Amanda Palmer - Wind-Up Twitter Machine!

I was reading Elvis Costello's new book (he's a funny, intelligent, interesting writer), but then took a detour to read Amanda Palmer's book "The Art of Asking." Amanda is super-famous for her Kickstarter campaign for one of her records. She raised over a million dollars, with over 25,000 individuals donating to her campaign.

Amanda is a very, very unique individual. Her book has a few  simple, powerful ideas. Probably the most intriguing, is that it's OK to ask. It's a powerful tool. And surprisingly if you are open and honest, lots of people will be open to helping you, if you are willing to reach out. And Amanda has really lived this idea. Amanda has totally surrendered herself to "the crowd." Crowd-surfing, crowd-sourcing, crowd-funding. 

Human beings are social animals. We need each other. To ask for help is a risk, it's scary, there's the looming fear of rejection but all of us need and want to connect to others. No man or woman is an island. There are no "self-made" people. We come from a long line of others and those others help make us who we are. We can connect, it's as simple as being forthright, honest, vulnerable and willing to ask.

Amanda gave a TED talk that now has over 7 million views that pretty much contains the essence of the book. The book fills in details. You learn more about Amanda. Maybe sometimes you learn more about Amanda than you want to, but that's the way she lives her life. She shares. She tweets. Always. Obsessively. She is a master of sharing and "over-sharing." 

She certainly has used social media to the max. And she was ahead of the wave. Early adopter. Surfing social media for all it's worth. Pretty amazing story. She started out as a living statue, one of those folks dressed up, out on the street, performing for the crowd. And then she has gone on to a pretty impressive career, maybe not so much in music, but definitely in the "asking" and "self-promoting" biz.

I did wonder somewhere in the book if all this asking and openness and over-sharing is a bit too much? What's personal? What's private? When is it best not to ask the crowd for advice or help? And what happens if the crowd decides they don't like you, and don't want to help you? Amanda has some stories about that too.

When is enough, too much? I guess Amanda will find out. And she will tell us about it, in detail. For sure. Check her Twitter feed, she's probably tweeting right now.

Unanswerable!

The really, really big questions? Unanswerable. That's funny. Human. 

For instance: Ultimate Meaning, Purpose, Life, The Universe, Spirit. 

We can all hazard guesses. We can swear we know the answers. We can cling to theories. Pound on books of wisdom. Follow the thought-trains of other smart folks.

But really, finally, totally the big ones are Unanswerable. We get to ask the questions. And maybe that's all we really get. And we get to figure out how to live without really knowing.

We live with uncertainty. Mystery. We just don't know. Even if we really do want to know. And we will probably never really, really know the fundamental things we don't know.

So we live with that knowledge. The knowledge that our knowledge is quite inadequate, unsatisfactory, partial. And we deal.

So Much Hurly-Burly!

I for one hate to see that Grantland is no more. It was a daily must-read for me. So good on sports, pop culture. Long, in-depth articles. A few days ago ESPN unceremoniously pulled the plug. Is there room on the internet for long-form journalism? Hope so. 

But so much of what is happening out in our "social media" is so "short-form." Click-bait headlines, silly videos. Feeds our short attention spans. We are insatiable for the next click. So much hurly-burly. Less taste. More filling.

What Magnifies!

"Seek out what magnifies our spirit." That's from Patti Smith, via Brain Pickings. Patti is certainly one of my main inspirers. And her work has magnified my spirit in so many ways.

Anyway, it seems the only way to live, right? Seek what magnifies. What's enhances. What makes us more expansive. And embracing. Brain food - art, music, writing, dance, poetry.

The best stuff of life.

Exxon's Climate Denial for 40 Years - A Hanging Offense?

Yes, "the banality of evil" - The idea that it isn't gods or demons we should fear, or hold to account, but human beings.

I guess, it's especially important to point out that "evil people" doing "evil things" can be just as normal as can be, people like you and I just "making a living," standard operating procedure. 

You love your spouse, your kids, your dog, you have a job, you get a paycheck every other week. You do your work and you are loyal to your company. You are just doing your job. What could be evil about that?

Paul Krugman pointed me to this article in Scientific American - Exxon Knew about Climate Change Almost 40 Years Ago. Of course, armed with that knowledge, they muddied the waters over the years, putting out a coordinated disinformation campaign, to deny and confuse the issue. 

You wonder how people could live with themselves, knowing that they were lying. Knowing that their company was actively harming the ecosystem, harming the ability of our species to continue life on the planet. Actively wreaking havoc on our environment. And lying about it.

Exxon over the years has spent $30 million dollars to promote climate change denial! Talk about "blood money." Talk about evil. What kind of punishment do those folks deserve? How do they account? Shouldn't every one of those employees, scientists, executives, secretaries, etc. get on their knees and beg us all for forgiveness?

Shouldn't our species hold them accountable? Do we make them give back the money they earned? Are there jail sentences long enough for those folks? Do we still "tar and feather" people? Climate denial - is it a "hanging offense?" How do we hang a company?

I suppose this is all so evil, so banal, that nothing, but nothing, will be done. There will be no accounting for this crime. And all of us should be judged as fools. Total fools in the face of such a common, every day evil!

Death. It's a Killer.

Death. It's a killer. The ending. So final. Lots of death around here lately. Really sends you into a reevaluation of your life. What you are doing. How you spend your time. You begin to really see/experience the cycle of life. There is a beginning and an end to every moment.

Hard not to feel sad. Down. The only remedy I have found is to "get out of my head." Into other things. People, tasks, stories. Play music, read a book. Talk. Walk. Live. Try to experience, as much as we can experience, as we experience it.

Hand Me Down Gloom!

I have had my share of existential doom. And Gloom. Probably a cheap American-made imitation of the original from John Paul Satre. My existentialism is just a poorly made copy of that great French nausea delineated by that great French original. Yesterday, the doom, gloom, and unique uneasiness came in waves. Powerful, all-consuming, overwhelming.

So yes, my existentialist doom may be a "hand-me-down," but it is mine.

I could not put my finger on the reason. I mean, yes, the universe is expanding, the world is a roiling ball of confusion - we are a planet of wars, fires, drought, pestilence, floods, varieties of every kind of human violence, stupidity, intolerance and injustice.  But hell, that's NORMAL! Standard operating procedure.

So, yes, I was roiling and boiling inside with emotion. I could not figure it out. Could not pinpoint a reason, a cause. So I convinced myself that something really, really bad was about to happen. To me, or to some one dear to me. Waiting for the end of the world, waiting for the shoe to drop, waiting for the bad thing to come down. Waiting for the fickle finger of fate to poke me in the eye.

It didn't happen. The moment never came. It was just another day of deep unease. And then that uneasiness just slowly ebbed away. It dribbled out. Disappeared. I made it. In one piece. Empty this morning. The storm has passed. And I wonder, what the hell?!

Wisdom From Brain Pickings!

Yes, Brain Pickings is a daily, must-read. Love this one: 9 Learnings from 9 Years. Wisdom. I especially like "expect anything worthwhile to take a long time." That's a hard-earned one. But so true. Oh yeah, and "be generous" and willing to "change your mind." And how about don't do anything just for the money, and be an idealist. A way to think. A way to live. These seem like essential, important lessons.

Where It Is At!

Bumped into an old friend and fellow traveler yesterday. He is 1 year and 2 weeks sober. A member in good standing at AA.  He has been on a roller-coaster for many years. Just like many of us. He and I talked about spirit, and clarity. And dropping, or channeling, the rage.

I've never been to AA, but I do buy their whole schtick. I found spirit and clarity years back when I discovered meditation, and although the meditation teachers I worked with didn't stress sobriety, when I really sunk into a state of clear consciousness & clarity, a life of sobriety, seemed like the only state worth pursuing.

Check out the 12 steps of AA. I have come to believe that all of us, could benefit from this program. We are all addicted to something. Some of us are addicted to drugs, alcohol, pain, rage, fear, pop culture, the never-ending sideshow.

We all need something to believe in. Even just believing in the possibility of something to believe in is a good first step. And just a glimmer is all we need to imagine and create a new way of living. So yes, I guess in that way we can then redirect ourselves to find and hone our addiction to clarity, to clear consciousness, to some kind of simple spirituality. 

Yesterday our conversation was filled with laughter, and humility, and wonder. People just feeling their way through. We've learned some lessons, but take nothing for granted. There are no certainties, but there is a renewed commitment to living. Both of us exuded a lightness of being. That is where it is at!

The Clash's Last Testament!

If you love music like I love music, I mean, if music is essential to your life, important, enriching, then you probably already listen to Sound Opinions just like I do.  A show that takes our musical obsessions very seriously. Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot. Two very knowledgable, obsessive listeners. I don't always agree with these guys, but I do totally respect their opinions. Each has their own preferences and biases, and once you get your head around who these guys are, and what kind of music they tend to like, you can kind of fly with them.

They listen to lots and lots of music. And have totally opened my head and ears over the years. Loved their recent classic album discussion/dissection of The Clash's "London Calling." Reminded me of how much I truly loved that record, and used to play it at ear-splitting, maximum volume in our little apartment, long ago. How we didn't have the Cops raiding our place every weekend, I will never understand.

Turns out the Clash's original working title for this double-album was "The Last Testament." Makes sense. A band at the height of their powers, a little desperate to say everything they could possibly say across an amazing set of music.  Just a towering piece of work. Important, dazzling, a major cultural artifact. So good. So essential. Reminded me that I needed to brush off my vinyl copy and cue it up! Life-affirming! Exhilarating!

Spiritual Quantum Field!

I have always suspected this... Some kind of "life after death." As a physicist says: "The body dies but the spiritual quantum field continues. In this way I am immortal."

For some reason I give this more credence since it is floated by a physicist, and not some kind of "religious" figure. No "pie in the sky when you die," but maybe some kind of force-field that carries on after we "drop" our bodies.

As Einstein once told us, everything is energy. Energy is everything. Death is just a transformation of energy. 

Hillary Clinton Will Be President!

The Republicans formed the "Benghazi" investigative committee to use as a tool to bring down Hillary Clinton. Funny. Didn't work. Instead, I agree with this Vox article - watch a little bit of the hearing and you will come to the conclusion that Hillary will make a really great President. 

After millions of dollars and hours, and blather, and hot air, we find out that Hillary did receive and send emails while she was Secretary of State! Wow!

I have no crystal ball. I know long-term political prognostication is a mug's game, but I am a "political junkie," and I do believe Hillary Clinton will be our first Woman President. And I do think it will be a good, no, it will be an essential thing. If I have any hope in the political system it comes from the actions of a few key individuals. Obama. Hillary. Sometimes the outcome of history rides on the shoulders of one person. Funny.

The Disappointing Universe

"Don't worry, he's a big boy. He knows disappointment. He has been disappointed many, many times in his life-time. And he has disappointed many, many others. He swims in a vast sea of disappointment. He experiences a thousand little disappointing cuts every day. There are the big, thudding disappointments, and the tiny, silent disappointments. He has often been disappointed by events, by people where he never imagined disappointment was even possible. Yes, that's what makes him a big boy. Let's just say, that 'Disappointment' is his middle name."

Passive Victim or Active Victim?

Well, some days, it comes down to simple questions. Questions like: "Do I want to be a passive victim, or do I want to be an active victim?"

And then there are things you realize you will do, and things you won't do. And if asked for an answer of why you will do what you do, you say, "I want to." And if asked for an answer of why you won't do what you don't do, you say, "I don't want to. I don't have to."

It's these kind of situations, questions, and answers that define us. You don't know exactly what to do or say, but you make a choice. You choose not knowing if what you choose is the good and right thing. You hope it's the good and right thing, but you really won't know until later, after the dust has settled, after the score-keepers have totaled up the results.

So yes, back to my simple, cross-roads question yesterday, I went with active victim. Whether that works out the way I hope it works out is kind of a crap-shoot, a roll of the dice. Who knows?

Waxing!

Can I wax philosophically? Yes, I can. Check out the definition for wax, and you will find it is quite the pliable, useful and multi-meaning word. 

Life. Been thinking about it. Living it too. I am now older than I ever thought I would be. I mean I come from the generation, or maybe a bit behind the generation, that declared, "hope I die, before I get old."

I actually never really "hoped to die," but there were a few decades where I lived a bit recklessly. Mindlessly. And I am pretty amazed, and pleased, that I emerged relatively unscathed.

"Where does the time go?" 

That's a good one. I have spent lots of my life trying to figure out life, and I'm pretty sure that was a fool's errand. There is no figuring. There is just life. And you just live it. That's it. And time goes by. It flies by. It's hard to account for all the days, all the hours, all the minutes in the hours that I have lived. And that's not really my thing.

I try my best to live now. In the moment. As they tell us, all we really have is now. So not a lot of original wisdom to be found here. And maybe that's my best insight. All the old wisdom is also all the new wisdom.  Love. Live lightly, and humbly. 

I have grown to love "consciousness." Clarity. It is such an amazing gift. I wonder about death. Don't really know what it is.  I don't exactly fear it. But I do worry that it's gonna be boring. Hope not. And hope it takes it time getting to me.  I still have some living to do.

Trumps Trumps Bush!

It turns out Trump actually may do something very good for the country. Surprisingly!

Trump is a truth-teller when it comes to Jeb's brother George.Yes, it is true. George was President on 9/11. I think he was in a kid's classroom reading "My Pet Goat." And George did start a war on a phony premise, "weapons of mass destruction."

So yes, those two simple facts, which for some reason no one else seems to want to remember, is remembered by Trump. And when confronted with these simple facts, Jeb bobs and weaves and spins like a clue-less, trussed-up, shish-ke-bob. 

So, yes, no Jeb! Trump scores!

Corporations vs. People!

Corporations. Corporations vs. People. 

Corporation - "an association of individuals." "A group of persons united in one body."

Why is it, how is it, that people united in one body will work to destroy life for other people? They will pollute and destroy, they will produce junk, total garbage, to get a pay-check, to increase the value of a stock.

People do extraordinarily terrible things united under the banner of corporation. This morning I hear a correspondent from France, talking about a "free trade agreement." He tells me that the French are horrified by the American Food Industry.

Americans "wash their chicken with chlorine, they pump antibiotics into their beef, they consume massive quantities of genetically-modified vegetables."

Americans. We sound like freaking food Barbarians.Why? To glorify the Corporation. To increase the bottom line. Do we short-circuit our own brains, our own souls, when we work for the corporation? Corporate Man. An abomination. Who do we think we are?

The Blowing Apart!

Yeah, you feel the energy shift, and you wonder if it will all just blow apart. The world as you know it. How fragile and tentative it all is, can it all just collapse in a heap? What holds it together? What invisible forces conspire? And then, the blowing apart, was it always there, waiting for it's moment? What made that reality, the reality? And is that the reality? Falling together, falling apart.

The Capitalistic Cry-Babies!

Millionaires and Billionaires. You figure they got it made. Probably thank their lucky stars every morning that they live in a wonderful country like the good old USA. Every morning they ask themselves how can they make this country a better place. How can they give back, how can they contribute to make life better for all of us? Just like all of us, every morning they must wake up and ask "not what my country can do for me, but what can we do for our country?"

You'd think the rich, the privileged, those who have it knocked, those who have benefitted from living in the most prosperous nation on the planet, would be eager and glad to give back. 

Nope.

Turns out, of course, the Millionaires and Billionaires are a bunch of privileged cry-babies. Spoiled, arrogant, paranoid. For instance all those hedge-fund Billionaires were all hurt and upset that Obama wanted to rein them in after their "casino capitalism" (thank you Bernie Sanders) nearly brought the whole financial world to it's knees.

Now they are shoveling all their excess cash to the GOP. Bernie is right. Catering to the whims of the Millionaires and Billionaires is no way to run a country.  It is time for a "political revolution." Democratic Socialism sounds just about right.

The Spectrum of Craziness!

It's probably easier to see the madness in others. Not so easy to see it in ourselves. Although if we were honest with ourselves, we could document our own endless string of little madnesses in detail. I was recently sitting at a table with a confirmed looney, and two other folks. Four of us. And really we represented a spectrum of madness.

How closely do you want to look? How deeply do you want to probe? Logic, and reason, and common sense? These things seem skin-deep. Get past the surface calm and you will find a boiling cauldron of wildness.

The "confirmed looney," lives in the local nuthouse. He knows he is considered to be a madman. But sitting at that table over a cup of java, he seemed reasonable, funny, interesting. My other two companions? They seemed like the crazy ones. And as for me? I know I've got some irrationalities that totally consume me.

Who spins out? Who gets violent? Who stops being able to maintain? Is it all luck and circumstance? How many slings and arrows push one into the crazy column? I sat at that table thinking about craziness and the things that make us crazy.  No clear lines. A spectrum, a rainbow!