Obligatory Post-Thanksgiving blog to commence now:
We live in a very small, very ugly single-wide mobile home. Yes, I hang my head in shame. I am... *sniff*... TRAILER TRASH!
There. I've said it. I'm a cringing puddle of shame.
Actually, I lied. Sorry. I do that. I'm not a cringing puddle of shame. I'm actually rather proud of the fact that we own a detached house of sorts, with something of a backyard where we can actually plant veggies, where we can have the three dogs we currently have, two cats, and one rather lonely parakeet, where if something breaks, it may not get fixed but that's our fault...
This is California, y'all. Silicon Valley, to be precise. I know people paying $2200 rent for as much space as I own. Their place is pristine (probably) and mine's old and gross, but you know what? I can live with old and gross when it costs me $1000 less than pristine. I really can.
Okay, sorry, got off on a tangent. Point being, our house is 900+ square feet when you count the walled-in porch where Jeff works his magic. We famously do not host Thanksgiving dinner. Ever.
This means that we always come home from Thanksgiving dinner with a small plate of leftovers, which are usually gone the next day.
Not sure what my point was there. A general wailing against the cruel injustices consequent upon the possession of inadequate living space?
A neighbor gave us a frozen turkey - apparently he got several - and I will be doing a dinner of our own this year, probably next weekend. I WILL have my succulent Turkey of Justice, my gravy, my stuffing-and-cranberry-sauced vengeance. I WILL!!
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A thought:
If you're a human of American extraction and you watch TV at ALL, you know that Black Friday is everywhere. We're obsessing on it, this year especially because of our economic woes.
Okay, yes, I get it... Where have I been hiding forEVER, that this shocks me? Still, doesn't it horrify you, even a little, that while Thanksgiving dinner is on the table, there are commercials out there showing a woman hurrying her family through Thanksgiving dinner, even to the point of pulling the tablecloth off the table and scattering the entire meal across the floor, just so she can grab her purse and her coat and rush out the door to go shopping?
Come on, 'fess up. That doesn't horrify you even a little?
Black Friday was almost a week ago, but still, I have yet to shake off the miasma of capitalistic evil that has engulfed me.
I've studied Dante's iconic cycle, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Dante, had he seen this picture, would have nodded his head, his lips pursed, and then asked, in a knowing tone, what these men had done wrong in life.
I'd never have had the heart to tell him they hadn't died yet.
I'm probably wrong, but I swear this looks like the new Target out by Cochrane road in Morgah Hill.
Here's the worst of all. This picture was taken from someone's cell phone camera, November 28th of 2008, in Long Island, NY. Exactly as this picture was being taken, a Walmart employee by the name of Jdimytai Damour was being trampled by this rampaging mob of shoppers, who rushed the doors, taking them off their hinges, and charged into the store. He suffered a heart attack as several hundred people literally walked over him in pursuit of a bargain. He died shortly afterward.
Is there any rational comment to be made here? Can ANYTHING I say have a greater impact than the senseless death of somebody's son at the hands of a mob? I mean, they weren't even trying to lynch the poor guy - which would have implied some moral outrage on their part, even if completely unjustified. These people didn't even know they were killing someone.
When I thought about it, I realized recently that every decision made at every level of government and in every level of business, and even in most levels of private life, is governed by the considerations of money... Not just influenced by, but entirely governed.
Ideally, that's backwards, isn't it? Shouldn't money be the last thing you take into consideration when deciding what healthcare options you want, what school your child should attend, whether or not you should move, even what you should have for dinner?
It should be, but it won't. I can't even think how we're going to get from our capitalist point A, to a more humanitarian point B.
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Speaking of humanitarian considerations, I just read that today, Dec 3rd, is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Early in the morning in 1984, the people of Bhopal woke because their lungs were burning. Many thousands died that morning. Many more thousands died over the days, weeks and years to follow, due to exposure to Methyl Isocyanate.
This disaster was caused by a complex chain of events, but the bottom line, as always, is punctuated by a dollar sign: Union Carbide wanted to cut corners, the regional government wanted to cut corners, the workers' complaints were ignored, and the workers were even fined when they refused to ignore safety regulations. To date, neither the Indian government nor Dow Chemical (who bought Union Carbide) have come anywhere near satisfying the needs of the people involved, or the clean-up needs of their environment - both of which still suffer from the long-term affects of the tragedy. The large portion of Union Carbide's lawsuit settlement is still sitting in the coffers of the Indian govt, awaiting distribution. Several thousands tonnes of abandoned hazardous chemicals remain to be cleaned up from the now-defunct factory.
Merry Fucking Christmas, right? Where's the Turkey of Justice when you need him?
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And now for something completely different, before I tackle my last topic:
Based on actual, vintage Schweppes advertising... it has just enough WTF-itude to make it oddly compelling and train-wreck-ish.
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Okay, last but not least, TA-DAH!
I'll take "Creepy Automatons" for $400, Alex...
There are the harmless ones...
And the actually rather graceful ones...
(... although that little creak she gives somewhere around the middle of the video does give me something of a chill, don't know why.)
There was this one, called La Joyeuse de Tympanon, built for Marie Antoinette, and every bit as lovely and enchanting now as she must have been when her creators unveiled her before the queen, if a bit sad somehow, a bit poignant. You have to wonder, was Marie herself just such a fragile pearl as this little doll?
Here are the creations of Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss "mechanist"...
(...and if you watch at 6:15, you'll see an example of a "decapitation" automaton. A bit further down I've included a video of a modern version of this kind of automaton.)
For the most part, however, these things are 100% pure creepaliciousness, like this harpist...
(...and in all fairness, this is probably what the piano-playing lady looked like before her complete restoration from the damages done her by the French Revolution.)
The making of artistic automatons is apparently alive and well, although, so far, I've only ever seen examples of gothic horrors.
As mentioned above, here's a modern rendition of the "decapitation" automaton...
Okay, that's it, stick a fork in me, I'm done... Off to bed, bambinos. Ciao!
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