soldiers reduced to the status of a smart soccer mom?

How to appear smart articles are a signpost of a degenerative culture - superficial and shallow at best. One of the tips is to speak with an English accent. To the credit of the zine, book reading is good but mostly because "people will respect and admire you for possessing some [culture]".

Now I know why I like to read.

I was going to comment on the struggles Iraq war veterans are having re-assimilating into American life and the general loss of masculinity in our culture along with places to express it. Returning soldiers "missed the exhilaration and camaraderie of the war zone" when returning to banal American life finding that the "passivity of consumerdom is not enought to keep society sane".

My son is in Iraq and says he won't have any trouble re-adjusting when he gets back to civilization. He also says he's stayed this long because he likes making the big money and is a consumer at heart: likes to buy lots of stuff.

Maybe it won't be hard for him. I hope not.

Lost in self-referential thinking?

Eyesore of the Month by James Howard Kunstler

This is an interesting visual self-reference where one should not be needed. Be sure to check out the other architectural eyesores and comments. Well worth it.

Magritte would appreciate this I think. (Or not.)

Magritte's Label and Mickey Mouse's Soul

The first visual semiologist - Magritte himself has finally been named.

I've always been fascinated with the mystery of language and the emphasis and confusion surrounding words, images, their meanings within contexts and the separation between things in one's mind versus "things" in the world.

This leads one to study things like General Semantics, modern Physics (the philosophical implications), Zen, and to appreciate novelists like Walker Percy and directors like David Lynch.

Something to do with the disjunction of superficial socially required survival tactics and the underlying or at least disjointed bulk of reality - it constantly comes up around me.

Recently, Magritte's paintings speak enough to me that I've decorated my work cubicle with ironically easy enough to snatch from the web and print on a two-cubicle-next-door printer and then pin-cushion them to my my short pseudo wallish separating panels. (You can call them walls if you want - but they're not.)

Of course no one consciously appreciates this art. But how could someone living 8 hours a day in a cubicle not understand the apple in a box picture? Or keep a toothbrush, comb, and snack in their drawer without relating to the accessories in a cube painting? Or even the fact that these people put up pictures of outside views when they themselves have no window and don't see true daylight ever during their long work shift? This should at least cause them to appreciate any of Magritte's framed paintings or pictures of people floating in clouds.

Its all a mystery to me.

Today I feel like the guy with no face that's simply seen as another apple. A commodity with no essence. No different than any other consumable piece of fruit. (I started this looking for that picture to pin up on my "wall".)

You know the writer Bukowski said that he hated the image of Mickey Mouse? He said it was a completely soul-less character. Is that the warning hidden within? That if we ain't careful, we can turn into faceless, soul-less, Darth Vaderish semi-human objects with all our meanings wrapped up in words within our minds or on our tongues while losing our own spirits?

My son recently told me he read Brave New World and could relate to the savage whom everyone admired but who could not himself assimilate into modern society.

I can relate to him also. And this Brave New World depresses me. Many an artist saw it coming. That's fascinates me.

And I never did like Mickey Mouse now that I think about it.

(I like Magritte's paintings though. They tell me that I'm not the only one stunned by these mysteries.)

Great Movies

I snagged a list of my netflix 5-star movies and thought I'd post 'em here for grins and giggles.

Some of them I deemed 5-star (outta 5) because they are just so culturally required - Wayne's World (1992), The Jerk (1979) and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Some are just pure art genius - Pi: Faith in Chaos (1998), Run Lola Run (1998) and Zelig (1983). Still others just because they are great movies - Cool Hand Luke (1967), Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996), Friday Night Lights (2004).

And remember what my daughter always says. There's no time to waste on good movies, when there's so many great movies to see.

(The same goes for books.)

Enjoy.


********* 5 Star movie list by Mitch Sanders - 05/17/2006 **************

About Schmidt (2002) R Drama
Adaptation (2002) R Drama
American Splendor (2003) R Independent
Army of Darkness (1993) R Horror
Austin Powers 2 (1999) PG-13 Comedy
Barton Fink (1991) R Comedy
The Believer (2001) R Drama
Blazing Saddles (1974) R Comedy
Braveheart (1995) R Drama
The Butterfly Effect: Director's Cut (2004) R Thrillers
Caddyshack (1980) R Comedy
The Color Purple (1985) PG-13 Drama
Cool Hand Luke (1967) UR Classics
The Cowboys (1972) PG Action & Adventure
Deconstructing Harry (1997) R Comedy
Desperado / El Mariachi (1995) R Action & Adventure
Ed Wood (1994) R Drama
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) R Comedy
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987) R Horror
The Experiment (2001) R Foreign
Fargo (1996) R Drama
Friday Night Lights (2004) PG-13 Drama
Groundhog Day (1993) PG Comedy
A History of Violence (2005) R Thrillers
Husbands and Wives (1992) R Independent
I Heart Huckabees (2004) R Comedy
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) R Comedy
The Jerk (1979) R Comedy
Key Largo (1948) UR Classics
Kingpin (1996) PG-13 Comedy
The Last Picture Show (1971) R Drama
Lost in Translation (2003) R Drama
LOTR: Return of the King: Extended Ed. (2003) PG-13 Action & Adventure
LOTR: The Two Towers: Extended Ed. (2002) PG-13 Action & Adventure
Love and Death (1975) PG Comedy
The Machinist (2004) R Thrillers
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) PG-13 Action & Adventure
Manic (2001) R Drama
Million Dollar Baby (2004) PG-13 Drama
Monster's Ball (2001) R Drama
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) PG Comedy
My Own Private Idaho (1991) R Independent
Napoleon Dynamite (2004) PG Comedy
National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) R Comedy
Office Space (1999) R Comedy
Oldboy (2003) R Foreign
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) R Drama
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) PG Action & Adventure
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985) PG Comedy
Pi: Faith in Chaos (1998) R Independent
The Princess Bride (1987) PG Romance
Pulp Fiction (1994) R Action & Adventure
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) PG Comedy
Rio Bravo (1959) UR Classics
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) R Comedy
Run Lola Run (1998) R Foreign
Sideways (2004) R Comedy
Six Feet Under: Season 1 (2001) TV-MA Television
Sleeper (1973) PG Comedy
Spaceballs (1987) PG Comedy
Stand by Me (1986) R Drama
Terms of Endearment (1983) PG Drama
Thelma & Louise: Special Edition (1991) R Action & Adventure
To Sir, with Love (1966) UR Drama
True Grit (1969) G Classics
The Truman Show (1998) PG Comedy
Twin Peaks: Season 1 (4-Disc Series) (1990) NR Television
Wayne's World (1992) PG-13 Comedy
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) R Comedy
What About Bob? (1991) PG Comedy
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) PG-13 Drama
When We Were Kings (1996) PG Documentary
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) UR Drama
The Wizard of Oz (1939) G Children & Family
Zelig (1983) PG Independent

*********5 Star movie list by Mitch Sanders - 05/17/2006 **************

Dog Kills Deer "Go Spot. Go!"

My bulldog apparently killed a deer yesterday.

I was patching a screen door that my other dog (Hank) was trying to scratch through in his panicky reaction to some thunder earlier.

My wife screamed, "There's a dead deer in the back!"
Phoebe was standing guard over her kill - growling to tell Hank not to come close.

Phoebe was visibly traumatized and shaking. I don't think she knew if what she did was good or bad. She was waiting for praise or reprimand from me. My wife was hollering and trying to calm her down at the same time. Hank would come around and Phoebe would growl. She was either still hyped about the kill or was trying to guard her kill (or both.)

I finally got the wife and Hank to go into the house and told Phoebe nonchalantly that everything was okay.

We went to investigate the dead deer.

The deer’s neck looked to be broken with her head bent back giving her a terrible looking frozen "J" shape. Her face and body was bloody but not punctured. She'd been dead for several hours and the flies and ants were starting to settle in.
There were signs of struggle since the fence was bent up and the ground around her was dusty.

I greeted and calmed Phoebe down some as we talked it over. Phoebe was proud and excited and looking for some "what do we do with it?" leadership. We stood over the deer some and just savored the primal moment.

I went and got a rope from the barn, tied it around the deer’s neck and dragged it some three acres into the woods. Phoebe bit, pulled and growled at the dead deer trying to help in a general way.

We left it in the woods to rot and feed the opossums, buzzards, and any other interested scavengers. Phoebe came back with me reluctantly but insisted on sitting by the fence closest to where we drug the carcass off to - so as to keep an eye as best she could over her conquest.

After coaxing her into finally coming in last night, she returned to her vigilance first thing this morning - staring off into the woods.

She knows exactly where we left her kill.

Oh the joys of dog ownership and living in the wild.

My Ethics Quiz

Today is "Ethics Day" at the company I work for. They left on our desks a wrist-bracelet-rubber-band that says so. They have an ethics quiz you can take also.

Questions are things like:

1) One of your team managers has had a few too many drinks at your team's holiday party at a local restaurant—she’s loudly telling the group an inappropriate story. Is her behavior just fine because she’s at an off-site, non-Company event?
a. Yes, since the party is outside of work, the Code of Conduct doesn't apply.
b. No, because your manager’s behavior should set an example for the team.

2) Your bank account shows that your payroll deposit from [your company] is unusually large. It’s probably best to:
a. Use the extra money for your upcoming vacation.
b. Send a note to your manager asking her to look into your monthly statements.
c. Call the [Company] Ethics hotline.
d. Give the money to charity.

Answers:
1)b
2)b or c


But I've been thinking about the ethical questions that I really have to deal with and I decided to write my own Ethics quiz. Here it is:

*********************************

Ethics Quiz (real issues that i struggle with daily)

1. A lady in a few cubicles down from me has a big bowl of Hershey's kisses on her desk next to her opening. It looks like they're available for anyone. I've never met her or talked to her face-to-face. She's not in her cubicle and i walk by and really want a piece of chocolate.

Is it right or wrong of me to reach in there and grab one? What if she came around the corner and saw me?

2. There's a nice litte poster notice on the bulletin board in main hall that says something like: "Kickboxing: A few of us get together for excercise and kickboxing fun in room 242 every Wednesday at 9:00. Anyone is welcome to join us."

I'm real tempted to scribble on there when no one is looking: "Yeah, and we'll kick the shit out of you too."

It would be funny. But would that be the right thing to do?

3. I am supposed to work 8 hours a day and I'm scheduled for 8 and a half (to take a half hour lunch.) Most always I eat at my desk and kinda do work at the same time. I've been leaving earlier (and earlier) each day since i figure i probably can knock off that half-hour. But now its starting to get a little fuzzy whether i'm now actually working a full 8 hours or not.

Should I:
A. Let it be fuzzy and leave as early as I can each day?
B. Count only the time that I'm actually chewing food as time when i'm not working?
C. Stay here a full 8 and half hours, and look like i'm working the whole time? (eat and do other things as much as i want)

Answers:
1)a.right b.don't make eye-contact
2)Yes
3)A, B, or C

Typical Austin Thursday

... already did have a good weekend really.

... picked up the wife and a bottle of Arrogant Bastard Ale after work and drank it outside at Whole Foods, walked to Waterloo Records and picked up the new Black Angels CD (a local band popular at least in Seattle - they played in the store two days earlier), caught the tail end of a Matt Costa show and drank some free Saint Arnold's beer (the patron saint of beer brewers - really), went on over to South Austin Music and saw some cool banjos and guitars and lap steels and old Stevie Ray photos (picked up some strings and a glass slide), went on down to the Shady Grove, ate and drank and saw a free show (good too!) put on by James McMurtry (son of the Pulitzer Prize/Academy Award winning Texan Larry McMurtry) and went on home from there.

... all and all a pretty fun weekend (weekday?).

...even if it was typical for a Thursday in Austin.