disaster relief... it's the new christmas!

let's state it simply. the new american way of not caring about the world or even the rest of our country all the time is to throw a bunch of money at that world or that country when disaster strikes. sue, relief organizations have existed for a long time, and sure people have made donations before. but, between the reaction to (and coverage of) the hurricane hitting new orleans and the tsunami earlier this year, it's a little pathetic, the size of teh divergence between how much we supposedly care now, when disaster strikes, as compared to how much we cared about, i don't know, the amount of poverty in new orleans or in southeast asia before these disasters

but, of course, we'd have to pay attention to more than just the live team coverage at the top of the news hour to be able to care, wouldn't we?

and, we just don't have the energy for that. we're too busy worrying about what new songs we should put on our ipods, what new ringtones we should put on our cellphones, what tome cruise and katie holmes are doing this week, what lie from george bush and his cronies we're expected to believe of late...

...

needless to say, i won't be donating any money, and not just because i can't afford it--send donations by paypal to robertegblack@hotmail.com, save us from this horror of life in southern california--but because i don't feel like fueling the hypocrisy of america. we run out and kill some of the peoples of the world, and sit back and watch american idol and dancing with the stars, and we wait for a disaster, nevermind the ongoing disaster that is the freight train of our culture and our war

fuck...

7/21 is just a joke

but, a hearty "nice try" to jill lawless of the associated press. at least, she's the only one i saw trying this with a headline, turning 7/21 into a 9/11 type "remember the alamo" slogan, nevermind that the whole 9/11 thing was stupid from the start here (regardless of how many people have embraced it). there's a 11 september every year, people. and, sure enough (i checked), there's a 21 july every year as well, even in england. so, stop it and stop it now, as dr phil might say.

that headline, by the way: Police Raid West London Homes in 7/21 Case

BE PREPARED... to die and/or be tracked
tv guide is reinventing itself to have less of the schedule and more articles

law & order producer dick wolf is looking forward, despite the cancellation of trial by jury, to doing more law & order shows, including a french version of criminal intent

four boy scout leaders died monday (and another, plus two workers, injured) when a ten pole hit a power line. apparently, they were teaching the boy scouts what not to do when erecting a tent near power lines. needless to say, the boys got the message. the day before that, a boy scout volunteer died from a heart attack at that same jamboree event (some big boy scout shindig that gets sponsorship from the department of defense, despite the whole requirement-to-accept-god bit of the boy scouts... it should be noted, of course, that a federal judge has said it can't sponsor it anymore)

and, while some folks in rural south dakota (as if there is any urban south dakota) are fighting to keep analog cell phones, it turns out that the fcc wants all cell phone service to be digital by 2008. and, in other cell phone/fcc/big brother news, the fcc wants %95 of wireless company's customers to have by the end of this year, apparently, phones containing chips that allow emergency operators to pinpoint a person's location... when a call is placed to 911. cause, certainly the ability to track cell phone users would never be abused, and of course, if the government were to use it for anything but rescuing 911 callers, we would certainly hear about it, just like we hear about it everytime the patriot act--recently renewed, by the way--authorizes them to check on all our buying habits and our library check outs

and, part of iraq's new constitution gives islam a major role in civil law, raising concern about women's rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance

oh, and london and egypt are apparently exploding all over the place. and, it turns out the london police have nothing still on that guy they gunned down in the subway

but, the space shuttle blasted into outer space this morning, and christianity is all the rage, so all is well

no fucking comment
"The House voted to extend indefinitely the anti-terrorist USA Patriot Act, while limiting to 10 years two provisions of the law that have become linchpins in the ongoing congressional debate: allowing federal agents to use roving wiretaps and to search library and medical records."

don't wear a coat in london

more explosions in london the other day and apparently, they're all freaking out now. a guy of asian descent dared wear a long coat on a warm day and plainclothes cops chased him down and when he fell down they shot him multiple times and he died

sure, it's possible he actually was a "terrorist" but the entirety of cause those cops had was that he had on a coat and ran from the police--note, of course, those police were not in uniform, and who wouldn't run from a bunch of guys with guns?

it should be noted that one witness said the man appeared to have "a bomb belt and wires coming out." of course, then you have to notice that after the fact, reports haven't mentioned that bomb belt and those wires actually having been there

and this witness comment should be noted as well: "they pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. he's dead. he looked like a cornered fox. he looked petrified." that witness went on to say that the guy didn't have any wires, just a thick coat... in london. isn't it the way of things in london, weatherwise, that if you wait five minutes the weather will change? isn't that what they say? maybe, despite the heat, this guy just liked to be prepared. or maybe he's a big fan of columbo. or maybe he's mentally retarded. or maybe he's a terrorist who just happened to have on his coat but didnt' bring his bomb today...

do any of those things demand his death?

poem - "bored"
thousands dead and i don't care
thousands dead and i don't care
thousands dead and i don't care

it's a start...

might as well be jimmy cracking corn,
the details of this iraqi porn,
'cuase you know we're not supposed to see
the individuals dead for who they may be.
just know that we're winning,
that the onward christian soldier's grinning,
and god is on our side,
'cause surely the good lord CAN abide
all the blood...
afterall, he made the fucking flood.
and, he's supposed to be worth it,
worship, adoration, and all that shit...

but, what's the point,
when the greater good destroys the join
and thousands are just a sacrifice?
don't make me say it twice.
what's the point,
when the GREATER GOOD destroys the joint,
kills all the infidels...
ring the victory bells,
let your light shine,
and his kingdom be thine...

not mine...

built on the dust
of the wreckage that must
still, forever stink of death
as the world tomorrow draws his breath
and we all get to...

except, we aren't supposed to look
too deeply into the religion or the book
behind it,
the contradictions that don't fit...

but, WE'RE WINNING!
cheshire bush is grinning,
lying through his teeth,
when his sword's already out its sheathe,
and the plowshare's trampled under,
the world torn asunder...

thousands dead,
another dozen just the other day...
i bow my head,
change the channel. what can i say?

i'm bored.
bush scored.

and, i just want...
i just want...
i just want...
i just...

what's on tv tonight?

regb
6-29-5

poem - "useless"
you just did what they told ya
you weren't even a soldi(a)
their orders, you'd blindly follow
'cause your decadent life was so hollow
they'd tell you to mourn,
yellow ribbon, black arm band, at the terrorists point your scorn,
a patriotic wave of the flag--
useless; might as well be a plastic bag.
that would mean more,
as your biggest decisions come down to the store:
paper or plastic? want fries with that?
guzzle more gas with your SUV as you get fat.
and, folks half way 'cross the world die in your name,
but you're watching American Idol... surely, you're not to blame

regb
7-14-5

harry potter is destroying christianity
gabriele kuby, a bavarian-based roman catholic sociologist, wrote a book criticizing rowling's books, arguing "that the potter novels blur the boundaries between good and evil and impair young readers' ability to distinguish between the two. she also asserts that they glorify the world of witches and magicians at the expense of the human world"

from the new pope: "these [books] are subtle seductions that work imperceptibly, and because of that deeply, and erode christianity in the soul before it can even grow properly"

i just have one response to all that

GOOD!

charades
i have trouble sticking thinks out, seeing them through (except for marriage and lego projects apparently). i had a comic strip, twice, and it fizzled, twice. i had an ongoing thing of being a writer (writing every day, cranking out many things still unpublished), but that fizzled into an occasional thing (occasional including the second gardia book getting into my head again lately, probably to see some light in a few weeks when hayley and kieran are in school). i started this blog and had a hell of a good time for a while, knocking out some great stuff, throwing in some of my best material and really making a go of it... but no one read it (save my wife and a couple others (literally)) and it's fizzled. i keep trying to restart it, jump it into overdrive, get all the things in my head out, even if no one really bothers to read it regularly

but, then i sit down and just don't feel up to it, and you know why? cause i keep trying to make every entry into more of an essay, an addition to my old rodent bits column (another thing that fizzled) rather than a blog. thing is, i don't care for the kind of blog that has drunk folks commentating on their nights out while on the verge of passing out, or sketchpads (for literal sketches or for passing ideas (a la warren ellis, though his bad signal has just enough interesting stuff that i still subscribe)). i want mine to be more, but i can't keep up with what i want it to be

and, so here i am, coming into this entry with the idea of celebrity charades on my mind, wanting to go on and on about how reality television has truly, like so many projects of mine, fizzled and died--not that we won't happily watch it twitch for a while--and i wanted to segue into some other recent television, like my defense (albeit not a strong one) of the inside or my offense at the plot of last week's premiere of the closer despite some damn good writing and characterization... but what's the point in that when i started this thing because of politics?

--insert a big smirk here--

of course, isn't my whole thing, my gimmick if you will, to make strange segues between pop culture and politics and religion and my own disgust at most of it? or something like that. i should be saying today that, despite what the Right would have us think, we are not all at war, we are not all in danger. and, i should be cleverly linking that into discussion of the inside's idea of putting the bait at the forefront of the show, nevermind the cries of mysogny, or talk of how the closer's love for junkfood (but not donuts) isn't as cliched as some reviews would have you think, and making sure to mention cheney suggesting last week (or at least it made it onto the daily show last week) there wasn't point in arguing against people who disagreed with him, and maybe i'd throw in some prognostication about iraq and how the suicide bomber killing folks at a police station there is certainly not much of a good sign of our supposed success

but, i'm not in the mood for cleverness. hell, you know what i want to do today? i want to get a new pen to carry around in my pocket wherever i go, as the previous one died yesterday, and i want to wander across town with my kids, and research some stuff on samurai and bushido for lion, horse, tree and do some work on my lego astromech droid (you can see the head, for some sense of scale, here) and maybe squeeze in a movie, and tonight there's six feet under, hell's kitchen, bullshit!, the closer (which better prove tonight that writers of good characters can handle good plots as well, and not the predictable case they had last week... hell, between the cliches of this show and the inside, i wonder if the network cop show is finally dead as well) and the daily show. but, i'll be writing soon. thoughts of lion, horse, tree are playing about the corners of my head, twisting and shouting and asking me to let them out, so i'll probably have to be getting to that soon, and maybe i'll get this little blog here going again as well

or not

profound realization # 17
this has probably been covered before, but i never even took the time to think about it: the star wars movies are not science fiction

don't get me wrong; there are some definite sci-fi trappings in there, spaceships, blasters, aliens, laser swords, but thematically, it's all fantasy, not sci-fi. it's all about (and this is going by purpose, not necessarily execution, as some of the writing and directing falls a bit short in the recent episodes) the battle between good and evil and wizards (jedi, duh) and warriors and fantastic creatures (which might as well be dwarfs (ewoks), elfs (i don't know, those folks on kamino, just for one possibility?) and dragons and what have you. none of them need to be aliens, none of the jedi need to be anything other than elements of a tale of mysticism and politics (the latter especially prevalent in the recent trilogy), and the spaceships might as well be wagons or horses... or chariots, i suppose since they get involved in the fighting so directly. but, then, they fought on trucks and buggies in the road warrior, so it certainly isn't the method of conveyance that makes a thing into science fiction or fantasy or something else altogether (the road warrior being, arguably, the definitive action film). there's nothing of the jedi, midichlorians aside, that speaks at all of science. as han solo might point out, it's all a bunch of superstitious mumbo jumbo. the whole story's about as much a ripoff of fantasy epics like the lord of the rings as willow (another george lucas production, mind you) is. sure enough, the heart of each specific story lies in something other than the ripoff plot (and lucas acknowledged when he originally conceived of star wars that it was nothing but a ripoff (or at least homage) to old serials and stuff from joseph campbell's examination of myths and the hero's journey (certainly the fuel for many an epic fantasy)) somewhere in the actors and the specific story elements that take the plot beyond its generic roots. hell, thats why the orginal trilogy gets such recognition over the recent one: the actors and the specifics were better, less clinical, less sterile. in return of the jedi, we got to know something of the battle through admiral ackbar and lando calrissian and nien nunb and wedge antilles, and we were invested in these minor characters enough to care about not just the big jedi duel (vader vs luke) or the fight at the bunker on the forest moon (simple folk ewoks vs technologically superior imperials) but also in the space battle. in revenge of the sith, we get a spectacular battle, but it's just that: a spectacle, background imagery for a plot that doesn't demand we bother getting involved in a galactic conflict that clearly is shaping a hell of a lot of what we're seeing (looking at it from a realistic view of how the world (or universe) works, that is). in a new hope, a passing comment about the senate being dissolved actually means something, carries some weight, but in attack of the clones, that senate loses its power (long before the dissolution, by internal chronology) and we barely care, bring on the monsters and the droid battle and mace windu saying the "party's over" (just one phrase that didn't belong in the world of star wars, be it science fiction or fantasy (another being "girlfriend")), bring on the armies of the dead and the nazgul... oh wait, wrong fantasy film

the point of all this being, star wars, often held up as definitive science fiction, the epitome of special effects laden space opera fare, just isn't science fiction any more than highlander was a straight drama. thing is, i'd never really bothered to think about it until yesterday (while watching the two ewok films (which take the star wars universe and drop pretty much all the science fiction stuff altogether for giants, witches, magic objects and wilford brimley)) and it makes a strange sort of sense now how so many people can be big fans of star wars or star trek but not both (though there are certainly fans of both as well (me being one of those, sometimes); one of those series is science fiction, one of those is fantasy. they aren't necessarily supposed to share an audience

in other news, alone in the dark isn't a horror film either, despite it's packaging. it's an action film, an alien film, with a few spy film elements (and maybe even a few buddy cop picture details as well) thrown in for good measure... then some monsters interrupt every once in a while. yesterday was all about genre mix ups

then there was the shield and the daily show and a lego scuplture (which will be online soon here) just to round out the day