The out of myth for our times

A while ago I was struck by something that Joeseph Campbell said.

During an interview with Bill Moyers he was asked what he believed was a myth of our time. His response has stuck with me for quite some time. Although his frame of reference for societies that generated myths evolved over many many centuries, as did their myths. Our society seems to be evolving much more rapidly than their so why wouldn’t our myths. We may not generate the same class of myths, such as Gilgamesh or The Odessy, maybe more mini-myths.

MY CASE:
Lately there has been an eruption of the true value of technology. How much time does this really save? Is it environmental mining all these rare elements for technology? Is technology making us dumber? There has been no overarching senate committee assembled to answer these questions, no think tank and no religious pundits (really no pundits). These questions have been turned over to the arts, as they were in the times of Gilgamesh. Movies have begun to weave the stories of unknown. Starting with star wars, THX -1138, Star Trek . . but since these frame stories were filled with the classic stories of father/son connection, rebellious youth .. the frame became its own story. Movies that follow those of Iasic Asimov, like I am Robot. Enemy of the state is one that touches on the pervasiveness of technology, coincidentally both with Will Smith.

There is one riff that I wanted to peer into. Between Enemy of the state and D.J. Caruso’s new flick with Shia Lebouf, Eagle eye, there comes an issue with technology. Enemy of the state touches on the power of technology in the hands of the renegade few. Where eagle eye removes the human element and places the control in the hands of computers/technology. The frame story of technology taking control is interesting, is it the power of Google when we search for the capital of a small country in Europe and once we find the exact number we move on. Compare that information searching to that of a good old school library. You have to find the encyclopedia look up the country, possible get distracted along the way. But the fact that you have invested so much more time into the mission of fact-finding, you don’t mind picking up a couple other facts along the way. Cutting down on the time expenditure has also cut down on the information found. These nightmarish tales, some might even call them myths, of computer overpowering the control of information and using it to their own idea of “right,” have become more and more prevalent.

Look what I popped

The King is dead, long live the King. Congrats to our new president. Let us remember our 43 president as a zit we popped on the back of America, and lets move one. Let us clean up the mess that was released when we popped him and smile as the blemish that remains, fades away and we continue forward, forever washing ourselves of evil.


the face he made before we popped the massive zit.

Dinners, resolutions in action

Again, my blog has become reticent. In my time of pause and reflection, (read as, lack of will and laziness) I noticed how nice it is to rest your voice. Too often, I feel, people fill, or find cause to fill, the conversation with nothing. There is nothing more painful than nothing. . .. (an awkward pause you should find solitude in, thus taking the awkward out of it.)

I actually took some time to pause and reflect coming into the new year. By no means was I silent, I just didn't use my soap box as frequently. I didn't want to go all willy-nilly with my new years resolutions. It seems to be part of the resolution, do something you can only upkeep long enough that you feel slightly better about yourself, then smash it to smithereens(who thought 'smithereens' would be in spell check). So, in my concerted effort I came up with the following resolutions: drink less and spend more time doing things that make you happy*. For some, these seem impossible and could even be tearing me in two directions, they did new years morning. I had to have a Bloody Mary to reconcile the PBR and champagne imbibed. You picked up on the asterisk, did you, I planned on this short fall and many others. The drinking has picked up quite a few fine print rules to help curb my consumption (side note: my self induced prohibition has come about for some financial reasons, as well as some health ones. Sure my liver hates me for taking a victory lap in college, just as much as my wallet hates my for buying another round for that girl and myself at the bar, both were unavoidable.)

Resolution 1: Curbing, or at least reducing unnecessary drinking has taken on the following rules to guide me through it. RULE 1: no more than 4 drinks a week (some debate remains about whether all drinks can be saved for one night or not). RULE 2: drinks with dinner don't count. I know this sounds likes an obvious loop hole. Especially after 4 drinks over dinner, I can see my inebriated mind crumbling to another 4 drinks. Like the ice packed in the bottom of a glass I'm holding fast, at least you until the next rule. RULE 3: birthdays don't count. I love my friends too much to not be out making a fool next to them, when their moment to shine comes.

Resolutoin 2: Having more fun, perfectly non-descriptive. This one is modeled for the marathon that is 2009 and the rest of my life. No I didn't go out and buy a bunch of remote control cars and Gak, thought about it though. This resolution is about slowly steering my life closer to somewhere I will always want to be. This is still somewhat of an abstract concept, but hey, that's half the fun. To give you, and me, more of an idea, I started a short list to help keep me on a slow and steady track. Travel, I already made it to San Francisco, for a treat of my own (while everyone was gallivanting around during the holidays, I was a busy little bee working so that I could have 3 glorious days in the California sunshine only to come back to 7 inches of snow.) Hopefully San Francisco is just a start. Cooking, I love cooking and its often hard to find the time to cook a meal for myself. Its down right hard, I have to pick up little Mikey and Tim from soccer, make sure I'm in time so I don't burn the pot roast that I'm donating this weekend .. BS. Yeah I have time, but this resolution is a matter of increasing the fun. Cooking is a blast, why do it by yourself (sex is interchangeable here. Haven't found a way to mix the two yet, keep the scientists working on it.) Finally, Photography, art in general, but taking pictures seems to work best with my lack of fine motor skills. I know its a marathon but I went a head and put a couple of these all together, not the sex and photography, this is a family blog, shesh. There is nothing better to cure a case of the Mondays than a fine meal, with fine friends. I hope to keep this going and expand it slowly.


Chef in the house, repping my new Goorin bros. hat


Apps were delicious. Nothing more than a loaf of sourdough and some balsamic and olive oil.


Tofu green bean salad with a burnt orange serrano sauce.


Main course was rosemary lemon chicken on a bed of mozzarella and cherry tomatoes with mushrooms and bell peppers, Delicious.


How can you not have a glass of wine with dinner when its this good!


And of course whats better than good friends with good food.