Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Dreams, can't live with them, can't live without them....

Last night, I had a dream.

Actually, it was somewhere between a dream and a nightmare. I wasn't scared, not really. Not a lot. Really, it was more like just dealing with the sh*t that was happening, as it happened.

I was at a home, a home I've never been to, in the middle of nowhere and no-when. Mom and Dad and I knew that some guys were coming to attack our community's individual houses in order to get us all to move. Maybe I wouldn't have minded all this so much, but that day before, I had put some moss killer all over my roof and didn't want anything to screw that up, not criminals, not fire, not rain, not terrorizing local eminent domain type rejects from the film, Deliverance. Now that was real, that wasn't a part of the dream. I really had put moss killer on my roof. Weather in the Northwest here had been real weird since last Fall and I had to wait for just the right time distribute the moss death powder.

Back in the dream, we could see the shadowy men crossing the nearby shallow river, in the dusk and falling night. "They" were men, long guns, hats, warm coats, boots, dark clothes, mere silhouettes against the dimming forest backdrop.

I was in the house, like I said, with mom and dad (though I'd never seen either of them before). Two of the men came upon our house; we felt that someone had come to one of the dark kitchen windows, the one above the sink. It was quiet though. Too quiet. Of course, it was too quiet, you knew it would be too quiet, didn't you? Okay, so I dream in cliches.

Look, I looked out, but slowly, carefully. Okay, I chickened out and put my hand up to the window to evoke a response (better my hand than my eyeball, or my whole head, right?) and the bastard actually shot me. I had expected they were going to kill us all, but I hadn't expected someone to shoot me. Okay, look, it was a dream. It doesn't have to mean I am being rational.

Does it? Hell, I hope not.

Pain exploded through my hand, up my arm, to my little brain with a, well, an explosion far, far bigger than my tiny mind could handle. I fell back, landing on the floor, sliding a little under a part of the counter.

Then the door blew open. We heard it, you couldn't miss it, but no one wanted to go to check it, either. I wasn't going, my hand hurt like Hell! Just then, two guys with long rifles entered, quite prepared to terrorize the entire household. Okay, the three of us, but that is the entire household, right? What happened then, was pretty tame really, at least, compared to what you might see in a movie. Although, I admit that I had thought they were going to kill all of us.

In fact, I think we all had that understanding. But, they didn't. They glared at us. They made us feel unwanted. Personally? I was ready to move now. I got the point: "Leave, or next time, you ARE dead."

Still, the younger one, the angrier one (and isn't it always that way?), just as they were turning to leave, and I could see it in his eye, he for some reason, saw me as a problem and, he shot me, hitting me in the side below the ribs.

Ow!

It felt like someone hit me with a sledgehammer trying to mash me, nail me to the floor. But, it didn't work, I merely experienced more pain and more slipperiness on the linoleum. Although I tried to stay still, so as not to further piss off this tiny personality, my increased pain and slipping around in yet more blood, seemed to please him in some way, still unfathomable to me.

Then suddenly, they just left.

Someone else from the community came in then and helped trying to clean me up, but they realized, it just wasn't enough. I really needed a hospital.

Then, as dreams do, everyone decided that they just had to go somewhere. It was like, well, he's not dead, so he's probably not going to die, so I have to go shopping now.

?

Hello, hello? Mom? Dad? Sis (yes, suddenly I had a sister, dreams, remember?)?

So I thought, screw it. I'm independent. I'm used to being responsible for myself. So, I got in a car and drove down through what I now realize was University Way NE in Seattle's U District. Yes, "The Ave". I worked there for a little over seven years. I know it. But not so much in the dream, it all seemed...new?

But I realized I was looking for a restaurant (in the dream, right?).

About two blocks before the place I was headed to, I suddenly wasn't feeling so well and I realized something: Oh yeah, I need a hospital.

Funny thing, from where I was, if you turn left, you hit University of Washington Medical Center (one of those places where I used to work). But instead, I turned around, followed the traffic and got lost in a damn shopping center parking lot of all things; which I also thought was attached to a Hospital lot.

I left the safety of the car and went into the store and proceeded to find the oddest people. A cute couple of Japanese girls with two young children. I talked to them for a few minutes, and thought, that was useless, they are useless, but cute and funny, but I kind of have more important things to be doing just now.

I wandered around for a little while longer and talked to a few people while getting weaker and weaker all the time. I was trying to find where the hospital was. I knew it was there somewhere.

Finally, I wandered over a sky-bridge into another bigger store. Then somehow, I eventually ended up at (wait for it and thank God, finally) an ER room. I think I did anyway. Really, it all gets a bit blurry there. No, I remember it clearly, I just remember blurriness. Maybe I was hallucinating and died in a department store?

Died in a department store....

Can there be any worse nightmare than that? Why DIDN'T I wake screaming? But I didn't. I just woke. I lay there trying to wake more, to get out of that dream, to wake up into what I was starting to realize, was a much less messed up reality. I didn't have a suppurating wound in my hand, nor an open gunshot wound in my side. But there was a strange sound I couldn't quite wrap my head around. It was slow waking, but try as I might, I couldn't quite speed up the separation between the real and unreal.

All I know is when I finally woke up, it was raining outside.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Emails you don't want to recieve...

Hi, everyone! Here is an email from one of our homeowners. Be alert! She has already been sent information about animal control. Some people have speculated that the sightings of the bears and now this mountain lion (cougar) are due to the extensive logging of the Yxxxxx Burn Forest behind our development. Those of you who live on the west side of our development may have no idea of how much of the forest is being logged. The forest along the L1000 road is being logged from approx. 100 feet of the northern border of our development all the way to Four Corners. It is a huge area that has disrupted the habitat for many animals.

anhills.org
The Webmaster(s)

----- Original Message -----
From: Gxxx Lxxxxx
To: Webmaster@anhills.org
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 10:26 AM
Subject: Mountain Lion attack in neighborhood

Good morning.

Jim and I live at xxxx XX Xxxxxxxxxx Mountain Road. Last night at 8:45 p.m. a mountain lion came into our pasture and attacked my horses and got one of them. I did see it - the cat was easily 500 pounds! It was four times bigger than our 100 pound American Bull Dog. The cat was very brazen - no fear of the dog or two horses and got my horse Louie at his jugular part of the throat. Emergency vet came out and the bite was 2 inches deep and three inches long on both sides of his throat with multiple lacerations and scratches all over his chest - missed the jugular vein by a tenth of a millimeter! It took 85 stitches and surgery through several layers of muscle to put my horse back together - and all this damage was done in one quick swoop from the cat. Please help me notify everyone in our neighborhood. I am very concerned for the children of our neighborhood, neighbors who walk or jog our trails, our neighborhood pets, everyone!

The Bonobo trials - "Lucy" a novel by Laurence Gonzales

On the NPR Saturday morning show, host Scott Simon interviewed Laurence Gonzales about his new novel, "Lucy", about the trials (and tribulations) of a human-animal hybrid. In this case, a Bonobo chimpanzee.

What's that, you ask? Well, this should be interesting.

First, from Laurence's Amazon biography: "Laurence Gonzales has lectured before groups ranging from the Santa Fe Institute to Legg Mason Capital Management and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His books include "Deep Survival," "Everyday Survival," "One Zero Charlie," and "Lucy." He lives in Evanston, Illinois." Laurance has written a various forms of survival issue type books.

So, what's this about Bonobos?

Bonobo chimpanzees Kanzi and Panbanisha, were discussed in a previous NPR article, where they stated that these two Bonobos understand thousands of words. Once known as "Pigmy Chimps" (now recognized as a separate species) and also as the, "Hippie Chimps" ("Make Love not war") because they settle social disputes with sex, and Chimps appear to fight a lot more; these are the genetically closest primate to Humans.

The book, "Lucy", from all accounts, is a clever, intelligently written novel. But strangely, there is no mention of any fiction precursors to this work. The Kirkus (starred review) says of it: “Masterful… Thoroughly well-written, grounded in science and a sorrowful sense of human nature, this book is utterly memorable.” Entertainment Weekly compares him to the late, great, Michael Critchton.

Laurance's website is:
Deep Surival

But before, "Lucy"....

The 1952 novel, "Skullduggery" (Les Animaux dénaturés) by French author, Vercors (Jean Marcel Bruller, using a pseudonym going back to his Resistance work during WWII). But there was also a movie released in 1970 with the same title, directed by well known director, Gordon Douglas.

Strangely enough, Douglas directed a movie I recorded on Tivo just this past week called, "Bombers B-52". I used to work on B-52's so I thought I'd check it out.

Douglas, also directed a lot of famous movies, starting with "Lucky Beginners" in 1935, to his last, "Viva Knieval" in 1977. In between, he directed moves with James Cagney, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Steve McQueen, and it goes on. I just found it interesting that he should have chosen to do this particular film at the time he did it. Why?

Starring in the movie were Burt Reynolds, when he was still pretty cool and before the "Smokey and the Bandit" franchise started up. Also, a couple of "Star Trek" alums, Susan Clark (that same year she was also in the somewhat more famous film: "Colossus: The Forbin Project" and a later far more famous film: "Porky's") and Roger C. Carmel ("Harry Mudd"). Also in the movie, in the later court scenes, were Edward Fox, Rhys Williams and Wilfred Hyde-White. Although you felt this was a comedy, you also felt that it had a deadly serious moral issue to be dealt with.

Tagline for the film: "The Tropis...Was It Human?...Animal?...Or the Living Descendants of The Missing Link!"
Not to be mistaken for the 1983 movie of the same name and different storyline.

It is a questionable and heavy topic, but handled with such a light hand, it slipped by the notice of most of the public and the conservative (especially, the notorious Religious) Right.

A post on IMDB indicates that the film they saw at a Drive-in was at some point altered, that possibly they saw a screening copy. So, that's the original version of Skullduggery that I remember, too. I also saw it at a drive-in theater. I can only assume the first go around of the film, caused the follow up releases to be edited to "soften" the content, which had many references to race relations and some always delicious biting satire. If that is true, which I have no doubt, its pretty sad. I would like to see the original again.

This editing out (or "dumbing down") behavior is not unlike Brian Eno and David Byrne, having deleted track one, on side two, on their great and seminal, "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" album. They eliminated a beautiful rendition of someone singing a part of the Quar'an (Koran), merely because a single Islamic entity in London, complained the year it was released.

[And a kind thank you to those who pointed out that it was David Byrne and not Robert Fripp along with Brian Eno who did this album. This was just a stupid mistake on my part and no, has nothing to do with "dumbing down" (as that metaphor doesn't quite fit, does it?), as anyone can make a mistake; however, even after the fact, it was stated that they "hadn't wanted to offend anyone" and so, they chose to do something ignorant.]

A brief aside, for Fans of this seminal album:
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts remastered site.
From the site:
"This is the first time complete and total access to original tracks with remix and sampling possibilities have been officially offered on line. In keeping with the spirit of the original album, Brian and David are offering for download all the multitracks on two of the songs. Through signing up to the user license, and in line with Creative Commons licenses, you are free to edit, remix, sample and mutilate these tracks however you like. Add them to your own song or create a new one. Visitors are welcome to post their mixes or songs that incorporate these audio files on the site for others to hear and rate."

And now back to our original program....

Its a fine line, between caving in to commercialism, bowing to show reasonable respect and fighting for free speech, thus increasing World knowledge. But they said that back then they simply weren't interested in offending anyone. Interesting how Islam has scared people leave them along and unchallenged for so long while remaining so insidiously untouched compared to other world religions.

Perhaps if more had stood up to these kinds of complaints sooner, or better exposed their beliefs to the world, perhaps leading to more transparency and better eduction of their own, perhaps some of the more recent events could have been avoided. I would have argued to Fripp and Eno, anyway, "Have some balls."

Getting back to author Laurence Gonzales, I find it hard to believe that this author ("Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why"), could not know of this previous book or the movie. Laurence has also covered survival stories for National Geographic Explorer, Outside and Men's Journal.

Regardless, I find the subject intriguing and worth mention, and thus, here we are. If you didn't know about the Bonobos, they are worth paying attention to.

As to the other two Bonobos mentioned earlier, Kanzi's favorite movies when he was very young are reported to have been, "Ice Man" and "Planet of the Apes". Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, head scientist at the Great Ape Trust near Des Moines has said: "I guess his favorite movie of all time is Quest for Fire."

I would submit, if they showed Kanzi, "Skullduggery", it very well might take over as an all time favorite. And for a really damn good reason. After all, if there's one thing the movie and both books make clear here, survival is at stake.

Louie - Louis CK using "faggot"

On the second episode of Louis CK's new show, Louie, the guys sit around a table playing poker. Louis asks their only gay friend and comic at the table, about gay sex and the term "faggot" comes up. His friend explains that it comes from in the old days when they burned witches at the stake, they piled faggots or bundles of wood around the stake.

But Homosexuals were thought so lowly of that they simply through them on the burning witch's fire along with more faggots of wood. Its a very well done scene and ends with a laugh. The gay guy and the straight guys, are all very cool in their being accepting of one another and being able to laugh at a rough topic to deal with.

Louis later said, on NPR's Fresh Air (7/7/2010) show, that he doesn't care if that is a true story or not. He said, that actor was a long time friend of his, the first openly gay guy he ever knew, and had originally told him that story. But as for the scene, its just some guys talking, its not an educational show but a comedy show. He explained further and I fully agree with him. Its not necessarily up to him to educate the masses. Its up to each individual. Its also up to any who wish to be useful in that realm. And so, I am here to help to educate as best as possible with with little time I put into trying to find out the truth. I found the following, and thought it was sufficient an answer that I will post it here, until I find a better description.

From Etymonline.com:

"The oft-heard statement that male homosexuals were called faggots in reference to their being burned at the stake is an etymological urban legend. Burning was sometimes a punishment meted out to homosexuals in Christian Europe (on the suggestion of the Biblical fate of Sodom and Gomorah), but in England, where parliament had made homosexuality a capital offense in 1533, hanging was the method prescribed. Any use of faggot in connection with public executions had long become an English historical obscurity by the time the word began to be used for "male homosexual" in 20th century American slang, whereas the contemptuous slang word for "woman" (and the other possible sources or influences listed here) was in active use."



And there you have it. Until we meet again....

Sunday, July 11, 2010

The "Barefoot Bandit" caught in the Bahamas

Nineteen year old Colton Harris-Moore, is in jail and coming home soon.

His mother says, she's proud of him. Thank God for mothers right?

His film rights have been sold to 20th Century Fox.

CNN has reported that his Facebook page has allegedly 58,000 friends (actually, 63,988 as of right now).

Colton Harris-Moore on Facebook

FBI Seattle says its a sad thing that he has been turned into a hero by the public.

This kid has broken into home in the Seattle area. Stolen boats, even a plane. He apparently flew a stolen plane from Illinois to the Bahamas. Sharp kid, that takes some figuring, or you end up swimming in the Caribbean. But he wasn't smart enough to disengage the plane's beacon. The Coast Guard, has kind of an expertise on tracking this kind of thing (think oh, I don't know, drug smugglers?).

Look to more of all this, I'm sure, coming soon....

Its Sunday. Spend some time with your family.

If you have a family, spend some time with them.

If you don't have a family, take some time for yourself.
Not your friends, not your relatives, just you.

What do you, want?

I'll leave you with this, from Flannery O'Connor's book of essays, Mystery and Manners:

"Reality is something to which we must be returned at considerable cost."

Saturday, July 10, 2010

A happy Belated 75th Birthday to the Dalai Lama

July 6th, 2010 was His Holiness, the
Dalai Lama's 75th Birthday.

I had known about it, I just didn't think about mentioning it here, until now.

Thus, a Belated Happy Birthday to you!