Yes, Virgina, humans are ig'nant.

[greygirlbeast]

Well, the good news is that cigarette sales have fallen to a 55-year low. On the other hand (there always has to be that damned other hand), a recent Gallup Poll indicates that 50% of Americans "reject an evolutionary explanation for the origin of humans and believe that God created humans at one time 'as is.'" What's interesting about the latter, though, is that the poll also found that "Those with lower levels of education, those who attend church regularly, those who are 65 and older, and those who identify with the Republican Party are more likely to believe in the biblical view of the origin of humans than are those who do not share these characteristics." This should only come as a surprise to those who haven't been paying attention, but additional confirmation of the obvious is always comforting.

Yesterday, Spooky scored a sampler previewing the new Dresden Dolls album, Yes, Virginia, due in stores on April 25th. Thank you, Criminal Records. Me, I spent most of the day attending to writerly loose ends. A bunch of stuff I need to send off to Steve Jones in England, e-mails that needed writing and answering, editing "Untitled 20," writing a rough draft of the prologue for Sirenia Digest #4. It was a details sort of day. We did have a nice walk. The tulip trees are all in bloom. On the way back from the p.o., I saw Robert, who did my labret, in the parking lot at Sevananda (our local organic foods co-op). He's the latest thing to make me wish I'd commit to putting my hair in dreads. The day was warm and bright and good. Spooky made cheese ravioli and broiled asparagus for dinner.

And yeah, Santino didn't win. But I honestly think he deserved to win. I'm not just sayin' that because he rocks my socks. He had the best line. Yes, it was more refined than many of his earlier pieces, but how many times have the judges and Tim Gunn told him to listen to what they're saying? And the clothes were absolutely frelling gorgeous. Going into the final three, with Nick inexplicably out of the running, I figured Daniel was a sure bet. And, given his performance all season, I figured he deserved it. However, his line wasn't up to his own standards. Still, it was better than almost everything Chloe did. Chloe's victory is yet another triumph of mediocrity and blandness over vision and individuality. This is the way the world works, and me, I'm still Santino's tralk and Michael Kors can bite my skinny grey ass.

Wait. Ewww. No, he can't. But Santino can. Anytime.

The insomnia is back. I'm not having trouble getting to sleep. Spooky was trying to read Dracula to me last night, and I couldn't stay awake for more than a few pages. But I'm waking up too early for the time I'm going to sleep. This morning I was awake at 8 a.m. (that's 7 a.m. EST to anyone not on Caitlín Standard Time). I blinked at the iBook for a while and then rewrote the Wikipedia entry on the basal nodosaurid Cedarpelta bilbeyhallorum. I've got to watch this not sleeping or I'll wind up back in the state, mentally and physically, I was in towards the end of all the Daughter of Hounds editing. At least I've had to avoid the embrace of the Green Fairy since Saturday, while the labret's been healing (no alcohol). I am taking today "off," as I've been working eight days straight and beginning to feel it.

I wanted to say thanks to the people who've commented on yesterday's dream entry. Especially mockingbirdgrrl, who wrote, Your statement, "Magic is communication. Magic is the one-way communication between any living organism and the cosmos. We speak and the cosmos doesn't listen, but we speak because there's nothing else we can do." resonates soundly. I kept rereading it, thinking I'd heard that somewhere before. Here it is, from Simon Black's The Book of Frank: "Because in reality, there is no response to our howling, not here. But that fact is intolerable. The mind invents a response." I've never read Simon Black, but yes, exactly. Consciousness cannot help but howl. I know I've been howling my head off for my whole goddamn life. And, so far, the only response beyond wishful thinking has been the beauty and profundity of Nature and Art* that's right here for anyone who'll but open their eyes and see the small fraction that's visible. I know my howling consciousness will always long for something more, some two-way communication, but I'm beginning to accept (in the words of Elizabeth Bear) the apparent truth that "Nobody is coming for you." My dream was fascinating and helpful, but it was only me talking to me, my unconscious and perhaps a Jungian collective attempting to aid my clumsy, fretting conscious mind. Of course, it was also the voice of the "goddess," the Dark Mother and Father and Divine Androgyne (thank you, morganxpage), but only because I am a part of the cosmos, as are you and that lightning-struck tree and the crows and everything living and non-living, every molecule and atom and sub-atomic speck and particle and wave...and, well, I think you see where I'm headed with this. Sagan said it best. "Star stuff."

Postscript: Thanks to everyone who's sent me a chat invite on gmail, but I honestly don't have time for any additional internet activity. Really. Already, I'm allowing LJ/Blogger to eat great mouthfuls of it.

*Truthfully, though, Art is merely a subset of Nature.

Comments

Santino

[seph-ski.livejournal.com]

It was frustrating that through all those 1-2 day challenges, the judges kept telling Santino to tone it down, but then when he has months to fine tune everything and get it just the way he wants, his work is too sophisticated???

I loved his darker outfit with the huge, billowing sleeves, and that knife-pleat dress they've featured through the past several episodes is *beautiful*.

Daniel's stuff was nice, but kind of stuffy and dull, and Chloe has some great skills when it comes to shaping and assembly, but I thought her line of very shiny and puffy and stiff dresses was very amatuer-prom.

*shrug* I'd love to buy a Santino original.

(And I can't wait for the next season!)

Re: Santino

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

It was frustrating that through all those 1-2 day challenges, the judges kept telling Santino to tone it down, but then when he has months to fine tune everything and get it just the way he wants, his work is too sophisticated???

That annoyed me no end.

And worse was when they called his line safe, when both Daniel and Chloe had way more safe pieces, and Santino actually had some variation in garment types (like that cute pleated top with those leather bloomers and that dark billowy sleeve one), as well as more variation in fabrics. With the exception of the two prints, Chloe seems to have done everything in that same heavy shiny silk stuff, she just got it in several different colours.

Bleh.

The one thing I did agree with Michael Kors on was that patch thing on some of Daniel's dresses. I just wanted to rip it off. Mostly because of the fact that it hung loose at the bottom and dangled in a fairly annoying manner.

Re: Santino

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

The one thing I did agree with Michael Kors on was that patch thing on some of Daniel's dresses. I just wanted to rip it off.

Yep.

[chocolatebird.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I think when Chloe says "fantasy collection" she means "fantasy 1987 prom." Wendy Pepper's collection was five times better than Chloe's--but even Wendy snuck in some of that hot pink prom satin.

[frankiemouse.livejournal.com]

i was going to share with you the news about "New animal resembles furry lobster" (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/03/08/furry.lobster.ap/index.html), but i just saw that Barry Graham posted a link to it and i think you're the person who "introduced" me to his lj. it's a cool photograph though.

i left the link in case others haven't seen it yet.

[tactileson.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking Chloe had the worst collection there. I'm still mystified as to why Santino didn't win. The judge's reaction that his clothes were too sophisticated after telling him to tone it down and that he doesn't understand a woman's body was just mind boggling. I think Nina seemed genuinely worried that they had "beaten his creativity out of him", but yet, if you were to look at the entire show, including the finale, Santino proved that he was the most creative, able to create things from amazingly over the top to subtle and sophisticated. It surprised me that they wouldn't have taken all into consideration when judging. But, as Bill Hick's once said, "we live in a world where good creative people are shot down in their prime and mediocre hacks thrive and survive."

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

But, as Bill Hick's once said, "we live in a world where good creative people are shot down in their prime and mediocre hacks thrive and survive."

Ahmet to that (and I love your icon).

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that the judges hated Santino from the start, and, given free reign, they would have tossed him early on, but, he brought the viewers, and my suspicion is that the producers recognized that Santino = Ratings and told them they were stuck with him to the bitter end. So even if he did come up with the best line, there was no way they were going to give it to him. I think, given that, they decided to give it to Chloe because it seemed that a lot of people were convinced that Daniel would win. Giving it to him ran the risk of making the whole thing look scripted (I suspect it was, at least partially)

"Nobody is coming for you." The first thought on that was "Shit, I've been in the wrong line of work, looking for the spirit in things. What's the point, if there's nothing that's going to listen?" My second thought, thankfully strangled the life out of the first. If there isn't anything that's going to respond to the howling, then the howling becomes it's own point. Maybe, to torture a metaphor, turning it into song. No, that's corny. Which leads me around to something that bothers me about Xianity, particularly the evangelical megachurch flavor. For them, my first thought does apply, since, to their way of thinking, the only spiritual development that matters is what you can pull off in your last moment of life. In a system like that, is it any wonder we're stuck in a flood of aspiritual, uncurious and thoroughly sorry folk.

bah.

With apologies for an long and incohate comment.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

No need to apologise. Nice post. Especailly:

Which leads me around to something that bothers me about Xianity, particularly the evangelical megachurch flavor. For them, my first thought does apply, since, to their way of thinking, the only spiritual development that matters is what you can pull off in your last moment of life. In a system like that, is it any wonder we're stuck in a flood of aspiritual, uncurious and thoroughly sorry folk.


Personally, I think worship/veneration is a far more wondrous thing when you're not doing it with the expectation of some reward for having done it.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Quite.

Though I'm finding the strengthening possibility that we will all have to do it, soon, or be punished for not doing so is quite poisonous to my own spiritual impulses.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Though I'm finding the strengthening possibility that we will all have to do it, soon, or be punished for not doing so is quite poisonous to my own spiritual impulses.

Hmmm. I'm not entirely clear what you're saying? Could you clarify? I'm intrigued.

[sovay]

I know my howling consciousness will always long for something more, some two-way communication, but I'm beginning to accept (in the words of Elizabeth Bear) the apparent truth that "Nobody is coming for you."

I was reminded of one of my favorite lines from The Seventh Seal: "Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call." At least you're not stuck calling into the dark in expectation of an answer. That way lies all the ways religion has bent people out of shape over the centuries. My other favorite line is "In our fear we make an image, and that image we call God."

You might be interested in strange_selkie's post here, where she asks people for their thoughts on God (and by extension the divine in any form).

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

At least you're not stuck calling into the dark in expectation of an answer.

True. Only the vestigial longing for an answer. But I'm working on that.

"In our fear we make an image, and that image we call God."

Which, of course, fits nicely with the quote from Simon Black.


You might be interested in [info]strange_selkie's post here, where she asks people for their thoughts on God (and by extension the divine in any form).

Thanks. I'll have a look...

[mockingbirdgrrl.livejournal.com]

i'm glad you enjoyed the comment.
perhaps "they've hidden things behind the sky" could be fleshed out in a sirenia vignette? i've yet to personally do anything with the quote.

[morganxpage.livejournal.com]

Divine Androgyne (thank you, [info]morganxpage)

You're welcome. :)

~Morgan

[tactileson.livejournal.com]

"Personally, I think worship/veneration is a far more wondrous thing when you're not doing it with the expectation of some reward for having done it."

So true. Actually, Natalie Portman said something on Inside The Actors Studio that I've always loved. When asked the classic question if heaven exists what do you want God to say when you get there, she said, "I try not to think about whether or not heaven exists, because if you spend all of your time doing good things just to get into heaven then everything you do becomes an inherently selfish act." That goes in my mental quote list along with Martin Sheen's response, which I love dearly, "I don't believe we go to heaven, I believe we become heaven."

Oh, and I got my icon from this site (http://home.earthlink.net/~scorpius-farscape.tv/images/farscape_icons.html), but they seem to be having some problems at the moment, as none of the images will display, at least for me.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

"I don't believe we go to heaven, I believe we become heaven."

Nice.

Oh, and I got my icon from this site, but they seem to be having some problems at the moment, as none of the images will display, at least for me.

It's not working for me, either...

[mb2u]

I stopped watching "reality" shows because I was constantly disappointed by the choices of the judges.

whoa

[tarots.livejournal.com]

I knew I smoked too much but for the sales to go down that much when I quit January 6th is just gross...heh.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

Chloe's victory is yet another triumph of mediocrity and blandness over vision and individuality.

Yeah. The word that kept coming to my mind during her show was, "Yolplait."

I agree that Santino had the best line. Even dialled down, his stuff still had a lot more style than the others'. And I don't think that leather vest thing was remotely safe. I had to wonder a bit if the fitting problems the judges were complaining about were due to the fact that Santino's models weren't showing up.

I was a little annoyed that the judges didn't see anything Asian about Daniel's stuff. To me, there was a very obvious Japanese influence. I'm kind of bothered by the fact that judgement might be skewed by the fact that these people have never seen Seven Samurai.

Sagan said it best. "Star stuff."

I have nothing really to add to the stuff coming out of your dream, but I think you're putting things well, and I like reading it.