-
Are we always pulling guns from our holsters
2001-11-09 10:48:52
From today's Bleat (www.lileks.com), something I found particularly fascinating:
"I’ve written here before about people who believe that skepticism is not only an obligation - which it is - but a modus vivendi, the only possible option for a Thinking Person. The end result of this philosophy is intellectual paralysis. The sufferers are unable to see some things for what they really are. [...] These people believe that skeptical minds will bring about Change - broadly defined in Utopian terms - but this sort of reflexive disbelief is usually a recipe for inaction. [...]
"But sometimes it gets bloody; sometimes the failure to achieve Utopia does not discredit the idea, just the timidity of the methods used to secure it. The failure of Capitalism to address inequities is always depicted as a flaw of capitalism; the failure of Utopianism to bring about heaven on earth is always blamed on the insufficiencies of the people in the movement, or the means they use. Since the cause is supremely Just, human error and chance are criminalized; an inability to complete a Five Year Plan does not discredit the goals of the Plan - such a thing is not conceivable! - but can only be attributed to conscious efforts to thwart Utopia. And this is, by definition, a crime against humanity.
"Hence the bloody basement of the Lubyanka.
"No movement whose organizing principle is Opposition to Everything ever accomplishes heaven on earth. At its worst it cripples society and makes it vulnerable to the Jacobins eager to get down to the business of chopping heads for the greater good. This is why I find the American Revolution so astonishing - it managed to avoid that period of totalitarian tyranny that usually follows."
Really, just go read the whole thing. It's an excellent column, and I read it every morning.
While I don't always agree wholeheartedly with his points (when he has any; usually he just writes witty tidbits about daily life), I do understand where he comes from.
That being Minneapolis.
Anyway, he makes another statement later on that could really be applied much more broadly:
"... Virtuous Defeatism: since it is impossible to do the perfect thing, scorn must be poured on anything that does not attain perfection."
I think this may be why so many people give up on artistic endeavours with a combination of smugness and despair. "I can't draw like Michelangelo, so why should I bother."
I've been guilty of this sentiment many a time, and to be honest, sometimes the only thing that's drawn me back is my nearly id-level addiction to drawing, and my drive to justify my existence by attempting to entertain people.
What makes Virtuous Defeatism especially problematic is its contagiousness. Say, for example, that an AMV editor you really looked up to said, "Oh, I'll never make a perfect video - therefore all my work is crap. I should just give up."
If someone whose work you admire can't feel pride in that work, doesn't it (at least to some small degree) affect how you perceive your own?
I guess it's the equivalent of standing next to a strikingly beautiful girl as she looks in the mirror and says, "god, I'm so ugly." You look at your reflection, then hers, and think, "well, fuck, if you think YOU'RE ugly..."
I dunno. maybe you have to be a young, insecurity-riddled American female to get that.
Or maybe I'm just talking out my arse.
On a lighter note, I've been listening to Morcheeba's "Big Calm" album a lot lately, and it simultaneously thrills and frustrates me. The music is terrific, but I'm in such an AMV-making mode... and none of those songs would really work for me, in terms of editing.
I haven't drawn in two days and I'm starting to twitch.
Oh wait, I think the 22oz. cup of French roast is causing the twitches. Never mind... -
don't say nothing, just drive the car
2001-11-08 15:46:51
New wallpaper:
http://www.big-big-truck.com/bebop/kohdpaper.jpg
Omake:
http://www.big-big-truck.com/bebop/hellomynameis.jpg -
and this faith is my ship and your love my ocean
2001-11-08 09:51:34
knghtbrd: I learned to program BASIC on an Apple //C. I got to where I could draw chunkypixel pictures of sunsets and mountains and stuff. It ruled. We had that Apple until 1995. I used it to write all my reports for school (and print them out on a dot matrix printer of course!)
I remember being so excited when we got a JOYSTICK for that computer in 1987. It was this clunky square contraption in that same beige-grey color that most Apples were.
Heh. The computer I learned to type on was just some terminal with a green screen... when you hit "backspace" it wouldn't delete, the letter would just appear burned over what you'd typed before... when you printed a document the paper was this slick, gross smelly stock, and the ink would rub off on your hands.
Nostalgia is all fine and good, but... ::hugs her G4 with PS6 and Painter5, then goes home and hugs her secondhand Dell::
Oh, by the way, that Big Fat Kill picture... the original is 14" x 17" and all black (prisma ink on Bristol). I added the red blood in Photoshop as an afterthought.
I'd put it up for auction at a con, but: 1. I have ethical issues with selling parody art (especially when it's blatantly ripped off like that one... and though I gave credit to the original artist, not everyone recognizes the picture) and 2. I promised it to Steve Bowler as an exchange gift for his Pikachu "That Yellow Bastard" art.
Which rules. -
Baby got a head of state and a president
2001-11-07 21:53:50
Kwasek: Plympton's immensely talented, and funny, but I just wish he'd lay off on the gross-out jokes.
Those Wiseman shorts, and the ways to stop smoking, though, were GENIUS. Sumo wrestler bomb! And I worship his caricature 5K!11z. He's on my List of Modern Illustration Ghods, just below Gerald Scarfe.
If only, if only, if only, he'd lay off on the gross-out jokes. I mean, he had some really great sequences in "Eat" (esp. the pasta-woman, the gabbing woman's transforming head, and the kids' imaginary food battle), but the last part was just... uggh. I didn't need to see that.
Still, he doesn't hold a candle to Don Hertzfeldt.
"Mah SPOON is TOO BIG!"
AMV thoughts: Thinking about doing 2 purely dance videos. Meaning, all rave-y and full of SFX and meaningless, but fun to make. Little effort. Non-competitive entries in an AMV dance. One to "Atom Bomb" by Fluke, and one to "Da Funk" by Daft Punk.
(I mean, it's Daft Punk, how hard can beat matching be?)
I would have started on them tonight, had Brett not left Civ III at a point where I can't tell if he saved his game or not. I don't want him to have to rebuild the whole Roman empire again, after all.
<Some overly flowery text excised>
I forgot to mention that I made new Bebop wallpaper on Monday:
http://www.big-big-truck.com/bebop/falilvpaper.jpg
http://www.big-big-truck.com/bebop/bigfatkillpaper.gif
-
Did you realize the world inside belongs to you?
2001-11-07 10:39:39
Someone help me! I'm stuck on a Daft Punk song and it WILL. NOT. GO. AWAY. I feel like ripping out my brain and stomping on it, like in that godawful Bill Plympton short. Except that I kind of like this song.
Heh, heh - I took some cherry NyQuil last night for my throat. Oh my GOD. That stuff RULES. Within 10 minutes I was floating in fuzzyland and conked out as soon as my head hit the pillow.
If only I could fall asleep that fast without medication. I'd have it made.
Good news - Brett called yesterday to let me know he got the part of Nabeshin in Excel Saga. He's pretty happy about it. It's the role he had been hoping for since he first saw the show.
Thinking about doing a video to "Strangers" by Portishead, but unsure if I can bear repeated exposure to that song without being reduced to a quivering ball of id. Also unsure what anime to use.
Probably going to draw another WPOC today. Nied keeps getting on me about it. I'm just not as creative as him!!
JOURNAL: Big Big Truck (E K)
Current server time: Jan 12, 2026 22:33:00