Southpaw Jones

Quotopia
Freshly-picked quotes from the ol’ reference collection:

W.H. Auden, the poet, wrote an essay regarding people who lack the capacity to turn wishes into passions in their lives, for whatever reason. Lacking that capacity, they sit, outraged, anticipating disasters. They go to fires, any sort of natural disasters attract them. And in the absence of natural disasters, they create disasters. And they hate the people whose lives, whether successful or not, are pursued with passion. First they idealize them, then they want to destroy them. They want to appropriate the vitality of those people.
David Milch, creator/director/writer, Deadwood

Is This Interesting?
Thoughts/feelings that just might not matter:

For starters, let me admit that I enjoy just about every HBO show I’ve seen. The Sopranos, Big Love, Sex and the City, Entourage, they’re the closest thing to televised literature we’ve got. Late in the game, I’ve now decided to explore Deadwood, the gritty western where everyone is covered in filth, literally and figuratively. I just finished watching the first season, and I dug it, so I ordered up a rental of the dreaded Bonus Materials. It was here that I heard the above quote on Tuesday evening.

David Milch comes across as a very thoughtful, dark-hearted man both in interviews and in the tone of his art. He explored the idea of the quote in a brief exchange between Wild Bill Hickok and a “fan” on the streets of Deadwood.

Long story short, it says a great deal about celebrity and the role of the media in our lives. So much of our culture feeds upon the strange love/hate relationship between the public and the famous. I believe we love watching them fail much more than watching them succeed. It’s very much like a roller coaster: the rise of a singer/actor/politician is exciting only in the sense that once we top the hill, we all get to scream as they crumble down in scandal, failure, or death.

It is so satisfying to watch someone fall because it tells us WE WERE RIGHT. We were right to lead mediocre lives. We were right to kill our dreams when we were young. We were right to settle. We were right to keep our wishes impotent and irrelevant, because those who turn them into passions end up embarrassed in the end.

The media rubs our faces in scandal and tragedy because it is a drug we crave. Britney Spears, OJ Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, Ted Haggard, Paris Hilton, Hugh Grant, Howard Dean, the list goes on and on and on. These are all very different stories, and whether you like these people or not, you must admit to the subtext that connects them: DON’T BOTHER. Stay at your diner in Texas, don’t sing your way out of Louisiana, forget about trying to lead a religious movement, drop your dreams of art or riches or political power, because it never seems to end well. Do not turn your wishes into passions, because doing so ushers in a world of hurt.

And Another Thing…
More verbosity with velocity and viscosity:

This week has been hard on everyone, and I finally broke down in my car yesterday. I was listening to NPR as a kid from Virginia Tech described being the only unhurt student in a classroom under attack. All he could do was crouch under his desk and make eye contact with a girl who had been shot in the back, while he waited to be shot himself. It was the only coverage of the tragic events so far that seemed sane or tasteful or human or relevant to me.

It is very popular to cover the massacre ad nauseam. It is also very popular to criticize the media coverage ad nauseam. I don’t know how you cover an event like this, so I’m not going to suggest an alternative. But I think there must be a better way than assaulting us with the between-the-lines message that a random killer is waiting for each of us around every corner. If that is true, if death is everywhere, and I certainly have felt it this week, then why on earth would I want to put any effort into this life? Why invest in something that can be instantly snuffed out by some lonely shitbag English major?

Why turn our wishes into passions in this awful world?

Because we have to.

Because the alternative is unthinkable.

Because people who can’t turn wishes into passions are already dead.

People who can’t turn wishes into passions easily turn ugly.

They get jealous.

They feel impotent.

They are paranoid.

They tend to buy guns.

They tend to kill people.

And so goes the cycle.

I will mourn the dead the best I can from far away. I will follow the tragic story as much as I can tolerate. But I will not let a killer show me the very path that he followed. It is a path of fear, isolation, and passionless wishes. You see where it ends. The lesson here is to live more, not less. Thrive more, love more, act more. Make the broken psychos of the world so upset that they spontaneously combust before they hurt anyone else.

Online Museum of the Week
Demonic Tots and Deeply Disturbing Cuisine:

From PLAN 59: THE MUSEUM (AND GIFT SHOP) OF MID-CENTURY ILLUSTRATION

Plumb, Plumber, Plumbest
Signs o’ the times from Austin’s singing Jewish plumber, Herman Bennett:

Thank you, come again!
southpawjones.com
southpawjones.net
myspace.com/southpawjones
E-mail southpaw@southpawjones.com
©2007 Southpaw Jones. All rights reserved.