For John

I am adding this small pic for John.  It is a long story and someday I will elaborate, but here you go:

The Last Political Post...(Hopefully!)

I am so tired.  I am tired of all of this politics.  The state of politics in America is a joke and a disgrace to the idea of our democracy as a whole.  We are so divided and it has gotten to this point because radicalism has become the mainstream.  These political fascists are some of the most watched people in America and they spend all of their time grandstanded and claiming that the other side is destroying our country or tearing apart the constitution.  Even on the hallowed floors of congress we see this sort of talk between people that are supposed to be working together to make better our country and the state of our people.  It has gotten so bad that it has become personal.  One side no longer makes friends with people on the other side because that would show weakness.  Because of this these colleagues no longer seem to care about one another on a personal and human level.  Without that, they no longer care if they attack the other instead of working together to make history.  They lose the ability to dignify the other.  That is an important idea to a humanist:  to dignify the other.

An example of this was the Health Care bill.  It is not my favorite bill that could have passed, but it is a step in the right direction.  The Republicans refused to work on this bill.  All they cared about was defeating it and arguing it and grandstanding for their constituents.  This lead to the Dems having to force the bill through with some good ideas, but not the best.  If the Republicans would have stood up and worked on this bill in the first place, we could have one of the best bills and a high point in American government, but instead we have more anger and more hatred.

I am tired of this feeling.  I am tired of having to listen to these people that care more about showing up the other side then working for the greater good.  This is not how public service people should be acting.  My tax dollars go to pay for this garbage??

So much of the divisiveness is caused by the good ol' American 2-party system that we have in place.  This is an atrocity of reason and education.  During the past presidential election I was basically forced to vote for Barack Obama.  It was either that or give my vote to the Republicans.  I am not saying that I would not have voted for him any way, but I hate the fact that my choices were so limited.  A vote for a third-party is a vote for the people that your want in office the least.  This is a horrible state to be in.  This is not democracy.

Henry David Thoreau once wrote that you can vote if you want to, but it means nothing but a hope in a change for what you believe to be right, not actual change itself.  If you really want change you have to go out there and grab it by the throat, not just vote and feel like you did something without ever actually doing anything at all.  He also wrote that voting with a party and not with your heart is an injustice and goes against our civic duty.  After some rereading of the great American master, I have decided that if I ever vote with party again just to vote against the other party, then I am only supporting this system and telling the politicians that it works and is the right thing to do.

Fuck that.  It won't happen again.  I hate that feeling and for now on, I swear to you all, I will only vote for the person that I believe to be the best candidate and if I do not know the candidates, I will not choose.  If I failed to educate myself on candidates or a particular referendum, then I no longer consider myself educated enough to vote on that topic.  Party lines are shit and need to be scrapped.  The 2-party system just allows people to get away with not educating themselves.  It allows people to just choose the R or the D on a ballot and feel like they can sleep that night.  The American people deserve better than that. 

Thoreau also wrote to not concern yourself with politics, but only with what you find morally correct.  Your family and your friends deserve better of you.  As long as you have done what you feel is correct, whatever that may be, then you have done your duty.  That may involve politics if you so feel that, but your civic duty and your right under a democracy is to vote or not vote, but just do what you feel is morally correct.

I used to think that meant educating the people on the horrors of right-wing extremism, but I have realized that with the 2-party dominance, this only leads to a simple conclusions:  The Dems must be correct.  Now, I tend to agree with them, but they are not that much better when it comes to this divisiveness and grandstanding.  They are part of the system much more than they act in public.  I do not want to write about politics anymore because I do not want to take sides.  My side is and always has been for the freedom and dignity of people, not just Americans, but people everywhere.  If I write about social topics, it will be from the heart and from the mind, but not from the eye of someone that cares about the political game that these yahoos like to play.  I will attack stupidity on all sides, whether it be the lack of any caring from the Republicans or the lack of personal freedoms from the Democrats. 

I hope that my beloved readers will comment.  I want to hear your thoughts and ideas on this matter.  If you think that I am wrong, tell me.  If you agree, feel free to post your pledge as I have, to support democracy and deny politics.  Trust me, when I made this decisions a few weeks ago, it was like taking a weight off of my shoulders.  I felt better.  Listening to these morons in the news is now more of a joke than it ever was.  Mind you, it is a funny joke, but a sad one as well. 

It Has Been Awhile for Us All

The day has come.  For those of you that know me well, you might know what I am talking about.  Many friends and family back from my hometown will know about the events that transpired today which would cause me to make this post, but for you all, my new friends, you probably do not realize the outstanding mood that I am in.

I have been a baseball fan since childhood.  Not only a baseball fan, but a National League baseball fan, and on top of that, first and foremost a San Francisco Giants fan.  Every summer since adulthood has been spent religiously watching and listening to my Giants play the game.  In that time, my heart has been consistently broken by the end of our season.  In 2002 my G-Men made it all way to game 7 of the World Series, only to lose to the Anaheim Angels.  In 2003, we were expected to take it all only to end our season in the first round of the playoffs.  In 2004 my friends and I watched Steve Finley of the Dodgers break our hearts with a Grand Slam on the second to last game of the year.  Since that point in time, hope had diminished and October baseball in the Bay Area had been little more than a distant memory connected to a thousand pains, each pain connected to sight, a sound, a call, and a pitch.

Today was the last day of the regular season.  For the Giants this year has been a roller coaster of ups and downs, trades and acquisitions, and a fitting motto to our style: "Giants Baseball...TORTURE!"  I had almost forgotten until that final regular season pitch today just how good torture can feel.

On the 59th anniversary of the famed "Shot Heard 'Round the World" the Giants fought and clawed their way back into October baseball with a 3-0 win over our division rivals the San Diego Padres.  When Brian Wilson through a high fastball, when Will Venable swung at that pitch and missed, the roar was amazing.  The payoff was worth it.  Not one player on the Giants had been to the postseason as a Giant.  A couple of long-time great players have finally made it to the postseason for the first time in their careers. 

We clinched.

Not only did we clinch our spot and chance to make history, but we are taking the second best record in the National League with us.  We are taking the best pitching staff in baseball with us.  We are taking some of the best fans with us. 

San Francisco is a town that has never had a World Series title.  It is a town that loves their teams greatly, and the Giants most of all.  It has been through the ups and downs of having amazing teams that just cannot get the final job done.  It is a town that seems to always been the bridesmaid, but never the bride.  In the late 80s baseball wept with the great city after an earthquake ravaged the town and put the World Series on hold.  In the early 90s when it seemed all but certain that our beloved team was going to be moved to Tampa Bay, fans stepped in.  When the Giants traded the great Matt Williams for a bunch of "random players," we trusted in the move only to have it lead to some of the greatest Giants years and some of the greatest members of the Giants family.  San Fran always shows up to the games.  After years of trying to live up to the hype, when Zito put together a string of great starts, San Fran stepped up to chant "Barry! Barry!"  Only this time it was not the Home Run king they were rooting for, but a southpaw with the best hook in the game.  After two consecutive Cy Young Awards, our ace Tim Lincecum will get to feel what it is like to have that wonderful, loving, and forgiving city cheer for him as he starts his first career playoff game.

It was a season of pain and glory.  The Buster Posey era began, Molina started the season but did not last much longer in our uniform, Aubrey Huff proved that he was a winner, Andres Torres fought hard to show that he was more than a bench player but the leader of a team, Pat Burrell thrust himself into the Giants-Dodgers rivalry with a two run shot in the eighth, and Brian Wilson took a share of the team saves record with one of the best to play the game.

I respect the Padres game this season.  They played very well, but in the end they were the Mudville Nine and we were left with more games to play. 

Sometimes I turn off the game when I do not want to watch the outcome.  Sometimes I let a hard loss get to me and get depressed the rest of the day.  Sometimes I forgot when I care so much for this game and this team, but when we work hard for 180 days and earn our place, I am reminded of the simple beauty inherent to the sport.  It is a game of subtlety and thought.  A lot of Americans find baseball boring to watch, but those are people that think that nothing is going on between swings.  It is a far more cerebral game and I think that is what turns them away.  They do not give it enough of a chance to sit back and learn that it is a game where when it seems like nothing is going on, there is actually everything going on.  It is a game of strategy and tactics as well as execution.  It is a give and take, cat and mouse game where those slight contributions can turn out to be the plays that turn everything around, from an at-bat to a season.

I have had many girlfriends, friends, and lovers over the years and almost all of them cannot understand why I want to watch every game.  They give me the "...but you watch it every day" or the "can't we listen to music now" speeches and occasionally I am persuaded to skip it for the night, but even my wife was smiling as my boys earned their contracts today and reminded us all why San Francisco, the Giants, and Baseball are parts of the heart and soul of the American culture. 

I Had to Share This

I read this recently and it just made me smile and lifted my spirits.

There was once a good man and powerful orator by the name of Eugene Debs.  Now, Eugene was a strong headed man that fought for the common man against profiteering companies and worthless governments.  There are a couple of sayings that you may have heard in your life but never knew that it was Debs that said them.  First of all, this quote:

I am not a Labor Leader; I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.

That was a wonderful line, but his most famous quote is this one:

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

...but I read something tonight that blew me away.  Mind you, the people he fought for were the people of this country, and the corrupt government that he fought against was the government of Woodrow Wilson, who branded him a traitor to America.  In 1918 Debs was giving a speech to against the draft in WWI to which he urged people to resist it.  This got him in trouble in which they found him guilty of sedition.  During his trial he spoke for nearly two hours, and then a few days later at his sentencing, he spoke again.  This speech is one of the most amazing things you will ever get a chance to read (This is also the same speech that the quote above came from.)  Debs had a power of words that was inspiring, poetic, and both angry and moving at the same time.  Here is the small section that got to me tonight:

Your honor, I have stated in this court that I am opposed to the form of our present government; that I am opposed to the social system in which we live; that I believe in the change of both but by perfectly peaceable and orderly means....
I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and factories; I am thinking of the women who, for a paltry wage, are compelled to work out their lives; of the little children who, in this system, are robbed of their childhood, and in their early, tender years, are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon, and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the machines while they themselves are being starved body and soul....
Your honor, I ask no mercy, I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally the right must prevail. I never more fully comprehended than now the great struggle between the powers of greed on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of freedom. I can see the dawn of a better day of humanity. The people are awakening. In due course of time they will come into their own.
When the mariner, sailing over tropic seas, looks for relief from his weary watch, he turns his eyes toward the Southern Cross, burning luridly above the tempest-vexed ocean. As the midnight approaches the Southern Cross begins to bend, and the whirling worlds change their places, and with starry finger-points the Almighty marks the passage of Time upon the dial of the universe; and though no bell may beat the glad tidings, the look-out knows that the midnight is passing – that relief and rest are close at hand.
Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

 When I read this was a filled with a renewed hope.  Yes, this was almost 100 years ago now and a lot of what he was hopeful for has yet come to pass, but still it is refreshing to see.  One of the most sad things was that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and lifetime disenfranchisement.  I did not even know that they could legally give someone that sentence?!

Debs appealed to the Supreme Court, but that appeal failed.  He was branded as anti-American and really never recovered.  Afterward there were multiple attempts to grant Debs clemency, but President Wilson denied them all, stating:

While the flower of American youth was pouring out its blood to vindicate the cause of civilization, this man, Debs, stood behind the lines sniping, attacking, and denouncing them....This man was a traitor to his country and he will never be pardoned during my administration.

Wilson felt that Debs was basically a terrorist for not agreeing with his views and wanting people to stand up for what he felt was wrong in this world.  Debs was eventually released from prison when his sentence was commuted by President Harding in 1921.  Three years later he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Karl Wiik, stating that "Debs started to work actively for peace during World War I, mainly because he considered the war to be in the interest of capitalism," but he did not receive the award.

He died two years later...

I just wanted to share some of the life of Eugene Victor Debs with you.  Let the people take heart and hope everywhere, for the cross is bending, midnight is passing, and joy cometh with the morning.

One of the reasons that this speech hit me was that it reminded me greatly of another writing that touches me deeply and that is the "Great Wave" speech of Hunter S. Thompson from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."   Hunter used the same poetic style, but to describe the opposite of Debs, the loss of hope and meaning.  These are polar opposites, but they were both inspired by the loss of freedom and human rights in the United States bought on by corrupt Republican administrations.  Hunter just did not see that light that Debs saw.  Hunter only saw the "high water mark." that it left behind as hope was enveloped by darkness and greed.  Hunter was not a socialist or labor rights leader as Debs was, nor did they share much of the same political opinions, but in the end they wanted the same thing for all people.  That thing is what a lot of politicians, especially on the right, never seem to care much about anymore and that is basic human dignity.

Dignity for all people is the basis of human rights and freedoms, but in today's society it seems that dignity only goes to large companies and those people that can afford it.  That is exactly what Debs and people like him fought so hard to prevent from happening, but maybe Hunter was correct.  Maybe the time is past.  Does dignity still belong in today's America?

I still think so.  I also believe that it is still worth fighting for, but most people seem to have fallen into apathy and forgotten about the fact that they have a right in this country to be an artist, a writer, a painter, a musician, a mechanic, an inventor, an astronaut, a fireman, an uncorrupted policeman, or whatever they want to be.

Justin "Hellspawn" Bieber

So I have been trying to be nice about this all, but I have reached a point where I can stand it no longer.  Here it goes:

WHY THE FUCK DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT JUSTIN BIEBER???

I am reminded that we are at a threshold of human evolution, we have almost all of the world's knowledge at our fingertips, but we are far too interested in what that little white christian boy has to way.  Have you ever listened to this no-talent ass clown and been able to hold back the full-body dry heave that your body instinctively pushes up?  I mean, you might want to sit there and think "Oh man, lay off the kid.  He is just a kid man, let it go."

No.  I will not let it go. 

I used to be so passionate about music but I have grown more and more apathetic as the years go on because of crap like this.  Not only this, but even rock music sucks a big one lately.  I happened to turn on the radio recently, which was my first mistake, to find a band that used to be considered metal, and I think they still are, but I guess metal just means heavy aggro-rock with retarded lyrics like "Everyone come clap your hands" and shit that you used to only find on the worst hip-hop songs.  Rock and roll, rock music, used to be home to the most hardcore and fringe people writing some of the most edge-of-your-seat lyrics that were made to talk to the youth of America and make you want to become a true idealist, but now it is just more garbage.  Music today is basically just some producer shitting on a microphone and sending out to ClearChannel so that they can pump the airwaves with it twice an hour. 

To quote the ever brilliant Bill Hicks when we was talking about pop music 20 years ago, these musicians are just "demons set loose on the earth to lower the standards for all mankind and making us pay a higher psychic price in the long run."  I knew Bill was smart, but it is amazing how topical some of his work is still today.  Sometimes I think he was a prophet.

There are so few bands out there and play something new and interesting with meaning and depth.  It used to be that you could go to the indie scene and find creativity and truth, but the hegemony of the music system has bought and sold most of those artists as well.  Now most of it is junk too.  It is a huge snowball that is rolling around and around, sucking up anything that pops up.  As soon as a new fresh face comes around it is bought and sold ten times over.  I do not blame them, we all wish that we could get paid to play music for a living, but what ever happened to rebellion and anger in music?  The issue is that because the man buys everything up and puts it to market, now people have to be safe and afraid or else someone won't want to buy their record.  Fuck me!  If I was a big-time musician I would say what I felt needed to be said and if you are offended by it, then you are not that one that my record was intended for and I probably don't want to listening to my music anyway.  You are wasting it.  Give that record to someone that still has a soul and stick with your Jim Neighbors vinyls. 

Moving forward on this topic, I see tons of articles about people complaining about the new single and video from Lady Gaga.  Now, before I start on her, I will admit that not all of her tunes are bad.  At least she can actually play a damn instrument, but she is just another attention whore that is doing and saying things so that those cameras never leave her face.  The issue that I am having is that her new song and video for "Alejandro" is not that controversial.  People are making a mountain out of a molehill here.  The video is not that blasphemous or sexually suggestive.  Some people label her as the new Madonna, but she has little to no substance other than preaching for gay rights, which I am all for, but that is about it.  The sad part is that people have gotten so apathetic with music that they think the slightest suggestion is controversy when it shouldn't be and while the true musicians that should be making headlines get no attention.  Hell, other than small-time punk bands and some indie rockers, very few people with any clout fought against the wars in the middle east.  The beauty of the 60s was that in the great turmoil, some of the most amazing and influential music grew and flourished.  This time we have a very unpopular war and had the worst president in office and everyone with any influence were too afraid to really speak.  There were a few exceptions to this, but again, they did not receive the attention that they should have...(NIN, A Perfect Circle, Green Day).

We are in a lull marketing and the capitalist dollar have truly taken hold.  Everyone is afraid of losing their jobs.  Even people in powerful positions are becoming Chomsky's "wage slaves."  There are still many mediums of free speech in this country, but through right-wing fear tactics and corporate greed we are left far too scared to use them.  Music and stand-up comedy are two of the perfect mediums for speaking out against the problems of the world but even they have become scared or losing album sales and sponsors.  We need a new Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, or Bill Hicks.  We need someone that is not afraid to stand up and piss everyone off.  There are still a couple of them out there, but few and far between.  Howard Stern finally gave up his fight years ago and was relegated to satellite radio.  It is a sad state of affairs and these little twerps like Justin Bieber are just riding of the crest of the depressing and hideous wave.  Someday, will we be able to look west and see Hunter S. Thompson's high water mark of awfulness and remember that we were there when the wave broke and rolled back into the pit that it came from? 

I doubt it.  Not as long as retards run this country and they are more afraid of losing votes then doing the job that they were voting in to do.  People are far too willing to try to cater so that they can still have a voice instead of standing up and using that voice with reason and clarity to educate the world on what they truly feel should be done. 

We should be ashamed of ourselves.  I know that I am.

By the way...if you love good writing and hate everything that Justin Bieber stands for like I do, check out this site:
http://themountaingoatswillcureyourbieberfever.com/

Rehashing Old Memories...

**I have to give a bit of a warning about this post.  It goes over a few different places and rambles some, but I took some ideas, some old posts, and some new material and mashed them into this monstrosity that you are about to read.  Thank you for bearing with me and comments are always welcome.**

So we have all heard the analogy that is, "The Tapestry of Life".  Have you ever stopped to wonder how absolutely amazing that metaphor really is?!  I mean, everything in life, everything we eat, breathe, do, and interact with makes up this tapestry.  Each thing, moment, person, and event is a thread woven through to create you and me.

Now that is easy, but we can expand on this even more...

If we say that the above is true, then the beautiful part is that with the absence of any single, little, minuscule thread, the entire creation would cease to be.  The essence of everything that we are is destroyed.  By denying  life we choose to be apart from it.  From denying memory, we choose to kill a piece of ourselves.  That goes for all memory, not just the good or the bad times. 
People find it easy to remember the good times and the painful times.  Both are extremes but in the end they are all the same thing.  The great moments are just terrible moments in disguise and vise versa. 

Pain is only weakness escaping from the body.
Pain is the most direct way to know you are alive...(No middleman required)
So is pleasure.  Whenever we...well...snatch life out of the jaws of a little death, if you know what I am talking about, we do just that.  We live.  Not only are we living at that time, but we are accomplishing what our bodies were built to do.  We are beings that were made to procreate and survive.  At that moment, we are truly human.

Remember all those times, from the most amazing to the most painful.  The only fool is the one who does not learn and grow from his mistakes.  Well, I guess I am not really going anywhere else with this.  Memory is important.  Without it, the blanket of who we are is immolated. 

This is why dianetics (and henceforth Scientology) is not a good thing.  This is a belief system that willfully and conscienceless destroys those things that make you the beautiful, wonderful, interesting human that you are.  It is an injustice to all good things in this world.

Our memories our what allow us to remember history and learn from it.  We need to grow and attempt to learn from the beauty of love and the horror or war.

The modern genius Tom Waits once wrote,

"I will tell you all my secrets, but I will lie about my past."

Our personal past is an amazing thing.  The thoughts, memories, dreams, and accomplishments are the little things that we have which no one can ever take away from us.  In effect, the only person who can control those things is yourself.  You have every right to block out whatever memories or regrets you may have.  It is not the way I'd recommend, but it is one way to live.

I believe in openness.  I believe in telling people about all of my sins or acts that are less than reputable because hopefully someone else can learn from my mistakes and errors.  This is why I have been a decent councilor for people.  I have made a lot of mistakes in my life, as we all have, and I do not wish to lie about those things.  I see no purpose if lying, forgetting or hiding those facts.  If we do forget, then all those mistakes were in vain.  Use those things, those acts or sins and learn from them.  Use everything bad you have ever done to evolve and create a better person from them. 

I understand certain things that people like to hide though.  I know how sometimes you may not want certain things as public info because of our chastising, non-forgiving society and the way it looks at certain things.

It is fucked up for us to take the past and hold it against someone, especially when that person goes above and beyond to correct their actions.  I am speaking right now with a certain person in mind.  Anyone remember Tookie Williams?  He was the man who started the gang wars in L.A. and all that.  Many people died because of what he created, but he learned from it.  He spent 25 years in prison, educating himself, denouncing the gang lifestyle, and writing books to educate others on the horrors of the gangs and other options.  He spent many years doing good for the world in an attempt to make ammends for the wrong he released onto the world.  Then we, as a group, had the option to not kill him, but to let him spend the rest of his life in prison where he could never harm the public again and attempt to do more good, but instead we chose the way of bloodlust and hate.  We did not forgive, even though he could never injure society again and he in fact did a ton of good in return, we still were not happy until we killed someone.  Mind you, I am not trying to defend his actions, but put them into perspective. 

When we commit someone to the death penalty, we have decided to play the role of executioner.  Acts such as that only tend to perpetuate a cycle of hatred and violence.  I do not fault the people who wanted him dead.  I only feel sad for the fact the people still cannot live happily until someone dies.  It is a pathetic excuse for what we call "the most advanced species on the planet". 

If this is the most evolved, then I want off this fucking rock...

These are things that I remember.  These are things that make me who I am.  As much as I wish that we could live in a world where education and honesty was paramount, we don't, but everyday we should be attempting to use history and memory as a tool to future enlightenment.   People will always have selective hearing, choose what to know and how to interpret that knowledge, but as long as we take time and effort to evolve and better ourselves, then each day we will be one step closer to truth.  Each day we will be more human and less of a talking monkey. 

We think of ourselves as the top, but if there are higher beings out there, then we are nothing more than talking monkeys to them.  The late, great Carl Sagan once wrote about Earth as nothing more than a "Pale, Blue Dot" in space.  He was not putting us down, he was attempting to teach people that there is more in the universe than our squabbles over land and oil.  Maybe it is time for us as people to stand up, accept our dark sides and grow into what we could be.  Memory is the key to all of that.  I will end this post with Carl Sagan's words.  Anyone that knows me has probably heard me talk about this speech on multiple occasions.  I like to remember it because it is still poignant after all of these years.  Remember, he is give this speech in the context of the famous picture of Earth from millions of miles away.

Carl Sagan:
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Sharron Who??

The Tea Party here in Nevada has chosen yet another psychopath to represent them in our Government.  This time, it is long-time Republican Sharron Angle.  I know, the same question came to my mind as well and that is "Who?"

Well, as it is my duty to educate the public on the B.S. of politics in America, this woman sticks so badly that I have to now say something.  Let us learn about Sharron Angle:

She has consistently said that we need to remove the Department of Education and that local communities need to be in charge of their education.  Now, while having a certain percentage of education locally ran, I fully agree with, but to have it all run by local bodies is just dumb.  If this were to happen, it would be a miscarriage of justice for facts and science.  We would have certain people "learning" of so-called "sciences" like Creationism and Intelligent Design.  We would have something like Texas is trying to do in changing history to their whim and ignoring all evidence.  We have to have some kind of standard or else children in Alabama and Nevada will never have the chance to go to high-end universities because their education systems would not stand anywhere near the level that they need to be.  This is one of the most nazi-esque things that I have seen.  It is not far removed from book-burning in an attempt to control what people read and learn.  Keep them stupid, and those in power get to stay in power.

She believes that the United Nations is a bad thing just established to try to enforce a liberal agenda.  Just because some liberal ideas are accepted WORLD WIDE and known to be FACT, that is truth, not an agenda.

She does not believe that people should be married that are different than her, mainly gay people.  Why not?  She claims that it is because she thinks that children can only be raised a certain way properly.  She just hates that which is different.  Just because it is not her way of doing things does not mean that it is wrong.  I like how she tries to use "scientific evidence" to support her claims, but ignores real scientific evidence that states how wrong she is on everything else.

She wants to abolish the IRS.  Wow.  I mean, we all hate paying taxes, but come on.  Government has to be payed for on some level.

She ignores all evidence and states that global warming is a false, liberal agenda.  I cannot believe that ignorant people can still be this ignorant in today's world where information is everywhere and free.  Anyone can look at the evidence and see that climate change is real and to ignore it is just being plain stubborn of change and of fact.

I will stop with this last thing...she wants to drill for oil everywhere, including in our most sacred of items, the National Parks.  Do you realize that two of the best ideas to come out of the U.S. are Jazz music and the National Park system.  To destroy one for greed will lead to destroying them all.  Not only that, but to destroy one for the purpose of oil is just moronic.  We do not need more oil, we need to find alternatives.  Why rely on a very limited and polluting resource when there are a ton of free and virtually limitless sources?  Some people like to argue "Well, it is not windy all of the time and the sun is not out all of the time."
So?  If you build a nation-wide power grid it is very simple.  There are plenty of areas where if you were to put some solar power plants and some wind power plants, it would easily harness enough energy for all of our power needs and more.  You just need the infrastructure to support sending that power to the more remote locations.  It is not hard to figure out people!

All in all, Sharron Angle seems to be another neocon fascist.  Do not vote for her.

Is "The Streak" this Out of Touch?

Today's rant is about someone that I used to have a certain amount of respect for, but with his latest offering he is showing just how apart from reality he is getting in his older age.  The man that I speak of is the country singer/humorist Ray Stevens.  You remember him, right?  Well, don't feel alarmed if you don't.  Ray was popular for about 20 minutes in the 70s with the humorous song "The Streak" which, in all of its sophistication, was a song about a guy running around naked and...well...that was about it.

Recently Ray decided to post his opinion on the "Get rid of the Mexicans" law in Arizona which, by the way, it has come out in a series of emails between politicians and constituents is seen as a good thing for "taking our country back from the Mexicans".

Ray's new song is entitled "Come to the U.S.A." and is basically attempting to make the sociological argument that people come here illegally because we like to help people instead of criminalizing them.  He states that all other countries will beat, imprison, or kill you for being there illegally.

First of all, this argument is completely false and misguided.  I understand people's frustrations with our efforts and money going to criminals, but the issue here is that Stevens  is completely wrong as to what the issue is.  Illegal immigration is a symptom, a huge one, of yet another gigantic problem with our country.  If you break this down and create an analogy, Ray is agreeing with a law that states that if your head hurts, take a pain killer to squash the pain instead of facing the real problem which is that you have a metal bar jammed into your skull.

Conservatives have this long-standing political mantra that states that anyone who does something that they do not agree with should be criminalized.  This is called negative reinforcement and has consistently been proven to be, well, let us just say, not the most effective way to make things right.  They like to lock up sick people (drug addicts) in prisons with murderers and rapists, to dehumanize them and remove them from sight.  That seems to be their answer as long as we do not have to look at them to destroy our 1950s whitewashed "Leave It To Beaver" mentality.  If their arm burns, cut it off instead of removing it from the fire.

To Ray Stevens:
Dear Ray, I remember listening to your tapes when I was 10 and thinking they were funny.  Then I grew up and saw reality and found that you are really nothing more than another misinformed good ol' boy that thinks fart jokes are the end-all be-all of humor.  Your new song, "Come to the USA" is not funny in any way and is completely wrong in its assessment of the things that this country was founded on.
It is with the support of ignorant hicks, such as yourself, that give people the idea that it is good to be racist, it is good to forget about history, and that "gated communities" and malls are a good thing.  I understand your frustration with situations, but to think that dehumanizing Mexicans and spending valuable police resources on this is just the biggest waste of ideals and money since ol' Bushy left office.
Please take the time to think this over and find that only with true education and immigration reform will we start on the correct path of this that you see as a battle.

Here is the video for people to understand.  Mind you, the video itself is not that awful, but the fact that it is in response and support for Arizona is the issue:

Arizona: The New Home of Ethnic Cleansing

So we have all heard about the Arizona law that makes it mandatory for police to question someone of their immigration status if they have "reasonable suspicion" to think they are illegal.  It is very controversial and some rather heated debates have sprung up from this and I have to say...well...I was considering going sarcastic here and pretending to agree with it and how racial profiling is a good thing and how it is perfectly fine as long as you are not brown, but I could not bring myself to do it.  I considered the risks and I could not allow someone to read what I was thinking and take it seriously.

Arizona is attempting to become the first all-white all-English speaking state.  Heaven for WASPs.  Now then they just passed another law and ruling to remove all classes that are geared towards ethnic groups or can be construed as "anti-American" as well as a ruling from the education department that anyone with a "thick" accent is banned from teaching English classes.

Wow how Arizona is going off of the deep end.  The first Police State.  Here is a cartoon from the great Matt Bors that sums this up nicely: (http://www.mattbors.com/newstrip.html)

Not only do the right wing of Arizona claim to hate Obama because of what they see as him being a Nazi, but they sure seem to want to rather fascist regime in their state.

They try to argue that this is a law only to prevent crime and they hold this weird belief that illegal immigration is the main problem with our country.  Let me be the first to pop your little bubble Arizona, but the problems with our health care, the problems with our prisons, the problem of crime, and the problem of the economy is not due to the illegal immigrants in the USA.  The problem is more due to the lack of educated Americans, the functional illiterates, and the people who are addicted to drugs in the first place, most of whom in all of these situations are legal Americans that cannot even name three of the founding fathers.  The drug running and drug problem that they claim to be fighting against is not due to people drug running, it is due to that fact that there is a market for it in the first place.  Most people, if given a choice, would rather do a legal, honest, hard working job for their wages and wants, but our society has made it so difficult for them to do so that they revert to drugs and alcohol along with black market goods, including narcotics.  It is a simple formula.  You are never going to eliminate drug use, but you can attempt to fight the causes of it instead of the symptoms.  I have known a good amount of illegal immigrants and they are just like you and me, struggling for a better life for themselves and their loved ones.  Many come here because of all of the violence and corruption in their home countries and America is still one of the few places that if you are lucky and work hard you can make something of yourself.  They come for hope.

Many of them would rather be legal, but you have made it so much more difficult for them to come legally that they have no other option.  This country was founded and took pride in the idea of the "Melting Pot".  Different people and cultures could come, become integrated, and thrive in peace and freedom, not the idea of white rich people only which is what you are trying to claim.  While the last president, ol' Bushy was in office, he made it even harder and more expensive to come here legally.  Hmm...

Also, just because someone has an accent does not mean they do not know English or even that they may know it better than we do.  Oh, here it comes, another bubble-bursting moment...English is not that "National Language" as you so like to claim.  It was never founded or formalized as such.  It is the most common language, but the idea of freedom means that you can speak whatever language you would like, and if the people or business owners do not want to cater to Spanish or whatever language, you do not have to. 

You are afraid of what is different.  You are angry because you cannot communicate with some people, or at least that is what we are saying to be polite.  The truth is that people who claim such things are just plain racist and hateful of that which they do not understand.  Those "damn Mexicans" as I have heard them called, are some of the nicest and hardest working people in this country.  You like to claim that they are taking our jobs, but the fact remains that many of you will not do the jobs that they will.  You are to good to build houses or pick in the fields.

I love America and the freedoms that it was founded on.  I personally despise a lot of religions and people who are paid to lie on televisions for political ends, but they have the freedom to due so and I defend that freedom.  I feel bad for the ignorant Arizonians that honestly think this bill is a good thing because most of them are just brainwashed by Fox News and education cuts.  Many totalitarian dictators believed in burning books and banning freedom of thought because education as a whole will open everyone's eyes to how they are being fucked everyday by the people in power.  The right-wing especially loves cutting education spending because many of their ideas on social issues are of such a third grade mentality that they can retain power as long as that is your highest level of learning.  Texas is working on changing facts in their school books, we saw it with Kansas and Pennsylvania over the whole "intelligent design" theory which was not intelligent at all, and we saw it with President Bush issuing a decree that park rangers were not allowed to say how old trees and sites were due to the idea that the scientific fact is against the bible.  Can't you see the horrible problems with this?

Many of you claim problems with science and their are problems, but it is a self-correcting philosophy that is not always right.  You claim that science does not know anything, but they  know and can prove way more than you can, so please shut your mouth until you have an actual logical argument.  Get your facts right and admit your own problems please.  Speak up if you want, but at least have some idea of reason.  The great old quote says this: "It's better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and prove it." and boy, how many people prove it everyday in this country.  I love the right of free speech but as is consistently noted, with rights come responsibility.  Have some.

It is a Historic Night....

We have done it.  It is not the bill that I wanted or the situation that I wanted, but in the end, it is something that we needed and needed badly.

The republicans have shown their true face.  It is the face of a party that truly cares about the rich white man only.  I agree with the need to control costs, but when pretty much ALL estimates have said this is a money-saver in the long run, how can you deny it?  How can someone be so heartless as to say to the people of America, "Oh, I am sorry that you are dying of a treatable illness, but the rich white man does not want to pay a tiny bit to save your life, help your small business, or allow your child to see a doctor."

We are so divided as a nation lately that it sickens me.  I was proud to see some people stand up this past week and put aside their differences because they understood that this bill, whether you like its means or not, is better than the status quo.  Right now the insurance companies are allowed to do whatever they wish in order to FUCK the American people.  I have what is considered by a lot of people to have a good health insurance but even I have to pay ridiculous amounts in the end.  I heard a republican congressman say that this bill will be the end of private insurance and the government takeover of health care.  This is false, but I wish it were true.  The private insurance companies have screwed us over for the last time and maybe it is time to give the government a shot to do what private insurance has consistently FAILED at.

In case you are unaware, I am a supporter of the single-payer health system.  When this was not going to happen I settled for the public option and removal of insurance anti-trust laws.  The public option went out the window because republicans screamed "socialist!"  Most of them do not even know what that word means.  They love expanding military but the fact is that the American military is one of the largest socialist programs on our planet.  The republicans are crying because they are forcing the democrats to use various parliamentary procedures to get their votes, but again they loved it when those same procedures led to the GIGANTIC tax cuts for the rich that have really driven this country into the ground.

I have never seen a larger group of hateful and hypocritical people in my life.  Let's spend billions on attacking sovereign nations, but the moment that you want to spend that money to better our society as a whole, you are an evil commie bastard.  I personally am not trying to tear down republicans and all of their ideas, but overall they failed us as leaders.  They refused to assist in the writing of the bill and then cried foul that they did not have a say.  They refused to propose anything unless this bill was completely removed.  You know full well as I do that if we would have agreed to their terms nothing would have happened and corporate greed would have won again as it did for all of the years under ol' Bushy.

Again, normally I am not as bitter toward the republicans and even agree with them on some stuff, but most of that is in theory, not in practice.  It would be nice if the federal government were small and left things up to the states, but slowly the government has been expanding because the states have failed the people over and over and when they do where else does the little man have to go?  If the states had their way there would still be separate but "equal" in many areas, which we all know was the biggest lie ever.  The states are run by the large companies that reside in them and under "free-market" capitalism, it is us, the people of America and our democracy that loses.  The free-market system is fine and dandy, but it does not work and has not worked well since its induction.  Human greed is strong and the free-market system just gives greed a place to thrive while the politicians roll in the dirty money that is built on human suffering and live in a fucking Reagan wet-dream.

I am personally an old-school classical liberal/Hustler Democrat.  I believe in small government but the republican government seems to always spend money in the wrong places.  They still believe in this idea of "trickle-down" economics that always favors the rich and fucks the poor.  I believe that the federal government has a moral and civic duty to protect the health and well-being of its people.  The two greatest ways to do that are through health care and education.  I personally think that college should be public and free to everyone that can handle it, but that is just me...well...and logic and reason, but no one pays attention to that.

I am done ranting.  Today is a day for rejoice as reason has triumphed over individualism again and our nation is one step closer to fulfilling the promise of liberty and justice for all....

...now once Cheney is found guilty for war crimes then justice will win again.  =)

Infringe on Rights

I am writing tonight to ask a question:

When is it right to infringe on the freedoms that we are granted by the Constitution?  When are we, the people, willing to give up a certain freedom for a better society?

I really want to know.  This question keeps me thinking quite a bit.  We seem willing to give up some privacy rights for security as the Patriot Act had proven.  Almost no one would argue that freedom of speech is not sufficient enough to protect those people who deal in kiddie porn.  Where is that line?

We choose to criminalize people who make threats.  It is illegal and the argument is simple to understand.  Yes, free sheep should allow you to tell someone that you want to kill them, but by doing so we are infringing on that person's right to exist without a constant fear of being murdered.  Okay, makes sense.

There is an issue that came up recently where I really want to agree in principle, but in practice, we have opened the floodgates to the what may be the greatest miscarriage of democracy since the 2000 election, and that is the Supreme Court setting a new legal precedent in what large companies may spend on political campaigns. 

The sky's the limit now! 

For some reason, citing freedom of speech, the Republican Supreme Court decided that the people no longer need any form of truth in politics.  The people will now be flooded with ads for the candidates that only the largest companies want you to see.  It has been shown that almost always, without fail in today's world controlled by media and advertising, that the candidate with the most monetary backing tend to win the elections.  That means that now the good guys, the people who want to serve the public out of honesty and belief in the amazing document that is the constitution lose.  Why even fight anymore?!  Why donate 10 bucks to Joe Shmoe's campaign because the other guy, the career politician has the backing of Altria or Disney or GE or Google or whomever and most of the companies do not want people in power that care.  The masses lost a huge decision and I applaud our President in his State of the Union speech for ripping the Supreme Court over it.  They failed us, the faceless masses that make up most of the U.S.  John "Whitewash" Roberts and Samuel "Hypocrite" Alito (Along with Scalia and that idiot Justice Thomas) do not give one fuck about the spirit of a law or the meaning behind an amendment.  They are bought and sold just like the politicians.  I am going to miss the great Justice John Paul Stevens when he finally retires.  If anyone wants to learn something, read his opinion on this ruling that count be found here.

It sickens me when I see what has happened to the people on this country.  After eight years of a moron running our country into the ground, his legacy still lives strong in his choices for the highest court in the land.  Shame on you.  I wish we lived in a world where we would not have to regulate companies.  I wish we lived in a country where we would not have to have laws protecting the masses, the consumers, the voters because people and companies would regulate themselves, but as we have seen time and time again this does not happen and probably will not happen as long as capitalism rules all and as long as humans with there endless greed continue to run it. 

This happened in the same week as the loss of the great Air America radio shows.  Whether or not you agreed with them, as least it was another side of the coin from the psycho fundamentalists that rule radio airwaves now.  An hell, at least the most extreme of the liberals on there were way more reasonable than the extreme, oh, I am looking for the right word here...douche bags?  Hate Mongers?  Nazis?  that control the airwaves now.

I am sorry, I do not like resorting to name-calling, but I am so frustrated right now with everything.  The one shining light was the President's speech the other night.  I know he will not get to do everything that this country needs him to do, but at least for the first time in many years I can believe that we are in good hands and that he honestly will make thoughtful decisions based on what he honestly believes is good for America.  Whether or not you agree, it is at least uplifting to feel that someone in power actually cares about people and our future history.

Sex and Violence

WARNING:  This is a reposting of a blog that I write awhile back on my old page.  I was thinking about this again and just decided to edit and repost this thing that I wrote.  Don't worry, new posts are still coming!

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I have meditated and written often in the past on sex, so really this writing will be about the other, our good friend violence.

I have been contemplating violence quite a bit lately, watching a bunch of violent films and reading graphic literature.  Finally tonight I realized it and asked myself "Why?"

So I thought about it.  Violence is so prevalent in our society, in both reality and fiction, that we take is with a grain of salt, even entertaining.  Our movie theaters and televisions today are our new version of the ancient arenas and coliseums  of yore.  The only difference is that we are (usually) not actually harming anyone or thing. 

Is this a good idea? 

That may seem like a strange question, but a valid one I think, something worth asking.  Why, you might ask?

The more and more that we remove humanity from acts of rape, murder, torture, and war, the more we condone and accept it as just life and entertainment.  Should we be entertained by human suffering?  I am entertained by some shows and some violent acts, but that is because no one actually gets hurt and usually because the violence is understated.  It exists for a purpose, to force us to feel a certain emotion.  This is one of the reasons that I hate big hollywood films.  To glorified.  They use violence nowadays instead of dialogue or character.  It is weak...

Anyway, the more and more that we remove humanity from our inhumanities toward other men, the more accepting and desensitized to it we become.  I mean, do not get me wrong, I am a full believer in the first amendment and our right to say what we want to say, and show what we want to show without censorship.  I am not claiming that we need to censor any of this.  I am just asking, what is it for and is it a positive thing? 

Artists are people who try to communicate, try to reach out to themselves or others, reach for human connection through some form of media.  They tent to do these things to express an emotion or force their audience to feel a certain emotion.  In doing so, they are usually attempting to heal this world in some way, to force us to see something in the big or small picture about us all.  To sum it up, I see artists as asking us to evolve somehow.

Some people use the nature argument for violence, and that is an argument that you cannot win.  Yes it is natural to have violence, human on human or human on nature, or whatever.  Yes it exists in the wild and has existed for as long as we know, we cannot really argue that fact, so don't even try.  But...what we can argue is this question:  Does that mean we have to perpetuate violence?  Does that give us just cause?  These same people that tend to use the nature argument, tend to do very unnatural things.  Watching tv and movies is not natural, so does that mean we need to do away with it?  Having one life mate is VERY unnatural, so why do we do it?  Poly-amorous lifestyles are very natural, but frowned upon, and often by the same people who argue that natural violence is okay.

The point being that we are humans.  We are evolved, even though you watch reality tv and you would think that we are still apes.  With rights and great power comes great responsibility.  I know it might seem antiquated, but I still believe that.  This means that I feel that we have a responsibility to one another.  We are all connected on this orb we call Earth and helping each other through this thing...well, I will stop there and cease being preachy or trying to place my own beliefs out there.  The point is that, well John Donne said it best when he said that no man is an island.

So I decided to watch a movie that seems to sum up human violence better than anything I know of, Julie Taymor's version of "Titus" by Shakespeare. 

This film studies violence, man's inhumanity toward man.  It really shows the brilliance of Shakespeare better than any of his plays.  It covers every type of violence, almost all possible motivations, and forces us to ask certain questions:
What is Justice?
What is Revenge?
and
What are justifications of War?

Type of violence and motivations:
Personal revenge, avengement, sibling rivalry, cold blooded crimes of passion, premeditated murder, war, torture, self-sacrifice, sex, sense of duty, religous piety, ritual, rape, lust, racism, love, hatred, pride, use of all sorts of weapons, killing one with your own hands, guilt, appealing, and one of the most real: Becuase we feel there is no other choice.

The two sons of Tamara rape Titus's beauitful daughter Lavinia, a symbol of love and purity, then cut out her tongue and chop off her hands so she can tell no one who did this.  Then they made her live. It tortures her to know whom is guilty, but she cannot do anything about it.  How horrible! 

Titus willingly gives up his own hand, cuts it off for the belief that by doing so, two of his son's lives would be spared.  He would have gladly give his life for his sons if they asked for it, but they didn't.  They wanted to torture him as well.  Only then to not give him his sons back, but only their heads along with his hand sent back to him!  Wow. 

Lavinia submits herself to death by her father, who both felt it was just to do so!  What will they had?!

Titus kills the two sons that raped his daughter, cooks them into mince meat pies, and feed them to their mother!!  My god!

These are just a few of the most grevious acts of violence in the play/film.  It makes me think, these acts of violence are rather over the top, not normal, but they are not unheard of in life.  Mercy killings for purity (Chastity) by loving family members are still practiced in some parts of the world.  People still sacrifice themselves for ideals and rituals.  It still happens.

What does it take?  Why do we submit ourselves to certain things?  How much will does it actually take for someone to wrap their hands, skin to skin, around a loving family member's warm neck and strangle or break it?  I cannot even begin to imagine.  To know that some people can perform that act is a scary thought.  To think that we as humans have the ability to feel such feelings, do such things, and some of us can do it so sociopathically, so disconnected, that we can do them without even raising our heartrates.

Maybe, to sum that thought up, that is why we created the idea of the devil and of demons.  By dehumanizing those people, we can sleep a little better at night...

I do not think that is a justified answer...but it is the only one I got.

End of a Decade (Part III)

I am a huge fan of comics and graphic novels.  Since the nineties we have seen a new golden age dawn in the medium, while at the same time sales are dropping.  The smallest percentage of people/kids now read comics than have ever read them in the past 75 years and a lot of that is due to this strange monopoly that is in place with the "single distributor system" as well as the squabbling between Marvel and DC that continues to this day.  Although the new rise in comic-based movies is helping some, it will hopefully never take over.  At least people like Jeff Smith, Dave Sim, Terry Moore, and many others have proven that this is an art form and one can be successful without the mainstream system.

Here are my picks for the decade.  This with yet another hard list to compile due to all of the great young writers and cartoonists that have emerged as well as the ending of some of the most iconic series's.

5. Marvel Civil War.

This is the only book from the mainstream Marvel/DC companies to make my list.  Although overall I despise these all-encompassing, multi-title crossovers because for the most part they are a plot just to sell more comics and not about the story, they actually did a decent job with this one.  Some of the most unthinkable things happened to the Marvel Universe and we got to see characters in situations that were thought of as impossible at the time.  I will give credit to Marvel for not totally messing this one up.





4. Bill Watterson - The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.

This is the first of two of me choices that are 90's based, which I know is kind of cheating, but this collection is the definitive edition of the work of Bill Watterson.  He only created comic strips for ten years, but in that time graced the world with some of the most influential strips along with fun and lovable characters.  The collection here also earned the distinction of being the heaviest and one of the most expensive books to grace the New York Times Best-Seller list.






3. Craig Thompson - Blankets.

Blankets was first printed in 2003 with the 9th printing edition coming out this year.  This piece by Craig Thompson is autobiographical and shows some wonderful cartooning designs.  A sweet story about growing up and finding one's first love while questioning faith and the meaning to life, Blankets is a great mix of story and illustration.







2. Alex Robinson - Too Cool to be Forgotten.

When I first saw the cover to this, I thought it was silly and looked interesting.  I knew Alex's work and knew that this was going to be good, but I was blown away by what I found.  This story starts of silly, almost comical, quickly falls into reminders of high school and being kid, only to hit you hard at the end like a punch to the gut.  I have read it a few times and wept at the end each time.  Alex has proven himself as one of the premier graphic novelists of our age.






1. Jeff Smith - Bone.

This is the other 90's cheat coming in at number 1, but I would not have felt right with myself if I left it off.  This series, started in '91, ended in '04, but since it's end and the subsequent color editions that were released in the recent years, Bone has been one of the most successful publications in the past few years.  Not only has the big (1300 page) "One Volume Edition" been through like 14 printings, the Scholastic reprints have gone on to change the way that parents and teachers can use comic books as a learning tool.  Thanks Jeff!





That is the end of my "Best of the Decade" series.  I almost wanted to do a list on televisions, but then I saw some again recently and was reminded why I didn't.

Any questions, comments, or suggestions, please comment or contact me directly.  I will start working on the lists for this decade and it comes along and hope to find more creativity and brilliance.

End of a Decade (Part II)

In my last post I went over my top 5 films of the decade and, as promised, this time I am going to cover music.  This has been a strange decade for music as a whole with the progress of compressed music, the decline (even more) of radio and Mtv domination, and the increase of garbage Disney music.

What do we want out of  music?  Most people are happy with a simple melody a "nice, clean-cut image" it seems.  Image, for the most part means dick.  I am always reminded of the late, great Bill Hicks who stated "I want my rock stars dead, damnit!"  Who cares if they choked on their own vomit?!  At least they jammed and played from the heart.

There were still a ton of great albums, just most of them were outside of the mainstream section.  Well, here we go:

5. The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas.

This fan favorite was the last real lo-fi album created by one of the Gods of lo-fi, but not only did it cement his fan base but showed that with nothing more than brilliant songwriting you can still make a name for yourself in this generation.









4. Tom Waits - Orphans.

Tom has been recognized as one of the most amazing musicians for the past thirty years, but in 2006 he topped himself by releasing a folio of new and unheard music separated into three disks, one of rockin' blues stuff, one of slower jazz stuff, and one of stuff that really does not fit into any category.   I linked the vinyl version which was just released this year.  It is a must-own.







3. Tool - Lateralus.

One the heavier side of things, post-alt, art-rock band Tool made two albums in the 90's and showed that you can play hard rock and still know a thing or two about music theory and songwriting.  In 2001 they came out with this effort, Lateralus, which just showed that after a five year hiatus they could still make one of the most rockin' albums of all time.  With the album art by Alex Grey, Tool demanded that the format of the album is still alive and well in some form today.






2. Bright Eyes - Lifted, of The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground.

I was a reluctant Bright Eyes fan for a long time due to his earlier stuff that consisted more of whining than anything else, but when Conor, Mike, and the rest of the Saddle Creek guys got together to build, what in my mind is one of the last great concept albums, they hit the nail on the head.  I found myself compelled to listen in awe thinking that he was able to write every song that I had been wanting to write for years while backing it with some arrangements that are sometimes simple, sometimes complex, but always wonderful.





1. Radiohead - Kid A

What can we say about this?  Was it the last hurrah of a great 90's band or the start of something new and beautiful at the same time?  Radiohead were not afraid to find out, risk everything, and change the face of pop music.  Not only, from the very first note did you realize that this was something new, it was strange, smart, and sometimes scary as well.  Because of this masterpiece Radiohead became one of the largest bands in the world, fought for free music for everyone, and have since made more great music that is still just as weird and scary.  Long Live Radiohead and may they continue to write for many years to come.  I am hoping that their next album will make my decade list again.



If you feel that I missed something or are way off base on any of these, contact me or comment.  I am always ready to go with a musical argument.  Listen well!

Next Posting: Part III, Comics/Graphic Novels.

End of a Decade

So, like a bunch of other bloggers, the time has come to start naming the best of the decade lists.  This is a hard think to do, especially for me.  Anything that I think is remotely great becomes my favorite ever.  To top it all off, I have limited myself to only 5 for each category.

The categories that I have chosen are mine, and many others, favorite art mediums.  Also, I know that while compiling my lists I have forgotten a few here and there, but this is what I got.


Movies:
5. Kill Bill (Vol. 1 and 2). 

Tarantino does it again with this amazing ability to mix ultra-violence with beautiful dialog while crafting a wonderful 70's homage.










4. No Country For Old Men.

The Coen Brothers have proven themselves as a couple of the best storytellers of the modern era.  In this chase movie they show a character of great morality and evil in a time of change.









3. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 

This makes the list for many reasons, but mostly because Peter Jackson took this feat head on and created the definitive film version of one of the most beloved stories in the English language.  Not only that, but all three were nominated for Best Picture.  The only other trilogy to do that was The Godfather.








2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

This is it.  Charles Kaufman had already won my heart with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, but here he connected with the brilliant director Michel Gondry to put together a tale of pain, loss, and the persistence of memory.  I still weep when I watch this.








...and my favorite movie of the decade...


1. Lost in Translation.  Not only did this earn Scarlett Johnansson an nod from the Academy, a Golden Globe Win, and launched her career, but even Bill Murray got some must deserved respect from this one.  Sofia Coppola had already shown she could make a film with The Virgin Suicides, but she proved that she could create a story that was so smooth and sweet.  I love it.












In the next post I will work on my top 5 albums...expect that one soon.