I’ve been watching a little more television. Mostly at work but a bit at home too. This means one or two hours a day as opposed to the previous amount of zero hours daily, which was the typical amount during the hectic past few months. I can’t deal with the commercials. I really can’t. I actually believe that there are some good things on TV but the vapid mindfucks that interrupt shows every 5 minutes ruin everything. Absurd, soulless drivel. You can step back and look at them objectively to recognize the meticulous planning that went into every little nuanced image and sound. All designed to force their brand through your synapses, to carve that fucking logo right though your brain. But they do it sweetly, cutely, with pop music, slick morphing images, comedy, big stunts and booms. It’s impossible to look at this shit objectively all the time. It just takes too much mental energy. You tune it out and it permeates in. Fuck I can’t stand it. This is where all our artists end up. Advertising bitches. God fucking damnit.
So I turn to music. Or audio books. I’ve become pretty good at focusing during the constant flow of speech of an audio book. It takes some discipline to stay with the narration and not drift off on your own tangents. Maybe this is why I’m finding the fragmented broadcast of television so abhorrent lately. Unfortunately, focusing is something I’m fairly incapable of doing in actual university lectures. I suppose it was the material. Stepping through algorithms and Turing machine proofs isn’t very enthralling.
Anyway, I’m almost done my audio book lecture series on classical mythology. I already know I want more. More detail, more depth. I listened to lectures on Heracules/Hercules and the Trojan war today. I really enjoyed it. Greek myth is full of excellent, funny, ironic and extremely entertaining stories. The old Hercules cartoon I used to watch on weekend mornings left out all the good stuff. I don’t remember the episode where he killed his children in a rage. Or the one where he slept with fifty women in one night. Was that in the Disney version? Cause I haven’t seen that yet. The Minotaur and the Labyrinth are a frequently borrowed theme too. Although all the contemporary versions I’ve seen leave out the part where Aphrodite infects Queen Pasiphae with sexual desire for the king’s prized bull which leads to the Minotaur’s conception.
So, now that I actually have a little free time, I’ll probably be setting up instant messaging later today. I’m going to use Trillian which integrates AIM, MSN, ICQ and other clients too, so if you want to be added, send me an email (there’s a link on the side of this page) with the info I need. I have a pre-existing MSN account but only two of my five contacts actually ever message me.
The Ancient Undergrad 
My one and only goal for tomorrow is to find some way to work the phrase “vapid mindfuck” into one of my conversations. So expressive, so poetical… my awe leaves me speechless.
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I remember that old Hercules cartoon. Newton’s voice annoyed the shit out of me! “Hey Herc!” Then like when Scooby-Doo brought in Scrappy-Doo, they brought in Newton’s cousin or something, that little Pan kid who only would communicate with his instrument. Well, seems like something the Pan would do except he’d be using a skin flute!
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I love mythology and Greek drama and tragedy. They were really into killing their kids, like in Euripides’ “Medea”–she kills her kids to get her husband back for cheating on her. Now that’s vengeance!
My fiance’ is an artist and will be using his degree to design video games…I hope that makes you feel better than ad design.
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I love audio books. I listen to them when I am at work cleaning and other such rituals. I recently finished one, The Road To Nab End. I liked it very much, though it was several hours. The focus it requires is something I enjoy, because there are few things that my brain will alow me to do that with. Audio books, Physics, any math whatsoever. I am such a weird ADD case.
Classic mythology is really more complex than most people give it credit for. I have done some research into some of that and found some really interesting theories that have intrigued me. You might actually be someone who would want to listen and discuss, as opposed to many of my friends who consider those qualities about me “Blah, blah, blah. She’s talking about research or quantum again.” It’s so not boring, if only… but you might get this at times too.
I am rambling again. 8-o ahhh well… ehhh.
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re the Bull, also leaves out the part where the guy leaves her after he makes it out of the maze. Or is that another myth Im thinking about???
When I was a kid, I had bronchitis one year. All I did was stay in bed and absorb books of world mythology and legend. My favorites have always been Japanese and Greek. Sometimes I see its influence in my writing – the information, themes, and ideas of the myths I read while in a medicated delirium.
TTFNSarah bo barah
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1) Have you tried Tivo? I think it lets you leave out the commercials
2) Have you read any of Joseph Campbell’s stuff? Especially “The Power of Myth” (based on the Bill Moyers interviews with him at Skywalker Ranch…which you can get on DVD through Amazon). Sounds like a book (or DVD) you’d enjoy. I was very much into mythology in my school days. My favorite play I was ever in was called “The Love of the Nightingale” by Timberlake Wertenbaker. I played Philomele. Don’t know if it was based on an actual myth, but I think it was. My character was raped and had her tongue cut out so she couldn’t talk about it and then was turned into a nightingale. When staged properly, it’s a show that will take your breath away. We won best production, best director, and best actress (me! mwooohaha…) from the Memphis Arts Council that year, on the university level for it.
3) Probably won’t do the IM thing…I spend too much time on Xanga as it is. Have fun though!
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P.S. You’d probably also enjoy “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamante if you haven’t read it already. Entire book based on one or two short paragraphs in the old testament. Doesn’t sound interesting? Let me tell you…it will transport you to another day and age and have you thinking about it for days after you’re finished reading it.
Oh, and “Til We Have Faces: A Myth Retold” by C.S. Lewis. He said it was his favorite book he ever wrote, but the critics panned it. I LOVED that book. LOTS of mythological references. The Cupid and Psyche myth is treated there, along with others.
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Fucking commercials, I swear.
Audio books are surprisingly good; I’ve listened to a couple of them by Grisham.
IM me anytime. I’m usually on later at night.
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it was totally an American Beauty moment! i have a lot of those; i’m always reluctant to share them for fear of sounding “artsy”. I wasnt too impressed with Zwan. Its like i was too big of an SP fan, i just couldnt like it. i dunno.This week is “National Turn Off the TV Week”.seriously.Some people would react similarly to other artists, such as David Fincher, who created Se7en, or Neil Gaimen for that matter (who never ceases to amaze me). although i agree with you, i am loathe to criticize any artist, or say that anything isnt art. Some commercials are indeed fantastic pieces of art. Most, as you say, is absurd souless drivel. I am currently employed as art director on a film adressing just this issue. Its about artists who dont believe in art other than thier own.damn, i’m such an art snob today.my IM sn is sallyluv1116. add me, i’m often online, usually procrastinating hw.
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