Hello People of the World;
Welp. Summer is here. Guess what? Yeah, it got
warmer and humid. Surprise! But that won’t stop you from complaining. It is as
if the slow turn of the earth caught you completely off-guard! The other day I
overheard someone complain about how it the temperature was going to drop and
“be all ucky again, like, 69 degrees.” What? Man, there is no satisfying
anyone. Even today was nice, so you know what they complained about? Tomorrow’s
weather that hasn’t f*cking happened yet!
Anyways, I realize that I am a few days late in
posting this. I try to stick to a 15th of the month deadline for
your favorite monthly newsletter. But this month I was purposely late. Here’s
why: in the last few years Facebook has become the primary way I share Wisdom
of the Sages. I used to send a link out in a mass email, but that became
tedious, or, I just lazy. But of late, I have not been posting anything to my
personal “Wall”. It has been 20 days and I just wanted to see how long I could
go without posting something there. I posted for Redshade and FNFVF, but within
the last couple of years I have come to realize how stupid, futile, and
egotistical it is to post to your Facebook Wall. So, I began posting silly
stuff and non-personal/political stuff.
This made me realize how stupid, futile, and
egotistical Facebook and other social networking sites really are. I started
with posting something silly every three days or so. Then, when I went a week
without posting something to my personal wall, I thought to see how long I
would go. Unfortunately, it meant that I would eventually post WoS on the 15th,
making it 17 days since I last posted. But I thought, naw, f*ck it, go 20 days.
Hence the posting today. Aren’t I awesome?
Let’s get this edition started, shall we?
1:[ First
Item of the Month: Fuck the World Cup.
Can I say that? Just once? Yeah, fuck the World
Cup….
You don’t kick a bunch of people out of their homes
and build a multi-million dollar stadium over the ruins just so we here in
‘Merica can pretend we care about soccer for a few weeks. And how quickly that
caring dried up when Team USA lost. Jackasses! All team sports are meant to do
is to divide us and help us Other one another.
So, yeah, fuck the World Cup….
2:[ My Truthfulness Stuffs:
My Useless Self: Ego &
My Own Limits
I am running out of things to write about here.
Which is why always I stick the “asking for suggestions” bit at the end. It is
my way of seeing if you are truly reading this. I have admitted to not being
very smart, to not being political, to being a disaster in
dating/relationships, to being a non-game-playing artist, to a full-on
hypocrite about my beliefs. I have reached my egotistical limits. What is there
left to reveal to you Dear Reader?
Let me know.
Updates from my other Truthfulness Projects:
+ NAMELESS: The Authentic and Magical Ledger Art of EW3
A Treatise on American Indian Art
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.”
I have decided to purchase a scanner/printer for my
own use and to use for the film festival. This way, I can scan all the
completed sketches into electronic formatting. This will go a long way to
getting the type of show I want to do for NAMELESS in the production stages. I
continue to see NO other project like mine out there. None. What. So. Ever.
It’s weird.
I mean, it can’t all just be about money, can it?
How stupid is that? How much of a colonized mindset is that that we willing
give up our “sacred” cultural images, history, and heroes, for money? It can’t
be that. Can it?
I am having a tough time trying to make a movie
that could really change how movies are made and how people view Native American actors, all with no money,
nothing but an appeal to the Native community’s own espoused support for the
arts. But nothing is happening. Nothing. All these artists want money. Cash up
front, buy my shit and I’ll support you. Fucking nonsense. I am not about to
let your buffoonery wreck my movie. Sorry guys. Go sell your sketches of headdresses
elsewhere.
Go sell your drawings of headdress wearing women
and wonder where people get the fucking idea that wearing a headdress is cool.
Idiots.
To quote the great man, ‘It’s not about money. It’s about sending a message…’.
+ The Five Six SEVEN Hypocrisies of Native America:
(Because Seven is a sacred number):
(Because Seven is a sacred number):
+ I was surprised at how one of my best friends,
who is a proponent of Native American first-voice in media, was suddenly
against letting another Native person speak out against the use of the
Blackhawks logo at a recent event. He felt there is a time and place to do such
things. I told him, “There should always be room for that discussion.” But my
friend steered it towards Indian school’s use of the same logos and how we, as
Natives, should look at how we are using the same logos too.
I agree. We should stop using trite Native
stereotypes as logos and works of art ourselves. But that does not mean it
makes it okay for the Blackhawks to use it for now. I guess it does kind of
hurts the image when you are grant-funded by the Blackhawks too… I guess….
+ I guess what makes me really sad is that this
item suddenly has the multi-“+” added to it but here is another:
“Natives need to do-colonize their thinking, lives,
their government!
“Natives need to control how they are represented!
“Natives need to be a sovereign people with power
to control their resources!
“Stop the stereotypes- what? BRAD PITT did what?
AWESOME! IMMA RE-POSTING THAT SHIT!
“White SAVE-YOR! White SAVE-YOR! White SAVE-YOR!”
If Brad Pitt really cared, he would forgo his egotistical throwing money at the problem and actually stand with Natives getting policies change to give tribes greater control over their land and resources, education and help re-work the national public education system to present a more accurate history in our nation's school. But he buys us houses. So, he gets a pass. Dummies….
NEXT MONTH’S
TRUTHFULNESS: Ego and
_____?
Let me know what I should
cover next in my series on Truthfulness.
3:[ More MOVIE TIME ADVENTURES:
+ More Reviews: Since there were some many movie I
finally saw I will have to go over them ever so briefly. I may have to dust off
the old WOS Reviews Page. Anyways. So, I finally got around to seeing Spike
Jonze’s HER. It was a pretty good story and Joaquin Phoenix sold the concept
very well. It was a touching story, set in a near future where a man falls in
love with his computer operating system. The ultimate in First World Problems.
I also saw Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (DVD) and
enjoyed it as well. Kenneth Branagh is growing in skills in the genre
department. This is a reboot of the Tom Clancy character which explores his
beginning, updating the character for the 21st Century.
My best friend Dave introduced me to two films “The
Story of Luke” and “The Music Never Stopped”. I recommend you check them out.
“The Story of Luke” is about a young autistic man having to deal with his
grandmother’s recent death and having to integrate into his extended family.
“The Music Never Stopped” is about a father and son who re-connect through
music when cancer renders the son unable to create new memories but connects
via the music he grew up with. Both star Lou Taylor Pucci who is very good in
both. “The Story of Luke” is the more recent movie. Check them out.
I went and saw “The Godfather” as a re-screen in
Evanston as part of their Classic Movie Series. This time I brought with me,
Charlotte who had been trying to finish watching it on DVD but never could. She
thoroughly enjoyed the movie. She understood the morality of a good man going
bad and realized it was more that a “gangster movie” that everyone seems to
think it is. We talked for hours about it and analyzed it. She even pointed out
something I NEVER thought of. At the end when Michael finally confronts Carlo
in his role in Sonny’s death, she realized how cruel and cold it was to give
Carlo a taste of being in the family, being his right-hand man, then, taking
that away from him. “Man, that was a cold thing to do,” Charlotte said, “Well,
up until he killed him.”
I was pretty disappointed with Ridley Scott’s “The
Counselor”. It is one of those movies where all the actors have to have cool
monologues about nothing, but we see proven out later in the plot. Very
contrived once you think about it. Sad, what a waste of a perfectly sexy
opening scene.
Just finished “The LEGO Movie” just now. As much as
I enjoyed it, especially Wil Arnett voicing The Batman, I saw the twist coming
and was a little bothered by the “special message” – You got to have faith in
made-up bullshit – which, if you think about it, is super sinister and to shove
that into little kids’ soft spots in terribly evil. Plus, I also am disturbed that, while it does have a message against uniformity, everyone who has seen it will spout the movie's
main song “Everything is Awesome” at the mention of someone else having stated they seen the movie. (i.e. you: "I just saw the LEGO MOVIE" reply: "Everything is awesome!") That’s creepy, it is like they are being
conditioned as adults. Still. The animation was fantastic and it was a fun
romp. Getting a little tired of the tiny, cute thing suddenly going ape shit
insane troupe though.
+ I was able to hit up the Criterion 50% Off Sale
and picked up two new disc, sight unseen: “Purple Noon” which is a 1960, French
adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley”, yeah, the Matt Damon movie. This is
very good and a great example of the filmmaking of the era. I recommend this
verily. The other DVD I got was Haskel Wexler’s “Medium Cool”. It is hard to
describe, it mixed commentary on the times, with documentary filmmaking, and
adding in fictional elements of a TV cameraman readying to capture the 1969
Democratic Convention in Chicago. Welxer managed to film right in the center of
the real-live riot that happened. It also deals with how media is manipulated
at all phases. It is a pretty great movie. Another recommendation, especially
to teachers teaching media literacy.
Both are great examples of real filmmaking to me.
They contain social relevance beyond the eras they depict and make me see how
shallow filmmaking has become….
4:[ THIS ITEM
OF “WISDOM OF THE SAGES” IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
5:[ Ah yes, settle in Dear
Readers for more of:
Adventures in
the Coffee Shop and/or on the CTA!
Kids just Rock: You know why? They are simply NOT
AFRAID TO BE WRONG! That is their advantage over us “Grown Ups” in every
capacity. So, I was sitting on the train heading downtown for an ill-fated
HAMLET meeting when this mother and her two daughters get on. One was about
seven or eight, the other, five to six, a couple sweeties. The younger really
wanted to sit by big sis. When a fellow left the end-car alcove, the younger
girl jumped out of her seat and dashed to the alcove, saying, “there are two
seats in there!”
She really wanted to sit by Big Sis. It was sweet. She
tries to get big sis out of her seat, pleads and begs for her to come with and
sit by her, and finally Big Sis acquiesces and they rush back there to find: no
seats!
The little sister just LAUGHS because she was
wrong! She laughed about it so much that her big sis had to chuckle and mom
too. No, it was not a laugh out of embarrassment, it was a ‘man, this is the
funniest thing ever, that I thought there were two seats there’ kind of laugh.
It was genuine.
Every day, we “grown ups” do everything possible to
protect our shitty, fragile egos. We start wars. Kids, don’t. (But don’t worry,
our social structures, schools, and our competitive parenting will knock that
shit right out of them, so don’t worry….) Kids do not have the judgmental egos
that we instill in them just yet. They still see each other and everyone else
as human beings. So, it was great to be reminded of how awesome kids can be
while they still can be….
6:[ Derek Jeter gets a dude
out: According to this Yahoo Sports article, NY Yankees’ shortstop finally
earns the millions of dollars he is paid by finally doing his fucking job and
getting a batter out. Now, we can forgive him all the stupid shit he’s done. Am
I right? Ohhhhh, I get it now. He’s retiring, so it’s okay to pretend we liked
him. Cool. As long I have it figured out….
7:[ And now Wisdom of the
Sages presents:
“An Ever-growing List of Things That MUST Stop!”
+ There was a woman holding up the line at the
Walgreens the other night trying to get a 25% discount off her purchase with
all the sale items she had, though the coupon clearly stated “No applicable to
Sale items”! The Shift Manager calmly explained this to her over and over, “It
does not apply to Sale items. To which the woman kept saying, “Just give me the
discount!”
The Manager calmly repeated it but the woman was
not having it, and demands HOW she could get the discount. The Manager repeats,
“It does not apply to Sale items”. Well, give me my discount! So it went: back
and forth, back and forth. The Manager said she could not change the store’s
policy at all to give her a discount. The woman demanded she talk to the “Real
Manager”.
“The Store Manager is not here.”
“So you don’t have a manger in this store?”
“I’m the manger.”
“I want to talk to the REAL manager.”
“The Store Manger is not here, The Manager works
from 8am to 5pm. You will have to wait until tomorrow. You can come in tomorrow
and talk to the manager then.”
“I can’t wait. I need my prescriptions now. I’ll
just call the Manager and report this.” Suddenly, when she saw that she was
holding up the line, mentions her prescriptions.
“I’m sorry, I explained to you already. I cannot
change the store policy just to give you a discount.”
“Well, what is your Store Manger’s name? I’ll just have
a talk with HIM!”
Now, I would like to think that this whole affair
was not about race. But the Shift Manager was a young African-American woman,
and the customer an older white woman. I would LOVE to think that it was not
about race. I really would have thought it was a stupid mix-up where the
customer was too stupid to just simply drop it. Be wrong and move on. Sadly,
no, because what happened next, while subtle, showed me that it was about race.
The Shift Manager replies, “Our Store Manager is a
lady. And her name is Mrs. Gonzales.”
The angry face of the customer drops. She actually
stops talking for a while. I would love to think this was not about race. The
customer, “Oh, well, she’ll be in tomorrow then? I’ll just have to call then.
I’ll pay for this then.”
People, when you are wrong about something, accept
that. Be wrong and move on, learn from it. For all of us….
+ So, a brand new Jewel-Osco opened up in our
neighborhood, now most, if not all, of the staff is brand new, no carryovers
from the old Dominick’s. So, of course, some have to start complaining very
loudly about how much they HATED the Dominick’s….
+ White dudes acting “ghetto” with their
straight-billed caps at shitty angles trying to talk all “y’no watta meen?” at
people, but bringing up the five motorcycles just sitting in your garage is not a
good way to ingrain with the urban youth….
+ So, this wonder bread couple try to cross the
street to the TASTE (Fuck the Taste of Chicago, can I say that too?) and a lady
street cop prevents them because the couple did not see the HUGE, BRIGHT ORANGE
barriers blocking the crosswalk. This was to keep pedestrian traffic out of the
way of rush period traffic, practically saving lives. (Because most drivers are
assholes. But NOT you!) So the guy (Of course it’s the guy) gets all mad “Why
can’t we cross!” and forces his woman to walk back up the street to cross at
the light on the other end of the block (just so they'd have to cross over ONCE!) when he could have just crossed right
there in the other direction and cross again on the other side of the street!
But no, he was prevented from doing his favorite thing! Righteous indignation
needs to stop.
“But then, what would you write about?” you ask.
I reply, “Shut up.”
+ The show AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR must stop. I mean really? If they were supposed to all be ninja warriors, why do we still see them doing the obstacle course? Why do we see them AT ALL? If they were really ninjas, wouldn't they just suddenly appear at the finish line? Pfft. Ninjas, my ass....
8:[ Have you ever noticed
people’s aversion to sharing a revolving door with other people? I have.
Whenever people see that there are other people in the revolving door or are
about to enter the revolving door, they stop dead until you exit the door
completely. I thought this was funny when I saw these people just about to step
into the door, saw me, looked me right in the eye and then completely step back and
wait for me to go through. Weird, isn’t it?
9:[ From the “This Just In” Department: Wow, people
are losing their shit over changes made by their Beloved Marvel Comics. You guys
realize that they are just fucking comic book characters, right?
10:[ Last Item of the Month: Have you ever noticed that high amount of
Friendly Drone Stories are happening on Yahoo News. Stories mainly about how
much awesome photos of the Fourth of July fireworks and canyon expanse are only
possible through the use of drones. They even highlight them during football
games and other sports events to get the awesome overhead action! It reminds me
of the commercial that was a series of “good events” that were caught on
closed-circuit surveillance cameras. Turned out it was a Coca-cola commercial.
But what it was really conditioning your mind for was the acceptance of Big
Brother watching at all times and attaching a warm-and-fuzzy feeling with that.
All these types of stories are doing is conditioning your mind to accept the
use of drones in the US. Wake up suckas!
That
will do it for this month.
I hope every one is enjoying this mild summer. Just wait. August is not even HERE YET. Once again, feel free to comment, correct or contradict anything you read here on this page of AWESOME! I know you are too overwhelmed by the sheer amount of greatness that you are a'feared that you might not measure up. It's okay. You won't, but I encourage you to try. Mine should never be the last word on any topic I bring up. Go ahead. You have my blessing.
Until Next Time, “I try to show the schemers how
pathetic their attempts to control everything really are.”
2014 Ernest M. Whiteman III