A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
Tis the Season. Fa- la- la- la-la
QQ : 1 SURVIVAL OF THE FIT
It was not evolutionary superiority that permitted my mother and my father to survive the camps.
Nor was their survival the product of intelligent design. There was nothing intelligent about it.
All their other immediate family didn’t survive.
My parents both spent the remainder of their lives pondering the un-answerable question:
Why did they survive? Why them?
QQ : 2 FATE
Day by day, it seems one or another of my peers and colleagues are facing their maker.
One ponders the same question; why them, and why now?
Who's the decider?
QQ : 3 THE MEANING OF LIFE
I had a mystical experience as I walked by the mounds of earth containing thousands of bodies at Bergen Belsen.
The signs said: “Here lie 30,000 dead” and then “Here lie 25,000 dead” and a few meters later, “Here lie 20,000 dead”.
The day was dead calm when suddenly a gale force wind came up.
The wind was so strong, it literally blew me out of there.
The message was clear. Get out of here! Make some music!
Make up for the melodies that were lost.
Have a life! Carry on!
QQ : 4 VERDI'S REQUIEM
Despite the most inhumane conditions at Terezin where life was not an option, music uplifted and inspired. My mother sang in the 150 voice choir for 16 performances of Verdi’s Requiem while the sick and starving dropped around her.
Perhaps it was the Verdi that saved her.
Giuseppe Verdi designed an intelligent tune or two.
QQ : 5 THE EURO
And now Germany is back. Germany has the Money, the Resources and the Will. They also have Rules. Germany always has rules.
How ironic that the world's economy teeters on the brink and it is within Germany's power to save us. Am I my father's son? Do the sins of the father pass on? Should we be afraid?
Angela seems so benign. Chancellor or Fuhrer?
QQ : 6 DECK THE HALLS
I have an idea! Let's invent a religion.
All religions need holidays. Let's start with that.
The first holiday involves a rabbit and eggs. I haven't quite figured out what to do with the rabbit or the eggs, but there's a start.
The next holiday involves a dead pine tree in your house draped with some aluminum foil and plastic stuff, and something about a fat man in a red suit who climbs down your chimney. He needs cookies and milk.
If we don't like that religion, we could invent anther one that cuts of bits of penises and prohibits oysters and bacon.
Most religions also mandate funny hats.
Maybe that’s all too violent, especially for the fat man in the chimney.
I personally like the one that prevents women from driving. Makes for less traffic and pollution.
QQ : 7 REL-I-GION
The problem with religion is that right outside Bergen Belsen, the place that I was blown out of, are regular, jolly-looking. well-kept family homes that look out over the camp.
Gestopo officers and their familes sat around the tannenbaum at this time of the year and sang carols and said their prayers and dreamed of the utopia of the master race once they got rid of the undesirables on the other side of the barbed wire.
QQ : 8 UTOPIA
All religions are utopian. They seek an ideal way of life.
I think Fundamentalists who seek to impose their concept of an idyllic life on others because they have received a message from God, should be regarded as insane.
You cannot impose utopia. The attempt to impose a utopian ideal is a crazy act.
Ethnic cleansing is not utopian. Child labour is not utopian. The elimination of social welfare is not utopian and the free market allowed to dominate without controls is not utopian.
Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney seek to impose their concept of a utopian ideal.
They are both insane.
QQ : 9 OFF WITH YOUR HEAD
Say bad things....go to jail, or even "off with your head"!
The "Satanic Verses" was an "off with your head" offence.
And don't say anything mean about the The King of Siam. Deborah Kerr might break out in song.
Don't make an image of the prophet, cover your head, cover your face, face East, genuflect, wear a box on your head, put a sign on your door, count beads and beat your breast, "practice" celibacy until you get it right and remove parts of your anatomy. Chant, sway, pray, flay, get stoned if you work on the sabbath day. Wear white, wear black, don't shave, wear a funny hat and never even think about covetting your neighbor‘s ass.
Do all of this and heaven awaits with the utopian afterlife.
QQ : 10 TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY
Perhaps we need to invent new ceremony.
We could celebrate peace in the Middle East with an annual giving of our time to those who need it. It occurs to me that our time is the most valuable thing that we have. It is limited, absolutely.
We could celebrate the cure for cancer with an annual, ritual, community meal of exclusively, locally- grown, organic food.
We could celebrate the elimination of carbon-based fuels with a decorated, live camellia tree at a community center with music and dance.
But then again, we seem to prefer the more primitive ritual involving eggs and bunnies, dead pines and fat old guys in red suits. And avoid those oysters at all cost, otherwise G-d will strike you down! And if not for that, then for inserting the forbidden "o" in the word.
Etched on my stone tablet.
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Monday 5 December 2011
QQ : NUMBER EIGHTEEN - December 5, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
IT'S ALL A MATTER OF DEGREE
QQ : 1 DRY ICE
Sarah Palin is hot. She radiates the warm blood of a freshly-killed moose.
Michelle Bachmann is cold. Dry ice is the solid form of Carbon Dioxide. Her detractors claim that CO2 is warming the earth.
Michelle has celestially-inspired, contrary evidence.
Dry ice must be the answer to global warming when hell freezes over, or when she becomes president.
Which-ever event happens first.
QQ : 2. MARLBORO MAN
Bubba Clinton is hot. He blows the saxophone and got blown.
Jazz is either hot or cool. Jazz is not smooth. Bubba does not blow smooth.
Barry Obama does not play the saxophone. He blows Marlboro Lights.
That is not cool and he is not hot.
Barry is smooth and getting smoother as he slides away into the smoke and mirrors of a compromising wasteland of indecision and failed commitments. Smooth jazz is not jazz.
QQ : 3. DIG GRUNDIG
Recorded music was hot on an early sixties Grundig Stereo Console playing vinyl.
Analog tape-recording achieved a theoretical fidelity that was infinite with respect to human hearing capabilities.
When music was sampled and digitized, the sample rate has always been limited by cost and memory limitations.
The heat is lost. Digitized music is cold.
Not only is digitized music emotionally cold, it is economically cold.
Digitized music has lost its economic heat.
99 cents is too much to pay for cold noise.
QQ : 4. TECHNICOLOR
When Jazz was hot, Jackson Pollock painted Charles Mingus.
When Jazz was cool, Mark Rothko painted Thelonius Monk.
When Jazz got smooth, George W Bush painted Kenny G in monochrome.
QQ : 5. INFLUENZA WITHOUT FEVER
When Bob Dylan rocked, he a'changed the times. The streets were on fire.
When Curt Cobain burned, the boys were hot with anger and rage.
When Rihanna sings, we chill.
The New York Times describes Drake's new album in the context of form without content.
That's cold. 99 cents is too much to pay for the common cold.
QQ : 6 IT'S A GAS GAS GAS
When Jack Kerouac was "On The Road" there was no speed limit.
That was sizzling hot.
Jack was also the architect of cool.
When I tried to re-trace his steps during the gasoline crisis the speed limit was fifty-five miles per hour.
My electric-blue 1964, T-Bird convertible with hydraulic, retractable hard top was the ultimate in cool.
That said - when the Texas Highway Patrol issued my speeding ticket, that almost blew my cool
Jumping' Jack Flash, you were a gas.
QQ : 7. THE COOL OF TEPID
The new feudalism has established the separation of powers; those with heat and those without.
It seems that the Middle Class was a social construct that is no longer needed by the hot 1%.
The problem is that when the serfs start to freeze, they will find a way to keep warm at some cost to those who denied them the means to keep warm in the first place.
Even though the Middle Class may be an artificial, luke-warm construct, it forms the glue that maintains a balance that is civilizing.
Without it, we are tribal and primitive.
Perhaps ‘tepid’ is the necessary petrie dish for growth, culture and innovation.
QQ : 8 NINETY EIGHT DEGREES
Truth burns. Truth scalds. Truth cuts.
As mortal beings, we exist in denial.
Our current, universally-accepted state of denial is: that we as individuals do not share responsibility for our larger global dilemmas.
Blame?
Protest?
Occupy?
Teachers‘ unions are not responsible for the breakdown of the family.
Wall Street is not responsible for the lack of legislative regulation.
It is not Europe's fault that Greek oligarchs refuse to pay taxes.
Hitler did not come to power without the assistance of Ford, DuPont, GM and GE.
And then there are the Koch brothers.
A vote for Mitt, Newt, The late great Herm or the two Dicks is a vote for the Koch.
The SCOTUS tells us that the Koch are people.
I'm not so sure. I would like to take their temperature to see if they are alive. Rectally.
QQ : 9 ABSOLUTE ZERO
They say that hell is a hot place. Global warming?
QQ : 10. KELVIN
The internal combustion engine is conceptually unchanged since its original invention 100 years ago. It depends on fire. That fire is destructive.
Nuclear reactors depend on a controlled explosion of unstable uranium.
The waste material is eternally destructive.
With what we perceive to be unprecedented access to technological innovation and infinite computing power, our dependence on ancient sources of heat is majorly uncool.
IT'S ALL A MATTER OF DEGREE
QQ : 1 DRY ICE
Sarah Palin is hot. She radiates the warm blood of a freshly-killed moose.
Michelle Bachmann is cold. Dry ice is the solid form of Carbon Dioxide. Her detractors claim that CO2 is warming the earth.
Michelle has celestially-inspired, contrary evidence.
Dry ice must be the answer to global warming when hell freezes over, or when she becomes president.
Which-ever event happens first.
QQ : 2. MARLBORO MAN
Bubba Clinton is hot. He blows the saxophone and got blown.
Jazz is either hot or cool. Jazz is not smooth. Bubba does not blow smooth.
Barry Obama does not play the saxophone. He blows Marlboro Lights.
That is not cool and he is not hot.
Barry is smooth and getting smoother as he slides away into the smoke and mirrors of a compromising wasteland of indecision and failed commitments. Smooth jazz is not jazz.
QQ : 3. DIG GRUNDIG
Recorded music was hot on an early sixties Grundig Stereo Console playing vinyl.
Analog tape-recording achieved a theoretical fidelity that was infinite with respect to human hearing capabilities.
When music was sampled and digitized, the sample rate has always been limited by cost and memory limitations.
The heat is lost. Digitized music is cold.
Not only is digitized music emotionally cold, it is economically cold.
Digitized music has lost its economic heat.
99 cents is too much to pay for cold noise.
QQ : 4. TECHNICOLOR
When Jazz was hot, Jackson Pollock painted Charles Mingus.
When Jazz was cool, Mark Rothko painted Thelonius Monk.
When Jazz got smooth, George W Bush painted Kenny G in monochrome.
QQ : 5. INFLUENZA WITHOUT FEVER
When Bob Dylan rocked, he a'changed the times. The streets were on fire.
When Curt Cobain burned, the boys were hot with anger and rage.
When Rihanna sings, we chill.
The New York Times describes Drake's new album in the context of form without content.
That's cold. 99 cents is too much to pay for the common cold.
QQ : 6 IT'S A GAS GAS GAS
When Jack Kerouac was "On The Road" there was no speed limit.
That was sizzling hot.
Jack was also the architect of cool.
When I tried to re-trace his steps during the gasoline crisis the speed limit was fifty-five miles per hour.
My electric-blue 1964, T-Bird convertible with hydraulic, retractable hard top was the ultimate in cool.
That said - when the Texas Highway Patrol issued my speeding ticket, that almost blew my cool
Jumping' Jack Flash, you were a gas.
QQ : 7. THE COOL OF TEPID
The new feudalism has established the separation of powers; those with heat and those without.
It seems that the Middle Class was a social construct that is no longer needed by the hot 1%.
The problem is that when the serfs start to freeze, they will find a way to keep warm at some cost to those who denied them the means to keep warm in the first place.
Even though the Middle Class may be an artificial, luke-warm construct, it forms the glue that maintains a balance that is civilizing.
Without it, we are tribal and primitive.
Perhaps ‘tepid’ is the necessary petrie dish for growth, culture and innovation.
QQ : 8 NINETY EIGHT DEGREES
Truth burns. Truth scalds. Truth cuts.
As mortal beings, we exist in denial.
Our current, universally-accepted state of denial is: that we as individuals do not share responsibility for our larger global dilemmas.
Blame?
Protest?
Occupy?
Teachers‘ unions are not responsible for the breakdown of the family.
Wall Street is not responsible for the lack of legislative regulation.
It is not Europe's fault that Greek oligarchs refuse to pay taxes.
Hitler did not come to power without the assistance of Ford, DuPont, GM and GE.
And then there are the Koch brothers.
A vote for Mitt, Newt, The late great Herm or the two Dicks is a vote for the Koch.
The SCOTUS tells us that the Koch are people.
I'm not so sure. I would like to take their temperature to see if they are alive. Rectally.
QQ : 9 ABSOLUTE ZERO
They say that hell is a hot place. Global warming?
QQ : 10. KELVIN
The internal combustion engine is conceptually unchanged since its original invention 100 years ago. It depends on fire. That fire is destructive.
Nuclear reactors depend on a controlled explosion of unstable uranium.
The waste material is eternally destructive.
With what we perceive to be unprecedented access to technological innovation and infinite computing power, our dependence on ancient sources of heat is majorly uncool.
Wednesday 23 November 2011
QQ : NUMBER SEVENTEEN - November 23, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
An ancient Czech curse: Occupy my mind with interesting concepts.
The hopelessness of audacity and change that we once believed in.
There is something fundamentally wrong with a one billion dollar re-election war chest.
REMIND ME, WHY CHANGE?
QQ : 1 POCKET CHANGE
Perhaps the only certainty in the universe is the inevitability of change.
A vision of hell might be a state in which nothing ever changes through all eternity.
The implication being that change is good. Un-change, not good.
I would rather not dwell in hell for all of eternity. Change away!
QQ : 2 THE MONEY CHANGERS :
Jesus threw the money-changers out of the Temple grounds. His primary message of love and forgiveness however, was subsequently distorted by his followers for the next 2000 years.
If the ‘End Times’, upon his return, signify the end of change; would this be a good thing? See QQ : 1
QQ : 3 BROTHER, COULD YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE?
Keynsian economics is so out of fashion amongst the political clowns waiting in the wings for 2012.
I imagine that these economic geniuses are advocating pan-handling as a career choice.
OWS (Occupy) is all about those lazy unwashed, unemployed hippies who haven’t made the effort, according to Cain-sian economic theory.
This visionary, this mental wizard, this forward-thinking, cultural guru obviously has the answer. Herman can change history.
Beyond that, I would like to volunteer my services to cleanse another advocate of political bathing deserving of a golden shower, the honorable, non-lobbyist and uber-mentsch of morality,
Newtie Grinch-Grinch.
QQ : 4 TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
Fukujima, Three- Mile Island, Chernobyl, Love Canal and Minamata are products of the new industrial revolution.
Why did they fail?
Corporate corruption, mismanagement and greed are not accidents.
Follow the money.
Is the cost of these events offset by the benefits of technological change?
Could it be a neutral exchange? Fukujima may never recover.
QQ : 5 CH CH CH CHANGES
Bye Bye Miss American Pie; the day the music died was the day it was digitized.
16 bit 44.1k is a cold medium. MP3s are a cold medium.
There is hot media and there is cold media, based on the response at the most fundamental depth of the human condition.
We are primitive beings. Our essential primitivism remains unchanged.
We need heat, emotional heat.
Give me a hug!
QQ : 6 CHANGE OF LIFE
There are few absolutes. Change of life is one of them.
I, myself am in an acute state of Meno-Porsche.
I’m fairly sure a classic 1958 Speedster could see me through the rough patches.
QQ : 7 CLIMATE CHANGE:
What an odd term.
"Climate change" seems like a rather innocent, innocuous phrase.
The term has no positive or negative implication. It just refers to change.
The political pretenders waiting in the wings for 2012 of course have a deep, highly evolved and educated view regarding the causes of this change.
According to the Politi-clowns, it is cyclic change
According to the Greens, it's cow-fart change
Then again, the hole in the ozone layer above the Southern hemisphere must be a construct of Liberals and left-wing conspirators.
The fact that it is triggering fundamental cellular change is simply bad luck.
Did anyone bring sunscreen?
QQ : 8 CHANGE YOUR LUCK
"Change your place, change your luck"
I guess - what -an environmental shelter?
QQ : 9 CHANGE WORTH PURSUING
The de-monetization of Congress.
The elimination of corporate election financing.
Environmental restoration.
Perhaps there are cultural and societal parallels to environmental restoration.
We pollute and then we restore.
Sometimes, a change back from the brink is worth some consideration. Change, like technology is not "good" by definition.
Change is neutral, though inevitable. However, the quality of change is worth considering.
Sometimes, it is within our control.
Windmills are pretty ancient technology. Eat locally grown, rotate the crops, ride a bike, meditate, listen to live music, restore the Rainforest and the Everglades and the Watersheds.
Restore civility and compassion, and that Jesus thing : love and forgiveness.
QQ : 10 CHANGE PRIORITIES:
Define who the enemy is not.
Teachers are not the enemy.
Artists, poets, writers, painters and musicians are not the enemy.
QQ : 11 EXCHANGE RATE
What will the Drachma be worth?
Perhaps we can revive the science of alchemy and change lead into gold.
If Greece reverts to the Drachma, the likely result will be where a wheelbarrow full of paper money will not buy a piece of pita.
Social unrest, deprivation of the poorest coupled with and a new cycle of change in Europe, could unleash an out-of control- chain of events that are destined to repeat history.
Can we change history? Perhaps not, but we should learn from it, in order that we may not repeat it.
Although change is inevitable, sometimes... we have choices.
An ancient Czech curse: Occupy my mind with interesting concepts.
The hopelessness of audacity and change that we once believed in.
There is something fundamentally wrong with a one billion dollar re-election war chest.
REMIND ME, WHY CHANGE?
QQ : 1 POCKET CHANGE
Perhaps the only certainty in the universe is the inevitability of change.
A vision of hell might be a state in which nothing ever changes through all eternity.
The implication being that change is good. Un-change, not good.
I would rather not dwell in hell for all of eternity. Change away!
QQ : 2 THE MONEY CHANGERS :
Jesus threw the money-changers out of the Temple grounds. His primary message of love and forgiveness however, was subsequently distorted by his followers for the next 2000 years.
If the ‘End Times’, upon his return, signify the end of change; would this be a good thing? See QQ : 1
QQ : 3 BROTHER, COULD YOU SPARE SOME CHANGE?
Keynsian economics is so out of fashion amongst the political clowns waiting in the wings for 2012.
I imagine that these economic geniuses are advocating pan-handling as a career choice.
OWS (Occupy) is all about those lazy unwashed, unemployed hippies who haven’t made the effort, according to Cain-sian economic theory.
This visionary, this mental wizard, this forward-thinking, cultural guru obviously has the answer. Herman can change history.
Beyond that, I would like to volunteer my services to cleanse another advocate of political bathing deserving of a golden shower, the honorable, non-lobbyist and uber-mentsch of morality,
Newtie Grinch-Grinch.
QQ : 4 TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
Fukujima, Three- Mile Island, Chernobyl, Love Canal and Minamata are products of the new industrial revolution.
Why did they fail?
Corporate corruption, mismanagement and greed are not accidents.
Follow the money.
Is the cost of these events offset by the benefits of technological change?
Could it be a neutral exchange? Fukujima may never recover.
QQ : 5 CH CH CH CHANGES
Bye Bye Miss American Pie; the day the music died was the day it was digitized.
16 bit 44.1k is a cold medium. MP3s are a cold medium.
There is hot media and there is cold media, based on the response at the most fundamental depth of the human condition.
We are primitive beings. Our essential primitivism remains unchanged.
We need heat, emotional heat.
Give me a hug!
QQ : 6 CHANGE OF LIFE
There are few absolutes. Change of life is one of them.
I, myself am in an acute state of Meno-Porsche.
I’m fairly sure a classic 1958 Speedster could see me through the rough patches.
QQ : 7 CLIMATE CHANGE:
What an odd term.
"Climate change" seems like a rather innocent, innocuous phrase.
The term has no positive or negative implication. It just refers to change.
The political pretenders waiting in the wings for 2012 of course have a deep, highly evolved and educated view regarding the causes of this change.
According to the Politi-clowns, it is cyclic change
According to the Greens, it's cow-fart change
Then again, the hole in the ozone layer above the Southern hemisphere must be a construct of Liberals and left-wing conspirators.
The fact that it is triggering fundamental cellular change is simply bad luck.
Did anyone bring sunscreen?
QQ : 8 CHANGE YOUR LUCK
"Change your place, change your luck"
I guess - what -an environmental shelter?
QQ : 9 CHANGE WORTH PURSUING
The de-monetization of Congress.
The elimination of corporate election financing.
Environmental restoration.
Perhaps there are cultural and societal parallels to environmental restoration.
We pollute and then we restore.
Sometimes, a change back from the brink is worth some consideration. Change, like technology is not "good" by definition.
Change is neutral, though inevitable. However, the quality of change is worth considering.
Sometimes, it is within our control.
Windmills are pretty ancient technology. Eat locally grown, rotate the crops, ride a bike, meditate, listen to live music, restore the Rainforest and the Everglades and the Watersheds.
Restore civility and compassion, and that Jesus thing : love and forgiveness.
QQ : 10 CHANGE PRIORITIES:
Define who the enemy is not.
Teachers are not the enemy.
Artists, poets, writers, painters and musicians are not the enemy.
QQ : 11 EXCHANGE RATE
What will the Drachma be worth?
Perhaps we can revive the science of alchemy and change lead into gold.
If Greece reverts to the Drachma, the likely result will be where a wheelbarrow full of paper money will not buy a piece of pita.
Social unrest, deprivation of the poorest coupled with and a new cycle of change in Europe, could unleash an out-of control- chain of events that are destined to repeat history.
Can we change history? Perhaps not, but we should learn from it, in order that we may not repeat it.
Although change is inevitable, sometimes... we have choices.
Tuesday 15 November 2011
QQ : NUMBER SIXTEEN - November 15, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ : 1 ALGORITHMS AND BLUES
Zuckerface said , ‘A Squirrel Dying In Your Front Yard May Be More Relevant To Your Interests Right Now Than People Dying In Africa’”
When algorithms define our individual reality; and those algorithms dictate our exposure to content based on our behavior; then the end result is a downward spiral. We do not necessarily behave well.
As we react to this algorithmic ‘democracy,’ the level of our exposure to a diminishing universe becomes more and more closed in. We narrow our scope, and ultimately behave and react accordingly.
As our universe becomes smaller and smaller, culture and ultimately society and civilization, follow a negative path and we are sucked down the drain to ultimate destruction.
There should be a law.
QQ : 2 QAPEK’S LAW OF A SHRINKING UNIVERSE
Human society will collapse in direct proportion to the degree that algorithms increasingly narrow our individual universe.
This process has collapsed the recorded music industry, the newspaper and magazine industry and network television. These are the lesser evils.
This process has put blinders on the political process and desensitized society to the most fundamental issues relating to survival. Algorithms have no ethic and no morality. This is a fundamental evil.
This process promotes the rule of the mob; the promulgation of ignorance; and basic, primitive reactive behavior.
There should be a law.
QQ : 3. THE BORGIAS VERSUS PLAYSTATION
The two opposing forces in art and culture can be defined as:
1. Algorithmic democracy
versus
2. A patriarchal system of patronage.
Both forces have negative connotations. However, the results of these opposing forces are quite remarkable.
There are over 500 million downloads of the Angry Birds game. The number, 500 million, equals half a billion. 500 million is one fourteenth of the population of planet earth. This number means that one out of every fourteen; man, woman, child or dog on the planet - has a copy of Angry Birds.
This might be an indirect result of algorithmic democracy. This phenomenon can be considered benign, or possibly, satanic.
The ceiling of the Sistine chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV.
"Hey dude, Michelangelo, I like your stuff". " Paint me a ceiling".
SYSTEM 1: We get Angry Birds.
SYSTEM 2: We get Timeless Art.
Is it possible that the arts are, and always have been, the subject of patriarchal, egotistical patronage?
Were John Hammond, the Ertegens, Clive Davis and Chet Atkins, simply patrons who exercised their financial and executive power to fulfill their personal taste?
Was Peggy Guggenheim making educated decisions, or simply fulfilling her own artistic fantasy because she could?
Thank the Universe and Civilization for Peggy.
QQ : 4. BOB DYLAN
In 1961, John Hammond heard Bob Dylan playing harmonica on a session and signed him to Columbia. Hammond kept Dylan on the label despite the protests of executives, who referred to Dylan as "Hammond’s folly". Hammond produced Dylan's early recordings, "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."
Was that Hammond's ego trip or an inspired plan of a visionary?
When Mary Martin conceived of the combination of Bob Dylan's musical evolution with a bar band from Toronto who were the backup musicians for Ronny Hawkins, was this her ego trip, or an inspired plan of a visionary?
Poll after poll designates "Like a Rolling Stone" as the number one, most popular song of all time. I doubt that an algorithm would confirm this designation. Trending on Twitter at this moment is a tribute to penile girth by Rihanna
QQ : 5. HUFF 'N PUFF
Is the Huffington Post the Napster of News?
The word "Aggregator" has horrifying cultural implications. The art form of "collage" has always seemed to have a secondary position relative to fine art. It's an interesting exercise, but more of a path than a statement. The mix and remix phenomenon has similar effect.
Those who cannot compose, compile, sample and remix
Those who cannot paint, collage.
Those who cannot write, aggregate.
QQ : 6 SEX DRUGS AND ROCK 'N ROLL
It used to be that a guy would take up a guitar and join a band to get chicks and get laid.
Now all of that has changed.
Now a guy gets into politics; finds an agenda, joins a party and gets in line behind Cain, Weiner, Spitzer and Clinton. Getting laid is a slam dunk.
Unfortunately, for this band of merry men, the Twit-verse is ever-present and sends out those algorithms in underpants.
Go for it Gloria Allred
I can't wait to see the Sugar Cain video on You-Tubify
QQ : 7. CROWD-SOURCING
Crowd-sourcing is a lovely word. This is the new nerd-speak for an economic model that pretends to be democratic. Here a corporation redefines the whole concept of copyright in a feudal sense. The King sends out crumbs to the serfs for their labor and their loyalty.
Send us your T-shirt design and the mob will vote. When the crowd is sourced, democracy reigns and we'll send you a penny or two. Our Twenty- million dollar T-shirt business is none of your business. That's our business. Crowd-sourcing......you create, we profit. It’s interactive, web 2, sharing, user friendly, social networking and viral. Have fun while you gather pennies and we profit.
QQ : 8. SEND IN THE CLOWNS
Surely we live in an era of Clown Culture. The resulting question that remains is : Does serious matter?
When Dickless Perry, Sho-U my Wiener, Bunga Berlusconi and Grope-me Cain entertain us, do we care?
When the highest rated clown of all Tubby Limbugger dominates the Party that abolished slavery and when little Johny Stewart, his mother's pride and joy, brings us the "News", does it matter?
Clowns rule!
I vote that they should all wear oversized shoes, button noses and baggy pants.
Oh, I forgot....Rush already does.
QQ : 9 MISSISSIPPI
50% of African American children in Mississippi live in poverty.
Mississippi rates #50 or last in Health Care on every level.
Mississippi ranks #50 or last in life expectancy
Mississippi ranks #50 or last in quality of life.
Mississippi ranks at or near or at the top for crime and corruption.
Mississippi citizens recently voted on Initiative 26, a constitutional amendment that would declare human life to begin “at the moment of fertilization.” The amendment would ban abortions even in pregnancies conceived through rape or incest, which would be the most stringent such standard in the country. Contraception could also be on the line based on re interpretation.
I look to Mississippi as my #1 moral compass on all things.
QQ : 10. OZ SPEAK
Despite her annoying artful accent, Julia Gillard is to be commended for plowing through with her ground- breaking legislation instituting a carbon tax and other environmental guidelines.
Australia actually has a Ministry of Climate Change in the sitting government.
The forthcoming 2012 elections in America will likely install a Ministry of Climate Change Denial.
QQ : 1 ALGORITHMS AND BLUES
Zuckerface said , ‘A Squirrel Dying In Your Front Yard May Be More Relevant To Your Interests Right Now Than People Dying In Africa’”
When algorithms define our individual reality; and those algorithms dictate our exposure to content based on our behavior; then the end result is a downward spiral. We do not necessarily behave well.
As we react to this algorithmic ‘democracy,’ the level of our exposure to a diminishing universe becomes more and more closed in. We narrow our scope, and ultimately behave and react accordingly.
As our universe becomes smaller and smaller, culture and ultimately society and civilization, follow a negative path and we are sucked down the drain to ultimate destruction.
There should be a law.
QQ : 2 QAPEK’S LAW OF A SHRINKING UNIVERSE
Human society will collapse in direct proportion to the degree that algorithms increasingly narrow our individual universe.
This process has collapsed the recorded music industry, the newspaper and magazine industry and network television. These are the lesser evils.
This process has put blinders on the political process and desensitized society to the most fundamental issues relating to survival. Algorithms have no ethic and no morality. This is a fundamental evil.
This process promotes the rule of the mob; the promulgation of ignorance; and basic, primitive reactive behavior.
There should be a law.
QQ : 3. THE BORGIAS VERSUS PLAYSTATION
The two opposing forces in art and culture can be defined as:
1. Algorithmic democracy
versus
2. A patriarchal system of patronage.
Both forces have negative connotations. However, the results of these opposing forces are quite remarkable.
There are over 500 million downloads of the Angry Birds game. The number, 500 million, equals half a billion. 500 million is one fourteenth of the population of planet earth. This number means that one out of every fourteen; man, woman, child or dog on the planet - has a copy of Angry Birds.
This might be an indirect result of algorithmic democracy. This phenomenon can be considered benign, or possibly, satanic.
The ceiling of the Sistine chapel was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV.
"Hey dude, Michelangelo, I like your stuff". " Paint me a ceiling".
SYSTEM 1: We get Angry Birds.
SYSTEM 2: We get Timeless Art.
Is it possible that the arts are, and always have been, the subject of patriarchal, egotistical patronage?
Were John Hammond, the Ertegens, Clive Davis and Chet Atkins, simply patrons who exercised their financial and executive power to fulfill their personal taste?
Was Peggy Guggenheim making educated decisions, or simply fulfilling her own artistic fantasy because she could?
Thank the Universe and Civilization for Peggy.
QQ : 4. BOB DYLAN
In 1961, John Hammond heard Bob Dylan playing harmonica on a session and signed him to Columbia. Hammond kept Dylan on the label despite the protests of executives, who referred to Dylan as "Hammond’s folly". Hammond produced Dylan's early recordings, "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall."
Was that Hammond's ego trip or an inspired plan of a visionary?
When Mary Martin conceived of the combination of Bob Dylan's musical evolution with a bar band from Toronto who were the backup musicians for Ronny Hawkins, was this her ego trip, or an inspired plan of a visionary?
Poll after poll designates "Like a Rolling Stone" as the number one, most popular song of all time. I doubt that an algorithm would confirm this designation. Trending on Twitter at this moment is a tribute to penile girth by Rihanna
QQ : 5. HUFF 'N PUFF
Is the Huffington Post the Napster of News?
The word "Aggregator" has horrifying cultural implications. The art form of "collage" has always seemed to have a secondary position relative to fine art. It's an interesting exercise, but more of a path than a statement. The mix and remix phenomenon has similar effect.
Those who cannot compose, compile, sample and remix
Those who cannot paint, collage.
Those who cannot write, aggregate.
QQ : 6 SEX DRUGS AND ROCK 'N ROLL
It used to be that a guy would take up a guitar and join a band to get chicks and get laid.
Now all of that has changed.
Now a guy gets into politics; finds an agenda, joins a party and gets in line behind Cain, Weiner, Spitzer and Clinton. Getting laid is a slam dunk.
Unfortunately, for this band of merry men, the Twit-verse is ever-present and sends out those algorithms in underpants.
Go for it Gloria Allred
I can't wait to see the Sugar Cain video on You-Tubify
QQ : 7. CROWD-SOURCING
Crowd-sourcing is a lovely word. This is the new nerd-speak for an economic model that pretends to be democratic. Here a corporation redefines the whole concept of copyright in a feudal sense. The King sends out crumbs to the serfs for their labor and their loyalty.
Send us your T-shirt design and the mob will vote. When the crowd is sourced, democracy reigns and we'll send you a penny or two. Our Twenty- million dollar T-shirt business is none of your business. That's our business. Crowd-sourcing......you create, we profit. It’s interactive, web 2, sharing, user friendly, social networking and viral. Have fun while you gather pennies and we profit.
QQ : 8. SEND IN THE CLOWNS
Surely we live in an era of Clown Culture. The resulting question that remains is : Does serious matter?
When Dickless Perry, Sho-U my Wiener, Bunga Berlusconi and Grope-me Cain entertain us, do we care?
When the highest rated clown of all Tubby Limbugger dominates the Party that abolished slavery and when little Johny Stewart, his mother's pride and joy, brings us the "News", does it matter?
Clowns rule!
I vote that they should all wear oversized shoes, button noses and baggy pants.
Oh, I forgot....Rush already does.
QQ : 9 MISSISSIPPI
50% of African American children in Mississippi live in poverty.
Mississippi rates #50 or last in Health Care on every level.
Mississippi ranks #50 or last in life expectancy
Mississippi ranks #50 or last in quality of life.
Mississippi ranks at or near or at the top for crime and corruption.
Mississippi citizens recently voted on Initiative 26, a constitutional amendment that would declare human life to begin “at the moment of fertilization.” The amendment would ban abortions even in pregnancies conceived through rape or incest, which would be the most stringent such standard in the country. Contraception could also be on the line based on re interpretation.
I look to Mississippi as my #1 moral compass on all things.
QQ : 10. OZ SPEAK
Despite her annoying artful accent, Julia Gillard is to be commended for plowing through with her ground- breaking legislation instituting a carbon tax and other environmental guidelines.
Australia actually has a Ministry of Climate Change in the sitting government.
The forthcoming 2012 elections in America will likely install a Ministry of Climate Change Denial.
Sunday 6 November 2011
QQ : NUMBER FIFTEEN - November 6, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
Words : The New Annotated Qapek Dictionary.
----------------------------------------------------------------
QQ : 1 SHARE :
SHARE : When an original holder grants a partial use to another.
Is sharing something that you do not own, actually sharing?
Sharing music gets to be a sort of feudal, potentate thing. The king throws out scraps to the mob, who scramble to grab at what they can get because it’s free. They claim their 'share' and share they do.
Then the king taxes them. Then the mob steals to pay their taxes.
Therefore, Universal Galaxic Limited, Inc., ( UGLI ) release teasers to YouTubify; we download a bunch of content and then UGLI sues us for stealing their stuff.
The circle is broken.
I want my share!
QQ : 2 USER :
USER : One who partakes in the legal enjoyment of property.
When I watch a film on Netflix, apparently, I am a User. When I stream audio on Spotify, I am a User. The problem with the word USER is that the implied contract between the creator and the User is distorted by the middle man, the conveyor or the agent.
When The Creator made the Universe, we became users of his creation. Then came the intermediaries. Before them, we were in Eden. Then we were cast out and had to go through the middle man to enjoy creation.
Is there some reptile that could be applied to this contemporary contract? Are the intermediaries actually the original original sinners?
I'll just take one bite of that i-Apple and see what happens.
QQ : 3 NEWS
Reporting from the rear.
Is unverified blogging and tweeting actually "news" ?
Perhaps, I am a first offender. However, I prefer to be embedded in my own bed. I prefer to access news from the front... the actual front rather than the virtual front, or from the rear.
Then again, aggregating is downright theft with Huff-n-Puff, the first offender. AGGREGATE....there’s another word to love to hate, almost on a par with USER.
QQ : 4 OCCUPY
Here is an odd turn of phrase. Heisenberg postulated that the act of observation changes the observed object.
The Occupiers observe themselves, as they occupy via tweets and Facebook posts, as they are observed, observing themselves, complaining that they are being ignored by the media as they are observed, observing themselves.
Their aim is true, however, their voyeurism is troubling because the message is retained within the group.
More troubling still are memories of Kent State, as we fire on our own as they tweet to each other.
QQ : 5 CONTENT
We used to write songs. Now we provide Content.
QQ : 6 PRODUCT
We used to make records. Now we manufacture Product to give away free in order to sell MERCHANDISE.
QQ : 7 MELODY
A useful definition of music is: "organized noise"
Music, therefore, does not necessarily have a component of melody.
Although, I personally still whistle a happy tune.
It occurs to me that we all like a good story and we all enjoy a good tune.
Verdi and Gershwin wrote some decent tunes. Homer and Saramago wrote some decent stories.
I like a good story and I hope to write some good tunes.
QQ : 8 CLOUD
A Cloud contains water vapour that eventually becomes precipitation.
A book contains the accumulated knowledge of humanity
The Cloud contains water vapour that eventually becomes precipitation that drains away.
QQ : 9. LEADERS & FOLLOWERS
A Leader, as in "loss leader", is something that is put out there for free.
In the Twit-verse, a Follower is a statistic that follows the loss leader.
QQ : 10. FRIEND
What was once an acquaintance of a non- biblical, or biblical sense, is now a Facebook statistic pronounced 'Fraaand' according to the Valley-speak Elocution Authority.
Words : The New Annotated Qapek Dictionary.
----------------------------------------------------------------
QQ : 1 SHARE :
SHARE : When an original holder grants a partial use to another.
Is sharing something that you do not own, actually sharing?
Sharing music gets to be a sort of feudal, potentate thing. The king throws out scraps to the mob, who scramble to grab at what they can get because it’s free. They claim their 'share' and share they do.
Then the king taxes them. Then the mob steals to pay their taxes.
Therefore, Universal Galaxic Limited, Inc., ( UGLI ) release teasers to YouTubify; we download a bunch of content and then UGLI sues us for stealing their stuff.
The circle is broken.
I want my share!
QQ : 2 USER :
USER : One who partakes in the legal enjoyment of property.
When I watch a film on Netflix, apparently, I am a User. When I stream audio on Spotify, I am a User. The problem with the word USER is that the implied contract between the creator and the User is distorted by the middle man, the conveyor or the agent.
When The Creator made the Universe, we became users of his creation. Then came the intermediaries. Before them, we were in Eden. Then we were cast out and had to go through the middle man to enjoy creation.
Is there some reptile that could be applied to this contemporary contract? Are the intermediaries actually the original original sinners?
I'll just take one bite of that i-Apple and see what happens.
QQ : 3 NEWS
Reporting from the rear.
Is unverified blogging and tweeting actually "news" ?
Perhaps, I am a first offender. However, I prefer to be embedded in my own bed. I prefer to access news from the front... the actual front rather than the virtual front, or from the rear.
Then again, aggregating is downright theft with Huff-n-Puff, the first offender. AGGREGATE....there’s another word to love to hate, almost on a par with USER.
QQ : 4 OCCUPY
Here is an odd turn of phrase. Heisenberg postulated that the act of observation changes the observed object.
The Occupiers observe themselves, as they occupy via tweets and Facebook posts, as they are observed, observing themselves, complaining that they are being ignored by the media as they are observed, observing themselves.
Their aim is true, however, their voyeurism is troubling because the message is retained within the group.
More troubling still are memories of Kent State, as we fire on our own as they tweet to each other.
QQ : 5 CONTENT
We used to write songs. Now we provide Content.
QQ : 6 PRODUCT
We used to make records. Now we manufacture Product to give away free in order to sell MERCHANDISE.
QQ : 7 MELODY
A useful definition of music is: "organized noise"
Music, therefore, does not necessarily have a component of melody.
Although, I personally still whistle a happy tune.
It occurs to me that we all like a good story and we all enjoy a good tune.
Verdi and Gershwin wrote some decent tunes. Homer and Saramago wrote some decent stories.
I like a good story and I hope to write some good tunes.
QQ : 8 CLOUD
A Cloud contains water vapour that eventually becomes precipitation.
A book contains the accumulated knowledge of humanity
The Cloud contains water vapour that eventually becomes precipitation that drains away.
QQ : 9. LEADERS & FOLLOWERS
A Leader, as in "loss leader", is something that is put out there for free.
In the Twit-verse, a Follower is a statistic that follows the loss leader.
QQ : 10. FRIEND
What was once an acquaintance of a non- biblical, or biblical sense, is now a Facebook statistic pronounced 'Fraaand' according to the Valley-speak Elocution Authority.
Monday 24 October 2011
QQ : NUMBER FOURTEEN - October 24, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ : 1 RAISING THE STAKES
One Israeli soldier for one thousand “freedom fighters”. Call, raise, hold or fold?
QQ : 2. A CASE OF EXTREME SEMIOTICS
Somehow falling through the cracks of German efficiency at the intake at Auschwitz, my mother had no tattoo. At age seventy, in Sydney Australia, she took herself to a downtown tattoo parlor, and had her originally assigned number inscribed on her arm.
Sadly, the cards had already been dealt.
It was too late to call.
QQ : 3. THE COVENANT .
Israelites! Listen up! Here’s the deal. You cut off your foreskin and I’ll give you my book. Deal or no deal?
Yo, Abraham, about that sacrifice thing. I was just kidding
QQ : 4. TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG
My ancestry is traced back to the Hussite, ‘Men of the Chalice’ who were the original Bohemian protestants.
I protest, I Boheme ...I Blog.
QQ : 5. A PLACE IS JUST A PLACE
Toronto for my children. Nashville for my muse. Los Angeles for my body. Melbourne for my heart. Paris for my soul. Manhattan for my fantasy. New Orleans for my Id. Prague for my ghosts.
QQ : 6. PEAN SHARKER and THE PURPOSE
According to this media genius “There's good creepy and there's bad creepy, and today's creepy is tomorrow's necessity."
Sean Parker has opinions, power and resources. Perhaps fate has made an inappropriate assignment.
Kandinsky and others have suggested that the purpose of art is to nurture the spirit.
My soul does not respond to creepy; good or bad; today or tomorrow.
QQ : 7. ME AND GROUCHO.
Copyright versus “democratization” - Marx suggested the concept of a “general intellect”.
Hacking, untying the bonds of copyright and “sharing” all sound kind of Marxist to me.
I am not a (Karl) Marxist.
I like the idea of owning my ideas..
I am a Groucho Marxist.
QQ : 8. THROUGH THE NOSE
The cable, ISP and phone monopolies of North America - marketing by confusion: controlling and encouraging the dissemination of pornography and the theft of copyright as their largest distribution of content.
Sex and music rule,
Comcast delivers.
We pay.
QQ: 9. I HAD A DREAM
Segregation within organized religion is a travesty. Why are there segregated churches? Jesus is not happy. That is reason enough for his return.
QQ :10. EXTRA PEPPERONI
“Pizza” Herman Cain flip-flops on women’s rights. If we don’t deliver your pizza within thirty minutes, your procedure is covered as long as it is in the first trimester in certain states.
In other states, we’ll just offer you some extra pepperoni and a free pap test.
Cain's idiotic agenda has just earned this guy the hearts and minds of conservative women voters for the 1912 elections.
And what ever happened to Abel?
WHY I BLOG
LET’S MAKE A DEAL --- DEALS WITH THE DEVIL
QQ : 1 RAISING THE STAKES
One Israeli soldier for one thousand “freedom fighters”. Call, raise, hold or fold?
QQ : 2. A CASE OF EXTREME SEMIOTICS
Somehow falling through the cracks of German efficiency at the intake at Auschwitz, my mother had no tattoo. At age seventy, in Sydney Australia, she took herself to a downtown tattoo parlor, and had her originally assigned number inscribed on her arm.
Sadly, the cards had already been dealt.
It was too late to call.
QQ : 3. THE COVENANT .
Israelites! Listen up! Here’s the deal. You cut off your foreskin and I’ll give you my book. Deal or no deal?
Yo, Abraham, about that sacrifice thing. I was just kidding
QQ : 4. TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG
My ancestry is traced back to the Hussite, ‘Men of the Chalice’ who were the original Bohemian protestants.
I protest, I Boheme ...I Blog.
QQ : 5. A PLACE IS JUST A PLACE
Toronto for my children. Nashville for my muse. Los Angeles for my body. Melbourne for my heart. Paris for my soul. Manhattan for my fantasy. New Orleans for my Id. Prague for my ghosts.
QQ : 6. PEAN SHARKER and THE PURPOSE
According to this media genius “There's good creepy and there's bad creepy, and today's creepy is tomorrow's necessity."
Sean Parker has opinions, power and resources. Perhaps fate has made an inappropriate assignment.
Kandinsky and others have suggested that the purpose of art is to nurture the spirit.
My soul does not respond to creepy; good or bad; today or tomorrow.
QQ : 7. ME AND GROUCHO.
Copyright versus “democratization” - Marx suggested the concept of a “general intellect”.
Hacking, untying the bonds of copyright and “sharing” all sound kind of Marxist to me.
I am not a (Karl) Marxist.
I like the idea of owning my ideas..
I am a Groucho Marxist.
QQ : 8. THROUGH THE NOSE
The cable, ISP and phone monopolies of North America - marketing by confusion: controlling and encouraging the dissemination of pornography and the theft of copyright as their largest distribution of content.
Sex and music rule,
Comcast delivers.
We pay.
QQ: 9. I HAD A DREAM
Segregation within organized religion is a travesty. Why are there segregated churches? Jesus is not happy. That is reason enough for his return.
QQ :10. EXTRA PEPPERONI
“Pizza” Herman Cain flip-flops on women’s rights. If we don’t deliver your pizza within thirty minutes, your procedure is covered as long as it is in the first trimester in certain states.
In other states, we’ll just offer you some extra pepperoni and a free pap test.
Cain's idiotic agenda has just earned this guy the hearts and minds of conservative women voters for the 1912 elections.
And what ever happened to Abel?
Monday 17 October 2011
QQ : NUMBER THIRTEEN - October 17, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
It's Music Week at QQ Headquarters.
Here is a list of some lame, dated, current and recent Pop Music's Top Ten.
QQ : 1 LENNY, LENNY, HENNY PENNY
“Hallelujah” Lenny (i.e., Leonard Cohen) has engaged in the exercise of how to rhyme "jah" and truly take license as a poet. Leonard, you could have tried harder with ardor and a bit of larder. Perhaps your license should be suspended or, at least, you should lose points. Maybe I’m wrong. Even Justin Timberlake took this anthem on to prove his essential, quasi-hipness and fashion currency. On the other hand, Rufus Wainwright eschewed the whole 'jah' thing, acknowledging Cohen's rhyming fakery. He sings a dedication to the female sheep..... "yew". But of course “you” doesn't rhyme with "jah", creating something of a dilemma of song form as taught by the lyric professor at Berklee who would be ready with his red marker to give Lenny a B minus.
QQ : 2. IT'S ALL RELATIVE
Lady Gaga takes us to unimaginable intellectual heights in "Love Games" when she re-confirms that:
"...it always starts the same with a boy and a girl" but, then again, "...it’s complicated and stupid’ ".
Gaga has perhaps made a strident advance in universal wisdom and understanding.
When Albert Einstein debunked Newtonian concepts with his General and Special Theories of 'Complicated and Stupid', we learned that by channeling through Gaga he gave us a revolutionary framework in which to understand the fundamental building blocks of matter and energy.
More spiritually, Gaga reminds us of the Book of Genesis telling of the dawn of man on the sixth day of Creation. The profundity of Gag-Gag's summary of God's work cannot be underestimated as contained in her biblical reference:
"It always starts the same with a boy and a girl" but then again " ‘its complicated and stupid’ ".
Einstein did not, however, predict the existence of black holes.
It was Gag-Gag who has now alerted us to this newly-discovered phenomenon. Her vacuumous artistry provides us with the ultimate musical allegory. Cultural black holes exist and Gag-gag is our guiding laser beam.
QQ : 3 BUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE
Michael Buble. You're cute . Sinatra was more cute. He had a profound, innate understanding of lyric. The party’s over. It ended with him and his Pack Rats.
Is it necessary for Michael to do bad Sinatra? Sinatra already did Sinatra.
Sometimes even Sinatra did bad Sinatra when he did something stupid.
Michael's biggest hit so far is his original, "Home" .
Based on that I propose:
Send Michael home,
so as not to feel so alone.
I do pick a bone,
as I sit on my throne
but then again, he is a clone.
QQ : 4. MARIN INDEPENDENCE DAY
It was either Frank Zappa, and or Martin Mull, or both who said :
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture".
Chief current offender, who should know better is Marin County, 'hipper than thou' blogster and hack, Paul Liberatore, who writes in a recent review, that I am “known for my Tin Pan Alley harmonies”.....”therin lies the problem”.
If Tin Pan alley harmonistas Irving Berlin; Gershwin (both of them); and Cole Porter, to name a few have contributed to my problem, I claim it wholeheartedly. These guys are my heroes and my teachers.
I must remember to send Mr. Liberatore a nice fruit basket in the morning and thank him for placing me in the same category with the forefathers of popular songwriting.
But Mr. Liberatore is not finished with his highly-educated analysis of Capek-Jordan hit songs. According to the Never-Written -or -Published- a -Hit Song- Much- Less-Charted or Sold-Hundreds-of-Millions of Units, Mr. Liberatore- Marc Jordan's lyrics are "schmaltzy".
Note to Self:
Must send cable immediately to Rod Stewart; Cher (whose song about her late ex-husband and partner he is specifically referencing); Joe Cocker; Bonnie Raitt; Chicago; Natalie Cole; Josh Groban; Manhattan Transfer et al- BEWARE-do not record any more songs written by Marc Jordan. Potential Schmaltz Danger!
Au contraire- Mr. Liberatore's barometer of good songwriting has nought to do with Tin Pan Alley; allegory; imagery; literary references; and musical history. No, according to the Liberatore School of Songwriting - VOLUME is the seminal element. Who knew?
Note to Self:
Must remember to make all new songs LOUDER.
Mr. Liberatore's tutorial has been most enlightening. I invite him to please feel free to enlighten me with his critical analysis and superior songwriting skills anytime.
Hit Me with Your Best Shot.
QQ : 5. JUST IN
With "Like ooh baby baby" Just-in Bieber takes us to the motherload of craft in melodic/lyrical creativity. Here we have a veritable pop anthem that strikes at the heartstrings, brings tears to the eyes and bile to the tongue. The foundation built by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Cole Porter is finally vanquished by Bieber and team.
“Viral” is the word that comes to mind in connection with this phenomenon.
“Viral” often becomes bacterial according to my doctor.
QQ : 6. SIZE MATTERS
Rihanna, said by some statistics to be the most successful singer of all time, asks:
"Can you get it up...is you thick enough?”
There's a Monty Python connection there somewhere, I'm sure.
“I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay”.
Perhaps a writing collaboration between Eric Idle and Rihanna is in the cards. An animated video by Terry Gilliam would fulfill my comedic fantasies for the foreseeable future.
QQ : 7. ONCE UPON A TIME THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Vaclav Havel has suggested that : "...drama assumes an order, if only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising".
With that statement, Havel has correctly described precisely what is missing in the melodic, rhythmic, harmonic content and quality of contemporary, popular music. There is no drama, because there are no musical surprises. We should raise Haydn from the dead to remind us. There's a musical surprise!
Drama is essentially the manipulation of tension and release. There is no drama in a chordal triad.
There is no tension in the constant repetition of the cycle of fourths, nor is there any resolution.
Open guitar tunings have been abandoned and 'add 9ths' are a criminal offense in Nashville.
Hip- hop has abandoned harmony as an anachronism and counterpoint seems to have never existed.
No wonder the audience is unwilling to pay. No wonder this non-melodious drivel has no longevity. There is no drama.
The end.
QQ : 8. RING A RING A ROSIE
Where are the anthems that bring us together?
Anthems are important. Does 'Occupy Wall Street' have a unifying anthem?
The answer used to be blowing in the wind.
Amazing grace is not so amazing any more.
Kumbaya came and went.
We continue to sing "Happy Birthday", Silent Night" and "Take Me Out To the Ballgame".
These tunes may seem like trivial references. They are not small.
We lack CONTEMPORARY, unifying, civilizing, ceremonial anthems.
The lack of anthemic themes has larger, social repercussions.
Freedom, equality and justice for all would be a good start.
Why have we become so cynical?
Has the stone stopped rolling?
QQ : 9. IT WAS A VERY GOOD DECADE
A few who found a tangent, but couldn't keep the fire burning.
Now they seem to be oh -so terribly 90s:
Alanis Morrisette
Sting
Lewis Taylor
The Dixie Chicks
John Mayer
A new tangent, a new flame would be nice.
QQ : 10. EM - PEE - THREE
One day science will show that Recorded Music Died when it was Digitized. Music suffers a second death as it continues to be disseminated in digital form at the current bit level.
There are huge chunks of emotional content gone missing. The brain does not respond. Subsequently, the wallet doesn't move.
Why else is the market willing to pay such ridiculous $$$ only to see live shows?
QAPEK QUOTIENT QUALIFICATION :
I am not a hack. However someone has suggested that my wife is married to one. In my support and the defense of the heritage of American Popular Music, Batsheva Capek has contributed to this week’s QQ : 4
It's Music Week at QQ Headquarters.
Here is a list of some lame, dated, current and recent Pop Music's Top Ten.
QQ : 1 LENNY, LENNY, HENNY PENNY
“Hallelujah” Lenny (i.e., Leonard Cohen) has engaged in the exercise of how to rhyme "jah" and truly take license as a poet. Leonard, you could have tried harder with ardor and a bit of larder. Perhaps your license should be suspended or, at least, you should lose points. Maybe I’m wrong. Even Justin Timberlake took this anthem on to prove his essential, quasi-hipness and fashion currency. On the other hand, Rufus Wainwright eschewed the whole 'jah' thing, acknowledging Cohen's rhyming fakery. He sings a dedication to the female sheep..... "yew". But of course “you” doesn't rhyme with "jah", creating something of a dilemma of song form as taught by the lyric professor at Berklee who would be ready with his red marker to give Lenny a B minus.
QQ : 2. IT'S ALL RELATIVE
Lady Gaga takes us to unimaginable intellectual heights in "Love Games" when she re-confirms that:
"...it always starts the same with a boy and a girl" but, then again, "...it’s complicated and stupid’ ".
Gaga has perhaps made a strident advance in universal wisdom and understanding.
When Albert Einstein debunked Newtonian concepts with his General and Special Theories of 'Complicated and Stupid', we learned that by channeling through Gaga he gave us a revolutionary framework in which to understand the fundamental building blocks of matter and energy.
More spiritually, Gaga reminds us of the Book of Genesis telling of the dawn of man on the sixth day of Creation. The profundity of Gag-Gag's summary of God's work cannot be underestimated as contained in her biblical reference:
"It always starts the same with a boy and a girl" but then again " ‘its complicated and stupid’ ".
Einstein did not, however, predict the existence of black holes.
It was Gag-Gag who has now alerted us to this newly-discovered phenomenon. Her vacuumous artistry provides us with the ultimate musical allegory. Cultural black holes exist and Gag-gag is our guiding laser beam.
QQ : 3 BUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE
Michael Buble. You're cute . Sinatra was more cute. He had a profound, innate understanding of lyric. The party’s over. It ended with him and his Pack Rats.
Is it necessary for Michael to do bad Sinatra? Sinatra already did Sinatra.
Sometimes even Sinatra did bad Sinatra when he did something stupid.
Michael's biggest hit so far is his original, "Home" .
Based on that I propose:
Send Michael home,
so as not to feel so alone.
I do pick a bone,
as I sit on my throne
but then again, he is a clone.
QQ : 4. MARIN INDEPENDENCE DAY
It was either Frank Zappa, and or Martin Mull, or both who said :
"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture".
Chief current offender, who should know better is Marin County, 'hipper than thou' blogster and hack, Paul Liberatore, who writes in a recent review, that I am “known for my Tin Pan Alley harmonies”.....”therin lies the problem”.
If Tin Pan alley harmonistas Irving Berlin; Gershwin (both of them); and Cole Porter, to name a few have contributed to my problem, I claim it wholeheartedly. These guys are my heroes and my teachers.
I must remember to send Mr. Liberatore a nice fruit basket in the morning and thank him for placing me in the same category with the forefathers of popular songwriting.
But Mr. Liberatore is not finished with his highly-educated analysis of Capek-Jordan hit songs. According to the Never-Written -or -Published- a -Hit Song- Much- Less-Charted or Sold-Hundreds-of-Millions of Units, Mr. Liberatore- Marc Jordan's lyrics are "schmaltzy".
Note to Self:
Must send cable immediately to Rod Stewart; Cher (whose song about her late ex-husband and partner he is specifically referencing); Joe Cocker; Bonnie Raitt; Chicago; Natalie Cole; Josh Groban; Manhattan Transfer et al- BEWARE-do not record any more songs written by Marc Jordan. Potential Schmaltz Danger!
Au contraire- Mr. Liberatore's barometer of good songwriting has nought to do with Tin Pan Alley; allegory; imagery; literary references; and musical history. No, according to the Liberatore School of Songwriting - VOLUME is the seminal element. Who knew?
Note to Self:
Must remember to make all new songs LOUDER.
Mr. Liberatore's tutorial has been most enlightening. I invite him to please feel free to enlighten me with his critical analysis and superior songwriting skills anytime.
Hit Me with Your Best Shot.
QQ : 5. JUST IN
With "Like ooh baby baby" Just-in Bieber takes us to the motherload of craft in melodic/lyrical creativity. Here we have a veritable pop anthem that strikes at the heartstrings, brings tears to the eyes and bile to the tongue. The foundation built by Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Cole Porter is finally vanquished by Bieber and team.
“Viral” is the word that comes to mind in connection with this phenomenon.
“Viral” often becomes bacterial according to my doctor.
QQ : 6. SIZE MATTERS
Rihanna, said by some statistics to be the most successful singer of all time, asks:
"Can you get it up...is you thick enough?”
There's a Monty Python connection there somewhere, I'm sure.
“I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay”.
Perhaps a writing collaboration between Eric Idle and Rihanna is in the cards. An animated video by Terry Gilliam would fulfill my comedic fantasies for the foreseeable future.
QQ : 7. ONCE UPON A TIME THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Vaclav Havel has suggested that : "...drama assumes an order, if only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising".
With that statement, Havel has correctly described precisely what is missing in the melodic, rhythmic, harmonic content and quality of contemporary, popular music. There is no drama, because there are no musical surprises. We should raise Haydn from the dead to remind us. There's a musical surprise!
Drama is essentially the manipulation of tension and release. There is no drama in a chordal triad.
There is no tension in the constant repetition of the cycle of fourths, nor is there any resolution.
Open guitar tunings have been abandoned and 'add 9ths' are a criminal offense in Nashville.
Hip- hop has abandoned harmony as an anachronism and counterpoint seems to have never existed.
No wonder the audience is unwilling to pay. No wonder this non-melodious drivel has no longevity. There is no drama.
The end.
QQ : 8. RING A RING A ROSIE
Where are the anthems that bring us together?
Anthems are important. Does 'Occupy Wall Street' have a unifying anthem?
The answer used to be blowing in the wind.
Amazing grace is not so amazing any more.
Kumbaya came and went.
We continue to sing "Happy Birthday", Silent Night" and "Take Me Out To the Ballgame".
These tunes may seem like trivial references. They are not small.
We lack CONTEMPORARY, unifying, civilizing, ceremonial anthems.
The lack of anthemic themes has larger, social repercussions.
Freedom, equality and justice for all would be a good start.
Why have we become so cynical?
Has the stone stopped rolling?
QQ : 9. IT WAS A VERY GOOD DECADE
A few who found a tangent, but couldn't keep the fire burning.
Now they seem to be oh -so terribly 90s:
Alanis Morrisette
Sting
Lewis Taylor
The Dixie Chicks
John Mayer
A new tangent, a new flame would be nice.
QQ : 10. EM - PEE - THREE
One day science will show that Recorded Music Died when it was Digitized. Music suffers a second death as it continues to be disseminated in digital form at the current bit level.
There are huge chunks of emotional content gone missing. The brain does not respond. Subsequently, the wallet doesn't move.
Why else is the market willing to pay such ridiculous $$$ only to see live shows?
QAPEK QUOTIENT QUALIFICATION :
I am not a hack. However someone has suggested that my wife is married to one. In my support and the defense of the heritage of American Popular Music, Batsheva Capek has contributed to this week’s QQ : 4
Sunday 9 October 2011
QQ : NUMBER TWELVE - October 9, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ : 1 BAUHAUS IS THEIR HOUSE
Howard Roark must be the ultimate, fictional, darling hero of the New Conservative movement. I use the term "New Conservative Movement" advisedly. It is my way of distinguishing between the great and proud tradition associated with Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower versus the contemporary buffoonery currently expressed on daytime a.m. radio. This brand of clinical lunacy is served up daily by an assortment of clowns, psychopaths, ranters, ravers, end-of- timers and other general social misfits.
Ayn Rand portrayed her character as the ultimate anti-hero. Roark was committed to the ideal of rugged individuality and to the expression of a singular ideal. As an architect, he promoted the concept of form following function with a vehement disdain for unnecessary, frivolous decoration.
This approach to creativity also fits the philosophy of the Bauhaus movement. The Bauhaus promoted the ideal that innovation in architecture; design with a minimalist aesthetic; a view to the potential of mass-production was, in fact, totally reconcilable with the individual, artistic spirit.
In that the Bauhaus was considered to be a front for communists and those pesky, social liberals that we love to hate, how is it that Roark has been lifted to pride of place in the estimation of our new conservative friends? He was a true student of the Bauhaus.
QQ : 2 HUAC REVISITED
More dangerous though, is Rand’s portrayal of Roark as a violent revolutionary. In order to prevent the moneyed, privileged aristocrats from controlling their aesthetic environment, Roark used dynamite and blew the whole mess to smithereens. This seemed to indicate a political agenda that promoted a violent response to corporate control. Was he an anarchist or even more terrifyingly, a socialist? Would Roark occupy Wall Street? Would he have been investigated by HUAC?
Either Ayn Rand was confused or Congressman Paul Ryan is in need of some extreme re-education. Ryan attributes Ayn Rand's writings as his motivation for getting into politics.
Rand was a racist, elitist, dogmatic hypocritical writer of adolescent science-fiction. She also professed to be an atheist. The fact that her fairy tales became the bible of the new conservative movement is more than scary. I love Superman as much as the next guy, especially the old TV series with George Reeves.
I can relate to the Golem connection as part of my heritage with Superman as the Golem. I also enjoy the characters of Anne of Green Gables and Pinnochio. But when the people who are pulling the economic puppet strings that run this mortal coil, (Alan - 'oops I made a mistake' - Greenspan, and Paul Ryan) resort to bad fiction as their inspiration, we are in deep shit.
I do love Gary Cooper's portrayal of Roark in the 1949 movie. His rote readings of Rand's stilted dialogue are unique in the annals of Hollywood film. In fact, I have watched The Fountainhead multiple times. It is black humour at its best.
I listen to Michael Savage for a chuckle with the same mindset.
Atlas Shrugged. Zeus sniggered. Grok that.
QQ : 3 RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM
It is fascinating to observe other instances where, "the people" and "the right" seem to meet as strange bedfellows.
Hitler was instrumental in creating ‘the people’s car.’
The Volkswagen is still with us today. Henry Ford built the Model -T for everyman. He famously proclaimed: "It is so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one".
Henry Ford was a fascistic, anti-Semitic monster. Yet, he provided employment, workers’ benefits, universally available transportation and single-handedly transformed the world’s ability to get around.
Perhaps the point is that a few liberal values do not necessarily a liberal make. 'Sharing the wealth' makes for a good slogan and seems reasonable as a superficial objective. Tax those millionaires and problem solved.
Not so simple.
The following are excerpts from Hitler's 1920 National Socialist political platform:
Nationalization of all trusts.
Profit-sharing in large industries.
Generous increase in old-age pensions.
The creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class.
Agrarian reform
Children of the poor to be educated at the expense of the State.
National health, establishment of maternity welfare centers; prohibiting juvenile labor; increasing physical fitness through physical education of the young.
Freedom for all religious faiths.
Perhaps somewhat based on this platform, the naive idealist Neville Chamberlain believed Herr Hitler to be a reasonable man and concluded that there would be “peace in our time” after handing over a chunk of my homeland. After all, the Fuhrur assured Nev. that all of these humanist ideals would be adhered to.
QQ : 4 COMMANDER IN PART
So make up your mind guys. Either Barak Obama is a tough motherfucker of a Commander-in-Chief who has taken on the bad guys with a consistently, uncompromising strike to the heart, or he's the socialist, Kenyan /Muslim compromising appeaser without balls. Which is it?
Drones were disposing of those who would do us harm two weeks after he took office.
Perhaps the sixty senate majority vote that has been needed to achieve his agenda has simply been beyond his control. Perhaps the Birther movement was a much deeper indication of how intolerable he is to so many.
Can a university professor/community activist/ liberal ideologue partner successfully with business? There's the rub. That is his Achilles’ heel. That, ultimately, is the larger issue.
Bubba Bill got it. Barry probably does, but can’t find his way in.
The club won’t let him join. I wonder why?
QQ : 5 LET’S MAKE A DEAL
The city of Melbourne, repeatedly voted the number one city on earth for quality of life, functions to a large degree on the legacy of Mayor John So. He could barely speak English, but knew how to partner with business in order to build a functioning city, a functioning environment and a functioning culture.
Political deal-making is an art and a skill that can make a society function. Lyndon Johnson, on many levels must have been one of the greatest deal makers in modern history resulting in his fostering of the ‘Great Society’. More recently, Bubba Bill dealt his way into a balanced budget.
These guys knew how to make a deal.
QQ : 6 WHY IS LIBERAL A DIRTY WORD?
The legacy and tragedy of Lyndon Johnson is Shakespearean. His vision of a functioning society, environment and culture have had monumental positive repercussions in every aspect of American society. This contrasts his internationalist disastrous failings with respect to Vietnam that will continue to negatively impact the world for generations. We are still paying the price.
Johnson was instrumental in creating and fostering a monumental list of transformative programs that furthered innovation, culture and quality of life. These include, the National Endowment for the Arts, Social Security and Medicare, Civil Rights and de-segregation, education and workplace safety.
If a liberal agenda does not a liberal make, then what exactly constitutes a progressive, pragmatic liberal agenda? The world’s banks could collapse at a moments notice. Then what?
War, and it’s resultant war economy, has been the traditional escape route that would prevent economic collapse. That may have worked for a while, but currently seems to have become a rather unpopular means of job creation.
QQ : 7 THERES NO BUSINESS LIKE THE DE- REGULATION BUSINESS
And so we gather together on the pages of the New Yorker and Now magazine, watching Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. We are reasonable, open-minded internationalist, East-coast, progressive Liberals. We are Melbourne University, leftist alumni from the 1960s, York University free-thinkers, Gay rights advocates and Palestinian rights activists with reason and equity for all on our side.
We raise our fists in solidarity with the oppressed and rail against corruption by speculators and immoral corporations. We make pronouncements and judgement-calls based on our perspective of fairness and equity.
The slogans that bind us include: "the Israeli Apartheid state"; "single payer health system"; "march against Wall street"; "opportunity in education"; "disassemble the trusts" ;"share the wealth" and "immigration reform".
This is not 1920 and the Nazi 25-point policy that described aspects of fairness and equity also outlined the greatest evil perpetrated against humanity in the known history of the world.
The problem is that a liberal agenda, does not a liberal make. When the banks fail, when the shit hits the fan, when scapegoats are singled out (Israel) and when unemployment reaches untenable levels in the ghettos of urban America, what is it that progressive liberals should do?
If Ghandi is a model, look at his legacy......a nuclear-armed, out -of- control modern Pakistan.
If Albert Schweitzer is a model, look at his legacy... devastating starvation and disease in contemporary Africa.
If Scandinavian socialism is a model, look at the horror in Norway just weeks ago.
Effective regulated and ethical competitive partnership between government and business seems to me to offer the only potential for forward movement. That partnership must, however, be all these things: effective, regulated, ethical and competitive. Eisenhower, a Republican, clearly understood and stated the absolute need for regulation.
With that ethical, regulated partnership as a suggested direction, I would like to make a distinction between ‘ethical pragmatism’ as opposed to ‘pragmatic ethics’. I favor the former. ‘Pragmatic ethics’ is a contradiction in terms.
The partnership between government and business used to be the American way. Maybe it can be again. But that "corporations are people" thing has got to go. What were they thinking......
I know what Clarence Thomas was thinking. He was on his way to Hooters after a long, hard day of legislating in the highest court of the land. His court is neither ethical nor pragmatic.
QQ : 8 STAND BY SONY
Perhaps the mark of a true progressive is in his musical taste.
When Vaclav Havel took office as the first President of a free Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution, amongst the first guests of the government, were the Rolling Stones and Frank Zappa. There’s a man with taste and progressive values.
Then again, Daniel Ortega who has been using the song “Stand by Me” as his current campaign theme has been ordered to cease and desist by Sony music.
Is that a liberal or conservative stance?
QQ : 9 COPYRIGHT, COPY-WRONG
Do we own what we create? Can we possess and own our ideas?
Is copyright a political issue that divides left and right?
It is the height of irony, to me, then, that the Libertarian agenda, is at the head of the charge to eliminate copyright and bury it forever. According to the futuristic, Libertarian agenda, ‘Ideas’ belong to the world and we should all have free access. My song is your song. My software is your software and my story is your story. According to the ultimate ‘freedom fighters’, we must not legislate or regulate the dissemination of ideas.
I think Karl Marx must have been a secret Libertarian. Ron Paul, then of course, must be secret Marxist.
That whole concept of the “democratisation” of ideas and the resulting “sharing” with “users” has trappings of unfettered 1890’s communism all over it.
QQ : 10 THOSE PERKY PHARMAS
Yet when it comes to copyright, what are we to do when a patent to a life-saving drug falls into the public domain and there is no longer any profit motivation to produce it.
Can we compel a business to produce at a loss?
The new, conservative right would have us believe that de-regulation will balance it all out in the end, BUT there will be some pain.
There already is a lot of pain.
QQ : 11 DIRTY WORDS
George Carlin compiled a list of seven words that were unspeakable in polite company.
I would like to add an eighth: "Derivatives"
QQ : 1 BAUHAUS IS THEIR HOUSE
Howard Roark must be the ultimate, fictional, darling hero of the New Conservative movement. I use the term "New Conservative Movement" advisedly. It is my way of distinguishing between the great and proud tradition associated with Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower versus the contemporary buffoonery currently expressed on daytime a.m. radio. This brand of clinical lunacy is served up daily by an assortment of clowns, psychopaths, ranters, ravers, end-of- timers and other general social misfits.
Ayn Rand portrayed her character as the ultimate anti-hero. Roark was committed to the ideal of rugged individuality and to the expression of a singular ideal. As an architect, he promoted the concept of form following function with a vehement disdain for unnecessary, frivolous decoration.
This approach to creativity also fits the philosophy of the Bauhaus movement. The Bauhaus promoted the ideal that innovation in architecture; design with a minimalist aesthetic; a view to the potential of mass-production was, in fact, totally reconcilable with the individual, artistic spirit.
In that the Bauhaus was considered to be a front for communists and those pesky, social liberals that we love to hate, how is it that Roark has been lifted to pride of place in the estimation of our new conservative friends? He was a true student of the Bauhaus.
QQ : 2 HUAC REVISITED
More dangerous though, is Rand’s portrayal of Roark as a violent revolutionary. In order to prevent the moneyed, privileged aristocrats from controlling their aesthetic environment, Roark used dynamite and blew the whole mess to smithereens. This seemed to indicate a political agenda that promoted a violent response to corporate control. Was he an anarchist or even more terrifyingly, a socialist? Would Roark occupy Wall Street? Would he have been investigated by HUAC?
Either Ayn Rand was confused or Congressman Paul Ryan is in need of some extreme re-education. Ryan attributes Ayn Rand's writings as his motivation for getting into politics.
Rand was a racist, elitist, dogmatic hypocritical writer of adolescent science-fiction. She also professed to be an atheist. The fact that her fairy tales became the bible of the new conservative movement is more than scary. I love Superman as much as the next guy, especially the old TV series with George Reeves.
I can relate to the Golem connection as part of my heritage with Superman as the Golem. I also enjoy the characters of Anne of Green Gables and Pinnochio. But when the people who are pulling the economic puppet strings that run this mortal coil, (Alan - 'oops I made a mistake' - Greenspan, and Paul Ryan) resort to bad fiction as their inspiration, we are in deep shit.
I do love Gary Cooper's portrayal of Roark in the 1949 movie. His rote readings of Rand's stilted dialogue are unique in the annals of Hollywood film. In fact, I have watched The Fountainhead multiple times. It is black humour at its best.
I listen to Michael Savage for a chuckle with the same mindset.
Atlas Shrugged. Zeus sniggered. Grok that.
QQ : 3 RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM
It is fascinating to observe other instances where, "the people" and "the right" seem to meet as strange bedfellows.
Hitler was instrumental in creating ‘the people’s car.’
The Volkswagen is still with us today. Henry Ford built the Model -T for everyman. He famously proclaimed: "It is so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one".
Henry Ford was a fascistic, anti-Semitic monster. Yet, he provided employment, workers’ benefits, universally available transportation and single-handedly transformed the world’s ability to get around.
Perhaps the point is that a few liberal values do not necessarily a liberal make. 'Sharing the wealth' makes for a good slogan and seems reasonable as a superficial objective. Tax those millionaires and problem solved.
Not so simple.
The following are excerpts from Hitler's 1920 National Socialist political platform:
Nationalization of all trusts.
Profit-sharing in large industries.
Generous increase in old-age pensions.
The creation and maintenance of a sound middle-class.
Agrarian reform
Children of the poor to be educated at the expense of the State.
National health, establishment of maternity welfare centers; prohibiting juvenile labor; increasing physical fitness through physical education of the young.
Freedom for all religious faiths.
Perhaps somewhat based on this platform, the naive idealist Neville Chamberlain believed Herr Hitler to be a reasonable man and concluded that there would be “peace in our time” after handing over a chunk of my homeland. After all, the Fuhrur assured Nev. that all of these humanist ideals would be adhered to.
QQ : 4 COMMANDER IN PART
So make up your mind guys. Either Barak Obama is a tough motherfucker of a Commander-in-Chief who has taken on the bad guys with a consistently, uncompromising strike to the heart, or he's the socialist, Kenyan /Muslim compromising appeaser without balls. Which is it?
Drones were disposing of those who would do us harm two weeks after he took office.
Perhaps the sixty senate majority vote that has been needed to achieve his agenda has simply been beyond his control. Perhaps the Birther movement was a much deeper indication of how intolerable he is to so many.
Can a university professor/community activist/ liberal ideologue partner successfully with business? There's the rub. That is his Achilles’ heel. That, ultimately, is the larger issue.
Bubba Bill got it. Barry probably does, but can’t find his way in.
The club won’t let him join. I wonder why?
QQ : 5 LET’S MAKE A DEAL
The city of Melbourne, repeatedly voted the number one city on earth for quality of life, functions to a large degree on the legacy of Mayor John So. He could barely speak English, but knew how to partner with business in order to build a functioning city, a functioning environment and a functioning culture.
Political deal-making is an art and a skill that can make a society function. Lyndon Johnson, on many levels must have been one of the greatest deal makers in modern history resulting in his fostering of the ‘Great Society’. More recently, Bubba Bill dealt his way into a balanced budget.
These guys knew how to make a deal.
QQ : 6 WHY IS LIBERAL A DIRTY WORD?
The legacy and tragedy of Lyndon Johnson is Shakespearean. His vision of a functioning society, environment and culture have had monumental positive repercussions in every aspect of American society. This contrasts his internationalist disastrous failings with respect to Vietnam that will continue to negatively impact the world for generations. We are still paying the price.
Johnson was instrumental in creating and fostering a monumental list of transformative programs that furthered innovation, culture and quality of life. These include, the National Endowment for the Arts, Social Security and Medicare, Civil Rights and de-segregation, education and workplace safety.
If a liberal agenda does not a liberal make, then what exactly constitutes a progressive, pragmatic liberal agenda? The world’s banks could collapse at a moments notice. Then what?
War, and it’s resultant war economy, has been the traditional escape route that would prevent economic collapse. That may have worked for a while, but currently seems to have become a rather unpopular means of job creation.
QQ : 7 THERES NO BUSINESS LIKE THE DE- REGULATION BUSINESS
And so we gather together on the pages of the New Yorker and Now magazine, watching Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. We are reasonable, open-minded internationalist, East-coast, progressive Liberals. We are Melbourne University, leftist alumni from the 1960s, York University free-thinkers, Gay rights advocates and Palestinian rights activists with reason and equity for all on our side.
We raise our fists in solidarity with the oppressed and rail against corruption by speculators and immoral corporations. We make pronouncements and judgement-calls based on our perspective of fairness and equity.
The slogans that bind us include: "the Israeli Apartheid state"; "single payer health system"; "march against Wall street"; "opportunity in education"; "disassemble the trusts" ;"share the wealth" and "immigration reform".
This is not 1920 and the Nazi 25-point policy that described aspects of fairness and equity also outlined the greatest evil perpetrated against humanity in the known history of the world.
The problem is that a liberal agenda, does not a liberal make. When the banks fail, when the shit hits the fan, when scapegoats are singled out (Israel) and when unemployment reaches untenable levels in the ghettos of urban America, what is it that progressive liberals should do?
If Ghandi is a model, look at his legacy......a nuclear-armed, out -of- control modern Pakistan.
If Albert Schweitzer is a model, look at his legacy... devastating starvation and disease in contemporary Africa.
If Scandinavian socialism is a model, look at the horror in Norway just weeks ago.
Effective regulated and ethical competitive partnership between government and business seems to me to offer the only potential for forward movement. That partnership must, however, be all these things: effective, regulated, ethical and competitive. Eisenhower, a Republican, clearly understood and stated the absolute need for regulation.
With that ethical, regulated partnership as a suggested direction, I would like to make a distinction between ‘ethical pragmatism’ as opposed to ‘pragmatic ethics’. I favor the former. ‘Pragmatic ethics’ is a contradiction in terms.
The partnership between government and business used to be the American way. Maybe it can be again. But that "corporations are people" thing has got to go. What were they thinking......
I know what Clarence Thomas was thinking. He was on his way to Hooters after a long, hard day of legislating in the highest court of the land. His court is neither ethical nor pragmatic.
QQ : 8 STAND BY SONY
Perhaps the mark of a true progressive is in his musical taste.
When Vaclav Havel took office as the first President of a free Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution, amongst the first guests of the government, were the Rolling Stones and Frank Zappa. There’s a man with taste and progressive values.
Then again, Daniel Ortega who has been using the song “Stand by Me” as his current campaign theme has been ordered to cease and desist by Sony music.
Is that a liberal or conservative stance?
QQ : 9 COPYRIGHT, COPY-WRONG
Do we own what we create? Can we possess and own our ideas?
Is copyright a political issue that divides left and right?
It is the height of irony, to me, then, that the Libertarian agenda, is at the head of the charge to eliminate copyright and bury it forever. According to the futuristic, Libertarian agenda, ‘Ideas’ belong to the world and we should all have free access. My song is your song. My software is your software and my story is your story. According to the ultimate ‘freedom fighters’, we must not legislate or regulate the dissemination of ideas.
I think Karl Marx must have been a secret Libertarian. Ron Paul, then of course, must be secret Marxist.
That whole concept of the “democratisation” of ideas and the resulting “sharing” with “users” has trappings of unfettered 1890’s communism all over it.
QQ : 10 THOSE PERKY PHARMAS
Yet when it comes to copyright, what are we to do when a patent to a life-saving drug falls into the public domain and there is no longer any profit motivation to produce it.
Can we compel a business to produce at a loss?
The new, conservative right would have us believe that de-regulation will balance it all out in the end, BUT there will be some pain.
There already is a lot of pain.
QQ : 11 DIRTY WORDS
George Carlin compiled a list of seven words that were unspeakable in polite company.
I would like to add an eighth: "Derivatives"
Tuesday 4 October 2011
QQ : NUMBER ELEVEN - October 4, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ : 1 2012
The 2010 midterm elections results were one of the biggest losses for a party in power in US history. The big winners are President Rush Limbaugh and his Vice President Glen Beck who have ascended, de facto, to the highest office in the land. Limbaugh/Beck have instituted the policies by which we are now governed. The new law of economics, known as the ‘Koch & Balls’ dictatorship- by- hedge- fund, forms the basis of the Limbaugh/Beck presidency. The initial agenda involves the re establishment of slavery, the re-institution of child labour, the banning of women’s reproductive rights, the criminalization of unions and the establishment of a state religion based on the teachings of Jimmy Swaggart and the New Apostolic Reformation.
Privatization of the police, education, prisons, social security and the Supreme Court are to follow shortly. Rulings on evolution, the Flat Earth, and the fact that the sun actually revolves around us, are all expected soon.
QQ : 2 HAL
A Supreme Court decision is expected shortly on the submission by the Apple corporation.
Apple has presented the case that their new iDataComputer complex in Maiden, North Carolina is a person under the terms of the US constitution and, as such, should have all the rights and privileges associated with that person-hood.
The name Hal is being considered. An affirmative decision is anticipated. Hal is expected to vigorously exercise his first amendment rights at every level. Hal's first act as a person, will be to form a PAC to explore 2012 election possibilities.
As President, Hal intents to re-name the earth as iWorld. Apple is also expected to submit to the courts that it is a religion, (i - slam) and should have all the rights, benefits and privileges of such. The elimination of the separation of church and state are likely to follow.
The anticipated 2012 contest between Limbaugh/Beck on the one side and Hal on the other is being eagerly anticipated by iblogNews, iTwitNews, iTubeNews, iFaceNews and iFoxNews who will transmit second- by -second coverage.
QQ : 3 THE RAIN IN SPAIN
It seems that the air we breathe and the fresh water that we drink to sustain life have been determined to belong to the State.
Although the state, or private industry may control delivery of water, the ownership of this resource is something of a quandary. Does the State in fact own the rain? Does the State own the source of the mountain stream and the snow melt? Does the State own the patent to photosynthesis?
As we privatize oxygen and H20, we buy our water at the supermarket. Then we are presented with various quality options regarding the air we breathe based on how much property tax we are willing or able to pay.
Of course if Hal wins the 2012 election, we will be drinking iWater with various quality options based on your commitment to the iCloud. iOxygen, however will remain a free service while a monetization formula is structured regarding air quality choice.
Hal is all about freedom of choice within the iWorld paradigm.
Welcome to iWorld.
QQ : 4 SWING HAS SWUNG
The quality of swing is not strained.
Without swing, music is cold and emotionless.
Jazz is either cool or hot. It isn’t smooth.
When jazz tries to be smooth, it is Cold and does not Swing.
Rock is not Soft. Hop is not hip. Soft rock does not swing. There is no such thing as Soft Rock.
True exponents of swing include Gene Krupa, Django Reinhardt, Charles Mingus, Oscar Peterson, Jeff Percaro and Quincy Jones.
Pretenders, who claim to swing, but don't have a clue, include Chick Corea, Winton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Kenny G, Kanye West and probably the entire musical output of the Twenty- first century... so far.
We suffer a swing-less age of Cold Media.
QQ : 5 THE END OF COOL
Media can be hot or cold.
When a news item was "hot off the presses", it had a visceral emotional impact that is quite different to the impact of a tweet.
Digital media, especially in music, transmitted by mp3, similarly reflects a cold format that lacks fundamental emotional content. There is something about vinyl that continues to generate musical heat.
A Rothko print of three coloured bars, reduced in size, hanging in a corporate environment is cold and has no meaning. The print is cold. Go the the Rothko Chapel in Houston. See the heat generated by eight, seemingly identical, enormous panels of black. You will feel your Maker, your mortality and the meaning of life.
Kodak is going belly up. Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson were hot. Photo-shop is not.
We live in a cold time. I much prefer "cool".
QQ : 6 A FEW GLIMMERS
Who and what is "cool" in this era? Is cool still possible in an era without compassion; filled with over-riding alienation and artlessness?
Here are a few examples of people and places about which I could say, "Dude, I love what you are trying to do!" At least they have attempted to break the ice:
HBO
Anthony Bourdain
Vince Gill and Bob Dylan and Keith Richards
Umberto Eco, Christopher Hitchins
The Financial Times and New Yorker magazine
The extraordinary Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry
Tony Bennett and Harry Connick, Jr.
The Hollywood Bowl and Tanglewood.
The cities of Manhattan and Melbourne.
Cirque du Soleil
QQ : 7 CZECH MATE
Milan Kundera, Josef Skvorecky, Karel Capek, Jaroslav Hasek and Franz Kafka all understood, and un-knowingly foresaw our time. We are "K" wandering through the corridors of the World Wide Wasteland following paths that lead nowhere with agendas that have no meaning attending to assumed judgements that have no moral or ethical foundation.
The Czech soul is a sad place to reside.
QQ : 8 THE DEMONS ARE OUT TO GET YOU
According to Doris, (wife of Dr. Peter Wagner, spokesperson for the New Apostolic Reformation) and her NAR homies on a recent NPR interview-
the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan was connected to the emperor having sex with the sun goddess.
This new, charismatic Christian movement seeks to take ‘Dominion’ over politics, business and culture in preparation for the End Times and Jesus' comeback. NAR’s leaders consider themselves Apostles and Prophets, gifted by God for this role. Several apostles affiliated with the movement appeared with Rick Perry, presidential candidate at his recent prayer rally.
I love that "Take Dominion" thing. It seems that since the demons have taken over, we need to be cleansed. and ‘Perry White’ is the man to do it with the help of the NAR.
Demonic art and culture should be the first to go. “Degenerate art” is what they called it in Germany in the 1930s, and a little gas was all it took to cast those demons out.
If you thought the Spanish Inquisition had some historical impact, wait for the impact of the results of the Oklahoma City annual meeting of the International Society of Deliverance Ministers. This is a society of a couple hundred Christian ministers who are in the Ministry of Deliverance. Their seven-day-a-week occupation is casting demons out of people. They have professional expertise in this. They are meeting right now. Doris is one of them. She's written a whole book called “How to Cast Out Demons.”
Welcome to the Age of Enlightenment.
The earth is now officially Flat.
QQ : 9 RUNNING MATES
Lately, I’ve been thinking about bumper stickers for the run-up to the US election in 2012.
AGNEW - CHENEY
EDWARDS - HART
PUTIN - STALIN
QUAYLE - WEINER
John DEAN - Howard DEAN - DEAN Martin - JIMMY DEAN
I could go on.
QQ : 10 WALL STREET
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” Milan Kundera (p. 100)
When she told her French friends about it they were amazed. "You mean you don’t want to fight the occupation of your country?" She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison."
QQ : 1 2012
The 2010 midterm elections results were one of the biggest losses for a party in power in US history. The big winners are President Rush Limbaugh and his Vice President Glen Beck who have ascended, de facto, to the highest office in the land. Limbaugh/Beck have instituted the policies by which we are now governed. The new law of economics, known as the ‘Koch & Balls’ dictatorship- by- hedge- fund, forms the basis of the Limbaugh/Beck presidency. The initial agenda involves the re establishment of slavery, the re-institution of child labour, the banning of women’s reproductive rights, the criminalization of unions and the establishment of a state religion based on the teachings of Jimmy Swaggart and the New Apostolic Reformation.
Privatization of the police, education, prisons, social security and the Supreme Court are to follow shortly. Rulings on evolution, the Flat Earth, and the fact that the sun actually revolves around us, are all expected soon.
QQ : 2 HAL
A Supreme Court decision is expected shortly on the submission by the Apple corporation.
Apple has presented the case that their new iDataComputer complex in Maiden, North Carolina is a person under the terms of the US constitution and, as such, should have all the rights and privileges associated with that person-hood.
The name Hal is being considered. An affirmative decision is anticipated. Hal is expected to vigorously exercise his first amendment rights at every level. Hal's first act as a person, will be to form a PAC to explore 2012 election possibilities.
As President, Hal intents to re-name the earth as iWorld. Apple is also expected to submit to the courts that it is a religion, (i - slam) and should have all the rights, benefits and privileges of such. The elimination of the separation of church and state are likely to follow.
The anticipated 2012 contest between Limbaugh/Beck on the one side and Hal on the other is being eagerly anticipated by iblogNews, iTwitNews, iTubeNews, iFaceNews and iFoxNews who will transmit second- by -second coverage.
QQ : 3 THE RAIN IN SPAIN
It seems that the air we breathe and the fresh water that we drink to sustain life have been determined to belong to the State.
Although the state, or private industry may control delivery of water, the ownership of this resource is something of a quandary. Does the State in fact own the rain? Does the State own the source of the mountain stream and the snow melt? Does the State own the patent to photosynthesis?
As we privatize oxygen and H20, we buy our water at the supermarket. Then we are presented with various quality options regarding the air we breathe based on how much property tax we are willing or able to pay.
Of course if Hal wins the 2012 election, we will be drinking iWater with various quality options based on your commitment to the iCloud. iOxygen, however will remain a free service while a monetization formula is structured regarding air quality choice.
Hal is all about freedom of choice within the iWorld paradigm.
Welcome to iWorld.
QQ : 4 SWING HAS SWUNG
The quality of swing is not strained.
Without swing, music is cold and emotionless.
Jazz is either cool or hot. It isn’t smooth.
When jazz tries to be smooth, it is Cold and does not Swing.
Rock is not Soft. Hop is not hip. Soft rock does not swing. There is no such thing as Soft Rock.
True exponents of swing include Gene Krupa, Django Reinhardt, Charles Mingus, Oscar Peterson, Jeff Percaro and Quincy Jones.
Pretenders, who claim to swing, but don't have a clue, include Chick Corea, Winton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Kenny G, Kanye West and probably the entire musical output of the Twenty- first century... so far.
We suffer a swing-less age of Cold Media.
QQ : 5 THE END OF COOL
Media can be hot or cold.
When a news item was "hot off the presses", it had a visceral emotional impact that is quite different to the impact of a tweet.
Digital media, especially in music, transmitted by mp3, similarly reflects a cold format that lacks fundamental emotional content. There is something about vinyl that continues to generate musical heat.
A Rothko print of three coloured bars, reduced in size, hanging in a corporate environment is cold and has no meaning. The print is cold. Go the the Rothko Chapel in Houston. See the heat generated by eight, seemingly identical, enormous panels of black. You will feel your Maker, your mortality and the meaning of life.
Kodak is going belly up. Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson were hot. Photo-shop is not.
We live in a cold time. I much prefer "cool".
QQ : 6 A FEW GLIMMERS
Who and what is "cool" in this era? Is cool still possible in an era without compassion; filled with over-riding alienation and artlessness?
Here are a few examples of people and places about which I could say, "Dude, I love what you are trying to do!" At least they have attempted to break the ice:
HBO
Anthony Bourdain
Vince Gill and Bob Dylan and Keith Richards
Umberto Eco, Christopher Hitchins
The Financial Times and New Yorker magazine
The extraordinary Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry
Tony Bennett and Harry Connick, Jr.
The Hollywood Bowl and Tanglewood.
The cities of Manhattan and Melbourne.
Cirque du Soleil
QQ : 7 CZECH MATE
Milan Kundera, Josef Skvorecky, Karel Capek, Jaroslav Hasek and Franz Kafka all understood, and un-knowingly foresaw our time. We are "K" wandering through the corridors of the World Wide Wasteland following paths that lead nowhere with agendas that have no meaning attending to assumed judgements that have no moral or ethical foundation.
The Czech soul is a sad place to reside.
QQ : 8 THE DEMONS ARE OUT TO GET YOU
According to Doris, (wife of Dr. Peter Wagner, spokesperson for the New Apostolic Reformation) and her NAR homies on a recent NPR interview-
the tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan was connected to the emperor having sex with the sun goddess.
This new, charismatic Christian movement seeks to take ‘Dominion’ over politics, business and culture in preparation for the End Times and Jesus' comeback. NAR’s leaders consider themselves Apostles and Prophets, gifted by God for this role. Several apostles affiliated with the movement appeared with Rick Perry, presidential candidate at his recent prayer rally.
I love that "Take Dominion" thing. It seems that since the demons have taken over, we need to be cleansed. and ‘Perry White’ is the man to do it with the help of the NAR.
Demonic art and culture should be the first to go. “Degenerate art” is what they called it in Germany in the 1930s, and a little gas was all it took to cast those demons out.
If you thought the Spanish Inquisition had some historical impact, wait for the impact of the results of the Oklahoma City annual meeting of the International Society of Deliverance Ministers. This is a society of a couple hundred Christian ministers who are in the Ministry of Deliverance. Their seven-day-a-week occupation is casting demons out of people. They have professional expertise in this. They are meeting right now. Doris is one of them. She's written a whole book called “How to Cast Out Demons.”
Welcome to the Age of Enlightenment.
The earth is now officially Flat.
QQ : 9 RUNNING MATES
Lately, I’ve been thinking about bumper stickers for the run-up to the US election in 2012.
AGNEW - CHENEY
EDWARDS - HART
PUTIN - STALIN
QUAYLE - WEINER
John DEAN - Howard DEAN - DEAN Martin - JIMMY DEAN
I could go on.
QQ : 10 WALL STREET
“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” Milan Kundera (p. 100)
When she told her French friends about it they were amazed. "You mean you don’t want to fight the occupation of your country?" She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison."
Wednesday 28 September 2011
QQ : NUMBER TEN - September 28, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ: 1 TECHNOLOGY
It's the technology, stupid! Social unrest is teetering on the edge of possibility as we confront the reality. There are no jobs because there are no jobs to do. Call your cable company, speak to a computer, do your banking with a computer, buy your next gadget on Amazon, order your groceries online, diagnose yourself, wank, friend, poke, design, consult and sell. All this without interacting with a single human animal.
We don't need us any more.
QQ: 2 TWITFACE
Is it just me? Or is Zuckerface committing the ultimate destructive strike against everything that makes us human?
Monotheism reflects the miraculous reality of our uniqueness. We have lost our uniqueness. We have become one with Zuckerface and his holistic agenda.
Until Zuckerface came along our unique quality was the last gasp of humanity. Now, our every keystroke belongs to him to use at his will. We are no longer unique individuals. We are trendsetters, viralists, fans, bloggers, posters, groups, twits, sharers, taggers, pokers and publishers, working as uncompensated slaves for the ultimate Antichrist.
“SELL ME SOMETHING GOOD”
Art is dead. Long live Zuckerface.
QQ : 3 TRAPSTER GUY
And then there's his henchman Park Shaunster, who speaks of "culture".
One day someone will 'splain it to him. Zuckerface and Shaunster, a match made in hell.
May they live long and prosper as they rule their Galactic empire. Where is Darth Vader when we need him?
QQ : 4 MY CLOUD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR CLOUD
The oldest written documents of which we are aware, are around four thousand years old. Computer hard drives will ultimately fail in less than four thousand weeks.
Does that mean that, as we burn the books and store our QWERTY tappings in the cloud, that all of human history will be lost?
Cuneiform scratchings on stone tablets seems to be a better way to go.
QQ : 5 SOFTWARE UPDATE
I never thought of myself as an anti - technology guy. I am not. Technology is neutral.
Frank Gehry has embraced 3D software used in the aerospace industry to design his beautiful buildings. It's organic rib and bones stuff used in the design of Boeing jets and the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Gehry's buildings would not exist without this software and his utilization of it.
But, he is the only artist that I can think of, who has made an innovative cultural statement utilizing the possibilities that technology can provide.
QQ : 6 MORE FROM TRAPSTER
"Innovative cultural statement" Now, there's a concept!
Who are the true innovators of our era? Only history will decide. In 50 years, what cultural statements from our time will endure? Will our grandchildren listen to Lady Gaga? Will our grandchildren watch old episodes of Dancing With The Stars and laugh at the Jackass movies?
QQ : 7 IMMORTALITY
It seems to me that sometimes a peak of excellence is reached, and then a door closes.
Bach endures for a reason. He reached a peak of artistic immortality surpassing everything that did, or could follow. He is constantly rediscovered, by Glenn Gould, by Pablo Casals and young piano students of every era that has followed.
Something similar occurred when Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Duke Ellington took up the baton and created the ultimate American music of a quality that never was, and can never be again. They swung!
QQ : 8 IT’S ALL RELATIVE
Albert Einstein told us that time and space could bend. Nature does not move in straight lines. However, our mortality would presume a straight conceptual line from birth to death. There are no curves except for the quality that we give to that line. If all we have is the quality that we can bring to our absolute trajectory, then we have a responsibility to acknowledge that as fact.
Unfortunately, societies throughout history have embraced the concept of life after death, which gives them an excuse, a way out, a reason to pass on the ultimate responsibility of giving quality to that line between life and death.
Although space and time can bend, Einstein did not postulate that either were infinite. He is said to have been uncertain about the concept of infinity. Perhaps the universe does in fact have a beginning, middle and end.
How dramatic!
QQ : 9 THREE WORDS
There are three words that continue to fascinate me:
QUALITY
CULTURE
INNOVATION
QQ : 10 THE SHORTEST DISTANCE
We share our life experience through our stories. Our stories have beginnings, middles and ends. They take the form of novels, plays, movies, phone conversations, emails, songs, poems and chats. What did you do today? How was school? Guess who I saw at the market? How are you?
Stories reflect our lives, our human-ness and our social interaction. Stories can be real, fictional, engaging and irrelevant.
But ultimately all that we have, on our straight line that can bend, is our story.
Our story can be expressed in a song, a building, a spaceship or a piece of software. But after we are gone, all that remains is a story. It can be the story of an old soldier, who retells the battle worn tale of past glory. Or it can be the musical story told by Bach, the visual story left by Pablo Picasso or the iconic human tragedy as unveiled by Shakespeare as true today as they all were in times past.
We should tell good stories. At least, that is what I teach my song writing students.
QQ : 11 END OF TIMES
If beginning, middle and end are universal absolutes, then where does that leave Bachman - Palin Overjive and their fundamentalist agenda.
Tell you children that Santa (orium) is not real, and that White Perry, the Texan executioner, is really Perry White, Superman’s boss at the Daily Planet.
Bring on the rapture!
QQ: 1 TECHNOLOGY
It's the technology, stupid! Social unrest is teetering on the edge of possibility as we confront the reality. There are no jobs because there are no jobs to do. Call your cable company, speak to a computer, do your banking with a computer, buy your next gadget on Amazon, order your groceries online, diagnose yourself, wank, friend, poke, design, consult and sell. All this without interacting with a single human animal.
We don't need us any more.
QQ: 2 TWITFACE
Is it just me? Or is Zuckerface committing the ultimate destructive strike against everything that makes us human?
Monotheism reflects the miraculous reality of our uniqueness. We have lost our uniqueness. We have become one with Zuckerface and his holistic agenda.
Until Zuckerface came along our unique quality was the last gasp of humanity. Now, our every keystroke belongs to him to use at his will. We are no longer unique individuals. We are trendsetters, viralists, fans, bloggers, posters, groups, twits, sharers, taggers, pokers and publishers, working as uncompensated slaves for the ultimate Antichrist.
“SELL ME SOMETHING GOOD”
Art is dead. Long live Zuckerface.
QQ : 3 TRAPSTER GUY
And then there's his henchman Park Shaunster, who speaks of "culture".
One day someone will 'splain it to him. Zuckerface and Shaunster, a match made in hell.
May they live long and prosper as they rule their Galactic empire. Where is Darth Vader when we need him?
QQ : 4 MY CLOUD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR CLOUD
The oldest written documents of which we are aware, are around four thousand years old. Computer hard drives will ultimately fail in less than four thousand weeks.
Does that mean that, as we burn the books and store our QWERTY tappings in the cloud, that all of human history will be lost?
Cuneiform scratchings on stone tablets seems to be a better way to go.
QQ : 5 SOFTWARE UPDATE
I never thought of myself as an anti - technology guy. I am not. Technology is neutral.
Frank Gehry has embraced 3D software used in the aerospace industry to design his beautiful buildings. It's organic rib and bones stuff used in the design of Boeing jets and the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. Gehry's buildings would not exist without this software and his utilization of it.
But, he is the only artist that I can think of, who has made an innovative cultural statement utilizing the possibilities that technology can provide.
QQ : 6 MORE FROM TRAPSTER
"Innovative cultural statement" Now, there's a concept!
Who are the true innovators of our era? Only history will decide. In 50 years, what cultural statements from our time will endure? Will our grandchildren listen to Lady Gaga? Will our grandchildren watch old episodes of Dancing With The Stars and laugh at the Jackass movies?
QQ : 7 IMMORTALITY
It seems to me that sometimes a peak of excellence is reached, and then a door closes.
Bach endures for a reason. He reached a peak of artistic immortality surpassing everything that did, or could follow. He is constantly rediscovered, by Glenn Gould, by Pablo Casals and young piano students of every era that has followed.
Something similar occurred when Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw and Duke Ellington took up the baton and created the ultimate American music of a quality that never was, and can never be again. They swung!
QQ : 8 IT’S ALL RELATIVE
Albert Einstein told us that time and space could bend. Nature does not move in straight lines. However, our mortality would presume a straight conceptual line from birth to death. There are no curves except for the quality that we give to that line. If all we have is the quality that we can bring to our absolute trajectory, then we have a responsibility to acknowledge that as fact.
Unfortunately, societies throughout history have embraced the concept of life after death, which gives them an excuse, a way out, a reason to pass on the ultimate responsibility of giving quality to that line between life and death.
Although space and time can bend, Einstein did not postulate that either were infinite. He is said to have been uncertain about the concept of infinity. Perhaps the universe does in fact have a beginning, middle and end.
How dramatic!
QQ : 9 THREE WORDS
There are three words that continue to fascinate me:
QUALITY
CULTURE
INNOVATION
QQ : 10 THE SHORTEST DISTANCE
We share our life experience through our stories. Our stories have beginnings, middles and ends. They take the form of novels, plays, movies, phone conversations, emails, songs, poems and chats. What did you do today? How was school? Guess who I saw at the market? How are you?
Stories reflect our lives, our human-ness and our social interaction. Stories can be real, fictional, engaging and irrelevant.
But ultimately all that we have, on our straight line that can bend, is our story.
Our story can be expressed in a song, a building, a spaceship or a piece of software. But after we are gone, all that remains is a story. It can be the story of an old soldier, who retells the battle worn tale of past glory. Or it can be the musical story told by Bach, the visual story left by Pablo Picasso or the iconic human tragedy as unveiled by Shakespeare as true today as they all were in times past.
We should tell good stories. At least, that is what I teach my song writing students.
QQ : 11 END OF TIMES
If beginning, middle and end are universal absolutes, then where does that leave Bachman - Palin Overjive and their fundamentalist agenda.
Tell you children that Santa (orium) is not real, and that White Perry, the Texan executioner, is really Perry White, Superman’s boss at the Daily Planet.
Bring on the rapture!
Thursday 22 September 2011
QQ : NUMBER NINE - September 22, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ = 10 : BODY AND SOUL
The duet with Tony Bennet is touching. More so, to see Tony, so masterful, so
in control and so at ease. What a great song!
Amy Winehouse - so sad.
But then again, check Billie Holiday do the same tune, for real in another time,
another dimension and another sad.
QQ = 9 : TORONTO
I thought Toronto and I were lovers once. Perhaps it was just a brief
affair, even a one night stand for a year or two. Although Toronto has
shown me some kindness and consideration, I have fallen out of love.
Every now and then, on a summer's night, on a patio, a glimmer of
warmth returns, just for an instant, but then its gone, back to another
time when Toronto was “Toronto the good.” It is good no more.
QQ = 8 : HARPER, HUDAK & FORD
Canada deserves 'em.
We are not American. In America, there is a concept called “oversight.”
In Canada we do not confront our demons. We do the British thing. We
sweep the dirt under the rug and pretend it isn't there.
We hide our SARS, our OMB, our filthy air, our police corruption and our
corporate monopolies under the cultural veneer of “Nice”. We're all just
nice people getting along. If you think that the Tea Party has some
extreme positions, wait and wonder what mischief H.H. & F will get up to
QQ = 7 : OH, OH CANADA
We are the Tar sands
We are Asbestos
We give you SARS and Walkerton and even MS
We wait for surgeons
We jail our Indians
Our peaceful right to assemble, just an arbitrary notion
We are Canadian
QQ = 6 : URBAN DESIGN
St Clair Avenue Toronto. A multitude of failure upon failure upon failure.
Did anything go right? Traffic snarls, cyclists risk their lives, nowhere to
park, businesses going under and traffic lights uncoordinated.
It must have been designed by Daniel Libeskind. I think he has a grudge
against this city and is terrorizing it using “ugly and impractical” as a
weapon.
Or, he is leading a new revolution in architecture and design where form
and function are separate but equal. A sort of design apartheid.
I could go on, and I will. What the hell is Toronto International Airport
Terminal 4 doing at the corner of Dundas and McCaul? Even Gehry doesn’t
get this town.
QQ = 5 : GREECE
I am told that a public servant can, if he chooses, retire at age 45.
Perhaps, taxing the rich is not the only solution.
QQ = 4 : NAFTA
I guess music and musicians were excluded. They are such a threat.
Free trade without melody is rough trade
QQ = 3 : CULTURE
What on earth is the ghost of Andy Warhol doing in Nashville TN?
QQ = 2 : HEALTH
Mad wheat disease as a result of genetic modification. When Monsanto
fucks with our daily bread, we have a problem.
QQ = 1 : THERE WAS A TIME
Ray Charles and Quincy 1961. “Genius Plus Soul = Jazz” changed my life.
The organ solo on“One Mint Julep” is iconic. Check it out.
QQ = 10 : BODY AND SOUL
The duet with Tony Bennet is touching. More so, to see Tony, so masterful, so
in control and so at ease. What a great song!
Amy Winehouse - so sad.
But then again, check Billie Holiday do the same tune, for real in another time,
another dimension and another sad.
QQ = 9 : TORONTO
I thought Toronto and I were lovers once. Perhaps it was just a brief
affair, even a one night stand for a year or two. Although Toronto has
shown me some kindness and consideration, I have fallen out of love.
Every now and then, on a summer's night, on a patio, a glimmer of
warmth returns, just for an instant, but then its gone, back to another
time when Toronto was “Toronto the good.” It is good no more.
QQ = 8 : HARPER, HUDAK & FORD
Canada deserves 'em.
We are not American. In America, there is a concept called “oversight.”
In Canada we do not confront our demons. We do the British thing. We
sweep the dirt under the rug and pretend it isn't there.
We hide our SARS, our OMB, our filthy air, our police corruption and our
corporate monopolies under the cultural veneer of “Nice”. We're all just
nice people getting along. If you think that the Tea Party has some
extreme positions, wait and wonder what mischief H.H. & F will get up to
QQ = 7 : OH, OH CANADA
We are the Tar sands
We are Asbestos
We give you SARS and Walkerton and even MS
We wait for surgeons
We jail our Indians
Our peaceful right to assemble, just an arbitrary notion
We are Canadian
QQ = 6 : URBAN DESIGN
St Clair Avenue Toronto. A multitude of failure upon failure upon failure.
Did anything go right? Traffic snarls, cyclists risk their lives, nowhere to
park, businesses going under and traffic lights uncoordinated.
It must have been designed by Daniel Libeskind. I think he has a grudge
against this city and is terrorizing it using “ugly and impractical” as a
weapon.
Or, he is leading a new revolution in architecture and design where form
and function are separate but equal. A sort of design apartheid.
I could go on, and I will. What the hell is Toronto International Airport
Terminal 4 doing at the corner of Dundas and McCaul? Even Gehry doesn’t
get this town.
QQ = 5 : GREECE
I am told that a public servant can, if he chooses, retire at age 45.
Perhaps, taxing the rich is not the only solution.
QQ = 4 : NAFTA
I guess music and musicians were excluded. They are such a threat.
Free trade without melody is rough trade
QQ = 3 : CULTURE
What on earth is the ghost of Andy Warhol doing in Nashville TN?
QQ = 2 : HEALTH
Mad wheat disease as a result of genetic modification. When Monsanto
fucks with our daily bread, we have a problem.
QQ = 1 : THERE WAS A TIME
Ray Charles and Quincy 1961. “Genius Plus Soul = Jazz” changed my life.
The organ solo on“One Mint Julep” is iconic. Check it out.
Monday 12 September 2011
QQ : NUMBER EIGHT - September 12, 2011
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
QQ = 10 : USPS
Why do I care about the United States Postal Service?
The Bankruptcy of the USPS, follows closely on the heels of the
decimation of:
the recorded music business
the printed book
newspapers
network television and television news
personal customer service
retail showrooms
a diminution of human vocal communication with the ascendance of QERTY
and much more
Technology is neutral, or is it?
QQ = 9 : QUALITY
I'm thinking of starting a second blog on the subject of Quality.
Qapek's Quality Quotient or QQQ.
I am troubled by the relationship of Technology to Quality.
As a result of technological 'advances' we are witness to the destruction of:
the recorded music business
the printed book
newspapers
network television and television news.
personal customer service
retail showrooms
a diminution of human vocal communication with the ascendance of QERTY
and much more
Does the replacement have a quality equivalent?
Is UPS a better quality service than USPS?
Does Charlie Parker with strings, recorded in 1949
have a 2011 quality equivalent?
Does the physical interface of printed bound paper with hand and
eye have a quality dimension that transcends that of an ipad?
Did NBC's Kraft Television Theater, or the original Twilight Zone
Series have a dimension of quality that has never been reproduced?
Is QWERTY the ultimate form of communication?
Was Orson Wells an aberration?
QQ = 8 : TECHNOLOGY
What would Mozart do with ProTools? Would he tweet?
What would Ansel Adams do with photoshop? Would he IM?
What would Homer do with Micrsoft Word? Would he “poke” me
What would Leonardo Davinci do with CAD? Would he access the
cloud?
QQ = 7 : TWITTER RIOTS, TWITTER SPRING,
The London riots were reported to have been be coordinated
via social media.
The Egyptian spring was reported to have been coordinated via
social media.
Justin Bieber is said to have given birth to a career via a viral
response on social media.
So there we have it.
The quality of twitter and facebook has given us:
Anarchy in London
Anarchy and continuing chaos in Egypt
and of course, Justin Bieber.
Technology is neutral, or is it?
Face-twit-me and I'll qwerty back at yah
QQ = 6 : COPYRIGHT
A Thesaurus for a new age:
Aggregate, Share, Link, Rip
Synonyms for Steal, Rob, Plagiarize, Thieve
Huffington, Drudge, Fox and Google, wherfore art though News?
QQ = 5 : FAIR AND BALANCED
When pondering the concept of quality, it occurs to me that the culture that emanates from the fair and balanced network is one that demands it's pound of flesh in a destructive ever dogmatic anti science, anti intellectual agenda. It is interesting to ponder the meaning of the word “culture” in its relationship to the concept of “growth”. That is in contrast to the word “conservative” with its implication of keeping the status quo and the resulting lack of growth.
Innovation is imperative. Without innovation, we invite the dark age.
Innovation requires education, freedom of speech, freedom of expression
freedom of the press, and economic support.
QQ = 4 : INNOVATION
The definition of the word innovation is associated with the concept of positive change. What an epiphanic concept! Change that moves us forward.
The very word implies quality. Change is change. It requires no quality. However “innovation” requires a positive forward movement.
This is a profound concept that is far removed from current culture.
We suffer greatly from our lack of comprehension of this concept.
Resistance to true innovation is a conservative stance. A historical irony is the position of the Roman inquisition regarding Galileo's postulating Heliocentrism.
They would only support it as a possibility.
Sounds eerily like Rick Perry. “Evolution, a theory that's out there”. 1615 meets 2011.
QQ = 3 : CULTURE
Is culture the exclusive domain of the economically privileged?
Can the poor innovate, paint, write and compose music?
Of course they can and they do..
QQ = 2 : PHILANTHROPY
In my next life I will be a philanthropist. However I will not
focus on cures, shelter and nutrition. Others will.
Rather I will supply the needy with paint, canvas
audio and video media tools and all means of artistic
expression
QQ = 1 : THERE WAS A TIME
Artie Shaw....a consummate man's man, musician's musician,
curmudgeon's curmudgeon, and artists artist.
Listen to "Begin the Beguine," and weep.
He was not a nice man.
Neither was Beethoven.
Neither were Picasso, Hemmingway or Frank Lloyd Wright
Do we require our cultural icons to be “nice”?
QQ = 10 : USPS
Why do I care about the United States Postal Service?
The Bankruptcy of the USPS, follows closely on the heels of the
decimation of:
the recorded music business
the printed book
newspapers
network television and television news
personal customer service
retail showrooms
a diminution of human vocal communication with the ascendance of QERTY
and much more
Technology is neutral, or is it?
QQ = 9 : QUALITY
I'm thinking of starting a second blog on the subject of Quality.
Qapek's Quality Quotient or QQQ.
I am troubled by the relationship of Technology to Quality.
As a result of technological 'advances' we are witness to the destruction of:
the recorded music business
the printed book
newspapers
network television and television news.
personal customer service
retail showrooms
a diminution of human vocal communication with the ascendance of QERTY
and much more
Does the replacement have a quality equivalent?
Is UPS a better quality service than USPS?
Does Charlie Parker with strings, recorded in 1949
have a 2011 quality equivalent?
Does the physical interface of printed bound paper with hand and
eye have a quality dimension that transcends that of an ipad?
Did NBC's Kraft Television Theater, or the original Twilight Zone
Series have a dimension of quality that has never been reproduced?
Is QWERTY the ultimate form of communication?
Was Orson Wells an aberration?
QQ = 8 : TECHNOLOGY
What would Mozart do with ProTools? Would he tweet?
What would Ansel Adams do with photoshop? Would he IM?
What would Homer do with Micrsoft Word? Would he “poke” me
What would Leonardo Davinci do with CAD? Would he access the
cloud?
QQ = 7 : TWITTER RIOTS, TWITTER SPRING,
The London riots were reported to have been be coordinated
via social media.
The Egyptian spring was reported to have been coordinated via
social media.
Justin Bieber is said to have given birth to a career via a viral
response on social media.
So there we have it.
The quality of twitter and facebook has given us:
Anarchy in London
Anarchy and continuing chaos in Egypt
and of course, Justin Bieber.
Technology is neutral, or is it?
Face-twit-me and I'll qwerty back at yah
QQ = 6 : COPYRIGHT
A Thesaurus for a new age:
Aggregate, Share, Link, Rip
Synonyms for Steal, Rob, Plagiarize, Thieve
Huffington, Drudge, Fox and Google, wherfore art though News?
QQ = 5 : FAIR AND BALANCED
When pondering the concept of quality, it occurs to me that the culture that emanates from the fair and balanced network is one that demands it's pound of flesh in a destructive ever dogmatic anti science, anti intellectual agenda. It is interesting to ponder the meaning of the word “culture” in its relationship to the concept of “growth”. That is in contrast to the word “conservative” with its implication of keeping the status quo and the resulting lack of growth.
Innovation is imperative. Without innovation, we invite the dark age.
Innovation requires education, freedom of speech, freedom of expression
freedom of the press, and economic support.
QQ = 4 : INNOVATION
The definition of the word innovation is associated with the concept of positive change. What an epiphanic concept! Change that moves us forward.
The very word implies quality. Change is change. It requires no quality. However “innovation” requires a positive forward movement.
This is a profound concept that is far removed from current culture.
We suffer greatly from our lack of comprehension of this concept.
Resistance to true innovation is a conservative stance. A historical irony is the position of the Roman inquisition regarding Galileo's postulating Heliocentrism.
They would only support it as a possibility.
Sounds eerily like Rick Perry. “Evolution, a theory that's out there”. 1615 meets 2011.
QQ = 3 : CULTURE
Is culture the exclusive domain of the economically privileged?
Can the poor innovate, paint, write and compose music?
Of course they can and they do..
QQ = 2 : PHILANTHROPY
In my next life I will be a philanthropist. However I will not
focus on cures, shelter and nutrition. Others will.
Rather I will supply the needy with paint, canvas
audio and video media tools and all means of artistic
expression
QQ = 1 : THERE WAS A TIME
Artie Shaw....a consummate man's man, musician's musician,
curmudgeon's curmudgeon, and artists artist.
Listen to "Begin the Beguine," and weep.
He was not a nice man.
Neither was Beethoven.
Neither were Picasso, Hemmingway or Frank Lloyd Wright
Do we require our cultural icons to be “nice”?
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