Killin' it! with Paul Crik
You can't rush reality
Paul on The Death of Type O Negative’s Peter Steele…plus, Revisiting How to Kill Addiction
Apr 22nd
On April 13 the lead singer of Type O Negative, Peter Steele, died from heart failure at 48 years old. His music was a combination of the morose Gothic and aggressive heavy metal – a mixture of two ardently sincere music styles that together equaled pure deadpan comedy. Steel went from a NYC garbage man to a rock god. Much was made of his dramatic appearance, he was an intimidating 6’7,” long black hair and had the vampirish good looks that now bring Robert Patterson to mind. And like Robert Patterson, women threw themselves at Steele. But while Patterson can go on and on about his uneasiness in his role as a sex symbol, Steele, who admitted similar insecurity, posed nude and erect for “Playgirl.” In appearances on Jerry Springer and Ricky Lake, Peter Steele was able to out-spectacle the spectacle of his fame in a way not many have been able to pull off….with pure humor and charm. In a recent interview, Steele spoke very candidly about the costs that come with hard living – how he he’d struggled with drugs and alcohol, how his family had staged an intervention that landed him in jail and how he’d never forgive them for the betrayal. He talked about what it was like weaning himself off drugs gradually, and how on the (now rare) mornings after a night of partying he’d wake up feeling ashamed, like some of his life had been taken from him. Finally, he discussed recently adopting Roman Catholicism as a way of coming to terms with death. Somewhat fittingly, this all coincides with another news story about a church in Oklahoma where the parishioners stopped going to mass because they saw what looked like a giant penis and balls in the distended stomach muscles of a painted Jesus icon. Another absurd story on top of a church-wide sex scandal that is day-by-day becoming more and more a spectacle. In some way this story reminds me of Steele’s career and personal struggles because it so poetically combines truth, tragedy and absurdity. Steele once said, “If they weren’t laughing with me, okay; if they want to laugh at me, it’s better than nothing.”
RIP Peter Steele. You were killin’ it.
Paul on March Madness…Plus, revisiting the first ever “Killin’ It with Paul Crik” video, on FEAR itself
Apr 9th
If you were part of the annual American television watching tradition known as “March Madness,” you got to experience one of the more exciting and hyped final games of recent memory. The billing on the arena read, “David v Goliath” as tiny new-comer Butler took on old powerhouse Duke. Just about everyone was tossing around references to the movie Hoosiers, in which a local Indiana boy takes a small Indiana high school to the vaunted state championship against a large school. Butler University’s Hinkle Fieldhouse hosted a final game for actual 1954 Milan Basketball team, whose championship season inspired the movie Hoosiers. What’s more, the 1986 movie’s final game was filmed in the exact same fieldhouse at Butler. The comparison is alluring and also reveals something much deeper than simply “rooting for the little guy.”
When game-day arrived on April 5, people wanted to see reality mirror Hoosiers in every way. No one wanted to talk about how the game might end up like the movie at all, or might even be better than the movie. All hopes rested in seeing the virtual fantasy of the movie play out before their eyes.
In the end Butler lost by a couple inches of ball bounce, and everyone groaned about what ‘almost was’. Even though something real did actually happen, people could only grasp it in terms of how close it came to their virtual expectation. If Butler had indeed won, millions would have experienced a deep satisfaction. Why? Because what we really want is for the virtual to be real.
So if you found yourself wondering aloud how a man could fall in love with his avatar, ask yourself how good you would have felt if Butler had won. Killin’ It is knowing the difference between the two is only a matter of technology and time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosiers
Paul on Genies, Sorcerers, and Bees… Plus, Love 2.0
Apr 6th
Last November, thousands of online viewers witnessed the wedding of Sal 9000 and Nene Anegasaki. Sal 9000 is a 27 year-old resident of Tokyo, Japan and Nene Anegasaki exists in an online game. Love, an elusive emotion pondered by poets, philosophers, fortune-tellers and songwriters throughout the millennia, has been re-engineered by a computer programmer. Love Plus for Nintendo DS is a game that allows players to interact with three different avatars in hopes of getting one to fall in love. Once this has been accomplished, players must then increase interaction to keep their avatar lover interested. The more players interact with their avatar, the more attention is required to maintain the relationship. This investment caused Sal to fall in love with his avatar and now he claims he would not leave her for a real woman.
As humans it seems we’re all programmed to love, but as society has developed we’ve done it in different ways. For example, it was well into the middle-ages before the idea of marriage by consent was established in Europe. Before that, marriage was simply a mutually beneficial arrangement between families, not between two willing parties.
In contemporary culture, the pressure to find your “soul mate” is likely contributing to both the high divorce rate and the use of computer software/websites like eharmony.com to find a compatible match. Couple this with overpopulation and the ability to fertilize eggs outside the uterus and you’ve created an environment where a marriage between a human and an online avatar might be the best evolutionarily model.
While we may need to upgrade our own “software” in order to accept this changed view of marriage, I predict the hardware is going to have no trouble keeping up. The popularity of the newly launched iPad portends that computers aware of their and our simultaneous existence (the iPad knows when it’s being flipped and tipped etc.) might soon be the norm. If love is too strong a word at this point, you might at least grant that there is a mutual appreciation developing here. (>wink<) Killin it!
Paul-as a troll-Defends a Nomadic Lifestyle…Plus, Another Brilliant Ode to Iron Mike Tyson
Mar 26th
Truebadour. Three words: True. Bad. Our.
Sometimes etymology gets it right. The troubador tradition started in the 11th century, a style for rhetorical musical poetic fiction that even today finds many a fan happy to hear something outside the house of pop culture. In the wash of bands and hip music today there’s a refreshing sincerity to artists who combine a modern day fable with a simple tune.
The Truebadour Killin It right now is Todd Snider. You get the sense when you watch him play that he’s doing his damndest to maintain some simple truth amidst all the irony and cynism of today. Take, for example, his song, Iron Mike’s Main Man’s Last Request, in which he sings the tale of Mike Tyson’s life from the point of view of his “main man,” the guy who “washes every car in his 10 car garage” and “carries his boom box with the entourage.” It’s a beautiful tune.
TRUE, because Mike Tyson himself is true. You can’t win fights the way Mike won fights if you’re not true, and you can’t lose fights the way Mike lost fights if you’re not true. Tyson has always been too honest for his own good.
BAD, because the story is tragic, like all American heroes around whom fables are born. A truebadour’s tale is always tragic if it’s going to move us, since life is full of bad, sad, and ugly stuff. Whether it’s the “main man”who cleans Tyson’s car or Tyson himself, everybody’s desperate. That’s what makes killin’ it so hard! Such a steep slope to climb!
OUR, because it’s everyone together. This is especially so with celebrities because everyone gets to share in their larger-than-life narratives. One of my good friends David Caruso once told me: “sometimes its better to have fans that know everything and friends that no nothing, because the fans will understand you.” That’s always struck with me as being a pretty killin’ it statement if you let yourself think about it long enough.
Here’s another great song from Todd Snider, from the POV of a certain fraternity brother.
Thanks for Killin It Todd!
"the nomadic urge is a natural urge"
Paul Chatroulettes and discusses The War on Drugs
Mar 21st
Recently I’ve been spending some time on the newly super-popular chatroulette.com. Wow, what an idea! In the short time it’s been online (less than 6 months), its user base has expanded exponentially, with hordes of people searching for random face to face, or face to crotch encounters. It’s a wild place, and like art itself, full of surprises. I’ve come across humble housewives, a couple smoking cocaine in a Cincinnati living room, college frat parties, an armless grandfather of 7, Taiwanese military, 12 year old hipsters, a Russian engineer, and–not surprisingly–lots and lots of horny 20 or 30 something males, all of whom seem either to be searching for a rare pair of exposed female boobs, or else jerking their own johnsons cam-side. The site strikes me as another way the Internet reveals the best and the worst in us. But whichever way you cut it, most of what you discover on chatroulette leads to a revelation about what people are like when they don’t have to be accountable for themselves, and can dismiss anybody they want – forever- with the click of a mouse. Throw out all manners and politesse. The site shows us just how crudely animalistic we can be when we’re allowed.
So how do we find what’s killin it about chatroulette? Here’s one way: the site will help you deal with rejection. That’s right. By the time you’re done with even a briefchatroulette session, you’ll have been passed over every which way to Sunday by a large percentage of the people you get randomly connected to. In reality, life is that way. There are very few people who will see you for who you are (or who even want to see you), it’s just that social graces and physical accountability normally protects from the swift and brutal judgment that chatroulette facilitates. So at bottom, the site reveals a useful if unpleasant truth, and trust me when I declare that we could all use some strengthening of the muscles we need to resist the weight of rejection. On a brighter note, in contrast to all the skip-overs, it feels especially killin’ it when you do finally land on someone who’s using it in a positive way, connecting with people through humor and/or creativity (see video posted below). These experiences really do expand your view of the world, and restore faith that if you sift through the muck, you’ll always find a couple gold nugget souls that persist in killin’ it.
Crik on Lists…Plus, Optimizing The Present instead of just “Being an Optimist”
Mar 15th
How long can you hold up a rock?....before you have to run on top of it?
If you buy into the “think positive and it will be positive” hype, you’re probably looking at the current socio-economic situation thinking it will eventually get better. But how do we prepare to take advantage of the as yet unknown future if we narrow our focus towards some preconceived idea of a “positive outcome?” To me, it’s unwise to think positively or negatively about the future because in doing so we miss the opportunity to optimize the present. Instead of thinking optimistically – think about optimizing your ability to find “spaces of action” where you can have an impact on what the future will be. For example, what if you do a pirouette every time you pass under a certain doorway? It may seem silly at times, but when you think about it, what you’re really doing is carving out a new use for a certain piece of space; you’re having an impact on the shape of the world in the present. While the actual effect may be small, compare this to Oscar Wilde’s belief that “the basis of optimism is sheer terror.” Being frozen – by terror or resignation – into a pessimistic or optimistic viewpoint, is like being stuck holding up a rock believing that ether it will eventually crush you or that you’re strong enough to continue to hold it. Optimizing in the present is running along on top of the rolling rock to see where it takes you. Start small with the doorway thing and soon you’ll find you do it as a habit…then who knows where you’ll end up!? Killin’ It is not seeing a glass half full or half empty, it’s tasting whats in the glass while it’s still fresh.
Tiger Woods is Gettin’ Killed
Dec 18th
Amidst the Tiger uproar here’s an angle i haven’t heard. It may seem harsh (uncrik) at one level by pointing out someone’s failing but I think it leads to a broader point…
Earl Wood’s was famously quoted as saying, “I told Tiger, you will never meet anyone as mentally tough as you. And he never has, and he never will…” As Tiger ascended the throne of achievement with his seemingly unsurpassed determination and focus, I found myself admiring that very quality his father had insisted upon. It was, in fact, easy to fall into believing he had a capacity I did not and could only daydream about possessing due to that singular attitude. He believed his father, it seemed, to the point of making it true. He was mentally tougher than anyone.
The story that has swept through his life now is not one simply of infidelity or lust or even ego. It is a warning story to all would be fathers. Earl Woods lied to his son. With the well intended purpose of ensuring his son’s success in the world of sports, but without the balance to accompany the reality outside of sports. The truth is Tiger Woods would constantly meet people mentally tougher than he is – if he spent any of his life away from the golf course or the yes man/woman world around him Mental toughness is measured by many more things than the line of a putt under pressure. By not being taught that truth he failed to learn one simple virtue: humility.
What is revealed from the scope and scheming of his sexual lifestyle is not that he was cheating or enjoyed sex; that would hardly distinguish him at all, but that he believed he could manipulate anyone to conform to his demands. That his wife was simply a navigable obstacle to his wants, even to the last day. That the press could always be cajoled – when caught two years earlier he didn’t change his habits afterward because he believed he could always get out of it. That no woman would ever make public their indiscretion because he was Tiger and he had made it clear. Because in the end no one would ever stand up to him. Because he believed that no one was as mentally tough as him, so as long as he was clear with what he wanted, he would get it.
Now he learns a lesson that could have been taught at a much earlier age: The attitude it takes to win is different than the attitude it takes to live.
While athletics teach us many values, too often athletes acquire only those values. Killing It as an athlete is knowing the difference.
I Don’t Know What It’s Like…I Really Don’t
Dec 18th
Holy Moly! Most people I know are so busy thinking about the things they do do, they don’t imagine the millions of things they don’t do. Think about it, you could spend whole days coming up with lists of things you’ve never done or ever will do!
The End of Books?
Nov 10th
Ever think about how the time people spend online is time spent reading, but not reading books? Ever ponder the dwindling profits of book publishers? The general diminishing of the american attention span – tuned now for status updates but not novels. I’ve always been a book lover, but I’m also prepared to see human beings tell stories and information through other means that eventually leave books behind. Is there not a scenario in which the purpose of books would be entirely encompassed by some other format(s)? 2 or 3 generations down the road, do you think there will still be a lot of “book lovers”? Big change is nothing to lament, just another opportunity to kill it and move ahead!
What If You’re Completely Wrong?! . . . Plus, Paul Weighs in on Obama’s Nobel
Oct 15th
If there’s any consensus about Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize last week, it’s that the award was given somewhat prematurely, perhaps in an effort to strengthen the presidents resolve on the tough road ahead. Whatever the case may be, many in the media are outraged, including the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol who said somewhat disdainfully, “I mean, President Obama and I have done about the same amount to bring about world peace.”
Obama receives another award
So what do you call it when an award is given before a person has done anything to deserve it? I call it skipping the middle-man. In some respects, awards have a very practical function – acknowledging success is a way to ensure more success is generated. And in an era where the legitimacy of even the most accomplished among us is thrown into question by everything from a gender test to a drunk Kanye West swiping your microphone, maybe it’s time we rethink how we look at awards. If Obama doesn’t deserve the prize he was given, then in some ways we were all in the running. I say we should accept this as a fact and move ahead. We might miss out on gaining a hero to look up to, but if we all strive a bit harder to make the cut next time the Nobel Peace Prize is handed out, there might be a lot more actual peace in the world.
