October news. Hello hello, it’s been a while.
Looking forward to a week in NYC where I’ll be seeing Tammy Faye Starlight channeling Marianne Faithful in Cabaret Marianne at Pangea, Old Times with Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly on Broadway, and Luc Sante reading from his new book The Other Paris at our alma mater the Strand bookstore on Oct. 28th. I’ve been waiting for this book for some time; Luc serving up 19th and 20th century Paris as he did New York City in Low Life.
Looking forward to a week in NYC where I’ll be seeing Tammy Faye Starlight channeling Marianne Faithful in Cabaret Marianne at Pangea, Old Times with Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly on Broadway, and Luc Sante reading from his new book The Other Paris at our alma mater the Strand bookstore on Oct. 28th. I’ve been waiting for this book for some time; Luc serving up 19th and 20th century Paris as he did New York City in Low Life.
I was perusing the internet looking for political cartoons about soapboxes in a bid to take the piss out of myself when I ran across a lovely blog by an anonymous writer called What the Blackbird Said, which is where I found this drawing. Nice to take a dip into this writer’s headspace.
Current brain stimulator :: Virtual Reality :: a provocative new frontier. The most thrilling tech development I’m hearing about today comes from Chris Milk (among others) citing Virtual Reality as the ultimate empathy machine. VR at its best can unlock emotions in the participant that film can’t touch, and the key word is participant. Okay, you’re not actively creating events when you strap on a VR headset (yet) but you certainly are feeling situations that could be foreign to you as a 360 degree experience. The potential of this idea is truly astounding. Because we are in the ‘screen age’, which, as much as it pretends to connect and uplift us often keeps us isolated from one another in mindless surfery, going into the screen can create an entirely different emotional experience, one that feels visceral and connected to the scenes unfolding around you. The implication of VR creating empathy is exciting yet fraught with all types of conflicting possibilities. Can VR actually provoke people into action, and not end up being just another way to feel better about ourselves, or to become disaster, trauma & poverty tourists? I believe that, aside from the resolution of images and the more tech aspects of the viewer's feeling of immersion, the stories will be the most important aspect of VR as empathy machine.
Links to what's going on with VR re: empathy: WHAT IT FEELS LIKE. CHRIS MILK 'S TED TALK.
Here’s a sample scenario, albeit dark, in a nutshell; NRA top brass enter a room and don VR headsets. They don’t know what’s coming. The experience begins; they are transported into a classroom where their own children, hard at work on a geography lesson, are suddenly being massacred by a mentally unstable youth wielding two automatic Glocks with large capacity clips. What will he feel after this experience? Could he really walk away unchanged? Could this immersive, horrifying experience create empathy and action on the part of a staunch NRA leader? Would the NRA honchos have the cojones to don the headsets? They’d never, if they knew what was coming.
The kids at Columbine didn't know what was coming. Nor did the children at Newtown Connecticut in 2012, or the students at Umpqua in Oregon less than two weeks ago. Literally HUNDREDS of school shootings since Columbine, and 45 shootings at schools this year alone.
The 12 year old black boy in Cleveland playing with a toy gun on a playground, who spent his twelve years on earth in a gun-crazy culture, didn't see it coming either, nor does his family see a not-guilty verdict coming back on the cop who shot and killed the boy.
I facilitate a songwriting workshop for inmates in the L.A. County women's jail at Lynwood. Before I could start the class, my co-volunteers and I went through rigorous background checks for 4 months, including fingerprinting and home visits by LA County deputies who called our work places and personal references. If it's this challenging to get cleared to do good for our communities, why is it that anyone can buy a deadly weapon without having to go through any background checks whatsoever? Can't we at least start by introducing new legislature demanding strict background checks for anyone applying to own a gun? This would be the one instance where a background check should trump privacy and include a medical record check to see if the person has either a history of mental illness or has been prescribed psych meds, including anti-anxiety medications like benzodiazepines.
I've declared a personal moratorium on taking in any news until Sunday mornings when I devour the NY Times, a gift from my secret admirer, who I'm naming my morning tonic after.
I’m going to publicly share a food secret of mine with you, SANS pictures. Many people ask how I stay so youthful.
(They don’t get close enough to see what’s truly going on, where the trunk of the tree ‘rings’ apparent.) A gorgeous young thing once asked if I bathed in the blood of young virgins. “How’d you guess?” I replied. In the ever-growing absence of said virgins I present to you my morning tonic, the Green Fairy Elixir. Some may identify the Green Fairy with absinthe. I guess you could add absinthe to this drink if you’re so inclined. My own absinthe days are long gone but the Green Fairy likes to visit and hang around demanding this and that and how I’d better keep her in mind in her proper context because she is now a recovering alcoholic and a fairy of another colour, (a muddy brown, I believe), has taken up her absinthe post.
This elixir may not stop your neck skin from crepe-ing but it’ll put a nice glow in your cheeks and you’ll feel energy to spare, especially if you stick to it as Le vert de fée (the demanding little minx) would have it. If you don’t own one yet, I recommend you get yourself a NutriBullet post haste. You’ll find yourself addicted to concocting nutritional delights in no time.
Current brain stimulator :: Virtual Reality :: a provocative new frontier. The most thrilling tech development I’m hearing about today comes from Chris Milk (among others) citing Virtual Reality as the ultimate empathy machine. VR at its best can unlock emotions in the participant that film can’t touch, and the key word is participant. Okay, you’re not actively creating events when you strap on a VR headset (yet) but you certainly are feeling situations that could be foreign to you as a 360 degree experience. The potential of this idea is truly astounding. Because we are in the ‘screen age’, which, as much as it pretends to connect and uplift us often keeps us isolated from one another in mindless surfery, going into the screen can create an entirely different emotional experience, one that feels visceral and connected to the scenes unfolding around you. The implication of VR creating empathy is exciting yet fraught with all types of conflicting possibilities. Can VR actually provoke people into action, and not end up being just another way to feel better about ourselves, or to become disaster, trauma & poverty tourists? I believe that, aside from the resolution of images and the more tech aspects of the viewer's feeling of immersion, the stories will be the most important aspect of VR as empathy machine.
Links to what's going on with VR re: empathy: WHAT IT FEELS LIKE. CHRIS MILK 'S TED TALK.
Here’s a sample scenario, albeit dark, in a nutshell; NRA top brass enter a room and don VR headsets. They don’t know what’s coming. The experience begins; they are transported into a classroom where their own children, hard at work on a geography lesson, are suddenly being massacred by a mentally unstable youth wielding two automatic Glocks with large capacity clips. What will he feel after this experience? Could he really walk away unchanged? Could this immersive, horrifying experience create empathy and action on the part of a staunch NRA leader? Would the NRA honchos have the cojones to don the headsets? They’d never, if they knew what was coming.
The kids at Columbine didn't know what was coming. Nor did the children at Newtown Connecticut in 2012, or the students at Umpqua in Oregon less than two weeks ago. Literally HUNDREDS of school shootings since Columbine, and 45 shootings at schools this year alone.
The 12 year old black boy in Cleveland playing with a toy gun on a playground, who spent his twelve years on earth in a gun-crazy culture, didn't see it coming either, nor does his family see a not-guilty verdict coming back on the cop who shot and killed the boy.
I facilitate a songwriting workshop for inmates in the L.A. County women's jail at Lynwood. Before I could start the class, my co-volunteers and I went through rigorous background checks for 4 months, including fingerprinting and home visits by LA County deputies who called our work places and personal references. If it's this challenging to get cleared to do good for our communities, why is it that anyone can buy a deadly weapon without having to go through any background checks whatsoever? Can't we at least start by introducing new legislature demanding strict background checks for anyone applying to own a gun? This would be the one instance where a background check should trump privacy and include a medical record check to see if the person has either a history of mental illness or has been prescribed psych meds, including anti-anxiety medications like benzodiazepines.
I've declared a personal moratorium on taking in any news until Sunday mornings when I devour the NY Times, a gift from my secret admirer, who I'm naming my morning tonic after.
I’m going to publicly share a food secret of mine with you, SANS pictures. Many people ask how I stay so youthful.
(They don’t get close enough to see what’s truly going on, where the trunk of the tree ‘rings’ apparent.) A gorgeous young thing once asked if I bathed in the blood of young virgins. “How’d you guess?” I replied. In the ever-growing absence of said virgins I present to you my morning tonic, the Green Fairy Elixir. Some may identify the Green Fairy with absinthe. I guess you could add absinthe to this drink if you’re so inclined. My own absinthe days are long gone but the Green Fairy likes to visit and hang around demanding this and that and how I’d better keep her in mind in her proper context because she is now a recovering alcoholic and a fairy of another colour, (a muddy brown, I believe), has taken up her absinthe post.
This elixir may not stop your neck skin from crepe-ing but it’ll put a nice glow in your cheeks and you’ll feel energy to spare, especially if you stick to it as Le vert de fée (the demanding little minx) would have it. If you don’t own one yet, I recommend you get yourself a NutriBullet post haste. You’ll find yourself addicted to concocting nutritional delights in no time.
Push it all into the larger NutriBullet cup (or a kick-ass blender), hit the switch and Bob’s yer uncle.
This is not supposed to taste like a sweet treat. Get off on the fact that you’re drinking pure nutrition. If you don’t feel the energy bubbling up out of your pores within a few days, you're the walking DEAD. |
You’ll also need (all organic please):
1 large handful of spinach 1 kiwi (peeled) 1/3 of a large cucumber (w/peel, skins pack most of the fiber) ½ Granny Smith green apple (w/peel) 1 tbsp flax seed meal 1 tbsp organic coconut oil 1 cup of distilled water (or less, depending on the consistency of smoothie you like) 
|
Looking forward to seeing Carol by Todd Haynes (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. I’m speechless), and Legend – 1960s London. Gangster brothers the Krays, and Macbeth – Michael Fassbender in the lead with Marion Cotillard as Lady M.
And with that, I’m off to dance the tango.
Check it out :: New Radio Ragazza show on Girl Groups ::
Fino al nostro prossimo incontro!
And with that, I’m off to dance the tango.
Check it out :: New Radio Ragazza show on Girl Groups ::
Fino al nostro prossimo incontro!
