Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #421 - Birds #1, a poem, Writerly Wednesday

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #421 - Birds #1, a poem, Writerly Wednesday

Hi Mom,

I had been categorizing my weekly poems under "literature," which seems presumptuous. I decided to stop adding that category to these weekly poems, and so now let's see if I remember.

I have five poems in a series called "Birds." I doubt I will transmit them over the next five weeks, but then again, that's mindless and I may need mindless.

And another presumptuous thing: creating a series of poems as if I would publish them in a book where a series would make sense. I had such aspirations. And I don't think I am wrong to have aspirations. I have published a little -- in terms of creative writing -- and I still hope to publish novels before I perish. However, I never truly felt that I was poet, and though I am proud of my poems, I do not think they are great poems. I know one of my readers who will chide me for saying this, but the point is driven home as I re-read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, as I plan to teach it in class. He writes of how he, too, wrote bad poems in his days as a young man learning to write and think and read. Me, too.

And yet, if I truly felt that my poems were dreadful, I would not "publish" them on the Internet where any random people (along with people I actually know) may find them and read them. I am rather proud of my birds poems. They originated with dreams my girlfriend of the time was having, and in the dreams, I dealt with my feelings about sex, insecurity, feelings of inadequacy, and fears of losing the girl I loved. It seems so trivial now as I love someone else, but at the time, I packed a great deal of angst and energy into these poems, a great deal of ardor.

This first one seems predatory as the bird takes the role of a thief, an intruder picking locks and invading a bedroom. As usual, my poems feature word play, which is true here "halo" becomes part of a verb phrase "in halo with," which I liked a great deal at the time I wrote it. I ignored punctuation by and large and tried for the good ending, which I think I achieved fairly well. I am not so sure of the "drooling light," but I do like the first two lines. They're active and energized, threatening, and the word "eject" is full of hard consonant sounds that contrast to the Fs and Ss of other words but also echo the hardness of "coil" and "lock."

I wonder if you ever read all my poems and stories, Mom. I am not sure if you did...and now, you're a captive audience... :-)

BIRDS #1 

I coil my feathers like springs
and eject them into the lock.

You sit up in the bed
I fan the wings
as light drools in halo
and in beat with
"Some Enchanted Evening"
I tango step toward you
and the featherless bed.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 423 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.31 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #420 - Gene Wilder, RIP

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #420 - Gene Wilder, RIP

Hi Mom, Someone else has died, and it's a sad loss.

It's funny (NOT funny ha ha) as I had just spotted a podcast with Umberto Eco that I wanted to share yesterday before I heard that Gene Wilder had died. I was thinking about all the people who had died this year, important people, like Eco, like Bowie, and Prince, and people important to me but less well known to the culture at large like Darwyn Cooke and Tony Philips and then Gene Wilder dies to you.

And you Mom. Because even though it's been over a year since your death, even though I can't think any more that a year ago on this day, you did X or Y, every time a significant person dies, I think of you. (And really, all people are significant but you know what I mean...)

I miss you, Mom.

Here's the litany of death just this year.

Hey Mom, #311 - Darwyn Cooke

Hey Mom #248 - People Keep Dying

Hey Mom #187 - Bowie Dies

Hey Mom #289 - Prince RIP

Republished from Boing Boing with due credit.  See original post HERE.

 / XENI JARDIN / 12:50 PM MON AUG 29, 2016

Actor Gene Wilder dies at 83

GENE WILDER WITH OOMPA LOOMPAS IN “WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.” [PARAMOUNT PICTURES]

Actor Gene Wilder, best known as the leading genius of classic films "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," "Blazing Saddles," 'The Producers,' "Young Frankenstein," and more, has died at 83 years of age.

Eric Weissmann, who was Mr. Wilder’s lawyer for many years, confirmed the death to the New York Times.

Many of the films for which Wilder will best be remembered were by thelegendary director Mel Brooks, who acknowledged his longtime friend and collaborator in a tweet.

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Mel Brooks 

✔@MelBrooks

Gene Wilder-One of the truly great talents of our time. He blessed every film we did with his magic & he blessed me with his friendship.

3:47 PM - 29 Aug 2016

 
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Variety reports that Wilder died Monday at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. His nephew Jordan Walker-Pearlman said he died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Gene Wilder (right) starred with Cleavon Little in "Blazing Saddles."
Warner Bros./Courtesy Neal Peters Collection

Actor Gene Wilder and his wife Karen Boyer watch the match between Rafael Nadal of Spain and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia during the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, September 11, 2010. REUTERS

From Variety:

The comic actor, who was twice Oscar nominated, for his role in “The Producers” and for co-penning “Young Frankenstein” with Mel Brooks, usually portrayed a neurotic who veered between total hysteria and dewy-eyed tenderness. “My quiet exterior used to be a mask for hysteria,” he told Time magazine in 1970. “After seven years of analysis, it just became a habit.”

Habit or not, he got a great deal of mileage out of his persona in the 1970s for directors like Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, leading to a few less successful stints behind the camera, the best of which was “The Woman in Red,” co-starring then-wife Gilda Radner. Wilder was devastated by Radner’s death from ovarian cancer in 1989 and worked only intermittently after that. He tried his hand briefly at a sitcom in 1994, “Something Wilder,” and won an Emmy in 2003 for a guest role on “Will & Grace.”

Gene Wilder (L) performs alongside compatriot Rolf Saxon, during the rehearsal of a scene from Neil Simon's 'Laughter on the 23rd Floor', in New York, October 2, 1996. . REUTERS/Shawn Baldwin

His nephew said in a statement,

“We understand for all the emotional and physical challenges this situation presented we have been among the lucky ones — this illness-pirate, unlike in so many cases, never stole his ability to recognize those that were closest to him, nor took command of his central-gentle-life affirming core personality. The decision to wait until this time to disclose his condition wasn’t vanity, but more so that the countless young children that would smile or call out to him “there’s Willy Wonka,” would not have to be then exposed to an adult referencing illness or trouble and causing delight to travel to worry, disappointment or confusion. He simply couldn’t bear the idea of one less smile in the world.

He continued to enjoy art, music, and kissing with his leading lady of the last twenty-five years, Karen. He danced down a church aisle at a wedding as parent of the groom and ring bearer, held countless afternoon movie western marathons and delighted in the the company of beloved ones.”

Wilder had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1989.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

In 1963, the Milwaukee native appeared on Broadway opposite Anne Bancroft in Jerome Robbins’ Mother Courage and Her Children. The actress introduced Wilder to Brooks, her future husband, and the couple invited him to Fire Island, where he got a look at the first 30 pages of a screenplay titled Springtime for Hitler.

“Three years went by, never heard from [Brooks],” Wilder told Larry King in a 2002 interview. “I didn’t get a telegram. I didn’t get a telephone call. And I’m doing a play called Love on Broadway, matinee, taking off my makeup.

“Knock-knock on the door, I open the door. There’s Mel. He said, ‘You don’t think I forgot, do you? We’re going to do Springtime for Hitler. But I can’t just cast you. You’ve got to meet [star] Zero [Mostel] first, tomorrow at 10 o’clock.’

“[The next day] the door opens. There’s Mel. He says come on in. ‘Z, this is Gene. Gene, this is Z. And I put out my hand tentatively. And Zero grabbed my hand, pulls me to him and kisses me on the lips. All my nervousness went away. And then we did the reading and I got the part. And everything was fine.”

Springtime for Hitler, of course, would become The Producers (1968), written and directed by Brooks. For his portrayal of stressed-out accountant Leopold Bloom in his first major movie role, Wilder earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

THR and other obituaries note that Wilder was born June 11, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as Jerry Silberman. His dad was a Russian immigrant who imported and sold miniature beer and whiskey bottles. His mother had a heart attack when he was 6, leaving her severely disabled.

Actor and author Wilder poses as he autographs his book 'The Woman Who Wouldn't' during a 2008 book signing session in New York. [Reuters]

SHARE / TWEET / COMMENTS

GENE WILDER / PICKS

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 422 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.30 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #419 - Musical Monday for 1608.29

Me and Liesel - Scotland - Isle of Skye - 1505.21

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #419 - Musical Monday for 1608.29

Hi Mom,

There have been 20 Musical Mondays before this one, so this makes 21. It's a steady feature and an easy one. It's easy features that will keep me daily through the end of the year. I used to work farther ahead with the T-shirts blog. With blog, I should work to get ahead, but I am often right to the day, which is how I also fall behind.

There's so much great stuff on the Internet. It's going to be easy to keep this going.

I may have to steer the blog to auto-pilot at times this coming fall to keep myself on track, but it's easy to render items like this one that will keep me going. I have to remember to temper my ambition. My initial idea for the blog was for SHORT, daily entries. EMPHASIS on the brief, the short.

As for the photo above, I have taken to sharing photos with my Park University students on their weekly announcements, especially ones in which they can see pictures of their teacher as it makes me more real. This great photo of me and Liesel was the ones I shared today, which seems appropriate given all the rain we have had lately. In fact, I just came in from mowing the lawn , which sprouted wildly with all the rain.

This entire blog playlist is dedicated to a musical session the other day with all song splayed at maximum volume. Now that the ninety-something neighbor has moved out from next door, I no longer need to feel self conscious about cranking the loudness, though the CD player and the turntable are both louder than the iPod. I would like to increase my stereo volume nonetheless.

I have not fully vetted all these live versions, but I am pleased to find them. I have not featured anything but new Radiohead on this feature yet, and I don't believe I had anything yet by the Cure.

Actually, to be honest,I did not feature this Style Council song in my romp about the living room as a work break last week, but it's a solid song and a great video.

Likewise, the songs from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts played loudly, but I was back to work by then.

These videos are truly worthy of the songs from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with amazing imagery.

The live videos are also great, especially the vintage 1997 Radiohead performance of "The Bends."

ENJOY.

THE STYLE COUNCIL
"Confessions of a Pop Group"
from the 1988 TV special


 


THE CURE - "The Kiss"
from Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
performed live at Coachella 2009





Radiohead - "Paranoid Android" 
- from OK Computer
Performed live at the Reading Festival 2009




Radiohead - "The Bends"
from the album named The Bends
performed live at Glastonberry 1997





Two songs with truly unique videos from Brian Eno and David Byrne album

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

"Regiment"




"The Jezebel Spirit"




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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 421 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - date - 1608.29 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #418 - Y&R - 11,000 Episodes

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #418 - Y&R - 11,000 Episodes

Hi Mom,

So, The Young and the Restless or better known as Y&R is celebrating 11,000 episodes as of September First (this coming Thursday).

Every time I watch Y&R, I think of you, Mom. And I am pleased to tell you that I am caught up. Often I have a huge back log of Y&R to watch. Though I have not watched Friday's (1608.26) episode yet, I am otherwise current with the show.

I often get mocked (criticized) for my Y&R fandom by people close to me, but I no longer care. I am open and leaving myself vulnerable to discuss this nearly daily pursuit of episodic fiction that is near and dear to my heart.

Starting in 1973, we watched so many episodes of Y&R together. Even when I was away at college, The Young and the Restless  is something I watched as often as I could and that we would discuss together when you took me out to lunch.

It was our lunch time thing. For years, I would break for lunch just before 12:30, and we would eat together and watch our soaps (eventually we added The Bold and the Beautiful for a 90 minute lunch time).

When you had your bout with meningitis and were in a coma, I started playing Y&R for you in your Intensive Care room. I hoped that the familiar sounds would be soothing to you, comforting, like they are to me. We continued this practice even after you woke up. For a long time during that hospital stay, you could not talk. But we communicated as best we could, and we talked about Y&R.

Back in 2012, when Y&R celebrated 10,000 episodes (see link at end of this blog entry), we watched much of the celebration together. Checking back in my calendar, I know I spent the day with you on September 8th and again on October 2nd, which was right around the time of the 10,000th episode. We would have Y&R marathons together. I miss those.

At the rate of just about 260 episodes a year (five each week times 52 weeks is 260, but 365 - 104 is 261; 104 is the number of weekend days in a year), it's easy to see how Y&R is gearing up to celebrate its next anniversary with 1000 more episodes to reach the new landmark of 11,000. Since the 10,000th episode both you, Mom, and the grand dame of the Y&R cast, Jeanne Cooper, have passed away.

Before each episode for the past week, Y&R has been showing these interview chats with the cast as they reminisce about past stories and episodes and thank the viewership warmly for its dedication and loyalty. I was tempted to save these episodes on my DVR, but then I found that they are easily available online and so I embedded them here. I also posted the fun promo here as well.

You would have loved all this, Mom. I feel I share it all with you spiritually, but I wish I was sharing it with you physically, in person.

There are big plans for the 11,000th episode. Star Trek vet Nichelle Nichols will play Neil's mother, from whom he has been estranged for his entire run on the show. And Lee Phillip Bell, who co-created the show with her late husband Bill Bell will appear in a scene with her real-life daughter Lauralee Bell, who plays Christine Blair Williams, formerly known as "Cricket."

This is all explained here at SOAP SHE KNOWS - 11000 MILESTONE.

Y&R CELEBRATES 11,000 EPISODES - PEOPLE MAGAZINE - CAST PHOTO BELOW

1st Row (left to Right): Hunter King, Miles Gaston Villanueva, Melissa Ordway, Sean Carrigan, Mishael Morgan, Bryton James, Amelia Heinle, Jason Thompson, Eileen Davidson, Gina Tognoni, Peter Bergman, Eric Braeden, Melody Thomas Scott, Steve Burton, Sharon Case, Joshua Morrow, Justin Hartley, Melissa Claire Egan, Jess Walton, Tristan Rogers, Christel Khalil and Daniel Goddard
2nd Row (left to Right): Robert Adamson, Sofia Pernas, Michael E. Knight, Beth Maitland, Tracey Bregman, Christian Le Blanc, Doug Davidson, Lauralee Bell, Kristoff St. John, Camryn Grimes, Greg Rikaart, Mara McCaffray, Catherine Bach and Kate Linder

Not pictured: Chrishell Stause (current girlfriend of Justin Hartley) as Bethany Bryant.

Here's a great article by Candace Young, of whom I beginning to become a fan. She writes for SOAPS SHE KNOWS.

http://soaps.sheknows.com/the-young-and-the-restless/soapbox/381/deconstructing-yr-writers-seem-unable-to-move-on-from-staid-couples-stale-secrets-and-recycled-scenarios


Generally, I stay away from fan sites, mainly because of spoilers as I am often far behind on both Y&R but especially B&B. I think my record is 120-some unwatched B&B episodes on my DVR. I did not watch them. I would read recaps and watch every 12th episode or so.

So, two days after your death, Mom, I posted the first T-shirt blog post that I have posted in two years:

T-SHIRT #366.

I have been saving up content and ideas to do this HUGE Y&R post for the T-short blog, but maybe that's the wrong way to do it. Maybe I need to spread out the content over multiple parts. #366, pt.1; #366, pt.2; and so on. I will cross post this content to T-shirts as #366,pt.2.

I have made other Y&R posts on this blog as part of Hey Mom, but not many.

Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mom #4 - Last Y&R watched together aired Tuesday 1506.30.


Hey, Mom! Talking to my Mother #12 - I miss you

and then, because you would hate it and I would love to taunt you:

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #281 - Y&R - Victor goes to prison.

I have probably mentioned Y&R at other times that I did not save to the Y&R category. I am sure I have mentioned it as part of my Talking Again series. It's a constant theme in my life as I "watch" Y&R while working, just like we did together for all those years. Y&R is part of the soundtrack of my life. Its cadences and rhythms are a soothing music for me. And I do love it, as I love you, Mom.

But in all of this content and photos and things, there's something escaping me. There's an ineffable significance to this TV program and its place in my life, in our lives, Mom.

Maybe in the next Y&R post I make, I will figure out what it is and find a way to articulate it.

ENJOY these videos.

In case the following videos are ever broken, here's the page from SOAP SHE KNOWS that shares the interview videos.

From 2012, the celebration for 10,000 episodes. I tried to embed the link to the video on that page, but it failed. So if interested, go to the page and watch the video there.

note on 2410.21 - I am cheating and editing this post as all the videos I embedded here in 2016 have since been removed. So instead, I am adding a new playlist I made in the hopes that will remain somewhat stable.

Y&R Playlist








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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 420 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.28 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #417 - The Existential Fallacy

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #417 - The Existential Fallacy

Hi Mom,

Here we are again in the re-posted content world in which I take on the role of content provider, and basically say, "Hey, check out this nifty thing that I found on the Internet." It was really the picture that caught my eye.

But first a note on last night's dream. I am not writing this one up in the next dream post as I do not remember it very well. The image that has been haunting me all morning is you, Mom, standing. You are your post-meningitis self, though a bit more straight of spine and shoulders back than you really were. In the dream, you're standing really well, with both hands on a chair in front of you, palms down, balancing. Really a pose you could never hold after the meningitis. There was other content in the dream about me taking care of you and us watching Y&R together. I slide you around on a bed, boosting you up, and you laughed. Also, there was stuff with Dad and an old guy friend of his who was undefined in the dream. We were at some comic convention in which someone gave a talk about ghosts and Buddhist meditation and spirituality. Then, we had to leave and I had to change shoes, which was a very big deal and very time consuming in the dream. The large bathroom with its steps down into a center rotunda and step up to the left (120 degrees) to urinals and step right (60 degrees) to stalls made an appearance again. It's a very Victorian/Early Twentieth Century space with attendants. Lots of people at the comic con coming out of its double doors (entrance and exit).

I take this as a sign to write again about Y&R, which I will do tomorrow, but first this re-published stuff.

Some thoughts on the EXISTENTIAL FALLACY post: There's not much actual content here  in the actual post that I am sharing. The post really leads you to a podcast. And there's advertising. But I like the sponsors. Socks, a mattress company, and Great Courses. The SOCKS COMPANY is very cool.

Also, there are cool people who speak in this podcast and the post below describes those people.

The first topic of the podcast is vampires. The speaker uses vampires to demonstrate the existential logical fallacy.

It's worth a listen.

Buy the socks.

 / DAVID MCRANEY / 7:03 AM FRI AUG 26, 2016

The most logical logical fallacy of them all, the existential fallacy

Hypothetical situations involving dragons, robots, spaceships, and vampires have all been used to prove and disprove arguments.

Statements about things that do not exist can still be true, and can be useful thinking tools for exploring philosophical, logical, sociological, and scientific concepts.

The problem is that sometimes those same arguments accidentally require those fictional concepts to be real in order to support their conclusions, and that’s when you commit the existential fallacy.

In this episode we explore the most logical logical fallacy of them all, the existential fallacy.

No need to get out your pens and paper, we will do that for you, as we make sense of one the most break-breaking thinking mistakes we’ve ever discovered.

This episode of the You Are Not So Smart Podcast is the tenth in a full season of episodes exploring logical fallacies. The first episode is here.

Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – Soundcloud

This episode is sponsored by Bombas – game-changing socks. Bombas decided to take socks seriously, by designing the most highly engineered, best-fitting, comfortable socks humans have ever imagined – and they look cool too. Go to Bombas.com/SOSMART for 20% off your first order.

This episode is also sponsored by Casper Mattresses. Buying a Casper mattress is completely risk free. Casper offers free delivery and free returns with a 100-night home trial. If you don’t love it, they’ll pick it up and refund you everything. Casper understands the importance of truly sleeping on a mattress before you commit, especially considering you’re going to spend a third of your life on it. Get $50 toward any mattress purchase by visiting www.casper.com/sosmart and using offer code “sosmart.” Terms and Conditions Apply.

This episode is also sponsored by The Great Courses Plus. Get unlimited access to a huge library of The Great Courses lecture series on many fascinating subjects. Start FOR FREE with The Fundamentals of Photography filmed in partnership with The National Geographic and taught by professional photographer Joel Sartore. Click here for a FREE TRIAL.

Support the show directly by becoming a patron! Get episodes one-day-early and ad-free. Head over to the YANSS Patreon Page for more details.

Bob Blaskiewicz is an assistant professor who teaches, among other subjects, critical thinking at Stockton University. He also writes about logic and reasoning at skepticalhumanities.com, and is a regular guest on the YouTube show The Virtual Skeptics.

Julie Galef is the president and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality, a non-profit devoted to training people to be better at reasoning and decision-making. She is also the host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast and writes for publications like Slate, Science, Scientific American, andPopular Science. This is her website.

Vanessa Hill is an Australian science writer and stop-motion animator who hosts BrainCraft, a PBS series exploring psychology, neuroscience and human behavior. She previously worked for Australia’s national science agency, as a science reporter for ScienceAlert, and has appeared in TIME,TheHuffington Post, Scientific American, and Brain Pickings. Her Twitter page ishere.

In every episode, after I read a bit of self delusion news, I taste a cookie baked from a recipe sent in by a listener/reader. That listener/reader wins a signed copy of my new book, “You Are Now Less Dumb,” and I post the recipe on the YANSS Pinterest page. This episode’s winner is Samatnha Menzies who sent in a recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies. Send your own recipes to david {at} youarenotsosmart.com.

Links and Sources

Download – iTunes – Stitcher – RSS – Soundcloud

Previous Episodes

Boing Boing Podcasts

Cookie Recipes

BrainCraft

Center for Applied Rationality

Skeptical Humanities

Your Logical Fallacy Is

PBS Idea Channel

A Guide to Logical Fallacies

Stephen Downes on the Existential Fallacy

Rationalwiki on Existential Assumptions

Image Source – Paul K, CC Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic

SHARE / TWEET / COMMENTS

COGNITIVE BIASES / EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY / GENETIC FALLACY /PODCASTS / SELF DELUSION / YANSS

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 419 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.27 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #416 - HUGO STUFF-2016

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #416 - HUGO STUFF - 2016

Hi Mom,

In my continuing efforts to share a variety of content and to bring news to both you, Mom, (though you may not care), and my small huddle of readers, here's some content related to the People's Choice Awards of science fiction: The Hugo Awards, which are awarded each year at the Worldcon science fiction convention.

Last year, I wrote about the Hugo Awards flap in two key entries:

HEY MOM #45

and

HEY MOM #95

For those who read, or those who care, there was a whole flap over the last few years that really came to a head last year with a group called Sad Puppies and another called Rabid Puppies, who were both trying to advance an agenda by affecting voting for the Hugo Awards.

It's an interesting (well, interesting to me) polemic in the science fiction fan world. My main resource for news on the Hugo nonsense is John Scalzi. Several links below and the main content of this post -- republished  with credit -- come from his blog. I also have a few other informational links here from GRRM (George RR Martin) and the LA Times. I also added my message back to John, whose blog I read avidly.

Not much else to say here. Explore if you wish, dear reader, or otherwise note that this is a repository for me to reference all this information.

The Hugo Awards were given out last week, and the list can be found here at LOCUS HUGO RESULTS, which is also linked in John's article. I am keen to read the best winning novel by NK Jemisin, The Fifth Season and the novella:

• Binti, Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)

as well as the Besst short story (see link in John's article along with his picture posing with the author).

The long and short is that science fiction is alive and well, growing more diverse all the time, and the puppies were unable to destroy it. Yay!!

But perhaps the greatest takeaway here for readers is that this post features some great reading. Time to get busy.

HERE'S A BUNCH OF LINKS TO THE LEAD UP TO THIS YEAR'S AWARDS.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/04/26/quick-2016-hugo-finalist-thoughts-with-a-link-to-even-more-hugo-thoughts/

http://midamericon2.org/home/hugo-awards-and-wsfs/2016-hugo-finalists/

http://grrm.livejournal.com/483848.html

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-john-scalzi-hugo-award-nominations-20160426-story.html

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2016/04/27/four-things-about-the-hugos-42716/

POST HUGO REPORT SCALZI (LINK TO TEXT BELOW)
Gum on the Shoe of History, or, Why the Hugos Are Still Not Destroyed

AUGUST 22, 2016 JOHN SCALZI184 COMMENTS

Before I get into the post-mortem of 2016’s Hugo Awards that I promised, let me first say that the award that made me happiest was Naomi Kritzer winning the Best Short Story Hugo for “Cat Pictures Please.” Naomi and I go waaaaaaay back — if she was not actually the first person I knew in science fiction genre circles (and I think she was), then she’s certainly one of first three or four. She’s always been one of the best of people, to me and to others in the field, and a consistently wonderful writer. We came up in the field together, and to see her work get recognition makes me immensely happy, and even more happy for her. As you can see, she looks pretty pleased herself. And, well. She deserves to be. Good story, great person.

Now, for some other stuff about the Hugos, and this year’s set of nonsense.

As you may recall, once again this year Theodore Beale (aka “Vox Day”), in his guise as the ringleader of the Rabid Puppies, tried to hijack the Hugo Awards via slates dictated by him, nominated by minions. Last year Beale, along Brad Torgersen, who administered the Sad Puppy variant of this nonsense, engaged in simple cronyism and/or favor-currying, with a couple of unwitting human shields thrown into the mix. That didn’t work out so great for them, so this year Beale asked himself “what would Xanatos do” and came up with a three-prong strategy:

a) Put people and works that were already popular on his slate so he could claim credit for their success when they won, regardless of the fact those people/works would likely be on the ballot anyway;

b) Comb through the Locus recommended reading list for the year and nominate people Beale suspected the people he hates would want to vote for, i.e., more human shields, just a slightly different strategy;

c) The usual cronyism of pals and/or work and people he published through his personal micro-press.

Plus there was homoerotic writer Chuck Tingle, whom Beale slated for the lulz.

(The Sad Puppies, the originators of the nonsense Beale sucked himself onto like a tick, were largely a non-factor this year, which is probably better for them in the long run. They’re now all in for the brand-new Dragon Awards, administered by DragonCon, and you know what? Good for them. I wish the Dragon Awards every possible success, and independent of that, if the Sad Puppies want to focus on them instead of the Hugos, I wish them absolute joy in the work.)

So, how did this particular strategy work for Beale? Well, of course, poorly. The stuff that was obvious cronyism mostly ended up below “No Award” in just about every category, again, for the third year running. In the cases of the human shields and the already popular nominees, Hugo voters simply ignored the fact Beale slated them. In the case of the latter, no one sensible believes that folks like Neil Gaiman, Andy Weir or Neal Stephenson would willingly associate themselves with a minor racist shit-stirrer, and in the case of the former, Beale’s obvious assumption that the people he classifies as SJWs would explode with cognitive dissonance when he put people/work on his slate that they’d otherwise want to vote for (“I want to vote for it! But I can’t now because it’s on a slate!Nooooooooo!”) is predicated on the idea that these folks are the strawmen he’s created in what passes for his mind. They’re not; they knew what was up, and they largely decided to ignore his master strategy.

And then there was Chuck Tingle, who, when he found out what was going on, trolled Beale so long and so hard and with such obvious glee that it became an enduring thing of joy. Rather than being appalled that Tingle had been nominated, the Worldcon community largely embraced him (or whoever Tingle is; no one is really sure). Here was someone who was nominated by a bigot to antagonize other people, who instead allied himself with those folks and was appreciated by them in return.

Did stuff on the slates win? Yup: The stuff that could have won anyway, and the stuff that had merit despite Beale’s cynical attempt to make other people run away from it. Nothing that won, won because it was on his slate. At best (for Beale) it won despite being on his slate, an assertion we can infer from the performance of everything on the slate that fit into category c); again, nearly every crony nomination finished below “No Award” in the voting. An active association with Beale is, bluntly, death for your Hugo award chances. I mean, it takes a lot for someone as esteemed in the field as Jerry Pournelle to finish below “No Award” in Hugo voting, and yet, there he is, sixth in a field of five in the category of Best Editor, Short Form.

But that’s a sign of bias! It most certainly is. For three years Beale, with or without assistance, has been placing mediocre to awful work on the Hugo ballots; for much longer than that Beale has been a racist, a sexist, and a homophobe. The Beale brand, earned through time and repetition, is “graspingly untalented bigot.” And of course Beale knows this, the poor bastard, which is why he tried to drag down actually talented people and their good work by attempting to associate his brand with them. That didn’t work (because again people aren’t stupid), but if you actually intentionally attach yourself to the Beale brand? Then, yes, “associates with a graspingly untalented bigot” is now part of your brand, too. If it’s powerful enough to drag down Jerry Pournelle, a man of no uncertain talent and accomplishment who does in fact deserve better than to finish below “No Award,” think what it’ll do to you.

Beale has stated, in a pathetically grandiose fashion that belies the limit of his actual ability to affect the world at large, that his intention is to “destroy the Hugos.” He’s failed spectacularly three years running. In the years of his effort the Hugos winners have, in point of fact and entirely independent of his efforts, highlighted the immense diversity of talent currently operating in the field. Beale publicly flatters himself, as he publicly flatters himself in all things, as somehow being a prime mover in these events. What Beale is really doing at this point is trying to mitigate his own inability to have the status and influence he assumed would be his, by pathetically attempting to shoehorn himself into the history of others who have done more, and better, than he has. If he can’t be the hero, and at this point it’s become clear he can’t, then he’ll settle for being the footnote — the gum on the shoe of someone else’s long walk to esteem.

Here’s the thing about that. See my friend Naomi up there? She was nominated for the Nebula Award and the Locus Award along with the Hugo. At no point does the story of Naomi Kritzer — her talent, her ability, her recognition for her work — rely on Beale in any way. If he didn’t exist, she’d have been on the ballot anyway. At no point does the story of Nnedi Okorafor, who won the novella Hugo, rely on him either. Or Andy Weir’s. Or Neil Gaiman’s. Or Ellen Datlow’s or Shelia Gilbert’s or N.K. Jemisin’s — Jemisin, who Beale has repeatedly targeted for blatant overt hatred because of who she is, and who has accomplished so many things he hasn’t and is likely never to — all without reference to him. Nora, her talent, her work and her recognition, exist without him, thrive without him, impress without his approval, don’t need him and never will.

Five years from now, few people will remember, and even fewer will care, about the nonsense Beale and his pals kicked up; hell, last year, the crest of the Puppy nonsense, is already mostly remembered with rolled eyes and a “well, thathappened” mutter. Ten years from now, only academics and true Worldcon nerds will think about it at all. But Naomi and Nora and Nnedi and Neil and everyone else who won a Hugo this weekend will still have had their moment of deserved recognition, and god willing will still be at it, making work and finding their audiences. They will continue to create and build and make science fiction and fantasy a genre worth reading and thinking about, and will probably do so for decades.

And none of it will be about Beale at all.

Share:

Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.


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- Days ago = 418 days ago


- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1608.26 - 10:10


NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.