Been awhile...

Wow it's been a long time since I put anything up on here... Well I did get side-tracked on the Current TV Community site for the past couple years (I was a very frequent poster there). Now it has lamentably passed into the final night... We shall see if the people who bought out Current will have any kind of community forum site. I do see there's a new Network coming that is already being talked about as a possible successor to Current. Pivot TV coming Aug 1st. No idea if they'll be available for viewing in my area. I see Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a show that will be on it. He is a excellent actor, I have yet to see a single performance of his I didn't think worthy.

Did get a wonderful dog also who takes time to care for (needs his daily walkies! and play-time in the yard!). Great Pyrenees from a area rescue shelter. Finding him was the best day I can remember! Dogs are the best, and saving a good dog is the most rewarding of things!

Oh Harrisburg!

Poor Harrisburg, can't catch a break! Not only is there no money (the city is broke -in more ways then one!-, and trying to go into chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection). Our Mayor Linda Thompson is increasingly the laughingstock not only of Pennsylvania but now the whole country... Current TV commentator Keith Olbermann (who I think very highly of!) featured Thompson in his 'Worst Persons' during the Oct 20th broadcast of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a video up for this episode). For the record the prayer-vigil to "heal" the cities fiscal woes has not met with favor from-on-high. Maybe the mayor just isn't righteous enough to attract the attention of him on high? Who can say... 

The Denial of Death By Ernest Becker

I very recently saw (thank you so very much  Netflix adviser!) a powerful documentary
Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (the trailer can be watched here http://wp.flightfromdeath.com/ ), one of those that really haunt you, and make you see everything in a very different light. But also admittedly, paradoxically, a dark light. Fairly recently had the revelation that everything in the (human) world can ultimately be reduced to human psychology. All the "great and weighty issues" of the day, are actually about the workings of human psyches. Is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict about land?, politics?, religion?, resources? Or..? about the ego's and identities of these peoples in conflict? Sure there are these other issues, but behind them, and the reason they fail to come to some kind of resolution is the very things that they are talking about in the video. Their beliefs about themselves and a very destructive inability to get beyond them. (without seeing the video the above probably really won't make any sense, sorry!) 

"Following the work of the late cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Denial of Death, this documentary explores the ongoing research of a group of social psychologists that may forever change the way we look at ourselves and the world."

Again need to say, the documentary is a definite eye-opener! Worth watching. I'm in the middle of reading the Ernest Becker book (available through Amazon in paperback. Not easy reading, and Becker is just too much the apologist for Freud's personal hangups, but still, excellent! I find myself wondering if Becker knew (or could acknowledge) Freud's major cocaine addiction!?).

3rd world America

Here in east coast Pennsylvania we've had a time of it recently! Last week power outages form Irene now today they're turning off the water (in Harrisburg) so I heard though I've seen no official post online. I do see where gas is being turned off, and there are "Mandatory water conservation notices". Wow! Even the brain-dead wrong-wingers ought to be able to tell that climate change is REAL! Regardless of their mad-ideology. We had the massive heat wave earlier in the summer, now massive storms and all the damage and tragedy they've created. Put those together with the 3rd world state of our crumbling away infrastructure and things are getting really bad. Starting to think the lunatic-fringe survivalists are onto something. At least as far as the necessity of being self-sufficient. If I had the money I'd definitely be looking at getting a small house in the country (enough land to grow a few vegetables maybe) with some passive and active solar, it's own well, wood-stove, etc. Something that isn't going to get flooded. Something with it's own heat/water/electricity! In today's increasingly 3rd world america you can't count on even the basic utilities to be reliable. It's an open, well known fact that Harrisburg's water delivery system is -very- old, and in extremely bad condition. Of course there's no money to do anything about it, and there doesn't seem to be any will to do anything about it. The power grid in general across the country is well known to be a chaotically pieced together mess that's also very old, and extremely out of date. Don't even want to talk about the condition of the roads and bridges! Sub-standard cell phone and internet service in comparison to REAL first world nations. It's all pretty bleak and very few people are really seriously talking about it. Only hope I've seen at all as far as serious interest/discussion recently was a interesting interview on Charlie Rose last night. Tom Friedman of The New York Times & Johns Hopkins Professor Michael Mandelbaum on their book 'That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind In The World It Invented And How We Can Come Back'

Capitalism, a love story

Just finally got around to watching "the right's" (who should be known as "The Wrong") Great-Satan the one-and-only Michael Moore's Capitalism, a Love Story.  A very important movie that should be viewed by anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together. Oh it's definitely -not- a joy to watch, very much the opposite. Very sad to see the things that have been done to so many decent people (by no fault of theirs) by a small number of the absolute scum-of-the-earth. And of course "the wrong" continue preaching their mad-evil laissez-faire style capitalism that destroys the country they claim so fervently to love and worship (though it's clear their true worship is none other then old Mammon himself). After their precious trickle-down has proven itself over the decades as false (gotta love that, "trickle down", so very true to "the wrong", image of the rich pissing on... well everyone else... you know, the masses, the american people, and the people of the world as a whole). Well as long as the 1% gets it's money!, and remains safely enthroned in power for eternity-amen! That's all that really matters.

If this, what we have today in america, is the beauty and wonder of capitalism, then bring on the Socialism! Or at least some decent Social-Democracy like they have in those sane European countries (the ones that terrify "the wrong" so desperately)! Places where the real citizens have actual health care for instance, not just the few. Where there's a real safety net for the people.

Books! Cyberpunk Sci/Fi. Part 1

Probably bout time I actually put something here other then political, so here goes! A loving tribute to some favorite books!

I do love to read (who doesn't love a good book, come on!). Always have. Good Sci/Fi and Fantasy as far as fiction goes. I have been a huge fan of Cyberpunk Sci/Fi since it's inception in the early 80's (it's early glory days when most the best were written). See below a list of some of the best of the genre (and a few not technically Cyberpunk, but books that influenced it, or seemed to have been influenced by it). A quick list of some of the "best of".

These first 3 non-fiction books were known to have strongly influenced a few of the early “classic” cyberpunks. So I must list them. Very interesting general theme of accelerating change in culture driven by ever faster innovations in science and technology.

Future Shock

The Third Wave

Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

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True Names...and Other Dangers
Also stated by some of the classic authors as having a huge influence (and a very worthy read regardless). Find myself re-reading this every few years also.

Across Realtime
Not exactly Cyberpunk but shares many of the basic concepts and ideas that set Cyberpunk aside as a special sub-genre to Science fiction. Excellent book made up of 2 smaller books, and a short story that all go together. "The Peace War", "The Ungoverned", and "Marooned in Realtime".

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I absolutely love this short story collection. I still re-read the stories from time to time. Bruce Sterling's introductory essay is a excellent introduction to Cyberpunk.

I'd recommend almost anything written by Bruce Sterling!

Involution Ocean
Early Sterling, his first novel, my copy has copyright 1977, and there's a introduction by none other then Harlan Ellison!

The Artificial Kid (Context (San Francisco).)

Islands in the net




Probably my single all time favorite book! I always wished he would have written more in this setting.

Holy Fire (Bantam Spectra Book)
Another absolutely brilliant book by Sterling, “post-Cyberpunk”, about a fascinating near-future where the "Medical Industrial Complex" is the biggest, most powerful part of the economy. And very sensible old people run the world.

Distraction
An yet another, also brilliant work by Sterling. This one about a near future spin-doctor. Believable and frightening near future.

A Good Old-Fashioned Future
More post-cyberpunk near future excellent short stories. I'd love him to write a book (or books) based on some of these characters. "Deep Eddy", and "Bicycle repairman" are favorite stories of mine in this collection. I'd love to read more about these characters.

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The below 3 are something special also. They take place in a near future unnamed North African city. There was going to be a 4th book unfortunately Effinger died in 2002 before he finished it. The first 2 chapters of what was to be the fourth book titled "Word of Night" can be read in the short story collection "Budayeen Nights" listed below (I haven't had the pleasure of reading them myself, but I look forward to doing so after re-reading the previous 3 books).

When Gravity Fails

A Fire in the Sun

The Exile Kiss

Budayeen Nights

Sweeping Financial Overhaul!

I see some news in the financial/political world. The president signs sweeping financial overhaul into law! Good!, it's high time that there was some actual oversight and regulation to keep some of the infinite greed (what I've come to call it, see below) from destroying the country. From what I've read the only real problem is that the overhaul isn't strong or sweeping enough! The right-wingers have spent the last couple decades systematically dismantling any and all systems of sane regulation they could manage. All in the mad belief that their patron-god "the market" was all powerful, all seeing, infallible, and benevolent. None of which is true. Now systems of sane regulation need to be rebuilt. So that some of these "too big to fail" companies, and others don't manage to pull the whole country into third-world status (although for more and more of us, you know the "middle-class", the people who are working harder and harder for less and less it already feels like we're living third-world lives.). I have heard commentators speaking about what I've come to call the infinite greed. This just plain sad, sick thing where a profitable company makes say 10 million pure profit and yet acts as if it's on the quick path to bankruptcy because it really just plain wanted to make 20 million profit! I don't think the founding fathers would be at all impressed by this mad level of greed that's taken root over the last decades in certain circles. I don't know, it really seems to be like a mental illness. The people with the big-money, and power seem not to have any "meaning" in their lives so they fill the void with a endless desire for money (and more "stuff"). For a good appreciation of the ridiculousness of peoples hunger and attitudes about "stuff" there's no better resource than the great man himself George Carlin! The world is much reduced by his passing, a truly great comedian and very wise commenter on people and society.