WIDNOON

Dune Wood

…the essential ugliness of the 80s science fiction/comic strip project—hitherto concealed beneath the sweetness-and-light of patriarchal morality—has risen to the surface: witness the obsessive violence of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and the pervasively sick imagery of Gremlins (which Spielberg “presented”). Dune is the culmination of the exposure of rottenness. It is the most obscenely homophobic film I have ever seen, managing to associate with homosexuality in a single scene physical grossness, moral depravity, violence and disease. It shows no real interest in its bland young lovers or its last-minute divine revelation, all its energies being devoted to the expression of physical and sexual disgust. Much of the imagery strongly recalls David Lynch’s earlier Eraserhead, but the film seems only partly explicable in auterist terms; the choice of Lynch as writer-director would also need to be explained, and the film must be seen in the wider context as a product of the 80s Hollywood machine.

Robin Wood, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan… and Beyond

All of his criticisms are legit. I’m compelled to point out that explicating Dune in auterist terms is exactly what I have done over the years much to the chigrin of SF fans, popular film critics, academic film critics, and Lynch fans. The exception of course being Zizek. 

The Adventures of Bimbus and Nimbo!

Bimbus: beer and football

Nimbo: I’m gonna try to read. I wasn’t sure where else to go.

Bimbus: reader

Nimbo: Tim Tebow!

Bimbus: poopinator

Nimbo: Why do you keep saying that?

Bimbus: i’m obssessed with poop. Ur fault.

Nimbo: Why is it my fault?

Bimbus: u love poop

Nimbo: What? You never explained why I love poop?

Bimbus: you are obsessed with ur poo

Nimbo: NO. I am not. I don’t understand while you would say that.

Bimbus: weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! We talk about poop a lot

Nimbo: Anal penetration.

Bimbus: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Nimbo: I feel like I am talking to a mechanical squirrel.

Bimbus: I am that

Nimbo: You can only repeat certain phrases & make certain noises. “You’re obsessed with poop,” or “eeeeeeeeee!”

Bimbus: yep

Nimbo: my waitress has abandoned me

Bimbus: go get the manager!

Nimbo: what an asshole move that would be

Bimbus: i’m gonna do it again… get prepared…. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

NEXT DAY:

Bimbus: I can’t stop farting

Nimbo: Stop whatever you are doing right now & stand up & scream “I’m a fucking mechanical squirrel!”

Bimbus: while I fart?

Nimbo: Sure. It’ll hide the gas for a little while.

Bimbus: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Do u need underwear?

===========================

So I haven’t written in a while so naturally I am going to write about football. Professional sports is finally starting to acknowledge its “concussion crisis;” i.e., permanent, long term, degenerate brain damage that can occur if an individual suffers multiple concussions, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Symptoms include depression, dementia, memory loss, and aggressive behavior.

The National Football League has instituted new stricter concussion rules including more rigorous sideline testing and post game neurological testing by a third party to ensure a player has no signs of impairment before they can return to an active roster. Unfortunately, the enforcement of these rules seems to be inconsistent at best. Two recent examples: Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu was knocked unconscious after colliding with the knee of another player. Polamalu was taken out of the game and didn’t return due to “concussion-like symptoms.” Interesting to me, the hit which knocked him out did not seem to be that severe. But Polamalu has a history of concussions. It becomes progressively easier to sustain a concussion after initial concussions. Like a weak ankle after a sprain. Polamalu played the next week. A more blantant example of the NFL ignoring its own rules happened this Thursday during the Cleveland v. Pittsburgh game. Cleveland’s quarterback Colt McCoy took a intense helmet to helmet hit from Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison. McCoy was knocked unconscious and lay on the ground twitching. He was out for two plays. When he returned, after little or no evaluation, he threw an interception that lost the game. The next day it was admitted he began to show symptoms of severe concussion after the game. (Sadly, enough the discussion after this incident seemed to focused on how much Harrison will be fined for the illegal helmet to helmet hit, and not that the Browns training staff put McCoy back in the game at the risk of permanent brain injury.)

Not only is the NFL ignoring or fudging its own rules, it is missing the point entirely. If a player sustains a concussion he needs to not play a number of weeks. A high number of weeks. This is how to protect a player. Let’s say six weeks. You get a concussion you don’t play for six weeks, period. The problem with NFL is threefold: 1) a culture of toughness (players want to play at all costs); 2) winning equals money and teams want the best players to play regardless of the consequences; and 3) long term effects of concussion can often be invisible in the short term and it is often difficult for players not to want to play (or more importantly coaches “encouraging” aka forcing players to play) when not showing outward signs of being “hurt.” As far as the league rules are concerned it likely the money issue that is preventing them from enacting stricter rules.

This brings us the National Hockey League whose enforcement of their own concussion rules are just as befuddled. The matter of CTE slapped the NHL in the face when Bob Probert was posthumously diagnosed with CTE. Then this year when three of hockey’s toughest pounders, Wade Belak, Derek Boogaard, and Rick Rypien, all died due to suicide or accidental overdose after a struggles with depression and substance abuse. Boogaard was posthumously diagnosed with CTE. All three of these players sustained most of their head trauma from fighting without gloves. In light of this, or because of his superstar status, Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby was inactive for ten and a half months due to a concussion. In this case the NHL seems to be willing to take the steps to ensure the health of a superstar player that the NFL is not willing to take. But what about the bruisers on NHL teams? Will the NHL be as protective of players whose job it is to fight? The bigger issue: is the NHL willing to ban fighting? In a strange echo of NFL/McCoy incident, Nashville Predators Jordin Tootoo was suspended for two games for an illegal check to Buffalo Sabres’ goalie Ryan Miller. Much of the discussion of this incident focused on whether Tootoo’s punishment was too severe, and not that Miller, who league is trying to protect due unique status of the goalie position, landed on top of Tootoo and immediately started punching Tootoo in the face. Severe penalties for illegal checks, but fist-to-head blows go without comment?

No discussion of CTE would be complete without a mention of Chris Benoit, the professional wrestler who committed suicide after murdering his wife and son. He was posthumously diagnosed with a severe case of CTE. Arguably this would be expected from a performer whose signature move was the “flying headbutt,” but doubling the intrinsic tragedy of his grisly death was Benoit’s positive reputation with the wrestling community. He was known as a kind and open person, someone who loved his family and gave back to his community, and someone who was an extremely passionate and talented performer. In short, he was as good a person as you could find inside the fascist basement of professional sports that is professional wrestling. And that description of Benoit is also fitting of the NFL’s Troy Polamalu. How will the NFL react if their poster boy of good sportsmanship (and citizenship) someday kills his wife and son and them himself due to dementia caused by on the field injury? How many more “enforcers’” lives will the NHL let go down the toilet while is protects its money making skill players before it considers banning fighting and/or protecting concussed fighters with same diligence? As for professional wrestling, well, I just saw a TV ad for a chairs, tables, and ladders match. You do the math.

I have a hunch that there are a number of NFL star quarterbacks whose careers where cut short due to multiple concussions who are now exhibiting signs of CTE but the league is keeping that under strict wraps.

Of course the counter argument is the athletes know the risk, or at least now they do. In boxing, they accept the risk.

I wrap your “real world” in soft pink magick pony shit.

I had a professor in college who hosted an informal philosophy discussion group. It was fun undergrad bullshit. I was a real stupid ass then. It’s fun to be the ass. But some of the things the professor said have stuck with me over the years. A few of his ideas ring like maxims in my mind. I don’t know if I agree with them, but they reoccur in my thoughts over and over and find myself using them as signposts when considering new things. Here goes:

1 - “I don’t want a Wal-Mart built off that highway exit simply on aesthetic grounds. Purely on aesthetic grounds, I prefer it remain a field and that is enough of a reason.” Being immersed in art history studies at the time, this is the one that resonated with me the most. That some public policy decisions could be based on aesthetic criteria alone might strike some as progressive, if not dunderheaded, idea, yet the notion is a common one throughout American history. Pre-contemporary eco-consciouness Theodore Roosevelt’s creation of National Parks could interpreted as a national aesthetic endeavor. Consider too the innumerable efforts to preserve public landmarks, though, of course, these often fail. An interesting aspect of the professor’s opinion was that he had an entire arsenal of economic ammunition as to why a Wal-Mart would be bad for his community. First and foremost though were the aesthetic considerations. A field is far more beautiful than a Wal-Mart. Again, a field is far more beautiful than a Wal-Mart.

2 - “I believe in reason. I am old fashioned in that I believe reason can be used to find the best solution to problems.” At the time, I would have said I did not believe in reason. I was eating a lot mushrooms then. Now, reluctantly, I will admit that reason has it’s place, much like asphalt, coffee, and rubber. Reason gets the job done often. Things get tingly (much like coming up on shrooms) when persons come to opposed views with both parties claiming reason led them to their respective positions. I know many folks would shout that rejecting a Wal-Mart on aesthetic grounds alone is not reasonable. Of course, Herr Professor would then have to mount a philosophical defense of aesthetics. Oh sweet pagan muse - you nail me. The aforementioned examples are actually why I would have said I rejected reason at the time. Who defines what reason is? Who defines its methods, its goals? Does anyone, even the practitioners themselves, think the philosophy of aesthetics represents any sort of objective reality? Hence reason, not so sharp after all. Hence reason, not so big and tall. Hence reason, freakish and small like the little person that would not get out of my roommate’s car after taking a near suicidal dose of Datura. If we strictly define reason and its methods we may find the “best” solution to a problem if there is a correspondingly strict criteria for what is best. Categorically, I reject this so-called “best” on aesthetic grounds. Like a good slut, I know my role. Would older silver haired men like my professor admit it if the use of a strictly defined reason reached a different conclusion than their original position? Think about USA politics - admitting that you are wrong is political suicide. We all know it is reasonable to commit suicide. We stay alive on aesthetic grounds. It would appear none of the political decisions made by our elected representatives were made based on conclusions drawn from reason. So let’s look outside of the two party perspective. I listened to a live stream of Chomsky (there is only one Chomsky you assholes) giving a speech on Earth Day. It was entirely unreasonable and filled with vague formless platitudes. People clapped. It was like church. One of the students in the audience was brave enough to ask Chomskbomber if he could name one positive thing that was happening in the world geopolitically. He could not. Reason is suicide.

3 - “Those in power will destroy themselves and those around them in their attempts to keep their power.” This came up in a debate about “alternative” energy sources to fossil fuels. My argument was that those whose controlled the means of production and distribution of fossil fuels would want a smooth transition to different energy sources as to preserve their stranglehold on a critical market and therefore retain power. The professor disagreed. He said those in power would destroy themselves and those around them to keep their power. He said he had seen it again and again in his own life time. I am forced to admit that he was right. I was naive. Examples: A war for oil. A war for personal vendetta. A revenge war against an amorphous enemy with no decisive offensive goals or exit strategy. Wall Street melt down and subsequent frauds. Continuing industrial disasters at the cost human life without significant reform of practice. Fraudulent healthcare model. Patent competition impeding implementation energy, health, and technology solutions which would foster global transformation. Pat Tillman. Somehow this all relates back to number two but my mind can’t connect the dots anymore. Or if it did, the result would be violence.

So I’m not sure I agree with all the professors assertions, but they recur to me again and again. Was this the professor’s goal with his discussion group? I hope so. I hope I was duped in to learning. I hope he intentionally planted these maxim-like assertions in my mind like tools for me to apply later. A crowbar is a very useful tool. It can pry a door open. It can crack a skull. I really wanted to work in the phrase “I wrap your ‘real world’ in soft pink magick pony shit” somewhere in my response to number two but I couldn’t find a nice place to put it.

The professor was a runner too. Since those years so long ago running has provided me with countless hours of transformational pleasure. Thank you professor.

Steve (Jobs)

At my work I daily deal with people on the edge: of sanity, of homelessness, of death, of decency.

Did you think this blog was going to be about something else?

In other news, the Supreme Court has ruled the police have the right to kick your door in.

A Sad Vacation

This weekend is filled with sorrow for me as:

- It’s Earth Day. And still we have a political party that wants dissolve the EPA. Why is the EPA even necessary? Protecting our Earth, our home, our mother and father, should be our premise, not our afterthought. I solute the people of Bolivia for legislating the rights of the natural world.

- It is the anniversary of the accidental death, or possible assassination, of Corporal Pat Tillman. Cpl. Tillman, an Afghan militiaman, another American private were on a hillside when they began receive friendly fire from one of their own unit’s humvee’s 100 yards below. The Afghan militiaman took eight bullets. Cpl. Tillman threw a smoke grenade to try to identify himself. The humvee took a better position, 40 yards from Cpl. Tillman, and soldiers dismounted to get a better shot. The Corporal stood and vocally identified himself and was shot three times in the head. Before starting his tour in Afghanistan, Tillman’s family had contacted American academic Noam Chomsky on Pat’s behalf to arrange a speaking tour after his discharge to express his belief in the illegality of the Iraq war.

- Feminist blue grass legend Hazel Dickens has died. Few voices could effect me like hers. This is truly a sad day.

I’m also sad to admit that most this info is reposted from my favorite blog Dangerous Minds.

AND Steve’s sister forgot her inhaler. What the fuck?

THE SOUTH: still defined by hate and discrimination

Nashville made the South proud on April 5^th when Metro Council passed an ordinance banning Metro contracts with businesses that lack anti-discrimination policies against LGBT people. Then the state of Tennessee shamed itself, or I should say the Tennessee House of Representatives shamed our state, by immediately voting for legislation to override all such ordinances throughout the state.

I’m always sickened when conservatives tout the value of local government, until a local government does something they perceive as contrary to their personal morality then it is okay for the state or federal government to supersede. Perhaps the ultimate act hypocrisy are the Republican voices claiming such anti-discrimination ordinances put undue economic burden on businesses. Whoa flashback – is it 1964? To quote House Republican Leader Gerald McCormick, “I don’t think it’s about sexual preference and those things. I think it’s about providing a consistent economic development atmosphere in all 95 counties of the state. It’s about economic development. It’s not about gay people.” CONGRADULATIONS Representative McCormick you’ve just added yourself to the segregationist column scorned by history! And YES a LGBT anti-discrimination bill is about gay people, but NO we are not so stupid as to not see through your coded language. As you are obviously pandering to the most conservative religious / ignoramus hate monger elements of your constituency why not just say “I HATE FAGS AND THEY WILL NEVER HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS IN TENNESSEE!” This would would have the same effect of what you actually said; namely, stoke hate in your voter base and condemn you to the cringe museum of moral history. Does no politician in Tennessee have access to a history book?

To those of you so anxious about Sharia – pass LGBT anti-discrimination laws and TN will never have Sharia law.

Most of these have already passed

There are several bills which are currently under debate:

HB159/SB136: Prohibits public employees from having a payroll deduction to a political action committee or for dues for membership organizations that use funds for political activities.

HB130/SB113: Abolishes teachers’ unions ability to negotiate terms and conditions of professional service with local boards of education.

HB367/SB 0624: Allows the board of education to grant teachers tenure at any time between their third and tenth years of service; eliminates judicial review of decision to suspend or dismiss a teacher for incompetence, inefficiency, neglect of duty, unprofessional conduct or insubordination.

SB102/HB565: changes the method of selection of trustees of TCRS representing teachers and retired teachers from election by the representative assemblies of the Tennessee Education Association and the Tennessee Retired Teachers Association respectively to appointment by the speakers of the senate and the house.

HB160/SB139: Creates Class C misdemeanor for labor organization to contribute to candidates.

HB179/SB294: Prohibits LEAs from denying equal access to LEA employees to all domestic professional employees’ organizations offering membership to all certificated personnel.

Though these all vary in heinousness, HB159/SB136 and HB160/SB139 seem obviously unconstitutional— even to the Roberts’ court! HB130/SB113 should be unconstitutional as labor’s right to collectively bargain is a right not a privilege.

And just to prove I’m not a mindless zealot, I don’t really see what is wrong with HB179/SB294.

The first poem I am written in months if not years

HEADLINES 03/10

Frist family ranks as TN’s richest with $3.6 billion

TN Senate advances plan for forever ban on income tax

Nashville’s lack of low-income housing leaves working poor with no permanent place

Unions fight for the rights of workers, still

About the current union busting efforts, it is clearly a nationwide conservative strategy, a plan to be implemented at all levels after the midterm elections. It is an ideological attack to strip public workers with the right collectively bargain in the states where Republican governors were elected: WI, OH, and TN. Yes, TN which doesn’t get much news coverage because of culture bias in a media which assumes the South is a social hole where workers have no rights anyway. The teachers association here does have the right to collectively bargain, and much like in Wisconsin, they agreed to a number of concessions BEFORE THE ELECTION, yet almost immediately the Republican dominated state legislature still tried to rush a bill through like in WI and OH stripping teachers of that right. And there were massive protests in Nashville on Saturday. This is doubly heinous as TN placed second in Race to the Top program earning the state $500 million from due measurable improvements in education. Hopefully this will get some national coverage. There has been a lot hate towards teacher’s unions thanks to the Waiting for Superman documentary but here is what the National Education Policy Center has to say about that movie and others. The NEPC defines it’s mission as “is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence.”

At the city level, conservative councilmen here in Nashville simultaneously introduced a bill erode civil service pensions. The city though is far more progressive than the rest of the state and this went no where, thanks in part to the efforts of my union.

That’s what happeing here in TN.

If you are interested in the conspiracy aspect you might have missed this story about internet security firm HBGary working with the Chamber of Commerence to undermine unions. This is an amazing story that seriously went under the radar. As of yesterday the wiki about HBGary was surprisingly fair and unhacked. I am communist so for me all this is really not part the new world order, but the old world order: the rich vs. the poor. Consider the Powell Manifesto which many consider the blue print for the corporate dominance of the American body politic. Of course concerns it self with economics (mostly) but adherents of this philosophy can always pair with cultural conservatives and win elections.

I probably shouldn’t write lunatic dream slips if I want be serial on here.