Adventures in My Mind
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Mar 29, 2002
Lecturer takes hammer to corpse exhibit
And this is the second time that something like this has happened in as many weeks. I'm sure I don't get the response to this. I've not seen the exhibit in person, but I have seen it several times on TV. My reactions, while feeling a bit creeped out, have never taken me so far as to want to smash them to bits with a hammer.
Of course, as with all puritanical displays of vanalism, the perp said that he was enraged after seeing a father bring his young daughter through the exhibit. You know the same tired "What about the children" plea. If that's the case, and his sense of moral outrage was so high that he was driven to destroy something that didn't belong to him, why not take the ballpeen to the father? Was it not his fault that the child was there to begin with? I'm sure that the little girl didn't get up that morning and say, "Father. I've got a wonderful idea, father. Let us ambulate by the museum and indulge our morbid curiosities by examining the plasticized corpse exhibit. Isn't that a simply splendid idea?"
I'll make no value statement on the artistic or scientific merit of the exhibit, except to say that if the father felt it okay for his young daughter to view it, then what right does a would-be morality cop have smashing it to bits and invoking her protection as the cause of that action.
I make this plea to all morality police everywhere: "Thanks, but no thanks. I will make up my own mind as to what I will see and not see, hear and not hear, read and not read. I will also decide, again without your assistance, the same for my children. If you are offended, turn away. If and when I am offended, I will also turn away. I will not, however, demand the same from anyone else."
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 9:53 AM
Mar 27, 2002
Michael Eisner, Chief Mousketeer, is also a great humanitarian. He fears for the soul of our great nation. He seeks to combat that dreaded evil, Internet piracy. And apparently, he is capable of channeling the soul of Honest Abe:
In writing this, I am not just speaking from the self-interest of the head of an entertainment company. For me, theft of property, via the internet or any other way, is not only alarming because of the material loss but also disconcerting because it implies the loss of the moral compass on which our society is based.No, no self-interest here. And just in case your wondering, that moral compass he speaks of is the one that causes us all to bow and face West everytime we want to make a media purchase.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 4:17 PM
Mar 26, 2002
I am with you always.
And don't you forget it, Bub!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:31 PM
The very core of liberty within a democracy is freedom of speech. In fact, it is so essential to the healthy operations of a democracy that the framers of The Constitution put it first in the Bill of Rights.
Given that: nearly one in three Americans think that the 1st Amendment goes to far. Ken Paulson, In his article for MSNBC, cites some concerning attitudes about free speech:
All of this suggests that a significant percentage of Americans are reluctant to give full First Amendment protection to comedic speech, art or performances that could potentially insult or offend others. There appears to be a willingness to give up a little liberty in exchange for fewer hurt feelings.
If that’s the case, we’re selling art and comedy short ... From the satire of Ben Franklin and Mark Twain to the biting cartoons of Thomas Nast, from the comedy routines of Lenny Bruce to the scalding skits of “Saturday Night Live,” Americans have used humor to puncture the pompous and challenge the powers that be.
The conditions for democracy and art are the same.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
Learn More: The Freedom Forum
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 11:03 AM
Mar 25, 2002
Once again, Dan Gillmor hits it right on the head. Read "Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand" and learn why we must all do something now.
(Courtesy of Boing Boing)
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:58 PM
Once again the Academy shows itself to be overly sympathetic, unimaginative, trendy, too politically aware (read correct), and generally myopic when casting their votes for Oscar.
Last year was a crap year for movies, and last night's overdrawn kudosfest was a glaring example of that. With each passing year, the bar of expectation gets lower and lower, opening the door for any movie that makes it into broad release (see Moulin Rouge) eligible for arm loads of nominations, while movies that are slightly better than average (see A Beautiful Mind) walk away with top honors.
Okay, okay let us, for the sake of arguement, assume that "A Beautiful Mind" was really the best that Hollywood had to offer laster year. Clearly the majority of good things about it reside in Russell Crowe's portrayal of John Nash. Yes? Yes. Does it not stand to reason then that a movie that captures directing and producing Oscars based solely on the strength of its male lead should garner a male lead Oscar as well? One would think, but not in the Bizzaro world of Hollywood. That honor goes to a man, Denzel Washington, based on the color of his skin, when in years past, he was denied an Oscar for much better roles based on what? Yep. You guessed it: the color of his skin.
Last night the Academy tried to show that it is diverse and that it appreciates the contributions that African-Americans have made to its industry, but as with all self-congratulatory drivel it failed to rise to the level of its conceit; but instead, fell to the level of its ignorance. There are fewer good roles for blacks in Hollywood than places to drink in the Sahara. But you would never know that by last night's come-to-Jesus ceremony. The mere fact that Halle Berry's win was the first for a black woman in the 74 year history of the Oscars proves that point. Need another one? Okay. Denzel Washington's win was the first for a leading black man since Sidney Poitier's 1963 win for "Lilies of the Field." And, of course, now that they've gotten the black thing out of the way, look for the film industry to continue to ignore black filmmakers and actors just like it always has.
Phooey!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 10:11 AM
Mar 22, 2002
Google restores Web page critical of Scientology.
Thank L. Ron, uh ... I mean god that someone came to their senses. When a psuedo-religion has to resort to Disney-like legal tactics to attack it's critics, there should be voices of critique, and a lot of them at that.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 9:54 AM
Mar 21, 2002
Google removes URLs for fear of litigation by John Travolta and Tom Cruise.
Not really them, but The Church of SciFiology. I mean Scientology.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 4:10 PM
I'm a drummer; have been for over twenty years. Nearly any music will elicit a drummer's response from me. You know what I mean: the bobbing head, the bitten lip or pursed lip (depending on the complexity of the riff), and most importantly of all the moving hands. Sometimes they slap the knees. Sometimes they turn cutlery into ersatz drumstucks. And sometimes they just fly through the air mocking the invisible gesticulations made famous by air guitar vituosos around the world. In short, my hands are constantly awash in musical activity, even if a song is playing nowhere but in my head.
Apparently, Puck has caught on to this little idiosyncracy of daddy's. When a song comes on he will either dance or begin waving his hands around in little drumming gestures. He hasn't gotten the complicated motions like hitting a cymbal or the cross-handed playing of a hi-hat and snare, but the motions are unmistakeable. He's trying to learn how to be a drummer. What a way to melt the old man's heart! And he's pretty good at keeping rythym and time, too, especially when compared to some of the more rythmically challenged audiences we've all seen. You know, their the ones who clap on the upbeat, if they ever get the concept of beat at all. Often they'll just clap, clap, clap, having a jolly old time, heedless of the simple synchopations of 4/4 time. It's as though their brains are processing the music they hear exactly 2.3 seconds after they hear it.
Anyway, the Boy has aptitude, enthusiastic aptitude. So step aside Buddy Rich. Move over Neil Peart. Go take a seat Max Roach. Aidan Carroll is behind the kit!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 3:59 PM
Mar 19, 2002
I read nearly two dozen blogs on a regular basis, most of them daily. I think that I do this because, like most of us, I'm a bit of voyeur -- not the peeking in your bedroom window kind so don't get up and close the curtains; I'm not there. I love to peer into people's heads, to find out what they think and feel, and most impotantly of all to see how they express themselves. Every individual is like a unique flavor and blogs are sort of a tasting party for those flavors. Some are sweet. Some are sour. Some are totally unclassibiable. I wonder where I fit in? But all are definitely unique.
Here's a cool site that is sort of an offline blog:
postcardX
The object is to send postcards and other trinkets to total strangers in the mail. It's like a snail-mail community of postal bloggers. I'm going to send out few postcards and see what happens.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 4:52 PM
Mar 18, 2002
I've been silent on it until now, but here goes ... If ever there was a case that demanded a reexamination of our opinions on the death penalty, it's the Andrea Yates case. Had she been anything other than a white, middle class, suburban woman she would be hanging from the gallows as I write this. She is not, thus she is spared the death penalty in Texas, a state that regularly executes or attempts to execute people with sub-par intelligences, learning disabilities, and mental retardation.
In Deciding Who Will Live (registration required), Bob Herbert writes the following for the New York Times:
Root causes, disdained for decades by the tough-on-crime crowd, were suddenly back in flower. The defendant couldn't have been in her right mind. The act itself proclaimed her craziness. She had to be insane to do something like that.
But it wasn't just the act that proclaimed her craziness. It was also her status. The gut reactions throughout Texas and across the country would have been far different if Andrea Yates had been a crackhead, or a welfare mother, or some crazy guy with a gun who opened fire on a classroom full of children.
There wouldn't have been much patience for a search for root causes in any of those instances. And, with five children dead, the imposition of the death penalty would have been all but automatic in Harris County, Texas, which has sentenced more people to death than any other county in the U.S.
This case clearly shows that we are not all equal in the eyes of the law. The death penalty is clearly flawed both in theory and in practice. Let us join the rest of the civilized world in abolishing this barbarism from the American legal system.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:01 PM
Have a problem with Brand USA, the Bush administration's most adle-minded attempt at corporate governance? Naomi Klein makes a great case against it at AlterNet.org.
On the surface, the goal is noble: educate the world on the values and priorities of the world's largest and most powerful democracy. Liberty. Freedom. Democracy. These ideals, with obvious logic, are at the heart of the message of Brand USA. The most incorrect and fatal assumption, however, is that "selling" these ideals is possible at all. They are not commodities that can be traded at a fair market price. They are the indespensible cornerstones of America, and the only way that they can be promoted is through practice and extension.
To much of the world, the message of Brand USA is empty and hollow. We often say one thing and do quite the opposite. Our interests often trump our ideals, with our support of the corrupt Saudi regime being a prime example.
We speak of freedom and self-determination while we purchase all of the cheap oil that we can from the House of Saud at the expense of the freedom and self-determination of the people of Saudi Arabia. We do not take the Saudi's to task for their theocratic, non-democratic monarchy that actually has a Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a trumped up morality goon squad that literally beats people into compliance, as part of its government. Nor do we take them to task for their fueling of anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment in its state run newspapers and universities.
And for those on the other side of the debate, we demand more and more from the Palestinian leadership while doing next to nothing to stop Ariel Sharon from invading refugee camps and shelling homes filled with women and children. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since Sharon took office in Israel. It would take the most biased and blantantly bigoted arguement to suggest that all of those people were engaged in terrorist activities. Yet we stand by and let it happen, because Israel is a friend. These are the types of friend that many nations wish we didn't have.
These along with mirad other examples of our support for tyrannical policies and governments that support our interests is why we are looked upon unfavorably by large parts of the world. Is it a wonder then that they think that our freedom and our liberty are unavailable to them and that what is good for the U.S. is crammed down their throats as being good for the rest of the world as well? No amount of lip service, high gloss print ads, or MTV style public service announcements will ever change that attitude. Actively pursuing the freedom and liberty of all of the world's people would.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 12:13 PM
Mar 15, 2002
Okay, so this is probably the coolest site that I've seen. I love it!
Flashface
Click on "load face" in the right menu and load "Teddy Carroll" to get my self-portrait. It's not totally accurate, but it's still pretty damn close!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 3:48 PM
Mar 14, 2002
My idea of a pretty crappy night:
Got back from a three day business trip last night, arriving at 8 p.m. from Chicago. I had a long day of waiting around Midway aiport, and I just wanted to rest. Sami and Aidan were coming back from Savannah last night as well. Our flights arrived around the same time and we were going to meet there and go home, after not seeing each other for a week. A good plan, this; or so we thought.
When I got back to Pittsburgh, Sami and Aidan were not at the designated meeting place - "Yellow" to Aidan; McDonald's to the rest of us. I called home to check messages. Sami left a very unhappy message about how she was bumped off of her intended flight and that she would not be arriving until 9:40. "Not to bad," I thought, only an hour or so wait.
Next, I checked the arrivals board. Delta flight 650 scheduled to arrive at gate D78 at 9:39, delayed - actual arrival 10:17. So now I wait two hours. Ugh. Total time at an airport yesterday 5.5 hours. Please shoot me now.
So the flight arrives. We are all three very happy to see each. We load the van and head on home, finally!
All is good? All is back to normal? No.
Walking into the house, I said, "Why the hell is it so cold in here?" I checked the thermostat. It reads 55 degrees. In relative terms this is not so bad; after all, it's only 42 outside, but on further inspection, the heat is actually set to 62. No amount of fiddling with thermostat made the heat come on. To the basement I went, like Darrin McGavin from A Christmas Story. "Ah hah! Ah hah! It's a klinker!"
The furnace's pilot light was blown out during the 60+ m.p.h. wind storms of a few days previous. Not a problem. Long matches. Depress the knob. Light the pilot. Turn the knob to "on." The directions were clear; my task, simple. The "whoosh" of ignition and the rush of flame were early indicators of my success. The digital display on the thermostat showed progressively higher numbers. I was satisfied.
Finally resting my head upon my pillow, after a seemingly endless day, my first obsessive thought seaped in. "Why is the furnace still on? Maybe it is broken" Aidan cries. I got up to comfort him and check on the furnace. The display still read 62, as did the temperature. But clearly this was not enough to comfort me. I went back up stairs only to obsess over the furnace, the thermostat, and whether Sear's could come by tomorrow.
Minutes moved to hours. It is now 1 a.m. "Why has the furnace come on again?" More time. It is now 2 a.m. Finally, the fatigue beats back my paranoia and I fade off to sleep.
I woke this morning to a comfortable house. My family was home. The temperature was just right. Nothing was amiss. All of my fears about furnaces and thermostats were unfounded.
Hopefully, tonight I'll sleep better.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 5:20 PM
Mar 11, 2002
Sami and Aidan have been in Savannah, GA since Wednesday and I miss them terribly. Admittedly, some of the bachelor stuff has been fun. But, as with all good things, computer gaming until the wee hours loses its shine after a while. My "man-meals" of pizza, buffalo wings, and pot pies have been exhausted; I put a pretty big hurting on the cookie supplies too! It's gotten so bad that actually cleaned out both the garage and the car.
If they don't come home soon, I might start in on the landscaping.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:21 PM
Mar 8, 2002
You may not give a hoot about intellectual property. And,you may not care that congress is on the threshold of passing one of the most damning bits of legislation that they've considered in years. Read this article to find out more:
The Mouse that Ate the Public Domain
Public domain, and its partner fair use, are at the core of the free exchange of ideas. Restricting either one is a harbinger of bad, bad things. When public domain is restricted, the free flow of information is staunched. Critical ideas, both in the arts and sciences, are not capable of being disseminated to the general public. Stagnation occurs. Works cannot be expanded. Ideas cannot grow.
New necessarily comes from the old, but congress doesn't see that, and that is scary. The concepts of satire and parody will be the first to go. Interpretation will be the next to go. Eventually only publishers will hold copyrights, because, get this, the creator will be dead long before their copyrights run out. Corporate America, however, will have unrestricted rights to exploit those copyrights for every nickel.
As with the whole fair use of music and movies, congress is siding with corporate concerns and totally ignoring the larger social ramifications of their boneheaded legislation. What's good for Jack Valenti or Bertelsman or AOL Time Warner is not necessarily good for everyone else, especially consumers.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 5:09 PM
Mar 7, 2002
I am totally appalled by this story.
Woman allows man to bleed to death in her garage.
This is one of the outrageous acts of human cruelty and self-centeredness that I have ever seen. If there is a hell, this woman should spend long, hot days squeeling atop a red hot poker while bugs eat out her eyes and featureless little gremlin-like creatures uravel and feast upon her entrails.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 2:54 PM
Tripe.
You know, sometimes conspiracy theories are interesting: The Grassy Knoll, Area 51, The Apollo Moon Landings, etc. And sometimes they are just plain stupid, stupid, stupid. The above referenced article is just that: stupid. Although to call it a theory would give it the type of creedence that is reserved for well-thought, logically structured points of view to which this piece of pablum does not compare. There's plenty of conspiracy to be sure, but the theory, I'm afraid, is a bit lacking.
What it does present is a series of questions that when put together are supposed to lead the reader to the conclusion that the government is trying to hide something about the events of 9/11. It's a classic rhetorical trick. Ask a question that cannot be quickly or readily answered with the expected or logical answer, and then presume that your own conclusion, no matter how preposterous, is the right one. This is called proving the unprovable. Because their is no immediate logical explanation then the illogical becomes possible. Conspiracy theorists love this tool. It powers most of their grandest delusions.
How do you explain mysterious lights in the New Mexico sky? Why a massive government conspiracy that has hidden our contact with alien civilizations for over 50 years. How do you explain globalism? Why a massive government conspiracy to make the rich richer (they all had a meeting at the country club) and defraud the world's poor of all but the scantest provisions necessary for life, therefore creating a permanent underclass to lord over with their cynical and evil marketing campaigns. This tripe is the kind of masturbatory intellectual exercise that is foisted off as theory in today's link.
It's incredible to think that human beings have nothing better to do with their day than to create these fanatics' views of the world. Where is the sense of perspective? Where is the intellectual rigor? Where is the basic sense that god gave the common dog? It's gone, daddy, gone!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:31 PM
Mar 6, 2002
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 3:24 PM
Mar 5, 2002
Hollywood is in a panic. It's movies suck. It's music sucks. And people are ignoring their sub-par product like the plague. So what's an industry to do? Stop pandering? Create authentic, thought provoking material? No. You label your clientele as thieves.
H.L Mencken said that you could never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public. I think that the entertainment industry is on the brink of doing just that. Sorry, H.L. In music we get a Clear Channels monopoly on the radio that feeds us Brittney, Backstreet, and the rest of their ilk. At the record store it's no better. Only five companies control more than 80% of all music produced and recorded in this country. 5! And at the theater, those same 5 companies control the majority of movies made as well. Even the indies aren't, with indy darlings Miramax and New Line parts of the Disney and AOL Time Warner mega empires.
So with all of this homogeneity in production, marketing, and distribution channels came the inevitable homogeneity of product. One group sounds like any another and one movie plays like any another. Not surprisingly, consumers are staying away in droves. Enter "piracy", a term formerly reserved for groups or individuals who illegally copied and sold copyrighted material. Now that term has been applied to anyone with a CD burner. Both the MPAA's Jack Valenti and NARAS's Michael Green think that teenage boys with cable modems will be the downfall of their industries. Sorry, wrong answer. Lack of imagination and pre-programmed, disposable pop culture that is more disposable than ever before will kill Hollywood.
This type of knee jerk reaction is typical of Hollywood and its potentates. The suits have always held sway in Tinseltown, but not since the strong arm days of Louis Mayer, Irving Thalberg, and Jack Warner have they had this much power. And of course, since Hollywood donates a ton of money to politics, Washington is spouting the company line when it comes to copyrights and security. You only need witness that spate of new laws and acts that have come through congress in the last few months.
Fortunately we have a choice, both in the entertainment we purchase and the politicians we elect.
Check The Electronic Frontier Foundation to read about your choices. And the next time you go to your local media outlet, caveat emptor!
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:34 PM
Mar 4, 2002
At exactly 11:38 last night, I became accquainted with my unborn daughter, Maeve. Sami said that Maeve was rather active and that I should be able to feel her. She's said this before so I wasn't very optimistic. But when I placed my hand on Sami's belly, there it was: the first little thump--just a little one, like a small kick. A few seconds later there was another more pronounced movement, like a head moving rolling across my palm. She was very active and I felt several more before settling back smiling. A good night of dreams about Daddy's Little Girl.
It won't belong before Sami's belly undulates with Maeve's movements, as they both get bigger and bigger. As strange as it is to feel something move inside of someone's abdomen, imagine what it's like to get too big for your environment. Maeve has had, up to now, all the room she needs to practice her kicks and arm movements and flips. But things are changing rapidly. Within the next several weeks she will triple in size. Triple! The walls are literally closing in on her, and she has no idea why. Now that would be weird.
When I was 11, I grew 6 inches in just a little over 4 months. My joints hurt. My clothes didn't fit. It was hell. But I didn't have to worry about bumping into my bedroom walls whenever I moved around. And, of course, when I was done growing, I wasn't forcibly ejected from my warm home through a tiny aperture that was 2 sizes too small for my body, either.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 10:56 AM
Mar 1, 2002
So my cousin John made it through the first episode of Survivor last night. Of course the editors showed a little skirmish that occurred between him and another cast member who was adamant about starting a fire. John held his ground, but started the fire anyway. Way to go John John. I wonder how long before they make an issue of his homosexuality? Sooner rather than later, I'm sure. I hate "reality TV"
I've also gotten in touch with my dad and his family for the first time in almost 4 years. I'm really quite light headed over the whole thing. For those who've never seen the fractured nature of the Carroll family portrait, suffice it to say, that the situation is very complex. I'm happy about this contact and hope to introduce Aidan to his grandfather. We'll see. Cautious optimism is the phrase of the day.
Today's a banner day at Carroll Manor. Have a good weekend.
0 Comments | Link to this post posted by Teddy 1:23 PM
