…And That’s When I Killed Her, Your Honor

You’ve been judged. 

Found in contempt.

The verdict is in and is about to be read.  

Your palms sweat.  

Your heart is racing.  

Your eyes open wide and dilate uncontrollably.  

What’s going to happen to me?  What do they think of me?  Why did I wear these hideous shoes?  

We judge.  We weigh and discern a person’s value based on such trivial things as their shoes.  So much so that it is not just a running gag anymore, it is part of music and art, pop culture, Broadway…everywhere we look.  In our society, one’s merits are based upon the outer shell, rather than the truly important inner self.   I’m guilty here myself.  It is February here in Texas; which for the local population, this means flip flops, tee shirts and shorts are appropriate--I’ve already seen my quota of midriffs for the year.  Being from New Jersey, I just got my sweaters out a few weeks ago, now they are pushed back into the recesses of my closet still folded from last year.  On this particular 70 degree, sunny day, I sat on a bench and joked with a friend about secretly judging the passerbys on their way to class.  However, I want to propose a new perspective.  Do we truly think that person’s life is affected by how much I like their shoes?  We say all the time how shallow we are and how fashion is so paramount in our lives, but I think we are wrong.

From time beyond record, the head of tribes had the most chinks in their belt and the most teeth on their necklaces.  Back when god was a woman, the pagan priestess was the connection from the public to the planet.  She was always surrounded by symbols and clothing that marked her as eminent among her peers (McColman).  Roman senate leaders were garbed in purple, held exclusively for the station.  In the Bible, Joseph’s coat of many colors was given to show favor of their father over his brothers (Gen 37:3).   Yet, do we think these people were given their places of honor simply because of their fashion sense?  I tend to think the leaders and innovators of human evolution would stand out for their prowess in leadership or intelligence, regardless of what berries make the best magenta.  

Continuing along the timeline of human history, we enter the Middle Ages to find a society characterized by its inattention to the trappings of fashion, the medieval Dutch.  Through historic Dutch paintings and renderings, we have a window into their past; and the view was fairly boring.  It has been stated that art from that period sometimes proves difficult to separate the homeowners from the hired help due to everyone’s stoic wardrobe (Rybczynski).  This furthers my point--the Dutch revolutionized local government, pushed the boundaries of architecture, and perfected the art of a clean home.  Their contribution to European society is profound; they did it all without the assistance of Jimmy Choo’s new men’s line.  I on the other hand, can’t seem to breathe without it, but who am I to compete with the entire Dutch nation?

As we continue through our timeline, people that stand out among the crowd like DaVinci, Joan of Arc, Buddha, Einstein, were all less than concerned with their looks.  Another prime example, Nikola Tesla, endured absurd hardships and still proved to be one of the greatest minds of our time.  Tesla arrived in New York City in 1884 where he secured work with Thomas Edison.  However, conflict with Edison and Edison’s recant of financial compensation drove a permanent rift between the two.  He then spent a full year digging ditches and working hard labor.  However, despite endless difficulties, he continued to be inspired and proceeded to revolutionize the Westinghouse Electric Company, creating the greatest competition for Edison.  Tesla constructed a process for unlimited, uninhibited world wide energy, death rays, earthquake machines, remote controls, and a precursor to green power among other discoveries.  Tesla was discovering processes and developing concepts that we still strive toward a full century later (Nikola).  Doesn’t seem like he was too concerned with fashion--in fact he despised women’s jewelry.  Regardless of his hardships and setbacks, he prevailed.  He prevailed over hurdles much worse than concerns about his wardrobe.

Today, the media places a great deal of influence and power in fashion.  Oprah didn’t rise to her status based on her clothes.  Michelle Obama is known to wear moderately priced clothes despite her position as First Lady.  Is our society really so naive and superficial to believe that my success and motivation, my intelligence and leadership skills are thwarted because Banana Republic didn’t have my size in a mohair sports coat?  Now, I’m not down playing the feeling of pride in a well tailored coat or the boost of energy that comes from looking your best; I understand the importance of showing up to interviews looking like you mean business--but we are giving it more power than it deserves.  In current society, clothing trends race so quickly, something can be passe one day and on the runway the next.  I was certain that mullets were dead and buried, but heaven help us, they are back.  What does this say about humans?  How will future generations view us?  If an alien race lands on our planet in a couple thousand years and discovers my tivo’d episodes of Project Runway, what will it merit?  I think it will prove fashion is it’s own accessory to life and the great minds of humanity will prove our intuition and intelligence.  Serial Mom may have murdered a woman for wearing white after Labor Day, but I think the rest of humanity will survive the misdeed.  Court is adjourned.

McColman, Carl. "Chapter 14, Tools For Ritual." The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha, 2002. 185-86. Print.

Rybczynski, Witold. "Chapter 3, Domesticity." Home: a Short History of an Idea. New York, NY: Penguin, 1987. Print.

“Nikola Tesla." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/588597/Nikola-Tesla>.

Writers Note:  This was a paper I threw together in about 2 hours for an assignment that was pushed to the back burner while I worked on art assignments.  Please don't judge too harshly, ha ha.

THEN - Emilio Pucci Official Website and Online Store: Luxury fashion made in Italy.

THEN - Emilio Pucci Official Website and Online Store: Luxury fashion made in Italy.

I bet he likes star trek too...

I love this ad... I laugh just as hard at it now as I did when it first came out.

As a society, our technology has evolved more in the last hundred years than we have in the last thousand years.  The role television plays in furthering technology is undeniable.  The 60's Star Trek mobile communicators look remarkably like the first versions of flip phones.  Many medical revolutions were inspired by movies and futuristic concepts.  It's amazing, to me, how the artistic mind of a screenwriter can stimulate the scientific mind of engineer or scientist.  The flip side, of course, is when an inspired scientist gives ideas to a screenwriter.

This back and forth movement continues to stimulate our minds and plays an integral part to our continued momentum.  I hope to be around for a long time to see what amazing things we come up with next.  Who is to say what the future holds?  Maybe someone soon will unlock the genetic drift that causes us to age.  What if we can, one day, move the marker back and stay 25 forever?  The scariest part  for me is wondering how we will handle technology in the future.  I worry that if our morals stay how they exist now, we will only offer the newest and hottest ideas to the highest paying bidder.  If I'm 95 years old one day and a scientist offers me a way to be young and healthy again, but I can't afford it, do I just die?  Can we stand idly aside and allow people to perish because they can't contribute enough to a doctors' retirement fund?

I've staged this question in the future and I truly do worry about how we will handle situations like this as they arise... but we face a similar dilemma now.  How many hours of debate transpire in Washington over how to treat illegal immigrants in medical emergencies?  How many hospitals have closed in the last few years because insurance companies won't pay for the treatment of a human being?  How many people are refused a better life because we refuse to add them to our precious society?  Our neighbors to the south and across the seas sometimes live in reprehensible circumstances--but we'd rather go to Chili's and eat twenty dollars worth of ribs than consider a hungry family in Mexico.  As the planet and humanity evolved, it didn't place borders between our countries; that's a man-made concept.  Unfortunately, your life can differ greatly if you're born on one side or the other of about 100 feet.

So where does that put us in a few hundred years?  Will we still be cheering our successes while simultaneously scorning our neighbors or are we capable of evolving to some level of equanimity?

I've stopped laughing.

...Don't say "wind farm." I'm already feeling gassy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTLO2F_ERY

I really really really love this advertisement.  Our society has had an enormous push in the last 25 years for finding renewable energy.  Finding renewable sources of building materials.  Finding things to incorporate into our lives that wont tax our planet any more than we already do.  Out of all the animal species in the world, we are the only ones that are truly detrimental to our home.

Science has proven that our planet continuously cycles through regeneration over millions of years.  We have a very limited existence compared to our planet, but we understand through the shifting of tectonic plates and the earth's molten core, there is a recycling process that occurs.  By extracting fossil fuels and burning various elements out of our planet, what building blocks are we removing that will be necessary in a future earth?  It is no wonder to me that by burning these elements we are also destroying the atmosphere--those elements belong in the earth, not in the air.  Most scientist believe there were hundreds of pivotal moments in evolution that brought us into being.  The miracle that is human life came to exist because certain elements happened to merge together. Those elements happened to be photosynthetic and stimulated by the sun.  The resulting combination of precise heat and chemical combinations started the building blocks that created blah blah blah... each step in the process has a critical moment that must have occurred or none of us would be here.  So what inertia have we ceased by removing such a large percentage of fossil fuel variables?  The equation of the future has been dramatically altered by our existence--and it needs to end before we become our own undoing.

Looking forward, there are so many awesome, renewable substances we can use that have such a low impact on our environment.  Recycling innovations are even starting to find uses for discarded plastic bags by turning them into wood composite products to make weather resistant decking.  By harnessing wind and water movement and transitioning into vehicles and utilities based solely on electric, we could greatly reduce our footprint.   As we look into the future, we need to make sure our planet is still the beautiful, lush, green place it was when we came to inhabit here.

...take a left at Starbucks and when you see a giant ass, go inside...

First of all, despite the giant ass they must walk through, people are clamoring for the prospect of a new career--that is funny and sad to me at the same time.

During ancient times, people worked jobs they were good at because it helped their neighbors or community.  If you were a skilled craftsman, you made that your livelihood.  If your family worked as farmers for generations, it was important to continue that tradition because it supplied food for miles around.  People found satisfaction in what they did because it was rewarding and fulfilling.

In today's society, I feel that too many people find jobs because they are trying to support families or because they need to provide for themselves--not because they enjoy work.  I have met dozens of people who have law degrees, criminal justice degrees, music degrees, and so on, working as managers and area directors at Chilis.  Granted, running a restaurant can be a fulfilling career, and some of those people are very happy in the corporate casual dining world, however, it is a trap for others.  It was becoming a trap for me as well.  I worked with Chilis for 11 years and had been promised positions within the company that pay upwards of $100,000/year plus potential for an additional $30,000 in bonuses. I quit without giving notice.  I burned that bridge when school started to focus on being a student.  Why?  The money isn't worth it.  I was a miserable person to be around and felt like such a looser every time I got dressed for work.  It's a great company and there isn't anything majorly wrong with the job except that it didn't make me happy.

Our lives are too short to feel stuck in careers that do not fulfill us.  The average person sleeping 8 hours a night, will be awake for 112 hours a week... 40 to 50 of those hours are spent working full time at a job.  If you are going to commit nearly half of your time to something, shouldn't you be enjoying it?

So, my question to the world would be, are you walking in or out of the butt at this point?

Have you been born again?

I have literally laughed out loud for several minutes now at this particular advertisement.  First of all, I just thought it was funny to have used such an iconic painting with several deep meanings to do something as mundane as pushing the elevator button.  Secondly, the elevator takes you up to a Plastic Surgeon's office with a caption that reads, "Be Born Again."  Well, I think that is ingenious.  It precisely and effectively gives the impression of a doctor who has the confidence that he can shape you into the image you would have given yourself if you were god.

Most of my blogs go on for paragraph after wordy paragraph, but I think the advertisement speaks for itself here.  Basically, the world will never stop trying to improve how we look or at least be overly conscious of our looks.  We can talk all we want about how wrong it is for stereotypes to manipulate the way we perceive our bodies but honestly... are we really going to stop?  I want to go to this doctor and have work done myself.  I love my dad, but I'm going to start looking like him in another 20 years and that won't work for me.  I can't wait to make enough money to start having things fixed.  And I honestly don't think that will ever change.

Centuries from now, if someone comes across this ad, they will probably think it's funny and use it and everyone will say how clever he was--and of course he'll take the credit--and I don't think I would blame him one bit.

Smoke On The Water

Smoke On The Water is one of those iconic songs released in early 1972.  It refers to the events of the band repeatedly trying to find a place for making music and both times, the venue was destroyed by fire, hence seeing smoke seemingly rise from a water front.  The lyrics do not state wether this was a fictional sequence of events or if they were based on actual experiences of the members, but the intent is there... don't burn bridges before you cross them.  Or maybe a more accurate conceptualization would be, no matter what comes your way, don't let it interfere with your art.  Then there is the possibility that it was the 70's, it could simply mean, don't let your pot head friends set off flare guns in closed buildings.  Regardless, the end result is the same:  you have to be aware of how your actions resonate into the future.

Foreshadowing if difficult at best.  Many decisions in life are lain with the best of intentions, but may cause catastrophic effects.  The bottled water industry could arguably be one the greatest example of such an instance.  Most people love the convenience of a bottled water stuck in a purse, backpack or side pocket of your car for later.  There have been many times in my life when an allergy pill and a bottle of Ozarka have made the difference between a good day and a really bad day for me.  But what is the consequence of our creature comfort?

Millions of bottles fill our landfills.  The resources to manufacture and transport water tax our ecosystem in an extreme way.  I would love to see a report on the fuel usage just to distribute the various brands of water around the world.  I think the total would be staggering.  The electricity that is used by dozens of plants purifying the water to be bottled would also be astounding, I'm sure.  Then you must consider the fuel and energy dispersed to remove the trash from our homes, sort, redistribute to landfills, and then pushed around by trucks and tractors into their designated areas.  If anyone reading this has ever driven by a landfill on a hot summer day (like Lewisville, Texas at 100 plus degrees outside), you can attest to how terrible it is to live near a landfill.  The stench of a steamy, smelly, sun scorched pile of garbage stretched over 400000 square feet... not pretty.  

A clear alternative is to drink tap or filtered water.  Find some rockin reusable bottle at your favorite super-center and drink away.  Also, supporting alternate means of supplying filtered water is a must.  Some college campuses, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, for example, has dozens of water dispensers installed by a filtered water company and the water is purified inside a unit that looks like a regular water fountain.  By supplying their students with resources to fill their own bottles, the students have almost stopped purchasing bottles all together.  It is no cost to the students and the water is completely pure (according to the manufacturer).  And lets face it... if my doctor tells me to drink two quarts of water a day, I think I can find better things to do with nearly ten dollars besides giving it to the coke company.

So, we can have purified water easily accessible with the proper supplies.  We can have less garbage in our landfills.  We can eliminate pointless waste of natural fuels by less mass transportation.  My foreshadowing feels like this is a no-brainer.  In Poland, 2009, a new Guinness World Record was set for the largest mass participation of a guitar solo in which 6,346 people played the rift from "Smoke On The Water" at the same time.  Maybe if Deep Purple had some foreshadowing of this occurrence, they might have disbanded in 1971.