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| Paisley Cravat and pinstripe pants, your average fashion for 2011 Ellesmere Island |
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Wolf Quest: Part VI
I left something out of the explanation for my time traveler-themed wolf quest. Because the future is so apocalyptic and immersed in chaos (although they are paradoxically still able to build a time machine) that all the research that this future janitor did on the year 2011, the year he was being sent back to, was so mixed up with the truth...this janitor thought that fashions of 2011 were identical to fashion of 1970...so this would explain why Oggy is wearing plaid bell bottom pants and a peasant shirt and a paisley cravat.
But, I just want to mention that now in case I forget later on...the entire time I was on this quest my plan was to stay in 1970s costume and if anyone asked me why I'm wearing plaid bell bottom pants I would say that I'd been sent back in time to search for the wolf, and I thought this is what people were wearing because research material in the future is totally garbled due to the climate apocalypse. That's also why I'm driving a 1969 van, because I was trying to fit in.
Friday, March 20, 2015
At The Mississippi Cabaret
Dedicated to the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System
At The Mississippi Cabaret
1914
Words by A. Seymour Brown
Music by: Albert Gumble
Key: C Major
2/4
This is one song from way back. 101 years old. And this is on newsprint paper so it's fragile and the pages separated. The sheet music itself is 100 years old. It's a small miracle that it survived the 3 years in my van, once it got rained on when a window leaked, I almost used it to start a fire in the wood stove. But I'm glad I didn't because this particular cabaret/ragtime tune is something that I am tested to play. The Once in A While, Daybreak, Stardust, Some Enchanted Evening, Deep Purple style is very easy to slow down to my skill level and then take liberties with the tempo. But this kind of basic cabaret tune is what separates the players from Oggy because if I slow it down to a speed I can sort of play it at then it loses all the uptempo spirit, and the tempo must be consistent because the song depends on swinging your hips and tapping your toes and if you are tapping and I'm not playing the whole mood is broken. It's even worse if I play it as slow as a Death March. But this is a work in progress and I'm not going to wait 10 years so I can really devote myself to sight reading and then record this. I shudder to think that I'm at my peak on the piano...and it only gets worse from here. That would suck. As you can see, I'm getting old and thought the lyrics were, "You'll see them dancing with banjos rising. You'll see them prancing and hear them dancing."
Well, Rising and Dancing don't really rhyme and I thought A. Seymour Brown dropped the ball on that one. Then I looked closer and realized the word is Ringing, which makes way more sense. My eyesight is still pretty good considering how much porn I've watched on the internet.
I think this style is familiar from the movie Cabaret and the ragtime, two-step feel, but I honestly don't think this was a popular style in 1914. No, I think this is a nostalgic tune. The Mississippi River is the western border of Tennessee, in case you are wondering. Memphis, Tenn is in the tri-state corner of Tennessee, Mississippi and, since these states love double consonants, Arrkannsass. But I could be wrong because one article suggests American Cabaret can be traced to 1911. That was a long time from now but only 3 years from when this song was published. So, this sounds like a novelty tune today but it was taken seriously in 1914. All my babbling about this being nostalgic for 1880 is totally wrong. Gilbert & Sullivan were producing musical comedies in 1880. This song is simply in the style of Ragtime, which was popular in 1914, with Cabaret as a subject, which was also popular in 1914.
At The Mississippi Cabaret
1914
Words by A. Seymour Brown
Music by: Albert Gumble
Key: C Major
2/4
This is one song from way back. 101 years old. And this is on newsprint paper so it's fragile and the pages separated. The sheet music itself is 100 years old. It's a small miracle that it survived the 3 years in my van, once it got rained on when a window leaked, I almost used it to start a fire in the wood stove. But I'm glad I didn't because this particular cabaret/ragtime tune is something that I am tested to play. The Once in A While, Daybreak, Stardust, Some Enchanted Evening, Deep Purple style is very easy to slow down to my skill level and then take liberties with the tempo. But this kind of basic cabaret tune is what separates the players from Oggy because if I slow it down to a speed I can sort of play it at then it loses all the uptempo spirit, and the tempo must be consistent because the song depends on swinging your hips and tapping your toes and if you are tapping and I'm not playing the whole mood is broken. It's even worse if I play it as slow as a Death March. But this is a work in progress and I'm not going to wait 10 years so I can really devote myself to sight reading and then record this. I shudder to think that I'm at my peak on the piano...and it only gets worse from here. That would suck. As you can see, I'm getting old and thought the lyrics were, "You'll see them dancing with banjos rising. You'll see them prancing and hear them dancing."
Well, Rising and Dancing don't really rhyme and I thought A. Seymour Brown dropped the ball on that one. Then I looked closer and realized the word is Ringing, which makes way more sense. My eyesight is still pretty good considering how much porn I've watched on the internet.
I think this style is familiar from the movie Cabaret and the ragtime, two-step feel, but I honestly don't think this was a popular style in 1914. No, I think this is a nostalgic tune. The Mississippi River is the western border of Tennessee, in case you are wondering. Memphis, Tenn is in the tri-state corner of Tennessee, Mississippi and, since these states love double consonants, Arrkannsass. But I could be wrong because one article suggests American Cabaret can be traced to 1911. That was a long time from now but only 3 years from when this song was published. So, this sounds like a novelty tune today but it was taken seriously in 1914. All my babbling about this being nostalgic for 1880 is totally wrong. Gilbert & Sullivan were producing musical comedies in 1880. This song is simply in the style of Ragtime, which was popular in 1914, with Cabaret as a subject, which was also popular in 1914.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Wolf Quest Part V: Surviving
I recently watched the economic meltdown documentary Inside Job (2010)...and my initial reaction is of course horror and loathing hate for "Financial Engineers", but I can not come to the same conclusions as the filmmakers. The financial institution should not be regulated, in my opinion. Caveat Emptor is Latin for "BUYER BEWARE" and that should be on every dollar. The greatest irony that the filmmakers did not point out is that the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement system who lost their entire investment by betting on the bubble of Collaterized Debt Obligation...well, Mississippi is a Republican dominated state who voted for the king of deregulation Reagan and the bumbling Bush Twins. So, the diseased chickens came home to roost when the Republican led financial institution started to feed on their own. See, how can I have sympathy for someone who didn't recognize Reagan as an utter phony, voted for him, watched as he deregulated Wall Street, RE-ELECTED THE FASCIST SON OF A BITCH, then invested in all the super shady manufactured fantasies that Reagan and Bush constructed to enrich their friends? I can not have sympathy for someone who tried to increase their wealth through the most crooked means, on the advice of wealthy people they elected and re-elected, who then stabbed them in the back. CAVEAT EMPTOR, motherfuckers. Until people are starving in the street, clubbed to death by police batons while national guard eats apple pie in bleachers set up to allow easy viewing of the slaughter of civilians then there will be no change. Mississippi Public Employees want to get clever and invest in solar radiation growing magic mushrooms on Mars? Fuck them. They got what they deserve. The bottom line is: There are no 'healthy options' on a fast food menu.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Plan B
Lester Brown is the Earth Policy Institute president and he's written many books that appeal to rationality and science, which have been ignored by Democrats and contradicted by Republicans. But the Plan B series of books make good reading and it's part of my research for the Santa Cruz book to include as many details about the declining condition of the Environment and people's ignorant self-destruction. Oggy's character is totally obsessed with the science of reform but he's unable to plot out a path to resolution. All the scenarios end up in war and apocalypse so he spends his day compulsively running through virtual models of civilization with different variables...
Well, the main problem with Brown's 'Plan' is that in 270 pages he does not specifically mention world peace as a requirement for success, but the omission of any kind of conflict from his Plan sort of implies that in order for this Plan to proceed then Russia CAN NOT drop nuclear bombs on the Ukraine. I mean that if we are still at the nuclear war stage, then reforestation projects and 'eating lower on the food chain' are so fucking far gone and not remotely within the reach of humanity that it's fantasy to mention them. So, World Peace, literally a Utopian human species that loves and respects one another and never fights on a national level, IS REQUIRED before any kind of progress can be made on the level of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, renewable energy sources, switchgrass ethanol powering generators for electric bike motors, etc, etc. all of this is predicated on the assumption that Mankind initially ceases all warfare or military commitments. How is that going to happen?
And I'm not really exaggerating because this is 270 pages that tries to cover ever minor angle to the environmental crisis on the horizon. The book was published in 2009 (It took 4 years for me to read it) but he's writing about the year 2020 as a goal to reduce CO2 omission by 80%. Brown and his staff present the evidence that this isn't a "lofty moral goal" but rather a "scientific requirement to avoid extinction". That's an important distinction. These might be goals Brown would champion even if mankind were NOT in danger of self-extinction, but it happens that the evidence suggest extinction is exactly what is at stake if these goals are not met. It's not like we'll get fined a couple hundred dollars. No. More like millions will die in the streets from starvation, Tennessee will be oceanfront property, the rich will attempt to enslave millions but every human will die by the year 2060 if we do not radically transform our relationship to The Earth. That's why it's called "Earth Policy Institute". Brown says, "First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it's possible." These are inspiring words. I must be an asshole if I think Nuclear Annihilation is much more realistic than World Peace.
A prerequisite of this plan is World Peace. See, a world united in pursuit of a stable climate can not also be a world at war. These are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive. The reckless approach to The Earth of the last 2 centuries is because of the frequent wars. More warfare will mean more exploitation, not less. If we have world war, then not only do we probably have massive resource exploitation in pursuit of victory, but we have the opposite of global cooperation to stabilize the climate. We have division and willful violence and eating lower on the food chain* will again return to the lowest end of human priorities. You can probably see where I'm going with this if you read the news. There is absolutely no evidence even on a local level that people are going to cooperate. Humanity is far from prioritizing their dinner's place on the food chain and are actually at the level of insulting people they are obese or blind or have a wasting disease. So, in one or two million years mankind has evolved to the place where we can insult one another with reasonable ease, and in the next 40 years we have to evolve into Spock or Gandhi...AND the entire global economy must be transformed according to a feasible plan Brown has written out...including sending 1/4 of the current global military budget to failing states. That's all. Do that and we'll be fine. Otherwise we all die.
It's feasible, but implausible because humanity is not going to unite in world peace within the next 40 years, nor are they going to agree on 'mobilizing to save civilization' when basic respect of neighbors does not even exist. So, the science suggests that mankind will die off in the process of making miniscule efforts toward sustainability but the majority of humanity was consumed by loathing and wanton destruction. There will definitely be a few months where "everyone takes this seriously" but those will be quickly followed by years when "we all know we're fucked" and anarchy reigns.
Plan A is suicidal, but Plan B requires a transformation that will only happen if Jesus Christ returns from the dead, settles all religious debates on globally broadcast television, in which he fluently speaks about 130 languages...and then decrees that Mankind follow every word Lester Brown wrote...all while levitating in mid air...and healing the sick with a gesture. If that happens then maybe Brown's Plan will be followed. We literally need the one true Messiah/Prophet to return or we're all fucked. It's Semana Santa this month so maybe this is the year. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray for His return.
*This is a reference to the 7 Kg of grain required to make 1 Kg of beef protein, but 3 Kg for pork and 2 Kg of grain required for chicken and less for fish...and an almost equal ratio if we simply eat the fucking soybeans that we feed the cows, who we then slaughter and eat like barbarians.
Woody Guthrie talks while Sonny Terry demonstrates the classic Whopin' the Blues harmonica style and I think Brownie McGhee is strumming guitar. This was back when musicians were genuine. I have to learn how to do this before the world ends.
Well, the main problem with Brown's 'Plan' is that in 270 pages he does not specifically mention world peace as a requirement for success, but the omission of any kind of conflict from his Plan sort of implies that in order for this Plan to proceed then Russia CAN NOT drop nuclear bombs on the Ukraine. I mean that if we are still at the nuclear war stage, then reforestation projects and 'eating lower on the food chain' are so fucking far gone and not remotely within the reach of humanity that it's fantasy to mention them. So, World Peace, literally a Utopian human species that loves and respects one another and never fights on a national level, IS REQUIRED before any kind of progress can be made on the level of Carbon Dioxide, Methane, renewable energy sources, switchgrass ethanol powering generators for electric bike motors, etc, etc. all of this is predicated on the assumption that Mankind initially ceases all warfare or military commitments. How is that going to happen?
 |
| This is my "I'm pretty sure we're fucked" expression. |
And I'm not really exaggerating because this is 270 pages that tries to cover ever minor angle to the environmental crisis on the horizon. The book was published in 2009 (It took 4 years for me to read it) but he's writing about the year 2020 as a goal to reduce CO2 omission by 80%. Brown and his staff present the evidence that this isn't a "lofty moral goal" but rather a "scientific requirement to avoid extinction". That's an important distinction. These might be goals Brown would champion even if mankind were NOT in danger of self-extinction, but it happens that the evidence suggest extinction is exactly what is at stake if these goals are not met. It's not like we'll get fined a couple hundred dollars. No. More like millions will die in the streets from starvation, Tennessee will be oceanfront property, the rich will attempt to enslave millions but every human will die by the year 2060 if we do not radically transform our relationship to The Earth. That's why it's called "Earth Policy Institute". Brown says, "First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it's possible." These are inspiring words. I must be an asshole if I think Nuclear Annihilation is much more realistic than World Peace.
A prerequisite of this plan is World Peace. See, a world united in pursuit of a stable climate can not also be a world at war. These are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive. The reckless approach to The Earth of the last 2 centuries is because of the frequent wars. More warfare will mean more exploitation, not less. If we have world war, then not only do we probably have massive resource exploitation in pursuit of victory, but we have the opposite of global cooperation to stabilize the climate. We have division and willful violence and eating lower on the food chain* will again return to the lowest end of human priorities. You can probably see where I'm going with this if you read the news. There is absolutely no evidence even on a local level that people are going to cooperate. Humanity is far from prioritizing their dinner's place on the food chain and are actually at the level of insulting people they are obese or blind or have a wasting disease. So, in one or two million years mankind has evolved to the place where we can insult one another with reasonable ease, and in the next 40 years we have to evolve into Spock or Gandhi...AND the entire global economy must be transformed according to a feasible plan Brown has written out...including sending 1/4 of the current global military budget to failing states. That's all. Do that and we'll be fine. Otherwise we all die.
It's feasible, but implausible because humanity is not going to unite in world peace within the next 40 years, nor are they going to agree on 'mobilizing to save civilization' when basic respect of neighbors does not even exist. So, the science suggests that mankind will die off in the process of making miniscule efforts toward sustainability but the majority of humanity was consumed by loathing and wanton destruction. There will definitely be a few months where "everyone takes this seriously" but those will be quickly followed by years when "we all know we're fucked" and anarchy reigns.
Plan A is suicidal, but Plan B requires a transformation that will only happen if Jesus Christ returns from the dead, settles all religious debates on globally broadcast television, in which he fluently speaks about 130 languages...and then decrees that Mankind follow every word Lester Brown wrote...all while levitating in mid air...and healing the sick with a gesture. If that happens then maybe Brown's Plan will be followed. We literally need the one true Messiah/Prophet to return or we're all fucked. It's Semana Santa this month so maybe this is the year. Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray for His return.
*This is a reference to the 7 Kg of grain required to make 1 Kg of beef protein, but 3 Kg for pork and 2 Kg of grain required for chicken and less for fish...and an almost equal ratio if we simply eat the fucking soybeans that we feed the cows, who we then slaughter and eat like barbarians.
Woody Guthrie talks while Sonny Terry demonstrates the classic Whopin' the Blues harmonica style and I think Brownie McGhee is strumming guitar. This was back when musicians were genuine. I have to learn how to do this before the world ends.
Van Love
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| The old back support and the new Seat. |
I had this particular project in mind actually since I bought the van in 2008. But one thing was always getting in my way and I was slowly becoming helpless to resist the "Ethic of The Van" and the whole mindset of a hobo on wheels, loathed, gnashing his teeth at pedestrians, getting handcuffed with his shirt off, beer belly flapping in the wind, dirty underpants waistband slightly askew and folded wrong, folded so the elastic turns like when you see an old woman's panties showing and can see the tag, heartbreaking, old faded tattoos on his neck, his bead necklace (Something his girlfriend made for him in Mexico) getting broken by police scuffles. So fucking funny, but the seats were leading me in that direction, washing butt crack in Subway water fountains, shitting in newspaper.
The whole "Van Life" was digesting simple Oggy and turning him into something like a monster. Remember in Pirates of The Caribbean II, and III? How Davey Jones's ship had a crew of sailors who had pledged 100 years before the sail, on Davey Jones's ship The Flying Dutchman...instead of death...but over time, like Bootblack Bill, they became part of the Ship. "Part of the crew, part of the ship," was the mantra they were chanting at the very end of III when they made Will the captain...remember? Or Am I just babbling? My fucking point is that I was becoming part of the Van. See, it was dictating my habits and my appearance rather than the other way around. It's like I'd become the reincarnation of the original owners and they were possessing me. I guess that's what the movie Christine was like, except my concept is more like when I drive the van I experience life as the previous owners...that would be an interesting time machine movie...the van is so old that every time I drive it I relieve the exact memories of some previous owner and little by little a story is told...and that means someone in the future will relive my memories...god help them. It's like this van is the hotel in The Shining and eventually I will go crazy and be absorbed into the fabric of the van and someone will later own it and be remodeling and think they see a human face embedded in the dashboard, but then it will fade and they will think it was just the way the light was hitting the windshield and reflecting someone's face outside, though there is no one outside. That face will be mine, fading into the dashboard.
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| This back support was the original pleather from 1969 so I had to keep it. But the new bottom looks good. |
So I'm taking control back and making changes to the appearance of the van rather than the other way around. I'm not possessed by the demon spirit controlling my van. No!
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| Took the awful dashboard off. New doghouse cover. |
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| Simple metal lines with no foam dashboard |
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