Thinking Out Loud

The Known and Unknown: Intellectual Philosophy from us Sociologists in Montreal

lifeofbrian — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:17:37 GMT

Well I just had one of the most stimulating conversations that I have had all weekend in Montreal. I am here for my international annual sociology meetings and have seen a few papers presented but this conversation just happened between me and two of my fellow students in a really cheap chinese restaurant that didn't smell the best. Over $5.95 plates of food we talked about knowledge or what we know as truth. So there are things we know and there things we don't know. The former of course is the "The Known" and latter is "The Unknown." But by the nature of the fact that we know that there are things we know and there are also things that are knowable that we don't know, there is also "The Known Known" and "The Known Unknown." This further leads us to understand that there are things that are knowable that we don't know and things that are not knowable that we also don't know. These would classify as "The Unkown Known" and "The Unknown Unknown." From here we moved to an incredible discussion about the limitations of knowing. We discussed how we can only know what we know how to know and based on what we know how to know, we allow ourselves to know. This was in the context of discussing the possibility of beings living on a planet that would orbit two stars; the tenth planet theory. Yes, sociologists do have extremely non sociological conversations every now and again. LOL! But anyhow, one of us was arguing that based on human scientific knowledge, which we consider advanced, we know that the thermal differential that occurs as the distance from the sun becomes greater is unbearable to physical beings. Therefore it follows that any being that would live on such a planet would have to have technological knowledge to compensate for the thermal atmospheric differential that would occur between the stars. Addiitonally, any beings that would be able to travel to and from planets, would have to possess the technological knowledge to travel at or above speeds of light, which he also argued is absolutely impossible because that requires not being physical. He further argued that because that possibility defies our human absolute laws of physics we can assume that no other being can as well. However, we argued that his assumptions are all within the scope of our knowledge and understanding at the present which have not expanded to a place that these possibilities are conceivable. But just like in the 12th century when our ancestors scope of understanding of the physical world did not allow for the possibility of humans breaking the gravitational pull of the earth in rocket ships it doesn't mean that what we don't know how to know at this given time is not possible to know or is not known somewhere in the universe because we (humans) don't yet know it. This being likely, it may be possible that the technology to live on a planet which has drastic thermal atmospheric changes over a course of its orbit and to travel at light speeds in some transformed state is known by other beings. A further point is that based on the mathematical knowledge we have of random distributions, we know that it is more than less likely that there is a distribution of levels of knowledge in a universe as vast as ours. It is statistically more than less likely that there are other beings in the universe that have less technological knowledge than we have and conversely some that exist that have much more than we have. I think this was a good discussion that brings up some interesting theoretical points. All of this togethor has to make one think.

I Lit Up Last Night!!

lifeofbrian — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:38:06 GMT

Yahoo!! I don't know how it happened but after a couple of months of playing around with a staff, a Rebar Bender, a Yardman, a lot of rain and a lot of party favors, I was spinning fire last night. It was great!!! Thanks to all of you who were there to witness it and cheer me on. It was an incredible feeling. I had no fear. Maybe that was the party favors. It was great to just do it and not think about it. I guess I had pictured it a bit differently but when it's the right time, it's the right time. Thanks to Yardz and Albie for playing safety and Jesse and April for putting that first staff in my hand. Much love!!

Who Am I?

lifeofbrian — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 08:13:18 GMT

Two days ago I sat down to write about that question. Although I still dont have the perfect answer I do know a couple of things. One is that I am not a cookie cutter kinda guy. I told my advisor that the other day in a meeting with him that most likely amounts to my professional suicide by his account. I also told him that I don't want to kiss anyone's ass just to get tenure! After many years of hard work getting a Ph.D I am now supposed to go work with a group of people and get hazed for seven years to do thing the way they want or I am out of a job! When does it end? After all isn't the academy the place where academic freedom is supposed to thrive. Is academic freedom a code word for intellectual consensus or conformity? Oh yeah I have heard this tune before. It is only right if it is what I am saying. I know that in order to help change things as I want to do in this world I have to work with the system but I think there is a fine line between working with and giving in to it. That's right, I'm a radical and I think it needs to be known that there are people out there who are fighting against the status quo. Ok, maybe I don't need to be so radical as to not fit in but I believe innovation is a key to change and if people aren't willing to stick out how can our innovations become reality. So in terms of who I am, I guess I am an innovative change agent who is willing to work within a system but only for the purposes of changing it. Is there anyone else out there going through this same struggle. We need to talk!!

Thanks for the many lovely gifts!

lifeofbrian — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 09:18:33 GMT

I had a wild experience yesterday. I was walking down 6th Avenue toward Puppet Works to work on my mask that I created for the All Souls Procession and a song came to me. I just began to sing it in my head. It's about Singing your life in color. Later that night I was experiencing a mystical time with a few friends and music just began to flow out of me. But it was even more intense when I discovered that it was coming from some place other than my head. It clicked! I had recently expienced a Particle show and it seemed like the music that they were playing was flowing through them rather than from them. A gift from the universe! Last night, I was talking about the gifts that each of us have with my friends. We made the point that all of us have gifts and it is incredible to know that I have a gift that does to people what Particle's gift of music does to me. Understanding that, how can we not want to interact with as many beings as possible in order to discover the gifts that each has for us and to experience the impact of those gifts. I thank the universe for the experience last night that helped me understand this. Thanks to all of the wonderful beings that where there with too. :-) Look forward to our next experience.

A Decompression to Remember

lifeofbrian — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 02:20:30 GMT

Wahoo!!! Hell yeah! I am so glad that I went to SF for Decompression. The Heat the Street Faire was a blast! And just what I needed to get me back to my Playa self. I love the fact that there were so many things to remind me of my first Playa experience there. All of the Art Cars the bars. Yeap both Spikes and The Deep End, two of the places I frequented while in BRC, were both there. It was so much fun. Meeting lots of new people who were just as free to be who they wanted to be on those three little blocks as if they were back in Nevada. It's funny, someone said "This ain't Black Rock City it is Black Top City." That might've been true but the spirit was there and isn't Burning Man the spirit? I think that is what is special about the Decomp is that it brings my spirit back. Because once you get in this default world it is hard to keep your spirit. Know what I mean? Can I get an Amen!! Ok, I want to send out props to all my Playa friends I saw there. You know who you are. Also to the new people who I met that I would have loved to spend more time with. Unfortuntately, we will have to wait for a few months but I can guarantee that when the man burns we will be all partying togethor. That is the only downfall of Decomp is that you can't really hang out in depth with everyone because it is so short. The question is how can we make this a weekend event? Ok, for both my new and old Burner friends, make sure you check out the pics that I have posted. Keep up the energy and the partying! As a matter of fact here is a benediction that is reminiscent of my past but with a bit of a twist. This may sound a bit familiar to all of you Baptist out there. The fun and the partying represents his body. As often as you do it you do it in remebrence of him and by doing it you don't succumb to the sorrow of the death and the sufering around us and you look forward to his burning again. Take in all of it!!!!

Creativity that is long overdue

lifeofbrian — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 08:23:01 GMT

Whew!! I just sculpted today for the first time in about 15 years. I have not worked with clay since I was an art major in undergrad. It was so liberating. Thanks to my friend Matt who asked me to go with him to a workshop on mask making for the All Souls Day Procession coming up soon in Tucson, I got to work with clay. I had no idea what I was going to do when I started. I was bit apprehensive at first but I got an idea for motvation. I took a few moments to meditate on it and immediately I go the idea to look at my Soul Cards (ask me about those later). Well the Soul Cards showed me a female figure playing a mandalin (sp?) and an energy mass swirling around her from the top of her head. I immediately thought of the Goddess energy working to bring harmony to the Earth's consciousness through music. With the help of Matt and Sammy, another sculpter there, to help interpret the card, I came up with the idea for a Goddess mask that will make music with chimes. I can't believe how fast I worked. The product thus far has the appearance of a women singing with some flowing material from the head. It felt so good to create something and then to fashion it with my hands. I spoke to my spiritual mother who said that working with clay is like molding Earth and that is a very grounding experience. I am up for some grounding. What about you? Create people create!! See you at the procession.

Vibing with the Dalai Lama

lifeofbrian — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 01:37:29 GMT

On monday the Dalai Lama was in town. I had no ticket that morning but I knew I would be seeing him. I went to my writing tutor that morning and on the way out I something told me to ask the admin ladies where I might be able to get tickets. One of them said you need a ticket. Here, you can have this one for free. Bam, a $45 ticket gifted to me. I gave her a big hug and hurried down to the TCC where by the time I got in the door my firends and I had been gifted a total of 4 tickets. Is the universe awesome or what? It is great to see a spiritual and political leader just sit and talk to you like he is one of your family members. The energy that man had was amazing. He said a cuople of things that I was vibing with. He said that the last century was about war and destruction and those generations messed up. The new century however is about peace and it is up to our generation to clean up. He also said that we have to make a conscious effort to bring all the religions togethor and use the mental capacities of the academy, practicioners, politicians and others all to help change the global consciousness. Another thing he said is that we must understand the value of both personal religion and community religion and that both must co-exist. These last two made me feel real good about what I am doing in the academy at the moment. Especially since my Dissertation is trying to outline personal versus community religion under the guise of deconstructiong spiritual and religious identities. My hats of to his Holiness for working so hard on world peace. I can only hope that my dent in the world will be just a portion as large as his. Thank you universe for the gifts.

The Power of Being.

lifeofbrian — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 08:14:34 GMT

I am sitting here in the Safehouse, a coffee shop in Tucson with David. Ooops its actually Michael. And the connections between My Playa experience and Michael (David) are incredible. The fact is that Michael has helped me to put into perspective my purpose and how that purpose is both destiny and agency. We just had a great conversation about whether one or the other wins out but I think we may have both come to a conclusion that they both exist equally and that we just need to come to grips with our divinity in their execution. The problem is how? How do we execute our divinity without thinking lesser of ourselves or maybe thinking to great of ourselves but then again only the self matters because we can only understand the world through us. Thanks Michael (ah hem I mean David). Are we Safe yet?

Ah Decompression

lifeofbrian — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:36:59 GMT

I have been describing it like this. Picture Keanu Reeves waking up in his little pod and realizing he is connected to this matrix thing where everything that he thought was real was not but has been fed to him by some structural monster that took his real life away and and then made him believe that what he is being fed is in fact real. Damn what a freakin' discovery! One that is life changing. Then what does he do, he turns around and sticks all of the wires and shit from this pod back in him and he goes back to sleep. That is what decompression is like for me. It took me at least a week and some days to be able to calm my stomach so that I could back to being a graduate student in the academy that is being fed to me as the way to change the world when I really know that it is really the venue of reproduction of hegemony and hierarchy that I despise. How could I do it? I did it by convincing myself once again that I have to use it. That since I cannot live outside of the structure I have to work with it within it to change it. Good luck!! I think it has been tried before. Yes some have been successful I guess. Let's see slavery is no more, women are just as equal as men and no one goes hungry. Wait is this a movie?

Woohoo, A Virgin No More!! I Survived my first Burning Man.

lifeofbrian — Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:25:24 GMT

I know this has taken a long time and hope all of my friends out there will bare with me but I seem to have a problem with writing down my thoughts. After BM I have no idea why? The Big Burn was one of the most intense experiences I have had in my life. Oh yeah, I was impressed by Toast and the energy that was there. I was even impressed by 100 Daze and the energy that was there. This summer my visit to Apogaea, the Colorado burn was also impressive but nothing that I had been to so far can even compare the experience I had in Black Rock City. It was extremely spiritual for me considering everything I had dealt with in the last couple of years seemed to greet me once again on The Playa. In less than 10 days I dealt with the issue I had being abandoned as a child by my mother. Thanks to the artist who erected the Passage. I dealt with my Messiah complex and the fear I have to be the God that I am. Thanks to the artist who erected the dreamer and the camp that was next to Happy. I dealt with my giving myself to others so easily at the expense of my happiness and the invalidation that always follows. Thanks to my boy David who I really think is still a great guy. I dealt with letting go of my desire to possess those i love. Thanks to a couple of friends on this one. I dealt with the stifling (sp?) of my creativity. Thanks to all of the other artwork. I dealt with my hatred of self for a multitude of things. Thanks to the energy of The Playa and its people. I also dealt with my holding myself captive from the Goddess energy. Thanks to the Gods and Goddesses of The Playa. And there is still much more I dealt with. Probably way too much to put in one Blog entry. But even with this intense self contemplating spiritual trip, it is was soooo much fun. The people are so great the energy is like no other. The fact that (as I discussed with my spiritual mother after returning) 30,000 plus burners are individually experiencing while simultaneously collectively experiencing produces an intensity like no other. Wow!!! And the freedom they give themselves to be who they are liberates you to be who you are. And then there is Happy. HAPPEEEYYYY!!! I just want to say that I could have not been introduced to The Playa and all of its treasures and pleasures by a better group of people. I felt like I was groomed to take my place in a society of Gods and Goddesses from long ago or maybe from an age that has not yet reached its glory. Thank you! OK, enough now huh!!! I have to get back to "The Real World." What I don't think so, I have a new outlook on what is and what isn't truly the real world. For more info check out my next Blog.

A Night with The Goddess

lifeofbrian — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 01:30:50 GMT

Hey guys if you ever get a chance to hang out with a Goddess do it!! And I don't mean a night of objectifying a female with your self serving rational hyper sexual bullshit. Jeff and I met up with Maddy who we met at Toast this Spring at our boring ass Sociology Conference in Philly. She was awesome then and she still is. You can check out a picture of her in my picture section. My interactions with her were fuckin' intensely mystical then and she continued the trend on this past Monday evening. We first partook in some of her killer brownies and headed out to meet others on South Street. The night brought on some mind blowing conversation. Among the thoughts she hit us with was how long should it take for those who know they will be persecuted in a Facist society to wake up and decide when to leave the society as the Facism develops. She pointed out how incredibly striking the parallels are between the U.S. at the moment and pre-WWII Germany and Italy. Holy shit shit she is way right! So how long should academics and artists like all of us wait until we escape or do we make the decision to stay and become martys? Great question to contemplate. She and her colleague Tony, also posed the thought of our freakin' arrogance as humans to beleive that in this fast universe that our little spec of a planet on a piece of dust in corner of it could really matter that much. The reality is we are probably no where near the most "tightest shit" the universe has to offer. But we or at least some of us are sitting here polishing the pebbles that lie at the base of the foundation of the structures that we know should not be existing because the limit our lives ungodly. I think I am pretty guilty of this and have been struggling with it for a long time. What the hell is the solution? Revolution? Don't really know. Another incredible contemplation caused me to almost bust my gut laughing. It was the question of whether one could be two. It wasn't really the question but it was the answer instead. Damn like clockwork Jeff answered No, I answered Yes and Maddy answered maybe. We all suddenly discoved how right each of us were. After that the laughing went on for hours. It was a real night of fun and relaxation that was necessary. Thanks to the Goddess and her acomplice, the agony of our Association's Annual Meetings was all worth it. Much love to Maddy, Tony and my boy Jeff. HAAAPPPYYYYY!!!!!

Reading is FUNdamental

lifeofbrian — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 00:38:17 GMT

Yeah!! I am getting some reading done. Somewhere along the line not only was my artistic creativity stifled but so was my desire to just read and fantasize while doing it. I recently re-dsicovered the creativity that is required in reading when we construct with our wonderful imagination the world that a writer is prompting us. I recently finished The Davinci Code two days ago and now I am almost finished The Alchemist. I go two thirds of the way through it on my flight out to Philly. Thanks to a crappy battery for my laptop that I was recently bitching about. What great places these two books took me. I look forward to visitng more places in mind and soul through reading. Although it is fundamental, I think I am finally back to a point where I realize the FUN part.

Burning Man Anxiety

lifeofbrian — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 06:54:23 GMT

Arrgh!!! Wahoo!!! This is the way I feel right now; extremely frustrated and extremely excited. My first Burnging Man is in a month and I really want to be doing more in preparation but money is an issue. I don't get it until the middle of the month and I am now out of town until about the 20th. Throw in the fact that I am suppoese to have chapters don for my dissertation to present to my committee at the end of the summer that I don't have and the frustration becomes really evident. So the point is that I am anxious about my preparation. I already can't do the artwork that I was inspired to do. That will have to wait until next year but that's okay. All of my mentors have kinda told me to take in the Playa this year and then go back next year with a vengeance. Well whatever it takes; no sleep for a week when I get back to Tucson, lots of to do lists while I am away, and carrying back stuff from my trip to Philly if I have to, I WILL BE READY!

I can't log out!!!!

lifeofbrian — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 10:45:02 GMT

Oh my God! I am in the Twighlight Zone somewhere. It is so weird. I shouldn't even be posting now because I should be logged out. I am in the Coffee Shop, that's Coffee X Change for those of you not in Tucson and they have this Wireless Internet Provider that I am using at the expense of my friend who is the manager. He logged me in and I have been trying to get the hell out for the last half hour. It is storming like hell and I am wired on Mocha Extremes and I want to stop blogging but I can't because I am still logged on. Maybe this is a ploy to have me spend more money but if it is the joke is on them because it ain't my loggin. I guess I could be considered a Wireless Internet thief but do I care. That's some sketchy shit now ain't it?

To Heath

lifeofbrian — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 02:07:45 GMT

Why is it that in Life we sometimes want things we can't have and the things we can have we rarely want?

To Rob

lifeofbrian — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 02:01:16 GMT

If we had it ALL in Life right now; to what then would we have to look forward?