Where da Interdome at?

Well, if you managed to get to this blog, you probably already know the skinny. This was the Interdome, but this site was re-named to pave the way for the new and improved Welcome to the Interdome. Now this is just a back log of old Plan posts, that probably I will eventually recycle as I see fit and if it is worth it. It probably will be eventually, because some of the stuff on here was decently interesting, like some of the political stuff, and some of my better inside jokes. Ha. Feel free to look around if you want. To continue to read the musings of Adam Rothstein, try the link.

Valentine's Blog

In happy returns of the day, Interdome's own "one big step back the fuck up" Award of the day goes to: Valentine's Day!



A Brief History of Valentine's Day

Since, as some of you know, Valentine's Day is my all-time favorite holiday (yes, my favorite holiday of all of the holidays that will ever happen in time) I thought it might be fun to have a little cultural studies essayette on all of the things that you COULD be celebrating today, while you're playing footsie with your sweetie at the Macaroni Grill. Sure, this is as good a day as any to buy pink stuff and to light that "fragrance of love" scented candle ("bitch!" know the reference? answer is hidden below), but you could be getting drunk and thinking of all the other wonderful connotations that Valentine's Day has, in vague chronological order. If you have any good additions, write 'em up, and I'll stick them in (but ever so gently and respectfully). Let us begin...

Eternal Love in the Eternal City

Way back, at the beginning of time, before you even met your significant other, Feb. 15th was Lupercalia in ancient Rome. Naked people ran wild in the streets smacking each other with stuff to try and make each other more pregnant. Now a days we know better, and we hit each other to try and stop being pregnant. Wikipedia suggests maybe the holiday got its name because Romulus and Remus suckled on a (lupus) wolf-tit. Mmm. Wolf-tit. Think about that when you are heavy petting with your sweetie tonight.

Carnal Gnosticism

Sparing you the theology of gnosticism, there was this guy named Valentinus who broke with the church in the second century AD because he really wanted to read The Da Vinci Code in the original latin, but that was illegal, at least in hardcover. Because the church didn't like Tom Hanks, they called Valentinus crazy and chased him away to Cyprus or some shit. The funny part is, it seems that he made some of the first Christian associations to Platonic philosophy, and developed the notion of the three hypostases, which you know now as the "three men that Don McClean admires the most". Don McClean was never sent to Cyprus by the church. When you are getting your own slice of "american pie" tonight, remember that the father, son, and ghost are all incestuously getting off while watching you. And judging you.

The Original Valentine

The feast day of St. Valentine was originally declared in 496. Nobody knows who the Saint actually was. Maybe a Roman priest, maybe a bishop in Interamna, maybe a African martyr. So fuck him. What is cool is that the day was declared by Pope Gelasius I, who was the third African pope. (There were african popes??? Oh my god!!!) Relax though, he might still have been white, because the area of Africa he was from was not "black" at the time, but more lighter. Whew... that was close. We don't know for sure, because no one ever painted him. The wikipedia article picture of him looks just like every other pope from the period. Things that Gelasius did that were totally sweet include making wine a part of the Eucharist, in order to kill Manichaeans, because they wouldn't drink the wine, and then the Christians could find them. You can remember the awesomeness of the African popes this Valentine's Day when you are drinking yourself into body-of-christ oblivion so you don't feel bad about not having a date.

No Love for the Jews

Wikipedia speaks: "On St. Valentine's Day in 1349, roughly 2,000 Jews were burned to death by Christian mobs in Strasbourg. These mobs, led by nobles who owed large sums to Jewish moneylenders (usury being a sin for Christians), blamed the Jews for poisoning the city's wells and causing the bubonic plague." You can remember the usurers in your life when thinking about the bubonic plague while using protection during your lovemaking today. Let's here it for the mob.

Women and Men

Valentine was the name of an obscure character in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The plot of this play was butchered into the romantic shit-comedy, She's the Man. I bet alot of people will be watching such movies tonight. I, for one, will be watching Can't Hardly Wait, which grammar notwithstanding, I feel is the best teen movie ever created. The subtitle, as it were, to Twelfth Night is or What You Will. Now, Aleister Crowley's immortal line, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law!" has been adopted by Satanism and other hedonistic belief systems. One of these belief systems that 'was, like, way into Aleister Crowley' is Led Zepplin. Led Zepplin put a fish in some woman's vagina. All of this is very weird. This is why women like the theater and men like to fish, and on Valentine's Day they probably don't listen to Led Zepplin.

Sweaty Palms

Valentine Dencausse was a famous chiromancer. What is a chiromancer, you ask? A palm reader! She made predictions for the French Ministry of War during WWI! War is Crazy! Celebrate pseudoscience today by reading your partner's hand and then deciding whether or not to go to war.

Tanks for the Flowers

And... when assaulting your lover's inhibitions tonight, remember the Valentine Tank, Britain's most widely-produced tank in WWII, that fought extensively in North Africa. Charge!

I Want to Love You Like an Animal

Hilton Stewart Paterson Valentine, guitarist for The Animals, we celebrate you today! Even though many so-called fans think that your blues-inducing riffs from "House of the Rising Sun" actually belong to Jimmy Page, we know better! You don't fuck around with sea creatures in the bed room, only higher life forms! Animals! Yeah! We admire your appreciation for Skiffle Music that led you to first pick up that guitar in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, coincidentally the city where the makers of the Valentine Tank have their works. And when Eric Burdon went on to join hippie-funk band War, we're glad you were a conscientious objector and continued doing... uh... nothing... by which we really mean loving, not fighting! True to your name to the end! What the fuck is a skiffle? Anyway... take your Other to a house of ill-repute tonight, if not for our sake, for Hilton's, goddammit!


happy valentine's day, suckas...

Old Man Rothstein

Today I opened a new deodorant. It's Old Spice, "regular scent", whereas the old one was Old Spice "arctic force". Now instead of smelling like a glacier, I smell like a grandfather. I'm wearing a grandfather-esque shirt today too, or at least one like my grandfather might wear (although I don't think he wears Old Spice). I don't think this is a bad thing. If I were actually a grandfather, I wouldn't mind if people referred to me as "old spice". Like, "Old man Rothstein put up quite a fuss in the deli today; that guy sure is an old spice." Maybe this should be my new fashion: Grandfather chic. Not just wearing a hat/t-shirt that identifies me as a grandfather; that is only ironic, and therefore false. I'm talking about selling not only the image, but the aesthetic. Through my clothing and mannerisms I will actually portray that my seed has been spread, I've fulfilled my genetic role, and now I can relax, build myself a skiff in the backyard, and watch the world go to hell. Forget waiting for some sort of "hill" to be gotten over, I'm wearing the bottoms of my trousers rolled now. Some young women, like [bungertn] and [walmanra], may wear clothes that say they are ready to conquer and build the world anew with humor and taste, but my clothes will say that, frankly, I've done all I can do, and now I'm going to sit back with my scotch and laugh, because I have hair growing out of the folds of my ears and I like weird pickled fishes on rye bread, goddammit.

Adam without Borders

After this week I really want to work for Médecins Sans Frontières. I've done a bit of research about them and Médecins du Monde. Both are humanitarian organizations started by former French Communists that have not always maintained neutrality in the face of agression, unlike the Red Cross. They take much of the morality out of humanitarian work and focus on the people, and at least MSF seems to be very good at what they do, for what they are trying to do. But I'm not a doctor. But now I'm thinking that might be really awesome. I always felt that being a doctor would either be really lame (prescribing really fat rich people cholesterol meds) or really depressing (watching people die) but now I'm realizing that I really like taking on impossible things, because it takes the guess work out. You don't have to worry about success, you just do the best you can.

Anyway, I really like the philosophy they work with, because they are willing to take sides for the benefit of people, not just maintaining "neutrality" for their own well-being. I found this passage:

'the political positions of MDM in armed conflicts are not linked to a strictly speaking partisan ideology. In a book edited by Marie-José Domestici-Met, three MDM executives, Bernard Granjon, Michel Brugière and Pierre Pradier, say that “the organisation chooses its side”, that “of the most deprived”.'

And with the MDM, allegedly, sometimes that includes literal fighting. That's what I think the world really needs in a supra-national organization or NGO; an organization that is willing to step in and do the right thing. Humanitarian organizations are too concerned with maintaining their neutral status to be effective, other countries and national groups are too self-interested (after all, they are most often involved in the perpetration of the disaster), and the UN and other supra-nationals, as constituted by these national groups are either directed towards that national interest or given no power so as not to interfere with that national interest. I'm thinking of almost a League of Heroes sort of thing, that has no politics except to fight for the people who are being fucked up. That would really throw a wrench in international politics. The problem is, how would they be funded (Bruce Wayne?), and where would the secret lair be, because after about 20 years they probably would have had to piss off every major government on the planet at least once.

Eat it

(discussing [blake]'s displeasure with the popularity of "organic diets")

[blake] In addition to the "dish" cooked up by [tanseybe], I have some related "appitizers", and "sides". It seems like you may be referring to one or some or all of the following ways to choose one's diet: eating healthy, eating vegetarian, eating organic, eating local. I would think that picking out a "topical" diet, one that is more often than not merely a fad of food selection, like "organic", or "with lycopene", or without "trans fats" is not much different than any other fad diet, like any number of low-carb diet plans. It takes a basic idea that may have benefits, and then applies that across the board as if it will make everything great. That said, that doesn't mean that the basic idea itself necessarily worthless. Most people probably do eat more carbs than they need, consume more chemicals than is good for them, and could probably use some extra natural vitamins and amino acids. But as you said, to act like to make this a "diet" is something of conscience is pretty lame.
However, "eating healthy" or "eating local" are not simply fads of choice, but are more along the lines of strategic food choice strategies or general maxims, like "look before you eat". I think there is nothing wrong with being proud of exercising good choice in how one takes care of oneself, or even one's ecosystem. Why else could we say that these are good choices? There are plenty of people who eat fast food all the time and have cholesterol problems. If one makes a conscious choice to avoid this, and thinks that this is the right decision for them, why shouldn't they be happy about it? Food nihilism is not a proper response to the fact that people are easily impressed by food cults.
Eating "vegetarian" may be the example that provides a comparison between the two aspects. While eating vegetarian may be nothing more than a general strategy to consume less animal fat, cholesterol, and perhaps reduce ones ecological "footprint", often it takes the nature of a food cult, to the extent that practitioners treat it as a moral proscription (and some vegetarians road to the practice is entirely moral). As you noted, eating more vegetables can have many benefits, but that does not make vegetables "good", and meat "bad". But, that doesn't mean that one shouldn't feel good about going with the eggplant parm rather than the veal.
Long story short, we all know the maxim, "you are what you eat". I think that many people in our society could vastly improve their lives if they took this to heart a little more often. And, if they do so and thereby improve their lives and society and the ecosystem, this is nothing to scoff at. Maybe this is the nature of responsibility that is different than moral alleigance?

PS: I have plenty of time to go shopping, eat my food, and have sex. Sometimes I combine all three.

Rwanda

I added another article to the Rwandan genocide thingy, which much Butrous-Ghali expressing his displeasure at the US complacency in Rwanda. Incidentally, it has be spawning some thoughts for me about statehood, international politics, supranational organizations (and the futility thereof), NGOs, and humanism in general. Depending how my afternoon goes I might write that up.

Does anyone in the NGO humanitarian field know how well Médecins Sans Frontières stands up? I've always felt that they were a pretty solid organization, and after just transcribing a speech by Rony Brauman, one of their former presidents, about Arendt's influence on his work, I like them even more. Any other knowledge?

So in conjunction with the talk that I'm transcribing, I've been reading alot of wikipedia on the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It is really interesting, and very horrible. I think the main article is actually very good, it describes numerous different theories about why the genocide occurred, from social, historical, economic, and psychological perspectives. The event and the history leading up to it are maybe the most stark history lessons I've ever heard, pulling all kinds of issues in, including racism, nationalism, colonialism, class conditions, modern international politics, issues of "west vs. east", humanitarian campaign issues, and much more. It frankly makes me even more sick to my stomach regarding the actions of western governments (US, France, UK, Israel, the Catholic Church?) than the Iraq war.

Wikipedia articles on the subject worth reading:
Rwandan Genocide
Tutsis
Hutus
History of Rwanda
The so-called "Hamitic" race
A much more opinionated article on US complacency and the possibility that the CIA was involved in the catalyst to the genocide here.

Lost Segueway

I was crawling underneath the desk to get at the front of the computer to see why it isn't working properly. Because of cable length dynamics the tower is facing the opposite direction than the generally useful and intended way. As I leaned forward and in upon the nappy carpet underneath the dark behemoth of a desk in this crampled closet to look at the back (front) of the computer, I saw a dusty post-it note clinging to the floor. It read, in all capital letters:

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF DAVID LYNCH?

The phrase was underlined, in a back and forth motion, several times. I had, what they all-too-appropriately refer to in culturally-informed dialogue as a David Lynchian moment. It wasn't quite like finding an ear in a sunny meadow, but in my life, that's about as close as I get. Then I recalled that there was a conference speaker a couple of years ago whose name is also David Lynch, yet is an expert on diaster recovery, and I don't think he has made any films. I still can't get the CD-ROM to work.

Flesh

I need to find more ways to get more bruises. That sore feeling when you stretch a bruised muscle is so delightful. It's like I exercised, except I didn't. Instead, I got hurt. Which is kind of like exercise, if you think about it. You're exercising your body's ability to heal. It looks badass too. Like a tattoo that you didn't mean to get.

Possible activities in the pursuit of intra-dermal hemmoraging:

Running around my apartment in the dark (I need more footstools though)
Skateboarding (I'm seriously considering this, even though I'm not a skateboarder)
Dead-arm contests on the school bus (no school bus, and I don't think people on the subway are down, so this one's out)
Freestyling walking (I kind of do this already, I just need more obstacles)
Starting fights (my pacifistic nature kind of puts this one out, also so many people carry knives, I want bruises, not lacerations)
Developing a genetic anti-coagulation disorder (I don't think that's possible at this stage in the game)

Any ideas will be tried.

Liberal Arts Mind Control

In Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters the initial alien landing point is "five miles outside of Grinnell, Iowa." What gives? Is Grinnell the archetypical "middle of nowhere"? Is this a conservative's underhanded commentary on liberal academia? Does 'Iowa farmtown' just ooze imagery of mind-controlling, parasitic jelly-beasts?

Thank You for Wearing Trenchcoats

The single best film capture of a cigarette drag that I have seen is from a Jean-Pierre Melville movie. My mind is telling me that the film is Le Cicle Rouge although the moment in the plot that I remember would seem to fit to Le Samourai or Le Doulos better. At any rate, the hard-boiled trench-coat sportin' main character is sitting in a Paris club, across the table from a police inspector. The conversation has just turned so that our anti-hero knows that he is fucked, it is only a matter of time, and he will probably end up dead. Of course, he has been resigned to this since his birth. He stares straight ahead, takes a casual yet purposeful drag from his cigarette as if summoning the nicotine jag is calling a poker hand. He holds the smoke, and as he lets the cigarette return from his mouth to resting position, a single loop of smoke drifts off from the end of the cigarette and is illuminated in the black and white of the film. It slowly curls to a circle and floats off to his left. He continues to stare ahead, releases the drag, puts out the cigarette, picks up his hat from the table, and walks out into the Paris night.

Lessons Learned:

-Up Melville; Goddard, who cares
-Hats are cool
-Crime is cool
-Smoking is cool

A New Format?

I was thinking that perhaps I would change up the blog a bit. Normally it's been the serious Plan posts that I wanted to save for posterity. Fairly lengthy, fairly boring. I think I'm going to start adding alot more of the less serious, short observations that I've been putting on Plans, simply because they are a little more readable, and maybe more enjoyable. Sure, decrying modern instances of fascism needs to be done. But we could all use a little more triviality. All of us.

"Let's Not Start Sucking Each Other's Dicks Quite Yet"

(or, an homage to David Cronenberg.)

I have mentioned how great I think he is before, but I think David Cronenberg might be my favorite film maker. This is huge for me, because I hate declaring favorites. His films are exactly on my wave-length; they are perfect combinations of sci-fi, horror, and drama, with eye-grabbing visual effects, twisted plots, and macabre themes of body/technological invasion. Since I'm already gushing, I might as well say a little bit about each film of his I have seen, in order of how much I liked them, from most to less than most.

Videodrome (writer/dir.) - "Death to Videodrome, long live the new flesh!" As if that line isn't enough, there are also the special effects; the plot involving some sort of conspiracy, never fully explained, between corporations, religions, and TV; the idea of a torture tv channel (in orange jumpsuits no less, that evoke Abu Graib internet pictures); and the backdrop of a depressed Toronto. If watching a videotape breathe doesn't get you off, the self-conscious melodrama of the film will.

eXistenZ (writer/dir.) - Tied with Videodrome for my favorite. Actually the plots are very similar; instead of breathing, eating, and fucking through our tv sets, in this one we are doing it through organically grown video game systems. Although Videodrome wins for the ingenuity of the spec. effects in the time it was made, the sheer craziness of the plot that is not tied up at the end, and for pure camp factors, eXistenZ comes through in other factors. The gristle gun assembled from the detrius of a mutant chinese-food meal even surpasses the mutant fish farm harvesting game system components, but MY FAVORITE FILM MOMENT OF ALL TIME is when Jude Law flips out after Jennifer Jason Leigh wets her finger and runs it around his "port" orifice so that it will accept the insertion of the game system umbilical cord. That got me literally hot.

Scanners (writer/dir.) - Similar to Videodrome in its sci-fi camp aesthetics. This one is about how schizophrenics are actually telepathic. The first "scanning" scene sets the tone for the film. Bloody and twisted.

Crash (dir.) - The one about car crashes, sex, and wound fetishes, not the one about race. Based on a novel of the same name. Although the graphic nature of the film (I remember this was the first R-rated, "red screen" preview I ever saw) certainly draws the attention, one of my favorite moments is the main characters looking down over a Toronto highway interchange from a balcony at the traffic. Its beautiful, in the cold, twisted manner of the film.

Dead Ringers (writer/dir.) - Jeremy Irons plays identical twin gynocologists. Yep. This film boasts the best line since Videodrome, with "Gynocological Tools for Operating on Mutant Women". In addition to the themes of psychosis, dual personalities, and vaginas, there is some drug addiction thrown in for emphasis. Some surgery scenes provide the opportunity for the distinctive Cronenberg spec. effects. I have to say though, this one kind of dragged on towards the end. I could tell what was going to happen, yet I had to wait a half hour for it to actually unfold, at no real benefit in the presentation.

Naked Lunch (writer/dir.) - Since literally adapting this book is impossible, you might as well make a movie just as random starring Burroughs as the main character and add fucking typewriters. Videodrome for writers? I don't appreciate Burroughs as much as Cronenberg, so I wouldn't want to give the former the credit, but i could probably do the argument in 5 pages over 2 hours (cultural studies!). This one needs intoxicants of some sort to make it go down smoother.

The Fly (writer/dir.) - The Jeff Goldblum classic. "Brundle Fly"?? Where the fuck did Cronenberg come up with that? This one is perhaps the most campy, but great for its quotable lines, and the gross-out fly effects. There are some choice lines about flesh in this one, but none that I remember now. I love how the teleporting chambers are called "pods". It just sounds so organic and filthy. The film pretty much devolves into a typical horror movie though.

A History of Violence (dir.) - Definitely his most acessible film, and while it is quite good, I rated it last just because by way of being accessible to a mainstream drama crowd it leaves the realm of sci-fi that I like better. This is easily just another dark mobster film, although it is executed very well. The story is from a graphic novel. I did like the juxtaposition of sex with violence, although there is a gratuitous female frontal nudity shot that just seems totally out of place. The effects are more realistic in this one to suit the audience. Also, it takes place in middle america, which is a departure for Cronenberg, who normally is very open about his films taking place and being shot in Toronto and Canada. This is a good movie to see, but I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Cronenberg.

The Dead Zone and Spider are on my queue, but I haven't seen them yet.

Well, I laughed.