Abraham Lincoln, Introspective Journeys, and A Desire to Get Away.

Today, even after all of my collegiate American History courses I learned that Abraham Lincoln was more than likely assassinated because his final public address, which called for black suffrage. After a war which split a nation in two, the emancipation of hundreds of thousands of slaves, and the signing of the of the 13th amendment a man, John Wilkes Booth, decides that black suffrage is going to far.

That made me think a lot about the human story and our ability to write our own story. I believe the impact we have in this world is determined by our belief in our ability to oversee that change. I think one of Obama's faults in office thus far was his almost visible loss of confidence. To me, it does not appear, that he believes in the idea that he can overcome the tremendous obstacles presented by both the American public and the American legislature. The same "swagger" (a word I don't especially care for) that made Obama so charismatic during his campaign for the Presidency has since deviated into a sort of ominous concern. He is obviously aware of the problems that await this country in the coming decades and wants to address the issues immediatey but I think he realized it is difficult to adjust the status quo. Inertia is a powerful force, or so they say. But, I digress.

All of this is really, to a certain extent, about a recent contest that swept the cyber-world LiveoffGroupon. The idea of the contest plays to both my immense restlessness and avid sense of adventure. It forced me to think about the path my life has taken thus far, and the people that influenced that. Not only the people but each individual action, each decision. My eyes are so very thirsty for something new.

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes of all time. From the former Supreme Court Justice William Orville Douglas: “I learned that the richness of life is found in adventure…It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. There is stagnation only in security.”

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My Live Off Groupon Application video.

I made this in a little under twenty-four hours after I heard about arguably the coolest contest in the history of the world. Liveoffgroupon.com

Let me know what you think.

Thomas Jefferson and The Idea of Responsibility.

In 1956, the United States Congress decided to change the motto on the Great Seal of the United States from e pluribus unum (out of many, one) to In God We Trust. Standing from where we are fifty-six years later that seemed like a catastrophic mistake.

The idea that as a whole, this nation, is greater than any one of its inhabitants is a platform with which one of the greatest societies this world has ever seen was founded. The motto which replaced it resonates profoundly within me. The idea that responsibility shall be removed from the masses and placed in the hands of an "omniscient being" thus removing any obligation from the people of the nation to steer its course is troubling.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. - Thomas Jefferson

Of course, it is only a motto but if you begin to dissect the problems that have recently plagued the nation it becomes apparent one thing has been missing; responsibility. Responsibility to do what has been best for those after us, for those before us, and for us.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson

It seems Thomas Jefferson understood at the onset of the Republic in this country that history shall always repeat itself. If anything has happened, that is ever apparent, is that a certain sense of patriotism is lacking from the current generation of not only the rule-makers but also the masses. Fortunately, the last two generations was not forced to earn their liberty with guns. The Revolution, the Civil War, The Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II were all explosively decisive wars that allowed a nation to rally behind a flag, an ideal, and a purpose. Since no single war America has taken place in had an evident affect on American people (with the late exception of the 9/11 attack). Therefore, I feel the current lack of apparent concern for America, as it was, is simply related to the fact that we have not earned this nation as those before us have and are then simply less attached to its overall success.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. - Thomas Jefferson

...You may know that your society is doomed.

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion--when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors--when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming self-sacrifice--you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot."

-Ayn Rand (via Francisco D'Anconia)
In Atlas Shrugged

An Excerpt of the Worst Actors Ever.

I was asked to contribute to a worst/most annoying actors ever compilation that was being put together over at a friend of mine's blog. This is what I contributed:


John Travolta (Post 1985):
When We Thought He Had A Chance: Pulp Fiction, Basic
When We Knew He Was No Good: Battlefield Earth, Be Cool, Wild Hogs
Travolta made a living as a good looking hunk in the 1970s and succeeded with flying colors. We loved the way he danced, looked in white tighties, and talked with that New York accent. Saturday Night Fever, Grease, and Urban Cowboy all highlighted Travolta at his finest but shortly after, and it began with the horrible Saturday Night Fever sequel, the wheels seemed to come off. Until Quentin Tarantino plucked him from obscurity Travolta's biggest box office success since the 70s was the definitive 80s film (only slightly sarcastic) Look Who's Talking. Shortly after the wave of momentum that followed him from Pulp Fiction he decided to play an Angel in Michael, a rogue genius with a brain tumor in Phenomenon, opposite Nick Cage in the thriller Face/Off, and then his opus as the alien leader Terl in L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. John, if you can hear us, please come back to us. We prefered Look Who's Talking to Old Dogs.

Paris Hilton:
When We Thought She Had A Chance: A Night in Paris (sextape), Carl's Jr. Commercials
When We Knew She Was No Good: The Hillz
Paris Hilton stole America's hearts as the billionaire heiress that just couldn't get it right. She saw a meteoric rise in fame after her sex tape was released and attempted to follow that up with several acting roles which required her to lounge in a bathing suit and utter a few inconsequential lines of dialogue as indie producers attempted to attach any recognizable name to their film. Long story short we are not interested in seeing Paris in any light with the exception of that brilliant Sony Nightvision green. Sorry, little lady, but its not working for any of us.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson:
When We Thought He Had A Chance: The Rock's fourth WWF Championship when he beat HHH, The 1991 Miami Hurricanes Football National Championship
When We Knew He Was No Good: The Tooth Fairy
The Rock, or Dwayne Johnson as he likes to be known nowadays, was an exceptional athlete, a starting defensive end one the 1991 Miami Hurricanes, one of the best teams ever, and a world class WWF Superstar. At some point he decided to pursue a career as the actor who got every role Vin Diesel declined. This led him to films like The Rundown, Doom, and most horrifically The Tooth Fairy. All this is fair and good Dwayne because you were good in The Mummy Returns, although I didn't remember you having a single line of dialogue. Basically, all I am saying is: IF YOU SMELLLLL WHAT I AM COOKING: leave those shitty roles to Vin Diesel.
ps. I would like to see the Brahma Bull make a return.

Ben Affleck: [Insert Picture from Daredevil]
When We Thought He Had A Chance: Good Will Hunting, the I'm Fucking Ben Affleck sketch on Jimmy Kimmel
When We Knew He Was No Good: Gigli, Daredevil, Pearl Harbor, Hollywoodland, Surviving Christmas, Smokin' Aces
Yes, Ben Affleck has an Academy Award. Yes, his best friend Matt Damon went to Harvard before they wrote that script. Yes, Matt Damon wrote Good Will Hunting. Ben Affleck has garned most of his post 1998 attention from his relations with a couple different Jennifers. Obviousy, he became so enamored with the Bennifer moniker he went right from J. Lo to J. Garn. Ben Affleck and his ex-lover co-headlined arguably the worst movie ever made (with at least an eence of a budget) in Gigli. For that and that alone I feel no reason that he should not be included on this list. And for good measure I leave you with a clip from Family Guy...or maybe two.

Morose Memoirs and Blander Biographies.

A friend of mine and I were recently discussing a biography he was reading about Warren Buffet and how horrifically boring his life and more importantly the book about his life happened to be. Yes, he is a brilliant man, yes he is rich beyond belief, no he is not that interesting. The last biography I read was The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands. Franklin, much like Buffet, has become more of a legend than a human being but Brands illustrated the humanity in Franklin. His struggle to remain faithful to his wife, his inability to maintain very close friendships, and his quest to improve the life of the new America and her inhabitants. A biography that explains the life of a mythological creature much like Franklin and or his contemporary George Washington is understandable. Their lives were so much different than the lives of us, not only because of their extreme successes but also because of our inability to comprehend what life must have been like in their era. A writer trying to make a quick buck writing a biography on a figure that is merely a sparkle in public eye for fifteen minutes is deplorable. The reason there are biographies written for Sarah Palin, Paris Hilton, Jay Leno et al. is mind numbing.

This leads me to the subject of memoirs and their current popularity in the publishing world. The Los Angeles Diaries by James Brown was the last memoir I read (with the exception of Jack Kerouac's On the Road which is breathtakingly brilliant). James Brown's life was marred with death, suicides, homelessness, addiction, and depravity. He had not lived a life of normalcy and had been surrounded by a cast of extremely interesting characters. The book was well written, sharp and honest. I have no problem with memoirs of astonishing human accomplishment being published: overcoming obstacles, beating cancer, etc. but I am so sick of fiction being sold as fact (e.g. the Tiny Little Pieces guy) and mundane being sold as magnificent.

Happy Day After Super Bowl
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My Essential Reading List.

The title seems to say it all. This however, is only a list of novels.


1) Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
2) 1984 – George Orwell
3) Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
4) The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Sallinger
5) The Jungle – Upton Sinclair
6) Lord of the Flies – William Golding
7) As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
8) The Count of Monte Christo – Alexandre Dumas
9) Pride & Prejudice – Jane Austen
10) War & Peace – Leo Tolstoy
11) Animal Farm – George Orwell
12) Crime & Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
13) Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
14) David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
15) The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka
16) Moby Dick – Herman Melville
17) Lolita – Vladimir Nobokov
18) The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
19) East of Eden – John Steinbeck
20) Catch – 22 – Joseph Heller
21) A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
22) Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
23) Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
24) The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
25) Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
26) The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
27) To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
28) A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
29) Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut
30) A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
31) One Flew Over the Coockoo's Nest – Ken Kesey
32) Uncle Tom's Cabin – Harriett Beecher Stowe
33) Call of the Wild – Jack London
34) The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingslover
35) Life of Pi – Yann Martel
36) Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
37) Notes from Underground - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
38) Watership Down - Richard Adams
39) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
40) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
41) On the Road & The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac
42) This Side of Paradise - F. Scott Fitzgerald
43) Siddharthra - Herman Hesse
44) Absolam Absolam - Faulker
45) Hey Rube - Hunter S. Thompson
46) Naked Lunch -William Burroughs
47) Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
48) The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
49) Dracula - Bram Stoker
50) Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
51) The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
52) The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
53) Ulysses - James Joyce
54) Post Office - Charles Bukowski
55) Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller
56) Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller
57) Gavity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchoon
58) Island - Aldous Huxley
59) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
60) On The Road - Jack Kerouac
61) Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence
62) The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
63) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
64) Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
65) The Good Soldier - Ford Maddox Ford
66) Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
67) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
68) The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
69) Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson
70) Cadide - Voltaire
71) Paradise Lost - John Milton
73) The Border Trilogy - Cormac McCarthy
74) Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
75) Any Human Heart - William Boyd
76) Rain of Gold - Victor Villasenor
77) The Republic - Plato
78) Night - Elie Weisel
79) The Constant Gardner - John Le Carre
80) High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
81) A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
82) Rabbit at Rest - John Updike
83) American Pastoral - Philip Roth
84) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John Le Carre
85) A Fan's Notes - Fredrick Exley
86) Seize the Day - Saul Bellow
87) Sophie's Choice - William Styron
88) Roscoe - William Kennedy
89) The Caine Mutiny - Herman Wouk
90) Lies, Inc - Philip K. Dick
91) The Lime Twig - John Hawkes
92) In the Memory of the Forest - Charles T. Powers
93) Mary's Neck - Booth Tarkington
94) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami


I would love any recommendations that you feel must be added.
cheers.
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'Tis the Day Before the Bowl.

With the Super Bowl, number 44 to be exact, right around the corner I just thought I would cement my picks with the eternal timestamp.

Colts 34 Saints 24

Tonight I, as long as everyone else in America, will probably be camped in front of a large television consuming chicken wings, nachos, and beer waiting desperately for the next commercial break. Or, in a fit of insanity I will head over to the Gargoyle Room at Washington University and check out the band GIRLS, the creators of one of the best albums of 2009. It seems only time will tell the answer of this question because, as of now, I sure don't.

cheers.
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The Ole' Economic Paradox And My Extrapolations on It.

Ayn Rand, for a PhD educated woman, seemed to have a distaste for university education, or rather a distaste for the formality it has become. I infer this only because of the normality of passages like this "Once, Taggert Transcontinental had had a chief engineer, a silent, gray-haired, self-educated man, who could not be matched on any railroad..." I only bring up Rand's principles and ideologies because it brings up what I like to call the "Economic Paradox." Academicians, for the most, seem to thrive in a world of borrowed theories and plagiarism (although cited plagiarism). Every half century or so a mind as fresh and genius as John Nash will propose the Nash equilibrium and impose a new sort of economic model like the Game Theory and or Adam Smith with his "invisible hand" or Karl Marx with his "Communist Manifesto." I know, revelations are constantly being made in the astronomical and physical side of the sciences but in the world of economics and political science (I will not address neither the arts nor history) it seems that we have arrived at an utter and complete stagnation of original thought. I attribute this to a "traditional liberal arts education" to be on its deathbed, and the educational stance that prohibits or rather looks down upon absolutely original thought. As opposed to promoting the rational questions of the human mind we beat it to submission in order to succeed in our current economic model.

From this observation, which could be horrifically incorrect from the onset, I can derive only two things. First, the system from which we are currently practicing in both economics and politics are tired. E.g. Capitalism and democracy have run their course in America. It seems at some point around the industrial revolution both had fused and we are now more of a capitalist democracy than anything else. Much like the Greeks practiced, fundamentally at least, a sort of aristocratic democracy. To expand on that thought it takes fiscal means to form political capital and those without the personal fiscal means of expanding on that capital are forced into bed with a party (not political necessarily) with the means of assisting that growth. This, in turn, removes the power from the electorate and rests in the hands of the wealthy, for wealth is where political capital is derived thus, removing the power from the majority (the basic principle behind democracy.) This proposes a sort of innate paradox that states that this capitalist democracy benefits those atop the situation. Or in simpler, but rather out of context form:

As modernity provides, we all live under capitalist principles, with the powers that be, namely, being the only ones that profit from that situation (or the wealthy and extremely educated) why would we or they pursue reform? Reform not in the political sense but the ideological and economic sense.

It seems, just by my observation, that capitalism may not be the most evolved form of economic principle but merely one the ensures its own survival.

Secondly, it seems if this system were to flourish a sort of technocracy would take root, but it has not. Of course, some very brilliant people are the minds behind the men in Washington but not necessarily those that are in charge. This can be attributed to four things: i) the inability of the masses to remain informed (and this is no detriment to the men and women that prefer their priorities to politics) ii) a media, and the masses, that prefers sensationalism to information (again a news organizations sole job is to profit). iii) A politicians only job is to be re-elected. Therefore, reform that may be beneficial in the long haul but that which strikes against current public opinion is not a battle worth fighting. Adversely, short-term fixes which may be harmful long-term but have strong public support are the items worth championing. iv) Lastly, in reference to the third principle, since a politicians innate goal is to be re-elected he must gain more political capital which is in fiscal means. Meaning that those with money but in search of power are able to a) contribute campaign funds or b) lobby for their position to be heard and most likely championed (politicians want to make money just like the rest of us as well). Whereas, the voter, or the demos in democracy, is forced to watch, without the capital fiscal or political, without more say in the system than one mere check in a ballot box.

Therefore, I am forced to draw the conclusion that although, this system is not near as efficient as it should be there is little to nothing to be done about it. Unfortunately, capitalist principles do not necessarily apply to a government with which has no natural competition.

I apologize for the lack of coherency it was quite a rant.
cheers.
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ps. Cheers to mi amigo Matt Rennie for the conversation which sparked these ideas.

Books and words and books.

Last night, I had a dream about Thomas Pynchoon's opus Gravity's Rainbow. Not even about the happenings of the literary work but rather, about the book itself. I have been reading a lot lately but I didn't think I had been reading that much. So far this year I have finished 7 books, and am currently working on Ayn Rand's tome Atlas Shrugged. It is definitely a laborious read but I absolutely loved her earlier work The Fountainhead which I had read earlier in January. I can't say I agree with her philosophy but she is such a wordsmith and a has a sort of very industrial prose that is rather unique. Earlier in the week, I had been discussing Atlas Shrugged with a friend and I compared her to Trent Reznor. A far-fetch analogy I know, but still what he is to music I feel she is to literature. So rarely do we read about the grandiose glory of industrial America. Most writers perceive as a monstrous anomaly with which only greed is spewed. To each their own I suppose but I find the change of pace refreshing. And the books I've completed thus far this year are as follows:

Books Read in 2010:
1) Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead
2) Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
3) Kurt Vonnegut - Jailbird
4) Kurt Vonnegut - God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
5) Jack Kerouac - On The Road
6) Stephen Jay Gould - Bully for Brontosaurus
7) Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

Hopefully sooner rather than later I get through Atlas Shrugged.
Cheers.
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