tagged w/ the sublime
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I'm often being told that there is only one God and that God is typically the God of whatever religion the person I'm talking to is a member of. These folks seem to be rather absolute-hungry. So eager to put God in a box—four cozy walls to contain their ideology and they close the flaps and seal it shut from the inside. "There! No more outside influences. Now back to what I was saying about the one and only true God." Wait a minute, the walls of these boxes are pretty thin, you can hear what's going on inside the other boxes. The sound may be muffled, but you can hear the passion in the "other" voices. Some of those inside your box seem to be getting a little curious. Looks like they want to break free.
Hey, I wanna see what's going on outside.
No, you must stay inside this box.
Why?
It's the one true box. Those other boxes are boxes of deception.
Seriously?
Yes, seriously. They ain't talkin' about nothin' in those other boxes. You were lucky to be born in this box. You are a member of the chosen ones.
But what the people in the other boxes?
They're doomed.
Well, we should warn them.
We will. We're planning on sending some people out to break into the other boxes and "make some suggestions."
Can I be one of those people?
Actually...no...you seem like the type who may be charmed by what they have to say.
I promise I won't.
You say that now, but I know your type.
So then I'm doomed to a life in this one box?
You're not doomed, you are chosen.
But I feel doomed.
What am I going to do with you?
Let me out of this damn box!!!
No.
But I want out. I want to see what else is out there.
The devil's out there. You want to hang with the devil?
How could it be any worse than this?
CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE...
http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/the-one/I'm often being told that there is only one God and that God is typically the God... more
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Those who descended from the beings that populated what we know today as Africa may view their origin as inauspicious which may have resulted in evolutionary shame. Remember, it was their ancestors who stayed behind and endured the eternal summer with its two climatic distinctions—hot and wet and the wet was far from reliable. This instability coupled with the constant solar onslaught created a landscape that can be a bit trying at times. No wonder some of us chose to leave home and head north where we stumbled upon more temperate climates. I wonder if this created a self-loathing amongst those who stayed—a negative sense of self that would be later influenced by the poor treatment at the hands of the temperate-dwellers when they returned. This may have contributed to the doggedly religious and uber-conservative dynamic that we see "highlighted" in popular media today. I wrote that earlier as "dominates black popular culture," but then I realized I have no real way of knowing that. I just felt that way in response to constantly hearing this (not in these words, but this is the implication I gleaned):
"You must be like us or else you will suffer like the ones that were left behind."
Is this pandering to a status-quo because of fear and self-hatred or is it the acknowledgment of a blessing via a sacrifice? Were slavery and the subsequent ravaging of the African continent by Europeans punishment for staying behind? A punishment they had to endure before they could be freed and welcomed to the spoils of the temperate dwellers? Come on in, let's explore. Oh, and be warned...adult language ahead.
Click the link below for more
http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/09/04/existential-angst-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-liberal-conservative/Those who descended from the beings that populated what we know today as Africa may... more
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I just can't stand the current guy!
I like the current guy!
I will vote for anyone who isn't the current guy!
I want the current guy to be reelected!
(time elapses)
Yay! The current guy lost!
Damn! The current guy lost!
Whoo Hoo!!! Yes!!! I cannot contain my glee!!! We won!!! We won!!!
AUUGGGHHH!!! No!!! I cannot contain my anger!!! We lost!!! We lost!!!
Click the link below for more...
http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/anti-americanism/I just can't stand the current guy!
I like the current guy!
I will vote for... more
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"I don't have a job, a home or a car! I don't have anything and you want me to apologize to you because you don't have anything either!? Spare me! Why don't you go cry to Oprah, Jennifer Lopez, Tyler Perry, Alex Rodriguez, Kobe Bryant or Will Smith!!!"
You can lob epithets like racist, bigot, homophobe, misogynist and the like at the infamous White Man and no one will say much. It's expected. He is The Man after all. He's not even human. Just an oppressive automaton who is responsible for all the world's ills and he even has the audacity to not apologize for simply being? How dare he!? Good thing there are liberal white men out there. At least they express their tacit guilt. But really, what is inherently wrong about him taking pride in his European heritage? Is it because you view your existence as inauspicious due to this heritage? He exploited and oppressed you and because of this there should be no celebration of European virtues. You supported his whims through your labor. He killed you. He took your land. He deceived you. He raped your women. But what is it about him that makes him behave this way and if he thinks himself superior is he truly superior or do you give him power by thinking him evil? What if he is just like you?
What if he feels powerless even though you say he controls "everything?" What if he feels like nothing? Why must you treat him as if he is some comic book-esque supervillian? Why do you laugh in his face when he expresses his frustration? What does this say about you? Are you envious of the access his skin color affords him? Do you see his lack of melanin as a blessing? Do you not feel your abundance of melanin is a curse? Do you have to overcompensate in order to battle against a deep-seated inferiority complex? Is your black or brown pride a by-product of the acknowledgement of his existence? Who were you before you found out about him? How did you see yourself then? Probably not as brown or black. Perhaps you were just you.
That's it! That's why the white man is evil! He made me acknowledge the fact that I was 'some thing.' I'm not 'some thing,' I am some ONE!
Is this all his fault? What if it is all OUR fault? And by 'our' I mean us, not them...and by 'not them' I mean them.
Hey, I clicked those hyperlinks and I'm lost. Us? Not them? What?
We're all lost. Click the link below and let's see if we can build a compass...together.
http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/im-white-im-male-so-the-what/"I don't have a job, a home or a car! I don't have anything and you... more
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A network of faces from different places leaving fragmented traces
Andy Warhol is well-known for many things, but many know him solely as the peculiar white-haired man who once said that "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Prior to the social networking phenomenon whenever I heard that quote my mind would instantly conjure up an image of something akin to a Soviet-era bread line with all of us patiently awaiting our fifteen minutes in front of a video camera. Basically American Idol for everyone.
"Quick. Do something special. You got fifteen minutes."
But now we have Facebook and well, that changes everything. No need for a claustrophobic fifteen-minute time frame to figure out just what's special about you. With Facebook as long as you're alive you can post and boy do we love to post. With literally little hesitation we willingly put it all out there. Having issues in your relationship? We know. We've watched it play out through a series of status updates, an abrupt relationship status change and assorted other methods of broadcasting once personal tribulations. Life is good? We know. Look at all those pictures of you dancing in the club or look how happy you look with her. Look at the car you drive. Look at the shape you're in. But these all are aggressively temporal states of being. Perhaps Facebook is our way of documenting all of those tiny fleeting moments of our days. We don't want to lose a thing.
Even more peculiar is the paparazzi-like infrastructure that keeps it afloat. We’re all out there snapping pictures of ourselves, friends, family, random strangers and then we post them, tag them and essentially create society pages which end up reading just like these. This is paparazzi cannibalization! We on this thing scandalizing ourselves and others. That’s kind of like Will Smith hiding out in Brad and Angelina’s bushes trying to snap a couple pics of the family. And then we’re all chimin’ in. Saying things like "Wow, you look gorgeous!" or "Seriously, he wore that out!? OMG!!!" And odds are the he who wore that out is totally unaware he’s being commented about.
READ THE REST HERE: http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/the-facebook-universe/#more-4571.A network of faces from different places leaving fragmented traces
Andy Warhol is... more
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How did you feel when you first became aware of your mortality? Not just the fact that one day your body will naturally die, but when you realized that other forces could "take" your life. Did it have a profound effect on you? Bounce that around in your head for a moment and then...
Imagine how your ancestors felt when they first got wind of this same fact. Actually, wait, there is a problem there. How can we accurately determine the point when we "first" realized this especially since our awareness and understanding is constantly evolving? With that said, how are we dealing with this idea now? Do we possess an "enlightened" view of our mortality or are we still very much afraid? Thoughts, not answers, when you click.
http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/05/07/the-beauty-of-evolution-the-journey/#more-3845How did you feel when you first became aware of your mortality? Not just the fact that... more
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For the dynamic hyperlinked version of this post that won't work here click the link above.
I think time is going to be quite kind to this album. It's a haunting mix of tribal beats and distinctly European-style synths and sensibilities that left some perplexed and others fascinated. Some of the themes correspond to the guttural purpose of tribal music—the need to reacquaint oneself with the internal soul, while celebrating the expanding external spirit. But the juxtaposition with the relatively cold European techno-refinement creates something that I think will not be totally understood until we better understand that we are all the result of this same marriage. No matter what color your skin is, what country your parents came from—the prevailing dominant culture isn’t “American” or “Western” it’s what this album is. The marriage. The only thing that makes us diverse is the ratio of soul to spirit. Neither one is better or deeper than the other. The soul is infinitely regressive and the spirit infinitely expansive.
Those of the temperate climates found their spirituality via the diversity of climate and the majesty these fluctuations wrought, while those around the equator found this same “spirit” within their soul. Now what happens when these two come together? We have to come together, it’s in our DNA. We “banged” and split into all of these diverse races and cultures due to our diverse migrations, but our drive shows us that we possess an innate need to return to one, not to fuse together, but celebrate our differences via an acknowledgement of our overwhelming similarities. I’ll leave you with this bit from one of our equatorial ancestors…
“What!? You ventured way up there near where the sun rises and sleeps for long spells while I stayed down here where the sun does not relent, it arcs over our heads everyday, its either hot or wet and in order for us to prosper we need a near perfect ratio of wet to hot. Well, you know, that’s why you left. We waited for you to come back, but we weren’t expecting you to be so damn mean about it. We’re family after all. Yeah, you changed a little, so did we. I can see it in your face and your art, but I know who you really are that’s why you can’t get enough of me. Oh, and I like what the Americans did. Nice touch with the biracial president, still don’t know why they keep calling him black. Isn’t he OUR baby? Those Americans and their ridiculous addiction to absolutes. They really need to get over that if they ever want to get over themselves. Problem is they think they’re perfect and everybody else has problems. They run around here like a bunch of know-it-all teenagers. It's amazing how some of the old-heads can keep their mouths shut for so long. These kids may be precocious, but sometimes they need a wise individual to make sure they don't step out of line.”For the dynamic hyperlinked version of this post that won't work here click the... more
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZuQ_r3ROY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6]
Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain
We can create vaccines that make us immune to certain illnesses but it's nothing evolution wasn't working on anyway. All we do is speed up the process. Our means are relatively simple; introduce a weakened form of the virus in order to give the body a lesser opponent to prepare it for a possible bigger fight. Evolution does this by afflicting in relatively small numbers. Once a disease spreads healthy people become aware and avoid the "diseased" as well as the things they have now learned made them sick. It is the doctors and researchers who come in to fill this space created by the exodus of the healthy. Religious institutions also provide comfort to the sick because some of their members feel called upon to aid them. They are fighting a formidable opponent with what is considered a weaker force and that's simply good ol' TLC.
The more we're drawn to help the more we separate the disease from the person. Through terminal diseases we learn about areas where we are vulnerable. These cells attack hard and fast and try to shut our bodies down faster than intended. We fight them. They fight back. Why are they so determined to kill us? Perhaps they are the desperate attempt to bring us together. For one they are communicable. That means they are like a message that is passed from person to person. The more people who read this dire message the more aware the general public becomes. It seems evolution is testing us. If we want to stop them we have to stop them. Evolution takes its time. It waits for us to strengthen our immune system after repeated tests. But we look to the trees and the rocks for salvation. And just like evolution through trial and error we find out what works and what doesn't. Drugs are nothing but fusions of universal elements. The "cure" is out there. We just have to find the right bits and bring them together.
Click the link for the rest: http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/the-terminal-sacrifice/#more-3887[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOZuQ_r3ROY&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x... more
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"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp
If you know nothing about what inspired Marcel Duchamp to create the piece above you may just see a urinal with some obscure writing across the lip, however, because of the context provided (the credit underneath the picture) you know it is "supposed" to be art. Following this realization you begin to develop an opinion of the piece. You may feel a certain way about the urinals you find in public restrooms, but regardless of how you feel about it in its utilitarian state your opinion of it as art will undoubtedly differ. The piece forces us to reexamine our relationship with the urinal. What is the significance of reexamining this relationship? That's up to you. The artist may attempt to articulate the disparate, nebulous nature of the curiosity that inspired its creation and the critic may attempt to fuse these same diverging elements together to sum up the piece, but when you view it, even with the influence of both the artist and critic, you find it curious in a personal way.
Over the last few months I have gotten away from interactive posts, mainly due to the fact that the commentary sections which follow these posts are often populated with trackbacks and pingbacks as opposed to wide-ranging insight from the diverse peoples who occupy this planet. Sounds a little bitter, doesn't it? I'm not (I know no one reads this stuff), that's why I'm going to give this another try. Here's what I would like from you: post links to your favorites works of art (music, films, sculptures, paintings, etc.) and provide a reason why you dig them. This reason will never be able to encapsulate how you really feel about the work, but it gives the rest of us some insight into who you are which may pique our curiosity. *wink*
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
-Albert Einstein"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp
If you know nothing about what inspired... more
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_GBwuYuOOs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
There is a ridiculous amount of diverse life on this planet. Much of it we aren’t even aware of yet. But why such diversity? Well, each species perceives the universe differently. Senses are just as diverse as the species that utilize them. What if these diverse senses are the universe’s way of perceiving itself?
Hey, stop rolling your eyes. Just bear with me for a moment. Come on inside, I’ll try to make this (relatively) quick, but as with the rest of my posts (and the universe) this one will probably keep on expanding and expanding.
Click the following link for more: http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/problem-dissolving-part-1/[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_GBwuYuOOs&hl=en_US&fs=1&]... more
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I am always blathering on and on about how the only way to solve a problem is to understand it or get to its core and how this can only be done peacefully because we cannot destroy the outer layers to solve the inner problem. If we destroy the outer layers we end up with nothing but the core itself. Ironically, this presents a new challenge because now we must dig deeper to solve our "new" problem, but you're not supposed to dig, you're supposed to easily peel back the relatively diverse layers (races, nationalities, religions, philosophies, isms and schisms) until the problem begins to make sense. Once you "cool" the core the outer layers will benefit.
Relative diversity confuses us and as a result we end up getting bogged down with debating it and not the root of the issue itself. I don't care if you say you hate one of the layers, it is not the diversity that bothers you. You only think it is because you cannot perceive the truth through the diversity. Just like the picture above. The lines are actually parallel. The staggered squares trick your brain into seeing a relationship that doesn't actually exist.
"Dude, that's just an optical illusion, how does that relate to the world's problems?"
Just click the link (http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/problem-dissolving-part-1/), I'll (try my best to) explain.I am always blathering on and on about how the only way to solve a problem is to... more
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