henry and me

An intense self proclaimed aging alternative icon, I dig Henry Rollins. He’s a renaissance man if I’ve ever seen one: punk rocker, actor, writer, storyteller and lecturer. I really only discovered him recently though I known of him for years. It was earlier this year, when I spend 13 hours in a car with him over the course of two days that my admiration took hold. Of course the 13 hours wasn’t spend with him personally, but rather a collection of his spoken word recordings.

It’s pretty normal for me to immerse myself in an artist on the long drive from Rochester (were I currently reside) to Amityville (my home town on L.I.). I listened to Rollins talk of his time as the lead singer of Black Flag during his early 20’s, often reading journal entries he had written at the time. From there it was recordings of his speaking performances spanning the nearly 15 years since he left Flag. It was an amazing experience. I got to listen and understand the factors that created this intense, intelligent, funny and well-spoken individual. With each new CD and tape I heard his views and delivery evolve; how his worldview changed with each year, tour, and experience. Most importantly as I listened I found countless bits of wisdom and different lessons that I could immediately apply to my life.

So when Abby told me that Rollins was going to be at RIT as part of his speaking tour I was there. And to put it in Rollins’ speak “He just hit the stage and killed everyone.” The first thing he did was to wrap the mic cord around his hand. All I could think about was a picture on the inside cover of Get in The Van, his aural history of Black Flag, which features him at about 22 performing with the mic wrapped the same way. And make no mistake; at RIT he was just as intense as at one of his punk performances. Not as loud (most of the time), but just as intense. Once the mic cord was wrapped he went from there for 2+ hours. I can’t remember a single “Um” “Ah” or a lost thought. Some of the material was rehearsed. At other times he just went off the cuff. At time he was side splittingly funny, others deadly serious. It was an amazing night. And it didn’t end there.

I’ve met a number of performers in my time. It’s often a very mixed bag. In part because it’s usually right after a performance and they’re drained. More often than not it’s because they have no desire to talk to me. I don’t blame them. I don’t think I’d ever want to be accosted by people who think that they know me and don’t necessarily have anything to say (or just after I finished 2 hours on stage). Other times I’ve managed to make an ass of myself in the process (like the time that Roger Ebert thought I was stalking him at the Oscars). However sometimes I’ve gotten the chance to really talk to these folks, even for a moment, and they just blew me away. They were just the coolest people. So all of that weighed on my mind after the show, as a few other people and I waited to see if Rollins would come back out to talk with those of us who were hanging around the gym he performed in. I didn’t want to talk his ear off, or assume we would be friends forever, but just say thank you for his part in13 hours in a car that helped me wrap my head around a lot of life issues. So we waited. And waited. And waited. And he didn’t come out. It wasn’t meant to be.

So we started to head back to the car. The walk back to the parking lot takes us right by the ice rink entrance, which is often used to move equipment in to the gym. And standing there, surrounded by a small group of people was Henry Rollins. He looked tired, drained from the performance. He was talking about the works of Werner Herzog. I listened for a bit, and knowing a bit about Herzog I cautiously joined the conversation.

It only lasted a few moments. But it was great. Everyone else must have thought I was a jerk as it quickly turned into Henry and I discussing film. But I didn’t care. We talked about Herzog’s Nosforatu and Jim Jarmusch. And then he said that he had to get going and politely excused himself and was whisked into his ride. I didn’t even get to thank him. But it didn’t matter. We had talked for a moment, and it had nothing to do with him or his work. Just something we both were interested in. I don’t think I could ask for anything more than that.

You can’t handle it

It’s been quite the weekend. So let me start off with the weekly apology to Jenny:

I apologize in advance for any damage Aaron does to your home (or his).

Yesterday we all went bowling to celebrate Aaron’s birthday (also Patrik’s and Chuck’s). Any hoo, after failing to secure the Ninja Spiderman action figure I had hoped to (side note: How weird is the Ninja Spider concept? Basically it’s Spiderman, in his Spiderman costume, wearing a Ninja suit over it. Though that’s nowhere near as strange as the Extreme Sports Hero Spiderman.), I had to find another gift. After running out of ideas I thought: “Hey, Aaron could use some martial arts stuff….” While I was wise enough to stay away from the throwing stars, I did opt to get him two Ratan sticks that he needed for Kali practice. While that was a good idea… giving them to him in the middle of a bowling alley probably wasn’t. Thankfully, before any perminant damage was done, Jenny took control and snatched them away, mentioning something about “how these would be perfect for helping her tomatoe plants grow straight….” I don’t think she appreciated them as much as Aaron. We shall see if he has them at class tonight.

As for the rest of the weekend, Friday I was in photographer bliss. The new camera body I bought arrived late last Thursday: a Canon Elan II with Infrared focus system. The timing for it couldn’t have been any better. I’ve been shooting my friend Tony (pictured above) dj’ing for nearly two years. On Friday Tony got played Red, a big club here in town; his first crack at a large venue. While my old camera (a Rebel 2000) has more focus zones than the Elan, it can’t handle dark rooms. As the clubs usually are not the best-lit places, I typically had to rely on my eyes (which are also sketchy in low light) to focus. The result was a lot of fuzzy pictures/missed shots. Thanks to the Elan II and a 50 mm 1/1.4 lens, I finally got the chance to let auto focus do most of the work. And boy did it get a work out.. I shot about 8 rolls of film documenting the night. They’re all getting developed today… I can’t wait to get back the contact sheets. One of these days, when I get my lazy butt in gear, I throw up a gallery on this site.

Finally, I bought crack over the weekend; or the closest thing to it: a new game for my Playstation 2. Make that a “new” used game (I refuse to pay full price). It’s a fighting game called DOA:Hardcore. I love fighting games; it’s the martial artist in me. I’ve been thinking about getting it for a while and finally gave in. Big Mistake. Basically Saturday evening and Sunday were lost to it. After getting home from my night out last night I decided to play a few rounds. Again, Big Mistake…. I finally pulled myself away and looked at the clock. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was almost 1.00am. My name is Matt and I’m an addict…

something to ponder

Authors note to readers: This blog will ruin one of the jokes from the previous blog (possibly the funniest). If you haven’t read Battered and bruised yet, you might want to check that out first and come back to read this.

I think everyone does some of his or her best thinking in the shower. I know I do. Typically it’s because I’m thinking of nothing and due to that I’m open to new thoughts. This morning my blog from yesterday suddenly came to mind while I “shampooed, rinsed and repeated” (I’m aware this is a good sign that I’m an addict. However I refuse to accept that idea). A lot of positive responses had come in about that blog. I was basking, for the moment, in the glow of my own wittiness. I had nailed the old comedy formula:

   Naked women holding body parts

+ Over the top shock

+ Observational humor

—————————————-

   pure comic gold

Everyone loved it (not that everyone’s a lot, but I like to imagine that the entire world cares about my neurotic ramblings). But moments later, as I carefully waited for the 60 seconds to be up so I could rinse out the conditioner, a far less funny thought occurred to me: how screwed up our media is.

Check out that picture again. I’ll wait. Ok, we have lower-tier celeb (sorry Aly, I love you but it’s true) and pale goddess Alyson Hannigan in tribal dress posing next to a native woman. Said indigenous woman is cupping her naked chest. Why? Because showing breasts, regardless of the context and circumstance, in mainstream media is taboo. This woman isn’t topless for any sexual reason; it’s simply the way she dresses. It’s part of her culture. It could be argued, that Alyson’s deep blue shirt is far more out of place for the setting (please note: this is not some excuse for trying to get a naked picture of Alyson…)… (though now that I mention that…). Bottom line: to make this picture publishable for the mainstream, the photographer instructed the native woman to cover herself. Why? It’s the American moralistic view that naked breasts in just about any form are inherently indecent and immoral (sorry ladies). The sight of them is enough to cause unrest and possible rioting (especially among teenagers… well, that part actually is true).

I’m not writing this to make an impassioned pleas for either more boobs on TV or wide acceptance of public nudity. In the long run neither are very important to my worldview. I’ve passed my early teens, so the goal of naked breasts on TV is far less of a pressing social/political cause for me. And from my brief exposures to public nudity (Woodstock as an example), I have come to the conclusion that the formula for public nudity is one of inverse proportions: the more likely you are to engage in public nudity, the less likely people actually want to see you naked.

Here’s the real issue, the thing that gets me: the overall moral hypocrisy of our media. On September 11th and the days that followed, we were all repeatedly subjected to the image of a plane slamming into the already damaged Twin Towers and their eventual collapse. Once, twice, even three times and I might have let it pass as news. But it was a constant barrage for days, from multiple angles, often in slow motion. When you break that terrible image down to it’s core, you realize we were watching and re-watching over 150 innocent people murdered in an instant. With each replay of the towers collapsing we saw hundreds, if not thousands, die. Each of us witnessed a mass murder committed dozens of times (if not more) that week.

Doesn’t it strike you as odd that networks that refuse to show naked breasts displayed in a non sexual way, like the woman in the picture, have no issues with repeat broadcasts of mass murder. With that cheery thought I turned off the water, grabbed a towel, dried off, decided I was to lazy to shave today and started to wonder about what I was going to wear..

Battered and bruised

“So… Aaron came over last night with a split lip….” said Jenny as she approached me for lunch. *Uh oh*… *try to look innocent*…

Last night was a great night at Kung Fu and Shootfighting. It was the first time I’ve ever put boxing gloves on and ran combination drills. And once the gloves went on they stayed on for most of the night. Sifu used them in a series of drills where we got hit and then counter hit. None of us unloaded on each other, but it doesn’t take much to learn to respect a blow to the face (or anywhere for that matter). The worst part, by far, was the final drill of the night. Basically we each took turns getting our ribs pounded with hooks from our partners while we kept our hands over our heads. Aaron was my partner for that drill. Even though he was only hitting at about 50% I wanted him to stop, oh, after the third hit. All and all it was a very sobering experience (and a reminder that in general I much prefer to be the hitter not the hitee)….

(btw. The split lip came from a punch that slipped through Aaron’s block during an earlier drill. I wasn’t the perpetrator of that one. Unfortunately I did catch Aaron with an accidental hit later in the night. While it was a glancing blow it definitely loaded the Karma Wheel against me. Sorry again Aaron).

My back is killing me. I have a curve in my spine and on damp days I often end up with a kink at the base of it. It’s been rainy here for the last day or so. Try as I might I can’t pop it into alignment. Usually I can run up the Kodak gym and throw a quick form and that will do the trick (funny how most martial arts forms have movements geared towards spinal alignment… and people say it’s just for fighting). Today however, the Gym is being used for a presentation *grrr* So, I keep stretching as best I can and hope that it will eventually resent. But it’s a knawing distraction and concentrating on work has been difficult. Plus it’s a bad hair day on top of that.

wow they managed to make Alyson even whiter… and GAH! that woman’s holding herself!

In other news… Tina informed me that *sigh* Alyson Hannigan *flutter*, pale goddess and my “lust girl” (see earlier, kinda strange blog from August), is going to be on E!-TV’s Celebrity Adventure. Apparently they take a celeb out to a remote place and have them interact with the indiginous people and wildlife. Here’s part of what she does on the show from the E website:

Hannigan hung out with a tribe of natives who were cannibals until 50 years ago. She attended the body-painting ritual, hiked up to some beautiful waterfalls and swam with dolphins.

Also along for the ride is Alexis Denisof, Alyson’s *grumble grumble grumble* boyfriend (and Wesley from Angel). I’m sure wacky hijinks ensue. Peronsally, I’m not a huge fan of the entire Survivor/Road Rules thing. In fact I really don’t go in for just about anything on E! (I’m not big into the Celeb worshiping thing), but this has got Alyson in it so it gets my seal of approval. ;-P

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note to self: take care of Alexis…

The view from the bridge

The sketch to the left is one I did as we drove toward Toronto last Thursday. We, Aaron (not Jenny’s Aaron) and myself, had been in Canada for less than twenty minutes when he came into view. A lone man stood on an overpass above the QEW. Standing motionless, staring forward above the oncoming traffic, he grasped an American Flag. I wished that we had stopped so I could take a picture of him. But the image stayed with me and I had to take a moment to sketch it. I don’t know if he was a US national living in Canada. Or simply someone so compelled by the events that he chose to spend his Thursday morning showing support above the major highway. Either way I felt that it was a powerful image that I had to share.

Personally, more than a week after the event, I feel extremely divided about the correct response. 6,000 people were murdered. In fact whenever anyone refers to it as an “accident” I become infuriated. This was no accident and any reference to it as such is an insult to those affected by it. In the short term there is a need for justice. And that may need to be achieved by military means. But the martial artist in me wonders about the longer-term hopes of a non-violent solution to prevent this from happening in the future. With that in mind I present a short essay from Noam Chomsky which represents a different voice than is represented in most of the coverage of the event. Read with an open mind. Accept what make sense, question and based on that questioning reject what doesn’t apply to your views.

In other news

This has been a productive weekend. I got to go to a Japanese Steak House for the first time (thanks Tonya) and took in that show. I saw Hannibal. I enjoyed the film. Thankfully, I knew just when to look away (brains… yummy). I can handle gore when it’s done over the top. But when its even semi realistic and treated as such… brrrr.

I also took the opportunity to ask my friends to help me update my records. They’re all really out of date. (Note: of you’re visiting here for the first time, I’m typically no where near this political and a lot more funny. Check it out at least one more time before you cross me off the holiday card list). I also got a lot of apartment stuff done. It’s a big improvement (and yes for those from GET, the fridge is stocked).