You can't rush reality
Archive for March, 2010
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.
