We come together here tonight
To celebrate the new found light
Our sun returns to scorch the sky
And warm the crops from up on high
This merriment was made to last
By ancestors of winter's past
So gather now, let howls unite
To celebrate this solstice night!
shit? maybe, but if you were tripping on DXM and dancing around a fire i doubt youd care.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Word is the Only Thing that Matters (or: Taking Advantage of an Open Essay)
In order for the single effect of this essay to be, well...effective, the reader must first assume that all information, ideas, theories and other such nonsense contained within are fact. Indeed, with the same faith and fervor as the misguided, hate-spewing, bible-thumping radical Christian, this is how you must approach this essay. Throughout this course, this year, and dare I say my life, it has become increasingly obvious what the purpose of words is and how important they are to our existence.
In the beginning, there was a big bang. Nothing too big, just big enough to create our entire universe. Vast quantities of matter and energy were expelled in all directions, and due to a force called gravity, some of this matter came together. The hunks of matter grew like rolling snowballs and the lucky ones ended up orbiting around stars. One such hunk was extremely lucky, on it's surface water formed, for the star was neither to hot to vaporize it nor too cold to freeze it. One day something spectacular happened, proteins which were floating in the water were shocked by a bolt of lighting, and the result was a single cell organism. Through a long and strenuous trial and error, the cell began to grow throughout generations, some cells broke off and went on land, and others took to the sky. Soon the organisms were made of much more than one cell, and with the structure of the organisms grew the structure of their societies. And growing with the society grew language.
Language, as it is currently defined, is “A form of communication using words either spoken or symbolized with a writing system, usually structured with grammar.” The different organisms, which were now called animals, went about forming language in different ways. The bird's beaks whistled, and thus they developed “calling”. The insects had many talented legs and thus developed “dancing”. The dogs had long narrow noses and thus developed “scenting.” The primates were not particularly stinky nor well coordinated, and thus chose the route of the bird and developed “speaking”. The first words were short and simple: “Ungh”meant food, “Nunga” meant water and “Eengh” meant danger. But it wasn't long before the primates evolved. Those who could more readily verbalize made more elaborate languages, and their enhanced ability to give and receive commands grew within them a stronger bond which lead to their victory over the other animals on the planet.
Now it goes without saying that soon thereafter the primates(who in this case were humans) learned to record their languages with symbols which represent noises. In this way the word was made immortal, all who spoke it could die but the tablet on which it was scrawled would always remain. The written word was the completion of the semantic circle: the spoken word represented the physical object, and now the physical word represented the spoken word. The word was now captured on a surface, not enslaved but rather gifted with the chance to live forever. No longer was the word subjected to the faulty tongue of the speaker, the harsh, turbulent air of the surroundings, the impaired ear of the messenger nor the bias of the listener. No, now the word was written, free of spin or interpretation, a literal thing representing a single idea. But this wouldn't last for long.
The word suffered many hardships in it's evolution. It was tied to the humans who spoke it, and as they separated from one another so did the way in which words were spoken. Slang, pronunciation, dialects, and even different languages all tore the word apart from itself. Certain words were existent in only some languages, certain sounds in fact. The word was abused by foreigners who tortured it with pidgin and kept healthy only it's gut while letting it's limbs rot and waste away. The word lost many cousins and sometimes brothers when the culture who spoke it died off from famine, disaster or simple stupidity. The word was made to change as the humans liked, and they wielded it as an ever more powerful weapon. The humans forged new words from the womb of the old, hammering and torching in putrid black fires, tossing in dashes of garish green hex, the humans made the Curse word. And the word's trouble did not end there.
The word had been squeezed through every narrow hole and worked for Man when ever he saw fit. But it's worst tribulation would come in a much less upfront way. Just as the humans were powerful beings strung together by culture, the word was made of many powerful beings held tightly by grammar. The art of grammar became a science and the word began to mean more than one thing. “What's the latest dope?” and “What's the latest, dope?” will have two very different reactions for the subject. The written word suffered from this development more so than the spoken, but he was not without snags. Soon the word was used to mean many things, Run was no longer only to move by foot quickly, but to let water flow, to operate, and to move between to places, to name a few. And with the multiple meanings of words came the multiple interpretations of sentences. Messages were no longer clear, and apparent hidden meanings drilled paranoia into the humans. The word was now thought of as a tool to manipulate, deceive, misdirect and flat out lie. Many men took advantage of the word to swindle and weasel their way out of things, and some looked to the words new weaknesses to falsely prove points which otherwise would be left to debate.
But the word was not without hope. Soon man saw the error of his ways, or at least some men. The word was there for the Renaissance, and many words were taken in by loving arms. The word was nurtured by the poet, the novelist, the essayist, all the writers and language scholars of the time saw the important of the word in man's past. And so is the story of the word, a journey throughout time and space partnered with a group of animals who in the word's lifetime change species, color and ideology.
But this is not the end of the story. For a long, long time the word persisted with the humans. The word made up the very essence of their consciousness, for without the word the mind could not think nor formulate nor ponder. The word was the medium through which human ideals, emotions and inventions were created. The human mind could think only in sentences, and the human experience was to be described and recorded through the word. Indeed, the word made up what it meant to be human: to not merely exist in the world, as the flies and the fish, to not merely experience the world, as the monkeys and the dolphins, but to take in the world, to swish it like expensive wine and to be able to tell others of our experience. Human interaction made the animals human, gave them leverage in the animal world and was what led them to the top of the food chain.
However, the story takes another sad turn for the word. In the future, the word is once again in grave danger. It was once the link between two minds, while sometimes inferior for conveying thought in a singular form, when combined with others words it's descriptive possibilities were limitless. It once was the canvas for the man living behind the window to the soul. Once it was the visible representation of invisible meanings, growing symbiotically with those who spoke it through interpretation and stigma. But soon the word would result in it's own down fall.
The word allowed man to achieve great things, he spoke on the poles, he spoke on the moon, he spoke on the red planet. And as he spoke others listened, and collectively the humans became the most advanced animals for many galaxies. Soon man longed for more technology, more reasoning, more understanding, and he knew that the human mind was to vast to match every idea to a word. Instead man chose to discover how to directly link two minds. The process was lengthy and not foolproof, the mapping and recording of the mind was arduous, for every mind worked slightly differently from the others. Soon, however, man had achieved his goal, and two brains could be remotely linked when each user so pleased. The word was still prevalent, but along with it were ideas. Man would speak to another man in a psychic sentence, and all seemed well for the word, until ideas for which no words had be created began to appear. The humans soon found themselves thinking to one another “” and “”, ideas for which no written nor spoken word exists. Man would say “The movie was great, it made me feel [specific feeling], and halfway through I felt [unique subphysical experience].” It wasn't long before man began using these idea-words in place of the words that once represented them, and soon an entire mind-conversation would consists of no words at all. The conversational spoken and written word died out. But this was not the final injustice the word would suffer. Now that the word was not used from human to human, it was used from corporation to the masses. Billboards with the word read “Beauty is a squirt away” and the television announcer still spoke “Today the final cancer has been cured.” The word remained, for man would not allow others inside his head unless he allowed it. This meant the corporations had to rely on an outdated system that few still understood completely. Those gifted in verbal speaking were instantly set for life as a spokesperson or announcer, and those who could write(although these were more common, as some people did not trust mind-linking on the internet.) were doomed to the same sold out fate. Very few felt the word was still useful, and soon those who could not hear the word would listen through the mind of an older man who still could. The invention of the Word-to-Mind allowed those with little word education to hold it up to a speaker or printed word and have the ideas beamed to their brains. The word was still taught in schools, of course, but only as an elective course similar to Latin in the 21st century.
Fringe groups continued to use the written and spoken word, and the artist, though aware of the thought's more adequate ability to convey, regarded the encryption of ideas to words as the point of art. The word would continue to exist as those whose vocals chords remained active became fewer but more adamant, and of course once man gave the monkeys vocal chords the word began a whole new evolution.
But the word felt betrayed. “I made you who you are, I brought you to the top!” cried the word. “I don't want to live amongst the apes, I did that with you when you were still young! I want to continue with you on your journey towards the great truth!”. But man left the word with the apes. “[The great truth will never be reached if we rely on your powers.]” man thought back. “Please, I want to be there when it happens!” the word pleaded. “[Perhaps the apes will bring you with them.]”.
The word was crushed, and accepted that the humans had left it to repeat the cycle over again, a tool of the new humans likely to be tossed aside once they found it no longer necessary.
I love the word, and I love living in the middle of the story I have just told. The word is the meta-everything. It is the intangible line between the physical extrinsic world and the physical intrinsic mind. The word is who we are, the word is all that matters.
This was my final paper for my LIT2020 class. It was an open topic.
In the beginning, there was a big bang. Nothing too big, just big enough to create our entire universe. Vast quantities of matter and energy were expelled in all directions, and due to a force called gravity, some of this matter came together. The hunks of matter grew like rolling snowballs and the lucky ones ended up orbiting around stars. One such hunk was extremely lucky, on it's surface water formed, for the star was neither to hot to vaporize it nor too cold to freeze it. One day something spectacular happened, proteins which were floating in the water were shocked by a bolt of lighting, and the result was a single cell organism. Through a long and strenuous trial and error, the cell began to grow throughout generations, some cells broke off and went on land, and others took to the sky. Soon the organisms were made of much more than one cell, and with the structure of the organisms grew the structure of their societies. And growing with the society grew language.
Language, as it is currently defined, is “A form of communication using words either spoken or symbolized with a writing system, usually structured with grammar.” The different organisms, which were now called animals, went about forming language in different ways. The bird's beaks whistled, and thus they developed “calling”. The insects had many talented legs and thus developed “dancing”. The dogs had long narrow noses and thus developed “scenting.” The primates were not particularly stinky nor well coordinated, and thus chose the route of the bird and developed “speaking”. The first words were short and simple: “Ungh”meant food, “Nunga” meant water and “Eengh” meant danger. But it wasn't long before the primates evolved. Those who could more readily verbalize made more elaborate languages, and their enhanced ability to give and receive commands grew within them a stronger bond which lead to their victory over the other animals on the planet.
Now it goes without saying that soon thereafter the primates(who in this case were humans) learned to record their languages with symbols which represent noises. In this way the word was made immortal, all who spoke it could die but the tablet on which it was scrawled would always remain. The written word was the completion of the semantic circle: the spoken word represented the physical object, and now the physical word represented the spoken word. The word was now captured on a surface, not enslaved but rather gifted with the chance to live forever. No longer was the word subjected to the faulty tongue of the speaker, the harsh, turbulent air of the surroundings, the impaired ear of the messenger nor the bias of the listener. No, now the word was written, free of spin or interpretation, a literal thing representing a single idea. But this wouldn't last for long.
The word suffered many hardships in it's evolution. It was tied to the humans who spoke it, and as they separated from one another so did the way in which words were spoken. Slang, pronunciation, dialects, and even different languages all tore the word apart from itself. Certain words were existent in only some languages, certain sounds in fact. The word was abused by foreigners who tortured it with pidgin and kept healthy only it's gut while letting it's limbs rot and waste away. The word lost many cousins and sometimes brothers when the culture who spoke it died off from famine, disaster or simple stupidity. The word was made to change as the humans liked, and they wielded it as an ever more powerful weapon. The humans forged new words from the womb of the old, hammering and torching in putrid black fires, tossing in dashes of garish green hex, the humans made the Curse word. And the word's trouble did not end there.
The word had been squeezed through every narrow hole and worked for Man when ever he saw fit. But it's worst tribulation would come in a much less upfront way. Just as the humans were powerful beings strung together by culture, the word was made of many powerful beings held tightly by grammar. The art of grammar became a science and the word began to mean more than one thing. “What's the latest dope?” and “What's the latest, dope?” will have two very different reactions for the subject. The written word suffered from this development more so than the spoken, but he was not without snags. Soon the word was used to mean many things, Run was no longer only to move by foot quickly, but to let water flow, to operate, and to move between to places, to name a few. And with the multiple meanings of words came the multiple interpretations of sentences. Messages were no longer clear, and apparent hidden meanings drilled paranoia into the humans. The word was now thought of as a tool to manipulate, deceive, misdirect and flat out lie. Many men took advantage of the word to swindle and weasel their way out of things, and some looked to the words new weaknesses to falsely prove points which otherwise would be left to debate.
But the word was not without hope. Soon man saw the error of his ways, or at least some men. The word was there for the Renaissance, and many words were taken in by loving arms. The word was nurtured by the poet, the novelist, the essayist, all the writers and language scholars of the time saw the important of the word in man's past. And so is the story of the word, a journey throughout time and space partnered with a group of animals who in the word's lifetime change species, color and ideology.
But this is not the end of the story. For a long, long time the word persisted with the humans. The word made up the very essence of their consciousness, for without the word the mind could not think nor formulate nor ponder. The word was the medium through which human ideals, emotions and inventions were created. The human mind could think only in sentences, and the human experience was to be described and recorded through the word. Indeed, the word made up what it meant to be human: to not merely exist in the world, as the flies and the fish, to not merely experience the world, as the monkeys and the dolphins, but to take in the world, to swish it like expensive wine and to be able to tell others of our experience. Human interaction made the animals human, gave them leverage in the animal world and was what led them to the top of the food chain.
However, the story takes another sad turn for the word. In the future, the word is once again in grave danger. It was once the link between two minds, while sometimes inferior for conveying thought in a singular form, when combined with others words it's descriptive possibilities were limitless. It once was the canvas for the man living behind the window to the soul. Once it was the visible representation of invisible meanings, growing symbiotically with those who spoke it through interpretation and stigma. But soon the word would result in it's own down fall.
The word allowed man to achieve great things, he spoke on the poles, he spoke on the moon, he spoke on the red planet. And as he spoke others listened, and collectively the humans became the most advanced animals for many galaxies. Soon man longed for more technology, more reasoning, more understanding, and he knew that the human mind was to vast to match every idea to a word. Instead man chose to discover how to directly link two minds. The process was lengthy and not foolproof, the mapping and recording of the mind was arduous, for every mind worked slightly differently from the others. Soon, however, man had achieved his goal, and two brains could be remotely linked when each user so pleased. The word was still prevalent, but along with it were ideas. Man would speak to another man in a psychic sentence, and all seemed well for the word, until ideas for which no words had be created began to appear. The humans soon found themselves thinking to one another “” and “”, ideas for which no written nor spoken word exists. Man would say “The movie was great, it made me feel [specific feeling], and halfway through I felt [unique subphysical experience].” It wasn't long before man began using these idea-words in place of the words that once represented them, and soon an entire mind-conversation would consists of no words at all. The conversational spoken and written word died out. But this was not the final injustice the word would suffer. Now that the word was not used from human to human, it was used from corporation to the masses. Billboards with the word read “Beauty is a squirt away” and the television announcer still spoke “Today the final cancer has been cured.” The word remained, for man would not allow others inside his head unless he allowed it. This meant the corporations had to rely on an outdated system that few still understood completely. Those gifted in verbal speaking were instantly set for life as a spokesperson or announcer, and those who could write(although these were more common, as some people did not trust mind-linking on the internet.) were doomed to the same sold out fate. Very few felt the word was still useful, and soon those who could not hear the word would listen through the mind of an older man who still could. The invention of the Word-to-Mind allowed those with little word education to hold it up to a speaker or printed word and have the ideas beamed to their brains. The word was still taught in schools, of course, but only as an elective course similar to Latin in the 21st century.
Fringe groups continued to use the written and spoken word, and the artist, though aware of the thought's more adequate ability to convey, regarded the encryption of ideas to words as the point of art. The word would continue to exist as those whose vocals chords remained active became fewer but more adamant, and of course once man gave the monkeys vocal chords the word began a whole new evolution.
But the word felt betrayed. “I made you who you are, I brought you to the top!” cried the word. “I don't want to live amongst the apes, I did that with you when you were still young! I want to continue with you on your journey towards the great truth!”. But man left the word with the apes. “[The great truth will never be reached if we rely on your powers.]” man thought back. “Please, I want to be there when it happens!” the word pleaded. “[Perhaps the apes will bring you with them.]”.
The word was crushed, and accepted that the humans had left it to repeat the cycle over again, a tool of the new humans likely to be tossed aside once they found it no longer necessary.
I love the word, and I love living in the middle of the story I have just told. The word is the meta-everything. It is the intangible line between the physical extrinsic world and the physical intrinsic mind. The word is who we are, the word is all that matters.
This was my final paper for my LIT2020 class. It was an open topic.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Margot Contest
I have just gotten word that Margot (& the Nuclear So and So's) have a cover contest going on. Let me know if you want to help me!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A short film idea
Two friends are talking, one boy one girl. They're describing how they think the world is going to end. Some of the descriptions are funny, some are kind of realistic and make you think. It will be very relaxed, but have interesting filming angles. A couple I'm thinking about are 1) viewing their feet as they walk on a pavement to grass. 2) In the car, eating french fries or something, viewing the back and front somehow. 3) at the end, it will have the two walking out of a door with a peep hole, and as they walk out the camera zooms into the peep hole to have them....I'm not sure yet. I have a couple of options. But that would be the end. (I'm gonna have to thank keeks for using my camera to zoom into my peep hole one day)
What do you guys think? Comments?
What do you guys think? Comments?
Airplane
A song I wrote a few weeks ago.
Airplane, airplane
Take us to the sky
Up we go, up we go
We're heading to the mountains
Wow look at us up here
We're really high up
Going really fast
And really, really far
It's getting harder to breathe in the ocean
I guess I could climb a tree
and stay with the clouds for now
but that won't make me happy, that won't make me proud
instead I have a killing to do
Where do I have the time? Where do I have the time?
My baby has a leash on me
Airplane, airplane
Take us to the ground
Down we go, down we go
We're driving to the mountains.
Airplane, airplane
Take us to the sky
Up we go, up we go
We're heading to the mountains
Wow look at us up here
We're really high up
Going really fast
And really, really far
It's getting harder to breathe in the ocean
I guess I could climb a tree
and stay with the clouds for now
but that won't make me happy, that won't make me proud
instead I have a killing to do
Where do I have the time? Where do I have the time?
My baby has a leash on me
Airplane, airplane
Take us to the ground
Down we go, down we go
We're driving to the mountains.
in the woods?
what?
in the woods?
yeah.
in the woods?
what?
in the woods?
yeah.
in the woods?
what?
in the woods?
yeah.
you are my special angel
la la la la la la
the Man
at the Massage
place in the Mall
only offers Massages
to the cutest girls
the Man
Making
sMoothies is Mad
I found a Quarter
between the arm and the cushion
on a SEAT
next to a TREE
in a CONCRETE
BLOCK
what?
in the woods?
yeah.
in the woods?
what?
in the woods?
yeah.
in the woods?
what?
in the woods?
yeah.
you are my special angel
la la la la la la
the Man
at the Massage
place in the Mall
only offers Massages
to the cutest girls
the Man
Making
sMoothies is Mad
I found a Quarter
between the arm and the cushion
on a SEAT
next to a TREE
in a CONCRETE
BLOCK
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
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