Author: Mike P. Lewis

It's not all technology – the arts matter too (Dana Gioia)

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Below is a great speech by the poet Dana Gioia to the Stanford graduating class of 2007….

Stanford Commencement address by Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (June 17, 2007)

Good morning.

It is a great honor to be asked to give the Commencement address at my alma mater. Although I have two degrees from Stanford, I still feel a bit like an interloper on this exquisitely beautiful campus. A person never really escapes his or her childhood.

dana.jpg

At heart I’m still a working-class kid—half Italian, half Mexican—from L.A., or more precisely from Hawthorne, a city that most of this audience knows only as the setting of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown—two films that capture the ineffable charm of my hometown.

Today is Father’s Day, so I hope you will indulge me for beginning on a personal note. I am the first person in my family ever to attend college, and I owe my education to my father, who sacrificed nearly everything to give his four children the best education possible.

My dad had a fairly hard life. He never spoke English until he went to school. He barely survived a plane crash in World War II. He worked hard, but never had much success, except with his family.  When I was about 12, my dad told me that he hoped I would go to Stanford, a place I had never heard of. For him, Stanford represented every success he had missed yet wanted for his children. He would be proud of me today—no matter how dull my speech.

On the other hand, I may be fortunate that my mother isn’t here. It isn’t Mother’s Day, so I can be honest. I loved her dearly, but she could be a challenge. For example, when she learned I had been nominated to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, she phoned and said, “Don’t think I’m impressed.” Continue reading “It's not all technology – the arts matter too (Dana Gioia)” →

Klosterman on Bonds

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Some people have asked me what i think about Bonds breaking the record.  In general i’m against it but i do recognize it as impressive.  I think Klosterman said it best (article here) over a year ago when he was close to breaking Babe’s record….

At some point in the immediate to near future, someone is going to throw Barry Bonds a strike when he should be seeing a ball, and he will rake it with extreme prejudice. His propulsive, compact swing will rock the sphere toward the roof of the troposphere; it will fall to earth roughly 440 feet from where Bonds is standing, and he will react as if he is: (a) unimpressed or (b) vaguely annoyed.

He will then jog 360 feet, and some people will cheer, and some people will have mixed feelings, and some people will have mixed feelings while they cheer. And that is because this particular raking will be the 715th home run of Bonds’ career, meaning he will have surpassed the home run production of George Herman “Babe” Ruth.

This is a problem.

It is not a problem the way global warming is a problem, nor is it a problem the way throat cancer is a problem. But it’s a problem for anyone who considers sports to be a meaningful prism through which to understand life and culture. It’s a problem for future historians, which means it’s a problem for us right now. The problem is this: It’s an achievement of disenchantment. And that applies to pretty much everyone involved, including you.

The reason we keep statistics — and the reason we care about statistical milestones — is that we assume some sort of emotional experience will accompany their creation and obliteration. These moments are supposed to embody ideas that transcend the notion of grown men playing children’s games; these moments are supposed to be a positive amalgamation of awe, evolution, inspiration, admiration and the macrobiotic potential of man. But the recent success of Bonds contains only two of those qualities, and maybe only the first.

It’s hard to feel good about that. Bonds is a self-absorbed, unlikable person who has an adversarial relationship with the world at large, and he has (almost certainly) used unethical, unnatural means to accomplish feats that actively hurt baseball. His statistical destruction of Ruth is metaphoric, but not in a good way. It’s an indictment of modernity, even for people who don’t give a damn about the past or the present.

Read the rest of the article here 

Reading The Beach at the beach

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On my vacation to the beach (picture of me below), i thought a good book to read would be the book The Beach. It turned out to be a great idea.

The Beach (the book) is a good read about an secluded beach community in Thailand. The community is populated by a bunch of travelers who have found a beautiful secluded beach and lagoon. They don’t do much but look for food, fix their community facilities, and smoke dope. But all hell breaks loose when more travelers start trying to find them.

It’s a quick read and worth plowing through for anyone who’s done any sort of traveling. Frankly, i was expecting more considering how so many people LOVE the book so i was a little disappointed, but regardless i recommend it.

Harry Potter & God

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I read an interesting essay on the plane back to DC which discusses the fantasy novel and its expression of God. It begins with Harry Potter and what the series says about us. Looking back on previous novels, The Lord of the Ring series had Tolkien’s Catholicism slant and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was a thinly veiled story about CS Lewis’ views of Anglicanism. JK Rowling’s story about Harry Potter has no view of spirituality or religion. Instead, Rowling focuses on love as the force that comforts and drives the characters.

Harry Potter lives in a world that has been scrubbed clean of any religion or spirituality of any kind. He is surrounded by ghosts, and has even eavesdropped on the afterlife in the basement of the Ministry of Magic, but Harry has no one to pray to, even if he were so inclined, which he isn’t. Not even the lovably prissy Hermione darkens a church door.

Perhaps it is because i’m single and 30ish and don’t see many of my peers hitting Church regularly, but i found this perspective interesting and strikes me as indicative of how many people are feeling these days. Disatisfaction and disillusionment of the Church is causing many to turn to themselves and more secular solutions rather than spiritual ones and I’m not sure that this is a good thing. As the article stated…

In the new millennium magic comes not from God, or nature, or anything grander or more mystical than a mere human emotion. It’s the most anthropo-centric vision possible: even in our fantasies, where we give ourselves permission to believe in dementors and blast-ended skrewts, love is all you need, and love is all you get.

What are your thoughts – is this really a reflection of society or just me?

Hippo craziness

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This is a bizarre story of a family that keeps a pet hippo. Not only is it a pet, but they feed it in the kitchen, give it a massage at night and have it sleep under blankets.

“i can’t tell if she sees me as a hippo or she sees herself as a human”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3NueKXS6dk]

Independence Day

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I was given the book Independence Day by Richard Ford to read by a friend of mine. It’s a great read and very well written and i liked it a lot. I do feel some odd similarities to the main character, Frank Branscombe. He has a pragmatism towards life and love that i can relate to. While of course we differ in a lot of ways – he being 45 and divorced with 2 children vs. me 30 and not ever been married – i was curious to see what he would do on every page to see if i would react in the same way. In some ways it reads like a guidebook about how to survive as a middle-aged man. On others it’s about the quest to achieve continuity and self-actualization in everyday life. Frank’s life has had its ups and downs but he’s non-apologetic and pretty agreeable as a character.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Sally (FB’s quasi-girlfriend): you just want everything to seem perfect and everybody to seem pleased. And you’re willing to let seem equal be. It makes pleasing anybody be an act of cowardice

This is a huge trait of FB in the book and is definitely MPL material. This is what i do. Interesting….

Sally: You’re too smooth from one thing to the next. I can’t keep up with you very well.FB: I think i’m just more at ease in the mainstream. It’s my version of the sublime.

Sally: And you’re also very cautious, you know. And you’re non-committal. You know that, don’t you? I’m sure that’s what you meant last night by being beyond affection. You’re smooth and you’re cautious and you’re noncommittal.

FB: My judgments aren’t very sound, so i just try not to cause too much trouble. But when i feel something strong, i guess i jump in.

Sally: Or you seem to anyway

The book is also just about FB and his thoughts about life. Some random passages:

  • About renting vs. owning: I felt owning was enough different from renting (except that you couldn’t leave). In my mind a sense of contingency and the possibility of imminent change in status underlay everything, though we stayed for more than a decade, and i stayed longer. It always seemed to me enough just to know what someone loved you and would go on loving you forever and that the mise-en-scene for love only that and not a character in the play itself
  • About the 4th of July: It is an odd holiday, to be sure – one a man or woman could easily grow abstracted about, its practical importance to the task of holding back wild and dark misrule never altogether clear or provable; as though independence were only private and too crucial to celebrate with others; as though we should all just get on with being independent, given that it is after all the normal, commonsensical human condition, to be taken for granted unless opposed or thwarted , in which case unreserved, even absurd measures should be taken to restore or reimagine it. Best maybe just to pass the day as the original signers did and as i prefer to do, in a country-like setting near to home, alone with your thoughts, your fears, your hopes, your “moments of reason” for what new world lies fearsomely ahead.
  • Better to follow old Davy Crockett’s motto (amended for use by adults): Be sure you’re not completely wrong, then go ahead.
  • From RB as he’s falling asleep: Suddenly my heart again goes bangety-bang, bangety-bangety-bang, as if i myself were about to exit life in a hurry. And if i could, i would spring up, switch on the light, dial someone and shout right down into the hard little receiver, “It’s okay. I got away. It was goddamned close, I’ll tell ya. It didn’t get me, though. I smelled its breath, saw its red eyes in the dark, shining. A clammy hand touched mine. But i made it. I survived. Wait for me. Wait for me. Not that much is left to do” Only there’s no one. No one here or anywhere near to say any of this to. And i’m sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Life's a Journey

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A good video of clay people cruising through their life. I find the video pretty mesmerizing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3xe9dSY7zM]

The song is also pretty good. It’s called “Eliza’s Aria” by Eliza Kats-Chermin.

The Dixie Chicks Documentary is Good

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Just watched an interesting documentary about the Dixie Chicks. While about their music, it also shows the insane ignorance of americans and how the group really stood up for what they believed in when the entire industry was out to ruin them. Granted, it helped that their music was really good. I had never really listened to their stuff, but you don’t need to for the film. It delivers even if you’re not a fan.

What started a half-jokingly comment about Bush and the Iraqi war at a concert in the UK turned into pure hatred by the Right Wing. What the lead singer said was, “I’m ashamed the President is from Texas” was picked up on the AP wire and the media went nuts. The Dixie Chicks were targeted as representing everything that was anti-Bush. As a result, Clearchannel banned all their music from the radio, there were CD destroying rallies and the fanatical portion of the group sent them death threats so they couldn’t even tour. In the film, there are interviews of mothers teaching their daughters to say “i hate the Dixie Chicks.” It is incredible what happened. The Dixie Chicks are country music singers – in America – and to see the ignorance and hatred of other Americans towards them was incredible.

The highlight of the film came when the Dixie Chicks go back to the studio and make the song “Not Ready to Make Nice.” There’s a story of a band member who wrote a song called “Undivided” The lead singer (Natalie) asks: “Does that mean we would have to forgive all those people that did that to us?” He says, “Well, for the sake of the song, maybe it would.” Natalie, flinging a dismissive hand in the air, says, “Nope.” and she instead proceeds to record the title track of their platinum record. It’s called “Not Ready to Make Nice” and you can feel the emotion when they sing it. Their lives were destroyed – they were banned from the industry that they dominated b/c of their disagreement with the way. The lyrics to Not Ready:

it’s a sad sad story
when a mother will teach her
daughter that she ought to
hate a perfect stranger

how in the world can the words that i said
send somebody over the edge
that they’d write me a letter
saying i better
shut up and sing
or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still made as hell
and don’t have time to go round and round and round

One of the Chicks commented on how this song brought her to tears for over 6 months every time she heard the song – and I believe it. These girls went through some tough shit. No country radio station would play their music for over 3 years and yet over an 8 year period, they were Sony/BMG’s top selling artist. The movie is a captivating story of a music group’s combat against traditional media and politics while at the same time keeping it real and producing really great music.