Hello People of the World;
Here we are with the autumn season coming
upon us. What I love is that the temperature had dropped to the high 70’s, mid
80’s the last few weeks and this week as I write this it bumped up ONE DEGREE from
89 degrees to 90 degrees and between one day and the next people just couldn’t
stop bitching about the “Ninety degree weather!” What a bunch of babies.
Yes, the temperature has come back up to the
low 90’s as I write this but it has been mostly dry out here but that does not
stop many from complaining. Man. You just know that once it drops to the
upper-70’s again, people will be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-Zing. Look out, the earth
turns too…. The best thing to do is to roll with the changes.
Anyways, let’s get started shall we?
1:[ First item of the
month:
A Short Biography of a Once-Blank Slate
We are born absolutely free, I heard a wise
man say once, except for laws of nature and that little by little we are
restricting our own freedoms. For example, it is our voice box that gives us
the freedom of speech but it is in our Constitutional right to Free Speech that
limits it and makes it a thing to be monitored or labeled.
I feel that I am the same person I have
always been. It is not until I take time to reflect that I see the influence of
people in authority over me that have dented my persona; from my dad speaking
about quiet people which led to critical thinking to my mom pointing out the
absurdity of useless excess, from the priest telling me how to believe how the
earth was made to the scientist showing me how it was actually made. Who was I
before these meteors of wisdom pelted me, rendering the dinosaurs of
superstition and ignorance extinct?
People often wish that they could somehow
speak to their younger selves, at age ten or twenty, depending on one’s age, as
if they could impart some wisdom to themselves. But, would that change you as a
person, everything you lived through, ideas you had, wisdoms you absorbed that
shaped the person you are now? Would you truly risk changing yourself like that
for better or for worse?
If I could, I would like to see myself fresh
in my mother’s arms for the very first time, not to impart useless wisdom, how
egotistical is that? But to look into those eyes of mine, my baby eyes and see
if I recognize myself in there, in that mind, to see if I really changed at all
or was I always there.
Or, was I born absolutely free, a blank
slate to be marred from the meteors of wisdom this world hurled at me in its
attempts to knock me down?
Coming Soon: More Truthfulness
+ NAMELESS: The Authentic and Magical Ledger
Art of EW3 & A Treatise on American Indian Art (VERY SOON): Every day I
find new things to add to the ideas I wish to espouse. Basically, I find the
art world, especially the Native Art world, a tragic mess of Pay For Play Commoditization
of Culture. The idea that to be taken serious as an artist means that you are
paid money for it belittles artistic merit, creativity, and skill and stifles
the messaging that holds the mirror to society. We are playing into the trap of
the Authorship of Expertise that threatens our own voice by allowing this to
continue. In the end, it is all collectable coffee mugs. Or, that is what we
have turned art into.
+ The Five Six Hypocrisies of Native
America: COMPLETE. As you can see, I upped it from five to six because I
keep running into them in this “community”. But I am contemplating whether or
not I should post this. Let me know.
+ ONE: A Spoken Word (October 1): This is
in the same style as my previous poem/spoken word pieces that I have done. It
espouses a lot of complicated issues surrounding Native American society. It
will be hard to work up the courage to read once I get it in any shape but I
feel that I need to say these things….
2:[ So, the other day when
I was stuck at home this guy comes to my apartment door on behalf of a local
energy provider. He knocks on the door and I see that he has an iPad with him
and wanted to know if I was receiving the savings that my electricity provider
promised. It turns out that, thanks to some vaguely-referenced deregulation
that local providers are supposed to provide me with energy at a lower cost
because the big, McLarge huge corporation (Whom he said “They’re the Good
Guys.”) will no longer be doing that. He asked for a bill and noted that I was still
getting the basic rate over the local rate, which would be a savings of $0.01!
per kW/hr!
He then asked for my account info so he
could turn on the savings plan! I asked if there was a way I could do that
myself online or via phone. I just don’t hand out that info to some stranger at
the door and told him as much in not so many words. He got insulted and rushed
to get out of there. “Yeah, sure, just call or go online.”
I did some research and I guess it really doesn’t
matter because while the corporate rate would stay the same the local rate
could only stay lower for a few months before the aforementioned deregulation
would allow the locals to hike it up. It would be a roller coaster rate from
then on. Anyways. Remember when we would be suspicious of people knocking at
the door requesting personal info? Seriously, did he really think I would just
hand over my account information to some guy that just showed up at my door?
3:[ More MOVIE TIME ADVENTURES:
+ Had the chance a
few weeks ago to see JAWS again on the big screen with St. Mike. We had both
went to the Portage last years to see it and it turned out to be a 4:3 DVD
projection. This time it was in the XD theater at the Century Cinema 18 in
Evanston. The huge silver screen and a very good digital projection made a
great presentation. I noted that some folks even brought their kids, which is
pretty cool. I mean, little kids. My little girl is into horror/scary movies
too. It seems that more “classic” films are coming out again, with “Raiders of
the Lost Ark” now playing the “Imax” screens and Fathom Events putting out
classic films. It comes as no surprise that these are hits over the schlock
that is in theaters now. Anyways, “Frankenstein”, “Bride of Frankenstein”, “To
Kill a Mockingbird” and more are being screened again. For this, I am
thankful….
+ I totally missed my
chance to see Tsiu Hark’s “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate 3D”. It played at the
local AMC IMAX in Skokie for a week. I was so broke that I had hoped to scrape
up some change to go but by the time I got some cash, the flick was gone. Rats.
+ My Bonnie and I
went to see “Rifftrax Live: Manos, the Hands of Fate”. Considered the worst
movie ever made I felt that I would not be up for it. I tried watching the old
MST3K episode but couldn’t make it through the opening car scene without
getting frustrated. Sorry, Joel and the Bots. But Bonnie and I made it through the
new riffing with flying colors. However, there were not too many memorable
jokes and as part of the “festivities”, they had to mention the folks making
that stupid sequel film to “Manos”.
Which revives this argument that we as a
society are really promoting mediocrity as excellence. It seems dumb to make
because they are simply trading off on the cult status of the original. Make an
original film if you’re going to put in that much effort into making a movie.
Stop with trying to gain notoriety with stupid films, quit trying to make the
next “The Room” so you can be famous and make great films. The more filmmakers
making great, quality and original films they more exposure to them the general
audiences would have and a far greater appreciation for them would lead to a
great calling for them. I digress.
Still, it was good to see the event and I
always enjoy the guys at Rifftrax. The next one is “Rifftrax Live: Birdemic”
for Halloween….
+ With the recent
success of Marvel’s “The Avengers” movie, there has been a lot of geek
squealing about the recently announced Justice League movie. For those of you with
lives, the Justice League is a superhero team, much like The Avengers, but made
up of the so-called Big Seven of the DC Comics omnibus of characters –
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Green Lantern, The Flash and The
Martian Manhunter. The roster has changed and expanded but the team has
remained a popular staple in the comics medium since its introduction.
So, once “The Avengers” hit big, add to that
the success of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, as well as the upcoming
Superman adaptation “Man of Steel”, the Internets have been abuzz about the
upcoming Justice League movie. There has been clamor about which characters
will be included and nerdy uproaring about possible directors. But possibly the
biggest thing that geeks have been shouting for is that Warner Brothers
Pictures, which includes the DC Comics Movie Production shingle, needs to,
NEEDS TO, NEEEEEEEEDS TOOOOO(!!!!!!) put out a series of lone character films
before the Justice League films much like Marvel Pictures did prior to the “The
Avengers” movie.
Honestly, I don’t think that is necessary, despite
the cries of the Geekoid Masses. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are pretty
much established in the ethos of mass media. Shoot, Batman and Superman have
rollercoasters at Six Flags. What the Marvel films suffered from was the whole
“But, the Avengers” Syndrome of weak second-halves of the films. Usually
competent directors like Branagh, Johnston and Favreau were burdened with
having to set up in one film, the entire canons of each character. Plus, they
sort of needed these introductory films because Iron Man and Thor were not as
widely known as Captain American or even Hulk, which, believe or not, was the
best know Marvel character thanks to the TV series starring Bill Bixby. The directors
were not allowed to fully explore the mythology and worlds that each character
inhabited. The reason Iron Man was popular and became the ad hoc star of The
Avengers was because he had a full-on origin film to establish the movie
character. In fact, Iron Man was not a popular comic book character until after
Robert Downey Jr. brought him to life.
Still, we do not need four introductory
movies for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman or the Green Lantern (We see how
badly they can be screwed up thanks to the GL movie.) Everyone kind of knows
the Justice League already. Sure, geeks are raging because they think Warner
Brothers doesn’t care about Justice League, when in fact they have been the
gatekeepers of the Justice League mythos through their animated efforts: New
Frontier, Justice League Unlimited, Young Justice, even the old Superfriends
cartoon. To say WB does not care about the JL franchise is not looking at the
quality animated efforts put forth by them.
So, no, we do not need a bunch of single
movies to lead up to the Justice League movie just so the geeks can pretend
that they have some sway in the making of movies and that somehow, our opinion
matters. What matters most to movie production companies is how many seats they
can fill. The concept of a Justice League movie is already a winner. No need to
dilute the pool of expectation and possible confusion with general audiences
just to satiate geek desire. It’s nonsense. Just adapt a single comic arc and
spin-off character one-shot films afterwards. Say, “Tower of Babel” storyline,
which can reintroduce the new movie Batman and Ra’s Al Ghul and can delve a bit
into every character’s origins. Simple.
Beside you just need to look at this one image and know, a Justice League movie can win without all the extraneous solo
films. Enough said.
4:[ So, my old PC
running on XP decided it wasn’t going to take it anymore and took the quick way
out when I was plugging in a new Dell printer. Sucker crashed my old Dell PC.
It refuses to start up, flashing the dreaded blues screen after a minute. I
think it was an incompatible OS for a rather new printer. Still, it is another
example of losing something associated with my past, which seems to be
happening lately mainly because I am getting older. Gone are the tons of
pictures of my trio and I from my marriage, videos of them when they were
younger, videos we shot together that I had yet to edit. I guess I can take it
in and try a data save but that will have to wait until I am firmly back on my
feet financially. Still, it sucks losing those things…
5:[ Ah yes, settle in
Readers for more of:
Adventures
at the Coffee Shop!
+ So, while I was
waiting for Mike to show up for JAWS I hit the B&N coffee shop to check
email, get some work done and do some writing and drawing. I take a table and
fire up the old laptop (And I do mean old) and do my work. Sitting at the
couches next to me were a few people that seemed to have know each other for a
while and they chatted lively and loudly about everything. I tuned them out
when it turned to politics. I usually do because politics are meant to divide
not unite by its very nature and no one ever agrees. If you are fighting and
being mad over politics, you have very stupidly played into the trap.
Anyways. They left after a while and then
some ladies with a child and baby sat there but not for long as they moved to a
table. The couches were empty for a bit until this fellow walks in, without
getting a coffee, pulls out the cell phone and sits.
Look, I am a guy. I look at the ladies that
catch my eye. I cannot help it. But I do consciously try to temper my looking.
If your guy says he never looks. He’s lying, ladies. You can bank that. But
this guy was not subtle at all about looking at women, and to what area of the
woman he was looking at. It was creepy and pervy. I would glance at him from
time to time and see that he would just be blatantly staring. What made it
creepy was sometimes the age didn’t matter. (Urp, kind of threw up in my mouth
a bit, there.) He was just sitting there. He was still there when I packed up
and left.
You want to know what the really creepy,
crappy thing was about him? He wore a security guard’s uniform….
+ I have more sympathy
now for the baristas mainly due to my friend who works as one. Hearing what
they have to put up with is pretty crazy. Still, I will call out the guys doing
the crappy job and call out the stupid, hipster-cool mentality they sometimes have.
Otherwise, there would be no adventures in the coffee shop….
+ I was sitting there
at a window table when I see this car back into a parking spot and seeing the little
booboos get out of the car. It brightened my day immensely. They looked as
though they had just gotten out of school as they had uniforms on. They were
maybe five and seven or eight. They were hopping with excitement and waving
their little coin purses around so happy and joyous because they were going to
the Dollar Store. It warms my heart that it is the smallest of things that make
children happy. I am sure it was not the toys or trinkets they bought but that
Mom took them and being with her and that they got to “shop” like grown ups….
Makes the heart smile at how awesome kids are.
6:[ According to this article, simply walking 30 minutes a day will help you live longer. So, it looks
like I am going to live into the next age like I wanted after all with all the
walking that I do everyday….
7:[ And now Wisdom of
the Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ Stop waving and
chasing down the bus. If you had the sense to be at the bus stop to begin with
you would have caught it. Instead you wave your arms and run across a busy
intersection to try and get the bus stopped for you. Then, throw up your arms
when it doesn’t like it owes you something suddenly. How does it owe you a ride
when you did even have the sense to be at the bus stop to begin with? Stop
chasing it down, it has other stops to make. Your nonsense is what makes buses
late….
+ So, I was standing
at the crosswalk on my way to one of my jobs. You know how some intersections
have the left-turn light? Well, I watch as one car makes its turn but then
slows for the people in the crosswalk. (They had no business crossing at the
time, but this driver respected the fact that once they were in the crosswalk,
they had the right-of-way.) Immediately, the car behind her began honking and he
started waving his hands big like she could see him and he even began rolling down
the window getting ready to yell. So, she roared around the pedestrians just so
the jackass behind her would be satisfied. That Getting-mad-from-the-safety-of-your-car
Nonsense really needs to stop. It serves no purpose. Other than making you look
like an ass….
+ Just heard some one
say “Yeah, I went there” as a punctuation to something stupidly said…. I
believe this comes from some new reality TV show. We should stop it before it
festers. It’s not cute, smart or endearing…. It just needs to stop. Now….
+ Speaking of stopping
something before it festers: Gangham Style needs to stop…. (It just goes to show you how much
we will defend women as long as they are wearing swimsuits.)
8:[ With all the rage
and nastiness going on in world both globally and locally, all I can say is:
Pat yourselves on the backs Morons, what a wonderful fucking world we are
making for our kids. Way to go! Woohoo! We rock!
Sorry kids, but we have utterly and totally
failed you. When it comes time for you to hear some fakey adult make a speech
at your high school graduation telling you it’s your time to “Change the World”
and “Make it a better place”, that there are still many challenges to face,
that is code is for “we fucked up and now it’s you’re problem”. It’s a cop-out.
Never believe us. We were supposed to be the grownups; we were supposed to be
the ones that solved the problems. I heard the exact same speech at my high
school graduation.
But what did we do instead? Nothing. Now, we
simply stuff our kids’ heads with our own prejudices and nonsense. Don’t give
me that noise of “Some problems take longer to solve.” Bulllshit, I say. If we
really wanted to, we could really band together and put all of this fucking
buffoonery behind us. But here we are, still arguing about things from hundreds
or thousands of years ago. And what is our biggest societal accomplishment in
the tens of thousands of years of the human species? We can act like dumbasses
on Facebook. That’s it. We need to wake up, grow up and figure this shit out.
Sorry for the swearing but I just feel strongly about it….
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: In addition
to my continual reading of the books, I recently began watching the 2010 CCTV
production of “Three Kingdoms” on YouTubes. It is a very rich production that
does take some liberties with the story and characters but freshens it up
immensely by cutting out much of the lingering narratives and tightens the
overall story. One of the best things about it is that I am able to relive some
of my favorite moments of the book. Surprisingly, the final episodes makes Sima
Yi, whose descendents usurp the Han throne under the kingdom of Jin uniting the
realm, a sympathetic and very cool character at the end. I recommend you check it out here.
10:[ Last Item of the Month: I think I am going to start using
the word “buffoonery” more. It just seems to sum up a lot of what is happening
lately at all levels of involvement, from personal to global situations. With
respect to the works of Doug Stanhope.
That will do it for this month.
Every mid-September marks another year spent
in Chicago. This year, it has been thirteen years since I moved here. I
remember driving into the city with my brother Joey, the windshield plastered
with night bugs. But the lit skyline of Chicago loomed and eventually filled
the windshield. I have loved it since.
So, once again I invite you to comment,
correct, or contradict any item you read here. I am not so egotistical that I
think my opinions are the be-all, end-all of the discussion. Add your two cents
to the conversation. Don’t be scared. It is a part of the tacit bargain struck
when you make your opinions, thoughts and ideals public. People will comment on
them. Try it. It’s fun. You’ll see.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers
how pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
© 2012 Ernest M. Whiteman III