Several months ago I wrote an article on this blog about some human being's purely sentimental attachment to older technology versus newer developments. As with its detractors,my own opinions modern "digi-tech" is based almost entirely on individual observation. I personally try at least to make an effort not to let bias lead the way in my thoughts and feelings. Now I'm not saying to pump myself up to appear superior in heart and mind to anyone else. But only to illustrate a thought process that took much time and effort to develop. And that more people would be wise to...well at least try to try. What I am writing about today again comes from personal experience. And it is not about modern technology and our reluctance to it. But rather about the more extreme end of this spectrum:fear of technology,apparently known as technophobia. And there's a personal story to illustrate this too.
Nine years ago my family purchased a Sony CMT-NEZ3 mini home stereo system. As with most such devices of the time it could play both standard CD's and MP3 discs,and it had a built in digital radio turner. But the main selling point to them is that even in 2005 it was one of the few systems they could find with a cassette player/recorder. As is typical of Sony products up through today apparently,the CD is held down with a black spindle that within the last year or so has come loose. It takes sometimes ten attempts at taking the CD in and out of the player in order to get it to play. Otherwise,the device clicks and continues to say "no disc". Yet its not broken in any serious sense: merely looseness clearly observable in the black spindle mechanism. Recently however,this has started to create a problem for me personally.
When I do my acrylic canvas painting some nights,I listen to music. Its all part of personal stress objectification in this particular case. In the last couple of weeks or so,I have noticed how the complicated process of repeating the same operation to try to get the device to play the CD has gotten me to the point where this entire fiasco was creating the exact level of stress my painting/music situation is supposed to help prevent. Down to the point where on some occasions I decided it might be appropriate not to even paint the given night. Tried another solution in my moms old yellow Sony boombox from 2000. However it has the same exact spindle,and of course the results were the same. In the end the solution was simple: plug my portable CD player into a surge protector with portable speakers. Worked like a charm in lieu of a better system. Still it was an important revelation for me.
Why would someone such as myself whose learned so much in the past decade about re-arranging life to prevent tension loose my temper on a device that doesn't care how I feel about it? It bought to mind another possible reason towards people's fear of technology outside their sentimental attachment to only that which they've known. Could be that a lot of people's fear and frustration at modern technology comes both from their lack of ability to understand it, but their irritation at the over zealous attitudes of the technologies developers. I've come to a conclusion that a lot of the new and less then adequate technologies-such as digital television and some lower end laptop computers,are developed by eager beaver type technicians who are perhaps so fascinated with their own inventions they neglect practicality to the everyday people. I think if humanism joined forces more with futurism,technology's performance would seriously improve. And therefore so would fear of it.
It was 8:15 in the morning in a city on the coast of Japan. It was a beautiful and sunny August 6'th. The year was 1945. Most of the other cities in Japan had been bombed by Allied aircraft and the people of this city started to realize that their city,so far untouched,might have been saved aside for a reason. So many people had their heads covered outside. Being the typical morning commuting hour, people were going to their jobs in and around the city. Soldiers stationed their were preparing for their training operations on the parade grounds. Children were going to school. Families were enjoying peaceful breakfasts in their homes-mothers,fathers and their children. One of these families saw this blinding white flash,brighter than a thousand suns,burst into the window. Than an Earthquake like shot blew them through the house as it flew about. And some of them were knocked unconscious by the force of the blast.
When this family opened their eyes to look around them,they saw the city was now a smoldering inferno-blanketed by thick black smoke and fire. Around them were charcoal black figures-burnt to a crisp where they stood. There were charcoal black figures walking too-aimlessly in all directions with their shredded skin hanging off their outstretched arms. They pegged for water. Someone in the family tried to give them some out of a water pump. And the people died right after. Those who survived flung themselves into the river to escape the intense heat. As they piled up on one another,some of them drowned. Then these survivors looked up and felt raindrops falling. They started drinking the rain,which they noticed was black like oil. Black rain was falling from the sky. All around them,people still walking on the streets started to fall one by one,side by side and pass away.
For the next few days soldiers mounted rescue operations in this city. By then the same thing had happened to another nearby city. Within the next few weeks many more people died. And something strange started to happen. Other people who should've been getting better came down with an unknown illness. Their hair started to fall out of their heads. They became extremely weak and docile. Purple spots started to appear on their bodies. They threw up large amounts of black liquid and also started dying. Conversations with them revealed that these people were close to the ground zero where this flash had appeared-such as the people who had drunk the black rain. Today years have passed since these events. This city has been rebuilt. And some of the people have survived. But all of them have had to live with ongoing health conditions such as deformed body parts,organ failures and an extremely high cancer rate. Survivors of this are known as Hibakusha-meaning Explosion Afflicted People.
As much as it sounds like a nightmare inducing horror movie,what you just heard was true. And the name of the first city is happened in was Hiroshima. No matter how we slice it, this was the first and only nuclear war ever conducted by any nation. People have debated the politics of dropping the first atomic bomb in war since the day it happened. And there doesn't seem to be any solid resolution as of yet at this point. Many have died during war since. Children and families in many parts of the world. Even victims of terrorist attacks such as 9/11. However I'd personally like to ask anyone who is debating with someone about the abolition of nuclear weapons to think about stories such as the one you've just heard. Think about the children who burned to death. Think about all the families destroyed by radiation poisoning from things like the black rain. And despite who cruel some people can be, think about if this is something you'd really wish on even your worst enemies.
During the information age of digi-tech and internet being more and more a part of our day to day lives,its not difficult for someone in my age group to have noticed major changes in how people access different media. From the ages of 16 to 30 people born in the late 70's and early 80's have witnessed the transition from encyclopedia sets to personalized online wiki's, from petroleum guzzling SUV's to gas/electric hybrid cars. However one thing that hasn't changed much is people's confusion in meeting up to the demands to humanity's own creation of time. Workers and those travelling to appointments are still alternately condemned for being too late and too early for them. And since not every single clock on this planet is in precise sync with each other, the notion of being "on time" is actually pretty ludicrous. Speaking for myself again at the risk of sounding egotistical perhaps, there's another more personal side of this I am facing as I write this in fact.
It is almost 1AM here now. I am not ready to go to sleep by a long shot and have a dental appointment tomorrow at 11AM. I chose that. However I will not necessarily be emotionally ready. Whatever my personal situation, it all comes down to the fact I am simply a night owl. That is not any revelation. More than half the population of major metropolitan areas the world over fit into that category-from New York City to London. These cities have small and large business and services who cater to those who live and work by the light of the moon. When treated by family to a 30th birthday vacation to Clearwater,Florida several years back I couldn't help but noticing the proliferation of night time businesses open for both. tourists and residence-some nearly 24 hours a day. It wasn't actually until returning for that entertaining and enlightening visit that something finally registered with me that had always been right under my nose.
A good example of this occurred this past weekend. While on another family summer day trip we all thought of stopping at the colorfully tranquil Thuya Gardens in the Northeast Harbor area of Acadia following a picnic and walk around Schoodic Point. After taking a rather bumpy side road to go there, we checked a map in the glove compartment that said the gardens closed at 4:30PM. And this during the summer months. Maine,especially the coastal areas are dependent mostly on tourism during the warmer months. This gave me credence to look around and notice that on weekends,the most likely time for tourist traffic most business in the Acadia National Park area are closed down before the sun sets. Even many public restroom facilities. Its hard to imagine in a society with such variant schedules,the need for more employment hours by people of all ages and primarily the fact it is now the 21st century that such outmoded conditions of time could still exist in an area such as this.
Within the past couple of years I've become more and more enthralled with Doctor Who, a television program that presents the idea that some aspects of time are fixed and must remain untouched, whereas other moments of time are totally flexible and can be altered. In the show its often referred to as "wibbly wobbly,timey wimey". Even though there are many who have accused me of sleeping half the day away over the years, don't most of us now live a "wibbly wobbly,timey wimey" kind of life? The "5 O'Clock World" the song talks about doesn't seem to be very viable today. Understanding rural oriented societies such as Maine intent on keeping its old traditions, perhaps some such traditions are not fixed points in time. And need to be appropriately changed. And not just to accommodate me personally: I am not alone. There are many people who want more hours at work, visitors who need more services-all on different time schedules In the modern world, every place should be open to both those who rise with the roosters and those who live by the indigo skies after the dusk shine.
One of the major sociological questions asked by the baby boomer and many succeeding American generations is the question of what is patriotism and what isn't. If someone were to ask me the question, I'd have so much to say. At the same time their is a mild faux Zen philosophy gripping many Americans even now,probably as an unseen form of self denial. And that is the "less is more" conversational ethic. Cannot tell you how many times that's been imparted to me in terms of my own mode of conversation. Without any patronizing on my part I'm going to give that "less is more" idea a genuine try in this particular blog. Especially since it will be the last before a self imposed three week vacation from blogging. So without further adieu, I will get to the point of this brief but hopefully enlightening blog.
2013 is officially halfway through itself. And the nation of America is taking a long hard look at itself after years of purposing to be the greatest country on the entire Earth. The American public's attitudes towards President Obama,as he is continuing to support positive and humanistic social change,as well as that towards the young men who perpetrated the tragic Boston Marathon Massacre in April shows that sadly racism and prejudice of all sorts remain a hidden American epidemic. Same goes for sexism,with many political changes counter to ethnic minorities and women have been put into place this year as well. Yet at the same time,even as the debate on firearms continues the extremely anti humanist DOMA was defeated this year-less than a week from this writing in fact.
This particular fourth of July showcases to me an interesting time to be an American. The beginnings of correction for social problems that have plagued the nation,even if too many people choose not to see them as problems at all, are finally underway. There remains the possibility of sociopolitical decisions unworkable in the present American society of being continually maintained by those few remaining people so frightened by change they'd just assume see a bad thing last forever. Yet for the first time in many many years, decades actually the age of cynicism and quietly enforced uncaring is beginning to fade from peoples hearts and minds. And as intolerance,both religiously and politically continues to wither fast with age the possibility exists for Americans to at last treat all other Americans as free people capable of fully pursuing happiness.
To conclude this months series of blogs regarding LGBTQ Pride, there seems to be almost too much to explain. Nationwide history was made this weekend. Only under a decade ago, Proposition 8 allowed for same sex marriage rights to be ripped away from citizens of the state of California. This week the supreme court officially ruled DOMA (Defense Of Marriage Act) as unconstitutional. This of course overturned California's Prop 8. While this closes the door to another ugly prejudice in a nation always preaching equality, two more major issues were decided on in Washington-one an important minority voting clause that was remanded and the other successful citizenship reform for immigrants. This is two major steps forward with only one major step back for American justice. And while not perfect by any means, it is a major start.
In an interesting way, these events paralelled a very fullfilling pride month for me personally. Knowing full well that I would spend that month writing blogs about my views on different LGBTQ related issues, I also found myself getting far more involved with local Pride festivities in my area than I ever had. Last summer was the first time I marched in a Pride parade. And this year would be my second. What happened was the local Pride organization decided to try a special Art Walk that would include painting,
photography spoken word and dance the Thursday before the parade. I decided to participate by submitting three of my paintings for display: two of which were portraits of famous LGBTQ historical activists Bayard Rustin and Harvey Milk. So the best way I feel to present this blog is as a written diary of sorts about my experiences in this historical several days for the LGBTQ community.
First thing I did on the day that DOMA was defeated was attend a screening of a film called Gen Silent, a documentary discussing the stories of several LGBTQ seniors and the difficulties they still face with prejudice and health care. Betsy Smith, a major leader in the local LGBTQ community introduced the film announcing the defeat of DOMA to a round of applause-including from myself. The second thing I did was attend the Art Walk the next night. It was a magnificent event. Seeing my paintings professionally displayed for the first time,talking to other art lovers about them. I visiting many other artists at different locations in downtown Bangor-one of whom was a singer whom I indirectly helped promote via a Facebook friend. There was also a complimentary tango lesson at the end of the evening. This was something I'd never done before. Hearing one has natural rhythm is very esteem boosting indeed for anyone.
Third thing I did was attend the Pride parade of course. I was a bit nervous with rain and possible lightening storms in the forecast Happily the rain held out enough for the parade and the festivities. Myself and someone I have very strong feelings were given the opportunity to hold up the pride flag for all to see. I gave victory/peace signs with my hand to the cheering crowd. Once we got to the festivities, different speakers from the head of EqualityMaine, the Bridge Alliance and a minister from the local Unitarian Church spoke about how vital and entrenched LGBTQ rights have become in our local town law. After that I was asked by a reporter for the local newspaper to have my picture taken and make a comment on video for a story they were running about the Pride festival.
With all the delight and joy of the Pride Festival, the announcers made it very clear that coming up was the 29th anniversary of the murder of a homosexual man named Charlie Howard in the city of Bangor. There is a memorial in town we were all encouraged to visit. Today I didn't have a chance. But I fully intend to. I am firmly of the opinion that in order for human rights to advance in any way, its appropriate that humans continue to regard all the events of our past-positive and negative not as an anchor rooting us forever to the past, but rather as a peaceful guardian and protector as we all continue on our unique and uncertain individual and societal journeys through this thing called life. And this week I can thank the United States Of America for defeating DOMA and making this a week to truly celebrating human love,tolerance and understanding.
After its launching in the mid 1990's, the internet was almost instantly stereotyped as a global pornography network. Much of this was based on the mediums extremely open and free spirit. Within that nearly two decades time the internet has grown from a noisy and difficult to use medium into something that is part of our daily lives. Of course I am using it to write this as we speak. In the here and now the internet is similarly serving LGBTQ people in a similar fashion that the minstrel show did with African American's over a century earlier: almost as a form of cyber burlesque in which both "gay" and "straight" people can understand,and misunderstand one another.
My own personal experience with LGBTQ related media on the web was through Gay.com,the oldest LGBTQ related website available that started as a chat room before I was on the internet at all. By the time of my own use of the sight, it was providing news and information for socially aware homosexuals and was the first place where I heard the term LGBTQ in the first place. Over the course of time Gay.com has returned somewhat to its status as a chat oriented website-with its news and information area something one has to look a bit harder for.
However the same difficulties facing homosexuals offline have found their way online. Even universal social media sites such as Facebook have a tendency to become all too easy a forum for homosexual people,often those discontent with their own lives, to create difficulty for other homosexual people who they should be all measures be supportive of. This negative behavior,based on my own experience,runs the gamut from idol ignorance of said people's daily site posts to out and out verbal harassment.
Personally, my own personal use of the internet in terms of LGBTQ issues have to do with exactly what I am doing now: online activism that is positively executed through blogging and comments I make on sociopolitical oriented memes on social networks that I'm involved in. There are a whole group of people who are still convinced the internet is nothing like real life,and nothing on it has a lasting effect on the world. Especially in cases such as with LGBTQ people and groups, the internet is real life. It tells real stories-some nice,others that have been warped into cheapness such as hookup sites such as Manhunt and WardZero. As with anything,the internet will make a good or bad difference depending on what one does with it.
In 1981 Vito Russo (above), activist and once organizer for the Gay Activists Alliance,who had began creating dances and movie nights as an alternative to the Mob owned gay bars of the period,published a text called The Celluloid Closet. Of course Mr.Russo is no longer with us. However his prose, and the excellent documentary film from 1996 that it inspired has got me to think how homosexuality in cinema has evolved just as generationally as homosexuals themselves have in terms of their relationship to the world. As the late Tony Curtis coined in that documentary, film tends to be how the contemporary American continues to learn about the society around them. And as Vito Russo pointed out told straight people how to think about gay people, and gay people what to think about themselves.
To be frank I am not as well versed in the entire spectrum of LGBTQ cinema over the years. However so much has happened in the gay community, even the name to which it is now referred to, during my lifetime. Before I could even talk,for example there was a film released that did something that is actually still fairly daring by presenting homosexuality as an act of love. It was called Making Love,starring Michael Ontkean and Harry Hamlin. This was released at a time so early in the AIDS epidemic that the disease didn't yet have a name. And spoke of two adult men finding love between each other in the post Stonewall era. I didn't see this film until my late adolescence-presented to me in a sociological context at that particular time.
During the early 1990s there was a sudden boom of films that celebrated the culture of cross dressing. These were also shown to me at a time when I started meeting the first homosexuals I ever know. A couple grown men who were acquaintances of my parents. These men were decent and fatherly types and generally treated me like a younger brother or a son. One of these cross dressing themed films was Priscilla Queen of The Desert,which revolved around a trio of cross dressers from three different generations going on a tour together in the Australian outback and the adventures they encounter. It told the same kind of well rounded and human stories I was then experiencing at the time with the first gay men I had a chance to formerly be aware of.
Interestingly enough,one of the biggest changes I've known with homosexual actors or actress's is how they are presented in films. When Ellen DeGeneres and singer/actress KD Lang first came out during the 1990's, their film roles were generally limited to "gay cinema"-such as Salmonberries for KD and If These Walls Could Talk 2 for Ellen. The same went for Harvey Fierstein in his transition from theater to film. In today's world openly homosexual actors even such as Sir Ian McKlellen of Lord Of The Rings fame and Zachary Quinto, who portrays Spock in JJ Abrams Star Trek films can now enjoy the freedom of selecting any roles they wish and remain comfortably out of the closet.
Not only has gay cinema become integrated into mainstream cinema but another visual media has picked up on it: television. Even during the 1990's,outside Ellen's famous coming out on her own comedy series, homosexuals were almost non existent on television. After this came a major change in that when Will & Grace premiered in the late 90's and featured two fully integrated homosexual characters in the main cast. Now with prime time dramas such as Modern Family,as the celluloid closet has opened into the perverbial digital age bedroom a persons sexuality is slowly becoming far less the taboo it was not so long ago. So this proves Tony Curtis dead on right about cinema having an enormous influence-positive and negative on the outlook of people.
