Herman's 5 fatal
flaws of movie critiquing !
Finally. Here it is in print. For
those of you who know me, know Herman's 5 fatal flaws of movie critiquing.
If a movie contains any of these elements I AM GOING TO LIKE THE MOVIE,
based on concept alone.
NO MATTER HOW BAD a movie REALLY is, I will like it if it has any of these
things in it, or deals with them in some way, based on the idea alone.
That's why I call them fatal flaws. The more of my fatal flaws a movie
has, the more I'm going to love it.
[i.e.. The Matrix, Fight Club, 12 Monkeys, Dark City] Those are multi-category!
In fact everything Terry Gilliam has ever done is a multi-category Herman
movie. He is the bomb!
I guess I'm just a sucker for a concept. My kryptonite. My weakness.
#1
Time Travel or Non-Linear Time Line
Yes. Even Back to the Future 3, in the old west. I know that's a bad movie
but I'm a sucker for time travel.
Too much Dr. Who & H.G. Wells & Star Trek as a young child.
That's why they’re fatal flaws. No matter how bad the movie is, I'm
still going to like it.
[i.e.. Time After Time, The Time Machine, Back to the Future, Somewhere in
Time, 12 Monkeys, the 13th floor ]
Or movies that time is played with or altered and is important in telling
the story as to present another "angle" or perspective.
I like the multi-perspective aspect and/or non-linear time line.
[ie. Run Lola Run, Time Code, Highlander, Groundhog Day, Memento ]
[See flaws 2 & 5]
Or the entire film is set so far in the future or past that the whole film
is contrasting it's world to our present reality / world.
I'm a bit of a futurist. Dreamer. Thinker.
[Brazil , A Clockwork Orange, Gattaca]
#2
Alternate Reality . There are at least 2 planes of existence in the movie.
Altered States.
There is reality & a dream world. And they blend somehow or both are
represented.
There is sanity & insanity , Or split personalities or drug world
existence or computer altered state of some sort .
Or some other dimension. Insanity.
A character is way out of touch with reality.
I was an abnormal psychology major in college.
Life is but a dream.
Questioning what is real , what is dream, & how do we know for sure
the difference.
The key or doorway is here.
I watched too much of the old Twilight Zones as a child.
[i.e.. Lawnmower Man , Naked Lunch , Dark City, Fight Club, Altered
States, Matrix, Until the end of the World, Frankenstien Unbound,
Strangedays, Existenz , Carver's Gate, Trainspotting, Hellraiser,
Twillight Zone, Wings of Desire, Contact, the Fisher King, the Beat, The
Truman Show , Pi , Brain Storm ,
The Last Temptation of Christ , The Game , Fear & Loathing in Las
Vegas , Heavenly Creatures , Barfly , Tron , My Own Private Idaho ,
Buckaroo Banzai , Vanilla Sky , Being John Malkovich , Baron Munchausen ]
Or when the main character completely loses it. Transformation.
Goes postal. Goes crazy. Gets fed up &
isn't gonna take it any more.
A slow [or all of a sudden] altering of the lead character's senses.
[ie. Falling Down , From the Hip, Heavenly Creatures, The Wall , Brazil ,
Taxi Driver , Fisher King , American Beauty , Requiem for a Dream ]
"Everywhere is a man about to explode."
#3
Psychic Powers.
I remember seeing "Escape to Witch Mountain" for the first time
when I was little.
Man, did I wish I had telekinetic abilities.
I read all the books on "how to improve your psychic powers".
I'm a touch psychic in real life. It's touched my real world life in
profound ways. The human mind fascinates me.
[i.e.. Dark City, Matrix, The Dead Zone, The Sixth Sense, The Gift, Dune ]
#4
Thought provoking nature. How long the movie makes me think.
This is touched on in several of the fatal flaws & a bit ambiguous.
No matter how bad the movie is , if the subject matter makes me think
about something after I get home. The more I am provoked to think the
better.
It might inspire me , or get me to think about the films ideas/concepts,
or even just the potential of what the film could be and where it takes me
to emotionally or mentally.
I like thinking. Being inspired. Provoked. Even confused .
Something for me to work out. The longer i think about the movie or movie
ideas or the direction the movie led me the better. It doesn't matter what
I think about , as long as I get ideas as a result of watching the film.
The more ideas the better. Philosophical.
I don't like to be particularly spoon fed either. [see #5]
The longer I think about the movie the more I like it.
It's staying power. If it makes me think of things that have happened to
me, or the future, or gets me to think of ideas it didn't quite get to.
Inspiration. Thought provoking. Gives us something to talk about.
[i.e.. Being John Malkovich , The 13th floor, Mindwalk , Housekeeping,
American Beauty, After Life, Character , Smoke, Pulp Fiction,
Dr. Strangelove, Ms. Parker & the Vicious Circle , Twin Peaks ,
Metropolis,
The cook, the thief, his wife & her lover, & lots of Peter
Greenaway ]
#5
Double [or multiple] meaning ambiguity.
The movie gets you to question essential elements of the plot so you
question the intent of the author to keep it open ended for multiple
interpretations. Or the films rides the fence in such a way to make you
consider opposing viewpoints, both as legitimate.
Sometimes mixing the literal with metaphorical interpretations.
I like the open endedness of possible multiple interpretations.
[ie. Lost Highway , Twin Peaks & all David Lynch stuff , Jacob's
Ladder ,
The Rapture , Bergman's "Persona" , Jean Cocteau's
"Orpheus" , Hedwig & The Angry Inch, and all those early
surreal classics like Mya Deren's "Meshes in the Afternoon"
]
American Psycho in the last 5 minutes - did he really ever kill anyone?
[ In Hedwig & the Angry Inch, Is it possible that Hedwig & Tommy
are the same person all along, split personalities?
I know its not the main thing your suppose to get ,
but it seems to explore/present both as possible. It's Ambiguous.]
And as I said before, I don't really like to be spoon fed. I like to
think.
And beyond that, these movies sort of explore how I think.
Dreamlike , stream of consciousness, psychological , sub-conscious.
I especially like the open endedness because it seems to say "However
YOU , the viewer, interpret the film , yours is a valid
interpretations."
Whether you get one layer, or the potential [or ambiguity] for other
layers/interpretations it seems to add to the depth or dimension of the
film. I like meaning & depth quite a bit. I dig the deep end of the
pool.
And this fatal flaw seems to build off that.
Multi-perspective. Multi-perception. More to it. More substance.
Is what is going on , really going on ?
It's quite thought provoking. [see #4]
There are multiple views of what's going on.
Open to interpretation. Sometimes controversial & misunderstood.
Your confusion is the point.
ok. Not really. Maybe I like to be challenged. Like to be made to think.
Like to wonder. Left in awe. Blown away.
"The swirl of a blue dress.
The depth of water."
Some of
these are hard to distinguish one from the other.
Where does one end & the next begin ?
Many of my favorite movies combine many of these traits.
If a movie has anything like what I've described I'm sure to like it .
Just on concept alone. And of course, there are movies that I love alot
that don't have these things in them. For example, My sense of humor is
all over the place, with no rhyme or reason
[ie. Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels, The Young Ones, The Man Who
Knew Too Little, The Princess Bride , Mystery Men [now that's good
cheese!] ]
So a movie by no means has to have my 5 fatal flaws in them.
But if the movie does have these elements DO NOT take my word on it as a
good movie ! I'm going to like it regardless. You may like the better
movies I mention, but I also love the bad movies that are like those
good ones you like. – Herman Snell
A perfect moment
" I saw a plane today flying low over the land.
But my mind was somewhere else."
----Laurie Anderson
Call it mystical design & kiss liped magic smooth skin to crashing
hips overdew.
Withdrawn now for over a year.
I breathe in, missing parts
erase in their delicate precision.
like the lines of my hands
telling secrets only someone else could understand.
Eyes closed
speaking some lost language that only 2 mouths together can speak.
......
"If wishes were stars, there would be no night." - -j.aaron
board
......
Before that it was friday...
Yummy Tai food , Queen of the damned & Dragonfly . not so yummy.
Queen of the damned was just a bit to pop-goth- rock I'm too cool for
school in its attitude & presentation that At times made me ill. I
assumed Dragonfly wouldn't be very good , but it was starting next & I
had time to kill with no expectations. 2 for 1 special.
Everyone disses Kevin Costner so bad these days.
I wonder when diss or dissed will make it in the dictionary.
I love Laurie Anderson.
Then watched David Lynch's "On the Air" episode 1 @ Monte's
friday night & then
one of my favorite foreign movies... "After
Life" .
I've written about it before on my
web site , but watching it again & my friend Sam sending me
a personality survey that asks about your most memorable moments of your
life.
Which is what after life gets you to do ...
In Star Trek "Insurrection" the people have an almost buddhist
approach to living life. Being aware & more alive in the moment. NOW.
They say in the movie it takes several of our lifetimes to master.
They give up their technology & live simply.
They gave up traveling the heavens.
"We realised that there are more worlds in the here & now to
discover than in all the heavens." I'm naturally a very deep person.
And this really struck me hard , deeply , & profoundly. It's so
buddhist. Taking everything in. That there is more to discover in the
simple moments we live in everyday. More depth. In the movie the present
they experince actually slows down, so they are able to take it MORE .
Have you ever experienced , as they say, a "perfect moment" ?
Where you sense how special "NOW" is while it is happening, as
almost magical.
Or at least nostalgic memorable. Awed by it.
After which we sometimes say " I can die now."
I remember saying "I can die now." After the very first time I
saw Siouxsie & the Banshees many years ago. Mindblowing Diva , stage
presence that she is.
But what moments of your life would you want to live in forver....
When I've watched After Life, the following have come to mind.....
The
first time I saw it.
1999.
Loden about age 4 1/2 . Perhaps about 5.
He and I were in my living room building with tinkertoys & lincoln
logs.
All kinds of crazy contraptions we were building together.
Just like i did hundreds of times when i was his age.
And we're goofing off , making really wacky tinkertoy gizmos, making them
flip & turn & such. And Loden makes 2 drum sick mallets with the
tinkertoys & turns the cans for the tinkertoys & lincoln logs over
& starts drumming all fast & furious.
I quickly put together me a pair of mallets & begin to play along.
We jammed , drumming on the empty cans for like 20 minutes.
........
I remember all these moments as a child playing pretend.
Strange games with invisible electric walls to mark the area not to get
out of.
All kinds of rules for the game.
One time I played all day with friends in a hugely wooded, overgrown,
muddy ditch.
I went home filthy. Covered head to toe in mud.
......
when i was 3 or 4 [1974] me and my parents went on these long driving
trips.
My sister whose 6 years younger wasn't born yet.
We drove alot @ night , my dad had a white Monte Carlo,
I wanted him to have a green mustang like a teenage boy up the road.
You know that area behind the back seat , where the speakers are,
@ the back glass....
I would lay across that area , across the width of the car.
i was small enough to fit perfectly , without bending my knees.
Back then parents weren't as worried about strapping kids in & all
that.
i would put my cheek against the cold glass [rear window] and get a bit of
a view of the stars above.
I would stay there for what seemed like all night.
Staring at stars for hours.
I dont remember thinking anything at all. Just wonder.
So many stars on deserted highways.
I've always like astronomy.
.....
In 1985 , 11th grade i believe it was. We had a new girl , who was a
friend of a friend show up in our French class a few weeks after school
had started.
By the end of the day every boy in school was talking about this new
exotic , drop dead beautiful , punkish girl . She turned up in my French
class that afternoon.
We became friends. And like every boy in school , fell heavy for her.
I came to learn of her much older bad-boy , boyfriend. Grew to hate him as
the object of my object of my affection. "He's too old for you".
all that. He was the only person she had ever dated . So long time
boyfriend.
[He & I a year or so later became good friends & still are today
by the way.]
But,one day..
All the winners of the school science fair all went to the state science
fair trip @ Mississippi State University to compete. I think I did mine of
Psychic powers that year.
Another year was "Life on Mars". Another year,
"abnormalities of the human brain.
Our school won more awards than any other school. We were a new artsy
"Alternative High School", [for smart kids not reject
"alternative" schools.] kind of like Montesorri for big kids. I
won a pretty high up place got to go to the regional science fair.
So we were all stoked about winning it so big.
I sat by Kathy on the bus , on the way home late that night.
Very cool.
She got the coolest music from her boyfriend.
She had a walkman with 2 headphone jacks so we both listened to it @ the
same time.
Pitch black travelling.
The tape was better than any music I had heard. I had loved the early MTV
days with all the british videos. Men @ Work, Men Without Hats, Talking
Heads, the Police.
But on this tape was more obscure than what I'd been exposed to.
Some rarer, cooler Human League, Billy Idol, Falco, Siouxsie & the
Banshees ,
Psychedlic Furs & ULTRAVOX.
We had my jacket over us cause it was chilly. A bit scrunched down in the
seat.
And over the course of the beautiful Ultravox songs. His passionate voice,
great songs about love & closeness & such....
Under the cover of my jacket & dark , we held hands ...
& listened to the tape. U2's "Two hearts beat as one." ,
Modern English "Love breaks down", Slyfox "lets go all the
way", B-52's "Strobelight", Billy Idol "Eyes without a
Face."
With the most beautiful & exotic & only punk girl I had ever
known.
I was living this teenage boy dream . Just holding her hand.
Sweaty palms.
It changed my idea of music. Of love. Of life.
I will never forget that night.
Her boyfriend made me a copy of that tape, and weeks later she had broken
up with the boyfriend & we started dating.
Which all led to me picking up the whole Alternative look & love of
music back then , among other things too.
We broke up & dated many other times the next few years and shared a
few other perfect moments.
But that virginal , adrenaline feed night , listening thru those
headphones, holding her forbidden hand.
She was engaged with him @ the time, waiting for her to graduate high
school.
I'll never forget that night.
The
Singular is Plural. The Plural is Singular. (prose)
So be it , that we letter & scowl the impervious comfort of habit.
Peeling & cracked 2 times the left must mind along to the slow
dragging
Of a rootless realm no longer able to distinguish any step closer or
further from oblivion
To the day you were born. Every got . Every last
Monthly fee in the aft
Mortal & wasting & lining the lot
The starry medicine down to push its parts
Clast to the innermost velvet & fray on the crease
Casual tried circle of sober, like had , or was,
Behind. Beyond. Below. Beside
Wasting In used future
Wanting to know what he wanted
Having leaves & lefts
& users & letter's draft into smoke
In this season of verticals
Dreamgather the similar
From a small large small
ARE READING NOW
the black lint fiction.
pure dead magic .
the impossibility of [her] everthing .
we know the latest issue
and will keep eyes peeled.
WHAT'S ON YOUR FAVOURITE fun for you like cathedral and life?
they castle life now.
and i read and special living
all of those but the maxim
[i]
at the libob.
SMELL clean luna,
fall air in the coming rain,
rain favorite boy
& back of neck.
especially,
SOUND's sighs moans any boy-grunt waves
or running wind birds en masse
REAL words from someone you love
because she wakes me
every slate blue-grey, all greys
that wear
my girl and boy would be
making the world
in your own inspiring optimista hedonista
juicy run down your arm
my most special favorite
i
soul weird i like
in this silly question
why no not my stuck my had was late
SLEEP dep end whether or not.
i love what type the sweet saturn
that i am now
(see be
surprised...)
i travel in and
use as i
that could go anywhere
something that could
with a serious how
about an antique land
but painted in
[IF YOU COULD].
ALIVE WOULD IT BE?
probably -.
a VERY hard
LOT
DRINK i like
and wine
WHAT IS
DO EAT THE STEM OF Yes
BEEN LOVE dear god, yes.
several times a day,
some time IS THE HALF EMPTY FULL
to this
one lot Half full shot full
run down
are heavenly creatures
i have tried
FINGERS ON THE KEY
are right fingers and right keys
YOU BED empty boxes,
luggage, dust
a FAVOURITE NUMBER
FAVOURITE SPORT
TO WATCH middle and high school if.
kids i know! are playing games.
SAY ONE SENT TO YOU
one most met brilliant
almost [f]righten
i that friend
someone who prove evolve for more
abil to hunt.
NAME .
THIS
TO IS MOST LIKELY
[TO] RESPOND i'd say
i'm hoping .
he and i have some lovely going on ...
I
enjoy painting abstract art & use movement & incorporate it into
my 4 sided & 3 dimensional abstracts. www.revolvingpaintdream.com .
I guess i think of myself as a fairly free-thinking, philosophical,
creative, eclectic, somewhat weird & eccentric stream of
consciousness
smart , thoughtful, unconventional type.
****
I like the movies a clockwork orange, after life,
baraka, barfly, brazil, character, dark city,
dr. strangelove, wings of desire, fight club,
frankenstein unbound, heavenly creatures, housekeeping, lost highway,
matrix, mindwalk,
my own private idaho, mystery men, smoke, prosperos books, fear &
loathing in las vegas, trainspotting.
****
People who have influenced me are
buckminster fuller, david lynch, douglas adams,
e.e.cummings, fritjof capra, hermann hesse, hunter s. thompson, , j.
krisnamurti, jim carroll, jim morrison, jorge luis borges, julio
cortazar, laurie anderson, terrence mckenna, neil gaiman, pablo neruda,
peter greenaway, wilhelm reich, william s. burroughs, wim wenders,
r.d.laing, richard bach, thoureau, salvador dali, alan watts, andre
breton, rod serling, robert anton wilson, aldous huxley.
**** I like bands like laika, bauhaus, curve, pink floyd, portishead,
pram, sigur ros, soft boys, spacemen 3, the church, the creatures,
velvet underground; dreampop, spacerock, shoegaze, drone, elephant 6,
creation, too pure, , indie, early new wave, and punk.
If we ARE all connected, then to a certain extent
there is only one entity alive.
Global brain, gaia, borg, one with the universe, nirvana, whole systems
theory, etc... We use different terminology that comes with it certain
dogmatic principles. But stripped clean to simplicity, they are not that
different. What one calls faith can be science and vice versa. Aspects of
Understanding truth takes an almost infinite number of forms. None of what
you said is strange at all. There is nothing unnatural. There is only a
natural more or less common. It can all be part of the scientific psyche.
Our connection to external forces simply go beyond what we currently
understand about how our psyche connects. No matter how impossible it
seems, our psyche can process it into language we try to make sense of.
There is nothing mystical, we only interpret as unknown voodoo we cannot
explain yet.
it doesnt mean it doesnt exsist, only we lack the proper understanding of
its natural order. it seems the things that freak you out, I get ammused
by. Simply find interesting, get what I can from them, and leave the rest
behind.
My best friends generally are atheist or agnostic or gnostic. I was once a
very negative person. For myself life was too short for such dwellings. I
changed 100%.
Over my natural inclination for such things (like yourself) I have
studied, I have delved into all mannor of stimuli to tap into glimpses of
altered consciousness. In these altered states the mind can offset
placement, perspective, point of reference, give a glimpse into our own
personal and philospical language that we call self. The process of
leaving one self, stepping aside, such as doctor proclimations as
misfires. The brain's chemistry falling of track, rerouting the system
temporarily.
I am very intereted in subconscious/unconscious workings of the brain.
Certainly chemical imbalance can cause much distress and unhappiness and
have harmful consequences. Its difficult to keep ones self in check during
such alienation. One must be able to mentally "surf oneself". To
get on top the confusion and weird , turn off everything, and simply ride.
You are there on top, timing it out.
No worries. You'll try to make sense of it later down the line. You just
have to be careful of oneself when there, you have to ride it, not let it
ride you.
The overwhelming sense of chaos and disorder can reveal glimpses into
aspects of yourself which have yet to be unlocked.
Most people never have that opportunity, nor or they open to it.
What we make of things is the important thing. It's quite logical and
learned. Trying to understand whats not worth bothering with, and (fight
club) "let that which does not matter, TRUELY slide". And
appreciating whats their to appreciate, NO MATTER how they happen to come
to you.
So you dont remember to much from the month of your birth ?
I too have had only a handful of truly unique experiences. One was merely
a dream after an experience , .... sort of a mental followup I suppose. I
mind unlocking my person code of meaning, symbolism, understanding, etc...
One I taken outside of time, I could see how it worked from the outside.
They were so powerful they would change me. I had such clarity for many
moons. They would eventually fade into everyday occurance. Years would
pass, I would have another some sort of inspirational ephiphony, that
would come on like a some sort of psychic message from some other aspect
of a more advanced version of myself.
Sometimes it was a connection through what can only be described as former
and future incarnations of myself.
I seemed to have broken that barrier in some brief instant.
The feeling that those experiences would leave on me would stay longer.
The revelations learned through those satori(s) I saw meaning in, in
everyday life.
And now, I have experienced enough to know what I know.
And be open to life. The fleeting moments of intensity are our personal
unconsciousness revealing our personal soul fuel. I no longer need a
strike upside the head to fuel my being. My eyes open, my walk balanced.
The more I am this way, the more my psyche and own personal savior unveils
itself. We have a nice dialogue. I think much of the symbolism in my
dreams are a bit silly and ego-filled purposeful complex, but thats part
of me too. Kind of like those silly rubics cube boxes in hellraiser. I
tell my unconscious, enough with the smoke & mirrors. Its good for the
oooooos and ahhhhhhs though. Like a magic show, "gentleman and
gentleman, I give you the true nature of yourself..."
Puff....
Don't let your scientific ego keep you from what you tell yourself is
dopey and cheesy and inspirational.
A little mental masterbation never hurt no one and it feels good.
Find pleasure in the ride.
Many connections are merely momentary and meaningless.
They are just you appreciating its simplicity.
Your own seriousness can be too controlled by ego.
Its not about you, its about seeing and experiencing the connections we
all share.
Its not at odds with your logic. We must be logical.
Its hard to know the difference between logic and doubt and the melu of
whether proof is what its about versus continuing the journey, to continue
the journey.
Such head games are only fueled by self-doubt and insecurities.
Dont get caught up in it, let it all slide.
Relax. uncomplecate. If it makes no sense then dont bother trying to make
sense of it.
See where the day takes you.
Its all good. If you dont have the words, thats ok.
Things change. No need to keep looking back trying to make sense. look
forward and new connections to that old self will happen. The ever
evolving you is exactly what it needs to be. right where you are sitting
now.
No need for want of a road map. Listen deep. See the world around you abit
slower.
(my nerd cap goes on) Like they say in Star Trek Insurrecion : "there
are more universes in the here and now than in all the heavens."
Its all going to be ok.
Whether its a brain tumor, or some other mental misfire or inability to
function as what most call "normal".
I certainly dont connect with the masses at large.
As a 13-14 year old I would suppose to all my friends ala. Dr. Seuss, how
we were all just some dust spec on the back of some grand toliet in the
shithouse of life. And the bugger's diaretic. So i know I was always
weird. I've just blossomed into a true freak in the freakdom.
Our own psyche will give us those hints that seem over complicated. We are
the programmer. i am totally not about organized religion of any kind.
Dont concentrate on the vagueness of past experience.
You can daydream slumming through nostalgia so as to see how one is
different now. but dont let that be your guiding force. The here & now
of you knows your language better.
Get your personal fuel where ever you can.
If you dont understand it, forget it now, do not dwell on it another
instant. Another january awaits to revail herself to you, as soon as your
mind thinks your ready to handle it. Not before. If you cant come to grips
with it, its not meant to be boxed. Its merely a glimpse of your personal
truth.
Donnie Darko is a personal favorite. I was even told, dude, thats the most
and weirdest "herman movie" I have ever seen. Alot of depth
there.
if it seems like more, than it is.
You only have your own internal sensors to interpret what you do or do not
get out of anything.
The more you appreciate and share (connect with others), the more you can
appreciate and share.
I totally believe in Synchronicity. I'm a big Jung
fan. I got into him when the Police album came out in the 80s. Be it
karma, luck, positive thinking or fate... The christians call it God's
plan, or divine intervention.
The buddhists believe nothing happens by accident.
Whatever happens, happens for a reason.
Its all good.
Truth
is relative to what I get out of it. I have seen several anti-urantia
propaganga things before. Thats the first MK ULtra one with Charlton
Heston voice as god.
It's the searching for what bits ring true to oneself that is important.
Nothing in this world is unaffected by human hands.
"Don't Believe in Anything" - The Psychedelic Furs
"Nothing is True. Everything is permissible."
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~dumber/ed.htm
No belief should be held on so tight as to be unable to undo it in the
potentiality of all things.
Its not just about respecting others belief to believe whatever they want.
To merely say nothing is absolute
isn't just about politically aware equality or scientific per se.
I generally think of all dogma as largely brain candy.
So specifics of rite, ritual, fact from some essene scroll, learning,
experience, prophecy, whether of not Christmas is a pagan rite.
While I see truth in gnosticism, the one track accumilation of knowledge
can be blinding. Whereas the pursuit itself can keep one from doing
anything with said knowledge, except collect and regurgitate it into a
vast warehouse of ego.
I find just as much noble effort in no mind, hypnogogia, sub/un-conscious,
and how such things effect our perceptions.
So it is entertaining to see how in so many different ways people touch on
truth, and at what point they get stuck. Whether or not spiritual and
religious beliefs are true are not, are JUST as UNimportant to me as
whether some fiction like the Matrix is "literally" real. Its
all aspects that can be a conduit for bits of truth. I enjoy thought
provoking anything, I enjoy it deeply.
I lost my great NEED for anything some time ago.
"I am what I am" as pipe tootin Popeye said.
An influx of new ideas helps us center ourselves and continually develop
our personal filter by which we discern the possibility of this influx of
new knowledge. We learn how it is true, and how it is not true. Whether
thats my (mis?-)education thru Dianetics, UFO's, gnosticism, or
experience.
I'm not looking for a guidebook. I file it in the footnotes as reference
in my own unwritten self-guided tour of absolution and being.
Ø
| Two things here are all-important to assure
> | oneself of
> | and to remember. The first is that a person is not
> | absolutely an individual. His thoughts are what
> | he is "saying to himself", that is, is saying
> | to that other self that is just coming into
> | life in the flow of time. When one reasons,
> | it is that critical self that one is trying
> | to persuade; and all thought whatsoever is a
> | sign, and is mostly of the nature of language.
> | The second thing to remember is that the man's
> | circle of society (however widely or narrowly
> | this phrase may be understood), is a sort of
> | loosely compacted person, in some respects of
> | higher rank than the person of an individual
> | organism. It is these two things alone that
> | render it possible for you -- but only in
> | the abstract, and in a Pickwickian sense --
> | to distinguish between absolute truth
> | and what you do not doubt.
> |
> | C.S. Peirce, 'Collected Papers', CP 5.421.
> |
> | Charles Sanders Peirce, "What Pragmatism Is",
> |'The Monist', Volume 15, 1905, pages 161-181,
> | Also in the 'Collected Papers', CP 5.411-437.
Say, thats nice.
It reminds me that each human at our essence is nothing more than a
collective of everyone & everything we have ever encountered.
An amalgam of friends, family, learning, experience...sharing.
Hasari Pal said that "All that is not given, is lost."
Living in such a way as to truely share oneself and be open to others
sharing themselves with us. The more we are open to the world around us
and interact with her, with as much of ourselves as we can, then our
individual collective we call self will become enriched and changed by
the things we encounter.
Adding a new voice to the sound of our own crowd.
Until you are me
And I am you.
"All
that is not given is lost." - Hasari Pal
Ø
Marriage
'tames' geniuses, criminals
> From correspondents in Paris
> July 10, 2003
>
> CREATIVE genius and crime express themselves early in men but both
are turned
> off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children, a study
says.
> Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in
New
> Zealand, compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great
scientists, noting
> their age at the time when they made their greatest work.
> The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert
> Einstein, who wrote in 1942: "A person who has not
> made his great contribution to
> science before the age of 30 will never do so."
> "Scientific productivity indeed fades with age," Kanazawa
says. "Two-thirds
> (of all scientists) will have made their most
> significant contributions before their mid-thirties."
> But, regardless of age, the great minds who married virtually kissed
goodbye
> to making any further glorious additions to their
> CV.
> Within five years of making their nuptial vows, nearly a quarter of
married
> scientists had made their last significant
> contribution to history's Hall of Fame.
> "Scientists rather quickly desist [from their careers] after
their marriage,
> while unmarried scientists continue to make great scientific
contributions
> later in their lives," says Kanazawa.
> The energy of youth and the dampening effect of
> marriage, he adds, are also
> remarkably similar among geniuses in music, painting and writing, as
well as in
> criminal activity.
> Previous studies have documented that delinquents are overwhelmingly
male,
> and usually start out on the road to crime in their teens.
> But those who marry well subsequently stop
> committing crime, whereas
> criminals at the same age who remain unmarried tend
> to continue their unlawful careers.
> Kanazawa suggests "a single psychological mechanism"
> is responsible for this:
> the competitive edge among young men to fight for glory and gain the
> attention of women. That craving drives the
> all-important male hormone, testosterone.
> After a man settles down, the testosterone level
> falls, as does his creative
> output, Kanazawa theorises.
> The study appears in in the August issue of the Journal of Research
in
> Personality, published by the Elsevier group.
--------------------
Its 2 different arguments whether having a spouse
turns one's creativity to shit or whether complacency
& routine & vibing a shared schedule or whether the
happiness itself turns the creativity off.
Each is a valid argument.
Having a spouse generally only temporarily infers a
bliss so great in distraction that all is reflected by
its tempered mirror. Some of the best Art is often
created from awful or fucked up feelings. We find more
humanistic truth in the suffering of others. It allows
us the luxury of sharing in their escape, their
passion, their longing.
Getting lost in the immensity of it.
Romance & cheesy flowers of embarrassment we generally
dont express to the masses. The intimate makes us out
of place in crowds. There is only Rumi or EE Cummings
today in the intimate. When we ourselves can feel as
they feel. We allow ourself to call into question our
happiness but not its absence. Even when we are happy
we understand and appreciate loss, but happiness is
all too alien to those without it.
Of course theres the argument that when one has a
significant other, one spends their expression on each
other.... love , hate, madness is all there at times,
but we are taught not to withdraw into our work , our
art, our despair. If we fail in endevoring to let out
our ideas to our loved one, we rot, or find another to
express it with, rather than express it alone. We are
in the business of sharing then, whether its as feeble
and lost in front of a tv or talking.
Having people in our lives is a neccesarry distraction.
If we need private time, our spouse too often calls
things into question, as if its unnatural to need to
do alone. The social male dynamic too often fucks
things up. We sometimes arent able to express our
"self needs" to people who are dependent on us. Or if
we do Weakness, ego, selfishness, or immaturity are
roles thought up.
We're suppose to be there for our mate, and child
first, over our needs.
Time for individuality (invention, art, etc....), goes
to the back burner of low priority.
I mean this in a survivialist primal, sub-conscious
way rather than touchy feely. When ego's get involved
art always suffers.
> now, does that mean that every single artist in the
> whole world who is happily married is null and void?
We always have drugs & schizophrenia. I always say the
crazies make damn fine art. Have a toke & get the urge
to shit on a canvas. I personally love stream of
consciousness art, or non-thinking art, trancy, or
trying to get a rise out of the subconscious. Oulipo.
dada, or merely something contemplative.
We just have to discard the old spouse every so often
& take time for us.
Its nice if our spouse needs private time also. Again,
if have to think of it as a right & need, not endemic
of a problem existing. "I need my space."
If one is sitting fat & lazy, like alot of folks these
days, inspiration is a whore.
We indeed become content, as you say. So theres no
desire to delve into the individual, but stay
connected to the pair. What are we gonna do, eat, drink, watch ?
We can get inspiration there. I'm a pretty decadent
mofo. The bliss can consume. When your running
inspiration adrenaline juice its a happy feel good
feeling & I think it makes good art. We just bogged
down in routine with spouse & we let the bliss juice
drain out our orifices, as expression. Rather than
expressing it artistically.
In the article they try to connect creativity to
testosterone. That we only have the desire to express
ourselves creativly is because it could help us get
laid. I think there is more to it than that.
Its some other argument why women make less art than
men. Is that true ?
Artists generally get laid pretty frequently. Maybe
thats one of the reasons they like being an artist, or
a rock star. The desire to be famous is a different
arguement though. Do artist create more if they have
mistresses on the side than the monogamous one ?
We say thats part of an artists nature to be decadent
& embrace life in all its passions.
Hell , young men often spend every waking minute trying to get laid ,
which keeps them from being artistic.
Thou art to me a delicious
torment.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
~William Shakespeare
He who knows others
is learned.
He who knows himself
is wise.
~Lao Tsu, The Character of Tao (6th Century BC)
Learn what you are and be such.
-Pindar, Odes (5th Century BC) Pythia
The ultimate gift of a conscious life is a sense of the mystery that
encompasses it.
-Lewis Mumford, "Orientation to Life," The Conduct of Life
(1951)
To know, to get into the truth of anything, is a mystic act...
-Thomas Carlyle, ON HEROES (1841)
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away
from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream.
- Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910)
"Nothing has turned out as we expected. It never does. Life's under
no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are
thankful it's no worse than it is." -- Gone With the Wind
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
- James Dean
There is no end.
There is no beginning.
There is only the infinite passion of life.
- Federico
Your task is not to seek for love,
But merely to seek and find
All the barriers within yourself
That you have built against it.
- Rumi
The value of life can be measured by how many times your soul has been
deeply stirred...
-Soichiro Honda
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and
cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who,
though distant is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an
inhabited garden.
- Goethe
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes
longer.
~ Edward R. Murrow
Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she
asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
No matter where you go or what you do, you live your entire life within
the confines of your head.
~Terry Josephson
Alas! must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
~Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton
Soul-mates are people who bring out the best in you. They are not
perfect but are always perfect for you. ~Author Unknown Anyone can be
passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.
~Rose Franken
Thou art to me a delicious torment.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.
~Latin Proverb
At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.
~Plato
Can miles truly separate you from friends.... If you want to be with
someone you love, aren't you already there?
~Richard Bach
I think we dream so we don't have to be apart so long. If we're in each
other's dreams, we can play together all night.
~Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes~
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
~Albert Einstein
Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?
~M.C. Escher
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
~John Lennon
Few people have the imagination for reality.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs.
~Lily Tomlin
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.
~William Shakespeare, Mid-Summer Night's Dream, 1595
I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.
~Pablo Picasso
Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.
~George Scialabba
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home
to find it.
~George Moore
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
~Jean de La Fontaine
Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a
quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
~Hans Margolius
Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
~Winnie the Pooh
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and
leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some
blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you
can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high
a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Its scare tactics, and they may make 1 or 2 press high
profile busts.
They have to fight it but its a battle to only prolong the existing flow
of cash. If they were serious they would tax blank cds. Look at how much
blank DVD's are.
And DVD sales are climbing astronomically. Shit, EVERY dvd player &
nearly every car stereo made today is mp3 compatible. Thats a joke. One
of the reasons why so many DVD players are sold today is they play
MP3's, if your tv is hooked into your stereo, your good to go for a home
mp3 player. The new apple ipods use a different format rather than mp3.
Converters to some formats are harder to find for some folks like Real
Audio files to WAV. And if they go so far as to intentional corrupting
of peoples computer's whose IP address downloads them or hardrive has
them, then people will still risk it and do everything in my power to
bring that type of fascist regiem to its knees.
Encyclopedia salesmen are SOL these days also, so are cassette tape
manufacturers. Everyone must imbrace technology & change & be
ahead of the curve in their business sense to put their future research
& development into. The huge empire of Blockbuster Video rental
stores knows their days are numbered. Thats why they knew to get into
video on demand with the cable & dish providers. It's a huge waste
of planetary resources to print as many books and paper products that we
do.
Having 150 songs on a disc rather than 20 is a huge improvement. To put
every bit of music, video, and book I own and will ever on on one
hardrive (and have a secondary back up) and be able to access that from
anywhere, I mean anywhere, I want. That is something.
The Psychiatrists dont play God,
they are God.
Heaven is the slow waking up to the nightmare that is
reality/sanity.
Its post apocolypsal 12 Monkees except It all takes
place in an insane asylum. Only we dont know that til
the end for sure. We experience reality through the
eyes of our main character, a late 30's , early 40's
Laurie Anderson looking woman. White. Short spiked
hair, in a post apocolypsal way.
She doesnt know shes been in an asylum til the end.
And the end ends more like Brazil. You awake to the
tourture that you are beginning to see the puppet
strings of reality that pull you. You know you are
being "treated", therapy is shock treatment.
Each time you are ultimately "treated" with shock
therapy your memory is wiped out.
The whole story is the slow unraveling of our
character figuring reality out. Putting the peices
together that she is in the crazy house.
Only the oblivious and mysterious world she WAS in
(the crazy world where she understood things)is a far
better place than being in a fucked up and tourtourous
post apocolysal crazy house. The workers at the place
as they are revealed are seen as the enemy, as they
are trying to cure her dream world. The insane asylum
sometimes seems to be a subway train. We never see the
shock therapy room til the end. But the waiting room ,
just before the shock therapy room is the place where
all the peices wake sense each time. Another peice
fits together just before going into the final room.
As she figures a peice out the room seems to shift
into more subway train properties. We start hearing
sounds like we are on a train. They more she remembers
the more the room changes around her into a collage of
color & images with the growing movement of the train.
The led character (laurie anderson) is investagating a
conspiracy, ala Angel Heart. Espionage. The puzzles of
the case are the puzzles of her mind. It's like
Memento, its a complete puzzle unraveling, we really
cant make sense of what the puzzle conspiracy is or
means, but towards the end when she starts to
remember, the investagation begins again, for no
apparent reason. (its because of the shock therapy)it
cuts away and begins again. So it seems like time
travel or reincarnation when we begin anew. They'll be
parallels that the crazy house is actually and really
heaven. And the people running the crazy house are
god's helpers/angels, the head doctor, "Sokar" is god.
And the shock therapy is reincarnation. Each time she
is electrically shocked she (seems to) start(s) life
over again, a new, trying to figure things out. But
God doesnt want us to remember our previous
incarnations. He seems to be trying to keep us from
remembering in fact, by wiping away our memory.
The final scene, when she kind of realizes for the
first time, she maybe going into the shock therapy
room, senses leaving the train waiting room, she
remembers the doctors name, is yelling "Sokar" over
and over. Insisting that she will remember him and all
the peices next time.
In her next life, she wont be christian.
Cut away.
To doctors all in white (like angels) watching our
character in a robe making art, sitting at a table,
like in any crazy house. She has no memory. She's
there , post shock therapy, blank smile and making
art.
"That was a really good session today. A few more and
she'll be cured."
Everything that seems evil and out to get her the
whole movie, fighting against her, showing her a
nightmarish world she wants to part of is really a
quite normal hospital, nice heaven kind of place,
trying to help her.
So one is not sure when it ends if its suppose to be
pro-christian or anti-christian. Ambiguitiously both.
Ala "The Rapture".
Playing : Love & Rockets....
* Sokar = Egyptian God of the Dead & Darkness
I
certainly dont think as a movie it stands on its on.
But every bad review bascially doesn't understand the
story. It all comes down to those 4 or 5 speeches
essentially he mentions above.
Not everyone understands the importance of what
happened to Agent Smith. He is the first "free"
machine. was shown freedom . He is the Neo christ
savior for the machines. Neo set the stage , showed
the way, set him free. The movie is about the
liberation and evolution of consciousness. Period. It
uses parallels in black history and higher
consciousness / perception references as its base.
When "programmer" Neo sells his illegal wares he pulls
it from a hollow copy of : Simulacra and Simulation
(The Body, in Theory: Histories of Cultural
Materialism) Jean Baudrillard
Thats important. People who dont know the references
arent going to get the connection. Having the "trinity
saviors" stand before the French Merovingian ---Neo ,
Morpheus , and "TRINITY" complete the christian
mythos.
Parts of the movie that must be understood, That are
key to the plot, to like the movie :
1. First you must understand Agent Smiths huge role in
it. He is to be the machine's savior. (see above)
2. Neo with the counselor (Man and Machine must
understand the Yin & Yang duality that tells them they
are better off living together in harmony, all free
beings, depending on each other as key, no one greater
or lesser than the other. All machines and humans must
be free and live in harmony. All consciousness.
3. Neo with The Oracle
4. The Trinity Saviors with the Merovingian
5. Neo with the Architect
--------------------------
Counseler West is Cornel West, is one of today's
leading African American intellectuals. Professor of
African-American Studies and Professor in the
Department of Religion, at Princeton University.
Teaches classes in both Religion (his department) and
African-American Studies., Before Princeton he did all
of the above at Harvard.
http://www.kevincmurphy.com/west.html
"What
is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in
the sunset."
-Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator(1821-1890)
Reading
List for people who view the Matrix as a mythology for the liberation and
evolution of consciousness :
1. The User Illusion : Cutting Consciousness Down To Size Tor
Norretranders (There's No There There) 1999 Viking Press $11.90
2. Zen and the Brain : Toward an Understanding of Meditation and
Consciousness Dr. James H. Austin 1999 MIT Press $23.07
3. Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, in Theory: Histories of Cultural
Materialism) Jean Baudrillard 1994 University of Michigan Press $11.84
4. Boomeritis : A Novel That Will Set You Free Ken Wilber 2002 Shambhala
Publications $17.47
5. The Awakening of Intelligence J. Krishnamurti 1987 Harper Books $12.60
6. The Age of Spiritual Machines Ray Kurzweil 2000 Penguin USA $10.47
7. Darwin Among The Machines : The Evolution of Global Intelligence George
Dyson 1999 Helix Books $11.20
8. Flatland : A Parable of Multi-Dimension as told by a Square Edwin
Abbott 1998 Penguin Classics $8.95
9. When Things Start to Think Neil Gershenfeld 2000 Owl Books $11.20
10. The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture Fritjof
Capra 1988 Bantam Doubleday $13.27
11. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought from
Slavery to Freedom Lawrence Levine 1978 Oxford University Press $12.00
12. The Book : On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are Alan Watts 1989
Vintage Books $8.76
13. The Art of Looking Sideways Alan Fletcher 2001 Phaidon Books $27.97
14. The Global Brain Awakens : Our Next Evolutionary Leap Peter Russell
1995 Harper Collins $12.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember the fake book that he gets the disk from?
"Simulacra and Simulation" by Baudrillard. The book is all about
"hyperreality", about how we have ceasd living in a real world,
in
real time, and now exist in a constantly self-defining, self-obliterating
now.
It is also explicitly about the layers of reality, like onion skins,
that exist, and how we can not trust that any given layer is
"the"
reality.
So, are Zion and the Machines real, and, if not, who is
"dreaming"
them?
---------------------------
here's the discussion between the architect and neo..
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/stu/discussion.htm
also, i'm reading that in the press conference for matrix 2, the brothers
emphatically stated there wouldn't be a 'matrix in the matrix' plot (ie
they
are still in the matrix when neo kills the squiddies)
Through
this journal you'll find all kinds of comments on my distaste for people
judging others. People who impose their moral, or otherwise, standards.
Little people who are so insecure in their faith or themselves and
everything that they think the entire world should be just as they are. Be
it Conservative Christians, Southern Baptists are often the worst for it
being their way or else and Americans. We think that whats good for us is
good for everyone. And dont understand anyone who doesnt think that way.
They seem to have no idea the problems with subjectivity. Who I am , based
on my experience, who i have become, helps makes every decicion I make.
Thats why I'm Libertarian. To each his on. Thats why Buddhism makes sense.
To each his on. Whats good for me isnt neccesarrily the right thing for
you. I hate close minded, judgemental people. I'm open possibility. I'm
open to change. Not the Status Quo.
Too
often parents get lost in their expectations for their kids. Dad's being
overprotective of their little one growing up. We want to protect them
from all the sex, drugs, rock & roll , & all the things we weren't
suppose to do but would sneek to do when we were our children's age. Then
we have to contend with all of societies status quo , that they impose on
us as per what we must do to raise a child. Its always difficult & we
may never have the relationship we want with our children. But if we are
open (hearted) with them, and listen as least as much as we talk, and try
to be infinitely patient and trust them, and always do the best we can at
that moment, with the information we have at the time. Then we have to
come to terms with the fact that we have done the best we can. Then we
should trust that , not second guess it. Believe that everything will
eventually work out. Keep faith, optimism. Dont give up on your child and
doom them to your failed expectations of them. Dont stress. Once you've
done all you can, you keep at it, with a postitive , trusting attitude NO
MATTER WHAT. Its on going work, everyday. No point in getting fed up,
thats what its about, the tough stuff. They will eventually mature out of
all the things you. Parents can push too hard. Beyond what is neccesarry.
Better a slow , steady push trying to understand where they are coming
from . Than to continue to push harder and harder until we destroy the
crap relationship that was there.
From CNN.com :
"If you saw the original "Matrix," then beware: this
sequel is the second verse, same as the first.
But all of these staggering images do little to enhance the innate drama
of the story, or advance any kind of real character development. No
matter how many times Neo destroys the evil agents, they just keep
coming back, like malevolent Energizer bunnies. (Or is that redundant?)
As in the original, "The Matrix Reloaded" is full of
mumbo-jumbo regarding spiritualism and Eastern philosophy."
In rebuttal :
There are 2 basic types of people :
1. normal joes who may can appreciate smart, ass kicking sci fi. Many of
these people might be dissapointed. People who think that The Matrix
Reloaded" is full of mumbo-jumbo spiritualism and Eastern
philosophy." fall into this category.
Be advised that this mumbo-jumbo spiritualism is the story. That's a
plus or a minus depending on who you are.
2. People who see The Matrix as a mythology for the liberation and
evolution of consciousness. For people who understand concepts in
Kurtzwell's "Age of Spiritual Machines", the duality of
humanity, global brain, gaia, and whole systems theory. People that see
the future parallels in historical issues of slavery, civil rights, and
freedom where they have in the past been applied toward equal rights of
all men & women to the equal, individual parallel to non-sentient
machines who achieve consciousness. Concentrating the the need to
liberate & evolve all consciousness, in all forms to something more
than we are.
For those persons seeking awareness, who understand the importance of
proper "perception" of reality.
People who seek a perspective of the "big picture" who choose
to think on the limitless potential of things and see life as a journey
of compassion and interconnectedness.
Ok ok. Things arent as simple as only 2 types. I cant help it with all
the criticism of it as of late.
More by Ken Mondschein :
http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/051803matrix.htm
Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the fight scenes or
special effects would measure up to the first film—it was the
metaphysics that bothered me. The first Matrix was such a neat allegory
of Gnostic philosophy, I was more concerned with how the Brothers
Wachowski could successfully extend the metaphor into three films than
whether they could pull off even more virtuoso examples of cinematic
ass-stomping. What was mindblowing about the first movie, after all,
wasn't the fight choreography or bullet time, but its brave assertion
that the banal, day-to-day reality we live in isn't the real world. In
that sense, all the wire-fu was just the candy coating on the red pill
the filmmakers were offering to every high school student and cubicle
slave in the world. (Though, since I study martial arts myself, I found
the idea of kung fu as being metaphorical for something happening in
hyper-reality, a la Thibault's mysterious circle, to be pretty darn
appealing.)
Thankfully, Reloaded more than allayed my fears, even if it seems that
half the reviewers either didn't understand what the Wachowskis were
getting at, or else were only paying attention during the highway chase.
Watching the movie, I was personally less impressed by the fists of
digital fury than by the Brothers' evident familiarity with the Dead Sea
Scrolls and the theology of Origen of Alexandria. Seen in the light of
the books they're referencing, the movie's plot is brilliant; of course,
to the non-initiate, the characters' actions and dialogue seems
arbitrary and incomprehensible, and the exposition is just filler
between car crashes. It would seem, therefore, that a bit of exegesis of
The Matrix: Reloaded is warranted. But be warned: If you haven't seen
the movie yet, don't read on. There are some major spoilers.
Much like that other great Keanu Reeves vehicle, Bill and Ted's Bogus
Journey, The Matrix: Reloaded centers around the hero's journey into the
Underworld. Frazier, in The Golden Bough, notes that it is a
prophetess—in this case, the Oracle—who sends the hero off on his
journey, from where he returns with special knowledge. And, of course,
that's just what Neo does, though it would have been a while lot more
amusing if he'd had Alex Winter along. (The Oracle probably isn't
entirely benign, by the way, even though she may not consciously intend
any harm: She is, after all, the one who sent Neo on the path to the
Core.)
Neo's first task is to rescue the Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim, doing his
best Rick Moranis impression) from the Merovingian, who is a daemon—in
both senses of the word—left over from a previous version of the
Matrix. (The Merovingians were the ruling Frankish dynasty; they were
succeeded by Charlemagne's family, the Carolingians, and then by the
Capetians, who thought they were descended from Christ.) The guy in the
health food store where I buy my granola and soy milk thinks that The
Merovingian was one of Neo's predecessors, but all the explanation I
need, as well as the way I understand his obvious fascination with human
pleasures, is found in Genesis 6:4—"There were giants in the
earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in
unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them. . ."
According to various sources, including Kabbalah, this mating of men and
angels (here, a computer program from an earlier version of the Martrix)
is what produced various monsters, such as the vampires and wraiths that
serve the Merovingian. Dante, bringing a Christian sensibility to the
proceedings, placed these monsters in his Inferno. Thus, though the
Merovingian is sort of an antediluvian remnant of the former world, he's
also (as is shown by the fact that his wife is named Persephone) kind of
like Hades, the holder of the keys to the underworld. What the Keymaker
does, much like the golden bough the Sybil gives Aeneas, is open doors
and permit Neo access to the underworld—or, in this case, the Core.
After the requisite battles and explosions, Neo gets into the Core and
finds The Architect. Considering that The Architect built the Matrix,
you might think that he's God. Of course, he's nothing of the sort. In
Gnostic theology, it is Satan, not God, who has created the world in
order to imprison humanity. It is also the Architect who is unleashing
the Sentinels to destroy Zion; that is, beginning the Battle of
Armageddon. It is my prediction that in the third and final film, it
will be revealed that there is a power behind the Architect, and that he
is the one who sent the One into the Matrix. It is also my prediction
that this guy will look a lot like Neo.
The important thing is choosing what to believe from the raft of
condescending exposition that the Architect inflicts on Neo. He says,
basically, that though ninety-nine percent of humans believe in the
illusion of the Matrix, there is that troublesome one percent
(comparable to the few awakened Gnostic true believers) who refuse to
believe in the created world. This tends to produce massive amounts of
instability, and crashes the system. (Not coincidentally, most of the
people in Zion seem to be black or Hispanic, which makes perfect sense:
If you're a white suburban Matrix resident, driving your Matrix SUV to
your Matrix golf club, why doubt the nature of reality?) The solution is
that they allow the dissidents to escape to Zion, which they can then
periodically destroy. They have also created the Prophecy of the One,
who is in fact a device sent by the machines into the "real"
world so that his knowledge of humanity may be integrated into the
system in order to further perfect the Matrix-illusion, and then allowed
to re-start Zion so that the cycle can begin again. The idea of multiple
creations and a cycle of created and destroyed worlds is, needless to
say, also found in theologies as wildly variant as the Mayan and the
Buddhist. (And, in the Mayan reckoning, we're currently in the fifth
cycle—the sixth starts in 2016.)
The idea that the Prophecy—and Zion—were just another means of
control is lifted right out of French philosophy. The first movie made
use of Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation; this movie seems to be
dipping into Foucault and Derrida, who wrote that the systems of power
and control are all-pervasive, and language is one of the ways they make
their influence felt. The Prophecy is, like all prophecies, speech, and
thus language. More importantly, it is a religion, and, as John Zerzan
writes, the purpose of a religion is to manipulate signs, that is,
words, for the purpose of control. Zion is the longed-for millennial
promised land; by keeping the war between good and evil foremost in
their hearts, even the freed humans are kept from doubting their own
world, from thinking too hard about why things are the way they are.
Understanding why things are the way they are requires an understanding
of another holy text: Asimov's Laws of Robotics. The machines, as
demonstrated by Smith's need to try to kill Neo even after being
"freed," don't have free will. (Likewise, in various
theologies, angels and other such divine beings also don't have free
will—only humans do.) The bit about the machines needing human
bio-energy to survive, as Morpheus (the dreamer) explained in the first
movie, is bullshit. The machines keep humanity alive but imprisoned,
even after taking over the world, because they were created to serve
people. In other words, the machines would like to destroy humanity, but
they CAN'T. Instead, they need a human to make the choice.
As the Architect reveals, Neo is not the first One, but rather the
sixth. Why the sixth? The answer is that Neo's five previous
incarnations represent the Five Books of Moses that make up the Old
Testament. Neo (representing Christ, and thus the New Testament) differs
from his five predecessors in his capacity to love. In the work of
Origen of Alexandria and other early Christian writers, it is love
("eros" in Greek) that compels Christ to come down from the
heavens to redeem humanity. Furthermore, "neo" means
"new"—as in "New Covenant." In Neo, the machines
have finally found the iteration of the One who will make the illogical
choice of saving Trinity and dooming humanity. [Note to the theology
geeks who've been e-mailing me: I know the difference between eros and
agape, but Origen used both terms for reasons I'd have to delve into
pre-Socratic philosophy to explain.]
This is the Architect's real purpose in giving Neo a choice between two
doors. At once all human and all machine, rather than being a device to
refine the Matrix into a more perfect simulation of reality, re-found
Zion, and thus continue the endless cycle of death and rebirth—as the
Architect says he is—the purpose of the One is to be manipulated into
destroying all of humanity. However, not having free will themselves,
the machines are not able to comprehend it in others—and thus Neo,
being also human, is a bit of a wild card. It is Neo's destiny—as was
Christ's in Origen's theology—to break the cycle of death and rebirth,
and offer humanity a new future. This is shown by the fact that, by the
end of the movie, Neo (and also, incidentally, Smith) gain power over
machines in the "real world"—which shows that he has power
not only over the first—level simulated world of the Matrix, but also
the second-level simulation of Zion.
Miscellaneous touches I liked:
Neo and Trinity are shown making love beneath an arch. In religious
iconography, being shown beneath an arch is a traditional sign of
divinity. Masaccio's fresco at the right, for instance, shows the Holy
Trinity beneath an arch.
The fact that The One comes from the machine world is a brilliant way to
write around the fact that Keanu Reeves can't act.
Neo's own gift of prophecy is explainable by the fact that, like the
Oracle, he comes from beyond the Matrix—that is, the world—and thus
exists outside of time, much like God in St. Augustine's theology.
I saw the movie sitting next to a really cute girl.
Things to be wrapped up in the third movie:
Who's behind The Architect?
Neo will need to make a choice—but what is this choice?
The climactic Battle of Armageddon between Good and Evil will have to
take place—but what will happen afterwards?
What's Agent Smith's role in all this? His ability to multiply is
reminiscent of the demon Jesus exorcised ("my name is
Legion"), but I bet he's going to wind up being an ally of Neo's.
How is Neo able to zap the machines in the "real world"?
How did Tank die?
Will Link live to see Zee again?
Will Niobe leave Jason Lock and go back to Morpheus? [No, she isn't
dead—it was the other ship that got blown up.]
What're they going to do about the fact that Gloria Foster, who played
The Oracle, died? [She had shot most of her scenes for Reloaded, but not
for Revolutions.]
Will priestly cassocks become a fashion trend for men?
What pivotal role will be performed by Neo's adoring acolyte?
How will Bane sabotage the human defense of Zion? Will Neo kill him?
What led Morpheus to the Oracle in the first place?
Is the "real world" only another level of simulation, an outer
matrix, indicative of matrices upon matrices, onionlike in their
layering upon each other?
If the Zion-world is revealed to be also fake in the third movie, will
the trilogy end with Neo leading his followers into the sunlit
"real" world? [Of course, any world in the movie is false—it
is, after all, a movie.]
Will Neo wake up and say, "Bill, dude, you won't believe this
bitchin' dream I just had. . ."?
(I can answer some of these now but i cant get into it. Like Agent
Smith's role. Good stuff)
The
top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in
its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs.
However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared
by this faith, or vice versa.
Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have
in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this
list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (96%)
3. New Age (95%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (94%)
5. Liberal Quakers (92%)
6. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (90%)
7. Bahá'í Faith (88%)
8. Theravada Buddhism (83%)
9. Hinduism (82%)
10. Jainism (82%)
11. New Thought (79%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (77%)
13. Sikhism (68%)
14. Scientology (64%)
15. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (55%)
16. Reform Judaism (54%)
17. Orthodox Judaism (53%)
18. Jehovah's Witness (51%)
19. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (50%)
20. Orthodox Quaker (50%)
21. Secular Humanism (50%)
22. Taoism (50%)
23. Islam (41%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (31%)
25. Roman Catholic (31%)
26. Nontheist (29%)
27. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
http://www.selectsmart.com/religion.html
http://beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html
Experiencing
anything is very subjective & depends on ones individual tastes. Close
minded, Self-centered, Ego laden people think their way is the
"right" & "only" way. I don't have time for people
like that. If they can't respect my individual love for my more obscure,
away from the norm, ideas of religion, politics, life, happiness, music,
and everything, then there really is no point in wasting my time trying to
expand the hollow space between their ears.
There are 2 types of people. People who think they know it all, &
whats right. (usually white american christian conservatives) And people
who are open to new ideas. who concede that there may be more than meets
the eye in things we dont understand.
Some people are so insecure & threatened that their way of life is
being questioned. Other people see alien & foreign way as a learning
opportunity. The more one is exposed to new ideas & experiences the
better. The more one embraces an openess for new things the greater the
opportunity to truly learn something new or substantiate his own ideas by
contrast. Who am i to say my ideas are more right than someone elses ? Not
growing up in their shoes how can I be there judge ? Like the old cliche
says, "You cannot judge someone until you have walked a mile in their
shoes. " Being part libertarian, part Buddhist, part taoist, I
believe in the individual choice for every individual in determining what
is right for yourself & not push my beliefs on anyone else, as long as
their beliefs do not impose on my right to live in whatever manner i
choose.
One
could argue that anyone who believes in anything
is contrived or uses that belief as a crutch & "rides the
coat-tails of honorable intentions" while having ulterior motives. No
matter how sincere or insincere or what motives are believed or not
believed, any belief in anything has ulterior-ish motives on some level.
At the very least once one establishes a rightness & a wrongness to
anything he can't but harm on some level. You always want your team to
win. And in trying to achieve that win human nature creeps in.
Once again I go back to not being able to criticize others. (too harshly
at least).
I - I - I , me, me , me .. am doing this for "YOUR" own good.
Because your not doing it MY way. ie. Your doing wrong.
Who is to say my idea of freedom is not some new form of slavery ? Who is
able to be the scales & weigh who is more right in the grand design ?
Who decides if the cost of my beliefs outweighs the benefits ?
How much do we pay for our beliefs ?
When is "at any cost" & "by any means" lose it's
worth exactly ?
Only when its too late to turn back.
To quote The Cramps , "How far does too far go ? "
Maybe I'm too buddhist-taoist-libertatian but I can not impose my beliefs
as necessarily good for anyone else.
NME
Top 100 Albums of all Time. The order is a bit of a joke really. With
plenty that should be on there. Where is Bowie's Ziggy Stardust &
Hunky Dorey, The Stranglers, The Fall ? .....
1. The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
2. Pixies - Doolittle
3. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
4. Television - Marquee Moon
5. The Beatles - Revolver
6. Love - Forever Changes
7. The Strokes - Is This It
8. The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
9. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
10. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
11. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
12. The Clash - London Calling
13. Oasis - Definitely Maybe
14. Joy Division - Closer
15. Nirvana - In Utero
16. Radiohead - OK Computer
17. Spiritualized - Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
18. Blondie - Parallel Lines
19. Nirvana - Nevermind
20. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
21. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
22. New Order - Technique
23. Primal Scream - Screamadelica
24. The Beatles - The Beatles (AKA The White Album)
25. The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come
26. David Bowie - Low
27. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
28. The Verve - A Northern Soul
29. Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions to Hold Us Back
30. Massive Attack - Blue Lines
31. Pixies - Surfer Rosa
32. The Byrds -
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
33. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
34. Patti Smith - Horses
35. Jeff Buckley - Grace
36. Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
37. Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory
38. Scott Walker - Scott 4
39. Ramones - Ramones
40. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
41. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
42. The Stooges - Fun House
43. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
44. Radiohead -
The Bends
45. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
46. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
47. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
48. REM - Automatic For The People
49. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
50. Blur - Parklife
51. The Smiths - Hatful Of Hollow
52. The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main St
53. Slint - Spiderland
54. The Smiths - The Smiths
55. Aphex Twin - Richard D James Album
56. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
57. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
58. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
59. The Specials - The Specials
60. Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
61. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
62. Pulp - His 'N' Hers
63. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
64. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
65. Duran Duran - Rio
66. The Flying
Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin
67. Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
68. Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For The Young Soul Rebels
69. Andrew WK - I Get Wet
70. The Verve - Urban Hymns
71. Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
72. AC/DC - Back In Black
73. Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
74. The White Stripes - Elephant
75. Lou Reed - Transformer
76. Pulp - This Is Hardcore
77. The Coral - The Coral
78. Suede - Dog Man Star
79. The Clash - The Clash
80. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush
81. The Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy
82. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
83. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
84. De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising
85. The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
86. David Bowie - Heroes
87. The Slits - Cut
88. Primal Scream - Exterminator
89. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
90. Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Hate
91. Queens Of The Stone Age - Rated R
92. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
93. Joni Mitchell - Hejira
94. Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
95. Pink Floyd - Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
96. The Vines - Highly Evolved
97. PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories from The Sea
98. Madonna - Like A Prayer
99. The Congos - Heart Of The Congos
100. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
Seems
like the people I have most in common with never really figure out what
they want to do with their lives...
from http://www.painterskeys.com :
...... I realized that so many of us are asking the question: "What
shall I do with my life?" As I've spent a lifetime trying to figure
this one out--I consider myself a bit of an expert.
Like a lot of the cosmic questions--there can be a microcosmic
answer. There are several valuable angles: One is our
moment-to-moment doing. Another is our tolerance for failure.
Yet another has to do with our long-term strategizing.
Moment-to-moment doing: The basic and almost spiritual
question for every day or hour, is: "What do I want to do?"
This question has nothing to do with obligation, guilt, duty,
or economics. It's also a blessing, a luxury, and bloody good
going if you can ask it. When you know the answer, you are
truly on your way. The answer very often lies in a fair degree
of specificity: "I want to paint these Shasta Daisies in an
energetic counterpoint on a red-primed 10" x 12" mahogany
panel."
Tolerance for failure: This is a learned philosophical
position. It's something like spreading molasses on an
anthill. Sometimes they run all over it--sometimes they don't.
Failure may be in the hands of the gods--but it's the path to
finding out what we can do and what we're good for: "Those
Shasta Daisies failed, so did the 12" x 16" Rhododendrons, (it
was something about the scale) but this 36" x 48" stretched
canvas of Auntie Helen that I started last year looks like it's
going to be right for me today."
Strategy for the long term: Seeing the big picture and being
able to project ahead is not always easy. It requires tuning
into both our overt and our secret dreams. Try to view them
from the perspective of your current ones. A great monument
can be better visualized when you put two bricks against one
another. Great oaks from little acorns, etc. Great journeys
start with the space between our feet: "Auntie Helen loves
flowers--what about a series juxtaposing her and all the
flowers of her life? Now that's a life. That's what I should
do with my life."
PS: "There is not any present moment that is unconnected with
some future one. The life of every man is a continued chain of
incidents, each link of which hangs upon the former." (Joseph
Addison)
Esoterica: "What Should I Do With My Life?" is the title of a
new and popular book by Po Bronson. "Success is more dangerous than
failure," he says. "If you're successful at the wrong thing;
praise, money and further opportunity can lock you in forever." In
his book he shows, through multiple stories and anecdotes, that failure is
the way you eliminate the wrong turns on the way to the right ones.
Alot
of those stars like Lou Reed come from a different age than us today.
Getting all caught up in something that seems like(and is)a movement, and
history making & you get all caught up in that. And its so apparent
that everyone knows everyone is fucked up.
"I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears"
With good art people are often honest in their expression. however screwed
, you roll with it. take the ride. It takes control, not you. It gets away
from you. Some don’t mention it specifically until they are off it. And
reference it in their art as part of them deep inside, just beneath the
frenzy edge of sanity.
The vulgar & dispossessed best lover we hope never returns . Some
romanticize that dark half as passionate & never ending other self,
some know to well to hide , running not to dwell too long on such
insatiable longing. That its best to keep it at arms length. Much of the
best art is made of badness. Trying to overcome some struggling madness
that consumes us. Letting that chaos out through the art.
It is either a outward motion, letting the demons out, releasing it all
through the fingertips. Everything in mind & body being exorcised from
the depths , or a taking in of energy, conjuring it into you like a
conduit, open to letting it come over you, take over, become possessed,
and expressing that.
And both at once. Everything in & out in all its rush of intensity.
And you embrace it all. glorious.
intense. super-real. Especially in art that imploys a sub-conscious or
consciousness altered realm.
From
Paul :
I
trip back among trails of memory
to try and find a knot in particular, the point where we crossed our
highways of experience, merging, engaging on-ramps, and we, enraptured
roadsters, pursuers of more than a means of transportation (more, a
means
of being transported, transcending, but keeping it kicking, root-down),
we, finding the lanes alive with some-day drivers, , hit the rest-stop
simultaneously, stretching out and comparing roadmaps, maybe a cuppa,
maybe a smoke, and found that we had seen the same distractions at
different road-sighed attractions, and had criss-crossed similar
detours,
and covered the blue highways, and the rainbow roads . . .
I can't find it, to be honest, though i was there, but being and
seeing don't alway coincide, and the knot is lost in the twists and
braids
of simple circumstance . . .
But, the effect proves that there once was a cause, and many, and
so I
know we were well-met, and destiny is naught but objects appearing
closer
in the rear-view mirror, . . . so friend, brother, confidante, sharer,
shaman, and soul, I was not there, and it does not matter, but I lay a
claim on another day of merging, when spark and consciousness met, and
I
celebrate that day, when you first diverged from a confluence of el
caminos to find yourself as your self, to be born, to be . . .
happy birthday, my friend, what more can I say than that?
peace,
Paul
if boy eat sun, he dream blue sky :pt68
Portishead
Massive Attack
Tricky
Laika
Pram
Belle & Sebastian
Cocteau Twins
Brian Eno
Beck
The Soft Boys (with Robyn Hitchcock)
Kate Bush
Laurie Anderson (love to see her as much as possible)
Neutral Milk Hotel
Want to see a live stage performance of Hedwig & The Angry Inch.
Would also love to see Sisters of Mercy or Pink Floyd or Curve or
Spiritualized anytime.
I like spoken word performances by Jim Carroll or Spalding Grey or someone
like that.
Really great weird abstract performance art is always great also, from De
La Guarda to Blue Man Group or even weirder.
2. IF YOU COULD EAT LUNCH WITH ONE FAMOUS PERSON, WHO
WOULD IT BE?
Laurie Anderson, David Lynch, Fritjoff Capra, Terry Gilliam, Robyn
Hitchcock, Dali Lama, David Bryne, Stephen Hawking, Hunter S. Thompson,
...
Dead :
Salvador Dali, Buckminster Fuller, R.D.Laing, Alan Watts, Krisnamurti,
Thoureau, E.E. Cummings, Jim Morrison, Rod Serling, William Burroughs,
Andre Breton, Aldous Huxley, Satre, Jung, Jorge Luis Borges,
Pablo Neruda.
3. GOLD OR SILVER?
silver only. I hate gold or yellow brass , yellow chrome... yuck !!!
Wood good too.
4. WHAT WAS THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AT THE CINEMA?
8 Mile, Punch Drunk Love, Femme Fatale, Jackass.
Want to go see Bowling for Columbine.
I wonder if the Solaris remake might be good.
5. FAVORITE TV SHOW?
Theres nothing on now I really care about.
Most shows would be better on HBO or Showtime or something. 6 feet under
is pretty good.
6. WHAT DO YOU HAVE FOR BREAKFAST?
Omlets are nice. Re-heated pizza leftovers.
7. WHAT WOULD YOU HATE TO BE LEFT IN A ROOM WITH?
Other than rats, roaches, hornets, & other impliments of destruction
?
8. CAN YOU TOUCH YOUR NOSE WITH YOUR TONGUE?
No. Can't tie a knot in a cherry stem either, biatch.
9. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
I try to find inspiration in everything. It's sort of a personal goal.
It's all about getting the most out of the here & now, you know.
"There are more universes in the here & now than in all the
heavens." - Star Trek Insurrection
thoughtful gestures by a friend, a smile, a kind word, reflections of
light on my ceiling, my friends,
Herman's five fatal flaws of Movie Critiquing, great writers, romance,
laughing, liquor & smoke,
a good voice, a good live concert, good conversation, my 7 year old.
10. WHAT'S YOUR MIDDLE NAME?
Herman Wayne Snell
I have an great Uncle Herman in TX. & my dad's middle is Wayne. I
toyed with going by Wayne in grade school , after being picked on. (aka.
Herman Munster)
3rd grade was tough. Never switched.
11. BEACH, CITY, Or COUNTRY?
Country sometimes but close to the culture of a big city. More city I
guess.
12. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Summer up North, Winter down south. Fall & Spring are where it's at
! ("where its at......
2 turntables & a microphone.......)
13. FAVORITE
ICE CREAM?
Blue Bunny Premium Double Strawberry ,
Strawberry Ice Cream with Strawberries and Strawberry Sauce.
14. BUTTERED, PLAIN, OR SALTED POPCORN?
Slightly buttered or just butter flavored & salty.
15. FAVORITE COLOR?
green
16. FAVORITE CAR?
Range Rover
17. FAVORITE SANDWICH FILLING
Cheese is good. Chicken. Don't forget french fries.
I had french fry sandwiches made special for me in the USM cafeteria
circa 87-89.
18. TRUE LOVE?
Sure. Bliss is A ok. One love for a lifetime....
I want to believe (in it). I'm the one that gets left, not the leaver.
I'd like to think there is someone out there willing to put up with my
shit.
A friend first sort of thing.
19. WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO YOU DESPISE?
Closed Minded Absoluteness. Negativity.
I am becoming less forgiving than I once was about it.
I try to be understanding but after sooooo long of seeing an
individual's personal self-fulfilling traps,
I see it as a big waste. Despise is a bit strong, but
it's hard to care about people that don't care about themselves.
20. FAVORITE FLOWER?
passion flower, tulips.
21. IF YOU HAD A BIG WIN IN THE LOTTERY, HOW LONG
WOULD YOU WAIT TO TELL PEOPLE?
Til the check cleared & got wads of cash & plan tickets in hand
for all my friends.
22. FIZZY OR STILL WATER AS A DRINK?
If its water make it still. Plain no flavor no bullshit water. Fizzy's
good elsewhere.
23. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHROOM?
white trimmed in earth tones
24. HOW MANY KEYS ON YOUR KEY RING?
Like 9 + keys, a dorje, a small swiss army knife with screwdrivers , a
smooth writing telescoping pen for bursts of inspiration on napkins.
Blockbuster & grocery discount cards. I need a f*ckin purse.
(I am an Eagle Scout you know.)
25. WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE TO?
World traveler . Jogging between Berlin, Prague, New York, North
Carolina, Switzerland. Close to culture but out a ways to chill I
suspect. Soak in some altitude in mountains, big trees, cool breezes.
26. CAN YOU JUGGLE? IF YES HOW MANY?
2-ish
27. FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK:
Friday new movies come out & I get Loden every other Friday. Also a
good day to see nice music.
28. RED OR WHITE WINE?
Red 90% but I'm a freak and like it chilled.
29. WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR LAST BIRTHDAY?
Nothing. My mom & grandmother are the only birthday greetings I've
gotten in a number of years.
30. DO YOU CARRY A DONOR CARD?
Never filled one out. It's there , I'm slack. What can I say. I'll
prolly use up all the good stuff before it's all said & done.
Questions added by Sam:
S33. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
"I live on Earth at present, & I don't know what I am.
I know that I am not a category.
I am not a thing - a noun.
I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process -
an integral function of the universe. "
--- Buckminster Fuller
(I'm open to suggestions though).
S34. WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU WISH WERE ON THESE DAMN
FORWARDED QUESTIONAIRES?
In my live journal I've pasted a few of these in there. Some are better
than others.
Best memory from a song?
Alot of live concert moments.
But once in 10th grade (1984-85) on a field trip coming back late at
night after a science fair, Walkman with 2 headphone slots, holding
hands under cover , listening to Ultravox, with the prettiest punk girl
in school.
"Reap the Wild Wind", baby !
Those hours were huge for me.
M35. Why is the hot on the left, and the cold on the
right?
When the left segment is hot and the right segment cold, heat easily
travels from the hot left segment to the warm left end of the middle
segment where both materials conduct large heat vibrations, then from
the cooler right end of the middle segment to the cold right segment,
where both materials conduct lower heat vibrations.
If the temperature gradient is reversed, however, making the left
segment cold and the right segment hot, the phonon bands of the central
segment do not match well with the phonon bands of the end materials,
and heat does not travel well through the system.
36. What is your favorite sexual position?
Leichenstein
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