Hula-Hooping Through the Graveyard, and Other Unsolicited Bits of Information

The ancient meets the modern at Petroglyph National Monument.

March 27, 2018

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Reflections on the Oscars, 2022

Oscar Day used to be a holy day for me and I know right when it stopped. One year they were behind time like normal, and they basically fast-forwarded the In Memoriam segment, my favorite segment. Clips of all these actors, actresses, and directors that I felt like I almost knew and loved just flew right on by. You could barely read their names before the next one appeared. They might as well have played the Benny Hill theme song over it. 

Thinking back on the rest of the telecast, I wondered if it was critical to hear John Travolta's minute of half-witted jibes about sound, followed by Julia Roberts' minute of half-witted jibes about sound mixing. The jokes that the Oscar writers put in, they aren't even supposed to be funny, are they? Their intent seems to be filler vs entertainment, often ironically pointing out that nobody even cares about the category. "Relax, we'll get to the good stuff soon."

And the good stuff, is it actually that good? Do I need to quote Norma Desmond here? At some point nominations seemed based on which studios were better at lobbying. I tried to watch Power of the Dog last night. Maybe it was good. I couldn't make it past a half hour though. I couldn't help but wonder if I'm a victim of lobbying.

The gripe has always been that the program is way too long. It's not too long! When something is great it would never cross our minds to think that it's simultaneously too long. The problem is that it has become terrible, bordering on intolerable at points. 

Do we need to hear the names of the 75 people who helped someone win best make up, when three would have been too many? No. The number of people who needed to hear them is the mythical one billion viewers, minus 75. To put it in the vernacular of the peasantry- that's piss-poor content.

We need a transition show. Winners will all know they'll get cut after X amount of time. Not played off, but cut instead. The theme of the show can be- A Tribute to Editing. Just like in the movies, they can cut to a different scene. Get these people to practice their speeches, or allow the best moment of their life turn into the most embarrassing with a simple cut before they could tell their kids to go to sleep, they are up too late, daddy won. Movies are not ad-libbed in the moment, and Oscar speeches shouldn't be either. Then the next year- tight ship!

I'm not just remembering a past that didn't happen. These shows used to be great. Sure, you had to put up with some Billy Crystal dancing, but they'd have montages around a theme that would genuinely make you feel the magic of films. And what is that magic? A mere 10,000 years ago, we used to tell stories to each other while sitting around fires, and now we go to darkened theaters and experience essentially the same thing, substituting some mammoth meat with popcorn covered in a butter-ike substance. Storytelling is deep within us. 

They lost that essence along the way. They determined that not enough people watch the shows, so they tried to change them, but sacrificed the thing that made them great. 

The best films connect us in a way that little else does these days. Of course they have to be commercial in order to even pay for their production, but when the focus is on the commerciality vs the genuine essence, we all lose. (Didn't we already learn this in A Charlie Brown Christmas?) 

The Oscar producers always bragged that a billion people watched the show worldwide. So they went for 1.1 billion, and last year they got less than 10 million. If they aim for fifty million, put real heart into it and take risks (Ricky Gervais, anyone?), perhaps they'd get a hundred million. When the producers aimed for hyper-viewership, the show got small, and no matter how long the show is, it remains small.

The show is small, that one's for you Gloria Swanson, born on this day in 1899. She stood 4'11", but she was big. Sunset Boulevard director Billy Wilder died on this day in 2002. I don't know how tall he was, but he was big too.

So what do I hope for tonight on the Oscars? I don't know, but if I'm going to spend three hours of my life watching it, I expect something spectacular, simultaneously knowing the chances are slim.

Dustin Hoffman's Kramer Vs. Kramer speech focusing on the fact that art is not competition is one for the ages. 

Sasheen Littlefeather (now terminally ill with cancer) brought about some real change in the world with her speech. Geronimo surrendered on this day in 1886. Consider how we view him pre-Sasheen Littlefeather to post-Sasheen Littlefeather.

Alfred Hitchcock might have given the best speech in Oscar history after winning his lifetime achievement award. He simply said, "Thank you." These days, that alone would be spectacular.

If nothing else, the show used to allow itself the space to let the In Memoriam segment breathe. If it can't breath, next year's show should just be an In Memoriam to the show itself. Who knows, maybe that's what this year's show will be. Who knows, that's exactly the type of self-congratulating nonsense that could appeal to the producers. Who knows, maybe with the very nature of a three hour show and a fickle public, commercialism does defeat a focus on the universal essence of storytelling. I don't know. No matter what though, one thing will always remain true, you need to breath to stay alive.

March 27, 2022 (pre-broadcast)

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This is always a good night to remember that I have as many Best Director Oscars as Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Sidney Lumet and Howard Hawks combined.

March 27, 2022

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You know how I want this Oscars to end? Will Smith in jail.

March 27, 2022

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One time I was jogging through School Lane Hills and had to go to the bathroom so bad. I didn't want to run home, and I really didn't want to pee my pants. I mostly look down when I'm running so it wasn't until it was right next to me that I witnessed my savior... a port-o-potty, somehow right by the side of the road! It was there for some construction crew. I did what I had to do and kept running.

Today I was running for about a mile in the same area. It was so cold and windy, and my hands were so freezing, that thought about going back. I ran for a while out in the wide median, and guess what I saw laying there... two gloves!

What does this mean? Something mystical? Karma? Luck? A cosmic tilt in my favor? 

Nahhh, the gloves were wet. Further anecdotal evidence of the universe's indifference. When you drop your confirmation bias and keep your eyes open for indifference, you see it everywhere! I find it comforting.

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Want an explanation of why we text so much? 

Ingmar Bergman- "Sometimes I go days without speaking to a soul. I think "I should make that call" but I put it off. Because there is something... something pleasurable about not talking."

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Strangest line from the Wizard of Oz... the mayor of the Munchkins says "this is a day of independence for all the Munchkins and our descendants," and then this guy in the back pipes up and says, "if any!" What's wrong with the munchkins' reproductive capabilities???

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Schopenhauer- "Man can indeed do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wants."

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My current favorite logical fallacy is "the fallacy fallacy"- just because an argument is unsound does not necessarily make the conclusion untrue. 

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I wonder if it's possible for someone to love Jesus so much that they refuse to allow him to bear their sins for them, instead accepting the full weight and responsibility themselves. Jesus as scapegoat is such a strange basis for a religion. If I ever make a religion, that idea of personal responsibility will be at the center! Our mantra will be "Sin is here," which happens to be an anagram of "He is risen."

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The New York Times seem to warn that Wordle was pretty hard today, that you have an excellent vocabulary if you get it in less than four turns. The word was GUANO, and I got it in three. That's not a hard word, but somebody commented that today's puzzle was BS. BS? That's kind of funny if you think about it. It was BS, but it didn't have anything to do with stears.

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George Carlin:

"Rat shit, bat shit, dirty old twat,

Sixty-nine assholes tied in a knot,

Yeah, lizard shit, FUCK!"

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Nothing like springtime to make you feel alive! Wait, correction, nothing like springtime in a graveyard to make you feel alive!

They say that after your great-great-grandparents, basically nothing is remembered of anybody. I met with my great-aunt and you know what she told me about her grandmother, buried here? That she smoked a corncob pipe. That's it!

And yes, Zuzu insisted on bringing her hula hoop. When is the last time that you saw a hula hoop in a graveyard???

March 27, 2021

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I went over to the big open space at Buchanan Park tonight with the kids... strangely comforting to look up at the giant sky and see no planes. If not for the occasional pesky one, it was the Unabomber's dream come true.

March 27, 2020

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The Lakota Way- "When choosing a leader we always kept in mind that humility provided clarity, where arrogance makes a cloud. The last thing we wanted was to be led by someone whose judgment and actions were clouded by arrogance."

I have a feeling that 100% of us agree with this sentiment, that 100% know that the president is largely defined by his arrogance, and yet many still think he's the closest thing Jesus to walk the earth over the last 2000 years.

March 27, 2020

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Oh... great. (BTW, if this is true, we are responsible for SO many acts of war ourselves... "you think we're so innocent?")

The Hill- Cheney: Russian election interference could be ‘act of war’

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/325928-cheney-russian-election-interference-could-be-act-of-war/

March 27, 2017

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Heath to me- "So after two weeks of discussions revolving around "of mice and men", and relations of the depression era migrant workers life, the poetry of robert burns, and the nature of isolation among men, a girl writes today "I think that probably the theme of "of mice and men" is that sometimes you have a best friend and thats the person you have to kill".

March 27, 2013

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Ahhh, the innocence of childhood. Almost makes you want to go back and play forever... and ever... and ever.

Incidentally, Danny Lloyd remembered the two girls he played with on set. Their scenes were filmed separately. Only years and years later saw The Shining and how drop dead terrifying they were.

March 27, 2023

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The Apache warrior Geronimo surrendered to the U.S. Army on this day in 1886, ending the main phase of the Apache Wars.

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Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, was put in quarantine for the second time on this day in 1915, where she would remain for the rest of her life.

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Notable birthdays- Gloria Swanson (1899), Quentin Tarantino (1963)

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Yuri Gagarin left us on this day in 1968. The first man in space!

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Other notable deathdays- Milton Berle and Billy Wilder (2002), Farley Granger (2011)

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Huffington Post- Christopher Hitchens: Catholic Church Wants 'Wiggle Room' For Rape And Torture Of Children

Countdown to the pope's resignation...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/27/christopher-hitchens-cath_n_515657.html

March 27, 2010

Postscript- I called it. It WAS a countdown to the Pope's resignation, the first in almost 600 years.

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Taste of Cinema- 20 Movie Masterpieces Overshadowed By The Same Directors’ Other Masterpieces

Damn, great list! Not too often anymore do I feel the need to add films to my must watch list.

http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/20-cinematic-masterpieces-overshadowed-by-the-same-directors-other-masterpieces/

March 27, 2016

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Over the Edge- Fun With Guns

https://youtu.be/SCpUq1Tmd0o

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Yahoo News- Monica Lewinsky sounds off on the Mueller report

I love how she has redefined herself, a true inspiration. You are what you make of yourself, not what others say you are.

Bob Dylan- "He not busy being born is busy dying." (Or she.)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/monica-lewinsky-sounds-off-on-the-mueller-report-172736648.html

March 27, 2019

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ABC News- Barbara Bush on Trump: 'I don’t understand why people are for him'

An early-adopter, ahead of the curve. From the article:

"In an entry in her personal diary from the early 1990s, Bush wrote that she viewed Trump as the "real symbol of greed in the 80s."

"The Trumps are a new word, both of them,” Bush wrote. "Trump now means Greed, selfishness and ugly. So sad.”

https://abcn.ws/2HJQkYS

March 27, 2019

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Russell Yost Obituary

https://beckfuneral.com/book-of-memories/3783134/Yost-Russell/index.php

A New Holland icon. Perfectly fitting that he would belong to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. I forgot he ran the snack bar at the old New Holland pool. I've probably know him since I was 5, and he was old then. Somehow in 9th grade history he played the footage of that Vietcong prisoner getting executed in the streets of Saigon. Literally footage... he played it on an old-time film projector. How did he get a film of that? And how did he get away with showing it??? It made an impression. I sat in the back of class and it took no more than three strides to get back there to see firsthand what was going on. When you took notes in his class and asked him to repeat something he'd never say it the same way twice, he said it was intentional so that you had to think about what you were writing. That always stuck with me. Great guy... committed to the community... they don't make them like that anymore, as they say. "The Last of the Line," he says, but I think some of his DNA was passed on.

March 27, 2019

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Errol Morris says that we only use the word obvious, when we lack a rational argument, it's supposed to take the place of it.

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Norm Macdonald- "Then about 30 years passed, and Germany decides again to go to war, and again, it chooses as its enemy, the world."

https://youtu.be/uXdtafGdIVM

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The Onion- Supreme Court On Gay Marriage: 'Sure, Who Cares'

“I’m a strict Originalist, Mr. Cooper, and I’m looking at a 14th Amendment that forbids any state from denying any person equal protection of the law,” Associate Justice Antonin Scalia said. “So, unless we are the most uncivilized society on the face of God’s green earth, I think we can all agree that a gay person is in fact a person. So what I’m saying is, who the fuck are we to tell a person who he or she can get married to? This is dumb. Can we talk about a real case now, please?”

http://www.theonion.com/articles/supreme-court-on-gay-marriage-sure-who-cares,31812/

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Garry Winogrand 

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Nietzsche- "Be careful in casting out your devil 'lest you cast out the best thing about you."

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James Hollis, The Middle Passage- "The capacity for growth depends on one’s ability to internalize and to take personal responsibility. If we forever see our life as a problem caused by others, a problem to be "solved," then no change will occur."

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Arthur M. Schlesinger- "Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought."

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Edmund Burke- "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

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Jim Harrison- "A poet technically is supposed to be a “thief of fire” but as easily as anyone else he becomes a working stiff who drinks too much on late Friday afternoons."

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Gregory Corso- "Standing on a street corner waiting for no one is power."

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Karl Marx- “Keep people from their history, and they are easily controlled."

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Frost- "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

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John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces- "I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."

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Tennessee Williams- "Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory."

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Richard Dawkins- "Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one."

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Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass- "Resist much, obey little."

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Dumb Short Joke of the Day:

And God said to John, come forth and you shall be granted eternal life. But John came fifth and won a toaster.

Addendum:

Brilliant podcast by Sam Harris. My favorite part was his refutation of the notion that if there is no free will, why even bother trying to convince anybody of anything? The short answer is that when presented with a reasonable argument, you don't choose to believe it or not- rather, if it is indeed reasonable you are a slave to it. You don't choose to believe an argument that makes sense to you any more than you can choose to not believe an argument that makes sense to you.

The example well-known atheist, Bertrand Russell, came to mind. He was out for a walk thinking about the ontological argument for the existence of God. He threw his tobacco tin up in the air when he realized that it made sense. He said something like, "Oh my God, the ontological argument is sound!" He subsequently realized it was ridiculous, but in that moment he was a slave to what he thought was a reasonable argument.

Like I said that's the short answer, here's the long answer, from the podcast:

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Biological evolution and cultural progress have increased our ability to get what we want out of life and to avoid what we don't want. A person who can reason effectively and plan for the future and choose his words carefully and regulate his negative emotions and play fair with strangers and participate in various cultural institutions is very different from a person who can do none of those things.

But these abilities do not lend credence to the traditional notion of free will. People sometimes ask, well, if there's no free will. Then why are you trying to convince anyone of anything? People are just going to believe whatever they believe. You're very effort to convince them that they don't have free will is proof that you think they have it. Again, this is confusion between determinism and fatalism. Reasoning is possible not because you're free to think however you want, but because you are not free.

Reason makes slaves of us all. To be convinced by an argument is to be subjugated by it is to be forced to believe it, regardless of your preferences. Think about what it's like not to know something and then to know it, to learn something despite your prior ignorance or presuppositions to the contrary. To be placed in the grip of an argument that is valid and true, to be led step by step over foreign ground. Without spotting an error, without seeing any place to put a foot or a hand to arrest your progress, to then be delivered to the necessary conclusion is the antithesis of freedom.

You're about as free as any prisoner who has ever led to the gallows. It's the lack of freedom that makes the reasoning possible. That's why I know an argument that worked on me should also work on you, and if it shouldn't work on you, it shouldn't have worked on me either. Reasoning is all about constraints. Two plus two equals four. Where is the freedom in that? It matters that two plus two equals four and it matters that we each can be made to understand that by being forced to think under the same logical constraints.

Are you free not to understand that two plus two equals four? Not if you do, in fact, understand it. Are you free to understand it if you don't understand it? Again, no, not until the understanding itself dawns in your mind, so whether you understand something or not isn't under your control. But the difference matters, absolutely. And knowledge on all fronts matters, absolutely. It's every bit as important as we imagine it to be. In fact, it's probably more important than most people imagine it to be.

The physicist David Deutsch has argued that knowledge can produce any change in the universe compatible with its laws, because if a change can't be accomplished with sufficient knowledge, that can only mean that some law of nature prevents it. Think about that for a moment. The claim is that anything that is possible, can be accomplished by the right understanding, otherwise it's not possible.

According to Deutsch, given the requisite knowledge you could take any region of space, sweep together it's stray hydrogen atoms, transmute them into heavier atoms through the process of nuclear fusion, use those elements to assemble the smallest possible machine capable of building all other structures, and then produce sentient creatures vastly more sensitive and intelligent than ourselves, atom by atom. All that is lacking at every stage along the way is the understanding of how to do these things, which is to say that all that is lacking is knowledge.

So, what our minds do potentially has cosmic significance. We could destroy ourselves in the next century or live for millions of years and populate the galaxy. The only difference will be what we do with our minds in the meantime. But again none of this causality requires, or even admits of free will. Again it's the lack of freedom that makes reasoning possible. Anyone who thinks 2+2=5 will find no end to his troubles. The world will oppose him at every point, beginning with his own fingers.

https://samharris.org/subscriber-extras/241-final-thoughts-on-free-will/

March 27, 2021