Hollywood Hills: Realistic Life

Posted on March 14, 2014 by McPhedran

I wandered the hills of Hollywood and found dust and heat, sadness, a relentless need to be understood. A leftover from a Justin Timberlake video?

Laurie Anderson on my plane

Posted on March 13, 2014 by McPhedran

Laurie Anderson was on my flight to Los Angeles. I wanted to say something, but I didn’t know what. She looked so sweet and vulnerable. I mean, she was sitting in coach, just like us. I thought about what I would say, and considered offering her my condolences for Lou Reed’s death. But that was just stupid, an excuse to be a sycophant. So I said nothing. I didn’t even smile. Still…I really did want to tell her how much I admire her, her work, her voice, her wit. “I’m a big fan.” Yeah, I would probably say something like that. Our flight was delayed and while we sat waiting for a part, it occurred to me that I could give her my book.

Yes, she might like it. After all, it has a strong female voice and some good cerebral bits on life and loss. But I didn’t have it with me…and it was a stupid idea anyway, another one.

The truth was it was a good thing Laurie Anderson didn’t have to deal with me pitching ideas at her while she was just trying to read, maybe sleep a little before we landed.

And yet…if I told her all of this. What then? Wouldn’t she laugh? Wouldn’t she say, “Oh, okay. Let’s see this book of yours. my bad side. It’s a good title. I like it. I like it a lot.” And even since I didn’t do any of this and just watched her walk away at LAX, there is still the chance she will read this blog. I mean, she would only have to search her name and scroll down a few dozens pages or so. And here it is!

And then I know she would smile to herself, look for my contact icon and write something like, “Hello. Let’s talk.”

The Myth of Absinthe

Posted on March 11, 2014 by McPhedran

Absinthe has the reputation all bad boys and girls dream of.

Fawned over by the elite and artistic, banned a hundred years ago, potent and delicious. Have you tried!? Have you? It is the stuff of legends, hallucinogenic, hyper-potent and most dangerous, all because a few poets and artists indulged excessively in Paris back in the day.

But how is it any different than other alcohol? Or is it? Don’t they say the same about tequila? Or the mixture of Guinness & cider known as a Snakebite? I do admit to being coerced into doing an Aguirre, Wrath of God rap after a Snakebite or two in my ill-gotten days, but I expect that spell could have been induced by many things.
I did try Absinthe recently, and it was fine. But there was nothing remarkable about it. And there were certainly no green fairies.

The Noise of Everything Else

Posted on March 7, 2014 by McPhedran

It is almost silent. There is the air outside, that vague sound, but it is low, quieter than the buzz in my ears. My fingers tap and stop. I adjust myself, scrape my shoe along the floor. I think. The city could be dead. It is empty in my head. The sirens are broken, the streets deserted. There is nothing out there. I am alone. The apocalypse has been. The noise of everything else is only in my head.I am in a forest, and now a desert, and now in space, where I have always been, destined for another place, waiting to get there, so that I might find a place to be quiet again and write about that, alone in the silence, the air, the world reduced to the buzzing in my ears.

The Moment

Posted on February 15, 2014 by McPhedran

There is that moment, warm, familiar with being here, almost comfortable with the parameters of this life, knowing little, knowing everything in that.

Southeast Iceland

Words and sounds are light and full, making sense, building something, bottle in hand, knowing there will be more, and there will be.

Central Iceland

Thinking to stay in that, just the moment, almost forever, and realizing what an idiot, and laughing, because it was delicious and is gone.

Lake Myvatn

The Russian Revolution after this Commercial Break

Posted on February 7, 2014 by McPhedran

Americans have hyped the Sochi Olympics with anti-glee, reveling in every problem with tweets and drivel. While they have perhaps begun to tone down their ritualistic vitriol for the opening ceremonies, they can’t let go of old prejudices.

Promised NBC commentators Lauer, Viera and Remnick,during the opening ceremonies, “The Russian revolution coming up after this commercial break…”“The revolution is probably the touchiest period in Russian history,” they continued. “The turmoil in Soviet society, without ever mentioning the word Lenin.”“They are proud of Ladas here,” they moved on. “Unfortunately they became a punchline for the rest of the world.”“This is Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” they concluded. “And he is insisting that we look at the political power of Russia tonight.”Look out. Here come the ballet dancers.

Leaving Earth: Going Spatial

Posted on January 24, 2014 by McPhedran

What would it mean to leave this planet?Not just in orbit or for a period of months, but somewhere far away to not return for years or not at all?

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said that the biggest challenge of a trip to Mars would be coping with the isolation. “Within a month or so you won’t be able to have a real-time conversation ever again with Earth, the delay will be so long…So that crew within weeks will become Martians psychologically. They will no longer be of Earth.”
“How do you keep your crew from going crazy?”
We define our sense of self through a context. What is the context of no longer being here?

A World with MLK

Posted on January 20, 2014 by McPhedran

Sometimes I think about what might have been if Martin Luther Ling Jr. had not been assassinated in 1968. He might have led the Poor People’s March on Washington that summer and advanced the cause against economic discrimination. He might have advanced the cause for ending the war in Vietnam earlier; indeed he might have become a senator, even president. He might have established a very different course on foreign policy – no wars in Kuwait, Afghanistan or Iraq, genuine aid offered in the Balkans, Rwanda, Syria…

Hama, Syria

A very different domestic policy – restraints on the rich, opportunities for the poor…Perhaps even understanding and vision for our environment.

Anna Maria Key, Florida

Yeah, I had a dream.

Absolutely Most

Posted on January 8, 2014 by McPhedran

We live in hyperbolic times, everything an absolute and most.

One radio commentator went so far as to call The Winter Classic “the greatest event ever played on the greatest continent.” As ridiculous as his statement may be, hype is our norm. Winter weather, once described as “cold” or “snowy”, has been transformed into drama verging cataclysm. Where were you during Winter Storm Hercules? How did you survive the Great Polar Vortex of 2014? And what will you do to get through the next step towards our end?