The Internet and Space

I left the theater last night feeling both heavy and empty.  This documentary caused me to laugh the hardest I have laughed in quite awhile.  At the same time, however, it forced me to reflect upon life in a profoundly sobering way.

The subject of the documentary, a flamboyantly articulate septuagenarian,  began life with a clear and particular dream of what he was to become in life.  He worked hard towards that end.  While in pursuit of his goal, he happened to make an industrial video which was far removed from his ideal.  In the end, this one, humorously absurd blip on his biographical radar suddenly became the reason why millions of people now know this man.

We all set out on a course which is purposed to lead to our dreams.  This documentary and its portrayal of this man’s life makes one wonder, “could I, too, veer so far off my intended course?”  None of us dream dreams and set ultimate life-goals with an understanding or even, perhaps, an inkling that we may not only fail to come close to them, but we may achieve the exact opposite.

My advice: do not find contentment in your aspirations; find contentment and let that contentment birth forth your aspirations.  Contentment is an end in and of itself.

“I shall be told, perhaps, that Alyosha was stupid, undeveloped, had not finished his studies, and so on.  That he did not finish his studies is true, but to say that he was stupid or dull would be a great injustice.  I’ll simply repeat what I have said above.  He entered upon this path only because, at that time, it alone struck his imagination and seemed to him to offer an ideal means of escape for his soul from darkness to light.  Add to that that he was to some extent a youth of our past generation–that is, honest in nature, desiring the truth, seeking for it and believing in it, and seeking to serve it at once with all the strength of a soul, seeking for immediate action, and ready to sacrifice everything, even life itself.  These young men unhappily fail to understand that the sacrifice of life is, in many cases, the easiest of all sacrifices.  They fail to understand that to sacrifice five or six years of their seething youth to hard and tedious study, if only to multiply ten-fold their powers of serving the truth and the cause they have set before them as their goal, is utterly beyond the strength of many men.”

Simply beautiful.

The Dutch pacifist, Bart de Ligt, promoted the idea that revolutions can not adopt the means of their oppressors without also adopting the ends of their oppressors (i.e., becoming oppressors themselves).

In the recent fictional film, Avatar, the commanding officer of a Blackwater-esque mercenary force shockingly declares that they will have to “…fight terror with terror…” in order to overcome the “terrorist” indigenous people of the fictional planet that is the subject of the story.  This declaration is shocking because of its honesty.  In reality, such a direct admission is absent from the lips of our leaders–but it is present, nonetheless.  It was present, for example, when Dick Cheney vocalized a need to operate on the “dark side.”  It was also present this weekend when Joe Lieberman and other politicians insisted that the changes and upgrades which have allegedly been made recently to facilities at Guantanamo have actually made it okay for us to continue its operations (completely ignoring the arguments for its closure in the first place; the operation as a whole–not just the facilities–is unconstitutional and inhumane).  The continuance of Guantanamo and our counterterrorist initiatives will never produce anything but more violence.

“For it is a fixed law that all means have their own abiding end, proceeding from the function for which they came into being, which can only be subordinated to other, loftier ends as far as the latter are attuned to the essential and, as it were, innate end.  Besides, every end suggests its own means.  To transgress this law inevitably brings about a tyranny of the means.  For if these lead away from their intended goal, then the more people use them, the farther they get from the objective and more their actions are determined by them.  For example, it is impossible to breathe by coal gas.  Life must have fresh air.  And freedom must be awakened and stimulated by freedom and in freedom.  It can never be born of violence.  At the most, we may seek liberty as an antidote to our bondage, just as we cry out for fresh air when we are threatened with asphyxiation.”

- Bart de Ligt: The Conquest of Violence (1937)

I’ve never liked Coldplay.  I’ve always been indifferent to Coldplay.  That is until I heard the uncanny similarities between one of their hit songs (bonus points for anyone who can name the Coldplay song, because I can’t) and Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love.”  Kraftwerk’s song is my favorite song in the entire world.  My indifference towards Coldplay quickly froze in to a solid block of dislike.  Yesterday, that solid block of dislike petrified into absolute disdain.  Check out what NPR has covered.

Is Coldplay capable of writing their own hit songs?  I’m sure they can, but they almost certainly can’t write songs with any musical merit by themselves.

Note: to be fair, it is now my understanding that Coldplay “sampled” Kraftwerk.  Nevertheless, my last two sentences remain unaltered.  Further, if you really love an artist, do you pay homage by simply using one of their melodies as the melody for one of your completely unrelated song (I fail to see how the Coldplay track references Kraftwerk even slightly except via melody).  I would submit that Coldplay has merely taken an amazing melody, re-couched it in a completely different song and sold it to a multitude of people who may never know who is Kraftwerk.  Paying homage would have meant magnifying Kraftwerk’s melody.  Instead, Coldplay has taken their glory.  Of course, if the melody is truly sampled, Kraftwerk only have themselves to blame as they would have had to approved such a use.

“The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan

Allow me to take a few seconds to tell you about my new favorite band: Dungen.

I only have listened to “4.”  However, from that record, alone, I can tell that this is a band who understands what I subscribe to, musically.  A touch of metal, a touch of jazz, infectiously peculiar melodies, and other-worldly textures let me know that I will be listening to Dungen far into the future.  Also, the drummer is an arsenal of rhythm.

“I will bring you gold apples and grapes made of rubies
That have shone in the eyes of a prince of the breeze.
Bright cascading crystals, they danced in the sand dunes
On the beach of no footprints to harpsichord tunes.
A throne of white ivory, a gown of white lace
Lies still in the magic of a timeless place.
One hundred small children, they laugh at the white doves
That rest on their hands with the touch of love.
On a hillside of velvet the children they lay down
And make fun of the grown-ups with their silly frown.
And the sound of their laughter is the sound of the green sea
As it washed around the foot of the seashell tree.
The doves circle over and land in the trees
Where parrots are talking their words with such ease.
Thus spoke three wizards to the young ones that day:
“There’s sadness in the kingdom, make it go far away.”
If you follow the sunbeams through the valley of flowers
To the palace of the White Queen with its white jade towers.
The youngest, she sighed then the clouds drew away
And a hundred small fingers scratched their heads in dismay.
>From out of the sun a giant gull came flying
And the children got ready to sit on its wings.
They waved to the raindrops as they soared over the trees
The wind tossed their hair high, flashing gold on the sea.
They came to the castle and there they did fall,
And they saw all the sadness, through the crystal wall.
A princess lay a-sleeping so gentle and kind
Whilst her prince took to battle with his confused mind.
The clash of bright metal brought the children fear,
But their cloaks of blue satin dried up all of these tears.
Thus children held hands and they spelled out their name
All the golden children became a golden chain.
It lies on a white throne in a magic place
With a tunic of velvet and a gown of white lace.
My sword, it lies broken and cast in a lake
In a dream I was told that my princess would wake.”

What a beautiful thought I am thinking,
Concerning a great speckled bird.
Remember her name is recorded,
On the pages of God’s Holy Word.

All the other birds flocking ’round her
And she is despised by the squad.
But the great speckled bird in the Bible
Is one with the great Church of God.

All other churches are against her,
They envy her glory and fame.
They hate her because she is chosen
And has not denied Jesus’ name.

Desiring to lower her standard,
They watch every move that she makes
They long to find fault with her teachings,
But really they find no mistake.

She is spreading her wings for a journey.
She’s going to leave by and by;
When the trumpet shall sound in the morning,
She’ll rise and go up in the sky.

In the presence of all her despisers,
With a song never uttered before,
She will rise and be gone in a moment
‘Til the great tribulation is o’er.

I am glad I have learned of her meekness.
I am proud that my name is on her book,
For I want to be one never fearing
On the face of my Savior to look.

When He cometh descending from heaven,
On a cloud like He writes in His Word,
I’ll be joyfully carried to meet Him
On the wings of that great speckled bird.

“The Great Speckled Bird”
by Rev. Guy Smith

I found the following randomly on www.facebook.com:

“What would your own album look like if you were in a band? Follow the directions below and find out

1 – Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations” or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 – Post it to FB with this text in the “caption” or “comment” and TAG the friends you want to join in.”