My buddy Joe M sent me this link this morning, and it really brightened an otherwise depressing start to my day. First day back to work following my son's death, funeral, wake, cremation, flight home, and zoom wake for relatives yesterday. I listened to this, and thought several things simultaneously:
- It is brilliantly done
- It's perfect for introducing Rage Against The Machine to generations of people who may have never heard them before, or think they're too hard to listen to, or that "rock is roll is not my kind of music" listeners
- It can be listened to by teenage tik-tok trolls who love music like Vanessa Carlton, and perhaps it can open their eyes and ears and hearts to the message within
- My son would have enjoyed this
- I need to share this with a wide-of-an-audience as possible
I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did, wether you live in Kenosha, Portland, Washington DC, Charlottesville, Charleston, San Diego, Orange County, or wherever closed minded, anachronistic, 1950s-nostalgic, Confederate apologists, Nationalists, Alt Right, Q-anon, pathetic nazis, and white supremacists keep raising their ugly, delusional filled, willfully ignorant little heads.
My son, Nathan Jr, passed away recently, unexpectedly. We held a Covid compliant funeral and limited attendance wake in Charleston SC, where he lived for the last 15 years. Today, on August 30th, we had a zoom video conference for friends and family who could not travel to Charleston. The following is what I said about my son, introducing the videos and slide show memorials:
Thank you everyone for coming today, and taking time out of your morning or afternoon, depending on where you are geographically. Our son Christopher, as many of you have heard, unexpectedly died in his sleep the night of August 15th. He was 33 years old. He had a mild case of Covid back in June, but he appeared to get better after a few days. We do not know why he died, as the autopsy was inconclusive, but the coroner is running more tests that should be complete in mid September. We may never know exactly what took our son from this world, but we Do Know what a wonderful person Christopher was, and how many thousands of lives he touched in such meaningful, positive, caring, empathetic, helpful, compassionate, funny, inspiring, motivating, passionate, hilarious, insightful, musical, useful, intelligent, genuine, loving and kind ways. His passing leaves an enormous singularity, a voracious black hole that is tearing at the very fabric of our hearts.
Our son Christopher was magnetic. People were intrinsically drawn to him, and loved being around him. His mother and I raised him, and it appears - from the 100s of FaceBook and Instagram posts, from the 100s of his friends in Charleston who loved him, and from the stories his childhood friends keep sharing with me - that we raised an amazing person, a good human, as my friends and former colleagues in Bangalore would say. Over the last 2 weeks since his passing, I've lost count of the number of men and women who have told me
- I wouldn't have the job I have today, if it was not for your son
- Christopher built my first bike
- Your son helped me move
- I would not have stayed in school in Charleston and graduated if not for your son, because I knew I would not be able to be around him if I left
- Chris walked me home and made sure I got there safely when I had too much to drink
- Your son taught me everything I know about lighting
- Your son trained me as a bartender
- Christopher always listened to me; you always knew he authentically cared
- I could always count on your son when I needed help; I'd call him and he was always right there
- He always made me feel at home, and made me feel that I mattered
I always knew he was an exceptional person, but his passing has clearly shown me the countless lives he selflessly helped. Our son inspired others, usually in positive, creative, productive, meaningful ways. He led and encouraged and loved those who were inexorably drawn to him. Much like my father, Chris's grandfather, his Dzia Dzia, Christopher loved engaging everyone in friendly & lively conversation. No one remained a stranger to our son for long. Our progeny made everyone feel comfortable and welcomed when he was around them.If you were having a bad day or having a tough time, everyone in Charleston knew they could count on Christopher to help them feel better, to brighten their day. It was a gift he had, and he gave generously, warmly, selflessly. For those of you who did not live in Charleston, or who had not seen Christopher very much since he went to college there, our son did not tolerate fools, bullies, meanness, hatred, or racism. The inequality, brutality and injustice he witnessed first hand this year, as he and other peaceful demonstrators were needlessly tear gassed, shot at, and attacked in-and-around Marion Square across Calhoun street from where he worked at Big Gun, deeply upset our son, and he was struggling to find ways to make his community a better place for everyone.
He was real, genuine, caring, confident (sometimes overconfident), fearless, fierce, and loving. Whether you knew him as Chris, Christopher, little Uzbek, Casmir, Nathan Jr, C Papa, or Papa Prolowski, your life was better, enriched, for having known him. There will never be another Christopher Joseph, but we all can continue to carry part of him within us, his indomitable spirit, on our journeys through life, putting our best effort forward, helping others, rooting for the under-dog, trying to be a good human, and make the world a better place for everyone.
Losing my son, is the hardest, most difficult thing I've ever had to endure. Knowing I will never hear his voice again, be able to hug him, play drums with him, travel with him, get a text from him, laugh with him, build and repair things with him, ride bikes with him, share books and music and art with him, trade dad jokes with him, build sand castles and sand sculptures, walk on the beach and swim in the ocean or sail with him, open Christmas presents with him, see a concert with him, practice yoga or speak French with him, watch a Chicago team usually lose a game on TV with him, enjoy a delicious meal and savor a good bottle of wine withhim, change flat tires or oil with him, go to Costco with him, hike and rock parkour and climb mountains with him, sip a glass of fine quality whiskey with him, dance at weddings with him, watch Raising Arizona with him... these things and so many more, a lifetime more, are memories now. Christopher would want us to all go on with life, doing the best we can, listening to and genuinely caring about others, helping the helpless, the little guy, the disenfranchised, assisting those in need. So even though this is the hardest, most difficult thing, we'll do the best we can, as Christopher would want us to, would expect us to do.
I really cannot add anything more than Fareed's succinct summary here.
Why Umerikuns fall for this immoral, misogynistic, sophomoric, bombastic, uncurious, ignorant, narcissistic, illiterate, con man's rhetoric, is beyond my comprehension.
Over the last month I watched all 5 seasons of HBO's The Wire (music post here: link) and really enjoyed it. Each season focusing on a different aspect of life in and around Baltimore. Written, vetted, acted, filmed, directed really well, with an excellent pace, rhythm, focus; I highly recommend watching it, and not just saying "I love the wire... but I don't know any of the episodes" as most Umerikuns have stated at some time in the past. I'd only seen bits and pieces when staying in hotel rooms, disjointed, I could not appreciate the magnitude of the series.
In retrospect, when I look across all the 100s of characters presented throughout the 5 seasons, the one character who stands out as the most likable, most relatable, least flawed, in my perspective is Lester Freamon, played by the excellent actor Clarke Peters. Lester was one of the oldest & least appreciated detectives on the BPD. Politically incorrect, doing "what was right" before considering how it would damage his career's trajectory, Lester's steady hand and clear mind was refreshing in each scene in which he appeared. Fastidious, meticulous, tenacious, passionate, determined, driven, mentoring, patient, enduring, curious, insightful, intelligent, level headed (usually), deductive, adept, and righteous. He was "good police". As the 2nd oldest member of the last engineering team I led (with most of the other team members being 20 to 25 years younger than me, who looked up to me) and mentored, it makes sense that Lester is the one I could identify most closely with and with whom I could empathize.
Yes, in The Wire, Lester sometimes drank too much, but who doesn't drink too much sometimes? (Ben Franklin always said not to trust the man who drinks water when everyone else is drinking ale... and I do not disagree with old Ben). Lester had quite an R rated vocabulary and tone, especially when he was justifiably incensed, but again, that's a common human trait. I know I have from time to time.
The other character I could closely relate to, ironically was also played by "a Clark" - Clark Johnson played the city desk editor Augustus (Gus) Haynes. Gus worked for metric driven stuffed suits who placed morality & honesty on a much lower priority than glowing recognition and public perception. Sadly, I've worked in roles like that as well, far too often in the past. Gus was only in the final season, and not throughout the entire series, so I didn't have enough time to relate to him, and how he dealt with tools like Scott Templeton... but I have a personal appreciation for Gus's daily struggle.
If you've not watched The Wire, you really should. Especially if you are stuck in a airplane, a hotel, or on a couch recovering from an orthopedic injury that limits your mobility. It'll be time well spent, eye opening, enlightening, and informative.
My colleague Patrick coined a phrase this afternoon while he and I were conversing at work about next week's election: "The Walking Ignorant". Patrick is a resident of Georgia, a very smart guy, and he's a genuinely nice person as well as being a good co-worker. Since "The Walking Dead" is supposed to be based in Georgia originally (now they're up in rural "Alexandria" Virginia, in the drawn-out series, that I honestly wish would just end - they killed off Glen in a meaningless, brutal, and gratuitous death by barbwire covered baseball bat bashing from the current incarnation of what the worst human urges could manifest themselves) so the "Walking Ignorant" label is particularly poignant.
"The Walking Ignorant" is aimed at supporters of Donald J. Drumpf (his real name, not "Trump" that he made up when he was a kid), as it symbolizes their willful ignorance of facts and their embrace of a false equivalency. Their candidate Donald spouts lies constantly - according to Politifact more than 75% of the time he's lying - but they scream about Hillary Clinton lying about her emails? Yeah, that's equally as bad.... right? Or far worse? No, it isn't. Politifact rates Hillary Clinton as lying about 25% of the time, or, for those who are not good at math, Drumpf lies three times more than Clinton does, and the lies he tells are massive whopper ridiculous lies. But "The Walking Ignorant" don't care about facts or lies or the existence of audio recordings of their candidate contradicting himself constantly, repeatedly.
To illustrate how incredibly ignorant and misinformed the typical Drumpf supporter is, all one needs to do is look at this Daily Show piece from Jordan Klepper who perfectly nails it:
The sheer ignorance, willful ignorance of these Drumpf supporters is beyond description. It is impossible to write more outlandish racist and paranoid dialogue than what this clip depicts.
I wonder if Jordan feels like he loses a little bit of his soul... his life force... his will to live, when he does these kinds of field pieces? I know I sure couldn't do it without wanting to slap most of these people upside the head who see themselves somehow as 'patriotic Americans' ... when they're really just an illustration of how massively misinformed the masses are within the American electorate.
People, facts matter. Actual, real facts, not fabrications or things you 'believe are true' but which there is no actual factual basis to justify that they are true.
Last weekend, Dr Desert Flower and I went down the hill on Alga Road to go see Free State of Jones at the Cinépolis in Carlsbad. It exceeded expectations, despite what the critics on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes say, it was a great film that shined a light on the racist, bigoted, arcane & persecutory laws & culture engrained in The South - in this case Mississippi. McConaughey was great in it, but so were Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, and a host of other excellent actors. Having lived 16 years of my life in South Carolina, I can talk about how it felt, what I heard, and what I saw when I lived there... I'm not an outsider who never lived nor experienced the hatred and bigotry in the work place, in public places, and in conversations about it with my friends and co-workers who were trying to rise above the ugly, despicable, evil past that ensconced The South before, during, and after the Civil War, and still lives and breathes today (sorry SCOTUS, racism and bigotry are NOT dead even after we elected a black President; they're still alive and well in many parts of The South.
Then, when we got home after the movie, we watched Bryan Cranston in the HBO movie All the Way, where he portrayed LBJ accurately. The movie portrayed the hatred and bigotry of The South (again, Mississippi leading the way... but other Southern States agreed with them) very accurately as well. Not only was it well acted, but well written, nuanced, well researched, and well directed.
After watching both of these films so close together, whose settings were 100 years apart, but which accurately and poignantly portrayed the racism and hatred in The South that is still alive today, I am resolved that I never want to move back there and live there again. Perhaps in another 100 years, after I am ashes, the progress seen since the Civil Rights legislation was passed in the 1960s MIGHT continue and the old entrenched racists die off, with their progeny becoming slightly more progressive and color-blind - similar to how Gay Rights & Equality was unthinkable 20 years ago by main stream America, and now it is an accepted fact for 95% of the country. But I won't see it in my lifetime.
I am not a hater, and I still firmly believe that there are many very nice, very accepting, very civil & loving people in The South, both in the states that voted for George Wallace, and in the states that didn't. I've met and worked with many of them, or they were my neighbors & friends. But the fact remains, that there's a solid double digit percentage block of Southerners who still think lynching is a good idea if they can get away with it, who believe Klan meetings are an acceptable form of social gathering, and who have a false-superiority complex in regards to anyone who is not Caucasian - black, brown, Asian, Jewish, Catholics, Sikh, Muslims, included in their fearful hatred & loathing. Trump's tapping into their base with his rhetoric and his re-tweets of white supremacists, and "the worst" is manifesting itself amoung us in America. I do hope that in November 2016 we can close the Trump chapter and not open up a "Wallace 2.0" era of the American political landscape.
No, I'll take the multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual melting pot that is California,
any day over any of the nicest places in The South. Yes, it is expensive to live in California, but the weather is great, the people are nicer, the hatred is (I've seen) less wide-spread, the wildlife is more diverse, the waves are at least 10X better than the East Coast, the population is more heterogeneous & diverse & growing (+300,000 residents last year! We're gonna add another congressman or two at least in the next census, making the most populace state even more populace!), the businesses RUN BETTER and are safer (and growing), the wine is better, Science is accepted and not argued against or 'disbelieved', the State budget is balanced (after getting a Democratic governor, finally!), the humidity is lower (in Northern San Diego County, at least), religion is less invasive & pervasive, and the people are more accepting of everyone, not just those who look like themselves.
Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a foreign policy speech yesterday in my own backyard, San Diego. Her audience was full of supporters, many of whom were veterans and their families. I DVR'ed the speech, and watched it over lunch today.
While I've not been a huge Hillary Clinton supporter, I did admire her unwithering and strong response to the Republican held marathon Benghazi hearings, which showed she was not culpable of anything nefarious in regards to the embassy attack there. Hillary Clinton's San Diego speech on June 2nd was factual, poignant, articulate and informative, even though it was somewhat nationalistic.
But what I will do, dear readers & visitors, is to list the factual gems that I took from the speech, the ones that really hit home, had impact, and (as I watched the video) brought the crowd to their feet.
"Smart & Principled Foreign Policy"
"Choice between a fearful America that's less secure and engaged with he world, and a strong, confident America"
"Donald Trump's (Drumpf's) ideas are not just different, they are dangerous incoherent. A series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and out right lies." [I Loved that quote]
"He is not just unprepared, he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability, and immense responsibility."
"It's not hard to imagine Donald Trump (Drumpf) getting us into a war just because someone got under his Very Thin Skin."
"He says he doesn't have to listen to generals, admirals, ambassadors or diplomats, because he says, and I quote" 'I have a very good brain.'"
"He praises dictators."
"He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia."
"He says we are, and I quote: 'A third world country'"
[Having Just visited a third world country in April, I can refute that America is a 'third world country']
"We are not a country who cowers behind walls."
"Moscow and Beijing are deeply envious of our alliances around the world. They have nothing to match them."
"If Donald gets his way, they'll be celebrating in the Kremlin."
"We are lucky to have two friendly neighbors on our land borders; why would he want ti make one of them an enemy?"
"He said this about a war between North Korea and Japan, and I quote: 'If they do, they do; Good luck, enjoy yourselves folks.'"
"Our approach must be 'distrust and verify.'"
"There's no risk of people losing their lives if you blow up a golf course deal."
"He brings the following tools to the table: Bragging, mockery, and composing nasty tweets."
"I don't understand Donald Trump's (Drumpf's) fascination with dictators and strongmen who have no love for America. He praises China for the Tiananmen massacre, saying it showed strength."
"He said if he was grading Vladimir Putin as a leader, he'd give him an A."
"I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants."
"He said maybe Syria should be a free zone for ISIS?" ... A Trump (Drumpf) presidency would embolden ISIS."
"This isn't reality television, this is actual reality."
"We cannot put the lives of our troops in Donald Trump's (Drumpf's) hands."
"During the raid to kill Bin Laden, our Seals took the time to move the women and children to safety. Donald Trump (Drumpf) may not get it, but that's what honor looks like."
"It matters when he
- makes fun of people with disabilities
- calls women pigs
- proposes banning an entire religion from our country
- or plays coy with white supremacists"
"America stands up to countries who treat women like animals, or different races, religions, or ethnicities as less human."
"Plenty of Muslims and immigrants serve and fight in our armed forces."
"Making the right call takes a cool head and respect FOR THE FACTS. It takes a willingness to listen to other peoples' points of view with a truly open mind. It also takes humility, knowing you don't know everything because if you are convinced you're always right, you'll never ask yourself the hard questions."
"Imagine Donald Trump (Drumpf) sending you spouses and children into battle."
"Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account, but America's entire arsenal. Do we want someone thin skinned and quick to anger who lashes out at the smallest criticism?"
"Every lesson from our history teaches us that we are stronger together. We remember that every Memorial Day."
"Two very different visions; angry, afraid, and based on the idea that America is fundamentally weak and in decline. The other is hopeful, generous, and confident in the knowledge that America is great just as we always have been!"
I thought the speech was fact-filled, and addressed the FUNDAMENTAL difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Drumpf. One is an experience, rational thinker, and experienced diplomat - maybe I don't agree with everything she's done and stood for, but at least I know what those things are. The other, is a thin skinned, egomaniacal failed business man who inherited his fortune from his rich daddy, and who has no filter on anything he says aloud or on Twitter.
I am somewhat sad that Bernie Sanders will probably not be the nominee for the Democrats, but it will probably help me more on my taxes that he's not the candidate, and, Hillary Clinton will likely get more done facing a Republican congress than Bernie Sanders would have been able to do.
If Donald J Drumpf wins, then this blog will stop in 2017 or 2018, once a post apocalyptic nuclear Winter descends on the northern hemisphere of the planet. Australia and New Zealand would becomeisolated quarantine zones where sheep and mankind live out the rest of their days breathing air through filters to avoid the heavier alpha particles that the jet streams will carry across the equator to rain down a slow radioactive death Down Under, while the Northern Hemisphere plays a day-to-day game of kill-or-be-killed in the smoldering ruins of what is left of North America, Europe, and most of Asia.
I had to travel to Eastern China last month, for work. I took a larger checked suit case since it was a 12 day trip, and I already know that Chinese hotel laundry (even in the nice hotels in which I've stayed) destroys most of the clothes I've ever given them. In that larger suit case I packed my yoga mat, after I practiced yoga the week before at the beach, for 3 of the previous 7 days leading up to the trip.
The weather in Northern San Diego County cooperated nicely before I left, being mild, and not rainy in the afternoons. The on-shore breeze was pleasant, and the statis flowers were in full bloom on the Bluff at the top of Ponto Beach.
Once I landed in Shanghai, after a 14 hour flight in coach out of LAX, I planned a solid day of not working to adjust to the new time zone and to try and avoid deep vein thrombosis. The view from the yoga mat in my hotel room window was less pleasant than the view from the Carlsbad shore. No whales, no pelicans, no pleasant breeze... but a locked large city park with formidable gates, that (apparently) no in Pudong are allowed to pass through on Wednesdays?
While Shanghai today is a MUCH cleaner and prettier city than Chengdu was 15 years ago, it still is not even a fraction as lovely as Southern Coastal California is, even if the real estate prices are similar. I'll take here rather than there, any day.
The day after I got back, I did yoga at the beach!
I would have POSTED this while in China... just one problem. The government there blocks FaceBook, Google, Instagram, Gmail, Youtube, and Twitter. Yes... one can VPN out and around them, but what a massive pain in the ass, China. Thanks.
Yesterday afternoon I took my retired parents to the Carlsbad Cinépolis to see the movie The Revenant. Cinépolis costs more then a normal movie but it has drinks service during the film and you get to sit in the reclining leather chair with foot rest and assigned seating so that know one blocks your view. Headquartered in Mexico City, Cinépolis has multiple theaters in Southern California. I had seen several films there previously, and I was not disappointed.
My father absolutely loved the leather recliner and catered atmosphere. I ordered a pineapple martini and he ordered an Icee, raspberry flavoured, with my mother abstaining from any delicious beverages. The theatre darkened, and the film began.
I will not spoil the film The Revenant but I will say that it is an excellent piece of cinema. There is a substantial amount of blood and violence depicted in the film. Filmed in Canada i& Argentina the scenery is spectacular. If you go into the theatre with any romantic or idealised notions of the 1800s in the Western North America, you will find those notions quickly obliterated in the opening 10 minutes of this film. The next 2 1/2 hours continues to grind the heel of reality brutally into the romantic illusion to destroy any idealized notions of the "Wild West".
Leonardo DiCaprio's Golden Globe was well earned. This movie is a cinematic masterpiece. If it does not get an Oscar there is something wrong.
Intense. Remarkably sad. Violent. Carnal, base, unaccountable evil, juxtaposed with magnificent scenery, fantastic acting, cut to the bone writing, and superb direction... I will go see it again with DDF sometime later this month. (She had to work, while I hosted my visiting parents).
If you are squeamish about blood and violence, then you probably should not pay the price of a theatre ticket to go see this… But you will be missing out.
On a closing note, Tom Hardy shows that she can again play a complete asshole, like unto his Batman Bane character, if Bane had been a mercenary & ruthless fur trapper in the early 1800s. Since this theatre was the same theatre I watched Mad Max Fury Road, Hardy's performance impressed me tremendously. Also, being fluent in French, I was able to understand the slang spoken (and written) in French without subtitles, which was an unexpected pleasure.
While I was doing yoga at Sea Terrace Park in Dana Point last week (just twice last week, but 5 times the week before) in the afternoon around 1pm, I noticed a powerful odor of desperation mixed with sweat & perfume. A woman in her 50s, dressed in inappropriately tight clothes like she was trying to be in her 20s (or maybe that fit her in her 20s?), walked down the sidewalk some 30 feet away from where I was doing yoga, then she crossed 1/2 the distance into the grass, and laid down on the grass upwind of me, between my mat and the ocean. A strong perfume odor assaulted my nostrils. She was more than 75 feet away from me, but the perfume scent was so pungent, I could almost taste it. A massive vapor trail, I was enveloped in its wake.
As I finished up my practice, and then headed over to Strand Beach to run the stairs multiple times, I thought about the word "Vapor Trail" and how it was one of many of the double / triple / quadruple entendres that Rush has chosen for their many albums (link here). The more I thought about it, the more it drilled into my consciousness, especially as I parkoured rapidly from Strand Beach's funicular stairs to the Head Lands zig-zag along the breakwater rocks beside the sidewalk.
Rush - to hurry; a feeling of exhilaration; moving quickly Fly By Night - temporary, transient, not to be relied upon; owls also fly by night Caress of Steel - steel is cold so it cannot really warmly "caress", but when forged or smelted it can radiate brilliant heat and light in which one can bathe (as I have in China, Romania, Italy, Canada, Austria, France, Taiwan, Germany, and the US) which is sort of a 'caress' 2112 - concept album, doesn't count Farewell to Kings - goodbye monarchs, but also, control from within that which was previously externally guided... or, Much More Simply, a quote from Charles Anthon's "Classical Dictionary" from 1872 where he quoted Saint Gregory's words from 381 A.D.* Hemisphere - of the brain, of the buttocks, of the globe; 1/2 of a sphere Permanent Waves - tidal forces; hair permanents; standing oscillatory patterns Moving Pictures - cinema; dramatic images; actual movers who move framed pictures Signals - green/yellow/red; stop & go; start and stop; radio or television signals Grace Under Pressure - creativity boiling beneath a cap; a contained muse; performing well despite immense scrutiny Power Windows - of a car; Windows platforms (1985) were just beginning to appear in PCs; portals to powerful offices Hold Your Fire - juggling fire; not discharging your weapon; with-holding crucial information until later; choosing your battle A Show of Hands - puppetry; clapping; using hands to make music; mimes; voting by raising your hand Presto - magical conjuring word; viola!; Presenting; of a quick tempo Roll The Bones - throwing dice, rolling over in your grave, old people moving Counterparts - time piece internal parts; complimentary or opposite parts; a spouse; a colleague in an alternate location Test for Echo - a sound test; a sonar test; a radar signature Vapor Trails - what a star leaves in it's wake as it orbits around a galaxy; what comes out of an e-cigarette (which was not yet invented, when the album came out); the wake of a noxious gaseous release from between the legs; the plume of off-gassing perfume from a person in the park who has applied far too much Snakes & Arrows - though I Saw this concert in Phoenix, it was not one of my favorites Clockwork Angels - I neither have this album nor have seen this concert… the whole Ayn Rand praising by Peart (from 2112, brought to my attention last year) has tremendously decreased my Rush enthusiasm. I am pretty sure DDF will say that my mentioning of the doused perfumed vapor trail was not very nice, but, it did occupy my Friday afternoon thought patterns, and getting the remnant scent out of my sinuses and mind took even longer. [Note: finding the Anthon quote took some google detective work, with a -Rush, -Album, -Game, -Rowley, -Video boolean qualifiers]
* He bids "farewell to kings and their palaces, and to the courtiers and secants of kings; faithful, I trust, to your master, but for the most part faithless towards God, farewell to the sovereign city, the friend of Christ, but yet open to correction and repentance; farewell to the Eastern and Western world, for whose sake I have striven and for whose sake I am now alighted." S.Gregorii Nazianzeni, Opera, Oral. 32, delivered in June, A.D. 381 by Saint Gregory. Charles Anthon - Classical Dictionary, New York, Harper, 1872.
In my job, in my current role, I am considered a Subject Matter Expert. I understand how and why things break, and I help my company and our customers to try and avoid breaking their equipment in the future. So when I saw this link that Dr Desert Flower posted on The Face Book on my "timeline" there, it made me laugh so hard that I had tears in my eyes. It is both hilarious AND extremely sad, at the same time, due to it's accurate representation of most medium and large sized companies, and how the organization views its Subject Matter Experts. (link HERE in case embedded video fails)
I can empathize with the light blue shirted expert, completely. This applies to science, technology, engineering, software, literally ANY field where knowing how to do your specialized-skill-required job & doing it well is never apparently as important as the metrics and directives given by those who have no idea how how the job could be done, how hard it would be to do it, if it is even possible, or that they even know what they want.
"Perpendicular to what?" "To... to.... (shuffling papers hurried and nervously...) to everything!"
While the video is 7 and a 1/2 minutes long, it is truly worth watching to get the full impact. For those who are experts in their fields, who have mad skills at being able to do, invent, discover, repair, develop, you will probably both laugh, and cry. For those who barely have a grasp on what they're supposed to do in their job, or those who manage other people whose expertise is far greater than their manager's, or for those who just get by daily on BS, politics, and ball washing skills... well... they'll probably just be confused as to why anyone with a clue would see this video as both funny and sad.
If you found this video as poignant and relevant as I did, I encourage you to please comment here (or send me an email, if you're afraid to comment publicly) as to what was your favorite line (or lines) in this marvelously performed sketch.
My lunch break is over... back to solving problems...
(Yesterday, the video had a million hits. Today, it has nearly 3 million)
I am watching the DVR of The Daily Show from Monday, August 5th, and I must say, John Oliver has hit his stride. He is funny as all hell, and delivers sarcasm even better than Jon Stewart in some cases. I do miss Stewart, and I will be happy to see him come back from his documentary making in Jordan. But honestly, John Oliver is hilarious, accommodating, and a perfect replacement / stand-in for John Stewart. If you have not watched The Daily Show with John Oliver, you SHOULD watch it. it's hilarious and poignant.
My retired godfather Uncle Joe shared this link with me today... that really has absolutely made my day. Listening to the passionate, angry, insightful & inciting Vice President Joe Biden speaking in Youngstown Ohio, I almost began to tear up a little. My parents (and my godfather who is my mother's brother) grew up poorer than Dr Desert Flower and I did, and worked hard to provide for their families. My father and my Uncle Joe worked harder, in back breaking & strenuous labor intensive jobs, with multi-year skilled trade apprenticeships, retiring as card carrying union members, so I can relate to the content of Biden's speech.
"Jobs are coming back, and they're the kind of jobs you can build a middle class family on [sic]"
"They're manufacturing jobs, decent paying jobs, so you can live in a safe neighborhood."
"Own your home and not rent your home".(Mitt wants your foreclosure accelerated, so you can pay jacked up rent to rich investors like his country club buddies - link here)
"My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams"
I enjoyed his acceptance speech, back in 2008, and found it inspiring (link here). This is the minute and a 1/2 version of that speech.
NPR keeps reporting this week about how housing starts are increasing in the us, and property values are going up by 20% in some of the hardest hit regions (NOT the West side of Phoenix though... no one wants to pay more than a $100K here)... and that illegal immigration has reversed to a net-zero balance. I just hope the Euro tanking doesn't drag the US down with it, and the Federal Reserve doesn't crank up the printing presses to bail out the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece & Spain)... we shall see.
"People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, your one time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: VAPORIZED was the usual word."
– George Orwell
Last night, Colbert's show (link here) VERY SIMPLY explained how evil, ludicrous, despicable, wealth-concentrating, and wrong the Citizen's United SCOTUS decision was that opened the flood gates of the richest 0.1% of the richest 1% of Americans funding political campaigns, and how those completely non-transparent Super PACs can be run by ex-staffers, business partners, or relatives of candidates, as long as they don't "coordinate". Ridiculous!
Colbert's lampooning of the entire Super PAC process has been spot-on, precise, poignant in peeling back the onion and explaining it, so that "even a 5th grader could understand."
I alternated between laughing hysterically, being disgusted by how simple the transfer of unlimited wealth was with a wink-wink, and back again to uproarious laughter (it's good we don't rent, so I didn't scare the neighbors).
Listening to Diane Rehm show this morning (link here), the international hour I found QUITE illuminating. One of the guests,Yochi Dreazen, senior national security correspondent, National Journal magazine, related a story on the show (transcript not yet available at time of this blog posting) that went like this: "In Basra, there's a massive military base that the British built and the Americans have been running. The American base commander, who was speaking through a translator to the Iraqi general who was going to be taking over the base, said 'we should have a flag ceremony, lowering the American flag, raising the Iraqi flag.' And the Iraqi general who had been listening to a translator this who time, responded bluntly in English: "No ceremony. Get Out. Now."
American citizens and military are SOOOO Worried about 'leaving with honor' and making the massive sacrifices in blood and treasure poured into Iraq as 'meaningful'. But according to all of the Diane Rehm show guests, ALL of them VERY informed about conditions on the ground and the political realities and influential forces (the Kurds, the Iranians, the Shia'a militias, the Sunni militias, the Saudis, the military) in Iraq, stated quite clearly that after 8 years of war & occupation, the American military and diplomatic forces are hated, despised, resented. In Iraqis' perspective, the Americans cannot leave fast enough. In Americans' perspective, we need to have slow withdrawal "with honor". Well, sorry, but W and the Neocons flushed away all the honor when they preemptively launched an unnecessary war. 5000 American dead, and 33,000 severely wounded, with millions of Iraqis dead, and a trillion dollars wasted... I don't see the honor in that, and anyone who wants to try and pretend it is honorable, they're delusional.
The service of the US troops was very honorable, but the mission the politicians sent them on in the first place was not honorable at all, and no amount of Republican hand waving and wringing will "restore" or "instill" any honor in it. A pig turd is still a pig turd, no matter how much you try to polish it or dress it up, it remains a pig turd.
Tip of the hat to Mike Lukovich for this very poignant, accurate perspective.
Yeah, Republicans don't want any government involvement or regulation in their lives, but if some protesters take away the place they go for smoke break in between trading imaginary pieces of contrived paper to "slice up this country a little finer" (RIP George Carlin) then Republicans are all about bringing out 1000s of "jack booted thugs" with pepper spray, riot gear, batons, tear gas.
