Going to bed no later than 10:30pm defies thermodynamics by being both cool and hot.

So becuase I've racked up a sleep debt from too many late nights, I was a big fat 'tard and got on the wrong branch of the Northern tube line for getting me to the film night on time yesterday. Ryan North is a founding member of the "Going to bed at a responsible time is cool" club and I am normally a proud member...just not this week it seems. But I followed through anyways, just to know the route for tomorrow. It's a pretty nice neighborhood, though further than I thought, in and around the Panico building (which is a refurbished, churchlike, house of decent size). I'll post some "pics" when I get home tonight, along with others I took in recent times. Okay it sucked to miss the night and learn that I'll have to be up at a wee (for Saturday) hour to get to the course on time, but it could have been worse. I could have run into this guy.In positive devlopments, I got an email from the CapitalMag people that basically said "We are looking to host some short films on our site, do you know anywere we could get some short films?". To which I was like "Maybe I know a guy, maybe I know....me". We'll see what comes of that then!

Meanwhile, the debate in the comments section of my 100th post rolls on. Ladies and gents, please toss in your ten cents.

And lo...

...there are two updates at Bronze Age Sky God. You have "Aircraft Carrier Delight" and the far less criminal "Clive versus The Slug People: Round One". I used the same phrase once in each story, ten valueless points to whoever spots what it is.

Good news, CapitalMag liked my article and are interested in more! Meanwhile, I'm heading off to scout out the Panico building tonight and also to attend the free, public talk being given there by a London film maker on "the biz". Then on Saturday I shall take my first class with them. Huzzah.

Little Johnny is on the move again.

100th Post: To show how we've grown here at STA...

...a post on maturity.

I swear, if I don't talk about this while I'm still in that nebulous realm of "young adult" then I'll never be taken seriously. Interpret the following as the cantankerous assault on youth culture of an elderly man, on a bus where all the other passengers quietly wish he'd just get off at the next stop, if you must. But baby darling, it simply ain't.

I am plenty aware that puberty rituals are completely arbitrary contrivences, no matter how deep their roots penetrate our history and culture, the point of origin will always be the same: Some person, some where, just decided that behaviour X marks you as mature or immature. We choose these meanings, they have no bearing in natural law as gravity and weather patterns do. That being said, the meme of immaturity is getting way out of hand in several generations - including my own.

Or is it just a cultural shift?

For the sake of not going on a (longer?) tirade, I'll just use one specific example. When I see a man wearing a business suit, suitcase in hand and walking on his way to work I think "there is an adult". I see the same man pinching his suit jacket up with a backpack and I begin to wonder if the bigger businessmen are going to try and steal his juice box at lunch. But really, does it matter what he brings his important papers (and juice box) to work in? Couldn't it be the tanned and treated skin of camel for all it matters? Well to a point...but infinite subjectivity is a gutless argument and one which if properly applied would render all things meaningless. We've decided that this and that mean such and such, so let's play by the rules we wrote.

Besides, Maturity does not have to be the death of fun or humour and it is a marvelous tool towards greater self-respect and ability to wrestle with whatever beasts the world might throw your way. The perks are all too often forgotten and a good deal of the negative aspects are really just frequently made assumptions instead of genuine side effects. I'll tell you, I'm sick of the youth culture worship in Western society and few things would please me more than to see this trend reversed.

I mean hey, I get the allure - I've given in to it too. Retreating into youth fools you into feeling further from death, further from the problems and responsibilities you're wrestling with today. Teenagers often try to act older because they want to be able to drive, to drink, to be at a point where their bodies don't make them feel awkward and they have more developed social skills. But I've seen all too many people in their early to late twenties who are are wearing and doing the exact same shit they did in their teens but with the addition of legally purchased alcohol and the ability to enter venues which sell it. This worries me, it really does! Not because of some offense to my delicate sensibilites but because the major ingredient of immaturity is stagnation.

Can we please push things forward?

Maybe I am simply a big party pooper? I guess I'm giving in to some ill-defined evil which makes me want to have the more traditional trappings of adulthood? Perhaps, but if the possability of my being wrong is to be considered then it is only fair to consider the possability of my being right or at least on the right track. I'd love to hear what anybody has to say in the comments section of this post becuase it's an issue I've been coming back to for a couple of years now and I do not feel my thoughts on the matter are nearly as solid as they are on, say, climate change*. Anyways, that "whoomph" noise you just heard was me dismounting a rather tall horse - I suppose. But seriously, your thoughts are invited - I feel quite inarticulate with this post because half the time I've tried to rattle off a sub-topic I find myself getting part way through, then just deleting it.

Is there some broad method of approaching this or is it a highly specific, case-by-case issue?


*I don't like it, no sir. It makes me sad and sometimes I bake a little cake to feel better. The cake will have raisins more often than not.

Now look what he's done...

Check-it-0oooot

Artists get to have sketchbook sites, I get to have this.

WHY CAN I NOT SLEEP?

One of my favorite pictures of one of my favorite places......more pictures along with sweet n' sour context later!

This sort of thing makes me laugh until I cry

Bill Cosby knows what he's on about

About a year ago Vice Magazine put out an issue on Babyboomers which was...less than positive towards that particular generation. In the interest of fairness they had one article where they listed eight baby boomers they were partial to and on that list was Bill Cosby. The reason was not to do with his years as an entertainer but for the fact that he had the courage to stand up and suggest that maybe, just maybe, the African-American community needed better modern rolemodels then barely literate rappers and sports players. That yes Whitey has done his share of keeping them down, but that it was also the responsibilty of black people to pull themselves up. That the family unit needed to be repaired and education needed to be put out as a virtue, not "acting white".

I have to say, my own respect for the man swelled tenfold upon learning this. It's not easy to take on "your" demographic and not be tarred with any number of quick and conveniant negative labels. It's not easy to preach self reliance and improvement when so many people would rather get their backs up then take responsibility for their actions or, you know, make an effort.

This is the speech to which they were referring and it makes compelling reading, no matter who you are. Surprise surprise, Bill caught some flack for what he said and he gives a response to it here, on the implausibly named Tavis Smiley show. Black civil rights in America have been pushed way out of the spotlight by the big developments of our young millenium but, with Barack Obama having announced his presidential candidacy, it's bound to come back in the next couple of years. Given that Barack was present when Cosby gave this speech, and openly applauded not only at the end but several times throughout, I think it's worth reading what Cosby had to say if only to get a better understanding of some of the views held by this up and coming "JKF-in-the-making".