I'm having flashbacks to pre-grad school. While those words hold no real polarizing valence, I can tell you with certainty, it's a good thing.
Back in Boston, inhabiting coffee shops. I find various cozy electrified nooks and each day brings new coworkers with colorful tales to overhear. You never forget the first break-up you get to completely overhear one side off.
"Tell me what I just said? What did I just say? Cause you're not even listening. Ok, a summary, the gist, of what I just said? It IS important! This is the whole problem. UUUUUfffff. You're infuriating."
Solid content.
Back in the City
Tuesday, January 21, 2020 | 0 Comment(s)
In the end, it will be our humanity. Our so called "higher intelligence," and the ability to feel we can make sense of our world, that will be our species undoing.
Australia is burning, and it is a sources of endless personal sadness. The reports from NASA say the smoke, which is currently causing tennis players in Melbourne to collapse from smoke inhalation, will literally be felt globally. The smoke from a country on fire in the middle of a seemingly far away ocean, will circumnavigate the globe. We are already a world on fire.
Australia is burning, and it is a sources of endless personal sadness. The reports from NASA say the smoke, which is currently causing tennis players in Melbourne to collapse from smoke inhalation, will literally be felt globally. The smoke from a country on fire in the middle of a seemingly far away ocean, will circumnavigate the globe. We are already a world on fire.
Friday, January 17, 2020 | 0 Comment(s)
I'm still on superheroes.
But today we're coming at the subject from a completely different angle.
I think comics writers have messed up a bunch of these origin stories. In what Social Psychology calls the Fundamental Attribution Error, many of these stories have emphasized the person as the driving force of their own destiny, and discounted the undeniable importance of the situation. To wit, readers or viewers first meet the young Carol Danvers, Peter Parker, Clark Kent (as a kid pre-powers), Hal Jordan, etc. pre-powers. As a viewer, we feel we understand the moral fiber of these characters before they realize their powers. But I think, for many of them, perhaps their powers ended up being the driving force of their future nature.
A great number of super-villains and evil mutants emit energy beams/lasers/fire/spikes/insert-dangerous-substance-or-weapon shooting from somewhere on/in their body. In my mind, the day you get pissed and turn the JV basketball team into a shish-kebab with your pre-pubescent projectile extrusions, is the day your "good guy" status also gets skewered through the heart. During that double-dutch tournament where Macy's feet begin emitting systemic booms, destroying the gym and killing everyone on the bleachers, she's probs not gonna be drafted to the superhero league of cool kids the next season. Macy's on the run. And that's how Macy became a super-villain.
But today we're coming at the subject from a completely different angle.
I think comics writers have messed up a bunch of these origin stories. In what Social Psychology calls the Fundamental Attribution Error, many of these stories have emphasized the person as the driving force of their own destiny, and discounted the undeniable importance of the situation. To wit, readers or viewers first meet the young Carol Danvers, Peter Parker, Clark Kent (as a kid pre-powers), Hal Jordan, etc. pre-powers. As a viewer, we feel we understand the moral fiber of these characters before they realize their powers. But I think, for many of them, perhaps their powers ended up being the driving force of their future nature.
A great number of super-villains and evil mutants emit energy beams/lasers/fire/spikes/insert-dangerous-substance-or-weapon shooting from somewhere on/in their body. In my mind, the day you get pissed and turn the JV basketball team into a shish-kebab with your pre-pubescent projectile extrusions, is the day your "good guy" status also gets skewered through the heart. During that double-dutch tournament where Macy's feet begin emitting systemic booms, destroying the gym and killing everyone on the bleachers, she's probs not gonna be drafted to the superhero league of cool kids the next season. Macy's on the run. And that's how Macy became a super-villain.
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| I was b b b b born to be b b b bad! |
Wednesday, January 15, 2020 | 0 Comment(s)
I've been thinking a lot about superheroes and their huge resurgence in popularity in the past decade. Even more so than the heyday of comic books, superheroes, their origin stories, and their crossovers, have themselves crossed over into the mainstream. These days we aren't just seeing reboots of comic book characters moving to tv and movies, but whole new takes on the genre -- shows like The Boys and Raising Dion, which grapple with larger questions of morality and difference in the modern world.
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| The Boys |
Tuesday, January 14, 2020 | 0 Comment(s)
The best way to write poetry
is to think about the most painful thing you know to be true
and then write about it honestly and succinctly.
i'm so so sorry she's dead.
footsteps
Your friendship was like your footsteps
walking next to me
in sync.
Slowly. at first imperceptible
the edges of your shoes would grow closer to mine.
We'd be lost in the everything of what we were.
our history a tapestry or wall hanging, certainly something woven.
memorializing ourselves
the art of us.
And then the side of your foot would gently kick mine aside
almost by mistake
certainly unintentional
but nevertheless i'd stumble
And you'd continue on
wondering how i could be so clumsy
walking next to me
in sync.
Slowly. at first imperceptible
the edges of your shoes would grow closer to mine.
We'd be lost in the everything of what we were.
our history a tapestry or wall hanging, certainly something woven.
memorializing ourselves
the art of us.
And then the side of your foot would gently kick mine aside
almost by mistake
certainly unintentional
but nevertheless i'd stumble
And you'd continue on
wondering how i could be so clumsy
Thursday, January 9, 2020 | 0 Comment(s)
Those of my loyal readers may remember not too too long ago, about 5 years back, I had my eye sewn shut. It was as bad as it sounds.
Additionally, a few tiny "mishaps" really upgraded my worst fear realized to a level where the only accurate way to describe the circumstances in retrospect is as traumatizing. I feel confident in this assessment in that when I think back to that time I still have a physical reaction of fear, vulnerability, and resentment. In truth, I'm not sure exactly who I resent (probably the doctors who treated the whole ordeal like I was getting my tooth pulled instead of a needle across each eyelid. Anyway, if you want to know more, you can find those "recaps" here, here and here.
Additionally, a few tiny "mishaps" really upgraded my worst fear realized to a level where the only accurate way to describe the circumstances in retrospect is as traumatizing. I feel confident in this assessment in that when I think back to that time I still have a physical reaction of fear, vulnerability, and resentment. In truth, I'm not sure exactly who I resent (probably the doctors who treated the whole ordeal like I was getting my tooth pulled instead of a needle across each eyelid. Anyway, if you want to know more, you can find those "recaps" here, here and here.