Having it all figured out...

Today, I realized that I'm happy I have things figured out well enough to know that I have nothing figured out. It's a good place to be.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”

Socrates

I'm going to start posting short posts more often. This is a step in that direction. Go me!

Trying to make the Daily Jason a little more... "daily"

Hey all (or none, perhaps),

I've been intending to write more in my blog, but I haven't been horribly motivated to do so. If you read my second blog entry, you know that time is, as always, what seems to bring me down (as I type, I get closer and closer to being late for work, for example). But time is, in essence, all we have. If not for this moment, what is there? I've heard people talk about killing time and I just think that is the most ludicrous thing in the world (apparently, existence of rap artist ludacris has made me forget how to spell "ludicrous." I figured it out eventually, though).

I think time needs to be resurrected--we need to breathe new life into these moments. If there is time that you feel needs killing, examine what is wrong with the situation to prevent you from appreciating the one thing you have (which is, essentially, that moment, because outside of the current moment, nothing exists). Examine what aspect of yourself is preventing you from enjoying your whole world, as it exists in that moment. Then change it.

I could probably quote the song Raise a Little Hell here, but as I said, time is of the essence so I'll get to the point of this entry. The next couple of entries will be short, sweet posts (sweeter than this one, even). So... look out for that.

And... now I'm late.

Who is Dave Coulier (AKA Joey Gladstone)?

Someone told me a couple of days ago that the album Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette was mostly written about Dave Coulier, better known as Uncle Joey from Full House. It blew my mind just a little bit.

At first, I was amazed at someone so seemingly uninteresting and extremely unfunny could have such a remarkable impact on popular culture. He was on a TV show that's finale was viewed by 25% of TV watchers in America and he was the subject of the second-best selling album of the 1990s (the best-selling was Shania Twain's The Woman in Me).

But then I thought... maybe Dave Coulier isn't so bland. I mean, if he was even partially responsible for turning her from this: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ar7afdfBHj4
into this: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Tnbc64XQ1DI(and both him and Alanis have at least hinted that the latter song was about him), it's impossible that he is who we all think he is.

Some songs on Jagged Little Pill seem to describe the clean, unfunny Coulier of our childhood--for example, Head Over Feet ("I've never felt this healthy before//I've never wanted something rational") and All I Really Want ("Why are you so petrified of silence//Here can you handle this... did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines or when you think you're gonna die//or did you long for the next distraction").

But others, the obvious being You Outta Know but also, Wake Up (A more obscure track that features the lyrics, "There's an apprehensive, naked little trembling boy with his head in his hands") hint that Mr. Coulier was profoundly fucked up, or at least, in the context of his relationship with Alanis. The latter song is the one I find the most fascinating on that album, with respect to its new Coulieriness (Coo-lee-ey-ee-niss).

I suspect Wake Up wasn't as popular because of its specificity: The first line is "You like the snow but only if its warm." But, assuming it is, in fact, about Coulier (and the fact that it's so specific makes me think it is), it paints a pretty vivid portrait of a man who consistently takes the path of least resistance. Suddenly, I had Dave Coulier completely figured out.

If you want to be a comic, what is that path of least resistance? Family-friendly, "clean" comedy. If you're trying to make people laugh, what is the easiest way to do so? Impressions of already established characters like Elmer Fudd and ET. Even You Outta Know fits with this line of thinking: he left Alanis Morissette because she was... too fucked up. He went with somebody older, more mature. She thought he was going to save her--and maybe he did too, before he realized that it would be easier not to. That's why she resented him so much, and that's why I think Dave Coulier is the perfect metaphor for America.

To be continued...

Godless

Hey all,

For those of you who don't know, I work for a news channel called OMNI. I recently worked on a story about a group of students at the U of A who were offended by a particular line in the convocation ceremony: The line of offense has to do with using degrees for "the glory of God and the honour of your country." The group is the U of A Athiests and Agnostics Society.

It's causing quite a stir (http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=7fe9a730-a295-4cb5-b9f1-8b77251f5d02).

It really made me think about how immersed we are in the language of religion. I mean, when my mom picked a school for me, the options were either Catholic or Protestant. It doesn't matter that I'm not religious. It doesn't matter that I've been to church once in my life outside of weddings and funerals, or that when I went, I thought it was hollow and ritualistic. I'm still choosing between two, fairly similar Christian religions. Even the word "atheist" means without theistic belief. I'm not trying to be a contrarian; it just doesn't... feel right to me.

I don't disbelieve in a higher power necessarily... I just don't understand how people can claim to know the absolute truth about said higher power.

I guess most of all, I just don't get why I'm the alternative for not believing in a talking snake in a tree.

Pop Culture

For the longest time, I was trying to think of what I would write a book on if I had the chance. This was at a point where I considered the whole "writing" thing to have been a relative mistake and I needed to do something I cared about to reconnect me to the concept of wanting to be a professional writer. As I thought and thought, the only idea I could come up with is '90s Pop Culture(If you haven't noticed, I've made a stylistic decision to capitalize Pop Culture. That, in and of itself, is something you should think about a great deal)--specifically, '90s pop music.

Why the '90s? Why pop music? Well, two things: The first of which is that I recently realized that I remember more about some shitty song by the band VIP than I do most of (what I should probably consider) my best time with (who I should probably consider) my best friends. In a weird way, I care more about pop music than I do my own life.

Another thing I realized about the 1990s is that, in a very real way, it changed everything. Somehow, music seems noticeably less authentic. Some would blame that on me getting older and being more tainted because of it; I blame it, indirectly, on Milli Vanilli (and, of course, Milli Vanilli would undoubtedly blame it on some weather phenomenon). I think it speaks volumes that Milli Vanilli won the Best New Artist award in 1990.

This will be the first in a series of posts about '90s pop music and, if I feel like it, Pop Culture in general.

Some photos

My entire readership (of 2) has requested that I add more photography to this blog. So, by (not very) popular demand, here are a couple more shots from SE Asia. The first is of some kids at a hill tribe in Laos. All of the adults would leave to go work the rice fields. They would be gone literally the entire day and the kids would entertain themselves. Judging by their activity level when we were there(which you can see in the picture), they weren't horribly successful. I found it funny that the kids had complete freedom and they chose to sit on their front porch and stare at strangers.




The second is from a temple in Lopburi, Thailand, a city that was literally overrun by monkeys. There were monkeys everywhere--on signs, on cars and walking on power lines. It seemed like the majority of the monkeys stuck to this Buddhist temple. Some of them were quite aggressive towards humans; others were violent with other monkeys. Every November, the monks have a big festival where they provide the monkeys with a big feast. We didn't see the festival, but it's nice to know that somewhere in the world, people are living in relative harmony with animals--even tragically flawed ones.

I don't know that I'd ever become Buddhist, but I certainly appreciate the Buddhist respect for all living things. It seems like most people just see animals as either tools or obstacles.

M. Night SHAM-a-lan

I've come to really dislike the works of M. Night Shyamalan. And it isn't just because of his problems as a screenwriter (of which, he has a lot); it's because his work is disingenuous.

Almost all of his movies have a central theme of every person having an inherent worth (except critics, apparently) and everything happening for a reason (the obvious examples are Lady in the Water and Signs, but I could make arguments for The Sixth Sense (the kid is the only one who can make Bruce Willis realize he's dead; Bruce Willis is the only one who can help the kid), Unbreakable and The Happening).

The contradiction is that he doesn't value other people. Apparently the only person who can direct, produce, act in and write movies is, big surprise, M. Night Shyamalan. It doesn't matter that he doesn't know how people actually talk, or how to make a movie that isn't wholly dependent on some arbitrary twist; what matters is that it's his movie.

One character in the waste of time that was Ldy in the Water was a writer whose story was going to change the world. The actor? M. Night Shyamalan. He actually made himself the character whose story would change the world. I read something a while ago (which I can't find now) about how after the Sixth Sense, he wouldn't let anybody from the studio comment on his movies. He's essentially been moving from studio to studio until recently, when he started his own production company.

That's why his movies fall flat--because there is no truth to them. He does not feel the stories and, in turn, neither do you.