eightpix

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Qatsi films

Solaris (2002)

Operation Gideon (2020)

"… Two boats were launched from eastern Colombia toward the Caribbean coast of Venezuela north of Caracas, carrying approximately 60 Venezuelan dissidents and two American former Green Berets employed as mercenaries by Silvercorp. Both boats were intercepted before they reached land. At least six Venezuelan dissidents in the first boat were killed, and all but four of the invaders were captured during the attempted landing or subsequent search operations, including the two Americans from the second boat, whose interrogations were broadcast on state television.

Venezuelan intelligence agencies and the Associated Press (AP) had prior knowledge of the operation. Commentators and observers described the operation as amateurish, underfunded, poorly organized, impossible, and a suicide mission, and divergent narratives led to questions about how the plot unfolded. Sources criticized the poor planning and execution, alternating between characterizing Operation Gideon as an attempted invasion, infiltration, raid, ambush, assassination or coup.

My preferred quote on this line:

“Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.” ~ Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune

It takes the will of a saint to be incorruptible — to not become addicted to the exercise of power. Those who do not desire power, like saints, may have it thrust upon them.

Even when left to own devices, a person can only exercise power within a society that has desires, wants, and fears. The whole society would need to be incorruptible. This is improbable. In the unlikely case of such a pure society, it would also need to be incorruptible when in contact with “the other” — peoples, species, events, and ideas. This is exceedingly improbable. So, the whole of existence would need to be incorruptible.

Power corrupts.

QED (using the slippery slope, I know)

So, Jumper.

Lucy (2018) - some mild insanity, remorselessness

Genie from Aladdin (1992) ‐ everything is a joke

Bruce Almighty (2003) - can’t actually control himself

I’m going to go off on a comic-book tangent here:

Wielder of Infinity Gauntlet (1991, 2018) - potential insanity, later radiation scarring

Phoenix Force (1976) ‐ heavy insanity, desire to consume planets (see: Dark Phoenix Saga (1980), (X-Men '92, S03E11), Avengers vs. X-men (2012))

Omega-Level mutants - tendency toward megalomania (see: Jean Grey, Magneto, Kid Omega, 4 horsemen of Apocalypse… even Ororo Munroe (goddess), though Iceman seems well-adjusted)

Beyond - remorselessness, destruction of universes (see: Secret Wars (1984), Time Runs Out Event (2014))

Trigonometry

Yeah, I don’t mind it. Thor is a name and a title/power. God (presumably) is a name, and Thor has the power of a god.

Prince is a title. It’s also a name. And, to some musicians, Prince is a god.

It’d be rare to win an argument by invoking Prince, but there you go.

Going forward is the worst of corporate-speak. I refuse to use this phrase.

I almost couldn’t finish Irreversible.

I saw Baise Moi (Kiss/Rape Me) in a theatre just before it was banned. I was not expecting that

This is about the same time that Kids, Gummo, Happiness, and the Brown Bunny were all released.

Each film is fucked up for its own reasons. Though, I understand, Salo and A Serbian Film are next level fucked up.

I saw Being There about 10 years ago, and it was made 35 years before that. It is a masterwork.

I have nostalgia for my late-teens early 20s cartoon consumption. I was still watching Batman:TAS and the 90s Spider-Man series. There were flashes of high-intensity (if not well told) brilliance from the 90s Real Adventures of Jonny Quest series. I have to admit, the CGI they used was not as well executed as Reboot. Darkwing Duck, Peter Pan and the Pirates, and Gargoyles were shows what I looked back on fondly.

Daria, Clone High, and Ren and Stimpy all made an impact on me as a young adult. Daria, for its sardonic, anti-establishment stance. Clone High for its mockery of sitcoms and rom-coms and teen angst. Ren and Stimpy for pushing everything past its limit.

In the end, though, it was Samurai Jack and 90s X-Men that stood head and shoulders above them all. X-Men because it was what I collected and knew the best. Samurai Jack because it was cinematic, well- paced, and offered me something that no other TV show, movie, cartoon series, or comic book did or could: “… [a] fool [who] seeks to return to the past to undo the future that is Aku!”

Marina. And, I feel you on the Gargoyles.

My favourite trope is the Xanatos Gambit.

Purple by Crustation as remixed by J Dilla (6:47)

and

“Lonely as the sound of lying on the ground of an airplane going down”, the first three tracks off of He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms by A Silver Mt. Zion (19:54)

Jóga by Björk interpolated with the coda from Timabaland’s video mix of Hit 'em wit da Hee by Missy Elliott. (about 6:28)

and

You Got Me by The Roots (4:19)

and

Roads by Portishead (5:03)

So… end credits for 42:31.

and, finally, after the credits

Last Donut of the Night by J Dilla; played on an hour-long loop. In my head canon, when he was in hospital, just before he died, this was the last track Dilla constructed.

CoIntelPro.

Just, go look.

Guatemala’s ruling class spent months trying to negate the democratic election of anti-corruption, centre-left, progressivist, social-democrat, now-President Bernardo Arévalo. Certainly, the ruling class will screw with the whole system, and, possibly, they will attempt to kill him.

Bernardo is the son of former president Juan José Arévalo, whose time in office immediately followed an uprising that deposed U.S. backed dictator Jorge Ubico in 1945. Hate runs deep.

Keep in mind that the tenuous peace in Guatemala is consistently marred by gang violence, institutional corruption, kidnappings, and murder. This ray of light for the campesinos, indigenous people, and impoverished majority is, hopefully, sustainable with a mandate to improve Guatemala into a place where people can live. It would behoove (United States of) Americans to support this president as he could move the needle on making life liveable in Guatemala and stemming the flow of refugees and migrant workers to the North.

In 2007, I, a non-white non-Korean, took a job in South Korea. Then, I took another. Then, at the third job, I was hired, but the owner’s brother was amenable to some of the more racist thoughts that guided the approach to business in SK. He thought I would hurt the business. He resisted hiring another non-white, non-Korean.

The owner asked me to write a letter. Instead of saying, “that’s not my job”, I wrote the letter. I made the case. They hired another non-white, non-Korean after me.

I’m still pretty proud of that letter.

Key question here. I’d take it at 37 and go back to being 17 with the skills, knowledge, and experiences and most importantly income of my 37 year-old self. But, I’d pass myself off as 18. Unless, of course, it’s not a secret. In which case the strategy totally changes.

If it’s known and knowable that I took this drug, then I’d take it at 55 and de-age to 35. Then, when my kids are in their teens and tweens, I’ll have the energy for their B.S. Also, when I retire at 95 (b/c seriously, retirement wont be a thing for me), I’ll only be 75 and I’ll still be able to fight off some of the horde of lawyer-bots, advertisclones, and chain letters that are coming after my pension.

There’s a book on this topic, The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman.

It’s a long lasting, constantly evolving, multi-versal fluke.

We can’t see, experience, or detect most of the universe — read: existence — let alone measure it. That pretty much means, to me anyway, we can’t explain it.

Explaining existence, then, is limited to explaining my own perception of existence. To be brief: The things that exist got here the same way we did and use the same materials and rules. Conscious beings stay in the universe by maintaining consciousness; for us, that generally means being alive, awake, and alert — in that order. Upon death, consciousness ends, or departs, or continues (no one knows) and our corporeal form goes back to existing as atoms in other states within the environment. Present existence, then, pregnant by the ghosts of all existences that has gone before and is carrying to term all existences that will exist after. It’s an endless, cyclical flow of atoms, energies, and absences. A crossroads of Space and Time culminating in experiential states and chains of causality. Billions of years in a blink.

Other conscious beings may operate or perceive differently. We can’t individuall confirm or know. That’s another of those rules.

That said, we only get to ride this existence thing for a short time. Build up your XP and use your one and only life doing good. Not necessarily well, but good.

Imagine standing outside of Time and Space and making a divine survey of the grand tapestry of the possible. It would look like math painted onto bubbles that glow from within, I think. That’s what Existence may be.