I posted about watching for patterns on Talkbass.com, the site that spawned Ghosts and Ballyhoo. A Scottish fellow didn’t like it. Here’s how it went. kohntarkosz: There is already a good thread on Ray Shulman on here. I guess Arthritic_Tom is the forum’s resident crank or something with his weird post-Abrahamic pseudo-religious chatter about synchronicity…
No context for male beauty
February 23, 2014
Our popular culture is very cruel. I know, because I spent ten years in the factory that creates it. This cruelty bleeds over into the rest of our culture, which is deeply unhealthy. We hear on a daily basis about the stresses women are under to be beautiful. Although I have a certain amount of…
Lip servicing ourselves into hell
February 19, 2014
I recently joined Facebook. Against my will. Alas, it’s turned out to be what I feared: a place where uninformed opinions based entirely on emotions are hurled around like…like…this. “It began with a food fight between children.” That’s what Facebook is like, unfortunately. Today the Horror That Must Be Stopped was the bill that Democratic…
Beware what you wish for
February 18, 2014
I was once forced into a family dispute among people I neither knew nor liked. It started when I saw a young woman sitting on the porch of a house, waiting. The elderly man who lived there was a friend of my mother’s, so I approached and asked if there was anything wrong. My parents…
Stereotyping and making assumptions do not help
February 17, 2014
When actress Ellen Page announced that she’s gay, social media went wild, pro and con. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve seen Page only in Juno, a movie that I wasn’t able to finish. I’ve known too many people whose shtick is endless one-liners. My own father, in fact, hid behind puns, jokes, and…
Memories no longer hurt
February 16, 2014
For most of my life, memories were torture. They were like pitiless satires of my aspirations, mocking everything I’d ever attempted. All I had to do was try to sleep, and I’d be flooded with memories of disaster, horror, pain, humiliation, and failure. Around 2007 it started to change, as I realized that each catastrophe…
I love you but you are wrong
February 14, 2014
One of my favorite actors is Orson Welles. His masterpiece is Touch of Evil. It’s a perfect film. The characters, plot, music, pacing, dialog, delivery of the dialog, editing, camera angles—everything is exceptional. As an actor Welles conveyed pathos extremely effectively, even when he was a monstrosity. He played monstrosities often in his career: Charles…
Discomfort is not assault
February 13, 2014
I just read an op-ed about artist Tony Matelli’s “Sleepwalker,” currently installed in the open at Wellesley College. Many of the students want the sculpture placed indoors because they say it makes them feel unsafe. Rather than comment on this particular contretemps, I’d like to talk about a quote from Robert Shibley, senior vice president at…
Is culture a good thing?
February 12, 2014
First, no news on the Mike Albee and Lura Dold front. As you may know, they defrauded me of $40,000 by exploiting the suicides of my parents in 2013. I’ve made a few inquiries here and there, and I’m planning a couple of things that may result in more exposure. Right now I have to…