A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
COPYRIGHT COPYWRONG
The Monsanto Corporation employs 'Seed Police' to enforce their patents. Seed Police? Are you kidding???? This enforcement group is based on intellectual property rights that are established law in the United States.
I think the Catholic Church is missing out on a great opportunity here. They could be monitoring the actual sanctity of life if they re-branded the Swiss Guards as the “Human Seed Police”. Il Corpo della Gendarmeria dello Stato della Città del Spermatoza.
It’s the Onan Squad.
Big Pharma is engaged in constant litigation with regard to the patent rights of life-saving drugs. Here pragmatic economics must win out over ethics. Corporations, recently proclaimed by Clarence Thomas and his cronies as Actual People are only responsible to their immediate family, that is, their Shareholders.
The larger family, the actual human family has yet to be so blessed with personhood by the SCOTUS.
Who owns our inventions? Who owns our ideas? Who owns our very thoughts? Who owns our seed? Dr. Strangelove?
QQ:1 CAVEAT EMPTOR
In a recent interview, Sean Parker describes the demise of the recorded music industry quantitatively in terms of a devastating, total financial collapse. The figures he quotes are an annual drop from $45 billion gross to $12 billion and falling.
This devastating loss of an infrastructure, an industry, of a culture, of employment, of a social movement and of artistic quality is all the result of the ownership debate. It has become a stolen commodity. Recorded music is essentially free.
Thus lifted, it has become the very foundation of YouTube. The shareholders of Google are happy. They made money from stuff they didn’t pay for. Google is the biggest 'fence' in history.
QQ:2 SIZE MATTERS
Big Media tells us that there is more music being made, shared and consumed today than at any other time in human history. More music makers have access to a larger audience than ever before. In fact, one seventh of humanity will be members of the Zuckerface oligarchy by end 2012.
Zuck sells us stuff while we delude ourselves that we belong. We do belong.
We belong to Him.
Is Quantity a viable measure of Artistry and Culture? The more the merrier,
I say! With today’s technology, Leonardo Da Vinci could have achieved a billion-plus Mona Lisa hits on YouTube. Imagine the advertising revenue.
That enigmatic smile could sell genetically modfied corn to the corn-less.
Now, anybody has a shot at being Bach, Shakespeare, Hendrix or Dylan.
I'm on a Picasso kick right now. I figure that if I post my paintings, hire a hacker to manipulate some algorithms and really hone my social-media skills, accumulate a few million fans, give a bunch of stuff away for free, make a viral video and tweet about my prejudices, therapy, divorces and digestion...
I could make some serious dough. Picasso would be jealous. He did not have the same access to the kind of audience or algorithms that I can connect with. This is the new democracy and it’s great. Andy Warhol's prediction has come true, almost. He said that in the future everyone would be world famous for 15 minutes. I just think that 15 minutes is turning out to be a bit too long.
QQ: 3 IT’S BACTERIAL
I keep hearing Defenders of Free Media (DOFs) point to viral spread as a good thing.
This video has 50 million hits; that twit has 50 million followers; or that Zuckerface member has 50 million friends.
The problem is that I have never ever heard a DOF address issues of artistry, or quality, or culture, or innovation. There are just numbers and possibly some resulting advertising revenue. This concept, where the numbers are thought to equate to a social and economic value can have significant negative repercussions if they are scrutinized within some frameworks.
Adolph Hitler gained power ultimately as a result of a real, fair election. Was that a good number? French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America. Is that a good number? Kim Kardashian has over 12 million twitter followers. Is that a good thing? The Muslim Brotherhood and their fundamentalist brethren have the vast majority of numbers in Egypt. Are we pleased with the Arab spring?
Is cultural quality control a concept worth examining?
QQ: 4 WAGNER’S FRENCH FRY ORATORIO
There have always been multiple and layered cultural forces relating to the arts.
There has been the culture of the ruling class and the culture of the ruled.
Great and significant artistic statements have come from the oppressed, especially in musical expression. The music of the oppressed has given rise to the work songs and chants of labor from all cultures and ethnicities throughout history including the Blues and Jazz.
Religion has inspired music more profound and spiritual than any of the religious Institutions it is supposed to represent.
Potentates and rulers have commissioned music as designed by the most skilled musical composers and craftsmen that money could buy.
None of these movements apply to the viral, number-based DOF phenomenon. There is no gatekeeper, no church, no potentate and no slave driver.
What we do have, is the potential of our exposure to music being determined by the Hitler elector, the Kardashian follower the Hamas supporter and the French fry consumer.
The quality of music is strained.
QQ: 5 STICK THIS IN YOUR EAR
The manner in which we consume recorded music has suffered a marked and significant degradation. No matter how poor any musical reproduction system was in the ‘old’ technology, the resonance of the physical environment and the sharing of the listening experience mattered. Speakers resonate in a room, or in a car. We listened within a group.
Currently, we listen alone through cheap ear plugs. We plug our ears with music? What is it exactly that we hear? What is the emotional message?
Mp3s were created by deleting a significant portion of sonic information. When harmonics are missing, the resulting experience resonates mainly to the sound of percussion and to the spoken word.
If harmony and melody do not translate via an mp3 through an ear plug, then hip-hop surely will. Will-I-Am. There are always exceptions. The Peas actually got away with some real memorable melodic themes. But that was so early 2,000's. Old hat in our fast changing twit-verse.
QQ : 6 ROSEBUD
I hate to have to agree with a Rupert Murdoch on anything. But he's correct in his take on Google.
In fact, I would like to see him personally sell his newspapers standing on a street corner somewhere. There's some real 'one-on-one' human interaction. However, the principal of Rupert creating a product that contains concepts, ideas and commentary that he has commissioned and paid for gives him the right to stand on a corner and sell the damn thing. In principal, Rupert owns the right to sell his rags.
Except, of course, when the information has been stolen. In that case, he and/or his cohorts will suffer the legal consequences. It seems to be an open and shut case.
So when Sean Parker, Google and YouTube provide the conduit that 'shares' my stuff that they haven't paid for, sell advertising on the back of it and only compensate me if I come after them, I get pissed.
QQ : 7 ALGORITHMIC DEMOCRACY, A FASCINATING ALGORITHM
Cultural anarchy, creative democracy, the rule of the mob, fragmentation or the ultimate form of free expression are all in play as the algorithms work their numbers.
It is fascinating though, to watch Adele and Michael Buble find a path to the economic peak of 2011 that would seem to defy the culture of the DOF.
Some people, in fact some 10 million or so people paid for CD albums by these artists. Are these aberrations?
On his recent album, Buble performs the song "White Christmas". The Bing Crosby version is the best-selling, single song of all time. Buble has no problem creating yet another version adding millions more to the songs' track record. "White Christmas" is an anthemic, musical statement that transcends time, genre, culture and trend. It continues to celebrate, to unite, to inspire and to bring people together.
This is one-helluva powerful phenomenon. I would suggest that this is also a positive and important phenomenon. We need anthems that join us together in our common humanity.
I routinely challenge my songwriting students to name a recently written song that has even a remote likelihood of meeting the same resonance and reach as "White Christmas" 50 years from now.
They can’t because there isn't one.
That, I maintain, is because there is no songwriter today working at the level of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin or Harold Arlen. The economics of the business simply do not allow for that degree of artistry, commitment or work.
It's hard to compose an anthem. If it was easy, everybody would do it.
I would even take the idealistic conceptual leap to suggest that a contemporary anthem could and would find its way to us, if it were composed. But, perhaps this concept has disappeared... somewhere over the rainbow.
QQ : 8 JUST LIKE THE ONES WE USED TO KNOW
The DOF’s (defenders of free media - in case you have forgotten) maintain that anthems are being created everyday. We just don't get to hear them. They are wrong.
The DOFs maintain that there is as much artistry and talent out here as there ever was. They are wrong.
Inspiration is 10% of the equation. There is way too much anti-perspirant in the world today. We don't want to sweat. We just want to be famous, if not for 15 minutes, then for any time we can get. American Idol here we come. We will even sing "White Christmas" or "Stairway to Heaven" Any anthem will do. One old anthem is as good as another. There are no new ones.
QQ : 9 RUPERT AND ME
The bought-and-paid-for US Congress is currently raising re-election funding on the back of powerful lobbying forces dedicated to opposing points of view regarding the ownership of ideas. The proposed, bogged down "Stop Online Piracy" Act, SOPA, has become a cash cow for this corrupt election process. Clearly, Google wants to continue channeling stuff they have lifted while I, on the other hand, would like to be compensated for the millions of YouTube hits of my intellectual property. Within that paradigm, I find myself in an unholy alliance with Monsanto and Murdoch.
I don't wish to be on their team or a member of their club. It is a dilemma.
QQ : 10 ONCE UPON A TIME
"Innovation" implies forward, positive movement. "Culture" implies growth.
Every major thinker who ponders the current, economic world crisis points to education as the first order of business on our road forward.
What is education but the route to innovation and to growth?
But, innovation and growth also need to be applied to the arts. Art is not secondary to Engineering or Science. In fact, artistic exploration can be the very conduit, the route to innovative thinking and invention at the highest level of scientific exploration.
Artistic innovation and artistic growth can only occur within a conducive environment where artistic expression is considered to be worthy and important.
We, as a society are now colluding in the new, accepted form of transmission of the arts; of intellectual property; and of creativity... by stealing it.
By not compensating creators, we suffer a deep loss, even a moral bankruptcy.
The Monsanto Corporation and Leonardo Da Vinci are not equivalents. Pablo Picasso and Johnson & Johnson are not equivalents when it comes to the protection of ideas.
I have no interest in being embedded with them or their ilk or their ‘Brave New World’ of ‘Seed Police’.
Further, I believe that the concept of ‘cultural democracy’ is deeply flawed.
Cultural nutrition is essential for life. French Fries will not sustain us forever.
Our humanity is expressed in our stories, our paintings and our songs. They are more than worthy of our acknowledgment, our development, our education and our protection.
Engraved on my Stone Tablet. Edited by Batsheva
John
Sunday 22 January 2012
Sunday 15 January 2012
QQ : NUMBER TWENTY ONE - January 15, 2012
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
American architect, Walter Burley Griffin was a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. Griffin designed Australia's capital city, Canberra. He also designed the Newman College Catholic residence at Melbourne University.
As a former student at Melbourne Uni, I retain a vivid visual memory of that building. A close friend was resident there. I remember that the very building, its design, structure and form felt magical. It was civilizing and peaceful and had a profound effect on me. It spoke to me then. It still does.
Griffin’s design combined form and function on a high level. The elements, as I understood them were:
Harmony
Structure
Spirituality
Academic endeavor
Are these four elements not the very pillars of civilization?
By virtue of the spirituality that I perceived in the architecture of that building, it occurred to me that Catholicism couldn’t be all bad. In fact, it seemed to me that the building might redeem all organized religion. If the Pope could commission beauty of that stature, there must be some good in religion. I was so moved, I even considered conversion. Guess I wasn't the first guy to be in awe of papal erections.
I have since changed my mind. My change of perspective has nothing to do with Catholicism, Griffin or Newman College. It’s the result of watching the crash and burn of the GOP as it races full speed back to the Dark Ages-Al Qaeda-style-with all its attendant religious and social dogmatic fundamentalism.
I find myself in a reluctant alliance with Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher. This “reluctance” only reflects my continuing attachment to tradition and ceremony. But things have gotten out of hand.
The church, the mosque, the temple and the synagogue have all gone nuts.
The unholy mix of fundamentalist religiosity with a right-wing political agenda is, perhaps, a potential evil as great as any in human history.
We cannot argue with God. So, if God is speaking to our elected representatives; and if they are talking back to him - then we should be afraid, very afraid.
Dick Santorum talks to God. God told him to be a "real" political and social conservative. He is also an "evangelical"; a self-appointed salesman for extremism and fundamentalism. Emphasis on - 'mentalism'. Dick wants to nuke Iran. God told him to.
QQ : 1 “AND GOD SPAKE UNTO HER....”
Up high in the sky, on a throne, sits an old man. He has a white beard. He sees all and judges all. He rewards and punishes based on fear. He seems angry. He told Michelle Bachman to run for the US presidency. Then he changed his mind.
She must have had unclean thoughts.
QQ : 2 THE PEACEFUL NATION OF SRI LANKA
A few millennia ago, here on earth, lived a chubby, Indian aristocrat. He liked to bare his very round tummy, as can be seen in the millions of images of himself in his temples. He found the truth after sitting under a fig tree for precisely forty-nine days of meditation. We can attain Nirvana by following his precepts. Those precepts however have disappeared. There is no first hand written record of his teaching. Adaptations of writings that may never have existed have resulted in a novel concept of compassionate violence and nationalistic religious zealotry. Japan was a jolly, Zen-full society when they bombed Pearl Harbour and Ceylon is just teeming with good will and harmony today.
Perhaps the lost writings are buried in upper New York State? Let's ask Mitt.
QQ : 3 AN EYE PATCH FOR NEWT?
A carpenter was born of a virgin. He died and then he came back.
The contents of his most famous sermon suggest that if your vision is tempting you to commit adultery, you should remove your eye. Ouch!
Newt Ging-grinch still has both eyes. It's a miracle!
QQ : 4 A JOB FOR GOOGLE TRANSLATE
In the 1800's an American fellow by the name of Joseph Smith found a couple of gold tablets inscribed in a language that only he could understand. Then the tablets disappeared. He said that God will return... to Missouri. Joseph proclaimed himself King.
Currently, Joe has 14 million followers world-wide. One of them may become President of the USA. Our future Prez could likely not replicate the translation, but he is gung-ho for Joe's wacky concepts...including the Missouri thing.
After forty-nine minutes of meditating under a bag of organic prunes, it was revealed to me that Mitt Romney is a very rich, nut job. We seem to regularly elect very rich, nut jobs.
Why is that?
QQ : 5 ROCK AND ROLL
A prophet has a dedicated big, black stone in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Faithful followers are required to go there. I am not sure why. Lethal stampedes, disease and pick-pocketing are an inherent part of the experience. Perhaps there are other more constructive ways to demonstrate solidarity. Seen one rock, seen 'em all.
The Bush oligarchs did their share of bowing and scraping at the feet of the keepers of the rock. Their legacy continues.
I say it's only rock & roll and I don't like it.
QQ : 6 THE EARTH IS FLAT
Put a small box on your head every morning. Cut off the end of your newborn son’s penis. God told you so. Also, wear a funny hat. There are a few really pious guys trying to force women back to the back of the bus. It’s too tempting to have them sitting with the pious. And the women are unclean about half the time. Eeew.
Endorse Dick Santorum. He is in an unholy alliance with an Israeli, right-wing faction that is so far to the right, it has fallen off the edge of the earth. (The flat earth). Anything to bring on the rapture. Go Dick!
It seems to me that bringing on the End Times, sooner than later, is not actually in the best interest of either the Israelis or the Palestinians.
QQ: 7 SMILE IF YOUR HEART IS ACHING
Members of the Cardinal Team travel to Rome. They elect some guy to be God's representative on earth and have him wear a funny hat. It helps if God's rep is a former member of Hitler Youth. Returning to home turf, team members practice celibacy-until they get it right. Altar boys are there to help.
Team cheerleaders live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. They are married to God and also wear funny hats.
Newt tells us that when he saw the big man in the funny hat smile, it was game over. The glow from the pope-mobile must have been blinding. Newt is a recent convert/ follower of this odd, Roman mythology-after trying on several others. Good for you Newt. I love to see you smile.
My question is: Is the Pontiff's smile more blissfully benign than the Dalai Lama's? Had Newt seen the Dalai Lama's smile first, would he have picked the happy guy with the belly?
"You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile" as sung by Curt Cobain.
QQ : 8 THE MULLAH SAID SO
The clitoris needs to be removed. Women need to remain entirely covered and cannot drive. If women commit adultery, they are to be buried up to their waists and stoned to death. This brings us closer to God in Africa. God, however, did not instruct us to be concerned. Like Vegas, what happens in Africa, stays in Africa.
QQ : 9 GULAG USA
Life begins at conception. Terminating a zygote is murder.
All pregnancies are to be brought to term. All women should be forced-on pain of criminal offence-to bring every pregnancy they ever have-to term.
The world needs more people.
The additional population can then help occupy the prison industrial complex. This represents fundamental job creation for the American gulag.
QQ : 10 THE GOP DECALOGUE
The new, conservative right has adopted these new ten commandments. Two gold tablets have been commissioned. They are to be written in a language nobody understands and then buried in Missouri.
2 Thou shalt not permit government to legislate compassion.
3 Thou shalt not provide healthcare to the old and disadvantaged.
4 Thou shalt maintain an arsenal of assault weapons in each home and carry them at all times.
5 The mentally ill are criminals. No punishment is too severe.
6 All law is to be based on the Santorum/Khomeini New-Testament/Koran decrees.
7 Poverty is a crime to be punished with forced labor.
8 Illegal immigrants are to be shot on sight.
9 Global cooling is to be taught as scientific principal.
10 The old man in the sky made the earth 5000 years ago. That is absolute, undisputed fact.
It is written.
(I remember the dinosaurs ........but that was the sixties).
Engraved on my Stone Tablet. Edited by Batsheva
John
www.johncapek.com
MY CONVERSION
American architect, Walter Burley Griffin was a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. Griffin designed Australia's capital city, Canberra. He also designed the Newman College Catholic residence at Melbourne University.
As a former student at Melbourne Uni, I retain a vivid visual memory of that building. A close friend was resident there. I remember that the very building, its design, structure and form felt magical. It was civilizing and peaceful and had a profound effect on me. It spoke to me then. It still does.
Griffin’s design combined form and function on a high level. The elements, as I understood them were:
Harmony
Structure
Spirituality
Academic endeavor
Are these four elements not the very pillars of civilization?
By virtue of the spirituality that I perceived in the architecture of that building, it occurred to me that Catholicism couldn’t be all bad. In fact, it seemed to me that the building might redeem all organized religion. If the Pope could commission beauty of that stature, there must be some good in religion. I was so moved, I even considered conversion. Guess I wasn't the first guy to be in awe of papal erections.
I have since changed my mind. My change of perspective has nothing to do with Catholicism, Griffin or Newman College. It’s the result of watching the crash and burn of the GOP as it races full speed back to the Dark Ages-Al Qaeda-style-with all its attendant religious and social dogmatic fundamentalism.
I find myself in a reluctant alliance with Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher. This “reluctance” only reflects my continuing attachment to tradition and ceremony. But things have gotten out of hand.
The church, the mosque, the temple and the synagogue have all gone nuts.
The unholy mix of fundamentalist religiosity with a right-wing political agenda is, perhaps, a potential evil as great as any in human history.
We cannot argue with God. So, if God is speaking to our elected representatives; and if they are talking back to him - then we should be afraid, very afraid.
Dick Santorum talks to God. God told him to be a "real" political and social conservative. He is also an "evangelical"; a self-appointed salesman for extremism and fundamentalism. Emphasis on - 'mentalism'. Dick wants to nuke Iran. God told him to.
QQ : 1 “AND GOD SPAKE UNTO HER....”
Up high in the sky, on a throne, sits an old man. He has a white beard. He sees all and judges all. He rewards and punishes based on fear. He seems angry. He told Michelle Bachman to run for the US presidency. Then he changed his mind.
She must have had unclean thoughts.
QQ : 2 THE PEACEFUL NATION OF SRI LANKA
A few millennia ago, here on earth, lived a chubby, Indian aristocrat. He liked to bare his very round tummy, as can be seen in the millions of images of himself in his temples. He found the truth after sitting under a fig tree for precisely forty-nine days of meditation. We can attain Nirvana by following his precepts. Those precepts however have disappeared. There is no first hand written record of his teaching. Adaptations of writings that may never have existed have resulted in a novel concept of compassionate violence and nationalistic religious zealotry. Japan was a jolly, Zen-full society when they bombed Pearl Harbour and Ceylon is just teeming with good will and harmony today.
Perhaps the lost writings are buried in upper New York State? Let's ask Mitt.
QQ : 3 AN EYE PATCH FOR NEWT?
A carpenter was born of a virgin. He died and then he came back.
The contents of his most famous sermon suggest that if your vision is tempting you to commit adultery, you should remove your eye. Ouch!
Newt Ging-grinch still has both eyes. It's a miracle!
QQ : 4 A JOB FOR GOOGLE TRANSLATE
In the 1800's an American fellow by the name of Joseph Smith found a couple of gold tablets inscribed in a language that only he could understand. Then the tablets disappeared. He said that God will return... to Missouri. Joseph proclaimed himself King.
Currently, Joe has 14 million followers world-wide. One of them may become President of the USA. Our future Prez could likely not replicate the translation, but he is gung-ho for Joe's wacky concepts...including the Missouri thing.
After forty-nine minutes of meditating under a bag of organic prunes, it was revealed to me that Mitt Romney is a very rich, nut job. We seem to regularly elect very rich, nut jobs.
Why is that?
QQ : 5 ROCK AND ROLL
A prophet has a dedicated big, black stone in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Faithful followers are required to go there. I am not sure why. Lethal stampedes, disease and pick-pocketing are an inherent part of the experience. Perhaps there are other more constructive ways to demonstrate solidarity. Seen one rock, seen 'em all.
The Bush oligarchs did their share of bowing and scraping at the feet of the keepers of the rock. Their legacy continues.
I say it's only rock & roll and I don't like it.
QQ : 6 THE EARTH IS FLAT
Put a small box on your head every morning. Cut off the end of your newborn son’s penis. God told you so. Also, wear a funny hat. There are a few really pious guys trying to force women back to the back of the bus. It’s too tempting to have them sitting with the pious. And the women are unclean about half the time. Eeew.
Endorse Dick Santorum. He is in an unholy alliance with an Israeli, right-wing faction that is so far to the right, it has fallen off the edge of the earth. (The flat earth). Anything to bring on the rapture. Go Dick!
It seems to me that bringing on the End Times, sooner than later, is not actually in the best interest of either the Israelis or the Palestinians.
QQ: 7 SMILE IF YOUR HEART IS ACHING
Members of the Cardinal Team travel to Rome. They elect some guy to be God's representative on earth and have him wear a funny hat. It helps if God's rep is a former member of Hitler Youth. Returning to home turf, team members practice celibacy-until they get it right. Altar boys are there to help.
Team cheerleaders live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience. They are married to God and also wear funny hats.
Newt tells us that when he saw the big man in the funny hat smile, it was game over. The glow from the pope-mobile must have been blinding. Newt is a recent convert/ follower of this odd, Roman mythology-after trying on several others. Good for you Newt. I love to see you smile.
My question is: Is the Pontiff's smile more blissfully benign than the Dalai Lama's? Had Newt seen the Dalai Lama's smile first, would he have picked the happy guy with the belly?
"You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile" as sung by Curt Cobain.
QQ : 8 THE MULLAH SAID SO
The clitoris needs to be removed. Women need to remain entirely covered and cannot drive. If women commit adultery, they are to be buried up to their waists and stoned to death. This brings us closer to God in Africa. God, however, did not instruct us to be concerned. Like Vegas, what happens in Africa, stays in Africa.
QQ : 9 GULAG USA
Life begins at conception. Terminating a zygote is murder.
All pregnancies are to be brought to term. All women should be forced-on pain of criminal offence-to bring every pregnancy they ever have-to term.
The world needs more people.
The additional population can then help occupy the prison industrial complex. This represents fundamental job creation for the American gulag.
QQ : 10 THE GOP DECALOGUE
The new, conservative right has adopted these new ten commandments. Two gold tablets have been commissioned. They are to be written in a language nobody understands and then buried in Missouri.
GOP-DEC
1 Thou shalt not terminate a zygote. 2 Thou shalt not permit government to legislate compassion.
3 Thou shalt not provide healthcare to the old and disadvantaged.
4 Thou shalt maintain an arsenal of assault weapons in each home and carry them at all times.
5 The mentally ill are criminals. No punishment is too severe.
6 All law is to be based on the Santorum/Khomeini New-Testament/Koran decrees.
7 Poverty is a crime to be punished with forced labor.
8 Illegal immigrants are to be shot on sight.
9 Global cooling is to be taught as scientific principal.
10 The old man in the sky made the earth 5000 years ago. That is absolute, undisputed fact.
It is written.
(I remember the dinosaurs ........but that was the sixties).
Engraved on my Stone Tablet. Edited by Batsheva
John
www.johncapek.com
Monday 2 January 2012
QQ : NUMBER TWENTY - January 3 2012
A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I GIVE A DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT; AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH
Havel, Hitchens & Skvorecky:
Czech-mate.
It's hard to be pithy and witty when people I care about die.
On the other hand, I can't resist the edge.
QQ :1 THE ESOTERIC CLOWN
The recently departed year 2011 was the year of the Clowns.
Clowns deliver the news; Jon Stewart.
Clowns stand for president; Herman Cain.
Clowns perform our musical anthems; Kanye West and Lady Gag Gag.
I nominate my favourite sad clown to a position of prominence.
RIP Christopher Hitchens. Hitch was after all, in the entertainment business, and he was a masterful although pathetic clown. He was a textbook case of self hatred who wore his heart on his sleeve and demonstrated his internal battle to everyone but himself. Irony of ironies, that this anti-Semitic, anti- Zionist atheist and possibly sexually conflicted individual was the son of a Jewish mother, and left behind (amongst others) a Jewish wife and daughter. I loved his brilliant rhetoric, his wit, his intellect, his debating skills, quick mind and his idealistic though perhaps superficial striving for a subjective interpretation of humanism. In the end, he only exposed an alter ego who was a bigot, a racist and a self hating destructive sad clown.
That said, he still spoke to me as an intellectual athlete. I got what he was trying to do.
Look, up in the sky, it's super-Hitch, able to heap tall barbing in a single round.
I mourn his passing.
QQ : 2 CHOOSE A MYTHOLOGY...OR NOT
Vaclav Havel was the son of privilege. That is an irony. There is a strong Czech cultural tradition of black humor and irony. I am a product of that tradition, as was Havel, Karel Capek and Milan Kundera.
Havel's very life was ironic.
Ironically, Havel believed in a force greater than what humans can perceive. He attributed our violent century to the breakdown of organized religion and the ascendancy of atheism. Despite that belief, Havel was no fan of organized religion. He rather had a faith in the larger, philosophical concept of the mystical.
Hitchens would argue alternatively that historically, more corruption and more violence has occurred in the very name of organized religion.
In fact, Hitchens would point to religion as mankind's greatest historical evil.
QQ : 3 THE SUPER CONSCIOUS
Hitchens argued that Rabbi Hillel’s one sentence summary of the entire Torah also encompassed the fundamental principal of humanism. That one sentence, transcended all organized religion. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
Havel argued that this was not enough. We need to formally acknowledge that there is a larger spiritual concept beyond our comprehension encompassing the mysterious, the absurd, the infinite and the un-explainable. Although individuals may aspire to function according to Rabbi Hillel's precept, entire societies cannot. They need more.
Beyond ethics and religion neither Hitchens, nor Havel came even remotely close to answering the larger question. What is consciousness?
Perhaps the only absolute is not our consciousness, or that we exist, but rather, that once we are gone, we once existed.
Bach existed, Picasso existed and Shakespeare (in some guise) existed. Our consciousness may be irrelevant and un-understandable, but what we leave behind, may be significant and meaningful.
Havel thrived in his thinking, on the absurd and the un-understandable.
I can dig that. That is the creative consciousness.
QQ : 4 CNN, HITCH AND MR. WALKER
I do a dis-service to Hitch by not acknowledging his balls. He was a brave warrior who stepped off the edge to get his story. He reminds me of the CNN crew who shared my cabin on a night flight to Johannesburg to cover Nelson Mandela's historic release from jail. These videographers and on-camera personalities traveled from crisis to crisis around the planet, never sure if it was them or the plane that was fueled by Johnny Walker Black Label. I was the musical warrior and melodic commentary at that time.
I envied them their adventure but not their stress. Crisis was their bread and butter. Hitch clearly also thrived on adventure and risk. He suffered for it.
QQ : 5 PLAY BALL
Havel also had balls. He and Hitch shared an affinity for the same substances and for the hormonally induced, testosterone fueled pursuit where penis runs the show. This is the male tragedy.
I fantasize a debate, a conversation or a drunken rant between these two giants. They were both humanists. They behaved bravely and badly. They came at life from such ironically similar perspectives that they should have, and could have, co-existed as mutual forces for good. I wonder if they ever met? They shared one commonality. Havel and Hitchens were both adamant America-Philes. They both believed that America symbolized the so far, best example of a historically free and emancipated society
QQ : 6 HITCH AND THE PRAGUE CEMETERY
Hitch made one repeated and consistent fatal error in his perception of nationhood.
He became an American without a clear understanding of the historical perspective that he was embracing. America was constructed out of a War of Independence, a Civil War that is not over, and an ethnic cleansing process that more than decimated the aboriginal population. The very economic foundation of the country was based on slavery and the repercussions of that continue to be all-pervasive.
Therefore, Hitchens, demolishing destructive and bigoted criticism of the very fundamentals of the existence and foundation of the state of Israel, is an ignorant point of view which I believe to be without historical foundation or relative perspective. It has occurred to me that there may be a traumatic basis for Hitchens distorted Israel hating stance. Self hate anyone?
All nations are built on struggle and violence. The Jews have been history’s traditional scapegoat. They are history’s easiest target. After all they killed God. But then again Hitch didn't believe in God. He did however believe that there was a Jewish problem that needed a solution. Adolph had the same ideas and tried to follow them through with some success. Get rid of those pesky Jews and all the world’s problems will be solved. Palestine will be free and terrorism will end.
After 5000 years, isn't this concept getting a bit old?
Are these people really that powerful?
QQ : 7 HEBREW CLOWNS
Jews after all have their own clowns. There is Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Howard Stern and Bill Maher and Anthony Weiner. Collectively, they have so far not taken over the planet or destroyed the world as we know it.
Jews have their political leaders. Rahm Emmanuel, Michael Bloomberg , Gabriel Giffords and Madeline Albright all seem to have not done too much damage to humanity. Perhaps they were not part of the Satanic, Masonic, Nights of the Templar Jewish conspiracy to conquer and dominate the world. Or I could be mistaken. Maybe we have all just been fooled. Jews are clearly much smarter than everyone else and there is a larger agenda. Ultimately, that is the 5000 year old story, along with the recipe for making matzoh with the blood of Christian babies. And of course Anthony Weiner was personally responsible for the crucifixion. There's the rub. Rub-a-dub-dub
QQ : 8 UTAH-NISM
What if Hitch and Havel were both right?
Religion has in fact caused more death, pain and suffering in all of human history that any territorial, tribal or ethnic conflict.
Yet, the elimination of organized religion was policy in Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. Together as atheists, these regimes destroyed a significant portion of humanity.
Is it all a neutral concept? When we genuflect, face east, wear fringes, wail, pray, bow, chant and beat our breasts, does this move mountains, cure cancer and save children?
Pakistan and North Korea both have nuclear weapons. Pakistan is deeply religious. North Korea is not, in the traditional sense. Did Jesus die for their sins? If the leaders of both of these nations experienced baptism, would we be saved?
I am told that my family who perished in Hitler’s death camps has been secretly baptized. Can I claim Utahn citizenship? The record of that baptism lies in a cellar under a golden idol topped monument in Salt Lake City. A certain later day saint, and self proclaimed King, Joseph Smith may well be guiding the path of the free world in 2013 by proxy, through his agent on earth. In which direction should I kneel, beat, cross and fast, light candles and bow three times in order to save myself from an eternity in hell?
Apparently president Mitt Romney has the answer and perhaps the final solution. Based on his absurd beliefs, he is one scary dude.
QQ : 9 MOTHER EARTH
The Arab spring is perhaps the saddest, most ironic movement in modern history.
Statistics estimate that 90% of Egyptian women of all classes and segments of society have been subjected to FGM. We use this acronym as the reality is too painful to acknowledge. Female genital mutilation. This was not Mubarek's fault. It is not israel’s fault. Is this islam’s finest hour? This is not by any means the largest issue that motivated the Muslim brotherhood to action or the Iranian sponsorship of fundamentalist reactionary activity. This issue is a back-burner cultural issue that is swept under the mat. In the shoes of a Hitchens, with his reach, with his audience and his influence, in his place, I would address this issue beyond all others. In fact Hitch did address this issue forcefully, but not specifically and contextually related to the rights of women. What is it that is so threatening about a clitoris that it must be removed in the millions? What does humanity lose when it loses a woman's voice, a woman's power, a woman's compassion and a woman’s sexual gratification?
More than we can begin to comprehend.
When will we witness the Egyptian women's spring?
Like with Isaac and Abraham, perhaps God was just kidding.
Ismael! Leave the Vulva alone, it's perfectly fine the way I made it!
QQ : 10 STUCK
I have yet another plea, maybe a prayer. Bessie Smith lay dying in a roadside ditch waiting for a black ambulance that arrived too late. She sang about "some sugar in her bowl" and pre-empted Madonna and Lady Gag Gag by about 100 years.
There is plagiarism and just unpleasant cultural mining that is unforgivable. Lady Gag Gag's latest is a great motivator for cultural censorship, or if she had balls, then their removal. "Stuck on Fuckin You" Gag Gag's latest single release, or "drop" as they call it these days is a monument to exploitive poor taste, a cultural crime, and an example of offensive puerile excrement without art, artifice, drama, poetry or of value of any kind.
Bessie Smith had this genre down one hundred years ago and made it art, made it sexy, made it erotic and made it fun. Contemporarily, Cee Lo Green said "Fuck You" with finesse. Gag Gag makes it an insult. Speaking of vaginas and their value, Gag Gag's release of this tune is a cultural hole. In fact, I'd rather listen to Hole with its sonically dark and dangerous underbelly. At least Courtney Love is a fantastic actress. She should do more movies.
So sue me.
QQ : 11 EQUAL TIME FOR DICK
Dick Cheney, Dick Santorum. Dick Nixon, Dick Perry, Dick Helms, Dick Lugar and there are many more Dicks where these came from.
Etched on my Stone Tablet.
Havel, Hitchens & Skvorecky:
Czech-mate.
It's hard to be pithy and witty when people I care about die.
On the other hand, I can't resist the edge.
QQ :1 THE ESOTERIC CLOWN
The recently departed year 2011 was the year of the Clowns.
Clowns deliver the news; Jon Stewart.
Clowns stand for president; Herman Cain.
Clowns perform our musical anthems; Kanye West and Lady Gag Gag.
I nominate my favourite sad clown to a position of prominence.
RIP Christopher Hitchens. Hitch was after all, in the entertainment business, and he was a masterful although pathetic clown. He was a textbook case of self hatred who wore his heart on his sleeve and demonstrated his internal battle to everyone but himself. Irony of ironies, that this anti-Semitic, anti- Zionist atheist and possibly sexually conflicted individual was the son of a Jewish mother, and left behind (amongst others) a Jewish wife and daughter. I loved his brilliant rhetoric, his wit, his intellect, his debating skills, quick mind and his idealistic though perhaps superficial striving for a subjective interpretation of humanism. In the end, he only exposed an alter ego who was a bigot, a racist and a self hating destructive sad clown.
That said, he still spoke to me as an intellectual athlete. I got what he was trying to do.
Look, up in the sky, it's super-Hitch, able to heap tall barbing in a single round.
I mourn his passing.
QQ : 2 CHOOSE A MYTHOLOGY...OR NOT
Vaclav Havel was the son of privilege. That is an irony. There is a strong Czech cultural tradition of black humor and irony. I am a product of that tradition, as was Havel, Karel Capek and Milan Kundera.
Havel's very life was ironic.
Ironically, Havel believed in a force greater than what humans can perceive. He attributed our violent century to the breakdown of organized religion and the ascendancy of atheism. Despite that belief, Havel was no fan of organized religion. He rather had a faith in the larger, philosophical concept of the mystical.
Hitchens would argue alternatively that historically, more corruption and more violence has occurred in the very name of organized religion.
In fact, Hitchens would point to religion as mankind's greatest historical evil.
QQ : 3 THE SUPER CONSCIOUS
Hitchens argued that Rabbi Hillel’s one sentence summary of the entire Torah also encompassed the fundamental principal of humanism. That one sentence, transcended all organized religion. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
Havel argued that this was not enough. We need to formally acknowledge that there is a larger spiritual concept beyond our comprehension encompassing the mysterious, the absurd, the infinite and the un-explainable. Although individuals may aspire to function according to Rabbi Hillel's precept, entire societies cannot. They need more.
Beyond ethics and religion neither Hitchens, nor Havel came even remotely close to answering the larger question. What is consciousness?
Perhaps the only absolute is not our consciousness, or that we exist, but rather, that once we are gone, we once existed.
Bach existed, Picasso existed and Shakespeare (in some guise) existed. Our consciousness may be irrelevant and un-understandable, but what we leave behind, may be significant and meaningful.
Havel thrived in his thinking, on the absurd and the un-understandable.
I can dig that. That is the creative consciousness.
QQ : 4 CNN, HITCH AND MR. WALKER
I do a dis-service to Hitch by not acknowledging his balls. He was a brave warrior who stepped off the edge to get his story. He reminds me of the CNN crew who shared my cabin on a night flight to Johannesburg to cover Nelson Mandela's historic release from jail. These videographers and on-camera personalities traveled from crisis to crisis around the planet, never sure if it was them or the plane that was fueled by Johnny Walker Black Label. I was the musical warrior and melodic commentary at that time.
I envied them their adventure but not their stress. Crisis was their bread and butter. Hitch clearly also thrived on adventure and risk. He suffered for it.
QQ : 5 PLAY BALL
Havel also had balls. He and Hitch shared an affinity for the same substances and for the hormonally induced, testosterone fueled pursuit where penis runs the show. This is the male tragedy.
I fantasize a debate, a conversation or a drunken rant between these two giants. They were both humanists. They behaved bravely and badly. They came at life from such ironically similar perspectives that they should have, and could have, co-existed as mutual forces for good. I wonder if they ever met? They shared one commonality. Havel and Hitchens were both adamant America-Philes. They both believed that America symbolized the so far, best example of a historically free and emancipated society
QQ : 6 HITCH AND THE PRAGUE CEMETERY
Hitch made one repeated and consistent fatal error in his perception of nationhood.
He became an American without a clear understanding of the historical perspective that he was embracing. America was constructed out of a War of Independence, a Civil War that is not over, and an ethnic cleansing process that more than decimated the aboriginal population. The very economic foundation of the country was based on slavery and the repercussions of that continue to be all-pervasive.
Therefore, Hitchens, demolishing destructive and bigoted criticism of the very fundamentals of the existence and foundation of the state of Israel, is an ignorant point of view which I believe to be without historical foundation or relative perspective. It has occurred to me that there may be a traumatic basis for Hitchens distorted Israel hating stance. Self hate anyone?
All nations are built on struggle and violence. The Jews have been history’s traditional scapegoat. They are history’s easiest target. After all they killed God. But then again Hitch didn't believe in God. He did however believe that there was a Jewish problem that needed a solution. Adolph had the same ideas and tried to follow them through with some success. Get rid of those pesky Jews and all the world’s problems will be solved. Palestine will be free and terrorism will end.
After 5000 years, isn't this concept getting a bit old?
Are these people really that powerful?
QQ : 7 HEBREW CLOWNS
Jews after all have their own clowns. There is Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Howard Stern and Bill Maher and Anthony Weiner. Collectively, they have so far not taken over the planet or destroyed the world as we know it.
Jews have their political leaders. Rahm Emmanuel, Michael Bloomberg , Gabriel Giffords and Madeline Albright all seem to have not done too much damage to humanity. Perhaps they were not part of the Satanic, Masonic, Nights of the Templar Jewish conspiracy to conquer and dominate the world. Or I could be mistaken. Maybe we have all just been fooled. Jews are clearly much smarter than everyone else and there is a larger agenda. Ultimately, that is the 5000 year old story, along with the recipe for making matzoh with the blood of Christian babies. And of course Anthony Weiner was personally responsible for the crucifixion. There's the rub. Rub-a-dub-dub
QQ : 8 UTAH-NISM
What if Hitch and Havel were both right?
Religion has in fact caused more death, pain and suffering in all of human history that any territorial, tribal or ethnic conflict.
Yet, the elimination of organized religion was policy in Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. Together as atheists, these regimes destroyed a significant portion of humanity.
Is it all a neutral concept? When we genuflect, face east, wear fringes, wail, pray, bow, chant and beat our breasts, does this move mountains, cure cancer and save children?
Pakistan and North Korea both have nuclear weapons. Pakistan is deeply religious. North Korea is not, in the traditional sense. Did Jesus die for their sins? If the leaders of both of these nations experienced baptism, would we be saved?
I am told that my family who perished in Hitler’s death camps has been secretly baptized. Can I claim Utahn citizenship? The record of that baptism lies in a cellar under a golden idol topped monument in Salt Lake City. A certain later day saint, and self proclaimed King, Joseph Smith may well be guiding the path of the free world in 2013 by proxy, through his agent on earth. In which direction should I kneel, beat, cross and fast, light candles and bow three times in order to save myself from an eternity in hell?
Apparently president Mitt Romney has the answer and perhaps the final solution. Based on his absurd beliefs, he is one scary dude.
QQ : 9 MOTHER EARTH
The Arab spring is perhaps the saddest, most ironic movement in modern history.
Statistics estimate that 90% of Egyptian women of all classes and segments of society have been subjected to FGM. We use this acronym as the reality is too painful to acknowledge. Female genital mutilation. This was not Mubarek's fault. It is not israel’s fault. Is this islam’s finest hour? This is not by any means the largest issue that motivated the Muslim brotherhood to action or the Iranian sponsorship of fundamentalist reactionary activity. This issue is a back-burner cultural issue that is swept under the mat. In the shoes of a Hitchens, with his reach, with his audience and his influence, in his place, I would address this issue beyond all others. In fact Hitch did address this issue forcefully, but not specifically and contextually related to the rights of women. What is it that is so threatening about a clitoris that it must be removed in the millions? What does humanity lose when it loses a woman's voice, a woman's power, a woman's compassion and a woman’s sexual gratification?
More than we can begin to comprehend.
When will we witness the Egyptian women's spring?
Like with Isaac and Abraham, perhaps God was just kidding.
Ismael! Leave the Vulva alone, it's perfectly fine the way I made it!
QQ : 10 STUCK
I have yet another plea, maybe a prayer. Bessie Smith lay dying in a roadside ditch waiting for a black ambulance that arrived too late. She sang about "some sugar in her bowl" and pre-empted Madonna and Lady Gag Gag by about 100 years.
There is plagiarism and just unpleasant cultural mining that is unforgivable. Lady Gag Gag's latest is a great motivator for cultural censorship, or if she had balls, then their removal. "Stuck on Fuckin You" Gag Gag's latest single release, or "drop" as they call it these days is a monument to exploitive poor taste, a cultural crime, and an example of offensive puerile excrement without art, artifice, drama, poetry or of value of any kind.
Bessie Smith had this genre down one hundred years ago and made it art, made it sexy, made it erotic and made it fun. Contemporarily, Cee Lo Green said "Fuck You" with finesse. Gag Gag makes it an insult. Speaking of vaginas and their value, Gag Gag's release of this tune is a cultural hole. In fact, I'd rather listen to Hole with its sonically dark and dangerous underbelly. At least Courtney Love is a fantastic actress. She should do more movies.
So sue me.
QQ : 11 EQUAL TIME FOR DICK
Dick Cheney, Dick Santorum. Dick Nixon, Dick Perry, Dick Helms, Dick Lugar and there are many more Dicks where these came from.
Etched on my Stone Tablet.
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