"Behave"

(The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst)
-by robert m. sapolsky
2017
Reading this, you might wonder whether it's the greatest book ever. Such over-the-top enthusiasm is forgivable, as greatness does indeed spill from the pages. This qualifies as a magnum opus, and one that wasn't necessarily expected. Sapolsky has been a delightful author for years - incisive, funny, redoubtably readable. He's one of the few scientists whose writing rises to the level of his academic expertise (in primatology and neurobiology). Perhaps this book shouldn't be surprising though, as the combination of those two fields gives him a profound leg up in chasing humyn nature.
See sapolsky go for the big grab...and largely succeeds! Competition, aggression, hierarchy, tribalism, nature via nurture, free will...he approaches all these from multiple perspectives and time frames, always coming back to the touchstone - what's going on in our brain synaptically when we show compassion, hatred, or indifference? When ought we pat ourselves on the back, and when not? Can we rise above our worst impulses, to become not just better individuals, but a better species? Sapolsky gives a resounding yes, showing the plasticity of our brains and astounding moral leaps of which we're capable. To journey through these pages is to feel yourself getting smarter. Humility is always called for when approaching such weighty topics, for there is still more we don't know than we DO...but sapolsky embraces that, while making you feel proud of how not-stupid we humyns almost are. The book is as dense or light as you need...he appendicises the most gnarly academic parts, inviting you to skip, skim, or swim.
Sadly, i lost the copy i'd been reading, and with it all the bookmarks for specific revelations that might astound or delight, like the horrific inhumynity and incomprehensible moral courage that were both shown at the My Lai massacre. Even now, i cry.
But that just means you'll get the pleasure of uncovering all that yourself...

Star Trek: Discovery, season 2-4

Is season 2 better, or does it merely feel so because it embraces the familiar (captain pike and spock)? Are the returning regulars becoming characters we really care about? STD is watchable, because of quality dialogue and acting, but...the fact that the most exciting moment of the season comes in TOS flashbacks, is telling (that potential fizzles, however). The most disappointing moment of the season comes in the finale. It's obvious they saved a lot of budget for the visuals, but the grand action feels forced, and the pulse-pounding score an unearned manipulation. Having the season's overarching villain be a one-dimensional alien AI, dehumanizes the proceedings (TNG and BSG made artificial life so humyn it hurt, so it IS possible).
Once again, the show is hamstrung by being more serial than episodic. Serial can work for TREK (ENTERPRISE season 3), but perhaps only for a season at most. Too much of what makes TREK special is storytelling and social relevance, and it's harder to facilitate those in a serial format, where everything becomes more diluted. Yes, we appreciate the strides this show makes in dismantling both heteronormativity and the devaluation of non-attractive wimyn. But at this point, that's not enough. Give us something ahead of the curve, not directly on it, on terrain any second-rate show might tread.
Boldness, TREK. The interracial kiss! The russian on the bridge at the height of the Cold War! A ship with a female bridge crew! Or a non-violent manifesto! Or the first non-hierarchical Starfleet vessel! This ain't rocket science, kids - get off your asses and DO it, wouldja?
STD's glamorized violence is a step in the wrong direction (leave that crap to the other STAR franchise). For all roddenberry's failings, the last TREK to go boldly was TNG's ferengi-swipe at capitalism.
I can't muster enough enthusiasm for episode reviews. Has any STD cracked this reviewer's franchise-wide marathons? Not even close.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Not awful!

Season 3...more of the same. Best characters of the series? Tilly and tig.

Season 4...perhaps the most legitimate sci fi Trek has assayed in a long time, as the Federation struggles to communicate with aliens...you can tell that the writers consulted scientists on what that challenge might REALLY be like. But still, not a single post-abrams episode worth adding to the ultimate trekathons.

"American Dialogue"

(The Founders and Us)
-by joseph j. ellis
2018
Despite my being deeply impressed by ellis' "Founding Brothers", i was hesitant to read any more works by this Pulitzer-prize winning historian. Even if he remained brilliant, i wasn't sure any history book could have any relevance for those interested in solving the problems we face. If you're 95% sure the system is broken beyond repair, why study it? Our country has never represented the interests of "we, the people" - indeed, our bloody history is best understood as a war against the people, here and abroad. It's long past time for America to live up to its almost accidental idealism, and a new government is required for that. I'm 96% sure all founding brothers would agree.
Despite my hesitation, this book grabbed me instantly and never let go. Indeed, it surpasses ellis' earlier work, getting right to the heart of America's greatest crises, income inequality and race. It deconstructs their origins, revealing the oft-surprising extent to which individual founders were hopeful of avoiding hypocritical disasters in these areas. This is high-level understanding of the present through the lens of the past.
Moderns americans only relate to our country as a seamless monolith, so it's startling to understand how almost non-existent America was after the revolution. For decades, we were a RINO (republic in name only). Just individual states going about our unsavory businesses.
But for the first time, some of you might feel genuine admiration for our first president, as george was the only founder to try to avert indigenous genocide. He attempted to secure them their own inviolable homes and perpetual sovereignty. His proclamation to that affect failed because the government lacked any power to enforce its edicts.
Jefferson was the most influential founder in shaping our racial history, and for this will his name ever be sullied. The story of jefferson is the tragedy of a humyn who knows what is right, but spends a lifetime rationalizing wrong. Early in his career, he tried a handful of times to condemn slavery, but even at his best could never envision a society of whites and blacks as equals - this despite profound evidence to the contrary before his eyes, in his own plantation (and bedroom). As a youth, jefferson was the only founder i idealized, but as an adult that honor goes to...
John adams. He fought against the horrors looming for our country in terms of income inequality, a legacy all the more surprising coming as it does from the pre-industrial age. Indeed, it's likely that all the founders would look upon our government as one designed for a class-based agrarian society, and of little relevance to the modern world.
After the towering chapters on race and income inequality, the book fizzles a bit, but remains a worthy and brilliant read.

Riptide 15

Two new songs, "Mmmphony" and "Girly Shoes Blues". The first one's a medley i worked on for months, going through many iterations as i tried and rejected different songs (notably "Into the Mmm-bop", "Mmm-bop Moon", and "If You Don't Mmm-bop By Now"). Each time i practiced, in the back of my mind i bemusedly wondered why i was working so much on a song i would play only once. It felt just too weird and obscure...i intended to play it only at the Hotel Utah, which has the highest concentration of songwriters, plus an affinity for the bizarre. But then a strange thing happened. I performed it somewhere else almost by accident, and the crowd loved it. And then the same at another venue. I have no idea whether it will make my concert. "Girly Shoes Blues" has shown itself to be a crowd hit - i'm amazed at how ready audiences are to goofily make the "sound" of a porcupine. I didn't think it had any chance to make the concert, but maybe i was wrong...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO7gEhh3DZc

the five keys

THE FIVE KEYS TO HAPPY HEALTH
(how to live long...and want to)
1) HUG - 50 times a day...at least once with a child.
2) LAUGH - 50 times a day...at least once at yourself.
3) FUCK - any day, any way.
4) RAISE YOUR VOICE - in excitement once a day, in righteous anger once a year.
5) EQUAL TIME FOR WORK AND PLAY - and always err in a frivolous way.*
The measure of success? The sweetness of your dreams.

*Passive entertainment and physical intimacy don't count toward playtime.

the fucking commandments

I will never again fuck with deception.
I will never again fuck with calculation.
I will never again fuck with barrier.*
I will never again fuck a lover over.**
I will never again fuck with fear.

*Take this one figuratively or literally, and with two grains of salt - we won't be able to live it fully until our contraceptive capacities are seamless, and until humynity can assure every newborn babe of lifelong unconditional loving.
**I so much wanted to say "womyn", and not just because a womyn inspired this literary dream. Yes, the universal "lover" is more correct, as wimyn are largely what our society has made them (that is to say, heartless mimics of male selfishness)...yet it's also true that wimyn have been more profoundly fucked over than men.

holiday tracks

Homeless people take care of each other, in ways that "normal" people seldom (and perhaps never) experience.
I'm just speculating, based on a stray moment...though it's quite plausible. The "us vs. them" mindset is hard-wired (if profoundly manipulable) in our brains. And there are few dichotomies more pronounced than "sheltered vs. not".
I got home last night from a four-day train trip. By that fourth day, my odor was pronounced and my hair becoming more comical by the hour (i made a nick nolte mugshot look dapper). I was too tired to shower, and when i woke this morning my first thought was breakfast, so i walked to the store. On the way, a homeless person gave me a solicitous greeting.
I'll assume he thought i was homeless too. I looked like a refugee. Beyond the smell and hair, my shoes are starting to split, my sweats have seen better days, and my layering-for-warmth had that homeless je ne sais quoi.
His words were casual, yet the warmest any homeless person has ever given me.
I spent the past couple weeks visiting family in PA for the holiday. It was beautiful. Giving gifts i'd been saving up all year, and receiving some wonderful love too. My step-mom found me an art deco banjolele that might be eighty or more years old.
The trip was too long to not have a sleeper car (i was getting foot cramps by the last day, and my ankles always swell after such a trip), yet train is still the best way to travel. It's so much more social and beautiful than any other mode. Chugging through the Sierras and Rockies in winter, and along the California coast...plus the humyn connection, which is always amplified when you're playing a ukulele in the club car. I sat next to a bluesman on his way to a gig in Chicago, who taught me i could follow him musically, which i didn't think i could do. I traded songs with other musicians, and gave a mini-concert for (and fell in love with) a chinese college student traveling around the country. I chatted with one of mccartney's childhood mates. I sat next to a young womyn for three days, and shared amiable small talk. When her stop arrived, she got up and left without a word of goodbye. Hm. And the bluesman flopped on me in his sleep, after having had a couple drinks.
Ah, the good and the bad...
I climbed a hay tower in Kennett Square, walked through Chicago to Lake Michigan, and was stunned by the architecture of the Harold Washington Library. I sat in the Grand Hall of Union Station, playing my songs. I wasn't trying to busk, but several groups of children shook down their parents for bills.
I also had a drug-sniffing dog give me the once-over. It was startling to remember that in some places, they'll lock you in a cage for having pot.
Another moment came about through startlingly fortuitous timing. I had a one-hour layover in Albuquerque, and set out for a quick stroll in a random direction. A few blocks on, i walked right into an anti-war protest. I cried.
I wrote two songs on the train, a comedy holiday number destined to top "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" as funniest ever (or most annoying, or both), and "The Poverty Blues", which is heart-rending. Ten minutes after writing it, i realized that 70% of it replicates a chord progression of a dylan song. The feel of the music and lyrics together was perfect - i spent the rest of the trip trying (and failing) to find new chords, or alter the ones i had. I wrestled with my conscience, trying to justify keeping the original chords. The melody and bridge are entirely different, and no one i've played it for has recognized the dylan. I don't think i was even subconsciously remembering those chords. My style of writing is too plodding for me to have any sort of specific musical goal in mind. I just try to follow the feel of the lyrics. I laughed at the irony that it was a dylan song, having learned this year that bob's writing method is to take a song he likes, and make it different. I can't help thinking he would urge me to not change a thing.
I'd been reading a book about neuroscience before the trip, so synapses were on my mind. A song idea came to me, called "The First Festivus Miracle", about the Christmas truce of WW1, where enemy soldiers in the trenches fraternized, and refused orders to go back to killing. If we're capable of overcoming THAT "us vs. them" indoctrination, there is no leap of empathy and compassion beyond our species.
Living in such a barbaric era of our history, it's too easy to think that's not so.
But it is. Come hear my songs, and i'll convince you.
I love you all.