A Quotable Wallace Shawn!

I remember reading a quote from the actor and playwright Wallace Shawn that went something like this, but probably not exactly like this, (I couldn't find it on a Google search), "Nothing is ever what you think it is, or think it's going to be."

I always thought that was the height of wisdom. And makes you realize that what we think and fear can often be pointless and contrary to what actually happens in our lives.

Anyway, looking for a quote that either really exists, or not, led me to this article about Shawn and his playwriting.  Other great quotes in the article.

"I mean I don't know anything about the real world, and as an actor I'm part of pop culture, but I'm not really part of pop culture."

And this too:

"Sex always comes as some kind of unexpected element that jostles our way about thinking about ourselves. The fact that we are part of nature comes as a complete shock about 500 times a day."

Not Surprising!

Is it surprising that our "monetary policy" rewards "rich old white men?" No, it isn't surprising!

Strange Kind of Slavery!

Stumbling around this internet this morning, I came across this quote from the great, mind-stimulating  David Foster Wallace and I am renewed, alive, again...

"That feeling of having to obey every impulse and gratify every desire seems to me to be a strange kind of slavery. Nobody talks about it as such, though." -  DFW

Doing Okay?!?

Are you doing okay? Here are some questions to ask yourself...

Are you looking forward to the day? Do you think things can be better? Are you open to new experiences? Do you think you can learn something? Do you still experience joy and wonder? Do you laugh? Often? 

If you answer yes to any of these, I think you are on the right track!

Based on a Glimmer!

"He doesn't believe in anything. He's an atheist. It is hard to console the inconsolable."

This came up in conversation yesterday, a friend talking about a friend.  I think it's important to believe in something.  It's helps us get along, to get by in this life.  But I think it's also important to choose your beliefs very carefully. It's best not to believe in grand things. 

You probably shouldn't believe in God. Or Country. Or Religion. Or Political Ideologies. These beliefs blind us, and cause lots of grief. For proof, just look at the history of the human experiment.

I do think you should believe in less grand things.  Things like Love, Forgiveness, Humility, Healing, Epiphany, Spiritual Enlightenment. Now you probably need to experience these things to actually believe in them. So maybe instead of believing, you should really just open yourself, to give yourself a chance to experience these things.

There are moments of transcendence in all of our lives. We just need to recognize them. And if we do recognize them, then we can have a reason to believe. And that's all you really need. All you need is something, one thing, a little thing.  A glimmer. You can base a whole life on just a glimmer.

Strangely Enlightening!

"Do you believe in Magic?" It was a Lovin Spoonful song. I think it's a loaded question. Loaded in the right way. It's chock full of contradictory potential.

I do think there is Magic in the world. Especially in the sense of unexplained and maybe unexplainable "strange and mysterious forces," that have some kind of power over us. I suppose Science could explain these forces, but something tells me that even the explanations would leave a door open to mystery.

I also think Magic is a trick, a trick of the mind. And we like to be tricked and astonished. So we willingly engage in the magic game. I think music and poetry are branches of magic. These arts have a power that isn't totally comprehensible. But there is a real power there. And it can be evoked. And when it works it's very, very exciting and rewarding.

Astonishment and wonder - it makes the world, and the things in it, more bearable and more entertaining, and strangely enlightening too.

Sneaking Suspicion...

You don't want to believe that life is all just an elaborate game of brute power. You don't want to believe that this brute power game is sort of sublimated into a million different varieties. You think of other values, values like love, creativity, play, and you want to believe that you can fill your life with those things, and ignore the underlying brute power game.  But you have a sneaking suspicion...

The Iraq Stain - Paul Krugman

Yes, many of us may want to forget.  Lots of pain and death and torture. For no good reason. But Krugman nails it: The Iraq Stain.

And we should not forget. And we should remember those who lied us into it, and carried it out, and those who now pretend that it wasn't all a terrible, easily avoided, debacle and tragedy...

"No, Iraq was also a moral cesspit. Not only were we taken to war on false pretenses, it was clear that this was done in part for domestic political gain. The occupation was treated not as a solemn task on which the nation’s honor depended, but as an opportunity to reward cronies. And don’t forget the torture." - P. K.

What is Philosophy?

Yes. Philosophy. What is Philosophy?  Sometimes it seems that we are just a collection of opinions. And we hit each other over the head with our competing opinions. How we actually arrived at our opinions is subject to opinion.

It sometimes seems like this is all an elaborate Clown Show. And our opinions are like balloons, and we bop each other on the noggin with the balloons.  It's like really bad entertainment. And doesn't really entertain anyone.

So you'd like to reach for some greater wisdom. Some framework. Some underlying system of thought that you could draw upon.  You'd like to.  You read the great books. You try on the great thoughts. You delve into an intensive study of lofty things.

And then you come up with opinions on all that... just another collection of balloons... and you wield them like they are something different... but really they are just more balloons... balloons filled with a little more hot air.  And you act like no one has ever wielded balloons like that before.  But you are most assuredly wrong...

Tales of Power & Corruption

Why is it that Power & Corruption seem to be married at the hip to each other? Maybe it's just that the tales of power, corruption and lies are the tales that make the news, make the world go round?

If you assume that power will be misused, you will be rewarded. You will think that you are smarter than the rest of the herd. That would be a well-earned cynicism.  

Maybe that's what it means to grow older. You remember. You make assumptions. And then you watch Human Beings do what you expected them to do.

Intense, Focused, Exciting, Rewarding...

Do other bands like to rehearse as much as our band likes to rehearse? I don't know. I do know that sometimes our rehearsals are intense, focused, exciting, rewarding. We have a really cool little rehearsal room; it's a live room, bright and comfortable. And our P.A. is totally "dialed in." So the vocals sound good, the band can kick it up, and we can all hear each other. 

July will be a busy month for us, some cool shows coming up, so we ran through nearly 20 songs yesterday. We played together in a little circle. Very little chit-chat between songs. We were all focused on doing the work. You might think that without an audience it all might be a little more loose and relaxed, but that's not how our band approaches it. We play like it counts. We are all watching and listening to each other, so in some ways it's even more intense, every note, every tap of the drum is being scrutinized.

There is a tremendous satisfaction running through so many songs, with each song fighting for attention. It's a great way to work and communicate. It's only a rehearsal, a preparation for live performance, but the preparation itself can be exhilarating. We are creating this energy, this group vibe, a unique thing for sure.

Our Murderous Nature

100 years ago, in Bosnia, some Weasel popped another Weasel, and then there was a cataclysmic chain reaction that led to the World going to War.  We call that one World War I. And then after that War, things continued to get weird, and then another cataclysmic chain of events led to World War II.

And there was lots of mayhem, and slaughter, and mass killings, and mindless murder, and human beings of all stripes unleashed massive tons of bombs and terror and fire and blood just about everywhere, and it was all a very, very ugly murderous century.

Yes, Terror ruled. And still lives with us today.  It's easy to forget. Or maybe we just try our best to forget how brutal and ugly human beings can be to each other.  We leave that shit to historians to tell us what happened, and why, but even though there was one grand story, everyone seems to remember the story their own way.

And this helps keep the game going. We have never dropped our murderous ways, we just work it out by other means, in other lands, for other supposed reasons. And we pretend we are intelligent and civilized and good and noble, but it doesn't take much for us to drop the mask, bare our teeth, and reveal our black murderous side of our nature.

And then we turn our heads away, leave others to clean up, and write words in books about courage and honor and create new chapters about the long narrative of human carnage.

Buddha? Really!?

Looking good can cover up lots of other flaws.  It's been proven over and over again that you can make a career out of looking good. Anyway, remember Don Johnson? He used to be on that show about those two well-coiffed cops in Miami?

Don is now sort of a cranky, old "wise" man, quoting the Buddha. For some reason, I kind of doubt Buddha really said this: 

“I have some friends who are considered, well, modern-day prophets, and one of them said, ‘It must be wonderful for your children to have such a conscious father—when did that happen?’ And I said, ‘I’m mindful of a quote attributed to Buddha, which is that you don’t find the pearl of enlightenment lying around on the beach. You gotta go through a lot of oysters, and you gotta scrape your knuckles and break your fingernails opening all the motherfuckers up. And then one day’ ”—he beamed and grasped the air—“ ‘there it is! The fucking pearl of enlightenment!’ ” 

Yes or No!

We are rewarded by saying "Yes." Opens doors, opens us to new experiences. Keeps the scene going. But we are also sometimes rewarded by saying "No." Closes doors. Keeps us focused. Stops the scene, and gives you a chance to breathe.

Sometimes you don't have to take the bait. Buy the latest thing. Believe the BS. You don't have to listen to every talking head. You don't have to engage in every stupid, infuriating argument. Some things are just not worth your time.

Saying "Yes," might be polite. Saying "No" might save you from a lousy night.

How to choose? "Yes," or "No?" That's up to you. It defines you.

A Day in the Life - Beatles!

Broken Hearted Toy tells us that yesterday was Global Beatles Day. Who knew?! But, really, in my head, everyday is a Beatles day. No, I don't play their music every day, I don't always think of them either, but everything I do listen to, or think about, in my little Pop Universe, has been influenced by them. 

As Chuck Klosterman famously said, they are the greatest band, they wrote all the best songs, they were supremely commercial and supremely artistic, and even though you could buy a Beatles' wig, and a Beatles lunchbox, for some reason, they didn't seem like "sellouts," just an amazingly popular and creative band. How was that possible?

They were the lovable Mop Tops and then morphed into an artsy Pop band. Everything they did was interesting, and exciting, and the world was listening. For a certain generation, the Beatles story is the Pop Culture Origin Story.  "Once upon a time, four wee lads from Liverpool conquered the world..."

Every band after them, whether they knew it or not, felt the influence of this band. Even if you hated the Beatles, you were touched by them. And it's amazing, and maybe not so amazing, that this band and it's music still seems alive and even relevant today.

The Anti-Inspirers!

There are the inspirers, and then there are the anti-inspirers. There are those who validate the whole idea of creativity, and sharing it with others, and there are those who invalidate the whole idea of creativity and sharing.

It's best seek out the inspirers, and try to avoid the anti-inspirers. But once in awhile, you get pulled into the vortex of the anti-inspirer. And then it's all invalidation and bad feeling. Kind of makes you want to just go out to the forest, sit under a tree and clear your mind. To be silent, and just breathe.  

So, yes, I guess in that respect the anti-inspirer can do you a great service too...

People are Stranger!

Yes, well, we went to a street fest over the weekend. We were just spectators. The weather was pretty nice, so the streets were full. Nature keeps churning out these human specimens. It is amazing; the variety of the human species, the combinations, the sizes, and it's also instructive to see how human beings are willing to present themselves.

Is it just me? Or is everyone just getting a little bit freakier? I mean, I know I'm quite freaky myself, but watching the human pageant, kind of opened my head to this idea that nature continues to experiment with the human form, and we continue to get stranger and more exotic. Also fat, and weird, and probably certifiably crazy too.

I think our mass media sort of gives us a skewed idea of what a human being is; lots of attractive people with excellent bone structure on our TV's and video screens. But out in the real world, on the street, it's a completely different story.

And maybe nature just gets more creative, and extreme and keeps coming up with ideas for the human experiment. And well, most of the experiments are quite weird, and not up to spec.

Anyway, at this fest, the nuts were out in force. And they were having a grand old time. If you think people are strange, they are stranger than you think, if you think they are fat, they are fatter than you think, if you think they act odd and a little bit crazy, they are odder and crazier than you think.

Still, it was a good time, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. And that's OK, in fact, it's kind of a beautiful thing. But it's all a bit strange, and stranger you can imagine.

The Past!

There's that great line, from that great film "Magnolia." 

"We might be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us."

It's ain't through with us, because we are the past. The past is alive in us. Everything we are today, is an accumulation of the past. Everything counts. All those days and nights, all those thoughts, and decisions, choices. Everything adds up. What we are today is just the latest snapshot, the latest result of our past. So "The Now" is actually just the "up to date" past. And "The Future" is the past projected forward.

Thinking of it like that, there is no escape from the past. Because the past in all it's glory is all we have, and all we are. That's not to say that the future can't be different from the past, of course it can and will be different. But really the future is just the past that hasn't happened yet.

Carry On!

And how to get oneself out of an "existential tailspin?" Exist. Carry on. Take one step, then another. Gaze at the sky, or the lake. Watch the clouds, or the waves. Focus on something. Something small. Play your guitar, work on a song, or a new riff. Cook a meal. Eat. Divert yourself. Think about someone, or something, besides yourself. Exist. And forget that you exist.

Existential Tailspin - Again!

I heard this story about Neanderthals a couple of days ago, and promptly went into an existential tailspin.  Not so unusual. I mean, existential tailspins are a frequent occurrence in my life. It seems a day doesn't go by when I don't find myself asking: "Why am I here?" "What am I doing?" "Am I missing something?"

For some reason, I could vividly see in my mind's eye this pile of Neanderthal bones down in the "pit of bones." These "happy" little Neanderthals lived long ago on this planet, and met their end, and somehow ended up together in a great pit. 

And they have been down there for 430,000 years! Seems like a long time. Time just seemed to expand in my mind. My tailspin just grew exponentially.  My life, my meager existence, was revealed to me as just a tiny blip in an infinitely grander scope of time and existence.

Some times time passes slowly. Some times time flies by. But really our lives are just brief, infinitely brief glimpses of life and light. How to make the glimpse count? And what does that mean?