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 : 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 : 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 : NUMBER SEVEN - September 5 2011

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