I live in Memphis, in a neighborhood that was rumored to be nice, but as it turns out, sometimes isn't. I have a neighbor who calls himself 'Rooster', another who answers only to 'Yo G!' Life is rarely dull, as the average Memphian has an IQ slightly higher than Forrest Gump, and acts accordingly. A small number of Memphians are geniuses. Even fewer still have hearts of gold. Unfortunately, in the war for our future, the Forrest Gumps seem to be winning. Come read all about it.
You may have noticed that I am unable to get to my blog of late. Its true, I'm swamped with busy. I have some huge adjustments to make and until I get them taken care of my blogging will likely be very irregular.
So the instant I blogged "I still talk to Steph" she was gone. I mean, she was gone before, but we still talked. After I posted that, she was gone-gone, like the kind of gone where I wonder if she actually drowned at her parents farm or not.
There's a huge battle raging between establishment Republicans and Tea Party Republicans to see who is going to get the nomination for President. Meanwhile, Obama is trying to paint all Republicans as "anti-woman" because, as I've said before, he's our first lesbian president and thus to oppose him is to oppose all women everywhere according to communist-think. Yep, that's how it works in their twisted dogmatic world - disagree with one of those bitches and they label you as being against all bitches everywhere all the time forever.
I planted three trees already this year. I want this noted so the enviro-terrorists will give me my 'green credits' and leave me the fuck alone for the next three years. Fuck you loony religious assholes and your tree gods anyway. What do you do when you find yourself in a desert wasteland, suddenly become tree-atheists because there are no trees around? What about an environmentalist on the moon? Would he be so far from his tree gods as to be considered 'damned'?
I read recently that Chevrolet has stopped building any Volts. Apparently everything Obama touches turns instantly to shit, ala the housing market, solar power, etc, etc. No one wanted the Volt in the first place. Even a freshman in marketing could easily figure out that the market for the damn thing isn't there. Its a tiny niche, so you build just enough for that niche and no more. Ordering GM to crank out shitloads, which an American president lacks the authority to do and yet Obama did it anyway because he doesn't think the Constitution applies to tree gods like himself, doesn't guarantee success. It only guarantees a president looking like a stupid ass. So congratulations, President Stupid Ass, you proved your detractors correct. You truly don't know what the fuck you are doing.
I am exhausted and yet I can't think of why. I didn't do all that much today. I did some stuff, but it isn't as if I was flinging cinderblocks around in the back yard or anything. I moved some hoses, hauled some clothes upstairs to be stored away and little things like that. Nothing that should have worn me out. And yet here I sit, stinking of sweat and feeling as if I ran a marathon or something. WTF?
I thought you said you wanted to get into my pants?
Yes, I KNOW you think you're a girl. But you're not. Do you know how I know this? Because you have a penis. The only person who doesn't know that you're not a girl is you and your therapist. And you paid her to do this to you. I'm pretty sure she's just messing with you, too. You should get a tattoo that says "gullible" and put it on your forehead.
To say "if you don't like something, don't do it" is not a solution, but a way of buying time to keep doing what you're doing that you already know you shouldn't be doing. It's an excuse. There are many things that everyone has a right to an opinion about. If I say "don't like murder? Don't do it" that's no solution to the problem of murder. It's just a childish way of saying "I want to do what I want no matter what and I don't like people criticizing me for it." Murder is wrong. Period. So are a lot of other things. And the effects of these things for all of us are real, even if we can't easily see them at first. "Don't like rapists? Don't be one." Yeah, that solves everything. Sure.
I'm sorry, Siri, but I just don't love you as much as you deserve. I could have been with you. I could have spent time alone with you, just the two of us, but I decided to go in another direction. Yes, I know you have a lot to offer. Don't be sad. Some other guy will come along, probably the fat one standing in line behind me, and he'll take you home with him and pretend you're his girlfriend, like Rajesh on "Big Bang Theory" in that great episode about you.
So big changes are coming. I don't know if I'm doing the right thing, but I think I am supposed to do this. I can't really explain that any better than I just did. Life has not been at all what I expected. Not at all. Why am I supposed to be in that city when I so badly don't want to? Anyway, someone needs me there, just as someone needed me here where I am as I write this. But they don't need me anymore and I have to go back. They are good and my job is done. But a new crisis is emerging back in the place I had thought I left once and for all. I have to go back.
Just because they let you speak at the Academy Awards doesn't mean you're not a douchebag. Just sayin'
I feel sad, stressed, tired, excited, apprehensive, all at the same time. And I feel strongly that I am going to have to focus on happiness. I am going to have to learn how to be happy in circumstances that are so absolutely not what I want or would ever have chosen. Others have done it. Surely I can manage it if I try hard enough.
Do you know, I really should rewrite my blog description in my profile. I no longer live in that neighborhood with the drug dealer, Yo G, or the unfortunate alcoholic, Rooster, or the white trash rednecks and their monster trucks. I live out in the Boondocks now and have found the people out here to be a completely different class of individuals, mostly decent and good. And I'm glad. Ironically, I have been informed that if I had not moved a certain someone out here to the friendly Boondocks it would have been much easier to convince that person to move with me out of this place altogether, far away from here and back to the place where I belong, where we both would be much happier.
Yes, I realize I still haven't written my version of "Little Red Riding Hood". Yes, I am going to do it. I have not forgotten. Did you know that there is a possibility that beautiful Vancouver blogger and talented Wanderlusting writer, Karina Halle's, "Experiment in Terror" series of novels may be made into a film production of some sort? It's just a possibility at this point, but wouldn't that be exciting to see a blogger become so successful as a writer? And it couldn't happen to a nicer person. She's awesome.
I spent an hour sitting in a music store watching videos about how to use the latest software to do amazing musical things. I think I have a new passion. It's just too bad I don't have the talent, skill or knowledge to go along with it.
I'll be honest, I bought "Factory Girl" because Sienna Miller is in it and I like Sienna. I had hoped quietly to myself, "maybe she gets naked in this movie. Wouldn't that be great?" But mostly I just noticed that anytime I saw Sienna Miller in a movie I liked her, or her character, or something somehow involving her. I bought it and then I sat on it for 3 years without watching it.
Last night I put it into the DVD player because I had a choice between this and "Pom Pom Girls" which is some '70s or '80s, disco-era semi-dirty movie along the lines of "Porkys." I just wasn't in the mood for that type of movie so I went with the other one.
Sienna Miller as Edie
Right from the start I knew I had chosen the right movie. It was instantly different and had my attention. This movie was well done. Everyone in it is excellent at what they do. If I hadn't known that Sienna Miller was playing the lead role, that of Edie Sedgwick, I wouldn't have had the slightest idea who the actress was, but I would have been wondering all movie long. She was mesmerizing, like a walking party all embodied in one person. It's lucky the movie was about her because if it hadn't been she would have stolen every scene she was in. But then, they say that's how the real Edie Sedgwick was.
Sienna and the real Edie
"The party doesn't even start until I arrive," she said in one famous scene. It was an important line because it was true and it was necessary that we know that she knew it, too. She was the party wherever she was, whatever she was doing, and she relied on that to get through life.
The story is initially about the odd relationship that existed in the mid-1960s between wealthy socialite Edie Sedgwick and homosexual artist Andy Warhol, who appeared to all who knew him to fall in love with this one woman for a period of time. That's one hell of a woman to turn a gay man straight enough to want her. And Edie Sedgwick was one hell of a woman.
I'm not going to summarize the whole story. It's complicated and truly has to be seen to be understood. Even after you've seen it you have to think about it. Or, if you have the DVD like I do, you watch all the extra features and listen closely to everything they say.
In some of the extra features on the DVD her brother talked about her and how she died, how he felt partially responsible, as well as how his other brothers all died and another sister hanged herself. He talked about the belief that their father had molested Edie from the time she was 8 years old and how that must have affected her. He may have molested more than just Edie, in fact, including some of his own sons. No one talked, as sex abuse victims so often don't, and they all died more or less by their own hand, so it was all uncertain as to what all had been done to whom. But the evidence was overwhelming. He talked about how their mother would put any one of them, 8 kids in all, into an insane asylum any time she didn't like their attitude or behavior and leave them there for weeks. And he talked about it with a calmness that made the horribleness of it all the worse.
They interviewed a cousin of hers, too. He was clearly gay, and he, too, talked about the sexual abuse Edie's father almost certainly inflicted upon her and other children in his family. And he spoke of it with the same calm "oh well" expression that Edie's brother had, as if "well, what can you do?"
Guy Pearce played Andy Warhol. I couldn't figure out who was playing him throughout the entire movie. He totally disappeared into the character. I've seen him in several movies and always he is 100 percent the character he is playing. Everyone in the movie was exceptional. I will say, I thought it was odd that they chose Jimmy Fallon to play Edie's closest friend, the man who betrayed her as he became sucked into Andy Warhol's dysfunctional world. They said they chose him because he is difficult to dislike, and they felt that made it all the more realistic when his character betrays Edie the way he did, because it was so hard for her to deal with.
Edie and Andy
Anyway, like I said, I can't summarize this story well. You have to see it. And you have to pay attention. And you have to be in the right frame of mind to really understand the tragedy of it all. I know a girl very much like Edie and throughout the movie I kept thinking about her and wondering if she might end up the same way. Maybe it bothered me more than it will you, I don't know. Film reviewers didn't rate this movie very high. It wasn't rated as a stinker, but it wasn't rated as a "must see" either. I strongly disagree.
I think this movie was exceptionally well done. And it fascinated me all the way through. I was up until almost 2 am watching it because I lost track of time and didn't pay attention to how long the movie was, plus all the extra features and interviews on the DVD. Also, I was watching the unrated version. Maybe it's longer than the original? I'm giving the movie 1 star just for Sienna Miller's performance, 1 star for Guy Pearce's performance, 1 star for no one getting hit in the balls, and 1 star for everything else. That's 4 stars out of 5. That's my opinion. I think this is a movie that evokes strong reactions from people, so either you're going to really like it or you're not. I loved it.
Sienna and Guy and Edie and Andy
Here is a clip of the real Edie Sedgwick from the 1960s:
I lost a follower. It happened right after I posted about the scandal between Planned Parenthood and Komen. Hey, it's not my fault Komen only spends 15% of their billions on actual breast cancer research. Don't get mad at me. Unfollow them if you're upset about it.
Thoughts
Anyway, here are a few of the thoughts rolling around in my head this week. I hope they are in some way helpful or inspirational to you rather than pissing you off and then you unfollow me.
Your body + my money = prostitute
You wanting something does not equate to that something being a 'right'. Some people here in America seem to have a hard time with this concept. Not surprisingly, these same people believe that my not paying for that something which they want equates to me denying them access to it. No, honey, it doesn't. You are free to open up your own wallet and use your own money to buy it if you truly want it. And if it were so important that's exactly what you'd do. Stealing from me, though, isn't a right at all. Thinking that everything you want is a 'right' and expecting other people to pay for it is what is commonly referred to as being a narcissist. Others call it being a child. It's basically the same thing. In some foreign countries it is known as being a thief.
If you decide to back into a parking space and end up losing the space to someone else, don't get mad at them. They didn't steal your space. No one can read your mind. When a space opens up and you drive past it in order to stop and back into the space, all anyone else sees is you not wanting the space and driving away from it. By the time anyone realizes you intended to back into it, they've already taken it. This is a reminder for me as much as anyone else. I lost a space the other day and I was pissed about it, but I knew it was my fault. How was he supposed to know I was going to back in?
"Bling" headlights is actually a term now
I don't care how big your truck is. Those blinding blue lights are off-road only and that means they are illegal. Yes, I will either call the cops or you will remove them. Alternatively, I will smash them out. Yes, I have a bat in my car and I know how to use it. Seriously, it's called stick fighting and I was trained in it. Of course, I wasn't trained to stick fight with a pickup truck, but most of what they taught me can be applied to your headlights as easily as your head. Oh nevermind, I'll just call the cops. With my luck I'd probably tear a shoulder joint while whacking your truck because I didn't warm up first.
Does your mother know that you're out?
Why are the police in Australia grabbing kids they see walking down the sidewalk and taking them to their parents with a warning about letting kids walk around without leashes? Has the Nanny State really gotten so out-of-control now that we aren't ALLOWED to let kids walk around outside without us following them everywhere they go? Is this what happens when you get your first woman PM?
Tolerance?
Tolerance is a two-way street. You can't demand that I be tolerant of your beliefs or lifestyle if you are intolerant of mine. Oddly, this concept is unfathomable to the very same group of people I mentioned previously who feel that anything they desire is a 'right' and that my refusing to pay for that thing they desire equates to my violating their rights and denying them access. Interestingly, the 'tolerance' crowd is exceptionally tolerant of radical Muslims who kill people they disagree with. Apparently the idea of killing people who dare to think differently appeals quite strongly to the tolerance crowd. And that is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
Killer is 'real' victim ... again
I find it odd how the news media, especially Reuters and the Associated Press, will report and push as hugely important news stories that are of no interest whatever to 99 percent of the people in their audience, but of great interest to 99 percent of the very left-wing, mostly female, and disproportionately homosexual employees of the news service itself. And then, when the newspapers keep going out of business, and the audience for their television networks continues to shrink as the viewers turn elsewhere, they throw up their hands and demand government funding to keep them in business, once again insisting that they have a 'right' to sell something no one wants to buy simply because it is their dogma, their god, their religion, and they feel strongly that we should all be forced by the government to support their church of propaganda even as they fight with all their might to outlaw everyone else's religious beliefs and silence all who report a different viewpoint. I seem to recall our Democrat President attacking Fox news and talk radio at one point, and our Democrat-controlled Congress making noises about shutting it down through force of law. This is how tyranny works - what the People want, they are denied. What they do not want, they are forced to endure by Big Government, who insists that it knows better what is good for us all. And what is good for us is never freedom according to Big Government. Freedom involves risk and danger and someone might get hurt. So it must not be allowed. It 'saves lives' to eliminate freedom. It's "for the children" that we must not permit anyone to speak freely or move about without government monitoring. "Women are dying" because of men's freedom. There is always some excuse for enslaving us.
I live in Memphis. I don't own a confederate flag, but I do drive a pickup truck. Everyone here seems to be related. If you move here then you are forever an outsider. I, being from a rival southern state, am considered to be worse than a Yankee due to football rivalries involving colleges that many of the worst people here never attended.
Many of my neighbors drive monster trucks and use them to run people off the road for fun. They live by the T-shirt slogan “the biggest truck always has the right of way.”
Everyone who moves to Memphis immediately says to themselves "oh Lord, what have I done?" And then they try to move away again. Ah, but there's the rub. Once Memphis has sucked you in, you can never leave. It's like herpes, there's no cure. I have tried to leave Memphis for the past 8 years. And yet, here I am. It's a life sentence. It's hell, only wetter and with hookers.
