the motivating one? And when I say noble I just want to clarify that while I think there is some nobility in sacrificing one's life for the lives of others, that nobility (in the case of the kamikaze) is earned as a battle sacrifice. I don't revel in battle or war of any kind, but if you are engaged in one and you act heroically it should be recognized. The point of all this was that its hard to make the distinction between a noble sacrifice and a senseless slaughter even if it is in the name of protecting the freedom of a nation. How do you justify it to yourself? Do you even have a choice in the matter?
Something else about the Japanese portion of the exhibit that troubled me a little bit: There were two items housed on display, one was a mock business card that read "Official Jap Hunter" with a sub head line that read "Open for Business" or something along those lines. In the little description panel next to the item the words read something like "This card represents the dehumanizing effects of war and the animosity that existed on both sides in the fight for the pacific." Those weren't the exact words but you get the idea, then I walk over a few feet to see a japanese flag, completely unfurled and six different stains each with a hole through them adorning the permiter of the flag. The inscription next to it read that it belonged to a japanese soldier who met his end during the battle for Iwo Jima, the flag had the stains on it because the bullet pierced through it on the way to the Japanese soldier's heart. The flag must have been folded up several times, which is why the stain repeats itself over and over again. I hope that makes sense because it was a really haunting image, this piece of cloth was the last thing that bullet past through on its way to a human body of a Japanese soldier. Anyway, an American took it off the body and wrote with a pen "stolen from a dead jap" and put the date. I was struck by this only because on the inscription next to it, after explaining where the flag came from, it read once again This flag represents the dehumanizing effects of war and the animosity that excisted on both sides in the fight for the pacific." It just made me think to myself that if they have this standard boilerplate response to two completely different representations of war time racism. Then do they think those feelings of hatred are not only natural but expected of a soldier during war time, that it's just this blanket phenomenon that happens whether you want it to or not? During world war II I definitely believed that kind of thing happened to a lot of soldiers, but it is troulbing to me that this musuem dealt with it in a slogan rather than any kind of real insight. They didnt' bother to explore the roots and causes of this problem, they just wrote it off as part of the dehumanization of war. You rarely read about men who fought in the war who were real bastards, everyone sort of becomes these saintly do gooders when they strap on those boots.
There is plenty more to talk about, I have some pictures but my flickr account is full and I don't know how to put pictures just on blogspot by itself. And I don't feel like learning either. It's getting dark now, and I'm reallly gonna try...
"The rungs torn from the ladder can't reach the tumour
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we'll never have."
That's just great. The whole reason I wanted to go was to see that stupid flight deck, to stand on its mighty surface and take in the majestic view of the city would have been something nice right? Instead I got gray skies, lots of rain, and a museum with dummy soldiers that really freaked me out (more on that later). Or maybe I'll talk about right now, as soon as I stepped into the museum (which is sort of located in the vital organs section of the ship itself) I felt like I was walking into a graveyard. I got the eerie feeling that this was a ship of ghosts, everything felt very much lived in, even though no one has seen the inside of this ship during battle for well over two decades. The replica/original air craft they stowed inside the museum had these dummy soldiers re-enacting bomb loading procedures, and while they were by no means life like they had a supernatural quality to them that could only be described as someone being turned into a statue by a spell. The memorial inside the ship with all the names of the men who died while serving on it, did not feel like it was honoring the end of their lives, but rather honoring the lives they had on the ship. The warm yet distant nostalgic memory photos of the men living their routine lives on board were so heartbreaking because you forget sometimes that these men lived with each other and not just the enemy for years at a time.
I swear it felt like their voices still echoed through the engine rooms, then I looked up and saw that it was just chatter coming from the mess hall sponsored by McDonalds. Yes, those brave souls certainly fought and died protecting our freedom, our freedom to eat toxic chemical sludge. I'm sorry that's very simplistic and general, but I can't help myself, couldn't they have hired some mom and pop store to be their lunch supplier, did it have to be mcdonalds? It's just a little hard to swallow when you're walking around this historic and epic battleship only to see a sign suggesting that I "Eat chow just like the soldiers did in the McDonalds mess hall." It really took me out of the whole experience, and it cheapened the museum a little bit. Besides aren't there like ten mickey d's in times square alone? DId they really need to spread the seed of their evil empire all the way out to the west side highway? I guess they did and they must have known that history buffs get extra hungry when visiting naval landmarks.
Something else that I found really interesting about the musuem, was the small but nicely ogranized section examining the lives of the Japanese soldiers (no Germans were profiled but I guess that's because Americans did most of the naval battling with Japan). It didn't really examine their lives actually, more like what they were like when they were bombing the American ships. They talked about the Kamikaze pilots and how the idea behind it was not only complete and utter anihilation of enemy combatants, but also that coupled with the glory of self sacrifice for the Nation of people you were defending. It's an interesting paradox to consider, on one hand there's the idea of a shared sacrifice, that your death will be felt by every single person living in the nation you have sworn to protect for the rest of their lives. On the other, your sole desire is to kill and destroy every living thing that is unfortunate enough to be in the closest shade of existance of your enemy soldiers. It's like you have your noble purpose and your kill crazy psychotic purpose and which was the motivating one? And when I say noble I just want to clarify that while I think there is some nobility in sacrificing one's life for the lives of others, that nobility (in the case of the kamikaze) is earned as a battle sacrifice. I don't revel in battle or war of any kind, but if you are engaged in one and you act heroically it should be recognized. The point of all this was that its hard to make the distinction between a noble sacrifice and a senseless slaughter even if it is in the name of protecting the freedom of a nation. How do you justify it to yourself? Do you even have a choice in the matter?
Something else about the Japanese portion of the exhibit that troubled me a little bit: There were two items housed on display, one was a mock business card that read "Official Jap Hunter" with a sub head line that read "Open for Business" or something along those lines. In the little description panel next to the item the words read something like "This card represents the dehumanizing effects of war and the animosity that existed on both sides in the fight for the pacific." Those weren't the exact words but you get the idea, then I walk over a few feet to see a japanese flag, completely unfurled and six different stains each with a hole through them adorning the permiter of the flag. The inscription next to it read that it belonged to a japanese soldier who met his end during the battle for Iwo Jima, the flag had the stains on it because the bullet pierced through it on the way to the Japanese soldier's heart. The flag must have been folded up several times, which is why the stain repeats itself over and over again. I hope that makes sense because it was a really haunting image, this piece of cloth was the last thing that bullet past through on its way to a human body of a Japanese soldier. Anyway, an American took it off the body and wrote with a pen "stolen from a dead jap" and put the date. I was struck by this only because on the inscription next to it, after explaining where the flag came from, it read once again This flag represents the dehumanizing effects of war and the animosity that excisted on both sides in the fight for the pacific." It just made me think to myself that if they have this standard boilerplate response to two completely different representations of war time racism. Then do they think those feelings of hatred are not only natural but expected of a soldier during war time, that it's just this blanket phenomenon that happens whether you want it to or not? During world war II I definitely believed that kind of thing happened to a lot of soldiers, but it is troulbing to me that this musuem dealt with it in a slogan rather than any kind of real insight. They didnt' bother to explore the roots and causes of this problem, they just wrote it off as part of the dehumanization of war. You rarely read about men who fought in the war who were real bastards, everyone sort of becomes these saintly do gooders when they strap on those boots.
There is plenty more to talk about, I have some pictures but my flickr account is full and I don't know how to put pictures just on blogspot by itself. And I don't feel like learning either. It's getting dark now, and I'm reallly gonna try...
"The rungs torn from the ladder can't reach the tumour
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer
Just a quiet peaceful dance!
Just a quiet peaceful dance for the things we'll never have."
Monday, November 21, 2005
Corruption is why we win.
Getting back to the matter of things, this being the anti fanboy blogspot, I feel should report on the latest Harry Potter release. Now, before I continue with this critical in depth analysis I should warn you all of something very plain and simple: I don't care much for Harry Potter and the rest of Rowling's crap, in fact I don't care for it at all. It's rubbish mate, and I know, I haven't read a single word of the text so how am I able to make such a critical assessement.
There are some things man was not meant to know.
But I have seen the movies and after checking out the third and fourth installments by two real directors, I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to the first two movies, I've seen better film on teeth. The first two harry potters had no imagination, no visual energy they were almost like re-enactments of the book. Which I guess is all well and good if you love the book, but for the rest of us, I already used up my film on teeth line so I'll let you guys figure this one out. Things improved a little bit with the third film, at least it looked good but I remember being totally disconnected from the story. Nothing about it held my attention for more than three minutes, plus they did this thing at the end with time travel that was utterly ludicrous and amounted to nothing more than showing the same ending twice. Alfonso Cauron didn't just ape off of Rowling's world, he created his own and it resulted in a really gorgeous if emotionally distant film. I feel like he set a precedent with that film and Mike Newell's latest interpretation is pretty much more of the same. That being said, this time I am surprised to report that there were sections, sections mind you, of the story where I was actually involved and I cared about what happened to the characters. That's how the film was for me, it worked in spurts, for about twenty minutes, the film focuses on the jealousy, puberty, adolescent love triangle involving harry, hermonie, and ron, that shit was reallly really good. Steeped in embarassment and mis-understandings, it was like a good angsty drama being played out. Then that part would go away and oh look harry gets chased by a giant dragon, whoopeee, now I'm really back into it. Then at the end harry enters a horrific maze, at the end of which he must confront his mortal enemy and the man who killed his parents: the nazi from Schindler's List. That scene has fear, tragedy, and the kind of mythic scope that makes the story seem more important than it actually is, plus it's accompanied by a really powerful death of a fellow student scene, really potent shit. Then it goes back to this nonsense about magical biting candy and the tri-wizard tournament and I am bored to tears. So I realized what it is I don't like about these movies, the magic. I feel like (and I wonder if rowling's shit is like this too) the makers are too wrapped up in the glory of their own imaginations and they operate entirely on hyper drive when it comes to the whimsical litlte touches displayed in each movie. It gets to the point where I just want to shout, okay I get it paintings come to life, candy can bite you, everything is something in this castle, move the fuck on. I'm not sayinig these movies should be flat and boring (we already saw what that can do when Columbus sailed the ocean blue) but they need to get off the self-satisfied magical nonsense. There should be magic, don't get me wrong but they don't need to underline hightlight or spotlight it whenever it happens. To wrap up, the same issues I had with the first three films were still prevalent here, lame story, bland lead performance by Radcliffe, and the fact that I just don't give a damn about this stuff. But at the same time there were moments and it's a well made film so I guess I'm in the realm of I'll see the rest just to see what happens, but I still don't want to touch a page of Potter. That may sound harsh but look at this way, I didn't even make it all the way to the third lord of the rings movie, I gave up at two. And I don't plan on going back, ever.
In other news, there's a really interesting article up on Rollingstone.com, check it out here
I heard the guy who wrote it on Democracy Now! today, he was pretty interesting, I didn't get to hear all of him because I was working at the time, that's right, I'm in a wheelchair! The article is basically about the lengths to which the Bush administration went in organizing a specific group to spread misinformation and discredit sources who opposed them in the build up to the iraq war. I know it probably sounds like old news but the writer knows what he's talking about and he's not just a muckraker, the detail he goes into and specifics of the article are quite terrifying, but judge for yourself. It's surprising to see such a facist magazine like Rolling Stone print something as damaging as this, but sometimes they surprise you.
That's about enough for now...
"And when they tell you that they think they've got you figured out
And when they tell you that they think they know what makes you tick
And when they step with their 12-point program for being like them
And when they tell you that you're blowing every chance you get
And when they tell you that you're setting up a life of regret
And when they tell you that you just can't get a single thing straight
Well, it's too late
But this is the life
No matter what they say, you know that
This is the life
For better or worse, it'll stay that way"
There are some things man was not meant to know.
But I have seen the movies and after checking out the third and fourth installments by two real directors, I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to the first two movies, I've seen better film on teeth. The first two harry potters had no imagination, no visual energy they were almost like re-enactments of the book. Which I guess is all well and good if you love the book, but for the rest of us, I already used up my film on teeth line so I'll let you guys figure this one out. Things improved a little bit with the third film, at least it looked good but I remember being totally disconnected from the story. Nothing about it held my attention for more than three minutes, plus they did this thing at the end with time travel that was utterly ludicrous and amounted to nothing more than showing the same ending twice. Alfonso Cauron didn't just ape off of Rowling's world, he created his own and it resulted in a really gorgeous if emotionally distant film. I feel like he set a precedent with that film and Mike Newell's latest interpretation is pretty much more of the same. That being said, this time I am surprised to report that there were sections, sections mind you, of the story where I was actually involved and I cared about what happened to the characters. That's how the film was for me, it worked in spurts, for about twenty minutes, the film focuses on the jealousy, puberty, adolescent love triangle involving harry, hermonie, and ron, that shit was reallly really good. Steeped in embarassment and mis-understandings, it was like a good angsty drama being played out. Then that part would go away and oh look harry gets chased by a giant dragon, whoopeee, now I'm really back into it. Then at the end harry enters a horrific maze, at the end of which he must confront his mortal enemy and the man who killed his parents: the nazi from Schindler's List. That scene has fear, tragedy, and the kind of mythic scope that makes the story seem more important than it actually is, plus it's accompanied by a really powerful death of a fellow student scene, really potent shit. Then it goes back to this nonsense about magical biting candy and the tri-wizard tournament and I am bored to tears. So I realized what it is I don't like about these movies, the magic. I feel like (and I wonder if rowling's shit is like this too) the makers are too wrapped up in the glory of their own imaginations and they operate entirely on hyper drive when it comes to the whimsical litlte touches displayed in each movie. It gets to the point where I just want to shout, okay I get it paintings come to life, candy can bite you, everything is something in this castle, move the fuck on. I'm not sayinig these movies should be flat and boring (we already saw what that can do when Columbus sailed the ocean blue) but they need to get off the self-satisfied magical nonsense. There should be magic, don't get me wrong but they don't need to underline hightlight or spotlight it whenever it happens. To wrap up, the same issues I had with the first three films were still prevalent here, lame story, bland lead performance by Radcliffe, and the fact that I just don't give a damn about this stuff. But at the same time there were moments and it's a well made film so I guess I'm in the realm of I'll see the rest just to see what happens, but I still don't want to touch a page of Potter. That may sound harsh but look at this way, I didn't even make it all the way to the third lord of the rings movie, I gave up at two. And I don't plan on going back, ever.
In other news, there's a really interesting article up on Rollingstone.com, check it out here
I heard the guy who wrote it on Democracy Now! today, he was pretty interesting, I didn't get to hear all of him because I was working at the time, that's right, I'm in a wheelchair! The article is basically about the lengths to which the Bush administration went in organizing a specific group to spread misinformation and discredit sources who opposed them in the build up to the iraq war. I know it probably sounds like old news but the writer knows what he's talking about and he's not just a muckraker, the detail he goes into and specifics of the article are quite terrifying, but judge for yourself. It's surprising to see such a facist magazine like Rolling Stone print something as damaging as this, but sometimes they surprise you.
That's about enough for now...
"And when they tell you that they think they've got you figured out
And when they tell you that they think they know what makes you tick
And when they step with their 12-point program for being like them
And when they tell you that you're blowing every chance you get
And when they tell you that you're setting up a life of regret
And when they tell you that you just can't get a single thing straight
Well, it's too late
But this is the life
No matter what they say, you know that
This is the life
For better or worse, it'll stay that way"
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Thank god for John Cusack...
Seriously this guy deserves a a full blooded ceremony in his honor where people sit around and talk about how great he is.
Not only is this man responsible for Lloyd Dobler, Martin Blank, Vince Larkin, Captain John Gaff, Nelson Rockefeller, Craig Schwartz, Rob Gordon, and the list goes on and on. He so good I will sit through the most arbitrary boring trash imaginable just hoping I'll get one of those john cusack moments that can brighten the dreariest of fucking days.
Anyway the reason for all this Cuasck love is not only does he make interesting, off the beaten course movies that do not reflect a desire to cash in at a moment's notice (well maybe some of them do, but he hasn't done anything as reprehensible as yours, mine, and ours) but he also wrote this piece for the huffington post, and it's about as dead on as you can be. Read it for yourself and let me know what you think, throughout the piece he makes several mentions of his heroes Hunter S. Thompson, Bill Moyers, and Dr. Martin Luther King and frequently thanks god for their ideas, presence, and words. Which is why I say in response, thank god for you john cusack.
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
Not only is this man responsible for Lloyd Dobler, Martin Blank, Vince Larkin, Captain John Gaff, Nelson Rockefeller, Craig Schwartz, Rob Gordon, and the list goes on and on. He so good I will sit through the most arbitrary boring trash imaginable just hoping I'll get one of those john cusack moments that can brighten the dreariest of fucking days.
Anyway the reason for all this Cuasck love is not only does he make interesting, off the beaten course movies that do not reflect a desire to cash in at a moment's notice (well maybe some of them do, but he hasn't done anything as reprehensible as yours, mine, and ours) but he also wrote this piece for the huffington post, and it's about as dead on as you can be. Read it for yourself and let me know what you think, throughout the piece he makes several mentions of his heroes Hunter S. Thompson, Bill Moyers, and Dr. Martin Luther King and frequently thanks god for their ideas, presence, and words. Which is why I say in response, thank god for you john cusack.
"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."
Monday, November 14, 2005
Insert obvious comment about length of elapsed time between blog entries.
Ah the years, where do they go?
It seems like years since I've been back on this thing, thirty two years to be exact. I know my adoring public has been clamoring away for some of my sharp insights and biting commentary, ah hell who am I kidding? I kinda forgot about this thing and everytime I was motivated to write something, the idea of writing it and knowing it won't come out the way I wanedt to always halted my process. And by process I mean the act of sitting down in a chair and typing. I'll get back in the groove of things in a little bit, but for now enjoy some picatures. I'll see ya...
"Get with it. Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, in a speck on one in a blink. That's us, lost in space. The cop, you, me... Who notices?"
"Someday my dream will come. One night you'll wake up and you'll discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you and it never will. Suddenly you are old, didn't happened and it never will, 'cause you were never going to do it anyway. "
It seems like years since I've been back on this thing, thirty two years to be exact. I know my adoring public has been clamoring away for some of my sharp insights and biting commentary, ah hell who am I kidding? I kinda forgot about this thing and everytime I was motivated to write something, the idea of writing it and knowing it won't come out the way I wanedt to always halted my process. And by process I mean the act of sitting down in a chair and typing. I'll get back in the groove of things in a little bit, but for now enjoy some picatures. I'll see ya...
"Get with it. Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, in a speck on one in a blink. That's us, lost in space. The cop, you, me... Who notices?"
"Someday my dream will come. One night you'll wake up and you'll discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you and it never will. Suddenly you are old, didn't happened and it never will, 'cause you were never going to do it anyway. "
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