The eloquence of Jazz and Humanity

It's refreshing to know that somewhere in the world at least one person is using daily critical thinking. For years I wasn't that impressed with Ethan Hawke and his onscreen abilities. But as he has aged, not only have his acting chops increased 10x fold, he has grown into a distinguished, smart, thoughtful and eloquent man.

With the release of his Chet Baker biopic "Born to Be Blue" (my own review coming soon) he recently gave a sit down interview to Steven Zeitchik of the LA Times. Well done to both parties and definitely worth a serious read. Enjoy and don't forget to always be true to yourself no matter what demons scream in denial. 

A story of misdirection and twisted thinking.

So some guys get mad that some other guys are being mistreated by the Federal government. In opposition to the feds the first guys decide to occupy Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

A question needs to asked immediately. Is this Homo Sapien for real? I mean come on, all of us have the potential to become conduits for a higher consciousness, but there's no reason to court hate, desecration and destruction.

Words can't fully explain what I mean so look here for all you need to see.

Are you back?

This is NOT "protesting" or "sitting in" for change. This is hate and any argument against that will fall on deaf ears.

So extremism once again raises it's ugly head in our own western culture, our own western society, on our own shores.

How is this 

any different than this?

Mr. Naturals expresses his opinion on Election year 2016...

What Mr. Natural has to say about today...



Sometimes "deviant" art provides the answer when what we really want is the question.

Immoral Crusading

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns from 1096 to 1487. That's 391 years of bloodshed, turmoil, hate and suffering. And then Civility broke out. Faith was respected (kind of) for 512 years. A fragile existence flexed it's beliefs and, with occasional growing pains, little long term conflict and damage was inflicted.(open to debate)

In 1999 all of that changed.

Extremism lifted it's hungry head and snarled with belligerence at the weak and the vulnerable. The world could have and should have acted then to keep the inbred ideas from spreading like an ancient disabling disease.

The number of those killed by Daesh is upwards of 50,000+ people. That's a conservative and entirely speculative number. Since this is Jihadi, numbers aren't important to the side committing the atrocities.

Yes, I said atrocities.

Death is death and combat for survival is protecting the species. This is not combat for survival. This is annihilation for no reason other than "god".

It really is silly, isn't it. It's feels like a bad pitch for a new serial television show. So there's this guy named Abraham from Mesopotamia and occasionally this voice talks to him. He shares with anyone who will listen what this voice says. So over time he has children who have children and they all decide to interpret Dad's "stories" differently. And hilarity results...

If it was only that simple.

A reason for "This Monkeys Life" or if you please "Reasons for Strange Words and Tales"

Someone once asked if the things I write about are real or born of a twisted imagination. I'll leave that to you, Dear Monkey, to decide.

I no longer go out of my way to discuss the words I write or their meanings and purpose. I grow weary of being asked if I am mad or insane. 

But what is madness? What is insanity?

Definition: Mad - mentally disturbed; deranged; insane; demented.

Definition: Insanity - the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind.

f I had to choose one I would choose madness. It's just sounds more fun. After all you never hear about the criminally mad, do you?





A Hero's lasting ache and dire need...

Can you hear that?

Gods are weeping with shame and despair as their children shed their own blood.

It's time for all Hero's to Return and fulfill the bargains made.

WAKE UP...

The Eternal Questions

Plato said, "There must always remain something that is antagonistic to good."

Does this mean that there will never be a resolution to our struggles?

Let's start with some definitions. I obviously have not included complete definitions but have included links.

"Protagonist" - "the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work".

"Antagonist" -"the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work."

"Good" - "moral righteousness; virtue: to be a power for good."

"Evil" - "morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked."

Based on the observations of Plato does this mean that "good" has never even had a chance? Or was he teaching us about the idea of minimalism and balance in our micro and macro environments? Yin vs. yang, Spy vs. Spy, god vs. the devil, light vs. dark, day. vs. night and sun vs. moon all express the same core idea that balance must be maintained for the general health and well being of all Humanity. It's so simple in it's ideals yet we, as humans, seem to always be pushing left when we should be pulling right and pulling left when we should be pushing right.

Right?

It makes me ache inside. It's like looking at the reflection of two mirrors facing each other and expecting what you see to make sense. Sometimes the beast looks back and we don't even see the reflection is ours.





A True Story {Part 2}

Of course the boy was barely aware of this in any Logical way.

He was still young and too much in awe of the world around him to comprehend that things in flux can affect us in ways we barely comprehend. Only later would he learn that through higher critical thinking can we begin to unlock our hidden potential, our Gifts.

But I get ahead of myself...

Occasionally the mysterious and  misunderstood would shine forth and remind everyone that some thing's are unavoidable. The winter of his fifth year was just such an occasion.

Holiday festivities were in full swing and the boy found the world around him getting brighter and more fascinating with every breath. On one particular cold night he awoke to the sound of his Hero Father crying aloud with shame and despair. As he listened from the next room he drifted, trapped somewhere between one instant and the next. It was then that his vision changed and he saw what had been.







A True Story {Part I}

The morning he was Reborn, it was snowing. Skies and mother both heavy and burdened, he came into this existence with little fanfare. Only the Essence took notice as the balance shifted. Moreover, it shifted in ways not seen or felt for untold millennia.

So what happened? How did so many things go wrong?

Father was a veteran of military campaigns who wore his bloody guilt as a reason to embrace insanity. Sometimes he would cry out in the night and beg forgiveness. Other times he put on his Hero face as he preened with pride and pretended that everything was perfect.

Mother was a product of hereditary madness that polluted her bloodline. She would glow and shine with goodness and light until no one was looking. Then the darkness would spring forth and claw it's way out.

Sister was just old enough to understand that “Baby Brother Boy” was more then he seemed to be. Sometimes he would catch her watching him with cold calculation in her eyes. It was as if everything she had lost to her previous incarnation would shine out for just a moment. At those instants, he found fear of what was in dark the least of his worries.

How does an innocent child know what worries are?

Sometimes Gods choose to Enlighten even when the vessel is not ready or prepared for the chaos that Reason imparts.

Such was the energy and environment this young vessel found himself surrounded by.

Deadly Funny: The Killer Joke by Kim "Howard" Johnson

{I've posted this previously but's it's always good to revisit things that make us think as well as laugh.}

It was one of the classic sketches from the first episode to air of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It’s referred to in various ways, including “The Funniest Joke in the World,” “Killer Joke,” “Joke Warfare,” and “The Deadliest Joke in the World.”

[In the early days, there was never really a need for an “official” name for various Python sketches. This would eventually result in occasional confusion and insecurities for fact-checking types. Attempts to catalog the sketches have sometimes resulted in the same sketch having a different name when it appears on CD, in books, and on DVD.

Of course, the Pythons themselves spend very little time worrying about the names of sketches. Which is why I’ll occasionally get a question from one of them wanting to know which show included Stanislav Richter playing the Warsaw Concerto while escaping from a sack.

Not that sketches with “official,” accepted titles are necessarily very useful as far as identifying contents, mind you, as the previously mentioned sketch has come to be referred to as “Farming Club/Life of Tchaikovsky.”

But I digress.]

It is one of the earlier Python sketches to take aim at the nature of jokes. As Python fans know, it tells the story, documentary-style, of a joke so funny that it could kill at a range of up to fifty yards. We see testing and attempts to utilize it in battle, as well as German efforts to cultivate a similarly effective joke.

The “Custard Pie Sketch/Comedy Lecture/History of Slapstick,” performed by the Pythons in their stage shows, is a similar self-referential example. One of the earliest, if not the very first, sketch utilized in the Python oeuvre, this was written at Oxford by Terry Jones (with the assistance of some of his colleagues), and incorporated by the Pythons while they were planning their live performances. It involves a university professor lecturing on slapstick humor, as his three associates demonstrate the throwing of custard pies and getting whacked in the head with a board. It is much funnier than I am making it sound here, and the results can be seen in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl.

But now, academics have announced a real-life twist on this history of jokes. Scientists at the University of Wolverhampton have revealed what is apparently the world’s oldest joke. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it is a fart joke. It dates back to 1900 B.C., and is a proverb from ancient Sumeria in the area which is now known as southern Iraq:

“Something which has never occurred since time immemorial: a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap.”

Not the knee-slapper we might have hoped for, I’m afraid, given all of the build-up. Perhaps it loses something in the translation.

Academics don’t always know the best way to phrase a gag.

The original version reportedly occurs in tablets dating to the Old Babylonian period, and may go as far back as 2300 B.C. According to the study, led by Dr. Paul McDonald, it is the ancient equivalent of a remark by John Barrymore: "Love is the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock."

Like most good jokes, though, those on the list poke fun at authority and deal with sex and other taboos. The second-oldest dates back to the Westcar Papyrus from 1600 B.C., and targets King Snofru:

"How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish."

A little clunky, but we get the point.

It’s surprising how much actually hasn’t changed. The third-oldest joke, which dates back to Adab 1200 B.C., actually incorporates comedy’s “Rule of Three,” in which the set-up for the gag involving three ox drivers is repeated twice before the third and final time, which incorporates the laugh-getting twist. To me, this raises the question of whether Adab 1200 B.C. featured improv groups.

Of course, since these were academics who compiled the list, it raises the question of whether or not they understood a lot of the ancient jokes. Human being have been making jokes ever since there were human beings—they just aren’t all understandable to modern sensibilities. Even many jokes by Shakespeare and Chaucer have to be explained to today’s readers.

I’ll close with my favorite ancient gag, a Roman joke from the first century B.C.; it may not literally kill, but it holds up pretty well two thousand years later. It describes the Emperor Augustus traveling through his realm and encountering a man who bears a striking resemblance to himself.

Intrigued, he asks the man: "Was your mother at one time in service at the palace?"

The man replies: "No your highness, but my father was."

Don’t forget to tip your serving wenches, I’ll be here till A.D.!

Oracle (Ides of March 2016)

Nothing can alter what has come before. Lessons are learned and discarded like so much ancient chaff. Those lessons still exist and are waiting to be acknowledged by ones who aren't afraid to think for themselves.  

 The Antihero pays a price for the ability to think outside their own limited role. To see Cause and Effect on a far flung, world changing scale requires the ability to not care about personal consequences and focus on the ultimate goal.

 

 Remember the Augers and Portents for they will illuminate the path to what is right, what is needed.

 

 "Abundans cautela non nocet." - ("Abundent caution does no harm.")

 

 "Acta est fabula plaudit." - ("The play has been performed: applaud!")

  

The Sound of the Universe just got richer...

Sometimes even genius isn't enough to stave off Madness. You'll never be forgotten and always celebrated. Safe travels until the next Gig...

Chewing on Reality

Jumping to conclusions often leads to drastic and at times unintentional consequences.

Masses are rising, calling for change at a fundamental level. Revolution is enjoying a dramatic rebirth.

Left marches and protests violently. Any reasoning left behind in favor of self-service and mass market induced greed. Left Sided extremism has become a stark reality.

Center wants to maintain a Status Quo as they scratch the backside of anyone who can improve their position and standing, constituents be damned. This is ALWAYS a dangerous road.

Right has begin to show it's temper and lack of critical thinking. Tragically it's only becoming more obvious everyday that extremism and intolerance is the new norm in the GOP.

People flee homes and lands because they feel marginalized. No work, no food and unfair treatment by those with an antagonist agenda cause mass exodus that will forever change the world.

There are no easy answers when spiritual, personal and financial greed are sitting at the adults table demanding attention.

 Will somebody please give those babies their binkies!