'TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Questions
By Baron Dave Romm
Proverbs for Paranoids 3: If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers. -- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
Let's revisit The Reality Gap. Just how is it that people go out of their way to have faith in things that just aren't true? The 9-Commandment Christians insist that "Jesus is the answer". Sadly, the question is missing. I think the questions are at least as important as the answer. Not all questions are valid, and not all answers are satisfactory responses to a valid question. It's worse when a stupid answer to a stupid question is taken as gospel. So let's ask a few questions, for the moment withholding any value judgment as to their worth, just for practice.
Yes, I realize that "42" is the answer to "life, the universe and everything", but that's beyond the purview of this essay.
Your personal philosophy: Based on your own life, or on what others told you? Are you the same religion as your parents? Why? Who was the most influential person in your life? What incident most shaped your life, for good or ill?
How do you know? Do you ever check? What if someone disagrees with you?
Questions of belief: Do you believe any of these things? If so, why? If not, why not?
Do you believe in any conspiracy theory: The Illuminati, JFK's assasination wasn't the work of a lone gunman, that Iran-Contra was just a cover-up for bigger crimes, the Protestant Banker conspiracy, auto manufacturers and oil companies keeping a lid on a carborator which would tremendously increase mileage, that some of the Food For Oil money embezzled from Iraq wound up in Dick Cheney's pocket, the Glass Ceiling, flouridation, the repression of education by creationists, the light-bulb which lasts forever, the collapse of the Soviet Union being a devious Comunist plot designed to lull the democracies into a false sense of security, the BFEE, the bin Laden-Bush connection, that both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were jiggered, that the French are really pleased with Bush for making the Euro so strong?
Well, I made some of these up, but which ones? Which conspiracies did I leave out? Which ones are you a part of?
Homework assignment: Answer any five of the questions posed above. Write down your answer, but not the question, on different pieces of paper. Turn the papers over and mix them up. Turn one paper over. Can you tell which question the answer went to? How many of the other questions are answered by the answer? Repeat for each of the remaining answers.
If you couldn't tell which answer went with which question, or too many questions were answered by a too vague answer, try again. You may pick different questions.
Continue until all five answers are specific to their question. Feel free to call in a third party to verify specificity.
After completing the assignment, award yourself an A+. The journey is the reward.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here, you can order Shockwave Radio Theater CDs, and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio here (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air, and I'm continuing to collect extra-weird stuff.
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Reader Recommendations
from Bruce
Free Song Samples by Rusty Miller, Folk/Blues, Troubadour, Singer-Songwriter-Poet, Peacemaker
Purple Gene Reviews
Bob Dylan on '60 Minutes'
Purple Genes' Review of Bob Dylan on CBSs' 60 Minutes - Sunday Dec. 5th, 2004:
Back in 1969, I was teaching English at the Sierra Nevada College. The basis to my particular curriculum was "The devises of Poetry through the writings of Bob Dylan" I had students signing up for that semester by the hundreds....Fuck "Bone-head" English...this was much more fun.....and educational as well....This Bob Dylan guy could really write....I even devised a name for a new category of writing that I thought Dylan was using....I called it "Onomatopoetic Personification" ...where the name of the character sounded like what he or she did...."Maggies Farm" - "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" - "Visions of Johanna" ...all these songs had syllabic resonances and symbolic characters! I was way DEEP into it....................
Then one night, up in Lake Tahoe, I got a call from a guy named A.J. Webberman, who called himself "The worlds' leading DYLANOLOGIST"!!!!!!!! He said to me "Hey man, I hear you have some "Knowledge" about Bob Dylan! what do you KNOW!!!!!"....Before I realized what was happening, I was under interrogation by a "Dylan Idolater".....I found out later that this guy had gotten arrested for going through Dylans' garbage in New York...sick!
A few years later I met this filmaker named D.A. Pennebaker (the "War Room") who had made a movie back in the 60s of Bob Dylans' accoustic tour of England called "Don't Look Back". He told me that this film had been kept in the cans in his closet, because of some legal shit, it couldn't get released.....This was back in the day when Dylan was so mysterious and enigmatic that many musicians were forever curious about what he was up to....So D.A. says he gets a phone call late one night from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards!!!! Mick says "Hey man, we know you have this film of Dylan in your closet....we want to see it! We've rented a theater here in New York....bring it down and play it for us"........To hear Pennebaker tell the story.....you got the impression that Dylan could be a Poetic Prophet to some .....a Song Savior to others...............
So tonight on CBSs' 60 Minutes Ed Bradley does an interview with Bob Dylan called "Dylan Looks Back"....How the '60s generation worshipped Bob Dylan and thought of him as THEIR Prophet or Savior. This is Bob Dylans' first television interview in 19 years.....
So Dylan says, "It was like being in an Edgar Allen Poe story and you're just not that person anybody thinks you are, though they call you that all the time."
Bradley says, "You're the Prophet. You're the Savior."
Dylan says, "I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior. ELVIS maybe. I could see myself becoming HIM. But prophet? No."...."My stuff...(they) were songs...they weren't sermons. If you examine the songs, I don't believe you're going to find anything in there that says that I'm a spokesman for anybody or anything, really......
Upon being told by Bradley that his song "Like a Rolling Stone" was recently named the best song of all time, Dylan said, "Oh, maybe this week (it's # 1) but you know, the list, They change NAMES......"
Well right then and there, I leaped up and gave this guy a new name .....ELVIS DYLAN!
His new single is "You Aint Nothin but a ....Rolling Stone" and his next single will be "Mr. Tambourine man got...All Shook Up".....Ha Ha.
OK.....here's how I (and I think many others) feel....I still ADORE you, you knarly, kinky haired Jew (just joking - Bob Zimmermen) motorcycle ridin', Electric Guitar playin' , Can't sing worse than he never could sing, always amazing writing Wizard......Whatever anybody calls you.....I will always love what you did with your WORDS.....
By the way, Bob Dylans new autobiography, "Chronicles Volume One" (I would have called it "My Back Pages") is currently # 6 on the National best sellers list........right behind Ann Coulters' "How to Talk to a Liberal"!!!!!! Wow....."The Times, they are A-Changin".....
Purple Gene gives ELVIS DYLAN a "Purple Gene Award" for being the Best Songwriter and the Worst Singer" EVER!!!!!!
Purple Gene
Holiday Movie Recommendations
from Bruce
Bruce's Holiday Movie Recommendations (With Excerpts From And Links To Roger Ebert's Reviews)
1. Bad Santa
The kid gives Santa a carved wooden pickle as a Christmas present.
"How come it's brown?" Santa asks. "Why didn't you paint it green?"
"It isn't painted," the kid says. "That's blood from when I cut my hand while I was making it for you."
2. Love Actually
"Love Actually" is a belly-flop into the sea of romantic comedy. It contains about a dozen couples who are in love; that's an approximate figure because some of them fall out of love and others double up or change partners. There's also one hopeful soloist who believes that if he flies to Milwaukee and walks into a bar he'll find a friendly Wisconsin girl who thinks his British accent is so cute she'll want to sleep with him. This turns out to be true.
3. About A Boy
Hugh Grant, who has a good line in charm, has never been more charming than in "About a Boy." Or perhaps that's not quite what he is. Charming in the Grant stylebook refers to something he does as a conscious act, and what is remarkable here is that Grant is--well, likable. Yes, the cad has developed a heart. There are times, toward the end of the film, where he speaks sincerely and we can actually believe him.
Thanks, Bruce!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Colder & rainier.
The kid's coming down with a cold.
And The Other First Lady
Kennedy Center Honors
Elton John called his Kennedy Center Honor "icing on the cake," but actor Robert Downey Jr. got a frosty reception when he introduced the rock legend as "the other first lady."
John, opera diva Joan Sutherland, conductor John Williams and actors Warren Beatty, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee were honored Sunday with a star-studded tribute at The Kennedy Center. The six recipients of the 27th annual Kennedy Center Honors were saluted for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts.
Downey stole the show with his rambling tribute to John. The actor said he - like losing presidential candidate John Kerry - was suffering "from acute symptoms of another dual-diagnosis disease of mine: the ADD, of course, the altruistic Democrat disorder."
John, 57, has sold more than 60 million albums in three decades with hits such as "Rocket Man" and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Downey said three phrases came to mind when he thought of John: "genius, life saver, the other first lady."
The Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast Dec. 21 on CBS.
Kennedy Center Honors
Book Named Year's Best
Jon Stewart
Political satirist Jon Stewart's mock look at a political science college textbook "America (the Book), a Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction," was named on Sunday the book of the year by Publishers Weekly, the trade publication of the book industry.
The magazine said, in its issue to be published on Monday, that, "in a year defined by political polemics, it seems fitting that PW's Book of the Year be one in which the authors survey the entire political system and laugh."
The book is written by Stewart, the host of the "The Daily Show" on comedy Central with colleagues Ben Karlin and David Javerbaum. It is currently number one on the New York Times best-seller list.
Publishers Weekly said, "'America (The Book)' offers more than just humor, however. Beneath the eye-catching and at times goofy graphics, the dirty jokes and the playful ingenuousness shines a serious critique of the two-party system, the corporations that finance it and the 'spineless cowards in the press' who 'aggressively print allegation and rumor independent of accuracy or fairness."'
Jon Stewart
Becoming a Video Game Wizard
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee says he does not own a computer or a mobile phone. But that hasn't prevented the veteran British actor from starring in some of the most successful and accomplished marriages of narrative and computer-generated artistry that ever entertained an audience.
Lee is looking forward to the Dec. 14 release of New Line's DVD of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King," which swept this year's Academy Awards. This extended edition will restore scenes that were cut from the dramatic finale of the theatrical release featuring the actor's role as the evil wizard Saruman the White.
Going even further into the digital realm, Lee's talents are a pivotal part of two video games. The voice and likeness of the 82-year-old actor appear in Electronic Arts' "GoldenEye: Rogue Agent," and his voice brings a character to life in Sony Online Entertainment's "EverQuest II."
Christopher Lee
Prison Letters
Nelson Mandela
Private letters hand-written by anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela while imprisoned at Robben Island off Cape Town have revealed touching details of his life in jail.
The Johannesburg-based Sunday Times newspaper on Sunday for the first time published details of two notebooks that were confiscated from him during his incarceration by the former apartheid government.
The two black-jacketed notebooks, containing drafts of some 70 letters written to friends and family, were handed over to Mandela two months ago by retired police officer Donald Card, who was tasked with censoring the mail of prisoners and checking it for coded messages.
Nelson Mandela
Doesn't Hurt Most Artists
Net File-Sharing
Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other material for free, according to a study released on Sunday.
Recording labels and movie studios have hired phalanxes of lawyers to pursue "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa, and have sued thousands of individuals who distribute copyrighted material through such networks.
But most of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said file sharing posed little threat to them, and less than one-third of those surveyed said file sharing was a major threat to creative industries.
Net File-Sharing
Lifts Oregon Woman's Spirits
Buck Owens
A gift from country music legend Buck Owens has lifted one Salem woman's spirits.
Betty Youngblood received a huge package this week. It contained a red, white and blue guitar autographed by the 75-year-old Owens, who hosted the TV show Hee Haw for many years.
"I guess he wanted to cheer me up," joked Youngblood, a longtime fan of the singer. She met Owens three years ago. Her daughter works for Owens's company.
The guitar is inscribed with the message: "Two easy lessons will qualify you to pick and grin with me. Your friend, Buck Owens."
Buck Owens
Inducted Into Honorary Missouri Group
Sheryl Crow
Rocker Sheryl Crow has been elected to the Missouri Academy of Squires, a ceremonial group dedicated to honoring current and former Missouri residents.
Crow, who was born in Kennett and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia, has won numerous Grammy awards and has contributed money for student scholarships and an aquatic center in Kennett.
The academy was started in 1960 by then-Gov. James Blair Jr. This year's class was the first elected in two years.
Sheryl Crow
Bashes Eminem
Stevie Wonder
In a rare public outburst, Stevie Wonder has blasted Eminem for ridiculing Michael Jackson in a video, and suggested the rapper was hypocritical because he owed his success to poor and black people.
"Kicking someone when he's down is not a good thing," Wonder was quoted as telling the music industry trade publication. "I have much respect for his work, though I don't think he's as good as (late rapper) 2Pac. But I was disappointed that he would let himself go to such a level."
Added Wonder, "He has succeeded on the backs of people predominantly in that lower pay bracket, people of color. So for him to come out like that is bull.. "
Stevie Wonder
Primetime Pumps
David Letterman
David Letterman is closing the gap with latenight rival Jay Leno, helped by a CBS primetime that dominated the November sweeps in key demos.
"Late Show With David Letterman" saw its best November sweep against NBC's "The Tonight Show" in total viewers since 1994 and since 2001 in the prized 18-49 demo.
"Letterman" was up 6% in adults 18-49 over the same frame last year and up an impressive 17% in 18-34.
"Leno" was down 13% in adults 18-49 and 11% in 18-34.
David Letterman
Thai Military
Origami for Peace
In a novel approach to peacemaking - and damage control - Thai warplanes dropped millions of folded paper cranes over the country's troubled southern provinces, expressing hope for an end to the separatist violence that has killed hundreds in the Muslim-dominated region.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared the origami-style missives a success, saying they had an "enormous positive psychological effect," reminding southerners they are part of Thai society and their countrymen care for them.
Encouraged by the government, Thais across the country - Cabinet ministers, office workers, schoolchildren and even convicts - have been busily making the birds for the past two weeks.
The government said some 120 million cranes were folded for the occasion, also meant to honor Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his 77th birthday.
More than 50 warplanes, including C-130 transports, carried out the airdrops over the southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, the only Muslim-majority region in the Buddhist-dominated country.
Origami for Peace
Patriot Pictures Sues
George Romero
Horror helmer George Romero has been sued by producer Patriot Pictures for reneging on an agreement to direct the film "Maledictus."
Patriot alleges that Romero, best known for "Night of the Living Dead" and its various permutations, backed out of the deal because of his ability to command higher fees based on his stellar reputation in the supernatural genre.
George Romero
In Memory
Jackie Torrence
Jackie Torrence, who overcame a speech impediment as a child to become a renowned storyteller, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack, her sister said. She was 60.
Before she became too ill to travel widely, she appeared frequently on television, including "The Teller and the Tale," a Halloween special she co-hosted with Sally Struthers.
Steven Spielberg asked Torrence to tell stories to the top creative artists of his DreamWorks SKG.
Torrence recorded eight albums on several labels, five of them winning Parents Choice and/or American Library Association awards.
She wrote two books - "The Importance of Pot Liquor" and "Jackie Tales," and was working on a third when she died.
Jackie Torrence
