Category: Blogging

Recently I’m having problems getting motivated enough to write blog entries. I could blame that on the fact that I’m having trouble even accessing my page since my ISP has gone “wonky” the last week. I could even blame it on the fact that I spend much of my online time yesterday following Jonathon’s links to the Briggs-Meyers test.

I could blame it on the fact that I finally succumbed to MacWarehouse’s sixty-two dollar discount on OS 10.2 and I’ve spent some time fiddling with that. Or that I just bought Heroes IV and have had to spend some time relearning battle techniques.

If for no other reason, I could blame it on the third cold that I’ve picked up in the last two months.

I could even blame it on this hyper Australian shepherd that insists it’s time to throw him the Frisbee every time the sun happens to reappear in the rainy Northwest. And it’s sunnier than usual here. It appears that the South has gotten our share of snow. Even the ski areas here are barren.

Of course, I could also blame it on the fact that I’ve suddenly realized that Christmas is close and I still haven’t bought a single present or made a single cookie, and income tax classes have resumed and Leslie has suddenly decided that we need to remodel the house to be ready for the expected Christmas rush of friends and relatives.

In reality, though, it’s mostly that I’m stuck on “Conquistador” a one-hundred-page-long MacLeish poem. I’ve convinced myself that I would study every poem in his Collected Poems, and I’m not going to be defeated by a long poem (even though, unlike Jeff Ward, I hate long poems). Unfortunately, the poem also focuses on Mexican history, naturally considering the title, and that itself is presenting a major barrier as I know little or nothing about Mexican history. I consistently find it ironic that we Americans teach so little about “American” history, at least when considering the America’s geographically. I know far more about Roman history, and certainly more about European history, than I do about the history of our neighbors to the north and the south.

Amazingly, or perhaps not-so amazingly, the web is not helping me much in identifying people mentioned in the poem. I’ve gotten so that I rely on the web to identify names or places I don’t recognize, but so far my search has generally only turned up sites written in Spanish, and, no matter what anyone tells you, don’t rely on “automatic translation” to render anything at all meaningful.

I will finish the poem despite all the distractions and have it up shortly (not that I expect anyone else living to have ever read the poem or to be in the least interested). Still, this is my web site and I’m on my own mission of self-discovery, and, if nothing else, I suppose this says something important about my addictive personality (can’t ever get enough of that pain thing).

I don’t often see movies and comment on them even less often. Perhaps that says something about the state of movies, or perhaps it says something about my age.

It’s not that I can’t find movies that I like. I can. I enjoyed Lord of the Rings enough to buy the CD, though not enough to buy it a second time, and I enjoyed children’s movies like Shrek, Monster, Inc., and Harry Potter. Unfortunately, enjoying a movie isn’t the same as being affected or moved by it. Although I enjoyed Jonathon’s analysis of Lord of the Rings and have noted some of the arguments over whether Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings is more “Christian,” I personally didn’t feel any more need to examine them than I feel a need to examine the ethical ramifications of Warcraft III that I’m currently playing.

Frida is an altogether different kind of movie, one that could rightfully be called an “adult” movie. It is one of the few movies I’ve seen recently that was both entertaining and thought provoking. For those of us only familiar with Frida through her art, it provided insights into her life that made the art even more accessible and meaningful. The creative cutting of actual works of art into scenes in the movie was an effective way to comment on both her life and her art, not to mention adding visual excitement.

Second, the movie provided a snapshot of a period of Mexican history that I knew next to nothing about, making me realize just how narrow my view of Mexico is. It’s amazing how little Mexican history, or Canadian history, for that matter, is taught in American schools. If I hadn’t lived several years in California as a youth I’m sure I would know even less about their history or culture.

More importantly, though, the movie raised the question of what it means to be “liberated,” and what price one pays for such liberation. The movie portrayed Frida as a strong, if not willful child who wanted to live life her own way. She did end up living life her own way

It’s clear Frida’s liberation contributed to, even made possible, her artwork. It’s unlikely a more conventional woman could ever have seen the world in the ways she did or have achieved her status in the art world. In this sense, being liberated was a positive force in her life. When you examine the pain that Frida and Diego caused each other that very pain may well have contributed to the appeal of Frida’s work.

Still, you have to question whether that success wasn’t bought at too great a price. Diego’s affair with Frida’s sister was but one example of how Diego’s cheating made Frida miserable. Her affair with Trotsky seemed to have the same effect on Diego. At times you’re left wondering whether Frida had the affairs because she enjoyed them or simply because she wanted to make Diego suffer. The drinking in their circle seemed excessive, and few of them seemed to be really enjoying life.

Despite my enthusiastic endorsement, I noticed that reviews of the movie have been mixed. The movie certainly more than earned its “R” rating and some of the sex scenes were, at least for me, a little shocking. Still, it inspired me to explore the net to find out more about Frida, and it’s been a long time since any movie has affected me that much.

The weather took a sudden turn for the better here in the Northwest, with record-setting temperatures of 65 degrees. Although we’ve had very little rain for November, we have had rain off and on for the last three week. So I took advantage of the weather to get outside and work in the yard. Even sucking up leaves doesn’t seem too bad when the temperatures are in the sixties.

Needless to say, I haven’t spent much time today reading poetry or working at my computer today despite my trip to the computer store to try to find Heroes of Might and Magic IV for the Mac. Needless to say, it’s not in stock yet at COMP USA. So I had to go to the bookstore instead in order to spend my money. I ended up buying Dr. Mac: The OS X Files and Unix for Mac OSX in hopes that I can graduate to a real UNIX book so that I can talk Geek to all the people I’ve met on the internet who seem to know much more about everything Geek than I do. Perhaps I can even graduate to Shelley’s Unix book, though I imagine that’ ll take awhile.

Throughout today’s adventures I found at least two things that Skye, my faithful Australian Shepherd, truly hates. First, he cannot stand the leaf blower I use to vacuum leaves. He tries to attack it whenever I start it up. (Perhaps the motor starting up sounds like a growl to him.) Of course, he’s also been known to suddenly attack it while I’m calmly sucking up leaves.

Turns out Skye also hates for me to play iTunes in the background while I’m working on my trusty G4. I’ll bet it’s more distracting to have a 45 pound dog jumping on your lap and barking than it is to have a cat crawling up on your lap. Of course, in the past I’ve been told by family members that my off-tune humming to "imaginary tunes" was frightening, at best. So, perhaps it’s that, and not just the fact that I’m listening to iTunes that drove the crazy dog to start jumping on me and barking. Everyone envisions themself as a music critic, apparently.

Despite fighting an ongoing cold and a fear that I might hurt myself while using new tools with sharp edges (considering last week’s events), I’ve been driven out into the yard to finish up late summer chores by the onslaught of what increasingly passes for “news” on television.

Generally, when I’m just too “out of it” to accomplish anything truly worthwhile, I’ll settle down in front of the television and watch the news. After all, there’s very little justification for cable television if you can’t find something to watch during the day. It used to seem that CNN, CNN Headlines, MSNBC, or FOX would offer some kind of meaningful diversion for those moments when you’re too tired to do something “real.”

Lately, though, what’s passing for “news” has forced me to look for other means of passing the time. Tell me, what is “news” about pictures of an empty array of microphones awaiting imminent announcements, which often turn out to be little more than “no comment”? In what sense is repeated showing of pictures of traffic stopped while police search for a demented killer news? How “newsworthy” is the empty theorizing of experts on serial killers, especially when they lack any “facts” to hang their theories on?

I don’t want to sound callous, but local newspapers are little better when the front page is dominated by stories on the sniper. Realistically, how likely is it that the sniper will suddenly strike in VANCOUVER WASHINGTON?

On the other hand, mail-in ballots for the November election have just appeared in the mail, but, other than a short editorial endorsing this candidate or that candidate (trust us, you don’t need a reason to vote for him) there has been little or no coverage of the issues or the voting records of candidates.

Apparently, as far as local channels are concerned, they are more than willing to have voters base their decisions of the local ads that flood the air-time, ads that are worse than meaningless, ads that are, even by the best candidates, usually full of half-truths and outright lies.

Is our country really in such great shape that it makes no difference who voters elect? Could it be that Tom Paine is right when it asks, “Is This News? Most TV Stations Aren’t Covering The Election.”

Do you think it might be more important for local papers to cover facts like those discussed in "Upstairs/Downstairs: Disturbing Disparities In Wealth And Privilege" than focusing exclusively on a story that appeals more to irrational fears and our national obsession with violence?

Shouldn’t the news help us to understand the forces that shape our world today and will determine our futures and the futures of our children rather than merely “entertaining” us by obsessing on a story that has been blown way out of proportion to its true influence on our life?