Hello People of the World;
This weather is so weird. Or so would be the case
to most people. Still, we have had some violent tornadoes in the central
plains. One can never predict the weather and it seems people are constantly
surprised that it changes day to day.
Hopefully, I will have gotten this out a bit
earlier than last month’s edition. Nothing really crazy going on with all that.
I just have an annoying habit of putting things aside when something important
or something I promised to do comes up. Which explains why you Dear Reader get
your regular WoS a bit late from time to time. But, that’s just me….
Anyways, let’s get started shall we?
1:[ First
Item of the Month:
More Truthfulness
My Useless Self: On Privacy
I am constantly amazed at how much personal privacy
we give up for convenience. Last month, some of the things being praised were
Twitter and Facebook because folks could post important information and such on
it during emergencies. While it was a great and useful tool during those emergencies,
all it did for me was shine a spotlight on how much we abuse such technology. I
am reminded of Karl Pilkington’s visit to a KFC for deaf people. He noticed
that the service was much faster and noticed that video chat was being
rightfully used there. Not only are we stupidly posting nonsense day to day,
(this blog a glaring example) but we seem to be content with how much personal
information we pass off into the ether because we have been convinced it is fun
to do so.
We seem to be giving up private information quite
easily and on a regular basis. Which is why we do not seem bothered when we
find out the National Security Administration has been spying on us this whole
time. Let’s face it – they are not really spying if we are telling them
everything, right? We pass along so much useless and silly info on Facebook and
Twitter that we pat ourselves on the back when we feel we are posting something
important. We’re lazy.
If a corporation or the government made a
user-friendly, user-updated news site called News Share or something, would we
blast them for asking for private info? That is what Twitter and Facebook are
already doing, right? Does slapping it on Facebook or Twitter make it all right
to give up such personal info? I mean we send private info to these faceless
corporations already. Shit, we send them pictures of the food we are eating and
we do not think that is weird or invasive? Why? Because we were convinced it is
fun. We are gullible and we bought into it. Yet, we are constantly posting nonsense
about how our privacy is being invaded on Facebook and Twitter without really
realizing, they already have our private information.
We tell Facebook everything – name, birth date,
where we went to school, who our friends are, where we have been, where we are
at any moment, what we do on a constant basis and because we click “Private” we
think no one we do not want to does not see it. But Facebook sees it and stores
it. Every website, especially those stupidly useless online petitions you enter
any kind of information into sees it and store it and because we can share
pictures of our dessert we think that having Big Brother watching is fun! With
those political petitions we sign are sending our private info directly to a
member of the government and we think is okay because we thing we are stopping
a pipeline or stopping kids from getting shot. Wake up. Thanks to the Patriot
Act the government, even this vaunted current administration has been seeing
our private info for some time now. Sorry….
Updates from my other Truthfulness Projects:
+ NAMELESS: The Authentic and Magical Ledger Art of EW3
A Treatise on
American Indian Art
“All you care about is money. This city deserves a
better class of artist. And I’m going to give it to them.”
So, I think I have reached critical mass on my
treatise on Native American Art – conclusion: it is a scam dominated by fakers.
Sorry. So, I will be posting my simpler version on my ledger art project’s
artist’s statement and make the treatise a full-on article that I will post.
Yeah, my ideas do not garner much attention or
start much discussion. I see that the “experts” are still exploiting the Native
artists out there. Cripes. So, I recently was talking with a buddy of mine who
decided that he is going to keep doing his thing despite how badly people treat
him and his work. We want success on our own terms.
“Just do it ‘cause I love doing it,” he said.
Here’s what I said: “Quote the great man, ‘It’s not about money. It’s about sending a
message…’.”
One more person that gets the idea that should be
driving Native artists….
+ The Five Six SEVEN Hypocrisies of Native America:
(Because Seven is a sacred
number):
I don’t know. I’m seeing a lot of decapitated
Indian heads out there. Sadly, many Natives are wearing them too. There used to
be a bounty on Indian heads back in the 19th century. Now, it seems
Natives are the ones paying for them. I am pretty sure if the Blackhawks win
the Stanley Cup I will see a lot of those “We’re Not Mascots!/You Can’t Use
‘Geronimo’/Gwen Stefani is Stupid/Johnny Depp isn’t Indian” Indians wearing a
Blackhawks jersey.
I know. We have more important things to worry
about than cartoon heads on a shirt but that just goes to show a level of
ignorance. Willful ignorance if you are Native. You cannot see overall how
these logos and mascot informs non-Natives in their dealing with Native
peoples. I said it last month when they will always see Native peoples as
“always the enemy” and that the enemy should always be fought or in this case,
its images should be owned.
I have seen the affects on Native students being
tormented because of their school’s Indian mascots, so, do not tell me they are
harmless. It affects self-esteem and creates hostile environments that students
cannot thrive in their schools. These images continue to inform the uninformed
about Native peoples and that affects almost every aspect of their dealings and
interactions with Native people. Understand that much at least, please. These
“Always the Enemy” views connects to politics, media, education, everything. If
you only see a people as imaged as they were over a hundred years ago, how do
you think that informs how you interact with them today?
Another hypocrisy I see out there is the continuing
thrashing that Gwen Stefani gets on the Facebooks. Granted, her video was
stupid and quite ill-informed but everyone goes on about she should not be
putting out stereotypical imagery as she did and how no “Native friend” or
“Native Expert” would sign off on such images in her video.
Unfortunately, that happens all the time, Indians
signing off on racist, stereotypical nonsense and Natives put out stereotypical
imagery all, the, time….
Look at the Lakota and “Dances with Wolves”. Yeah,
I said that. Shoot, they adopted Costner too. So, his opening a casino in the
Black Hills is like a tribal member doing that, right? Why not?
Look at the Comanche adopting Johnny Depp – for
Tonto.
Look at how Natives everyday pay for and wear the
Blackhawks’ jersey and logo or the Redskins or Chiefs logos. Any logos.
Look at how a prominent organization within the
Native community in Chicago accepted a large grant from the Blackhawks to
“teach” about how awesome their logo is!
Yes, it happens all the time. Indians sign off on
this shit constantly and we act like it never happens. Like we are so
victimized that we cannot help but parade in our beads and feathers. Wake up.
You can bet that Stefani’s “Native friend” and “Native expert” were really
Native people. Shit, you can look no further than the powwows going on across
America to see how much Native Americans will sell-out their culture and
promote stereotypical imagery….
+ ONE: A Spoken Word:
I am so ready to workshop this but am having a hell
of a time finding an open mic to try it out.
NEXT MONTH’S TRUTHFULNESS: Ego and _____? Let me
know.
2:[ I cured myself of eating
potato chips. Which is a good thing I suspect, in the end. Most snack products
that are generally considered ‘comfort food’ are generally unhealthy for you.
Chips are loaded with starch, fat, salt and calories. So, it is a buffet of bad
health choices when it comes down to it.
I barely ate potato chips anyway because I am poor
and chips are expensive. So, in the last five or six years I rarely ate them. I
used to share a small bag of Ruffles with Char as we video gamed but that was
about it. The occasional Kettle-Cooked at B&N or with a sandwich. So, the
other day I buy a bag of Jay’s Crispy Ridge potato chips, their version of
“Ruffles”. I eat some for supper with my homebrewed tea and chicken fingers. It
was a nice little meal. Later on that evening, I was working on video stuff –
editing, rendering, exporting and uploading, all, very time-consuming tasks.
So, to fill the time as the computer does this task and that, I fire up the PS2
and play some “Dynasty Warriors 3”, the button-masher, taking on a thousand
enemies game that I have come to love.
Now, video game playing is a very compulsive act
and so is snacking. Put them together and you become those stereotypical
basement dwellers that never go out. I grabbed the bag of leftover chips and
began to compulsively eat them as I fought through stages of Three Kingdoms Era
history.
Soon, nearly all of the chips were gone. So I stop.
Drink more tea, finish up my video stuff, pop in my Mystery Science Theater
3000 VHS and hit the sack.
At 3 o’clock a-m, I awake with a pain in my stomach
that extended out into my limbs. No worries, it was more an ache than pain but
it felt as if I had a ball of wax in my stomach. After going to the bathroom
and drinking more cold tea I finally get back to sleep, stomach still in
discomfort.
After that, I figure, I’m done with potato chips. I
threw the rest of the chips away and will never eat them again.
You know what I miss most, being poor?
Eating potato chips….
3:[ More MOVIE TIME ADVENTURES:
+ Music Box Theater Reviews:
I was able this last month to scrape together my change and go out and see
quite a few movies. Two of which I saw at the vaunted Music Box Theater and I
now short review for your pleasure:
F For Fake – This is Orson Welles last completed
film about the theme of art and fakery. He cuts together his own work and that
of François Reichenbach into an essay film on authorship and authenticity. It
is one of my most-favorite works and it has informed my own ideas and thoughts
about those same themes and how they pertain to Native American culture and
art. I screen this in my Native Americans in Media course at UWP and I
challenge my students to tie it into how Natives are represented in media. I
heartily recommend it.
Deceptive Practices: the Mysteries and Mentors of
Ricky Jay – This was a very interesting documentary about the influences of
magician Ricky Jay. It was great to see where here came from, to see the old
footage of the vaudeville magic acts but it felt a bit unexplored as if to try
to enact the old magician’s tenant of never divulging the secret. I felt it
could have dug deeper but then how many documentaries are there about this guy?
Recommended.
Look for my Star
Trek Into Darkness & Man of
Steel reviews on WOS Reviews: COMING SOON!
+ HAMLET Update: Yes, I have
a HAMLET Update!
I will be shooting two small scenes for the feature
between July 12th and 22nd. I have the actors cast and
we’ve been meeting weekly for read-throughs and discussion. Hopefully we will
get some great equipment loaned to us and we can wrap two scenes in a couple of
days.
+ I never understood the hate
for “The Dark Knight Rises”? Here’s my guess: it represents a supposed end to
the Batman franchise, one that fans had longed for, one of realism, gravitas
and splendid technical artistry. Others merely complain that it was full of
plot-holes and such. (I don’t think people know what the definition of “plot
hole” is.) I think I’ll take the time to try and explain a few things.
We think we are asked to accept things in the movie
that are never explained: but they were in the previous movies:
How does he heal so fast after being injured – Remember
that green drink he is always seen taking, the green drink helps healing. So,
why not make it public and market it? Same reason for his energy project, in
the wrong hands it could be abused. Does this mean he uses performance
enhancers? I don’t know. It could be natural. It’s green. Plus, he developed
his body to be used to getting beat up on and his armor protected his back to a
degree. Look at him in the beginning of the movie. He does not look like a man
who let 8 years slip by without staying in some sort of shape.
How does he get back to Gotham City so fast? – Well,
viewers forgot that he had a ‘criminal alias’ when he traveled the world before
becoming Batman and could use that to get back to Gotham after climbing out of
the prison.
How did he even enter the city? – He just climbed
out a prison, he can climb over the barrier in the eastside tunnel.
How did he escape the bomb? – He fixed the
autopilot.
A lot of it asks you to suspended disbelief but at
the same time it tries to ground everything is some sort of reality. I guess that
could be the reason why some have a problem with it. I don’t know, I guess it’s
just my Bat-geek hackles are up. I enjoyed the film immensely, as you can read here
in my REVIEW OF THE FILM….
4:[ Dogs are pack animals,
plain and simple and cats do not speak English. Sorry. I have (had) this
reputation that I was very “Anti-Pet” in our household when I was married.
Sure, I still believe keeping a dog, any dog, in the big city is cruel. You are
in essence keeping them from their pack, the litter they were born into all for
your own comfort and amusement.
My girls used to think that I hated every pet they
brought to the house. While, I still believe my dog in the city notion, I also
knew that kids tend to want and love pets because they are cute. So, in our
house, if they felt I wanted to throw out the pets, so be it. They needed to
protect their pets from me in a sense, sort of present a united front. Which
would only serve in them being more careful about their pets and taking care of
them.
I will admit that it this strategy did not work
quite as well as I hoped in the “Taking Care of Them” Front but it did make
them more aware about keeping their pets. If my being the Bad Guy made them
want to fight to keep their pets and bond with them. I can do that….
5:[ Ah yes, settle in Dear
Readers for more of:
Adventures at
the Coffee Shop!
+ So, last month as we were doing meetings for
“HAMLET” at my local coffee shop, there was this lady at the table whom one of
my actors mistakenly thought as part of the project and began talking with her
as such. I guessed that it struck her that she was now a part of the
conversation, which I did not mind. In fact, when I saw her again the following
week, she asked about the project. That was nice. She is a regular there and
everyone seems to know her and now it seems that I do too.
+ I found myself back downtown at the Chase Tower
Starbucks. At this particular time of the day, late afternoon there were scads
of people practically lining up out the door to get a drink. My first though
was, “Geez, the coffee isn’t THAT good.”
Still, it was amazing how much business Starbucks
still gets. Sure, there are those out there that think that because they go to
the cool, indie shops that they are better than these folks just hustling
though to get a coffee. Please, no one is a coffee expert. Truly. It reminded
me though of how much perceived stability that a Starbucks brings to a
neighborhood. People think that once a Starbucks moves in that it means that
their neighborhood is “safe” or that “civilization” has come. Weird.
Anyways, another thing I learned? – That person
that stands around and does nothing? It seems they too have a function of
sorts. They go down the long line of people and take orders. Pretty cool….
6:[ My first year with AYV: I
was asked to attend a graduation this year. Students at one of my schools
invited me to be at their graduation and that will in essence close this, my
first school year as a Media Mentor for Chicago Public Schools. It is a really
great gig. I get to show students how to create videos and posters from my
experience in filmmaking and graphic design. I met some really great kids as
well.
I have so much to say about this experience. This
is what I was promised I would be doing when I first hooked up with Chicago
Public Schools, but that never turned out, so I took my leave and shifted over
to freelancing with the Adobe Youth Voices program.
What I did with them was this: many schools signed
up for the Adobe Youth Voices program to bring to their classrooms to learn the
Photoshop and Premiere programs while working on poster and video projects that
connect to the common core of their class. They could do anything that was a
larger social issue or a part of their classroom curricula.
I stopped in, when needed, to help the students
learn, not only the programs but how to plan and produce videos or design a
poster or flyer. It was fun and I got to know some very cool students and
learned so much about the next generation coming out of these schools. It also
really affirmed some notions I had about south side schools and the short-shift
they constantly get.
So, sitting in on that graduation ceremony today
watching some of the students I helped move on, it was very gratifying. The
program even got a shout out from the valedictorian who was one of the students
that I helped put together a really cool video with.
So, when I was asked if I would return next school
year, I did not hesitate to say, “Yes, yes I will.”
7:[ And now Wisdom of the
Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ Crosswalks Fun: On the corner, no where even
close to a crosswalk, cars will stop and wait until Heaven falls to let you
cross. Once you are in the crosswalk, they don’t….
+ On the train everyone was either plugged into
their phones or iPods or staring at the screen of their pads, phones or
e-readers. Everyone one, that is except for an elderly woman and myself. I
guess I am old….
8:[ One of the very few things
I love about Chicago is the skyline and the buildings that compose it. There is
always constant construction going on in Chicago and I always joke that,
“Whenever they finish building Chicago, it’s going to be beautiful”. I had read
about the so-called AquaHotel last year sometime and saw the pictures for it.
So, when I found myself downtown with some time on my hands I decide that this
was the day that I would find the AquaHotel.
Looking back and now knowing where it is on the
skyline, I have to say that it was hiding in plain sight this whole time. From
a distance, it looks just like any of the other buildings surrounding it. But
the genius of the design is that you have to be in the immediate area to
appreciate the design.
According to the ever-accurate Wikipedia: it is
actually simple called Aqua and was designed by a team at the Gang Studio
Architects led by Jeanne Gang. I guess it is the tallest building right now
that has had a woman as the lead designer. It sits on the Lakeshore East
district and won the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2009.
Pretty cool to look at though I could never afford
to spend the night there as it is a Raddison Hotel….
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: So, as
Charlie Sheen, a drunkard, spoiled Hollywood child, sex fiend, we all cheered
for him as he toured the country crying that he could not have a TV show and we
re-tweeted his catchphrases and raised him up from debauchery and threw money
at him for all his stupidity. Now, as Carlos Estevez in the new Rodriguez
movie, suddenly everyone hates him and calls it “ethnic opportunism” and
“cashing in on the Latino thing”. Hypocrites.
10:[ Last Item of the Month: One more thing: People have a tendency to
hang out with or be in groups or cliques with people they like to think, thinks
like them. It gives one that egotistical boost that yeah, my ideals are the
shit and cool people get it. I have never fit into in most groups. I am not
cool. My ideas on art and commerce, my whole outlook in general is not one that
gets a lot of traction in today’s society of the contradictory idealism of
individuality within a community dichotomy.
But what I love is the whole hypocrisy of “We are
all Indian People. But Here are even more ways to keep segregating ourselves
from each other!”
The big unspoken truth of this Native community,
possibly in every Native community is our intense tribalism. Face it, Native
peoples have been roaming in tribes for over 10,000 years before others came
along and “forced” it on us. It is in our DNA to band together with similar
tribal people. Even now, in this very community we hedge around certain tribes
or hold something against certain peoples because they are not “of the city” or
of a “certain tribe”. One of the stupidest things I heard uttered from a
“community elder’s” mouth (Besides “You just as well ask us to stop dancing”
when a logo was challenged) was “It’s the Potawatomi. For them, its always
‘The Potawatomi Way or No Way.’”
Really. An elder said that. Tribalism in the 21st
Century.
Even though Natives survived into the future we
cannot seem to get past our 15th Century mentalities of creating
cliques and groups to leave other Natives out because we like being with people
that are basically copies of ourselves. I am no different in this. If you’ve
seen two of my best friends here in Chicago – Dave and Mike, you will see that
I am no different. We are alike.
Tribalism. All it does is make you hate Natives you
never met. Take credit for things you had NO part in, like “Wounded Knee ‘73”.
In my Native Americans in Media course I introduce
my students to the Concept of Othering and how it uses media to inform the
viewer about Native Americans. “Othering” is to use a trait or cultural
identifier to purposely-separate one section of people from another, typically
in fashion that makes it easier to dislike or hate them. But I do not restrict
it to Native peoples. I give examples of how we do this in everyday life –
labels: Republican, Democrat, Hipster, Gangbanger, Catholic, Muslim all things
that separate us from being a complete part of our species. Usually, set at
odds to make it more like a group-think or to be a part of a crowd without
seeming to be part of the crowd – Jocks versus Nerds, Conservative versus
Liberal, Theist versus Atheist, shit, even DC versus Marvel.
The more it breaks down into specific cliques the
more we are separating ourselves from the overall goal of humanity, to be
united. People do not want that, they strive to stay in their niches as if that
totally defines them as a person. It doesn’t but we keep labeling others and
ourselves in this constant need to be better than the next person….
That will do it for this month.
Blaaaaaah! I always find myself sidetracked when
trying to get this written. Though I recently found that no one really reads
it. Maybe one or two of you do. But I will continue to struggle through this. I
have an upcoming film shoot to plan, a short stories collection to e-publish
and more writing to do. I also have a film festival to run. So, sometimes,
things I said I would do take precedence over my humble creations.
As always, feel free to comment, contradict or
correct anything here. That is how conversations begin. Do not take offense at
my opinions but counter them with well-put opinions and facts of your own.
Again, I am sorry for the lateness of this edition. I am always setting the
writing of this aside when things I promised to do come up and I make the time
to get some business done.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how
pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2013 Ernest M. Whiteman III
