William Blake: Before His Time

The greatest thing about William Blake, for me, is how remarkably accessible his work is to a modern audience. He had a creative disdain for the concept of organized religion, and yet he fanatically absorbed both the Bible and Greek Mythology. Blake supported human sexuality (and female rights to their own sexuality, an even rarer occurrence), racial equality, and equality between the sexes; all the evils of which were steadfastly rooted within his 1800's society. He only traveled more than a day's walk out of London once in his life, but his works traverse many planes. Though his work is considered Romantic, he preceded even that literary movement, and his ideas, nearly unrecognized in his own time, mesh perfectly with our own, nearly 200 years after his death.

Blake was highly reverent of the teaching of the Bible, though he felt free to make personal interpretations, and ascribe errors as he saw fit. Ultimately, Blake created his own religion of sorts, re-naming several gods and creating his own mythology. The diversion from Christianity which I find most intriguing, personally, is in reference to his ideas regarding the soul. He believed that the soul and the body were not two separate entities, but rather that the body was a portion of the soul, detected by the senses. This root philosophy directed most of the others, for since he did not believe the body to be innately sinful, he did not see any point in orthodox self-denial. He lived life to the fullest, reveled in pleasure, and felt safe in his feeling that the concept of sin as defined by the church was merely a trap for mens desires, and to abstain or repress those desires was to deny life. (I know you think he's a cheating jackass right about now, but shockingly, all accounts indicate that he lived a long, happily monogamous life with his one wife, Catherine. I guess his philosophy still doesn't involve pleasure at the expense of others.)

I am consistently making an independent study of his body of poetry and amazing engravings; Blake was one of the rare people that my professors always seemed to assume had already been covered and thus, ironically, he remained rather ignored throughout my education.

With this in mind, I bring you a collection of my personal favorite individual lines from his "Proverbs of Hell."

Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity.

He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.

He whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.

Shame is Pride's cloke.

Prisons are built with the stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.

Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.

The eagle never lost so much time, as when he submitted to learn of the crow.

You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.

Expect poison from the standing water.

Listen to the fools reproach! it is a kingly title!

Exuberance is Beauty.

Improve[me]nt makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are the roads of Genius.


I will not insult my audience's intelligence with interpretations of the above lines.

To Energy Wasters

If you haven't read this yet, you should really get on it. As if global warming weren't a scary enough idea, apparently the Earth only has to get a little bit warmer before the Arctic Tundra starts to release all of the greenhouse gasses stored beneath the permafrost, and send the problem wheeling far out of humanity's control. 

So please, get over yourselves and start taking responsibility for the waste you create, so that your children still have land to live on. 

Thanks

SEX Gets No Love From Feminism

When I set out to research previously published material  on a feminist perspective to Sex and the City for an article, I thought I'd get a wealth of heated material.  I expected to find an eternal stalemate deathmatch between the traditional second-wave feminist faction and the "girlie" feminism, or the "post-feminism." I expected the wordy arguments of the second-wavers, I expected their declamation that SATC was just a syndicated designer shoe ad, and I expected the claim that heart of the show was misogyny because all of the women seem to be driven by longing for a man. What I didn't expect was only one article praising the show. 

One article. Seriously, guys? This brought visions of rejection letters swimming into my subconscious; if there are no other articles like this out there, what is the likelihood of mine being published? I mean, normally a niche idea is a good idea, but if I'm marketing it to proprietors of feminist literature, there doesn't seem to be any point in selling them a viewpoint that they despise. Is there? 

Misogyny. Product Placement. Dependance. Dysfunction. Surreal Imaging. Hegemonic Dissonances. I agree that all of these points can be made, but I personally believe that the show does a lot of good simply by giving a time slot to a set of strong women of independent means, who aren't afraid of what the world is going to say about them. 

Yes. These women are too pretty to be an accurate representation of the typical woman in power. Yes, they perpetuate a possibly abnormal obsession with expensive footwear. And yes, they all are lucky enough to have succeeded in careers that have most people swimming in envy. But they perpetuate actual emotions, and they solve problems in the workplace that many women can identify with. 

I point to an episode entitled "Belles of the Balls" wherein Samantha gets turned down for a job because, as a woman, she was too promiscuous. Her response? "If I were a man, you would have shaken my hand and gotten me a scotch. It is shocking that someone with such an innovative vision should be so short-sighted." 

Perhaps instead of bad-mouthing one of the only network television shows to address the issue of abortion head-on, we should instead investigate the cultural reasons whereby these characters dress and act the way they do. What cultural changes need to be made in order for a show to air about 4 normal looking women, who struggle in love and in the workplace, and don't really want kids? 

In the meantime, I'll take my syndicated Jimmy Choo commercial and like it, thank you very much.

On Creative Writing Programs

There have been a range of disagreements among authors over the years as to the usefulness of creative writing programs, with all their flaws. Mark Twain was famous for hating them, as he hated most everything, whereas some of the newer writers don't seem as opposed. 

So what's the deal? Will all creative writing teachers truly squash your creativity into the tiny box of their own taste? Probably not. I'd like to think that especially the graduate programs have evolved past that. 

If they are safe for writers, than what is the source of trepidation? Does it spout from that unspoken fear that entering a program is a subconscious admittance that your own ideas aren't good enough? That you aren't talented enough, and that you only hope to be published based off of the memorization and application of taught form? Probably. Is it true? Humph. 

I suspect that the true answer to this question cannot be found without first completing a Master's Degree. It's sort of like trying to figure out if you are allergic to peanut butter by reading the jar. But is it worth the risk? Will it be worth it to expend the time and effort (not to mention the great expense) for an unknown reward? Or, *gasp*, possibly for great detriment? 

I don't know, but I suppose I am going to find out. At worst, I hear they force you to write a whole lot, and to read your material out loud in front of an audience. That should at the very least quell my fear of public humiliation. Anyways, a fear of education is silly.  As you cannot lock your children in basements to preserve their purity, you also cannot prohibit yourself from learning anything because you are afraid of the results the knowledge may bring. If I don't approve of the writing methods that they may of may not teach me, I have to trust that I am intelligent enough not to be magically and subconsciously bound by those methods. 

Sometimes I that publishing houses would include an author's education on the book jackets. While I think it's great that the author is happily married, and living with their 12 dogs and 8 parakeets on a farm in Nebraska, it would be quite helpful to note that they received a Master's degree from Princeton. 

When Even FOX is Snarky, You Know Somethin's Up

Throughout all of the debacles that the Bush Administration has put the American public through in the past 8 years, it seemed that America could always count on the FOX news network to put the most rigidly conservative spin on the day's breaking news updates. Well, it seems that some things are just too outrageous for even FOX to get behind. In this article, released earlier today, the writer takes a refreshingly sadistic approach to reporting the newest update on the Russia-Georgian situation. 

Although this outbreak sparked many questions within news talk shows regarding Obama and McCain's abilities to handle this "3am crisis," cameras seemed to shy sadly away from the fact that, when alerted to the situation, our current President simply remained in his seat in Beijing, enjoying his vacation at the world Olympic games. 

Since Bush's return earlier this week, he seems to have taken every opportunity to surpass his already winning record as a poster-boy for hypocrisy: 

In a chronological manner, the writer simply lays Bush's own speech before his audience, as a series of key quotes, inviting us to make what we will of them.

Item #1 The US and Poland agreed yesterday to set up an American missile defense base on Poland's soil. However, in his speech today, Bush continued to declaim that "the Cold War is over. The days of satellite states and spheres of influence are behind us." 

Item #2 Bush called out Russia for it's use of "bullying and intimidation," stating that they were "not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century."

...did I mention that this entire speech was given just outside the Oval Office? Bush was answering questions while en route to the plane that would take him to his ranch in Texas, where he will be enjoying a two-week vacation. This from the President who has already amassed almost 2 years of vacation out of the 7.5 years he has been in office. 

 By simply relaying the quotes as they lay, this reporter seems to have broken through FOX's conventional niceties to do the cruelest thing one could possibly do: let Bush speak for himself. 

10 ideas if your ipod fails at the gym

If you're a gym regular like me, then you know that when your ipod goes kaplut while you're working out, it's bad times. So today, when the inevitable happened to me, I attempted to concoct a list of things to do while you're running aimlessly. 

1. Watch TV

    Now, there are several problems with this proposition. I mean, firstly, it's not like there's ever anything good on when you're at home, why should this devilish device agree with your whims when you're at your most desperate for entertainment? 

I'm not saying I haven't frequently fallen victim to the 'stare at the screen 'cuz it's there' phenomena. It just never leads anywhere good. I have now watched about ten more E special features than I ever desired (which was, um, none), and have been repeatedly grossed out by the media's obsessive over-coverage of murders and child abductions. 

2. Stare at the wall

Really, this is only good for about 10 seconds.

3. Make Grocery Lists

This is a great use of your time, provided you can trust yourself not to immediately forget the list upon introduction of some better form of entertainment... I cannot. 

4. Watch your fellow gym-goers

    Please do not do this. It's creepy. Very, very creepy. And really, it's only interesting for the first 30 seconds. Then you remember that they, too, are running in place for no apparent reason. 

5. Plan your next halloween costume

    Really. You'll come up with something amazing if you think long enough. I decided on a group costume-- "Things that would survive a nuclear holocaust," costumes include Mr. Twinkie, a Cockroach, Diet Coke, and possibly Larry King.

6. Plot world Domination

...of course, this may not be as much fun for you as it is for me. Because, you know, I will be reclaiming the world as my own once you successfully unite the peasants on my behalf.

7. Try to name all the candy in the impulse section of your grocery store

     Naturally, the detriment of this idea is that, after you're done working out, you'll want to go to the store to see if you got them correct, and this can only lead to eating more Reeses'. 

8. Name the starting line-up of your home baseball team

If you can do this easily, I recommend naming the entire bullpen, and then moving onto    other teams. So far, I can do all of the Giants, and almost all of the A's, Red Sox, Yankees, and Mariners. It is totally not impossible.

9. Decide which olympic sport you would compete in if a fairy came down and offered you gold-medal talents in one area and one area only.

     If you could go back in time, here are some rather odd activities you used to be able to compete in at the olympics:

            -live pigeon shooting (valid only in 1900 in Paris)

            -pistol deuling (1906)

            -solo synchronized swimming (1992. And don't ask me to explain it. Crazy '90s)

    -club swinging (1904, 1932. The club had ribbons on it. Men did this. Yeah.)

            -Tug of War (1900-1920)

            -Motor Boating (1908. With an actual boat. You Pervert.)

            -Running Deer Single Shot (1904-1936)

10. Create a new recipe in your head.

       This is much healthier than the candy one, as it involves you wanting to go straight home and cook something, instead of eating chocolate. 

So there you have it. Hopefully some of these will keep you entertained while you're mourning your decision not to check your battery before leaving the house. Although, I would like to recommend that you keep your headphones in your ears while you are doing all of this. People without headphones look shady, and god forbid you should actually have to interact with another human being. 

Long River, High Sky

Let me preface this post by saying that LINES ballet is my all-time favorite ballet company. Alonzo King is a genius, and there is still, even with how out of shape I am, nothing I wouldn't do for the opportunity to be in that company. Every single one of those dancers are gorgeous. 

                                                                                                                                                        

Now, down to the real stuff. I meant to post a review of the last ballet I saw LINES perform back in late May, just after I saw them, but---yada yada yada. Anyway, I'm doing it now. The title of the piece 

was "Long River High Sky," and it was a collaboration between LINES ballet and the kung fu monks of Shaolin Temple USA. Now, if that isn't enough to get you interested, I don't know what is. 

Though there wasn't a specific "story" to the piece per se, there were many recurring themes throughout, woven together to create something as typically beautiful as only LINES can promise. A zen setting was ingrained within each person's movement-- it was as if the dancers alternated between this world and the next, and occasionally the monks would achieve some sort of serenity whereby they could interact with the dancers. 

In contrast to the ethereal parts of the piece were sections during which the monks and the dancers seemed to interact on this plane. The dancers played normal humans, and many people occupied the stage--walking, dancing, and clearly seeing one another, though only a couple of the performers would ever dance together. 

To the oblivious bystander (ie. me), this ballet seemed to be a perfect window into what I imagine is the life of a storybook Shaolin Monk. It was amazing. If you ever get a chance to see 

e of a storybook Shaolin Monk. It was amazing. If you ever get a chance to see LINES perform at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts in San Francisco, GO!