-*The HOUr of the
evolution*/n.
;It seem like more an more
people are gra-sdj f
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Û² Name: CORE MAFIA
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Û² Serial because you
know you don’t was as Û²
²Ûbecause ypou dpn’t wana get
excwuded from what’s realy happening.
The Tamlinmediaco has
been on;ine sionce july 1995. Eighteen years. In the past,
periodically I’d review the various iterations every few years of
so, but I’ll resist that yemptation today.
Suffice to say,
given our remit, there were some dodgy moments and these moments of
risk have not ceased to appear. It was the blues musician, “Son”
House who put it succinctly.
“I’m gwine
git me religion
I’m gone
jine the Baptist Church 2x
Ahm gone become a
Baptist Preacher
so I
don’t have to work.”
Actually Son, if
I’m not mistaken. also was a Pullman Porter. He was the carry bag
man on the railroad. But there is a subset of the blues culture
comprised of those torn between the paths of righteousness and the
lures of Satan, Prince of the Earth.
Oh dear me. What’s a
po’ child do do in the snar e of de debble? Who is the devil? The
Israelis know and the arabs do too.
The devil is a woman. Why else
would a self respecting businessman leave his wife and family for a
chick younger then his daughter? Because she’s the devil.
And the devil , like the
gods we find more acceptable, promises eternal life. Sex is part of
it but the bigger part of it is the gul maketh the toad as a tadpole.
She makes him feel young. He tied of himself.
He has learned the
game – pretty much he has learned how to play – how to cheat
the corners – how to take advantage of the innocent - how to
hide his winnings; how to say just enough to lead the sucker on. But
not so much as to create actual obligations. All this our win boy
has learned - but it’s not enough – it’s not enough to wash
the blood off his hands.
And so
he falls in love.
Isn’t
that wonderful?
But think of it from the
wife’s perspective. She has a lifetime invested in loving this
dude. For her the oddsof a younger lover are not on the map. And
what does he say?
“I’m sorry. I
just don’t love you anymore…
If a man
if willing to do this, for the sake of his c@ck, do you really think
he’s going to be faithful to you?
I suppose he
might attempt to convince you this is so- that he is interested in
the higher, more ethereal truths. Classically the story they give
out is “I didn’t really love my first wife” and in fact
there’s many cases where the second wife does have more in common
with tubby then the first.
Okay let’s make a
quantum leap through the singularity to beyond the looking glass.
Once upon a
time there was a kid from Brooklyn. People from that part of New york
city, especially the white ones, tend to be of mixed ethnic heritage,
because there’s so many different neighborhoods packed so tightly.
Like most, in time he moves to suburbia.
He wants to
make a life for himself but he soon discovers he has no avenues of
admittance to the fabled corridors of power. (It was C.P.Snow who
coined the phrase incidentally.)
He decides he needs an
act, a premise, some bizarre story that will set him apart from Joe
Blow. He takes the name of his favorite TV character and calls
himself the Alien Life Form.
Alf is
something like an American version of Thedoctor – emphasis on the
definitive article, mates. He knows he’s not educated, he has no
connections, let alone talent in any field. All he has is a hunger.
Unlike most stars though he knows what his hunger is. It is a hunger
to be loved – to be thought a part of society.
He
imagines a best friend, sort of a Tom Sawyer fellow, a rich Wasp,
and names him Tamlin. The story evolves. Other characters come an
go. TheALF has seen him himself as waiting for someone to take him
out of his miserable life for so long we begin to believe he has
begun to believe his cover story himself. And he seems to know
things. His understanding seems to make sense.
Other things
happen. Call it coincidence or call it luck but
TheALF seems to have
slightly prophetic abilities, nothing specific but disturbing anyway.
What is more we begin to get hints that something happened in ALF’s
life that shattered his sense of who his was – something so awful
that afterwards he could never be the same person again.
The years
go by. The parallels between the ALF and Tamlin and Zonker and
Doonesbury are made explicit. The web page comments on the developing
web. I comments on the fact that the big companies seem little
interested in moving things along – quite the opposite.
The page is
published on the average three times a week. The hope was to create
an ongoing novel – one that would interact with current events and
at the same pursue it’s own plot action.
Then disaster
strikes. A major motion picture is made about an average guy who
thinks he comes from outer space.
Main character
also has curious abilities. Main character seems to have suffered
traumatic incident which provoked break with reality.
Of course we have
to get idea from somewhere and to prove these things is very
difficult, but it hurt, and I stopped doing it. And in some honesty
a part of the reason why was when I have a major idea about how to
do something I want to work it in it’s fullest and most complete
way. Frankly I am not interested in what some clutz thinks of my
idea.
I was furious
at first but later, much later cooled down. The movies I think was
called Starman or something. Ironincally the actor in it established
a firm online that would “Review” other peoples scripts. What a
haughty bastard. Is that like “Droit de seignior? “
Another
case I want to work up a product that would be sort of an online
whole earth catalog only mixed together with “The Medium is the
Massage” by McLuhan and Quentin Fiore. At the same time I’m in
correspondence with a nationally syndicated television critic. I’m
not a heavy tv watcher, nor am I what is commonly called a media
critic. Although I went in depth into the Time Warner story before
the buyout – wondering why TW was sitting on it’s hands.
My actual main hobby is
the effects of technology on myth, or how we succumb to the
technological myths in the absence of religious or social ones.
Anyway though
here I was trying to develop a product, one which would benefit from
it’s association with a relatively big name. Plus in the 80’s
there was some commotion on CD-Roms and Director coding – which
went no where because the speed was too slow and the amount of data
limited. I felt that with compression and online thingy could work.
Obviously the difficulty with anything like this is the revenue
stream but that could be worked with. Other aspects you don’t
need to know about.
So I’m
writing these “Quarterly reports” which are essential blueprints
or flow charts of the greater project and they have sections which
would have comment one by me – the idiot, ishtam, then a photo or
two or a movie, then the rational explanation by the wiseold man with
the famous name.
Much of it was
current events (that old standby) but one section I was excited about
was a letter from a sensitive new jersey Mafioso who is
complaining to his don about the Russians moving in and this and
that, and really what he wants is someone to talk too who understands
him.
To this end he’s
going to engage a “bookwriter person” as an amanuensis. His
correspondent, uncle Nick (the devil) tells him to sit tight and
he’ll be visiting the little guy soon.
In fact the
reason I am writing this today is because the actor who played Tony
Soprano died this week at 51. God the dude was so young, huh? This
is a case where I saw the thing but I don’t know If I could have
done . I’m part Italian and am so tired of seeing the portrayal of
Italians as mobsters.
Would we
accept the portrayal of other ethnic groups in this way? And Italian
American directors know that if they want to make money they got to
bring out the deese and don’ts. Long ago ethnic humor, mostly
dialect driven, was okay – we’re speakin 1900 – 1930. The
audience was largely immigrants.
I saw several
episodes however, never being completely comfortable. I would have
felt better if a sizable contribution were made to some fund sending
Italian Americans to college.
The critic
begged off saying the Sopranos was about family. That’s a lot of
bullshit.. That’s like saying Stephen Fetchit is a comic
character - he is but that’s not the whole story.
In
conclusion one can only say caveat emptor. Justice is slow and
clumsy. And I know I’ve nicked more then my share of musical ideas
– indeed practically every song I write owes something to some
other song.
I for one
think that more of the things done “on spec” are heeded then we
are aware off – yes they get tossed in the round file but not
before they get reviewed to see which way the wind is blowing.
There are not
that many saints in the world.
I had a good friend
named Al, he was a shrink with multiple degrees. You realize
that an artist such as myself, we begin in childhood and in some
regards we retain that connection to youth though out our lives.
It’s like being born a king. You just always have it as part of
you. It cannot be severed.
But death is
who knows where and only a fool forgets that. What I remember Al
saying to me was “keep on going,” and so I say the same thing to
you in whatever you do.
Keep on Going
addendum: don't like wearing my professorial cap but as to "La Mer" a toon covered by Bobby Daren. Bobby did some nice things but he began as a Vegas Act and did not do justice to this song
"La Mer" (the Sea) was written in 1946, by Charles Trenet, a homosexual who also wrong "I wish you love" among many other french standards. I keep insisting that no song, no person, no love can be properly understood without a knowledge of it's context and context can not be put into words! Joy, tears, sorrow, strength these thing cannot be communicated via any verbal language.
In short the tune should be played slowly and solemnly to indicate that one is aware of the reality within the illusion
La Mer is about the endless. both the nation and the man we may suggest knew what sorrow was. France had suffered a humiliating defeat in the second world war and had to be rescued by "le roast beef's"
and yet she had to go on. I recall one time Sigmund Freud and his father were walking the streets of Vienna and some gentiles came along and Sigmunds father, as was the custom, stepped into the gutter to allow the gentiles to pass. Sigmund was furious. He was not a weak man. Several of his sons were soldiers who advanced to become officers in the Austrian Army ( and then to be cast out of the country in the 30's)
but life goes on - there are levels of human ugliness I daresay we never experience - cruelty beyond imagining - sorrow without cause pain with out end till death brings release.
But let no one judge you but yourself
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