Monday, the morning after. Last night's Academy Awards is the talk of the town as I drink my first cup and watch GDLA. I really love awards shows. The folks who didn't listen to all that good advice back home that they didn't stand a chance in Hollywood, or Nashville, or New York. The best nominees are the ones who understand they really aren't going to win, they're truly thrilled just to be there, and then they do win. The total shock when their name is announced. It happened a few times last night.
It's now Wednesday afternoon. I'm just getting into the swing of doing this, I figure to put up two or three posts a week once I get going, but I'm also having to deal with basic survival. (Like Kris Kristofferson sang, " . . . and he's traded in tomorrow for today." I just figured in my younger days that if I made it to now--older--then I'd cross that bridge when I got to it. Grasshoppers can, but don't always, have savings.)
Anyway, I heard it again yesterday. Predictions on the Earth's population by 2050. Another three billion souls they figure. Up to about nine or ten billion. People. I'm thinking, "Or nobody left at all." I hope I'm wrong, but I don't know. I WANT to see the party continue, but everywhere I look scares me. LOWER gas prices sure won't help us last longer, but that seems to be the goal of one and all (as they say). Any good ideas to help our precarious situation get bypassed one way or another. On every level. There's the big stink about the downer cows being tormented to get them to stand up so they're "legal" to slaughter, and ways to beat new regulations are invented by all the big companies. But even up in Canada when the restaurant where my girlfriend worked got busted for pouring cheap ketchup from large cans into Heinz bottles to put on the tables, all the manager did was have the help start pouring the cheap ketchup into large Heinz containers, and THEN pour it into the Heinz bottles to put on the tables. I was visiting a friend at a warehouse in Nashville one day. They had received a shipment of used industrial filters that had some type of toxic material inside them. The ingredient had been banned in every state except two, Tennessee and Hawaii I think it was, so the filters had been sent there to be emptied of the deadly gravel-like centers. Two men from a day-labor hall had been hired for the job, and they'd been set up in the back of a rented truck on the far side of the parking lot, downwind from everybody else, to empty the filters into a dumpster, wearing only paper masks for protection. When they'd finished and been sent away, a regular garbage truck was called in, and the driver sat in the cab with the window open, his arm resting on the sill on the hot day, as the dumpster emptied its dusty load into the truck right above his head. ("Hey, it's BUSINESS.") Logging operations, ships at sea, car washes, factories, golf courses, all do whatever it takes . . . gotta keep those stockholders happy.
I remember seeing Ghost Busters for the first time, thinking what a great way to spend energy, creating something like that movie. For a good time up in San Francisco, I used to like to take a few tokes, then go out and watch people parallel park. I just yesterday heard about a new book out, "The How Of Happiness", by Sonja Lyubomirsky. In his book "Be Here Now", and I heard the spoken word from a three-record set of a talk he'd given at a university up in British Columbia, Richard Alpert/Ram Dass told of his experiences with both success and happiness. As a Harvard professor, he'd had a fine home full of antiques, a Mercedes and a motorcycle, gave fancy parties, his parents were proud, but when there was no one around to tell him how great he was doing, like sitting alone in the bathtub, he wasn't feeling fulfilled. After he got into psychedelics, lost his job and all his possessions, and his parents "mourned him as if he were dead", he actually found joy. But hang on, I'm not saying you gotta be poor to be happy, just that having a lot doesn't necessarily make one happy, and contented people are less likely to cut corners with safety issues when it comes to their fellow man and the environment; squeezing out that last dime at any cost is no longer all important.
Back in my porn-star days, the guy who did the Golden Girls series was moving. I'd never worked for him, but I knew him from the agency I worked through. If you know the series or have any of his brochures from back then, he was moving from the ranch house with the fireplace and swimming pool to a two-story condo, both places used for his shoots. The rest of the movers were guys I knew who worked on the crew of a couple feature films I'd been in. It was a great day, lots of fun in the shared drudgery, he bought us a big lunch, and all that free exercise. But I was shocked when at the end of the day, he paid us! I'd had no idea. I was the only one who hadn't realized or given a thought to getting paid for having such a good time.
They haven't used them in years, but you might still see one around some places. The big burners at sawmills. I remember different times seeing them in operation, the sun showing orange through the thick brown smoke. It gave an eerie look to everything around. It was neat. When concerned folks wanted to pass a law against burning the scrap from the milling process, the owners said it would put them out of business, cost way too much, and make the price of lumber go up. Instead, it started a whole new industry for the mills, selling wood chips for landscaping. I'm thinking that could happen with $12.oo-a-gallon gas, too. Something better will come out of it. Cut the exhaust that's killing us and a new system will appear.
There's only two amounts of money a person can have these days: either none at all or not enough.
Good luck, Planet Earth.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Illegal Smiles
How many times have you heard somebody say, "I wish I could just go live on a deserted island. Just me and all my friends."? It's a great thought, everybody having fun without all the bull. But short of being on your own secret island, there always seems to be a gang ready to bust up your good times with guns drawn and God on its side. The Sin Squad. No sex and drugs. No drinking by the river. Turn that music down. Put your clothes back on. Kill those plants.
It amazes me, all the things people claim that God is against. All the different religions make this Supreme Being, who has never once spoken a word in public, have all these specific rules against pleasure. There are rules against eating certain foods and doing certain activities, even some days set down that one may or may not work. But the biggie in all religions is sex. Flesh, especially women's flesh, is sinful. Having women wear a burka and protesting a strip club is the same nonsense, just to a varying degree. A baby blown apart with a bomb is PG, a naked breast being touched is rated X. Ya gotta love it. If it feels good--unless it's that you're getting 50% off the price of something--chances are it's illegal or immoral. Uptight people have conspired to stamp out joy since the beginning of civilization.
What frustrates me is, it takes so little to be happy. Once a person gets it, the basics are all they need. The touch of others, music, enough to eat, the accessories of their interests, a place to live. In my decades of hitchhiking I saw a lot of different lifestyles and attitudes. It often seemed that the very happiest folks were shunned by their families and even subject to arrest. And the normal people who aren't miserable had to keep the best parts of their lives secret. It's crazy.
Happy people have put up with this reality throughout history, hiding and sneaking and lying to avoid offending the other people in their lives who were also many times hiding and sneaking and lying to avoid offending them. But if life is gonna continue on this planet, people are just going to have to stand up in defense of good times. All the shame and guilt is killing us. Happy people use less. Have some fun, pass it on.
My girlfriend and I were at a free music festival up by San Jose in early 1969. We'd heard about the publicized event being held nearby and rode up with friends from Orange County, but before we got there and bought tickets, we'd heard about this satellite festival. Groups would play at the pay event, then come to the free show and play there. The hippie organizer held up the local newspaper with the headline telling that he was being sued for like a million bucks by the producers of the other show. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his change. "Well, I've got about eighty cents. They're welcome to it." There were reports of riot conditions at the pay concert, with arrests and fights. The only trouble where we were that I saw was when a guy started a hassle with someone near him, but his friend said, "Hey, these people won't stand for you acting like that. Look around." And the uptight dude backed off and let whatever had bugged him pass. Laws and armed police can't keep the peace as well as prevailing opinion, like cigarette smoking is being drastically reduced by social pressure. You know the hell we'd be dealing with if cigarettes had been made illegal fifteen or twenty years ago. Just like Prohibition in the Twenties and the War On Drugs now, only worse. Imagine the concept on a worldwide stage.
Happy folks don't have as much time to hate and worry about what other people are up to. Be a Guerrilla Grasshopper and encourage an Ant to call in well to work. "I feel much too good to come in today." We've all only got so many hours to be alive. Save the planet; fun-loving folks are good for the environment.
It amazes me, all the things people claim that God is against. All the different religions make this Supreme Being, who has never once spoken a word in public, have all these specific rules against pleasure. There are rules against eating certain foods and doing certain activities, even some days set down that one may or may not work. But the biggie in all religions is sex. Flesh, especially women's flesh, is sinful. Having women wear a burka and protesting a strip club is the same nonsense, just to a varying degree. A baby blown apart with a bomb is PG, a naked breast being touched is rated X. Ya gotta love it. If it feels good--unless it's that you're getting 50% off the price of something--chances are it's illegal or immoral. Uptight people have conspired to stamp out joy since the beginning of civilization.
What frustrates me is, it takes so little to be happy. Once a person gets it, the basics are all they need. The touch of others, music, enough to eat, the accessories of their interests, a place to live. In my decades of hitchhiking I saw a lot of different lifestyles and attitudes. It often seemed that the very happiest folks were shunned by their families and even subject to arrest. And the normal people who aren't miserable had to keep the best parts of their lives secret. It's crazy.
Happy people have put up with this reality throughout history, hiding and sneaking and lying to avoid offending the other people in their lives who were also many times hiding and sneaking and lying to avoid offending them. But if life is gonna continue on this planet, people are just going to have to stand up in defense of good times. All the shame and guilt is killing us. Happy people use less. Have some fun, pass it on.
My girlfriend and I were at a free music festival up by San Jose in early 1969. We'd heard about the publicized event being held nearby and rode up with friends from Orange County, but before we got there and bought tickets, we'd heard about this satellite festival. Groups would play at the pay event, then come to the free show and play there. The hippie organizer held up the local newspaper with the headline telling that he was being sued for like a million bucks by the producers of the other show. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his change. "Well, I've got about eighty cents. They're welcome to it." There were reports of riot conditions at the pay concert, with arrests and fights. The only trouble where we were that I saw was when a guy started a hassle with someone near him, but his friend said, "Hey, these people won't stand for you acting like that. Look around." And the uptight dude backed off and let whatever had bugged him pass. Laws and armed police can't keep the peace as well as prevailing opinion, like cigarette smoking is being drastically reduced by social pressure. You know the hell we'd be dealing with if cigarettes had been made illegal fifteen or twenty years ago. Just like Prohibition in the Twenties and the War On Drugs now, only worse. Imagine the concept on a worldwide stage.
Happy folks don't have as much time to hate and worry about what other people are up to. Be a Guerrilla Grasshopper and encourage an Ant to call in well to work. "I feel much too good to come in today." We've all only got so many hours to be alive. Save the planet; fun-loving folks are good for the environment.
Monday, February 18, 2008
God, Sex, The Candidates, and Heath Ledger.
I was walking up the left side of 7th Street in Downtown L.A. the other day, when up ahead I spotted this blond-haired young woman in a short black dress, wearing those in-style boots that make legs look so good, waiting for somebody to come out of the drug store on the corner of Hope Street. I'd just passed her and was waiting to cross Hope, when a fire truck came roaring up 7th from behind me with lights and siren and that molar-jarring horn they blast at cross streets. I thought they were moving pretty darned fast, and people were holding their ears against the echoes off the buildings. As the fire truck sped through the red light, swerving to miss the cars that had been stopped there, even under those conditions the driver had to look back over his shoulder to check out the gal in the short dress. We can't help it.
The Presidential Campaign is continuing to dominate the news. I'd be more excited about the election if we had more of a choice. I mean an actual choice. Nobody running doesn't believe in the Lord and the power of prayer. They all promise to get consumers consuming (users using) more stuff sooner than the other candidates. They all promise to show those people living on the other side of the planet who's boss. They're all claiming to be sexual normals, strictly do nothing other than what's required to procreate, but I have my doubts. What is it with politicians and religious leaders that they can't say, "Hey, I get horny and have fantasies just like everybody else"? Who do they think they're fooling? I saw some back-East big-city mayor on TV just last week sitting with his forgiving wife doing that same old song and dance. "I want to apologize to everybody in the world. I'm soooooo sorry. I don't know what came over me." (Hey, I do.) So let's see if I have this straight: "I firmly believe there are invisible people living in the sky and sex is illegal unless you have a license (like for fishing) and I'll get people using our dwindling resources faster. Vote for me." (Help, where's the exit?)
Who are these people who don't want anybody to have sex that isn't a man and a woman saying they're going to stay together forever? I saw a nude dancer being interviewed on TV the other day discussing the six-inch law, customers and dancers must keep at least six inches of empty air between them. People on the other side of town dictate that two adults they don't even know can't touch, and even pay undercover cops to go watch and make sure. Amazing. But then on the news a little later the reporter told of people whipping themselves bloody in some kind of religious rite, but nobody raised a stink about that. Where's the sense? I just heard that there was a big police sweep in the Valley, a string of massage parlors charged with prostitution. Now where do their customers go for release? (A dark street near a grocery store? The local school?) What provision does society make for unmarried men to have sex? If dying their beard doesn't get them a girlfriend as promised on TV, then what? (Every candidate supports this nonsense.) Could God really not like sex?
There have always been gods. But in any culture or society, whatever name they used for their gods, all names for God translate into, "I'm not gonna die!" Beyond that, people don't want to hear; talking logic to believers is like trying to tackle smoke. Who cares no sign has ever been given. Who will admit that nothing they believe in makes a lick of sense if they gave it any thought? "I'm not gonna die and that's it so shut up." Wouldn't be so bad if they didn't feel the need to impose their beliefs on everybody else. "What? You say the EARTH goes around the SUN? That's blasphemy! Burn him at the stake!" "What? You want to have sex with someone of the same sex as you? God hates that! Burn him at the stake!" "That woman is a witch! We can't have her casting spells on our innocent children. Burn her at the stake!" "What? That man tried to hire a prostitute! In OUR town? Confiscate his car and call his wife and tell her! Pity we can't burn him at the stake anymore like he deserves." "We're saved and going to heaven and you're going to hell if you don't think like us." ("Except through me . . . ") I ask the candidates, how many people praying does it take to light a candle?
Yesterday's headline told of "dead zones" forming in the oceans, likely caused by global warming--(possibly to match the holes in the atmosphere?) Couldn't a single candidate offer some kind of plan to start a world movement with strong incentives to save the planet instead of arming friendly oil producing countries, promising to get the economy moving, and offering heartfelt prayers to disaster victims? How about a campaign to get folks seeing how much fun they can have when using as little as possible? (Hey, like the proverbial grasshopper!) Sewing and transforming old clothes as patriotic style. Living in small groups and sharing space and appliances to save. Use fast-growing hemp for fiber to make paper and building materials instead of clear-cutting forests. Government financed product- and clothing-exchange stores. Encourage the drinking of tap water instead of water that's been bottled and transported in manufactured plastic bottles. I know, no chance anything like these ideas will ever make it into any political platform.
Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of prescription pills. At least he died doing what he loved. What? I can only say that if it happened while he was sky diving or mountain climbing? Oh, sorry.
The Presidential Campaign is continuing to dominate the news. I'd be more excited about the election if we had more of a choice. I mean an actual choice. Nobody running doesn't believe in the Lord and the power of prayer. They all promise to get consumers consuming (users using) more stuff sooner than the other candidates. They all promise to show those people living on the other side of the planet who's boss. They're all claiming to be sexual normals, strictly do nothing other than what's required to procreate, but I have my doubts. What is it with politicians and religious leaders that they can't say, "Hey, I get horny and have fantasies just like everybody else"? Who do they think they're fooling? I saw some back-East big-city mayor on TV just last week sitting with his forgiving wife doing that same old song and dance. "I want to apologize to everybody in the world. I'm soooooo sorry. I don't know what came over me." (Hey, I do.) So let's see if I have this straight: "I firmly believe there are invisible people living in the sky and sex is illegal unless you have a license (like for fishing) and I'll get people using our dwindling resources faster. Vote for me." (Help, where's the exit?)
Who are these people who don't want anybody to have sex that isn't a man and a woman saying they're going to stay together forever? I saw a nude dancer being interviewed on TV the other day discussing the six-inch law, customers and dancers must keep at least six inches of empty air between them. People on the other side of town dictate that two adults they don't even know can't touch, and even pay undercover cops to go watch and make sure. Amazing. But then on the news a little later the reporter told of people whipping themselves bloody in some kind of religious rite, but nobody raised a stink about that. Where's the sense? I just heard that there was a big police sweep in the Valley, a string of massage parlors charged with prostitution. Now where do their customers go for release? (A dark street near a grocery store? The local school?) What provision does society make for unmarried men to have sex? If dying their beard doesn't get them a girlfriend as promised on TV, then what? (Every candidate supports this nonsense.) Could God really not like sex?
There have always been gods. But in any culture or society, whatever name they used for their gods, all names for God translate into, "I'm not gonna die!" Beyond that, people don't want to hear; talking logic to believers is like trying to tackle smoke. Who cares no sign has ever been given. Who will admit that nothing they believe in makes a lick of sense if they gave it any thought? "I'm not gonna die and that's it so shut up." Wouldn't be so bad if they didn't feel the need to impose their beliefs on everybody else. "What? You say the EARTH goes around the SUN? That's blasphemy! Burn him at the stake!" "What? You want to have sex with someone of the same sex as you? God hates that! Burn him at the stake!" "That woman is a witch! We can't have her casting spells on our innocent children. Burn her at the stake!" "What? That man tried to hire a prostitute! In OUR town? Confiscate his car and call his wife and tell her! Pity we can't burn him at the stake anymore like he deserves." "We're saved and going to heaven and you're going to hell if you don't think like us." ("Except through me . . . ") I ask the candidates, how many people praying does it take to light a candle?
Yesterday's headline told of "dead zones" forming in the oceans, likely caused by global warming--(possibly to match the holes in the atmosphere?) Couldn't a single candidate offer some kind of plan to start a world movement with strong incentives to save the planet instead of arming friendly oil producing countries, promising to get the economy moving, and offering heartfelt prayers to disaster victims? How about a campaign to get folks seeing how much fun they can have when using as little as possible? (Hey, like the proverbial grasshopper!) Sewing and transforming old clothes as patriotic style. Living in small groups and sharing space and appliances to save. Use fast-growing hemp for fiber to make paper and building materials instead of clear-cutting forests. Government financed product- and clothing-exchange stores. Encourage the drinking of tap water instead of water that's been bottled and transported in manufactured plastic bottles. I know, no chance anything like these ideas will ever make it into any political platform.
Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of prescription pills. At least he died doing what he loved. What? I can only say that if it happened while he was sky diving or mountain climbing? Oh, sorry.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
PBI--At Your Service
"The Grasshopper and the Ant"--Aesop's Fables--My version. "So there was this grasshopper, spent all summer playin' his fiddle hot down by the river, drinking beer, playing volleyball, and entertaining various young women on vacation from out of town. Near the spot he got on and off the bus each day on his trips to the river--he'd rather drink than drive--he'd often run into an ant about his own age, always busy stocking his house with food. Grasshopper had pretty much given up on talking the hard-working ant into taking a day off and going to the river with him. Ant had always told him that ha-ha, winter was a-comin' and HE by golly wasn't going to be hungry when the snow was blowin'. All summer, the ant worked while the grasshopper played. Then winter came, and they both froze to death." (Thanks and apologies to Mr. Aesop.)
Ever see that movie, "Griffin and Phoenix, A Love Story" (1976) with Columbo and Jill Clayburgh? They met in their forties, yet both partied and laughed and enjoyed life like teenagers. Then it turns out they both had cancer and only months to live, so started appreciating every minute. What if they'd just acted like that anyway? For no reason? All their lives?
I just watched a 60 Minutes segment about the happiest people in the world. The people of Denmark are #1, and apparently not for the first time. (Americans are #23 happiest.) Though Danes have ambition, the basic secret to their good attitude is contentment. 94% of American college students, according to the show, are under extreme stress throughout their school years. Not good.
All the radio and TV shows a few days ago were reporting about some study just out that said depressed people shop more than folks enjoying themselves. One point I found interesting, that unhappy folks will pay up to four times more for something than others will.
My suggestion for saving the planet: we're going to have to spend more time swimming at the river and dancing, and less time rote shopping; it's better for the environment. We need all the Grasshoppers we can get and fewer Ants if the Planet is going to survive. (Get it? Grasshopper Planet?) Additional fun, less debt. You got a problem with that?
A couple worthy reads:
"Stranger In A Strange Land" (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein.
"Another Roadside Attraction" (1971) by Tom Robbins.
To be continued . . . by Bob, Professional Bad Influence.
Ever see that movie, "Griffin and Phoenix, A Love Story" (1976) with Columbo and Jill Clayburgh? They met in their forties, yet both partied and laughed and enjoyed life like teenagers. Then it turns out they both had cancer and only months to live, so started appreciating every minute. What if they'd just acted like that anyway? For no reason? All their lives?
I just watched a 60 Minutes segment about the happiest people in the world. The people of Denmark are #1, and apparently not for the first time. (Americans are #23 happiest.) Though Danes have ambition, the basic secret to their good attitude is contentment. 94% of American college students, according to the show, are under extreme stress throughout their school years. Not good.
All the radio and TV shows a few days ago were reporting about some study just out that said depressed people shop more than folks enjoying themselves. One point I found interesting, that unhappy folks will pay up to four times more for something than others will.
My suggestion for saving the planet: we're going to have to spend more time swimming at the river and dancing, and less time rote shopping; it's better for the environment. We need all the Grasshoppers we can get and fewer Ants if the Planet is going to survive. (Get it? Grasshopper Planet?) Additional fun, less debt. You got a problem with that?
A couple worthy reads:
"Stranger In A Strange Land" (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein.
"Another Roadside Attraction" (1971) by Tom Robbins.
To be continued . . . by Bob, Professional Bad Influence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)