Dark Dubya
Thursday, December 29, 2005
"The Nightingale" on PBS tonight at 8pm
This amazing performance is on as I type. Mesmerizing.
The music is by Stravinsky, and the staging is reminescent of the works of Robert Wilson and Twyla Tharp. Beyond the beyond.
[Repeat]
BUT THEN..."Shallow Hal" is also on concurrently...on FOX. Also a very good pick. Besides...it was filmed right here in Charlotte...AND it features friend of a friend Gwyneth Paltry...in her skivvies.
A splendid time is guaranteed for all...
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
When will conservatives learn their role?
There is no need to yell and scream. No need to be strident and shrill. What is needed is that conservatives learn their proper role.
Now by conservative, I mean people who are not creative, but who are, in the main, reactionary.
In America, it has long been the case that the creative class tended toward liberality, since that is, in large part, what enables them to be creative. Creativity is a generative and generous act.
But many of those who are not creative make the mistake of becoming, or being, reactive, as if reactivity balanced creativity. But this is not the proper order. The proper thing for the non-creatives to do is to be receptive, not reactive. Creativity is the yang, receptivity is the yin.
All of life is infused with both characteristics. No one is completely one way or the other. There are simply aptitudes and orientations.
America is prevented from evolving naturally by this miscalculation. Instead of great ideas being nurtured and developed by those who would be receptive, instead they are reacted against, shot down, and the balloon bursts...if it is ever given wind in the first place.
The second mistake of the reactives is that reaction is, to the extent that it is mechanical, the antonym of consciousness. As DH Lawrence once wrote: "Death is not evil. Evil is mechanical."
And so it is with mechanical humanity -- if the oxymoron hasn't already smacked you on the face or fundament. And mechanicality is a state against which one must ever struggle, as modernity itself seems to lull one into its hypnotic laze. (Here laze is meant to indicate the gestalt of laziness...and to not neologize might be a glaring example of said laze.)
Allied with this unconscious, mechanical reactionariness are the onion layers of delusion (Maya) caused by the buffers from reality caked on with each ego-centered supposition, as if every knucklehead were indeed the actual center of the universe.
Creatives, for their part, need to understand that a gift is a gift, and that gifts can be taken away if not stewarded with proper care. Midwiving reactives into receptives may be a role you have to take up. Alas, friends are better than foe. Make it all worthwhile.
Americans are growing weary of the ululation, the pounding fists, the adolescent bravado. Fix the most basic structures, and the rest will become much easier to attend.
These things and more have been uttered under the influence of Anonymoses, uncle of all blogs, and may not be taken as medicine. If conditions persist, consult your physicist.
Now by conservative, I mean people who are not creative, but who are, in the main, reactionary.
In America, it has long been the case that the creative class tended toward liberality, since that is, in large part, what enables them to be creative. Creativity is a generative and generous act.
But many of those who are not creative make the mistake of becoming, or being, reactive, as if reactivity balanced creativity. But this is not the proper order. The proper thing for the non-creatives to do is to be receptive, not reactive. Creativity is the yang, receptivity is the yin.
All of life is infused with both characteristics. No one is completely one way or the other. There are simply aptitudes and orientations.
America is prevented from evolving naturally by this miscalculation. Instead of great ideas being nurtured and developed by those who would be receptive, instead they are reacted against, shot down, and the balloon bursts...if it is ever given wind in the first place.
The second mistake of the reactives is that reaction is, to the extent that it is mechanical, the antonym of consciousness. As DH Lawrence once wrote: "Death is not evil. Evil is mechanical."
And so it is with mechanical humanity -- if the oxymoron hasn't already smacked you on the face or fundament. And mechanicality is a state against which one must ever struggle, as modernity itself seems to lull one into its hypnotic laze. (Here laze is meant to indicate the gestalt of laziness...and to not neologize might be a glaring example of said laze.)
Allied with this unconscious, mechanical reactionariness are the onion layers of delusion (Maya) caused by the buffers from reality caked on with each ego-centered supposition, as if every knucklehead were indeed the actual center of the universe.
Creatives, for their part, need to understand that a gift is a gift, and that gifts can be taken away if not stewarded with proper care. Midwiving reactives into receptives may be a role you have to take up. Alas, friends are better than foe. Make it all worthwhile.
Americans are growing weary of the ululation, the pounding fists, the adolescent bravado. Fix the most basic structures, and the rest will become much easier to attend.
These things and more have been uttered under the influence of Anonymoses, uncle of all blogs, and may not be taken as medicine. If conditions persist, consult your physicist.
BULLETIN: Bush Elected President of Iraq
Complete coverage at Onion News Services.
(hattip to Rah Bourbon of the European Bourbons)
(hattip to Rah Bourbon of the European Bourbons)
"Growth is Good" by J. "Bradfold" Delong
An economist's take on the moral consequences of material progress
[Note the prominent typo in his name.] :)
Blogger Brad DeLong, Harvard ’82, Ph.D. ’87, is professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, and is at work on “The Economic History of the Twentieth Century: Slouching towards Utopia?”
[Note the prominent typo in his name.] :)
Blogger Brad DeLong, Harvard ’82, Ph.D. ’87, is professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley, and is at work on “The Economic History of the Twentieth Century: Slouching towards Utopia?”
We have been nominated for Best Writing/Koufax Awards
Along with these other good folks:
Best Writing
Lance Mannion - Creek Running North - Nancy Nall - Neil Shakespeare - Michael Berube Online - Anonymoses - Rana - Echidne - Amanda Marcotte - Shakespeare's Sister - Stirling Newberry - Jeffrey Feldman - Matthew Nisbett - Paul Rosenberg
Thanks to Bora at Science and Politics for the nomination. Personally, I think he is the better writer. And color-coordinated!
Two Minute Television
Two Minute Television is the brainchild of Levi Shapiro. Some great clips! Check it out!
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
The Disnification of Harvard Square
In its heyday, the Brattle offered Boston film buffs the best movie education in town. For many, it is still hard to recall scenes from Francois Truffaut's "400 Blows" or Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" or Humphrey Bogart's farewell to Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca" without thinking of the Brattle.
The Brattle Film Foundation, the nonprofit that has operated the theater since 2001, has launched a campaign to save the place by raising $400,000 before its lease runs out in February.
The last performance I saw at the Brattle was Spalding Gray performing Swimming to Cambodia. May the theater not suffer a similar fate...
Monday, December 26, 2005
Vid-blog Emmy awards
href="http://edcone.typepad.com/wordup/2005/12/vidblog_emmy_aw.html">EdCone.com: Vid-blog Emmy awards
Video blogs and podcasts are eligible for Emmy awards. The LA Times reports: "The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences...is creating an award for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms ? and the first one will be handed out at the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on April 28, airing on ABC."
Details on applications and rules at vlogLab.
via Ed Cone
Video blogs and podcasts are eligible for Emmy awards. The LA Times reports: "The New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences...is creating an award for Outstanding Achievement in Content for Non-Traditional Delivery Platforms ? and the first one will be handed out at the 33rd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on April 28, airing on ABC."
Details on applications and rules at vlogLab.
via Ed Cone
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