February 2014 Archives

The Thunder Cometh

Rad note � the text contained in this entry was lifted from another entry and transferred here to its own, separate entry-page .. in order to give me better focus on my subject.

At the end of this entry (that you are now reading) I will provide a link to return you to the exact spot from which this text was lifted.

Here you go...

Effect of the Artist on the Culture (and Vice Versa)

Anyway .. that is all I am going to say on the subject right now. Because I now find myself pondering [ i see the shift i must follow ] the role that is played by the artist in helping to define the culture (.. and vice versa).

Jules trying real hard in the final scene of Pulp FictionBut surely you can see how this might run parallel with ..

.. the topic of today's entry � exploring the limits of poetic (artistic) license.

Before leaving this subject however, let me just add that my intuition here ..

.. is that my friend, with the gift for words, is not limited to crafting lyrics.

You think I'm joking, or maybe even crazy, but I bet that, with a little practice, he could craft a very nicechildren's book.

(Which is no mean feat, and probably requires the consultation of a third grader.) Or even a novel.

Because the gift is not limited to any one genre. The gift is not limited, period.

This is not the right way to say it, but you will catch my drift � the only limitation I have encountered with the gift is � the size of your balls.

And this man has large balls. Very large. Cojones grande huevos. Dragging on the floor behind him. "Anybody seen my wheelbarrow?" The cantaloupe man.

To be honest, I am surprised that avant-garde directors such as Tarantino havent solicited his song-writing talents (.. like Peckinpah did with Dylan).

Or maybe they did, and he turned them down.

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Sex with Powerful Women

Rad note � This entry contains text that was lifted from another entry and transferred here .. to its own, separate entry-page .. because the subject seemed so different (.. I think you will agree).

At the end of this entry (that you are now reading) I will provide a link to return you to the exact spot from which the text in this entry was lifted.

Here you go...

Strange After-Thought Sex with Powerful Women

Certainly you are familiar-with the way that one-thing can trigger thoughts of another. (� I've always wanted to begin an entry with that sentence.)

Now I admit that it may simply be the result of reading Stendhal [ Le Rouge et Le Noir ] .. but I have been thinking .. about what it is like to have sex with a powerful or influential woman.

Indian Point Nuclear plant, New York, Hudson RiverWhich reminded me of when .. I was working in New York ..

.. where there was an engineer-girl .. who ran a crew of guys.

A half-dozen guys. All smart. Playing with reactor fuel. Shit like that. Sharp cookies.

Myself, I was living on a blow-up air mattress in the living room (yes, in the "living room" .. more people = less rent per person).

We were all working 12-hour days, six days a week. Sharing a place with 3 or 4 other people I'd only recently met.

Different people from different states working different shifts with different days off. Some guys, some girls. Now you might think this a challenge, but I had such a great time with these people ..

.. who I rarely saw at home, but who both laughed and cried with me. Both girls and guys, and their friends and lovers.

Almost like family. Strange to be treated with such care by people you barely know.

You havent lived, dawg, let me tell you, until you've blown up a leaky air-mattress after a beer or two. Every night before you go to sleep. (On plastic.)

Your head feels like it's gonna come off .. and now it's time to go to sleep.

The place was a dive. A total dive. But even dives in New York are expensive.

[ Here's what I learned � when people are kind and courteous, life in a dive is better than living with someone who hates your guts. No matter how nice that place might be. ]

But this engineer-girl (and her crew-of-guys) were PUT UP at a very nice resort-like place. (If I said the name of their company, you would definitely know it.)

Now I did not WORK FOR this girl .. but she did not want her (crew of) guys to know about our thing. Which I could totally understand. In the mornings, she would get me up extra early .. and "check the coast"

Nuclear reactor spent fuel cell being moved in a spent fuel pool (of water)"Coast is clear," she says .. motioning with her hand. "Go!" A pat on your butt as you slip out the door and sneak quietly down the hallway.

I liked her. An athletic girl. Looked like a sports-model. Loved all kinds of sports. Great skin. Late-twenties.

Sporting a Sexy Tan in the New York Snow

She had just arrived from some island somewhere .. sporting a gorgeous bronze tan .. in New York, no less ..

.. where everybody else is pale-white .. winter, with snow on the ground. Early March.

Talk about making a nuclear-grade entrance. Yes, she got my attention right away.

I normally saw her dressed in baggy anti-contamination clothing, hood and all. But when dressed up (.. in girly clothes) she was a sight. Have mercy. Downright intimidating.

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Rad note » the text contained in this entry has been lifted from another entry. It was short enough that I (simply) duplicated the entire section and posted it here.

Having its own, separate entry allows me better focus on this topic that I find interesting and worth exploring further.

At the end of this entry (that you are now reading) I will provide a link that returns you tyo the exact spot in the original entry.

The impetus for this entry came from the statement where I wrote:

I figure, "Hey, the 21st century economy is being run in 'experimental' mode, so the 21st century artist should probably not be far behind."

Here you go...

The Always-Surprised Fed » 'makes it up' As They Go

Jim Rickards says that the always-surprised Fed makes it up as they goTo my point about our economy being run in "Experimental Mode" ..

.. we have Jim Rickards saying here (Feb 12, 2014):

"The Fed is *always* surprised .. because their models are flawed. Their forecasting record is about the worst in Economics. That's not just rhetoric.

You can actually go back and look at their one-year forward forecast for the last four years. Every one of them was wrong by orders of magnitude.

So they have a terrible forecasting record. So the fact that they were surprised by the data doesnt surprise me because they're always surprised.

The Fed has missed every bubble for the last twenty years. They didnt get one of them right. We have Bernanke on record in 2007 talking about the mortgage meltdown saying that this is going to blow over.

They've been making it up for the last five years and they're going to keep making it up." <end Rickards' quote>

» Federal Reserve Waxes Avant-Garde Like Joyce

James Joyce (1882-1941)Notice in particular, the phrase » making it up. Because the process of » making-it-up-as-you-go ..

.. sometimes called » stream-of-consciousness ..

.. is normally associated with avant-garde writers such as James Joyce.

Let me quote for you directly from the opening line of his Wikipedia entry:

"..an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century."

Joyce, okay. I can go there. I can understand Joyce making it up as he goes.

But to run an economy in experimental mode .. would be even more dangerous than running a nuclear reactor in experimental mode ..

(.. because it can harm so many more people).

A ship sailing in uncharted waters .. would not that venture seem more risky? Than a voyage you had made many times before.

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� The best party I ever went to was held up in Los Angeles .. at the home of a professor at USC's School of Cinema. It was billed as a � Valentine's Day Lonely Hearts Party. (Or something like that.) So I admit that my expectations were not very high.

The Famous Hollywood SignI had never heard of such a thing and found the concept more than curious.

But this professor, who was a surprisingly youngish woman, and who had helped the Film school girl get into Film school ..

.. opened her home to her students who might not have anyone special to spend the holiday with.

It became a popular thing. Other professors showed up, too. Yes, you could bring a date .. but you didnt have to. (That was the whole point. And most didnt.)

My point � you could *feel* the creative energy there. There was much outdoor decking in the back.

Lots of trees back there .. and undulating hills. Lovely neighborhood. (I did not know that LA had neighborhoods like that.)

The most striking aspect of this particular home .. was how dramatically the front hid what was out back.

I mean, you felt like you had entered another world soon as you came thru the front door .. but especially as you stepped outside out back.

"That's a good trick," I thought. Almost like an optical illusion. Front � plain, sparse. Back � lush, tropical. Like you were living on a hillside that sloped away from you.

So, right from the git-go I was intrigued. "I may not be totally sure what it is, but I definitely like this place."

Just a nice place to hang out, even without all the cool people. Very inviting. Like the kind of place � you dont want to leave.

I was loving it. I mean, the atmosphere itself there was like drinking nectar.

And I myself have a very different background .. from all these creative-types. So they seemed to find me different, and maybe even interesting.

Drilling Down One On One

I am a one-on-one type of guy. In group settings, I tend to let others talk while I just listen. But one-on-one situations let you steer the conversation into more arcane directions .. where you can � drill down .. into some very interesting topics and subjects. (Which is where I like to go.)

So I was making the rounds, and everybody there looked like they were interesting to talk to .. but I found myself in the kitchen ..

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