Welcome to Brother Pete's Blog Space where current events, books, historical moments and memories, movies, new & old ideas, and other randomnesses are allowed to mingle as we see fit for comment.
"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road": I've picked Lao Tzu and Gandhi to write about today. I think about their words often, as they have helped me define how I want to think about myself over the years. That task of definition has been constant and can only resonate truthfully if it intersects something true in me at my core. The dilemma is in knowing what is ever-changing and what is core...
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
--Lao Tzu
Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.
--The Mahatma (Gandhi)
"Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go": I wake up and I put on my self somewhere between pulling on my right sock and brushing my teeth... That self which is the construction of all that I have done and have chosen to hold on to (plus a great deal that has been imprinted on me both wonderful and terrible—falling into an icy stream [sad face] and being rescued from that same stream by Steve B. [happy face.])...
"So make the best of this test, and don't ask why": The self we cloth ourselves in each day as we awake is reflexive and familiar. Self: you know, the stories and identity that we have rehearsed for as long as we have been storytellers to ourselves and to those around us who would listen...
"It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time": Of course, there are those stories we tell to impress ourselves; and when our psyche sees that the story is good, we trot it out for others to consume. At times we repeat these tales whenever a situation calls for it, often forgetting that the listeners have heard them over and over. We never seem to tire of these impressive stories, but our audience might if they do not see the whimsical value in the ever morphing yarns...
"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right": And there are the stories we tell that indicate the kind of context we wish to be seen in that helps educate and illuminate our audience as to why our present looks like it does. These stories are repeated and refined over time such that they become as meaningful as myths, and at times as fantastical... (I did in fact walk downhill to school both ways when I was a kid.)...
"I hope you had the time of your life": So the crux of this storytelling we do is that our attachment to some of our oldest and most dear stories may in fact be keeping us from finding the self that is here, now, present. The old stories cease to illuminate and illustrate, and instead, act as a cement on the old self that should be ever-changing. Context yields to definition and we become fixed, despite the dynamic world we are interacting with each moment...
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...: It's snowing again. The low pressure front sitting in the Gulf of Maine—which is about to manifest a bombogenesis and rain down snow to the tune of a foot or more—has been pressing on my head all morning. Taxes, e-mails, lists of "to-dos;" grading, cleaning, homework, and the list goes on;
so much grown-up-ing...
My mojo's rising...: I have been nurturing my child-self lately, looking for the beginners mind as I reinvent myself each day. I lost that child this morning as I went to the store to "get the milk and bread," and dealt with all the others who were not only getting the milk and bread, but also a months supply of bottled water in case we might be snowed in for at least an hour or so before plows come by (did you hear the un-child-like sarcasm there in that statement?). I felt I did not want a snow day, as it will push my work year yet another day further into summer vacation. But what would the child me want? He'd want to make sure the mojo was not messed with and secretly pray for a Monday of sleeping in, video games, and comic book reading. He would stress over expectations of how snow days creep up when unexpected, and when hoped for, never seem to materialize...
"Round abounds" are better than U-Turns...: So for the last two days, as I have been interacting with all the people who think teachers have the final opinion on whether school will be cancelled or not (and if that is good or not), I have been saying, "I do not want any more snow days!" I think I need to change my song today. The child in me says, "Bring it on!" (Or perhaps I am just laying down some powerful mojo, eh?) I'll never say...
So long ago when I still thought like a child...: Back in 1991 I got to watch a Californian friend of mine see snow in person for the first time. She brought out the kid in an entire psych class of wanna-be grown-ups. We took a break from the lecture and played in the snow while the professor looked out the window at us act like we were half our actual ages. I've gone back to school for a single college class. It is so fun to think like I am half my age again for a few hours each week. So, here's to Megan and that eternal wonder-struck child we all have in our psyche who shows him/her-self when snow falls from the sky...
california born
to observe one who hasn't experienced snow brings a smile to my lips; perhaps greater than the smile the initiant to heaven's first frosty drop of the year has upon her face. i have the benefit of 19 years of white washed landscapes; this is her first. watching the absolute glee upon her face and that twinkle in her eye i remember every snowball thrown and every melted flake upon my tongue; the chill of frostniped toes and nose, and the almost painful (but welcome) tingle of warmth by the fire and a hot cup of chocolate. she, through her simple look out the window, that longing look which screams "i wanna go out and play," reminds me of my sometimes forgotten youth, and i smile. i might even go as far as to say that there is a twinkle in my eyes.
I recently watched Queen of Katwe, a true story about the discovery and achievement of a chess prodigy discovered in the slums of Katwe, Uganda. Disney hits a home run with this at-times gut wrenching (yet never lending to complete despair) story of eventual triumph. Did I mention it's a true story? Amazing that it is so! In the lowest moments there is always a ray of hope and way out. Here is Wikipedia's plot summry:
Living in the slum of Katwe in Kampala, Uganda, is a constant struggle for 10-year-old Phiona (Madina Nalwanga) and her family. Her world changes one day when she meets Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) at a missionary program. Katende coaches soccer and teaches children to play chess. Curious, Phiona approaches and learns the game. She becomes fascinated with it and soon becomes a top player under Katende's guidance. Over several years, her success in competitions and tournaments leads to greater competitions, stress, and identity issues. Phiona must learn more than the game as she is exposed to life outside Katwe. Her education, both formally and informally, continues as she dreams of escaping a life of poverty for herself, her mother, and her siblings. --Wikipedia
I need more time to write a proper review, but for now I offer the trailer to peak your interest. I liked the film a lot. It dod not blow me away, but I am still thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. Phiona's story is quite compelling; her coach is something amazing, her family tenacious, and that Disney pulled this off, impressive. Filmed on location the film has received favorable reviews and is worth the time to take an interest in:
Queen of Katwe received positive reviews from critics, with David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o's performances receiving unanimous praise.[43][44] Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 92%, based on 135 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's consensus states: "Queen of Katwe is a feel-good movie of uncommon smarts and passion, and Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo's outstanding performances help elevate the film past its cliches."[45] On Metacritic, the film has a normalized rating of 73 out of 100, based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[46] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A+" grade.[41]--Wikipedia
Warning!Today's post is reactionary and illogical. It is fear-based, and will prompt some of my readers to wonder how I can often be rational in my behavior and yet still feed this lurking fear that has been running around in my head for the last week...
Shrieking, slithering, torrential shadows of red viscous madness chasing one another through endless, ensanguinated condors of purple fulgurous sky... formless phantasms and kalaidoscopic mutations of a ghoulish, remembered scene; forests of monstrous over-nourished oaks with serpent roots twisting and sucking unnamable juices from an earth verminous with millions of cannibal devils; mound-like tentacles groping from underground nuclei of polypous perversion... insane lightning over malignant ivied walls and demon arcades choked with fungous vegetation...
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Lurking Fear
[The Bad Beginning: "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle." --Lemony Snicket]
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” --George Orwell: It's my warning again. My post today is only about questions, not answers. It is not a happy post. It is a self-indulgent "letting" of the bad humours that have been festering in me for seven days now. I have been reading the news this last week the way I usually check Facebook or the weather app on my phone. I keep button mashing on my custom feed of the NYT and WSJ. [I cannot stomach looking at Fox despite knowing it is the most watched single news source out there. I prefer NPR, even though I know those who voted for Trump did not use that as their primary source at all.] I avoid the Washington Post and CNN as much as possible, worried that they are only feeding me what our President has called fake news and alternative facts. But I am reading news like I watched TV after 9/11. How's that for reactionary for you?...
"Sometimes
Only sometimes
I question everything
And I'm the first to admit
If you catch me in a mood like this
I can be tiring"
--Sometimes by Depeche Mode
A context of literacy: I have a liberal arts education. That means in some part I have been exposed to (and was expected to read) lots of different kinds of literature with the hopes and intention of expanding my perspectives. I confess I struggled with Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native and never finished it, nor did I ever even try the great American novel Moby Dick after hating Billy Budd. I may have used Spark's Notes on most of my Shakespeare, although I loved his work each and every time I struggled through it. But freshman year was different. I devoured everything we were assigned...
"For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.” --George Orwell
A musical setting of the mood: In 1986 Depeche Mode released Black Celebration. It was the soundtrack for my summer reading that focused on dystopian literature. I read 1984, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, and more... all while I consumed glorious volumes of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausages and quart cartons of Whoppers malt balls. It was a confusingly wonderfully melancholic summer to say the least. I was exploring my own freedoms, regularly walking to a nearby shopping plaza called the Rotunda to buy my snacks, smoke cigarettes, and think about a world larger than my own back yard. And I read...
Depeche Mode's album provided an unintentional backdrop of darkness different from the loud driving sounds of my usual punk/hardcore fare at that point. Depeche Mode was softer, and allowed me to tune it out while I read. It was also the time I watched Ridley Scott's Blade Runner which coincided with my adolescent worries that the whole world was out of control and headed for a cyberpunk era of government controls and hacker rebellion...
It was a time that my father and I often argued about my distain for "the man" and belief in conspiracy contrasted by his rational positively focused perspectives about the world around us. I was trying on my own way of thinking and probably needed to press back against his confidence and clear thought. It's a psychological thing...
And so I was in a self-inflicted adolescent macabre (can I use an adjective as a noun?... well, I just did!) Here are a few lyrics from the first two tracks of Depeche Mode's work to help establish the scene of my reading of Orwell's and Bradbury's work back in the mid 80's:
Let's have a black celebration
Black Celebration
Tonight
To celebrate the fact
That we've seen the back
Of another black day
Death is everywhere
There are lambs for the slaughter
Waiting to die
And I can sense
The hours slipping by
"We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end.": So Orwell's 1984 made it back to the bestseller list this past week. I can hear the cries of my more rational and conservative friends asking me what I mean by all this; I can hear the arguments getting built in their heads, and I confess I am making them myself as I look closely at this fear that is lurking in the back on my brain, running around like a maniacal monkey who wants to angrily throw his shit at my reason and logic. I do not have a good answer. I worry that my adolescence is showing and that the news world is merely feeding my worries in their conspiracy to topple their new whipping boy.... But of course I do not completely believe that. There is just too much division and tension for me to believe it is merely that. I see a flurry of executive orders that seem to divide and separate. My friend and colleague teaches a simple enduring understanding: "What you can separate you can violate." I know I am probably wrong in letting my fear lurk. I know I have faith in the law, and the glorious balance of power we have set up in America. I know that despite Orwell's line, “One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship,” we are not in a revolution, nor is our President a dictator. But I also know that the only way to make sure things work out well is to watch, be mindful, and continue to think for myself...
Next week... Something more focused and lighter. I promise!
"Steampunk is nothing more than what happens when Goths discover brown" --Charles Stross:
This week's post shall be short as I am grading 1st semester exams while contentedly sipping coffee and enjoying the calm of a Sunday afternoon following a pleasant sleep-in...
I have no flow in mind for today's post, save an attempt to draw my readers' attention to a gem of American history, while allowing for a little biography at the same time. The history is Puck, and the biography is my love for the aesthetic found within a thing labeled steampunk. The two are not connected other than the latter draws in part from the look of the former. I have come to realize that my interest in the history of the late 1800s and early 1900s is in part formed by my like of the aesthetic of the time more than the events or politics of that era. I love glass and steel, and wood and rivets, and gears and cogs, and mechanical systems, oh boy!...
City of Lost Children (1995)
Howl's Moving Castle (2005)
Puck is a humor/satire magazine that was in publication from 1871 to 1918; steampunk is a term that starts in my formative years, 1980s, as a sub-genre of cyberpunk, a science fiction world with the aesthetic of late 19th century, early 20th century styles of late industrialization.
LEG (1999)
Puck published cartoons from a time when illustrations often have a modern technical precision while looking antique at the same time. Steampunk seeks to embrace that time along with a "what if" way of looking at events of the past blended with alternative futures.
I love the work as it makes its way into Miyazaki's movies like Howl's Moving Castle, post-apocalyptic cinema like City of Lost Children, or graphic novels such as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
For my semester exam I challenged my students to analyze a political cartoon from Puck in 1883. I do not wish to analyze it some much as use it's interestingness to power haps draw my readers into doing a brief google search for puck illustrations and finding they way to looking at some delightful historical pieces. Enjoy!
