One step closer to the Matrix.

Lookin’ good, Portland.

via, Real Oregon Reality, because Business Week thinks PDX is the most Unhappy City in the USA.

That’s the future…

-Speech in the Illinois Legislature on the State Bank, Abraham Lincoln, January 11, 1837

from the Collected Speeches and Writing, 1832-1858, Volume 1

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?

Rosie Stahla Carey

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.

My nominees for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize: Jason Day and Aaron Chronister.

Lee Siegel wrote a quick little send-up of New Jersey’s Cultural History in today’s WSJ - New Jeresy: Hidden State of Culture.  It’s worth a read, although the article is definitely a very cursory glance at the artistic idols and virtues of the Garden State.  He also glosses over some of the more negative aspects of Jersey, like the millions of residents who couldn’t give a damn about art or anything even remotely thoughtful that might get in the way of their hyper-consumer lifestyles.

Oh New Jersey, how I love and hate thee so…