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.

Cause for celebration?

What an election, truly flabbergasted. Congrats to president elect. Congrats to America. Obama's speech was the rush of air, in relief of baited breath held of how to find common ground between two side of a seemingly opposed parties. but are we so far from each other. both parties cried for change or being a maverick and ready to do things differently. the 349 to 162 in electoral votes seems like a landslide, yet a 7 million people difference, out of 111 million, doesn't seem that drastic. the battle for North Carolina and Missoiuri makes the outcome of these candidates were even closer. how does a race so close still rouse threats to expatriate? Did Bush instill a strong identity and a following and McCain is just the fall-out?

Is Barack's podium of change going to be that hard for us stand behind. will we listen to the actions that need to be done so that we don't pass up our opportunity as we would if it were a vagrant on the streets asking for change. in reality, the differences between the bi-polar ideologies aren't that stark. we are all Americans and when we unify under the banner of saving the environment or protecting ourselves from terrorism, we do a good job of succeeding. when the opportunity of confrontation arises between yourself and someone different, its the movement towards someone else's interests that will make a difference. when some says pro life and you think they should have been aborted, bite your tongue and listen to why. what motivates us isn't to drastic. lets listen to those who ask for change.

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?

I knew their demise couldn't last too long. Nau is now back, dontcha know? Their blog was excellent, glad to see its back up and running. Interested to hear about why someone brought them back and whats the new plan of attack.

signs of democracy

I like this. I like the end point that the actors came to outside of AB and did it with a small comedy group. Maybe that's a sign that the economy is that bad.

Let your imagination die

This is probably a side effect of thinking to early, but . .
Perhaps it’s the crisp cold smell of fallen leaves that bring up the topic of change and death. The topic of death seems to be following me slightly closer. Lyle Owerko has put out some cool work but he keeps being noted as that one guy who photographed the world trade center jumpers (his work is worth more credit than a one hit wonder). However people’s draw towards the work is undeniable. What is it with people’s fascination of death? “What were they thinking right before they jumped?” “The rush of oxygen must have made them pass out, no-one would jump in their right mind” “does your life actually flash before your eyes?”
Maybe it’s the looming of all hallows eve (the best holiday in American culture, in my humble opinion), but the personage of how American’s think about death, is all about us. The ominous scarecrows on porches and the shadowy faces carved in pumpkins, all point us to America’s fear of death. SIDE NOTE: Most countries in the world celebrate death, as much as anyone can celebrate the death of friends, family, et cetera. Other cultures understand that death is inevitable and celebrate death as another step in life. Just as you have your years of teenage angst, you have your dead years. We on the other hand have built a billion dollar industry on shielding us from death. We have medicine to extend a terminal life, we have housing for our elderly loved ones (healthcare provides approx. 13 million job of which 25% are for elder care); death seems to be an admission of our flaws, loss and defeat. One the other side of our coin of denial is a bottomless pit of imagination that fosters its own industry, scary movies, Halloween costumes and candies.
All industry and notes aside, when people talk about death they talk about it with imagination. I’m sure you could pass people through MRI machines and see the creative centers in their brain light up like a Technicolor dream. I’m sure this isn’t any profound idea. Any time you peer into the unknown, you use your creativity. The simple fact is, that it is unknown.
I was discussing with some friends earlier this week, as Chuck Klosterman nears the end of his novel, living to die, I half expected a summation of why we canonize all of the artists that die. Some artist live underwhelmed lives but their death creates an explosion of fame. Other artist, meet death as they were half expected to die, that would be the only way people could see that artists career go. However they die and what their path may have been fans like to preserve the image of their death famed artists in their own mind. In a fans mind they can have a pristine image of what they want, with out any corruption. With art creativity come easily, with the fear of the unknown dusting off the unfamiliar art of creativity is harder. Fear seems to become some. It seems as though some people have a fear of their creative side just as much as they fear death. Maybe chuck had it right, don’t tell us what to think about death leave us to our own tools, let us become the artists of fame and the result will be much more fearful.