MSNBC - Aid Workers Retrain Man Raised As Chicken
Who says you can't get the news you need from MSNBC?
Here's a picture of him at a baseball game before the retraining.
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I watched the movie Paycheck yesterday. It's based on a short story by Philip K. Dick.
Here's a quote from that Wired article,
"It's all very Buddhist," says Uma Thurman, sitting in a dressing room as a makeup artist dabs at her face. She means Philip K. Dick, of course. Her father, Columbia University professor Robert Thurman, is a leading Buddhist scholar and a good friend of the Dalai Lama, so she's no stranger to discussions of memory and reality. "Reality is an illusion - that's the principle of ancient Buddhist thought," she continues. "And the basic idea of being reborn is that you erase the memory. Everybody is interconnected, and you're working out your karma with people - so you get erased, but all work left undone has to be completed."
So Thurman is a fan. Blade Runner was one of her favorite movies growing up - the plight of the replicants was so affecting it made her cry - and after seeing it she read Dick's novel. "There's something very earthly in his imaginings," she says. "You don't have to set them on Mars - they're projections from here on Earth. There's class struggle, there's government deceit. And these nightmarish fantasies about corporations owning the world - I mean, obviously there's a reason people relate to that."
What an interesting guy. Really a genius. As the Wired article mentions, his book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was the inspiration for Blade Runner.
Here's a link to an MP3 where you can hear Rutger Hauer, who plays a replicant named Roy, say as he nears death, "all those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain" The MovieWavs Page Copyright � 1997 - 2003. It's a great scene.
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Thinking about writers and amphetamines; brings to mind this Jack. He burned bright Jack Kerouac - On the Road.
I feel compassion for people who can't get outside themselves at least once in awhile and burn burn burn. You might last a long time on a low flame but you wouldn't want to end up thinking; what's the point? I lived a long time but what's the point?
Amphetamines used to be more common and I guess less destructive than the meta-amphetamines available today. I remember back in the sixties someone I know was given a prescription, by a reputable Doctor, for a thousand tab jar of whites for weight control purposes.
Have you ever listened to this song Willin' Little Feat. I thought Emmylou Harris had done a version that I liked but I can't find it. Loved listening to it back in my hippier days. All together now:
I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Now I driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me.....
My wife and I had a part time job one summer driving beater used cars from the Fargo auto-auction to a used car lot in Northern Minnesota. I use the term used car lot loosely it was more like a line of old cars beside the road in a field out in the toolies. The guy that owned the cars also owned a set-up bar. That's a bar where they sell mixes and you bring your own liquor. We got to be friends with him when we would stop by his bar once in awhile. That driving job was fun. We'd each get a car and zoom up to the used-car field North of Bemidji.
One of our favorite road songs was Radar Love by Golden Earring. Great road tune, turn it up!
Another time I was hitchhiking with a friend up to see my wife. A guy stopped to pick us up and gave us his car. He was going to a family reunion or something about halfway to where we were headed and said he'd catch a ride back home to Fargo with his family. I guess it would be more correct to say he lent us his car; since all he asked was that we return his car to his place in Fargo when we came back after the weekend trip. He didn't know us from Adam. I guess we looked trustworthy. Things were different in that time and place.
Once when I was stationed in Pennsacola, I was hitchhiking along the gulf coast in Southern Alabama. I was a young man and got a ride with an old perv. We were in some backcountry area and he kept asking me if I wanted to visit his farm, which was the last thing I wanted to do with someone resembling the toothless guy from Deliverance. I should have known something was fishy when he stopped for me in his Motor Home. It was fairly unnerving to say the least. That was the last time I voluntarily hitched a ride.
It wasn't at all uncommon in the 60's and into the 70's to see lots of normal looking men and women thumbing rides. Too much risk nowadays. Times have changed.
Another time my brother and I were working on my sister's 58 bug back in Montana and took it for a test drive. It quit about 10 miles from the nearest town. It was hotter than old billy that day. I thought we were lucky to be on a fairly busy highway. My brother was on crutches having hurt his knee in a motorcycle accident. I was frustrated that we couldn't get a ride for a long time. I guess people thought the crutches and the broke down car were some kind of a trick. Finally a guy and his wife stopped for us in a really nice BMW; leather, air conditioning, nice sound and he gives us a ride back to town. Thanks buddy...whoever you were.
Speaking of the open road....
Here's some lists and an article on driving songs -
Berklee News | Top 50 Driving Songs
Best Songs for the Road
"Running on empty DAN NEIL; Los Angeles Times ". List of his top 25 road songs at the end of the article.
I'd have to include the
Sheryl Crow song "Everyday is a Winding Road" on my list and maybe "All I Wanna Do" for when you stop.
