Self Portrait

I haven't written anything here in quite awhile so, I thought I'd include a bit of digital art. This is a Photoshop created composite of several digital photos that I shot.

Automatic Fiction #2

He just sat there at the kitchen table, smoking cigarettes and sipping bourbon as he looked out at the empty streets. Strange how the streets always seemed to be empty these days. There never seemed to be a kid wandering by on his way home from school or a neighbor working in his yard. Hell, there was never even a stray dog cruising the neighborhood for food.

It wasn't as if everything had shut down. The grass seemed to get cut somehow but he never saw anyone cutting it. In the fall the leaves were raked and in winter the snow was plowed but he never once saw these things happen, and not for lack of trying. Jerry sat by the window most of everyday for the better part of two years and never saw any sign of life outside the glass.

Every Wednesday, he ventured out into the empty world and made the short walk to the corner store. Sometimes, he thought it was odd that he always went on the same day, like he had somewhere else to be the other six days. There was, of course, never anyone in the store and no employees in sight and yet, somehow the shelves were always stocked. There were always three cartons of Camel smokes and five bottles of Crown Royal. Jerry would grab his tobacco and liquor rations for the week along with whatever food caught his eye, usually just a box or two of saltines, he really didn't eat much these days, and then simply stroll out the door. When he came back the next week, the Camels and the Crown Royal and the saltines would all be waiting for him.

As time passed, Jerry became a bit unnerved at the quiet of the world. One day, with much trepidation, he turned on the small black and white television that sat on the kitchen table and switched to a random channel. A rerun of an old Monty Python's Flying Circus episode was just beginning. Without batting an eye, Jerry settled into the chair with his cigarettes and his whiskey and lost himself in the surreal British humor of an earlier life.

Now for something completely different.

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For an explanation of the concept behind Automatic Fiction, check out Automatic Fiction #1.

Imagine All the People, Living Life In Peace

What if the United States chose to lead the way to a world free from the threat of the dreaded "weapons of mass destruction" by disarming and destroying it's considerable nuclear arsenal? There are some schools of thought that think this would be playing right into the hands of the terrorists who "hate our freedom". Others might say that our having nuclear weapons is the only deterrent to all out nuclear destruction by one of the world's other nuclear powers. I don't know about all that.

I think it's possible that countries that don't have the bomb would be in less of a hurry to get it if WE didn't have it. It's also possible that at least some of the other nuclear powers will follow our lead. Hell it's even possible that we really could disarm the world by leading the way. Maybe not, but who knows?

What if we chose to "stand down" our military not only in Iraq but all over the world. What if we said "we will not be an aggressor and we will not retaliate to attacks on our nation but instead will promote a world of peace and prosperity"? Would we be attacked immediately? Would the Taliban or al Queda rule our country by the end of the week. How much good could we do for our own country and the world with the billions of dollars that we currently spend on national defense?

I know that these questions are idyllic at best and dangerously naive at worst but, maybe what the world needs is for somebody to step up and take a chance. I'm not a Christian but, I was raised Catholic and I do know that the bible teaches us that retaliation is wrong. It teaches that we should "turn the other cheek" in the face of an aggressor. I AM a Buddhist and, for me, part of what Buddhism is about is wisdom and compassion. Compassion for both sides in a conflict and the wisdom to follow a path to peace. The wisdom to accept things as they are even though they are often not as we wish them to be.

I may be completely out of my mind but, I don't believe that refusing to engage in war would mean an end to our way of life. I am aware that there is evil in the world but I'm not entirely certain that the constant cycle of threat and aggression doesn't play a role in creating that evil. Would it be worth trying something dangerously crazy if it could lead to an end to the insanity of war?

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."

from "Imagine" by John Lennon

The Dreaded "Nuance"....again

There's an interesting thing that happens in every congressional election (House of Reps or Senate) as well as every time a congressmen runs for another office. It seems to me that in every election there is an increase in advertising which blames the candidate for voting either "for" or "against" a specific issue. For example, in Ohio Mike DeWine is running a series of ads, with the taunting, school yard refrain of "Sherrod Brown let us down", that say things like "Sherrod Brown voted against body armor for our troops ten times".

There are a lot of things that bother me about this approach but, chief among them is that the success of this advertising counts on the voting public having no idea how the United States congress works. If you're paying attention at all you know that bills in congress are never so simple as to be simply "for" or "against" any one thing. This is especially true of complex bills like those for military spending. It is offensive to me, and more than a little depressing, that this type of advertising is not only widely used but also seems to be extremely effective.

There is always more detail behind any vote in congress than the black and white world portrayed in these ads. This is the dreaded "nuance" that seems to be increasingly absent from political discourse. If you read back to the beginning of this blog, you'll know that I supported John Kerry for president and I will say now that I still think he would have made an excellent president. What really hurt him (other than the fact that the Republicans basically stole the election in Ohio, but more on that another time) was nuance. I had numerous conversations with people where they were unwilling to listen to any detailed analysis of Kerry or Bush or even to engage in a critical discussion of their stances on the issues. The opposition to John Kerry was entirely distilled to simple sound bites about swift boat veterans and Kerry being for the war before he was against it. The fact that it worked so well makes it even more reprehensible.

All I can say is that I hope people begin to pay more attention and be less willing to allow their politicians to boil complex issues down to meaningless slogans. As a nation, we should accept nothing less. When making your voting decisions this fall, take a little extra time to look into the details, the nuance, if you will, behind the candidates views. It's time we made our representatives understand that we are smarter than they've been giving us credit for and we are unwilling to accept their bull shit.

Talking Bob Dylan Blues

I've been spending a lot of time listening to "Modern Times" the new Bob Dylan record and it has been a truly rewarding experience. I am always fascinated when an artist is able to summon the courage - or maybe resolve is a better word for it - to create a piece of work that stands with his incomparable past. Dylan is sixty five years old and this album not only shows that he still matters, it stands comfortably with the best work of his career.

There's a great interview with Dylan in the newest issue of Rolling Stone in which he talks about wanting to be compared with the other music of today instead of always being compared to his own work. I have to say that "Modern Times" rises to this comparison well. While he's not the same as, say The Raconteurs or Audioslave, to name a few artists with amazing recent records, Dylan's newest music is every bit as vital as any of the "modern music" currently being produced and more vital than most of it.

I don't know if it's a bi-product of the baby boom or what but, there is a tendency to compare so called "classic rock" artists of the 60's and 70's to their own best work. The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, The Who, all of these artists have touchstone moments in their careers by which all of their work afterwards is measured. In Dylan's case, it's "Blood on The Tracks". It seems that every album he makes is referred to by at least a few critics as "Dylan's best work since Blood On The Tracks." Every time I read this, I am struck by just how ridiculous it is. It not only discounts the excellent body of music that Bob Dylan has created SINCE 1975 (the year "Blood on the Tracks" was originally released), it also discounts the place his music holds in the current music scene.

Often we think of older artists as being "past their peak". We are forever looking back and saying things like "I LOVED their early records" or "this new album is good but it's NOT as good as their early work". Sometimes, these statements are actually true but often I think they are colored by nostalgia. I think that nostalgia will always play a role in how we experience music because, after all, it is the soundtrack to many of the big moments in our lives. However, when we become too bogged down in looking back we run the risk of missing what is right in front of us which, in this case, is the depth and beauty of this stunning record.

"Modern Times" is easily one of the best albums of the year and, surprisingly, it looks like it will also be one of the most successful. I was shocked last week when I looked at the Billboard charts and saw that it had ENTERED the charts at number 1! This week it had only dropped two places to 3. Way to go Bob!

If you haven't heard this album yet, stop reading this and go get it now. Better yet, just open your iTunes and buy it from there so you can hear it right away. Albums of this magnitude don't come along every day and when one does, we owe it to ourselves to experience it.