Like a bird on a wire
My friend Lord Somber hates when people post what they're currently listening to, reading, watching, pluggin, etc. In the interest of annoying him, I revisited my
Leonard Cohen greatest hits CD recently and was reminded why I listened to it for almost a year nonstop. He's a master; the British apparently think he's depressing (and he is) but in that really bittersweet way. As usual, a few lyrics:
Oh, you've seen that man before/
his golden arm dispatching cards/
but now it's rusted from the elbow to the finger/
And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter/
Yes, he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter/
You hate to watch another tired man/
lay down his hand/
like he was giving up the holy game of poker/
~The Stranger Song
Your faith was strong, but you needed proof/
You saw her bathing on the roof/
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya/
She tied you to her kitchen chair/
She broke your throne, she cut your hair/
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah/
~Hallelujah
Herdling
Meet my new nephew, Jackson Glenn Lee. I FREAKIN' LOVE HIM!!!!!
He's my fourth nephew. I have one lone niece who is very delicate and petite but has essentially learned that, if she wants to remain physically intact, she'll play with the big boys, as it were. I can relate. Her brothers refer to her as "the devil." My father calls them all "the thundering herd." Sparing feelings was never really something that went on in my family...
Anyway, Jackson looks a lot like my brother -- same sort of intensity around the eyes.
Kids are cool.
The death of emapthy
Okay so here's something I don't get: When did it become a sign of weakness to show compassion? And I don't mean all that white-man's burden, macrocosmic compassion for the future of the dung-beetle type of compassion -- I mean the human, day-to-day compassion for the dude who may be going through a hard time and is acting a bit cagey or the woman who's kid is ill so she's difficult to talk to (these are just examples, mind you...). Why is everything schadenfreude? Not everything is funny and sometimes people need to be given a freakin' break. Even if it's hard and you must swallow your pride a little. This ability -- I believe -- is actually the prime divide between humanity and other higher organisms, as opposed to the popular conception that the ability to reason is what really separates the species. I think it's the ability to empathize. And we waste it every day. That pisses me off.
Oh and, for the record, some things are really really funny. The ability to separate who needs to be laughed at and who just needs -- ahem -- a hug is also a decidedly human ability. As far as I'm concerned, the jackass in the red Miata pulled over by the cops can get laughed at every time.
I'm just sayin'...
Through the Looking Glass
Man, I love computer/music nerds. This guy has developed a databse that tells you the # 1 song on any date (presumably since 1958 when Billboard started keeping such records).
Mine (August 25, 1972) is "Brandy, You're a Fine Girl" which is a song my college roommate introduced me to in, say, 1992.
Brandy, you're a fine girl/
What a good wife you would be/
But my life, my love and my lady/
Is the sea
Little did I understand the significance... . I feel oddly the same as when I found out that Elvis Costello and Sean Connery were both born on my birthday. Arbitray coincidence cannot stop delusions of grandeur, my friends.
Go
here to find out what people liked on the day you entered this world.
Go West young skank
This is the funniest sentence ever (pardon the hyperbole...):
"Paris Hilton was partying at Tao over the weekend, being the classy woman of sophistication we've all come to know and love. Either nobody taught her you're not supposed to spread your legs in a short dress, or she's some sort of fashion pioneer. Like Davy Crockett, but instead of exploring the frontiers of the West, she explores the frontiers of being a whore."
Check the pic (if you dare)
here.
Where's the love?
Right on Hitch.A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' feelings.
The real rebel alliance?
Thanks Lord Somber.
The Empire Brokeback
It's related to what you aspire to
My mother says that one of the great mysteries of my generation is the way we are all so quick to jump into "serious" relationships. "Your father and I, " says she, "dated other people while we were dating. We both knew it. We just didn't talk about it. That would be considered rude."
Preach it sister! But here's the thing -- I think the inability to be relaxed about dating is a really unfortunate result of the whole feminism movement of the 70s and 80s. Before militant women freak, let me explain:
Nowadays, women are free to be open-minded, open-mouthed and sexually adventurous without the same kind of social stigma once attributed to the fairer sex behaving herself naturally (as C.K. Dexter Haven might say). But -- and maybe we screwed up somewhere or men have yet to catch up -- I find that women aren't being treated any better; they're just being lied to more often to keep them from making informed decisions and exercising their independence.
Here's an example: If statistics are to be believed, a large number of the male population lies about their fidelity in relationships and so it's seems to be a very simple and -- ahem -- popular thing to do. Not really that interesting. Sort of the wannabe popular kid following the in-crowd. Keeping up with the Joneses so to speak. (Pretty forgetable behavior really...)
But how many women accept the excuses, turn their cheeks and pretend not to see? Feminism my ass. And the true brutality is, as William Golding and George Orwell both wrote of so eloquently, human nature dictates that people rely on external consequences to civilize them. So thanks faux feminists for being selfish enough to play into or ignore (depending on the situation and what you hope to gain) the baser male instincts. You'll make savages of men yet, all the while standing on your podiums and listening to your vaginas speak.
(ed. note: this does not excuse those pitable men who are so attuned to their egos they'll believe the tripe of the faux feminist. Yours is an unhappy road...)
"Aaah, that's the old redhead. No bitterness, no recrimination, just a good swift left to the jaw." ~C.K. Dexter Haven
Thought for the day:"A trilobite can wear shiny shoes and call himself a shark; this neither makes him a shark nor changes the fact that he must crawl around in the mire to survive." ~ Me
Oedipal
I find myself interested in this today:
Projection: Projection is one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud and still acknowledged today. According to Freud, projection is when someone is threatened by or afraid of their own impulses so they attribute these impulses to someone else. For example, a person in psychoanalysis may insist to the therapist that he knows the therapist wants to kill, when in fact the client has the urge to kill.
If you love all things...
Happy Valentine's Day! "If you love all things, you will also attain the divine mystery that is in all things. For then your ability to perceive the truth will grow every day, and your mind will open itself to an all-embracing love"..... Fyodor Dostoyevsky When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions
May wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
As the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you
So shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth
So is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses
Your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and
Shake them in their clinging to the earth.
The Prophet by Gibran Kahlil Gibran
The wisdom of Bowie
I saw this crazy character a few years back in Atlanta and it was an experience. As much as he gets lauded as brilliant, I still think he's vastly underrated. Been listening to this song lately from
Hunky Dory:
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on
Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?
~Life on Mars, David Bowie
The great The Man
Here's why I dig The Man:
My
performance review for work was today and, because I am an opinionated, intelligent and somewhat arrogant ol' gal, I was a bit worried. But something happened that had such a profound effect on me that when the review actually took place I was relaxed enough to garner compliments and recognition. I even managed to broach some sensitive issues with level-headed dimplomacy. It was a true victory.
Here's what happened -- after stressing for most of the week and kvetching my concerns to The Man, he called me this morning at 7 a.m. as I was getting ready for work and said,
"Before your review, I want you to remember this Acronym ... E.R.I.C. (Some people call the man Eric...).
E = exude confidence
R = retain eye contact
I = insist (politely) on examples (particularly for negative comments)
C = cordiality at all times"
And, while I'm sure The Man thinks that the success was simply a result of the great advice (and it was), the true triumph was the lightness I felt at having someone spend the time thinking of an acronym of their name that was relevant to my work review simply to relieve my stress.
It made all the difference. Thanks The Man.
(Thanks to Pop and Juge, too. I'll make ya proud yet!)
That deviant's a friend of mine
My friend Lord Somber has posted some of his work at a site called Deviant Art. Yes -- Lord Somber can be dark. But he's sharp and skilled and his wit (at the risk of being too trite) is acerbic.
Block Party Watermelon Casualty 1975 Against a backdrop of card tables and umbrellas, 7-year-olds sow the seeds of discord. One jostle will soon upset the delicate balance of the universe. Fruit will come tumbling in slo-motion, finally making a shattering impact with hot asphalt. It is then for a split-second that eyes from above will bulge forth and shoot darts. The accidental perpetrator will then make his stealthy getaway into the festive throngs of a secret Saturday. And amidst the pulp and broken rind lies the future seeds of Sunday's discord.
http://lordsomber.deviantart.com/gallery/
The way of Rome
"The Washington Post has reported that the West Coast plot targeted the tallest building in Los Angeles, since renamed the US Bank Tower, and involved Malaysian militants and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, who was captured in 2003.
The third was the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and allegedly plotted with top al-Qaida commanders to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city."
Kinda makes the whole argument for better guarding at the borders a bit more relevant, eh? By the way, Padilla looks a lot like the "unknown suspect" in the Oklahoma Bombing. I'm just saying...
Spur my dull revenge
It's offical: Revenge is sweet. My momma always says it's best served cold and I'm really starting to see the wisdom in the saying.
Someone did me pretty nasty in the not too distant past and, out of respect for the way I was raised, I elected to bury the vengeful tendencies, suffer the humiliation and try to find the method in the madness. I often let logic console me in the face of abject emotional assault.
Anyhow, it has happened just recently that I have been put in charge of trying to untangle some of this person's business dealings in order to streamline efficiency (among other things). Most interesting is that this effort is a direct result of some pretty careless work habits that resulted in bad bookeeping, etc. Here I come to save the day...
I saw this person recently and there's an uneasyness there -- not because I've ever given the slightest scent of impropriety (I've forgotten to feel vengeful. I've worked through it and logic has prevailed.) but because the adages about revenge -- best when cold, comes only when it's no longer desired -- are proving true. And I can still look at myself in the mirror.
I win.
Brave New World
Lord Somber sent me this
article via email and, I have to say, I agree that the neuter is alive and well in our culture. I've seen this Joel Stein character on VH-1's many "I Love the (blah-blah)'s" as a guest opinionator. If you're unfamiliar with his particular corner of the gene pool, rent Chris Guest's
Best in Show and get to know Meg Swan and Hamilton Swan (played by Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock), the be-braced, catalogue-lovin', Starbuck's-drinkin', neurotic, new-age
Leiberal power couple who blame their dog for their dysfunction.
Hamilton Swan: Honey, I'm thinking of switching to the mock turtleneck?Meg Swan: Is that not breathing?Hamilton Swan:Well, it's breathing now, but it'll be hot down there. I could go with the lambswool, but then again, you'll see a lot of khaki down there and this merlot looks good with the gray.
Here's an example of the neuter mentality: As I was driving to lunch today, a flash of racing yellow zipped between myself and oncoming traffic (presumably because I wasn't traveling fast enough) to get in front of me on the two-lane road we were traveling on so that he could get to Earth Fare faster (presumably to take part in the pita fajita special). As I passed the parking lot, I saw this same individual, wearing spotless Doc Marten's, chatting up the other "thugs" in many tattoos and all black clothing, the rebels. Then I looked for the instrument of his wrath -- his motorbike -- and lo and behold (gasp!) it was a scooter!! With a basket on the front! I forgot to be mad and just shook my head. Even our punk rockers have become little masochistic girly-men! I'd laugh if it weren't so sad... The movie
Serenity is popping into my head for some reason...
Riding for the Brand
I found these sentences in my
Political Analysis textbook (White, 1999, 4th ed.) and I believe them to be the finest statements in defense of democracy and freedom of thought that I've seen in some time:
"Former (NASA) Director William Lucas was notably intolerant of criticism, and he intentionally or not discouraged midlevel officials from reporting any information that would raise questions about the shuttle or about planned flights. In consequence, managers aware of the potential problems with the rocket joints that caused the shuttle disaster did not report the information."But Lola, you say, this is old news. Actually, what interests me isn't the cause of the disaster but the bureaucratic bullying that kept people from reporting any malfunction that might deter the organization from their blind ambition. And I don't think this topic has been discussed enough as it relates to the functioning of our government offices.
I'm just saying...
Dogs think we're dumb
My dog Stella just looks at me out of the corner of her eye when I lecture her about getting her dirty feet on the couch. It's as if I'm speaking a foreign language... whatever Stella.
High Fashion
I think secretly, if I could have ever justified it to my father,
this is the sort of life I really would have liked. I like reading about it anyway. And I'm pretty much addicted to Project Runway on Bravo. Go figure...
