Jun/100
The oil teet.
Let's face it. We are addicted to oil, and by we, I mean the entire developed and developing world. Energy is at the core of economics. You cannot mine, make, move, or grow anything without it.
What we demand most of all is oil. Earth Day came to be, in part due to the blowout of an oil platform off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. In 1973, OPEC and allied oil producers in the Middle East showed how quickly they could derail international economies by withholding supplies. The Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 demonstrated the damage crude oil can do to the environment. And now we have the Deepwater Horizon disaster on the Gulf of Mexico, spilling 5,000 barrels of oil into the sea each day, maybe more.
Will this latest disaster spur further efforts to wean the world off petroleum and toward the development of new sources of energy? History suggests not.
"We are absolutely addicted and we have no methadone. All we have is the hard stuff," Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, told the Associated Press. "The reality is we're on it, this incident has happened and what we have to do is figure out how we can move forward."
In my opinion, we're a long way from curing this addiction, but we have taken the first step of admitting it. This is more than an oil spill, it has to be. We need a catalyst that will bring about a significant change in the way we view how we live on Earth, and like the polluted waters of the Gulf Coast, the political systems and policies that surround the consumption and harvest of oil, must be cleansed.
Apr/100
Voluntary simplicity.
In 1981, Duane Elgin wrote a book titled Voluntary Simplicity: toward a way of life that is outwardly simple, inwardly rich. This concept was, and still is a timely one, and one that incorporates some key values that have been lost over the past decades. Voluntary Simplicity comes as man, particularly in developed countries, pursues the avenues of capitalism, consumerism and the “American Dream.” The question that has to be asked is, why is it that Horatio Alger (the average North American) has impacted such thought, generated such a movement and an anti-consumerist lifestyle as retaliation against capitalism, and a focus inward, towards the family and the individual? The answer is simple and is given by the voluntary simplicity movement itself. The planet’s environment is now endangered, resources need to be conserved for our children’s future and working for a wage is, for the most part, not fulfilling and often requires us all to do things we 
may not think are right, that society is unjust, and that social resources are not equally distributed, therefore this cultural movement seeks to correct these problems. Voluntary simplicity is a virtue, and as year after year the earth becomes more and more polluted, robbed of its non-renewable resources and the majority of its inhabitants become overweight, unhealthy, abused and unjustly treated, this concept comes closer and closer to a universal idea that could trump any other. This article identifies the core values and ideas of Voluntary Simplicity and examines whether or not the concept will solve the environmental problems we face today.
Just what exactly are the tenants of the movement, and how does it seek to solve the problems we all face today? It can be separated into a few ways of thinking.
Mar/100
David LaChapelle.
The perfectly formed body builder is as faultlessly presentable as the spacecraft behind him. All the others, though, have a long way to go... LaChapelle is interested in the everyday, less because of anthropology than because it is inescapable and because "good taste is the death of art" - Truman Capote.
LaChapelle started off as a busboy at Studio 54 in New York and then ended up working with Andy Warhol. His idea about photography is that it is a break from beauty, an intermission. Once he was hired by Details magazine in the early 1990's, his work went "crazy." He now receives commissions from almost any celebrity who wants to add that pizazz to their portfolio of head shots, the latest is Lady Gaga of course....
Mar/100
Heroes.
Tonight at 9 p.m. on HBO, the new WWII miniseries The Pacific airs. For the past two months HBO has been airing weekly, the epic companion Band of Brothers from 2001, as a build up. Band of Brothers is available on DVD now and was quite possibly and arguably the best and most expensive miniseries ever produced. There is also a documentary that ties actual experiences from Easy Company, the company that the miniseries followed through the beaches of Normandy, the liberation of Holland and the push to drive back the Nazis from Bastogne and the Rhine and into Germany during 1942-1945. Its called We Stand Alone Together, and it compiles actual stories and footage from all the battles. The full feature is located in the link.
The reason why EVERYONE should watch and read about these experiences, is because they are the most important acts of humanity to come out of the 20th century. The reason we can do the things we do, the reason we can have the things we have and go the places we go is simply because of the courageous and heroic acts of the brave men and women who faught and died in the World Wars.
So the next time you complain about your cell phone range, your stupid car and the fact that there is a line up at the club, shut the fuck up and relax, at least your not stuck in a fox hole in Bastogne, waist deep in someone elses shit, with German artillery shells landing all around you in the middle of February.
Mar/100
Best pictures, ranked.
Courtesy of my most trusted movie critic website, Rotten Tomatoes, here is a ranked list of all 82 of the best pictures, following what was an interesting Oscar Sunday.
On that note, I would like to express my relief that Avatar did not win best picture this year. James Cameron made quite a film, but all he really did was combine Dances With Wolves, Titanic and Pocahontas with a rediculously amazing technical backdrop.
Jan/102
Rare photos of the cool.
Found a website that rivals The Impossible Cool. Nothing better than perusing photos of the coolest people eva!
Dec/091
Zombie Reagan raised from grave to lead GOP.
"Michael Steele was a good attempt at finding a new kind of face for the party. So was Bobby Jindal. But in the end they just didn't represent the Republican ideals as well as a 100-year-old dead man."
Dec/090
Honky tonk badonkadonk.
She's got it goin' on, like Donkey Kong. I have no words for this right now. Sigh.
Nov/090
Incredible artwork.
I was recently at a show in Toronto and went to an after-party with some very talented artists. My friend Dilan passed this link on to me. Kris Kuksi is from Missouri and his sculptures are based around the distaste in pop culture, greed and materialism. Some of these sculptures are valued at over $500,000 and some took hundreds of man hours to produce. I think they're worth every penny.
Nov/093
I’m a rough rider, gimme some of that Christian side-hug.
Oh Internet, what slice of absurd Americana will you entertain and terrify me with today?
Well played, Internet... well played. (Via Reddit.)
PH0T0ADAY.
FLICKR TAG W0RD.CA.
