Wisdom of the Sages
Episode III - Spring 2009
Hello People of the World;
Here we are at the end of one more thing. Here we are at the beginning of another. This time it’s Spring. Uh, maybe. Depends. Dunno. Whatever. Anyways. If the weather is nice where ever you are please take time to go out and enjoy it. I’ll allow it.
Anyways, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, if you celebrate it. In Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day is an actual church holiday, meaning the pubs are closed for the day and everyone goes to mass. Again, Americans turns something deeply spiritual in to another alcoholic colloquialism. Well, let’s get this edition started, hey?:
:[ First item of the month; Now, I try not to get hang dogged and melancholy, I really do. Oh, fucking yesterday, on top of the divorce, on top of a recent death in our family, on top of the rez family drama, on top of my movie project falling through, on top of the crappy rainy weather, on top of the whole needing to move on thing, on top of a splitting headache, some fucking punks plastered me with a fucking vanilla milkshake!
I was sitting on the train reading the new Rolling Stone, after walking in the cold to the Borders and buying it 'cause it has my boys U2 in it, and at the Morse stop these two teen gigglers toss a full milkshake into the car before running off the train. Now, I don't know if they targeted me specifically, but they laugh hardy and loud after it hit me in the upper thigh and splattered and the next second they were gone and the train closed up and rolled on. Yergh.
Two people had the audacity to ask me "Why they do that?" as if I had something to do with it. Yeah, thanks for the help folks, I love how you sprang into standstill to do absolutely fucking nothing about it. Man. So, I brush off what I could and put my magazine away. I sat there thinking, well, there’s nothing I could do about it now. Anyway, when has the CTA ever been good at doing anything about anything?
I just think it was God’s little wake up call, "Dude, you’re not that important. Get over it and yourself. If you get too maudlin or mopey about stuff you cannot control, then I will always be there to throw a milkshake at you. Getting hit with a milkshake doesn’t end the world. Until then, you got more in store. Stand it like a man."
:[ Did you know that one of the side effects for the drug Celebrex© is DEATH!! For real, check it out.
:[ Here is my Pithily-titled Watchmen Review:
SPOILER! I liked it. It’s just not "The Dark Knight".
ANOTHER SPOILER FOR WATCHMEN FANS: You will die alone.
:[ Many trendy magazines and "independent music" neophytes like to proclaim the lumbering beast known as U2 irrelevant. U2 is irrelevant because they do not make whiny, "stripped-down" songs with beat box and mechanical "bloops" that are more suited to coffee house open mic nights. Here is my U2 No Line on the Horizon Review
:[ Pat Quinn the new Illinois Governor is pressuring Ron Burris to step down in light of Ron Burris’ brother having once made a donation to Rob Blag’s Campaign. So, Pat Quinn feels the need to continue to drag this out longer. Hm, he must really need to repay all the favors that got him into the governor’s office. Rod simply got caught playing typical politics. Unfortunately, that is how you get into office; you make promises and deals to garner political support that allows you to work easily once you get into office. Do not be surprised if the Big O made a few to win the seat he now occupies. Forget it Jake, it’s politics.
UPDATE: Turns out Burris probably has more juice than Quinn expected as now Quinn is easing up his pressure to oust him. Well, just pick a way to settle it and do that.
I vote for leg wrestling. You?
:[ The NY Times editorial cartoon. I get what they were trying to say. That they saw the Stimulus Plan as such a mess it had to have been written by a deranged chimp.
But you also know that they KNEW that running that cartoon was bound to get a reaction. Believe me, if there is a reaction, to anything public like that, the makers know/knew there will/would be a reaction. No matter how much they feign ignorance. They know. That is why you put out stuff like that. It is attention getting.
:[ I’ve seen this happen a lot in films and in Native country. People putting out something they know will get a reaction and they feign ignorance or dive behind the First Amendment over it. But you know, they know, they knew there was going to be a reaction to their work. That is why they put out that particular piece of work in the first place. That is the main reason people get into media and film: it gets you attention. I got into film to get attention. People who say they make movies, or sketch, or draw, or make art, music, graphics, poetry, whatever for themselves are f*cking liars. They know for their works of art to be relevant depends on others’ reacting to it. Make no mistake. That’s the big secret of art. People make art for audiences. There is nothing personal about it. Even the Greats, yeah.
:[ If everyone was truly making art for themselves, nothing would be published, curated, projected, nor seen, nor heard because it would simply be sitting on the night stand in someone’s bedroom for the person, his or herself to enjoy alone.
If I am wrong, tell me how. I am sure you will. Just don’t give me noise how it comes from the soul and from experiences and your heritage. I know all that. My own works come from there too. But if you truly do it for yourself, why make other people buy it, or pay to see it, why sell it, if it means that much to you, if it truly comes from your soul? Why not just give it away if you really want people to see it, to experience it? I see some artists who make no bones about it being about the money. They seem perfectly comfortable with it and they know it sells, even especially when it is about their heritage. Yet, the Artistic Elite will jump down their throat because they are selling their art to pay bills.
The "from the soul stuff" is simply justification for selling it to begin with. That art is some higher standard we live buy rather than another thing to make money off of. Let’s face it; no one wants to flip burgers, but no one wants to work hard to be rocket scientists either. No one wants to sell out to corporations, but never realizing the fact they are selling their art makes them apart of the capitalistic marketplace, with the Soul being a cover tarp for their souls. If it is truly art from the soul why not just give it away? To make a money off of it seems to cheapen art and makes a piece of your soul just another commodity to barter away.
:[ I have to hand it to the graffiti taggers, the men and women who go out and spray paint murals in the middle of the night. Graffiti murals seems to be the last true art form, because they do so under the threat of arrest, to speak out, to say something from their souls without reward, other than the work done, without recognition, other that a tagger’s sig, without selling it off to a collector. Sure, some of it is just graffiti, and maybe marring another’s property is wrong, but to put something out there without thought for money and to express a view is cool. Maybe that is why it is illegal, because it is the last free, form of artistic expression and it does not fit into this rigid hierarchy of "Art".
:[ This reminds me of another time when that political cartoon can out in uh, Denmark(?) depicting the Prophet Mohammed, who by Muslim belief is never to be depicted in any form. Anyway, after that brouhaha erupted I was sitting in a Starbucks ™ near the Columbia College 1100 Building, when I over hear two film school kids talking about doing their own drawing, one of Jesus and Mohammed, boxing. Which they thought was soooo hilarious. Again, this drove home my point on art and the expectations of things controversial. They wanted to jump on the depiction of sacred figures bandwagon because they knew it would get a reaction. The sad thing was they were attaching their idea to something that had already been done. Do something original at least.
At that same time I saw another film kid wearing a t-shirt with a portrait of Stanley Kubrick done in the style of all those Che Guevara shirts and thought, yep, Kubrick isn’t cool anymore.
:[ I have always had the belief that "Art" is never for us in the now to dictate, but what posterity and future generations deem artistically worthy by the influence a work has on society, on future artists. Once I drop the yoke of what I am doing is Art, it was immensely freeing. I dunno. Maybe I’m wrong. Hey, I like to draw, I like to sktech, to watercolor, to Photoshop, to photograph, I love to make movies, I love to create, to make special. And mostly, it is just for myself as no one really seems interest in what I do.
Episode III - Spring 2009
Hello People of the World;
Here we are at the end of one more thing. Here we are at the beginning of another. This time it’s Spring. Uh, maybe. Depends. Dunno. Whatever. Anyways. If the weather is nice where ever you are please take time to go out and enjoy it. I’ll allow it.
Anyways, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, if you celebrate it. In Ireland, Saint Patrick’s Day is an actual church holiday, meaning the pubs are closed for the day and everyone goes to mass. Again, Americans turns something deeply spiritual in to another alcoholic colloquialism. Well, let’s get this edition started, hey?:
:[ First item of the month; Now, I try not to get hang dogged and melancholy, I really do. Oh, fucking yesterday, on top of the divorce, on top of a recent death in our family, on top of the rez family drama, on top of my movie project falling through, on top of the crappy rainy weather, on top of the whole needing to move on thing, on top of a splitting headache, some fucking punks plastered me with a fucking vanilla milkshake!
I was sitting on the train reading the new Rolling Stone, after walking in the cold to the Borders and buying it 'cause it has my boys U2 in it, and at the Morse stop these two teen gigglers toss a full milkshake into the car before running off the train. Now, I don't know if they targeted me specifically, but they laugh hardy and loud after it hit me in the upper thigh and splattered and the next second they were gone and the train closed up and rolled on. Yergh.
Two people had the audacity to ask me "Why they do that?" as if I had something to do with it. Yeah, thanks for the help folks, I love how you sprang into standstill to do absolutely fucking nothing about it. Man. So, I brush off what I could and put my magazine away. I sat there thinking, well, there’s nothing I could do about it now. Anyway, when has the CTA ever been good at doing anything about anything?
I just think it was God’s little wake up call, "Dude, you’re not that important. Get over it and yourself. If you get too maudlin or mopey about stuff you cannot control, then I will always be there to throw a milkshake at you. Getting hit with a milkshake doesn’t end the world. Until then, you got more in store. Stand it like a man."
:[ Did you know that one of the side effects for the drug Celebrex© is DEATH!! For real, check it out.
:[ Here is my Pithily-titled Watchmen Review:
SPOILER! I liked it. It’s just not "The Dark Knight".
ANOTHER SPOILER FOR WATCHMEN FANS: You will die alone.
:[ Many trendy magazines and "independent music" neophytes like to proclaim the lumbering beast known as U2 irrelevant. U2 is irrelevant because they do not make whiny, "stripped-down" songs with beat box and mechanical "bloops" that are more suited to coffee house open mic nights. Here is my U2 No Line on the Horizon Review
:[ Pat Quinn the new Illinois Governor is pressuring Ron Burris to step down in light of Ron Burris’ brother having once made a donation to Rob Blag’s Campaign. So, Pat Quinn feels the need to continue to drag this out longer. Hm, he must really need to repay all the favors that got him into the governor’s office. Rod simply got caught playing typical politics. Unfortunately, that is how you get into office; you make promises and deals to garner political support that allows you to work easily once you get into office. Do not be surprised if the Big O made a few to win the seat he now occupies. Forget it Jake, it’s politics.
UPDATE: Turns out Burris probably has more juice than Quinn expected as now Quinn is easing up his pressure to oust him. Well, just pick a way to settle it and do that.
I vote for leg wrestling. You?
:[ The NY Times editorial cartoon. I get what they were trying to say. That they saw the Stimulus Plan as such a mess it had to have been written by a deranged chimp.
But you also know that they KNEW that running that cartoon was bound to get a reaction. Believe me, if there is a reaction, to anything public like that, the makers know/knew there will/would be a reaction. No matter how much they feign ignorance. They know. That is why you put out stuff like that. It is attention getting.
:[ I’ve seen this happen a lot in films and in Native country. People putting out something they know will get a reaction and they feign ignorance or dive behind the First Amendment over it. But you know, they know, they knew there was going to be a reaction to their work. That is why they put out that particular piece of work in the first place. That is the main reason people get into media and film: it gets you attention. I got into film to get attention. People who say they make movies, or sketch, or draw, or make art, music, graphics, poetry, whatever for themselves are f*cking liars. They know for their works of art to be relevant depends on others’ reacting to it. Make no mistake. That’s the big secret of art. People make art for audiences. There is nothing personal about it. Even the Greats, yeah.
:[ If everyone was truly making art for themselves, nothing would be published, curated, projected, nor seen, nor heard because it would simply be sitting on the night stand in someone’s bedroom for the person, his or herself to enjoy alone.
If I am wrong, tell me how. I am sure you will. Just don’t give me noise how it comes from the soul and from experiences and your heritage. I know all that. My own works come from there too. But if you truly do it for yourself, why make other people buy it, or pay to see it, why sell it, if it means that much to you, if it truly comes from your soul? Why not just give it away if you really want people to see it, to experience it? I see some artists who make no bones about it being about the money. They seem perfectly comfortable with it and they know it sells, even especially when it is about their heritage. Yet, the Artistic Elite will jump down their throat because they are selling their art to pay bills.
The "from the soul stuff" is simply justification for selling it to begin with. That art is some higher standard we live buy rather than another thing to make money off of. Let’s face it; no one wants to flip burgers, but no one wants to work hard to be rocket scientists either. No one wants to sell out to corporations, but never realizing the fact they are selling their art makes them apart of the capitalistic marketplace, with the Soul being a cover tarp for their souls. If it is truly art from the soul why not just give it away? To make a money off of it seems to cheapen art and makes a piece of your soul just another commodity to barter away.
:[ I have to hand it to the graffiti taggers, the men and women who go out and spray paint murals in the middle of the night. Graffiti murals seems to be the last true art form, because they do so under the threat of arrest, to speak out, to say something from their souls without reward, other than the work done, without recognition, other that a tagger’s sig, without selling it off to a collector. Sure, some of it is just graffiti, and maybe marring another’s property is wrong, but to put something out there without thought for money and to express a view is cool. Maybe that is why it is illegal, because it is the last free, form of artistic expression and it does not fit into this rigid hierarchy of "Art".
:[ This reminds me of another time when that political cartoon can out in uh, Denmark(?) depicting the Prophet Mohammed, who by Muslim belief is never to be depicted in any form. Anyway, after that brouhaha erupted I was sitting in a Starbucks ™ near the Columbia College 1100 Building, when I over hear two film school kids talking about doing their own drawing, one of Jesus and Mohammed, boxing. Which they thought was soooo hilarious. Again, this drove home my point on art and the expectations of things controversial. They wanted to jump on the depiction of sacred figures bandwagon because they knew it would get a reaction. The sad thing was they were attaching their idea to something that had already been done. Do something original at least.
At that same time I saw another film kid wearing a t-shirt with a portrait of Stanley Kubrick done in the style of all those Che Guevara shirts and thought, yep, Kubrick isn’t cool anymore.
:[ I have always had the belief that "Art" is never for us in the now to dictate, but what posterity and future generations deem artistically worthy by the influence a work has on society, on future artists. Once I drop the yoke of what I am doing is Art, it was immensely freeing. I dunno. Maybe I’m wrong. Hey, I like to draw, I like to sktech, to watercolor, to Photoshop, to photograph, I love to make movies, I love to create, to make special. And mostly, it is just for myself as no one really seems interest in what I do.
Of course, I don’t make art. I make movies. I want to sell them and make a living. I have no qualm about it. Before you say my work will not have any soul to it, that it would be just a product, well, I’ll surprise you. That’s for sure. Like I said, it beats flipping burgers and learning science.
:[ I know we like to think we are smarter than to end up having to drug ourselves in some future tyrannical, dystopia to dull our senses, control our emotions, and be easily led, like in "Equilibrium" or "Brave New World", we are smarter than right? Yet, we continue to down powders like Citrocillin that claim to fight off flu symptoms, we down 5 hour energy drinks and red bull, for energy. We are drugging ourselves. It’s just that it has been packaged and sold to us as something else.
:[ I must agree with U2’s Adam Clayton; melted cheese tastes good on practically anything.
:[ Hey, I’m getting soooo tired of all the red and blue Obama poster copy cats. The moment has passed folks, give it up. There are only so many 4 to 5 letter words that you can have at the bottom before every one is just repeating "NOPE" or "LOVE" or "CHAOS". Come up with something original rather than riding the coattails of the zeitgeist.
:[ I really miss the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Speaking of art. I just miss the concept of a guy stuck in space with a bunch of robot pals making fun of bad movies. There was a charm to it and the show actually helped me be a better critic about films. It showed me what to look for and the problem areas of most bad films.
I wish I could meet any one of them; Joel, Mike, Trace, Mary Jo, Kevin (Whom we got an endorsement from for the film fest I used to run), Frank, and Paul, to just thank them for the show. I really wish they would put out another movie at least. I know this has ushered in a terrible trend of talking at the movie in the movie theater. If people whisper to each other I have no qualms with that. But if they get super loud, I can understand the problem. I guess it just comes down to your tolerance for it. Still, it is my absolute favorite show.
:[ What kind of a world do we live in when the top headline on Yahoo the other day was "Simon Told to ‘Shut Up’"?
:[ Again, no surprises at the Oscars. Heath wins, Rourke loses. Slumdog sweeps. Wolverine scores. "Slumdog Millionaire" is this year’s "Dances with Wolves". Now Hollywood never has to worry about Indians in movies, um, again.
:[ Media Hypocrisy – Why is it now, the media decides to do its frickin’ job? Asking the tough questions. Not even tough questions, but blatantly one-sided questions? Who ever thought it was a good idea that the Stock Market serves as a national referendum on the Obama Administration? US Citizens are smarter than that, right?
Remember how worked up the media got about Obama’s rolled up sleeves while sitting in the Oval Office? How does that even have a bearing on how his Administration handles things? Too much teleprompter? Going gray? Why do these things all point a failing administration!? They practically rolled over for Bush’s folksy-laziness, but Obama’s yawn-inducing faux pas about inventing automobiles gaffe is critically wrong and causing the economy to crash? Give me a break.
:[ I know we like to think we are smarter than to end up having to drug ourselves in some future tyrannical, dystopia to dull our senses, control our emotions, and be easily led, like in "Equilibrium" or "Brave New World", we are smarter than right? Yet, we continue to down powders like Citrocillin that claim to fight off flu symptoms, we down 5 hour energy drinks and red bull, for energy. We are drugging ourselves. It’s just that it has been packaged and sold to us as something else.
:[ I must agree with U2’s Adam Clayton; melted cheese tastes good on practically anything.
:[ Hey, I’m getting soooo tired of all the red and blue Obama poster copy cats. The moment has passed folks, give it up. There are only so many 4 to 5 letter words that you can have at the bottom before every one is just repeating "NOPE" or "LOVE" or "CHAOS". Come up with something original rather than riding the coattails of the zeitgeist.
:[ I really miss the show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Speaking of art. I just miss the concept of a guy stuck in space with a bunch of robot pals making fun of bad movies. There was a charm to it and the show actually helped me be a better critic about films. It showed me what to look for and the problem areas of most bad films.
I wish I could meet any one of them; Joel, Mike, Trace, Mary Jo, Kevin (Whom we got an endorsement from for the film fest I used to run), Frank, and Paul, to just thank them for the show. I really wish they would put out another movie at least. I know this has ushered in a terrible trend of talking at the movie in the movie theater. If people whisper to each other I have no qualms with that. But if they get super loud, I can understand the problem. I guess it just comes down to your tolerance for it. Still, it is my absolute favorite show.
:[ What kind of a world do we live in when the top headline on Yahoo the other day was "Simon Told to ‘Shut Up’"?
:[ Again, no surprises at the Oscars. Heath wins, Rourke loses. Slumdog sweeps. Wolverine scores. "Slumdog Millionaire" is this year’s "Dances with Wolves". Now Hollywood never has to worry about Indians in movies, um, again.
:[ Media Hypocrisy – Why is it now, the media decides to do its frickin’ job? Asking the tough questions. Not even tough questions, but blatantly one-sided questions? Who ever thought it was a good idea that the Stock Market serves as a national referendum on the Obama Administration? US Citizens are smarter than that, right?
Remember how worked up the media got about Obama’s rolled up sleeves while sitting in the Oval Office? How does that even have a bearing on how his Administration handles things? Too much teleprompter? Going gray? Why do these things all point a failing administration!? They practically rolled over for Bush’s folksy-laziness, but Obama’s yawn-inducing faux pas about inventing automobiles gaffe is critically wrong and causing the economy to crash? Give me a break.
My New Favorite Pic of Obama – Associated Press
:[ Finally bought John Carpenter’s The Thing on DVD. Yeah, I know, right? Once I got it home I had to wonder what took me so long to get a copy for my DVD library. It is still one of the scariest movies around with superb practical special effects that have never been surpassed. Bob Bottin is the man on this production. The flick contains one of the greatest lines of dialogue in cinema. Fans of the film will know which line I’m talking about.
Another DVD I added and once I got it home wondered what took me so long was Wim Wender’s "Buena Vista Social Club". I love the story of how Ry Cooder and Juan De Marcos Gonzalez had found all these lost Cuban musicians from the 40’s and 50’s and to see they still had a passion for their art. To see them play Carnegie Hall breaks my heart every time as it was the last time the Buena Vista Social Club played together. I first saw this in the Three Penny Theater on Lincoln, had a crush on the ticket girl there, mostly seeing it because it was the new film by Wenders, but the story of these musicians and their infectious music made it one of my favorites. I had the music on my PC for some time and when I brought home and watched the DVD I sort of did a V8 head slap and thought, dang, why didn’t I get this sooner?
Also, on the same day I bought my new U2 CD, I bought a new copy of the Criterion edition of Jean-Pierre Melville’s "Le Samourï". This movie is one of my all-time favorites and is the epitome of Assassin Cool for me. From the bleakness of the color scheme to the silence of Alan Deleon, it is just a damn cool movie. This is how an assassin should behave in movies. Meticulous and unassuming. Cunning and with precision. Not walking into a high rise of multiple bad guys with twin machine guns and a long black trench coat, blasting away at everything. That is not an assassin. That is a clumsy oaf too noisy to be of any use to your boss. Jef Costello, is a assassin. You only need him and his skill. But in the end it is about his path towards death. A death he faces like the samurai of the title. One of my absolute favorites and very influential on my own assassin movie.
Anyways. I gave away my first copy to one of my best friends as a gift and had to go without until I snapped this up on Tuesday.
:[ Why is that after eight years of a crumbling economy, where those who are to blame are rewarded for their failures with billions in taxpayer money and are simply allowed to get away with it, where the those that changed economic regulations for corporations to profit can pitch fits over the new stimulus bill and still take taxpayer money, and why, just because the President cannot fix the economy INSTANTLY, RIGHT NOW, TODAY, is he somehow to blame for it all? Explain that to me please.
:[ I despise men who hit women. Chris Brown should not be ‘Sad’ or ‘Sorry’. The fucker should be in jail.
:[ Last Item of the Month – Last month, a columnist in the Red Eye paper, wanting to justify his never doing laundry frequently made an interesting point in his defense. While a lot of people obsess over cleanliness in their attempts to get rid of bacteria and germs on everything, always will stick their unclean toothbrushes into their mouths every day. I had to agree. We only rinse our toothbrushes off in the sink and let them set in a warm, dark place while they are damp, after sticking them into our germy mouths to brush, day after day. Please rinse your toothbrush in hot water or dip it into a capful of your Listerine. That way any bacteria and germs are killed. I started this practice. While I did not notice any difference in my teeth, the brush feels cleaner, day to day… enjoy!
Well, that will do it for this month. I hope the weather is getting better where ever you are reading this. Let me know what you think. Please, if you disagree, let me know why. I am not afraid to be proven wrong, like some people. I am really not that smart either, so you have a really good chance at making your argument. Oh, and look out for milkshakes.
Until next time; "I try to show the Schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are."
(Hah, you thought I’d quote Rorschach, admit it.)
