Oculus

Posted on January 25th, 2007 by george.
Categories: history, synthesis.

A photo on flickr got me thinking.

Sometimes it’s convenient to parse history into manageable chunks because there’s just so much of it. Other times such analysis can cloud a comprehensive view of our advancement as a species. I learned just the other day that many historians are eschewing the term “Renaissance” because it can romanticize a period in Europe that may have been good for artists, and may have sparked a revolution, but didn’t immediately affect the life of the commoner.

If you read enough of my writing you’ll quickly discern my obsession with postmodernism and existentialism, courtesy of one of the best and most influential mentors I’ve ever had: my high school teacher Mr. Mark Baker. I’m eager to escape the bleak, hopeless irony of the 20th century by better understanding it. Everyone’s always talking about the advancement of technology and the subsequent alienation it creates. But in studying the Renaissance I ran across this quote by John Donne, from the year 1611, that seems to presage Sarte, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cummings, Faulkner, Pollock, Kerouac, Kafka, Rand, and Warhol:

“And new philosophy calls all in doubt,
The element of fire is quite put out;
The sun is lost, and the earth, and no man’s wit,
Can well direct him where to look for it.
And freely men confess that this world’s spent,
When in the planets, and the firmament
They seek so many new; then see that this
Is crumbled out again to his atomies.
‘Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone;
All just supply, and all relation:
Prince, subject, Father, Son, are things forgot.”

This Donne wrote it response to the scientific revolution of his time that seemed to turn established ideas on their heads. It boggles the mind to think of the exponential increase in pace of that revolution to this day.

I for one have no use for postmodern irony. While I deeply appreciate the infinite and beautiful influences the arts and sciences have had upon the present day, it is my sincerest hope that we can learn from war, famine, pestilence and disaster. I believe it’s possible to dawn a new day of unity and harmony in this century. Perhaps then we can look back on our past and see with a clear eye not the perpetual repetition of the same mistakes, but how far we’ve come, how intricately the past weaves its way into our lives, and how much we’ve learned, grown, and matured.

9 comments.

Mona’s Dream

Posted on January 20th, 2007 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I encourage you to read the story of Mona Mahmudnizhad and to support the film about her life that is planned for release this year. I’m not usually known for my brevity, but I’m left speechless by her tale. Please forgive my reticence and discover Mona’s dream for yourself.

2 comments.

Muse

Posted on January 16th, 2007 by george.
Categories: poetry.

These stone fingers
Weigh heavy on my chest
Cracked knuckles
Spit percussive waves

Went to build a bridge
And found one standing, charred
Raised this glass instead
Above broken ground

So fly
Just above the waves
And stretch the distance
From my mind

You were and are
And will be
Light through all space
Projected

1 comment.

A lighter highway

Posted on January 15th, 2007 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

So I just arrived home from three hours of volleyball, and I’m sitting on my creamy, Miami Vice leather couch, looking at seven piles of freshly folded laundry and blogging on my swanky little Mac.  What do all these things have in common?  None would be possible without my friends.  So here’s giving credit where due:  Amanda, thanks for the invite to the game.  Shiva and Bahman, thanks for the couches.  Farah, thanks for doing my laundry and dishes, enabling me to tackle the hallway renovation project.  And Seth, thanks for Elvis.  I still owe ya, man.

Tomorrow I’m going to see STOMP for the first time with Denise, and if all goes as planned, I may finally have a roommate by the end of the month.  I just started posting pictures from Naseem and Greg’s wedding.  Or at least photos from Dallas.  For those of you keeping score:  that was in August.  This just in:  it’s hot outside.  Like, it’s nearly midnight, in January, and it’s 71 degrees.  Who says global warming ain’t real?  Ok, enough toast from me.  Enjoy your week.

3 comments.

It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Posted on January 15th, 2007 by george.
Categories: Uncategorized.

And all I have to share with you is this.  It’s stunning that such beauty exists, even moreso that it could come from the eye of one person.  Surf Kenny’s whole stream.  You’re bound to be amazed.

4 comments.

Revolution

Posted on January 9th, 2007 by george.
Categories: technology.

Mark this down, and mark it well: 2007 ushers the telephone into the 21st century. This is it folks, what you’ve been dreaming about since your first cellphone was followed by your first time surfing teh intarweb, your first digital camera and your first iPod.

That’s right. I’m talking about the iPhone. Brought to you by those bastions of technologic and aesthetic innovation, Apple. A buttonless, touchscreen, 8GB video iPod, cellphone, camera and mobile internet device running a full-fledged operating system, all rolled into one. So sleek, so beautiful, and so much more! We’re talking system-level handshaking with Google and Yahoo, and all the specs, features and gee-whiz effects you could never imagine. If you’ve ever wanted to hold the future in your hand, this is your year.

Props go to Daniel for breaking the news to me. Now before you write this off as the next big flop, consider this: Steve Jobs and his crew have over two hundred patents filed on this puppy. You heard me right. Two zero zero. They’ve been working on this in secret for over two years. They’ve done their homework. Now they’re lecturing the teacher.

I’m so excited I can barely contain myself. The only drawback is the exclusivity: only Cingular has been deemed worthy of supporting this paradigm shift in the shape of a monolith. Verizon, Tyrese, sorry pals. Looks like I may just have to make the switch.

Read all about its unveiling here. It’ll build you up into a fever pitch.

Three cheers for Apple!

9 comments.

Eat. Sleep. Rinse. Repeat.

Posted on January 1st, 2007 by george.
Categories: travel.

If I had to describe the cruise in four words, it would be these. Onomatopoeiaically, it would be the low, guttural unh of an belly overstuffed on the midnight buffet. The verdict? It’s a luxurious way to travel, and an excellent chance to visit several exotic locales in one all-too-short week. The only drawback? Mere hours instead of days in any one place precludes any semblance of adaptating to a new environment, or really drinking in the local milieu. Five hours is an impossibly small slice of time to take in San Juan, much less the days worth of activities the island nation of Puerto Rico has to offer. I’m going to have to pick up one of those nine-dollar flights from Spirit Air sometime this year. St. Thomas was my absolute favorite. The mountainous island provided by far the best snorkeling of the trip (beating out Isla Catalina and Grand Turk), right off the sand at the secluded paradise of Emerald Beach. I’m all too fond of that stretch of shore for its proximity to the airport, and the gorgeous planes that took off every five minutes in an impossibly high bank over the endless turquoise bay.

I spent New Year’s in Miami for the second consecutive year, this time in Coconut Grove instead of South Beach. Delara, Steve and I just had the most amazing crepes (including an impossibly delectable banana-nutella creation) for brekkie. Now we’re headed to Vizcaya, which, unbelievably, I have never visited before.

Here’s to 2007!

3 comments.