What’s your favorite creature?
Humans.
Ask @tomhead1978
Previous
Are you seeking something you can never attain? If so, what makes you proceed with your quest?
I think we tend to seek the complete form of things without really expecting or wanting a scenario where we achieve that state of completeness. I want to write the best material I can not because I believe I will one day create the absolute platonic essence of perfect writing, but because it makes all of my material better than it would otherwise be. Happiness isn't a set of coordinates; it's more about drift and flow.
Liked by:
shahwar
AHH, I love Obscure! Sorry, I get the giddies when people reference stuff I love in the wild that doesn't often get a mention. :)
Dir en Grey's "Obscure" is wonderful. Not a video I want to watch regularly, but I get what they're driving at and they made it there. And as shocking as it is, there's no sense that any of it is there just *to* shock—you feel like you're seeing something that you're not supposed to see, not something that is there specifically to be looked at.
You might know that Dir en Grey got their start as a visual kei band, a genre that owes a great deal to David Bowie. So that's one more part of the international music scene where he left a mark.
You might know that Dir en Grey got their start as a visual kei band, a genre that owes a great deal to David Bowie. So that's one more part of the international music scene where he left a mark.
Related users
Do you ever use humor to mask other emotions? If not, what do you use?
I use humor, curiosity, abstraction/distancing, and simple distraction.
Liked by:
shahwar
If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?
I'd make them immortal.
Liked by:
shahwar
What movie, provided it has unlimited funding and the latest technology, would you want to see remade and why? BQs: Directed and acted by whom?
Dune, directed as a big-budget 9-hour trilogy by Tim Burton, screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Peter David, filmed in Nollywood with an all-African cast that is not yet familiar to U.S. audiences, featuring an instrumental soundtrack by Peter Gabriel (who would be asked to, in effect, make a sequel to his Passion soundtrack).
What do you think makes a person feel the urge to destroy the thing or the person they desire the most and why?
I think it's usually fear of loss, which can drive us to do terrible things.
Liked by:
shahwar
Been an age since I listened to Dir En Grey, excellent video suggestion. I'd not seen it and it most definitely fits the bill. And Bjork too! Good stuff. Cheers!
Thank you! You might also check out Tool's videos, if you haven't already.
If one of your responsibilities was to protect and to guide another human being whom you aren't related with (e.g., a stranger, a lover, an employee etc.), how would you fulfill your responsibility and why?
I'd bring them into the loop immediately and ask how they think I can best serve that purpose.
Do you agree with the quote "He who gives up freedom for safety deserves neither"? Why?
As a longtime civil libertarian (former ACLU board member, About.com Guide to Civil Liberties, author of multiple books about civil liberties), and as someone whose favorite Founding Father is Benjamin Franklin, I should like that quote but I don't. My feeling is that everybody deserves both freedom and safety and however understandable it might have been for Franklin to suggest otherwise, it would be crass to do so now. Freedom and safety are both universal human rights. If we sacrifice the former in an attempt to get more of the latter that's foolish of us, but it doesn't mean we don't deserve to be free and safe. We do. That's the basic right behind the whole enterprise.
Is there anything that makes you doubt your own sanity? If so, what is it and why?
I don't really see myself as sane, or at least as more sane than average. I think I'm basically reliable and intellectually honest, but I have to work at it.
Liked by:
shahwar
If you could have an implant surgically embedded into your brain, that allowed you direct neural access to wireless networks (and the internet), would you?
Assuming I could remain functional, absolutely. I'll be the first in line.
In psychology, they teach that people are afraid of offending others merely because they fear being offended themselves. How would you explain that?
It sounds like they're applying the Freudian concept of projection a little broader than I would. I would personally be inclined to think less Freud, more Maslow—people fear offending others because they have a fragile sense of belonging and don't want to be unloved. That's not an unrealistic or undignified fear. I think we've all been there.
I have fallen right into the adult coloring book fad and have no regrets. Are there any fads that you've especially enjoyed over the years?
Good on you! Here's a free coloring book page a friend painted of Jewel and me.
I loved the MySpace/Facebook/LiveJournal Proust-questionairre style quizzes that were popular 8-10 years ago, and really kind of miss them because filling out one of those was a lovely way to wind down after a long day.
I loved the MySpace/Facebook/LiveJournal Proust-questionairre style quizzes that were popular 8-10 years ago, and really kind of miss them because filling out one of those was a lovely way to wind down after a long day.
If people are put into 3 categories: sociopaths, psychopaths and "normopaths", which category applies to you and why?
Normal with mild sociopathic traits.
"If I told everyone I know my true thoughts on them I'd have very few friends". How much do you relate to this?
I don't at all now, but I think I might have five years ago. I've gotten to the point now where the stuff I think about my friends more-or-less matches the stuff I'd say to their faces, and I hope the reverse is true.
"when a dog is fed, it sees its feeder as its master. When a cat is fed it sees itself as the feeder's master" - How true is this quote, in your opinion?
Not very. Cats aren't pack animals, so they don't believe in masters.
Is the suffering of one who was born into a perfectly happy life and had his arm broken greater than the suffering of one who was born into a "hell" of a life and had his younger brother/sister die? Why / why not?
I don't think suffering can really be quantified, and this question sort of hints at why, but to the extent that it can be, nothing is ever worse than grief.
When Einstein was asked to join the scientific community he told the representatives that he'll reply by arriving to the train station with either a red flower or a white flower, one saying he agree to join, the other, decline. Why do you think he replied to them in this manner?
Red roses (the specific flower he brought) are typically used when you've fallen in love with someone and are courting them, while white flowers are more commonly seen at funerals. My guess is that his decision was basically connected to that symbolism—love versus death—though why he didn't just give them a yes or no is anybody's guess. He'd already become a big deal by the time of the Planck train station thing, so maybe he just realized his answer was going to be important to them and chose to express it in a way that respected that.
Would you rather have a little bit of knowledge about everything or definite knowledge about a particular thing/subject? How would you justify your choice?
Personally, I think I'd rather have a little bit of knowledge about everything. It's easier for me to go from there and develop a specialized understanding of a topic than it is to do the reverse.
Liked by:
shahwar
When a celebrity who has ostensibly made great art dies, is it the duty of their fans to own the bad as well as the good? Does a one sided representation do the deceased party any justice? Do you think it dangerous to deify such people, as many do, when reacting to their death?
I don't know.
I hate it when I see both sides of a controversy and reject both of them, because it's usually a cop-out. That said, I've explored the David Bowie bit a little more, and I feel like there are two responses, and I hate them both:
Irritating Response #1: "Here, grieving Bowie fan. Feast on this article that proves that YOU ARE PROBLEMATIC and YOUR GRIEVING IS FALSE. I am enlightened, above you and your rapist role models."
and
Irritating Response #2: "HOW DARE YOU accuse David Bowie of rape. Have you no decency? Have you, at last, no decency at all? That 14-year-old CONSENTED, dammit, and the 1987 accuser was obviously crazy because he was never convicted, and as we know the criminal justice system always handles rape charges against celebrities fairly."
And it all kind of disgusts me.
I don't feel like that's germane to your question, but I gave a glib initial answer (perhaps I should call it Irritating Response #3) that I no longer agree with. I'm wrestling with all of this. I don't think it's fair to not give people space to grieve. And I also don't think it's fair to sweep a celebrity's history of sexual assault completely under the rug. The ideal response would be to acknowledge the bad in a way that doesn't shame people for celebrating the good, but I don't know if we even have a vocabulary for that yet.
I hate it when I see both sides of a controversy and reject both of them, because it's usually a cop-out. That said, I've explored the David Bowie bit a little more, and I feel like there are two responses, and I hate them both:
Irritating Response #1: "Here, grieving Bowie fan. Feast on this article that proves that YOU ARE PROBLEMATIC and YOUR GRIEVING IS FALSE. I am enlightened, above you and your rapist role models."
and
Irritating Response #2: "HOW DARE YOU accuse David Bowie of rape. Have you no decency? Have you, at last, no decency at all? That 14-year-old CONSENTED, dammit, and the 1987 accuser was obviously crazy because he was never convicted, and as we know the criminal justice system always handles rape charges against celebrities fairly."
And it all kind of disgusts me.
I don't feel like that's germane to your question, but I gave a glib initial answer (perhaps I should call it Irritating Response #3) that I no longer agree with. I'm wrestling with all of this. I don't think it's fair to not give people space to grieve. And I also don't think it's fair to sweep a celebrity's history of sexual assault completely under the rug. The ideal response would be to acknowledge the bad in a way that doesn't shame people for celebrating the good, but I don't know if we even have a vocabulary for that yet.
I actually do have one: do you ever feel this way? Where you just want to love or connect with something instead of seeing what seems like endless picking-apart? Do I probably need an Internet break? (5)
[5/5]
I do sometimes feel this way, and when I feel this way I try to take an Internet break.
A few thoughts, more or less at random:
(1) You're grieving. 99% of your reaction is probably about that, and not about how other people are responding to Bowie's death.
(2) I think using our own spaces to highlight the 1967 and 1987 incidents is fine, if that's what we're inclined to do. Like, the Establishment article on those incidents seems responsible to me and I'm glad I read it.
(3) But I think using other people's spaces to interrogate their grief and rub salt in their wounds to get a rise out of them is sadistic and generally a shitty thing to do. Roman Polanski disgusts me, but someone who goes around on the day of his death individually shaming folks who mourn him is telling us more about their own capacity for evil than they are about Polanski's.
(4) I daresay the grief white Bowie fans, even LGBT ones, feel may be dwarfed by the grief black GenX-and-older Bill Cosby fans feel, both because of the more certain pattern of behavior (58 incidents vs. two) and because black kids never catch a goddamn break. Imagine a Venn diagram of Cosby, Michael, and Whitney with the axes "dead" and "credibly accused of sexual assault" and imagine how black folks who grew up in the 80s are feeling right now. Sure, Cosby's technically the one who's not dead, but it's still grief. And I think this can be a point of empathy.
(5) We need to have a larger conversation about human moral complexity, about how all of our faves are problematic, about how *we're* problematic and judging ourselves by the public reputations of our faves isn't going to make us better people, and about how the solution to this isn't to just uncritically accept everyone and stop giving a shit. But that's not a conversation I need to be having with someone who's grieving. Be kind to yourself and take a break from social media. And if you have any "friends" who exhibited the behavior described under #3 above, maybe consider unfriending them. You don't need to surround yourself with people who are trying to draw blood.
I do sometimes feel this way, and when I feel this way I try to take an Internet break.
A few thoughts, more or less at random:
(1) You're grieving. 99% of your reaction is probably about that, and not about how other people are responding to Bowie's death.
(2) I think using our own spaces to highlight the 1967 and 1987 incidents is fine, if that's what we're inclined to do. Like, the Establishment article on those incidents seems responsible to me and I'm glad I read it.
(3) But I think using other people's spaces to interrogate their grief and rub salt in their wounds to get a rise out of them is sadistic and generally a shitty thing to do. Roman Polanski disgusts me, but someone who goes around on the day of his death individually shaming folks who mourn him is telling us more about their own capacity for evil than they are about Polanski's.
(4) I daresay the grief white Bowie fans, even LGBT ones, feel may be dwarfed by the grief black GenX-and-older Bill Cosby fans feel, both because of the more certain pattern of behavior (58 incidents vs. two) and because black kids never catch a goddamn break. Imagine a Venn diagram of Cosby, Michael, and Whitney with the axes "dead" and "credibly accused of sexual assault" and imagine how black folks who grew up in the 80s are feeling right now. Sure, Cosby's technically the one who's not dead, but it's still grief. And I think this can be a point of empathy.
(5) We need to have a larger conversation about human moral complexity, about how all of our faves are problematic, about how *we're* problematic and judging ourselves by the public reputations of our faves isn't going to make us better people, and about how the solution to this isn't to just uncritically accept everyone and stop giving a shit. But that's not a conversation I need to be having with someone who's grieving. Be kind to yourself and take a break from social media. And if you have any "friends" who exhibited the behavior described under #3 above, maybe consider unfriending them. You don't need to surround yourself with people who are trying to draw blood.
and it's all replaced with analysis. I'm probably just cranky and sad. I know it's the most typical thing in the world; someone appears to attack a hero of mine and suddenly I question everything. I'll probably feel better tomorrow. This was more of a vent than a question, but I suppose (4)
[4/5]
who don't get the luxury of not seeing shadows behind everything in life and I know they're not necessarily aiming these observations AT anyone. But sometimes I *do* feel like the joy just ends up vacuumed out of everything, immediately. Or the sorrow. Or just ANY feeling (3)
[3/5]
if only briefly, before they're dissected. It's privileged whining, I know. I know this. I'm not exempt, no matter how much I'd rather it be otherwise. But every now and then the feeling makes me want to take a step back from activism. I understand that there are some people (2)
[2/5]
Next
