Friday, August 03, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Adamantly Ignorant
How many times a week do you have conversations in which someone is spewing off a slue of facts about something they have very little knowledge about? Treating knowledge as a novelty. You may have known this person your entire life, you may have just met this person yesterday; what you know for sure about him is that he is not a doctor, scholar, or specialist in any way and yet he never seems to stop yammering about every topic from dietary needs to cultural customs in Southeast Asia (even though he's never been there). It seems in fact that the less one actually knows about any one topic, the more one tries to appear to know about every topic under the sun. It's the interesting conundrum of being intellectually curious in a culture of specialists.
If you went to college you most likely received a degree in one particular area of focus and while you are proudly knowledgeable in that one area you do not claim to know more than someone who specialized in a different area. For example, an accountant isn't going to pretend to be a dietitian and a botanist isn't going to pretend to be a journalist. Thus, college grads spend a lot of time out networking in the world trying to get someone who knows something to help in the areas of their life where they are ignorant. However, if perhaps you didn't go to college, or your degree was in something specifically related to liberal arts you didn't come away from that experience with a narrow focus. Instead you came away with the big picture and, for many of us, so broad of a focus that anything seems possible and everything seems pointless. You are smart, but unqualified and the sad truth is that the areas you know something about all have specialists that know more than you do. Thus, you're almost just as bad off, if not worse off, (in a practical sense) than you were before you started school. At least before college your job prospects were minimal and your friends were all in the same boat. After college, all of your friends are getting started with careers and you feel like you should be too, except that you aren't qualified to do anything minus entry-level positions, which may or may not require a degree at all! Now you're just a know it all with an ego and no job prospects. I'm there. It's frustrating. However, not as frustrating as the adamantly ignorant.
The adamantly ignorant are those people who not only aren't qualified to do anything, but have made a lifestyle of not knowing. They are proud of knowing nothing about the world and arrogant about the fact that they still make enough money to drink like obnoxious teenagers and take petty vacations to tourist trap destinations. They don't want to hear information that strays from how they can make more money, who won the sports game last night, or how much you drank last time you went out socially--at least it's this way on the male end. On the female end it's more about how much money you make, how much money your husband makes, and where you bought that, "Gorgeous pair of earrings, I simply must have a pair!" Or another cop-out of sorts, in this humble writer's opinion, is not knowing because you're religious and extraneous information somehow separates you from the meek, "whom are going to one day inherit the Earth." I'll go ahead and say to those people, sorry, acting meek while driving a thirty-thousand dollar car and going to a multi-million dollar church and living in an extraneously large house in the suburbs away from all the real poor people is probably not quite what your spiritual visionary of choice had in mind. Save yourself the embarrassment of hypocrisy and just learn something worth talking about. Anything really. It doesn't have to be astrophysics. Just making an effort to read or engage in American culture on a level deeper than chain stores and fast food gives you some definition as a human being. And you'll feel better about yourself--I promise. Won't even have to take a pill for it.
What gets extremely old in America is striking up an adult conversation and getting no opinions from anyone. I'll take Johnny-know-it-all's misguided opinion over an incredulous look of embarrassed pride any day. This is the look of the adamantly ignorant. A look that says, "I work for a living. I don't have time to know things unrelated to the inventory of my store." I'm sorry friend, but life is short, and your store interests no one but yourself. You're going to have to bring a book to bed tonight if you want anyone's genuine respect. Ego-tripping doesn't count as success. Only in your own head. I write this not to patronize, but to encourage. There are many difficult books with boring plot twists (because they mirror real life) that will teach you something significant about being human. Find them. Read them. There are places that you can visit that will remind you what the word "culture" means. Visit them. There is music and food and drinks that will add texture and richness to your time on the planet. You are not a money-making machine. You're a human. Simplify your life and reallocate your funds. There is beauty in the world beyond the concrete, neon signs, and flashing screens, but you have to make an effort to see it. You don't have to wait until retirement to start living your life. By then you'll be too apathetic to know what you want to do anyway. You'll probably just work to avoid the boredom. I'm not saying don't work--we all need money to be well--I'm saying do these things too. Don't just come home and collapse as it is in our nature to do.
If you went to college you most likely received a degree in one particular area of focus and while you are proudly knowledgeable in that one area you do not claim to know more than someone who specialized in a different area. For example, an accountant isn't going to pretend to be a dietitian and a botanist isn't going to pretend to be a journalist. Thus, college grads spend a lot of time out networking in the world trying to get someone who knows something to help in the areas of their life where they are ignorant. However, if perhaps you didn't go to college, or your degree was in something specifically related to liberal arts you didn't come away from that experience with a narrow focus. Instead you came away with the big picture and, for many of us, so broad of a focus that anything seems possible and everything seems pointless. You are smart, but unqualified and the sad truth is that the areas you know something about all have specialists that know more than you do. Thus, you're almost just as bad off, if not worse off, (in a practical sense) than you were before you started school. At least before college your job prospects were minimal and your friends were all in the same boat. After college, all of your friends are getting started with careers and you feel like you should be too, except that you aren't qualified to do anything minus entry-level positions, which may or may not require a degree at all! Now you're just a know it all with an ego and no job prospects. I'm there. It's frustrating. However, not as frustrating as the adamantly ignorant.
The adamantly ignorant are those people who not only aren't qualified to do anything, but have made a lifestyle of not knowing. They are proud of knowing nothing about the world and arrogant about the fact that they still make enough money to drink like obnoxious teenagers and take petty vacations to tourist trap destinations. They don't want to hear information that strays from how they can make more money, who won the sports game last night, or how much you drank last time you went out socially--at least it's this way on the male end. On the female end it's more about how much money you make, how much money your husband makes, and where you bought that, "Gorgeous pair of earrings, I simply must have a pair!" Or another cop-out of sorts, in this humble writer's opinion, is not knowing because you're religious and extraneous information somehow separates you from the meek, "whom are going to one day inherit the Earth." I'll go ahead and say to those people, sorry, acting meek while driving a thirty-thousand dollar car and going to a multi-million dollar church and living in an extraneously large house in the suburbs away from all the real poor people is probably not quite what your spiritual visionary of choice had in mind. Save yourself the embarrassment of hypocrisy and just learn something worth talking about. Anything really. It doesn't have to be astrophysics. Just making an effort to read or engage in American culture on a level deeper than chain stores and fast food gives you some definition as a human being. And you'll feel better about yourself--I promise. Won't even have to take a pill for it.
What gets extremely old in America is striking up an adult conversation and getting no opinions from anyone. I'll take Johnny-know-it-all's misguided opinion over an incredulous look of embarrassed pride any day. This is the look of the adamantly ignorant. A look that says, "I work for a living. I don't have time to know things unrelated to the inventory of my store." I'm sorry friend, but life is short, and your store interests no one but yourself. You're going to have to bring a book to bed tonight if you want anyone's genuine respect. Ego-tripping doesn't count as success. Only in your own head. I write this not to patronize, but to encourage. There are many difficult books with boring plot twists (because they mirror real life) that will teach you something significant about being human. Find them. Read them. There are places that you can visit that will remind you what the word "culture" means. Visit them. There is music and food and drinks that will add texture and richness to your time on the planet. You are not a money-making machine. You're a human. Simplify your life and reallocate your funds. There is beauty in the world beyond the concrete, neon signs, and flashing screens, but you have to make an effort to see it. You don't have to wait until retirement to start living your life. By then you'll be too apathetic to know what you want to do anyway. You'll probably just work to avoid the boredom. I'm not saying don't work--we all need money to be well--I'm saying do these things too. Don't just come home and collapse as it is in our nature to do.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Maxed Out
I have a new documentary to promote called, "Maxed Out." It's about both the private and national debt in America and just how serious it has become and how much pressure people are under to pay it back. As most investigative documentaries go, it has certain anti-business, pro-human qualities about it (which is good, but sometimes overly one-sided); portraying Middle American couples as naive and trusting and thus somehow not to be blamed for taking on ridiculous amounts of debt that they will never pay back. What I thought was despicable was the way credit card companies prey on college students (which I've always thought, but again, who didn't get a lecture from their parents on not signing up for credit cards as soon as they turned eighteen? Apparently not everyone), and people already struggling to survive who think someone is throwing them a bone. Don't get me wrong, I think it's absurd how people are making money off of other people's debts, but I'm also a big proponent of education and taking responsibility for one's choices. It seems to be the uneducated who are being preyed upon, which brings up all kinds of other issues about why they are uneducated (some defensible, some not). So, I don't know. Check it out. I'd love to hear what others think. I know we're all at that age where we're starting to recognize exactly what we got ourselves into with student loans and credit cards during school, also with car purchases, new houses, etc. I think a certain amount of debt is fine (I've read the stat 10-15% of one's annual income toward debt is considered manageable), but it's an issue that really requires both feet on the ground. It's a challenge for a lot of people to see their life in dollars and cents; pretty cold and calculating, but real all the same. Take it seriously friends. If you're not going to plan for anything else throughout your entire life, make a plan for your financial situation. It can screw up everything else without a lot of thought.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Reunion (or Ten Things I've Learned Since High School)
Even though my ten year high school reunion is still a year away--and I have my doubts about whether or not I will have much interest in attending this masturbatory tradition--Allison and I will be attending her reunion in a couple of weeks. In planning for this event we've been talking quite a bit about what has actually happened in ten years since we were wee balls of exploding hormones. So, I'd like to dedicate this blog entry to some of the little life lessons I've personally developed in my experience and education. If you would like to post some of your own in the "comments" section. I'd love to hear your opinions as well.
1) If people at your high school reunion tell you that, "You haven't changed a bit," no matter how jovial it sounds, it's not a compliment. If you're not changing, you're not growing.
2) There are certain aspects of life that should be taken for granted as the bare minimum of what you should be doing with your time in the universe. Staying out of prison is no more an accomplishment than taking care of your kids. These are things you're supposed to do. Raise your expectations a little.
3) Sleep an hour less, run an hour more.
4) Read without regard for what it is or how it makes you feel. Read books, read magazines, read web blogs, read newspapers. Your brain is a muscle and while your moral pride might give a shit about what you're putting in there, your synapses just enjoy the exercise--and you're learning about other people at the same time. Crosswords, Sudoku, etc. also work wonders.
5) Just because a person "isn't nice" doesn't mean they don't have something to offer. In a country like ours where everyone has complete freedom to give in to total gluttony, ignorance, and devolve to a knuckle-dragging cave dweller with a large-screen TV those who are pushing themselves in the opposite direction often have to be a little pissy to get their point across.
6) Happiness comes in small doses. For me it's a good cup of coffee, a beautiful view, a challenging hike, an inspiring novel, a well-crafted song, a great work of art,a good conversation, making love, traveling to new places, satirical humor...Appreciate it and let it go. Too much of any one thing will depress you as much as a little of everything will lift you up. And to quote Nietzsche, "I consider everyday wasted in which there has been no dancing."
7) Plan around human nature. It's unavoidable and will save you a lot of time and grief if you spend a little time now studying up on why you and other people act the way we do. If you push yourself too far without doing the things you need to do to refuel you're defeating the entire purpose of working so hard to begin with (which I assume is to make yourself happy).
8) Good beer in small doses, not bad beer in large doses. Bad beer in small doses? Why bother. No beer? Lighten up.
9) Find your calling. Then, ask yourself, "Will this pay the bills? Will this give me a life I can be happy with?" If the answer is even, "Maybe," I'm sorry, but you have to go for it regardless of how this affects your relationships, your values, your geographical location. If the answer is, "Not a chance," congratulations! Go for the money and spend every free second you have on your craft.
10) Take a long view of life. What we have to work with is no more our fault than it is our responsibility. Don't get hung up on what your parent's generation left you with, so much as trying to set your grandkids up for a better life than you've had. Even if you're not having kids, you owe this much to society.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?...Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do...It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-- Marianne Williamson
1) If people at your high school reunion tell you that, "You haven't changed a bit," no matter how jovial it sounds, it's not a compliment. If you're not changing, you're not growing.
2) There are certain aspects of life that should be taken for granted as the bare minimum of what you should be doing with your time in the universe. Staying out of prison is no more an accomplishment than taking care of your kids. These are things you're supposed to do. Raise your expectations a little.
3) Sleep an hour less, run an hour more.
4) Read without regard for what it is or how it makes you feel. Read books, read magazines, read web blogs, read newspapers. Your brain is a muscle and while your moral pride might give a shit about what you're putting in there, your synapses just enjoy the exercise--and you're learning about other people at the same time. Crosswords, Sudoku, etc. also work wonders.
5) Just because a person "isn't nice" doesn't mean they don't have something to offer. In a country like ours where everyone has complete freedom to give in to total gluttony, ignorance, and devolve to a knuckle-dragging cave dweller with a large-screen TV those who are pushing themselves in the opposite direction often have to be a little pissy to get their point across.
6) Happiness comes in small doses. For me it's a good cup of coffee, a beautiful view, a challenging hike, an inspiring novel, a well-crafted song, a great work of art,a good conversation, making love, traveling to new places, satirical humor...Appreciate it and let it go. Too much of any one thing will depress you as much as a little of everything will lift you up. And to quote Nietzsche, "I consider everyday wasted in which there has been no dancing."
7) Plan around human nature. It's unavoidable and will save you a lot of time and grief if you spend a little time now studying up on why you and other people act the way we do. If you push yourself too far without doing the things you need to do to refuel you're defeating the entire purpose of working so hard to begin with (which I assume is to make yourself happy).
8) Good beer in small doses, not bad beer in large doses. Bad beer in small doses? Why bother. No beer? Lighten up.
9) Find your calling. Then, ask yourself, "Will this pay the bills? Will this give me a life I can be happy with?" If the answer is even, "Maybe," I'm sorry, but you have to go for it regardless of how this affects your relationships, your values, your geographical location. If the answer is, "Not a chance," congratulations! Go for the money and spend every free second you have on your craft.
10) Take a long view of life. What we have to work with is no more our fault than it is our responsibility. Don't get hung up on what your parent's generation left you with, so much as trying to set your grandkids up for a better life than you've had. Even if you're not having kids, you owe this much to society.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?...Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do...It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-- Marianne Williamson
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Classism
Who's missed Jeff's socio-political rants this winter? Well I certainly have and since it has been building up in the back of my skull for the last several months it's time to burst the bubble and allow some of that wonderfully disgruntled ooze to pour out here for my good ol' blog compadres. Today's topic is one that is of great interest to me particularly because it's one of the few prejudices I don't just find disturbing, but that I actually find myself in the middle of fairly often. I'm talking about Classism. What is Classism? It's pretty simple really. If you are of one class and you think of people who are of another class as somehow inferior or wrong or lazy or some other negative adjective that makes you feel better about the way you choose to live your life, you are a Classist. This is not too unlike being a racist, or a sexist, or an ageist, except that we are talking specifically about money and the things money does for your life.
For example, let's say Tommy grew up in a blue-collar family. His Dad was an electrician, his mom worked at the local bakery down the street. Because neither of his parents went to college, they didn't know the first thing about saving for Tommy's college education, or helping Tommy to study the things he would need to get into a good college, or alerting Tommy early enough in his adolescence that every grade he gets from freshman year of high school on matters tremendously with regard to what he can be when he grows up. Mom and Dad can't see past blue-collar society, Tommy can't see past blue-collar society. Not only can they not help out, but once they have some money and things aren't going too badly they start to take a certain pride in the fact that they didn't have to go to college to "make it." Tommy inherits this sense of pride and when he actually does go to college everyone there sounds extremely snotty and care-free compared with the struggles he has known his whole life. On top of school being difficult and expensive, it's also embarrassing to be in a culture of people who unintentionally talk about your family as though they are the scum of society.
On the other hand, Lucy grew up in a family with a Mom who was a nurse and a Dad who works with computer software, both have graduate degrees and began putting money into a fund for Lucy's college the week after Lucy came home from the hospital. They helped Lucy with her studies her whole life and where they couldn't help they hired someone to tutor her. She was punished more severely for bad grades than for certain misbehaviors that Tommy's parents would have smacked him silly for (literally in some cases). There was never a question of whether or not Lucy would go to college, instead the question was always which one and what she would study there. The possibilities of career and lifestyle were limitless.
So, here's where Classism comes into play. It's not cool on any level for any person to judge another person based on what they do for a living. I do it, you do it, we all do it--we don't always say it out loud, but we do it. The mechanic who starts making jokes about the lawyer who doesn't know the first thing about his car engine, the lawyer who in turn goes back to office mocking the mechanic's bad grammar, even things as subtle as talking plainly in mixed company about things that cost a lot of money as though everyone has one or about how glad you are that you don't have to do the job Tommy is doing. There is a huge gap today between the haves and have nots. What some of my relatives consider pretty typical in terms of lifestyle--flat-screen TVs, Tivo, a couple of cars in the driveway, a cupboard full of groceries--a lot of my close friends could never imagine owning with the jobs they work. So here's some of the variables to consider: The Lucys of the world may end up being the lawyers making fun of some guy's accent or philistine behavior at the Jiffy Lube, but without that guy's help they would never get to work on time. Without Lucy Tommy might loose his shop for fixing the wrong part on a guy's car and getting sued. It's not a pretty world out there and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has friends and family on either side of the social spectrum. It's uncomfortable and tricky for either person to be themselves without treading on the pride of the other. I think being aware that these issues are going on helps the situation all around. Tommy--don't act like a tasteless redneck and try to appreciate that school is not easy no matter how much help you receive. Lucy--stop being a pretentious snot and appreciate how hard other people are working for your comfortable life. In general people, just try to show a little common human decency. You're not that special, no matter who you are.
And that concludes today's lecture on Class...
For example, let's say Tommy grew up in a blue-collar family. His Dad was an electrician, his mom worked at the local bakery down the street. Because neither of his parents went to college, they didn't know the first thing about saving for Tommy's college education, or helping Tommy to study the things he would need to get into a good college, or alerting Tommy early enough in his adolescence that every grade he gets from freshman year of high school on matters tremendously with regard to what he can be when he grows up. Mom and Dad can't see past blue-collar society, Tommy can't see past blue-collar society. Not only can they not help out, but once they have some money and things aren't going too badly they start to take a certain pride in the fact that they didn't have to go to college to "make it." Tommy inherits this sense of pride and when he actually does go to college everyone there sounds extremely snotty and care-free compared with the struggles he has known his whole life. On top of school being difficult and expensive, it's also embarrassing to be in a culture of people who unintentionally talk about your family as though they are the scum of society.
On the other hand, Lucy grew up in a family with a Mom who was a nurse and a Dad who works with computer software, both have graduate degrees and began putting money into a fund for Lucy's college the week after Lucy came home from the hospital. They helped Lucy with her studies her whole life and where they couldn't help they hired someone to tutor her. She was punished more severely for bad grades than for certain misbehaviors that Tommy's parents would have smacked him silly for (literally in some cases). There was never a question of whether or not Lucy would go to college, instead the question was always which one and what she would study there. The possibilities of career and lifestyle were limitless.
So, here's where Classism comes into play. It's not cool on any level for any person to judge another person based on what they do for a living. I do it, you do it, we all do it--we don't always say it out loud, but we do it. The mechanic who starts making jokes about the lawyer who doesn't know the first thing about his car engine, the lawyer who in turn goes back to office mocking the mechanic's bad grammar, even things as subtle as talking plainly in mixed company about things that cost a lot of money as though everyone has one or about how glad you are that you don't have to do the job Tommy is doing. There is a huge gap today between the haves and have nots. What some of my relatives consider pretty typical in terms of lifestyle--flat-screen TVs, Tivo, a couple of cars in the driveway, a cupboard full of groceries--a lot of my close friends could never imagine owning with the jobs they work. So here's some of the variables to consider: The Lucys of the world may end up being the lawyers making fun of some guy's accent or philistine behavior at the Jiffy Lube, but without that guy's help they would never get to work on time. Without Lucy Tommy might loose his shop for fixing the wrong part on a guy's car and getting sued. It's not a pretty world out there and I'm sure I'm not the only one who has friends and family on either side of the social spectrum. It's uncomfortable and tricky for either person to be themselves without treading on the pride of the other. I think being aware that these issues are going on helps the situation all around. Tommy--don't act like a tasteless redneck and try to appreciate that school is not easy no matter how much help you receive. Lucy--stop being a pretentious snot and appreciate how hard other people are working for your comfortable life. In general people, just try to show a little common human decency. You're not that special, no matter who you are.
And that concludes today's lecture on Class...
Monday, May 14, 2007
Listen to Wilco on Prairie Home Companion
Haven't heard of Garrison Keillor or "Prairie Home Companion"? You should be somewhat ashamed and go to this site for a listen some evening instead of watching whatever version of people getting mutilated and beautiful scientists discovering who done it. Also, this particular episode of PHC features music by a band who is possibly one of the only bands in America still making quality music: Wilco. Wilco is also a band you should be somewhat ashamed to not listen to if you have never heard of them. For a generation whose only claim to fame is Kurt Cobain--a drugged-out teenager of a poet who couldn't balance his artistic idealism with a little sense of craft and blew his head off at twenty-seven--Wilco is a breath of fresh air. If you're just getting a listen to this band you might want to start at the beginning with their folksy, rock-n-roll, blues stuff and listen to the progression of depth and musical exploration up to their newest, "Sky Blue Sky." If nothing else you will be blown away by Jeff Tweedy's beautifully heart-wrenching lyrics and astute observations of what it means to be human. So take your laptop to the back porch tonight, pour a glass of wine and enjoy an evening outside with these two American delicacies.
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/phc/2007/05/12_phc
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/phc/2007/05/12_phc
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Here We Go Again
Hi friends. I'm not sure that anyone even looks at this anymore since I have failed to keep it up to date this winter, but I'm going to try to get back in the habit writing on here. So much new is happening I don't know where to begin. I'll recap first.
It's been a great winter in Bend. It's such an incredibly beautiful area that it's hard to be in a bad mood for long. I have snow-capped mountains right out the back window of my apartment and everyday I drive to a park and ride and ride a bus up to the ski resort that overlooks an entire range of gorgeous mountains. It is the last month of a long season, so I'll try to be upbeat. Those of you who have worked the seasonal life know how exhausting it can be and although it's fun and usually full of interesting people, by the time the season is winding down you are definitely ready for something stable and tolerable on a day to day basis. Which is what I think we have found in Bellingham.
Allison spent most of the winter applying to graduate programs for a Masters in Couseling and was accepted into her first choice in Bellingham, Washington. We went to visit for her interview a couple weeks ago and loved the school and the area. It's about an hour north of Seattle and an hour south of Vancouver, the campus sits on a hillside with the Puget Sound downhill and mountains with hiking trails on the uphill side of campus. You can walk or bike right out of the parking lot onto mountain trails that will take you all over the area. So, in short, we loved it and we're moving there in month. I've applied to a couple jobs up that way: one as a Residence Hall Director at the University and one with a web-based PR company as an in-house writer. I also have my webpage up and running now (though it's nothing to see just yet) at www.writingyourwrongs.com and will be looking for freelance work this coming year.
My latest writing project idea that I would like to employ your help with is a guide to local coffee cross-country. I'm writing up a proposal for a travel-guide of sorts that will help people traveling on vacation or for business who love coffee as much as I do find local quality shops in the areas they're visiting instead of drinking Star Bucks everywhere they go. They burn their beans, they exploit their farmers, they overuse the land on their plantations and they advertise organic, fair-trade coffee even though they only offer it once a month as a "specialty coffee." And they're the largest whole-saler of coffee in the world. Go somewhere else. They can afford to do a better job and they just won't. They are to good coffee what McDonalds is to a decent meal. It'll all be in the book. However, in order to persuade the publishing companies that this is a book that will sell, I'd like to first start a local coffee blog with reviews of the best coffee shops in your area. It will be coming soon, but if you have an interest in writing a review or providing me with some material to write one that might go in the guide, drop me a line on here or at JeffHardesty@writingyourwrongs.com. I think if I could add a link to this blog in my book proposal and let the publisher see that there is already an interest I would have a better chance at getting a deal. Coffee lovers out there? You interested?
I have some random pictures of this winter that I haven't posted yet, so I'm just going to post them in no particular order. Enjoy! I'd love to hear from people. I feel like I've been so out of touch this winter. This job has really been all-consuming. Between work and trying to get a life in order, I've had very little time for anything but drinking and sleeping otherwise. Let me know what's new.
Much love,
Jeff
It's been a great winter in Bend. It's such an incredibly beautiful area that it's hard to be in a bad mood for long. I have snow-capped mountains right out the back window of my apartment and everyday I drive to a park and ride and ride a bus up to the ski resort that overlooks an entire range of gorgeous mountains. It is the last month of a long season, so I'll try to be upbeat. Those of you who have worked the seasonal life know how exhausting it can be and although it's fun and usually full of interesting people, by the time the season is winding down you are definitely ready for something stable and tolerable on a day to day basis. Which is what I think we have found in Bellingham.
Allison spent most of the winter applying to graduate programs for a Masters in Couseling and was accepted into her first choice in Bellingham, Washington. We went to visit for her interview a couple weeks ago and loved the school and the area. It's about an hour north of Seattle and an hour south of Vancouver, the campus sits on a hillside with the Puget Sound downhill and mountains with hiking trails on the uphill side of campus. You can walk or bike right out of the parking lot onto mountain trails that will take you all over the area. So, in short, we loved it and we're moving there in month. I've applied to a couple jobs up that way: one as a Residence Hall Director at the University and one with a web-based PR company as an in-house writer. I also have my webpage up and running now (though it's nothing to see just yet) at www.writingyourwrongs.com and will be looking for freelance work this coming year.
My latest writing project idea that I would like to employ your help with is a guide to local coffee cross-country. I'm writing up a proposal for a travel-guide of sorts that will help people traveling on vacation or for business who love coffee as much as I do find local quality shops in the areas they're visiting instead of drinking Star Bucks everywhere they go. They burn their beans, they exploit their farmers, they overuse the land on their plantations and they advertise organic, fair-trade coffee even though they only offer it once a month as a "specialty coffee." And they're the largest whole-saler of coffee in the world. Go somewhere else. They can afford to do a better job and they just won't. They are to good coffee what McDonalds is to a decent meal. It'll all be in the book. However, in order to persuade the publishing companies that this is a book that will sell, I'd like to first start a local coffee blog with reviews of the best coffee shops in your area. It will be coming soon, but if you have an interest in writing a review or providing me with some material to write one that might go in the guide, drop me a line on here or at JeffHardesty@writingyourwrongs.com. I think if I could add a link to this blog in my book proposal and let the publisher see that there is already an interest I would have a better chance at getting a deal. Coffee lovers out there? You interested?
I have some random pictures of this winter that I haven't posted yet, so I'm just going to post them in no particular order. Enjoy! I'd love to hear from people. I feel like I've been so out of touch this winter. This job has really been all-consuming. Between work and trying to get a life in order, I've had very little time for anything but drinking and sleeping otherwise. Let me know what's new.
Much love,
Jeff
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
My New Business
Great news! I'm starting my own freelancing business called, "Writing Your Wrongs." I'll be doing freelance stories for various publications, editing for businesses and webpages, press releases, and other public relations writing. And of course my oh-so-lucritive true passion, writing fiction. I have met a guy here who has his own advertising business who has done work in almost every form of media imaginable. He has many connections with newspapers and magazines around Oregon and when I told him I was interested in finding some writing work he practically started this business for me. I'm writing a story currently on my good friend and boss Kevin (who hired me at Mt. Bachelor) and the interesting story of how he became a ski coach for the U.S Ski Team and now a top administrator at a ski resort while only having one leg. This new friend of mine is also subcontracting me to write several press releases for clients of his that will go in national publications and has offered to let me write for a local outdoor publication he plans to put out in March. I'm obviously pretty excited about the potential of getting to be my own boss and getting paid for doing what I love, but it's also a little scary to be thrown into this so quickly. I don't know what to say. My confidence lies in my ability to write and I'm just hoping the business end will come with some education and experience. I know I have a few other writer friends out there that read this occationally so if you are interested in doing something similar I'd be happy to send you some links and references for finding freelance work. The greatest part is there's no overhead to start a business like this, you can do it in your free time as much or as little as you like, and you get to write off pretty much everything vaguely related to your office as a business expense. So wish me luck in the upcoming months and if you have good story idea, know of someone opening a new business that needs some PR, or someone who needs a writer or editor send them my way. Thanks!
Oh, I've also had a lot of people ask me what happened with the modeling gig I wrote about a few months back. I'm guessing the guy was a fake. I don't know for sure, but we corresponded for awhile and I kept pressing him to show me a contract before I could fully commit and then I didn't hear from him again. C'est la vie.
Oh, I've also had a lot of people ask me what happened with the modeling gig I wrote about a few months back. I'm guessing the guy was a fake. I don't know for sure, but we corresponded for awhile and I kept pressing him to show me a contract before I could fully commit and then I didn't hear from him again. C'est la vie.
Jesus Camp Review
I was finally able to see the documentary "Jesus Camp" that I had previously posted a trailer to and I have to say it was both sickening and reassuring. I say sickening because I think extremism troubles everyone. The things that were said by some of the kids in this movie and the adults that were teaching them were so far out that I can't imagine anyone not thinking, "Wow, I didn't know these people existed." Things such as, "Harry Potter is a warlock and if he were real he'd go straight to hell!" I just wanted to sit this minister lady down and calmly explain to her that Harry Potter is FICTIONAL (do you know what fiction is little girl? That means he only exists in your imagination. BOO!) and that warlocks are no more real than ghosts, goblins, demons or Satan's bogeymen. It's just madness and I can't help but think that the majority of it comes from sheer boredom. The evangelicals in this movie are so angry and so frustrated with the world and what I really want to know is why they think the world is supposed to be a good place. No one ever said it was. There are parts that are. There are parts that aren't. It's just life. Does that mean don't stand up for what you believe in? No. Does it mean tempering what you believe in with facts and evidence based on modern information? Yes, I think it does.
I say that the movie was reassuring because since this movie was produced much of what these radical evangelicals want moderates and liberals to be afraid of is that they have control of the white house, the congress, and the supreme court and we know this isn't the case anymore. Had I watched this a couple of years ago I may have been a little freaked out. "Could people like this that sit around in their small towns brewing over how horrible the world is really have the discipline to take over powerful parts of our government?" And a few years ago I would have had to look at the situation and say, "Yeah, they're doing it right now." Fortunately, most people (arguably all people) know what is too much and recognize when something that in moderation might be considered beneficial, even inspirational, has gone too far and needs to be cut down to size. I think we've seen this with the delusional decisions Bush has made during his time as president and if anything I think he has given a lot of radical, ugly people a platform to show the country how dangerous religious minds can be when unbalanced by logic, moderation and an open-minded education. The polarization in America has to stop. It can't continue. Liberals cannot divorce themselves from conservatives and visa versa. We're stuck with each other. And anyone who has dealt with group dynamics will tell you that what comes as a result is no more divinely inspired than it is controlled by logic and planning. It's just a dynamic. If our two parties were greens and democrats the country would be decidedly more liberal. If they were moderates and republicans, more conservative, but it's not about right and wrong--not to me. It's simply what has come about by throwing several different groups together in a system where they can't trump each other without risking backlash. Conservatives have been trying to trump liberals for the last thirty years. Now it's going the other way. So let's not get melodramatic about it. Sure it's good to learn about who is hanging out on the fringes of your society, but to watch a film like "Jesus Camp" and come away thinking anything other than here is a group of people who are taking a peaceful philosophy and turning it into an angry political tool is being extreme in a reverse fashion. Hollywood loves to jab at middle America because it doesn't understand why people in this country would choose to live such slow, simplistic lives, and middle America loves to jab back because Hollywood seems so whimsical and petty that they can't grasp why these people don't take life more seriously. I've seen the good and bad of both sides in my travels and I have to say we're all more or less the same when you get outside the little boxes we put each other into. Be a human being. Use your brain. You're not one or the other. You don't have to fit in a category to be normal.
I say that the movie was reassuring because since this movie was produced much of what these radical evangelicals want moderates and liberals to be afraid of is that they have control of the white house, the congress, and the supreme court and we know this isn't the case anymore. Had I watched this a couple of years ago I may have been a little freaked out. "Could people like this that sit around in their small towns brewing over how horrible the world is really have the discipline to take over powerful parts of our government?" And a few years ago I would have had to look at the situation and say, "Yeah, they're doing it right now." Fortunately, most people (arguably all people) know what is too much and recognize when something that in moderation might be considered beneficial, even inspirational, has gone too far and needs to be cut down to size. I think we've seen this with the delusional decisions Bush has made during his time as president and if anything I think he has given a lot of radical, ugly people a platform to show the country how dangerous religious minds can be when unbalanced by logic, moderation and an open-minded education. The polarization in America has to stop. It can't continue. Liberals cannot divorce themselves from conservatives and visa versa. We're stuck with each other. And anyone who has dealt with group dynamics will tell you that what comes as a result is no more divinely inspired than it is controlled by logic and planning. It's just a dynamic. If our two parties were greens and democrats the country would be decidedly more liberal. If they were moderates and republicans, more conservative, but it's not about right and wrong--not to me. It's simply what has come about by throwing several different groups together in a system where they can't trump each other without risking backlash. Conservatives have been trying to trump liberals for the last thirty years. Now it's going the other way. So let's not get melodramatic about it. Sure it's good to learn about who is hanging out on the fringes of your society, but to watch a film like "Jesus Camp" and come away thinking anything other than here is a group of people who are taking a peaceful philosophy and turning it into an angry political tool is being extreme in a reverse fashion. Hollywood loves to jab at middle America because it doesn't understand why people in this country would choose to live such slow, simplistic lives, and middle America loves to jab back because Hollywood seems so whimsical and petty that they can't grasp why these people don't take life more seriously. I've seen the good and bad of both sides in my travels and I have to say we're all more or less the same when you get outside the little boxes we put each other into. Be a human being. Use your brain. You're not one or the other. You don't have to fit in a category to be normal.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
MLK Day in the Northwest
It's been a little while since I've written anything, but we're finally moved in and settled here in Bend so I'd like to get back to writing more frequently. One of my favorite things about traveling is getting to see the various colloquialisms that make up the culture of a place. In the U.S. it's particularly interesting because so much of our culture is homogenized. Suburbia in Bend, Oregon is no different from any other city I've ever visited. They have Home Depot and Best Buy and Target like anywhere else, so you have to really speak to the locals to get a feel for what a place is all about. I'm getting worse at picking up on these things as I get older and more content with my views. Where as visiting a new city at age twenty-one was incredibly new and exciting and I was enamored by how different everything was from what I had previously known, now I have other places to compare to--so I've become a little more critical. That is, I can see the pros and cons rather than just blind passion for something new and interesting. It's kind of like dating in that respect. Eventually you start to see the similarities of life no matter where you are (or who you're with) and you start to accept places (and people) for what (who) they are without imposing your own vision on the experience, but at the same time you're more wise to the ways of the world (you're not the naive kid that parks his truck outside a hotel room with all his earthly possessions hidden under a thin tarp in the back to be stolen by homeless vagrants outside of Phoenix. Who does that? Just like you wouldn't give your heart away to any two-bit drunk you meet at the bar).
So with MLK day coming up here comes my one month analysis of racial issues in Bend. Some of what I've experienced here is very similar to other places in the west. The west has this general "cool" feel about it. Even people who are no where close to cool still dress and act the part. For younger people this is just typical behavior. Kids are trying to act cool all over the country, it doesn't matter where you are. But the interesting thing about the west is that even many people who are middle-aged still dress and act in this, "I'm too fucking hip to have a sense of humor about anything, just be cool," sort of manner. It's kind of funny. They get way bent out of shape about things that they really have no idea about. Let's take political correctness for example. First off, there are no black people in Bend...period. I have not seen a single African-American in a month here. Yet, when my ski-students like to yell out, "I'm black, I'm black" as they run for the multi-colored stalls at the ski lifts, or someone says, "Do you do blacks?" (meaning, do you ski black diamond runs) and I chuckle, I get funny looks. For people who grew up in the south or close to the south or anywhere in the Midwest where racial issues are still issues this kind of off-colored (no pun intended) humor is not taken offense to by people on either side. I see this as true equality--black people laugh at white people, white people laugh at black people but they all stay friends and mean no disrespect. In the northwest it's not like this, generally speaking, because minorities are more or less an academic idea. Racism isn't anything these people have ever dealt with so even someone joking ironically about racial issues is in bad taste. Racism is something they learned about in schools and see on Hollywood movies about farm towns in middle America--it doesn't happen a whole lot in Bend. Not like in central Missouri where the people who came to buy our bed before we left told me they were going to, "Jew me down" on the price as though this was just common vernacular for making such a transaction. I'm over uppitiness though. I went through a phase right after college where I took all these new PC ideas to the extreme and wanted the whole world to be this happy little inclusive place where no one's feelings ever get hurt and we all live in peace and harmony. Then I left my pleasant bubble of academia and more or less hated everyone I came in contact with for two years after that. Hating people who hate doesn't help the situation anymore than being radical and uppity about hate issues. Human decency is my new kick. The thing about many of the people I've met who are supposedly the educated protectors of civilization in the U.S. are also some of the biggest assholes I've ever met. They wouldn't throw their best friend a bone if he were starving on their doorstep. "I just don't want the hassle. If I help him now he'll never learn to take care of himself," they'd say. And maybe they'd be right, but they'd still be an asshole.
Part of this whole, "I have a dream" American vision of peace amongst a country of immigrants boils down to basic human decency. Manners. Please and thank you and have a nice day. Even if you don't mean it. It's the social lubricant that keeps things moving in a pleasurable manner when all anyone really wants is to talk about themselves and be left the hell alone to live their life as they please. Engaging people in political, racial, religious discourse has it's time and place--and it isn't in the check-out line at a grocery store. In a college classroom--fine. In a religious institution or political organization--great! But please people, you're not helping by putting on this air of intelligence and chastising people for mocking what they don't understand (that's what blogs are for!). Perhaps they'd like your input. Some people would genuinely like to know if they are saying offensive things. Others would rather you jump off a cliff. The fact of the matter is, not everyone can afford the education and travel that brings with it an open mind and accepting outlook. Some people with very good hearts just don't know that what they are saying is extremely rude and inappropriate. And those people, I promise you, are not going to walk away from a chastising saying to themselves, "Wow, I really get that. I should be more respectful. They're more likely to say, "What a pretentious ass. I shoulda popped him in the nose."
So please try to be civil people and enjoy the long weekend. I will personally be celebrating MLK day by teaching rich white kids how to slide down mountains on really expensive sticks. I hope some of you actually have a more culturally rich experience. Much love, Jeff.
So with MLK day coming up here comes my one month analysis of racial issues in Bend. Some of what I've experienced here is very similar to other places in the west. The west has this general "cool" feel about it. Even people who are no where close to cool still dress and act the part. For younger people this is just typical behavior. Kids are trying to act cool all over the country, it doesn't matter where you are. But the interesting thing about the west is that even many people who are middle-aged still dress and act in this, "I'm too fucking hip to have a sense of humor about anything, just be cool," sort of manner. It's kind of funny. They get way bent out of shape about things that they really have no idea about. Let's take political correctness for example. First off, there are no black people in Bend...period. I have not seen a single African-American in a month here. Yet, when my ski-students like to yell out, "I'm black, I'm black" as they run for the multi-colored stalls at the ski lifts, or someone says, "Do you do blacks?" (meaning, do you ski black diamond runs) and I chuckle, I get funny looks. For people who grew up in the south or close to the south or anywhere in the Midwest where racial issues are still issues this kind of off-colored (no pun intended) humor is not taken offense to by people on either side. I see this as true equality--black people laugh at white people, white people laugh at black people but they all stay friends and mean no disrespect. In the northwest it's not like this, generally speaking, because minorities are more or less an academic idea. Racism isn't anything these people have ever dealt with so even someone joking ironically about racial issues is in bad taste. Racism is something they learned about in schools and see on Hollywood movies about farm towns in middle America--it doesn't happen a whole lot in Bend. Not like in central Missouri where the people who came to buy our bed before we left told me they were going to, "Jew me down" on the price as though this was just common vernacular for making such a transaction. I'm over uppitiness though. I went through a phase right after college where I took all these new PC ideas to the extreme and wanted the whole world to be this happy little inclusive place where no one's feelings ever get hurt and we all live in peace and harmony. Then I left my pleasant bubble of academia and more or less hated everyone I came in contact with for two years after that. Hating people who hate doesn't help the situation anymore than being radical and uppity about hate issues. Human decency is my new kick. The thing about many of the people I've met who are supposedly the educated protectors of civilization in the U.S. are also some of the biggest assholes I've ever met. They wouldn't throw their best friend a bone if he were starving on their doorstep. "I just don't want the hassle. If I help him now he'll never learn to take care of himself," they'd say. And maybe they'd be right, but they'd still be an asshole.
Part of this whole, "I have a dream" American vision of peace amongst a country of immigrants boils down to basic human decency. Manners. Please and thank you and have a nice day. Even if you don't mean it. It's the social lubricant that keeps things moving in a pleasurable manner when all anyone really wants is to talk about themselves and be left the hell alone to live their life as they please. Engaging people in political, racial, religious discourse has it's time and place--and it isn't in the check-out line at a grocery store. In a college classroom--fine. In a religious institution or political organization--great! But please people, you're not helping by putting on this air of intelligence and chastising people for mocking what they don't understand (that's what blogs are for!). Perhaps they'd like your input. Some people would genuinely like to know if they are saying offensive things. Others would rather you jump off a cliff. The fact of the matter is, not everyone can afford the education and travel that brings with it an open mind and accepting outlook. Some people with very good hearts just don't know that what they are saying is extremely rude and inappropriate. And those people, I promise you, are not going to walk away from a chastising saying to themselves, "Wow, I really get that. I should be more respectful. They're more likely to say, "What a pretentious ass. I shoulda popped him in the nose."
So please try to be civil people and enjoy the long weekend. I will personally be celebrating MLK day by teaching rich white kids how to slide down mountains on really expensive sticks. I hope some of you actually have a more culturally rich experience. Much love, Jeff.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Make a Wedge
"Make a wedge with the tips of your skies, stand up nice and tall, and push your shins against the tongues of your boots." This is what I spend the majority of my day saying to young kids at Mt. Bachelor resort here in Bend, Oregon. Instructing ski lessons is a long day, somtimes rewarding, sometimes very frustrating. Even at ages four and five the difference in athletic ability between these kids is staggering. Some will grasp it immediately and will be ripping around on steep slopes before their lesson ends. Others will spend the entire six hour lesson trying to stay on their feet and make it down an incline the pitch of a roof on a one-story house. It's also not a cheap sport so it is rare to get the appreciative child who is grateful to be there and listening intently. More often I am fighting with kids--who could literally be my own--about whether or not their parent's ski instruction supercedes my own.
I've discovered that although I've skied several seasons as an adult in several different states I had no idea what I was doing until I came to ski school training two weeks ago. My strategy was always to turn my skies downhill, swerve when I started getting out of control, and stop on a dime when about to run into something. This always sufficed in the past. Now I will never make a turn again without analyzing whether or not I could have done it better. "Was I leaning too far forward? Was I sitting back on the pot? Did my skies stay parallel through the turn?" So much to think about. Self-improvement can be annoying as an adult. Sometimes you just want to do something without knowing so much about it. It's part of the fun. Once you know what you're doing, you have to work at it. Bummer. The same used to be true for walking in the woods. I used to like to go out on hikes just to get away from the city and unwind, then I tried to make this leisure my job and had to learn the names of all the plants and trees and animals and the natural cycles that we are all involved in. Next thing I knew I couldn't go for a walk in the woods without analyzing every detail of my surroundings. "Is this grove too overgrown? Should they do a controlled burn here? Why don't they do some trail work on this eroded site, it looks like shit." Even nature has become something for my mind to pick apart and organize. It's exhausting.
I'll stop that thought right there though, because who can honestly complain about working as a ski instructor? It's not an office. There's not a whole lot of responsibility (except not losing your kids somewhere in a snowstorm). It's a fun way to spend the winter and live in a beautiful part of the country. However, life doesn't just stop when one decides to do something like this. There are still bills to pay and food to be purchased and all the same wants and needs as before. So it takes a little sacrifice--like sleeping on a giant blow-up mattress to avoid the cost of yet another bed you won't be able to take with you when you move. Needless to say useless things like cable TV don't make the budget and amazingly if there is money that shows up in the bank account it seems to go effortlessly toward the outdoor gear we get at absurdly low prices. So the culture becomes one of homeless vagabonds with backpacks, skies, and mountain bikes that cost more than some people's cars. It takes a certain kind of crazy to live this way and one I'm finding myself growing out of. Don't get me wrong. I'm having a ball, but at some point the costs start to out-weigh the benefits. You get to the point where you're talking to the parents of these children--who carelessly throw away two-hundred bucks to have their kids get ski lessons from a group of homeless psychotic athletes--and you're thinking, I could do this person's job. I could be on the other end of this transaction...and the dream wanders off to better things.
I have so much more to say about this adventure and so little time to sit down and write about it. I'll try to keep this updated as the winter goes on. Hope everyone had a happy holiday and a happy new year! Welcome 2007.
I've discovered that although I've skied several seasons as an adult in several different states I had no idea what I was doing until I came to ski school training two weeks ago. My strategy was always to turn my skies downhill, swerve when I started getting out of control, and stop on a dime when about to run into something. This always sufficed in the past. Now I will never make a turn again without analyzing whether or not I could have done it better. "Was I leaning too far forward? Was I sitting back on the pot? Did my skies stay parallel through the turn?" So much to think about. Self-improvement can be annoying as an adult. Sometimes you just want to do something without knowing so much about it. It's part of the fun. Once you know what you're doing, you have to work at it. Bummer. The same used to be true for walking in the woods. I used to like to go out on hikes just to get away from the city and unwind, then I tried to make this leisure my job and had to learn the names of all the plants and trees and animals and the natural cycles that we are all involved in. Next thing I knew I couldn't go for a walk in the woods without analyzing every detail of my surroundings. "Is this grove too overgrown? Should they do a controlled burn here? Why don't they do some trail work on this eroded site, it looks like shit." Even nature has become something for my mind to pick apart and organize. It's exhausting.
I'll stop that thought right there though, because who can honestly complain about working as a ski instructor? It's not an office. There's not a whole lot of responsibility (except not losing your kids somewhere in a snowstorm). It's a fun way to spend the winter and live in a beautiful part of the country. However, life doesn't just stop when one decides to do something like this. There are still bills to pay and food to be purchased and all the same wants and needs as before. So it takes a little sacrifice--like sleeping on a giant blow-up mattress to avoid the cost of yet another bed you won't be able to take with you when you move. Needless to say useless things like cable TV don't make the budget and amazingly if there is money that shows up in the bank account it seems to go effortlessly toward the outdoor gear we get at absurdly low prices. So the culture becomes one of homeless vagabonds with backpacks, skies, and mountain bikes that cost more than some people's cars. It takes a certain kind of crazy to live this way and one I'm finding myself growing out of. Don't get me wrong. I'm having a ball, but at some point the costs start to out-weigh the benefits. You get to the point where you're talking to the parents of these children--who carelessly throw away two-hundred bucks to have their kids get ski lessons from a group of homeless psychotic athletes--and you're thinking, I could do this person's job. I could be on the other end of this transaction...and the dream wanders off to better things.
I have so much more to say about this adventure and so little time to sit down and write about it. I'll try to keep this updated as the winter goes on. Hope everyone had a happy holiday and a happy new year! Welcome 2007.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Crazy-Whack-Funky Day
After two short semesters back in graduate school I have decided that academia needs to throw a giant party at least once a semester in celebration of mental illness! Yea! I mean honestly, some of my professors are interesting as hell but batty as a giraffe on a pogostick. Now let's face it, none of us is perfect. I certainly can't claim to be firing on all cylinders, but if passing a psychological analysis to prove one is free of mental illness was a necessary part of becoming a college professor I know at least the English department would not exist. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; obviously a lot of our most brilliant inventions and ideas have come from very disturbed individuals. Hemingway, Lincoln, Van Gogh, Beethoven, Woolf, Issac Newton, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill...the list goes on forever. These were all great individuals that acknowledged their illness and dealt with it in a manner that allowed them to go on to do great things (well, except Hemingway--he shot himself in the face, and Woolf drown herself--pretty sure Van Gogh was a suicide too, but the point being that they offered a great deal while they were around). As I've been finding out with some of my profs and fellow classmates, there are quite a few crazies out there that wouldn't dream of acknowledging the fact that their certifiably nuts. In fact my own Creative Writing teacher--who is aware that I am bi-polar--confessed to me today that she also has dramatic mood swings but would never think of going to a therapist because she thought it would screw up her writing. I wasn't too surprised as she is the most emotionally fickle teacher I've ever had (and we bi-polar folks have somewhat of a gay-dar for mental illnesses), but I did think it was proposterous that she thought analyzing her life would somehow make her WORSE at writing. It almost seemed a bit hypocritical seeing as how she preaches to me class after class about letting go and going to deeper subconscious places in my writing.
I guess it isn't a huge deal, but I have realized as of late that human beings have a deep-seeded sense of what is right and wrong. This doesn't mean that it gives us a right to judge or to criticize or to set up society in such a way as to presume right and wrong, but honestly, where would laws even begin if we didn't have this internal sense? Or are they just based off of the early settler's Puritan values (because if this is the case we have some serious Church and State issues)? If there is no sense of right and wrong there is no way to argue for innocence or guilt. It's all just one opinion versus another. Why I bring this up is, it seems to me that a huge part of formal education is teaching the brain how to misbehave, right? When we're born we're born with the information we need to survive. If we were fed up to a young age and left in the wild, we would innately begin building shelter and gathering foods in a way that would increase our chances for survival. But in the "real world" it isn't this simple. There are rules and class-lines, gender-lines, racial barriers...hell we won't even give a guy pissing in a glass jar a quarter on our way out of eating a huge meal of junk food. So to survive one must go to school and learn how to appear as far from an original human state as possible. The better you dress, the more "educated" you sound, the more you are able to recite the things academia deems worthy, the better off your life will be. The irony is, as I'm finding out, that the people at the top making the rules are, as I said, batty as a beaver with a bowling ball. They're INSANE! Neurotic! Brilliantly creative, but ultimately living somewhere that is nowhere close to the reality the rest of us experience on a day to day basis, yet they are the ones devising the curriculum that stretches all the way down to elementary school. It's scary shit. Mostly rich white kids--all grown up--who think they have the power to control the world. And again, the irony is that they'll believe just about anything that seems to make sense. I recieved an "A" on a paper last week in a class that I haven't even opened the text for. TOTAL bullshit--and I get comments back like, "You seem to really grasp these concepts." If I do, we're in trouble.
I don't know what else to say, except that it amuses me. Life is just so damn weird and the older I get the more goofy it all seems, yet the more serious everyone seems to get. So I guess a little human decency and an open mind (and a sense of humor) are about all I can recommend. My rules are basically that if it isn't hurting anyone but yourself, knock yourself out. As soon as you start infringing on my freedoms, we're gonna have words, but otherwise...go crazy! Everyone else is.
I guess it isn't a huge deal, but I have realized as of late that human beings have a deep-seeded sense of what is right and wrong. This doesn't mean that it gives us a right to judge or to criticize or to set up society in such a way as to presume right and wrong, but honestly, where would laws even begin if we didn't have this internal sense? Or are they just based off of the early settler's Puritan values (because if this is the case we have some serious Church and State issues)? If there is no sense of right and wrong there is no way to argue for innocence or guilt. It's all just one opinion versus another. Why I bring this up is, it seems to me that a huge part of formal education is teaching the brain how to misbehave, right? When we're born we're born with the information we need to survive. If we were fed up to a young age and left in the wild, we would innately begin building shelter and gathering foods in a way that would increase our chances for survival. But in the "real world" it isn't this simple. There are rules and class-lines, gender-lines, racial barriers...hell we won't even give a guy pissing in a glass jar a quarter on our way out of eating a huge meal of junk food. So to survive one must go to school and learn how to appear as far from an original human state as possible. The better you dress, the more "educated" you sound, the more you are able to recite the things academia deems worthy, the better off your life will be. The irony is, as I'm finding out, that the people at the top making the rules are, as I said, batty as a beaver with a bowling ball. They're INSANE! Neurotic! Brilliantly creative, but ultimately living somewhere that is nowhere close to the reality the rest of us experience on a day to day basis, yet they are the ones devising the curriculum that stretches all the way down to elementary school. It's scary shit. Mostly rich white kids--all grown up--who think they have the power to control the world. And again, the irony is that they'll believe just about anything that seems to make sense. I recieved an "A" on a paper last week in a class that I haven't even opened the text for. TOTAL bullshit--and I get comments back like, "You seem to really grasp these concepts." If I do, we're in trouble.
I don't know what else to say, except that it amuses me. Life is just so damn weird and the older I get the more goofy it all seems, yet the more serious everyone seems to get. So I guess a little human decency and an open mind (and a sense of humor) are about all I can recommend. My rules are basically that if it isn't hurting anyone but yourself, knock yourself out. As soon as you start infringing on my freedoms, we're gonna have words, but otherwise...go crazy! Everyone else is.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Forgot to Say, "Hell Yeah!"
I don't know what I've been doing that I forgot to comment on the elections, but I would be remiss if I weren't to say--umm, wow, what an incredible ass kicking the republicans took last week! Seriously. I bet that hurt. I had all but given up on you America. I thought you were really going to keep going on letting these douche bags walk all over you and molest, kill, torture, and steal from anyone and everyone they felt like and just when I was walking away you go and do something like this to redeem yourself. So, well done people. Thanks for rejuvenating my hope in the system. Now--and this is for you DNC--if you f this up I'm seriously moving to Brazil to be a goat herder. I'm not screwing around. We have the House and the Senate and we're in excellent shape to take the presidency in two years--this hasn't happened in thirty years--please, please, please don't fuck this up. We're begging you. Green energy, universal health care, fair trade, livable wage, social justice--we could be like a real civilization that does things to--you know, help its people. It will be fantabulous. I'm so excited I'm starting to wish I had cable (or a TV larger than 10 inches wide) just so I could see the play by play come January. It's like March Madness, except there's only two teams and one of them has one really strong player versus the other that is stacked with a hundred or so whiny sacks that better learn how to play basketball in a hurry (did that make any sense?). Anyway, that's my piece. If you're Republican, umm, sorry, I guess. Better luck screwing up our country next time around. To the rest of the world, you're welcome, and please forgive us. Much love!
Monday, November 06, 2006
Good Intentions
I'd like to ask for everyone's prayers and good intentions over the next few days. My friend Marcus Reynerson's father is having by-pass surgery Tuesday morning and could use your thoughts.
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks,
Jeff
What if...?
In case you haven't figured this out from previous blogs I spend a lot of time thinking about how America came to be so messed up and all around an unenjoyable place to live and I came up with this thought that we made a wrong turn when we decided both parents should start working. Now, I realize that sounds sexist, so bare with me. What I mean is that we had a moment in history where, as a country, men were working too hard and not spending time with their families and going off to war and generally obsessed with making money and building shit and drinking themselves to death and whatever...that's great. This obviously caused a rift in the balance of things and women said, "Enough is enough. We want the liberty to take care of ourselves and not depend on these crazy bastards who are all about themselves." From then on women have been moving in a direction of not really needing us for much--even those of us who are all for empowering women. Where has this put us as a nation? Well, let's remove judgement and just look at facts. Less than 50% of adults are married for the first time in history. We have three-fourths of people who have been married who've been divorced at least once. We have mental illness running rampant. Kids are living busy, crazy lives, as are their parents. People are growing up with very serious baggage. Maybe men should have been the ones to slow down rather than women speeding up to compete with the men? Maybe. I don't know.
So, let's untangle this mess and think about an alternate reality. What if, now that men have learned to respect women as equals (well, most of us anyway), we reconsider the way we're doing things. What if we consider that kids need their parents spending time with them so that they grow up to be confident, well-rounded individuals more than they need money being put in a trust fund? What if we consider that competition is great, if the playing field is equal and everyone wants to compete and everyone is on the same page about what we're competing for (which is nowhere near the case), but isn't so great when it puts those who are capable way out of reach and the incapable fighting to get their needs met. What if men and women swallowed their pride and said, "You know what, this is just dumb! We should be spending our afternoons eating meals together and making love instead of calling each other to see who's going to bring home fast food for dinner. We should stop telling ourselves these sad sob stories about how poor we are and how much we deserve and start appreciating that even the poorest of us have more than the wealthiest of other countries could dream of. What if we started putting the focus on relationships and education? What if we were so relaxed that we drank for pleasure instead of compulsively over-drinking to relieve stress? Think of the endless reprecussions of a slower lifestyle for a minute. Could people stay in love longer if they weren't under as much stress? Could kids grow up to be interested in inspiring ideas, art, nature, traveling, music--the things that make life worth living instead of money and judgemental, rigid ideologies? Could we stop thinking of the less capable as lazy and start seeing each other as human beings?
Alright, back to reality. I realize that we can't just scrap the history of America and get everyone to simultaneously start living differently. Nor do I fool myself into thinking everyone wants this. Some of us are seriously addicted to our pain. We identify with it. It's easier than changing. However, I do believe we can subtly start making choices in our day to day lives that will encourage this direction for our children. I'd like to encourage everyone to start looking a little more deeply into their stress and attempt to discover the source. Stop pushing through it and look to remedy it instead. Do you need more sleep? Do you need to eat better? Do you need more excercise? Do you need a new job? Maybe a change in scenery? But Jeff what does this have to do with what you were just talking about? When we're stressed out of our heads all day we make poor choices. We buy compulsively, we become callous to the people in our lives, we eat unhealthily, and on a larger scale, we vote out of hatred for people unlike ourselves instead of out of hope for a better society. We give up, we shut down. So, take care of yourselves this week. Vote consciously tomorrow. Start looking for ways to remedy problems instead of pushing through them. Let's grow up America. Let's take care of our needs. Let's get past this rags to riches story we're telling ourselves (because let's be honest, our history is more like genocide, slavery, and greed) and start a story of getting everyone to a more fulfilling lifestyle. I bet we can't do it by working harder. I bet we do it by living more mindfully. What do you think?
So, let's untangle this mess and think about an alternate reality. What if, now that men have learned to respect women as equals (well, most of us anyway), we reconsider the way we're doing things. What if we consider that kids need their parents spending time with them so that they grow up to be confident, well-rounded individuals more than they need money being put in a trust fund? What if we consider that competition is great, if the playing field is equal and everyone wants to compete and everyone is on the same page about what we're competing for (which is nowhere near the case), but isn't so great when it puts those who are capable way out of reach and the incapable fighting to get their needs met. What if men and women swallowed their pride and said, "You know what, this is just dumb! We should be spending our afternoons eating meals together and making love instead of calling each other to see who's going to bring home fast food for dinner. We should stop telling ourselves these sad sob stories about how poor we are and how much we deserve and start appreciating that even the poorest of us have more than the wealthiest of other countries could dream of. What if we started putting the focus on relationships and education? What if we were so relaxed that we drank for pleasure instead of compulsively over-drinking to relieve stress? Think of the endless reprecussions of a slower lifestyle for a minute. Could people stay in love longer if they weren't under as much stress? Could kids grow up to be interested in inspiring ideas, art, nature, traveling, music--the things that make life worth living instead of money and judgemental, rigid ideologies? Could we stop thinking of the less capable as lazy and start seeing each other as human beings?
Alright, back to reality. I realize that we can't just scrap the history of America and get everyone to simultaneously start living differently. Nor do I fool myself into thinking everyone wants this. Some of us are seriously addicted to our pain. We identify with it. It's easier than changing. However, I do believe we can subtly start making choices in our day to day lives that will encourage this direction for our children. I'd like to encourage everyone to start looking a little more deeply into their stress and attempt to discover the source. Stop pushing through it and look to remedy it instead. Do you need more sleep? Do you need to eat better? Do you need more excercise? Do you need a new job? Maybe a change in scenery? But Jeff what does this have to do with what you were just talking about? When we're stressed out of our heads all day we make poor choices. We buy compulsively, we become callous to the people in our lives, we eat unhealthily, and on a larger scale, we vote out of hatred for people unlike ourselves instead of out of hope for a better society. We give up, we shut down. So, take care of yourselves this week. Vote consciously tomorrow. Start looking for ways to remedy problems instead of pushing through them. Let's grow up America. Let's take care of our needs. Let's get past this rags to riches story we're telling ourselves (because let's be honest, our history is more like genocide, slavery, and greed) and start a story of getting everyone to a more fulfilling lifestyle. I bet we can't do it by working harder. I bet we do it by living more mindfully. What do you think?
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Friday, November 03, 2006
New Documentaries
Hey all, I have two new documentaries I'm encouraging you all to see. One called,
"This Film is Not Yet Rated" and another called "Jesus Camp." Check out the trailers above.
The first one I just saw and it was pretty interesting. It's about the MPAA (the organization responsible for giving movies their ratings) and who this organization is made up of and how they control what we can and cannot see in movies. It also touches on a bigger issue of who controls media in this country and how powerful they are. My one complaint about this one is that for all the probing they go through to prove the point that this organization is facist and doesn't represent average American parent's best interests they don't interview anyone that represents average America. I guess they alliviate this need by saying that there is no such thing as an "average American parent" but all the people who say this are in the film industry and live in LA (which isn't exactly what most American's lives are like). That being said, it brings up a lot of good points about how childish adults can be about cusswords, sex, and nudity in movies when it's perfectly okay to show horrendous acts of violence and get lower ratings. The biggest issue with these ratings is what falls into NC-17. Basically an R rating and an NC-17 are both meant for adults, however if a movie gets the latter rating many studios won't release it, it can't get TV spots and most chain department stores won't carry it on DVD. So a lot of movies that take artistic risks in trying to do something different get marginalized and virtually unseen by American audiences based on the moral judgement of the MPAA. In my opinion this is just another element in why America is all but devoid of good art.
The second, I have not seen but sounds outrageous. I'm sure it will rile some emotions on either side. It's about fanatical Christian camps that are trying to rival religious fanatics in other parts of the world by teaching their kids to militantly follow Jesus. The trailer is disturbing enough. I'll give a full critique after I see it.
I don't know what kind of outlets you have for seeing these films. I'm guessing most cities have at least one theater that shows more obscure docs and films. Keep an eye out. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks.
"This Film is Not Yet Rated" and another called "Jesus Camp." Check out the trailers above.
The first one I just saw and it was pretty interesting. It's about the MPAA (the organization responsible for giving movies their ratings) and who this organization is made up of and how they control what we can and cannot see in movies. It also touches on a bigger issue of who controls media in this country and how powerful they are. My one complaint about this one is that for all the probing they go through to prove the point that this organization is facist and doesn't represent average American parent's best interests they don't interview anyone that represents average America. I guess they alliviate this need by saying that there is no such thing as an "average American parent" but all the people who say this are in the film industry and live in LA (which isn't exactly what most American's lives are like). That being said, it brings up a lot of good points about how childish adults can be about cusswords, sex, and nudity in movies when it's perfectly okay to show horrendous acts of violence and get lower ratings. The biggest issue with these ratings is what falls into NC-17. Basically an R rating and an NC-17 are both meant for adults, however if a movie gets the latter rating many studios won't release it, it can't get TV spots and most chain department stores won't carry it on DVD. So a lot of movies that take artistic risks in trying to do something different get marginalized and virtually unseen by American audiences based on the moral judgement of the MPAA. In my opinion this is just another element in why America is all but devoid of good art.
The second, I have not seen but sounds outrageous. I'm sure it will rile some emotions on either side. It's about fanatical Christian camps that are trying to rival religious fanatics in other parts of the world by teaching their kids to militantly follow Jesus. The trailer is disturbing enough. I'll give a full critique after I see it.
I don't know what kind of outlets you have for seeing these films. I'm guessing most cities have at least one theater that shows more obscure docs and films. Keep an eye out. I'd love to hear what everyone thinks.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Breathing, Yoga , Mindfulness
I have been attempting to get back to some old practices that I discovered in my latter years of school in an attempt to live a more mindful and enlightened life. I'm not sure how familiar anyone is with Mindfulness or how many of you have an interest in yoga or meditation, but I have found some peace in these practices over the years and would like to share them with you in hopes that maybe they will help you as well. Below are seven of the Mindfulness principles that deal with our attitudes towards thoughts and feelings. If anyone has an interest or if these ideas strike a chord with you and you'd like to know more about meditation, yoga, or Mindfulness I'd be happy to share some books, podcasts, and cds you could check out for guidance. Note: Mindfulness is not a religious practice, but rather a healthy way of life that promotes a positive mind and loving heart. It is conducive to all other philosophies based in love and wellness.
Nonjudging: To do this requires that you become aware of the constant stream of judging and reacting to inner and outer experiences that we are normally caught up in and learn to step back from it.
Patience: Intentionally reminding ourselves that there is no need to be impatient with ourselves because we find the mind judging all of the time, or because we are tense or agitated or worried, or because we have been practicing mindfulness for some time and nothing positive seems to have happened.
A Beginner's Mind: To see the richness of the present moment (afterall, where else does life occur?), we need to cultivate what has been called "beginner's mind"--a mind that is willing to see everthing as if for the first time. No moment is the same as any other. Each is unique and contains unique possibilities. Beginner's Mind reminds us of this simple truth.
Trust: Developing a basic trust in yourself and your feelings is an integral part of meditation training. This will be particularly useful in the yoga practice. When practicing yoga, it is important to honor your feelings and listen to when your body tells you to stop or to back off in a particular stretch. If you don't listen, you might injure yourself.
Nonstriving: Almost everthing we do we do for a purpose, to get something or somewhere. But, in meditation, this attitude can be a real obstacle. Ultimately, meditating is non-doing. It has no goal other than for you to be yourself. In the meditative domain, the best way to achieve your goals is to back off from striving for results and, instead, to start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment to moment.
Acceptance: Acceptance means seeing things as they actually are in the present. If you have a headache, accept that you have a headache. If you are in pain, emotionally or physically, accept that you are in pain. Acceptance does not mean that you have to like everything or that you have to take a passive attitude. It does not mean that you are satisfied with things as they are. Acceptance, as we are speaking of it simply means that you have a willingness to see things as they are. In meditation practice, we cultivate acceptance by taking each moment as it comes and being with it fully, as it is. We try not to impose our ideas about what we should be feeling or thinking or seeing on our experience, but be receptive and open to whatever we are feeling, thinking, or seeing and to accept it because it is here right now.
Letting Go: In meditation practice we intentionally put aside the tendency to elevate some aspects of our experience and to reject others--prolonging pleasant thoughts or feelings and trying to get rid of the unpleasant. Instead, we just let our experience be what it is and practice observing it from moment to moment.
Nonjudging: To do this requires that you become aware of the constant stream of judging and reacting to inner and outer experiences that we are normally caught up in and learn to step back from it.
Patience: Intentionally reminding ourselves that there is no need to be impatient with ourselves because we find the mind judging all of the time, or because we are tense or agitated or worried, or because we have been practicing mindfulness for some time and nothing positive seems to have happened.
A Beginner's Mind: To see the richness of the present moment (afterall, where else does life occur?), we need to cultivate what has been called "beginner's mind"--a mind that is willing to see everthing as if for the first time. No moment is the same as any other. Each is unique and contains unique possibilities. Beginner's Mind reminds us of this simple truth.
Trust: Developing a basic trust in yourself and your feelings is an integral part of meditation training. This will be particularly useful in the yoga practice. When practicing yoga, it is important to honor your feelings and listen to when your body tells you to stop or to back off in a particular stretch. If you don't listen, you might injure yourself.
Nonstriving: Almost everthing we do we do for a purpose, to get something or somewhere. But, in meditation, this attitude can be a real obstacle. Ultimately, meditating is non-doing. It has no goal other than for you to be yourself. In the meditative domain, the best way to achieve your goals is to back off from striving for results and, instead, to start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment to moment.
Acceptance: Acceptance means seeing things as they actually are in the present. If you have a headache, accept that you have a headache. If you are in pain, emotionally or physically, accept that you are in pain. Acceptance does not mean that you have to like everything or that you have to take a passive attitude. It does not mean that you are satisfied with things as they are. Acceptance, as we are speaking of it simply means that you have a willingness to see things as they are. In meditation practice, we cultivate acceptance by taking each moment as it comes and being with it fully, as it is. We try not to impose our ideas about what we should be feeling or thinking or seeing on our experience, but be receptive and open to whatever we are feeling, thinking, or seeing and to accept it because it is here right now.
Letting Go: In meditation practice we intentionally put aside the tendency to elevate some aspects of our experience and to reject others--prolonging pleasant thoughts or feelings and trying to get rid of the unpleasant. Instead, we just let our experience be what it is and practice observing it from moment to moment.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
What Do Today's Kids Need? Smarter Adults.
I've been hearing this sentiment a lot lately--being that my mother and mother-in-law are both teachers--that kids today are out of control. They're cussing at young ages and talking about sex and guns and shooting each other in school, etc. and it never used to be this way. Well, first off, yes, it did used to be this way, it just wasn't this way for suburbanite middle-class white kids. And now it is. Actually I can still remember cussing and talking about sex and violence at a pretty early age--never shot at anyone, but I probably wished I had the sack to a few times.
My mothers both share the opinion that because there is no longer prayer in schools, this is why kids are going crazy. I respectfully disagree (mostly because I went to Catholic school my whole life and never did or didn't do anything good or bad based on the fact that I was being forced to pray to a God I didn't understand or necessarily agree with). I believe the real problem is that kids today have access to information beyond our parent's wildest dreams and the adults aren't keeping up. If you are my age, 27, or there abouts, imagine going through college without the internet for research. WHAT? Actually having to go through microfilms and books to find little tidbits that we can now punch into a computer screen and in one second have everything ever written in the entire world. This is what today's kids get from day one. Not only this but they are smart enough to get into things that kids probably shouldn't see--such as sexual content, violent video clips, etc--but are. So what do we do about this? It makes sense to me to deal with it in a way that addresses the problem. We didn't ask for kids to be exposed to this stuff and we certainly can't stop it completely. If they want to see things they shouldn't see, they're going to find a computer somewhere where they can access these things. Can we talk to them? Is this that big of a deal? I don't have kids so I don't want to assert too much here, but I can't imagine myself not just sitting down with my child and explaining why these things can be harmful to their worldview. And if I can't explain it, maybe I should consider that I'm being close-minded and that this is just a change the world is going through--not the coming of days.
I don't know the answer, but I certainly remember what I thought as a teen. I wanted the WHY behind everything. If an adult couldn't give me the WHY I usually considered that adult pretty ignorant. I respected adults with answers, with information. Not just because they earned their place as the Alpha, but because they made me a smarter person and usually didn't ask me to do things based on their own laziness and apathy. So, I'm sorry my fellow adults, there is a traitor in your midst. I'm with the kids on this one. Give them information, talk to them like intelligent human beings, they'll respect you. Order them around like some kind of dictator who deserves respect simply for being alive longer, and I gurantee they're going to rebel.
My mothers both share the opinion that because there is no longer prayer in schools, this is why kids are going crazy. I respectfully disagree (mostly because I went to Catholic school my whole life and never did or didn't do anything good or bad based on the fact that I was being forced to pray to a God I didn't understand or necessarily agree with). I believe the real problem is that kids today have access to information beyond our parent's wildest dreams and the adults aren't keeping up. If you are my age, 27, or there abouts, imagine going through college without the internet for research. WHAT? Actually having to go through microfilms and books to find little tidbits that we can now punch into a computer screen and in one second have everything ever written in the entire world. This is what today's kids get from day one. Not only this but they are smart enough to get into things that kids probably shouldn't see--such as sexual content, violent video clips, etc--but are. So what do we do about this? It makes sense to me to deal with it in a way that addresses the problem. We didn't ask for kids to be exposed to this stuff and we certainly can't stop it completely. If they want to see things they shouldn't see, they're going to find a computer somewhere where they can access these things. Can we talk to them? Is this that big of a deal? I don't have kids so I don't want to assert too much here, but I can't imagine myself not just sitting down with my child and explaining why these things can be harmful to their worldview. And if I can't explain it, maybe I should consider that I'm being close-minded and that this is just a change the world is going through--not the coming of days.
I don't know the answer, but I certainly remember what I thought as a teen. I wanted the WHY behind everything. If an adult couldn't give me the WHY I usually considered that adult pretty ignorant. I respected adults with answers, with information. Not just because they earned their place as the Alpha, but because they made me a smarter person and usually didn't ask me to do things based on their own laziness and apathy. So, I'm sorry my fellow adults, there is a traitor in your midst. I'm with the kids on this one. Give them information, talk to them like intelligent human beings, they'll respect you. Order them around like some kind of dictator who deserves respect simply for being alive longer, and I gurantee they're going to rebel.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Too Good to Be True?
Ok, I'm taking a pubic opinion poll here. I emailed the strange man who approached me a month or so ago about a possible modeling gig and below is his response. I need you all to let me know if you think I'm being paranoid or naive or overly critical or what because I don't know what to think. Imagine you're me, working a shitty part- time job and writing short stories and this guy comes up out of the blue and offers this to you. I don't know why I can't believe it, but something about the whole thing just isn't fitting together for me. I'm waiting for the catch. Anyway, have a read, if you would, and tell me what you think. Sound fishy? Also, sound cheesy? Is this really something I want to do if it is for real? Would you do it? I'm so painfully midwestern...
Jeff, Outpost12studios in Lincoln, Nebraska will be producing the
vodeo
project in January. Am in New york doing fashion shows like told all of
you
I would be - then retreat to the midwest to be low key. Regarding your
appearance in the project, you have the rest of the year to mull it
over.
filming will take place in mid January. That means flying you here for
four
days for filming. Prior to that, I can return there at times to coach
you on
the choreography. You should have everything well rehearsed by that
time
since it is only a five minute video. The last time I saw you I came
across
the street and stopped you and told you that like a big brother figure,
I
was not, and will not steer you in any wrong direction. I do not know
what
lifestyle you have lived, but jet-setting is in the lifestyle of anyone
involved in this business. Use your brain man, there is tons of money
on
this planet, you have been blessed lookswise, do what I and countless
other
males have done USE YOUR LOOKS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE TO EXPEDITE BECOMING
FINANCIALLY SECURE!!! I'm not into menial work, did that, don't have
to, am
planning to retire when this bloody video is completed! It is my
brainchild,
has been in my blood to do it because I have the ability to do it, can
muster the 'star quality" essence to carry it, (you received a minute
sample
of my stage presence while I was there), and can get it properly
executed to
fashion designers, which is the whole purpose of it. It's only a
promotional
project remember, to inspire fashion designers to return to prior
well-dressed looks in their creations. My whole success in life has
been
attributed to my presentation. Even many years ago when I was homeless,
the
security personnel at the former Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City,
NJ
voted me "best dressed bum". If that isn't an American story of some
sort,
what is? ALEXIS!!! P.S. If you can provide a contact number, and tell
me how
you are doing, and if you are still at the coffee shop. Also, you can
samle
the video via the internect by pulling up the Vogue video.
Jeff, Outpost12studios in Lincoln, Nebraska will be producing the
vodeo
project in January. Am in New york doing fashion shows like told all of
you
I would be - then retreat to the midwest to be low key. Regarding your
appearance in the project, you have the rest of the year to mull it
over.
filming will take place in mid January. That means flying you here for
four
days for filming. Prior to that, I can return there at times to coach
you on
the choreography. You should have everything well rehearsed by that
time
since it is only a five minute video. The last time I saw you I came
across
the street and stopped you and told you that like a big brother figure,
I
was not, and will not steer you in any wrong direction. I do not know
what
lifestyle you have lived, but jet-setting is in the lifestyle of anyone
involved in this business. Use your brain man, there is tons of money
on
this planet, you have been blessed lookswise, do what I and countless
other
males have done USE YOUR LOOKS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE TO EXPEDITE BECOMING
FINANCIALLY SECURE!!! I'm not into menial work, did that, don't have
to, am
planning to retire when this bloody video is completed! It is my
brainchild,
has been in my blood to do it because I have the ability to do it, can
muster the 'star quality" essence to carry it, (you received a minute
sample
of my stage presence while I was there), and can get it properly
executed to
fashion designers, which is the whole purpose of it. It's only a
promotional
project remember, to inspire fashion designers to return to prior
well-dressed looks in their creations. My whole success in life has
been
attributed to my presentation. Even many years ago when I was homeless,
the
security personnel at the former Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City,
NJ
voted me "best dressed bum". If that isn't an American story of some
sort,
what is? ALEXIS!!! P.S. If you can provide a contact number, and tell
me how
you are doing, and if you are still at the coffee shop. Also, you can
samle
the video via the internect by pulling up the Vogue video.
In Case You Missed It...
If you haven't seen this clip of Clinton verbally abusing Jim Wallace on Fox News, check this out. In case you haven't caught on yet, Fox News has nothing to do with journalism or reporting facts or trying to get to the heart of situations and everything to do with conservative propaganda (rent "OutFoxed" sometime for a one-sided but informative look inside this news channel). Clinton is a beast in this. I was too caught up in growing up during the nineties to know what was going on, but he's quickly becoming my new political hero. Periodically try to imagine George W. maintaining a stream of thought for this long (let alone citing these kinds of facts off the top of his head), and watch how he thinks before he speaks. You have to take the good with the bad when you're talking about huge world figures like Bill Clinton, but I believe despite his faults with fidelity he is a serious thinker, intellectual, and leader as you can see here. It's in two parts, but worth the time to watch both. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnyrCVwGyK4&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxWUA764H7E&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnyrCVwGyK4&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxWUA764H7E&mode=related&search=
Monday, September 18, 2006
Oregonites
The plans are in motion. Allison and I will be moving to Bend, Oregon this December to work for my friend and former Philmont director, Kevin Stickleman at Mt. Bachelor ski resort. The stress and anticipation has gotten to be too much as we've been dealing with work, tests, graduate school searches, applications and letters of intent. UNCLE! We give. After turning in my final papers this semester and tearlessly waving goodbye to my life of mindlessly slinging java to misguided academic souls I will pack up the necessities of life in my little green Camery and scream in sweet release to the towering mountains of the Northwest. I have much to think about and Allison and I will both have our futures waiting in limbo in the months following December application deadlines. I can think of no better way to spend this time then getting back in touch with the nature boy who's been sitting cross-legged in a corner of my soul, punished by the calender and speed of stress that the city life is too happy to provide. I know many of you will never understand, but perhaps someday we'll hike together and you can share the quiet peace of a crisp clean walk in the vanilla stench of a Pondarosa forest; all your innocence returned, childhood revisited. As Alexander Pope said, "There is a certain majesty in simplicity."
I know working at a ski resort isn't exactly simplicity, but it'll pay the bills. Meanwhile, we can spend our free time hiking the mountains and learning the calls of the migrating birds. I'm in goose-flesh just thinking about it. I can't wait!
Anyone else in need of a break from the busy life this winter, you have a couch to sleep on in Bend.
Much love,
Jeff
I know working at a ski resort isn't exactly simplicity, but it'll pay the bills. Meanwhile, we can spend our free time hiking the mountains and learning the calls of the migrating birds. I'm in goose-flesh just thinking about it. I can't wait!
Anyone else in need of a break from the busy life this winter, you have a couch to sleep on in Bend.
Much love,
Jeff
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Who the #*%& is Carson Daily?
Ok, before I start, I do know who Carson Daily is, but what the hell is he good for? He's like the Paris Hilton of Late Night TV; good at absolutely nothing and somehow still famous enough that other celebrities will interact with him on the idiot box at one in the morning. Now I know what you're thinking. You want to say, "Jeff, why are you giving your energy to this? Why are you even awake and watching TV at one in the morning and why would you choose to watch this assclown in the first place?" To you I answer, "Insomnia, no cable, he's on after Conan, and I have no life." But honestly this isn't about me. This is about this man, this: I wish I was famous, "Hey ma I'm on TV," I don't sing, I don't act, I'm not smart, I'm not funny, and I make a living off of joking on people with more talent in their nose hair than I have in my whole body (jokes that I didn't even write myself, mind you). I mean seriously, I want to send this poor man a sweet motherly telegram every day; just some nurturing woman who will tell him he's cool and that he can stop trying so hard. It's bad. If you're ever up too late and don't feel like watching--you know--something good, check this guy out. If you can make it through the full half-hour without cringing, either he blew his paycheck on a funny writer for that night alone, or you should go ahead and drink that whole bottle of NyQuil before you fall asleep. The whole show goes something like this: "Hey guys, you know, I was hanging out with Who Really Gives A Shit this past weekend at a party and I was going to get a ride home with him, but he was too high on coke." (Canned laughter) "You know, cause Bobby Brown does cocaine..." (explaining the bad joke that no one laughed at as though the problem was we just didn't get it). I've been thinking about this (don't ask me why) and here's my analysis. Carson is like the really nice hot guy from your high school. He doesn't really have it in him to be mean-spirited (like your typical blue-collar comedian), and he wasn't ridiculed enough to have to become funny (like Conan), and he isn't smart enough to have a dry sense of humor (like Stewart or Colbert), so he's just in this sort of--I'm nice and good lookin' and very non-confrontational kind of--no-man's land of entertainment. He'd make a better shoe salesman. Anyway, I just had to get this out in the clear in case someone was reading my blog and thinking, I wonder what Jeff thinks about Carson Daily. So, there it is. Now you know. He's a douche bag.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Consideration
Hey all! This was sent on to me via email. I don't know about keeping it off the air, but if you happen to catch it maybe watch with this in mind. Midterm elections are only a couple of months away and there are all kinds of back-handed ways of influencing our political opinions. Be informed. Make wise choices. Much love.
The ABC television network, owned by the Walt Disney Company, is airing what it calls a "docudrama" entitled "The Path to 9/11." ABC has claimed the mini-series is based on the 9/11 Commission Report, but that is simply not true. "The Path to 9/11" is actually a bald-faced attempt to slander Democrats and revise history right before Americans vote in a major election.
Tell Walt Disney president Robert Iger to keep this propaganda off the air:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911
Thanks!
The ABC television network, owned by the Walt Disney Company, is airing what it calls a "docudrama" entitled "The Path to 9/11." ABC has claimed the mini-series is based on the 9/11 Commission Report, but that is simply not true. "The Path to 9/11" is actually a bald-faced attempt to slander Democrats and revise history right before Americans vote in a major election.
Tell Walt Disney president Robert Iger to keep this propaganda off the air:
http://www.democrats.org/pathto911
Thanks!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Who's Got Two Thumbs and Likes Easy Money--This Guy!
Late shift, Lakota Coffee Shop, downtown Columbia, Missouri. Students are winding down their summer classes, couples are sipping java and playing scrabble. In walks this super-humanly, New York runway, glamorous, fabulous gay man strutting his stuff on the catwalk--or rather Lakota Coffee's narrow walkway between tables. He orders his coffee and walks around the side of the counter as though looking at pastries. A few minutes pass and I look over absentmindly and he looks away startled. I go about my work behind the counter. A few minutes later I'm stretching and glancing around the shop and again I see him just staring at me.
"Can I get you something?" I asked, wondering if he needed my attention.
"I'm just watching the way you carry yourself," he said.
I cocked an eyebrow, somewhere between curious and disturbed.
"I'm in the fashion industry back east," he said, unabashedly pretentious, "I'm shooting a video in Columbia, and you have the look. That's a professional compliment, I'm not hitting on you."
"Well...thank you," I said, wanting to add an "I guess."
He darted off, never breaking his runway saunter, as though offended that I didn't take the compliment more seriously. My female co-worker and I had a laugh and I went back to serving up some joe. Thirty minutes later he comes to the counter again, this time with a portfolio of glamour shots.
"Here's my portfolio, I am a model in New York and I am doing a fashion video to Madonna's Vogue." He proceeded to tell me I had the look several more times (although I apparently needed to shave so I could look like "a million bucks") and repeated information about his video and what I would have to do.
Do? I thought. Am I doing something now?
This went on for my entire five hour shift, the customer flow waning and this guy telling me more about his project. Eventually he gave me a Madonna CD asking, "Do you have a CD player at home?" thinking, I suppose, that perhaps Missouri functioned on horse drawn carriages and Omish cheese. "There it is right there, number seven, Vogue. Go home and have a listen, or walk it through as we say."
Vogue? I wanted to say in my best hillbilly accent, what the hell is this Vogue you speak of. And Madonna, who's this? Is this some kind of religious video?
I bit my tongue.
By the end of my shift he was talking to me about contracts and I told him that was the only way I could consider doing anything. He assured me that he was legit, writing down his back-story on two pieces of loose-leaf paper and showing me a photocopy of his graduation certificate from modeling school. I suppose I seemed unimpressed because he continued telling me more and more information about himself and what he'd done, dying for me to throw my hands in the air yelling, "My God man! You are too fucking sexy for your shirt! Dance my friend! Dance on the catwalk!" I was sure that had I been so boisterous he'd have struck a pose right there on the coffee shop bar. But I wasn't, and so this game continued of convincing me I had "raw talent" and that I should dance and model in his video shoot for $100 bucks an hour. Eventually, I said sure. I said, "If you can show me a contract and I can verify it with a lawyer and the whole thing is completely legal and legit, I'll do it--oh yeah, and you can teach me how to dance."
He said it was no problem. He assured me his lawyer would personally present me with the contract and that a professional choreographer would work with me and four other brunette males, six feet tall (appartently the "look" I have--thanks mom!). So, we'll see what happens.
Life is so weird. I mean, honestly, what the hell? People do some strange stuff with their lives. I can't say I EVER in a my most drunken and delusional dreams saw this one coming, but you know what--I'll take what I can get. If this dude's for real and I can make a few thousand dollars in a week for posing in a 1940s suit and top hat, okay. It's no less degrading than cleaning a public restroom and taking out the trash at the end of the night. Me and the misses gotta eat. So, since I know you all follow the fashion industry like stock brokers, as do the rest of us here in the midwest, let me give you the inside scoop; top hats and 1940s suits. Go get yours today. Move over Dick Tracy, I'm movin' in on yo shizot.
"Can I get you something?" I asked, wondering if he needed my attention.
"I'm just watching the way you carry yourself," he said.
I cocked an eyebrow, somewhere between curious and disturbed.
"I'm in the fashion industry back east," he said, unabashedly pretentious, "I'm shooting a video in Columbia, and you have the look. That's a professional compliment, I'm not hitting on you."
"Well...thank you," I said, wanting to add an "I guess."
He darted off, never breaking his runway saunter, as though offended that I didn't take the compliment more seriously. My female co-worker and I had a laugh and I went back to serving up some joe. Thirty minutes later he comes to the counter again, this time with a portfolio of glamour shots.
"Here's my portfolio, I am a model in New York and I am doing a fashion video to Madonna's Vogue." He proceeded to tell me I had the look several more times (although I apparently needed to shave so I could look like "a million bucks") and repeated information about his video and what I would have to do.
Do? I thought. Am I doing something now?
This went on for my entire five hour shift, the customer flow waning and this guy telling me more about his project. Eventually he gave me a Madonna CD asking, "Do you have a CD player at home?" thinking, I suppose, that perhaps Missouri functioned on horse drawn carriages and Omish cheese. "There it is right there, number seven, Vogue. Go home and have a listen, or walk it through as we say."
Vogue? I wanted to say in my best hillbilly accent, what the hell is this Vogue you speak of. And Madonna, who's this? Is this some kind of religious video?
I bit my tongue.
By the end of my shift he was talking to me about contracts and I told him that was the only way I could consider doing anything. He assured me that he was legit, writing down his back-story on two pieces of loose-leaf paper and showing me a photocopy of his graduation certificate from modeling school. I suppose I seemed unimpressed because he continued telling me more and more information about himself and what he'd done, dying for me to throw my hands in the air yelling, "My God man! You are too fucking sexy for your shirt! Dance my friend! Dance on the catwalk!" I was sure that had I been so boisterous he'd have struck a pose right there on the coffee shop bar. But I wasn't, and so this game continued of convincing me I had "raw talent" and that I should dance and model in his video shoot for $100 bucks an hour. Eventually, I said sure. I said, "If you can show me a contract and I can verify it with a lawyer and the whole thing is completely legal and legit, I'll do it--oh yeah, and you can teach me how to dance."
He said it was no problem. He assured me his lawyer would personally present me with the contract and that a professional choreographer would work with me and four other brunette males, six feet tall (appartently the "look" I have--thanks mom!). So, we'll see what happens.
Life is so weird. I mean, honestly, what the hell? People do some strange stuff with their lives. I can't say I EVER in a my most drunken and delusional dreams saw this one coming, but you know what--I'll take what I can get. If this dude's for real and I can make a few thousand dollars in a week for posing in a 1940s suit and top hat, okay. It's no less degrading than cleaning a public restroom and taking out the trash at the end of the night. Me and the misses gotta eat. So, since I know you all follow the fashion industry like stock brokers, as do the rest of us here in the midwest, let me give you the inside scoop; top hats and 1940s suits. Go get yours today. Move over Dick Tracy, I'm movin' in on yo shizot.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Visiting Good Friends
Seattle was incredible. I'm in love. Lakes, mountains, the ocean--it has it all. Thanks to my good friend and spiritual guru Marcus Reynerson and the vibrant, artistic, and always nurturing Bryn Cowgill I feel rejuvenated and in love with life. Did I mention how cool Seattle is? Good. I just want to reiterate.
I was in Washington this week visiting friends and participating in a writer's conference. Both experiences were fantastic. The conference had a multitude of good speakers with useful information on the craft and the industry of writing fiction. I probably had more panic attacks than one person should have in a three day period--from feeling completely out of my element--but I learned a lot that will help me in writing my next story. Funniest story I heard: One literary agent said he took home submissions from authors and read the sample chapters to his seven year old daughter and when she said, "Boring" he threw it aside and moved on. Disheartening, but friggin' hilarious! What else can you do when you recieve 1400 submissions a week?
The flight home was an interesting experience too. Two tornados apparently hit St. Louis just prior to my landing. We landed in a lightning storm and the runway had only emergency lights on because of a power outage. When we touched down the flight attendant came on and said, "You should all congratulate your pilot on the way out, that was a pretty sweet landing." More like punch our pilot in the neck for trying to land in that mess, but hey--we were still alive. In the airport all the electricity and air was off. Thousands of people were running around in the dark in hundred degree heat. Madness. I went to the restroom using my cell phone as a flashlight. I would have been pretty upset except I got a free week's worth of parking out of it because they couldn't charge anyone with the computers down. We're so dependent. It's scary.
Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the trip! My very best wishes to all.
I was in Washington this week visiting friends and participating in a writer's conference. Both experiences were fantastic. The conference had a multitude of good speakers with useful information on the craft and the industry of writing fiction. I probably had more panic attacks than one person should have in a three day period--from feeling completely out of my element--but I learned a lot that will help me in writing my next story. Funniest story I heard: One literary agent said he took home submissions from authors and read the sample chapters to his seven year old daughter and when she said, "Boring" he threw it aside and moved on. Disheartening, but friggin' hilarious! What else can you do when you recieve 1400 submissions a week?
The flight home was an interesting experience too. Two tornados apparently hit St. Louis just prior to my landing. We landed in a lightning storm and the runway had only emergency lights on because of a power outage. When we touched down the flight attendant came on and said, "You should all congratulate your pilot on the way out, that was a pretty sweet landing." More like punch our pilot in the neck for trying to land in that mess, but hey--we were still alive. In the airport all the electricity and air was off. Thousands of people were running around in the dark in hundred degree heat. Madness. I went to the restroom using my cell phone as a flashlight. I would have been pretty upset except I got a free week's worth of parking out of it because they couldn't charge anyone with the computers down. We're so dependent. It's scary.
Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the trip! My very best wishes to all.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Mexico Story
An American businessman stood at the pier of a small coastal village in
Mexico, when a small boat carrying a lone Mexican fisherman docked.
Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American
complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long
it took to catch them. The fisherman replied, Only a little while.
The American then asked, If it took only a little while to catch these
fine fish, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish? The
fisherman explained that this catch was enough to support his family's
immediate needs.
The American then asked, But what do you do with the rest of your time?
The fisherman replied, I sleep late, fish a little, play with my
children, take a siesta with my wife, and stroll into the village each
evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full
and busy life, señor.
The American scoffed, I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should
spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With
the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats.
Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling
your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor,
eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product,
processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small
coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then L.A., and
eventually New York City, where you would run your expanding enterprise.
The fisherman asked, But señor, how long will this all take?
The American replied, Fifteen to twenty years.
But what then, señor? inquired the Mexican. The American laughed and
said, That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce
an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich.
You would make millions.
Millions, señor? Then what? asked the Mexican.
The American said, Why, then you would retire, of coursemove to a small
coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play
with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll into the
village in the evenings, where you could sip wine and play your guitar
with your amigos.
Mexico, when a small boat carrying a lone Mexican fisherman docked.
Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American
complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long
it took to catch them. The fisherman replied, Only a little while.
The American then asked, If it took only a little while to catch these
fine fish, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more fish? The
fisherman explained that this catch was enough to support his family's
immediate needs.
The American then asked, But what do you do with the rest of your time?
The fisherman replied, I sleep late, fish a little, play with my
children, take a siesta with my wife, and stroll into the village each
evening, where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full
and busy life, señor.
The American scoffed, I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should
spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With
the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats.
Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling
your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor,
eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product,
processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small
coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then L.A., and
eventually New York City, where you would run your expanding enterprise.
The fisherman asked, But señor, how long will this all take?
The American replied, Fifteen to twenty years.
But what then, señor? inquired the Mexican. The American laughed and
said, That's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce
an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich.
You would make millions.
Millions, señor? Then what? asked the Mexican.
The American said, Why, then you would retire, of coursemove to a small
coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play
with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll into the
village in the evenings, where you could sip wine and play your guitar
with your amigos.
Friday, June 30, 2006
My Ever-Changing Perspective
I wish I knew who said it, but I once heard that a thinking person's perspective is constantly evolving. If I can be so bold as to consider myself a thinking person (which is questionable), I have to agree.
I'm currently taking a class at University of Missouri in Modern Literature. As always I am humbled by my English professor and how much he has read and seen and understands about the world. In only two weeks he has managed to turn my worldview on its heels (again) and get me thinking about new sides of old arguments that I had never considered. My professor is probably in his seventies and he understands every allusion and reference to every other work of literature or era of history in such detail that I am constantly awed. He reflects my naive youthfulness and debunks my grasp on reality without breaking stride in his lectures. It's wonderfully liberating to again realize that I don't know shit about shit. I'm a baby--a prepubesant rube.
I haven't written much lately about what I'm up to or where I'm headed. I hit a bit of a plateau over the last few months and felt my wheels spinning over things that I ultimately have no control over. Sorry for expressing those frustrations here, but it does help me to hear what others are thinking about. Now I'm back in school. The plan--if all works out well--is to get my GPA up and apply to PhD programs for English Literature/ Creative Writing (yes, you can get a PhD in Creative Writing believe it or not). Allison is also applying to PhD programs for Counseling Psychology. Ideally we could both get into the same school, but realistically we may have to deal with that once we find out which one of us gets accepted where (if at all). The plan on my end is to continue writing and putting myself in the position to teach on a college level so as not to rely on my writing for sustenance. I've realized over the last year in dealing with my first round of rejections that the publishing world is as cut-throat as any other industry in America. While writing fiction sounds like a pretty idealistic way to spend one's time (and I personally think it is since I love it so much), all that comes with getting a work published seems, so far, like a bit of a racket. But, a racket I'm going to have to deal with. So, I'm going to a writer's conference in Seattle in a couple of weeks (which I'm really looking forward to), and I hope I can gain some perspective on what the less romantic side of writing is all about. I'll keep ya posted.
I see a light somewhere down this tunnel. Sorry for all the dismal posts lately. I was feeling a little lost and disgruntled. Things are looking up though and I feel like I have some new challenges to work towards. I hope everyone out there in cyber- land is doing well and I wish everyone the very best in all their endevours!
Much love,
Jefe'
I'm currently taking a class at University of Missouri in Modern Literature. As always I am humbled by my English professor and how much he has read and seen and understands about the world. In only two weeks he has managed to turn my worldview on its heels (again) and get me thinking about new sides of old arguments that I had never considered. My professor is probably in his seventies and he understands every allusion and reference to every other work of literature or era of history in such detail that I am constantly awed. He reflects my naive youthfulness and debunks my grasp on reality without breaking stride in his lectures. It's wonderfully liberating to again realize that I don't know shit about shit. I'm a baby--a prepubesant rube.
I haven't written much lately about what I'm up to or where I'm headed. I hit a bit of a plateau over the last few months and felt my wheels spinning over things that I ultimately have no control over. Sorry for expressing those frustrations here, but it does help me to hear what others are thinking about. Now I'm back in school. The plan--if all works out well--is to get my GPA up and apply to PhD programs for English Literature/ Creative Writing (yes, you can get a PhD in Creative Writing believe it or not). Allison is also applying to PhD programs for Counseling Psychology. Ideally we could both get into the same school, but realistically we may have to deal with that once we find out which one of us gets accepted where (if at all). The plan on my end is to continue writing and putting myself in the position to teach on a college level so as not to rely on my writing for sustenance. I've realized over the last year in dealing with my first round of rejections that the publishing world is as cut-throat as any other industry in America. While writing fiction sounds like a pretty idealistic way to spend one's time (and I personally think it is since I love it so much), all that comes with getting a work published seems, so far, like a bit of a racket. But, a racket I'm going to have to deal with. So, I'm going to a writer's conference in Seattle in a couple of weeks (which I'm really looking forward to), and I hope I can gain some perspective on what the less romantic side of writing is all about. I'll keep ya posted.
I see a light somewhere down this tunnel. Sorry for all the dismal posts lately. I was feeling a little lost and disgruntled. Things are looking up though and I feel like I have some new challenges to work towards. I hope everyone out there in cyber- land is doing well and I wish everyone the very best in all their endevours!
Much love,
Jefe'
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Monday, June 12, 2006
A New Movement
I’m ready for something new. I don’t mean that I’m looking for a new personal area of interest (although this is never a bad thing), or that I’m making some vague political statement about the Bush administration (although it’s pretty clear he’s all washed up)--I’m talking about art in its most general and sprawling definition. It seems to me that no matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to get rid of the sixties—with all its washed out, shallow metaphors and drug-induced attempts at enlightenment. The “drifter” was a cool guy to be in the fifties; Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg, these were guys worth having a conversation with--carving their stream-of-consciousness, counter-culture, live for the moment, leave your possessions, life is jazz mentality into the minds of the upcoming children of peace and love. But that’s where it should have stopped and been turned into something concrete. The Beatniks had something to say. They were the closest thing that this country has ever had to a mainstream intellectual/ artistic movement, where writers and poets and bright minds were taken seriously enough to be celebrities in the American mainstream. They lived their words: train-hopping, ground camping, money scrounging their way to the next town, looking desperately for some depth and meaning to set them free from the mundane, suburbanite bullshit that was eroding the minds of everyone around them. These were great men. They had courage to be something different and to say, “I’m intelligent, self-sufficient, and more alive than you are. I have no money, I have no home, and I am still an American, and what’s more, I have influence. I don’t need corporate sponsorship, I don’t need government protection--I don’t need anything but my pen. I live by my words and I’m willing to die by them." Each was a soldier in his own rite.
Then came the hippies. The hippies said, “That’s all fine and well, but we’re not so interested in the whole discipline thing." So, the Beatnik’s intellectual counter-culture turned into a thing of the heart. Hippies were, by and large, good-intentioned, big-hearted, talent-less vagabonds who turned, “scrounging for money to find Truth and create something lasting” into “scrounging for money to get to the next music festival and buy more acid." The musicians had some talent, but not a lot of discipline. The movement lost steam because it became more about having fun than about finding meaning. It stopped asking the big questions and started giving the easy answers—-simple answers, like love each other and make peace, not war, answers that were broad and spiritual and, ultimately, as we've seen, easier to say and sing about than to actually live out in reality. The now moody, reality-blurred movement dissipated into an age of bad music, confusion, and brainless disco dancing with only the Grateful Dead to keep the hippy dream alive. The Beatniks surely would have been disappointed to see that the hippies let drugs and sex and spinning around until they saw God come between them and their movement.
This is not to say that some good and lasting things didn’t come out of the sixties: Civil Rights, Feminism, conscientious objection to violence, these ideas were specific and useful towards a greater good. They were tangible ideas that Americans could understand and buy into. Many other worthwhile ideas were swept away with the Bohemian Mafia, content with cultureless dissent and structure-less, tacky, anything-goes art and music. In its place came the eighties' synthesized music with nothing to say and even harder drugs to do. With the voice of the intellectuals all but absent—-only Kurt Vonnegut to cynically mock the ridiculousness of the Regan years—-the voice of the Beatniks cowered even further from the mainstream into an elitist group sitting in campus coffee shops scratching their chins. The mainstream voice still trying to speak out for Truth and real Freedom (when it comes to big decisions), became angry in the nineties with grunge music (a fair attempt, but still ultimately undisciplined and lacking motivation), and has now turned to cynicism and sarcasm among anyone still tuning out and clinging to reality in a culture of people looking for anything that will catapult them into stardom: a gimmick, an image, a façade that will entertain the American people like dangling car keys in front of a newborn child. Today's "artists" have nothing to say, it's all about them. If an artist can stick to a inner voice and express something meaningful and people buy into it enough to make this artist wealthy--fine. But today's artists simply cater to what the people want and it has turned all of our fine arts into watered-down, mono-cultured, commercial bullshit. Every book on the bestseller list is the same book, every song on the radio is the same song, every voice in America is the same voice, and it's saying, "I care more about money than saying what I really think about life."
So, I’m ready for something new. I’m ready for this country to get fed up with the bullshit and start enduring some boring mindfulness for the sake of something beautiful and lasting, something with depth and meaning, something that might possibly echo the sentiment of the Beatniks who were willing to sleep in a barn rather than compromise with a culture that spends their time talking about what color couch will match their curtains. Anytime you’re ready artists and musicians. Anytime you’re ready intellectuals. Anytime you’re ready American mainstream—-to calm down and do something that involves talent and thought, something creative that is about enriching your culture and not about making you rich-—I’m ready to see it.
Then came the hippies. The hippies said, “That’s all fine and well, but we’re not so interested in the whole discipline thing." So, the Beatnik’s intellectual counter-culture turned into a thing of the heart. Hippies were, by and large, good-intentioned, big-hearted, talent-less vagabonds who turned, “scrounging for money to find Truth and create something lasting” into “scrounging for money to get to the next music festival and buy more acid." The musicians had some talent, but not a lot of discipline. The movement lost steam because it became more about having fun than about finding meaning. It stopped asking the big questions and started giving the easy answers—-simple answers, like love each other and make peace, not war, answers that were broad and spiritual and, ultimately, as we've seen, easier to say and sing about than to actually live out in reality. The now moody, reality-blurred movement dissipated into an age of bad music, confusion, and brainless disco dancing with only the Grateful Dead to keep the hippy dream alive. The Beatniks surely would have been disappointed to see that the hippies let drugs and sex and spinning around until they saw God come between them and their movement.
This is not to say that some good and lasting things didn’t come out of the sixties: Civil Rights, Feminism, conscientious objection to violence, these ideas were specific and useful towards a greater good. They were tangible ideas that Americans could understand and buy into. Many other worthwhile ideas were swept away with the Bohemian Mafia, content with cultureless dissent and structure-less, tacky, anything-goes art and music. In its place came the eighties' synthesized music with nothing to say and even harder drugs to do. With the voice of the intellectuals all but absent—-only Kurt Vonnegut to cynically mock the ridiculousness of the Regan years—-the voice of the Beatniks cowered even further from the mainstream into an elitist group sitting in campus coffee shops scratching their chins. The mainstream voice still trying to speak out for Truth and real Freedom (when it comes to big decisions), became angry in the nineties with grunge music (a fair attempt, but still ultimately undisciplined and lacking motivation), and has now turned to cynicism and sarcasm among anyone still tuning out and clinging to reality in a culture of people looking for anything that will catapult them into stardom: a gimmick, an image, a façade that will entertain the American people like dangling car keys in front of a newborn child. Today's "artists" have nothing to say, it's all about them. If an artist can stick to a inner voice and express something meaningful and people buy into it enough to make this artist wealthy--fine. But today's artists simply cater to what the people want and it has turned all of our fine arts into watered-down, mono-cultured, commercial bullshit. Every book on the bestseller list is the same book, every song on the radio is the same song, every voice in America is the same voice, and it's saying, "I care more about money than saying what I really think about life."
So, I’m ready for something new. I’m ready for this country to get fed up with the bullshit and start enduring some boring mindfulness for the sake of something beautiful and lasting, something with depth and meaning, something that might possibly echo the sentiment of the Beatniks who were willing to sleep in a barn rather than compromise with a culture that spends their time talking about what color couch will match their curtains. Anytime you’re ready artists and musicians. Anytime you’re ready intellectuals. Anytime you’re ready American mainstream—-to calm down and do something that involves talent and thought, something creative that is about enriching your culture and not about making you rich-—I’m ready to see it.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
