Look to Nature for the Numbskulls… and the Geniuses

Lately I’ve been chewing Vitamin C like cud, fighting off something like a cold. My nose runs and everything is 20 decibels quieter.

I stopped by Josh and Erin’s tonight, threw some darts, and had some beverages. Then we watched some HD Planet Earth as Sigur Ros played through the sound system; a mind-blow.

Nature. It’s filled with organisms that live to consume one another. It is beautiful, and we accept it as it is (minus the occasional sad-remark when a monkey gets eaten by a lion).

Due to a Sigur Ros induced thought-stream as the imagery of nature was displayed in front of my face, I got thinking about what we don’t accept about human nature. We consume each other all the time, not on a physical level, but energetically. We still try to dominate one another in one way or another. I’ve been resistant to the way humanity manages itself through incessant power-seeking, from the micro (one human over another) to macro (one human over many) level.

Maybe it is in our nature to be spreading across the world like cancer. Maybe there’s supposed to be an elite ruling class of people. Maybe your boyfriend is supposed to manipulate you into staying in a terrible relationship. This is nature where galaxies consume galaxies, and atoms attract and repel other atoms. The stronger is supposed to win, and dominate the weaker.

But, even the strongest alpha-male creature at the top of the food chain will eventually become acquainted with the vultures who circle his head and begin to peck at him before he lets out his last breath.

Nature is beautiful. Nature is ugly. It’s still nature.

People say that humans have cut themselves off from nature. Maybe it’s our nature to do so.

The good thing about humans is that we have the ability to do with ourselves what we want, by figuring out what we allow to consume us, and to know what/who we consume and why.

Something that I’ve noticed; the most memorable human-beings in history have become noteworthy, not by being consumers of energy and power, but creators. Humanity likes to glorify and hold on to what a genius creates because there is a glimpse of something higher, more preferable than usual human thinking, found in each piece of brilliant creative work. Something happens in any creative process and art form; a transcendental shift occurs, in the artist and viewer, which is absolutely unexplainable by a human-eat-human state of consciousness… something that takes us closer to the truth behind it all.

Maybe we don’t have to be able to explain something to know our own truth, because the deepest truth we can experience and express is that which is unexplainable.

A History of Fighting

For my job, sometimes I get sent off to throw bricks in different cities.  Today, it was in Gallup, which is 2 hours north.

During lunch, I had a conversation with one of our guys named Greg, who, at first glance, reminded me of Iggy Pop.

Anyway, he told me stories of his wild high-school days in the 70’s where he actually formed a real-life fight club, beat up school rivals, and occasionally fought the hell’s angels motorcycle crew. He also beat down 4 guys at once and won a road rage fight against 2 others. Over all, he never lost a fight.

I thought it was cool, these fighting stories, because they reminded me of my days as a young elementary school student, getting in at least one fight every year. I never lost a fight, except for one; it was against a dorky 4th grader when I was in 2nd grade, and he was much bigger than I was. But, that same year I beat up a different 4th grader, so it wasn’t so bad.

When I was a kid, I could tolerate a lot of verbal taunting from other kids. But when they said anything about my mother or anything as personally direct, then I would lose it. I would react like Forrest Gump did in defense of Jenny.

One story, for example, was when I was on the bus to go home. I was 7, and got in a fight with some 9-year-old kid named Caleb. Caleb was sitting with a friend in the seat in front of mine, and I was sitting silently minding my own business. Caleb began to tease me, like he often did that year, but he was braver this time with his friend next to him. Another kid was close by, a neighbor boy from India named Suneel. Caleb went on and on, but I was keeping it cool, and didn’t want to react to his stupid antics. But then, from Caleb’s mouth:

“You have sex with Suneel!”

And I cut loose.

I lunged over the seat, and with everything in me, I wailed on Caleb. I pummeled him, and even as he started screaming and crying, I kept going. Eventually the bus driver came back to break it up. The entire bus was silent, except for Caleb’s whimpering. Of course, he never bothered me again.

My temper lasted through all of elementary school, and a little in middle school, but by high school, I was as docile and calm as a hindu cow. I don’t really know what happened. Maybe it’s for the best, because after you reach a certain age, you can’t end a fight with just one punch and a flow of tears.

I like fight stories.

Bat For Lashes – What’s A Girl To Do? Video

Bat For Lashes was one of the bands we wore out on tour. Tommy showed me this video last night. Diggit.

Carl Sagan Autotuned

Carl Sagan Autotuned, featuring Stephen Hawking. Discover the secrets of the universe, R&B style.

Miss Buck and Dex?

5 years ago, a radio DJ named Buck nearly punched me in the face for being “an overzealous productions assistant” who took down all of 104.1 the Edge’s banners while I was working a concert with 103.3 the Zone.

Well, Buck and another DJ, are pulling a publicity scam. It is a perfect crime, to lure in as many hot girls as possible while getting ridiculous hits to their website by using a vote-for-yourself-infinity-times contest system.

Sarah has become a Duke City Darlin’, a charity organizer girl for Albuquerque. Now she’s running to be Miss Buck ‘n Dex 2010. I think that means she gets to be on a radio show off and on for a year straight, if she wins.

Vote infinity times here for #154.

Social Intuition: FAIL

Tony’s best friend.

Today was Tony’s birthday, so I decided to meet up with him and take him out for a beer.  I didn’t have much time, so I limited my party time to an hour. We walked into the bar and sat down to get some beers before more friends arrived.

Anyway, I didn’t have my camera today. The drawn photograph above is, to the best of my memory, a picture I created of a guy who decided to chat it up with Tony at the bar, immediately after we arrived, for a good 30 minutes.

He made it obvious that he dreaded being introduced to new people. He talked without any inclusion of others’ interests. He was relentless. Oblivious to social cues to leave, and everything. The peak conversation moments were about:

• World of Warcraft rankings
• Dudes he thinks make out with dudes
• Beating up people
• Wishing to beat up other people
• Football

During that time, I had two beers, and sat in complete silence listening to declined western intellect in all of its glory.  Then I looked at the clock, and it was about time to go. People started to show up, so I decided to wait around until the social atmosphere picked up enough for me to feel like I got something done tonight. $25 in beers later, and no substantial conversation, I went home to go to bed for work.

Yoga Mood Release

All I did today was go to Yoga, other than spending many hours staring into space, reading, contemplating things that relate to resisting boredom and bad mood.

We had a substitute instructor. I’ve never really done a yoga class and felt irritated, but I did today.

Yoga Instructor: “Now spread your legs apart, enough so your favorite animal could walk between them. Your favorite small animal. Like a raccoon.”

(nervous laughing)

There were moments where I could tell she was making stuff up, dropping references to being a jungle animal while making figure-8 motions with our butts in the air. We all looked like a group of low-IQ disabled exercisers. And just like Hugo Stieglitz in Inglourious Basterds, I felt like I was tied to a post, getting lashed with a bull-whip.

But, I felt pretty good afterwards.

Library Rock Concert

There wasn’t really a rock concert at the library today, but by the look of the line you’d think there was… minus the non-rock-looking demographic, of course.

Jeremy wants to start a book-selling business, so we got up early to go to a huge sale where books averaged $1-$8 each. I thought maybe I’d buy just one book if I saw something semi-interesting. Instead, I smashed myself into the mooing herd of book-lusting humans, and gorged myself in the art section, picking up 7 books on technique and impressionism. I could have shopped more, but within 30 minutes, my bro and I were both exhausted from swimming against the current of passive-aggressive, space-filling nose-whistlers. So we left.

11:11

I have a relationship with the number 11. Specifically the clock time, 11:11. If you have too, google 11:11. You aren’t the only one.

It’s a numerological thing. The biggest coincidences of my reality happen on dates relating to the number 11. I look at the clock at 11:11 at the most significant or random moments. My head can rotate 180 degrees, and I will look right at 11:11. It happens all the time.

November 11 was one of those days. It was only a couple of days ago. 11/11/2009.

My take on it is, if you become fascinated enough with a superstition, you can actually experience beyond-chance circumstances that relate to your belief.

But of course they can only really have true meaning for yourself. If you go and talk about it to other people, they will naturally refute it verbally or in their own heads that there is a logical explanation for it, and it’s nothing special. That’s duality for you. Good, bad; fake, real; true, false, etc.

But isn’t that the beauty of synchronicities? We have the choice whether to believe in the magic of it, or we can be a boring-ass square, and explain things away.

I wrote about one of my significant synchronicities if you want to read it here.

I’m keeping track of where the traffic to my site is coming from. I thought this was a synchronistic little stat:

(click to view full size)

That means that 11:11% of people who found my site typed in “carl jung’s theory of synchronicity” into google.

Oh the stories I have to tell about 11:11.

And for the love of Pete, you must listen to Kid Cudi, if you’d be into reality-questioning hip-hop.

Gwar

I worked the Gwar show tonight. Never seen Gwar before. Go see Gwar.

Highlights of the show:

- Bringing out a tortured soul on a vertically positioned medical table and sawing him apart, eating his entrails.

- Tearing off Obama’s head and having his jugular decorate the crowd in red fluid, all with accompanying metal riffs, like so: