one t-shirt larger

Fascinating story. On NPR this morning I heard the tail end of On Point, the brilliantly mediated discussion show, where Tom was talking with a linguist/cognitive neuroscientist, Arika Okrent, about invented languages. She brought up Klingon and Esperanto, two of the more well-known invented languages from recent history. And as interesting as it is to try to understand why people would invent languages I haven't been able to stop thinking about how lovely it is that naturally occurring language is so consistently disjointed, obtuse, illogical and contradictory.

It is obvious why it would be advantageous to devise a flawlessly structured, immutable language but the fact that our very humanness hatched the strange and hopelessly complex communication standards and patterns we use without even thinking about it says more about what it means to be human than could ever be explained by the means allowed by any language.

Oh, and speaking of NPR, at my place of business we just got in an NPR shirt bearing a faded pair of headphones, the National Public Radio logo and then the somewhat snarky phrase "Get Smarter" across the bottom. I think my wardrobe is going to get one t-shirt larger very soon.


brandonpiercegeary

no idea

I was just reading an acquaintance's blog and about his "integrated" media company he built from the ground up. While I highly admire the raw ambition and headstrongness it takes a person to see such a thing through I could not help but recognize a widening emptiness as I read about the possible capitalizations to be made on said entwined media -- producer engages consumer -- experience. He spoke of having a "set apart" sensation from early childhood and that this media exploration of his was to be the conduit through which his intrinsic purpose could be satiated. From my perspective it is no wonder he also remarked on this not actually being his "true calling." It seems to me that if a person has an authentic, birth-rite purpose and if this person believes this to be a God-ordained purpose then pursuing a dream that (from his own description) appears to only serve to put money in people's pockets who have a great deal of it and push content on undiscerning consumers solely for the sake of having more content. Integrate because you can. It's the future and the future is all that matters. It's all we have. The future is fucking now.

New media has always fascinated me mainly because it seems to be a phenomena that isn't. It is only special because someone says it is. Any device that spreads information in a slightly tweaked format is the harbinger of a cultural seachange. It is an irony that I cannot stop laughing at. It is all so self-glorifying. Everything is inward and it is no surprise that most new technologies usually serve to isolate and divide rather than foster community. I suddenly have a notion to entirely throw off all amplification of myself beyond that which can come about through my true voice and body. I could stop this blog immediately. I could never use the telephone again because it only allows a sliver of who I am to reach the receiver. Even letter writing is dangerous. Too much amplification. Too wide spread. Any music I play could only broadcast as loud as the unsupplemented instrument can carry itself. That blows considering my primary instrument is the electric bass which is next to impossible to hear without juice. I shall hone my accordian and saxophone chops then. All is not lost. There are too many stringed instruments anyhow. I need people to come closer. Maybe I will just play my bass on the street corner so people have to crane their necks and press their ears right up to the strings to hear anything and then certainly we will know each other better through this interaction. Much better than a mediated conversation could afford. I want to read books aloud to children and speak without microphones.

I want us all to be heard as we are and not as we seem to be through infinitely integrated systems of "communication." John Lennon and Yoko Ono had this "project" they called real communication. It was quite hokey but the sentiment was earnest and provocative. The project was more of a lifestyle of artistic expressions that drew out honesty from yourself, even if it didn't make sense what you were expressing, with the purpose of engendering community and (of course) peace. They did bizarre things like wear only black trashbags or staying in bed for 24 hours (with plenty of media coverage to be sure). Things that I am not sure were not merely ways to express their desire to attract attention but I suppose there were no moral stipulations on their "real communication" so self worship was hardly taboo if it was merely honest self worship.

I don't know. I have no ideas.