You can't rush reality
Archive for September, 2009
Who Cares Where You Live Nowadays?…Plus, Paul on Directing Group Attention and Avoiding Embarrassment
Sep 28th
In just 5 short years, the number of people on facebook is approaching the size of the total U.S. population. Type in any of the approximatly 250 million names of facebook users and you’ll likely get a photograph and a country/city where they live. For some, the “current city” information on facebook means so little that it remains unchanged for years after the individual moves on. For others, a particular city carries so much meaning and nostalgia that they keep the name of, for example, their birthplace or where they went to college, even after they have left the place behind. Between sentiment and indifference – there are those who just want accuracy. Some residents of Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan, are upset because facebook only allows them to choose India as their country. Tensions that have long existed on the physical borders between countries have now emerged in cyberspace.
So where do we really live when many of the activities once associated with life in a particular city have shifted to the Internet? I have more friends on facebook than I have in my current city, New York, and I do much of my shopping online. Additionally, while I still get a portion of my news from the online version of my hometown paper, The New York Times, the vast majority of the news I consume comes from a unique batch of ever-changing, worldwide sources. I like the legendary artist and architect Vito Acconci’s take in the video below. Instead of fretting over the loss of the “hometown” as it was 50 years ago, we should re-define what a city means. This is our chance to manifest our fantasies, make the world into a new creation. Though our physical community is less and less a place where we find a mate, start a business or go to school, maybe it can be appreciated as a unique place where the intersection of virtual and real reality are actually experienced together – an enriched junction where flash mobs, celebrity sightings, and elaborate hoaxes are possible. While the once mysterious cyberspace is becoming a common location for our more mundane tasks, actual reality is becoming a more exciting, creative space than it’s ever been, even if it means getting comfortable with our new “homelessness.” And that’s Killin’ It!
Selling Your Body and The Freedom of Being Anti-Free
Sep 23rd
Today I read about a group of French workers who, in an attempt to raise money and gain attention to keep their jobs at a heating factory, decided to pose nude in a calendar. In this tough economy, with many stories of people employing all kinds of measures to make ends meet, up to even selling their own kidney, you might just look at this story from Chaffoteaux factory as only another desperate extreme. In most cases, society will tell us that selling the body is equal to cheapening the body. This contrasts with how selling of our time, brainpower and freedom is both expected and respected. We place a different standard of value on our physical being then on the part of us that thinks and feels.
Whether you think this is right or not, the problem arises in a situation where you’ve lost a job and the value of your work is assessed at zero. Most people will feel essentially worthless when the job skills they’ve banked on are no longer bringing pay. Above and beyond the old saying “at least you have your health” we can feel a great sense of worth and balance by finding creative ways to mine the value in our bodies. Don’t just take my word for it, for more proof just consider the most looked up to members of our society, the star athletes and models.
We’re all made of about $1’s worth of minerals like chlorine, sodium, oxygen etc. The millions upon millions of ways these materials are combined gives us the vast array of body types that can be seen in the human species. While there are some opportunities to capitalize on combinations of these minerals that results in beauty or strength, most of our bodily attributes are underutilized, which often leaves their value overlooked. When the job market makes us feel like we’re not worth so much, doesn’t it make sense to mine value, namely entertainment value, from our bodies? Posing nude is one thing, but you need only go so far as to make a youtube video of yourself touching your tongue to your nose, maybe enter a hotdog eating contest or try to break a Guinness book record for the fastest run over 100 meters of ice (there’s a record for that.) Presenting your body in a way that makes use of its unique qualities is a creative investment that can give a balancing boost to your sense of self worth. And that’s Killin’ It!
What Does the Universe Smell Like? . . . Plus, Paul on Killing Addiction
Sep 14th
If someone asked you to describe what outer space was like, you’d probably say dark, big with some scattered twinkles. For most of us it seems not much of the “space” in our brains reserved for imagining a richer version of the world beyond the earth’s atmosphere. The astronauts who’ve been there say the sounds are surprising and the scent is both indescribable and unforgettable. Most of us indulge in some sort of fantasy life, how much of it is based on other past experiences and how much is truly creative?
I believe the best way to have new experiences in reality is to have new experiences in your fantasy life. In your daydreaming, the question should not only be a choice between Morocco and DeLorean or Hawaii and speedboat, but also pin-ball gravity and ladybug feet versus black light sun and polar bear grass. By inventing new sensations within our fantasy scenarios, we’ll be able to discover the uncharted feelings and emotions that exist unrecognized in our lives. For example, the closest thing scientists have been able to come to reproduce something like the smell of space is a combo between melting metal and a hotdog. Have you ever imagined inhabiting a place with such a smell while experiencing zero gravity? Killin it is knowing that there’s an infinite number of experiences available if you just invent the map to find them.
Morphing into Chuck Norris, Kevin Costner, and Benjamin Netanyahu…Plus, Paul Explains a New Angle on Success
Sep 10th
Everyone will get a kick out of this clever site that scans your face and tells you what celebrity you look like. You’ll feel yourself killin’ it when you try this. Go there:
http://celebrity.myheritage.com/celebrity-face-recognition
Do it. Read on!
Your face is basically like your own advertisement, but how do you know if the right message is coming across? The truth is that, with the Internet and life available to us online, it’s getting easier to accept a multitude of personas for one person. Paradoxically, a multi-faceted inner life often gets stuck in an unchanging exterior package. It’s as if you’re required to sell hot sauce in the same bottle you once used to sell lemonade. You may get someone to buy one or the other, but probably nobody is going to be buying both. Short of regular visits to the plastic surgeon, what’s a person to do? I’d say there’s a lot to be learned from our most visible members of society, our superstar actors and actresses. Matt Damon can pull off an overweight, middle-aged snitch in one movie and a sexy hero in another – and all with the same face. This is exactly why I love this online program that tells you what celebrity you look like. My results tell me that, like Chuck Norris, Kevin Costner, or Benjamin Netanyahu, my face could belong to a bearded martial arts wiz, an aging romantic, or the one time head strong prime minister of Israel. There’s no question that our face bears heavily on how others deal with us socially. Learning how to use yours to the maximum potential- like good actors do - is killin’ it.
Andy Kaufman in a Super Killin’ It Retro Moment. . . Plus, Paul Ponders The Digital Afterlife of an Artist
Sep 3rd
This clip of Andy Kaufman on an old Letterman show singing Slim Pickens’ Rosemarie is the total essence of killin’ it. Here comes the wacky comedian, dressed in a diaper with a turban and a fake mustache…what’s he gonna do to make us laugh? He’s gonna sing a totally heartfelt, sincere, beautiful rendition of the song…no catch. You gotta love it, a gesture like this. One part hilarious, one part utterly sincere. The expectation of comedy rewarded with the power of a genuine singing performance. Andy shows us that the way he looks and the way he acts need not have a thing to do with one another. That alone is killin’ it. Total deadpan, a magic moment. I’m holding Andy Kaufman up high in the ranks of the retro killin’ it hall of fame.
