Wednesday, December 16, 2009
KRIB NOTES
I've got the holiday spirit. I'm stealing dance moves to debut on New Years Eve. Pay close attention to the shaker in the orange shirt.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
New Energy Future
I was listening to the nonstop rain this morning and reading about the climate talks in Copenhagen in the Times when I found the most perfect combination of online journalism and internet advertising.
You have to click it to see it large enough to get the joke.
OHHH! that's what's Shell, the world's largest corporation, is doing to tackle the phenomenally horrifying euphemism of the ensuing state of geo-politics: "new energy future."
What I first chuckled at was the irony of Shell advertising on this particular page -paying to be associated with an article about resistance to them. Then I was laughing at the "tackle" joke. Then I wasn't really laughing anymore because I was awe-struck, fully jaw-dropped by the phrase "new energy future."
The "new energy future" is meant to bring to mind the promise of green energy, the hope in plant-based zero-emissions technologies. There is no requirement of actual reduction of consumption in any real sense. Living in San Francisco, I can take a short walk to Mission Bay and see the future that this promises. An overly orchestrated zone of the city with horrible Ikea architecture made of recycled materials that visually emphasize that they were recycled, rather than minimize the energy and resources required to manufacture them. You can live in a refabed loft and trade in your old car to drive a new Prius to buy free-range meat at the Whole Foods with a clean conscious. I don't mean to make my complaint sound like it is about lifestyle choices. I am talking about the denaturing and glamorization of what used to be called environmentalism and self-satisfaction offered by these kinds of faux-conservation efforts. The concept of consumption is only furthered. Don't fix the old muni stops, build totally new ones. Don't consider living without a car, buy a totally new one regardless of how massive the amount of energy and resources that production requires. Somehow, in this new future, the problems of class and access get erased. How can this green consumption future be for everyone? Don't make -only buy. The modes of production are just as obscured as ever. The earth is still ours for the pillaging. It's a future where the earth is just as dead but our consumption looks green.
For along time, I thought it was just spin, an advertising campaign effort. For instance, clean coal isn't a thing. There is no way to make the mining or burning of coal "clean." But by calling it that we all feel better about our over use. You can read a lot more about that on the very media savvy Reality Coalition website (good pun). I remember noticing this "greenwashing" for the first time when BP changed from 'British Petroleum' to 'Beyond Petroleum.' It's not that they were going to have anything other than gas at the gas stations. It's that their gas stations in my area were being revamped with a more contemporary ergonomic design. The problem with the new energy future for all its "this is not a plastic bag" totes is that it is really the old energy past. And the problem with announcing the status quo as a new-found freedom is that people will believe it.
The man is this photo is Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian writer and activist. In 1995, he was murdered at Royal Dutch Shell's behest, hanged along with eight others on trumped-up charges. Saro-Wiwa became the leader of the grassroots organization Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) which sought to give the ethnic minority Ogonis increased independence, including political clout in the face of Shell's crushing force. Shell had been terrorizing the Ogoni people and their land since the mid-1950's. As the Ogoni began to resist the destruction of their mangroves to build pipelines, the pollution of the air from gas flaring, the toxic dumping, the theft of their farms and the revamping of viable land into oil fields, Shell as many other multinational corporations do, made the most of an unfortunate political situation and enlisted the help of a military government.
Here is a short introductory video made after Saro-Wiwa's death.
Last June, Shell paid 15.5 million dollars to settle a lawsuit originally brought in 1996 by the families of Saro-Wiwa and the other eight people executed as a result of the falsified charges as well as other victims of Shell-related autrocities. Interestingly, the trial happened at a federal court in New York. Under the 1798 Alien Tort Act, a non-citizen can bring suit for extra-judicial killing and human rights abuses no matter where they occur.
According to the Guardian article announcing the settlement , the court documents included "a letter from Shell in which it agreed to pay a unit of the Nigerian army for services rendered. The unit had retrieved one of the company's fire trucks from the village of Korokoro – an action that according to reports at the time left one Ogoni man dead and two wounded. Shell wrote it was making the payment 'as a show of gratitude and motivation for a sustained favourable disposition in future assignments'."
Shell continues to operate in Nigeria. It continues to dump waste and use gas flares in the Niger Delta.
Shell's revenue last year was 458.361 billion USD and is the world's largest corporation. It operates in 140 countries. Ken Saro-Wiwa's death like the complete destruction of his community is not an isolated incident.
This is how you "tackle the new energy future."
Here are links to more information on Ken Saro-Wiwa
http://wiwavshell.org/
the website of the plaintiffs in the case
http://remembersarowiwa.com
http://www.mosop.org/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1913
letter from Chinua Achebe, Susan Sontag and more for the PEN society on behalf of Saro-Wiwa after his arrest.
http://royaldutchshellplc.com/
wingnuty Shell watchdog website
I hope there is some thought of Ken Saro-Wiwa at the talks in Copenhagen. In writing about this, I am struck by the aspects that hit me as "realities." There are realities to consumption. The horrific realities in the fact of the post-colonial corporate empires. Ones where we have to confront the chain of events and more complexly, the passivity and complacency that allow these kinds of things to happen. There are realities to recognized also in that video in where people achieve a sense of agency through organizing, speaking out and declaring themselves worthy of rights. Environmentalism is to think about the earth dynamically. It is so much more than "go green." Somehow the popularization of green consumption overshadows the real issue at hand: misery and destruction- of people, of land -for the gluttony of just a few.
"The writer cannot be a mere storyteller, he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils, he or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.”
-Ken Saro-Wiwa, 1993.
You have to click it to see it large enough to get the joke.
OHHH! that's what's Shell, the world's largest corporation, is doing to tackle the phenomenally horrifying euphemism of the ensuing state of geo-politics: "new energy future."
What I first chuckled at was the irony of Shell advertising on this particular page -paying to be associated with an article about resistance to them. Then I was laughing at the "tackle" joke. Then I wasn't really laughing anymore because I was awe-struck, fully jaw-dropped by the phrase "new energy future."
The "new energy future" is meant to bring to mind the promise of green energy, the hope in plant-based zero-emissions technologies. There is no requirement of actual reduction of consumption in any real sense. Living in San Francisco, I can take a short walk to Mission Bay and see the future that this promises. An overly orchestrated zone of the city with horrible Ikea architecture made of recycled materials that visually emphasize that they were recycled, rather than minimize the energy and resources required to manufacture them. You can live in a refabed loft and trade in your old car to drive a new Prius to buy free-range meat at the Whole Foods with a clean conscious. I don't mean to make my complaint sound like it is about lifestyle choices. I am talking about the denaturing and glamorization of what used to be called environmentalism and self-satisfaction offered by these kinds of faux-conservation efforts. The concept of consumption is only furthered. Don't fix the old muni stops, build totally new ones. Don't consider living without a car, buy a totally new one regardless of how massive the amount of energy and resources that production requires. Somehow, in this new future, the problems of class and access get erased. How can this green consumption future be for everyone? Don't make -only buy. The modes of production are just as obscured as ever. The earth is still ours for the pillaging. It's a future where the earth is just as dead but our consumption looks green.
For along time, I thought it was just spin, an advertising campaign effort. For instance, clean coal isn't a thing. There is no way to make the mining or burning of coal "clean." But by calling it that we all feel better about our over use. You can read a lot more about that on the very media savvy Reality Coalition website (good pun). I remember noticing this "greenwashing" for the first time when BP changed from 'British Petroleum' to 'Beyond Petroleum.' It's not that they were going to have anything other than gas at the gas stations. It's that their gas stations in my area were being revamped with a more contemporary ergonomic design. The problem with the new energy future for all its "this is not a plastic bag" totes is that it is really the old energy past. And the problem with announcing the status quo as a new-found freedom is that people will believe it.
The man is this photo is Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian writer and activist. In 1995, he was murdered at Royal Dutch Shell's behest, hanged along with eight others on trumped-up charges. Saro-Wiwa became the leader of the grassroots organization Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) which sought to give the ethnic minority Ogonis increased independence, including political clout in the face of Shell's crushing force. Shell had been terrorizing the Ogoni people and their land since the mid-1950's. As the Ogoni began to resist the destruction of their mangroves to build pipelines, the pollution of the air from gas flaring, the toxic dumping, the theft of their farms and the revamping of viable land into oil fields, Shell as many other multinational corporations do, made the most of an unfortunate political situation and enlisted the help of a military government.
Here is a short introductory video made after Saro-Wiwa's death.
Last June, Shell paid 15.5 million dollars to settle a lawsuit originally brought in 1996 by the families of Saro-Wiwa and the other eight people executed as a result of the falsified charges as well as other victims of Shell-related autrocities. Interestingly, the trial happened at a federal court in New York. Under the 1798 Alien Tort Act, a non-citizen can bring suit for extra-judicial killing and human rights abuses no matter where they occur.
According to the Guardian article announcing the settlement , the court documents included "a letter from Shell in which it agreed to pay a unit of the Nigerian army for services rendered. The unit had retrieved one of the company's fire trucks from the village of Korokoro – an action that according to reports at the time left one Ogoni man dead and two wounded. Shell wrote it was making the payment 'as a show of gratitude and motivation for a sustained favourable disposition in future assignments'."
Shell continues to operate in Nigeria. It continues to dump waste and use gas flares in the Niger Delta.
Shell's revenue last year was 458.361 billion USD and is the world's largest corporation. It operates in 140 countries. Ken Saro-Wiwa's death like the complete destruction of his community is not an isolated incident.
This is how you "tackle the new energy future."
Here are links to more information on Ken Saro-Wiwa
http://wiwavshell.org/
the website of the plaintiffs in the case
http://remembersarowiwa.com
http://www.mosop.org/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1913
letter from Chinua Achebe, Susan Sontag and more for the PEN society on behalf of Saro-Wiwa after his arrest.
http://royaldutchshellplc.com/
wingnuty Shell watchdog website
I hope there is some thought of Ken Saro-Wiwa at the talks in Copenhagen. In writing about this, I am struck by the aspects that hit me as "realities." There are realities to consumption. The horrific realities in the fact of the post-colonial corporate empires. Ones where we have to confront the chain of events and more complexly, the passivity and complacency that allow these kinds of things to happen. There are realities to recognized also in that video in where people achieve a sense of agency through organizing, speaking out and declaring themselves worthy of rights. Environmentalism is to think about the earth dynamically. It is so much more than "go green." Somehow the popularization of green consumption overshadows the real issue at hand: misery and destruction- of people, of land -for the gluttony of just a few.
"The writer cannot be a mere storyteller, he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils, he or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.”
-Ken Saro-Wiwa, 1993.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
BEST BUDZ
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
From the January 2009 Telegraph article...
An owl and a Bassett Hound have struck up an unusual friendship.
The pair have become inseparable since meeting at an animal refuge, and are quite happy to cuddle up together on an armchair.
Beryl the Basset Hound, who is a grand old dame at 16 years old, and four-year-old tawny owl Wol struck up a friendship when their owner realised they both loved watching television in the evenings.
Sara Ross, who shares her home in Tenterden, Kent, with the animals said: "They are both rescue animals and they're like best buddies. Wol needs full-time care and one day I was giving him a bit of exercise and he just plonked down on Beryl's back. She doesn't mind, she's really laid back and a bit of a pussycat really. "She didn't mind at all and now you can't keep them apart.
"Four times-a-week you'll see them settle down to watch what's going on in Albert Square. Beryl barks when it's over and Wol gets a bit upset too, with a bit of flapping.
She added: "They are inseparable. They love cuddling up and watching television together.
"It won't come as a surprise that they love nature documentaries, but they also like soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale."
She added: "I've never known two animals who are so different hit it off quite so well. They just love being around each other."
I would just like to add that I too love cuddling on an armchair and watching TV in the evenings so I could probably also be best friends with them.
"Alive and Well and Living in Someone Else's Face"
Everyone's time comes eventually. Even a man of 3,000 faces.
This is the number one best obituary of all time.
Jan Leighton, Actor Who Played Everyone, Dies at 87
By BRUCE WEBER
Published: November 27, 2009
Correction Appended
Jan Leighton, an actor who conjured a career by dressing up as historical figures, appearing in so many commercials, print advertisements and industrial films as George Washington, William Shakespeare and Christopher Columbus that he was both ubiquitous and anonymous, died on Nov. 16 in Manhattan. He was 87.The cause was complications after a stroke, said his daughter, Hallie.
Mr. Leighton, who was listed in the 1985 Guinness Book of World Records as the actor who had played the most roles (2,407), began his professional career as a legitimate actor, appearing on live television dramas and at least once on Broadway, in a 1960 Cy Coleman musical called “Wildcat,” starring Lucille Ball. But when the jobs became scarce, he reinvented himself as a walking, talking hall of fame, an impersonator for hire. He researched the characters, created his own costumes — he had more than 400 of them in his Manhattan apartment when he died — and often did his own makeup.
In disguise, Mr. Leighton might pop up in almost any medium. On television, he lit a cigar as Fidel Castro in a commercial for Bic lighters and sold Toyotas as Albert Einstein for a Southern California car dealership. He promoted a Minnesota savings bank as Abraham Lincoln and an Arizona department store as Robert E. Lee. For one bank commercial he portrayed Clark Gable, Groucho Marx, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, all complaining about other banks that charged for checks. He pitched Cheerios as Alexander Hamilton, beer as Johann Sebastian Bach, early mobile phones as Dracula and cough syrup as the Frankenstein monster. He even played Mr. Whipple’s twin in a commercial for Charmin bathroom tissue.
On film, he played Albert Einstein in a 1982 science fiction comedy “Zapped!” He motivated Westinghouse employees as George Washington and the salesmen of Scania trucks as Gen. George Patton. In print he appeared twice on the cover of New York magazine, once as Henry Kissinger and once as Leonardo da Vinci; he was Uncle Sam on the cover of Time. He was the face of Saul Bellow’s title character “Henderson the Rain King” on a paperback edition of the book, and appeared as a host of characters, including Confucius and Pericles, on the book jacket of Gore Vidal’s “Creation.” He made appearances at gala events and private parties as presidents and wizards and such.
He would go anywhere to do a job and would play anyone: Vince Lombardi, Babe Ruth, Gandhi, Mozart, Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes. Ebenezer Scrooge, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway, Charlemagne, Darwin, Wyatt Earp, Walter Cronkite and even Margaret Thatcher were all in his repertory.
“He was best George Washington of his day,” Jay Pearlman, who worked frequently with Mr. Leighton as a makeup artist said in an interview, adding that Mr. Leighton might get two dozen bookings as Washington in a year.
Mr. Pearlman remembered Mr. Leighton’s going to an amusement park in 1979: “I think it was Ashland, Ky. — and he shot four 60-second commercials in one day. He was a wolf man, he was a grandfather, he was General Patton and he was Groucho Marx. He’d call me up and say, ‘We’re going to San Francisco,’ and we’d fly out to San Francisco, and he’d do one Ben Franklin, and we’d get back on the plane and fly home.”
Mr. Leighton was born in the Bronx as Milton Lichtman on Dec. 27, 1921, and grew up mostly in east Harlem. His father, Harry, owned a handful of taxicabs and vending machines. Young Milton served in the Air Force in World War II, and afterward he studied music briefly at a university in Mexico City. He was living in El Paso and working as a shoe salesman when he decided to pursue what he had loved as a child — acting — and returned to New York. In 1949, like a number of Jewish actors, he changed his name in order to de-emphasize his ethnicity and get more work.
“His features were handsome but regular,” Mr. Pearlman, the makeup artist, said about why Mr. Leighton was so well suited to his work. “He could always submerge himself in makeup and in facial contortions.”
In addition to doing character work, Mr. Leighton was also a hand model, and he did numerous radio voices and voiceovers as well as children’s recordings. He and his daughter, Hallie, were the co-authors of two books, “Rare Words and How to Master Their Meanings” and its sequel, “Rare Words II.”
Mr. Leighton was married four times. The first marriage was annulled and the others ended in divorce. Ms. Leighton, who lives in Manhattan, is the daughter of his third wife, Lynda Myles; he is also survived by a son, Ross Leighton, of Queens, whose mother was Mr. Leighton’s second wife, Ruth Markowe.
The anonymity of his work was something Mr. Leighton embraced. Asked once how he was doing, he replied, “I’m alive and well and living in someone else’s face.”
An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Scania trucks.
Correction: December 1, 2009
OBITUARIES
I am obsessed with Jan Leighton.
Here he is as ALFRED E. NEWMAN.
He could even class up that coonskin as Davey Crockett.
His FRANKENSTEIN is almost as good as his CHURCHILL.
I looked up the books he and his daughter wrote: Rare Words and Rare Words II.
I like his legacy so much.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
discovery
I have no idea what this movie is about. But, yes, I think it probably is the ultimate nightmare.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
VRIL
Did you know there are a lot of songs entitled "Snowblind?"
This one is my current favie.
It's by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, some married grooveballs. Before jamming with the wifey, Jerry was in the Lovin Spoonful.
Check out the album cover!
And the lyrics written by Henske are amazing.
Fallbrook Sedgewynd gave to Nancy
ringnecks for her coachmen's fancy
Eggs and emeralds, shocking garters
Devilled prunes to stop and start her
Nancy gave to Fallbrook Sedgewynd
neither nods nor time of day
Love is nasty, love is so blind
Love shall make us all go snowblind
Fallbrook Sedgewynd gave to Rosie
twenty sonnets bound in gold
Daily by her cot he'd mosey
Rosie with her stockings rolled
Rosie gave to Fallbrook Sedgewynd
neither hugs nor cozy chats
Love is nasty, love is so blind
Love shall make us all go snowblind
Fallbrook Sedgewynd saved his money
Bought a bear and fed it honey
A bear has little fear of hades
So he ate the luckless ladies
Love is nasty, love is so blind
Love shall make us all go snowblind
The rest of the album sounds nothing like this and is sort of boring. But, what a jam this is! Getting gutteral and wild about wooing, scorning, and a vengeful mauling. The album is called "Farewell Aldebaran." Aldebaran is the largest star in the constellation Taurus. It is fucking enormous. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning 'follower.' The NASA ship Pioneer 10 will go by it in about 10 million years. (Who's the follower now?)
In learning a little bit about Aldebaran, I also discovered a sect I had never even considered before: Gnostic Neo-Nazis.
Apparently, there are some Aryans who are pretty sure they are aliens who get their power from the Black Sun. Tempelhofgesellschaft. Upon further lazy investigation, I became aware of how occult Nazis were. You can read about it in the most thorough wikipedia article of all time on Ariosophy.
Also you should check out this earlier sci-fi version: VRIL
Do I want a hollow earth? Is it utopia superbutches tunneling underground?
The world is full of weirdos. I never thought Aryan traditions would ever give me hope.
This one is my current favie.
It's by Judy Henske and Jerry Yester, some married grooveballs. Before jamming with the wifey, Jerry was in the Lovin Spoonful.
Check out the album cover!
And the lyrics written by Henske are amazing.
Fallbrook Sedgewynd gave to Nancy
ringnecks for her coachmen's fancy
Eggs and emeralds, shocking garters
Devilled prunes to stop and start her
Nancy gave to Fallbrook Sedgewynd
neither nods nor time of day
Love is nasty, love is so blind
Love shall make us all go snowblind
Fallbrook Sedgewynd gave to Rosie
twenty sonnets bound in gold
Daily by her cot he'd mosey
Rosie with her stockings rolled
Rosie gave to Fallbrook Sedgewynd
neither hugs nor cozy chats
Love is nasty, love is so blind
Love shall make us all go snowblind
Fallbrook Sedgewynd saved his money
Bought a bear and fed it honey
A bear has little fear of hades
So he ate the luckless ladies
Love is nasty, love is so blind
Love shall make us all go snowblind
The rest of the album sounds nothing like this and is sort of boring. But, what a jam this is! Getting gutteral and wild about wooing, scorning, and a vengeful mauling. The album is called "Farewell Aldebaran." Aldebaran is the largest star in the constellation Taurus. It is fucking enormous. Its name comes from the Arabic word meaning 'follower.' The NASA ship Pioneer 10 will go by it in about 10 million years. (Who's the follower now?)
In learning a little bit about Aldebaran, I also discovered a sect I had never even considered before: Gnostic Neo-Nazis.
Apparently, there are some Aryans who are pretty sure they are aliens who get their power from the Black Sun. Tempelhofgesellschaft. Upon further lazy investigation, I became aware of how occult Nazis were. You can read about it in the most thorough wikipedia article of all time on Ariosophy.
Also you should check out this earlier sci-fi version: VRIL
Do I want a hollow earth? Is it utopia superbutches tunneling underground?
The world is full of weirdos. I never thought Aryan traditions would ever give me hope.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
You know I can tell these things
This is a real movie.
Vibes: The Secret of the Golden Pyramid
From one IMDB reviewer:
"I've seen this movie about 30 times and it always makes me feel good.. I don't know what it is about this movie but it seems to help me through bad times. Theres something in the atmosphere in the film that makes me feel good and the environment where the movie is made is just beautiful. (yeah, sure.. the 'real' film critics are saying that you can't rate a movie just on behalf of the spectacular scenery but FU, I say). I can rate a movie just the way i want to! Isn't that what IMDB is all about? I enjoyed this movie and I hope many others will too. Don't stare at the ratings. If you want to see a fun movie that's not too "serious". Rent this movie and let your brain rest for awhile, just enjoy the the scenery, the acting, the story and the eighties !! Cheers to all from Finland."
FU, I say too.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
tonight tonight
While NASA tries to blow up the moon, I will be turning 24 in Oregon.
"Believe in the resolute urgency of now"
-rabid Cubs fan, B. Corgan
"Believe in the resolute urgency of now"
-rabid Cubs fan, B. Corgan
Saturday, September 26, 2009
STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING
Do yourself a favor and navigate over to the Beach Fossils page and listen to their new song "Sometimes."
I am not very good (STILL) at the internet so I don't know how to take the song from myspace and put on here.
But, I can make it a little easier for ya. Just click the words below and select "Sometimes" and you can hear what is like the best song I have heard in two days.
KILLER JAM
Brown County, Indiana.
You might know the view. Right off SR-47, just before Nashville.
I thought I would miss the fall. There is nothing like a midwestern fall. And while I miss those leaves, the air here has that same autumn crispness that brings blush in a nighttime bike ride, a slight tight chill in the lungs.
Covet it, wherever you are.
I am not very good (STILL) at the internet so I don't know how to take the song from myspace and put on here.
But, I can make it a little easier for ya. Just click the words below and select "Sometimes" and you can hear what is like the best song I have heard in two days.
KILLER JAM
Brown County, Indiana.
You might know the view. Right off SR-47, just before Nashville.
I thought I would miss the fall. There is nothing like a midwestern fall. And while I miss those leaves, the air here has that same autumn crispness that brings blush in a nighttime bike ride, a slight tight chill in the lungs.
Covet it, wherever you are.
Monday, September 21, 2009
creature features
I think it is weird that my first clear thought after becoming stoked on this picture was "I want to have a baby."
Which I don't. At all. Even as I was thinking it I knew that it wasn't true. And when the thing that makes me want to have a baby is photograph of an eroticized pregnant freak with a skeleton mask on in a hippie lake, it makes it less about my desires and more of a sign that under no circumstances should that happen. Ever.
photo via the very very cool Acid Sweat Lodge.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Symbolical Head
Phrenology is my favorite quack science. Brains mapped and personalities felt as physical bumps. Heads and persons laid bare.
Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) invented 'craniology' which became 'organology' which was renamed by Johann Christoph Spurzheim as "PHRENOLOGY." Essentially, phrenology assumes that different traits and functions are located in different parts of the brain. Because the distribution of the features across the brain are so regular, they can be mapped on models and conversely, read on actual human heads.
Four things should be considered true according to Gall,as outlined in The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular
1. Human moral and intellectual faculties are innate;
2. their function depends on organic structures;
3. the brain is the organ of “all faculties, of all tendencies, of all feelings”;
4. “the brain is composed of as many organs as there are faculties, tendencies, and feelings.” (quoted in Samuel H. Greenblatt, “Phrenology in the Science and Culture of the 19th Century” Neurosurgery, 37:4 (1995) 790-805.)
While it may no longer be quite scientific to treat the shape of the cranium as the cause of behavior, feeling, and temperament, phrenologists were some of the first to declare that the mind was located entirely in the brain, now a scientific given. They also suggested a fragmented model where different areas of the brain were responsible for certain tasks or sensations -a simplified, but not inaccurate understanding according to modern neuroscience.
So here I am eating some trader joe O's this morning, reading about phrenology when I noticed something about the chart...
Besides the demanding directive to "know thyself," under the right eye of the model, there is the word "language" written in the well of the socket. It is precisely where I have charcoal gray scars from running into a copcar going fullspeed on my bicycle on mushrooms.
See?
What does it mean that I have blackened scars on the exact portion of my face that corresponds directly to my strength, my medium and mode? Is it as simple as saying that the mangled region is the cause of my anxieties about writing? I was fascinated by language long before the accident. My obsession with words and their function is as old as those large dark circles under my eyes. What change can a tear in the most precious phenological nerve cause? Is it causal or a facial manifestation of a preexisting tension? I've already gotten over the melodramatic allusion of having a black facial scar but now this?? Phrenology and scars both carry the weight of being irreversible.
Where is Orson Squire Fowler when I need him?
Probably in some heaven of octagonal building somewhere or perhaps in his Golgotha of Gothem? He and Henry Ward Beecher ran phrenology offices, examination room and a museum known as “the Golgatha of Gothem” known for its massive display of over 1000 human and animal skulls, and casts from the heads of “the most distinguished men that ever lived” out of a building on 27 E. 21st St in New York.
Old Orson could probably answer a lot of my questions right now. Just check out his fantastic architectural plans for the Octagonal house.
He wanted to build in globular or cycldrical forms as he saw in nature, but saw the costs of building as too high. Octagons were better than squares, it seems. They are incredibly efficient structures. Easy and cheap to heat and cool, as they have less surface area.
And this one was out in Hayward until it was torn down for a highway annex.
A utopian model taken up by Southern grandeur, in Natchez, Mississippi.
Plus he was a vegetarian and advocated for health reform.
Can I get a head massage and a diagnosis please?
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
life choices
I am going to move to Ukiah so I can live in this house.
It was built by this man, Sunray Kelly.
“My ideal is to try to help people reconnect to nature through my architecture.” -s.k.
Ukiah is also home to the International Latitude Observatory. While it looks like a nosy neighbor's ideal house, this slitted structure is apparently to study the hypothetical changes in latitude.
Aren't they just imaginary lines anyway? Could they change without our willing redrawing of them?
I guess I could ponder it over my morning coffee at Ellie's Mutt Hut and Vegetarian, which would be my local diner.
Ukiah seems like a drier, trashier Mendocino with a drastically wide range of weird architecture, which I think I could get into. And, according to Mother Earth News, more than half of Ukiah's electricity comes from renewable resources.
Plus, when I was google searching it, all these ads for "marijuana lawyers" came up. I wonder if Amber will become a weed lawyer; more I wonder if you can pay weed lawyers in weed.
It was built by this man, Sunray Kelly.
“My ideal is to try to help people reconnect to nature through my architecture.” -s.k.
Ukiah is also home to the International Latitude Observatory. While it looks like a nosy neighbor's ideal house, this slitted structure is apparently to study the hypothetical changes in latitude.
Aren't they just imaginary lines anyway? Could they change without our willing redrawing of them?
I guess I could ponder it over my morning coffee at Ellie's Mutt Hut and Vegetarian, which would be my local diner.
Ukiah seems like a drier, trashier Mendocino with a drastically wide range of weird architecture, which I think I could get into. And, according to Mother Earth News, more than half of Ukiah's electricity comes from renewable resources.
Plus, when I was google searching it, all these ads for "marijuana lawyers" came up. I wonder if Amber will become a weed lawyer; more I wonder if you can pay weed lawyers in weed.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Dave Dilemma
I am in love with Dave Grohl.
What I can't tell is whether I love David Duchovy or Dave Grohl more.
Did I stop forming crushes when I was 9?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Pwess Wewease
As many of you loyal readers know, I am a huge fan of droopy dogs. Since I was a small child I have loved these dopey, sad-looking four-legged critters. Basset hounds and bulldogs have always been my favorites. Or, at least, they were until I saw this:
No one ever thought to tell me about the BEAR COAT variety of SHAR PEI?
It is a living, wrinkled teddy bear!
PROOF OF TEDDY BEAR ANCESTRY:
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
The only mod I'd ever kiss
A TRUE PONZO ILLUSION
Also, do I want to pay $16 to see the gris gris? I can't decide
Friday, July 31, 2009
treasures
Today, I was sitting in Delores park enjoying the rise to summer warmth, just achitchatting, when i realized the homeless man just down-slope from me was clutching a VHS copy of CB4 in his deep sleep. He may have been snoring up a storm, but no noontime park nap is worth losing such a treasure.
Then I bought a new bike and on the way found 3 Muppet Show tapes on the ground. I will probably be clutching them in my sleep too.
Great day, really.
Then I bought a new bike and on the way found 3 Muppet Show tapes on the ground. I will probably be clutching them in my sleep too.
Great day, really.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
TIME IS A THEIF
I am feeling great about music lately, especially haunting and distorted things that somehow turn sweet.
LIKE THESE:
WOVEN BONES Your Sorcery
BEACH FOSSILS daydream
a perfect summer jam
I just got the new Grass Widow/RankXerox split tape from wizard mountain. WOWEEWOO
RankXerox
Grass Widow is my favorite bay-area band right now. They are no joke. Celebrate the Mundane is a song and ethos I can really get behind.
all these bands are so good.
Somehow these weird garage/low-fi revival stuff makes me feel really young, excited, and connected. Maybe it is the pastiche of rock and roll as a place where youth's self-awareness coalesced into a cultural form. Maybe it is because I am young in a city with great rock and roll- historically and now.
Time may not be on anyone's side, but young hearts be free tonight.
(did you know that frolicing=freedom?)
LIKE THESE:
WOVEN BONES Your Sorcery
BEACH FOSSILS daydream
a perfect summer jam
I just got the new Grass Widow/RankXerox split tape from wizard mountain. WOWEEWOO
RankXerox
Grass Widow is my favorite bay-area band right now. They are no joke. Celebrate the Mundane is a song and ethos I can really get behind.
all these bands are so good.
Somehow these weird garage/low-fi revival stuff makes me feel really young, excited, and connected. Maybe it is the pastiche of rock and roll as a place where youth's self-awareness coalesced into a cultural form. Maybe it is because I am young in a city with great rock and roll- historically and now.
Time may not be on anyone's side, but young hearts be free tonight.
(did you know that frolicing=freedom?)
Monday, July 13, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
LURKED
I was checking in on a bunch of internet stuff this morning when I realized I had been CREEPED. LURKED. PERVED ON.
This was not a normal creeping, like a myspace message from some rando who was coming to the bay and thought it would be cool to hang out. No, this was way more direct and epically more sexual.
First, I got an email announcing that SPOWDER added me as a contact on flickr, so natch, I went to look at their profile. It turned out to be no one I knew, but we shared a few mutual contacts. Then I went back and looked at what they had added to favorites. All of the 10 photos they had added contained ladies' hairy armpits. Upon looking at his profile closer, I realized that he was a HAIRY ARMPIT PHOTO COLLECTOR.
The groups he belonged to really gave it away:
Grow a Beautiful Bush & Save our Planet (adult)
Addicted to Hairy Cunts & Pits
German sexy everyday girls and women - nude
Natural Hairy
armpits lover
Female Armpit Hair
I looked at some of the groups. It's almost all photos pilfered from people's profiles and uploads, mostly of of punk and hippie girls, a predictable hairy demographic.
I feel weird about it. I am sure weirdos have lurked on pictures of me and my friends before. I mean, I get it, the internet is public, but I haven't had to think about it or know specifically who it was since that spy thing on myspace. And now, he has added several of my friends.
I think my discomfort is also about being fetishized for something I don't think about or want to be fetishized for. For me, shaving is not a radical or even political stance. I recognize the political moments that went before that allow me to think about it a post-political way. I don't have to worry about whether or not shaving because a few generations of ladies before me did. Unfortunately, it's more that the beauty standards have multiplied and expanded to an endless shifting terrain rather than receded.
Anyway, what I really don't like is having to face the fact some dude is drooling over an already contested area of my body. Isn't it enough to do it privately? While relatively harmless, if you're going to fetishize me without my involvement or consent via the internet, can't you please keep it a secret so it doesn't make me feel weird when I am just trying to have my morning coffee and lurk on the internet in a lessperverse way?
To block or not to block? that is the question.
This was not a normal creeping, like a myspace message from some rando who was coming to the bay and thought it would be cool to hang out. No, this was way more direct and epically more sexual.
First, I got an email announcing that SPOWDER added me as a contact on flickr, so natch, I went to look at their profile. It turned out to be no one I knew, but we shared a few mutual contacts. Then I went back and looked at what they had added to favorites. All of the 10 photos they had added contained ladies' hairy armpits. Upon looking at his profile closer, I realized that he was a HAIRY ARMPIT PHOTO COLLECTOR.
The groups he belonged to really gave it away:
Grow a Beautiful Bush & Save our Planet (adult)
Addicted to Hairy Cunts & Pits
German sexy everyday girls and women - nude
Natural Hairy
armpits lover
Female Armpit Hair
I looked at some of the groups. It's almost all photos pilfered from people's profiles and uploads, mostly of of punk and hippie girls, a predictable hairy demographic.
I feel weird about it. I am sure weirdos have lurked on pictures of me and my friends before. I mean, I get it, the internet is public, but I haven't had to think about it or know specifically who it was since that spy thing on myspace. And now, he has added several of my friends.
I think my discomfort is also about being fetishized for something I don't think about or want to be fetishized for. For me, shaving is not a radical or even political stance. I recognize the political moments that went before that allow me to think about it a post-political way. I don't have to worry about whether or not shaving because a few generations of ladies before me did. Unfortunately, it's more that the beauty standards have multiplied and expanded to an endless shifting terrain rather than receded.
Anyway, what I really don't like is having to face the fact some dude is drooling over an already contested area of my body. Isn't it enough to do it privately? While relatively harmless, if you're going to fetishize me without my involvement or consent via the internet, can't you please keep it a secret so it doesn't make me feel weird when I am just trying to have my morning coffee and lurk on the internet in a lessperverse way?
To block or not to block? that is the question.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Some Very Good Things
1. The Conservatory of Flowers, particularly the pitcher plants.
2. Raw Ice Cream Bars at Cafe Gratitude
3. Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp
Psychedelic Chimps in Costume!
Don't worry, you can see the whole series on netflix watch instantly.
4. Punk
Now I have to go see Limp Wrist and Witchhunt.
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