It's kind of a fact of life that intelligence is a more precious comodity than chaos. That's because there is so little of it. Think about how few people have ruled the world and made major decisions of civilization and invented things and pholosophies that govern millions. Think about how Airport Traffic Controlers hold the destinies of thousands of people in their hands. Think of all the potential and actual things stupid things people do that smart people have to anticipate and guard against. Think of how an adverse situation of awsome perportions can "turn" for better or worse depending on the key intelligent decisions people make. Some people think intelligence is cheap and that credible leadership doesn't have to be earned. Many want credible authority but don't have the "stuff it takes" to actually earn it. Just think about it. And for most of our history it's the Smart people that also used to have the Power. But the scarey fact is that this seems to be changing. Suddenly what people Value is coming to have no relation at all to what is virtuous or something that represents true achievement. And they kid themselves that "God" or whoever is out there doesn't notice. "History" notices them, and in our reference "History" is kind of a short hand for God, or visa versa. People on the radio wonder why I "hold their message of Eternal Salvation so cheaply". That's because there is anything but a short supply of that. In fact there is a glut. Nobody wants it so suddenly the bidding price drops to nothing. In fact they'll almost pay you to take it off their hands. John Lennon talked about "Learning to tell the trees from wood". One of the first things you should learn in this life is the difference between life and death. At what point does a baby come to the alarming discovery that pink stuffed animals don't really talk? We know that a tree is mostly dead wood. But it's the thin veneer of life that keeps it alive. We know that the human brain and body chemistry is a very delicate system and the slightest changes in blood PH, for example, can have disasterous results. How can a little blue pill cause a person to go mad? It doesn't make sense. You are so much bigger and stronger than that little pill. So you think. Many people live one payroll check away from financial wash-out, and sadly, I am among them. (If you read my posting yesterday you will know this was not so in 1995) It could well be true that civilization is one Nuclear attack away from returning to the Stone Age? Could you survive with none of the modern signs of what we call Civilization? I sure couldn't. Davie Crocket or Daniel Boone or Kit Carson could. But I'm not them. I don't know how to track animal trails for a hunt. I don't know which kind of berries are poisonous and which are good to eat. You say you have no tools? You can't even use tools to make tools. I am a little bothered on this idea that computerize technology will do our thinking for us. Up till now they haven'd had computers that actually "made decisions" but now that is changing. In that sense going back about fifty years when we were just a Little more in touch with "the natural world" would not be at all a bad thing. But there is another reality that faces us all and that is we will all eventually end up Dead. Remember - - Life is not eternal; the only thing that is Eternal is Death. In this sense Religious people have it ass backwards. This guy on KFI was talking about how the idea of either a Last Judgement or a Rapture or snatching away of the "Faithful" (to what?} is a concept that appeals to the Ego. It's like Ayan Rand saying "When I did the world will go away". It's the idea that a dispondent lover has of comitting suicide and saying "If I can't have her nobody else is going to have her". Nobody ever asks him "How is your being dead going to keep her from finding happiness with somebody else?" They can't bear the idea of Life going on without them and they aren't there. Some worry about whether people might gossip about you after you're dead. To quote Dylan's words, "It doesn't matter inside the Gates of Eden". This idea of some sort of bifercation of a Last Judgement if there is one is the same mentality of someone applying for a College and taking an ACT test and asking not 'How hard is the test" but "What is the standard procedure for cheating on this test". Or as Gene Scott puts it, "I never gamble, except on a sure thing". Of course they don't call that gambling; they call that theft. Just like what Mitt Romney did was theft. And so as this KFI guy talked about they congure the notion of some "astral body" that transcends death, and ad-mix with this the notion that this here life somehow is not as REAL as that imaginary one on the Other Side. I have the feeling that like other societies we will outgrow this sort of Religion. People falsely claim that God damned the nation of Israel in 70 AD because they "Would not believe" when their Messiah came. But as the Author of the Passover Plot points out (and it is perhaps the BEST POINT in the whole book) the Jewish people believed in the return of a Messiah almost to the point of being psychotic. It was the Romans (who were later the Church) who had gotten jaded and had "progress beyond the need to believe in our Ancient Gods". They were the hard headed realists, much as the Church Fathers were mainly hard headed realists who realized that if they ever were to succeed, all that stuff Jesus talked about about some kingdom of wealth "somewhere else" had to go, and that they had to accumulate their Wealth and Power right here on Terra Firma.
I just got off the phone with someone. All I did was express concern about the economy a couple years out in 2014 or maybe even sooner. I am aware of two ever present Realities working together against each other. First there is the one about the negativity spiral crashing the economy in a deflationary chain reaction. The other reality is that when the National Debt hits a certain critical ammount, the economy has gone beyond the threshhold and we are doomed regardless of what we do, and I told her I feared we might already have reached that point. But according to her if we get a Bible thumping Christian in office, God will look down. And got will say "Hi, Newt" and Newt will say "I God; it's me now as President so I want you to lay all those blessings on us you talked about in Deuteronomy". People literally believe that the facts don't matter but if you believe hard enough some cosmic hand is going to come down and Save you. The reality is that scientists have never found the "astral body" no matter how hard they searched for it, nor any other signs that these Believers posess something that can be Proven here in how in the material world with both of us alive. As you get older the saying is Money becomes of less value and Time becomes of more value. But to me both Time and Money are of increased value because neither has the unending potential I once believed it to have.
Some writers and composers fear they will some day run out of songs and rhymes. Many people get on a roll and are are very productive with their creative output. Bruce Springsteen had an amazing backlog of songs to work from for his 1980 album, "The River". Bob Dylan as you know was very prolific from 1962 through 1966. Rush, the rock group, had four albums out in a space of two years in the mid seventies, with a Live album months later. Credence Clearwater Revival had three record albums out in the year 1969. I think the Jefferson Airplane had three albums out in just under one year like ten months. The Doors had three albums out within about a fifteen month period. Look at the Iron Butterfly. How many albums did the Mamas and Papas have in their just over two years together? Jimi Hendrix put out three albums in less than eighteen months and one of them was a double LP and he had songs left over. John Lennon was on a roll in late 1963 and 1964 for the albums With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, and Beatles for Sale. I guess the question is what happens to creative people? They say from 1975 through 1980 John Lennon was "enjoying his private life" and therefore didn't write. I thought authors got inspiration from "Life". Let's take the last seven years of John Lennon's life from about Dec First 1973 through Dec First 1980. How many albums did he put out? Well, there was "Walls and Bridges" and then there was -- er - - uh - - oh year "Double Fantasy, there's an album". Correction, there is HALF an album. Yoco Onon wrote the other half, just as she did with Milk and Honey in 1984. And lets take a look at some of the Lennon songs on Milk and Honey. You have "I'm Stepping Out" and "I Don't Want to Face It" and "Living on Borrowed Time". Even someone studying the guitar for only a few weeks would get bored with those real fast. John in 1980 was not the creative dynamo he was in 1965 for example. Now of course it's SOP to go three years in between albums. So How the Hell did the Monkees put out Five new Albums in a space of fifteen months. Yeah, that's only how long their carrier lasted, basically. From about October of 1966 to the beginning of 1968. OK the didn't write their own songs but at least they had the initiative to pay all of the people who actually played the instruments.
Beatle songs I particularly identify with are as follows. This material is not new. You've seen it through and through. You've seen - - "Oh, copyright infringement again?" Oh I'm sorry his name wasn't on the list. "When I get home" is something a lot of us an identify with. "She's a Woman" and "I feel Fine" were just that. They were "feel good" songs. "There's a Place" I have this odd memory association with the Church mariners western barbecue of May of 1964. "Baby's In Black" is one of those songs that matches my philosophy of life". Musically it reflects the sort of song the Rolling Stones were writing during the period, putting Rock into a somewhat more heavy league. "The Word" always reminded me of the first chapter of the Chapter of John in the Bible where it talks about the word becomming flesh. "She Said" kind of reflects a rather adverse conversation I had with a High School counselor at the end of the 1966 year. "Strawberry Fields" reminds me of the Strawberry fields I walked past every day going to Brookhurst Jr. High. When this song first came out I had a strange Deja Vu flashback of something like this song had been out months earlier. "A Day in the Life" reminds me of course of the deaths of John Sneed and Ron Diggins on Sunday March 5th 1967. The intro to "I'm The Walrus" reminds me of the egg sorting machine at my grandfather's ranch. "The Inner Light" was of course taken from a Hindu writing. "Revolution" was a song I always felt was addressed to me, personally. The trilogy of songs at the end of side one of the White Album are stunning in their propheticness about one particular person. "Yer Blues" is just your standard blues work-out, inspired by "Heartbreak Hotel". I guess I like "Teddy Boy" because I guess I was never close to either parent when I was young. "The Ballad of John and Yoco" is similar to my own piano composition of September 1961. "Come Together" is a take off on some sign Nixon said he liked during the 1968 campaign that said "Bring Us Together". I have recently whether some of the inspiration for the end of "She's So Heavy" might have been Spanish Caravan by the Doors. Like "How can we take that same feeling and draw it out?" "Sun King" was supposedly inspired by a Fleetwood Mac song. I take it to be sort of some fantasy movie scene of some pleasent place you wish existed. "Cold Turkey" like I say, at least in its early form, was somewhat kited from an Eric Burden song. It's got the same riff but "sees the dark side" rather than the light side of things.
A DAY IN A LIFE NO. 2012
(Not that I've counted the Days I lived here or Anything)
This is Sunday February 26, 2012 after lunch and the Beatle songs KLOS has played today haven’t been very good. It’s Movie songs, and the rest is some Live Harrison stuff that isn’t that anointed. Today as I looked forward on the day I invisioned KOS Beatles and then the Daytona 500 and the Accadamy Awards tonight. So far it’s two down and bust. Actually they hadn’t even started the Daytona 500 yet on FOX. They said it was rain delay but I darkly suspect “rain” is spelled T A P E as in delay. And then at two PM then announced the race was canceled for today. So I switched to Joel Olsteen, who was actually more interesting. And that sermon was a rerun. I grew drowsy just before lunch. We had cabbage soup and at least lemonade for me was on the table today. This bit about penalizing late comers gets old. We had a different pasta spaghetti that was pretty good, and a salad with unusually good dressing, like it was custom made or something, and garlic bread. I had seconds on everything from Laura. We had honeydew melon for desert, as usual not quite ripe. I just smoked my last cigarette. Leo Le Port shows have been of waning interest for me lately. I'm more of a "doer" at this point. Nora was by briefly to empty the trash.
I slept pretty well last night and woke at 4:40 and lay in bed a while longer getting up after five and tuning in that KFI who combines left wing politics with metaphysics. Of course you know I wrap myself in spirituality like conservatives do the flag, and talk about it and think about it and some say obsess about it. But the analogy of the homophobe fits here. Just as a person who really fears he might be gay himself will do everything he can to kid himself he isn’t so the deep dark secret with me is that I secretly fear “In places people don’t talk about” that absolutely None of it is true, and the whole idea of proposing what happens to you with you die is absurd and irrational. I made coffee. I couldn’t get the timing right with either Larry or Richard as far as coffee is concerned. I had KNBC on before breakfast. We had oatmeal and then scrambled eggs and sausage. Joe says he is the one responsible for starting the pancakes roomer. Then it was Meet the Press and I had it on that show the entire hour to the final sign off. Rick Santorum was put under scrutiny- - and I feel he handled himself well. I think I understand him a little better now, though may not agree. I think it’s a strength that he doesn’t give the usual one liner cliché responses to questions asked, but likes to go into a little depth. Then Jerry Brown was on. I think Santorum is going to sweep both Arizona and Michigan by wide margins myself. Romney has major problems with the left, middle, and political right.
Friday night it was the usual ABC network news and Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. I was having an argument with myself about “Whether I have another posting in me tonight” or not. I used that Maze thing from Sketch and the gold in the final file picture is in fact richer than the preliminary one used in the Blog photo. I enriched the gold by various means in the final file photo. I felt like quotes from that anti Christian site deserved a more specific airing. The other sentaments just flowed naturally. It was Nikita and then Supernatural again. (?) Taking vitamin C’s regularly is better because it builds up the body. In the morning I made coffee and had KNX 1070 radio on and President Obama gave a good weekly address. I just hope it registers with a lot of people. High prices are nothing more or less than a chance for Republicans to punch their political victory ticket in November. I think we had Rice Krispies again. I think we had scrambled eggs, but what with? If I’m ever too detailed just rattle my cage.
I did a couple of preemptive phone calls on the matter of the records. I made one call to [Bill Gunderson] and the other to [Pete Richards'] number, who weren’t at home. I just gave a rather nervous and rambling ID as to why I had called and nobody has called back. I stressed to [B G] that things in this area were shaping up and Al had the equipment even if it used a plastic record needle, which puzzles me. I also sent Al the “final answers” to that energy quiz Friday night not noticing that a guy at work had answered the questions already, and not entirely accurately in my opinion. Some Republican lady gave a response at 8:05. After this I did want I wanted to do last Saturday and play the Dylan album starting with track 23 of CD 1 or “Masters of War” and work my way to “Only a Hobo” and stopped. In the morning I also played a number of Quicken tutorial videos, and some of them involved Excel, too.
Yesterday at lunch I missed both soup and fruit but ate the cold cut sandwich and whatever. I was eager to get back to the computer and complete the new mid day blog I was doing. As you know in my “Chronology” from the apartment - - in segments posted on line, I left off in the fall of 1994 so just picked up the year 1995 as a conceise unit. The whole bit about the interview names- - well I have “vetted” a pretty substantial percentage of those people. I had trouble with the green ground cover which didn’t seem to have a “texture” but all the same you couldn’t “paint’ on it or make it transparent. So I had to change the color before I could use the Sketch model, but then not save it so it reverted. I had Leo Le Port on a little- - - a fair amount, till two o clock now that I remember. I went out for afternoon coffee but somehow missed it. The three white birds were in the cage and one of the gray ones. One of the white birds was making an odd tapping sound on the ground. (?) But there were numerous typos in the posting I had to correct, and also took the opportunity to add in more zinger lines. I picked up tracks 16 and 17 from Dylan CD 2. And I had that Dollar Tree web site thing up Glen wanted again and actually found a bottle of Vitamin B 12 pills I’d like to order. B 12 is universally praised as a wonder potion that increases mental clarity and youth and vitality. Then I had Chris Matthews on in basically two rather long and meaty segments. I had the college hoops game on CBS and I guess Kansas finally prevailed over Missouri in overtime, not that I followed close.
We had fish for dinner with rice and carrots. These menus practically write themselves. We had some kind of pudding. Chris Matthews’ TV show wasn’t on. It was ABC network news and later on the Mc Laughlin group. Now it seems the Talliban killed two high ranking US Military officials in cold blood using a well executed plan using security number pads. I imagine nothing will come of this. I don’t know why they bulldozed the whole Bin Laden compound. It would be a nice tourist site for propaganda for our side – that’s for sure. I made coffee but had no takers. Cops was on at eight. I did a bit of dial twirling briefly but came back and at nine was something or another till 9:30. It dawns on me that the US economy is probably toast next year, perhaps starting with a few weeks after the election. This bull market still has a lot of juice in it, but it isn’t going to go on forever. The day before election day might be a good day to sell everything you own. Of course then the administration can announce whatever bad news they have and whatever cutbacks and austere measures they have been holding off on, till after the election. Pray it isn’t Mitt Romney elected or the whole country will be places on the auction block. The debate audience was actually COACHED to cheer at the word bankruptsy. I have never seen a political candidate with such naked hostility to either American industry or the American worker. Perhaps this Tuesday the light will dawn on Mitt Romney at last just how completely he’s out of touch with the feelings of average Americans in his speeches.
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