[…] fuga 6 from Art of Fugue by Bach […]

What is interesting is that I have enjoyed your musings of life and of your love for music and it brings smiles and laughter. I believe that you connect to people in ways that you may not have anticipated. You should publish a book and call it “The things I did not Know”, a commentary on my life. Well, I can’t be pithy, but I can be straight forward. Your love of life comes out in your writing. Your observations are humorous,self deprecating and common to all of us. This is a talent that not all have.

Blood pressure management. Not easy, but essential to life. They say Yoga is good for blood pressure. I am not sure which way it is effective. Talk to your brain about slowing down the thought process or somehow change the pear shape of your body. Neither of which is easy. Write a book, on how to manage blood pressure or better yet write a music piece for guitar and flute on soothing tones of music bliss.

I just thought I’d point out that the 24 Hour Psycho is originally from 1993, and I’m not sure Bill Viola was doing much in the way of slow movies at that time – all of the ones from that Getty exhibition were made after 2000, and the oldest one I can think of (The Crossing – image here: http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/tablog/images/BillViola2.jpg) was from 1996.

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So maybe the influence was running from Gordon to Viola? Who knows, eh? Either way they put me in mind of each other…. hey, thanks for commenting….

You’re welcome!

As blood pressure goes, I take two different medications and neither seem to work very well. Have taken to the idea that reading your blog is therapeutic. Not sure of that, but am hopeful. Humor seems to help, and your artistic drawings are very very very……

interesting

Heh.

I have not seen either movie. Cannot seem to find much that I really want to see. I do like movies with dialog and a plot, but that seems to be only movies of the past. Have been listing to MSU basketball. Maybe they can go all the way, like a plot in the movie. Susan is into bad science fiction movies. Not sure why. I always get a chuckle or a smile with what you write.

Complaining (or whining) about something seems to me a step in changing it. So, the only person able to change it is you. You are driving your boat. No one else. Of course there is responsibility, obligations, family etc., but you are driving the boat.

It seems to me that you are a very good communicator in a variety of disciplines in the communication area, music, art, writing, etc. I always enjoy reading your stuff. I am sure others do as well.

I believe that you have the power to change anything that you want. It is the doing that counts. This of course requires mostly discipline and perseverance. Talent and intelligence, not so much, although it can give direction. Do you actually read what you write? It is very good and potentially has a larger audience.

Ray, Thanks so much for reading and for your comments and words of encouragement. I take full responsibility for who I am and what I do, never fear. I also realize I have writing skills both in terms of being able to make sentences and compose music.

I do wrestle with is my own distaste for self-promotion. At this point, I am lucky enough to be able to spend most of my time doing exactly what I want: spending time with my wife, practicing, writing, reading, studying and blogging about once a day.

O yes. And I do enjoy whining. Heh. And bullshitting. We should talk, dude. But only if it sounds like a good idea to you.

Dude, I’m much more inspired than and not as pathetic as I probably sound. The local colleges have only rejected me because I insist on being myself and not making myself more marketable (by getting a doctorate). They haven’t actually rejected me.

There’s a bit more to the GVSU story than I told you. The schedule they offered me the last time they offered me one was one in which the classes were both in the morning and in the evening. If I remember correctly I would have had to spend an inordinate amount of time on campus or drive back and forth twice on days I taught. It was clear to me that the new chair saw adjunct work as dues one pays. He even bragged that he knew what it was like because he had been an adjunct.

You probably know that more than half of the people teaching our kids in college are getting paid shit wages as adjuncts. It’s a surplus of people with degrees. This could be an opportunity for someone as weird as me to have his cake and eat it too. I.E. sneak in and do some good teaching in schools like GVSU and Hope. But it just hasn’t worked out. I haven’t actually been turned down.

I know that I could easily succeed at getting a teaching position. But I’m not ready to sacrifice my integrity quickly for something I have some serious questions about and not that much desire to pursue. I told you I was a bit eccentric at this stage of my life, didn’t I? Hope College here in Holyland insists that you sign a paper that says you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

At this stage in my life I can’t do that. I don’t know what it means. I know that I don’t believe in an anthropomorphic deity especially the way the Reformed church does. I can’t lie like that unless the well being of people I love is at stake. Hope is also homophobic enough that gay people stay in the closet if they want to work there. I’m tired of this kind of nonsense and feel that I after years of working for the Catholic church and dampening my convictions that differ from the stance of the church (I’m pro-death) I would rather be a bit more honest if I can.

Anyway, I would rather spend my energy composing and improvising music, reading and studying and generally satisfying my insatiable curiosity as I get older. Thank buddha for the internets. I do miss having friends to bullshit with however. Eileen is a great listener but she needs a break once in while. Heh.

Wealth is real. Money is not. Doesn’t matter where or when you live.

Alice was terrible. Building Lord of the Rings on top of the bones of the original novels. Carrol’s books discuss the nature of body and mind, this movie discusses the nature of bright colors. And turning the doormouse into Reepicheep from the Narnia books is as inexcusable as making romance between the Hatter and Alice. Creepy. Not that there weren’t parts I enjoyed, but really.

Did you ever see Alice in the Cities?

I did recently watch Alice in the Cities. Which I quite enjoyed. I think in both cases the movies are riffs or improvisatory entertainments that start out on the original and moved into other areas. Wenders unable to resist troping on his ideas about searching for something lost (America? Innocence?) and Burton into playful satire. In either case I found them interesting and entertaining. I thought that the card soldiers were hilarious take offs on Star Wars characters. For me it was an entertaining romp. Of course I also liked “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” Saw them both in 3D. Heh.

I wonder how wealth relates to the concept of ownership. I always had trouble thinking of myself as the owner of a lot of the stuff that is supposedly mine. Is the beautiful tree in my back yard part of my fiscal wealth? Or is it an extension of a mysterious something that predates me and probably will be there long after I am dead? Or is it mostly collateral for the loan I have in the bank? Does one factor its profundity and beauty in wealth?

As usual I find that a certain difficult suspension of disbelief is in order for me to think about these ideas in economic ways. It’s mostly about my own inability to see things clearly and as many others seem to. Dang hippy.

[…] he just keeps whining at least there are few pics and links […]

I like your art,whether it’s music or writing or drawing. But that does not mean much to others unless they are exposed to it. If that equates for you to a measurement of wealth through monetary means or by a subjective element of perception, they are all relevant. Art is a perceptional equation and is subjective to the eye of the beholder. But it is the commonality with human perception is what increases it’s perceived value. After all ART is communication as is music and drawing. You have the ability to communicate and that struggle to create effective communication is the really the challenge. Some people use money as a measurement tool. I have never valued money, because it is for me merely a tool to do something else. That is probably why I have made and lost a lot of money in my life time. A couple of fortunes down the tubes as they say. However, I do consider myself wealthy.