Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch was probably the last movie I thought I'd find on the new HULU.com. Admittedly it was a pretty terrible movie that actually made me dislike the book, which I had previously loved. Nothing could give me nightmares like Burroughs, truly the Sith Lord of the beat poets. 

Also available on HULU is Timerider, a movie co-written and scored by Mike Nesmith. I am actually surprised there hasn't been a remake of this one considering how heavily it depends on gadgets and technofabulous ca-ca to entertain. If you haven't seen it and don't care to, its Fred Ward accidentally riding a fancy motorcycle into the wild west era of history. Hijinks ensue.

I was excited about Hulu.com. Finally I could watch streaming movies legally and not the "videotaped in the theater then supercompressed for download" crap that gets, uh, sold in chinatown... but what I found instead was a lot of one star movies that sucked when they came out in the 80's and sucked again when they were on Cinemax and continued to suck in the video store. Don't get me wrong, I still watched them.

State of the....

I have been doing this minimalist act for a few years now and I have to say, its working pretty well. The most immediate benefit of hardly ever buying anything is all the savings. You are doing alright if you are not in crushing debt these days and every night that I come home and there is no repo men, constables or big guys with lead pipes at my door is a victory. The news is full of bad tidings for the American poor, as if for the first time in all of history it sucks to be poor. There have been boom times and recessions and despite what the rest of the world was doing I was barely getting by. Finally I figured out that a little forethought, some critical examination and resisting the reptilian urge to buy shiny things has saved me a few $$$$ over the last few years.

Fiscal health isn't the only benefit, now my house is clean. Not just clean, but the kind of clean that when I come home I can't remember it being this clean when I left. Everything is where it is supposed to be or else its just gone. I don't lose tools or pieces of paper in piles, there isn't hardly enough stuff to make a pile. Keeping with rigid new policy, that if an object isn't used once a year it has to be removed from my possession, I have sent many old hobbies on to the thrift store. Occasionally I regret this personal rule when I go looking for an item of former interest, but it passes. Another related benefit is being organized. I am a trustee for my condominium and neighbors are amazed that I have obscure records so readily at hand and sad that I literally threaten them if they suggest "borrowing" anything. 

Cleaner and wealthier I anticipated but one benefit I had not planned for was - more time. Having fewer clothes to launder and put away and fewer possessions that require parts and maintenance has freed up a surplus of time to read, spend with family or otherwise pursue leisure arts. I feel bad for my contemporaries who burden to keep up failing automobiles or struggle to maintain appearances. 

Let's be clear, minimalism isn't what I thought it would be when I first started doing it. I had this belief that I would live this pure way and set up hard rules for conduct that did not allow much room for bargaining; for example, no colors and no patterns are allowed. I did this because color forces mood whereas shades are interpreted only as depth. Crazy stuff, but that was what I needed. Discipline. Perspective, it turned out, was the very essence of minimalism. A minor shift in perspective made me inspect seams in garments and put back items that were overly processed or had too much packaging. I began to question life cycles, recyclability and even asked a bewildered clerk about phantom power consumption (she thought I was making it up). 

So what have been the drawbacks to minimalism? Well, so far its just me. I haven't converted a single person away from the work and consume lifestyle, there is no national movement, no peer group to take guidance from. There is the parallel green movement but they lack introspection and guidance too and frankly, they are kind of pussies. I just don't see them studying life in prison, blind people or the tragically poor to find out how to conserve resources and live better. Mostly they are gullible consumers who will buy a prius instead of ride a bike or environmentally friendly unbleached paper napkins instead of using a rag. Its a pretty lonely path. There are times I have to consciously stop myself from ridiculing consumers who are caught up in thinking about a handbag that will magically bestow class or a chocolate bar that is "good for you." Its for the best really, that I don't have an opposing opinion to tempt me away from my new belief system.

In the end I will just say, the longer I do this the easier it will become. A lot of progress has been made already and the failing dollar, resources that require full scale invasions to harvest (OIL) and an uncertain global future will only make it easier.

Haha, You Suck...

I love a good buzzkill and nothing follows the world's largest beef recall like this. That's right, turns out that phony baloney fake meats, organic milk and tomatoes are manufactured by the corporate machine. The sell was great, a few dollars more for better quality and more nurturing farm practice - maybe even a little boost for mother earth? Well, you just keep believing that. I have to admit, I got rooked. That organic cow milk was pretty good and I didn't mind the extra buck for ultra-pasteurized milk, since a half gallon usually goes bad before I finish it. Believing that it was anything but milk, and that it might be harvested in a way more expensive than it needed to be for boutique purposes, well that is how naive I am.