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[Sep. 12th, 2007|01:56 pm] |
I apologize for barging in like that, obviously drunkenly. I had gone eight months without a drink or anything else of the sort.
My sense of goodwill, or more importantly balance, does not coincide with my "otherzaba" identity. I had fun with many of you, but I don't match with the expectations of "otherzaba". Going back to the world of "otherzaba", especially while drunk, was extraordinarily rough. In otherwords, I apologize for putting my suffering on any one of you. I've noticed that I have the habit of lecturing about suffering and morals to avoid my own problems, and I did that to no end with "otherzaba".
I have to remember that life is too interesting for drama. So I'm going to let go of the "otherzaba", and just be Robert after I let this message ride for a day or two.
I hope all is well. |
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| suffering. |
[Sep. 10th, 2007|01:50 am] |
suffering.
Is maintaing one's curiosity. Children seem to understand the idea of suffering, that some processing of soul is recommended. The parents, who often have lost it, generally through the teens, sometimes regathering it in the college years, and resoundingly losing grip when they hit job time, have found that suffering is inconvenient, and should be removed from their children, to make their (the parents) life easier.
Now, parents don't have the easiest job, so far. But we all know the best parents listen, and don't put their suffering upon others. But demons are known, resolution is some other game. That shit doesn't usually end, and it's an eternal clinic.
Now, cynicism is the easiest plight one could imagine. Cynicism is convenient. Easy=cynical. (Easy=cynical)=miserable. [(Easy=cynical)=miserable]=how do I blast the fuck out of the opposition. How do we find opposition?
I'm sure your misery is known. Mine is so far, incremental. What happens after that. Misery is avoiding everything all the time, through fear most often. Are you thinking grammar? My hurt is not essentially your business. Unless it is.
My job is awesome. It goes forward instead of backwards. This day, I'm managing the restaurant, and business is doing more than fantastic. 20% more business. I do yoga. I know people's bullshit is out there. I know people's love of life is there. I find it amazing every time somebody loves their moment at the restaurant, and there are very few complaints. I love my co-workers. They rarely can drive me crazy. That's my type of magic.
For sure, I've not been on livejournal for more than awhile. I wish I could have seen the changes, as adverse as I used to be about some changes. But I don't wish anything. The wish is here or it's not. It's nothing that really grows. As growth is a personal thing. |
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| MOVIE MOMENT |
[Mar. 29th, 2006|03:42 am] |
Yes, I did like V for Vendetta. A lot. Am I going to watch it again in the theater? Hopefully.
It wasn't the best "unapologetically subversive" movie ever. But it certainly gets to be in the competition, the competition won by, in my mind, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, & Her Lover. Passolini's Salo is real close though.
As culinary off-beat foreign films go, Delicatessen got the nod over The Cook, etc. That's because Delicatessen is eurotrash-dark-artsy wanker heaven with no consequential content whatsoever. Ultimately not a bad movie, just kind of stays at cute.
Speaking of the wank, here we go: Thumbsucker vs. Napolean Dynamite. Thumbsucker, by many miles and many moons, wins for me.
I did not like Napolean Dynamite. And for similar reasons, I did not like Welcome to the Dollhouse. Something about horribly stereotypical antihero geeks with the affectation of slow wit that are supposed to, in Pavlovian fashion, trigger knowing laughter about past experiences in lieu of a presenting an openhearted and challenging investigation of trauma and joy of the teenage years.
Oh, I finally saw Enter the Dragon. You know, Bruce Lee and all. And I truly enjoyed it. Much better movie than I ever figured. |
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| SO IT'S NOT SCARLETT JOHANSEN... |
[Mar. 23rd, 2006|03:34 pm] |
Charlie Sheen jumps into the 9/11 Truth ring .
It's not as if he hasn't had practice through fiction. But seriously, I wonder what the actors, writers, etc. in The Lone Gunmen think about it 9/11?
Since this article was originally in the NY Post, "gone-bonkers brigade" is what they call journalism. If I was a savvy disingenious fucker, I would co-opt that label. Oh look, we're the "Gone-Bonkers Brigade"! Ha, ha, ha, he, he... |
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| GRRRRRR..... |
[Mar. 11th, 2006|02:46 pm] |
I really can't stand theatre dweebs. And I generally am okay with, or even supportive of, dweebs.
EDIT: Not all theatre people are theatre dweebs. Although it is on the cultish side, only a small fraction really go dweeb. |
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| DO I HAVE TO BRING OUT THE GAROFALO?! |
[Mar. 2nd, 2006|04:17 pm] |
I found out today that Janeane Garofalo has gone 9/11 Truth. Scroll down on the link--apparently she said, "9/11 was an inside job!! I have come to this conclusion about that." Are we going to say she's all tinfoil hat, now?
I especially appreciate her quote, in regards to her political beliefs versus her career:
"You can't force people to cast you or become younger or more popular. What I do have is control over my mind, my life and my participation in current events. I won't stick my head in the sand and have history roll right over me. I refuse to allow my government and the mainstream media to bully me into accepting a war that is immoral and illegal. If it means people make fun of me or think I'm a jerk, or I lose a job here and there, that means nothing to me."
But I know how collective trendiness works. Garofalo can be ditched at moments notice, and probably already has been for something far more collusive, such as Scarlett Johansen. I really enjoyed that movie Ghostworld, and Johansen was perfectly cast as the would be geek who, when push came to shove, sold out to the shit she once despised. Johansen's career has followed suit. Funny thing, Thora Birch's career hasn't panned out, in popularity or choice roles. And this cannot be about acting talent.
Back to Garofalo, her quote, "If it means people make fun of me or think I'm a jerk, or I lose a job here and there, that means nothing to me," is so amazingly anti-hipster, and spot on integrity wise. And what especially bugs me about hipsters is that often they have the handed-down financial freedom to not worry about losing a job, but they insist on using their resources soley on social beholdeness. One reason I'm a fan of the band Animal Collective. There are clear connections with trust funder rock, but they've used their position to expand possibilities, in a primal scream therapy sort of way. Sounds like great leisure time to me.
For the record, I am not anti-social, I just don't want to be beholden to a society whose sole interest is to waste me away to fit into their construct. I don't want to waste all my leisure time fussing over whether I fit or don't. I rather sit in my own home, completely alone, doing nothing important, than hang out with wolves trying to play a lamb's vicious game. And yes, I am completely fucking utopian. |
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| V FOR BOILING POINT? |
[Mar. 2nd, 2006|04:06 am] |
Fight Club has a special place in my moviegoing heart, considering it was one of the most subversive big budget, big star films to come out of Hollywood, especially in the past decade. And then this trend in filmmaking pretty much flatlined. Which is why I am especially excited after watching the trailer for V for Vendetta.
This has potential. The line, "If our own government was responsible for the deaths of 100,000 people, would you really want to know," sounds strangely familiar. But when a movie deals with fascism of sorts, and your own country is essentially fascist, it's not much of a stretch to connect the dots. The movie, apparently, has already claimed it's share of controversy, and I bet there will be more, with Fox News going it's usual convulsive self.
Anyways, the 9/11 video I linked to is one of the better ones I've seen. |
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| PORT WHINE, WE'RE MISSING THE VINTAGE 2001 (port is a stupid drink, by the way) |
[Feb. 22nd, 2006|05:37 am] |
Six (plus two extra military) ports being run by the United Arab Emirates company Dubai Ports World is causing quite the stir, and talking heads and congresspeople are confounded by this initiative.
But I'm waiting for CNN or whatnot to bring up the Securacom (now Stratesec), the company in charge of World Trade Center security (and Dulles and United Airlines) at the time of 9/11, which was partially owned by Kuwaiti-American company KuwAm. Anyways, I'm fucking exhausted at the moment, so I'll just cut an paste from cooperativeresearch.org.
Another of Stratesec's directors, from 1991 to 2001, is Mishal Yousef Saud Al Sabah, who is a member of the Kuwaiti royal family. Al Sabah is also chairman of an investment company called the Kuwait-American Corporation (KuwAm), which, between 1993 and 1999, holds a large, often controlling share of Stratesec. In 1996, it owns 90 percent of the company; by 1999 it owns 47 percent. According to Wayne Black, the head of a Florida-based security firm, it is delicate for a security company serving international facilities to be so interlinked with a foreign-owned company. He suggests: “Somebody knew somebody.” Black also points out that when a company has a security contract, “you know the inner workings of everything.” Furthermore, if another company is linked to the security company, then “what's on your computer is on their computer.” After 9/11 Stratesec CEO Barry McDaniel is asked whether FBI or other agents have questioned him or others at Stratesec about their security work related to 9/11. He answers , “No.”
Oh yeah, by the way...
Marvin P. Bush, the youngest brother of future President George W. Bush, is a director at Stratesec from 1993 to June 2000, when most of their work on these big projects is done. Wirt D. Walker III, a distant relative of George W. Bush, is chairman of the board at Stratesec from 1992, and its CEO from 1999 until January 2002. |
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| LOCKSTEP OTHERZABA |
[Jan. 28th, 2006|05:44 am] |
Some things which I like which friends tend to dislike and some things which I dislike which friends tend to like. I'll specify.
1. Seinfeld. Not a fan in the "so what" sort of way. It doesn't even annoy me. Boring. Give me The Bob Newhart show (in which Newhart is a psychologist) anyday if I want to see zany characters living their daily lives. I'll even take "Newhart" (in which Newhart is an innkeeper) over Seinfeld. So I guess the phenomenon of Newhart is one of the things I really like while many I know show at best a very formal disinterest.
2. Basketball. I really enjoy the game, whether watching or playing. But I've always tend to be around a lot of anti-sporters or football/baseball fans who pooh pooh it. I like the dynamics of it, and I'm pretty decent at it on top of that. And for those that I can share the love of the game with, I generally have disagreement with tennis, which I also thoroughly enjoy.
3. The New York Times. All that's fit to print my fucking conspiracy theorist ass! The Gray Lady is great for upper middle class leftist parlor talk, with it's oodling classist credibility, but when it comes to prompt news of consequence, the past few years has shown that it either evades the murky waters or let's the blogosphere do most of their work while finally capitalizing upon it when it seems economically feasible. Satan's cock is very happy.
4. Being John Malkovich and High Fidelity. Both flicks grossly pandered to their audience, as they were "that type of movie we expect" times ten, in bold face, with a wink and a nod. Spike Jonze is Mr. Fraud Art-Cinema boy, essentially downsizing the opportunities of those pesky geniuses like Chris Cunningham which could, in a coma, run circles around Mr. Spikey. Now High Fidelity is not Jonze, but more a brat pack grown up and supposedly humbled. No magic. No hard realities. Fuck the romance which later twentysomethings are supposed to understand so fucking well. And most importantly, fuck John Cusack. Cusack is the real #4 of this list. I despise every acting role I've ever seen him in. But he is born to be endearing, right. Ruins every movie he is in.
5. Chuck Taylors. I may not dislike them as much as I dislike John Cusack, but I do get a bit nauseous every time I see a pair. They are the shoes that go "wank". I can't see any other function for them except for skateboarding.
6. Trips to Italy. Many of my closest friends in adult life either have come from there, gone there, go there, or move there to be with their wife and child. Yes, if I had the chance to go, I'd go, but only if I had quadruple the time to make it a European trip, focusing on Eastern Europe. Something about the thought of Mediterranean countries just keeps me rubbery all over. Being rubbery can be fun, but only in small doses.
7. Bill Maher. His HBO show charges my batteries more than any show on television. No, I don't agree with every word he says. He'll go for the cheap laugh from time to time and his take on gender often abolishes his maverick complexity, but he is one of the few moderators who will openly contend for atheism, for one. Who the hell else does that? And he's generally excellent at connecting the dots in a cut-the-bullshit sort of way. He doesn't keep it safe, as does John Stewart. John Stewart, the funny teddy bear nihilist who tries to meekly dig himself out of the cultural hole of his own making by saying "Why don't we all get along".
8. Requiem for a Dream. Blasted suckery. "Oh, it reminds me of this trauma! Or that trauma!" Well then your trauma sucked. And no, I don't want to say anything intelligent about it.
9. Jimmy Carter, Phil Donahue, Jesse Jackson. This isn't necessarily a like/dislike issue, but more of a cultural forgetfulness. Each one of them is the Forgotten American Man. Each one holds a certain hero quality for me, but it seems they generally get a bit of a "Huh?" or a "Oh, that guy" response. And the connotation is that those men are essentially fools, or at least they don't hold credibility. Personally I find Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Al Sharpton to be the bozo equivalents of the aformentioned three. But I do get a kick out of Al Sharpton from time to time.
10. Electronica Music. This is more of a "float your boat" issue. I don't think I've ever had a close friend who has exceptionally been into it, but I certainly am. I've always found this to be a bit strange. And I'm talking Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, not that danceclub crap we've gotten accustomed to. |
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| HE STILL DOESN'T GET ANY NUTELLA FROM ME. |
[Jan. 23rd, 2006|03:20 am] |
Kobe Bryant scored 81 points today in a Laker/Raptor game in Los Angeles. That's the second-highest total ever in NBA history, only trailing Wilt Chamberlain's legendary 100.
And his team won, so their's no asterisk.
That's absurdly impressive. I'm no Kobe lover by any stretch of the basketball imagination, but I'm glad that he's taking all his abusive extracurricular behavior of last season and putting it all out on the basketball court. To see a bratty, god-complexy thoroughbred of an all-star let that shit go and become almost monkish in his dedication to the game is certainly a relief. |
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| NEPAL, PART ONE. |
[Jan. 22nd, 2006|06:15 am] |
Hey, that's some outrageous smoke. Dammit, I really need to know the backstory on that. All I know is that it's a Burmese deal. I'm going to have to ask my Burmese co-worker about this one. And speaking about international co-workers, one of my fellow waiters is from Nepal, and some of his encouragement for me to travel there is starting to stick.
So in other words, plumerai and I are considering going to Nepal in the relative near future. Just wanted to put that on the record so it becomes more difficult to bullshit myself out of doing it. |
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otherzaba's journal
