originality

The problem is originality.

When Joseph Maurer (yes, I'm dispensing with the nicknames. These are people you should know about, if you don't already) left for Canada, he left me a ton of comic books. He had exquisite taste in what he kept and it didn't make sense to just dump them. I'm talking original issues of Sandman, Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run, and a slew of more obscure titles. So it was that I just finished reading Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man.

As I reached the end of his twenty six issue run, I felt a great frustration inside of me. What he had done with Animal Man was very much like what I am doing with my SF Fringe Festival show, "Get it? Got it. Good!"

Sure, the devices he employs are different, and the message he conveys is different, but the tool of deconstruction is very similar. In both this run of comics and my play, we pull the curtain aside and reveal the gods of the medium and comment on that role and on the work of artistic creation. He uses it to complain about his limitations as a writer and his own beliefs (which he had made exquisitely clear in the course of his narratives). I use it to make statements about value judgments and our own empowerment and liberation from other people's decisions about what is good (and good for us).

So, what's my problem? It's simply that I thought I was being very daring and breaking all these narrative rules... and that Grant Morrison had done it years and years earlier. I didn't know this when I wrote the play, but that doesn't make me much happier. People who see the play, if they are comics literate, may sit there and think "oh, he's doing the Grant Morrison Animal Man thing".

I had a similar situation when I created a Flash-based-choose-your-own-adventure story for Matt Quinn's nascent internet entertainment company "MuseRealm" just before the dot bomb. I had created what I felt was a clever and original story involving a psychic assassin who could only impact things within his line of sight. His trick was to be able to telekinetically squeeze a target's heart and induce a fatal heart attack. Completely untraceable and indistinguishable from a naturally occurring death. The dot bomb happened, I never finished the piece (although it's literally only a few hours work from being done), and it has sat on my hard drive ever since. Fast forward five or six years and I am persuaded by a friend to put Babylon 5 on my Netflix queue. I watch the first season and discover a lengthy discussion of how the government is trying to develop a telekinetic who could kill someone by squeezing their heart... and that psychics can only operate within line of sight.

Fuck me.

My little interactive story will never see light of day, because an idea that I had in the late 90's had already been done on national television and I had never known it. Suddenly my little project began to look like a rip off of Babylon 5. Sure, it was developed without any knowledge of the other project, but again... that doesn't change audience perception. It's all a question of what the audience sees first.

Ultimately, does it really matter? A good story is a good story, even if parts of it seem oddly familiar. But recent news stories about a young author that (possibly unintentionally) plagiarized another novel make me think otherwise. Ostensibly, a novel she had read years earlier had so firmly set itself in her subconscious that when she attempted her own novel, up to 24 different passages had an eerie similarity to the other work. Similar enough to create an international literary incident and get her novel pulled from the shelves.

Now what strikes me as particularly interesting is that narrative structure is more volatile than raw ideas. If I wrote a story with laser swords and a Buddhistic energy field that bound the universe together, I might not be sued for ripping off Star Wars... but readers might roll their eyes a bit. But if my dialog sounded similar to lines in the film, then there might be a copyright infringement lawsuit.

At what point does it cease to be a matter of similar inspiration, drawing from the same literary tradition, or tapping into related cultural mindsets... and become plagiarism? Where is the line between two people coming up with the same idea and copying an encyclopedia article, but rephrasing it for a paper? I know I did that back in Junior High, and how many college and grad school papers are simply the regurgitating of multiple sources into a newly phrased (and heavily annotated) whole?

Identical originality, plagiarism, and academic research. They are different, but how does the end audience tell the difference? This is a question for lawyers, but it vexes me all the same. Every time I commit a new idea of mine to paper, and then find out months or years later that someone else pulled the same rabbit out of a different colored hat, it makes me wonder.

Do I really have anything original to say? Or is it just a matter of me getting to an audience first?

Danger of the internet

The problem with the internet is that I keep stumbling across things like this.

Ok, that's not so much a bad thing, as a really fucking cool thing. I think I heart Sarah Silverman.

I'm lacking any real news lately. I've started working on chapter five of the novel. This is turning into a fun part of the story and I'm looking forward to getting back on BART, as it's the only time I really have to write.

Still looking for my final performer for Vagina Dentata. We start rehearsals in a couple of weeks and I really want to have as many details finalized as possible before we get going. It's such a difficult schedule, since the script is an ensemble piece and the cast is so busy with projects. I won't have a definite confirmation from Gypsy on doing costumes until we start with the cast, and that makes me a little edgy. Fortunately, we'll be re-using sections of the set of "Papa", so I don't need to stress over the set overmuch. Same deal with lights.

In a lot of ways, this show is going to require less of me organizationally because of the shared nature of the work environment and the lack of Equity involvement. I say this now, but in a month I'll have people hiding sharp objects when I'm in the room.

Other interesting events in my glamorous life include waking up this morning to an overflowing toilet. There's nothing like standing in poo-water to get the day off right. On the plus side, I needed to scrub down the entire bathroom with Comet anyway.

Spring

I hear the birds singing of life and joy
While the sun touches me like a lover
The mild and gentle breeze kisses my skin
And I look upon the flowers in bloom
Thinking
"God Damn dickless shit eaters"
And then I grab a Kleenex

Meme

I'm not one to propogate memes, but after both Art Girl and Gentle Wind did Googlisms on their names, I felt the need to participate.

It seems...

dan wilson is having a sensational season because he is sharing more playing time with his backup

dan wilson is becoming executive vice president and chief financial officer for a joint venture

dan wilson is the information systems coordinator for the california school leadership academy*

dan wilson is one of azusa pacific's top true freshman

dan wilson is held in high esteem

dan wilson is very nice

dan wilson is a solid catcher with potential as a hitter

dan wilson is treasurer of parma city schools

dan wilson is a comedic force to be reckoned with

dan wilson is a consummate actor appearing in motion pictures and in theaters across the country**

dan wilson is underrated

dan wilson is one of the best defensive catchers in all of baseball

dan wilson is one of the funniest standups working today

dan wilson is one of very few believable minneapolis songwriters

dan wilson is promising a fun time

dan wilson is less a hopeless romantic than a romantic fatalist

dan wilson is the campaigns & community relations secretary for this year

dan wilson is a materials engineering technician with the wes structures laboratory

dan wilson is the acsi international student ministries short term mission facilitator for russia

dan wilson is so cute

dan wilson is a solid veteran but not much of a threat at the plate

dan wilson is an ordained elder and conference member of the united methodist church

dan wilson is the singer of semisonic

dan wilson is warning of highway and rail blockades in the bc interior if there are any deaths or injuries in the dispute

dan wilson is by far the dreamiest man alive***

dan wilson is patently all about biology

dan wilson is probably the weakest link in the starting lineup****

dan wilson is a vice

dan wilson is hanging in there but soon his defense will deteriorate with advancing age

dan wilson is feeling strangely fine

dan wilson is nothing less than a pleasure

dan wilson is currently the facility manager at the large geotechnical centrifuge

dan wilson is an attorney who represents the group in meetings with politicians and business leaders

dan wilson is more than just a james van der beek*****



*this is actually me, although CSLA no longer exists. :-(
** Also me! I love it when other people shill for me.
*** obviously me as well, but who on earth wrote that?
**** oh god, it's true!
***** damn straight!

Locationaphilia

As I flew into SFO yesterday, I looked out the windows and saw the hills of the Bay Area and had a wave of love pass over me. I love this place, and I felt it in a way I rarely do while returning to this soil. I read a lot about people's connection to their land, and I've never really experienced that. I've often said in the past that I could live anywhere. I don't believe that anymore.

I still think I could do well in New York, and I have great affection for Chicago. London, Dublin, Bologna... most of the European cities I've been in, I could live in happily. But Los Angeles and Miami... I just couldn't do it. Things got better in Florida, and I saw some parts of it that I quite liked. But I couldn't live there. I would be insanely unhappy, even in the parts that I found beautiful. I would be like an organ that the body rejects.

As I flew in, however, and saw the hills... I knew I was home in a way that was almost religious. This is my place, and it goes beyond mere community, beyond the people I know here. These hills, these valleys, these beaches (despite my so not being a beach person), woods and bays... they have become part of my connection to the earth.

Of course, awareness that at any point the "big one" could happen and turn the whole area to rubble makes me think that I've fallen in love with a violent abuser, but she hasn't hit me yet.

Florida

So, I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Ft. Lauderdale. It's the first time I've been able to get online since I arrived, so I apologize first for not getting the new RadioStar show up earlier. It's up now, though, and it's one of our better pieces so check it out.

I'm out here visiting Brazilera. I haven't seen her for a little over three years, although we've kept in touch over the phone pretty consistently. I was looking forward to spending some time together, but this week has been a bit of a bust. To say that we've grown apart wouldn't be correct. I don't think we ever had much in common in the first place, but the language barrier masked that fact fairly well. Now that we can actually have conversations, it is more and more apparent that we have little to say to each other. We've changed, certainly since we first met in Brazil six years ago. When we first met she was not a conservative Christian with no sense of humor and dour personality. It's been very frustrating, as the most fun I've had since I got out here was hanging out with her friends last night.

To make things worse, the hotel that I got online, which was marked as a three star hotel and had such nice pictures... is a complete rat-hole. I'm not that picky about my accommodations, but I can't believe I'm paying to sleep in this place. If I was here any longer than I am I'd get the hell out and find somewhere else, but my trip is so short it hardly seems worth the effort.

Ultimately though, I think that I am not well suited for Miami. Muggy weather doesn't make me happy, and the papers have more ads for plastic surgery than Beverly Hills. It's the same feeling I have when I'm in L.A. It's not a place where I belong.

Bitch and moan, bitch and moan. It's just a disappointment as I'd cancelled on visiting out here a couple of times before and now I'm wondering why I'm here in the first place. I need to embrace the best of the experience, but it's been a challenge to say the least.

On the positive and fun side, I got an email from some guy who is compiling a book of quotations and is putting me in it. It'll be in Dutch, so I only know one person who might want a copy, but I find it very groovy that I'm quotable.

Gassless

I was reading this morning about the continuing rise in gas prices, and the oil industries continual attempts to place the blame on prices on Ethanol and renewable energy and the war and Santa Claus, while showing record profits and giving executives obscene retirement packages.

Corporate greed and lies aren't enough to upset me anymore. It's like asking a cockroach not to scurry into shadows when you turn on the light. But I have to say that I've been basking in the moral superiority of the decision to go carless several months ago. I made that choice primarily for economic reasons, although I certainly had an environmental warm fuzzy over the whole thing. Still, I recently did a financial assessment and figured out the average cost for BART and MUNI over the course of a year, and it's drastically less than gas, insurance and maintenance. Add the cost of the car in the first place and it's rather mind boggling. Sure, BART is greedy and badly managed and avoids responsibility just like the big oil companies, but at least it saves me money and isn't nearly as damaging for the environment as my car was.

I get my groceries delivered via Safeway, which was the thing that made being carless in Chicago back in the early 1990's difficult. Visiting friends who don't live near BART or bus lines is a pain, and I'm always glad for the odd ride here and there, but by and large being carless hasn't been a hardship at all. I read or write while traveling, and sometimes even strike up conversations with people (although that's usually on the last BART when people are a little lit). What's more, I'm often wherever I need to go just as fast, or faster than when I drive. It depends on where I'm heading, and if I have to change buses or not, but on high traffic days it's much better to be on that train than on the bridge.

And even when it takes me longer to go somewhere, the exercise is easy and perfect. I've had many people comment that I've lost weight since November, when I lost the car. I'm not buff, or about to run a marathon, and I wasn't exactly heavy to start with, but the mid-30's weight I had started to gain has melted away like the hot butter that was causing it.

I still need a vehicle every now and then. When the times comes to ship props and set pieces to the Eureka for Vagina Dentata, I'll need to borrow a friend's truck or rent one for the day. When it comes down to it, $20 for a day's use of a truck three or four times a year isn't that bad.

So, think about it. How much do you need your car? How much would it hurt you to be a little inconvenienced and lose a little status and do something good for yourself, your wallet, and the earth? Is there CarShare in your area? Do you have friends you can share cars with? There are options out there, and lots of them. It may be a bit harder for those of you out in the suburbs or the countryside, but for city dwellers, or those near public transportation... think about it. Then think about it again.

See you at the bus stop.

Why Bush is Pro-Environment

I was thinking last night, like one does, and it occurred to me that all this talk about Bush and our Administration being anti-earth is a load of hooey. I mean, think about it. We're overpopulation the earth at a terrible rate. Some would look at far reaching solutions like encouraging people not to have children, or to have fewer children. This isn't a very Christian attitude though (or at least not Catholic or Mormon). Bush and his earth loving friends have a much better option: wage lots of wars and kill lots of people! With all these people dying of war, and the resulting poverty and famine that are sure to come along with it, it's bound to give the earth a little breathing room.

Same thing with Global Warming. They say that it's not happening, like they've been saying for the last thirty years, but they know that it is. But they also know that if they accelerate the process, the earth will just kill most of us off anyway and then our reduced numbers will allow the earth to reach equilibrium again. Since most of those who die will be poor, it doesn't really matter anyway. It isn't like the rich will be too terribly damaged. Those with money and power can just buy property that is still habitable and move there! Besides, with the continued growth of technology, people with resources will be able to adjust comfortably to the New, Improved Earth Lite.

So let's stop all this bashing on our leaders. They're looking out for the Earth in their own way, after all.

Winter of illness

This has been the Winter of Illness. I am currently fighting my THIRD cold since the seasons changed. One cold is acceptable and even expected. The second came directly as a result of the long plane ride back from Italy. Again, acceptable given the circumstances. But a third cold? I went to go visit Guarded Goddess on Thursday, because she was sick. I brought food and a movie, and walked away with my body swarming with fresh germs. I thought, "hey, I just got over the cold. I'll be fine. My immune system is all adjusted." I was a fool. A damn fool.

So, it's been a week now, and I feel about a half degree off. Everything I do feels like I'm in a somewhat dream-like state. I walk around the office and everything feels unreal. I'm functional, but that's about it.

I managed to get another RadioStar show episode up on time, barely. Otherwise, last night was all about waiting for Safeway to deliver my groceries and watching Watership Down.

I am a big fan of online grocery shopping and home delivery. It's one of the reasons I knew I'd be ok with selling my car back in November. When I was in Chicago, the only need I had of a car was getting my wife to therapy every week, and getting groceries. Well, without a wife with more issues than a periodical rack and with home grocery delivery, I'm peachy!

There is the slight danger, of course, of getting something you ordered without fully understanding what you wanted. I ordered what I thought were freezer bags and I got 4-gallon bags instead. I'm not sure what I'll use them for yet, but I'm sure as hell not putting individual chicken breasts in them.

As for Watership Down. I watched this in the theatre when it was new. My brother took me, having no idea that this was not a "kid's movie". I think I can most certainly ascribe this film, and "The Mouse and His Child" as the two animated films that most clearly impacted my artistic and intellectual early development. Yeah, there was Star Wars, but these adult "cartoons" are the stuff that gets burrowed deep in the brain and sleeps... waiting for a chance to infuse every cute and cuddly thing with thoughts of mortality, god, destiny and fear.

Gnostic Judas

Wow, now this is interesting.

A manuscript found in the early 1970's, passed around for almost thirty years, finally given to scholars in 2000, is being made public. It's "The Gospel of Judas."

Now, the full article is here, but I'm gonna talk about a couple of points here.

First off, how cool is it to find a manuscript that was pissing off the nascent Christian orthodoxy way back in 180 AD? I mean, I studied a little about Irenaeus back in seminary, and reading about how he was denouncing this document when it was fairly new is really a trip. And now, 1800 years later, this manuscript is able to piss of fundamentalists all over again.

But I have to wonder if the more literalistic Christians will even blink an eye at this. It's clearly a Gnostic text and was *never* accepted by what became the Catholic church as doctrine. The Gospel of Thomas lies in the same category, although it doesn't offer up anything as juicy as Jesus telling Judas that he'll be his best friend ever if Judas sells him out so he can be freed of his problematic physical existence.

For folks who didn't have to spend hours and hours studying this stuff, let me shed a little light.

The Gnostics were an early branch of Christians who drew pretty heavily on the ancient Mystery religions. They were obsessed with "secret knowledge" that was made available only to the Elect. They had secrets that were specially revealed to them that nobody else got and nobody else understood. Think Scientologists, Masons and Mormons. Hell, think Christians, although Christians want to shove that secret knowledge down your throat for your own good. Gnostics were more about the secret part of secret knowledge. The ancient mystery religions appealed to the idea of brotherhoods around a special knowledge and relationship to the divine. You got in, and the longer you were in, the more you learned. It wasn't hear and believe, but believe and eventually we'll tell you what it is that you believe in. Again, see Scientology and Masons and Mormons.

A quick look at the Wiki page on Gnosticism shows that they don't much care for comparisons with Scientology, but if the shoe fits. (I'm saying that Scientologists or Masons, etc. are Gnostics... just that they operate in a similar way and are the best modern parallels).

So, this document doesn't do much in terms of threatening Christian doctrine, but it's still fascinating as hell.

Crime and Pizza

Last night was a *really* good RadioStar session. We have our two new cast members on hand, and what a difference it makes having six performers instead of four. We knew that three wasn't enough, and five felt nice. But six is the bomb. It helps that our two new recruits are super-groovylicious, too.

I probably should have been editing one of the episodes tonight, but this turned into a lost evening for me. I was going to go into Berkeley for a reading, but everyone I was going to go with bailed out and I really wasn't in the mood for anything but going home and hibernating... so I did.

What's odd, is that around 9 I decided I was hungry (having not eaten dinner yet) so I went online to Extreme Pizza and ordered something yummy. I get a call back from them, saying that they don't deliver to my area anymore after dark. I'm in a "kill zone" for them and they can't make the drivers come to this neighborhood.

What the fuck is that all about?

They *used* to come out here. I mean, it's been a while since I ordered from them, but the neighborhood hasn't gotten any more dangerous since then. I mean, seriously, this isn't International Boulevard here. This isn't the projects. We're on the edge of downtown next to the lake. This is not a high crime area.

But apparently we're too high crime for them. I don't know where in Oakland they do go. Maybe they only go to Piedmont.

Know how many homicides there have been in this zip code since January? Zero. Manslaughter? Zero. Assault and Battery? Seventy one. Ok, that's a bit high. I mean, shit! When I map them out, they've got one incident (or batch of incidents) right next to me, but most of it is north of Broadway.

Burglary, Theft, and Robbery... Two Hundred and Thirty Four incidents. As might be imagined, that's all over the place. That includes vehicle theft and break ins as well as apartment robberies and the like. There's even an "impersonate with intent to rob" in there. That's kind of interesting.

The thing with this system is that you can see where all the crimes are happening... which means if you're looking for dealers, you can just check out and see where people are getting hit for carrying. That's the zone, but watch your back. Looking for a streetwalker? Looks like they work San Pablo and around Telegraph and Broadway. I've never actually seen a streetwalker around here before a few nights ago. Nobody wears that little around here, in this freaking cold and wet weather, unless they're selling something. I felt miserable for her. I'm curious, though, what the difference is between the many eight counts of "disorderly conduct: prostitution" and "loiter:intent:prostitution". I mean, the loiter I understand, but were the others out yelling in the street? I suppose if you're soliciting, you're engaging in disorderly conduct. If you're waiting for a john to make the move, then you're loitering. And apparently, a brothel is now called "a disorderly house". I thought a Frat was a disorderly house....

All this stuff is on Oakland's CrimeWatch page. It's fascinating, if not terribly useful in helping you sleep at night.

So, maybe I can see why they won't bring me pizza, even though the vast majority of robberies take place several blocks from here.

Cowards.