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Thursday, December 13, 2012

(or) I am not my brother's keeper, I'm my brother.

We're all embattled in a grand and farcical game of stop hitting yourself.  We (in only the most royal sense) are speaking on a Universal scale here.

When is the last time that you didn't find yourself having umbrella fights with the gorillas on the streets of Bismark?  Ah, I thought not, and I knew you wouldn't say that.  If we followed the code of Hammurabi in reverse, we would be flush with eyes.

--RD

Sunday, November 18, 2012

(or) The Complete Idiot's Guide To Living Forever

In the world of today imprinting on paper, celluloid, or HTML is not enough to ensure immortality. You've got to invent a self-replicating meme. Only through viral ideas overlaid onto the conscious with foundations in the sub-conscious will work. The human mind can have conscious thought-structures razed, but the unconscious cannot be renovated except through systematic and purposeful restructuring.


Song For Your Ears To Taste: "No One Lives Forever" by Oingo Boingo

~S-B

Friday, November 16, 2012

(or) ME 2016

I am the president of The United States Of Mind. We don't have a capital, per se. Nor a motto, an anthem, or a clue. We are actually more of an anarchic confederation with single purpose laughably absent and a give-and-take of immediate vs. long-term goals continually negotiated between mayors, captains, and big men.


Music For Your Ears To Taste: "Fantasy Bar" by Juliette Lewis

 ~S-B

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

(or) Take Off Your Mitt-ins

Mister Romney. You, sir, have built up a very great deal of rancor throughout your asteroidic rise to prominence. Had you won, you could quite possibly have been the record holder for lowest presidential approval ratings at inauguration. However, even in losing, thanks to your ceaseless efforts to imprint your grinning countenance upon the retinas of innumerable, you may well end up being the least popular *private* citizen, amid some seriously stiff competish. The amusing thing about all this (amusing to *me* at least) is that no one would know to revile you had you not doggedly insisted on becoming a public figure. Now, I suspect that you probably feel, in spite of all this, that your ideas on government are still true. And you know what? You could totally be right. But there are manners of speaking you could personally utilize to convince those of us who disagree.

Not with your voice, heavens no. You have proven yourself fairly inept in the use of that method of persuasion. Nor do I mean the language of your body, as that often tells stories you never intended. No, I refer to that most hip, modern, and utilitarian form of speech: moolah. You have routinely demonstrated your aptitude for capital rhetoric and, brother, can you ever make that wallet sing. Your position on the glories of privatization (one of the only core beliefs you appear to hold) seems to hinge on your insistence that private enterprise is more useful to society than government. The problem many, many, many of us have with this notion, and your sponsorship of it in particular, is that you have personally presented exceptionally little as demonstration.

Now, perhaps contrary to your own reading of the situation, we of the 99% (or even the 47%) do not begrudge wealth. Far from it. We, in fact, frequently laud those who achieve high monetary earnings by having their names inserted in History Textbooks or adorning sports arenas (difficult to determine which is the higher honor). Andrew Carnegie. Walt Disney. Henry Ford. Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. What separates you from their ilk is that in acquiring their fortunes, these men (and they almost always are MEN, aren't they?) produced products and/or ideas that have tangibly enhanced each of us, rich and poor alike. You, though, created your comma-festooned bank accounts by way of the cutting edge of accounting. You were paid money for making money, never daring to offer services to the plebeians. You made deals among fellow financial astronauts well above the troposphere of influence the majority of us have access to. To put it bluntly, we don't feel like we got anything out of it. Wellllll, Staples, I suppose. And where *would* we be without Staples? Probably shopping at Office Max.

Obviously you have no *obligation* incumbent upon you to give us anything in return. You are, naturally, free to do as you like. But every penny invested in a garage car-elevator for one of your five absurdly huge vacation homes while you preach on the myriad virtues of privatization feels like an ever-loudening raspberry blown in our collective ears. Thus, I have for you an extremely simple way to better make your point and perhaps acquire a modicum of public goodwill: build a museum.

Now, clearly "simple" is a relative term. This task would be beyond arduous for most of the inhabitants of this country. But for a man whose tax return contains pages numbering in the hundreds, this is a walk in the gated-community park.

There are conditions, of course. If you were to, say, build a museum dedicated to the life of Willard M. Romney, then I doubt you would receive unanimous accolades. I think probably an art museum would be the safest bet. Since you are so quick to dismiss public arts funding, we might be more willing to accept your argument were you to participate in a bit of the private sort.

Also, you really oughtn't use this as a forum for specifically political or religious ideological advancement, as that would merely add more non-biodegradable fuel to the cynical fire already miles high. But if you manage to avoid those reasonable pitfalls, you can pretty much do as you please. Pick any art you like. Pick art *only* you like. Have exhibits dedicated to exhibiting great artists of the Latter-Day Saints faith. There is not yet such a museum, and even non-religious folk like myself would have no problem with that, as scores of masterpieces throughout history have been created by the faithful. Art does not require fairness in presentation so long as it is personal and passionate.

The lone consideration left to make on this subject is this: do not talk about it. Make an announcement of intent that is devoid of any attempts at humor, gallantry, or philosophizing. Upon its opening, if you must speak, give the most boring speech you can concoct. Set up a trust fund to hopefully maintain this project in perpetuity and then... disappear. Stay away from the limelight and keep to the hermetic circles in which you ran before entering public life. You can then live out the remainder of your days in relative peace and comfort. If all goes well, you won't need to say one word more. Your deed will speak for itself.

Today's Song For Your Ears To Taste: "Thick As A Brick" by Jethro Tull


~S-B

Sunday, October 28, 2012

(or) The Pied Piper Of Nazareth





I found this booklet lying purposefully on a seat in the subway train. Like any good piece of public art, I added my perspective and left it where I found it, awaiting the next step in its evolution.



Music for your ears to taste: "Origin Of The Species" by MC Frontalot



~S-B

(or) The New Automatic Writer, Powered By Mere Alcohol!

I do not frequently imbibe alcohol; my position being: if I want to poison myself, I'll gnaw on the contents of my landlord's mouse trap, and if I want to stop being sober, I'd sooner trust the contents of children's cold medicine. However, occasionally circumstances dictate that I engage in distasteful activities, if only to prove my inherent badassery to my more dipsomaniacal fellows. Upon putting that erstwhile plant matter in my innocent innards and eventually finding myself alone amidst the chattering crowd, I engaged in the closest thing I'll probably get to automatic writing. The results follow:

The cacophony of ages drains helplessly upon the aegis stomach of nighttime splendor. And kind whimsy can find a spot for comfort in the dragon-child laxity of coiled expense. The gourd of magic is passed into the mental typhoon. Hyperactive classes won't fly with me tonight. Alight and sigh between heaves of nocturne follicles. Corn and spiders be everywhere not morose. Coinage of might is the only way of spending growing sane. Try nothing and be happy. Hip hags and cripples aim for gypping the the go-to men for men of power. Monsters glitter and gored plates disdain the organ player at their peril. Corridors of navel trees abound in the etheric logo. Plinths and planks and plums point power and pink pale pools up, pound by pound. Is there a magazine of brazen logs, fired loud and flagrant?

The Middle.


Music For Your Ears To Taste: "Escape From Nebula M Spacehunter" by Daikaiju


~S-B

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Can't Rightly Imply Talent Is Crucial


 I love me some Christian Slater. I know. I can't explain it. He's not the greatest actor in the world (though he's probably better than you think if you haven't seen “He Was A Quiet Man”). He doesn't star in amazing movies. And I'm not gay. There's just something about him. He's able to project his charisma off the screen in a fashion few other actors can. He can even make otherwise unbearable films (such as “The Wizard” and “Alone In The Dark”) tolerable. And while I first learned about him through his gosh-darn-it-at-least-he's-trying British-dialect-butchering performance in “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves,” he cemented his cinematic excellence in my mind via the film “Kuffs.”

“Kuffs” is an early 90's coming-of-age story about a young, hip slacker who's given guff by his elders and continually shows himself to be smarter than they are. I'm sure you're simply flabbergasted at the display of singular creativity employed there. What makes it special, though, is the presentation. The film opens with a bit of written exposition explaining that in the 1800's, the citizens of San Francisco found themselves overwhelmed with crime and so split the city into districts looked after by “Patrol Specials,” essentially a private police force. Christian Slater portrays the eponymous George Kuffs, the underachieving younger brother of Brad Kuffs (played by Bruce Boxleitner), a district owner and Patrol Special in San Francisco, who is gunned-down by a gangster for refusing to sell the district. George then inherits the district and, in the name of his brother, takes on the job of Patrol Special himself, despite being completely unqualified. He finds himself at odds with his staff, the Police, and his brother's killer. Hilarity ensues. Sort of.

The thing about this film is that it alternates between several drastically different tones: at times airy and humorous, other times deadly serious, and occasionally soft and romantic; but it manages these tone shifts extremely well. It maintains a consistency of narrative where none of the elements feel out of place. I credit this chiefly to Christian Slater. He lets us believe he can be the same character in each of these situations without losing credulity in all the others, mainly through his talking directly to the camera. While so many of the actions Kuffs takes could easily cause us to recoil or write him off, his casual breaking of the fourth wall allows Slater's charisma to draw us in and makes us feel part of his life. We understand his decisions, stupid though they may often be, and, in spite of them, we root for him to win. Throw in a catchy score by Harold Faltermeyer, excellent acting by all the other players (including Milla Jovovich and Tony Goldwyn), and a surprisingly well-constructed script and you've got a movie that I just adore.






~S-B



[Edit: Upon finding the "Kuffs" trailer, I discovered this one, which could possibly be the greatest movie trailer in the history of lampshades.

Or even, MOVIES. 

~S-B]