The Daily News (or Stuff on the Colbert Report)
Seems like there's a lot of news going on, too. It was earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns in Japan, and then the extreme spike of gas (and therefore food prices), followed by the crazy union-bashing in Wisconsin and the battles at home. I love the story (that I heard on Caroline Casey's show), that some people in Tahir Square delivered pizza to the groups occupying the state capitol building, saying, "We are all one. Middle East and Mid East." And I love this: the synchronicity, the collaboration of unlikely allies, people crossing boundaries right and left.
Then, there was the whole Osama thing; he's supposedly dead. I heard the news, which my friend Z delivered with a similar "holy shit, here we go" shrug and sense of urgency as did the person who delivered the 9/11 news. This time I decided to just take it in stride, having no idea that people, I saw later on the news, were celebrating in the streets. My God. What do I say to that?
400 Americans have more wealth than 150 million Americans combined, I just heard Michael Moore (on the Colbert Report) say, and there's no way our world can tolerate statistics like that for very long.
Alan Arkin is Blowing My Mind
I recently decided to use some of my commute time to listen to some books, and I started out with Alan Arkin’s recent book “An Improvised Life: A Memoir,” which he also narrates. It’s amazing. It started pretty good, then got better; he talks not just about his work but also his self, his life as a person, and it’s all with complete honesty and insight.
And his observations about his work, about art, are so penetrating and mind-blowing, really. He describes complex and subtle feelings that I have felt my whole life but have never been able to articulate well. I was trying to say something about it in the last two epic blog entries (sometimes, I do have that writer’s issue of not being able to say it *quite* the way I know I could), and then along come Alan Arkin and it’s like the voice of God.
He tells about becoming a celebrity, almost overnight, and what it’s like; he said most people want something from him, and he doesn’t mean something emotional or attention. No, they want physical things, like signatures and pictures and calls to the sick niece to wish her happy birthday. Very few, he says, write notes of thanks, or say his work has moved them. I couldn’t believe that. “Those are few and far between,” Alan said. It’s awful.
I mean, I know that a general lack of gratitude is a problem in the world – if you are grateful, for instance, on a daily basis, then you don’t start wars, you don’t beat your wife, you don’t build prisons, etc. But I was surprised at this lack of expressed thanks for artists. The first thing you say to a performer or writer or even teacher – the only thing you say, if you can only say one thing – is “I like (or love, your choice) your work.”
Naked Bodies
I’d like to do a long entry on Harbin Hot Springs, where I was last week, a clothing-optional old hippie natural hot springs spa up past Calistoga; I don’t have time now, but I do want to at least mention some observations about naked people.
First, if you have ever been to a clothing-optional spa retreat place (and I’m not a nudist; the nudity has a purpose: it makes the most sense when you are in the water), you know it’s mostly people exercising the option to be naked. Some people wear clothes, but few, and lots start off clothed and then quickly disrobe. Because once you realize it’s just the norm, it feels funny to be clothed. It’s all about norms. We (Americans, Westerners, people in general, even) tend to fetishize and outlaw what we are most obsessed with, and afraid of – because it is the thing we most want. I’m not saying people WANT naked bodies, per se, but they want what's good. Harbin has a non-sexual laid-back relaxed healing meditative vibe. You’re naked because it’s healthy and natural to be so. That’s what people want.
And it’s nice, because it gives you a chance to get used to see lots of different bodies, of all ages and shapes and sizes, and you start to realize how narrow the spectrum is of bodies we label beautiful. I mean, women’s bodies, with their curves, are all kind of great; male bodies are a little more run of the mill – even the more spectacularly fit are not all that spectacular – but they are still beautiful in their function. Bodies are cool, and there’s a lot of variety that can be fun to look at and/or interact with. That’s all I am saying.
Gettysburg
There’s all this conflict everywhere….limited ideas: limited ideas of what a body should be, what a person should be, what a God should be. And we get all attached to the idea, and we end up serving it at all costs, even when the costs are other people.
I’ve been watching the really long (almost 5 hours) movie/miniseries Gettysburg (1992, Martin Sheen, Tom Beranger, Sam Elliot and, in the role of his life, Jeff Daniels), about….well, Gettysburg. It’s the battle in detail. The night before. The Morning of. Day One, etc. Good God, it’s shocking and sad and crazy. Blowing up your brother. Shooting a person from three feet away. The things people do. I can’t fucking understand it sometimes.
But that goes both ways. Jeff Daniels plays Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, and the story (and his performance) is so heartbreaking, so endearing, so just gut-wrenching beautifully human; good stuff, they say, happens in war, as well all the horror. Which is why we need it, I guess; we wouldn’t keep doing it, over and over, unless we were getting something from it.
My friend D recently told me I “had seen through and was owning my projections….which is what changes lives.” May we all see through and own our projections at some point, because I think we’d have a lot more peace….and a lot more fun.
Seems like there's a lot of news going on, too. It was earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns in Japan, and then the extreme spike of gas (and therefore food prices), followed by the crazy union-bashing in Wisconsin and the battles at home. I love the story (that I heard on Caroline Casey's show), that some people in Tahir Square delivered pizza to the groups occupying the state capitol building, saying, "We are all one. Middle East and Mid East." And I love this: the synchronicity, the collaboration of unlikely allies, people crossing boundaries right and left.
Then, there was the whole Osama thing; he's supposedly dead. I heard the news, which my friend Z delivered with a similar "holy shit, here we go" shrug and sense of urgency as did the person who delivered the 9/11 news. This time I decided to just take it in stride, having no idea that people, I saw later on the news, were celebrating in the streets. My God. What do I say to that?
400 Americans have more wealth than 150 million Americans combined, I just heard Michael Moore (on the Colbert Report) say, and there's no way our world can tolerate statistics like that for very long.
Alan Arkin is Blowing My Mind
I recently decided to use some of my commute time to listen to some books, and I started out with Alan Arkin’s recent book “An Improvised Life: A Memoir,” which he also narrates. It’s amazing. It started pretty good, then got better; he talks not just about his work but also his self, his life as a person, and it’s all with complete honesty and insight.
And his observations about his work, about art, are so penetrating and mind-blowing, really. He describes complex and subtle feelings that I have felt my whole life but have never been able to articulate well. I was trying to say something about it in the last two epic blog entries (sometimes, I do have that writer’s issue of not being able to say it *quite* the way I know I could), and then along come Alan Arkin and it’s like the voice of God.
He tells about becoming a celebrity, almost overnight, and what it’s like; he said most people want something from him, and he doesn’t mean something emotional or attention. No, they want physical things, like signatures and pictures and calls to the sick niece to wish her happy birthday. Very few, he says, write notes of thanks, or say his work has moved them. I couldn’t believe that. “Those are few and far between,” Alan said. It’s awful.
I mean, I know that a general lack of gratitude is a problem in the world – if you are grateful, for instance, on a daily basis, then you don’t start wars, you don’t beat your wife, you don’t build prisons, etc. But I was surprised at this lack of expressed thanks for artists. The first thing you say to a performer or writer or even teacher – the only thing you say, if you can only say one thing – is “I like (or love, your choice) your work.”
Naked Bodies
I’d like to do a long entry on Harbin Hot Springs, where I was last week, a clothing-optional old hippie natural hot springs spa up past Calistoga; I don’t have time now, but I do want to at least mention some observations about naked people.
First, if you have ever been to a clothing-optional spa retreat place (and I’m not a nudist; the nudity has a purpose: it makes the most sense when you are in the water), you know it’s mostly people exercising the option to be naked. Some people wear clothes, but few, and lots start off clothed and then quickly disrobe. Because once you realize it’s just the norm, it feels funny to be clothed. It’s all about norms. We (Americans, Westerners, people in general, even) tend to fetishize and outlaw what we are most obsessed with, and afraid of – because it is the thing we most want. I’m not saying people WANT naked bodies, per se, but they want what's good. Harbin has a non-sexual laid-back relaxed healing meditative vibe. You’re naked because it’s healthy and natural to be so. That’s what people want.
And it’s nice, because it gives you a chance to get used to see lots of different bodies, of all ages and shapes and sizes, and you start to realize how narrow the spectrum is of bodies we label beautiful. I mean, women’s bodies, with their curves, are all kind of great; male bodies are a little more run of the mill – even the more spectacularly fit are not all that spectacular – but they are still beautiful in their function. Bodies are cool, and there’s a lot of variety that can be fun to look at and/or interact with. That’s all I am saying.
Gettysburg
There’s all this conflict everywhere….limited ideas: limited ideas of what a body should be, what a person should be, what a God should be. And we get all attached to the idea, and we end up serving it at all costs, even when the costs are other people.
I’ve been watching the really long (almost 5 hours) movie/miniseries Gettysburg (1992, Martin Sheen, Tom Beranger, Sam Elliot and, in the role of his life, Jeff Daniels), about….well, Gettysburg. It’s the battle in detail. The night before. The Morning of. Day One, etc. Good God, it’s shocking and sad and crazy. Blowing up your brother. Shooting a person from three feet away. The things people do. I can’t fucking understand it sometimes.
But that goes both ways. Jeff Daniels plays Union Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, and the story (and his performance) is so heartbreaking, so endearing, so just gut-wrenching beautifully human; good stuff, they say, happens in war, as well all the horror. Which is why we need it, I guess; we wouldn’t keep doing it, over and over, unless we were getting something from it.
My friend D recently told me I “had seen through and was owning my projections….which is what changes lives.” May we all see through and own our projections at some point, because I think we’d have a lot more peace….and a lot more fun.
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