Which is best: the brilliantly catchy interpretation of an already incredible Talking Heads song; or, the first-rate 5-minute recreation of 'American Psycho' a'la music video of the same song? This video is just excellent, especially if you appreciate the modern Ellis masterpiece turned Christian Bale masterpiece. Everything 'American Psycho' related is a masterpiece. Such strong literature will do that to the world, I guess. Inspire, thus germinating, thus creating ... life.
This particular musical-video masterpiece is the talented work of Miles Fischer, who both sings the song and is the actor whom looks eerily similar to Christian Bale for all intended Patrick Bateman purposes. Miles Fischer appears to be an elite showman in many forms. Keep your eye out for that one.
Download the song, and attached EP for free, straight from the source.
If you could play the role of Christian Bale in any of the following Christian Bale movies, which character would you most like to play? Here's some ideas.
A) PATRICK BATEMAN - 'AMERICAN PSYCHO' B) BRUCE WAYNE/BATMAN - 'BATMAN BEGINS', 'THE DARK KNIGHT' C) ALFRED BORDEN - 'THE PRESTIGE' D) TREVOR REZNIK - 'THE MACHINIST' E) JACK 'COWBOY' KELLY - 'NEWSIES'
Other characters welcome. Leave a comment.
Next article is the big you-know-what and I have a special announcement to make.
Welcome, dear reader, to Article 98, in which I teach you how to transcend space and time while, appropriately, defining what "the present tense" is.
I can take no credit for what I'm about to tell you - as it were, I am more a sharer of ideas than an originator. A friend of mine recently lent me the book 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' by Richard Bach, and how perfectly timed it was for that book to find me here and now, at this time and place in my life; and that is where I draw today's inspiration from.
"If our friendship depends on things like space and time then when we finally overcome space and time we've destroyed our own brotherhood. But overcome space and all we have left is here. Overcome time, all we have left is now."
All we'll ever have is here and now. To make anything possible, you live and act in the present tense. Can you transcend the present tense? Perhaps, but what, exactly, would be the point?
I appreciate that you would share the present tense, here and now, with me, on The General Collective, and I strive to make it worth your while. Observe.
Coming home from a long and strange day of work, the Universe smiled upon me in the form of a new song by Thom Yorke. Sheer bliss. I now share this special moment with you.
Additionally, if you view the video below you will find yourself lost - entranced even - in the hypnotic calm of an aquarium in Okinawa.
Combined, these two videos should deliver a one-two punch of sonic and visual Zen.
Having watched those videos, they are now in your past, welcome to a brand-spanking new second in your life. Every moment is fresher than the last. You're falling, as if in a dream, through an gallery of mirrors forever reflecting off each other, into an eternity of present tenses. Take the ideas you've learned here and continue moving through your reality, or unreality. Use the present tense to your advantage.
Consider the intelligence of a bird, the Crow, the Corvus Corax, that may be just as smart and evolved as yourself.
Make no mistake about it, Crows are problem-solvers and storytellers. To say that, as a species, humans are the most intelligent and dominant creatures on this planet may be presumptuous on our behalf. Crows have found a way to prosper from the destructiveness of humans - we've been inadvertently feeding them since we murdered the first of ourselves. Crows have evolved around humans, finding the best way to benefit from our own high-minded and self-righteous doings. We can't claim to be the hand that feeds, as we've never meant to, and Crows will look after their own even when we're gone.
The idea that really lights my fire when I think about Crows is this:
Problem solvers may become critical thinkers and critical thinkers may become philosophers. Story tellers may become liars and liars may become prophets. Assuming, of course, they're not already all of these things.
There is a robot on this site, more like an application program, that I call Noodle. Noodle's job is to stick around on The General Collective and count any person that might mosey by or pass on through these strange territories. Every so often Noodle generates a report to me that I can easily scan over to understand the "traffic pattern." According to this week's report this site is receiving 120 page views per week. Wow.
I want to personally thank each and every 120 of you. I hope you read a few articles and scan over a few pictures or watch a video or two. As the Architect I try to craft each article around something WORTH considering, so that even if this site only has a few minutes of your attention I'll have at least planted an idea, on odd fact perhaps, or a rhetorical question addressed to the Universe, in your head. I've not been the best updater lately, but chock it up to recent radical changes in my personal life and a job that consumes 50-60 hours of my life and energy each week. I appreciate your interest and presence in my realm.
ONWARDS.
Now consider the aesthetic perfection of Zooey Deschanel. What I've always loved about Zooey is that, for as long as I've ever known her through her performances AND song writing, she's always represented the ideal girl-friend to me. Everyone knows by now that I am fatally stunned by the beauty and character of Mrs. Natalie Perfect Portman - but even in my perfect dreamworld in which I am Natpo's lover and life-partner, I cannot deny that the relationship would be flawed from the start. She's cute and conscientious, ambitious and successful, but she has always appeared slightly high-headed. Based on accounts of people I know who've interacted with her, Natpo is actually quite snobby and elitist. That's a turn off for me. I'll always admire her style but when it comes to compatibility the best girl for me would be the, currently engaged to Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service), Zooey Deschanel.
Just looking at her gives me a Dopamine high.
Allow me to credit a seriously amazing web-site. Finding Meaningful Distractions was a serendipitous blessing. It is an extraordinary blog with many parallels to mine own, TGC. The motto of the site reads "Because if you're going to be distracted it may as well be worth it." That is exactly the purpose I've always considered The General Collective to encompass. I really love having found Meaningful Distractions, as it gives me a model to work with - so if you like the designs of yours truly, and beloved, the Architect, do yourself a favor and check them out.
If the architects over at Meaningful Distractions ever happen upon my page, KUDOS to all of you. Your site is remarkable and your writing is a pleasure to read. I love how you have a no-advertisement standard and your layout is beautiful.
To borrow from their own excellent articles, consider the below video of a bear cub being psychologically fucked with. This bear was either born terrified or conditioned to react this way for our entertainment. It's a sad thought but in watching it the pity I felt for this creature melted into silent laughter, smitten by the cuteness of its helplessness and the head-over-heels theatrics.
Post Script, the current temperature of my Macbook's GPU diode is 73 degrees Fahrenheit while my CPU A drive is running at a temperate, but noticeably warm, 63 degrees Fahrenheit. I keep the engine running, running, running.
Fact. Relevance IS relative. Stick that in yo' memory bins.
I sure was pleased to hear Al Franken, finally, coming head and becoming the senator for Minnesota. The guy's smart as a whip, and after years of practiced political satirizing, he finds himself in a position to exercise is ideology and, I believe, America will benefit greatly for that.
Consider this "Saturday Night Live" gem from 1991 in which Al Franken played a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Al Franken is, currently, making his real-to-life Senate Judiciary Committee debut questioning Supreme Court nominee Sonia "Wise Latina" Sotomayor.
Even Joe Biden is accounted for in another parallel 1991 has with the Obama-era. Dana Carvey makes a creepy, yet sensational, Strom Thurmond. And, oh, Chris Farley and Phil Hartman, how I miss thy merry comic follies.
Speaking of missed comedians, just today I was extolling my woe onto others, saying how much I pine for Dave Chappelle. Lo and behold, he's alive. Why, in fact, just the other night he showed up at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon with the idea he was going to do a small-scale show to a small crowd. He's been gone so long he forgot he was famous and 4,000 people showed up. So, for wherever he's been, for whatever he's done, we do know that he is back and dipping his toes, once again, back in performing. His absence has been greatly felt and his comedy has never seemed to relevant.
Dave Chappelle at Pioneer Square
And, as the point suggests, relevance is entirely relative.
All things considered, I'm doing just fine. On waking this morning I was inspired, by mercurial dreams, to find the stillness within me. There is a lighthouse within me, and if I can learn to focus, it can be the sole light, guiding me, through the darkness and chaos of my life waves. A beacon. Hope exists and I've but to find it within me. Mmm.
Dear reader & listener: a new favourite. Please enjoy.
I was not aware of this, but the Greater Tokyo Area of Japan has a flag designated for each city and ward inside of it. It's actually a very neat idea but I've always been interested in flags. For a list of Tokyo cities go HERE.
WORDLE is an application that will take a chunk of text and then sort it according to the frequency of words therein, from which it will generate a visual representation of said word chunk. Technology like this can be employed to give you visual representations of your own recurring patterns of, say, your writing habits or even your musical preferences. Check it out, a Wordle-generated poster-worthy chart of my musical patterns for Summer 2009:
UNRELATED:
A Letter from the Architect's Desk, addressed to THE INTERNET.
Oh, intangible neverwhere of information and data. Oh, wires and webs of directionless knowledge and lies. Oh, how twisted these strange united blogs of the interwebs. I do admire your ghosts. I ride your ever-changing waves. I peer into your depths and skip upon your surface. I call you Nous. I call you Kishin. I call you MEMORY.
And what am I? Oh, just your average ...
My fingers feel, oddly, at peace manipulating strands of html, shaping and forming my visions, however erratic, into the visual realms, that is The General Collective. What a thrill it is to create ... something. And to share. I give part form to you, deus ex machina, and you'd do well to remember that. I, too, am a ghost, and not unlike, a God in these here territories.
I took a short sabbatical from my responsibilities as Architect in this here realm. A brief reprieve from this mantle is necessary from time to time, and since I'm the sole writer and care-taker of these here premises they are likely to fall into a state of disrepair while I am gone. But fear not, dear reader, for I stand ready to resume task I know best and bring you the best in music, in ideas, and in cute animals.
I do not grieve for the loss of Michael Jackson. He'd been lost and gone for a long time. I grieve, only, for his life. An incarnate spirit of talent having achieved the American dream - a dream which warped and twisted in on itself until it became a nightmare, a sinister circus debacle, for the eyes of the whole world to behold and judge. I'll remember MJ at his best.
Hey. How about that 4th of July, huh? Huh? The United States of America, boldly declaring our independence against a tyrannical empire, so that we may have our own turn at playing Emperor & Empire!
Don't misconstrue me. I love these here states, united. But for as much as I love the idea of freedoms and unalienable rights, I am constantly reminded that our country has always been lacking in them, in one form or another. I mean, we were a nation founded on slavery and genocides. So before you bust a vessel in your head and accuse me of expatriation, treason, and heresay, consider this:
What the hell is patriotism anyway? National eroticism, is more accurate.
Feeling better now that you're getting your TGC fix? We aim to please.
