WISDOM OF THE SAGES
EPISODE II
FEBRUARY – WINTER 2012
Hello People of the World;
Here we are at the second month of the year 2012. The countdown to DOOOOOM, DOOM, I tell you, DOOOOOOOM, continues toward the dreaded date that the Mayans predicted when we all grow up and get a damn life.
Seriously. Anyways…. It’s going to be a light and short edition this month. I’ll explain why later on. Maybe, because the month is short too? Hey, there are 29 days this month due to it being a Leap Year. I’m babbling. Carry on. Enjoy. Sorry.
Let’s get started, shall we?
1:[ First item of the month: Towards the end of last month my retainer broke. I had a permanent metal retainer put in back in high school when I had braces on my teeth. It consisted of metal bands around my lower canines and a metal wire attached to them. This made flossing my lower fronts pretty difficult.
My orthodontist was a relic of the old west and believed in heavy wiring. Such were his old techniques, that when he sliced the excess gums from my lower jaw once my braces were removed, he did not give me a novocain injection to the nerve on either side where my jaw hinges, but instead gave them directly to the gum area between my teeth on my lower jaw. It was painful. It was basically: jab with needle, cut off a slab of gums, jab with a needle, slice off a slab of gums, over and over. I am surprised I did not pass out from the pain. I wore an upper retainer for a year or two and had to deal with the lower since 1988.
The other day while eating chicken strips and bagels I heard a loud crunch and felt immediately that the wire broke free of the bracket. I made an appointment with a local ortho whom remarked that he had not had to deal with retainers like mine in about 20 years. So, he pulled off the brackets and as I waited for the cute assistant to make a plaster cast, I saw my old brackets there on the tray.
I was once again reminded of how may of the trapping of my old Wyoming identity were being stripped away. I had to change over my driver’s license to an Illinois one. Every time I flew home to Wyoming, I had to leave pocketknives, and other things I got while in Wyoming to TSA or the airport gods. I lost a ton of old stuff to moves and recently a basement flood. But the more I thought about it, I came ot the realization that I simply had to let it all go.
For a moment there in the ortho chair I wanted to keep my old tooth bands, but decided against. No reason to hold on to the past.
2:[ So, I had occasion to go see “Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy” again at the Landmark Century Theater and was walking up Diversey to catch the el train home when I spy a gaggle of college coeds standing around the entrance of a local sports bar. It was so disheartening to hear one of the squeaking college gals rushing to meet up with her friends shouting, “I have a dream….” like a sports chant while walking into the bar after her friends wished her a “Happy Martin Luther Day or whatever. Hey, it’s an excuse. Right?”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be so proud….
3:[ More MOVIE TIME ADVENTURES:
+ Welp, here are my thoughts on the recent Oscar Nominations.
+ MTV on why “50/50” deserves a nomination (Well, more so than “Extremely Loud, Etc”, “War Horse” and “The Help”)
+ Here is a list of Quick Movie Reviews:
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – A great spy thriller. Don’t look for Jason Bourne or James Bond antics here. Spywork is all suspense and hidden dangers. Not shaky cameras and judo punches and hot babes and volcano hideouts. That’s geeky dreaming. Here is a taut thriller with a stellar performance by Gary Oldman. The soundtrack is cool and the photography is great. Recommended.
Beauty and the Beast & Star Wars 3D, I went and saw these re-releases mainly because, one: I never saw “Beauty and the Beast” in the theater and, two: it’s always cool to see any Star Wars on the big screen. The 3D was fine in both instances. I was surprised at how crisply paced “Beauty and the Beast” was. It really moved along. And the kid playing Anakin was not as annoying as I remembered. He was playing a 10-year-old kid, so why shouldn’t he ACT like a 10-year-old kid? Nerds really need to f*cking grow up and drop it, you know?
Red Tails – People are really ragging on this one. I really enjoyed it though. I was not looking for the be-all-end-all of cinema that everyone holds George Lucas up to. The audience I was with really enjoyed it to. Let’s face it: Lucas knows his audiences. He made this for the African-American demographic and they seem to have responded positively. They only people that grumble are those folk that think they know cinema…. Recommended.
Coriolanus – Directed by Voldemort himself, Ralph Fiennes. ( I have a suspicion that it really is pronounced “ralf” but his English ego cannot handle that, so he pretends it is pronounce “rafe”.) This is based on one of Shakespeare’s later, more obscure plays in which a proud general of Rome is banished by a "The Simpsons" crowd that is the Roman people and he joins with his hated enemy to get his revenge. It is updated to contemporary times and uses it well. It informs my own version of “Hamlet”…. Recommended.
+ Pina is a film by Wim Wenders, which I consider a top-notch documentary from one of my most favorite directors. It is about the choreographies of Pina Bausch. I declare it the best use of 3D ever. Though, I did like the use of 3D for U23D.
For some reason folks are angered when I said that this documentary was the best use of 3D, ever…. Without really looking at what I said they just down my throat about the highly over-praised “Hugo” and try to use my own opinions against me…. Look I never denied being a hypocrite but that doesn’t mean that this is still the best use of 3D ever…. Highly recommended.
4:[ So, I talked to a gallery curator about my “ledger art” project and hopefully I may be part of an exhibit in the spring of 2013. (Big “maybe” here…) I am following leads and trying to get my rather acerbic project into some galleries. I don’t think people are ready for my trick though…. But I do see people following and using my espoused ideals…. (I posted part of it on Facebook.)
This project can very much be endless. I can keep doing drawings and sketches for the rest of my life. I have some rather caustic ideas about art that not many people get behind or want to support. But I am not worried about people getting my ideas behind this “ledger art’ project, I just know that the right people will get it…. Keep an eye out for “Nameless: The Authentic and Magical Ledger Art of EW3” somewhere in the world….
5:[ Ah yes, settle in Readers for more of:
Adventures at the Coffee Shop!
+ You know what? Starbucks always had a light roasted coffee. But then they slap the title “Blonde” on it and suddenly customer REALLY need to buy it now? Just because it now bears the stupid coffee shop vernacular as its name, suddenly people care about light roasted coffee. Come on….
+ So my Bonnie and I were in the local Dunkin’ Donuts when we run into a couple of ladies that work at a local T-Mobile store inside buying everyone’s coffee. They asked everyone in line and a few turned them down. I mean it’s a free coffee. They ask Bonnie, then, skip me and ask the lady behind me! Wow! So, I figured I am not getting a free coffee today. Of the people that accepted, they unload their New Call Plans schpeal and the lady who accepted them joins the two ladies in bad-mouthing EVERY ONE who turned them down. We like to get made at people who are supposedly on “entitlements” yet how hypocritical is it to be mad when people simply choose to buy their coffee?
+ What I hate, in addition to line jumping table hoarders, is Table Vultures. Those folks that already have a perfectly fine seat and table suddenly jump up when someone looks like they are leaving the coffee shop and go over and hover by them until the person gets their jacket on and gathers their things and the instant the person moves, even just a faction of a fraction of an inch, the folk move in and dump all their crap on the table before the people, who have been patiently waiting in line before they get a seat, can even consider getting this particular table. When ever I get Table Vultures, I take my time readying to leave….
6:[ I just finished reading Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse and must say that I enjoyed it very much. It reads like “World War Z” in which it is a story told from multiple points of view. The personal stories of how robots revolted against humanity and how humanity regrouped and fought back is well crafted and easy to follow. Wilson, who has an advanced degree in robotics, does not over laden the prose with technical jargon but makes it clear what the robots do and how they function. Probably going to go on my yearly Best of list for books. Spielberg got the motion picture rights to this even before it was published and plans to direct it. Man, I wish I could as it involves some Natives in the story. But Spielberg wants to pat himself on the back for his enlightenment and besides, he brings in the big buck and I don’t…. Read the book anyway….
7:[ And now Wisdom of the Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ People holding up the bus as they run down the street or across the busy intersection to get on and then, never having their fare card out…. People, if you’re going to hold up the bus because you weren’t smart enough to leave your home earlier, then at least have your fare card out so you don’t hold up the driver as he waits for you to pay or get off….
+ Cars slowly rolling into on-coming traffic as if we didn’t see them and when we do, we will part like the Red Sea and allow them in? That needs to stop before someone cannot stop…. (See what I did there? I’m clever.)
+ Cool dudes talking politics in the coffee shop. Not willing to take a side or stand a position but have absolutely no problem with saying they are better than everybody by being above all of the bullsh!t politics….
+ So, today I though I was so smart for trying to catch the bus home later in the evening to avoid that crappy, loud school kids that pack the bus after 3pm. But instead I got the bus pack with crappy, loud “adults” on their way home from work. What I hate and must stop is when the bus is jam-packed and dudes are too cool or tough to avoid sitting in empty seats on the bus!!! Man, just because you have to sit next to another human being you prefer to crowd the aisle. There would have been more room if the huge dudes just sat, the f*ck down…. Seriously. This overly manly need to not sit next to another dude needs to stop… or at least get out the frickin' way so the old lady can have the seat. Seriously….
+ This comes in via My Bonnie: the use of the word “iconic” to describe the mundane. Bonnie read a Yahoo news item that used the word to describe Jennifer Lopez’ famous green dress that she wore once. “I always associate the word with images of Christ or the saints. Never in describing how J-Lo dresses.”
8:[ I am hosting a reading of my screenplay next month. So, please join us at the Kateri Center on March 24th for a reading of my screenplay for “Hamlet: Act One”. I am hoping to drum up interest and support for my feature film debut. But we’ll see. I hope you can come out and hear what I think is a pretty unique project….
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: Please excuse the lateness and lightness of this month’s edition. I’ve been suffering a preoccupation. I really haven’t been paying attention to the news or to politics or anything too heavy that is crying for my opinion or thought on right now. This is why there is no “This Just In” Item for this month…. Sorry, I knew this was your favorite….
10:[ Last Item of the Month: So, I was in line at the Walgreen’s a few days ago and in front of me in line this older lady was trying to buy a carton of eggs with her LINK card and not having it clear. The eggs came up to $1.01. I jumped over to the next cashier once it opened and the lady was still there trying to buy the eggs. So, I drop a dollar and a penny on the counter for her and the cashier told the lady I did that. She thanked me and I walked out. But down the street I remembered that she was trying to get money back. I don’t know if that is possible with a LINK card but I felt that I ruined her chances to get the cash because I paid for the eggs. Maybe she didn’t even need the eggs to begin with but the cash back for other things….
Then it hit me: what type of society have we become when we begin questioning our charity? I was not looking for praise or thanks. I just wanted the lady to have eggs. But society has made the least among us the most suspicious among us for some reason. The poor have become hated and that is wrong. To demonize the poor is unchristian in my book…. Anyways, I paid for the lady’s eggs….
That will do it for this month.
In this election year I have made the extra effort at avoiding the political here on Wisdom of the Sages (except for maybe that last item) but I really do find arguing politics and the whole political scene boring and without merit in a functioning society. So, I steer clear of it as much as possible. The stupidest thing ever is to fight one another over the inane topic that is politics because politics gets in the way of us really helping one another. And, that, I cannot abide….
Again, feel free to comment, contradict or correct anything here on WoS. I hope that I am not too egotistical that I cannot handle it. I hope you are doing well wherever this finds you.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
© 2012 Ernest M. Whiteman III
