Bo Burnham gets it. "America says we love a chorus, but don't get complicated and bore us..."
'Michael Clarke Duncan is alive and living in Ames, Iowa.'
Another great Bourdain article/interview. Anthony Bourdain Has Become The Future Of Cable News, And He Couldn't Care Less | Fast Company | Business + Innovation: "Bourdain's hour-long CNN food and travel show, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, which kicked off its fourth season on September 28, is unlike anything else on TV. Forget about four-star hotels or luxury spa treatments: Bourdain is on a mission to illuminate underappreciated and misunderstood cultures, whether it's Myanmar or Detroit. He regularly takes viewers to the sorts of places--Libya, Gaza, Congo--that most Americans know only from grim headlines about political strife and body counts. Bourdain does all of this with vivid narrative reporting, stunning visuals, palpable empathy, and a relentlessly open mind...
As with Bourdain's previous programs, A Cook's Tour and the long-running No Reservations, the premise is simple: he goes somewhere interesting and hangs out with the locals. "We show up and say, 'What's to eat? What makes you happy?'" Bourdain says. "You're going to get very Technicolor, very deep, very complicated answers to those questions. I'm not a Middle East expert. I'm not an Africa expert. I'm not a foreign-policy wonk. But I see aspects of these countries that regular journalists don't. If we have a role, it's to put a face on people who you might not otherwise have seen or cared about...
For Bourdain, it has been a long evolution: from heroin-addicted chef to punk-rock-foodie author to global citizen on a mission to simply understand a bit about our world. It's a testament to Bourdain's work ethic and creative drive that after 14 years on television, he's still pushing to get better, go deeper, seek out complexity, avoid the obvious and conventional. At a time when he could simply coast, Bourdain seems as energized as ever...
The point is to resist the predictable, especially when it comes to TV's ingrained conventions. "The only thing that makes me upset and, really, a dick is if something is fucking plodding and reasonable," he says, spitting out that last word with palpable revulsion. "It starts with an establishing shot, I go someplace, I meet somebody, I sit down, I eat, and I come to a conclusion: That kind of conventional thinking really upsets me. I would much rather see some incomprehensible, over-the-top, fucked-up thing, because at least you're trying to do something awesome."
...One of season 4's episodes focuses on Iran. Bourdain was astonished by how off-base his assumptions turned out to be and how warmly he and his crew were greeted, even when they weren't filming. "I like when my view of a place is complicated by things that I actually see," he says. "I love having my teeth kicked in by a different perspective." At one point during our meal at Tori Shin, Bourdain rolled up his shirtsleeve to show me a tattoo that includes some Greek writing. "It basically says, 'I am certain of nothing,' " he told me. "It's from the ancient Greek skeptics. If I believe anything, it's that. It is my joy and my privilege to travel around the world being wrong about shit."
...But all of those years of noise and sweat and exhaustion--those long nights navigating open flames and scalding pans and uncountable, endless portions of steak frites--have left marks, both physical and otherwise. "Everything important I needed to know I learned as a dishwasher," he says. "In an uncertain universe, some things are still for certain: Dirty plates, if you put them on a plastic rack and push them into the machine and press the button, will come out clean--every time. If you work hard at your job and do it well, even if it's a shit job, there is some kind of satisfaction in that, whether you're stacking plates, chopping vegetables, or just setting out a plate of food. There's this magnificent moment before a plate goes out to the dining room, for instance, when you know, and it's just for you. You think, Hmm, that's a pretty good fucking plate. And then it's gone."
...After Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain pitched a book in which he would travel the world on a quest for the perfect meal. His publisher liked the idea, and surprisingly, Food Network--which Bourdain had never been shy about bashing--wanted to document his travels. The book and show, both titled A Cook's Tour, arrived in 2001. Over the course of two seasons, Bourdain visited cities such as Hanoi and Oaxaca, bringing along Lydia Tenaglia and Chris Collins as camera operators and creative partners. But the executives who had championed A Cook's Tour eventually left, and Bourdain says the network started pushing for episodes on middle-of-the-road American fare, like barbecue. Bourdain now has a term for such corporate meddling: being asked to "eat a shit sandwich." It's one of the few meals he flat-out refuses to consume. "Given a choice between eating the sandwich and not having a television career, I would happily not have a television career," he says. "Most people eat the sandwich." He quit, taking the show to Travel Channel. Renamed No Reservations, it ran for eight seasons and scored 12 Emmy nominations (including two wins, both for cinematography). But eventually, Bourdain started to feel that familiar pressure to dumb things down. "They were basically saying, 'Let's appeal to the masses,' " says Tenaglia. " 'Let's not go too deeply into the darker, more complex geopolitical social stories.' " Bourdain wasn't happy, but with his contract about to expire and other options looking scarce, he was leaning toward renewing.
Then his agent got a phone call from CNN, which was exploring the idea of broadening beyond news and politics. "I thought [Bourdain's work] was very much in the vein of what CNN stood for," says the network's former managing editor, Mark Whitaker, a longtime Bourdain fan. "Because, in a sense, Tony Bourdain is like a foreign correspondent: He uncovers stories and takes you places that you haven't seen before." Bourdain never expected to end up on a serious news network. "They called out of the blue, and our response was, really?" he says with a laugh. "We had a great discussion. They said, 'We want you to do what you want to do and be as smart as you can. Any place that you haven't been able to go, we'd like to help. Congo? No problem.' " Bourdain was impressed, especially if CNN could facilitate shooting in the kinds of logistically difficult areas that he was itching to visit. CNN has remained true to that initial pitch, Bourdain says, letting him map his own creative itinerary and providing assistance wherever possible. "They've been unfailingly cool," he says. "They've backed me up. I've never had an uncomfortable conversation with anyone at CNN...
I'm not looking to create a permanent brand. It's a quality-of-life issue with me. Am I having fun? Am I surrounded by people I like? Are we proud of what we're doing? Do we have anything to regret when we look in the mirror tomorrow? Those things are huge to me.""
"No matter what happens, we all have the capacity to create meanings that empower us. Revolutionize your life by creating a new meaning for a past experience." - Anthony Robbins
This looks very cool.
Judge to LASD Cops: 'None of You Have Shown Even the Slightest Remorse' - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Saying he wanted to send the message that "blind obedience to a corrupt culture has serious consequences," a federal judge Tuesday sentenced six current and former members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to years-long sentences in federal prison. The sentences for the five men and one woman convicted of obstructing an FBI investigation into the county jails ranged from 21 months for one deputy to as much as 41 months for a veteran lieutenant. "You broke the vow you made to protect the public and serve the community," U.S. District Court Judge Percy Anderson said, adding the six had acted to "shield the dirty deputies…. Perhaps it is a symptom of the corrupt culture within the Sheriff's Department." "None of you have shown even the slightest remorse," Anderson added."
"A conversation between Peter Quill, Han Solo, and Malcolm Reynolds..."
Neither of these pictures means anything. At all. Not even a little bit. BTW did you know America started [probably illegally] bombing yet another country this week? No? Doesn't matter? Don't really care? Well goddamn done. Carry right on. Awesome fucking job everybody.
The Civil Asset Forfeiture Racket - Reason.com: "Hey, here’s a great crime-fighting idea: Let’s give local police and prosecutors the authority to seize cash, cars, homes, and other property from private citizens—without a court convicting those citizens of any crime. Without, in fact, even charging those citizens with any crime. Then let the authorities sell the goods and keep the proceeds for themselves. What could possibly go wrong? Well, now we know. In fact, we’ve known for a long time. Since the practice described above, called civil asset forfeiture, took off about three decades ago, its flaws have become painfully clear. The system’s incentives have led some localities to turn forfeiture into little more than a shakedown operation."
Scott Adams Blog: Bossy 09/24/2014: "As readers of my How to Fail... book already know, I have a system for detecting B.S. It isn't foolproof by any means, but it serves me reasonably well in an imperfect world. Briefly, the system requires a two-point confirmation. For example, if my personal experience matches the findings of established science, I am more likely to be a believer. But if the science and my observations disagree, or science and common sense disagree, it triggers my B.S. detector. I also accept eyewitness reports from other people as one form of evidence, although that clearly has huge reliability issues...
Now to my point... Actor Emma Watson noted during her recent speech at the UN that assertive girls can too often be labelled "bossy," and this is a form of sexism. I have heard this claim many times. Does it pass the B.S. filter? I pause to remind you that passing or failing the B.S. filter does not indicate truth or falsehood. It only indicates that a thing has credibility issues or it doesn't. And that can be important if you are an advocate for the cause...
Most women have, I assume, had personal experience with the "bossy" insult. Perhaps women have heard the word being used on the playground or at work, and now they have heard from Emma Watson and others that it is a common experience. For women, the bossy claim probably has two-point confirmation and passes their B.S. filter...
I have no personal memory of a male ever calling a female "bossy." I leave open the possibility that I have heard "bossy" a hundred times and had no special reason to remember it. All I am saying is that I have no memory of hearing it. I can't say it has never happened around me. But I do have distinct memories of women calling me bossy. So the bossy claim fails my personal experience filter. But that doesn't mean much. Perhaps the "bossy" claim has been studied by reputable scientists, but I am not aware of that study. So science doesn't help with my B.S. filter. What about common sense? Does my common sense - if such a thing exists - support the idea that people are calling assertive girls bossy while giving assertive boys a free pass? Let's dig in a little.
I always like to start with context. The "bossy" contention implies that there are special insults just for women. That part is obviously true. Words such as bossy, bitch, witch, whore, slut, and of course the c-word are usually reserved for women. The mere existence of special insults just for women seems to support the claim of pervasive sexism. But men have special insults too. Asshole, dick, douchebag, motherfucker, and bastard spring to mind. You rarely hear those words applied to women. My personal experience is that when people act in ways we don't like, we label them with awful words, and we often pick those words based on gender...
My observation over a lifetime is that take-charge individuals are always respected, regardless of gender, so long as they are both capable and well-meaning. If not, the gender-based insults will start flying. The take-charge guy will be labelled a clueless dick and the take-charge gal will be labelled a bossy c-word. But in both cases what is being questioned is competence and intention, not gender. That's just my personal observation and I don't equate it with truth...
[Update: Let's assume Emma Watson is correct and some little girls are called bossy for no other reason than because they volunteer to direct the neighborhood play. That seems sexist. But what about the little girls who are pushy, selfish assholes and not "assertive" in a good way? Are they 1% of the girls being called bossy or are they 99%? How would we know? Since adults generally won't call a little girl an asshole, would they call that girl bossy, and would that girl grow up thinking the problem was sexism and not herself? These are questions, not an opinion. I can't have an opinion without knowing how often adults are using the word bossy as a label for take-charge attitudes versus pushy, selfish, obnoxious behavior.]
[Update 2: Interestingly, I have no memory of any boyhood friends acting bossy, pushy, assertive, or anything in that general direction. Boys tend to follow what they perceive as the best idea, or they follow the herd, or they follow their penises. I have zero memory of any boy ever trying to tell me what to do as a kid. So I wonder if the unusual lack of adult-like assertiveness in young boys makes normal girl behavior seem more bossy in contrast. -- Scott]"
Aubrey gets it.
Japan Wins. So KFC Japan has a fried-chicken iPhone case, too - CNET: "Some of the most unusual and amusing digital accessories in the world are coming from the Japanese arm of Kentucky Fried Chicken. The fast-food chain already unveiled a fried-chicken keyboard, computer mouse and USB drive as part of a Twitter promotion and giveaway. KFC Japan looked upon its mighty works and said, "Yes, this is good, but we can do better." And then it introduced a fried-chicken iPhone case."
When not being infuriated by religion, I am wildly amused by it. Wife Swapping Bible Beaters Want You To Know That Swinging Is Just God's Plan - Guyism: "Cristy Parave and her husband Dean are the unashamed bodybuilding Jesus lovers bringing couples together and introducing them to their wild lifestyle of swapping sex partners and bible verses, Barcroft Media reports. When the fitness gurus got sick of finding swingers online that couldn’t meet their standards, they decided to set up their own swinging network – FitnessSwingers.com. They have been touring the US ever since meeting couples who want to join in and indulge in their holy promiscuity."
Right in the feels.
Texting saves lives. Man held in reported Forestville rape may be | The Press Democrat: "A man suspected of raping a woman at knife point after hours on the El Molino High School campus was to be released from jail Thursday after prosecutors said they found evidence that may clear him of the assault...
Sheriff’s officials initially said a masked David J. Kocalis, 24, of Guerneville sneaked up behind the woman Aug. 30, held a knife to her and raped her near the Forestville school’s tennis courts. He was arrested the next day on charges carrying a possible life sentence after the woman identified a prominent tattoo, and the car he was driving was captured on videotape...
But prosecutor Brian Staebell said Thursday investigators have since uncovered evidence that may point to his innocence...
His lawyer, Evan Zelig, said a review of cellphone records showed Kocalis and the 18-year-old woman knew each other. Earlier in the day, she sent him a text message inviting Kocalis for sex, Zelig said. Their tryst began inside his borrowed Porsche SUV but moved to a spot near the tennis courts because the car’s alarm kept going off, Zelig said. After it was over, Kocalis drove the woman home, the lawyer said. She fabricated a story about being raped because she missed her curfew and Kocalis refused to lend her $20, Zelig said. “It was determined her story was not credible whatsoever,” Zelig said outside court. “It was completely made up.” Zelig said he brought the new information to sheriff’s investigators who analyzed both cellphones. They confirmed the messages as well as attempts by the woman to delete her own texts, Zelig said."
RAW knew. Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger, and the psychedelic interstellar future we need - Boing Boing: "Here’s how it started: In 1962, 30-year-old Robert Anton Wilson was working as an assistant sales manager in Yellow Springs, Ohio, with a wife and four young children, when he decided to eat some peyote. As a hard-headed rationalist, Wilson was in for a rough ride: The cactus shredded his narrowband understanding of existence and his place in the universe. Wilson walked straight through the now-opened doors of perception and into a decade and a half of exhaustive experimentation with willed brain change—encapsulating research into LSD, Aleister Crowley’s Magick, Count Alfred Korzybski’s General Semantics, Dr. John Lilly’s sensory deprivation tank, conspiracy theories, Sufism, Buckminster Fuller, UFOs, Gurdjieff, Zen Buddhism and a lot more.
A collaborative partnership with Timothy Leary and a five-year stint as an associate editor at Playboy provided more fuel for Wilson’s voyage, which culminated in the publication of Cosmic Trigger. The book is his first-person record of fucking with the settings of his own mind—all while maintaining a healthy degree of skepticism and empiricist rigor, as an antidote to the muddled thinking that blights the territory he was scouting. Wilson’s experiments convinced him that humanity’s limitations are largely self-imposed, that “reality is always plural and mutable,” and that if we were to just take off our conditioned blinkers of superstition and ideology, we could unlock our dormant Promethean intelligence, overcome our tribal conflicts and get our species off the planet. Cosmic Trigger ends far from Wilson’s early rural peyote trips, with a vision of mankind colonizing the stars.
...I’d watched the utopian future promised by Wilson, Leary, Douglas Rushkoff, Ken Wilber and others utterly crash and burn. 9/11 seemed to kill the Star Trek-style future all the smart nerds had been working on, instead spawning a new dark age of religious fundamentalism and illiterate barbarism typified by Bush Jr. and the newly reactionary, compassionless, cocaine-fuelled hipster “counterculture” that sprouted up under his rule—followed by the Great Sleep of the socially progressive but rights-and-privacy-decimating, Facebook-hypnotized Obama years...
Reality, ironically, can be crushing for people like Robert Anton Wilson. You keep peeling back your sense of the possible, dutifully scrubbing off the limitations of your model of the world, through psychedelics, spiritual practice, therapy, bodywork. Pretty soon you realize that nobody really has anything figured out, and that the whole damn thing is up for grabs—that, as RAW said, reality is what you can get away with.
You see that people are staring at the flickering shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave. Religion, politics, media, social expectations, even language itself—it’s all conditioning. And you see that all you have to do is turn around, away from the shadowplay you’ve been trained to see as reality, and you get to see the infinity of the universe, the night sky of billions upon billions of stars, distant galaxies, superclusters beckoning you to the galactic game of which the admission price is admitting you know nothing."
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