The Lives of Animals

Our relationship with other animals in the world is strange and varied, as perhaps nowhere so well epitomized by the surreal nature of advertising. Giving non-human animals human characteristics is by no means new -- people all over the world have displayed anthropomorphic and animistic beliefs, customs and ways of seeing for at least as far back as the early cave paintings. Maybe the difference now is, animal-related commercial ads are used to inspire people to spend some kind of money on some kind of product to enrich the all-human owners of the means of production.

Here we apparently have semi-literate cows crudely advocating for the substitution of chickens over their kind as food. Also, one suspects, substituting chickens for cows in slaughterhouses and in the market for cheap mass consumption by unreflective consumers. This odd and popular fast food chain, closed on Sundays, operates by this dictum: "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us."



Here, a dog -- possibly on hallucinogens -- follows a miniature horse-drawn wagon filled with "big tender juicy chunks . . . golden nuggets loaded with vitamins" of some kind, apparently tasty: Chuck Wagon dog "chow," 1970.

People are strange.

Today's Rune: Protection.

The Raven's Sick Room Supplies

Another jewel of Oak Cliff from May Day 2011. Have you ever seen anything quite like this outside a dreamscape?

Who requires actual nature when we so clearly enjoy recognizable Gestalt representations of nature? Art imitates life and vice versa -- through reflective eyes, into the kaleidoscopic mind and out again.

Today's Rune: Fertility.

Can You Tell Me the Time, Mr. Ed?

What's the time?

According to Albert Einstein: "The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." A Buddhist might agree. However, we seem to be moving in one direction as we age, while our memory reaches back, searching through lost time. 



How often do you check the time? What sort of artifact or method do you employ?

I like watches, but rarely wear one anymore. The cellphone seems to do the trick, except when flying on an airplane. As for clocks, I prefer a mix of analog and digital. One can guess by the position of the sun in daytime, adjusted to each season, but that's a pretty rough calculation. In modern society, work and school usually revolve around a tight episodic series of time slots, and we often seem to be calculating time, velocity and distance. We must time ourselves well, lest we be too late or too early.

http://vimeo.com/2128575

Today's Rune: Separation (Reversed).

More Songs About Buildings and Food

Streetscape coming out of the Texas Theatre and moving left, West Jefferson Boulevard, Oak Cliff, Texas, April 26, 2011.

LUCY'S SALON DE BELLEZA -- PARA TODA LA FAMILIA -- West Jefferson, Oak Cliff, May 1, 2011.

CHARCO BROILER STEAK HOUSE -- "La Vaca," West Jefferson Boulevard, May 1, 2011. Serving Oak Cliff since 1963.

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.

The Grassy Knoll

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas is easy to park near and get to, and if you arrive hungry, there's an affiliated café serving goodies like Cuban coffee and Brazilian-style sandwiches.

You're not supposed to take photos inside and I chose not to take any outside, though a noisy demonstration just up the street -- somehow involving Libya and Israeli flags --tempted me.

I took the elevator to the sixth floor, checked out the extensive multimedia exhibit and the area where Lee Harvey Oswald had positioned himself, overlooking Dealey Plaza. There were people from all over the world but the spaces were not crowded, it being a Sunday, chilly and damp. Good time to go. A special exhibit on the seventh floor focused on Jack Ruby and included his hat, the one he was wearing when he shot Oswald. It was eerie. As was Dealey Plaza itself, which I walked around before the heavens once again opened up. Two dudes, both African American, knew all about the various conspiracy theories and, at separate turns, pointed out the details. One of these guys, a gentleman identifying himself as Scott Dew (originally of Grand Rapids, Michigan, he said), showed me the grassy knoll area.

The whole thing is stunning to take in and looks like a perfect ambush setup. Indeed, proceeding slowly through Dallas by car, President Kennedy himself had noted how easy it would be to shoot at the president from a tall building.

By the time I left Dealey Plaza, there were no others remaining except the two informal guides, and the ghosts.

Today's Rune: Journey.   

Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Parting Shot

Here are a few snippets from A.C. Grayling's Wittgenstein: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2001).  For more, why not check out the book, or go straight to Wittgenstein?

. . . language is woven into all human activities and behaviour, and accordingly our many different uses of it are given content and significance by our practical affairs, our work, our dealings with one another and with the world we inhabit -- a language, in short, is part of the fabric of an inclusive "form of life" (p. 79).  

We use language to describe, report, inform, affirm, deny, speculate, give orders, ask questions, tell stories, playact, sing, guess riddles, make jokes, solve problems, translate, request, thank, greet, curse, pray, warn, reminisce, express emotions, and much else besides (p. 83). 

These are "language games," the games people play in communicating with one another, and each type of game or use has "rules" (pages 83, 89).  "A rule stands there like a signpost" (p. 93) and is a custom presumably subject to change over time. "[T]o follow a rule correctly is to conform to established practices of the community" (p. 96). Language and communication is essentially a public form of life, not a private one (pages 97-99).

Finally (for now) . . . "truth, reality, knowledge, moral value . . . are our truth, our reality . . . they are not absolute but relative; they are parochial to us, even to the slice of history we happen to occupy; and . . . therefore there are as many versions of 'truth', 'reality', and 'value' as there are different conceptual schemes or 'forms of life' "(p. 119).

As for the latter, one can probably see the usefulness of Wittgenstein's ideas for anthropology and history, fashion, art, labor studies, aesthetics and all sorts of other "fields of understanding." Formal human slavery, for instance, was widely accepted, practiced and justified for thousands of years, but public 'forms of life' can change or be changed, and formal slavery could be abolished, and was in time -- but it could also make a comeback. 

Today's Rune: Defense.

Thunder on the Mountain

A date many of us will not ever forget! I was over in Oak Cliff (Dallas) when the news began rolling in: Bin Laden killed on the ground by U.S. special operations forces. I'd just stepped out of the Texas Theatre where Lee Harvey Oswald was caught, had just taken photos of the Dr. Strangelove listing on the marquee, had just spoken briefly with Terry Southern's son Niles on "Terry Southern Day." Had just earlier walked around Dealey Plaza, been on the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building, taken a close look at the grassy knoll.

Best military-political news since the election of Barack Obama. Now, there's thunder on the mountain, a fitting lightning storm outside; the world is changed again. 

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.