More Sex

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On the subject of sex in film, I noticed something interesting. In our discussion of "Best movies of all time" Christian (who says he doesn't like sexual content in film, and doesn't understand why people do) mentions "The Godfather" and "The Incredibles" as two favorite films.

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There are, if I'm not mistaken, three sexual sequences in "Godfather"--Sonny banging his mistress up against the wall, Micheal's wedding night, and a scene with Diane Keaton. And "The Incredibles"? About the sexiest family-oriented cartoon I've ever seen, with Elastigirl yanking Mr. Incredible back in the house for nookie. He also mentioned Hitchcock saying he didn't like sex in movies--but at the time, Hitchcock was criticized for having too much sex! I'm watching a collection of Hitchcock classics right now, and the last three were "Psycho", "Frenzy" and "Torn Curtain." Good grief. All three have sexual content. Torn Curtain starts with a famous bed scene between Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, where Hitch famously blew cold air up under the covers to force Andrews to get closer to Newman!

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Christian...I don't think you're really paying attention.

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Sex is such an interesting subject. I studied it formally for years, specifically a Native American approach to spiritual sexuality. Cross-referencing their attitudes with teachings in Taoist sexuality and Tantrism, it seems that those cultures that talk about sex in a non-smarmy way say something to the effect of "the intensity of an orgasm is in direct proportion to the amount of your ego you release at that moment." In other words, if you can remember your name, you haven't come very hard.

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Now...on one level orgasm is just a physical reflex--mucous membranes are notoriously undiscriminating, and you can have explosive sex with a very wide range of people. We almost all "fit" each other. Love is trickier. When you can have explosive sex with someone you love, that is insanely wonderful. And when that person is also a friend, and you trust their business sense...WOW! NOW you have the potential for an actual working relationship.

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It is interesting that there have been several versions of "Think and Grow Rich", Napoleon Hill's classic self-improvement book. The later editions and re-workings delete some of the more controversial material. The one I've seen dropped the most was an observation that many of the most successful men in the world (who he interviewed for the book) would, when they had to make a serious business decision, wait until after they had made love with their wives to decide!

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This touches the edge of the whole "sexual magic" issue. Clearly, sexual energy is fantastically powerful, and can be used to elevate us or tear us to pieces. Cultures place a toll-gate on the road to sex: fantastic guilt and the fires of hell unless you get married. And in most cultures you can't get married unless you have financial security and can meet the approval of the parents. When this breaks down, you get sex separated from love or family-building (which can still be pretty terrific!) but often devolves into "how many" "how long" "how many positions" "what odd locations" and other expressions of an underlying sense that sex is somehow demeaning, "nasty", "bad", "wrong", and so forth.

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Sex is probably the most tangible aspect of the core creative energy that manifests on all seven levels. When we look in the eyes of a loved one as we engage, the doors open and we can see our futures...all our futures, and sometimes the past as well. When such unions create children, and for the first time we hold our newborns, the secrets of the universe open to us.

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At the very least, those we engage with should be people we care about, whose phone calls we would take at three in the morning, who are more than disposable carnal Handi-wipes. Until we can line up our hearts and minds with our sexuality, we are playing dangerous games with genital dynamite.

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And this is why I find sex so fascinating in film. It reveals FAR more of human nature than car chases, fights, or even most conversations. There is no other human interaction in which more information is exchanged more rapidly. It is the ultimate comfort, and can be the ultimate betrayal. Sex and death are arguably the most interesting things about life...and extraordinarily valuable fodder for fiction.

Why no one can remake "Night of the Living Dead"

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Lots of Democrats upset that Bill Clinton is traveling the talk show circuits saying pleasant things about John McCain. I'm not certain...and I would like anyone out there with a longer political memory than mine to comment...but don't ex-Presidents try to stay above the fray in these things? I don't have a clear memory of an ex-President trashing a candidate, or campaigning for one, really. If I'm having a brain-fart here, please help.

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I'm still troubled by McCain not looking Obama in the eye during the debate. Fear? Rage? Rudeness? Whatever it was, that was hardly the behavior of a statesman. I've never seen anything like it, and find it disturbing as hell.

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If you are using a "Triangle Meditation" technique, and have been successful so far, try separating it out into three separate triangles, one at the "Belly Brain" (2nd-3rd Chakra) one at the heart, one at the forehead. In turn, visualize the body you want (and see it performing beautifully. See it cascading with pure white or golden light), the relationships you want to nurture (every morning, I visualize my sister Joyce, Jason, Nicki, and Tananarive), and the worldly success you want (find a visualization that works: a possession, an accomplishment, a flow of money, whatever). Then, if you have been successful with this, line up the three triangles in your mind, and see if you can get light flowing through all three at the same time: in other words, does your subconscious mind believe that you can have all three at the same time, that they don't conflict with each other, or your values and beliefs.

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Sometimes, concentration will help them line up. Other times, you have to relax more, and more deeply. You will have to find this for yourself, and it is in discovering your own process through such "Complex Equivilencies" that your own individual Inner World is revealed.

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Anyone who wants to know what I mean by "sex scene" or "love scene" in movies in relation to racial imagery, watch James Bond movies. Every one of them has what I would call a love scene, even the PG movies. Bond and a woman are in privacy. They kiss or embrace, and sink to a bed or otherwise engage. Fade out. Fade in, and they are lounging about with their clothing in disarray. Or they are in bed together, draped with a towel or a blanket, kissing or cuddling. That's PG or PG-13 lovemaking conventions in film. R-rated scenes are more intense: more nudity, buttocks thrusts, oral sex simulations, and so forth. Black or Asian men don't get ANY of this.

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A recent conversation with a black director indicates the way that sex is removed from films. The executives, during development, will make promises, and glad-hand the director. Slowly, during filming or writing, sexual content is subtly disapproved of (in contrast, during development of white projects, sexual content is subtly encouraged). Unless the director has the "final cut" executives and producers will actually remove the "offending" material, citing a wide range of bullshit reasons. What's the real reason? That 33-47% percent negative perception among white Americans. That 10% disconnect I keep talking about. Even black people want to believe that it's "just Hollywood." But when we talk about it, and that protective curtain falls, I've seen the fear and depression in their eyes: the idea that they might actually be surrounded by people who think them slightly sub-human (on average) is beyond depressing. Better to think it's just a few executives.

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Democrats keep wanting Obama to "hit back harder." Please. He has to be Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby. He cannot show anger or fear or any sharp emotion, and is walking a tight-rope unlike any other national politician in the history of this country, and is doing it better than I've ever seen it done. Those who are oblivious to the realities of the racial parochialism in the human psyche spout this nonsense. And people who use the "how could racism be so bad if he's doing so well" need to get together with the people who ask "why, with the administration so unpopular and the economy crashing, isn't he up by 20 points??" and split the difference.

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This is our species, people. We are magnificent, and ignorant. Courageous, and fearful. And one of the things we do is create the concept of "exceptionalism"--that is, if we are forced to accept the positive qualities of a member of a group we dislike, instead of that raising the average assessment of that group, we do the "well, this guy/gal is just different from the others." It's a version of the thing I heard from Conservatives so often: "if they were all like you, Steve, there wouldn't be a problem!" "You're more like us than you are like them..." and so forth.

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That's what we do. So people can be bigoted against blacks, or whites, and still vote for black or white people, either on the "lesser of two evils" basis, or the "this one is different" basis. I love the number of times I've heard the "why is he black? He's half-white!" argument...as if they are totally oblivious to the "One Drop" rule that white people rammed down our throats for hundreds of years. I've heard that more in the last two years than in the entire rest of my life, combined.

And ultimately, it's a good thing. We're changing. Some of my emotional parts are stuck in the 50's and 60's. Some of it still believes that the real horror of "Night of the Living Dead" wasn't the walking corpses, but the fact that a black man was calling the shots, at the same time that a civil rights upheaval was happening in America. Note that, in the end, the black man also got all the white people killed (he was wrong...they SHOULD have gone down to the basement!). The movie has been re-made about four times, and no one can come close to that original horror, because, I think the sub-text isn't understood.

How would you do it? Maybe have a gay woman take charge. Or a Muslim.

10% off the top

There were a number of oddnesses about the debate (which, somewhat to my surprise, Obama seems to have roundly won. I thought it was a draw--when McCain needed a game-changing win. But the 60-30% difference in opinion among undecideds was unexpected.)

1) Anyone else notice that McCain blinked about twice a second? That the left side of his mouth drooped, and his left eye was...odd? I have a nasty fear that there may have been a minor cerebral incident.

2) Man, he lost his temper. Anyone watch/hear him saying "horseshit" on national live TV when Obama talked about McCain's supposed dissing of the Spanish president? You can find the clip on UTube. Yikes!

3) His refusal to look Obama in the eye may have been a tactic to help himself keep from losing control. On the other hand...

4) Look. Everyone made a lot out of the fact that 33% of Democrats say they have negative impressions of black people. And about 40% of the general population. I'm no math expert, but doesn't that imply that 45-50% of Republicans have those negative feelings (right in line with my own guess, actually.) Now...hmmm. I'm sure people would like to say that it's only the ones at the bottom, surely those at the top are more enlightened...

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Yeah, right. No, I say that this human problem goes bottom to top, regardless of intelligence or social class. And differs between political parties based partially on that "nature-nurture" perceptual lens I've talked about. And that if you grew up in a time when such attitudes were taken for granted, it's even worse.

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So...McCain. 72 years old...that's the right generation. Arizona was the last state in the union to ratify MLK day. And McCain voted against it for years. And he never went to see the NAACP until he was running for President. 40% of the general population, and maybe 45-50% of Republicans.

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See where I'm heading? So which 33-50% of our presidents and presidential candidates had bigoted attitudes? What possible motivation would I have to think McCain isn't among that 33-50%? The fact that he adopted a brown-skinned baby? Kid's an East Indian. Has NOTHING to do with anti-black sentiments. Hell, OBAMA doesn't trigger as much racism as a native-born black. All my life I've known that American blacks who pretend (for instance) to be African could stay in segregated hotels. The prejudice, in my mind, is exacerbated by the guilt and fear of knowing that terrible, terrible things were done to slaves and their descendants, and no compensation or revenge ever taken. Where there is action, there will be reaction. This isn't just about skin color. McCain could adopt all the little brown-skinned babies he wants, and while that proves he's not a Klansman, it doesn't prove he doesn't have a problem with black people.

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Couldn't look Obama in the eye. There seemed a smouldering anger there, a resentment...almost as if he felt entitled. The visual metaphor of the old white man and the young black man is so stark that Central Casting of a Hallmark movie of the week wouldn't have put these two up against each other.

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For close to two hundred years in America, white people, especially white heterosexual Christian males were able to baste in the illusion that they were the toughest, smartest, sexiest, most powerful, best and most God-beloved people on the face of the earth. This is the core of the "10% disconnect" that I point to in film, naked and undeniable and you can't put a social band-aid over it. It's right there in public, folks, and you can't blame it on Hollywood and act like the rest of America, or the human race, is just fine, thanks, except for those racist Hollywood executives. That's just absurd.

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Give anyone privilege for generations or years, and then begin to take it away, begin to point out that some of that privilege was at the expense of innocent people...start to take it away and you will trigger anger. Rage. Fear.

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And there are ways that McCain's behavior fits right in there. McCain's behavior reminded me of a white Southern coach forced to shake hands with a black coach after his team loses the Big Game in a Disney Kum-Bah-Yah epic. It's the "I'd like to kill you, but I'm too civilized" act.

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No. I can't think of any reason not to believe McCain may be one of the 33-50% who look down on black people. And if he is, then he must be furious, to find his ambitions blocked by Barack Obama. Dear God, he would be angry. And during the debate he displayed no respect or regard in words, vocal tones, or body language. He displayed far more respect for the white Republicans he debated against. None of that here.

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Frankly, it really bothers me to think this.

#

If the election continues along its current path, Obama will be our next President. I will be very, very happy. Sarah Palin seems totally out of her depth, and it raises serious questions about McCain's judgement. And the recent polls seem to suggest that more and more people are leaning toward B.O.

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If that happens, may I respectfully request no inordinate crowing on this blog? There will be plenty of web sites where people can dance and stick out their tongues. This country has serious issues, and anyone who wants to believe that Republicans are less loyal, intelligent or moral will not find a sympathetic ear on MY head. We need to pull together, every one of us, and I sincerely ask that we only jump up and shout maybe a dozen times. No Bronx cheers.

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French-kissing for joy will be encouraged, however.

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Some time ago I said that a core aspect of turning your finances around is saving 10% of your income. Not for "big purchases" or "vacations" or "buying a house" or whatever. Save it as if this is your grandchildren's inheritance. MAYBE it is a retirement account. But the best attitude is that it is not to be touched in your lifetime, short of the direst emergency. Before you pay taxes. Before you pay debts or bills. 10% off the top is YOURS. This is the fiscal version of the "Golden Hour" concept--the idea that 10% of your waking hours belong to YOU. Not your boss, your kids, your spouse...YOU.

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My contention is that anyone who has the discipline to do this will get frickin' rich. The reason isn't that 10% of your current income will take you to being a millionaire. The reason is that the person who can save 10% off the top is an extraordinary person--they simply think about their finances and life differently. The person who can do this prioritizes purchases, develops iron discipline. sees ways to make more money (after all, the easiest way to ease the bite is to INCREASE your overall income.) You will find that as you resist the urge to dip into that growing nest egg, you develop strength and focus that you have never had before. You develop a sense of security you've never had. And the nest egg gives you a "screw you" cushion that allows you to walk away from bad deals and bad jobs, to think long-term, to think of ways to make a living that is in alignment with your values.

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It is a life-changing, game-changing exercise. 10% off the top. Don't you deserve it?

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No, thanks

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McCain blinked. He'll be at the debate. Now it will depend on who controls the narrative of what happened. McCain might perform brilliantly, and Obama might stumble--that's about John's only chance. Otherwise...well, you read my prediction yesterday.

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Sorry that the 101 project isn't off the planning boards yet. Mushtaq is having eye surgery, and it's slowed things down considerably.

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Spike Lee's new movie "Miracle at St. Anna" is getting bad reviews. It may or may not deserve them...I'll see it this weekend. But considering that it has a black man having sex (according to the previews) we can predict that it will bomb at the box office, and that white reviewers and audiences will tend to have problems. But it's stranger than that. It also seems that even black directors, if they are dealing with such material, simply cannot bring their "A-game." In other words, the reviews might be justified. I suspect that there is SERIOUS cognitive dissonance, even in black people, around this issue.

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On the other hand, "Lakeview Terrace" with Samuel Jackson as a racist cop harassing a mixed-race couple (do we have to guess whether it's the husband or wife who is white?) was #1 at the box office last weekend.

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No, I haven't seen it. No, I have no plans to. Unless I see a movie with a black man being sexual (and surviving. And with a woman) I will not watch another film with a black woman screwing a white guy. I am simply filled-up sick to death with it. The fact that Will Smith's production company created it just says that he knows exactly what the game is, and is printing money. Since I suspect Smith will be the one to carry the baton across the finish line (and probably some time in the next year) I'll give him a pass on this. But no, no "Lakeview Terrace" for me, thanks.

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The Big Whoops

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I'll go out on a limb here, but I think McCain just lost the election. When he asked to suspend the debates, and a (I believe) Fox poll had 90% of Americans believing the debates should continue...that puts him on the defensive, seriously. If Obama has any game at all, he will keep McCain on his heels until he runs those polls up until they get ugly. McCain loves the unexpected move, the game-changer. One could take the position that he saw postponing the debates as a non-political act, but I doubt it. If so, he would have worked it out with Obama in private, rather than making a challenging public announcement--and if he doesn't understand the difference, he's a lousy judge of human psychology, and I don't believe that. Does he want to postpone the election? No? Then the American people need to get to know their prospective leaders. Hell--people have ALREADY VOTED, more and more of them every day. It feels like a desperate stall--that, and keeping Sarah Palin away from media at the very time we need to be drilling her, figuring her out, either being impressed or dismissing. My very strong sense is that they consider her of very limited use: photo ops and highly structured environments only. If that isn't true, then Name of God...why not let us see her brilliance? I smell flop sweat, and it isn't coming from Obama. Hell, I'm hearing CONSERVATIVE commentators saying that McCain isn't behaving in a Presidential fashion, and that Obama is being the adult here. That's not good.

So I add it up, and think that this is the turning point, the point where McCain shoots himself in the foot. The debate, supposedly, will go on. If McCain doesn't show up, it's a one-man Town Hall, and unless Obama blows it completely , McCain loses points. If he DOES show up, he looks like a "Flip Flopper" (an asinine term. So...you want a leader who never changes his mind, even after evaluating new information?) and loses points. Methinks he has hoisted himself by his own petard.

But I could be wrong. I'm sure you guys will remind me if I am.

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I'm experimenting with using Buzzword to communicate with my writers on Hannibal. Don't know if it will work yet, because I'm not certain of the subjective difficulty of working with this terrific piece of web-based software. And in the creative fields, you MUST feel completely comfortable with the basic tools before you can enter flow and create. So I have to wait and see if the guys feel comfortable. It would speed up communication if they could use it, but the most important thing is that they be able to relax and have fun. The best tool in the world is no good if it doesn't fit your hand.

Greatest Movie Ever?

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I was recently presented with the outline for a television project. It consisted of a series of incidents organized in a non-linear structure. In other words, if a character remembered an incident from his past, even if he was currently under great stress and time pressure, the show had him remembering a fairly complex scenario. This was problematic on multiple levels. One, it was too scattershot: no time for development of a dramatic structure. Second, a flashback needs to be organic to the situation. In "Casablanca" it made sense for a heart-broken Rick to remember his Parisian love affair with Ilse. For him to remember it as he's dodging bullets or driving a car down a winding wet road being chased by Nazis would be quite another.

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What is the difference between an incident and a story? Well, a story can be an incident, or a string of them. But the incidents must be selected and structured carefully to reflect the pattern of human life:

A steady-state situation, a character forced to change, a journey into the inner and outer worlds. The character must learn and grow and either align with his internal resources, or find new external ones. The character will face an opponent (internal or external) that will tax his resources and sense of self. Ultimately, if the character has don everything right (!) and has faith, he will win and move to the next level of his life.

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Now, not every story will have every step of this process. But anything you write must be created with these steps in mind. Make a deliberate choice to minimalize one of these factors...but DON'T let it happen by accident.

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Incidents do not a story make.

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We should be able to guess the shape of this election by next Monday, after the debates. With this economy tanking the way it is, if Obama can't rake McCain over the coals, he doesn't deserve to win. Palin is, unfortunately, looking more and more like a stunt. My guess is that they're holding her back from the public to lowr expectations. Then she will perform decently at a couple of events, and they'll say: "see!"

Gamesmanship.

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Bought a collection of Alfred Hitchcock films that covers almost every major film. Yum. A cinema education in a box. Of course, if you want a cinema education in a single film, get "The Seven Samurai" by Kurosawa. A serious contender for greatest movie ever made.

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What would be your vote for Greatest Movie, especially from the perspective of studying film?

Big History

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The Big History course has my attention. In the first lectures, Professor Christian lays down his central thesis: the universe can be viewed as movement toward increasing levels of organization and complexity, and that this has been happening since the Big Bang. I see what he's getting at: stars are more complex than "empty" space, planets more complex than stars, living matter more complex than non-living, etc. All the way to human civilization, which begins to create a whole different level of organization.

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It's a good organizational structure for fantastically complex ideas, and pretty much aligns with the way I see things: that life is constantly trying to organize at higher levels of complexity. I never thought about applying that idea to reality itself. This is, by the way, one of the reasons that the concept of an over-arching world government strikes me as inevitable, even if it doesn't happen in our lifetimes...but that's another discussion.

He discusses eight "Thresholds" and their related disciplines:

1) The Creation of the Universe (Cosmology)

2) The first stars (Astronomy)

3) The Chemical elements (Chemistry)

4) The Earth and the Solar System (Geology)

5) Life (Biology)

6) The Paleolithic Era (Human History)

7) The Agrarian Era (Human History)

8) The Modern Era (Human History)

It seems rather obvious to me that once you've absorbed this structure and its basic information, you have one hell of an internal organization system. Branching out from this structure into philosophy, art, psychology, politics, etc. would be child's play.

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Can't wait to get into the third lesson.

Oh Blah Dee...

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I am having so much FUN. I'm in a pay-or-play position with a certain network, and the project looks like it could be terrific. There are strong, opinionated people who have to work some thing out, but the truth is that the issues that divide them (and yes, I'm being artfully vague here) are issues I could resolve with no sweat. Whatever they decide, it's just fine. Meanwhile, I sit back and watch the fireworks from the best seat in the house. Work life is good...

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Every day, multiple times a day, I visualize a triangle and the "end points" of my three main goals: body/fitness, intelligence/career, and internal/external peace and love. I visualize the body I'm working for, and the way I want it to move. I see the amount of money I want to make per day, and then per year. And I see my family sitting around me in a circle, and make eye contact with them one after another, telling them I love them, and apologizing for any problems, resolving to do better.

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While I'm doing this, I work my "Be Breathed" patterns, dropping my breathing to my One-Point (third chakra).

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Now here's where it gets cool. During my daily yoga or other exercise (currently centering around the H2H circuit training and S.H.O.T.--all fitness components worked except max strength.) I work the breathing. Now...when I am under emotional stress, I just go back to the breathing I was doing in my workout, and am immediately centered and strong. The physical becomes a metaphor for my emotional and spiritual journey. This is valuable, but even more so is the stuff happening at an unconscious level.

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What I'm up to is creating a Pavlovian Stimulus-Response loop between stress and re-integrative power breathing. That way, your system automatically upshifts when the pressure is on. Lovely.

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No doubt about it: the major missing piece I was looking for was found in Scott Sonnon's Flow State Performance Spiral audiotape. I must have listened to it a hundred times. What a threshold experience: a simple explanation for phenomena that can usually only be addressed indirectly. Those pesky, brilliant Russians!

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I'm going to spend the day working on the Dream Park project with Larry Niven. Look forward to that.

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And speaking of that, I had lunch with my favorite Conservative, Jerry Pournelle, last Saturday. Some of you may know that he had some health challenges. Just wanted to say that at this point everything seems to be working well, and I am seriously relieved. He is one of my very favorite people, and one of the smartest guys I've ever met. And I wish him as many more years of healthy life as he wants to have.

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I see some stuff on both sides of the aisle that is pissing me off. Conservative pundits claiming that the investigation of Sarah Palin by reporters is partisan or sexist. Why don't they dig into Obama..? Dear God, where have these idiots been the last two years? Every possible piece of Obama dirt has been pulled out. This is just lying.

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On the other hand, some recent verbal flubs by McCain have triggered a flurry of frankly disgustingly joyous speculations that he is having more "Senior Moments" and may be losing his mind. The unconcealed pleasure in some of these comments is vile. What in the heck is it about Politics that brings out the worst in people?

Little Girls and Old Ladies

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When Jason ws an infant, T and I took turns sleeping in his nursery, every other night, so that every 48 hours one of us got a totally uninterrupted night's sleep. Worked for me: I'm miserable on lost sleep. Now that Jason is going to preschool, I thought of a similar plan: only one of us has to get him up and off to school in the morning. That way, one of us ALWAYS has a full, restorative night's sleep, at least every other night. We've only tried this a couple of times, but since our natural wake-up time is around 9am, it might make sense. We will see...

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Text messenging may have played a part in the recent train disaster here in So Cal. The ironic thing is that the engineer was apparently exchanging texts with a 15-year old train afficianado. Jeeze, that sucks. Hope it's not true. Twenty-five dead? Poor kid will carry THAT one for a long time.

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One of the secrets to success in life is for your actions to be in alignment with your goals, beliefs, values and emotional land mines. Another is to imagine your "inner child"--the kid you used to be. Then imagine the old person you will be one day (if you are lucky!) imagine her in a hospital bed she will never leave. Tubes up the nose. Doctors with long faces. She looks back over her life, to the child she was, imagining a golden thread connecting that child with the old woman. She smiles at the life path. It is good.

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Look at where you are right now. What place on that thread do you occupy? Are you right on track? Or is your present postion zig-zagged from your proper life path? Are you living in alignment with your true values? Headed toward your desired destination?

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Look at it from the other end: from the position of the child. Remember her hopes and dreams? Is she happy with where you are now? Grinning? Dancing? Crying? Moping?

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When your Little Girl and your Old Lady are in agreement that it was a good life...you're heading in the right direction. Today will be terrific.

HEAT hits...

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Went Salsa dancing with T on Saturday. There was an hour-long lesson first, so I actually had a chance to learn a few moves. As a result, I would say that our time that night was the first REAL Salsa we've ever done together. Serious fun. I want to do more of that: Latin rhythms are just superb to move to.

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Well, I'll see what kind of reaction my HANNIBAL proposal nets. Keeping my fingers crossed. I tried to listen to everyone, and find the core behind their concerns, and find a way to make it work. In my mind, the series is less "the life of Hannibal" or "the History of Hannibal" than it is "The secret adventures of Hannibal." I need room to mythologize, and touch an essence rather than simply regurgitate incidents. That won't work well in 23-minute television episodes, with the limited facial expressions we have in animation. I have a vision for this, but it has to coincide with the other creative folks involved. They've been living with this project for two years, and have important perspectives on both process and final product.

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If you can't handle collaboration, this is the wrong industry.

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Blair is doing the television rounds now. And our book just jumped from 19,000 to 1888 on Amazon. The very first little sprout. With CASANEGRA, we did great and were pushing an unproven oddity. Now, we've got great reviews and happy readers, and should have less resistance from buyers. I think NIGHT OF THE HEAT is a stronger book, with a better title and cover as well. But...we'll see.

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Note that we have three Hollywood thingies going on at the same time: Hannibal, Heat, and House. Ah, the "H's" are doing great for us. The Good House hit Fox Searchlight a week and a half ago. Hopefully, they loved it. But with three separate projects, we should get the kind of feedback necessary to figure out this territory. If I can just determine which cards should be played in which order...and the only way to do that is to associate with people more successful than I am. Which is the middle game of my process here. I know my goals, I know my resources...what I need is a decent road map. That means role models.

Question on Strangelets

Somebody out there has the physics background for this.

We've recently seen discussion of the Swiss Supercollider, and how some people are concerned about the creation of teeny black holes or the quark phenomenon known as a "Strangelet"--either of which might devour all local matter and destroy the planet.

I've heard various safeguards that were taken to minimize the chances of this happening. But...can anyone give me an idea of what someone would want to do if one WANTED to create such a disaster? To maximize the chances. And what level of precision bombardment of what kind of target at what energies might be necessary to even potentially, theoretically, create such a quantum monstrosity?

Any thoughts?

How Long did it take?

What do I know about Hannibal and Carthage?
Well, more than I knew in high school. When I first heard about this project a year ago, I did some cursory research on the Internet. Then I got a research packet from Matt Wayne, who was story editor at the time. Pretty standard research stuff, fairly straight on some aspects of his life, more loosey-goosey with others. Clearly, a commitment to quality, and a real attempt to compile a time-line of critical events in his life. The Vin Diesel project is exhaustively researched, and this one spins off of that one.

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The most controversial aspect of the project is the degree of Africanization. As there is no known portrait of Hannibal that can be verified to have been made from a living subject, there is room for discussion--and I'm perfectly aware that the majority estimation of his genetics would say "Phoenecian" which is actually kinda close to Hebrew. But this ain't the History Channel, and if John Wayne can play Ghengis Khan, I fail to be swayed by righteous indignation that Hannibal is presented as carrying African genetics. Call it a slight alternate history if you want.

ﾠ

I'm burying myself in research now, but the primary concern is mythology, not New York Times accuracy toward events that took place thousands of years ago. That said, just for giggles, does anyone out there know how long it took Hannibal to cross the Alps? I do. Just wanted to see the opinions out there...

##

By the way: the "Obama Waffles" thing is pretty edgy satire (clever, defensible, but bordering on bad taste) with the exception of the top of the box: Obama in an Arab headdress, with the sign: "point toward Mecca for tastier waffles" which is clearly meant to encourage the asinine belief that Obama is a Muslim. That DOES take it over the line, in my mind.

Andy Rooney

The following popped into my email today:

######

#####

PERSPECTIVE

If you will take the time to read these. I promise you'll come away with an enlightened perspective. The subjects covered affect us all on a daily basis!

They're written by Andy Rooney, a man who has the gift of saying so much with so few words. Enjoy.......

I've learned.... That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I've learned.... That when you're in love, it shows.

I've learned.... That just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!'... makes my day.

I've learned.... That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

I've learned.... That being kind is more important than being right.

I've learned.... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.

I've learned.... That I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in some other way.

I've learned.... That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I've learned... That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I've learned.... That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

I've learned.... That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

I've learned.... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

I've learned.... That money doesn't buy class.

I've learned.... That it's those small daily happe nings that make life so spectacular.

I've learned... That under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned.... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.

I've learned.... That when you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

I've learned.... That love, not time, heals all wounds.

I've learned.... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

I've learned.... That everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I've learned.... That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

I've learned... That life is tough, but I'm tougher.

I've learned.... That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.

I've learned.... That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I've learned.... That I wish I could ha ve told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

I've learned.... That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I've learned.... That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I've learned.... That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you're hooked for life.

I've learned.... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

I've learned.... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

The Power of Inertia

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ﾠ

I have a friend who was about to embark on major changes in his life. I warned him that unless he had a way to process the negative emotions that would come up, there would be problems. I'm not saying that correlation implies causality, but within two day...he was in the hospital.

ﾠ

I don't believe in coincidence, but I also don't want to be simplistic and two-dimensional. But I've seen so much of this over the course of my teaching career. Back when I was promoting Dawn Callan's Warrior Workshop training, I noticed that people who signed up for the training, and ended up dropping out, didn't drop out for the same kind of reasons someone might give for missing a party. No. There was grim, bizarre stuff. I mean, "a meteor hit their cat" type of stuff. And I began to sense that when you try to make serious life change, the entire universe will test you.

ﾠ

This is short today, because I have thirty-six hours to turn this HANNIBAL project in. But I wanted to remind you to:

1) think of your goals daily.

2) proceed toward them SLOWLY and STEADILY

3) Have some kind of meditation or journaling set up to drain off the negative b.s. of your old ego shield. Please, please, PLEASE don't underestimate the power of entropy and inertia.

Game On

ﾠ

ﾠ

Ah, the long knives come out. If Obama's "Lipstick on a pig" comment can be vaguely taken as a slam on Sarah Palin (and I don't believe it was. If she was ugly, maybe. But it makes no sense to me) then the sex education ad with Obama smiling down can even more rightly be considered an attempt to paint him as a sexual predator, playing on hundreds of years of stereotypes. Pretty vile stuff. Or nothing.

##

It seems to me that the advantage of the Republicans is their tendency to line up behind their leader (top down) and the advantage of the Democrats is the ability to mobilize the grass roots (bottom up) this is a very, very broad brush I'm painting with. But the screaming I hear on Air America, and occassional panicked email is just disgusting. Wow. Your lead shrinks, or you get behind in the Big Game and you start jeering the quarterback? Do they understand that that's exactly how you lose a war? Winners double-down, buck up and raise each other's spirits. It's not really about the guy running, and never is. It's about the citizens. And you know what? If Democrats don't get that, then they don't deserve to win. The clock is ticking, and the argument is basically: if you organize and think our way, you will win. Not "you will be right." Not "you can be smug." But "you will win." And if that doesn't matter to you as much as sucking your thumb and licking your wounds, you are what I call a child. This is a game for adults. Period.

#

News: I am now the story editor on "Hannibal" at BET. For the next five weeks they own me, and I will give them 100% of who I am. And will give everything I've got to taking the solid work of the people who've been on this show for two years and molding it into the very best animated show on television. Nothing less is worth even talking about.

ﾠ

Game on.

A dumb Hollywood rumor

ﾠ

Important meeting today. I'd love to work with these guys. They want to work with me. The only thing is working out the numbers: time and money. The project itself is terrific. Keep your fingers crossed.

#

There was a recent rumor (just a rumor) that Will Smith was being cast as Captain America. I think this would have been an awful idea, even if it made a shitload of money. Sam Jackson as Nick Fury? Sure! Why not! Fury is no longer rooted in WW2. Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin? Sure! I see nothing in 99% of Kingpin's presentation in the history of the character that would preclude this. But Captain America? No. He is rooted in WW2, and in order to make him black, you'd have to do a riff like they did in one of the alternate Marvel origin thingies, where a Tuskeegee experiment-style project uses blacks as lab rats. And that changes the entire political value structure of the character. This wouldn't even be "stunt casting." It would be a purely financial decision (Will is now the biggest movie star in the world) with no concern for the history of the character or his internal integrity over more than sixty years. You COULD re-invent him in the comic book if you wanted to, because you would specifically be playing with sixty years of iconography, and everyone would be in on the joke. But a film? No. What you get on the screen would be the first real cinematic representation. I'd be pissed, thinking that they were, not politically correct, but simply money-grubbers.

ﾠ

And remember "Wild Wild West"? That COULD have been a good movie, if anyone involved had believed in that character. No one did, so the "black James West" thing dissolved into a series of "clever" vignettes, instead of anyone sitting down and actually asking: "all right. Under what circumstances might a black man of unusual skills and temperament have come to the attention of the U.S. government in the 1870's? And how might they have made use of him? And under what circumstances might he have lived a life similar to that of the television James West..?"

ﾠ

I would expect the same kind of nonsense with Captain America: no real inner life, no real awareness of what his life might have been, or how he felt, and no effort to align this with the Comic book character to let the character have any integrity.

ﾠ

Disaster waiting to happen, and one that would actually contribute to social dissonance. Luckily, it was just a rumor after all...

Better than Food Diary?

Here's an interesting article on photo diaries and weight loss, if anyone's interested:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/heal....p-benefits.html

Geoff
###
The above was posted on my forum. If true, it suggests a VERY useful approach. Basically, Food Diaries are considered a very effective way to bring eating to conscious level. And this suggests that taking pictures of everything you eat is even more effective in weight loss. It makes sense to me. Considering the omnipresence of cell phone/digital camera combos, this could be hella good. Anyone who tries it, PLEASE let me know the results.

Can "Tarzan" be saved?

I read recently that a major director (Stephen Sommers?) is interested in reviving a live-action "Tarzan". Frankly, I don't know if it can be done. The problem is that "Tarzan" is the ultimate statement in the "Nature" over "Nurture" argument. At the time it was written, I think 95% of the human race assumed it was all Nature. Breeding. The basic thesis: "An English gentleman, even raised by apes, is still an English gentleman."

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Only in the 20th Century did this really start breaking down, and suspicions that we are far more vulnerable/susceptible to imprintation begin to creep into the mythology. So far as I can see, running back to Shakespeare, the Bible, and ancient history, the winners won because God made them better, the losers lost because they were of inferior breed.

ﾠ

Don't get me wrong--I loved Tarzan when I was a kid. But then, I was desperate to figure out what the hell it meant to be a "man." Not having my father, or any uncles or grandfathers around to provide role models (I did have a great-uncle, who was a fine man, but I don't remember ever having so much as a single private conversation with him) I was floundering. I wanted the respect of men and the admiration of women...and I was just a pot-bellied little nerd, a green monkey egghead growing up in what my sister refers to as "Northwest South Central Los Angeles", and fit in nowhere. I never did figure out the "male-female" or "black-white" thing, so decided to just concentrate on being a human being. That one seems to have worked out fine.

ﾠ

Back to the subject. I was desperate enough to ignore the rather vomitous racism in the Tarzan books, including one of the all-time most offensive comments in print: "white men have imagination, black men have little, animals have none." Thanks, ERB. I remember another bit where he said that a group of Africans were "unusually attractive...almost Caucasoid in appearance." Wow!

ﾠ

How about in the Jungle Tales of Tarzan, where he fell in love with an ape. Was he ever attracted to a black girl? No. Gee. What's being said here?

ﾠ

And still, I loved Tarzan. Still, I devoured them, so desperate was I for role models. And I retain affection for the original Tarzan films, the Ron Ely television show, and feel a bit of sympathy for people who want their cultural heros.

ﾠ

The problem, of course, is that that core belief system: "blood is everything. Culture is nothing." underlies every movement, every word, every frame of every Tarzan film, and trying to pretend otherwise is absurd. And it creates an apparently impossible dilimma: is it even possible to update a concept whose basic premise, even if never stated, is so antithetical to such a large chunk of the population? To, in many ways, the American dream, or the human dream of freedom itself?

ﾠ

Remember what I keep saying: the natural tendency of human beings is that 10% disconnect. People who say "I don't notice race" are exactly as believable as people who say "I don't notice gender." Oh, please. Liberals, I think, sometimes err on the side of wanting too much social engineering. I suspect that they are correct that Welfare caused some damage to the black family. On the other hand, Conservatives tend to be oblivious to the damage caused by States Rights policies when the states were supporting, or at the least turning a blind eye to homicidal levels of racism. And "color blind" policies simply don't take into account the fact that, if people of good will "stop noticing" race, about 10% of the population will gladly notice it for them. And if EVERYONE stopped noticing it, the unconscious tendencies would still tilt things in the direction of the majority. Note the automatic tendency to

ﾠ

1) deny the racism implicit in sexual images in film, until the statistics make it undeniable. At which point the fall-back position is

2) "It's Hollywood." Which makes as much sense as saying the lack of color among Senators is "Washington", the lack of color in Science Fiction or comic books is "New York" or that lack of color in Country-Western music is "Nashville". In other words, the natural human tendency to try to explain differences in human behavior on the basis of "they are different from us."

ﾠ

In other words, trying to isolate the problem to a "them" (Hollywood, New York, etc.) is the exact same thinking that produces a "Tarzan" (different breeds produce different results). On the other hand, it is possible to take the "programming/nurture" argument too far as well. The middle ground is the actual territory worth fighting over.

ﾠ

It is the unconscious assumptions: that most people want to believe that their family, their school, their religion, their country is best, that makes this stuff so difficult. We are attracted to mythologies that reinforce our world view, and the beliefs and values that support it, most of which are unconscious. I've seen at least a dozen variations on "Tarzan"--the white child raised by wild animals becoming Lord or Lady of the jungle. Isn't it curious that those animals never raised and adopted a black child? Wow. You'd think that the odd contortions that the authors and filmmakers had to go through to put a white child in such a situation would have, in at least one case, motivated them to take the simple path, and just have a little black baby taken. Unless of course, that would have violated something very very basic that they needed to say. Something that their audiences needed to hear.

ﾠ

So embarrassing is this stuff that when Disney made their Tarzan, they didn't have a single black man or woman in the entire film. Of course, neither did they in "Lion King", or any theatrical Disney film made in the 20th century. I know people who worked at Disney, and they've verified that it was a VERY racist environment. Apologists won't want to believe this. After all, Disney is one of the core American mythologies. Of COURSE it couldn't be racist. Such exclusion was accidental. Or...maybe they were worried about those easily offended black folks picketing, and decided not to take the chance.

ﾠ

Of course. It's "them." Always "them." Never "us." Right.

#

Back to Tarzan. Can he be saved? I mean, if America had been just as interested in seeing stories of black children raised by animals becoming great heros, or black men becoming the leaders of savage white tribes, then race wouldn't be a factor here, and instead we'd be looking at mythologies of the "outsider" and of natural nobility, or human resilience and courage and capacity. Parables of great value to our children and culture. Trust me: the reason I was attracted to Tarzan wasn't any unconscious urge to believe whites are superior to all other breeds.

ﾠ

Those who say: "well, gee, why don't you just write something like that, Steve?" Aren't paying attention. Such stories HAVE been written. They don't get published. And if they are, they aren't purchased by the mostly-white SF/Fantasy audience. It simply doesn't feed their deep emotional needs.

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Now, in the "Lion's Blood" universe, you BET there are such stories. And when white people complain about them, you just bet that blacks are just as oblivious to the damage they cause, and the bigotry they represent.

ﾠ

Back to Tarzan. Will we ever see a successful Tarzan film or television series again? I suspect so, but I'm not sure quite how to do it. If the culture finally allows Will Smith to get laid without his movie tanking ("Ali," anyone?) then maybe the entire context will have changed sufficiently, and a bit of politically incorrect mythology can be viewed as just one position in a spectrum of possibilities, rather than the unconscious yearning of an entire population segment which yearns for the days that they could consider themselves enlightened when they allowed darker-skinned folks to consider themselves "equal." Gee, thanks.

ﾠ

I see Sommers (or whoever it is) either being oblivious to these questions, and accidentally producing a grotesque mess that alarms test audiences and gets hacked to pieces...

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Or he tries some "revisionist" nonsense, trying to sandwich in a "spiritual guide" black character or "sidekick" or artificially cultured black character (like Ernie Hudson in "Congo" ) to compensate, and falling on his face.

ﾠ

The trouble just might go too deep to fix. Which is a shame. Like I said, I loved "Tarzan." Too bad that in the 100 years since his creation, there still hasn't been enough cultural change to allow the balancing cultural images that would make the Ape-man merely entertainment instead of a deep and damaging statement of the secret need to believe "we" are better than "they."

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If Obama wins the presidency, and has a successful tenure, I'd predict that within one generation, it WOULD be possible to bring Tarzan back. Until then, I consider it roughly as likely as a successful re-make of "Gone With The Wind."

They're Over

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Well...the DNC and RNC are over, and the game begins. All I will say is that I hope the best person for the job wins. Who I think that person is is irrelevant.

#

A Korean martial arts film called "The Legend of the Shadowless Sword" is just wonderful, a "B+" on the "Crouching Tiger" scale. See it.

##

I've been playing with a 16-lb shot--juggling it in a variety of patterns, even laying on my back and passing it through and around my legs. MAN you can get sore doing that. Serious micro-trauma. Have to be very very careful to let my body heal up between sessions. This is all based on Martone's S.H.O.T training stuff. I still have questions about how it affects body composition and so forth, but it sure is good, evil fun.

#

As you exercise, remember to keep the thread of your breathing constant and smooth. If it never breaks, it is very unlikely you will hurt yourself. Then, if you can maintain breath control during stressful times, you will find that the stress doesn't break you. The trick is to ride the breath until you begin to control it automatically. Until, when times are hard, your attention shifts to your breathing. If your boss is yelling at you, if the kids are acting like banshees, whatever is going on...breathe smoothly and deeply, and your stress won't become strain. And if it doesn't, the only way your mind, body, and spirit can respond is by becoming stronger.

##

You know, the whole thing about Biblical injunctions against homosexuality strike me as being massively hypocritical. Yeah, it's there...but Christ never mentions it, and is WAY more specific about "no divorce and remarriage." I mean, he says it point blank. Watching people try to wiggle out of that one, talking about context and peripheral issues and so forth...just makes me laugh. The difference is that gays are "them" and divorce happens to "us." Looking at the epicycles people leap through to explain why they can dump a wife or husband but not have sex with someone of their own gender is just nonsense to me. Everyone takes what they want from the Bible, and leaves the stuff that's inconvenient. Religion and spirituality are very difference things.

Your turn in the barrel

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ﾠ

I've been implementing the 101 program on myself for the last month, and it may be entirely coincidental, but I've gained more personal time, am sleeping less (healthfully) my body is recovering from my workouts (which are intense and brief), and some VERY interesting career things are happening.

ﾠ

Now, while my belief system includes some things that some folks would consider magic, this last part is clearly the result of months and years of work. I'll be able to let you know some time next week (hopefully) but let's just say that:

1) Shadow Valley is finished, and looks great.

2)"In The Night Of The Heat" is poised to be a break-out.

3) "The Good House" goes to Fox Searchlight this week.

4) I got a phone call yesterday that was the single best piece of Hollywood news I've gotten since moving back down here. Now, what FELT the best was the news that, a year or so ago, a certain someone signed a contract long in negotiation. DAMN we needed that money. But this news comes as we actually have a measure of stability, and it's STILL rockin'. More later.

##

But the most important thing about the 101 program is engaging with all three arenas of human life, and then consistently refining and raising your energy, while noticing and correlating your results, maintaining behavioral flexibility, and modeling the success of others. Also, to connect your new philosophies with whatever spiritual or philosophical structures you were programmed with before the age of puberty (unless they are disastrously unhealthy--in which case you have some VERY heavy lifting to do.) You need to search for those beliefs that produce positive results in all three arenas, so that you aren't doing "different things" but rather "expressing your essence." Just being who and what you are, although the situations and contexts vary. For instance, "The Way is in Training" means that whatever is important in your life, you have to work at it every day.

EVERY day I tell my friends and family that I love them, and inquire as to their needs.

EVERY day I move my body with grace and intensity.

EVERY day I deepen my understanding of the greatest writing in the English language, and how to produce it.

ﾠ

Every damned day. What did the great pianist say? "If I don't practice for one day, I can tell the difference. If I don't practice for two days, the critics can tell the difference. If I don't practice for three days, the audience can tell the difference."

ﾠ

YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO. Your life is composed of countless small actions. The actions are based on decisions. The decisions are based on your values, beliefs, goals, and emotional states. ALL OF THIS STUFF MUST BE ALIGNED. If you are in conflict with your own internal states, you will sabotage yourself---guaranteed. Meditating is one of the ways to clear away the smoke, inspect the wiring, clean the internal mirrors and windows so that you can see where you really are. Goals, and your success at them, comprise a map of your territory, and your travel plans. How long would you drive without checking street signs? Wouldn't you want to know where gas stations, rest stops, restaurants and motels are? When you go for a long drive, don't you almost always have a general if not specific destination?

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Unless you are one of the fortunate few who just Zen's their way through life and ends up someplace delicious every time, you need to align your inner and outer worlds, your remembered past and prospective future, your loves and your fears.

ﾠ

Since they don't give you a "how to" manual for life in Kindergarten, it is your responsibility to create it for yourself, day by day...and then pass whatever you have learned that you have PROVEN VALID to your friends, children, community. This is the only way Mankind has progressed.

ﾠ

It's our turn in the barrel, Dudes and Dudettes.

In The Night Of The Heat

My new Tennyson Hardwick mystery, "In The Night Of The Heat" is now available on Amazon.com. No reviews up yet...be the first!

Dr. Laura is not a hypocrite...

http://www.drlaurablog.com/2008/09/02/sarah-palin-and-motherhood/

Whatever else one may think of her. Back when I lived in Washington, I listened to her quite a bit. And while I disagreed with her position on homosexuality, I heard numerous gay callers to her show, and NEVER heard her treat them with less than the same level of compassion and respect she offered her straight callers. She may have done it, but not while I was listening, and I listened for hundreds of hours over the years. So I never considered some of the labels thrown at her to be entirely fair. Remember what I said about a racist could still be a perfectly fine person, depending on how he actually treated other human beings? Some of that here. So, I wondered how she would deal with the Sarah Palin situation. While still intending to vote for McCain, she seriously questions his judgment in picking a woman with small, special-needs children. This is entirely in alignment with her stated values, and I congratulate her for her integrity. Yes, I understand that hers is a radical point of view, and I'm not recommending it--even though there are some aspects of it I agree with. I merely point it out as an example of someone sticking to their guns, even when it is painful. For the record, I respect Palin for refusing to abort a Down's Syndrome child. That, too, I see as an act of strength and courage, in alignment with her values.

Babylon A.D.

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The RNC convention was looking like a Pillsbury Dough-Boy family reunion, but then I came across interviews with a group of Black Republicans over on Huffington Post. Ariana (who, by the way, can REALLY dance. Had the pleasure of watching her at a DNC fundraising party four years ago...yow!) asked them what they thought about Obama's candidacy, and they gave thoughtful, measured answers (while obviously being aware of the irony of the question) that had to do with lack of experience, potential versus reality, taxing the most productive citizens, and so on. Good answers. It was interesting that the one talk-back to the video link accused her of racism: "why not ask white voters what they think of John McCain..."

ﾠ

Which was patently absurd. First, there have been tons of surveying asking racially-charged questions concerning this election. Second, if McCain were the first white man to run for President, you bet your ass there would be questions asked more pointedly.

ﾠ

Third, it demonstrates that the term "racist" is bandied about a bit too easily. As is "sexist." I mean, to note that a member of a group might have a special interest in other members of said group is just recognizing a truth of human nature. To suggest that membership, or birth into, a given group is a determinate in certain behaviors is controversial, but not necessarily hateful or bigoted. (Are black people more likely to like dancing? Are women more likely to be informed about spring fashions? Is suspecting both might be true bigoted?) The funny thing is that in both cases, asked privately, blacks or women will often express pride in their relative knowledge or capacity in these arenas. Make a public statement about such things, and WOW! Watch the fur fly. Of course, the reason is that categories have been used to limit people, and even after the fences have been pulled up, the lines of dead grass remain in the field. Even after you cut the rope, the elephant thinks it can't pull away. That's how psychological conditioning works.

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Stating (what seems to me to be) an obvious truth: that women are better prepared for the care of infant children than men, doesn't mean that their roles should be limited to such actions, or that men can't or shouldn't learn to step up in that arena, or that technologies of birth control and infant care should not be developed. My view is that every human being should have the chance to rise to her highest good, to the full expression of dreams and hopes. But you don't get there by ignoring reality. You HAVE to understand gravity in order to build a flying machine.

ﾠ

The problem with looking at cultural preferences, or biological mechanisms is that some people will use them against you, or excuse their bigotry with it. And that is a problem. Expect members of any group that has been oppressed or limited by another group to have a serious flinch response. One way or another, everyone is a member of an oppressed or denigrated group (or perceives themselves this way)...or has been, or will be. And most of us are members of an oppressor group (or are perceived this way)...or have been, or will be.

ﾠ

We have to tread carefully as we try to undo the damage of the past, to approach a brighter future.

##

I am virtually alone among my political friends in not believing one side or the other is better. True, I think that different sides have more or less to offer to different constituencies. That's one of the things that makes a democracy (or, yes, democratic republic) interesting--the drive to compromise between these different groups. But I know of no objective set of standards, simply expressed, that makes Republicans (for instance) superior to Democrats, Liberals to Conservatives, or vice versa. No one can say that every time we've had a Republican president the GNP went up, or crime went down, or whatever. People always hedge and haw: "well, he didn't really adhere to our principles" or "the Congress wasn't behind him" or whatever, producing a maze of complex charts selectively high-lighting this factor and ignoring that one. And Liberals tend to make a little more money, while Conservatives give a litttle more to charity, and this group tends to have higher educations, while that group has a little less teen pregnancy. And those of rigid thought try to thread their arguments through the stuff that makes them look good, and ignore anything to the contrary. It's laughable, and predictable, and I'm surprised that adults don't get the joke.

ﾠ

The joke is that, rather obviously to me, when you can divide an issue into dualities, neither of which has a simple objective advantage across the board, you need BOTH of them to create a whole. There are truths on either side, and the people screaming at each other are like ants crawling across a silver dollar hollaring "Heads!" "Tails!"

ﾠ

They are, in my thinking, like a swimmer who insists that his left arm is better than his right, never noticing that he is swimming in a circle unless he uses both. Either side, in power too long (and there's a problem: everyone's definition of "too long" will differ, of course) will grow corrupt and complacent. When I cheer for the Democrats or Liberals, it's because I feel like Conservative Republicans have had too much power, for too long. I have no doubt that if Obama was in office for eight years, followed by another Democrat for say, one term, I'd start getting a little itchy for a Conservative revolution.

ﾠ

A case in point is the fact that I don't know a single person, Conservative or Liberal, who will admit that the media is in their pocket. Both sides think the media is against them. Since I have NO reason to believe either side is more honest, the only conclusion I can come to is that if you're standing to the left of a line in the sand, it seems to be Right. And if you stand to the right of a line in the sand, it seems to be Left. And all you'll do is amass the data that justifies your perception, and discount anything that contradicts your POV. It's a big, ugly joke, and to me, a game for children.

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I get asked again and again what I'm really up to with the 101 program. There really isn't quite language for it. I can say "lose 20 pounds" or "double your energy" or "increase income" or "find love" or "decrease stress" and all of that would be true...but all would be merely means to an end. What I'm really interested in is waking people up, and helping them become adults. Being an awakened adult means taking responsibility for their results in all three arenas, and realizing that you are where you are in your life because of choices YOU have made. And recognizing that we are in a web of biological and social and spiritual relationships--and smiling tolerantly at the children who sit in the sandbox insisting that THEIR castle is better than anyone else's...and daily inspecting your own attitudes to see where you do the same thing. Because you do. We have to be constantly aware, like a drowsy driver on a mountain road taking micro-naps. Wake up. Wake up.

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Want to know when I'm asleep? For one, ANY TIME I have an emotional response to the "Black Male Sexuality In Cinema" thing (as opposed to bemusedly noticing it) your host is sleeping. I'm being a Needy, Wounded, Abandoned child. Pure self-indulgence, because in those moments, rather than creating new paths, I'm complaining that I don't like the direction of the old ones. You're watching my wounds ooze.

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And you, dear readers...how do you know when you are being a child, and asleep?

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Saw "Babylon A.D." last night with Nicki and her guy. Wow, what a turd. I like Vin Diesel a LOT, and he was fine, within the limits of this confused, muddy, sub-par re-tread of "Children of Men." It was o.k. until the last twenty minutes, when it went completely to shit. What were they thinking? I don't know at all. But this story of a professional smuggler moving human cargo from Russia to America just couldn't figure out the story they were telling, and ultimately dissolved into a flurry of half-baked metaphysics and improbable plot twists. I could almost hear the collective audience groan "say what?" at one scene involving a missile, as their collective suspension of disbelief collapsed like a glass overpass in an earthquake. Wow. And Michelle Yeoh was in it, and you KNOW how much I love her. This was a gigantic waste of talent, and I put the blame squarely on the director, who had no coherent visual style to keep us locked into his world. Ugh. A "D"

Why I didn't post Obama's accomplishments

Someone said that I'm such a fan of Obama that I can't see his flaws. Hmmm. Could be true, but I'd say that it's more likely that I consider his balance of strengths and flaws better than any other current candidate for the office, and there are some aspects of his candidacy that interest and inspire me (for obvious reasons.) I didn't respond to the bait to list his accomplishments as a senator for a specific reason.
I could go to his web site and cut-and-paste the long list of stuff, but then what would happen? Those of conservative bent would attack it, those of liberal bent (who support him) would defend it. Demands for a list of Palin and McCain's accomplishments would be made. The same thing would happen. That crap is happening all across the Internet. Why repeat this here? Rather, I'll give you a chance to attack my reasoning, beliefs and values. That would seem to be more to the point. I AM NOT TRYING TO CONVINCE ANYONE OF ANYTHING. JUST DESCRIBING MY OWN PROCESSES. NO FLAME WARS, PLEASE.


Doesn't it make sense that I would back him, given that I think that:

1) The Iraq war is the greatest foreign policy blunder of my lifetime.

2) George Bush is the worst president of my lifetime. (and no, this isn't purely ideological. I didn't feel that way about Reagan or Bush Sr.)

3)Experience isn't the issue, and never was. CAPACITY is the issue. Experience is merely an indicator of capacity. If you KNEW someone had the capacity, you wouldn't care about their level of experience. And if someone had the experience, but had lost the capacity (due, for instance, to senility. No, I'm not making a dig) you wouldn't care about their experience.

4) I consider running a campaign to be executive experience--if you build the machine from scratch, and don't inherit it from your father.

5) If a local schoolteacher battled her way to National prominance, survived twenty debates and countless interviews, motivated millions of people to donate money and countless Washington insiders said that they were favorably impressed by her savvy and capacity, and won the nomination--I would consider it a Cinderella story, and cheer her on.

6) I consider that he ran at a minimum 5% handicap because of race. This makes his accomplishment all the more amazing to me.

7) I recognize habits of thought that I myself cultivate and admire.

8) I consider him balanced in all three aspects: physically fit, financially successful, happily married.

9) As an isolated tactic, the Surge seems to have succeeded--but that doesn't make it a good idea as part of an overall strategy. As I said, the cost in lives and treasure has not, in my mind, been worth it. Still, if the violence is dying down, I very much want to see something positive come out of this clusterfuck. If my uncle squandered the family millions buying a donkey, yes, I would take that donkey home. Doesn't mean I think the purchase was a good idea, even if it turns out to be a damned fine donkey.

10) I have no problem with Biden. If Obama wants to float high above the fray, it makes good sense to have an anchor. Hillary on the ticket? I would have gone for it, but white males, already frowning about the situation, would have been even more disaffected I think. A Washington outsider? How much change do you think America can take at one time? The goal is to get elected. He already represents a STAGGERING, historic amount of change. His partner needed to be safe and "conservative" in comparison, or he would have had no chance at all. He was going to be attacked by the Right no matter WHAT choice he made, so this argument is pure b.s. to me.

11) The Reverend Wright situation doesn't bother me. One goes to church to contribute to the community, as well as receive. This was the community he chose to serve. Anger is a mask over fear. If you heard tremendous anger from Wright without asking

a) did he represent his constituancy and

b) if they are so angry, what have they, historically, to fear?

you are at least unconsciously assuming that they are somehow different from you. My position is that no, they're not--you would have felt the same, had you had their experience of America. I believe that like me, Obama has the perspective on human nature and world history to avoid the tunnel-vision us-themism that creates racism on either side. It makes sense to me that he would want to make the dream of America, the best dream that has ever existed on this planet, work more equally for all her children. I can see that because I have known countless intelligent, hard-working, law-abiding black people who have expressed similar frustrations and fears--those fears masked with anger. I get it. If he avoided black people who felt that way, he would have only white people around him, constantly whispering "see? there's no problem! You made it! Come on...admit it. There's something just a little wrong with them..." just as I have whenever I've been in Conservative Republican gatherings. If I hadn't experienced that, I'd probably be a Republican myself.

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There is more there, but those are the basics. Feel free to attack me: I'm a grown assed man. As to his flaws,

1) Lack of resume. Of COURSE I'd like him to have a deeper resume. I would consider his accomplishments PRIOR to the primaries roughly comparable to Palin's, given the relative number of his constituents and hers--except that his education far exceeds hers, of course. But again, if Palin had entered the primary and excelled, I would be cheering her on. Wow! What a woman! But if, for instance, he had NOT been in the primary, had never been on the national stage, and Clinton (for instance) had chosen him as a running mate...I'd wonder about her judgement.

2) He plays politics. How many times have I said that I HATE politics? I hate what people do to get into office--they have to bend and duck and weave and almost break their backs. They have to shade their comments, knowing that anything they say can be taken out of context and used as a weapon against them. Since everyone has to do this, the question isn't whether he does...it is whether he can do it and keep his soul. So far, I haven't seen a decision that strikes me as out and out cynicism, although I do see decisions that I don't fully understand. Unless I am willing to reject the entire political process, I have to groan, sigh, grit my teeth and say "that's just the game."

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Anyway, that's the core of my thinking, first draft, without revision. It annoys me when I occassionally hear Democrats speaking of Obama in Messianic terms, but then it annoyed me when I heard Republicans speaking of Reagan or Bush that way--and I did, both before and after their elections. Some people just pray to be rescued. That ain't me, Babe.

Alignment with your own values...

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In my way of seeing things, one of the worst mistakes people can make is taking actions opposed to their own values. It weakens them, and decreases their chances of success. There are two things about Sarah Palin's choice that would SEEM to be in this arena.

1) From McCain's POV. Hasn't he been hammering Obama for lack of experience, therefore placing experience VERY high on his priorities for serving in the White House? According to HIS (not my) values, Palin would seem an odd choice indeed. Weren't there tons of Conservative Republican choices with more experience, if experience is so important? And if it's not important, what has all his complaining been about? Either what he's been saying about Obama is BS, or his choice is BS--a tactical decision out of alignment with his own values. He can't have it both ways.

2) From Sarah Palin's POV. Again, excuse me...but I've thought that Family Values was enormously important from the perspective of Conservative women. I can just imagine her calling in to Dr. Laura, asking if she should take a job offer demanding travel and intense commitment 24/7 while she has a four month old Down's Syndrome child. Dr. Laura would think she was out of her #$%@ing mind. IF that actually represents a "Family Values" POV, then either Palin is acting WAY out of her values...or those are not actually her values. Can't have it both ways.

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To accomplish goals in life, they must be in alignment with your beliefs, values, and positive/negative emotional anchors, or you cannot bring your full powers to bear. Self-sabotage is a powerful possibility. I think it likely that McCain's campaign just jumped the shark. There is almost no way that one or both of them will not make serious mistakes between now and November 4.

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Personally, while Palin's choice makes me a bit uneasy (and I have to admit I would be about 70% as uneasy if she were a man whose wife had just given birth to a Down's Syndrome child. Yes, I'm an old-fashioned guy about stuff like that), the "Experience" thing strikes me as B.S.

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If Palin had come from being governor, run for President, shone in 20 debates and countless interviews, stirred millions to donate to her, and crushed all opponents with the political machine she built from scratch...I'd pretty much say "you go, Girl!" and shake my head with amazement. In other words, her performance was demonstration of fitness for the job. If a local school-teacher did that, I'd think I was looking at an intuitive genius, just like someone with no football experience who simply shows up at a try-out, outshines everyone and ends up on the team deserves to be there.

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I have to admit that I'm a "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" kind of guy, who believes that someone with sufficient judgement , integrity, intelligence and energy could surround herself with advisors who are "Old Washington Hands" sufficiently to get the job done. I think it's a myth perpetrated by professional politicians that one must be a career politician to do that job. So I think the answer to the first one is that her experience wouldn't be as much of an issue if McCain hadn't made it one. The issue would be her communication skills, management skills, intelligence, energy, integrity, etc...but it would seem that it makes a lie out of much he's been saying, and is a serious crack in his campaign armor. I just don't see how the two positions coexist, especially for a 72 year old man with cancer, making his most important executive decision.

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Can you guys make sense of this for me?

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So bizarre that Right-wing preachers were praying for Obama to get rained out, and now here comes Gustav, causing the RNC to cancel the first day of THEIR convention. Irony, anyone?

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I think I've got Nicki's weight issue handled. On the physical aspect, a combination of I.F. and Kettlebell intervals has her losing two pounds a week. On the emotional side, it is increasingly clear that the weight is armor that she donned to protect herself while living in a small, somewhat redneck town where she was ostracized for her skin color. My error, and I refuse to let my darling daughter pay for it. But as she breaks that armor down (a requirement if she wants to act) she will need to have her "emotional kidneys" operating at high efficiency. Meditation or dream diarying...or standard diary work. I think I would suggest that last one.

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That's one of the only things that I'm still tweaking about the 101 program is the processing of emotional detritus. I cannot overstate how important this is: if you are moving from one level of your life to another, you have to find a way to allow your old ego shells to dissolve. Unless the new levels of accomplishment already fit your self-image, you will batter against the walls until you break. There's an element of "camel through the eye of a needle" and "Moses not entering the Promised Land" about the inability to move an old ego shell through a new opening. This is the key brilliance of "Psycho-Cybernetics"--if your ego image is in alignment with your goals, values, beliefs, and emotional charges, you will automatically move in the direction of your desired ends. You don't even have to TRY. It just starts happening. You meet the person of your dreams. You start making more money. You get in better shape.

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The trick is finding a way to align all that subconscious "stuff." Otherwise, you will change whatever you can focus your attention upon directly, while the rest of your life remains the same...or gets worse.

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Ultimately, the goal of these actions is to make the day-to-day progress toward growth and health automatic, so that you naturally begin to ask the serious questions: "who am I? Why am I here?" These can be best addressed after you have mastered your basics--these are Master level questions. When people with major holes in one of the three arenas try to address these questions, it is almost as if they are hurrying toward death as an avoidance of dealing with life. I've seen this in people who can't seem to wait until they can use "I'm old" as an excuse not to care for their bodies, seek their dreams, or find love. "Stop pushing me. I'm old." That's the ego, willing to kill YOU to keep from dying.

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This is another version of the same phenomenon as people who help others rather than help themselves. It is absurdly easier to TELL someone to do 100 pushups than to do them yourself. And oddly, we get a sense of accomplishment. I remember Swift Deer telling me that "helping other people is a form of self-pity." I don't know if I agree with that, or even if I completely understand what he meant, but it resonates somehow. It's like being Mom or Dad to all the other kids on the block, but ignoring your own children. Easy to be a "great guy" when you can send the little monsters home.

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Another version of this is the people who don't have a healthy primary relationship with an adult, but try to say that their relationship with their children, pets, co-workers, students, etc. substitute for this. It's sad. In every one of these cases, they have control over the interactions that simply don't exist in an intimate relationship with a co-equal. When we avoid our own work, try to distract people from the objective reality of our results, it's like not looking out the car window to see if we are actually where the map says we should be. And then we wonder why we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere. Heck, it's not MY fault!

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Yes, it was...if you are an adult. If you're a child, it's the fault of your parents. If you're an adult, YOU did it. First be an adult. Then, wake the $#%% up. That's as far as most people ever get, or really ever want to get, before they die.

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And the sooner you take those first steps, the more power you have in your life.