This will be
the last daily post for Artist Carnival for now. I started this blog six months
ago and every week day I would write and post a short essay of a few hundred to
a thousand words.
I have
always indulged in the fantasy of writing a book or two but was constantly
intimidated by the volume work. At least the daily effort of keeping the blog
going showed me that I had the discipline to do it.
In the past
I have written a volume of narrative poetry, several short stories and a dozen
or so movie screen plays. Surprisingly most screen plays are made up of empty
space. On average a hundred page script will only have 20,000 words.
It's been
fun. The blog has been read by thousands and I have received hundreds of
responses, suggestions and links. I plan to keep things going and post things
from time to time but right now other there are other projects I need to devote
my time to.
One of the
most common question I got was "who the hell are you?" Having a semi
common name confuses the issue and I had no idea how many other people shared
this name. It might be easier to say who I'm not than who I am. I'm not the
Brian James who was the basketball coach for the Philadelphia 76ers. I never owned a
tailor shop in Denver or lived in LA. Though I've been on the radio I'm not the
Brian James that did all that voice over work
for every other franchised FM station across the Mid-West. He had a
wonderful booming voice and when I say things like "you're listening to
power 99" -I sound more like Don Pardo or that used car salesman who would
sell you rolling wreck with a 120 month payment plan.
Let me see,
who else am I not. There was one fellow named Brian James who lived in and
around Phillipsburg NJ. From what I gather he was a real hell raiser -and I'm
not him. And there was that graphic artist in New York City, well you can guess I'm not him either.
I think my
favorite instance of mistaken identity was when I was asked if I was Brian
James for the punk rock group The Damn. My friends who have known still find
that one funny.
So for now
I'll use Edward R. Murrow's sign off "goodnight and good luck".
In one writers
group I read an unpublished story titled the Gods Of Time. It was a science
fiction story on the outside but really a philosophic examination of time. Time
is like God, an omnipresent force that gives shape to the whole universe and is
still total mystery.
Once I heard
a BBC interview / lecture with Sir Martin Rees on gravity and the search for a
possible particle that carries the force of gravity. One thing in the interview
that seemed perplexing was when he said that time as an element interfered with
his search for the graviton.
It has been long
understood how gravity and time have an inverse relationship in Einstein's Theory
of General Relativity. Time slows down in gravitational fields. The equations
in General Relativity keep on working if you were traveling greater than the
speed of light if you have either negative time of negative gravity -but not both together.
In one theory
about the crush of matter inside a black hole came the question if time still existed?
Does infinite gravity obliterate time?
The theory had the interesting conjecture that in the singularity of the black
hole everything gets crushed down to the two elemental particles of the
universe gravity and time. Both particles would be at the very smallest size
dictated by the Plank Constant. The two particles are slightly asymmetrical and
if they were physical spaces we could see, one would have 12 dimensional sides
the other 14. This initial asymmetry is what divides matter from energy and
limits super-symmetry, there are subatomic particles that do not have symmetrical
partners.
From these
two particles everything else in the universe is a fractal expression of
different combinations of the two. The free movement of single particles is what
we experience as gravity and time. When these particles link together in
strands they become the carrier particles for energy and if they form a "buckyball"
or Buckminsterfullerene shape they become matter.
In another
theory of dimensional gravity, similar to the idea of Time-Space, each graviton
is actually like a cell of space that expands or shrinks dependant on the gravitational
field it is in. That the real measure of distance in the universe is the number
cells, the size of each cell is effected by the gradational field it is in. What
we see as the vacuum of space is really a sea of free gravitons (each a
distinct and undividable space). The
speed of light in a vacuum is a photon passing a set number of gravitons per
second. When a photon is in a gravitational field that's more tightly packed
with gravitons then light bends and travels a greater distance.
Time on the
scale of human lives or how we perceive the passing of time is like a
multilevel thought experiment that has no answer because there are so many
contradictions involved. Science Fiction writers have long played with the paradoxes
of time travel. Traveling forward in time at a slower rate that the rest of the
world is possible but traveling backwards in time is still an unlikely maybe.
As another
writer I meet once said since the universe is expanding outward from the Big
Bang then time is really the location of how far out from the Big Bang we are
at any given moment. Time travel backwards is probably impossible because to
travel back in time would mean you would have to reverse the whole expansion of
the universe to get back to the location of the past. That thought doesn't eliminate
parallel universes but that a whole other idea.
So in the
expansion of the universe each of our lives take up a limited space as animated
chemicals. The atoms that make us up where always here and will go on after we no
longer conscious entities.
Suddenly I'm
in the mood to write a little Sc-fi today.
February is
always sold as a time for lovers because of Valentine's Day. And why not? This
far north of the equator it's still wintery cold and February is that dreary
mix of frost and mud. So a box of chocolates, a funny greeting card and a
little time with someone you love is a good diversion from the realities of the
season.
Sooner or
later comes the crucial issue in any relationship -where is this whole thing
going? I was listening one couple talk about their upcoming marriage, a
traditional marriage in June. This isn't universal but at least for many
European and European influenced cultures June is the ideal month to get
married in.
Getting
married in June goes back to the days of Ancient Rome. The month June itself is
named after Jupiter's wife Juno, she herself the goddess of marriage and
childbirth. For some reason the month of May was dedicated to the unhappy dead.
What a concept that is, I'm sure if the dead could talk to us few of them would
be happy about the situation. Still May was not the month to get married in if
you could help it.
The
tradition of the June wedding carried on into medieval times. June is usually a
slow time on the farm. All the heavy work of plowing and planting is done. It's
easy to estimate the future yield, providing nothing bad happens between June
and harvest time. June can be a short rest and a time of celebration. One of
the most raucous yearly celebrations was the feast day of Saint Audrey on June
23rd. There would usually be fair with
plenty of drinking and entertainment. It was said that there were so many
drinks in her honor the slurred toast "to Audrey" became the root of
the word tawdry.
All the full
moons of the year had a name; there is wolf moon, the hunter moon and the
harvest moon. The first full moon after the summer solstice was known as
"the honey moon".
The whole
idea of romantic love in historic terms is relatively new. Most marriages were
just as much a business transaction as it was anything else. Up until the mid
1800s it was pretty common for first cousins to marry, it was a way of keeping
property in the family. Many royal families of Europe had generations of
cousins marrying each other.
Daughters
were both the property and responsibility of the father or male head of
household. Another concept that went back to Ancient Rome. In the Roman Empire
a father had absolute legal power over his family which also included putting
his child to death, if the father deemed it necessary. So it was required the
father give the bride away at the ceremony.
If the bride
came with a substantial dowry then there would be a possibility of kidnapping.
To prevent that the groom would call upon his right hand man -like in a good
right handed punch. That right hand man, the best man, was there to help
protect the bride -even if that meant doing it by sword point.
Over the
ages weddings have become so much more civilized than that though I can
remember one that ended in both families fist fighting in the parking lot of
the reception hall. The meaning of marriage has changed but it can still be an
emotional event.
I like
weddings and receptions. Since I'm pretty relaxed as a public speaker I have
been asked to say a few words in the past. I have two standard speeches. One is
a drawn out and very vulgar story with the moral that a man can make a marriage
successful if he is able to handle humiliation gracefully. That story is saved
for the bachelor party.
The other
speech is suitable for all ages and starts off with the question what's one
think you shouldn't really talk about at a wedding? The past, it's certainly
tacky to bring up old history, especially the bride or the groom's. But talking
about the past violates the very spirit of marriage which should be all about
the future. Where two single people stop looking backwards and merge their
fortunes together as a new entity, as a married couple.
So good luck
for all those couples who plan to formalize their futures together. No matter
how much changes in the world the basics remain the same but they will cost you.
Key Average Wedding Statistics
Wedding Spend (excluding honeymoon): $26,984
Most Expensive Area to Get Married (excluding honeymoon): NYC (Manhattan),
$70,030
Least Expensive Area to Get Married (excluding honeymoon): Utah, $13,214
Wedding Dress Spend: $1,099
Percentage ofDestination Weddings: 24%
Bride’s Age: 29
Groom’s Age: 31
Number of Guests: 141
Average Wedding Spend (on a per guest basis): $194
Number of Bridesmaids: 4
Number of Groomsmen: 4
Length of Engagement: 14 months
Most Popular Engagement Month: December (16%)
Most Popular Wedding Month: June (15%)
Most Popular Wedding Color: White/Ivory (43%)
Since the
pop music industry is both highly competitive and equally insecure; it makes
the investors skittish. Music producers are always in search of the next big
thing but if one bad choice can be very expensive. The safest thing is watch
for the up and coming break through performer and then book and record everyone
else who sounds just like them. Frank Zappa's song Cocaine Thinking comes to
mind.
Putting
money on the safest bets makes for a good business model but often it stifles creativity
and in the past promoted some of the most bland and pedestrian performers. The breakthrough
of the Punk / New Wave movement was a direct reaction to the less than exciting
lightweight mix of music from the mid-1970s. This was a period where the record
companies were in control of a multi-billion dollar industry and the producers
were more important than the performers. It was a serious question when people
asked back then "was Rock & Roll dead?
Punk / New Wave
was refreshing because it got back to the idea that music can be an act of
personal expression instead of studio wizardry. Learn a few cords on the
guitar, work up the nerve to get up on stage and bang out a song. What it might
lack in refinement it will make up in raw emotions. Of course every wave crests
and recedes back into the ocean it came from. Punk / New Wave gave back to
music makers the idea that innovation still had value, recording artist who
were comfortable in the studio began to create with a different sensibility and
inspiration.
The
recording industry had many excesses but it wasn't all bad. One thing it was
able to do was make some music a mass experience. There is a body music that
know around the world and it is almost like an international language. It is
something that people from very different background can share in common. There's
nothing quite like talking to a man from Indonesia about Sinatra, or being
asked by a guy from Austria if I ever saw Bruce Springsteen at the Stone Pony
because I grew up relatively close to Asbury Park, or listening to a women from
the Ukraine recount her childhood and why the Beatles were so important to her.
When an
industry becomes the promoter of world culture it also becomes the gate keeper.
Twenty years ago it was uncommon to be considered a real audiophile if you had
a couple of thousand records, which is about half the storage space on the
average mp-3 player. The computer and internet have bypassed the gate keepers
but taken away the communal experience of music.
A music
promoter I knew in New Jersey, Kyle, once compare music to alcohol. He felt you
should avoid drinking alone as well as listening to music by yourself. These days most people listen to music at
their desk or while exercising but rarely as a group activity. Music has become
for many a sonic wallpaper, something to cover over the silence with -or even a
sonic barrier to keep you occupied instead of interacting with other people.
The enthusiasm
for music feels like it's fading. The big concert stage is even more dominated
by a smaller handful of acts and many thousands of others can't find a venue.
There is so much good music out there and the public doesn't seem to know where
to look. The radio DJ is becoming a thing of the past and social networks are
more atomized and even alienating. Ten years ago bands used TV shows and even
commercials for exposure and now that doesn't even work as broadcast TV captures
a smaller and smaller audience.
I hope that
people fight back or at least prevent American Idol from becoming the only
default venue for introducing new national acts.
As a side
note today is Brian Eno's birthday. he is one of the most well known in his category
of experimental musicians and record producers. He has a career that spans over five decades
starting with rock band Roxy Music, his creation of Ambient Music and his
computer programs of Generative Music. His best known work was with Bowie on
his Heroes Album. Most people know the song Heroes but very few have heard the
whole album, it might be an acquired taste though it's Bowie's singularly most
artistic effort.
Most of
Brian Eno's music is minimalistic with a mix of electronic and new wave elements.
Often his music has been used as movie scores, one of the best examples is the
documentary The Atomic Cafe (1982). A
few years ago Peter Jackson had Brian Eno write the score for the movie The
Lovely Bones (2009).
A person
like Eno is mostly known as a influence for other performers, which means he's
deeply appreciated by other creative people but not a commercial success. Usually
I find those people the most interesting and it use to be fun hanging out with
a real audiophile that had a few special records from people who were so good
they should have been famous but weren't. Sometimes it was bad luck, bad timing
or just management. It's fun to enjoy music for no other reason than you like
it, though it's a shame someone who deserve fame and fortune didn't get it.
As an influential
performer it fun to see who Brian Eno worked with or who tipped their hat to
him.
This summer I
plan to read. It use to be a regular ritual of every summer to pick a book or a
group of books in a theme. This summer might be Moby Dick. In doing some past
research I read a few chapters and like it. The book is 135 chapters long but
it's more like 135 short stories all around the theme of whaling. Being a slow
reader 2-4 short chapters a night will carry me through the whole summer.
Of course
the monster of all literary rambles is James Joyce's Ulysses. Like all of James
Joyce's works it's twisty and complicated -and at least for me easier to
understand when someone else reads it aloud than reading it myself. It's a rare
person who can honestly say they have read it from cover to cover. As luck
should have it I person know one man who has read Ulysses several times. Chris
isn't one of those overly educated culture snobs, he writes very accessible articles
for an online jazz magazine. Though he might someday teach a college level
class on the book.
Some of the
most influential events of my life came from reading. When I was fifteen I
spent some of my summer spare time reading Brave New World. Fahrenheit 451 and
1984 as a group. Each book complement each other with a distinctly different
vision of a possible dystopia.
Being so
impressed with these three authors I went on to read some of their other books.
Aldous Huxley's books would later teach me about the wide spectrum of perception.
Ray Bradbury would expand my sense of what's possible through fantasy fiction.
Most of all George Orwell would have the biggest influence on me. 1984 is Orwell's most popular book , it's one
of his most entertaining but I began to appreciate his other books more.
At the end
of 1984 is a short essay on the origins
and development of Newspeak the official language of Oceania and the English
Socialist Party (Ingsoc) . On the surface
of it, it seems like a dry little essay that sounds perfectly plausible. It was
reading in between the lines where you can see the real power of language. The written word gives every reader the
opportunity to commune with every writer and jump over the barriers of time and
space (and Orwell demonstrated how Newspeak was a way of destroying that portal of communication).
It would be
years later that I would read Orwell's three most personal books the Road To
Wigan Pier, Down And Out In London And Paris and Homage To Catalonia. The Road To Wigan Pier is maybe Orwell's most underrated
book but all three together make a powerful statement on a man who lived his
beliefs and didn't practice some armchair intellectual pontification of how the
world should be. Orwell was a lifelong socialist but also he was a razor sharp
critic of socialism's failings.
Somewhere he comes to the conclusion that every ideology is incomplete and
the biggest enemy of any political movement is itself and the extremists in its own
ranks.
One summer I
was involves with the major renovation of a huge high school building in the
suburbs of New York City. I don't want
to mention the exact location but there was a hideous building made entirely of
concrete. It was a heat sink and by 10 am every morning the building was hotter
inside than it was outside. By late afternoon the temperature difference was a
good twenty degrees. At night when the streets cooled off the building radiated
heat like a warm body until well past midnight.
Because it
was a school building there was a strict deadline to get the job done on time. The contractor had workers around the clock on site. My job was involved with
contract compliance and inspections, that meant there were long hours with little to do. The only advantage of being there was the school
library. That summer I read The Grapes Of Wrath by Steinbeck, The Ground Was Our Table by Steve Allen and How To Talk Dirty And Influence People by Lenny
Bruce.
The Grapes
Of Wrath is a well known classic but The Ground Was Their Table by Steve Allen was
a surprise. Steve Allen was comedian and talk show host but before he became
famous he travel and labored with migrate farm workers. The book is warm and funny with a deep social
awareness.
Even more
surprising was Lenny Bruce's book. Lenny
Bruce is remembered for the stand-up comedian that said "dirty words".
That's not really true. All the
comedians of that time had an after mid-night route filled with off color jokes
and all the four lettered words people regularly used -or at least wanted to
use. What got Lenny Bruce in trouble was
his willingness to make fun of powerful people. Those very same people had Lenny
Bruce arrested over and over again on obscenity charges until he was so tied up
in court he couldn't make a living.
There is an
agricultural connection with How To Talk Dirty And Influence People. In one of the chapters Lenny Bruce reminisces of when he was a young man and was taken
in by an elderly farm couple. I don't want to spoil it for you but you may
never look at farm fresh or organic eggs the same way after reading that part.
Another
summer I spend a good portion of my free time reading Phillip K Dick novels. He's one of
the best science fiction writers of all time. In the last thirty years about a
dozen of his books have been made into movies but the average person still has
no idea who he was. Unfortunately Phillip K Dick died just before Hollywood discovered the rick body of work the
man created and it was ironic because Phillip K Dick wrote very unconventional
stories that were opposite of the Hollywood mentality. If you saw The Blade Runner, Total Recall, The
Minority Report or A Scanner Darkly then you saw some of Phillip K Dick's
stories that have been adapted for the movies.
So that
summer I read A Man In A High Castle (arguably one of the best sci-fi or mainstream
novel ever written), The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch and Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep. Do Androids
Dream Of Electric Sheep was the story behind the movie The Blade Runner. The
story in the book and the movie are the same but the attitude and styles
couldn't be more divergent. One is an action adventure story, the other a very cerebral
detective story that isn't searching for a fugitive but instead tries to find
out what is the essence of the human soul.
Well so much
for light beach novels. There is no right or wrong in choosing what to read. I just personally like making an adventure of
it. Though people seem to be reading less, this maybe the golden age of
literature. So much is easily available
and so much is online or a simple download away. Like sports, a good book can be a shared experience
that opens up a world of tangents and conversations.
One of the
most common question I got was "who the hell are you?" Having a semi
common name confuses the issue and I had no idea how many other people shared
this name. It might be easier to say who I'm not than who I am. I'm not the
Brian James who was the basketball coach for the Philadelphia 76ers. I never owned a
tailor shop in Denver or lived in LA. Though I've been on the radio I'm not the
Brian James that did all that voice over work
for every other franchised FM station across the Mid-West. He had a
wonderful booming voice and when I say things like "you're listening to
power 99" -I sound more like Don Pardo or that used car salesman who would
sell you rolling wreck with a 120 month payment plan. 
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