Not that I think anyone is especially interested in me as subject for biography, but once in a while I stumble on something that brings back a flood of memory and I feel compelled to say something about it. Recently a friend of mine wrote in his blog about the Twenties being the most painful time of life, at least of his life, and it got me thinking. All pain is relative and certain periods possess character, and characteristic pain. The Twenties are painful insofar as most of us assume—and have it assumed on our behalf—that we know what we want, know how to get it, and, most importantly of all, that we know who we are. …
Month: May 2010
Rand, Civil Rights, Rand
Rand Paul, senate hopeful for Kentucky, made a fool of himself with remarks about the 1964 Civil Rights Act and racism and affirmative action et cetera et cetera so on and so forth. If Kentucky votes him into office, they get what they deserve. There was a brief moment when I thought Ron Paul was worthy of some respect—he seemed willing to speak truth to power. I found that I disagreed with him on specifics, but it is useful (and rare) to have someone doing the Emperor’s New Suit schtick.
However, anyone who names a child after an ideological demagogue has some serious problems with reality. …
Labels
Conservative.
Liberal.
We act as if we know what these labels mean. Conservatives are traditionalists, fiscally opposed to anything that smacks of gambling, private, often religious, and pedantic on what they consider “appropriate” in either government or personal conduct.
Liberals, on the other hand, are often taken for progressive, willing to spend social capital to repair perceived problems, tolerant, agnostic if not atheist, and overly-concerned with a definition of justice that ought to be all-encompassing rather than what they perceive as sinecure for the privileged.
Well. Over on Facebook I posted a brief quote (my own) to boil down the actual underlying distinctions.…
What You See
One of the challenges I’ve always confronted as a visual artist is the fact that the image I conceive in my mind rarely is matched by what I’ve been able to produce as an artifact. Some photographs I’ve made I have been inordinately proud of. The ones I’ve liked best are those that have emerged sans expectations. I’ve “seen something” and made the image, only to discover later, in the lab, what it was I saw. But by then, it’s changed, because memory plays fast and loose with reality, and the picture I ended up making was its own thing.
Disappointment usually followed when I preconceived something at the time the shutter snapped and later I just couldn’t get that perceived image out on paper.…
Myself As Antique
We started cleaning the garage this weekend past. Made a lot of headway. We tackled boxes which we haven’t touched since we moved in, almost 19 years ago. Time flies when you have other things to do.
This morning I continued. There were a few boxes of assorted odds and ends that I needed to cull through. In doing so, I found this photograph.
Donna has only seen me without a beard once. She didn’t like the effect, mainly because int he years during which I’d had a beard I somehow misplaced my chin. Anyway. This was back when I was a trim young fella on the make, as it were.…
Zelazny and the Perils of Reading at a Young Age
Recently I started reading Roger Zelazny’s Amber series. I’ve been hearing about this for decades, how great it is, and till now it’s one of the few things of Zelazny’s that I’ve resisted reading.
See, it’s pretty much fantasy, in form if not conceit. I can see a way to describe the world he created here in quantum mechanical terms and render it SF, but frankly it’s a typical sword and sibling fantasy. Genealogy and combat.
But it’s Zelazny, so while reading it one is having a good time. He was always dependable that way, he was never dull. This, however, is not his major work.…