March Madness

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. How's it been? I've been silent on the writing since the new year. I feel the need to write as an outlet because I believe reading and writing is the greatest tool for communication as a medium. Sure, I talk to friends and family, but you just don't get to really say everything you want to say with friends and family. That's why I've had this blog for so many years. The blog is a good outlet not only for creativity but also to say everything I want to say. I haven't really been too busy or anything, but I do think I had some slight writer's block that lasted all of February. But I've been good. I've been reading, working, and tonight I was playing guitar and electronic keyboard, just practicing, and improvising. 

I've been on a roll since the new year 2026 reading a lot of books. So far already since January I've read 10 books: The Mammoth Hunters [by Jean M. Auel], Van Gogh The Passionate Eye [Pascal Bonafoux], Plato's Symposium, Caesar's War on Gaul, Lolita by Nabokov, Words of Wisdom, The Nibelungenlied,  Cousin Bette by Balzac, The New Grove Mozart, and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. I'm also currently reading The Portable Medieval Reader and A History of China. My reading has stayed mostly in the realms of fiction, non-fiction, western canon but I will sometimes still read science fiction, more modern day science fiction as well as the golden age sci fi stuff. 

All the reading has been keeping me sharp and keeping me going. The state of our country isn't good and now all of a sudden we're on day 5 in a war against Iran with our partner Israel. What does reading all these great books of the western canon tell you about the political nature of the times we're currently living in? As Hegel would put it, "We learn from history that we don't learn from history." As bad as Trump and the MAGA Republican tinfoil hat crowd are, we have seen this before and we have been here before. 

Even this war against Iran. We're shooting at them with all these airstrikes and we're hoping for a regime change with no boots on the ground as of yet, which is unheard of and has never happened before. Well, this scene looks a lot like Bush's declaration of war in Afghanistan, but at least Bush got approval from Congress to go to war. With Trump, he declared it and we were instantly in war. It's an interesting time to be alive in the United States, being someone of my age, of my education, of my economic and social class. 

You see, you could argue that Americans like me, American citizens with good education, good family structure, they're doing okay economically, they're eating well, they're exercising, they're getting entertained, they have friends and family, they read books, etc, well you might say that Trump, what Trump does, and the new war against Iran, maybe it might not affect them as much as you think. 

The reality is that the Trump regime has had a profound influence on practically every facet of American culture, politics, entertainment, and governance. I believe, personally, that ever since President Trump was elected, since even the first time, American culture has largely degenerated and gotten worse and worse. I could even see it among the largely minority employees and management at the retail grocery job I worked at for years. You could see that because they loved Trump and praised him, they wanted to become like Trump, which included becoming more hateful and full of cruelty towards others around them. For them Trump wasn't just a symbol of American conservatism, he was the example to show them that it was okay to be a racist, to be hateful, to be cruel, and show it anywhere and anytime they wanted. Yeah, it was that bad there folks. That was just a market. Imagine how people who love Trump would act in a mob [January 6], or in Congress as leaders in the White House. Houston, we have a problem.

Which brings us to the end of February 2026, a new war with Iran. This war is like the perfect foil for Trump because he was already in trouble for the killings of two US Citizens with his gestapo-esque police force ICE [Rene Good, and Alex Pretti who were called terrorists by Kristi Nome leader of Homeland Security] and in addition Trump was in trouble for his too close ties to child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Also, there's the fact that the economy under Trump has slowed down a lot, there's a lot less jobs, food and gas prices are very high, and companies are putting more and more money and effort into AI [stupid idea] when in reality, Americans are struggling to pay rent, eat well, and find a job that gives them enough cash to live in a house or apartment. Trump's problem as President as always, has been affordability, as Democrats would say. Trump inherited a robust economy from Biden, and now when you go to Fatburger you're paying $24 for a burger, fries, and a soda. 

It almost seems at times like what Trump does is seemingly random. Which makes you wonder what is really going on in this world, what systems are controlling what's going on behind the scenes. For example, you notice how not once has Trump pushed back against Putin despite Putin's war crimes against Ukraine. So it makes you wonder, what does Putin have on Trump? Is Trump really a pedophile rapist like the newly reported story said? If its true, then we have to seriously discuss and decide what kind of a country we are and what kind of a country we should be. Because if we allow a guy who's done that to be our President and get us into a war then we have fundamentally failed as a democratic experiment. 

It helps to be somewhat of a cynic right now. In a way, to stay informed, you pretty much have to read the news every 24-48 hours or watch the news on TV daily, just to stay up to date on basic information, but in reality, you still have to question everything, not only Trump and his administration and their actions, but also the news and media itself, as well as yourself. Henry David Thoreau has this great quote where he says all the news stories are all things that have happened in other super old news stories from other times and years. That was a stunning revelation because in some sense, yes, it's very true. 

But why is this, why is that quote true? I think a small part of being a cynic is the feeling and knowing that something is amiss, something is not right, even though you don't know what it is, something like a conspiracy, who's to say that there isn't something like that going on right now and/or has been going on since the foundation of this state. Like I said, you have to question everything, even yourself and your own beliefs, even if you have a low education level, play videogames, and are more concerned about being 'turnt at da club.' There's something undeniable about the current times we're living in that has an eerie similarity to the past, something we don't understand, or perhaps will never be granted the right to understand. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!

Aristoi

Wow, what a terrific space opera god adventure story!

The way I described this book to people was this: this is a space opera about gods that become humanized. I mentioned Homer and his humanizing of his Olympians. So there's a long cherished tradition here going back throughout time, the western canon, of pathos, from Plato. What does it mean to be human? A god? What is good and evil? Who gets to justify right and wrong? These are some of the existential philosophical questions this book brings to mind in a general sense, disguised in the form of a 90s space opera. 

In addition to that, the momentum of the book never really stops, not even at the very bitter end. The story itself isn't remarkable, its rather predictable, and we've seen this same science fiction space opera tropes used time and time again within the golden age of science fiction and even the cyberpunk and new wave, it's rather space opera cliché. 

However, it is the way he tells the story that is truly a thrill. The style is simple but downright effective. It was never dull and every moment is a good one. I'm somewhat of a science fiction connoisseur but I missed this one all these years and I know I've missed much more. I would even say it's a required science fiction reading in the genre of space opera. It would be extremely difficult for a new science fiction writer in 2021 to write a space opera this good. It might even be downright impossible unless it was coming from overseas [not the US], maybe China.

Autumn Leaves [in the key of A major]

 

So this is what you call sushi?

Autumn is upon us! This is one of my favorite times of years because it represents the changing of the seasons, the Four Seasons, like the famous Vivaldi piece. This is a good time of year. It always reminds me of childhood and growing up in the Midwest. Memorial Day and this tie dye shirt I always wore. It represents to me schooling, learning, coldness, newer and more crisp air around me. It's also my birthday at the end of the month. 

At this point in the pandemic if you haven't become used to quarantine and haven't found a new way to live within this new paradigm, then you're very far behind. It's a time of healing, renewal, learning, growth, spiritually, mentally, physically, all of it, it's kind of a big deal! Get with the program if you haven't heard that the bird is the word.  

I've become entranced in my own activity. Although I have friends and hang out with them, it is really only within myself that I feel the Muse at its strongest and best. The muse is simply what keeps you going in your life. What do you really enjoy? Do that thing a lot. And find other things like it. And so on until you find what you find fulfilling in life. It could take 10,000 hours, it could take forever, or it might never happen if you don't search for your own meaning. 

I've been playing a lot of jazz guitar and have found some improvement in the jazz playing genre. A steep learning curve was simply just playing different chord voicings over the same chords as substitutions. Nothing fancy but it keeps the beat going and sounds super straight ahead. In a guitar/saxophone only duo it works really well and keeps us grounded within the saxophone solos. 

I've been reading a lot as well. My goal for this year on Goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/56122996-og-space] was to read 50 books, but a las, it's getting nearer and nearer the end of the year and right now I'm only at 34 books. We'll see what happens. I recently finished reading Ulysses by James Joyce and right now I'm reading Plato Dialogues selections, an old copy from an old man, a customer I met at work. He gave me his copy of this Plato book [as well as my copy of Ulysses, which I specifically asked him for], it's from 1927, the Modern Student's Library, Philosophy Series. I've been getting a lot out of the book and I've been spending time ruminating on the various ideas within the dialogues. Sitting beneath the warmth of the fire.  

I've also been eating very well but also making sure to eat and live in a healthy way. Food has been one of the best things in the world to me [lol] and I've been very lucky to live in California where the cuisine is literally everything and anything I want, reasonably within affordable price ranges. 

Another great place for food was Chicago, I used to love Chicago hot dogs, polish sausages, hot Italian beef sandwiches, and pizza Chicago style with real bulk sausage instead of diced sausage. It makes a big difference folks. 

Last night I had a superb meal at our favorite Korean restaurant, I had the ginseng chicken in hot broth. You add salt to the broth for flavor or you can eat it as is, which is pretty bland, but very delicious. Not only that but a customer gave me a Persian dish the other day at work and I ate it for my lunch. It was small pastries with meat inside them, they reminded me of pate, which my great Aunt used to make when I was a youngster. The stories within food is incredible and it'll keep you inspired till the end of time. 

Keep hitting those high notes! 

Breaking the Chains

Hello, ladies and gents. I haven't written in quite a while. This summer has been very intense. Mostly because of the coronavirus. I'm actually not even that busy and should've been reading and writing a lot more, but hey, sometimes it's hard to get in everything that you want to do in life. This is one of those times even though ironically most people are unemployed and sitting at home due to the virus. Meanwhile, the rest of us poor saps are working because we're essential workers. 

I've met a lot of new friends recently. They're all good chaps and they've really inspired me in a lot of ways. Through them, I've gained a lot more confidence in myself and have been pushing myself to be more outgoing socially. Through them, I realized that in a lot of ways I haven't seen myself in the way that I should, and that other friends, coworkers, and people sometimes drag me down for their own purposes. It was quite a realization. 

It made me see myself in a different light, a better light. I realize the need to stay humble in life but I also see the realization that sometimes you have to act like you're better simply because you are. It's difficult to explain in words. Famous people would get it. Successful people would get it. Well, now I get it. Took a long time to get through but I made it. Now, what do to with it? Only time will tell. 

Saying all that, I've also sort of unlocked new parts of myself within. This is where I go all metaphysical. In the past couple of weeks, maybe the last month or two, I've reached a sort of meta plane realization. I've gone back to my teenage roots even though I thought I've surpassed it and will never revisit it. I started playing guitar a lot more, started listening to only classic rock, and have been more outgoing socially with everybody I come in contact with. Because I read all the time, my conversation skills are the highest they've ever been, making me a hit pretty much anywhere I go. Although I'm half deaf and it's hard to listen to people I've learned to do it with extreme efficiency. My voice sounds cool and it's not as loud and overbearing as in the past, where I used to have trouble hearing myself. Life is good. 

Because I listen to so much music and really listen and focus hard on the music and lyrics, I've become a man of a thousand songs, literally. I plan on studying all my favorite classic rock music, really getting a feel for the songs, and writing my own songs in a somewhat similar vein in terms of harmony. I plan on getting back to recording music again soon. I'm still doing my jazz jam with the saxophone player Jason but I'm sort of losing interest in jazz. Mostly because I'm not really a jazz guitarist, but I'm talented enough to play it and fake it. But I'm no Wes Montgomery or Jim Hall, that's for sure. But I sure as hell will try. 

Finding yourself in the time of COVID feels different. Who am I really? It's a hard question that most people end up asking themselves their whole lives. I see myself as a painted bird, I have to choose my surroundings wisely or things will just not work out the way I'd like them to. 

That being said, the virus is still going strong, the protests are surging, and we have a Trump Gestapo in Portland but there is a silent majority working against Trump. I'm a big news junkie and read it every day, I recommend you all do the same. 
  
"I'm the last of the good old fashion steam train." 

It is Being

Greetings everyone! Thought I'd do a short post saying since I haven't written much for about a month. Things are alright but could be better. Work has been a little rough around the edges but I'm doing the best that I can [it's getting better all the time]. Sometimes you just have to relax and not take work seriously. It's not like it's as serious as your life [a great title of a great free jazz book by a British woman]. Honestly, these days, I'm just glad to still have a job, lol. 

I've been reading a lot. I'm nearly finished reading The Republic by Plato. Wow! What a terrific read. 2,000 years of philosophical thought, transcended down to today. The funny thing is that after reading so much philosophy, there isn't really anything new or truly great, or exciting from reading The Republic. Rather, it's the way it's written that is quite unique and interesting to the budding philosopher. 

The Republic is written as one long 400-page conversation between philosopher friends. There's the guy who questions Plato on everything, and he answers everything back, in great detail. The great thing is that although the dialogue itself is quite simple, it forces you to really think about questions and answers, going towards any plausible or implausible questions and answers. The Republic forces you to think. In addition, the way it's written ensures that there's no way you can speed through this. Because it's written as people talking together and asking questions, then answering, akin to the way people talk. This is a very engaging way to learn philosophy. I'm more used to the more dry prose of say Hobbs or Kant.

But yeah, so I've finally read Plato. Bring on Aristotle next. I'll write a proper report on The Republic in the next couple of days. I haven't written much within the last month because my laptop broke and I usually write all my blog posts on a laptop. Just because I find the desktop computer to be too distracting. It takes away from my writing so instead, I just stopped writing for a month. In a way, I suffered a lot because writing on here has been therapeutic for me, and helps me to sustain all my thoughts and emotions in written form. Without it was a bit like going back to the dark ages. 

It's good to be back in it. I got a new laptop and its quite nice. In other news, I've been performing solo acoustic guitar at open mics at the Sugar Mill Saloon. I do a lot of improvisation and jazz there. And I also plan on going back to rock and roll open mic jams at Petie's Place. I have plans on writing more fiction, working more on my somewhat finished but unfinished memoir, and more blogs on books, music, and such. 

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void, it is shining. -Tomorrow Never Knows-

What's up!

What's up, everybody? I thought I'd take a little time out to write a post.

Things have been pretty good. Except for the fact that I have a sore throat cold. I still have high energy most of the time but damn the sore throat makes talking a real chore. I've been working consistently 40 hours every week, which is good. Especially considering the fact that a lot of peoples' hours got cut recently. You know how it goes in retail. Blah, blah, blah...

I'm still doing a lot of morning shifts but now they're at least giving me some night shifts so potentially I can be at the store at any time. I actually think that if you're one of the special chosen ones to work early mornings or even like 9,10, 11, 1130am, that they want you there early because you're one of the better workers. Everyone fights for those early hours because they all want to get done with work and go hang out with their girlfriends, wives, families, whatever. The morning shifts at work are a much more adulting shift than the late shift.  

In other news, I've been doing the open mics at the Sugar Mill Saloon on Ventura Boulevard. That happens every week on Tuesday nights. Sometimes I sing solo with just acoustic guitar. Simple songs like Hendrix. I've been doing Purple Haze and Hey Joe. Other times I do instrumental jams with another guitarist named Dave. He's a great player, a true acoustic player.

I've also been reading a lot. Since finishing Kant's Critique of Judgement and the Critique of Pure Reason, I've also finished John Crowley's Engine Summer, and just last night on Valentine's day I finished Cecelia Holland's The Angel and the Sword.

Holland is a historical fiction novelist with some twenty novels written. I learned about her through my dad, who vouched for her one and only science fiction novel, a feminist [joanna ross' the female man] space opera called Floating Worlds. It spans twenty years and five hundred pages. It's a true epic, one of the best science fiction novels in the canon. Check out my review for Floating Worlds here.

Anyways, The Angel and the Sword is a great novel about Roderick the Beardless, a 9th-century European story about a Princess named Ragny, of the blood of the last rightful ruler of Spain. She runs away from her father who tries to force her to marry him. She disguises herself as a man, becomes a knight, and saves Paris from being overrun by Vikings. She even falls in love. This story has everything folks. 

The remarkable thing about the Angel and the Sword isn't even the great, realistic historical aspects and the non-psychological character stylings of the characters [the Hemingway model, the action is plot]. Rather it is the main character herself. Ragny/Roderick is simply a captivating woman. She struggles hard in a fierce world dominated by men [and Vikings], and she faces down every obstacle in her way. Strong female lead! 

Next, I plan on reading The Republic by Plato. Finally, after reading so much philosophy, I'm reading the original texts of Plato. I'm a modernist but in a way, I think Plato was a modernist too, of his time. Everybody knows about the allegory of the cave. That is such a modern concept, especially in a postmodern world.

Just finding the time to write more has been a struggle. I'm usually really tired after work and now that I'm working mornings too, half the time I have to go to sleep somewhat early. Oh, the agony! How I wish I had more time to read books, write, and play guitar. However, it's good to just sit down and write, whatever. Writing anything seems to suffice, I get a real thrill out of just writing down on a blank canvas and seeing what turns out. Sometimes the writing is meh, but oftentimes there's a little something, a little flair, that I see, and I say, "Hey, that's pretty cool." To more flair!