The Good Party Member
He's polite, articulate, he's a long-time party member, but unlike other party members he's reasonably polite, civil, greets you at the door, checks his coat, this makes him an exception not just among party members but among Albertans in general. Manners, after all, are a vanishing thing.
He presumes we're on the same page as him, expansively, liberally even, we're all intelligent, well bred people, aren't we? What can you do about a province that elected a Trudeau (again!) as PM and a woman - NDP - as provincial leader?!!! It's crazy! He presumes our agreement, and really, he has it, we're in that job where to disagree or show signs of intelligence would mean immediate unemployment. I don't agree, not with a single thing he's said, but he's pleasant about how he says it which is better than most, I have to confess...
He continues, he's expansive in his person-ability, you can see how he rose up in the party, really, the party isn't known for their charismatic members but he's definitely one of them...we offer him a drink, he doesn't drink, various reasons, health, can't, but as well, he used to own a chain of restaurants, liquor stores, hundreds of them throughout the province...
...and he's seen first hand the damage that alcohol can, does, do, the addictions, the alcoholism, since when he's sworn to never touch another drop...
...ironic this, the swearing to never touch another drop, yet the profiteering off the alcoholics, the wife-beaters, all those who weren't as strong as him, he has no moral compulsions, no desire to expound or proselytize his point of view for the fear that it might cost him his livelihood, this, this is the classic conservative, the role mode, the poster child, charming, affable, ready to damn you for a slight commission with every poison he'd never touch himself...
I have to laugh. But it's true...
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- Category: Conversations
Warning Shadows: A Nocturnal Hallucination
I'm watching silent films so you don't have to...
Silent film, 1923, German (what does it matter, it's silent?!!!), a deeply psychological look at an aristocratic gathering wherein all the unconscious desires of the nobility are given reign. Dreams, desires, sex and murder prevail, as represented by shadows, dreams and reflections, the gateways to the deeper unconscious...easily as rich as "El Topo", but without the color and dialogue a lot more difficult to follow. Nonetheless you'll get it, the stuff of what dreams and nightmares are made of, in the end, all comes right, merely a spell cast by the itinerant performer, but what a curious and intriguing ride...
Major Themes: Shadows, Doppelgangers, Dreams, Reflections, Lust, Sex, Death, Conscious, Unconscious
Links: http://www.filmsufi.com/2008/10/warning-shadows-arthur-robison-1923.html
http://thedevilsmanor.blogspot.ca/2012/09/warning-shadows-schatten-eine.html
http://www.classichorror.free-online.co.uk/shadows.htm
Watch Online Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4OcGxE60Gw
Odd that so little is written on a film that really, for the time, even now, is remarkably deep...
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- Category: Film
Sagittarius
"Sagittarius". Found this thrifting, the medallion only, $4.00, 24 gold flashed, tin base metal, the chain, an old watch fob I had kicking around in my watch cabinet. Pretty sure the watch fob is solid gold, maybe only 10K, lacking hallmarks but it's definitely got the weight. The medallion, well, pretty sure it's tin with a 1 micron electroplate of 24 Karat Gold. The perfect introduction ... '"Sagittarius" I say smoothly, reaching forward to shake her hand...' How could I go wrong?
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- Category: Found
TED at 2X
So a little under the weather, still, tired a bit but you have to spend some of the day awake, lunch, coffee, then back home, nap, up, bored...
No good reason to be bored if your me, it's a form of procrastination, surf the web, see what there is to see, catch up, talk to family, but I'm not so well that I'm getting anything done...
Watch recommended TED Talks on YouTube. Some are OK, most are just shit. At 15 or 20 minutes a video these create even more boredom than they dispel...
...but every talk has something, and reading the comments on one that promises to "Multiply your time" I discover that the key is to watch the videos at 2X their regular speed...find it, it's on YouTube, the settings icon in the lower right corner...
And sure enough, everything is still there, you can understand the speakers, less "meaningful" pauses, and if you watch them you'll notice that the acceleration makes people more or less plausible as they give their talks, it accelerates, accentuates their mannerisms, gives you a quicker insight into not only who they are but what they're telling you...
So, life is short, the internet, vast, Watch TED Talks at 2X the speed...
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- Category: Miscellany
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