once was goth, but now am found
A good friend of mine received a haiku game as a gift, which involves lots of words on dice as well as some general concepts (the players choose from the random assortment of words after a massive dice roll). Here are some of the haikus we created (with each guiding concept in parentheses):
(a desire for my work life)
L:
heavy god partner
glorious, etcetera
violet clamor
T:
my trunk melodic
opens dilemma for your
putrid sneaky flock
My birthday, Saturday, February 9, 2013.
Blizzard Nemo (day 2, aftermath).
Super-awesome Rollerskating Party = Cancelled.
View from my window:
With each new instance of a mass-shooting or an otherwise “unjustifiable” gun homicide, the media is filled with pleas for “gun control,” without ever addressing the underlying issue – our culture of violence. I don’t know if the proposed [weak] gun control measures would result in some minor reduction in bullet injuries or not, but they certainly wouldn’t result in any major changes if not accompanied by a cultural shift away from the idea of “legitimate” violence.
Although fantasy violence pervades our entertainment industry (movies, TV, video games, books, etc.), the fictional violence is not causal – our implicit endorsement of real-world violence is the root problem. Propagandists have won the war of words in convincing us that any form of violence can be “good” or “bad” (and which is which can switch), depending on your perspective.
Law Enforcement vs. Criminal Acts, Enhanced Interrogation vs. Torture, Collateral Damage vs. Victims, Preemptive Strike vs. Invasion, Enemy Combatants or Insurgents vs. Soldiers or Freedom Fighters, Regrettable Death vs. Murder. These are all terms which can be used to legitimize (e.g., Law Enforcement) or de-legitimize (e.g., Murder) the use of extreme violence. Continue reading “Culture of Violence”
I happen to love words and like performance art, so it may seem odd that I abhor “spoken word,” that amalgam of poetry, prose and performance. In theory, on paper (hah), I like it, but in practice, well, it’s usually painful to witness. More than most people realize, it’s quite difficult to pull off as it requires talent in writing (which few amateurs have and not all professionals do either), as well as interesting subject matter (hint: your personal feelings about love and sex, not so much) and good delivery.
Most spoken word-ists have but one (if any) of these three elements, usually the latter. And even excellent writers will sometimes linger over boring subjects in their writing (ahem, David Foster Wallace). Thus it was a lovely surprise to see Neil Gaiman reading at the Torent Engine 88 gala last Friday. Mr. Gaiman’s voice carried nuance and substance as he read a poignant and literally fantastic poem about the end of the world featuring aliens, zombies and warring gods, and second poem about what he called a personal end of the world, the night before he got married and went to a “bordello of rhyme.”
So I learned spoken word can be enjoyable, but all the same, is best left to the professionals.
My friend Tim and I were hanging out last week and on a lark decided to try some four-letter word communications and made up a little haiku, which amused us greatly. I decided to try my hand at some four-letter haikus on my own, here are a few:
Liar
sell them some real fake
that will turn into burn mark
well hell swim fire lake
———————-
Yell
self fell hurt left limb
send help ring bell very loud
hope that care come fast
Please share your caveman haikus in the comments (reminder: haiku is 3 lines of 5-syllables, 7-syllables and 5-syllables, which with 4-letter words is nearly always the same number of words).
For centuries, much of human culture has been about expansion – expanding our territory, our populations, our access to resources, our communication, our economy, our influence. One might argue that the 20th century was the epitome of bigger and better expansionism: two “world” wars among many international conflicts, extreme improvements in transportation (air travel, automobiles everywhere, better boats, trains and public transportation), and the ability to communicate instantaneously and broadly (enhancements to or invention of: radio, telephone, electronic amplification, television, various telecommunication networks, television).
The 20th century ideals of expansion were wildly successful – the world is more connected than ever before; resources, communications and people can and do regularly cross the globe. Our world has become interdependent, such that the well-being of a country like Greece can drastically affect other economies across the world, and vice versa. And vast numbers of people, not just the super-rich, can purchase and use items manufactured and transported from afar, using fuel and craftsmanship from around the world. Advertisements, the threads of the 20th century economy, literally blanket the world, on billboards and vehicles, sports stadiums and events, flickering across every manner of electronic device, including those small items some of us carry with us everywhere as if they were our lifelines. Continue reading “The Future is Contraction”
With the mainstream Gay Rights movement laser-focused on marriage equality, I feel it is missing an opportunity to advance more fundamental changes. The heterosexuals at large (including those in label only) are growing more and more tolerant – so that very few of them (mostly older, rural folks) even dislike gay people, let alone hate them. The vast majority seem to understand that gay/queer people are regular human beings and should be able to live their lives as full citizens. But many people, even some well-meaning, gay-friendly straights, feel a bit squicky about gay marriage – probably because they’ve had the princess and prince charming straight-marriage-is-bliss fantasy drilled into their head since they first experienced language. This is the vulnerability that the haters are exploiting.
The growing tolerance for difference is triggering backlash from the haters, a potent minority, who keep framing the discussion around “traditional marriage” where they can avoid offending the gay-tolerant majority while still preaching bigotry. Were the Gay Rights movement to play this smart, they could pull a rabbit out of the hat by responding to the haters who proclaim not to hate the gay people, but only to be fighting for “marriage-as-straight”. I say, let them have it for now. Let’s call them out at their word. Gay people are not hated, but they just want to “protect” traditional marriage? Fine, we’ll let the gay marriage fight go (leaving state and federal laws as is), how about universal, federal protections for LGBT folks for employment, housing and medical coverage? How about the basic legal protections that straight individuals have without question? Continue reading “Missed Opportunity 4 Gay Rights”
As the Occupy movement highlighted last year, and recent scandals have confirmed, the financial industry has been overrun by greed and risk. This is especially true of giant consumer/investment banks and the banksters who run them. In 2012, there was another set of huge losses by JP Morgan Chase based on more gambling, sorry, “trading”. Note: Chase was one of those banks “too big to fail” who got government TARP bailout money back in 2008, while struggling homeowners got nothing. Then there was Barclay’s caught rigging the interest rates in Europe (among other suspected participants). And then there was HSBC enabling money-laundering in Mexico.
Need more? See August 22 BBC “Global Banking Scandals: Who is under scrutiny?” The largest and most profitable banks are gambling with derivatives and doing other unsavory things to grow their fortunes, while thousands of families are losing their homes due to unfair mortgages that the big banks won’t even consider renegotiating (and some don’t even bother reviewing the paper-work, preferring to robo-sign the foreclosures).
What’s a conscientious consumer to do? Withdraw. Yes, it’s possible to withdraw your money from the financial giants and stay on the grid with finances and all. There is a marvelous invention called the Credit Union. Credit Unions are local, member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperatives. Continue reading “Let Banksters Go Bust – Move Yr Money”
On our way home from Europe, we ended up with an overnight layover in Dublin, Ireland. Originally, we’d been planning to come straight home (with 1 hour layover), but flight times changed and we had to redo our flights with a much longer layover. However, I’d always wanted to go to Ireland, so aside from the extra expense of hotel, I was pleased. We got to Munich airport 2 hours early, which was fortunate because we ran into a snag during check-in which was that they couldn’t figure out how we’d gotten into Europe with no passport stamp – oops, I guess the missing customs agent in Iceland was not normal procedure! Fortunately, we still had our old tickets and they were able to straighten that out in about 20 minutes.
Going through security, we were told we didn’t need to take off our shoes, which was a relief, but otherwise it was pretty similar to American security. Because we were going to another European Union country, customs was simple and quick. Our flight took off late, so yay for extra time in the airplane. The captain tried to make up for lost time, but we still came in a little late, not deplaning until almost 10:30pm. We were assured we didn’t need to worry about our bags, but we decided to check baggage anyhow and found both of our bags dropped off, rather wet. We asked one of the bag people about them and he assured us they would be transferred and suggested we file a report if we were worried about water damage, but quite nicely said we probably wouldn’t have much luck.
So we headed outside and caught a taxi. It was delightful to have an English-speaking taxi driver with an Irish accident, even an overly loquacious one. Continue reading “Travelog: Coming Home”
OK, I’m getting sick of trains. This is our third inter-city train and, though it is much more comfortable than a bus, is still a long time in a confined space, one with a dining car that I cannot partake of (only meat fare available). However, I have my video games to entertain me, so I am pretty well distracted. I should have napped, but by the time I thought to, it was too close to our arrival for me to risk it (Irina was off in the dining car and I was paranoid about missing our stop and ending up in some other country). When we arrived at Munich Hauptbahnhof, I was exhausted and famished, but could only find fruit to eat at the train station (little did I know that Max Pett was nearby – Irina’s smartphone wasn’t working at the time).
We took a taxi to Steffi’s house where we were staying, which turned out to be a huge apartment complex a ways off from downtown where our taxi driver nearly got lost and had to drive onto the curb to avoid incoming cars. We found her unit finally and she came down to help us with our bags, which was key as she was on the 6th floor with no elevator.
Finally, we were there, at my friend’s place, which was, in a way, the point of the trip – I had really wanted to come visit Steffi in her hometown (I had visited her in London twice, where she lived in tiny flats) – she’d been inviting me to visit Germany for a decade. Continue reading “Travelog: Munich”