The latest Matrix iteration. God it looks awful! The first edition was an all time Sci-fi masterpiece, the second... meh, the third- pretty damn good. Maybe I'll catch it online and prove myself wrong- be nice, but in this case- doubt it.
The second is the over hyped, over exposed to the Ever Lovin' Absolute Max... Licorice Pizza. Maybe it's great, maybe I'd love it- BUT... I'm so damn sick of hearing all the advertisements 24/7 about: just how good it is, how much the critics love it, how much everyone loves it, that it already has me vomiting on cue- BASTA!
Power, Greed, Money, Politics, International Intrigue, Sex... No sex. Huh!? Nope, No Sex- actually, not even a little. Weird, right? But you can easily double down on all the rest. All involving this one little painting originally bought for a few grand and ultimately sold for... $400,000,000! Ladies and Gentlemen: Leo's Salvator Mundi; yeah, that Leo- da VInci. So, who bought it, and... did Leo really paint it? Yup- fun and educational!
I have two near and dear friends who are vehement, rabid anti-maskers/vaxxers. And let's be clear- they're not Trump supporters. One is a vegetarian, one a vegan- so you see where this is headed... both believe that a strong immune system is the key. And frankly, I wanna believe that- I really do! There's just one little itty, bitty problem...
There are a group of people who for centuries lived 100% organic lives, healthy, active lives since their very existence, not as a voluntary lifestyle, but outta necessity, simple survival... Native Americans, American Indians, First Peoples. All as healthy as could be, until the White man came along with a host of viruses their robust immune systems simply had no defenses for- and they died by the tens of thousands.
Now, for the sake of argument, let's say that these modern day, immunity proponents have figured out some vitamin, mineral, food supplement/diet that can suppress, ward off, even kill the Covid 19 virus. How long will fickle willed Americans adhere to this magical formula- months... years? And how about the rest of the world- how are vast impoverished parts of South America, Asia, Africa, etc going to obtain and sustain the life giving, magic ingredients? If only we had a simple, quick and easy, one-two solution that would let us get on with our lives...
But... don't you see the political aspects, the government control that our one world overlords are forcing upon us? Funny how these same people don't have any qualms whatsoever about volunteering the most intimate aspects of their lives to their Smart devices and online social media that have already collected their entire life histories for government inspection. Do you really think they actually need to go through all the trouble of creating such an elaborate hoax- that will ultimately rely on voluntary public compliance to succeed when they can't even get most people to vote? These days though, logic is not logical and brand trumps science!
But you don't have to take my word on this- let this expert explain in no uncertain terms:
I have no idea if Covid 19 came from a Chinese wet market, or a man made weapons lab (actually, I lead to the former). And if the latter, yeah, it was planned- and don't tell me that neither government would do such a thing. And... I have no idea if Bill Gates is doing more harm than good, more good than harm, or just raking in more millions with a cosmetic halo (well, definitely the latter- regardless of the first two).
"I don't need facts to back up my feelings" is not a viable option. And even if everything in the video below is true, it still means the disease is out and about amongst us- so not wearing a precautionary mask when in proximity to other humans for the time being is both selfish and stupid. And no matter your politics, no matter your side of choice, one more thing is most definitely certain- we must make the time and effort to hold our governments accountable!
Plandemic II: Indoctornation - powered by ise.media
No, Dark Waters ain't the greatest movie ever- but if it doesn't keep ya in uneasy anticipation throughout, well then, you've been somnambulating throughout you own sorry life anyways!
Granted, it's the age old story, those in power, be they: rich, corporate or government will attack you, damage you, kill you, all the while they profit and deny it just the same. And having right on your side usually guarantees you're entitled to a heaping helpful doseful of yet more humiliation and degradation than you ever possibly bargained for!
I remember my mother's pride upon first getting a Teflon pan, it was one of the few things our family could afford that brought us straight into... the future, as we all collectively marveled at the ease with which eggs slid hither and yonder! In time, that Teflon coating of "forever chemicals" would slowly begin to wear and scratch off, right into our collective gullets. This film chronicles what happened to those that ate it, breathed it, drank it, bathed in it, lived next to and on top of it- all the while your friendly folks at Dupont (the "Better Living Through Chemistry" folks) kept secret, and later denied, that they had any knowledge of its potent toxicity and devastating heath effects...
I grew up on Soul and Rock 'n Roll, I can appreciate Hip Hop just like I can appreciate most other music- but I dislike most of it, just like I dislike most Rock, current or otherwise.
I also hate football, not because it's violent, and damn dangerous to your head and general well being; shit, I grew up a rabid boxing fanboy. And I grew up loving it because of the man who transcended it. Ali was a hero, in the ring- outside of it. He was a hero not because of all the times he would so dramatically dig into that well of resilience to overcome whatever foe placed before him, but because of the challenges he himself raised and defeated outside the squared circle, challenges that ultimately robbed him of a good portion of his life and livelihood. And still he stood steadfast- even when, and especially when, the easier option was offered.
I left New York at the turn of the century, after 40+ years of being a hard core, native New Yorker. Something had changed, I felt it was part me and part... New York itself, the home I had so loved, respected and championed. Of course, when you live in the midst of something, are surrounded by it, engulfed by it- it's often hard to view things fairly, proportionately or even rationally. All I knew, is that for the first time in my life, New York felt alien to me, something now strangely apart from me, no longer just the natural extension of everything both good and not so good about me and every other of my fellow New Yorkers... I had long ago stopped romanticizing New York, I knew it cared nothing about me, neither as individual nor as the very smallest of its cogs, but even the sense of mutual, sustained respect for having withstood everything it had thrown my way both as child and adult had suddenly begun to wane and tarnish.
My favorite scene (the only worthwhile scene in my opinion) from Martin Scorsese's abysmal Gangs of New York was the very end, where New York's skyline morphs and transforms throughout the decades, a CGI transformation that embarrassingly almost brought me to tears, particularly since my parents first arrived at its shores in the early fifties having "migrated" from Puerto Rico and settled in a $40 cold water flat on Crosby St. in... SOHO. I sensed that I was getting older, no longer part of the generation that was changing New York on a street or cultural level, but something else was going on, a change that was occurring and metastasizing from what seemed to be outside forces well beyond the farthest reaches of its outer boroughs. And I saw it all around me, the rampant gentrification, the disappearing neighborhood joints and landmarks, the skyrocketing prices of anything and everything imaginable, and the not so tangible but very definite change of... attitude.
And the latter was the most mystifying to me, I couldn't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it, although the new Domino's Pizza on Third Ave. off St. Marks did offer the most viable of clues- how did such a shit ass, cardboard chain eatery invade and survive New York City, the only place in the US of A where you could actually get good great pizza? Pizza, the NY/NJ poor man's staple that one could eat cheaply, plentifully and deliciously in any of its five boroughs! Couldn't figure it out for the life of me- what semi-sane, self respecting New Yorker would ever patronize such a place? And the answer was... but a block away, at NYU's most recently built dorm. New York was now conforming not to the needs of its working, everyday residents, but to the well monied interests of those moving in and having it conform to them, both on the micro and macro level. Domino's, of course, being the very least of it, as high priced chain boutiques and luxury condos with or without "poor doors" became the norm, just as New York street attitude, whatever one may think of it, was being replaced by the shrill, outright arrogance of its well heeled, elitist new comers.
And that is what Vanishing New York, How A Great City Lost Its Soul by Jeremiah Moss makes abundantly clear in the most minute and meticulously researched detail. This is not a vanity publication of some curmudgeon's opinions and biased observations, as some would like to allege; Moss backs up his claims with an abundance of facts and historical data. Critics like to point out that New York has always been in flux, constantly changing and morphing- one says flat out, "Someone give Moss a Metrocard," so he can see all the working class diversity in Bay Ridge (my place of birth); this critic, allegedly paid to write and "think," obviously clueless to the fact that he just proved Moss, right- having to go to the outer boroughs to finally reach a diversified working class community! Even The High Line, that most seemingly benign, beneficial and contemplative of new New York's additions, was little more than the stealth juggernaut for destroying that entire neighborhood to pave way for monstrosities such as Vessel, that (if I may quote myself) "monumental monument of monumentous proportions that affords the monied
elite living 'round it the grand view of watching the minions below
them walk endlessly about within its circle going nowhere."
Despite all the changes and evidence all around me some twenty years ago- I couldn't see the forest for the trees! And that is what this most depressing, yet fascinatingly detailed, chronicle of a book so clearly recounts and outlines- the unmaking of America's most uniquely original city into base camp for the world's filthy rich and boorishly boring...
The irony on my part, of course, is that we moved to San Francisco, the only other American city that had long intrigued me as an open, viable city; and although we did catch a few good years, what occurred in New York in thirty years, happened here in ten- thanks to the high tech, geek elite whose only sense of community lies solely within the parameters of their virtual online reality- and the dollars it affords them! Like their ultra rich cohorts in New York, they have successfully devolved a city once abundant in character, and have done so by transforming it into yet another anonymous platform on which to place their laptops and $5 coffees...
