Motley Kamuka

The new Rick and Morty episode came out for season 5. Nimbus says he likes his other helper, "Kyle". Kyle is a blob from "The Ricks Must Be Crazy" (S2E6). And what is with this new TV room? Someone wrote:  "Rick got nerfed, he was beaten almost dead in the intro, acted like a submissive schmuck throughout, morty/summer were the badasses, and beth/jerry got to swing, all topped off with Rick getting the shit kicked out of him again and carted off by the police. Dr. Wong specialty is treating people who eat shit. If you ever stop to wonder why, and you liked this episode, and want more of this, go find a mirror. Harmon and co, have created an entire tv show which mocks it's audience relentlessly through the guise of previously all powerful Rick who's contempt for literally everyone in the entire universe is only matched by the creators of Rick and Morty's contempt for us their audience." There's a little bit of a spoof of Shakespeare's ...

Michel Houellebecq wrote The Possibility of an Island . It's scifi, and I like like looking up all the references to French culture that I don't know about. Someone on r/Buddhism asked about Buddhist fiction, and someone mentioned that book. When I told them I ordered it, they said it wasn't straight up Buddhism but it did make them think about Buddhist fiction. Not incompatible conclusions. Buddhist fiction is an amorphous concept. But when you're a Buddhist you see the Dharma everywhere.  He made a movie based on it, and it was a total fop. But I'm enjoying the book somehow. I don't think it earned enough to justify subtitles, so I don't think I'll see it.

I'm reading Nonduality by David Loy. Not an easy read synthesizing eastern and western thought throughout history. But I'm on the chapter of nondual action and I've been thinking about what is going on in the USA politically. My experience is that Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Green and the rest of this kind of dada power grab cohort, Moscow Mitch, have really put the liberal imagination under attack. Government isn't about doing the most good to the most people. It's about what you can block and what you can take. It's about proving that government doesn't work because they don't make it work. It's about disruption. Maybe that's an open possibility for the time being. I'm quoting The Dude  when I say that my thinking has been really uptight.  And we can torch the earth, unwilling to take responsibility for it. There's a great line in Battlestar Galactica, the cylons keep asking, why the humans never ask why they think they deserve to li...

  NY Times article , Grammy for Rawer than Raw ( spotify ), memoir coming out. His wikipedia page shows he seemed to put out a new album most years after 1990. His first album came out in 1979. He's 87 year young, so his first album came out when he was 45. He was born in 1933 in Louisiana. He's not sure when he was born, though, "“All I know is in 1947, I was plowing in the field with a mule,” he said." (NYT) "His book offers three possible birth years — 1940, 1937 and 1934. Rush claims not to know the answer." His father was a pastor who moved to Arkansas around 1947. Part of what will be interesting in his memoir will be what he says about historical figures in the blues, like Elmore James who died in 1963. James had players in his band who played with Robert Johnson . In 1953, when Rush was 20, his family moved to Chicago, where he became part of the blues scene. In one gig, he played behind a screen for a white audience. Can you imagine that? "In ...

I watched the Mets game . I don't think I've watched a whole game like this in awhile. Lucchesi pitched well, after he gave up a run in the first inning. Paraza blasted one out in the 5th, with a man on. And that led to the disasterous 7th inning. Familia was pitching more than he'd ever pitched and he loaded the bases so Barnes could give up the grand slam for Tatis. Mets chipped back to make it 3-7 in the end. I picked the wrong game to watch, I thought, but when you love a team, you watch the losses. They won the series 4-3 with a tough team, great bullpen, but lost the last one in a kind of out of gas stinker. They had a pitcher bat in the 9th inning to get the last out. Three pitch strikeout.  I'm gradually getting into the Islanders . They beat the Lightning in the first game of the conference finals, next round is the Stanley Cup. Barzal got the first goal and Pulock the second. Tampa Bay got a goal with a minute left by Point.  The Canadiens are playing the Ve...

 What Soft — Cherubic Creatures — These Gentlewomen are — One would as soon assault a Plush — Or violate a Star — Such Dimity Convictions — A Horror so refined Of freckled Human Nature — Of Deity — ashamed — It’s such a common — Glory — A Fisherman’s — Degree — Redemption — Brittle Lady — Be so — ashamed of Thee —

My daughter doesn't like movies. The accumulation of adversity and being scared for the protagonist is too much for her. We're working on conquering her fears. She gets afraid on our walks by the lake because ... She can't say why. It's the fear of the unknown, fear of monsters, fear of her own anger. But we're walking around the lake and she's gradually getting to know it more and more.  Raya and the Last Dragon is an fascinating movie. I think it's amazing that there are so many female heroine. I was trying to think of the first movies I could think of. My parents took me to Murder on the Oriental Express , obviously to save money on a sitter, probably cheaper for a ticket. And I was a good little boy who just sat there. My kids would make such a fuss if they were not getting something developmentally appropriate--and I guess that's good. Maybe the movie was The Sting. I don't know I can't find a version that isn't 1937. My sons watched mo...

I read that Naomi Wolf has been banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation. On the one hand you don't have the right to yell fire in a crowded theater, if there is no fire. But is there no fire? We don't know hardly anything about the vaccine, and not knowing is used as a door to assert possibilities. Wolf wants to know what happens to the urine of people who are vaccinated in our drinking water. I'm not sure what she's thinking. I've been joking that I'm going to grow a third arm because of my vaccine. But the joke shows the fear of the unknown. The diluted urine that eventually makes its way into our drinking water is probably the least of our problems. I'm more afraid of forever chemicals. And what about the Covid in men's semen? Sure that's washing into our drinking water too, somehow. I mean if you think about our drinking water, that's pretty much an open do to all kinds of anxieties. I worry more about the hormones in cow milk makin...