QQ : NUMBER TWENTY FOUR - February 14, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH

COMEDY AND TRAGEDY

These musings often describe an internal dialogue. This is the argument that I have with myself in my quest for an understanding of the larger unfolding. I promote and extol the virtues and value of art, creativity, innovation, education and culture as one possible answer to our increasingly dark expressions of existence. I look to the work of icons such as Bach, Homer, Mozart, Plato, Picasso, Gershwin, Michelangelo, Jelly Roll Morton, Marc Rothko, Shakespeare and Da Vinci as expressions of what is important, what is civilizing and what is bonding in our human existence. These mirrors of their times reflected and commented. They also expressed a common ideal of "goodness".

The argument I have with myself concerns the ethics and morality of the individuals who created work that is immortal; that transcends time and that has become, historically, iconic.

My goodness!

Was Johann Sebastian Bach a good person? Does it matter? Does his creative output transcend the person? The Goldberg Variations in their first recorded form by Glenn Gould are as much a universal, divinely-inspired, musical statement as can be made by a human person. At once, the score itself, and then the interpretation of that notation touches the soul.

The interpreter of this divination, Glenn Gould was a deeply flawed, troubled and tormented individual who never lived to accomplish his potential.

QQ : 1.   A BLUE PERIOD

Perhaps the most powerful anti-war statement ever made in a two-dimensional format is the painting “Guernica” by Pablo Picasso. This work, as well as his line drawing of “The Dove“ have achieved monumental status as symbols of the tragedy and damage that war inflicts on the innocent.

These works convey compassion and a depth of feeling in a startlingly powerful and universal language for all eternity. This would seem to tell us something about the artist. These two-dimensional prayers convey an intense sense of empathy and understanding of human pain.
And yet:
Pablo thrived during much of the Second World War in France. He made his women and later, his children miserable; did not behave well on multiple levels and perhaps, according to some biographers, contributed to the pain and suffering of many of those closest to him.

If he was not a nice man, should we still idolize his work? Does the art survive as the man does not?

What kind of a man was Leonardo Da Vinci? Do we care?

Artists reflect what they see and sometimes what they would wish to see. What they see is not necessarily governed by ethics or morality. Some reflect what they see well. Some reflect only what they see or understand as good. Others only reflect what they see through the human torment of their individual existence. Van Gogh saw his universe as painfully beautiful, understanding that no amount of colour or texture could adequately describe the ultimate beauty of nature and human mortality. Monet's “Water Lilies“ perhaps reflect what is good about our human perception of nature and, therefore, of all creation.

However, we are deeply flawed in our existence. Goodness gracious, we have Original Sin.

QQ : 2.   i-SLAVE

I suggest that Steve Jobs, was for all intents and purposes, an artist.
Steve took an adding machine, gave it a Bauhaus-inspired cladding and a human, friendly interface that has changed the way the world functions on many levels.

Is this an ultimate "good". For that matter, was Steve a good man? His recently released FBI files would suggest that on a criminal level, he was a good man.

Media is revealing that the efficient package, this glorified, adding machine that allows our tweet, sharing and hacking, relies on slave labour. This has brought Apple to a price level that has now made it the richest company on the planet.

Should we sanctify Steve for his good works?
Take this tablet and call me in the morning.
Meanwhile, I will consult my i-bible and Siri regarding i-ethics and i-morality. They are currently worth about $500 a share.

QQ : 3.   MY MARTYR IS BIGGER THAN YOUR MARTYR

Our new moral and ethical police are an alliance of the ‘GOP/Fascist-neo-Christian-Mullahs’ with the Radical neo-Muslim/Fascist-Ayatollahs.

What they hold in common is the value of human sacrifice and the subjugation of women. This is a profoundly dark and significant alliance that convicts and punishes, proclaims and relegates a fundamentalist, dogmatic interpretation of ethics and morality that has a basis in pure, unfettered insanity.

For the ‘GOP Mullahs’, the ultimate symbol of sacrifice is Christ. As evangelists, their agenda is ruled by dominionism. That is Christ at any cost, by any means, moral or immoral.

For the other ‘Ayatollahs’, the ultimate symbol of sacrifice is any death that communicates their truth either by designated martyr or of perceived enemy.

Historical figures who have found truth have, at a minimum, sacrificed their freedom, and often their lives in support of their beliefs. The concept of martyrdom can be traced back to the ancient Jews refusing to recant their monotheistic beliefs. Socrates drank poison rather than recant his beliefs, Jesus was the ultimate martyr to give his life. Countless lost youth in the Middle East have strapped dynamite vests to their bodies in order to convey their truth to the world. Is there a more powerful way to send a message?

The assorted Dicks, Mitts and Newts invoke their mythological truth as the basis of their political agendas. The premise is that if sacrifice is involved, then it is inherently, by their definition, for the ultimate good,
Sacrifice = Good
Suicide in the name of truth = Good.

Jesus, the ultimate martyr is thought of as "good" because he gave his life for our sins. This gesture was supposed to send us a signal. The signal has been incorrectly received. We deified the man rather than the message.
When the truth-teller invokes martyrdom, that does not make his truth any more true than the next martyr around the corner. It generally just makes for another really dead martyr. Is my martyr better than your martyr?

QQ : 4.   MY ALMA MARTYR

I vote for Lenny Bruce.

Lenny died for a bunch of words. Clearly, he had issues. He had original sin.
But the battle that he waged during his life as a comedian, commentator and entertainer was about the freedom of speech. The significant and important point about Lenny was that his bits were not a bunch of trivial joke telling cabaret entertainment. The content was a contemporary political commentary that predated Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and George Carlin by decades. It was important.

He was hounded and persecuted by the police until his life became impossible. He was a Martyr I could respect. He did not claim to be the son of God, he did not claim to have never sinned, he did not tie bomb vests around his followers and he absolutely did take the lords name in vain.

Was he brilliant? Yes. Was he good? That depends on what goodness means.

QQ : 5.   LEMMING TREE VERY PRETTY

Popular music has suffered disproportionately from a lemming syndrome. Amy Winehouse, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Momma Cass, Karen Carpenter, Curt Cobain, Jim Morrison and more recently Michael Jackson and Whitney Huston.

All of these artists created anthemic, timeless music. Michael Jackson believed his truth. His truth made it OK to share his bed with children. Was he martyred for his truth? Is his music of a lesser value because of the conduct of his life? Perhaps there could be a boycott of his economic legacy. But then I would have to consider taking down the Picasso print on my bedroom wall.

Perhaps we could judge by degree. If in a hypothetical scenario, Adolph Hitler had painted the ‘Water Lily “series, would we still judge the art separately from the man?

On the other hand could our idealism of the artist have some basis in a larger truth? Perhaps Hitler was incapable of creating real art by virtue of his character.  Did the "Man in the Mirror" "Beat It"...the rap?

QQ : 6.   PHILANDERS, WOMANIZERS AND BAD BOYS.

The GOP/Ayatollah conspiracy agree on one fundamental agenda.
They don't trust the Penis. When the Penis is out of control, the only possibility of restricting its behaviour is to build impenetrable barriers to every possibility of Penile expression.

The best way to do this is to imprison women on every possible level and for every reproductive right imaginable. The GOP-Ayatollas can then justify pointing their judgmental fingers at thinkers, writers artists and leaders who have found their flies inconveniently undone.

The ultimate contemporary martyr with his Eros exposed was John F Kennedy who represented the last gasp of American idealism. Bill Clinton balanced a budget for the last time, looking into the conceivable future of our planet while getting a blow job.

The sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, the sanctity of life beginning at the moment of ejaculation, and the issue of women's reproductive rights has become front and center of our political debate based on the out-of-control Penis agenda.

Fatwas are imposed on the desecration of images without regard to the meaning of the symbol. Fiction writers and cartoonists are condemned to death and martyrs designated to carry out the sentences. In the name of a symbol, martyrs fly planes into buildings and kill as many infidels as they can.
And their motivation:

There will be seventy-two virgins in heaven.

Freud laughs.


QQ : 7.   EINSTEIN and HITCHENS

These two thinkers agreed that we can have ethical moral lives without religion. We do not need God to tell us how to behave. Our natural human condition requires ethical behaviour for survival. We survive as family, as community, and as tribe in a manner that implies the simplest of concepts. Treat each other as we would like to be treated.

This fundamental concept is clearly not enough for us as we turn to our Truth Tellers.

There are two flaws, two deep, dark conflicts that cause all the trouble.
The first is the human male's sexual agenda. The second is our common mortality.

The largest, most formidable structure built by man, the pyramids represented a quest for immortality. But if we are mortal, we are compelled to attain immortality by any means possible. There are no rules other than those we can invent because nobody has come back from the unknown to tell us what the rules are.

Crosses, tall mighty and white tower above churches in the South where no non-Caucasian has ever entered. The flag symbol flies above Guantanamo. The Scales of Justice symbolize the SCOTUS where Justice is lost based on Political Expediency.

Contraception education and materials are banned from medical institutions who have a truth imposed by arbitrary truth-tellers based on nonsensical, unscientific insanity. Mythology dictates this agenda.

Albert Einstein was a thinker who saw beyond the infinite. He saw the curve of space and the flexibility of time. He debunked old concepts and allowed a vision into the future that opened up a multitude of possible advancements as well as the most hellish powers of destruction. Perhaps he saw God.

Albert had a dark side, His first wife would tell you stories. She was a formidable scientist in her own right. Al abandoned her and his child for his human male agenda. Second wife - second story. Does this behaviour lead us to judge his achievements in a different light?

Maybe...but light bends.

QQ : 8.   SOME LIKE IT HOT

When it comes to martyrdom, I vote for another artist from my impressionable youth.

When Lee Strasberg of the actors studio dedicated his time and attention to Marylin Monroe, he saw into the future. Marylin was both actor and comedienne, but more than that, a pioneer in scratching the surface of who and what a woman could be in contemporary society, both on and off stage.  Her talent was formidable. Her life was a tragedy.

I watch her image on the screen, in awe of her skill and her timeless awareness of the human condition. That men at the very peak of their powers found her irresistible was no surprise. John Kennedy, Arthur Miller and Joe Dimaggio used her and destroyed her.

She was a martyr.

QQ : 9.   GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME

Our symbols define us. From the most ancient primitive cave paintings to the Eye of Providence depicted on the dollar bill.

Through the ages, we have created temples that house our treasured symbols. The architects of these temples are held in high esteem. They have created environments that have a deeply spiritual purpose connecting us with their contents in a reverential context for all eternity. These buildings are in fact Temples.

Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan; Gehry’s Bilbao museum in Spain, and the Pyramid at the Louvre designed by I.M. Pei are all edifices that speak to us in a monumental expression of all that is good in our humanity. These buildings are houses for the best, most skillfully-crafted expressions and reflections of life that we have been able to accumulate through recorded history.

The architects, the conceptualizers of these structures have created windows through which we can observe eternity. It could be suggested that their vision is heavenly-inspired.

Do we ask these men to behave in a required manner in their day to day lives in order to participate in the environments that they have created?

QQ:10.   IMPERFECT PERFECTIONISM

Perhaps the Messianic ideal could be the source of our human troubles.
The concept that a Messiah could become human and behave without sin is a concept that disturbs the psyche with its impossible ideal.  It creates damage.

In its name, bishops assault boys, Ayatollahs declare fatwas and Mitts demonize poverty.

Our human condition and the perfect ideal are a complete and total disconnect. We cannot be like Christ, Any amount of denial, chastity, vows of poverty and self sacrifice will not lead to the betterment of the human condition, nor will covenants with the old, bearded man in the sky.

Our humanity will not improve by censoring the reflectors of our condition. It is our job to live better lives. It is the job of the reflectors to show us what they see, what they hope to see and what is both good and bad in that reflection.

I despise the ethics and morality of Elia Kazan, Woody Allen and Roman Polanski. Does that make them bad film makers?

I continue my internal dialogue and only because of the media exposure, am more than likely to change the channel when a Polanski film is on. Woody, though gets a qualified pass with some reservations.

I etch my artistic line in the sand at Genocide and child sexual abuse.


etched on my stone tablet
edit : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY THREE - February 6, 2012

A ONCE-A-WEEK (or so) LIST OF WHAT I  GIVE A  DAMN ABOUT. WITH 10 = MOST IMPORTANT;  AND 1 = NOT SO MUCH


Are we better off today in 2012 than we were in 1812 or 1612? Are we happier? Is the world a better place, is there a universally improved quality of life and are we the beneficiaries of progress?

It occurs to me that the only absolute quantification of progress that we can identify today, is the extension of longevity. We live longer because of improvements in nutrition and hygiene. Superficially, the most basic elements of our improved knowledge regarding the transmission of disease, and the development of some outright cures could be argued as a formidable improvement in our quality of life.

Further, it could be argued that the economic aberration which temporarily created a middle class, could be considered in a context of progress. Therefore, proportionally, more people could be considered masters of their own destinies...within the confines of our limited, first-world experience.

I wonder, though in terms of quality and progress, what this really means?

We live longer and conduct our lives from a larger, more stable nest - that can be lit and heated ...if we can afford the utility bills.

QQ : 1.   A HAPPY MEAL

As hunter-gatherers, we foraged for food and stalked game. Our lives centered around the quest for food. My favorite slogan from the recent past is... "There's a little McDonald's in everyone ".  Great. Now I don't have to stress about where I will get my next meal. If my inner McDonald's is wanting, I fill it with minimal economic impact. But, that is in suburban, any-town, first world.

We continue to observe a third world that does not have this luxury. More people are starving to death on our planet than at any time in history.

I seldom quote others, but this one hit me:

"Every three days more people die from malnutrition and disease than from the bombing of Hiroshima. Every year more people die from preventable hunger than died in the Holocaust. Somewhere along the line, moral reflection and outrage have lost their audience."

Dennis Ford
Sins of Omission

Estimates I have read show that about one billion people on the planet are malnourished with a further one billion undernourished. Two billion potential McDonald's customers deserve a break today... and aren’t getting one.

I wonder where this sad statistic falls within our measurement of human progress? I sit in my heated, well-lit cave and watch the televised images-aghast.

At last count, almost forty-six million Americans currently use food stamps.
It could be said that their very availability is a symbol of progress.
I would suggest that their need is a social and economic disaster.

QQ : 2.   ART FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE

I stare at Van Gogh’s, “Starry Night” in wonder. The Mona Lisa continues to smirk at me and the Venus Di Milo touches my inner Eros. What is it about these images and icons that transcends time?

Glenn Gould's masterful interpretation of a Bach Fugue written in 1722 slays me. Bill Shakespeare's deep insight into the depths of the human condition touches the soul and King David wrote a psalm or two that reaches through millennia to describe human spirituality in a manner transcendent.

Have we in our contemporary, educated, industrialized culture created equivalent or better artistic statements? Is there a contemporary psalm worth singing? Will we peer at a glassed-in image of an Italian aristocrat with its curious smile hundreds of years after the fact? Is there a poet writing today who will connect with our ancestors five hundred years from now? Are there iconic statements that will resonate a thousand years from now being created in new media? Will we watch viral YouTube videos that transcend time and make universal, life-affirming statements lifetimes after the fact?

It seems to me we live in times that lack true anthems or themes of any value. There are no new universal stories, no connective tissue that binds us.

The old, toxic remnants do remain and they poison us. Religious and political dogma and fundamentalism still raise the spectre of primitive paganism that joins damaged people together in a destructive agenda. Perhaps the GOP and the new, Hungarian fascists have their anthems and their art.

I wonder what graces Newt Ging-Grinches walls? I have read that he enjoys the craft displays at Tiffany's. That sparkly stuff likely does have some lasting quality. Hitler attacked canvas armed with brush and paint. He also attacked my people. He murdered both.

QQ : 3.   LIVE BY THE SWORD

Every day, around one hundred people die from gun shots in the United States. That averages out to about 30,000 people per year. That statistic has been consistent for some time. This devastation does not make the News; It is not a topic at the top of anyone’s agenda and is an accepted fact of life. More people are murdered on the streets of America than in any ongoing war or revolution on the planet. Is this not a sort of ethnic cleansing where poverty has become an ethnicity?

The acceptance of this devastation as a fact of life in the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world is not progress. It is a Dark Age, hellish, immoral and bankrupt catastrophe. The Second Amendment, my ass. Glock this. Rather than freedom, the almost universal arming of domestic America is demonic.

In a country that has abandoned the care of its mentally ill; made lethal weapons available even to the essentially psychotic and the deranged as a constitutional right, seems to me suicidal.

I'm told that Glocks have very little recoil. There is no background check at a gun show.
It's gun show biz.

QQ : 4.   IT’S ALL ESPERANTO TO ME

News reports tell us that former Republican leadership candidate, John Huntsman's command of Mandarin was a detriment to his progress through the ranks of his party’s primaries. Newt had to hide his command of Spanish and his expertise in the intricacies of modern European history. It is likely that he has read a book or two. Knowledge, especially classical knowledge,  of language, literature, the arts and history is frowned upon by the new conservatives and regarded as a Liberal Aberration.

My father, like generations of classically educated bourgeois Europeans had years of the dead Latin language compulsorily drummed into him at high school. This gave him a useful command of French, Spanish, Italian and English. Beyond grammar and vocabulary, language is an entry point into understanding and communication.

English dominates and predominates our world, mostly in 48 character tweets, using acronyms , abbreviations and simplifications. Our communication has been dwarfed. WTF.
We are language infants communicating in ones and zeros. LOL.

Homer's twitter feed would have been a sad read 48 characters at a time and I am not referring to Homer Simpson. :)

QQ : 5.   HOW SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY

An unprecedented phenomenon has occurred that is unique in all history to the extent of its size and popularity.

Our bards, our music makers, our drum messengers and our troubadours have embraced a unifying message. That message is Misogyny. They hate women. We sing about women as whores and bitches.

After we deal with the bitches, we sing and chant about violence and our most base, narcissistic, primitive, animalistic nature. Narcissism sells. Bling-Bling. As "music", this is a most unusual phenomenon. Sing along, bang a gong. Hit me with your disco stick Bitch. It's sick.

Art is generally a reflection of society. I don't like what I see in that mirror. More than anything else, it is a sad current reflection. Play me some Mingus. He was angry too, but, there was a beauty and a layered and mysterious aesthetic that went far beyond the superficial. Let me hear the torment of Beethoven or of Charlie Parker. They were angry, too.

QQ : 6.   A BALE OF COTTON

Slavery never went away. It just has another name.
Indentured servitude becomes the norm when workers are banned from organizing. Without worker representation, we become a feudal society. That reversion to feudalism is more than a backward step. We have re-embraced slavery. Apple deserves our scrutiny of its current conduct in China. The worker bees who made this tablet have become our serfs. Apple’s current cash surplus at their Serf's expense is a satanic way to pocket the suffering of these unfortunates.

Decades ago, Fritz Lang's, “Metropolis” and Chaplin's "Modern Times" were sad prophecies of what was to come.

QQ : 7.   AARGH!!!

The Industrial Revolution that gave birth to our Modern Times, to our Metropolis has been a continuum of ‘progress’ since it began with coal power. There has been a steep price to pay. We still burn coal.

Which aspects of the industrial revolution have given humanity innovative, progressive, forward motion? In what ways are we better off with the burning of hydrocarbons? Have we reacted, or adapted?  With the explosion of human numbers to the tune of 7 billion currently, are we adapting or reacting?

A ‘reaction’ is not necessarily innovative or positive. A reaction can produce destructive energy.

Cultivating a crop that requires damming which results in the devastation and desertification of formerly, productive land is questionable progress.

The genetic modification of seeds that result in our bodies rejecting simple peanuts as lethal poison is not progress. Aargh!!!

Feeding meat to cattle is not progress. No wonder they get mad.

We have reacted, we have not adapted.

QQ : 8.    QUALITY CONTROL

Who is ‘the decider’ when it comes to the Quality of our existence. Is it the Free Market? Whom should we trust to monitor true innovation?

We are in reactive times. We fight windmills as symbols of left-wing ideology. Even Cervantes can join Chaplin in a giggle at our audacious objection to wind-blown vanes.

If we insist on procreating at a rate that the earth cannot support, then we are compelled to react. However, we do have options.

Emancipation of women would be a good start. Perhaps they would choose control of their own bodies and their decision to bear children or not. The GOP mullahs, our moral police, think otherwise. The state of Mississippi nearly banned all forms of birth control. Clearly, that state needs more people on welfare.

Education at every level would also help. But the quality of education matters. We have longer lives. What do we do with these longer lives if they have no quality?

We breathe coal fumes, eat GM peanuts and procreate profusely.

Is this progress?

QQ : 9.   EDJUMACATION AND THE QUALITY OF KNOWLEDGE

Teach your children well.

That is a very broad concept that can mean many things to many people.
I ponder the question of what kind of education will be of benefit to my children and their children?

We must function within the world as it is, not as we would hope it to be.
However, if we hope to leave the earth in better shape that how we found it, I believe we are failing... miserably. We deplete its resources; pollute its atmosphere; undermine its geological stability and dis-arrange its weather patterns.

All of this is reversible, if we recognize that we are in a Reactive era.

We google, tweet, blog and poke each other in impersonal, long-distance, pretend relationships with questionable love, compassion or true friendship.

We sell our souls, our privacy and our intimacy to an Algorithmic Ether that manipulates our data and narrows our experience.

This is not progress.

The old adage suggests that knowledge is power. We are entering an era of narrowed exposure to knowledge. We know what the algorithms allow us to know. And that has infinite quantity and zero quality.

QQ : 10.   EEE EQUALS EM CEE SQUARED

Perhaps humanity is in a perpetually, neutral condition.
Like Relativity, Energy and Mass are always interchangeable.
For what we perceive as progress, we always pay a price that neutralizes that progress in the long term.

A re-evaluation of progress is essential for the survival of our species.
We used to be afraid of nuclear annihilation. That is not the thing to be most afraid of. We should be more afraid of  progress that is not vetted.

We should fear the regression to feudalism. We should fear repression, that comes in the guise of economic or technological “progress”. 

Perhaps we should stop fighting windmills and re-discover the original, genetic makeup of a pre-Monsanto peanut that does not poison us. Don't make the cows mad!

Listen to some Bach that has not been transferred via an mp3. It might make everything make sense and help bring us back into focus.

We have a lot to learn and it seems to me that we teach our children less and less about what really matters. Perhaps that line in the American Declaration of Independence that refers to the "pursuit of happiness" is a concept worth  re-examining for all Humankind.

Etched on my stone tablet.

www.johncapek.com

Editing : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER TWENTY TWO - January 22, 2012

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

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

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

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.

QQ : NUMBER NINETEEN - December 13, 2011

 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.

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.