Hylas and the Nymphs

The above picture is by John Waterhouse. It depicts Hylas, the companion of Heracles (depending on what author you listen to Heracles was Hylas’ father.) During a stop on the voyage of the Argo, he went in search of water and was seduced by nymphs and never seen again.

I really like this painting, so much so I have it over the head board of my bed. (I never thought about it till someone mentioned it but there is probably a deep-seated psychological reason for that choice.) Waterhouse has created a lush environment. The nymphs are clearly supernatural, three sets of twins, and none have areolae. The nymphs display many of the subtle psychological (and perhaps subconscious) cues that women use to attract men (playing with her hair, leaning the head to one side, touching the arm). Also note the difference in lighting, the nymphs are bright, Hylas is not. He is about to taken, never to be seen again.

It's really a beautiful and subtle work of art.

Fair Trade Coffee

I love coffee! I’m really serious about this. In some subjects I can be really picky (maybe even a snot), and coffee is one of them.

Good coffee is actually a real rarity. Here is the reason:

Most coffee is grown in Central and South America. These countries are by and large poorer than the USA and Europe. A majority of the population of these countries live on the kind of income levels that Americans would classify as below the poverty line. Farmers in these countries tend to live in a feudal type of society. Farmers don’t own the land they work on, so a portion of their income goes to pay for their use of the land. Coffee is a very popular crop. It is the second most traded product in the world behind crude oil.

What are the strategies that a farmer can use to maximize the quantity of product he puts on the market? 1) clear-cut every available inch of land to plant the crop 2) push as much growth hormones and fertilizer on the crops to press for fast development 3) harvest as early and often as possible.

What is the fall-out? Trees (read into this animal habitats like birds and such) and natural vegetation is eliminated. The land, water, and local population is polluted by overuse of chemicals. And premature coffee hits the market to be roasted into the common sludge we buy at the market.

Is there a way around this? You betcha’. Its called Fair Trade. It is not only applies to coffee, but it is the most common place you will see it. Farmers are paid a better wage for their crop, in return, they don’t use the "maximizing strategies" listed above. The farmers are winners, they have a decent wage and are not poisoning themselves to do it. The environment is a winner, trees can live, birds can have homes, the soil and water don’t get tons of chemicals dumped on them. The consumer is a winner, the coffee is fully matured when harvested making for a better cup and the uniqueness of the region where it was grown can come through. Soil in Nicaragua is different from that in Mexico, just as it is different in Columbia, so each place will have coffee that will absorb different naturally occurring elements. This makes for a real joy. Just as you may want a Sam Adams today and want a Guinness tomorrow, so you can have a Peruvian today and a Somalian tomorrow.

So do yourself a favor, go to Target (Archer Farms Organic Coffee), or go to www dot cafecanopy dot com and get some Fair Trade certified, organically-grown, single origin coffee and experience the difference. You may drop $11 or more bucks on a 12oz bag but just think, that 12oz bag is 80 cups of coffee. It works out to about 14 cents a cup. I know folks who regularly drop about $6 a day at Starbucks.

Five Top Movies (definitely not conclusive)

At this moment in time, my top five movies are:

Casablanca This movie is just so wonderful in its balance of comedy and drama. It is a powerful love story. It’s a so rich in hopefulness. Often I have felt like Rick, hurt and wanting to hide away, trying to be a tough guy but all the time never able to leave behind that instinct to help, especially the lost causes.

Papillon The story of Henri Charrière’s imprisonment and strength while suffering under the French penal system is inspiring. Never will this man let himself be beaten.

The Empire Strikes Back What can one say, this movie is simply dazzling. The action is taught. The romance is powerful and heartbreaking. The gravity of the movie is overwhelming. This story took me in at the age of 8 and has never let go.

Mulholland Drive A truly bizarre experience but filled with so many things to think about. A short list is: What is fear? What synthesis of experience brings us to emotion? How can the absurd and banal carry such menace? Script vs. performance in producing engaging theater.

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I have never felt the pangs of love-lost so sharply as I do while watching this movie. It’s such a powerful examination of how people can come into your life and make such a profound mark. It’s an fine example of how unique our human interactions are and how irreproducible they are. Sometimes there is pain we just don’t want to remember, that we don’t believe we can endure, but it’s the experiences we have that make us into the people we are today.

The Cart Corral

Ok, time for me go on a whinge! I’m constantly amazed how retail outlets will put cart corrals in their parking lots and people are too lazy to use them.

Sometimes I try to be understanding. Maybe the corral is far away and the person has a child they have to tend to. (This never stops me, but I know it can be a challenge.) But most of the time that I witness a cart dump, it turns out to be some dimwit who apparently can’t be bothered. And the ones that really get me are the ones who are just a space or two away, or a mere cross of the driving space! AAARGG!

I wish I has a dime for every time I entered say, the parking lot of Walmart, it’s busy as all heck and spaces are few. I approach a spot between a couple of cars and, wham-o, there’s a cart smack in the middle of the spot. Why can’t people just have some common consideration! Would it really kill them to walk a little distance and put the cart in the corral?

Aikido

I’m so excited! It seems in the last few weeks a aikido dojo has sprung up in my neck of the woods! Let me tell you about my history with aikido.

Some years ago I lived just outside of Boston and got a temp job at Gillette. They are headquartered in south Boston. To get there I’d take a train into the city and the red line to Broadway Station. It was great.

I also wanted to take up a martial art for the discipline and fitness aspects. As is normal for me I did my research and discovered aikido. This, simply put, is my personality in a martial art. I am non-combative, non-aggressive, yet will defend myself when the need arises. There was a dojo in Cambridge near the Harvard Square Station, so all I needed to do when work was over was to jump on the red line and ride.

Cribbing heavily from Wikipedia: Aikido, the Way of harmonious spirit, is a synthesis of other martial arts and works mostly with throws and joint locks. An aggressor’s own energy is used and redirected to neutralize the aggressor with (hopefully) the least injury to both people. One first must learn how to fall and roll because all training involves pairs, one acting as the attacker, the other acting as the subject. Since a subject uses his body to harmonize with the attacker’s movement and redirect it, it does not call for significant strength, but relies on flexibility and balance. Yoga, (another activity I love) is very complimentary.

Unfortunately, not long after I started aikido, Gillette no longer needed me. My subsequent job was closer to home, a drive perpendicular to Boston. This made the trip to the dojo a long one. I tried to keep it up but it was just too long. Aikido, unlike, Taikwon-do, is not just around every corner. Even here, before this local place showed up, the nearest place was USF. It’s not insanely far away, but it’s just not convenient. So, I’m going to take it up again and see what happens. Unfortunately, I am 10 years older and many pounds heavier than I was then, but I’m going to give it my best.

My History With Motorcycles

Back when I was a freshman in college, I first got the bug to get a motorcycle. The thing that stopped me was the advice of my father. (I’ve always had the utmost respect for my father. He is, and I say it without prejudice, one of the finest men in the world.) He pointed out a young fellow, probably not more than 21, that was working at one of our tire vender’s shops. The fellow obviously walked with a bad limp. Come to find out he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident. This put me off.

Just about 3 years ago, I started to feel the bug again. I felt better about the decision insomuch as I have become a better and more careful driver in the past (Good Lord is it!) 13 years. So I took the class offered at Armwood (undoubtedly the best and priced right).

A few days later I bought my first bike, a Yamaha V-Star 650 that had been lowered and seriously detailed. I named her Veronica. She was a beauty, but I started to get urge to have something truly unique. That’s when I sold her to one of my co-workers and got Athena.

Athena was a green Honda Shadow ACE 750. She obviously was a former show bike that had gone into retirement. I put hard saddle bags and a windshield on her. I moved her controls forward to accommodate my long legs and put a signal minder in her. I put a lot of effort into her.

I got a second motorcycle when I managed to work up enough cash, a Honda Hawk 650 named Sophia. Now I really fell in love! I felt so much more confident on Sophia. The bummer was, she was physically a small bike, so after a good long ride I was getting uncomfortable. With all this in mind, I knew what I had to do. Both Athena and Sophia went on the auction block. With the proceeds I got Trixie.

A Triumph Sprint RS 955 in Lucifer Orange. The previous owner had lowered her. Some might think it sacrilege, but I put a hard case on Trixie (I do have to travel with her.) and it has been ecstacy.

Long ago, not long after I got my licence, I joined my local CMA chapter, Covenant Riders. I earned my colors in children’s ministry. I got a chance to go to Spooks ‘n’ Scoots in 2006 and was frustrated that I could not do it this year. In fact, scheduling problems have hindered my ability to participate as much as I’d like.

The Sunday right before Halloween, I had a tumble on Trixie. Upon entering my church’s parking lot, I got off the tarmac and hit wet dirt, grass, and leaves. That just is not a good combo of a sports bike. Trixie was fine, but I spent the next 3 weeks on crutches from what turned out to be a "bone-bruise." My right leg from the knee down was badly swollen. It’s made me think that maybe I need to give up Trixie. Just a minor spill resulted in so much inconvenience. Yet, I love the feeling of being on her, it’s magic!

Vladimir Nabokov

One writer that absolutely amazes me is Vladimir Nabokov. This man, born and spending his first 12 years of life in Russia, later becomes one of the most remarkable writers in the English language. I often regret that I have not had the time to read more of his works. I have had the pleasure of reading Lolita.

Now about Lolita. The subject matter, on the surface, is indeed repulsive. The idea of a grown man wanting and having sexual relations with a 12 year old girl is repugnant. All to often, I think our society has shunned this work because of its content or highjacked it for its lurid value. Both are a disservice to this fine piece if literature. Indeed, I do not think for one moment that Nabokov wants us to find Humbert Humbert noble. Lolita is a study in love: how it can obsess us, how it can wound us, and how it can change us. Nabokov is poetic in his word usage. Despite the unpleasant nature of the story, we come to know the mind of this man through magnificent prose. In this way, it is a joy to read. By the end of the story, you may not like Humbert Humbert, but you come away with a new appreciation of love in the human condition.

If you have not read it, I highly recommend it. It is a relatively short novel and the text just pores off the page.

The Iliad

Right now I’m listening to the Iliad in my car when I travel to and from work. A lot of folks might think that crazy. I believe most people look upon Homer as a punishment inflicted on students. Let me tell you why I’m listening to it.

The first year of my undergraduate education we sat a course called Western Heritage. The idea is to give a brief overview of how we got the culture we have in America today. (If you think this is ballocks, just consider how many people do you know that have a Aristotelian view of reality, i.e. "throw open the window, there is reality!") We read most of both the Odyssey and the Aeneid. Both are sequels to the Iliad. The one thing I loved about the Odyssey was the terrifying situation Odysseus and his crew got into on the isle of the cyclops. If you have a good imagination, it plays out a lot like the Grendel attack scenes in Beowulf, only the threat is extremely immanent the whole time. It gives me goose flesh just thinking about it. But I digress, back to my main point.

I was fortunate enough during the short/intense winter term to go to Greece. (I love Greece! If I had any place I could retire to it would be Santorini and I’d take regular trips to Athens, Mycenae, and Metéora.) It was cut short when the First Gulf War was about to occur and some Greeks where not to thrilled with American policy. (Nothing ever happened to us but the college I went to always seemed to be on the over-protective side.) Our final projects were changed to writing papers on some aspect of Greek culture. I asked if I could write a Greek tragedy in the style of Aeschylus. I chose the revenge that Orestes exacts on his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, for the killing of his father Agamemnon. Well, to get to know something of Agamemnon, you have to read the Iliad. I went through a abridged and edited version to get the project done. Essentially, every character in the story is a combination of hero and schmuck (actually a lot like most people are).

Years later, I was working on a cross-stitch project, (I’ll write about that another time) and wanted to listen to something while I worked. I came across an abridged, but very good reading on tape done by Derek Jakobi (the valet in Gosford park, the Emperor in I, Claudius). I had listen to it perhaps ten or so times in about four years. One of the cassettes broke and about a year later I got "The Anger of Achilles: Homer’s Iliad" read by Bill Kelsey. And in the past year, I’ve tried to do away with cassettes altogether and get just cds, so I now have an unabridged reading done by George Guidall (more will be forthcoming about him since he reads at least 3 other of my favorite books). It is a remarkable story. The vanity, the stupidity, the violence, and the heroism is hard to beat. Let me just go off on a couple of subjects.

There are parts of the story that are just down right boring. The most infamous is "The catalog of ships." But you have to appreciate who it is there. This was a spoken poem that performed all over Greece and this was considered actual account of history. Everyone wants to here about how their people were there. So you wind up with some long winded parts dealing with homeland stories and lists of people.

The scenes of violence, like those in the Odyssey, in the mind of the imaginative, put anything Hollywood can make to shame. The description of a spear being thrust through bottom of the jaw, piercing the tongue, and bursting out the teeth gives me shivers.

Finally, in complete opposition to "Troy," Telamonian Ajax, is a fantastic hero and is really the man who should be called best of the Achaeans. The man never whines like Agamemnon, or pouts like Achilles, or brags like Sarpedon. Great Ajax, fights hard, does his part, and is a mighty, not because he has a god behind him making him so, but on his own merit.

The Problem With American guns

Now I don’t want you to think I’m some gun wielding psycho. I am a gun owner and I have a great deal of respect for them. When I first wanted to handle one, I took a class at the Tampa Police Range. My strongest advice to anyone who wants a gun is to take a similar class and heed "A Father’s Advice" by Carl Kauba:

If a sportsman true you’d be
Listen carefully to me. . .
Never, never let your gun
Pointed be at anyone.
That it may unloaded be
Matters not the least to me.
When a hedge or fence you cross
Though of time it cause a loss
From your gun the cartridge take
For the greater safety’s sake.
If twixt you and neighboring gun
Bird shall fly or beast may run
Let this maxim ere be thine
"Follow not across the line."
Stops and beaters oft unseen
Lurk behind some leafy screen.
Calm and steady always be
"Never shoot where you can’t see."
You may kill or you may miss
But at all times think this:
"All the pheasants ever bred
Won’t repay for one man dead."

Now on to my main point of my writing. It is unfortunate that American-made guns have fallen into two categories these days: "Saturday Night Specials" and "Expensive Unreliables"
If you're not a gun owner who has done research on guns, you probably are unaware that the US government has a laundry list of requirements a gun must meet to be imported to the US. American-made guns have no such requirement. Hence the advent of the "Saturday Night Special." These are cheap and poorly made guns that if you tried to import them, wouldn’t cut the mustard. Raven, Phoenix, Bryco, and Jennings all spring to mind. Usually these guns have zinc alloy frames that are, not cast, not forged, but actually carved. Imagine shooting a bullet out of something you can cut with a knife. I’ve heard arguments asking how is zinc alloys any different from plastic framed guns. Well I’ve never heard of Glock breaking in two but I have heard of a Hi-Point doing so. Not that you have to worry, unlike the Glock, the Hi-Point comes with a lifetime warranty. I guess if you survive the break, you get a new one free of charge.

Now on the other side. Ruger, Colt, Smith & Wesson, Springfield Armory. These guys are the quality American manufacturers. The bummer is that some of their designs suffer on ergonomics and accuracy when compared to other guns in their price range. These guys are expensive. Their high cost is the primary argument used against the ban of Saturday Night Specials. The lower economic classes have their right to exercise the 2nd amendment. Now, I suppose Ruger, Colt, Smith & Wesson and Springfield Armory need to charge more for their wares. They also need a battalion of lawyers to fend off law-suits. Most of which amount to people not properly respecting their guns or people who are under the impression that, a gun, of its own accord decided to shoot someone.

You might ask, why not just ban guns? Well, in my opinion, it boils down to the police and the space-time continuum. The police are great after the fact. If you were raped, they will investigate. If your house was broken into and the criminal found it necessary to wound or kill you in the commission of his crime, then the police will investigate. I’d simply like to have more control "in the moment."