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).

Lots ‘n lots o’ stuff

It’s been a little while since I did a big update and this seems as good a time as any. There’s been a ton of stuff I’ve wanted to blog about, but with everything happening it’s fallen to the wayside. So for the moment at least I’m going to ignore the goings on around me in the world to catch people up to date on what’s new with me…

dance Matt dance… aka Capoeira

For quite a while Jenny, Jo, Tina & Abby have taken Belly Dancing lessons. And they’ve gotten pretty good (heck they even taught Tony a thing or two about hip shaking). The cool thing is that not only did the girls get to learn all these funky moves, but its also great exercise! And that’s all cool. But there was nothing for us guys who wanted to dance our ways into shape without risking our masculinity. I mean I could have tried to get into belly dancing. But as stated in previous blogs, I’m already well in touch with my feminine side. No need for the help of veils & skirts.

Well I’ve finally found a solution: Capoeira. It’s an African/Brazilian Martial Art/Dance. The cool thing is we have a great teacher here in Rochester. The class is intense and laid back at the same time. Best of all it’s covered under my YMCA membership. Last night was the first class I attended. It was one hell of a work out. We were moving for over an hour without any breaks. And this wasn’t mamby pamby movement. We’re talking kicks, spins, and major knee bends all set to boomin’ Brazilian music. After about 45 minutes I even began to think that I had rhythm… at least a bit.

But there was something else that made it different. Not only were there a large number of women in the class, but that they all were hotties! This is a new thing for me when it comes to a martial art. This is not to say that women don’t practice martial arts (they do). And that’s also not to say that the women who practice martial arts aren’t easy on the eyes (a lot are). But I’m not used to having more women then men in the class. As I mentioned before Capoeira is considered a dance form as well as a martial art. That’s because the Brazilian Slaves who developed it needed to hide what they were practicing. So they disguised it as a dance (a pretty common thing with martial arts, actually). Stephan, the instructor, is pretty well known in the dance community. So a number of dance majors from schools like Brockport take the class. These girls (and guys too) were in incredible shape (far better than me). It’s a little intimidating, but I’ll suffer through it :-).

The class does have one downside right now: my legs are killing me. It was a killer workout and even after taking steps to prevent stiffness I’m really feeling yesterdays workout. But I’m going to keep with it. One day I might even be like the guys in the Capoeira video on

this page.

big willy style

Will Weaton of ST:TNG (that’s Star Trek: The Next Generation… he was the kid) has a blog. And I say more power to him. This guy, at one time, was one of the most hated people on the Net (people, it’s not his fault that his part on the show was written as the know-it-all kid). Now he’s online, pubishing his life.

Personally his site fascinates me. Not necessarily in a good way… more like a car crash way. I just can’t look away. Wil has of late perused sketch comedy as a outlet for his talents. He peppers a lot of his comic stylings into his blog. The results often come out… well… creepy. Take this passage, talking about his experience as a guest at a recent Star Trek Convention:

You know the cool thing? There are these fans who came over from Germany,

and some of them are girls, and they are HOT. And they tell me, in broken

English, how much they love me. Oh yeah, tell me some more baby. Tell daddy

how you love him.

Is it me or is hearing any celebrity (or kinda celebrity), or anyone, refer to themselves as “daddy” a little offsetting? In any case, I give Wil credit. He lays his soul pretty bare on the blog. More so than most, including myself, of us do. I wonder if that is a result of his brush with rabid fans. Trekkies have been known to be some of the most fanatical and invasive people on the planet (see the movie Trekkies for more on that). After living under that type of scrutiny I imagine that your views on privacy change. In any case, give his blog a look. You can find it here (I just wish he’d avoid referring to himself with terms like “Big Wil”…).

$#%@! Lotus Notes!!!!

Ok my original plan was to share some pictures from this past weekend in Toronto. But Lotus Notes decided to kill them. Grrrrr! I wouldn’t use the darn system if the Man didn’t force me to. *sigh*

Toronto was great, and much needed. Over two and a half days we saw 12 films! Here’s the quick run down:

• Who is Clement Tout
• Privacay
• Okie Noodling
• Fiasco
• Eat
• The American Astronaut
• Magonia
• Nosforatu (w/full orchestral accomaniment)
• Ichi The Killer
• Treed Murphy
• Hellhouse
• The Bunker

More on this will be coming very soon…