Context is Illusion. Detail is key.

This post is in response to Peter Atencio's "Context is Key"
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First, let’s agree that specific details are key in understanding/ communicating a situation, especially if the alternative is communication through broad generalizations.

However, the original scenarios above, though lacking in detail, do have context: (soup and bagel, child in a Paris park). The context changes as details are added. The frame of context never ends.

Context is generally defined as the conditions in which something exists or occurs. And while conditions can (and do) add specific enlightening details, they are not the key to understanding a situation more truthfully - spoken or unspoken.

Often times, context inhibits truth. Take the contextual examples mentioned above: (German occupation, eating next to a stack of unpaid bills) - Instead of illuminating the truth, the characters or objects are misunderstood through a whole new set of predetermined perceptions. So, you show me a picture and I believe it to be serene. Then you provide a certain context and I find it horrific. Nothing has changed but my own preconceived notions of two separate contexts. The truth of the picture lies in how the characters and objects react to the conditions in which they exist.

“A man eats soup and a bagel for lunch.” - This sentence can be understood in as many different ways as there are people.

“A man eats canned soup and a hard leftover bagel next to unpaid bills.” - This sentence can also be understood in as many different ways as there are people. It absolutely does not promote unspoken truths, but it does reinforce the blissfully ignorant ways in which we stereotype our world.

Context is an illusion. Detail is key.

Much love, Peter. Your post has got me thinking.
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Peter responds to this post here.

Why I'm done chasing...

A therapist friend gave me the following advice:

There's an arrogance and a righteousness that comes from the best place in us... the place that wants to save our patients and our lovers and our friends.

There will be all of those that give chase and they want us to follow. They may want us to save, but true partnership, friendship, or good therapy isnt about saving - it's about waiting for the person to stop running. It's waiting for them to come to us and ask for help, instead of forcing the chase.

The best of us are brave enough to wait it out.

She has a phone, concerned friends, and a very loving concerned you. She knows in her heart, without any question, that if she really needs you, you will always be there.

She isn't done running and she wants you and everyone else to chase. When she's ready, she'll stop. In the meantime, you cant save her. Just support her. She's gotten this far... she'll be ok. I promise.

I don't know if that makes sense and I agree it really sounds as though she's hurting and struggling right now, but you cant change that or help unless she allows you to. Right now she just wants to play. She needs to feel needed by scaring all of you.

You need to just trust that she has enough support in her life that if she chooses to see and reach out... she'll be brave enough to do that. You can't do it for her.

The Pursuit of Life

The American opposition toward citizen funded health care confuses me.

What boggles my mind most is that there have been two major issues determining the destination of our taxed dollars since the time our president took office:

1) Allocation of our funds for the bailout of private corporations.

2) Allocation of our funds for the potential care of our citizens.

Where were the screams of opposition when our tax dollars were handed to private entities?

Why are we choosing to fight against the second option? How have we become so brainwashed that we stand up for the preservation of a third party?

We are the people.

After all, the defense and prosperity of the self is what our capitalistic government is all about. Our government is not based on the health of corporations. The smoke and mirrors of private corporation only has power when we believe it's more important than we are for the health of our country.

Let's not forget, the government for which our troops fight is a government we control. There's no need to be afraid of the health services we provide ourselves, but there's much to fear in health services provided by entities we don't control.

When we wage war against a foreign country, we fight for the safety and health of our fellow citizens. A select few, rich and poor, defend our nation against foreign threat.The care of our nation is as important as the defense of our nation. It's a different battle in the same war.

Why are we battling the inalienable right to life? It's ours - front and center.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We employ our fellow men and women to defend our right to life against factors abroad. Let us employ our fellow men and women to defend our right to life against factors within.

Let us all demand the inalienable right to life, completely.

We decide if we pay a premium for life. We don't directly pay a private company for the defense of our nation, nor should we pay a price, beyond what we tax, for the defense of ourselves.

Bottom Line:
We've yet to be overcome by a department of our government for which we openly supply weaponry at our expense.

How (and why) could we imagine a threat from a department of our government for which we openly supply medicine?

A Federal Hospital Program may not be the correct course of action, but why don't we try? Who loses at the end of the day? Premium services will continue to be available to those of us who want it.

The worst case scenario... We fail at the effort to create a world in which our health is an inalienable right. - but we're Americans. We don't fail.

"Divide and conquer," They believed.

We almost let them win.

My Oscar '09 Ballot

This is who I think will win, not who I think should win.

Actor, Leading
Sean Penn - "Milk"

Actor, Supporting
Heath Ledger - "The Dark Knight"

Actress, Leading
Kate Winslet - "The Reader"

Actress, Supporting
Penelope Cruz - "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Animated Feature
"Wall-E"

Art Direction
"...Benjamin Button"

Cinematography
"...Benjamin Button"

Costume Design
"The Duchess"

Directing
"Milk"

Doc. Feature
"Man On Wire"

Doc. Short
"The Witness..."

Film Editing
"Slumdog Millionaire"

Foreign Language
"Waltz with Bashir"

Makeup
"...Benjamin Button"

Original Score
"Slumdog Millionaire"

Original Song
"Jai Ho" - "Slumdog Millionaire"

Best Picture
"Slumdog Millionaire"

Short Film, Animated
"Presto"

Short Film, Live Action
"Spielzeugland"

Sound Editing
"The Dark Knight"

Visual Effects
"...Benjamin Button"

Screenplay, Adapted
"Slumdog Millionaire"

Screenplay, Original
"Milk"

Incomplete Thoughts on the Human Problem: Humor - Part 1

I'm starting to believe that our problem as humans is that we have been programmed to enjoy and reinforce (through laughter) two fundamentally opposing directions - Pleasure from new experiences and connections with those we determine are equal or above us & Pleasure from avoiding new experiences and disconnections with those we determine are below us.

Our compass has no north...

Let's start with the established theories on Laughter & Humor:

There's Icongruity Theory,
We laugh and go in the direction of those that surprise us and we admire. We believe they are better than us, or at least as good - Those beings challenge what we expect and give us something completely different. We enjoy and go in the direction of those who challenge and teach us something new - we are inferior, or at the same level. We experience a laugh reward when we bond with a higher being because we are now safe (we've learned something new).

But then there's Superiority Theory,
We laugh and go in the direction of those that don't surprise us and we condescend. We believe we're better than them - These beings confirm what we expect and give us what we've always known: We are safe and strong, as long as another is in danger and weak. We hate and ignore those who we believe are below us - we are superior. We experience a laugh reward when we see someone else hurt.

And still there's Relief Theory,
We laugh when danger is relieved and we become safe. A bear is attacking you? You run away from the bear? You laugh and experience the pleasure that laughter brings, so as to reward and reinforce the preservation of your life.

Further description, one page here: http://people.howstuffworks.com/laughter5.htm

I think that the evolution of our Laugh Function was in this order:

1. tickle laugh (bonding with others = connecting with people creates pleasure)
2. Relief laugh (bonding with experience of safety = disconnecting with bad experiences creates pleasure)
3. Superiority laugh (bonding with others and experiences of being safe due to perceived superiority of something else = discconnecting with people and experiences creates pleasure)
4. Incongruity Laugh (Bonding with others and experiences that teach you that you're not superior to something else, and you can learn = connecting with people and experiences creates pleasure)

The most evolved is #4

I'm posting incomplete thoughts. It's late. Feel free to expand upon these...

I'll continute later.

How I Voted - 11/4/08

My Residence: Kenmore Ave. & Franklin Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90027

Pres/Vice Pres: Obama/Biden
US Rep. 33rd District: Watson
State Assembly 42nd District: Feuer
Judicial No.72: Merritt
Judicial No.82: Loo
Judicial No.84: Jones
Judicial No. 94: Mack
Judicial No. 154: Crabb
1A: Yes
2: Yes
3: Yes
4: No
5: Yes
6: No
7: No
8: No
9: No
10: No
11: Yes
12: Yes
R: Yes
J: Yes
Q: Yes
A: Yes
B: Yes

Review: Pinback @ Echoplex 10/20/08

Hailing from San Diego, Pinback is a band comprised of two principal players: Armistead Burwell Smith IV (Zach) and Rob Crow.

Review written by Scott Perraud:

This was my first time at Echoplex. It's a sweet venue. There's a big bar in back, and then it opens up to a stage that was quite low to the ground. There's a small, small, small area for the audience. We were very close.

The opening band, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects, was an octet of all kinds of instruments including a keytarish keyboardist who looked like Christian Bale with a beard, 2 drummers (one standing) and a guitarist who looked like a Hispanic Josh Brolin with a mustache and soul patch. We didn't know their names, so Brandon and I shouted, "Brolin, Bale" and "Don't Bale on your Brolin!" all night, excited by the possibility that these guys could be performing live music in front of us. We never confirmed whether or not it was actually them.

Pinback was incredible. They usually stick closely to the recorded versions of their songs, but this time It felt like they were jamming a little bit: Changing pace, mixing the level of noise (the drums would get really quite at parts). It seemed like they were just having fun/changing up the way they normally play songs live.

All of the songs were faster than the record, but not the normal zip-through it pace of their live shows. This time they played a little slower and it was more enjoyable. The exception was Loro, which was sad and slower than the record, but very nice sounding. I wanted to hear B and BBtone, so we yelled out, "BBtone! B!" all night, but they never came.

Rob Crow seemed melancholy throughout the show, due to their keyboardist Terrin Durfey's battle with cancer. Durfey was unable to play, so there was a local replacement who managed to learn the songs in a few days. Rob asked the audience to give to the Terrin Durfey Foundation. And followed the request with, "You live in L.A., so just go one day with out hair product and help someone else" or something like that.*

Rob's sadness and anger seemed to amplify the performance. His vocals and guitar were phenomenal (more phenomenal than the last phenomenal show at the Avalon). During Sender, Rob changed the second verse lyrics to: "I sing this same line every fucking night", which was funny because it sounded right and fit into the tune beautifully. I don't think anyone noticed. Before playing Boo, Rob joked, "Here's another upper from our treasure trove of feel good hits." During Tripoli he scratched his "turntable", which was basically a plastic Fisher Price record player (I think I had one when I was 4). It also put him in a kind of Fuck-It mode. At one point, he dumped half his beer on some dude in the front row, as he tried to pull it from its cup holder, and just said, "Shit. Sorry dude."

A video was projected behind them during the performance. Rob gave a little speech before Off by 50. It talked about how people try to make us fear numbers throughout our lives. His response was that they got the wrong number - they were off by 50. A million different images of 666 were projected behind them during the song. I'm not sure if he was saying we should be scared of 616 or 726? Why are those worse? The video's highlights: A few John Carpenter Dark Star clips & a fan video during Fortress (though they should have played this). Rob said the fan-made Fortress video was better than the one they had paid professionals to make. He offered to show fan videos in concert, so if you want to make a Pinback fan video, get on it and send it to the band.

They also showed a video photo album of their days on this tour. It included their soccer ball that was run over by an 18 wheeler. And their sound guy in a cast, after he tore his ACL trying to kick the replacement soccer ball. During the encore, Zach Smith sat at the keyboard for all four songs.

All in all - It was a phenomenal show.

*Ed. Note: Terrin Durfey has just passed away. He was 36 years old and is survived by his wife and six-year-old son. A fundraiser was set up to offset his medical costs. Contributions can still be made to the Terrin Durfey Foundation and his myspace page.

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View Scott's photos from the show.

View Pinback's setlist.

Setlist: Pinback at Echoplex 10/20/08

1. Torch

2. Bouqet

3. Non-photo Blue

4. Microtonic Wave

5. Penelope

6. Good to Sea

7. Bloods on Fire

8. Walters

9. Offcell

10. Tripoli

11. Loro

12. Fortress

13. Devil You Know

14. Nothing to Nowhere

15. Off By 50

16. AFK

Encore:

17. Rousseau

18. Sender

19. Manchuria

20. June