Images painted with words

Today I found this article at the Fiction Writers Review web site. It's about an artist named John Sokol who creates writers' images from their words. I won't copy the images since he sells them. But check out the link to see one of the images, and then come back and read the next pararaph.

Kinda cool, huh? Obviously the guy can do this with any images or words. I was thinking it might be fun to have an image of yourself done in words that are a message from you to your descendants. You could leave the image to them in your will. And if you dislike them you could have your portrait made out of super-nasty stuff. You could really let go, knowing there is absolutely no possibility of a snappy retort. It could be wonderfully vicious. And the words could form an image of you snarling at them! Just think of the possibilities.

See? Smoking is good for you.

There's an article out today that reports a surprising medical finding. It seems that smokers -- and especially heavy smokers -- have a significantly lower risk of severe osteoarthritis.

Take that, restrictive smoking laws! Those smokers are just trying to stay healthy.

Defensive indifference, round two

I read an article on physorg.com today about longevity. In it, a scientist predicted that within 25 years, humans would be born who would live for 1,000 years. Never mind whether he's right or not. Let's just think about how this would change things.

For the sake of argument, let's take the idea a step further. What if we could undergo a treatment today that made us live for 1,000 years? You know what would happen almost immediately? Suddenly everyone would care about global warming! Because it would affect them.

You know I'm right. People are so goddamn selfish that they're willing to let the world die as long as it happens at a later date, to someone else. But make us all live for 1,000 years and suddenly people would care about the future, because it would be their future.

This thought is disheartening because it's obviously true. Defensive indifference: people don't care about anything unless it affects them personally. And so today I send out a big "ugh!" to the human race. Perhaps we don't deserve to prosper as a species. Maybe it would be best if we simply went extinct. I just don't know anymore.

PS: If you click on the link above to read the article at physorg, you may notice that the title of the article, "Is living forever in the future?", is literally senseless. The headline should read, "Is living forever in our future?" 

Are these the "good old days" for this blog?

I must say, I enjoy writing posts for the blog. And frankly, the lack of commenters doesn't bother me. Annie's quite enough -- and there's always the occasional comment from Carmine, who reads the blog daily (and better yet, supplies me with images. Go, Carmine). Plus the blog sees about 50 hits a day. I have no clue who these visitors are since they never leave breadcrumbs.

But now that I've finished Xmas Carol (see short post below) I'm inevitably closer to the day when the public gets its hands on my novel. In the e-book I'm going to include a link to this blog. I guess this means that at some point we'll hear from satisfied readers, unsatisfied readers, and all sorts of irate wingnuts. Whatever the result, it won't be the same blog.

So I'm thinking maybe these are the good old days. The nature of the blog will change when/if readers visit. I'd love it if a lively, good-spirited group of commenters arrived. As for the wingnuts, what can you do? There are wingnuts in the world, and that's a fact. Hopefully, a group of commenters will have fun razzing them. It might even get a bit PZ-ish around here. One can hope.

One final note: after the book is out, I'm not at all sure how I should handle comments that contain spoilers. This is a biggie for me. Each of my books has surprises for readers. If commenters talk about those elements of the book(s) here -- it will screw up the experience for potential readers.

Well, I'll figure it out when I get there -- if I get there. Maybe no one will buy my book(s). In which case, Annie and Carmine and I will just have to carry on without the throng. Oh, the humanity! On the other hand, what the hell. We're up to the task.

What do you think? Savannah? Anyone?

Xmas Carol is finished

Yesterday I finished my final edit of Xmas Carol. Today I'm printing the book (okay, my sister is printing it) and tomorrow I'll send a copy to our own Artichoke Annie, who has agreed to read it. No one else has read the final version. Annie will be the first. Well, okay: I also gave an ePub version to Carmine, who wants to reread the book -- always a good sign.

I can't believe I'm done!

Racist terminology on MSNBC

A headline at MSNBC today reads "The jig is up -- men like to cuddle more". I'm amazed at their insensitivity.

No one should use the term "the jig is up". It means "the black guy is hanging in the tree" and does not belong in civilized discourse.

In the culture-free zone that is our media, I'm sure the dimwit writer who produced this headline wasn't aware of the phrase's meaning. At least, I hope s/he wasn't. But there's no excuse for ignorance.

On the other hand, when I googled the phrase today I only found one reference to this historical meaning. It was a question on a page labeled "Phrase Finder Derivation Discussion". The writer asked:

I once took a course in Black History, and we were told that the saying "The jig is up" referred to the lynching of a black... "is up" meant that the black had been hung/lynched... the rope around his neck lifted him up... now dead. In the past week, I have heard officials/speakers at two different graduation ceremonies use the phrase, and when I looked it up, I was NOT able to verify my interpretation learned in the Black History course. One of the graduation speaker was the actor Tom Hanks, and I would assume he would have pretty good knowledge of what he spoke... Anybody help me?

And the derivation fools wrote in response, "Nothing to do with lynching." I beg to differ. This was a phrase used in the South to indicate a "successful" lynching. That America has decided to forget this is pitiful and disturbing.

This fact may have fallen down the white memory hole but I guarantee you there are many African-Americans out there who are greatly offended when this phrase is used. And that's why MSNBC needs to apologize. 

Any people of color want to chime in on this? Do you find it offensive? (Okay, white people can comment too.)

Leigh Bowery was a genius

Leigh Bowery, according to Wikipedia, was an "Australian performance artist, club promoter, actor, pop star, model and fashion designer." I saw a documentary about him once and fell in love with him. He did things like no one else.

This man was a monumental creative genius. Each night he'd go out to a club, dressed in a new outfit of his own design. He did this every day! And the designs, as you can see from these photos, were startling. He carved out new territory in his final years in a mad, years-long design-a-thon, never stopping, always producing, day after day. He paved the way for many artists and fashion designers who followed, among them Boy George (who copied many of his looks) and Alexander McQueen, who certainly fed off Bowery's attitude.

I think Leigh Bowery was one of the all-time, mainline sources of creativity. Something wild was working its way through this man, and he shared it all with the world, showing them things they'd never seen or imagined. I'm just floored by the images he created. I wish he was still alive today. Dog knows what he'd be doing by now. Alas, he died in 1994, reportedly from AIDS-related causes. An oddly private man when not performing, Bowery reportedly didn't want people to be told of his death. He said, "tell them I've gone pig farming in Bolivia".

He was something. I mean, just look at the large-leg thing. It's brilliant. He wasn't limited by the structure of the human body. He made his own shapes, and they were something to behold. I adore this guy.

One last image. Ain't he great?

"Hugging Saint" comes to New York, hugs

The "hugging saint".

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known to her followers as "Amma," is one strange cookie. She just hugs people. That's it. Amma "offers words of encouragement and prayer to anyone who comes forward". The power of suggestion does the heavy lifting. All she has to do is chill and hug.

The woman attracts huge crowds and her followers are exuberant in their addle-brained praises. According to an article on NY1:

"When you see her and she hugs you, you just get rewards beyond belief," said devotee Erica Hayward.

"I was a little bit skeptic. I don't know if it was just love. It was a beautiful experience," said Patricia Muller, who was in tears following her embrace. 

"Its an uplifting healing, connecting of the heart energies," said devotee Jerry Adler. 

Indeed. Okay, so it's wingnut stuff for wingnuts. We knew that going in. But the unusual thing is that unlike the greedy, carnivorous, science-hating, gay-hating, religious "leaders" in our country, the hugging saint seems to do good things with the money people give to her, at least, according to her rep's statement:

Her spokesman said Amma's charity, Embracing The World, has given more than $60 million to disaster relief around the world. In her native country of India, she has taken in 50,000 orphans and provided some $60 million in medical services. In the United States, she feeds some 75,000 people each day through her soup kitchen.

I'd like to know what sort of nonsense she puts in the orphans' heads, and I'd like to see actual records of that disaster relief donation, if you don't mind. But let's say for the sake of argument that she's for real and has a heart of gold. Hell, maybe it's true.

She's still a snake oil salesman but if she makes a lot of money and helps people with it, I don't see any harm in people wasting their time getting hugged. It's all pretty innocuous (except for the needless spreading of germs, of course). You know, if the religious loons in this country acted more like this woman and less like feral animals, they'd be way easier to stomach.

July 4th reading

Pfc. Bradley Manning, American hero.

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent article up today about Pfc. Bradley Manning. On this day, we should celebrate those who risk all for freedom. On this day, we should celebrate Bradley Manning, a true hero in the most American sense of the term.

Enigmatic is good

You can't get much more enigmatic than the lyrics in this song by Nick Drake. It's called "Know". Here are the lyrics:

Know that I love you

Know I don't care

Know that I see you

Know I'm not there.

And here's the song.