November 21, 2008 at 12:47 pm (Art, You Tubes)
“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.” ~Rene Magritte
Muto Wall Animation by Blu is a catchall for some of my favorite things including:
Like it.
November 18, 2008 at 1:38 pm (Art, Books, Distractions)
“If the next generation is to face the future with zest and self-confidence, we must educate them to be original as well as competent” ~Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Der Spaziergang by Marc Chagall
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of my favorite modern thinkers. He studies creativity and positive psychology. He’s most well known for his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience where he deconstructs the experience of being “in the groove” when time flies, tasks are engaging, work is pleasurable, and needs fall away. Good stuff. I’m partial to his book on Creativity, which mostly focuses on innovations in Math and Science. I think this book should be required reading for all 9th graders to inspire them to greatness. I’ll email Obama. Why not? He emails me.
Anyway, Jenova Chen took Csikszentmihalyi’s theory on flow to develop an active Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment for a computer game. Not that any of this detail matters. The game is a fun time waster, and I haven’t posted one of them in a while.
November 16, 2008 at 2:24 pm (Art, News)
“Marriage is a wonderful institution…but who wants to live in an institution?” ~Groucho Marx
Picasso
If you follow these things, you know that sensible people are pretty angry about Proposition 8 being passed in California. It’s a same-sex marriage ban that was pushed into the books by some Mormons. Yep, we’re blaming the Mormons, especially the polygamists. Forget the people who voted for it. They’re just a buncha Mormon lovers.
Actually, the blame finger points to money, lots of money, from Mormons. So, follow the logic … the people who voted to ban same-sex marriage are just monkeys who vote for things because some flashy commercial told them to. That sounds about right.
I honestly don’t understand why anyone cares who marries whom. I try to understand. I do. I’m especially galled that the people who funded the push against same-sex marriage support polygamy. This is some sort of extreme homophobia.
I’m not saying that I judge, or would restrict the rights, of people who want to be in poly relationships. I’m all for it, in fact. To each his own. I’m just saying that if you’re asking for consideration outside of the norm for your own clan, it stands to reason that you’d have a little compassion for another group of people who are breaking the mold.
While I think Prop. 8 is a shame, I live in a state that has a de facto ban on same sex marriage insomuch as we’ve never legalized it nor do we recognize domestic partnerships, civil unions, or reciprocal beneficiaries. (Although, as far as I know, we haven’t joined the states that have constitutional amendments to ban it). I’m not blaming the Mormons here in PeeYay.
Nevertheless, Prop 8 got me thinking about the possible religion-logic that says marriage is between a man and a woman (or a man and women if you’re Mormon). If it’s true that religion is tool for social control, then what’s the motivation for disallowing same-sex marriage? Tongue firmly in cheek, I’m going to take some guesses:
Ow. My head hurts. This is completely silly, right? I mean, I was half-seriously trying to figure the religion-logic, but I’ve steered off course, haven’t I? I’m missing some fundamental (focus on “mental”) piece of the religion-logic pie. It might be that they think that being gay is a choice.
I don’t know why the Mormons don’t just change their crazy bigoted minds about this. They’ve done it before. Mormons used to be racists. Really racist. Like “dark skinned people are the devil” racists. Until they saw the light at the end of the wallet.
Maybe these Mormons with money to throw around think that gay people are too smart to fall for an about-face of their beliefs. So, instead they tried to bend the world to their wacky perspective . . . because non-gays aren’t that smart and they’ll fall for flashy commercials that tell them what to do. Looks like they were right.
November 6, 2008 at 4:45 pm (Consumerism, You Tubes)
“I was about to give up but you came just in time, with your sweet touch of love.” Allen Toussaint
As if Axe body spray isn’t a disgusting enough product, they had to go and put their stank on Allen Toussaint in this grotesque ad for “Dark Temptation.”
Aside from using a song that I love from a brilliant, legendary, and uber-cool New Orleans songwriter, this commercial makes me cringe at nearly every scene. Shot for shot, they include:
1. Guy turns into cartoonish chocolate man after applying deodorant. Does the spray smell sweet like chocolate or is this just a metaphor? Either way, it’s not good. Plus, cartoon chocolate man is creepy.
2. He pulls off his nose and crumbles it on ice cream cones two women are eating. A.) Skinny women don’t eat ice cream. B.) That woman in the hat on the right looks like she smelled doodie. C.) Booger chocolate? Yum. Thanks, Chocolate Man.
3. Two women in a movie theater attack chocolate man’s ears like a dogs to a cow femur. Why not just pluck the ear off and munch it in her seat while watching the movie? Are we supposed to believe that women can be lured into a public threesome with chocolate? How angry would you be if you were sitting behind them?
4. Chocolate man brings the hospitalized cute blond his hand in a box. First, people in the hospital are not sexy. They’re sick. But, ok, so he’s gone to cheer her up. But, I’ve never seen such a fake laugh in my life. I can’t even hear it and I can still tell it’s forced. Man, that is some bad acting. I think she might have hurt herself.
5. Girl on the bus bites chocolate man’s butt then chews it like a cow with its cud. Gross.
6. Women at the gym run to the plate glass window to paw against it. Aside from the obvious ridiculousness of this, these women are again the most unnaturally acting people I’ve ever seen. Who moves like that? I can’t find one woman in the whole shot that gestures like a real person.
7. Chocolate man’s arm gets ripped off by someone (no doubt another zombie-woman). Again, ew.
And yet, I’m compelled to watch it because “Sweet Touch of Love” is such a great song. It’s not about a ladies man, besieged by women because he’s as “Irresistible as Chocolate.” It’s a simple love song from a man to his woman. “You brought out the best in me, made me leave the rest of me behind.” Here’s the whole song:
That’s the sweet touch of love.
November 5, 2008 at 1:57 am (News)
“Yes We Can.” ~Lots of Americans, Nov. 5, 2008
President Elect Obama, good luck. I wonder if this means that David Plouffe will stop emailing me. Probably not.
Excuse me now, I’m going to go exhale. (A cautiously optimistic exhale.)
November 2, 2008 at 2:49 pm (News)
“In its broad strokes, McCain’s life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. … Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers’ powerful friends, both failed upward.” ~Tim Dickinson in “Make-Believe Maverick” for Rolling Stone
(This video is another fun GoDrex find. Thanks, Gary.)
I’m not advocating that people vote using their gut feelings. But, it happens. If you find yourself saying “I just like McCain,” without having any policy issues to back it up, then let me take a moment to talk to your gut.
So, you like McCain because you think he’s a stand-up guy, war hero, and a so-called centrist? You’d prefer to have a beer with McCain than Obama? If you have time, take a look at Tim Dickinson’s article Make-Believe Maverick in Rolling Stone. There are lots of fun little anecdotes…I know you’re busy, so I’ll excerpt some here:
“McCain was not only a lousy student, he had his father’s taste for drink and a darkly misogynistic streak. The summer after his sophomore year, cruising with a friend near Arlington, McCain tried to pick up a pair of young women. When they laughed at him, he cursed them so vilely that he was hauled into court on a profanity charge.”
Misogynistic, you say?:
“During his 1992 campaign, at the end of a long day, McCain’s wife, Cindy, mussed his receding hair and needled him playfully that he was ‘getting a little thin up there.’ McCain reportedly blew his top, cutting his wife down with the kind of language that had gotten him hauled into court as a high schooler: ‘At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.’ Even though the incident was witnessed by three reporters, the McCain campaign denies it took place.”
She might have had it coming. McCain also picks on kids:
“McCain’s frequently inappropriate humor has also led many to question his self-control. In 1998, the senator told a joke about President Clinton’s teenage daughter at a GOP fundraiser. ‘Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?’ McCain asked. ‘Because her father is Janet Reno!’”
His claims to have learned from his Keating Five mistakes might be exaggerated:
“Unfortunately, any lessons McCain learned from the Keating scandal didn’t affect his unbridled enthusiasm for deregulating the finance industry. ‘He continues to follow policies that create the same kind of environment we see today, with recurrent financial crises and epidemics of fraud led by CEOs,’ says Black, the former S&L regulator.”
He’s been called self-righteous and mercurial:
“Over the years, John McCain has demonstrated a streak of anger so nasty that even his former flacks make no effort to spin it away. “If I tried to convince you he does not have a temper, you should hang up on me and ridicule me in print,” says Dan Schnur, who served as McCain’s press man during the 2000 campaign. Even McCain admits to an “immature and unprofessional reaction to slights” that is “little changed from the reactions to such provocations I had as a schoolboy.”
And don’t forget dangerous and temperamental Napoleon:
“Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has said that McCain’s ‘temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him.’ Sen. Domenici of New Mexico has said he doesn’t ‘want this guy anywhere near a trigger.’ And Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi weighed in that ‘the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded.’”
Worse than W.?:
“‘He’s going to be Bush on steroids,’ says Johns, the retired brigadier general who has known McCain since their days at the National War College. ‘His hawkish views now are very dangerous. He puts military at the top of foreign policy rather than diplomacy, just like George Bush does. He and other neoconservatives are dedicated to converting the world to democracy and free markets, and they want to do it through the barrel of a gun.’”
You still want to have a beer with him? He might regale you with false tales about his heorism, insult you if you disagree with him, make fun of your ugly kids, and call you the c-word if you don’t let him grope your knee. But it would probably be more fun than going out with a professorial intellectual like Obama who is not a socialist but knows what the word means and who also knows the meaning of “maverick” and “President.”
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