Onye:
So NYC, seems like you could be dancing alot....with the big dogs if you wanted to....there's everything up there.
1:21am
Roddy:
yeah, sometimes I go online and check out where and when classes are. Even today I almost went to a class. But i get held back. I'm shy about going.
1:25am
Onye:
you should go. its New York.
its the big city
its the world's city
reality is being redefined every moment
you are a dancer...dance
Roddy:
thank you. Good night Onye. be well.
Onye:
yeah. peace.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
This Important Moment
Hi friends and family,
This is a very important moment. Next week we'll elect a new
president to lead our country, and to a large extent our world. I
don't pretend to know everything about national or international
politics, but I do feel like I'm on solid footing when I ask you to
vote for Barack Obama.
Our world is beautiful, and diverse, and very complicated. Racial,
ethnic, and religious conflicts are constantly flaring up on every
continent. In the past month we have seen that our international
economic systems are precarious and fragile. The next president will
have to address these issues with intelligence, compassion, and
patience.
We cannot afford to keep making enemies in the world. We have to
re-create the meaningful alliances that the Bush Administration lost
through arrogance and violence. We must show the world that we are
thoughtful, caring, and fair. This is the road to peace and safety.
And at home, we need intelligent solutions to our complex problems.
We need a professor, not a fighter pilot. We need calm, not anxiety.
We need hope and positivity, not fear and entrenchment.
If you feel like dismissing my thoughts as naive or partisan, that's
your prerogative. But I hope that you consider how wonderful this
world can be, and yet how easily we can make enemies through arrogant
politics, and thus make the world hostile and dangerous. I have many
years to live on this planet, and we need to make the best choices for
it.
We need Barack Obama.
Thank You,
Roddy Beall
This is a very important moment. Next week we'll elect a new
president to lead our country, and to a large extent our world. I
don't pretend to know everything about national or international
politics, but I do feel like I'm on solid footing when I ask you to
vote for Barack Obama.
Our world is beautiful, and diverse, and very complicated. Racial,
ethnic, and religious conflicts are constantly flaring up on every
continent. In the past month we have seen that our international
economic systems are precarious and fragile. The next president will
have to address these issues with intelligence, compassion, and
patience.
We cannot afford to keep making enemies in the world. We have to
re-create the meaningful alliances that the Bush Administration lost
through arrogance and violence. We must show the world that we are
thoughtful, caring, and fair. This is the road to peace and safety.
And at home, we need intelligent solutions to our complex problems.
We need a professor, not a fighter pilot. We need calm, not anxiety.
We need hope and positivity, not fear and entrenchment.
If you feel like dismissing my thoughts as naive or partisan, that's
your prerogative. But I hope that you consider how wonderful this
world can be, and yet how easily we can make enemies through arrogant
politics, and thus make the world hostile and dangerous. I have many
years to live on this planet, and we need to make the best choices for
it.
We need Barack Obama.
Thank You,
Roddy Beall
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Carter Doctrine: Cheese!
Sometime, I want you to tell me about Jimmy Carter. This is what I know:
-He was president one term, not reelected, therefore thought of as a failure, politically
-From the South, maybe was governor of Georgia (?)
-Told Americans to put on a sweater, as he brought forth environmental issues that folks weren't ready for, and that we now could see as visionary. With the sweater comment, it seems as if he is trying to "bring the solution home", as in "making people take responsibility for the issue," something that by-and-large people didn't- and don't- want to do.
-I recently heard a neat piece on NPR which looked at church and state separation and had Bill Mahr on, since his movie "Religulous" comes out this week. They said that Jimmy Carter was the first president to conceptualize the USA as a Christian State, and the office of the Presidency as a Christian position. He started the legacy of "God Bless America's" that all subsequent presidents have been required to spout.
-Your man Bacevich talked about the "Carter Doctrine," stating the strategic importance of the Middle East and declaring that the USA would not allow any other country to take control of the region, as a starting point for our imperialistic posture in the region.
All of that just doesn't seem to fit into the cartoon picture that I visualize of him, which is just an enormous Colgate smile on a dweeby sweater-clad body. So I would like you maybe to fill in some gaps for me. Who the heck was this guy?
-He was president one term, not reelected, therefore thought of as a failure, politically
-From the South, maybe was governor of Georgia (?)
-Told Americans to put on a sweater, as he brought forth environmental issues that folks weren't ready for, and that we now could see as visionary. With the sweater comment, it seems as if he is trying to "bring the solution home", as in "making people take responsibility for the issue," something that by-and-large people didn't- and don't- want to do.
-I recently heard a neat piece on NPR which looked at church and state separation and had Bill Mahr on, since his movie "Religulous" comes out this week. They said that Jimmy Carter was the first president to conceptualize the USA as a Christian State, and the office of the Presidency as a Christian position. He started the legacy of "God Bless America's" that all subsequent presidents have been required to spout.
-Your man Bacevich talked about the "Carter Doctrine," stating the strategic importance of the Middle East and declaring that the USA would not allow any other country to take control of the region, as a starting point for our imperialistic posture in the region.
All of that just doesn't seem to fit into the cartoon picture that I visualize of him, which is just an enormous Colgate smile on a dweeby sweater-clad body. So I would like you maybe to fill in some gaps for me. Who the heck was this guy?
9th Street Night-Op
Hi bro,
I hope you are doing well today, with your crazy schedule, whatever hours you worked, whenever you slept. In my mind, from this distance, it seems like a cool adventure. I imagine having to go with my ZZZ Carpentry crew and do a night-op on a Manhattan jobsite. I can see Big-D, 6'5" and fresh from prison, waiting on the sidewalk with his trashbag backpack. Then Niggs and Jose come around the corner with their do-rags on, as if they just came from rumble, but they are carrying tape measures and drill bits. Billy zooms in on his bike, tapered pants and machine-gun laugh, and we all wait for James, late again, with his headphones playing death metal into his long dreds. When we've amassed the squadron, we open the service door, and with headlamps navigate the basement maze to the freight elevator, and as we press into the car, we are thankful for each other's body heat, although no one would dare mention it.
Up to the 33rd floor, medical booties across the marble and brass floor, silently into the Penthouse, and before Billy flicks on the lights, we all sigh as the galaxy of Manhattan lights glitters into the parlor from the broad windows. The city is silent, like the night sky, and planets and moons and taxis and planes orbit us. We are home, and we are all out of place.
That's what it would be like if we had to work the middle of the night. I bet
I hope you are doing well today, with your crazy schedule, whatever hours you worked, whenever you slept. In my mind, from this distance, it seems like a cool adventure. I imagine having to go with my ZZZ Carpentry crew and do a night-op on a Manhattan jobsite. I can see Big-D, 6'5" and fresh from prison, waiting on the sidewalk with his trashbag backpack. Then Niggs and Jose come around the corner with their do-rags on, as if they just came from rumble, but they are carrying tape measures and drill bits. Billy zooms in on his bike, tapered pants and machine-gun laugh, and we all wait for James, late again, with his headphones playing death metal into his long dreds. When we've amassed the squadron, we open the service door, and with headlamps navigate the basement maze to the freight elevator, and as we press into the car, we are thankful for each other's body heat, although no one would dare mention it.
Up to the 33rd floor, medical booties across the marble and brass floor, silently into the Penthouse, and before Billy flicks on the lights, we all sigh as the galaxy of Manhattan lights glitters into the parlor from the broad windows. The city is silent, like the night sky, and planets and moons and taxis and planes orbit us. We are home, and we are all out of place.
That's what it would be like if we had to work the middle of the night. I bet
Monday, October 6, 2008
Body Premeire, Penthouse
Quiero preguntarte algo.
But I don't want anyone to know that I asked you.
Have you ever hooked up with a boy?
"...if it weren't for you, for our connection, our love, our meeting, our experience together- I would have never been able to accomplish this... Our relationship gave me the validation that love exists in this world, that connection is real and does happen, that two people can fall asleep folded up in each other and wake up in the same position, that honesty and communication create more love and a deeper connection, that men do care, are sensitive and do notice- even small things."
She wears a bra 24 hours a day,
and those things are so incredible! Straight up!
She won't kiss during sex,
She saw Pretty Woman in 4th grade and decided kissing was too intimate.
I'm dancing with a TV screen of a girl dancing.
"Our relationship- you gave me- the experience of dancing with someone open and willing to embody and express himself, the willingness and ability to trust this world, to travel at large and to feed off chaotic and foreign experience while remaining circumspective."
Three times the national average incidence of HIV
Three times the fun
Three guys hanging out in the West Village
Three FIT girls, and us with our shirts off.
Uno, dos, tres, it's on.
I want to be met. I want to be known. I want to be loved.
There must be girls in this city
that want to be met, that want to be known, that want to be loved.
What kind of computer is that?
Cool, do you like it?
I'm Roddy.
But I don't want anyone to know that I asked you.
Have you ever hooked up with a boy?
"...if it weren't for you, for our connection, our love, our meeting, our experience together- I would have never been able to accomplish this... Our relationship gave me the validation that love exists in this world, that connection is real and does happen, that two people can fall asleep folded up in each other and wake up in the same position, that honesty and communication create more love and a deeper connection, that men do care, are sensitive and do notice- even small things."
She wears a bra 24 hours a day,
and those things are so incredible! Straight up!
She won't kiss during sex,
She saw Pretty Woman in 4th grade and decided kissing was too intimate.
I'm dancing with a TV screen of a girl dancing.
"Our relationship- you gave me- the experience of dancing with someone open and willing to embody and express himself, the willingness and ability to trust this world, to travel at large and to feed off chaotic and foreign experience while remaining circumspective."
Three times the national average incidence of HIV
Three times the fun
Three guys hanging out in the West Village
Three FIT girls, and us with our shirts off.
Uno, dos, tres, it's on.
I want to be met. I want to be known. I want to be loved.
There must be girls in this city
that want to be met, that want to be known, that want to be loved.
What kind of computer is that?
Cool, do you like it?
I'm Roddy.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Sine Waves of Emotion
This life is a roller coaster. It's nuts. I longboard through Manhattan every day, and with Radiohead blasting in my earbuds, the whole world is just a screenplay. I see many people in perfect emotional stasis on their routine commute, but every once in a while I see a real gem, a diamond in the rough: a tear-streaked face screaming into a cell phone, kicking a wall, falling in despair onto a bench, throwing up their hopeless hands, squaring off to punch a complete stranger.
It's not an ideal moment, for those people. I'm sure they wish I wasn't seeing them. But I'm so grateful I am. They represent a peak in human existence: the pinnacles of emotion. They are overwhelmed with their own humanity. They can't escape their fate as real, sentient, capable beings. They can't hide in clothes or products or ego. They are splayed open, and I'm lucky enough to see inside.
Everyone loves graphs right? Well, I do, and emotions in life similar to a sine wave, which fluctuates constantly between extremes, and returns again and again to 0, but never stops. At either extreme, it does for a moment stop changing (slope=0) so it could be said that that moment of extreme emotion is more real and lasting and tangible than the moment of calm, represented by 0, when in fact the rate of change is at its maximum velocity. Said another way, you have actually arrived at a real destination if you are ecstatic or in despair, but if you are "just fine," you are simply heading toward ecstasy or despair.
Here's the thing though. For all it's moving and shaking, the sine wave has an average of 0. For every moment of rage there is an equal and opposite moment of bliss, and these things can (at least mathematically) cancel each other out. If a person takes a long-term view of his life, he may come to trust this average, and take comfort in the guaranteed return to 0. So even at an emotional peak, he can take a deep breath and say, "I'm gonna be fine; I AM fine," and in that way nullify the peak.
How uncommunicative for his girlfriend! How unfulfilling for the longboarding spectator! How discouraging for neurotransmitters, just waiting to deliver bursts of emotion!
As a side note, I do the breathe and average technique. It's been disastrous for more than one relationship. But I'm working on it. At least I'm blogging about it.
It's not an ideal moment, for those people. I'm sure they wish I wasn't seeing them. But I'm so grateful I am. They represent a peak in human existence: the pinnacles of emotion. They are overwhelmed with their own humanity. They can't escape their fate as real, sentient, capable beings. They can't hide in clothes or products or ego. They are splayed open, and I'm lucky enough to see inside.
Everyone loves graphs right? Well, I do, and emotions in life similar to a sine wave, which fluctuates constantly between extremes, and returns again and again to 0, but never stops. At either extreme, it does for a moment stop changing (slope=0) so it could be said that that moment of extreme emotion is more real and lasting and tangible than the moment of calm, represented by 0, when in fact the rate of change is at its maximum velocity. Said another way, you have actually arrived at a real destination if you are ecstatic or in despair, but if you are "just fine," you are simply heading toward ecstasy or despair.
Here's the thing though. For all it's moving and shaking, the sine wave has an average of 0. For every moment of rage there is an equal and opposite moment of bliss, and these things can (at least mathematically) cancel each other out. If a person takes a long-term view of his life, he may come to trust this average, and take comfort in the guaranteed return to 0. So even at an emotional peak, he can take a deep breath and say, "I'm gonna be fine; I AM fine," and in that way nullify the peak.
How uncommunicative for his girlfriend! How unfulfilling for the longboarding spectator! How discouraging for neurotransmitters, just waiting to deliver bursts of emotion!
As a side note, I do the breathe and average technique. It's been disastrous for more than one relationship. But I'm working on it. At least I'm blogging about it.
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