This morning I awoke to the most glorious, sunny, autumn day anyone could hope for…and it’s a Sunday!
And then I heard the call of nature.
Now, “the call of nature” usually has an idyllic connotation, a kind of spiritual experience, the mystical natural world beckoning you to take leave of the trivialities of your day-to-day materialistic existence.
So, what did nature actually say when it called to me?
Well, it was the lawn speaking, and it said, “Come! Arise! Plug in your mighty weed eater and fuel up your mighty lawn mower, that you may tame my overgrown wildness and bring order and beauty to an otherwise chaotic and ugly yard.”
According to plan, I haven’t written anything overtly political in quite a while, but this jumped out at me today, rendering me unable to resist a reaction:
I’d rather be doing this than in some stuffy old political office. I’d rather be out here bein’ free!
–Sarah Palin
Republicans are masters at drumming up fear by ranting constantly about how the country is under dire threat from enemies, both abroad (terrorists) and here at home (Democrats). Listening to them, you’d think Republicans would be working round the clock in bunkers to protect us from these threats. Instead, we have George W. Bush and his record-breaking days of vacation, Rush Limbaugh and his recreational prescription drug use, and Sarah Palin on a dog sled.
It reminds me of this clip, from Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11″:
Since music has always been a guilty pleasure obsession for me, it really isn’t hyperbolic of me to refer to my discovery of a new band that I like as a new musical obsession.
When something musical catches my attention, I tend to get deeply absorbed very quickly: watching YouTube clips of the band, buying a CD or two and listening to them closely and regularly, creating Pandora stations, reading about them online, etc.
Now, this doesn’t always signal a long-term relationship. Sometimes these explorations reveal that there’s not enough depth to the music and the musicians who created it, and so they eventually become nothing more than a passing fancy. (This happened most recently with the band Blur. Ian, my friend, if you happen to read this, sorry, they just didn’t stick with me, and I really did try to connect with them.)
I’d been aware of this band by name (a name that rhymes with phenomena, btw) for a few years, as they occasionally come to Bellingham to perform, yet I’d never made it to a show. And so, when I saw that there were a couple of clips of them on Pitchfork I thought it was about time I check them out.
I have to admit, as I watched the first clip, a song titled TAOS, I really didn’t know what to make of them. Frankly, they seemed an awful mess — the guy, Joe Haege, playing his SG WAY up high, like on his chest, was the geekiest musican I’ve ever seen; the vocals were weak; and the guy singing the vocals, Justin Harris, looked like he should be in a jam band playing Phish covers, rather than an alternative rock band.
Still, there was something intriguing about them, and I couldn’t help comparing the drummer, Danny Seim, to Kliph Scurlock of The Flaming Lips, something I consider a very good thing, as those of you who visit here regularly know well enough.
And so I decided to delve deeper, and it only took watching the other available clip at Pitchfork, a song titled Five Little Rooms, for me to get totally sucked in. From the baritone sax to the driving drums, the piercing guitar accents to the piano arpeggios, there was something infectious going on.
As it turns out, there’s a version of Taos on YouTube, from a Live on KEXP session that blows the Pitchfork version away, the other KEXP clips are exceptional as well, and it doesn’t take a sound engineer to attribute the difference to the fact that the latter were recorded in a studio and the former in a classroom.
On Menomena’s website, there’s a quote from what appears to be an uncredited review of, I don’t know, maybe their latest album, but it really sums up what I like so much about them at this point:
Menomena always manage to sound both exacting and reckless as they tear through their typically idiosyncratic songs — their structures are composed with such precision, yet sometimes it seems like the band isn’t entirely sure when to start and stop. But that’s all part of the fun!
It’s rather unusual for me to post two videos in one blog post, but I just feel inspired by Menomena to do so.
The first is one of the other KEXP performances, a song that features another member, Brent Knopf, on lead vocals, great harmonies, and some outstanding percussion from Danny.
The second is a quieter affair, but more importantly it may be the most powerful anti-violence video I’ve ever seen.
When I was a kid, a sick day at least had a silver lining, it meant missing school. But now, every hour I miss at work is an hour I’m getting behind in my work.
I wrote back in August about how vacation is a double-edged sword, a badly needed break from the daily grind for sure, but that there’s often so much prep work to prepare for a vacation and so much catch-up work when you return, that the time off might not register as having been as relaxing and renewing as one would like.
Well, sick days are worse. There was no warning, no chance to prep, I’ll have tons of catch-up when I’m back at the office, AND I’m lying here in bed in physical distress.
I, of course, am very thankful that I have plenty of accrued sick leave and good health insurance. And yet now, besides being sick, I feel guilty for complaining about being ill, when millions of people on this planet don’t have the luxury of calling in sick and getting paid for it, when millions of people don’t have any health insurance.
When I read in The New York Times that Google was developing a true autopilot car, I have to admit that, despite my attempts at optimism, my initial thoughts were that this belonged in my Stuff We Don’t Need series.
After all, I don’t tend to instantly embrace bombast like this:
Autonomous cars are years from mass production, but technologists who have long dreamed of them believe that they can transform society as profoundly as the Internet has.
And yet, it’s hard to argue that stuff like this doesn’t make a lot of sense:
Robot drivers react faster than humans, have 360-degree perception and do not get distracted, sleepy or intoxicated, the engineers argue. They speak in terms of lives saved and injuries avoided — more than 37,000 people died in car accidents in the United States in 2008.
That’s this article in a nutshell: one moment you read something positive, even something that blows your mind, like this:
During a half-hour drive beginning on Google’s campus 35 miles south of San Francisco last Wednesday, a Prius equipped with a variety of sensors and following a route programmed into the GPS navigation system nimbly accelerated in the entrance lane and merged into fast-moving traffic on Highway 101, the freeway through Silicon Valley.
It drove at the speed limit, which it knew because the limit for every road is included in its database, and left the freeway several exits later. The device atop the car produced a detailed map of the environment.
The car then drove in city traffic through Mountain View, stopping for lights and stop signs…
…but then that sentence ends with a thud of disappointment:
…as well as making announcements like “approaching a crosswalk” (to warn the human at the wheel) or “turn ahead” in a pleasant female voice. This same pleasant voice would, engineers said, alert the driver if a master control system detected anything amiss with the various sensors.
Pleasant or not, there’s no way that a voice sounding out regular warnings and other information doesn’t get incredibly irritating really fast. There’s a reason why backseat drivers are universally considered a bad thing.
As another example of the mixed bag that is the Google Car, here’s the clunky attempt at playing the environmental angle:
The engineers say the technology could double the capacity of roads by allowing cars to drive more safely while closer together. Because the robot cars would eventually be less likely to crash, they could be built lighter, reducing fuel consumption.
It seems to me like there are an awful lot of holes in this idea. First, I can’t help wondering, looking at a photo of the car, if any improvements in fuel consumption from building the cars using lighter materials would be cancelled out by the seemingly unaerodynamicness (my word, but you can use it too if you want) of the contraption on the roof.
More importantly, the idea seems rather out of touch with the relationship humans have with their cars. While we may have made strides in promoting transit, folks who are still driving their cars do so to a great extent because they want the autonomy that a car provides. It seems to me that an autonomous car strips away the very powerful delusion of control that many car owners cling to, control they would be loath to give up.
All that said, who knows where the exploration of these technologies will lead? With mass production of a Google Car not likely for many more years, it could be that some other kind of breakthrough could come out of this. Maybe, even, something like this:
There is even the farther-off prospect of cars that do not need anyone behind the wheel. That would allow the cars to be summoned electronically, so that people could share them. Fewer cars would then be needed, reducing the need for parking spaces, which consume valuable land.
In the meantime, we really shouldn’t be surprised that Google isn’t thinking of every possible way that these ideas could benefit their bottom line eventually:
And, of course, the cars could save humans from themselves. “Can we text twice as much while driving, without the guilt?” Dr. Thrun said in a recent talk. “Yes, we can, if only cars will drive themselves.”
Not content with computers and cell phones, Google seems to be playing into the hands of conspiracy theorists who claim the company has designs on global domination.
I’ve got to give a shout out to my friend Chad, who post the following video on Facebook this morning.
It really made for a great start to my day.
At the risk of sounding patronizing, coming from me, a cozy, middle class white guy living in a cozy, middle class predominately white town, there’s something so incredibly moving about these young men who have committed themselves to the hard work of developing the athletic and expressive skills you see here, despite the myriad of distractions and even perils of living in East Oakland, California.
Watching this, I’m reminded of a decidedly more polished and glitzy TED performance by the League of Extraordinary Dancers, a performance that blew my mind when I saw it. And yet, this more modest, obviously homegrown example of a style of dance I’m only now learning about — Turfing — is, to me, more a more poignant demonstration of art’s capacity to rise up and thrive anywhere, anytime.
And so, without further ado, Happy Weekend, everyone!
Forecast: Plan now for bad Puget Sound winter
The Associated Press
SEATTLE – — Weather forecasters are warning Puget Sound residents to plan now for a colder, wetter and snowier winter.
A La Niña weather pattern is likely to bring nastier weather to the region, especially in late fall and early winter. The weather pattern occurs when the temperature of the ocean’s surface cools near the equator, sending storms to the Pacific Northwest.
And while the state of Washington is concerned about safety and liability…
A new program called “Take Winter by Storm” has been set up to help people get ready. It includes a website, http://www.govlink.org/storm, with advice on how to prepare. The $240,000 program is a collaboration by King County, the city of Seattle, Puget Sound Energy and State Farm insurance.
…the Mt. Baker Ski Area has created a special page on their website, giddy they are with anticipation of possible record snowfalls…and windfall profits.
WHAT HAPPENS AT BAKER IN A LA NIÑA WINTER?
Most notably, the World Record winter of 1998-99 was a La Niña winter. In just that winter, we received 1,140 inches of snowfall, which became the new World Record for the most snowfall ever recorded in a single winter anywhere on Earth.
Earlier today, I ended my post with an acknowledgement that my writing’s been a bit gloomy lately. And so, I set off in search of more positive inspiration, visiting an old reliable source of good news: Yes! Magazine.
As it turns out, I found an article at Yes! that suggests that that very act — deciding to turn my attention away from despair, toward optimism, that I might share what I find with others who may occasionally despair, that they might find some solace and hope — is the very recipe for happiness!
Truth be told, I didn’t really just learn this idea from the Yes! article. It’s a concept that I’ve been familiar with for many years, actually. But I liked how the article traced the history of happiness, noting its roots as a state one is either lucky or fated to experience, until Greek and Roman Classical philosophers reframed it as the product of living a good life.
Taking it further, to define happiness as a verb, meaning all the things we do in the process of leading those good lives ARE happiness, certainly resonates for me. I know I always feel happy when I am doing something good, something positive, almost any kind of helpful contribution to others, my family and friends, my community, the world in general.
Thinking of happiness as a verb accomplishes something else. It allows, I think, for suffering to co-exist with happiness in a way that doesn’t abandon us to suffering. We might suffer while we are taking our happiness actions, yet our suffering can alleviate the suffering of others, and we can notice that our suffering is transient, and that suffering in the name of alleviating the suffering of others doesn’t hurt quite as much.
As I write this, there’s breaking news that the body of Dwight Clark, the Western Washington University student who has been missing since September 26th, has been found in Bellingham Bay near the old Georgia-Pacific plant.
Profoundly sad.
So, what about my attempt to lighten things up here at Fish & Bicycles? I admit that it could seem trite now.
And yet, in about 45 minutes the WWU community will be gathering on campus in Red Square to share in the pain of this senseless loss. The administration assumed that people would want to join together, and so they suggested the vigil in their formal announcement. And, I’ve just heard that there are already many people gathering in Red Square already.
While this gathering won’t bring Dwight Clark back, there is something undeniably positive about the widespread outpouring of caring that has come from the WWU and Bellingham communities since Dwight disappeared.
I really don’t think this changes the happiness is a verb conclusion in any way. Sad, tragic things happen and will continue to happen. All the more reason to act out as many happinesses as possible as often as possible.
I’ll start by attending the vigil for Dwight Clark.
According to The New York Times, in 2009 Frito Lay, dealers…um…producers of many varieties of junk snacks for our increasingly obese population, introduced compostable bags for SunChips, a significant step towards sustainable practices.
While Frito Lay’s accomplishment — switching to a bag that decomposes in a compost pile in just 14 weeks, while typical plastic bags take decades to break down completely — is obviously a great development, no one, apparently, counted on the backlash:
But while environmentalists cheered, an unexpected revolt broke out among some SunChips fans, who complained that the new bag’s crinkly plant-based material is obnoxiously loud. Aided by YouTube and Facebook, their protests spread far and wide.
“It’s the loudest bag in the world. What is the point of this?” said Patrick Sandora, a blogger, in a YouTube video that migrated onto NBC’s Today show.
“Now, if you can’t see why there’s a problem there, then I guess you don’t eat chips while watching TV,” remarked another YouTube commenter, after retrieving a chip from the high-volume bag.
See, saving the planet, while admirable, MUST take a backseat to the American Way! The needs of couch potatoes are much more important than addressing global climate change. Oh, and don’t mess with corporate profits:
Bowing to the complaints Frito-Lay, announced this week that it was scrapping the renewable bag for five of its six SunChips flavors.
To be fair, Frito Lay did retain the compostable bags for their best selling flavor of chips, and the Times goes on to point out that the company is working on a quieter alternative.
The former, while hardly original, seems a decent enough symbollic gesture, and yet the latter is, well, a farce. The article makes it clear that the military’s newfound commitment to renewable energy has nothing to do with decreasing their ecological footprint and everything to do with optimizing their ability to continue engaging in war.
It’s classic zero-sum. Save a few lives by contributing less to global climate change, so that we can more effectively wipe out more lives on the battlefield.
(Sorry, folks, for the depressing tone here lately. I’ll do my best to lighten things up soon.)
This morning I awoke to the most glorious, sunny, autumn day anyone could hope for…and it’s a Sunday!
