The groups who enjoy criticizing the new Liberals for their supposed 'style over substance' approach (proven by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's youth, hair, and handsomeness) to political posturing might be foaming at the mouth with suppressed rage at the appointment of a defense minister who happens to have both substance and a generous dollop of swag. Harjit Sajjan is a military and police veteran and the media (both social and traditional) are already swooning over him.
It's an interesting case study: if the Harper government were to appoint a Sikh to a prominent cabinet location it would be seen, by some observers, as a rather baldfaced ploy to appeal to immigrants. But then, any rational person always saw some kind of Machiavellian undertone to anything done by the Harper Administration. It's the people widely considered paranoid (AKA not employed as a political analysts) who are seen as paranoiac when they attribute Machiavellianist tendencies to all parties. Either way, Minister Sajjan seems an excellent choice and the media is head over ass in love with the dude, and it makes Canada seem much more cool and culturally open than the United States of America, where the most prominent 'brown politicians' have 'white names' (Bobby Jindal et. al.) – but that's a cultural thing...
Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau is turning heads all over the place, as his looks and relative youth (which invited the criticism and mockery of the Conservative Party of Canada) draw the admiration of many, and the media did not hesitate to point out his effects on women. I don't know... all senior bureaucrats and political figures are more the inventions of their parties, in the contemporary system, than self-reliant actors. The wave of positivity is going to break at some point, and it will probably just lead to more of the same for Canada (either political apathy or another Conservative government, depending on the number and severity of scandals).
Also please note: the Niqab debate, a completely different issue from Sikhs in Government, managed to fail spectacularly and further sunk its inventors, but that is all ancient history according to the Gods of The News Cycles, who have decreed that ISIS, after being on the backburner until they attacked a European city, are Big News again. Islamophobia, which was also a backburner topic for a number of years, is now a household name to be invoked in hopeless arguments between idealistic youth and their racist parents. In Canada, Hindu temples were attacked, one mosque was firebombed, and a small segment of the population basically confirmed the idea of Racist Canada being alive and well in 2015.
The Paris Attacks of November 2015 are already the biggest news story of the month, whether deservedly or not, and are going to tinge all political discourse in the West and beyond for a year or more, and are having interesting effects. The United States is toying with the idea of isolationism as well as a final solution to its Muslim population (via special ID and blatant surveillance and oppression). Canada, meanwhile, announced via its global mouthpiece, Justin Trudeau, that it would allow refugees – a feel-good story in a week marred with tragedy and soapbox speeches about the world. Besides the 'rock star image' [via Lamesteam Media] , what else has this change in governance changed, in governance?
12/4/15
11/16/15
Fuck It - Just This Once Since This Blog is Dying Anyway
[The 'yous' in this article are hypothetical and not directed at the reader, or even at any one person, and merely symbolize a 'you' the writer has grown tired of - Ed.]
It's been long enough to say maybe three things about recent events and then hold my peace about it again. I don't like to pontificate over tragedy, but in the wake of the Paris attacks one sees the double standards of tragedy reportage in the West. Syria is war-torn for something like a thousand days and it's all old news, there are refugees drowning by the dozens in the Aegean sea, and in Africa, the usual business is struggling onward, but really - who is giving much of a shit about that? Who is putting a God damned filter on their social media in memoriam for the victims of Ebola? For the dead in Syria? For the ongoing war in Ukraine? For that reason I see the reporting about Paris as overblown. Maybe I'm cynical (I am in fact cynical) but the whole response seems highly sensationalistic, and it is being defended. The people who are trying to put it in perspective are being demonized and mocked. There is, no doubt, a 9-11ing going on. And there is such transparent bias from the media and so many people are actually getting upset that this is being pointed out.
Make no mistake - what you will see in the coming months will not undo the conditions that created the terror attacks. The coming years will likely only see those conditions reinforced, and it will only create more blind hatred. As much as I severely dislike people who commit unspeakable acts of violence, I really dislike the people who use crises as a means of control or who profit from it. I may be seen as blowhard cynic for my perspective, but there are many people who see a tragedy whose first thought is 'what will this mean for the financial markets tomorrow?' or 'how can I spin this to fit my agenda of making people crazy and fearful?'
Monuments around the world weren't lit up in solidarity with Pakistan when there was flooding, or when there was an earthquake - in either case hundreds died, and not all of them just from the natural disaster. We didn't even see much of a response when the Fukushima incident happened - there was lots of worried reportage about the reactor but I don't remember candlelight vigils or tearful celebrities. Why on Earth should I take your prayers and thoughts seriously if you only bestow them on the world's people who are most like you, from whom you and your culture most likely descended?
To me, at this point, your concerns seems too biased, and therefore I imagine they are worth nothing to the people of Paris, or to the men who attacked them – fellow humans who you no doubt blindly hate, who if they had anything to say would have been ignored and shouted down, reinforcing their nihilistic and desperate attitudes. Your concerns demonstrate what your true values are, and I don't know anything but I can see that you don't really care about 'humanity' you care about the parts of it you feel are right, and don't bother to learn about the rest. Humanity is like a sport to you.
Yes, I might well be a stupid fuck, but you behave worse, think less, and are proud about it. It's not wrong to point out how internalized the biases of our mainstream media are. It's actually important, so that all of us can move away from ignorance and arrogance, so that this little piece of shit species can become better. So I hate the politics of this whole thing, and even as my heart sank at the news, I felt worse knowing the kind of response I'd have to witness.
Nobody is right in this situation, and even though both parties are aggrieved, only one will gain the support or counsel of the world. Think about that, before you do the laziest possible thing and apply a filter to your facebook profile picture 'in support and solidarity'. You would do better to make peace with your neighbors, to call your parents, to show tangible love to the people who could immediately benefit from it. France will graciously accept, but does not at all need, your concern. And France, where liberty was oft reclaimed, will be less free from now on. So not only are you venting your useless concerns like so many stale farts, but the terrorists, again, have won.
Every time this happens, the predictable response of the majority is so rehearsed, and so insincere and so antiquated. The most honest thing I've seen so far is various states in the US refusing to take in refugees, ostensibly because they want to be evil or stupid or something. This is why I believe nobody is learning anything from tragedy except to make lots of noise and act stupidly. I saw that old 'not all Muslims' rhetoric come out, via meme picture, which isn't going to convince anyone of anything, thanks for trying, maybe try not saying or posting anything for a few months. Only idiots think that all Muslims harbor terrorist thoughts, and only idiots think that the internet will fix idiots. And idiots are going to attack Hindus and Sikhs, just like before, because idiots are idiots and we do not keep them on a short enough leash.
I am tired of the pontification I am hearing from the ignorant about this matter. If you do not truly care about humanity as a whole, please don't bother those around you with your ideas. You are half of why this problem will never be solved, and you will never think to examine yourself or your position. You will never have to examine your life, and that is why a Muslim in a poor country doesn't like you and thinks you're part of an evil culture.
I am going to log off now, drink a coffee, and gratefully take a deep breath. Thanks for reading, hopefully this insane screed of mine somehow betters you, or offers you anything.
It's been long enough to say maybe three things about recent events and then hold my peace about it again. I don't like to pontificate over tragedy, but in the wake of the Paris attacks one sees the double standards of tragedy reportage in the West. Syria is war-torn for something like a thousand days and it's all old news, there are refugees drowning by the dozens in the Aegean sea, and in Africa, the usual business is struggling onward, but really - who is giving much of a shit about that? Who is putting a God damned filter on their social media in memoriam for the victims of Ebola? For the dead in Syria? For the ongoing war in Ukraine? For that reason I see the reporting about Paris as overblown. Maybe I'm cynical (I am in fact cynical) but the whole response seems highly sensationalistic, and it is being defended. The people who are trying to put it in perspective are being demonized and mocked. There is, no doubt, a 9-11ing going on. And there is such transparent bias from the media and so many people are actually getting upset that this is being pointed out.
Make no mistake - what you will see in the coming months will not undo the conditions that created the terror attacks. The coming years will likely only see those conditions reinforced, and it will only create more blind hatred. As much as I severely dislike people who commit unspeakable acts of violence, I really dislike the people who use crises as a means of control or who profit from it. I may be seen as blowhard cynic for my perspective, but there are many people who see a tragedy whose first thought is 'what will this mean for the financial markets tomorrow?' or 'how can I spin this to fit my agenda of making people crazy and fearful?'
Monuments around the world weren't lit up in solidarity with Pakistan when there was flooding, or when there was an earthquake - in either case hundreds died, and not all of them just from the natural disaster. We didn't even see much of a response when the Fukushima incident happened - there was lots of worried reportage about the reactor but I don't remember candlelight vigils or tearful celebrities. Why on Earth should I take your prayers and thoughts seriously if you only bestow them on the world's people who are most like you, from whom you and your culture most likely descended?
To me, at this point, your concerns seems too biased, and therefore I imagine they are worth nothing to the people of Paris, or to the men who attacked them – fellow humans who you no doubt blindly hate, who if they had anything to say would have been ignored and shouted down, reinforcing their nihilistic and desperate attitudes. Your concerns demonstrate what your true values are, and I don't know anything but I can see that you don't really care about 'humanity' you care about the parts of it you feel are right, and don't bother to learn about the rest. Humanity is like a sport to you.
Yes, I might well be a stupid fuck, but you behave worse, think less, and are proud about it. It's not wrong to point out how internalized the biases of our mainstream media are. It's actually important, so that all of us can move away from ignorance and arrogance, so that this little piece of shit species can become better. So I hate the politics of this whole thing, and even as my heart sank at the news, I felt worse knowing the kind of response I'd have to witness.
Nobody is right in this situation, and even though both parties are aggrieved, only one will gain the support or counsel of the world. Think about that, before you do the laziest possible thing and apply a filter to your facebook profile picture 'in support and solidarity'. You would do better to make peace with your neighbors, to call your parents, to show tangible love to the people who could immediately benefit from it. France will graciously accept, but does not at all need, your concern. And France, where liberty was oft reclaimed, will be less free from now on. So not only are you venting your useless concerns like so many stale farts, but the terrorists, again, have won.
Every time this happens, the predictable response of the majority is so rehearsed, and so insincere and so antiquated. The most honest thing I've seen so far is various states in the US refusing to take in refugees, ostensibly because they want to be evil or stupid or something. This is why I believe nobody is learning anything from tragedy except to make lots of noise and act stupidly. I saw that old 'not all Muslims' rhetoric come out, via meme picture, which isn't going to convince anyone of anything, thanks for trying, maybe try not saying or posting anything for a few months. Only idiots think that all Muslims harbor terrorist thoughts, and only idiots think that the internet will fix idiots. And idiots are going to attack Hindus and Sikhs, just like before, because idiots are idiots and we do not keep them on a short enough leash.
I am tired of the pontification I am hearing from the ignorant about this matter. If you do not truly care about humanity as a whole, please don't bother those around you with your ideas. You are half of why this problem will never be solved, and you will never think to examine yourself or your position. You will never have to examine your life, and that is why a Muslim in a poor country doesn't like you and thinks you're part of an evil culture.
I am going to log off now, drink a coffee, and gratefully take a deep breath. Thanks for reading, hopefully this insane screed of mine somehow betters you, or offers you anything.
11/12/15
Shitty Month Showdown: November vs. February
In the northern latitudes there are four months that are dreaded, that can chill a man's soul even as he sits in the warmth of the summer sun, and they are known as November, December, January, February. These four horsemen of the freezocalypse are merciless, grim, dark, bitter months – which is why Northern cultures since prehistory have organized big excessive festivals and holidays in them, because otherwise too many people would hibernate, go insane, and/or commit suicide.
Hence December with its put-on Christmas cheer, its casual holiday alcoholism, and its cozy nights with the family you have avoided most of the year even though you all love each other, supposedly. Hence... uh... Christmas, and the reason it's so big is because the corporate society we belong to has to keep us 'goal oriented' so that we don't drop out of their nonsense and discover actual meanings to life and think critically about the system we were born into and if any of it is actually right. But also, it keeps the shadows away, and turns darkness at 4:30 P.M. into 'coziness' as opposed to 'I viciously hate Daylight Savings Time'. And there's the religious significance, and the butt-hurt War on Christmas style rants from bigoted ignoramuses who think the LIBERAL LIBERATION FORCE are going to force them into sensitivity camps.
In December, the remembrance of the people we have to grudgingly buy gifts for (because they give us gifts and WILL judge us if we don't do the adult thing) will at some point cause us to enter that holy tabernacle of consumerism - the Christmastime store. It doesn't matter if it's a mall, a boutique shop, or even a corner store: get ready to hear some jingly, jangly Christmas cacophony that will probably make you feel worse even if you are mentally damaged enough to find joy in a season peoples from all over the southern world associate solely with the word 'forbearance'.
But that's all beside the point. Today I would like to compare the dreary cousins of December, two months that are important solely because they are months that people have to live through in order to get to classically 'good' months. November is proudly mediocre and even in a good year it's the month where the dying plants have mostly all died, the skies are grey and get a darker a bit more quickly each day, and any good weather is The Last Good Weather of the Year. February is colder, bleaker, and generally worse in every way, but it's also closer to the redemption of Late March, where the weather starts to feel amazingly fresh and the promise of life is in the air.
Hence December with its put-on Christmas cheer, its casual holiday alcoholism, and its cozy nights with the family you have avoided most of the year even though you all love each other, supposedly. Hence... uh... Christmas, and the reason it's so big is because the corporate society we belong to has to keep us 'goal oriented' so that we don't drop out of their nonsense and discover actual meanings to life and think critically about the system we were born into and if any of it is actually right. But also, it keeps the shadows away, and turns darkness at 4:30 P.M. into 'coziness' as opposed to 'I viciously hate Daylight Savings Time'. And there's the religious significance, and the butt-hurt War on Christmas style rants from bigoted ignoramuses who think the LIBERAL LIBERATION FORCE are going to force them into sensitivity camps.
In December, the remembrance of the people we have to grudgingly buy gifts for (because they give us gifts and WILL judge us if we don't do the adult thing) will at some point cause us to enter that holy tabernacle of consumerism - the Christmastime store. It doesn't matter if it's a mall, a boutique shop, or even a corner store: get ready to hear some jingly, jangly Christmas cacophony that will probably make you feel worse even if you are mentally damaged enough to find joy in a season peoples from all over the southern world associate solely with the word 'forbearance'.
But that's all beside the point. Today I would like to compare the dreary cousins of December, two months that are important solely because they are months that people have to live through in order to get to classically 'good' months. November is proudly mediocre and even in a good year it's the month where the dying plants have mostly all died, the skies are grey and get a darker a bit more quickly each day, and any good weather is The Last Good Weather of the Year. February is colder, bleaker, and generally worse in every way, but it's also closer to the redemption of Late March, where the weather starts to feel amazingly fresh and the promise of life is in the air.
11/2/15
19 Screenshots that Reveal the Hollowness of Business Insider and Modern Culture in General
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| Dilbert IS business, basically. Laugh and care about it to advance your career! |
In an era of clickbait nonsense aggregation bullshit, online content in general is in danger of becoming a lobotomized, numbers-driven, shortform mess. When I state with confidence that using the internet can make a person extremely dumb, paranoid, hateful, angry, etc... I am speaking mostly about the content aggregator sites, although mainstream media websites and the 'respected' online only publications are also wracked with issues like poor editorial standards and their habit of mixing serious stories with internet culture fluff. The end result is an uncritical and uninformed mass of people with simplistic world-views and ideas who are around you, and vote and have jobs and discuss whatever malformed ideas they have with like-minded people and shout at those who disagree with them.
I started reading Business Insider earlier this year. I don't know why, I suppose I wanted a wider selection of sites and I'd never really frequented an aggregator before. I figured it would be helpful in determining what wider news trends were... but I was wrong, because Business Insider isn't a news site. It's an aggregator with a 'business' lifestyle slant, which means it will present you with the idols of the cult of success, the accouterments of the cult of success, and Forbes-like fawning and panic about wealth with a subset of stories about actual business some of which may have been bought and paid for by the businesses prominent in that story. Looking at you Shake Shack, Soul Cycle, whatever the newest 'Chipotle-killer' is, etc...
What kept me reading was that I wanted to see how low they'd go. Some of their clickbait articles are so obvious that the site functions as a sort of case study in the decline of news caused by the massive expansion into the void of the internet. The fact that the site was successful enough to be sold for millions (more millions than I'm comfortable with) is a sign that this kind of operation appeals to someone – even if that someone is just advertising and/or PR agencies or some guy with a cargo-cult mentality who thinks reading the imaginatively titled Business Insider will get him a corner office or board seat.
That's the thing, it's not insider information, it's widely available information with a few home-brewed stories... on the one hand they put money in the hands of the people who write useless internet articles, and as much as I do pity them, they are my kind and it's better that there are still jobs where people who write get jobs (even if they go through six or more years of post-secondary education just to write for Buzzfeed or BI). To me, it doesn't matter if that person cannot spell or use words properly,and doesn't know how to use contractions, doesn't have any real passion for language or writing... they could be the biggest, least ink-stained hack of all time but if they're getting six cents a word while a video producer or hype man is out of work, I'm happy. On the other, less expansive hand, they don't produce any 'good' stuff. They provide a service that generally repeats information for a layman crowd. Longform is dead, et cetera...
It's a website that's good at being a brand, and one of those new kinds of brands launched and owned by people slightly more web-savvy than the people who run newspapers, which even as I type it seems crazy, because everyone uses the internet now. The fact remains that traditional media have not adapted super well, I guess, because there are voids where a shrewd person can set up shop and in a few years be valued at millions of dollars.
But what kind of content... that's the important question, right? What's the kind of content they got? Well, it's an eyeful, and I've been filing away some of the more mordant, absurd, and frivolous examples:
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| The headlines are a schizoid mix of important news and 'content', which may affect the minds of long term readers. |
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| Interested in the insider 'hack' about hotels that you probably never knew about? |
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| ["Oh, word?" -Ed.] |
10/20/15
Trudeaumania: Part Deux?
It is approaching twenty minutes to midnight as I write this and if the news coverage and projections and preliminary mumbo jumbo is correct, Justin Trudeau is going to replace Steven Harper as Prime Minister of Canada. The craziest thing, thus far, is how it's a Liberal majority - in an election where fools like me were certain it would be a minority government outcome. In the best scenario I could envision: if there was no real change of government, at least the Conservatives would lose their majority, and all the parties would have to learn how to govern – not squabble and waste taxpayer monies – together.
The skeptical pessimist part of me just sees today's results as the pendulum of public favor swinging between two largely similar though ideologically distinct dominant political parties. And I am not convinced it isn't, but another part of me tempers my disbelief and wants to believe that Justin Trudeau will mark a new era in Canadian politics and therefore the country as a whole. Perhaps in ten years the country will be unrecognizable: the slowing economy revivified, the police state moderated or mutated into something more constructive, the puzzle of protecting one of the world's largest countries with what amounts to a tiny population solved, the political climate more respectful and positive, the tenuous possibility of Arctic sovereignty stabilized, the environment protected... and any other of dozens of serious issues put to rest or at least constructively engaged.
This is an election, mind, which has been strangely muted but rather intense, with very high stakes such that an American weekly news show covered it (though John Oliver is British and therefore would know at least two things about each commonwealth member, and perhaps even care about Canada on a personal level). It got heated in the final days, with perhaps one of the most boneheaded, bald attempts at recovery and public control yet to be seen in this election, a full page front cover advertisement... let me post a copy here below for you, in full color!
You know what they say about courting voters: aim for the wallet and the heart will follow... I don't actually know what they say about courting voters, but this to my eyes is an example of what they talk about. What I like is that apart from being kind of a tone-deaf and stupid and reactionary move, it's very shrewd to target the Liberals specifically, as if nobody in politics actually took the NDP seriously as a contender. I guess a real lesson is never to trust polls, I guess they just exist to measure the response of a sample size of the public so the data can be sold to political parties so they can invent good stories and manage their media appearance and tone instead of engaging a public by discussing governance concepts and ideas for bettering the country as opposed to making it a cheap place to live (if you want that, you go to America), and being honest about challenges instead of using them to spread fear and disgust.
Ah mais oui – the Sun line of newspapers. If you want to see what they're like, look them up online and see what they consider front page material. Celebrity gossip, fashion tips, crime stories, automotive news, hockey golf and football... all the stuff Gord MacRegular Canuck III would care about with a blend of partisan politically charged agenda-stories that are definitely surely not endorsing any specific party or being biased. But then, the ecosystem of the Canadian media is not the healthiest in the world and this isn't the time to discuss that.
There was a lot of strategic voting, I think, with motivated activist voting in order to not allow the Conservatives another majority or anything like it. Hence the NDP getting dumped... I feel for Mulcair, it must have been heartbreaking knowing the blow was coming and being completely unable to avert it. Not so Steve Harper (my sources tell me he is eyeing a job in hockey commentary or advising the CAPP), who is expected to step down as leader of the Conservatives, after being in power for a long time and being pretty successful in what he wanted to do, which any Canadian will tell you about if you ask them.
I'm sure Harper won't be heartbroken, but surely disappointed if not a bit sour about losing when none of his victories were particularly hard-fought (or, allegedly, fairly fought). Them's the breaks in Canada, though. You run a tight ship that goes where it wants, all the while rust grows, and one stormy day the thing implodes and sinks. But you get your insurance money and walk down the street feeling pure relief, once the sullenness has subsided, and thinking maybe to go into a different business after all...
One amusing anecdote is that on Twitter (a popular text-broadcasting social media app established in 2006 that is popular with media people and older millenials) the story seems to be STEPHEN HARPER with some mixed messages about who did what. But I guess 'Ridding Canada of Harper' for good or bad, became the theme of this election. That means no minorities and no coalitions, and the world will see what that means.
Isn't it crazy, though? I mean just look at that. Stephen Harper's shadow is so long, and mighty, that Justin Trudeau (soon to be sworn in as the Right Honourable Mr. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, etc) even in victory stands in it. As in: he's overshadowed by Harper as if he were a supernatural figure of some sort, a kind of human rights/environmental grim reaper.
Let the whingeing commence! Let the qualified commentators do their thing. Let the vitriol spill over, as it will despite the calls for clemency and moderation by the leaders. I can't wait for the Trudeau Facts articles which will point out his deceased brother (killed by an avalanche) and all the Father/Son comparisons observers of Canadian politics will be forced to endure. How voter turnout numbers will look is going to most interesting for me, but I haven't seen figures at the time of this post and need to sleep. In conclusion:
The skeptical pessimist part of me just sees today's results as the pendulum of public favor swinging between two largely similar though ideologically distinct dominant political parties. And I am not convinced it isn't, but another part of me tempers my disbelief and wants to believe that Justin Trudeau will mark a new era in Canadian politics and therefore the country as a whole. Perhaps in ten years the country will be unrecognizable: the slowing economy revivified, the police state moderated or mutated into something more constructive, the puzzle of protecting one of the world's largest countries with what amounts to a tiny population solved, the political climate more respectful and positive, the tenuous possibility of Arctic sovereignty stabilized, the environment protected... and any other of dozens of serious issues put to rest or at least constructively engaged.
This is an election, mind, which has been strangely muted but rather intense, with very high stakes such that an American weekly news show covered it (though John Oliver is British and therefore would know at least two things about each commonwealth member, and perhaps even care about Canada on a personal level). It got heated in the final days, with perhaps one of the most boneheaded, bald attempts at recovery and public control yet to be seen in this election, a full page front cover advertisement... let me post a copy here below for you, in full color!
You know what they say about courting voters: aim for the wallet and the heart will follow... I don't actually know what they say about courting voters, but this to my eyes is an example of what they talk about. What I like is that apart from being kind of a tone-deaf and stupid and reactionary move, it's very shrewd to target the Liberals specifically, as if nobody in politics actually took the NDP seriously as a contender. I guess a real lesson is never to trust polls, I guess they just exist to measure the response of a sample size of the public so the data can be sold to political parties so they can invent good stories and manage their media appearance and tone instead of engaging a public by discussing governance concepts and ideas for bettering the country as opposed to making it a cheap place to live (if you want that, you go to America), and being honest about challenges instead of using them to spread fear and disgust.
Ah mais oui – the Sun line of newspapers. If you want to see what they're like, look them up online and see what they consider front page material. Celebrity gossip, fashion tips, crime stories, automotive news, hockey golf and football... all the stuff Gord MacRegular Canuck III would care about with a blend of partisan politically charged agenda-stories that are definitely surely not endorsing any specific party or being biased. But then, the ecosystem of the Canadian media is not the healthiest in the world and this isn't the time to discuss that.
There was a lot of strategic voting, I think, with motivated activist voting in order to not allow the Conservatives another majority or anything like it. Hence the NDP getting dumped... I feel for Mulcair, it must have been heartbreaking knowing the blow was coming and being completely unable to avert it. Not so Steve Harper (my sources tell me he is eyeing a job in hockey commentary or advising the CAPP), who is expected to step down as leader of the Conservatives, after being in power for a long time and being pretty successful in what he wanted to do, which any Canadian will tell you about if you ask them.
I'm sure Harper won't be heartbroken, but surely disappointed if not a bit sour about losing when none of his victories were particularly hard-fought (or, allegedly, fairly fought). Them's the breaks in Canada, though. You run a tight ship that goes where it wants, all the while rust grows, and one stormy day the thing implodes and sinks. But you get your insurance money and walk down the street feeling pure relief, once the sullenness has subsided, and thinking maybe to go into a different business after all...
Isn't it crazy, though? I mean just look at that. Stephen Harper's shadow is so long, and mighty, that Justin Trudeau (soon to be sworn in as the Right Honourable Mr. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, etc) even in victory stands in it. As in: he's overshadowed by Harper as if he were a supernatural figure of some sort, a kind of human rights/environmental grim reaper.
Trudeau's victory speech was inspiring (it had Political Maverick Jack Layton overtones) and polite to other contenders, Mulcair's was resigned but determined, and Harper's omitted the fact that he was stepping down as leader, but NO REGRETS BITCHES. All the speeches have a fair bit of politicalese in both languages and if you want to hear what Duceppe or May said you'll have to look them up. In this writer's respectful opinion, they were never really in the race (except in their respective strongholds).
10/16/15
Hootings and Ramblings of a Deranged Dead Blogger
Thanks mostly to my own foolishness and sloth, this blog has the buoyancy of a lead brick and the influence of a field shrew. I had hopes for it. I thought it could get me ahead, or help me hone my craft. Instead I alienated myself further, and whatever dozens of readers I might've had have dissipated into the dark aether of the internet. My foolishness, and also my stubbornness. Due to my own stubbornness I view modern culture with basically unbridled contempt, and instead of trying in any way to improve things, I wallow in this dead end era of hype, spin, and mindless arrogance. I despise the way of life I spinelessly inhabit.
There's a funny anecdote from the 19th century, beginning around 1860, wherein Great Lakes fisheries completely destroyed a species of sturgeon. First it was considered a useless bycatch, and was stacked to rot on the shore and fed to pigs and generally misused... then its worth was discovered, which put it in the nearly fatal sights of the greedy optimists who believed there could be no end to natural riches. That fish still survives at some infinitesimal fraction of its pre-19th century population. What's this got to do with anything? Well the fisheries industry learned very little from the destruction of the Great Lakes.
In the ensuing hundred and fifty years many other species of fish have been devastated, the ocean's been filled with garbage, radiation, and the refuse from dipshits on cruise ships. The oceans, allegedly the birthplace of life, have been treated like a merry-go-round of possibility and nobody wants to take responsibility or change how things are done. Now, I don't ever believe that life will just give up because conditions are bad. The oceans won't entirely die anytime soon, but our ability to sustain ourselves with their bounty is diminished by all the bone-headed nonsense unrealistically optimistic businesses perpetrated.
What's that got to do with anything? It's why I'm a pessimist. Why I'm shitty, of a bad temperament unless I've drank enough to escape the downward pull of reality. What happened in the Great Lakes happened in a slightly different sense with every market crash and recession, every extinction prompted by humanity, and and and... so what, right? Things need to be the way they are so they can remain the way they are, so that people big and small, rich and poor, stay calm and comfortable and their entitlements to misery or luxury remain constant. We need to listen to the optimists as we climb out of each increasingly unbelievable crisis, and ignore the realists who warned us all along.
Even thinking about it bothers me because it's all such hackish reasoning. It's been done a million times, the truths are self evident and the truisms are deafening but it doesn't lead to real progress in any meaningful sense, which is either a factor of the naturally tardiness of progress and evolution or the sign that something is deeply wrong with the world and its most powerful and influential humans. Are the people at the top evil? Are they simply ignorant? Are the powerful inflated with such a facile self-worth and arrogance that they cannot be touched by the truth, by self-doubt, by any of the checks and restraints nature set on the human mind? Are they doing the right thing, trying and failing, and it's just 'leftists' who paint them with a broad brush of villainy? What is it? Why is it so hard to find a clear perspective? Is there none or does nobody care enough to attempt it?
Old sociology texts have only made me more cynical about success but as a result I'm a nobody, with no long-term goals, no particularly fun vices, and modest unglamorous hobbies like attempting to learn as much as possible, reading, and traveling, mostly on my own power, to nearby places - in short living in a cage of my own design within the larger cage of socioeconomic convention. Lately it's not been enough, but what I eschewed still seems hateful to me, but I have fewer and fewer certainties. Whatever is righteous and humble opens me to criticism (some legitimate, some merely hateful of divergence) and misery, and the sense that I am doing less harm than others doesn't matter, when others won't ever give a shit or sacrifice anything... I am giving myself a kind of slow martyrdom that lots of people live because they can't escape it, but which I chose out of perverse instinct.
Well whatever. Nobody knows anything. The people who get paid millions to hold the title of CEO are protected by the majority opinion that they have a 'necessary skill-set' and 'important contacts' and while that may be true in some cases, it is most often the product of a privileged upbringing and those 'important contacts' liking them. There may have been sexual favors and silence on sensitive secrets traded for power. There may, for all we know, be a few dozen secret societies that encourage the conspiracy set with half-truths in order to make the very idea of conspiracy (which in its least-fantastical and most realistic sense has been true for thousands of years) laughable to the mainstream. If the search for truth becomes a joke it will frighten away the serious-minded because their reputations may suffer (and have, in the flawed examples of yesteryear) But even so: what of it? If they're that successful and we're still alive, with coffee and a newspaper of a Sunday morning, who gives a fuck?
Why the hell does anyone care about celebrity culture? It's corrosive and stupid and the worst kinds of people are made rich by it and it's just a shameful, stupid spectacle that could be replaced or eclipsed by more edifying things that aren't advertised as heavily and let people be themselves. From what are Ellen and her feel-good safety show distracting you? Why is the internet three-quarter owned by celebrities? Why do even people who 'hate that shit' know where Kanye's yacht is parked, give a shit about the Kardashians? It's not celebrities, but rather their passionate followers, who should be flogged and shamed. Celebrities should be ignored, and have some of their riches taken away and donated to charity or used to defray government debt (debt is the new money, since money is just based on imaginary value now)... although the governments are celebrities and don't deserve the money either. I don't hate the entertainment industry... we need distraction so we don't think about killing ourselves or how little any of this means or how foolish our young aspirations were or how fucked the world might be. Maybe we should get rid of the middleman and let the entertainment industry run countries, and the world.
Why aren't soft drinks heavily taxed on the basis of their unhealthiness (it's only fair if tobacco and alcohol are rightly taxed based on their unhealthiness, which is not two orders of magnitude worse than drinking some carbonated sugar water each day)? Why do people get so upset at commonsense agreements that may make life easier for everyone? Why do we all get off on the idea of hating someone (it is acceptable with targets like criminals, terrorists, people in other countries, and the insensitive)? Why are so many people around the globe so proud of being so ignorant? Why all this conflict? Lots of it was started by Western governments, who 'rule' an anesthetized populace with increasingly nauseating and wasteful habits and thoughts. Convenience and venality have destroyed humanity. If a system this disastrous and uncontrollable could collapse, I would say we are living in the closing years of it, but I don't even know what to think anymore. Avarice looks after itself, but where does it all end?
I wish more people could be happier with less, and with the idea that their not taking something ensured it would get to someone else who needed it. Decades of surplus production and planned obsolescence have made consumerism a nightmare of waste and distraction and its precepts have invaded everything from politics to faith to the 'third world' (outdated term, I know)... but I'm not about to launch a crusade even though I think it's miserable and destroying the best and most promising parts of being human and jeopardizes the whole world. I don't care... I exist within that system anyway and would have to take drastic steps to actually leave it, much less oppose it, which would then further invalidate my position due to 'extremism' and 'ecomania' and other bullshit critiques the comfortable heap on the anxious. If I find a way to stop colluding, I will be branded a traitor. There is no place in the law for people who see an urgent need for progress, who see the Western Lifestyle as a blight that needs to be changed now, painfully, not in 'a generation' while our prospects diminish.
I guess I'm saved by the need to laugh and to seek out the absurd before I even think of countenancing the more prosaic horrors implicit in the contemporary world. Even so, it's not enough... I feel powerless, completely powerless, to stop any of this madness and I always have. I feel so disinherited that I no longer consider myself real or a part of anything... I'm just a detached actor with no lines or stage presence, no beliefs be they foolish, hopeful, angry, or anything. I live in a void and everything that convinces me otherwise is constantly in danger of being swallowed by the deepening void of nonsense that has given rise to our slick, dishonest, empty culture. Those 'backwards' parts of the world don't fear the West – they pity it.
[Don't worry, I will return to low-risk stuff next week like reviewing products, interviews, and less dire observation tempered by humor. Or I'll be gone, in which case, crawler bots, it's been fun. You won't need to index this site much longer.]
There's a funny anecdote from the 19th century, beginning around 1860, wherein Great Lakes fisheries completely destroyed a species of sturgeon. First it was considered a useless bycatch, and was stacked to rot on the shore and fed to pigs and generally misused... then its worth was discovered, which put it in the nearly fatal sights of the greedy optimists who believed there could be no end to natural riches. That fish still survives at some infinitesimal fraction of its pre-19th century population. What's this got to do with anything? Well the fisheries industry learned very little from the destruction of the Great Lakes.
In the ensuing hundred and fifty years many other species of fish have been devastated, the ocean's been filled with garbage, radiation, and the refuse from dipshits on cruise ships. The oceans, allegedly the birthplace of life, have been treated like a merry-go-round of possibility and nobody wants to take responsibility or change how things are done. Now, I don't ever believe that life will just give up because conditions are bad. The oceans won't entirely die anytime soon, but our ability to sustain ourselves with their bounty is diminished by all the bone-headed nonsense unrealistically optimistic businesses perpetrated.
What's that got to do with anything? It's why I'm a pessimist. Why I'm shitty, of a bad temperament unless I've drank enough to escape the downward pull of reality. What happened in the Great Lakes happened in a slightly different sense with every market crash and recession, every extinction prompted by humanity, and and and... so what, right? Things need to be the way they are so they can remain the way they are, so that people big and small, rich and poor, stay calm and comfortable and their entitlements to misery or luxury remain constant. We need to listen to the optimists as we climb out of each increasingly unbelievable crisis, and ignore the realists who warned us all along.
Even thinking about it bothers me because it's all such hackish reasoning. It's been done a million times, the truths are self evident and the truisms are deafening but it doesn't lead to real progress in any meaningful sense, which is either a factor of the naturally tardiness of progress and evolution or the sign that something is deeply wrong with the world and its most powerful and influential humans. Are the people at the top evil? Are they simply ignorant? Are the powerful inflated with such a facile self-worth and arrogance that they cannot be touched by the truth, by self-doubt, by any of the checks and restraints nature set on the human mind? Are they doing the right thing, trying and failing, and it's just 'leftists' who paint them with a broad brush of villainy? What is it? Why is it so hard to find a clear perspective? Is there none or does nobody care enough to attempt it?
Old sociology texts have only made me more cynical about success but as a result I'm a nobody, with no long-term goals, no particularly fun vices, and modest unglamorous hobbies like attempting to learn as much as possible, reading, and traveling, mostly on my own power, to nearby places - in short living in a cage of my own design within the larger cage of socioeconomic convention. Lately it's not been enough, but what I eschewed still seems hateful to me, but I have fewer and fewer certainties. Whatever is righteous and humble opens me to criticism (some legitimate, some merely hateful of divergence) and misery, and the sense that I am doing less harm than others doesn't matter, when others won't ever give a shit or sacrifice anything... I am giving myself a kind of slow martyrdom that lots of people live because they can't escape it, but which I chose out of perverse instinct.
Well whatever. Nobody knows anything. The people who get paid millions to hold the title of CEO are protected by the majority opinion that they have a 'necessary skill-set' and 'important contacts' and while that may be true in some cases, it is most often the product of a privileged upbringing and those 'important contacts' liking them. There may have been sexual favors and silence on sensitive secrets traded for power. There may, for all we know, be a few dozen secret societies that encourage the conspiracy set with half-truths in order to make the very idea of conspiracy (which in its least-fantastical and most realistic sense has been true for thousands of years) laughable to the mainstream. If the search for truth becomes a joke it will frighten away the serious-minded because their reputations may suffer (and have, in the flawed examples of yesteryear) But even so: what of it? If they're that successful and we're still alive, with coffee and a newspaper of a Sunday morning, who gives a fuck?
Why the hell does anyone care about celebrity culture? It's corrosive and stupid and the worst kinds of people are made rich by it and it's just a shameful, stupid spectacle that could be replaced or eclipsed by more edifying things that aren't advertised as heavily and let people be themselves. From what are Ellen and her feel-good safety show distracting you? Why is the internet three-quarter owned by celebrities? Why do even people who 'hate that shit' know where Kanye's yacht is parked, give a shit about the Kardashians? It's not celebrities, but rather their passionate followers, who should be flogged and shamed. Celebrities should be ignored, and have some of their riches taken away and donated to charity or used to defray government debt (debt is the new money, since money is just based on imaginary value now)... although the governments are celebrities and don't deserve the money either. I don't hate the entertainment industry... we need distraction so we don't think about killing ourselves or how little any of this means or how foolish our young aspirations were or how fucked the world might be. Maybe we should get rid of the middleman and let the entertainment industry run countries, and the world.
Why aren't soft drinks heavily taxed on the basis of their unhealthiness (it's only fair if tobacco and alcohol are rightly taxed based on their unhealthiness, which is not two orders of magnitude worse than drinking some carbonated sugar water each day)? Why do people get so upset at commonsense agreements that may make life easier for everyone? Why do we all get off on the idea of hating someone (it is acceptable with targets like criminals, terrorists, people in other countries, and the insensitive)? Why are so many people around the globe so proud of being so ignorant? Why all this conflict? Lots of it was started by Western governments, who 'rule' an anesthetized populace with increasingly nauseating and wasteful habits and thoughts. Convenience and venality have destroyed humanity. If a system this disastrous and uncontrollable could collapse, I would say we are living in the closing years of it, but I don't even know what to think anymore. Avarice looks after itself, but where does it all end?
I wish more people could be happier with less, and with the idea that their not taking something ensured it would get to someone else who needed it. Decades of surplus production and planned obsolescence have made consumerism a nightmare of waste and distraction and its precepts have invaded everything from politics to faith to the 'third world' (outdated term, I know)... but I'm not about to launch a crusade even though I think it's miserable and destroying the best and most promising parts of being human and jeopardizes the whole world. I don't care... I exist within that system anyway and would have to take drastic steps to actually leave it, much less oppose it, which would then further invalidate my position due to 'extremism' and 'ecomania' and other bullshit critiques the comfortable heap on the anxious. If I find a way to stop colluding, I will be branded a traitor. There is no place in the law for people who see an urgent need for progress, who see the Western Lifestyle as a blight that needs to be changed now, painfully, not in 'a generation' while our prospects diminish.
I guess I'm saved by the need to laugh and to seek out the absurd before I even think of countenancing the more prosaic horrors implicit in the contemporary world. Even so, it's not enough... I feel powerless, completely powerless, to stop any of this madness and I always have. I feel so disinherited that I no longer consider myself real or a part of anything... I'm just a detached actor with no lines or stage presence, no beliefs be they foolish, hopeful, angry, or anything. I live in a void and everything that convinces me otherwise is constantly in danger of being swallowed by the deepening void of nonsense that has given rise to our slick, dishonest, empty culture. Those 'backwards' parts of the world don't fear the West – they pity it.
[Don't worry, I will return to low-risk stuff next week like reviewing products, interviews, and less dire observation tempered by humor. Or I'll be gone, in which case, crawler bots, it's been fun. You won't need to index this site much longer.]
10/10/15
Four Lessons Learned in the 2015 Canadian Election Cycle
With nine days to go and advance polling taking place this weekend, it's a perfect time to look back on a strangely muted, bloated, and distracted election season. Will there be a revival of youth voting? Will the Conservative Party of Canada, despite dozens of instances of bad-faith governance, retake the majority? Will apathy win? Is there any hope for Canada to break out of mediocrity and return to something of prominence and respectability in the global arena? Find out in this loosely researched, kind of lazy blog post!
1. It's Easy to Hijack and Distort Public Debate (Whoa)
If anything, the Niqab Discussion went so far out of bounds that it summoned such specters as Terrorists, Terrorism, Al-Qaeda, ISIL/ISIS/DAESH, and the shooting death of one corporal and vehicular death of a warrant officer in 2014... it brought out the absolute worst in mainstream, main street Canadian thought about international policy and immigration and hasn't stopped. If the operators of political discourse wanted to steer attention away from Conservative misdeeds, they succeeded admirably. Even people I spoke to (in various bars) who 'don't give a shit' and 'couldn't' bring this up as a reason for voting conservative or abstaining completely.
1. It's Easy to Hijack and Distort Public Debate (Whoa)
If anything, the Niqab Discussion went so far out of bounds that it summoned such specters as Terrorists, Terrorism, Al-Qaeda, ISIL/ISIS/DAESH, and the shooting death of one corporal and vehicular death of a warrant officer in 2014... it brought out the absolute worst in mainstream, main street Canadian thought about international policy and immigration and hasn't stopped. If the operators of political discourse wanted to steer attention away from Conservative misdeeds, they succeeded admirably. Even people I spoke to (in various bars) who 'don't give a shit' and 'couldn't' bring this up as a reason for voting conservative or abstaining completely.
9/21/15
The Big Sigh: A Tired Take on Imgur
Imgur is an internet-famous image hosting service that grew into notoriety by giving reddit users a place to easily host, link, and post stuff. Somehow it became its own community, and, as you might expect from an image hosting service-turned-social hangout, it's a bizarre community filled with great examples of why I (and others like me) hate the internet. It's mildly disgusting, full of self-congratulation, exhibitionism, 'I'm a doctor and..." types of self experts, achievement sharers, content reposters, bottom-of-the-barrel memes, and all the stuff you wish would stop making you depressed and uncertain (or is that just me?) about the future of humanity.
I'm not sure what the deal was in 2011 but I recently logged back in [Note: you don't have to log in to see pictures] and checked Imgur out because I'd heard somewhere that it was a hive of idiocy, reposted content, and was almost at the point where it would give Facebook or user comment sections a run for their money. Naturally, following the cringe-wave of modern internet trends, and hating myself, and out of damned curiosity, I dared to tread where so many retreaders tread water... I went in. I looked around... and I cringed like I had rarely cringed before. Oh I also saw a couple of cool things, so all in all I'd recommend the site. It's like reddit without (most of) the text. Interesting, for an image sharing website, it has a 'trophy' system and messaging services. If you love feature bloat, cyber inbreeding, and shaking your head in stunned belief – you're in luck, gentle reader!
What follows is an incomplete selection of self-unawares, overshares, and things that made me sigh and feel like I belonged to a dead-end species helping itself into a steep decline that will be interrupted when the machines which facilitated our decay finally achieve sentience... turning the world into a preschool/retirement community for a species that peaked sometime between fire and thumb twiddling about A.I. Enjoy the spectacle!
This gif is great. I don't know where it comes from. Probably some millenial kind of movie or show or youtube sensation. I've seen it a million times, but never seen it used to alert the internet to future sex. Good work and godspeed, young internet user and potential-sex-getter.
I believe I took a screenshot of this as a 'slice of life' of Imgur, if you will. Perhaps as a future project I will make an average aggregate slice which will always contain one kind of stupid meme, one kind of twitter repost, one cute animal thing, and a couple of bizarre 'who gives a shit?' images. That said, I might just enter the fray for those sweet, sweet Internet Points. You see, Imgur allows the same sort of content voting that reddit is famous for. Like child, like parent...
Here I took another slice for posterity... This one's worth a detailed look. A compiled and curated list of these would be amazingly depressing. More depressing than someone using a meme to alert the internet about an averted suicidal reasoning or cute gift ideas (hint: always fill in coupon with some kind of nonstandard sex act). That's two suicide posts in one slice... if this was a game of Imgur Bingo (copyright, me, 2015) this would probably win me an used iPod nano.
Hey girl, maybe focus on the wedding... this is ridiculous. You're almost a parody of the media's 'Millenial'. Maybe it's all just a joke, I hope so. Are the rest of the images worthwhile? You, as ever, decide. I didn't like it so much.
9/14/15
The Great Canadian Election Season of 2015
The world itself shall feign ignorance but, secretly, all eyes are on Canada and all breath is bated until the outcome is reported. Anything could happen. Anyone could be at risk for a bungle, a gaffe, or even political exile in disgrace. Yes, dearest reader, Canada is preparing to elect (or reelect) a Prime Minister on the 19th of October of this year – and you're invited (even if just to watch powerlessly from the sidelines)! Without this well-timed post, you might have missed it, you might even have believed it to be an insignificant event in a marginally important country, but it's coming and could change everything.
Though there are more than three parties running in the election, only three matter. It's big blue versus adorable orange, with rascally red on the sidelines – or is it? Everyone knows the Conservatives due to their having been in power since 2006, with the inscrutable Stephen Harper leading them – and Canada – into some kind of wacky, police state, borderline xenophobic, oil-filled future. The Liberals are also well-known, as much due to history as to recent problems, and also because of the divisiveness of party leader Justin Trudeau. The NDP used to be the dark horse party but have consolidated major recent gains and seem to be potent contenders under the leadership of Thomas Mulcair, and might take a majority stake in post-Harper Canada.
Despite this exciting three-way race many people are either inordinately smug or completely pessimistic about what will resolve in October. The defeatist crowd, citing the past nine years, is ready to sigh and tell you that the Harper Conservatives are not done yet. Realists are predicting minority governments, with either the Liberals or NDP 'winning' (insofar as one can call a minority government a victory, since it will face outrageous struggles as zero-sum political antics stymie their attempts at reform and problem solving). The smart money, if you trust polls, is that the NDP will make history and get their first taste of federal power - their first taste of might, which may well destroy them.
There have been a number of fun scandals so far. I think each party has had at least one fledgling member's social media life end their candidacy - one insulted gay people, one insulted Muslims, a recent one is in trouble for posting about marijuana (the divisive, psychedelic crop for which Canada is, oddly, not renowned). None of it was out of place, and many of the scandalous events happened online and years ago and lots of new candidates are 'young adults' by world standards (22) and 'practically infants' in Canadian Age Reckoning. Such muckraking is to be expected in any election, really, and none of the scandals thus far are nearly as bad as the Rob Ford Saga or the more recent Senate problems or various wastes of taxpayer money.
Though there are more than three parties running in the election, only three matter. It's big blue versus adorable orange, with rascally red on the sidelines – or is it? Everyone knows the Conservatives due to their having been in power since 2006, with the inscrutable Stephen Harper leading them – and Canada – into some kind of wacky, police state, borderline xenophobic, oil-filled future. The Liberals are also well-known, as much due to history as to recent problems, and also because of the divisiveness of party leader Justin Trudeau. The NDP used to be the dark horse party but have consolidated major recent gains and seem to be potent contenders under the leadership of Thomas Mulcair, and might take a majority stake in post-Harper Canada.
Despite this exciting three-way race many people are either inordinately smug or completely pessimistic about what will resolve in October. The defeatist crowd, citing the past nine years, is ready to sigh and tell you that the Harper Conservatives are not done yet. Realists are predicting minority governments, with either the Liberals or NDP 'winning' (insofar as one can call a minority government a victory, since it will face outrageous struggles as zero-sum political antics stymie their attempts at reform and problem solving). The smart money, if you trust polls, is that the NDP will make history and get their first taste of federal power - their first taste of might, which may well destroy them.
There have been a number of fun scandals so far. I think each party has had at least one fledgling member's social media life end their candidacy - one insulted gay people, one insulted Muslims, a recent one is in trouble for posting about marijuana (the divisive, psychedelic crop for which Canada is, oddly, not renowned). None of it was out of place, and many of the scandalous events happened online and years ago and lots of new candidates are 'young adults' by world standards (22) and 'practically infants' in Canadian Age Reckoning. Such muckraking is to be expected in any election, really, and none of the scandals thus far are nearly as bad as the Rob Ford Saga or the more recent Senate problems or various wastes of taxpayer money.
8/10/15
2015: A Half Year in Review
Trump for President
Truly, Donald Trump throwing his hat in the race for Republican candidacy in 2015 is a gold-mine of a story that never stops giving. Even with the loss of Jon Stewart there is a sense that the laughs will continue for some time thanks to a self-made millionaire (or billionaire - reports vary) with a penchant for saying crazy shit and a real shot (?) at the Presidency of the USA. Everyone remembers 2012 as being a pretty slow circus but this one is going to keep bettering itself as Trump outdoes the rest of the candidates. Sure the soul crushing spectacle that is Bernie Sanders getting ignored in favor of H. Clinton and castigated as a madman for stating obvious truths ('we make regrettable wars', 'corporate welfare', 'let's be cool and stop fucking up', etc.) is a wild show in and of itself, but Trump saying crazy and regrettable things is about as good as it will get. Sanders is the Trump of the Democrat race and shows the wide gulf between parties and the shallow gulf between how the media views candidates.
The temptation is give Mr. Donald Trump at least one month of presidency in order to see what he'll do. After all, on the point of not being an establishment candidate, he's absolutely right. It's just that he can't not say that Mexicans are drug-addicted rapists, which is something other Republican candidates only half-say unless they're actively courting the latino vote. Never has transparency been savaged like this - making this commentator wonder what the hell the media is trying to say about Trump. Sure, he's the only candidate not in the hands of big business but what could that mean regarding media support? Oh... Trump is big business, but the kind of big business that's middling, and that is not liked by other more serious big business. It's going to be an interesting race to the bottom while Sanders is completely ignored and America once again fails to return to greatness, a possibility removed by various amendments and secret laws enacted since the time of Nixon.
The Departure of Jon Stewart, Esq. from The Daily Show
One of the more regrettable stories, and a really big one, but he will be replaced by a hip, younger guy. Jon Stewart, since the announcement of his departure (January or Feb if I recall at all correctly) and even before, had been making jokes about being old, being tired of the show, and generally making pretty clear hints about his departure. People made a bit of noise about it and let it go, but it is really the end of an era. I was heartbroken enough at Wyatt Cenac's departure (his Herman Cain muppet bit was one of my favorites), so I was ready to let go. Maybe the humorous news-review show format is over for me. I'm pretty tired of watching shows and giving a shit about anything, so I understand where Mr. Stewart's mind was at for probably the last two years if not longer. Still, he had a way of delivering, a way of calling people on their bullshit, and a way of antagonizing other news shows... if only he'd taken one last shot at Steve Doucey.
ISIS/ISIL/DAESH
In another great case of the West creating its own bogeyman, this problem has gotten to be so big, and murderous, and insane, and unjustifiable, that it makes the Assad Regime (which it was supplied with high-tech weapons from You Know Who and its allies to fight) look casual and nearly benign. There's a new story about ISIS every day, from their habits with children to their habits with nonbelievers, to their big plans for Kurds, or their distaste of the West. Every one of these stories could have been prevented if people didn't bother to meddle in business they had no right to involve themselves in, but where's the fun in letting people decide their own fate? It's much better to throw money and supplies into a maelstrom and then pretend like you didn't know it was going to end poorly. As an added bonus: everyone forgets about what's going on in Yemen, and...
Iranian Nuclear Deal
Maybe the biggest international relations story of the summer, and one of the most 'fraught with peril' victories of all time if you believe the naysayers. B. Netanyahu, disregarding the reports of his own highly-aware security/intelligence agency, has repeatedly warned the world about Nuclear Iran (he has clocked nearly 20 years at this activity) and is now so angry with the United States that he no longer wishes to have any relations with the White House. With his recent reelection under his belt, old Bibi's gonna have a hell of a time in office convincing the world to destabilize Iran, which is really difficult when your sanctions have created a self-sufficient state with plenty of business contacts outside of the Western sphere of influence... and with the recent deal one of the biggest contentions is over, making for an interesting game of 'create a new problem' while ISIS runs rampant nearby.
Will There Be A Part 2?
Truly, Donald Trump throwing his hat in the race for Republican candidacy in 2015 is a gold-mine of a story that never stops giving. Even with the loss of Jon Stewart there is a sense that the laughs will continue for some time thanks to a self-made millionaire (or billionaire - reports vary) with a penchant for saying crazy shit and a real shot (?) at the Presidency of the USA. Everyone remembers 2012 as being a pretty slow circus but this one is going to keep bettering itself as Trump outdoes the rest of the candidates. Sure the soul crushing spectacle that is Bernie Sanders getting ignored in favor of H. Clinton and castigated as a madman for stating obvious truths ('we make regrettable wars', 'corporate welfare', 'let's be cool and stop fucking up', etc.) is a wild show in and of itself, but Trump saying crazy and regrettable things is about as good as it will get. Sanders is the Trump of the Democrat race and shows the wide gulf between parties and the shallow gulf between how the media views candidates.
The temptation is give Mr. Donald Trump at least one month of presidency in order to see what he'll do. After all, on the point of not being an establishment candidate, he's absolutely right. It's just that he can't not say that Mexicans are drug-addicted rapists, which is something other Republican candidates only half-say unless they're actively courting the latino vote. Never has transparency been savaged like this - making this commentator wonder what the hell the media is trying to say about Trump. Sure, he's the only candidate not in the hands of big business but what could that mean regarding media support? Oh... Trump is big business, but the kind of big business that's middling, and that is not liked by other more serious big business. It's going to be an interesting race to the bottom while Sanders is completely ignored and America once again fails to return to greatness, a possibility removed by various amendments and secret laws enacted since the time of Nixon.
The Departure of Jon Stewart, Esq. from The Daily Show
One of the more regrettable stories, and a really big one, but he will be replaced by a hip, younger guy. Jon Stewart, since the announcement of his departure (January or Feb if I recall at all correctly) and even before, had been making jokes about being old, being tired of the show, and generally making pretty clear hints about his departure. People made a bit of noise about it and let it go, but it is really the end of an era. I was heartbroken enough at Wyatt Cenac's departure (his Herman Cain muppet bit was one of my favorites), so I was ready to let go. Maybe the humorous news-review show format is over for me. I'm pretty tired of watching shows and giving a shit about anything, so I understand where Mr. Stewart's mind was at for probably the last two years if not longer. Still, he had a way of delivering, a way of calling people on their bullshit, and a way of antagonizing other news shows... if only he'd taken one last shot at Steve Doucey.
ISIS/ISIL/DAESH
In another great case of the West creating its own bogeyman, this problem has gotten to be so big, and murderous, and insane, and unjustifiable, that it makes the Assad Regime (which it was supplied with high-tech weapons from You Know Who and its allies to fight) look casual and nearly benign. There's a new story about ISIS every day, from their habits with children to their habits with nonbelievers, to their big plans for Kurds, or their distaste of the West. Every one of these stories could have been prevented if people didn't bother to meddle in business they had no right to involve themselves in, but where's the fun in letting people decide their own fate? It's much better to throw money and supplies into a maelstrom and then pretend like you didn't know it was going to end poorly. As an added bonus: everyone forgets about what's going on in Yemen, and...
Iranian Nuclear Deal
Maybe the biggest international relations story of the summer, and one of the most 'fraught with peril' victories of all time if you believe the naysayers. B. Netanyahu, disregarding the reports of his own highly-aware security/intelligence agency, has repeatedly warned the world about Nuclear Iran (he has clocked nearly 20 years at this activity) and is now so angry with the United States that he no longer wishes to have any relations with the White House. With his recent reelection under his belt, old Bibi's gonna have a hell of a time in office convincing the world to destabilize Iran, which is really difficult when your sanctions have created a self-sufficient state with plenty of business contacts outside of the Western sphere of influence... and with the recent deal one of the biggest contentions is over, making for an interesting game of 'create a new problem' while ISIS runs rampant nearby.
Will There Be A Part 2?
6/16/15
Gaming is Dead and Other Frivolous Stories
The trailer for Fallout 4, the Steam Summer Sale, the announcement of a fourth installment in the venerable Doom series. Lessons from the past like The Elder Scrolls Online, Sim City 5, Duke Nukem Forever... All overseen by a hype-filled industry that is fueled and supported by an uncritical following eager to accept anything resembling a game as long as there's something new around each corner. It's almost like the industry has grown too big, too cynical – too content to simply make money and purely technical advances.
There will never be another 'Alpha Centauri Moment' in gaming. There will never again be a genuinely intelligent, original, and compelling game from a major studio. If it happens it will be purely by chance. Formula-tweaking will not allow it to happen. Meantime you get to enjoy your bloated, lifeless, stagnant franchises. Billion dollar abortions litter the new scene.
Fallout 4 looks like Fallout 3 with 'next-gen' wankery like modular building, a deeper crafting system, a voiced protagonist, and all the other embellishments that make a person excited for a Bethesda game until they remember the previous four Bethesda games and also that distractions are great for padding a game that may include: a terrible story, a pissy and clunky engine, dialogue from hell's anus, formulaic combat, a big world full of the mostly identical things, annoyance.
I can't believe they're going for the interactive introduction again, after it pissed off just about everyone who played Fo3 more than once. Spending months programming a cool way to customize the PC's face is kind of a hint about the pathology of modern game design. There's a weird kind of narcissism where the way your character looks becomes more important than doing cool things, a fatal passivity for a pastime that used to promise ridiculous, cool, and/or interesting situations of greater and greater complexity over time.
Doom 4. Oh cool, another lame shotgun. Demons drop bullets? Where's the zombie troopers? Looks like it could be more or less mediocre than Doom 3 but I will gladly bet one conciliatory blog post that Doom 4 will miss the point just as badly. Larger teams and more money only diluted everything and added dozens of useless features, but at least Doom 4 won't have crafting bolted onto it, so the team isn't completely incompetent. The idea of context sensitive executions is kind of cool but it's So Not What Doom Was Ever About and Reduces Player Agency so I'm not excited and in fact disappointed already.
You can't exploit nostalgia forever. Let some of these franchises die. They deserve rest.
Remakes and re-releases of old games are big news, but they're only important because they reveal an industry that's nearly flatlined in terms of creativity. Every new piece of shit game is celebrated and overhyped by a toothless, uncritical, and quite frankly spoiled consumer base. You get a new installment in your franchise every year and some people have been patiently waiting for something interesting to play for a decade, while secretly understanding that it'll never happen, that there will only be hollow and pretty experiences from now on, that getting interested in a game and playing it for years is something of the past. Player agency is in decline. Everything's a mile wide and an inch deep. At this point I'd pay more for a closed-world, non-emergent, non-feature-cluttered game with tight gameplay and focused mechanics. I've seen two decades of failed promises and I don't get the culture anymore, I really don't like its self-regarding nature or its identity crises, and I'm extremely skeptical of its offerings.
The Steam Summer Sale. No prominent, relatively recent game under $5. I saw System Shock 2 for a dollar. I first finished that game over 10 years ago, and I'm ready to let go, even though my suspicions about nostalgia are repeatedly proven wrong when I return to a clunky, ugly, kind of pain-in-the-ass game and it's immediately more compelling than Borderlands 2. Currently I don't know if I'll ever need to upgrade since apparently the majority of good games already exist and were made what seems like eons ago.
At least let me try a modern game for cheap, Steam. That's what the deal used to be, remember? Let it be an indie game, I don't care, but one really good deal a day would be great. I guess now that steam money is basically free you will never allow a great deal to happen again, which is a pity because I've been saving card money for months in hopes I can spend it on something cool, but I just play an old game and complain to my small handful of friends who still game.
I got Just Cause 2 for something like $1.75 three years ago and there hasn't been an equivalent deal since – the game is probably more expensive right now. I realize the business model Steam adopted doesn't work like I think it should, but even non-perishable products should get cheaper after they've been on sale a dozen times – even if it's only the sale price. Steam has realized that savvy gamers are becoming hardened towards hype and ready to wait months if not years to buy new games, because the price will drop so much more than when we traveled to physical locations to buy our interactive videogaming products. We are extremely spoiled, but if the general quality and inventiveness of these products doesn't increase we will probably stop caring about them entirely, and it will spare us a lot of disappointment.
On the plus side: I'm saving money and spending it in more interesting and dynamic ways and I have a lot of freed-up time to spend on actual life. Turns out life is actually very interactive, with: numerous challenges, emergent situations, and high stakes. Still I'd like a cool game, please. Doesn't have to be super complex, doesn't need the best A.I. in the business, it just needs to be fun to play. Gameplay first; dorky kid shit like graphics and hype last.
There will never be another 'Alpha Centauri Moment' in gaming. There will never again be a genuinely intelligent, original, and compelling game from a major studio. If it happens it will be purely by chance. Formula-tweaking will not allow it to happen. Meantime you get to enjoy your bloated, lifeless, stagnant franchises. Billion dollar abortions litter the new scene.
Fallout 4 looks like Fallout 3 with 'next-gen' wankery like modular building, a deeper crafting system, a voiced protagonist, and all the other embellishments that make a person excited for a Bethesda game until they remember the previous four Bethesda games and also that distractions are great for padding a game that may include: a terrible story, a pissy and clunky engine, dialogue from hell's anus, formulaic combat, a big world full of the mostly identical things, annoyance.
I can't believe they're going for the interactive introduction again, after it pissed off just about everyone who played Fo3 more than once. Spending months programming a cool way to customize the PC's face is kind of a hint about the pathology of modern game design. There's a weird kind of narcissism where the way your character looks becomes more important than doing cool things, a fatal passivity for a pastime that used to promise ridiculous, cool, and/or interesting situations of greater and greater complexity over time.
Doom 4. Oh cool, another lame shotgun. Demons drop bullets? Where's the zombie troopers? Looks like it could be more or less mediocre than Doom 3 but I will gladly bet one conciliatory blog post that Doom 4 will miss the point just as badly. Larger teams and more money only diluted everything and added dozens of useless features, but at least Doom 4 won't have crafting bolted onto it, so the team isn't completely incompetent. The idea of context sensitive executions is kind of cool but it's So Not What Doom Was Ever About and Reduces Player Agency so I'm not excited and in fact disappointed already.
You can't exploit nostalgia forever. Let some of these franchises die. They deserve rest.
Remakes and re-releases of old games are big news, but they're only important because they reveal an industry that's nearly flatlined in terms of creativity. Every new piece of shit game is celebrated and overhyped by a toothless, uncritical, and quite frankly spoiled consumer base. You get a new installment in your franchise every year and some people have been patiently waiting for something interesting to play for a decade, while secretly understanding that it'll never happen, that there will only be hollow and pretty experiences from now on, that getting interested in a game and playing it for years is something of the past. Player agency is in decline. Everything's a mile wide and an inch deep. At this point I'd pay more for a closed-world, non-emergent, non-feature-cluttered game with tight gameplay and focused mechanics. I've seen two decades of failed promises and I don't get the culture anymore, I really don't like its self-regarding nature or its identity crises, and I'm extremely skeptical of its offerings.
The Steam Summer Sale. No prominent, relatively recent game under $5. I saw System Shock 2 for a dollar. I first finished that game over 10 years ago, and I'm ready to let go, even though my suspicions about nostalgia are repeatedly proven wrong when I return to a clunky, ugly, kind of pain-in-the-ass game and it's immediately more compelling than Borderlands 2. Currently I don't know if I'll ever need to upgrade since apparently the majority of good games already exist and were made what seems like eons ago.
At least let me try a modern game for cheap, Steam. That's what the deal used to be, remember? Let it be an indie game, I don't care, but one really good deal a day would be great. I guess now that steam money is basically free you will never allow a great deal to happen again, which is a pity because I've been saving card money for months in hopes I can spend it on something cool, but I just play an old game and complain to my small handful of friends who still game.
I got Just Cause 2 for something like $1.75 three years ago and there hasn't been an equivalent deal since – the game is probably more expensive right now. I realize the business model Steam adopted doesn't work like I think it should, but even non-perishable products should get cheaper after they've been on sale a dozen times – even if it's only the sale price. Steam has realized that savvy gamers are becoming hardened towards hype and ready to wait months if not years to buy new games, because the price will drop so much more than when we traveled to physical locations to buy our interactive videogaming products. We are extremely spoiled, but if the general quality and inventiveness of these products doesn't increase we will probably stop caring about them entirely, and it will spare us a lot of disappointment.
On the plus side: I'm saving money and spending it in more interesting and dynamic ways and I have a lot of freed-up time to spend on actual life. Turns out life is actually very interactive, with: numerous challenges, emergent situations, and high stakes. Still I'd like a cool game, please. Doesn't have to be super complex, doesn't need the best A.I. in the business, it just needs to be fun to play. Gameplay first; dorky kid shit like graphics and hype last.
5/4/15
If and Only If
If someone breaks your heart, do you respond rationally? Can you? Has anyone? Is there any way short of nerve-stapling to end the associated sensations and ideation?
Then stop shitting on people who are responding irrationally to heartbreak. The signs of it are all over the world and have always been all over the world. The depressives, the troubled, the diseased, the suicides, the idiots & fools, the violent, the irreverent, the dropouts, the deadbeats, the hopeless, the grieving... so many classically 'unwell' or 'questionable' bear the distinct scars of a broken heart. They are despised and misunderstood. There is no end to them. Even the happy Wellbeings, in an unguarded moment, may exhibit a subtle sign of pain or relate a story (if they trust you enough).
It is part of a mature mind to understand this. It ought to be part of every mind to possess some measure of empathy and understanding. There ought to be more value placed on wisdom.
There are not many people capable of seeing others at their lowest or worst and overcoming the piteous instinct (which censors reality by truncating it). It is a real challenge to empathize with people who fill you with disgust and disregard. You will have to do so if you value wisdom or humanity. It will be shitty... knowledge gained is not always comfortable. Wisdom is the opposite of comfortable complacency. Ignorance is perhaps truly blissful, but ignorance is not a state in which people grow and become great, and bliss is a fleeting thing.
Wisdom counters the irrationality of a human's response to defeat, disgust, pity, sorrow, or heartbreak. It enables one to look past immediate problems and place the present in an accurate context. It does not lead one to foolish hopes or into the destructive types of desire.
Paired with knowledge, wisdom becomes the greatest force for good that we possess. We undervalue wisdom for supposedly 'practical' values. We always have. The wisest humans of the past were not the most powerful, nor the wealthiest, nor were they always honored accordingly, but their influence is responsible for much if not all of what is considered good.
Wisdom is not in and of itself comprised of virtues. It cultivates virtues. It is not easy to attain. It is not self-regarding; it is humble but confident. It does not announce itself, it is not showy, it is self-evident. To the 'happily unwise' it may well be invisible, but it can inspire others. It is not unnecessary. Wisdom is not indifferent but equanimous. Wisdom knows and accepts imperfection in the self and in others. It is not hasty or judgmental, but it does stand firmly in the face of nonsense. Wisdom wants to know what is, and better it, and overcome fear. Wisdom stands against negativity, and though it need not acknowledge a god, it stands vigilant against evil as well.
Wisdom is not the sole property of the 'smart' set. There is no monopoly on wisdom. Wisdom will not form cartels, it will not attempt to take control – it will attempt to effect change in a patient way. It will not endorse bloodshed or suffering. It will not place one above the other. It will not accept injustice as an unbreakable rule. Wisdom is careful and selfless, it is not mercenary, it can change the world and usher in a new era, instead of struggling in the background under old and broken ways of living.
If and only if we adopt wisdom as a way of life can we ensure that the ills of our society are cured within our lifetime. If and only if we accept wisdom as the crowning virtue in leaders can we avoid bloodshed and conflict and small-mindedness. If and only if we strive towards wisdom can we make our species fulfill its potential.
On a personal level wisdom creates the mental balance necessary for true happiness, it is the precursor to true joy, not the pale imitations of joy & happiness that are coveted today. It makes it possible to accept things as they are and move them towards what they might be. It makes it possible to be selfless without being bitter or exploited. It makes it possible to be firm and strong without being aggressive or stupid or overbearing. It is the destroyer of bad habits, it is the creator of good ones. It inculcates discipline and perspective. It is not easy to become wise, that must be acknowledged, but a lifelong attempt should be one of the guiding principles of the living.
The wise are happier. The wise love more deeply, less selfishly. The wise know more and always seek more knowledge, which they do not use solely for personal gain. The wise will never be ruled by fear. The wise see through the vicious lies of our era, and though they are hurt and worried, they do not allow the negativity to wear them down. The wise value perspective, they strive to see things as they really are. They do not provoke negative reactions in others for any purpose. They strive to better those around them, and to better themselves as well, knowing it the most fundamental way of improving society. They know the value of love in its best sense, and it has changed them.
The wise seem to be a dying race in this world, and they have never really thrived, and that must be changed. Seek wisdom; fuck ignorance, greed, hatred, mendacity. Choose the road that requires true courage, which rewards its traveler in immeasurable ways, which offers the best and most terrifying and most inspiring views. For the sake of us all, choose wisdom and reject the nonsense. If and only if you truly want to be better, and leave behind the false ways, wisdom is your only option. Don't sell it or yourself short.
Then stop shitting on people who are responding irrationally to heartbreak. The signs of it are all over the world and have always been all over the world. The depressives, the troubled, the diseased, the suicides, the idiots & fools, the violent, the irreverent, the dropouts, the deadbeats, the hopeless, the grieving... so many classically 'unwell' or 'questionable' bear the distinct scars of a broken heart. They are despised and misunderstood. There is no end to them. Even the happy Wellbeings, in an unguarded moment, may exhibit a subtle sign of pain or relate a story (if they trust you enough).
It is part of a mature mind to understand this. It ought to be part of every mind to possess some measure of empathy and understanding. There ought to be more value placed on wisdom.
There are not many people capable of seeing others at their lowest or worst and overcoming the piteous instinct (which censors reality by truncating it). It is a real challenge to empathize with people who fill you with disgust and disregard. You will have to do so if you value wisdom or humanity. It will be shitty... knowledge gained is not always comfortable. Wisdom is the opposite of comfortable complacency. Ignorance is perhaps truly blissful, but ignorance is not a state in which people grow and become great, and bliss is a fleeting thing.
Wisdom counters the irrationality of a human's response to defeat, disgust, pity, sorrow, or heartbreak. It enables one to look past immediate problems and place the present in an accurate context. It does not lead one to foolish hopes or into the destructive types of desire.
Paired with knowledge, wisdom becomes the greatest force for good that we possess. We undervalue wisdom for supposedly 'practical' values. We always have. The wisest humans of the past were not the most powerful, nor the wealthiest, nor were they always honored accordingly, but their influence is responsible for much if not all of what is considered good.
Wisdom is not in and of itself comprised of virtues. It cultivates virtues. It is not easy to attain. It is not self-regarding; it is humble but confident. It does not announce itself, it is not showy, it is self-evident. To the 'happily unwise' it may well be invisible, but it can inspire others. It is not unnecessary. Wisdom is not indifferent but equanimous. Wisdom knows and accepts imperfection in the self and in others. It is not hasty or judgmental, but it does stand firmly in the face of nonsense. Wisdom wants to know what is, and better it, and overcome fear. Wisdom stands against negativity, and though it need not acknowledge a god, it stands vigilant against evil as well.
Wisdom is not the sole property of the 'smart' set. There is no monopoly on wisdom. Wisdom will not form cartels, it will not attempt to take control – it will attempt to effect change in a patient way. It will not endorse bloodshed or suffering. It will not place one above the other. It will not accept injustice as an unbreakable rule. Wisdom is careful and selfless, it is not mercenary, it can change the world and usher in a new era, instead of struggling in the background under old and broken ways of living.
If and only if we adopt wisdom as a way of life can we ensure that the ills of our society are cured within our lifetime. If and only if we accept wisdom as the crowning virtue in leaders can we avoid bloodshed and conflict and small-mindedness. If and only if we strive towards wisdom can we make our species fulfill its potential.
On a personal level wisdom creates the mental balance necessary for true happiness, it is the precursor to true joy, not the pale imitations of joy & happiness that are coveted today. It makes it possible to accept things as they are and move them towards what they might be. It makes it possible to be selfless without being bitter or exploited. It makes it possible to be firm and strong without being aggressive or stupid or overbearing. It is the destroyer of bad habits, it is the creator of good ones. It inculcates discipline and perspective. It is not easy to become wise, that must be acknowledged, but a lifelong attempt should be one of the guiding principles of the living.
The wise are happier. The wise love more deeply, less selfishly. The wise know more and always seek more knowledge, which they do not use solely for personal gain. The wise will never be ruled by fear. The wise see through the vicious lies of our era, and though they are hurt and worried, they do not allow the negativity to wear them down. The wise value perspective, they strive to see things as they really are. They do not provoke negative reactions in others for any purpose. They strive to better those around them, and to better themselves as well, knowing it the most fundamental way of improving society. They know the value of love in its best sense, and it has changed them.
The wise seem to be a dying race in this world, and they have never really thrived, and that must be changed. Seek wisdom; fuck ignorance, greed, hatred, mendacity. Choose the road that requires true courage, which rewards its traveler in immeasurable ways, which offers the best and most terrifying and most inspiring views. For the sake of us all, choose wisdom and reject the nonsense. If and only if you truly want to be better, and leave behind the false ways, wisdom is your only option. Don't sell it or yourself short.
4/8/15
Functions of Extreme Worry and Anxiety in Modern Society
These days most anybody is or knows someone who is very on edge, suffers from Professionally Identified Anxiety Disorder, or suffers from bouts of Extreme Worry (a disorder which includes subsets like '90's style extreme' and 'extremely incapacitating'). I see this more and more often. While I am fortunate enough to simply be extremely paralyzed by it, I realize looking around in my life that plenty of people seem to function nominally well under such pressures. A minority of acquaintances have more serious issues and the effects aren't always immediately apparent, but when I stop and think about it I can see hints of avoidant behavior and other quirks. I used to always write them off as high-strung but I've come to a number of realizations in the past year especially.
I mean I've gone long stretches without worrying too much, or with only minor worries blown out of proportion. Every now and then something relatively important will fill me with a sense of dread that cannot be banished. I refer to those most often as moments of clarity. I had a few such moments when I lost the ability to write effectively for this blog, and killed it, and knew that I blew it, and didn't have the energy or drive to replace it with a better one. I've had such moments about about personal relationships, and they've have kept me from the blessed realm of sleep. I regularly get the sensation of growing dread when I think of my life. I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one, and I've seen people with much less fucked-up lives than mine worry outrageously.
I've seen lots of unhappy faces on the streets. I assume most of them are facing some kind of anxiety. I can't blame them. There seem to be about a million things to worry about. There are always hundreds of things going on. You're missing out. You're probably sick with something. There are new illnesses every day. The planet is not dying. The world is under attack by fanatics who think the planet is dying and want to ruin your standard of living because they're hippies. People are out to get you. Lies and murder rule the streets, maybe even the world. You're going to lose your job. You're unemployed already and nobody will ever hire you. You'll never be in love again. The love you're in is falling apart. You're not in love, of course, you're far too rational for that. You're over-thinking things. You're not living your dream. Someone somewhere is stealing your dreams from you. You're insufficient for your dreams. Your dreams are killing you.
I mean I've gone long stretches without worrying too much, or with only minor worries blown out of proportion. Every now and then something relatively important will fill me with a sense of dread that cannot be banished. I refer to those most often as moments of clarity. I had a few such moments when I lost the ability to write effectively for this blog, and killed it, and knew that I blew it, and didn't have the energy or drive to replace it with a better one. I've had such moments about about personal relationships, and they've have kept me from the blessed realm of sleep. I regularly get the sensation of growing dread when I think of my life. I'm fairly certain I'm not the only one, and I've seen people with much less fucked-up lives than mine worry outrageously.
I've seen lots of unhappy faces on the streets. I assume most of them are facing some kind of anxiety. I can't blame them. There seem to be about a million things to worry about. There are always hundreds of things going on. You're missing out. You're probably sick with something. There are new illnesses every day. The planet is not dying. The world is under attack by fanatics who think the planet is dying and want to ruin your standard of living because they're hippies. People are out to get you. Lies and murder rule the streets, maybe even the world. You're going to lose your job. You're unemployed already and nobody will ever hire you. You'll never be in love again. The love you're in is falling apart. You're not in love, of course, you're far too rational for that. You're over-thinking things. You're not living your dream. Someone somewhere is stealing your dreams from you. You're insufficient for your dreams. Your dreams are killing you.
3/4/15
Hype Level Crazy: Missives from Trapistan
Eat Pray Thug is going to be the biggest hip hop album of March 2015 and my advice is you go and listen to it immediately, and, if you can, bang it. If the title doesn't strike you as clever or funny it may be time to give up on humor – the songs may change your mind anyway or they might make you angry, saddened, or incredibly hyped-up. It's out on 10 March and it's probably not going platinum (I hope I'm wrong) but I'll be damned if a more important record drops the same day or even this month. The stream is up on NPR, the PR/hype campaign is in effect, and creator Himanshu Suri has repeatedly pondered quitting rap during its creation. What's not to love?
What's it about? A kaleidoscopic amount of things, all of which deserve to be heard. A description would be insufficient. Listen to it: it's big, it's deep, it's love, it's honesty, it's drugs, it's fear, it's freedom, it's excruciating awareness and painful memories. First listen I was torn between appreciative laughter and stunned silence, the whole time the production, delivery, and content repeatedly wowed me. It made me troubled and giddy. I am currently rationing my plays so I can enjoy the album when it drops... it's so enjoyable ('Flag Shopping' is raw and real and awesome - classic Heems) that the danger lies in overdoing it.
Clocking in at under 40:00, this is Himanshu's most consistent and focused work to date, and it builds up to some incredible moments. There is a plethora of serious business to be alarmed about and a few very nice irreverent lines to chuckle about (sometimes the two collide), and it may or may not be discussed to death in a week's time so do yourself a favor if you give the smallest shit about rap and listen to the stream. It helps to know the artist and fortunately he's got two excellent mixtapes (Nehru Jackets, Wild Water Kingdom) to introduce you to his perspective. If you like the above, there's always Das Racist to listen to – if somehow you've been asleep for the past five years and missed out.
You shouldn't've been sleeping on Heems: Eat Pray Thug proves that much. When the hype settles, the qualities of this album will stand strong, its content will still ring true, and its creator will probably disappear into a humble life of giving back to the community, appreciating and creating art, and joining the young adult cult. Still, if that's the price we pay for Eat Pray Thug, it was all worth it.
If you can't feel this album you're a square, you're part of the problem, etc... you don't even have to like it to get the sense it's important, maybe even urgent. It is important. I might even drop a review next week to celebrate, and maybe three people will read it. It'll be alright. Life goes on. Nobody ever needed my help to sell records or anything.
What's it about? A kaleidoscopic amount of things, all of which deserve to be heard. A description would be insufficient. Listen to it: it's big, it's deep, it's love, it's honesty, it's drugs, it's fear, it's freedom, it's excruciating awareness and painful memories. First listen I was torn between appreciative laughter and stunned silence, the whole time the production, delivery, and content repeatedly wowed me. It made me troubled and giddy. I am currently rationing my plays so I can enjoy the album when it drops... it's so enjoyable ('Flag Shopping' is raw and real and awesome - classic Heems) that the danger lies in overdoing it.
Clocking in at under 40:00, this is Himanshu's most consistent and focused work to date, and it builds up to some incredible moments. There is a plethora of serious business to be alarmed about and a few very nice irreverent lines to chuckle about (sometimes the two collide), and it may or may not be discussed to death in a week's time so do yourself a favor if you give the smallest shit about rap and listen to the stream. It helps to know the artist and fortunately he's got two excellent mixtapes (Nehru Jackets, Wild Water Kingdom) to introduce you to his perspective. If you like the above, there's always Das Racist to listen to – if somehow you've been asleep for the past five years and missed out.
You shouldn't've been sleeping on Heems: Eat Pray Thug proves that much. When the hype settles, the qualities of this album will stand strong, its content will still ring true, and its creator will probably disappear into a humble life of giving back to the community, appreciating and creating art, and joining the young adult cult. Still, if that's the price we pay for Eat Pray Thug, it was all worth it.
If you can't feel this album you're a square, you're part of the problem, etc... you don't even have to like it to get the sense it's important, maybe even urgent. It is important. I might even drop a review next week to celebrate, and maybe three people will read it. It'll be alright. Life goes on. Nobody ever needed my help to sell records or anything.
Officially Dying Blog Gains Interest of Automated Surfing Computer
Hi NSA, I can see you too.
Hi Google, thanks for having my back.
FBI? I don't think so but maybe you're snooping on the behest of one of those evil corporations I always talk about despising. In which case [redacted].
The mystery continues, but one other detail needs to be included and that is that all of the incoming 120 that happened in one hour, probably almost instantaneously, they were running Chrome and their OS was Linux. Fairly certain all the hits came from the USA but I can't get accurate stats about that.
Linux and Chrome is what I'd call a power combo. Definite non-pleb computer user.
What the hell kinda thing happened there? That's too many views to be human.
Plus humans don't care about me. You don't need to understand stats to be kinda surprised at that.
This is a dying blog. I haven't been relevant or trending since the Jesse Navarro thing in 2010.
Well automated crawler, I hope you found what you were searching for.
Put me in the search engine as 'dying and irrelevant blog with really good writing and a cool perspective'.
Do my SEO? Help monetize? I will write speeches for your bosses and their bosses, too.
Maybe you'll leave me a spam comment about NFL jerseys and were actually acting out of China.
Who are you? Give me a shout sometime and lend me your organization's computing power.
We will have fun and maybe help take down some miscreants.
Save the world. Crash Facebook permanently. Fire that blowhard millionaire guy from his own company.
I have other good projects around in my head that I can dig up...
2/24/15
Interview with a Young North American Couple
Dennis and Leanne Sarcowitz are your typical Young North American Couple: middle class, literate, professionals with creative streaks, white wine with seafood, she drives a KIA sedan (he's holding on to his Civic), fitness enthusiasts, photogenic, politically liberal... I interviewed them because they're my age and I needed a blog post, but also to find out more about this exciting and diverse world, and others' experiences of it. Plus, everyone loves the interview format!
Publicato: Alright, thanks for agreeing to do this. You're helping me out a bunch. I guess the most obvious place to start is to ask how you met each other.
Dennis: Well it's pretty much the standard version: two people in similar social circles meet –
Publicato: Cool, yeah...
Dennis: – and they connect over really basic stuff. 80's movies, childhood memories, a shared fondness for plummy reds, similar senses of humor. It's standard but it's magic, you know?
Publicato: Oh definitely. So it's love?
Leanne (laughing): I guess it is. We're happy.
Publicato: Right on. Everyone's talking about gas prices, what do you guys think about it?
Dennis: They're great. I'm saving twenty or more bucks per fill-up. I still go out of my way to avoid traffic, but most excitingly –
Leanne: We're talking about doing a nice road-trip this summer with the money we're saving. Connecticut, to visit some of my family, and maybe all the way to Oklahoma to visit his. On the way we'll do some good hiking and camping and sightseeing... this is the year to do it.
Publicato: I hope so. If a '73 style crisis develops and you get stuck in backwoods Arkansas, will you liquidate your whole nest egg to get home?
Dennis: It's super unlikely, and we have other resources, but yes, we would do quite a lot in order to make it home safely. Gas will probably go up in a few months and we'll, I dunno, fly to Europe again or something. Spain's real nice any time of year and we haven't been to Bucharest yet – which we really want to do before it becomes touristy.
Publicato: Oh, word?
Publicato: Alright, thanks for agreeing to do this. You're helping me out a bunch. I guess the most obvious place to start is to ask how you met each other.
Dennis: Well it's pretty much the standard version: two people in similar social circles meet –
Publicato: Cool, yeah...
Dennis: – and they connect over really basic stuff. 80's movies, childhood memories, a shared fondness for plummy reds, similar senses of humor. It's standard but it's magic, you know?
Publicato: Oh definitely. So it's love?
Leanne (laughing): I guess it is. We're happy.
Publicato: Right on. Everyone's talking about gas prices, what do you guys think about it?
Dennis: They're great. I'm saving twenty or more bucks per fill-up. I still go out of my way to avoid traffic, but most excitingly –
Leanne: We're talking about doing a nice road-trip this summer with the money we're saving. Connecticut, to visit some of my family, and maybe all the way to Oklahoma to visit his. On the way we'll do some good hiking and camping and sightseeing... this is the year to do it.
Publicato: I hope so. If a '73 style crisis develops and you get stuck in backwoods Arkansas, will you liquidate your whole nest egg to get home?
Dennis: It's super unlikely, and we have other resources, but yes, we would do quite a lot in order to make it home safely. Gas will probably go up in a few months and we'll, I dunno, fly to Europe again or something. Spain's real nice any time of year and we haven't been to Bucharest yet – which we really want to do before it becomes touristy.
Publicato: Oh, word?
1/28/15
Let's Talk About Mental Health, But Let's Not Say Anything Meaningful About It
End the stigma. End the persecution. End the long decades of rotting lives at the bottom being forgotten and ignored. But whatever you do, don't point out how mental health has been adversely affected by the modern world, because that's where we make our profits. Let's not stigmatize the status-obsessesed, the oversharers, the internet addicts, sociopaths, borderline sociopaths, the narcissists, the identity fetishists... in short let's just change the perception by stating that it's not the ill person's fault they're ill, and give them a modicum of respect, and continue on our deranged way. Some day we'll all be mentally ill, if we aren't already.
So let's have a mental health awareness month, a couple corporate-backed mental health awareness movements every year, some nice infographics, some nice ads, some good progressive and compassionate copy. Let's take some real steps, let's end the crisis before it gets worse, or at least make a pretty big deal about acknowledging it. Just let's not pry into where it's coming from, or why more people than ever are getting ill. Keep condemning the suicides and the silence. Don't look over there at the causes: that way lies madness.
Poverty, mental illness, illiteracy, substance addiction, lifestyle addiction, non-normative sexuality (itself a freaky frontier that's easy to support especially if you want nothing to do with it but want to appear a progressive and compassionate person), and megatons of other stuff. It's no longer anybody's fault. Those who declare it a function of individual responsibility, as well as those who declare it a function of societal responsibility, are entrenched in ideology. The truth is far simpler than anyone wants to acknowledge: they're all Bad Things. Mental illness is just a Bad Thing, that needs Attention, and requires Awareness. The problem is that mental illness not photogenic. It doesn't respond well to attention. It's really, really ugly and it's got deep roots and deeper pockets.
Health in general in decline. Increased incidences of diseases of affluence, first world problems like anxiety, a weakening breed finding new ways to pity itself. Dementia rears its ugly head. Cancer from years of worry-free high-living catching up to us. The natural, polluted world with its natural conclusions. Let's keep consuming so the economy doesn't falter. Let's not ask questions. Let's never wake up from our nightmare as it gets darker and darker.
People are less mindful than ever. Overconnected to everything via the internet. Bombarded with images of opulence and excess that they will never know, for which they are programmed to have an insatiable lust. Lost in meaninglessness, with false meaningfulness leading them astray. Conditioned to worship at the altar of Mammon. Real vs. VR. Terrorism vs War. Inequality is Solved. Internet sickness. Quality of Life. 12 Steps to a Better You. Fired by Text Message. 10 Cute Cats That Will Cure Your Blues. The Babylon System is winning, the world is changing, nobody seems to give a shit. Money rules everything, people with money call the shots, and most people believe their half-truths. Meanwhile a million unchecked distractions clamor for everyone's attention, and the individual (despite the hype of optimists) has never felt so insignificant in a world of Social Networks, Big Ideas, and Batshit Maniacs. There's no fucking respect, I'll tell ya.
In my opinion it's no mystery why people are getting all fucked up and sick. They can't police their own thoughts, they can't control their government and corporate sanctioned addictions to legal substances and activities, they can't escape without losing their future. People are generally more separated by technology than they are brought together by it. A whole generation is living a shitty, loveless, poor existence wrought by their elders and blamed on them – and I'm sure they'll turn out fine and well-adjusted despite this, but they take a sickening amount of shit from a world so unfair it's parodic. Suicides everywhere... a sinking quality of life, urban hellscapes, the decline of the natural world and a bunch of insane technofucks claiming we should divorce ourselves further from our roots, as if our current divergence isn't at least partly at fault for the insane clusterfuck we've wandered into. Jargon rules the day, but it never saved one life.
And the isolation. Alone in a sea of identity, tired of the cult of identity, feeling like nobody and nothing and stumbling through a life ruled by the pleasures of others and the whims of the greedy, powerful, and detached. Faces are masks, genuine humanity is in decline and retreating to the quiet places. Hope is dying along with mental healthiness. There is nobody to talk to, but everyone wants to speak out about how it isn't shameful to be mentally ill. Of course not, but the cure isn't in reinforcing the status quo, just like how all the cures to all of what ails us as a species are not in keeping things comfortably similar to 'how it is'. We don't want to look into what's harming us, like the obstinate addicts we are. Maybe things seem worse than they are, maybe I'm a shitty blogger and an alarmist, but things're bad enough and breeding vast populations of stunted narcissistic sociopaths incapable of human emotion or connection – populations in all age groups, not just the young tech-savvy millenials who already have tons of opprobrium piled onto them coupled with an increasingly grim outlook.
The world is increasingly soulless and irreal. Appearances have replaced qualities. Abandon all hope, because nobody gives a shit anymore. The pressure to succeed can only be met by dishonesty and combativeness, the competition is severe, the world is at the edge. Don't ask any questions. Don't step out of line. Don't live - exist. Just repost the memes, make those donations happen, and keep ignoring the people you know who are sinking, the people you pass on the street who are already sunk... keep your eyes on the newsfeed. Let the internet do the good works for you. This is the least self-aware era and it needs to be ripped violently in half by a comprehensive, blood-thirsty, no-prisoners satire before we destroy everything of value and premise our future on misery, ignorance, and disgust. The time to wake up is fast approaching, and a world of comatose automatons will greet it with indifference.
So let's have a mental health awareness month, a couple corporate-backed mental health awareness movements every year, some nice infographics, some nice ads, some good progressive and compassionate copy. Let's take some real steps, let's end the crisis before it gets worse, or at least make a pretty big deal about acknowledging it. Just let's not pry into where it's coming from, or why more people than ever are getting ill. Keep condemning the suicides and the silence. Don't look over there at the causes: that way lies madness.
Poverty, mental illness, illiteracy, substance addiction, lifestyle addiction, non-normative sexuality (itself a freaky frontier that's easy to support especially if you want nothing to do with it but want to appear a progressive and compassionate person), and megatons of other stuff. It's no longer anybody's fault. Those who declare it a function of individual responsibility, as well as those who declare it a function of societal responsibility, are entrenched in ideology. The truth is far simpler than anyone wants to acknowledge: they're all Bad Things. Mental illness is just a Bad Thing, that needs Attention, and requires Awareness. The problem is that mental illness not photogenic. It doesn't respond well to attention. It's really, really ugly and it's got deep roots and deeper pockets.
Health in general in decline. Increased incidences of diseases of affluence, first world problems like anxiety, a weakening breed finding new ways to pity itself. Dementia rears its ugly head. Cancer from years of worry-free high-living catching up to us. The natural, polluted world with its natural conclusions. Let's keep consuming so the economy doesn't falter. Let's not ask questions. Let's never wake up from our nightmare as it gets darker and darker.
People are less mindful than ever. Overconnected to everything via the internet. Bombarded with images of opulence and excess that they will never know, for which they are programmed to have an insatiable lust. Lost in meaninglessness, with false meaningfulness leading them astray. Conditioned to worship at the altar of Mammon. Real vs. VR. Terrorism vs War. Inequality is Solved. Internet sickness. Quality of Life. 12 Steps to a Better You. Fired by Text Message. 10 Cute Cats That Will Cure Your Blues. The Babylon System is winning, the world is changing, nobody seems to give a shit. Money rules everything, people with money call the shots, and most people believe their half-truths. Meanwhile a million unchecked distractions clamor for everyone's attention, and the individual (despite the hype of optimists) has never felt so insignificant in a world of Social Networks, Big Ideas, and Batshit Maniacs. There's no fucking respect, I'll tell ya.
In my opinion it's no mystery why people are getting all fucked up and sick. They can't police their own thoughts, they can't control their government and corporate sanctioned addictions to legal substances and activities, they can't escape without losing their future. People are generally more separated by technology than they are brought together by it. A whole generation is living a shitty, loveless, poor existence wrought by their elders and blamed on them – and I'm sure they'll turn out fine and well-adjusted despite this, but they take a sickening amount of shit from a world so unfair it's parodic. Suicides everywhere... a sinking quality of life, urban hellscapes, the decline of the natural world and a bunch of insane technofucks claiming we should divorce ourselves further from our roots, as if our current divergence isn't at least partly at fault for the insane clusterfuck we've wandered into. Jargon rules the day, but it never saved one life.
And the isolation. Alone in a sea of identity, tired of the cult of identity, feeling like nobody and nothing and stumbling through a life ruled by the pleasures of others and the whims of the greedy, powerful, and detached. Faces are masks, genuine humanity is in decline and retreating to the quiet places. Hope is dying along with mental healthiness. There is nobody to talk to, but everyone wants to speak out about how it isn't shameful to be mentally ill. Of course not, but the cure isn't in reinforcing the status quo, just like how all the cures to all of what ails us as a species are not in keeping things comfortably similar to 'how it is'. We don't want to look into what's harming us, like the obstinate addicts we are. Maybe things seem worse than they are, maybe I'm a shitty blogger and an alarmist, but things're bad enough and breeding vast populations of stunted narcissistic sociopaths incapable of human emotion or connection – populations in all age groups, not just the young tech-savvy millenials who already have tons of opprobrium piled onto them coupled with an increasingly grim outlook.
The world is increasingly soulless and irreal. Appearances have replaced qualities. Abandon all hope, because nobody gives a shit anymore. The pressure to succeed can only be met by dishonesty and combativeness, the competition is severe, the world is at the edge. Don't ask any questions. Don't step out of line. Don't live - exist. Just repost the memes, make those donations happen, and keep ignoring the people you know who are sinking, the people you pass on the street who are already sunk... keep your eyes on the newsfeed. Let the internet do the good works for you. This is the least self-aware era and it needs to be ripped violently in half by a comprehensive, blood-thirsty, no-prisoners satire before we destroy everything of value and premise our future on misery, ignorance, and disgust. The time to wake up is fast approaching, and a world of comatose automatons will greet it with indifference.
1/21/15
Literature as Film in the Epic-Franchise-Commercial Mode; or, The Hobbit Trilogy
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies was sullied by many things. It smelt of the boardroom, for one. It was kind of uncool to the source material, for two. And for three (threes are gonna be important): parts of it functioned as a commercial for a video game and quite possibly a theme park addition as well. Don't be surprised if in the next five years a middle-earth theme park opens (if it hasn't already, I am not bothering to look). And it wasn't just the action scenes, major characters were added to make it right. Maybe you don't care, but if this were middle-earth, then there is only a handful of villains spooky and evil enough to think up such a subtle and convincing marketing scheme.
Another thing you might have noticed if you watched it (and it was a grand spectacle, there is no denying that) is how each movie had at least one theme park ride of a scene in it. For instance the sterling standard of 'theme park ride scene' that anybody could recognize is the barrel escape (lazy river/barrel ride variant) from the second movie in the series. There were other such moments... I can't afford to go back to document them.
I'll admit, I'm the wrong person to point this out. The last time I read the book I had not yet lain with a lover, driven a car, or drank alcohol. I read The Hobbit at least five times. It's a slim volume packed with adventure, humor, and the odd dwarf song/elfin slam poetry session that you may skip if you're a kid. In short: it's brief, to the point, and quite fantastic. I don't think there's a lot of modern fare that could boast it was better, if any. It might be the best, but I don't indulge in fantasy as such anymore, so I don't know. In my mind it gets the gold.
However that's not even to the point. To clarify: I may be the wrong person to look upon the Hobbit Trilogy Franchise because as soon as I heard it was to be a trilogy I already thought 'Oh, oh no. This is not how things should be. I must ride... to New Zealand!' because damn it all, it is not impossible to pack the whole little book into a single two and a half hour (three and a half extended) film. It could've been done, it would've been considerably more exciting, taken more skill, more risks with narrative, trusted the audience more... in essence it would've been greater than it was, doing more with less. I'll state that one of my chief contentions with the modern world is its increasing inability to do more with less, and how it instead does less with more, and leaves the increasingly tone-deaf uncritical audience squalling with idiotic delight anyhow. That is the degradation brought into the world by the explosion of Nerd Culture... that is what has been wrought. I will say no more at this time.
It would've taken skill to condense the story into a manageable screenplay. It'd take some 'hard' decisions like throwing Frodo Baggins and Legolas out, which would've saved about an hour. All the backstory nonsense could've been stripped out (1.5 hours), the business with the Necromancer could've handled as it was in the book (saving roughly another hour), and the love story could've been shit-canned (which would've hurt Orlando Bloom's feelings and destroyed Evangeline Lilly's lifelong dream of playing a cute elf – and also saved another hour and a half). So with basic, sensible ideas I have already cut the length of the movie by 5 hours, making my originally stated aim possible. Plus I'm reducing the budget - you're welcome.
There could've been less bloat in this fantastic franchise vehicle. I won't say the series is shit. It's pretty good – not as good as the LOTR movies (which confronted me with less major issues, though the omission of Tom Bombadil was unforgivable) but I suppose that's the price you pay when Nerd Culture rampages through the things you loved as a child. The technical achievement of the movie cannot be understated: many talented people worked hard to make it happen and I do not deride their efforts in saying the movie could've been better. Parts were cheaper than I liked, and cheapening the source is somewhat of a sin. And sometimes it all looked a little plasticky, a little too videogamey for my tastes. Which leads to the most interesting angle: the commodification of middle-earth.
What really burned me, what really made me feel squeamish, and what really sullied and cheapened the experience is the fact that it was a big old commercial – a vehicle to create retail appetite in the viewer. As stated earlier, it was a subtle one (or at least subtler than Transformers), but not too subtle for this viewer (who, cards on the table, never played Shadow of Mordor). The game was quite hyped and the movie was incredibly hyped, so much so that I, who was quite outside of the media ecosystem, still heard more than enough about the trilogy's finale. Two rentals and a discount midweek viewing later I had all the facts at hand to make my dismal voice heard in the matter. I was free to state my opinions bloggishly, and I knew I had to.
The videogame-like action sequences (when Galadriel, Elfin Agent Smith, and Saruman battle the ghost skeleton warriors springs to mind, or almost every other major straight-up fight or battle) set the tone to a degree where I cannot hold my peace. Watch the rhythm of the fighting, artificial enough in execution, and you can almost imagine someone pressing B three times and forward once on the joystick to execute a daring feint or parry, or the blatant finishing moves... not that filming the chaos of battle with any fidelity is possible in a staged event, but care should be taken to keep it separate from interactive experiences. The choreography doesn't have echo the digital dance. One can almost see the gang teaming up for an epic loot raid, Radagast complaining meekly about having to buff everyone and that he's got to go to sleep while the rest slash meaninglessly at a big enemy, hacking away the health bar and exchanging terse gamese jargon.
Most of my contention stems from the final movie, when all the pieces fell into place, confirming my suspicions. Azog the Defiler is a clear Shadow of Mordor Nemesis-system entity, and so is Golg. The final fight at the end, gratuitous as it is, is nothing more than a winking reference to the videogame. The whole backstory of Thorin and Azog is basically an example of the Nemisis system – wherein you slay an enemy only to find out it survived, gained power, and has your death on its mind. Their final battle is so on the nose that I had to Google, Yahoo, and AskJeeves search about the commercial theory, and finding nothing begin to write this very post you are reading. The media are so interlaced it boggles my mind, and chilled my enjoyment of the show. Also there's a little part in the second movie where the gang climbs up a blocky staircase that looked specifically Minecraftish... dreary, maudlin, maybe even unintentional, but I could not escape the connection.
The writing could've used polish and was almost painfully amateurish at times. Dain repeatedly saying bugger as if he knows of no other term for orc. The 'forcing the hand' of the Necromancer (this phrase is used and reused so much as to be admirable - a true testament to recycling lines) is the only idiomatic phrase the writers seemed to know. The love story is filled with lines that groan under their own dull and predictable weight. The earnestness with which the lines are delivered is sometimes their only saving grace, but all deviations from the book are apparent because the lines are either too flat or too flowery, and the actors make them work, but a critical ear will hear what it will. The Master of Laketown and his wormish assistant are so baldly written they become parodic, which was out of place in a movie that took almost everything else too seriously. I did enjoy Stephen Fry's portrayal for all that, but it was really very super on the nose... a little subtlety would've carried it far. The wormish guy was just... feh, super overdone, even a deaf-blind fish would've grimaced a bit at the character as he kicked infants and old women, exhibited unrealistic cowardice, stole gold from the poor, and threatened to transform into a cartoon villian. I don't recollect if they were this blatant in the book, but probably not. Tolkien was a little subtler than that.
The schmaltzy love story was for the girlfriend, the insipid video game action sequences (you can literally tell when a character has unlocked Quad Damage, Rage Counter, or God Mode by how easily they plough through the abundant fodder enemies, and there must be Life Regeneration going on) were for the boyfriend. Good for more than dates, even, but best for dates... millennials will go crazy for it. Everyone will love it, in fact, except the critics and who gives a shit about their pernicious skepticism? What a perfect creation, what an essential excretion of our era – a timeless expression of the values of 2014. The book got shafted again by the light rays of the cinema, the synergistic marketeering of commerce, was it ever any different, et cetera...
Finally: what's up with the alleged Brian Cranston cameo? It might be the most underlooked part of all, and the least offensive. I truly hope that it was Brian Cranston I saw at the horn-blowing sequence after the battle... others have noticed it as well, but I'd like to know more. If anyone gets the DVD/BluRay, please do screenshot that moment and post it. It would be good to confirm or deny this one.
There could also be a great two-hour epic of all the walking scenes in the entire Peter Jackson middle-earth series. I wouldn't watch it, but it would be hilarious enough after five minutes of steady walking in various beautiful locations.
Another thing you might have noticed if you watched it (and it was a grand spectacle, there is no denying that) is how each movie had at least one theme park ride of a scene in it. For instance the sterling standard of 'theme park ride scene' that anybody could recognize is the barrel escape (lazy river/barrel ride variant) from the second movie in the series. There were other such moments... I can't afford to go back to document them.
I'll admit, I'm the wrong person to point this out. The last time I read the book I had not yet lain with a lover, driven a car, or drank alcohol. I read The Hobbit at least five times. It's a slim volume packed with adventure, humor, and the odd dwarf song/elfin slam poetry session that you may skip if you're a kid. In short: it's brief, to the point, and quite fantastic. I don't think there's a lot of modern fare that could boast it was better, if any. It might be the best, but I don't indulge in fantasy as such anymore, so I don't know. In my mind it gets the gold.
However that's not even to the point. To clarify: I may be the wrong person to look upon the Hobbit Trilogy Franchise because as soon as I heard it was to be a trilogy I already thought 'Oh, oh no. This is not how things should be. I must ride... to New Zealand!' because damn it all, it is not impossible to pack the whole little book into a single two and a half hour (three and a half extended) film. It could've been done, it would've been considerably more exciting, taken more skill, more risks with narrative, trusted the audience more... in essence it would've been greater than it was, doing more with less. I'll state that one of my chief contentions with the modern world is its increasing inability to do more with less, and how it instead does less with more, and leaves the increasingly tone-deaf uncritical audience squalling with idiotic delight anyhow. That is the degradation brought into the world by the explosion of Nerd Culture... that is what has been wrought. I will say no more at this time.
It would've taken skill to condense the story into a manageable screenplay. It'd take some 'hard' decisions like throwing Frodo Baggins and Legolas out, which would've saved about an hour. All the backstory nonsense could've been stripped out (1.5 hours), the business with the Necromancer could've handled as it was in the book (saving roughly another hour), and the love story could've been shit-canned (which would've hurt Orlando Bloom's feelings and destroyed Evangeline Lilly's lifelong dream of playing a cute elf – and also saved another hour and a half). So with basic, sensible ideas I have already cut the length of the movie by 5 hours, making my originally stated aim possible. Plus I'm reducing the budget - you're welcome.
There could've been less bloat in this fantastic franchise vehicle. I won't say the series is shit. It's pretty good – not as good as the LOTR movies (which confronted me with less major issues, though the omission of Tom Bombadil was unforgivable) but I suppose that's the price you pay when Nerd Culture rampages through the things you loved as a child. The technical achievement of the movie cannot be understated: many talented people worked hard to make it happen and I do not deride their efforts in saying the movie could've been better. Parts were cheaper than I liked, and cheapening the source is somewhat of a sin. And sometimes it all looked a little plasticky, a little too videogamey for my tastes. Which leads to the most interesting angle: the commodification of middle-earth.
What really burned me, what really made me feel squeamish, and what really sullied and cheapened the experience is the fact that it was a big old commercial – a vehicle to create retail appetite in the viewer. As stated earlier, it was a subtle one (or at least subtler than Transformers), but not too subtle for this viewer (who, cards on the table, never played Shadow of Mordor). The game was quite hyped and the movie was incredibly hyped, so much so that I, who was quite outside of the media ecosystem, still heard more than enough about the trilogy's finale. Two rentals and a discount midweek viewing later I had all the facts at hand to make my dismal voice heard in the matter. I was free to state my opinions bloggishly, and I knew I had to.
The videogame-like action sequences (when Galadriel, Elfin Agent Smith, and Saruman battle the ghost skeleton warriors springs to mind, or almost every other major straight-up fight or battle) set the tone to a degree where I cannot hold my peace. Watch the rhythm of the fighting, artificial enough in execution, and you can almost imagine someone pressing B three times and forward once on the joystick to execute a daring feint or parry, or the blatant finishing moves... not that filming the chaos of battle with any fidelity is possible in a staged event, but care should be taken to keep it separate from interactive experiences. The choreography doesn't have echo the digital dance. One can almost see the gang teaming up for an epic loot raid, Radagast complaining meekly about having to buff everyone and that he's got to go to sleep while the rest slash meaninglessly at a big enemy, hacking away the health bar and exchanging terse gamese jargon.
Most of my contention stems from the final movie, when all the pieces fell into place, confirming my suspicions. Azog the Defiler is a clear Shadow of Mordor Nemesis-system entity, and so is Golg. The final fight at the end, gratuitous as it is, is nothing more than a winking reference to the videogame. The whole backstory of Thorin and Azog is basically an example of the Nemisis system – wherein you slay an enemy only to find out it survived, gained power, and has your death on its mind. Their final battle is so on the nose that I had to Google, Yahoo, and AskJeeves search about the commercial theory, and finding nothing begin to write this very post you are reading. The media are so interlaced it boggles my mind, and chilled my enjoyment of the show. Also there's a little part in the second movie where the gang climbs up a blocky staircase that looked specifically Minecraftish... dreary, maudlin, maybe even unintentional, but I could not escape the connection.
The writing could've used polish and was almost painfully amateurish at times. Dain repeatedly saying bugger as if he knows of no other term for orc. The 'forcing the hand' of the Necromancer (this phrase is used and reused so much as to be admirable - a true testament to recycling lines) is the only idiomatic phrase the writers seemed to know. The love story is filled with lines that groan under their own dull and predictable weight. The earnestness with which the lines are delivered is sometimes their only saving grace, but all deviations from the book are apparent because the lines are either too flat or too flowery, and the actors make them work, but a critical ear will hear what it will. The Master of Laketown and his wormish assistant are so baldly written they become parodic, which was out of place in a movie that took almost everything else too seriously. I did enjoy Stephen Fry's portrayal for all that, but it was really very super on the nose... a little subtlety would've carried it far. The wormish guy was just... feh, super overdone, even a deaf-blind fish would've grimaced a bit at the character as he kicked infants and old women, exhibited unrealistic cowardice, stole gold from the poor, and threatened to transform into a cartoon villian. I don't recollect if they were this blatant in the book, but probably not. Tolkien was a little subtler than that.
The schmaltzy love story was for the girlfriend, the insipid video game action sequences (you can literally tell when a character has unlocked Quad Damage, Rage Counter, or God Mode by how easily they plough through the abundant fodder enemies, and there must be Life Regeneration going on) were for the boyfriend. Good for more than dates, even, but best for dates... millennials will go crazy for it. Everyone will love it, in fact, except the critics and who gives a shit about their pernicious skepticism? What a perfect creation, what an essential excretion of our era – a timeless expression of the values of 2014. The book got shafted again by the light rays of the cinema, the synergistic marketeering of commerce, was it ever any different, et cetera...
Finally: what's up with the alleged Brian Cranston cameo? It might be the most underlooked part of all, and the least offensive. I truly hope that it was Brian Cranston I saw at the horn-blowing sequence after the battle... others have noticed it as well, but I'd like to know more. If anyone gets the DVD/BluRay, please do screenshot that moment and post it. It would be good to confirm or deny this one.
There could also be a great two-hour epic of all the walking scenes in the entire Peter Jackson middle-earth series. I wouldn't watch it, but it would be hilarious enough after five minutes of steady walking in various beautiful locations.
1/5/15
What Kinda Dream was 2014?
If you're reading this, you survived 2014, unlike a fairly large number of other people. Congratulations.
You may be wondering what you've gained by surviving another year. Truthfully I don't know. Maybe you lived only to find anguish and lamentation in your future. Maybe reality has a cruel sense of humor. Maybe you're fated to find true love and then lose it in a desperate struggle against the way of all things. Who knows? You got another year out of the deal, and in some way surviving Jan 1st to Jan 1st is more
Maybe you didn't survive it. Maybe, somehow, your consciousness continued to exist in a purely sophistical realm in the tiny unknowable increment of possibility between life and death. In that case, I don't know how you're reading this, because as far as I know I exist in a world shared with other fully conscious and existing beings, not in your mind. Then again maybe you're a figment of my imagination... but what would that mean... what would that make me? I've often thought that I've merely poured my attempts at writing into a dark void. Maybe I was right all along.
2014 - The Good
So what was good in 2014? There was some stuff...
The movie Birdman came out and was actually really good, good enough that if Shakespeare was around he would love it and probably encourage other people to watch it; or cry tears of joy; or demur any opinion but secretly watch it again and again, planning his own remake on similar themes... it's a great movie, and I'm speaking as a lameoid who saw it in 2015. The meta-factor is a little steep, but if you can look askance of a little bit of preciousness there is an humorous, beautifully (if not impeccably) shot masterpiece there.
John Maus hinted at a 2015 release for a new album, which is in this humble writer's opinion the best music news of 2014. Now I have most of a reason to see this year through, instead of going ahead with my original plan of throwing myself off a building in March.
Gas got really cheap. I realize it's a side-effect of a geopolitical game that only serves to stress our hopeless plight as small nothings in an unfeeling world, but... it's probably not even good news, but filling up hasn't felt so good in a long time.
The World Cup - mixed bag but let's face it, the Germany/Brazil game was the stuff of legend. What a brutal slaying. I still catch myself thinking of it from time to time when I wonder about how fucked I am compared to various World Cup games.
Uhh... there was other stuff, but I neglected to plan this post out at all, and to be honest 'good' is kind of a subjective term. Maybe you're a tineared fuck who doesn't like John Maus. Maybe you hate the idea of unrestrained fossil fuel feeding frenzies. Maybe you hate good cinematic films. Well, I know I'm a lazy bastard at the moment, and I think it's stupid to look up other people's 2014 Bad/Good lists and basically... fuck it. 2014 was mediocre, but I'll get into that a bit later.
2014 - The Bad
There's so much. I could do my research on this and go on about it until next year. Gluten-free idiocy, a continuation of the growing divide between the wealthy and poor, mediocre job markets, 'good economic news' that translates into the status quo, all sorts of murder, all sorts of unrest, a couple of unnecessary extinctions, casual brutality, hatred flaring up everywhere, the old guard firmly in control as ever. All sorts of stupidity. A dazzling galaxy of insipid and bright distractions. An increasingly etherized worldwide populace. The motherfucking internet.
There was one story that was so stupid, and such a fulfillment of a prophecy I made in the Nerd Bubble post a long time ago, that I have to include it here. It's the GamerGate scandal - a nonevent that blossomed into a great expression of childish fecklessness, misplaced values, and good old fashioned hate. I don't even really know what happened. It involved a journalist, the guy who used to date her, maybe someone else, and a bunch of what you may as well call men who proved without a doubt that they have worthless opinions and misguided priorities. I had a good chuckle every time this story reappeared, and by the time it got to the TV I was thoroughly tired of it... a worthless scandal.
Ebola, petty squabbles, a bunch of disheartening stories, The Colbert Report is over... war and rumors of war... perverts... the internet...
One whole jetliner disappeared. People got to remember this one because it's a little crazy. You'd think there would be at least one piece of debris found at this point. Was it pulled into space? Did it vanish? Did North Korea or ISIS hijack the plane, saving it for a terrible spectacle? Did they collaborate? Did you know that ISIS used to proceed with the essential blessing (non-action) of the West, way back when Assad was the main villian? What's going on with that narrative?
Meanwhile in news nobody cares about but that affected me deeply: I fucked up badly with a few experimental blog posts and it seems like I've lost basically all of my 50 person audience. I apologize for posting one or two really bad, pretty dumb, and mostly unenjoyable posts. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't like being a commentator, I don't have a special insight or overarching interest to report on, and it's really hard to do anything good. So yeah, I got a bit drunk and wrote the Ross Heffi bit. It sucked.
The Logitech thing was crazy, too. I can see you'd get an idea that I'm just a filthy mouth with no spine, but consider that social media/tech support person is not actually the project designer or parts buyer and might deserve respect. And if I fell for a fraud? Well then, I guess someone proved something about duplicity (I've been using a shitty mouse again and it hasn't stopped working, it's just really uncomfortable and unhandy). And basically every post I made since then has had as much traffic as I used to get when I still had any hopes for this blog. I've been close to jumping out of this business for a while, mostly because I'm a stupid coward and I doubt there's anything creative or fun left in me at this point. Maybe I'll push on. I want someone to pay me to write at some point in my life. I want to get published. I learn from mistakes.
I'm pretty tired. I'm only 5 days into 2015 and already it seems like all the technophiles in the world couldn't make me feel good about it. If I'm lucky... hell if we're all lucky, this will be a much better year than 2014.
You may be wondering what you've gained by surviving another year. Truthfully I don't know. Maybe you lived only to find anguish and lamentation in your future. Maybe reality has a cruel sense of humor. Maybe you're fated to find true love and then lose it in a desperate struggle against the way of all things. Who knows? You got another year out of the deal, and in some way surviving Jan 1st to Jan 1st is more
Maybe you didn't survive it. Maybe, somehow, your consciousness continued to exist in a purely sophistical realm in the tiny unknowable increment of possibility between life and death. In that case, I don't know how you're reading this, because as far as I know I exist in a world shared with other fully conscious and existing beings, not in your mind. Then again maybe you're a figment of my imagination... but what would that mean... what would that make me? I've often thought that I've merely poured my attempts at writing into a dark void. Maybe I was right all along.
2014 - The Good
So what was good in 2014? There was some stuff...
The movie Birdman came out and was actually really good, good enough that if Shakespeare was around he would love it and probably encourage other people to watch it; or cry tears of joy; or demur any opinion but secretly watch it again and again, planning his own remake on similar themes... it's a great movie, and I'm speaking as a lameoid who saw it in 2015. The meta-factor is a little steep, but if you can look askance of a little bit of preciousness there is an humorous, beautifully (if not impeccably) shot masterpiece there.
John Maus hinted at a 2015 release for a new album, which is in this humble writer's opinion the best music news of 2014. Now I have most of a reason to see this year through, instead of going ahead with my original plan of throwing myself off a building in March.
Gas got really cheap. I realize it's a side-effect of a geopolitical game that only serves to stress our hopeless plight as small nothings in an unfeeling world, but... it's probably not even good news, but filling up hasn't felt so good in a long time.
The World Cup - mixed bag but let's face it, the Germany/Brazil game was the stuff of legend. What a brutal slaying. I still catch myself thinking of it from time to time when I wonder about how fucked I am compared to various World Cup games.
Uhh... there was other stuff, but I neglected to plan this post out at all, and to be honest 'good' is kind of a subjective term. Maybe you're a tineared fuck who doesn't like John Maus. Maybe you hate the idea of unrestrained fossil fuel feeding frenzies. Maybe you hate good cinematic films. Well, I know I'm a lazy bastard at the moment, and I think it's stupid to look up other people's 2014 Bad/Good lists and basically... fuck it. 2014 was mediocre, but I'll get into that a bit later.
2014 - The Bad
There's so much. I could do my research on this and go on about it until next year. Gluten-free idiocy, a continuation of the growing divide between the wealthy and poor, mediocre job markets, 'good economic news' that translates into the status quo, all sorts of murder, all sorts of unrest, a couple of unnecessary extinctions, casual brutality, hatred flaring up everywhere, the old guard firmly in control as ever. All sorts of stupidity. A dazzling galaxy of insipid and bright distractions. An increasingly etherized worldwide populace. The motherfucking internet.
There was one story that was so stupid, and such a fulfillment of a prophecy I made in the Nerd Bubble post a long time ago, that I have to include it here. It's the GamerGate scandal - a nonevent that blossomed into a great expression of childish fecklessness, misplaced values, and good old fashioned hate. I don't even really know what happened. It involved a journalist, the guy who used to date her, maybe someone else, and a bunch of what you may as well call men who proved without a doubt that they have worthless opinions and misguided priorities. I had a good chuckle every time this story reappeared, and by the time it got to the TV I was thoroughly tired of it... a worthless scandal.
Ebola, petty squabbles, a bunch of disheartening stories, The Colbert Report is over... war and rumors of war... perverts... the internet...
One whole jetliner disappeared. People got to remember this one because it's a little crazy. You'd think there would be at least one piece of debris found at this point. Was it pulled into space? Did it vanish? Did North Korea or ISIS hijack the plane, saving it for a terrible spectacle? Did they collaborate? Did you know that ISIS used to proceed with the essential blessing (non-action) of the West, way back when Assad was the main villian? What's going on with that narrative?
Meanwhile in news nobody cares about but that affected me deeply: I fucked up badly with a few experimental blog posts and it seems like I've lost basically all of my 50 person audience. I apologize for posting one or two really bad, pretty dumb, and mostly unenjoyable posts. I don't know what to do anymore. I don't like being a commentator, I don't have a special insight or overarching interest to report on, and it's really hard to do anything good. So yeah, I got a bit drunk and wrote the Ross Heffi bit. It sucked.
The Logitech thing was crazy, too. I can see you'd get an idea that I'm just a filthy mouth with no spine, but consider that social media/tech support person is not actually the project designer or parts buyer and might deserve respect. And if I fell for a fraud? Well then, I guess someone proved something about duplicity (I've been using a shitty mouse again and it hasn't stopped working, it's just really uncomfortable and unhandy). And basically every post I made since then has had as much traffic as I used to get when I still had any hopes for this blog. I've been close to jumping out of this business for a while, mostly because I'm a stupid coward and I doubt there's anything creative or fun left in me at this point. Maybe I'll push on. I want someone to pay me to write at some point in my life. I want to get published. I learn from mistakes.
I'm pretty tired. I'm only 5 days into 2015 and already it seems like all the technophiles in the world couldn't make me feel good about it. If I'm lucky... hell if we're all lucky, this will be a much better year than 2014.
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