What is the socially redeeming value of your work?

What is the socially redeeming value of your work?
Dorsey:  That it will get kids to read because it is fun.  I’m not being facetious.  There are other things in there as well.  I think a lot of kids could get hooked on reading.  You have readers and nonreaders--and that is the great divide.  We all know where those paths lead.  Having Beowulf force fed to me and hating it and then finding this other stuff I loved made all the difference to me.  I have talked to some teachers and classes.  The other thing is that kids are sharp.  I want to make the books entertaining.  Everyone would like to be a literary icon, but the reality is that literature now is often a fancy way of saying hard to read.  I want to be entertaining first of all.  I don’t just have a degenerate point unless it is funny.  I don’t make a point unless it’s funny.  But past that my books provide a constructive questioning of authority.  Not just skinhead stuff.  But you have to go through a naive idealistic phase.  It is healthy.  That’s why Vonnegut is good. He taps into that vein of naive idealistic outrage we all have to feel at some point in our lives.  I try to harpoon hypocrisy--but only if it is funny.  Otherwise, I’ll tell a degenerate joke instead.

Meaning of Rush's Clockwork Angels Runes

This post found here gives an educated guess to the runes appearing on the cover of their upcoming concept album.  It also outlines the possible story.  Personally I think the symbol at 4 o'clock means "Fuck it.  Let's go bowling".  Note that this album will be released alongside a book.  The novelization is a collaboration between Rush lyricist and drummer Neil Peart and sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson.

Note the clock is set at 21:12.  2112 is dystopian/totalitarian cyberpunk themed.  CA is a more positive steampunk themed based in sci-fi, and alchemy.

Wartard: Get out of my head!

This guy is able to express what's in my head about where the world is heading.  He nails it on the head (except for the Viking stuff, that's just weird) in this post:

Man wakes up from decade long coma and figures he's living in an Orwellian dystopia.

Uganda

Another educational post by the wartard.  This month's civil war brought to you by: Uganda.  The Tard talks about wristbands fw:fw:fw: videos, and actual facts about the conflict.  Sadly, the monkeysphere is quickly filling up with this kind of shit.

Amy Winehouse

Oh the dichotomy which is this woman's life.  Superficially, you have seen the pictures splashed on the evening news.  Fact is, she was a very talented singer and songwriter.  Very knowledgeable of popular and rooted American music.  Just watching The Girl Done Good is an education in early American pop music via Frank Sinatra, Motown, Stax, R&B, even Ska.

Sadly, she joins the 27 club, after only 2 albums.  What makes these sensitive musical geniuses flame out?

Watch The Girl Done Good

and

this

and

this.

Syria

http://wartard.blogspot.com/2012/02/syrian-uprising-no-foreign-intervention.html

Just another civil war.

Amongst White Clouds

A film about monks living amonkgst  white clouds.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.coGood stuff.m/amongst-white-clouds/

Ah, to live alone, just doing your thing, preparing your meals, chopping wood.  Is this what leads to enlightenment?  I admire folks like Richard Proenneke who left it all behind and lived self-sufficiently in a log cabin he built himself.  So tibet has a whole bunch of these guys doing the same thing.  Is this the path to enlightenment?  Or is it immersing yourself in religious texts and ritualistic living.  Some of the budhist's claims are similar to LSD tirppers.  I do like listening to their quotes.  Laypeople living unbalanced lives because they feel the two extremes, love and hate.etc.  We cannot escape birth or death.  Release everything now, why wait? 

Cbc music app - get it.

I'm in love with the CBC Music app.

Get it here: CBC Music App

I love the Indie section.

Also, CBC has a new CBC Music site.

Rush Links to keep me busy

 Rush a brief history of time: So much to read.


Ru
Want to go to there:



Rush Inspirations: A chronological listing of historical, literary, theatrical and musical inspirations for Rush:




Rush:


A Brief History of Time