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Fame & Fugliness

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on February 17, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Is ugly the new hot?

It’s been said that beauty is in the eye of the beerholder, but you may find a sort of hideous beauty in these photographs by Phillip Toledano, even if you’re not holding a beer. The photos are from a series exploring the strangely compelling appearances of individuals that have undergone what many would describe as botched or excessive cosmetic surgery. Part of what gives the images their power is how they reference images from art that you may already be familiar with, as in the case of this image, which suggests both Portrait of a Young Woman in a Turban and the Death of Marat. On his web site, Toledano asks if – as a culture – we are “…creating a new kind of beauty. An amalgam of surgery, art, and popular culture? And if so, are the results the vanguard of human induced evolution?” I’d have to say “no”, in this case. I’m perpetually perplexed by how perfectly decent-looking people go to such great lengths to be more attractive, and when all is said and done end up looking literally monstrous, as in the case of Internet meme celebrity Jocelyn Wildenstein, or just a little more fake and not any more attractive (though a lot more famous!) as in the case of someone like Heidi Montag. And for me, the fact that a desire for fame is what often drives these surgical compulsions is especially ironic, when being “ugly” can be such a draw in itself. As evidence, just take a look at Nerve.com’s 20 Sexiest Ugly People or Ravi Vora’s Ugly Actors You Know And Love. There’s even a modeling agency that specializes in ugly called – aptly enough – Ugly. I’ve personally always been a little partial to the “ugliness” of Sandra Bernhard, Helena Bonham Carter, Bai Ling, and more recently Yolandi Visser. To me, it’s the exaggerated features of the sort Fellini relied on (see the book Fellini’s Faces for examples) that are the very thing that makes someone beautiful. Do YOU have a favorite “ugly but beautiful” celebrity? Read the rest of this entry »

The Kindness Economy

[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 12, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Friday, February 12th, 2010

The new bestseller that you and I can write every day.

I’m currently putting the finishing touches on a short book based on the idea of The Kindness Economy. It started as a friendly joke with a few friends; we were comparing notes on how people seem to have slowly  become ruder and more self-centered with every passing day over the past couple decades. Our idea was that if you make a little investment in being kinder ever day – hold a door, let someone go  first, say excuse me – it would sort of make a deposit into the “Kindness Economy” that would help build up the “Kindess Supply”. This idea has helped me grow a little bit as a person, but it occurred to me after a while that maybe there was something to it. Over the past decade I’ve not only done a lot of work to try to improve myself as person, I’ve been learning a lot about how to and how not to run a business. One thing I noticed at some point was that there was a marked difference in the style of how business people of different ages seemed to approach running their business. At this point I’d put the marker around 55 years old and up, and it’s a simple difference: business people under that age right now are much more likely to be motivated more strictly by profit, and people over that age are much more likely to motivated by a deeper sense of value and community. I am of course speaking anecdotally and in broad strokes, but I’ve noticed that the “old school” model includes a lot more personal touches of “going the extra mile” by throwing in simple courtesies of service, and not treating customer care simply as a way of retaining disgruntled customers, but as a way of building new ones. It also includes the idea of building business that is of value not only to shareholders and investors, but also people like employees, customers, and the citizens of the community from which the business derives its revenue. I’m old enough myself to have watched the general sense of prosperity in America dwindle from a high point in the 60′s to the current sense of impending econopocalypse. Concurrent with this I’ve noticed this trend of people seeming less courteous as time passes, and I can’t help feeling that there’s some kind of connection. We could enter some broad sociological discourse at this point about how prosperity and courtesy in America were impacted by the Great Depression and the two World Wars, and how the generations of that era were forced into a sense of community and later thrived on the post war prosperity, but how about this time we skip the whole financial collapse and global conflict part, and just get back to being kinder for the sense of comfort and prosperity it brings all on its own? Read the rest of this entry »

Reality Is A Life Or Death Situation

[ Comments Off ]Posted on February 6, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

It’s interesting that in spite of the fact that one of the few things you can count on about this planet is that no-one gets out alive, no-one seems to have advice for how to die well.


I’ve always had a sneaking
suspicion that this one
only works for Tibetans

It’s interesting that thanks to the self help industry we have so many books at our disposal that tell us how to live, but scant few on how to die. Sure, there’s a plethora of paperbacks devoted to grieving, loss, and dying, but that’s still about how to live, albeit while watching someone else die. A quick Google search of the phrase “how to die” turns up the Deathclock and a bunch of tips on suicide, but even suicide is a conscious act of the living, not a process of dying. You also find things like the book How to Die in the Outdoors: 100 Interesting Ways, and New Scientists’ How Does it Feel to Die? Again, not very useful if you just want to die well. There is of course The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but I’ve always had a hunch it only works for Tibetans. And there’s always religion in general, which is a proven and reliable way to prepare you for the life after this one. Oh. There we go again. A guide for living. So how does one go about dying? This topic has been very much on my heart and head for a while now, ever since about a two months ago, when my mom entered what may very well be her last days. It started with a negligent act on the part of the health care facility she was in, which is another topic altogether. I will very likely become a health care activist as result of the experience. But what this whole experience has also brought to my attention is the odd fact that neither of my parents seemed to have had an understanding of how to die well. I’ve experienced death firsthand many more times than most people who aren’t in either the military or a medical profession. Quite a lot, and at an early age. I’m thankful for that; it’s given me a strong set of beliefs that helps me deal with a lot of other things in life, and helps me help others when they experience the loss of a loved one or experience trauma. When I think about my own death though, I hope that I’m able to face this “final event” with dignity, and that I can avoid a medically prolonged life of drugged suffering. And I hope those around me who are meant to be of support as I die “get it”. My poor mother, a devout Catholic, was visited by one of the priests Read the rest of this entry »

America: Land Of The Fleeced & Home Of The Brazen

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on January 24, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I’m not sure I know how to live in this country any more, they’ve changed too many rules. Maybe we need to start making our own.

I’m not so sure I know how to live in America any more. When it comes to politics, I’ve always been the sort who’s in favor of a mixed economy, believing that a balance of free markets and social programs is the best choice for governing. Regardless of the finer points of my political opinions, I got good grades in Civics class, and was properly indoctrinated as a US citizen growing up. Although what I’m about to say is going to sound like it’s partisan and politically motivated, it’s really not. It’s about lifestyle, and responsibility to my fellow citizens and financial agreements. Like many, I’ve had some credit issues here and there, but as we’ve learned recently, lenders are kind of like drug dealers, offering a magical solution to all your problems, without advising you of the long term dangers of the solution they provide. But by and large, I’ve always believed in hard work and paying my bills and taxes on time. The entire fabric of my basic moral fiber as a citizen of the world’s leading capitalist democracy has been slowly unraveling for a while though, and I find it harder and harder to keep living like the American I thought I was. For me it all started when 19 Saudis engaged in terrorist acts against the US, and the administration at the time perplexed the world by responding to the attacks by starting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And as if going against a long-standing tradition of not engaging in wars of aggression wasn’t bad enough, it was clear that a large part of that administration’s motive at the time was personal financial benefit, and a desire to privatize the military, so other “disaster capitalists” could do the same. Check out Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine if you don’t know what I’m talking about. This unraveling of my faith in our government continued when the same administration – under the guise of keeping us safe – started data mining citizens and otherwise eroding our basic rights, and in collusion with a monopolistic telecommunications company, no less. The fact that two presidential elections appeared to be stolen bothered me, but election fraud is more or less a tradition in American politics, just read Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition-1742-2004 if you don’t have a rational level of cynicism on the topic. All of this left me rather unsettled, but what really has finally made me consider chucking the social contract altogether was the massive bank and insurance industry bailouts and the recent supreme court decision to grant corporations the same rights as individuals. The former flies in the face of the most fundamental principles of capitalism. The latter suggests that if corporations have the same rights as individuals, I deserve a bailout and a bonus too. I’m not joking about this. I’ll gladly play the game of capitalism by the rules; I think it’s a great game when played with the right balance of self-interest and social responsibility. But the fundamental rules have changed, and I feel I have no choice but to reconsider my lifestyle accordingly. Does this sound melodramatic? I don’t think so. What about you? Is it business as usual? Do these paradigm shifts in government bother you? If so, do you plan to do anything about it? I fear we won’t. Read the rest of this entry »

The Body Electric: Chi Loves Me… Chi Loves Me Not…

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on January 19, 2010 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Musings on the Pauli Effect, humans as batteries, tantrism and chi, and people who seem to get an unnatural charge out of life.


Maybe you’ve just seen
the movie “Powder” a
few too many times.

Are you or someone you know the sort of person who can’t wear watches, seems to regularly “blow out” light bulbs or other electronic devices, or routinely has street lights go off or on when you pass by? Maybe you’re a victim of the Pauli Effect. Or maybe you’ve just seen the movie Powder too many times. Or maybe you’re just a weensy bit funny in the head, like the people on these Internet forums. It’s interesting that in spite of what we think science understands about electricity, we seem to have a long way to go. Take for instance the recent developments like MIT researchers transmitting power through the air, or Danish scientists’ recent assertion that nerve impulses are transmitted with sound, not electricity, as we were taught in school. They’re also pondering human bodies as a source of power like in the Matrix, so watch out. It’s also interesting that with all the anecdotal indications that there are “Electric Humans”, that science has done such a poor job of exploring the concept, if only to debunk it. Why couldn’t some humans have unusual electrical properties? There are definitely people out there like Jose Ayala of Puerto Rico or Slavia Patjic of Serbia (YouTube links) who can allow lethal currents to pass through them to illuminate light bulbs or set things on fire, but amazing as their stunts are, they seem more like carny tricks than anything else. But what about people who seem to generate the energy themselves, like Debbie Wolf of the UK, or more intriguingly, alleged Chi Master John Chang (see video below), subject of the book The Magus of Java? I personally have experienced a few little oddities related to this sort of thing. There was a period when I was reluctant to buy watches because they seemed to die on me rather quickly, and I’ve had periods when there was so much static electricity in my body that I’ve experienced 3-4 inch long arcs or been able to feel the hair on my arms rise as I walk through doorways. I don’t think this is all that odd. Probably because I also learned some “tricks” years ago involving energy in the body. In one instance from a Tai Chi instructor who – in spite of being a wiry little guy – could support an adult dangling from his outstretched arm, and in the other instance from a yoga instructor who shared a bunch of “secrets” about using circuits in the body to enhance wellness or lovemaking. And of course there’s an entire legitimate industry of acupuncture, energy-based body work, and literature about Tantrism out there. There’s even the The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tantric Sex, although I don’t know why anyone would want to have tantric sex with a complete idiot. What about you? Do you seem to be a lightening rod for odd electrical experiences? Do electronic devices seem to go on the fritz for you ten times more often than they do for other people? Read the rest of this entry »

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