Animated Shorts- part Steampunk

A Gentleman's Duel:



The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello:


Watch The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Twitter

So, I know I was skeptical about Twitter six weeks ago, but now I'm really excited about it.

Firstly, I had no idea that so many cool things were happening every night in this city. I follow some really interesting people, and they are always inviting everyone to these amazing events and screenings and lectures, and if you aren't there, they tweet the event and let you in on what you missed. Same for people who aren't in this city- I can find out what's happening at a design lecture, a steampunk convention, an open-source seminar, and a political rally all at the same time, all in real time.

Secondly, it is staggering how fast things happen. Twitter knows about current events faster than Google does, and the moment something happens it spreads throughout the twitterverse, and everyone knows about it. It's funny, because I'll read something on Twitter, turn around and mention it to a coworker, and a couple minutes later it will have been retweeted to them- if it's good, or funny, or important, it makes it all the way through the community in record time. The community talks about things that are of tremendous local impact or interest that don't show up in the mainstream media, or show up hours or days later. I've always liked the speed of the transfer of information on the internet, but twitter is exponentially faster.

Finally, I appreciate being able to connect with people either actually (like all the Legion of Tech folks), or passively (like I follow Hodgman or WarrenEllis). I get insights into who they are, what they think, how they live- it's very cool.

So come find me on twitter (@rvillon), if you haven't already. I'll try to keep my updates funny or important or both.

Amazing animated shorts part 3: the links

Here's some that I can't embed, so I'll link to them.

Crows!

Gobelins is an animation school in France- they've done some amazing work. Go back a couple years and check out Pyrates. The Octopus one is also really cute, and more recent.

edit: here it is:

Oktapodi
Uploaded by gamaniak

Joan Gratz, Portland Animator

Amazing Animated Shorts part 2: Brush

This one was in SIGGRAPH's Electronic Theater a couple years back. (Speaking of which, the current Electronic Theater is screening in Portland in a few weeks).

I just love the 2D-to-3D effect on the horse in this one.

Amazing animated shorts- part 1: "Little Atomic Bomb"

Speaking of things that inspire me, I'm going to post some of my favorite animated shorts. (just got back from the Animation Show of Shows, and it's got me going)

This one is Little Atomic Bomb, by Adam Long, fellow AI alumnus and friend.

My next topic: creativity blocks

After talking with some folks at the Legion of Tech the other night (I hope they pick me- I sent Dawn a massive email that may have been overkill), I've been dwelling more on the whole issue of why (it seems to me) the technology industry is so much more creative than the entertainment industry.
I have some thoughts on the subject, but it's mostly theorizing on my part. I'd like to do some research on creative blocks and creative workplaces, and maybe try to frame up a someday-in-the-distant-future Ignite talk.

If anyone has any thoughts on the subject, or maybe just have lunch or a drink to chat about it, let me know.

What's with all the reading, Rebekah?

It occurs to me that someone might wonder why I devote so much space to books when that's not, ostensibly, the subject matter of this blog. For all five of you who read it (love you! and sorry to clog your feeds with my multiple posts), I'll explain.

I think that writing is almost unique in the art forms in that it can be done in complete isolation, with no investment. An actor, an animator, a dancer, need to be hired by someone in order to practice their art (that seems like such a vulnerable position, to me). A musician, a painter, a sculptor, need place and materials in order to practice their art. A writer can use a napkin and a pen, they can write in a bar, at work, at home, they can write in the morning or the evening, they can write whenever and wherever, the only tool a writer needs in order to practice their art is discipline.

It seems to me that is why I meet more aspiring writers than any other kind of artist, and more failed writers, writers who don't write, writers who say they write and then produce a battered sketchbook they've been carrying around for years, writers who tell you the idea they had years ago and are going to "do something with someday."

Writing has also the greatest potential as an art form. Because it's made of nothing, it can be anything. It is in books and literature that we see the most extraordinary ideas, it is in great writing that we see the truly original. And every great movie, every great play, we can look through it to the great writer who conceived it and bore it into the world. It's through literature that we see the greatest, most creative, most lasting explorations of our world, our human consciousness.

I'm terribly interested in artforms that are fundamentally collaborative, in tapping the creativity of disparate individuals and wrestling forth something greater than the sum of it's parts, and yet it is in the mind of the writer, that strange, private, unknowable place, that so many amazing ideas are born and made concrete. So I read to know the writer, and I read to conceive the world.

Aspects of the Novel

(you see how fast the reading goes when I'm into the book?) This was recommended by Jelly at the cre8 conference, and I've just now gotten to it.

Neither memory or anticipation is much interested in Father Time, and all dreamers, artists and lovers are partially delivered from his tyranny; he can kill them, but he cannot secure their attention, and at the very moment of doom, when the clock collected in the tower its strength and struck, they may be looking the other way.

If we were to press [Moll Flanders] or her creator Defoe and say, "Come, be serious. Do you believe in Infinity?" they would say (in the parlance of their modern descendants), "Of course I believe in Infinity -- what do you take me for?" -- a confession of faith that slams the door on Infinity more completely than could any denial.

The plot-maker expects us to remember, we expect him to leave no loose ends. Every action or word ought to count; it ought to be economical and spare; even when complicated it should be organic and free from dead matter. It may be difficult or easy, it may and should contain mysteries, but it ought not to mislead. And over it, as it unfolds, will hover the memory of the reader (that dull glow of the mind of which intelligence is the bright advancing edge) and will constantly rearrange and reconsider, seeing new clues, new chains of cause and effect, and the final sense (if the plot has been a fine one) will not be of clues or chains, but of something aesthetically compact, something which might have been shown by the novelist straight away, only if he had shown it straight away it would never have become beautiful. We have come up against beauty here--for the first time in our inquiry: beauty at which a novelist should never aim, though he fails if he does not achieve it.

Most of us will be eclectics to this side or that according to our temperament. The human mind is not a dignified organ, and I do not see how we can exercise it sincerely except through eclecticism. And the only advice I would offer my fellow eclectics is: "Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful."

Expansion. That is the idea the novelist must cling to. Not completion. Not rounding off but opening out. When the symphony is over we feel that the notes and tunes composing it have been liberated, they have found in the rhythm of the whole their individual freedom. Cannot the novel be like that? Is not their something of it in War and Peace? -- the book with which we began and in which we must end. Such an untidy book. Yet, as we read it, do not great chords begin to sound behind us, and when we have finished, does not every item--even the catalogue of strategies--lead a larger existence than was possible at the time?

He also has a long but absolutely brilliant explanation for why I've never been able to enjoy Henry James, but I won't type it up here and bore you with it.

Pasquale's Angel

I'm giving up on this book- it just doesn't seem to be able to hold my attention, and I can't bring myself to care about what happens next. However, here's one quick passage that I liked:

But this was only a temporary disturbance. All disturbances in the calm unfolding of the city's routines were temporary, no more than an incalculably minute faltering, as of a speck of grit caught and crushed in a gear-train, in its remorseless mechanisms.

The declaration of independence

I know you've read it, but read it.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

WhereCamp

I'm looking forward to WhereCamp in the morning. The unstructured nature of the event appeals to me, and I'm looking forward to meeting some of the tweeters I follow. I'm really interested in the work of the Legion of Tech, and am considering getting more involved in that community.

I haven't blogged much this week, partly because I'm trying very hard to finish Pasquale's Angel, which... well, here's the thing. It's a library book, so I feel some sense that I have to finish it and return it, but I'm having a terrible time getting into it, so it's taking me a long time. I've been thinking a lot about the future and
community and technology lately, so this time period just isn't speaking to me right now.

I'm probably not going to articulate this very well, but here goes- I've spent a lot of my life trying to get to this moment, to reach these goals, to be sitting here. And the past year or so I've been asking myself what comes next, what's the next goal? Generally when I feel that sense I just probe my inclinations and, after a lot of introspection, come up with the next thing, with a plan I can commit to. And I've consistently chosen this inward-looking path because when I looked around, no one seemed to have a better idea. Believe me, I've wanted to badly to meet someone with a better idea. But I haven't, so I keep on just moving forward and figuring it out as I go. At the cre8 conference, I was thinking to myself about the old adage "when the student is ready, the master appears." So often I wished that were true for me- I've never met a master. Instead, I keep finding that when I'm ready, I become the master.

Now there's a tremendous urge coming to and through me to envision the future, to bend myself toward the Next Thing. And yet I have a sense that this future is something I can't envision myself, that this challenge involves creating a collaborative future, that this future is something I have to create and move toward with other people.

So I keep looking around and asking myself who those people are. Who do I want to create the future with? What community can I link with and think with? I've been asking myself who the best thinkers are, where are they, what do they do, how does one come to know them? And technology is an integral part of it- the people who are creating technology right now are also the people who are making the future, and we'll be living in it whether we want to or not. But often I feel like those people have a kind of limited perspective- that we make new gadgets because we can and they're cool, but we're not thinking about empowering and respecting the individual. We're not thinking about, for example, eliminating poverty. We jump on the change bandwagon, but it's not meaningful change, mindful change. The thinking comes afterward.

All this is a long way of saying that I'm on the change bandwagon. I feel myself changing, and new doors open and close as something turns within me. I also have the sense that it will be a good thing to be a generalist, that I'll finally have something to do with my roving probing mind that never specialized in any one thing.

I want to close with a post that I've blatantly robbed from the Something Awful forums.

I run slow

I work in the social services, and a lot of the people we work with have a lot of regrets. I've asked our case managers to have their clients come out and watch me run. I run so slow, time run backwards. As I waddle along, your life runs in reverse. Scars becomes wounds become chances to exercise better judgement. I run slow.

Like most people, I enjoy running in the mornings, before it gets to hot. Unlike most people, I've been pushed over by a squirrel.

I run slow. Sometimes when I am running, I think of those zen fountains that absorb a drip drip drip of water down a bamboo tube before finally tipping over and dumping their contents into a pool. Each step I take is another drip. I think, that fountain would call me a pussy.

I run slow. But I know where I have been.

Six months ago, I didn't run.

Six months ago, I had heartburn bad enough to keep me from sleeping through the night. Six months ago, I felt like I needed to go to sleep at 2pm. And six months ago, running felt impossible.

I run slow, and I have ways to go. But I can sleep. I feel alive. I can run two, slow, miles. Slowly.

Sometimes I get discouraged. I compare where I am to where other people are. But all that matters is where I am compared to where I was.

Once something good becomes something you are going to do for the rest of your life, the pace becomes less important. I know that my drip drip drip will amount to that deluge, eventually. Someday I will run 3 miles, slowly.

Quickie: quitting superstruct

The site has none of the functionality needed to support the game. That drives a lot of game activity off-site, to twitter and personal blogs and wikis and whatnot, but I think that's why our survival age has stayed at 02046 since day 3 of the game. Now people are actively spending their intellectual resources on trying to fix the game, rather than solving the survival problem. Good lord, what chance does the species have in 02019 if the Institute for the Future can't create a website with the functionality we've come to take for granted in 02008?
I still think it's an interesting idea, and have learned something from participating, but I'm done trying to work with the tools they've provided for us. I hope they try it again sometime.

Updates and yee dee dee

Went to esozone today. Didn't stay past the first lecture- I had enough to think about (not really about what Freeman was talking about- I kinda spun off from there). I did a lot of really good thinking today, and have more to do.

What derailed my thinking, you ask? Stopping for lunch at Virgo and Pisces. ==edited out long story of how I sat there for a really long time and no one waited on me even though I asked nicely==

I'm thinking about - ta DAA! - the FUTURE! (As if you couldn't tell by reading my blog lately). But there seems to be this increased awareness and discussion and investment in The Future lately, and I'm toying with various ideas.

Upcoming of note: Where Camp. Also, Sarah Vowell is doing a reading this week, and Todd Haynes is doing a Q&A at the Whitsell on Wednesday. Would I rather do that than watch the debates? Oh yes.

Matt says the kitten's eyes are open, but I haven't seen it for a while. I'm a little bummed about that.

I've been trying to track down an amazing essay by George Bernard Shaw on poverty, but the google isn't helping me. I was thinking a lot about it today.

In lieu of that, how about some Rilke?

The Angel

With a slight tilt of his forehead he rejects
everything that hems in and obliges;
for the wide circles of the eternal Coming
move hugely erected through his heart.

The deep heavens stand before him full of shapes,
and each may call to him: come, know me--,
Give his light hands nothing to hold
of your burdens. Otherwise they'll come at night

to you, to test you with a fiercer grip,
and go like someone angry through your house
and seize you as if they'd created you
and break you out of your mold.

Gird up your loins!

It's time for me to start putting together the next Drinking and Drawing event. I'm really interested in getting input on the last one- what did people like? what didn't work? what would we like to see/hear more of? Should it be at the same place? Music? blah blah blah.

So please chime in!

If you're one of those poor unfortunate souls who doesn't know what Drinking and Drawing is, you can find out more here.

Time!

(I once read a book that was talking about empirical reality. The writers pointed out that the basis of "cogito ergo sum" was because Descartes couldn't conceive of his own self not existing, and likewise no human can escape the perception of Time. It's hard-wired into our brains, and it is so "massively persuasive" that it lends itself to the idea of empiricism.)

My head just swims from time to time- from the Long Now and the future 10,000 years from now, to Superstruct, where it's 02019 and the race is extinct by 02044, to the seeming urgency of current political and economic news, to the book I'm reading that takes place in the Renaissance...

I've never experienced this before- normally I live about a year from Now. The Now just slides by without my paying much attention to it, and all my goals and expectations are a year out. When the year comes, I see how far I got, then set the plan for the next year and proceed to keep my eye firmly fixed on that. Every once in a while, the Now really grabs my attention for a moment, but then it's only for a moment as the crisis passes or the pleasure fades, and then there I am with my future lenses on again.

But currently my now is jumping from time to time, and each demands my measured consideration, my appropriate response. "How would I act differently if I expected my actions to impact people 10000 years from now? How will I act 10 years from now to save people 20 years from then? How will I act on November 4th?" These multiple perspectives compete with each other, drive me in different directions, make me unsure of what to do Next. It's c-ah-rrrazy!

Tweets and stuff

If anyone wants to tweet with me, I'm @rvillon. I should have created a separate twitter ID for superstruct, but I'm just mixing it up because I can multi-task like that.

I'm a little discouraged with superstruct. The site is glitchy, which makes it hard to follow up on discussions, and then suddenly today we went from 02060 all the way back down to 02044 for no reason that I could see. One of the things I've been thinking about a lot today (but can't really communicate to other players) is that I feel like art is a pretty low priority, in a Maslow's-hierarchy-of-needs kind of way. How can my work as an animation producer speak to the needs of people who are hungry, and cold, and sick? Particularly if there is a technological barrier to them even seeing the work I produce? In the face of human suffering, entertainment media seems pretty trivial.
So I've been looking instead to the 3D design/CAD engineering aspect of the work, particularly as it pertains to rapid prototyping. If we assume that that technology decreases in price and increases in functionality over the next ten years (which is a reasonable assumption, given the rate of change in technology), then we can envision a future in which designs can be transmitted to various machines globally, and devices can be "printed" locally, on demand, saving the energy consumption of moving consumer goods around the planet. So what kinds of things can be made from resins and plastics, that have a minimum of moving parts, that people really need, that can improve the human condition?

Finally, I just found out today that the Evil League of Evil is accepting applicants, but the deadline is Saturday. I would LOVE to do this, but don't have enough time. So for the record, I am the villainous Kat Nipp*, controller of cats! I've placed my minions in millions of homes. Even now they are asleep on your comfy chairs, consuming your treats, and yet ignoring everything you say, waiting for my command to leap into action, honing their skills on small prey. Soon my henchmen will be incorporated into key households, with full access to world governments and economic systems, and then the world will come to know the full evil of Kat NIPP! What I need: crazy costume (check!), video facilities (check!), and a whole lot of borrowed cats (?). Also, I'd like an effects shot of me walking down the street being followed by hundreds of cats.



*Kat Nipp character copyright Rebekah Villon, 2008.

Superstruct!

Superstruct! Come think with us! Seriously, it's pretty cool- the game has posed a bunch of problems, and so people are brainstorming various solutions and discussing the options. Ultimately the game will score individual players and the species as a whole with a survivability rating. So, you know, come save the planet and stuff.

Seriously.

Plus there are some cool awards from famous people at the end.

How did I miss this?

Just watched Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog yesterday. I remember hearing something about it, but blah blah lost in the shuffle. It's delightful! I bought it on iTunes, not only because I believe in paying for content I like, but also so that I can watch it again and again.

The Long Now blog has a great post about conversing with a person vs a machine, and how you can tell the difference. It's a funny conversation- see if you can tell which is which. Also, tell me what a dubject is.

The Superstruct game was supposed to launch today, but they tell me it will be running in the morning. The game is based on some studies done by the Institute for the Future (click around that link, you'll find them) that predict the extinction of the human race by 02042 or so, due to a lethal combination of factors (disease, food shortages, competition for energy, etc). So they have started this MMO to see if people can't solve those problems. Essentially, the game will be running various scenarios to see if the actions the players take will positively impact the survivability of the species. I'm really interested in it, although more as a spectator than as a participant. It's the opposite of the Long Now.

I've been thinking about how I intended this blog to be about connection, about responding to and interacting with a larger community, but, like so many of my undertakings, it has become mostly about my private thoughts. I don't want it to become a journal, though, so my hope is that over time the comments will become a source of interaction and response, to open up the conversation. I have to admit, for that reason, I'm more interested in promoting this blog than I would be otherwise. So welcome and hail, my two subscribers! Kisses!

Finally, let's close with another poem:

Lucille Clifton- i am not done yet

as possible as yeast
as imminent as bread
a collection of safe habits
a collection of cares
less certain than i seem
more certain than i was
a changed changer
i continue to continue
where i have been
most of my lives is
where i'm going

Hither and Yon

Don Hertzfeldt screened his new film at the Laurelhurst today, and did an extensive Q&A session afterward. Another one of those events that reminds me what I like about Portland, because it was sold out and packed- people were sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Saw some of the usual cast of characters there- the same people tend to come out for animation events, and it's good to catch up with them.
He's so fortunate. He admits he's never had a "real job", and been free to practice his art his whole life. He knows how lucky he has been. I was also really happy to have him say that he uses film and old-fashioned cell technology, but doesn't see them as superior to computer technology. He dislikes the debate about which is better, and says he just works in the medium he knows.

I'm listening to Science Friday right now- there's a piece on how people develop superstitious behavior when they feel out of control of their lives. It's something I have thought about quite a bit with religion. I think that there are many people who are sincere adherents of their faiths, but that some people use religion as another form of propitiating the unknown, of asserting control over the unknowable. For people who feel threatened by a volcano, it is probably soothing to sacrifice a virgin, so the community can feel at ease. There doesn't have to be an empirical causal relationship in order for there to be an emotional release.

Finally, here's a great quote from Jack Kerouac:
The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...

Steampunk

Okay, one of the main things I wanted to blog about here is steampunk, because I was thinking about it a lot before my thinking got hijacked by the economy and the Long Now.

Hijack: It's been surreal this week because I've spent most of my evenings bouncing between learning about what's going on in the economy, listening to the SALT lectures, and then checking in with my buddy Jon Stewart. So I vacillate between a sense of urgency and drama, to a sort of "lensing out" of time, and back then again to Jon's increasing anger and impatience. It's weird, mentally stepping in and out of this millennium, particularly right now. But then, how long is Now? And how big is Here?

What I want to say about steampunk, though:

Firstly, I've always been interested in alternate history literature. From The Anubis Gates, which I read in the late 80s, to the Temeraire books I picked up last year, and my long love affair with Robert Anton Wilson-- it's an interesting thought experiment, and I love it when the authors dovetail into and out of recorded history.

Secondly, I have to admit that I love the steampunk aesthetic. Which is funny, because I also really like the Apple aesthetic, which is pretty much the diametric opposite of the lovely baroque ornamentation of steampunk. (although I really don't care for Baroque as an art movement- I liked Rococo better. Art swings through a pendulum toward and away from excess and ornamentation- either peak doesn't appeal to me. It's the "just before" and the "reaction away" parts of the pendulum that are particularly interesting and visually compelling to me)
And I think about that quite a bit- what it is it about those objects that I like so much? Steampunk harkens back to a time when everyone with the means could be a scientist, an explorer, could discover new things and tinker with new technology. The Victorian era didn't expect expertise- all the technology was wonderfully mechanical. Machines and tools could be made from other machines and tools, and everything worked on principles that could be understood by a common person with a little experimentation. One can look at a set of gears and tubes and see how they are connected, derive the purpose of the machine from it's design, solve problems with experimentation... currently it seems like all our machinery is hidden inside sleek cases that one hesitates to open, and even if you did all you'd see are circuit boards and wires and wouldn't gain any understanding of how to fix it, how to make it work differently. A car used to be a machine, and now it's a computer, and computers need to be diagnosed and repaired by experts, by specialists who have chosen to pursue one interest above all others. Our current culture discourages dabbling. I like to dabble. Just look at my resume.

Finally, there has emerged a steampunk movement. This movement draws from the literature and pays homage to the aesthetic, but isn't those things. As expressed (very well, I think) on The Steampunk Home, the steampunk movement says "Make it unique, make it your own, make it yourself". Another blog calls it "sustainable rebellion". Again, I find this value system interesting and compelling. This vast world of consumer merchandise doesn't offer what I want, so I'll make it myself. Furthermore, I don't want to buy things made in this vast consumer merchandise system- I don't want to be a consumer of goods, but a creator of the environment in which I live, a creator of my own life. At the cre8 conference, Jelly Helm asked what advertising/our economy/our culture would be like if it weren't about Things. He doesn't know the answer, and neither do I. But I think we all intuitively know that Things aren't meaningful. Steampunk is delightful because it has so many wonderful Things, but knows that Things aren't that important.