Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. CREATIVE SLACK

I have felt incredibly slack this week in the creative department. The result has been scant offerings here on the C-blog. This is what happens when you count on inspiration instead of discipline.

I have been giving a lot of thought to the issue of creativity. I love reading about artists, architects, writers, and musicians. I love reading about their work habits, their inspiration, their tools, etc. My own habits and tools are pretty basic. I make coffee. I sit down and write. When I can't write, I do really bad art. There was a time when I would play really bad guitar, but I quit with that. The reason for doing art or music is a form of creative cross training. By doing something completely different, it does something inside your brain such that you come back to your first discipline with a certain freshness.

I'm not the only creative type to do this. Many musicians are also painters. The problem is that they sometimes think their shit is good, but it sucks. Here's some art from Paul Stanley:



Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it is obvious the guy is an amateur. Of course, some would argue the same thing about his music. Either way, creative types often mix it up, and I do the same thing even if it sucks.

The other thing that gets passed around is the idea that creative types do their thing in a vacuum. This isn't true. We are always peeking over the fence to see what others are doing. You find that people who share interests often form communities of likeminded people. I think of Kerouac and the Beats or the Seattle grunge scene. With bloggers, I have to admit that I don't know of anyone quite like me. I read a lot of different blogs, but what I do seems to be uniquely mine. I have actually looked for people who do something similar to me, but I haven't found anyone. Even on Facebook, I feel strangely alone even though I am interacting with some of the most interesting people in the world.

The people I truly identify most with are late night talk show hosts like Johnny Carson and David Letterman. I know this sounds odd, but I have tried to create on my blog what I grew up seeing those guys do on TV. The shows weren't about them so much as all the guests you saw on the show, the sketches, the jokes, and what have you. It was a balance between continuity and variety. I think this is why people keep asking me to do YouTube videos as if I could translate this experience back to the medium that I stole it from. I can't.

2. PENN STATE PEDOPHILE

It is hard for me to have an opinion on this scandal that has rocked Penn Sate and cost Joe Paterno his job as head coach. I am sure more facts will come out, so I am in no rush to judgment on the matter. But details that have come out are so scandalous and nauseating that it is hard to believe that such evil exists in the world or that it could ever be tolerated for so long. The Catholic Church is the only thing I can compare it to.

Did Paterno deserve to be fired over this? That is a hard call to make considering that he was merely told about it, and he alerted authorities. If Sandusky was innocent, you would be destroying the life of a man with a charge that would drive people to suicide. OTOH, it seems that the charges are very true. There may be some hindsight bias here as Paterno probably had no clue what we know now. But if he did know, he definitely doesn't deserve to be a coach anymore. I think Paterno will address these issues at some point and clear the air. As it stands, he may face criminal charges as well.

This story is going to continue, and it will almost certainly reveal more than we know now. For me, the people who should be most ashamed on this matter are the campus police who did nothing about this even though they were told about it. Is Penn State football that sacred? Like I said, this is just like the Catholic Church.

3. EUROPE

I am at the point where I want the Euro collapse to be over and done with. The EU is history. As soon as Germany prints up its currency and exchanges it, you can stick a fork in this awful idea that never should have been. The EU is now the Union of Regret.

People give all sorts of doomsday scenarios over a possible breakup. Have these people forgotten the breakup of the Soviet Union? Did the world go completely to shit after that? Europe will survive and be better for it. Bust it up.

4. IRAN

It is so obvious that the US and Israel want a war with Iran that I don't even know why they bother trying to manufacture the lies. It is an insult to the intelligence of US citizens and the rest of the world to think that we don't know what is going on here. After the era of WMDs, people know governments lie to pursue agendas decided in advance. The fact that they have to lie should tell you something.

I predict that Israel will do an airstrike on Iran the same way they did on Iraq back in the eighties. So far, Israel has killed nuclear scientists and used cyber warfare to sabotage Iran. But these were secret. An airstrike is open and blatant hostility. I don't really care except that the US gets dragged into this bullshit. At some point, it gets incredibly difficult to make the case for US/Israeli exceptionalism when you have this level of belligerence.

5. BLACK SABBATH

All the original members are back together. They have a new album. Rick Rubin produced it. They are embarking on a world tour. This shit is fucking awesome. Here's a great Black Sabbath tune to celebrate:

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