Things and stuff...
collected by Dennis Carey
Apr 01
Mar 30
Mar 16
Mar 03
via, Real Oregon Reality, because Business Week thinks PDX is the most Unhappy City in the USA.
“ Hell, yeah, I would have used it. Are you kidding me?
— Darryl Strawberry, responding to a reporter asking if Darryl would have used steriods, had the drugs been widely available in the 1980’s.
Feb 25
Feb 11
Feb 04
“ These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle that quarrel.
—
-Speech in the Illinois Legislature on the State Bank, Abraham Lincoln, January 11, 1837
from the Collected Speeches and Writing, 1832-1858, Volume 1
Feb 02
Under The Banner Of Heaven
Though heavy handed and clearly driven by the author’s anti-Mormon/anti-religion agenda, I was thoroughly engrossed by Jon Krakauer’s Under The
Banner Of Heaven: A Story Of Violent Faith. The book acts as both an abbreviated history of Mormonism and a study of the passionate, sometimes twisted psyches of men and women who interpret religion and sacred scripture to fit their own desires. In the case of Mormonism, this goes from the founding prophet Joseph Smith’s declaration that God had spoken to him, telling Smith it was his divine right and duty to take multiple wives, to modern-day Mormon fundamentalists who use their talks with God to justify brutal, senseless murders.
Krakauer came under significant fire from the Mormon church, and some of the criticism is surely deserved. His scholarship is sloppy at times, and always colored by his subjective beefs with organized religion in general and Mormonism in particular.
One of the author’s strongest points though, is that the relative youth of Mormonism provides unprecedented insight into the evolutionary tract of all of the world’s great religions. Being less than 200 years old, the founding and development of Mormonism is plainly laid out in the open pages of the historical record for all to scrutinize. For many outsiders, the story of Joseph Smith and the golden tablets seems absolutely absurd, but is it really more outlandish or unlikely than the genesis story of any major religion?
Feb 01
Jan 28
Google is pretty cool, sometimes. This is their logo for today, January 28th - Jackson Pollock’s birthday.
I saw a Pollock at the Whitney last month, and I was struck by how gritty and just plain old real it was. I can’t really explain it - violent and messy and just very human. It was one of those moments when I surprised myself, remembering that something as simple as standing in front of a painting can make you feel so alive.
