Have you ever thought that there are unconsidered cycles effecting peoples stress levels and behavior toward strangers? Police, EMT’s and hosptial emergy room staff will tell you evenings of the full moon are definitely kookier. I think there might be other forces at work in what are apparently random behaviors that make it seem the world is going mad. Different kinds of people might be effected by different cyclical factors. I’m not gonna pull astrology on you, but I can’t entirely write it off either. I’ve noticed Spring is often a time of chaotic intensity for me, the most extreme example being in ‘98 when a series of strange events culminated in a neighborhood building fire. Nothing like standing in a crowd of hundreds, watching an eight story rager to realize ‘hmm, maybe it’s not just me feeling things have been off lately’ – strangely cathartic.
I’m in one of those periods now, strangers bowing up left and right. There are plenty of small instances, but two of the more dramatic I can vent to you now – part of what blogging is all about: I was on the phone last night, just having gotten through to an out-of-state friend I haven’t spoken to in quite some time, excited by the impending conversation. My dog was in a communal backyard area, unfenched, several small grassy patches connecting, in fact didn’t even have her collar on because I’d just applied flea medicine. She barked once and I snapped to scold, as I could hear an extremely agitated woman on her back steps ready to go to war. I was of course, right there, so emerged around the foliage to hear the following,
“Is that your dog?”
“Yes”
“OK. I don’t like dogs. And that thing needs to stay in your yard or there’s gonna be BIG PROBLEMS.” She and her two teenage kids where huddled on the stairs like my pet was an alligator.
For any who don’t know, my dog weighs 22 pounds and got her ass kicked by a cat the other day. But nevertheless, this unknown neighbor was in the right, people have a reasonable expectation to not be annoyed by unleashed dogs in the communal yard while coming out of their own rental houses. She was a black woman. And there is actually something to note about the strange ‘racist dog’ phenomenon. I don’t know where this comes from, nor do I know why children find it amusing to throw rocks at dogs in fences, but the fact is, my dog will also bark at chipmonks or the occasional bird, overall though, she’s not a ‘barker’. I do know I have not trained my dog to be racist; and for all I know, this unfortunate woman was once mauled by a rat terrier, perhaps is still burdened by scarred ankles. But her reaction struck me as a bit extreme. I think she felt I was blowing her off, as I was on the phone and my body language surely didn’t reveal excessive concern about her tirade. I was further urked that she seemed to think she was showing professional restraint, despite her ‘no nonsense’ demeanor. OK, the situation is over now lady, and no need for shotguns or lawyers to get involved. I believe the term is ‘hater’, in the vernacular.
But this cyclical negativity isn’t a black thing, or a woman thing, because on the way to Home Depot today, I had a similar encounter with a white male. He was stopped at the light in front of me, distracted by something, and when the light turned green, after what I took to be an appropriate wait, plus a nanosecond or two, I gave him a ‘beep’, not long and loud, but not soccer mom ‘beep beep’ friendly. He went inches, his car stalled (strange, as it was an automatic) then he went on. As I passed, both of our windows open, I could hear him ranting “Hey! Hey, you got a problem?!”, so at the next light, our cars in the two lanes side by side, I lowered the passenger side window to hear his shpeal. ‘Here we go’, I thought ‘this might be road rage’. He was a rural chap, not much older than myself, I assumed not from ATL, as drivers there clearly have thicker skin about such common incidents.
“Hey, you got a problem?!?”
“No problem. You didn’t go in a timely fashion, so I honked.”
“I looked up at the light. It was red, I looked down, and you honked. I don’t need you honking at me!”
Peckwood’s jaw was working in a strange way as he talked. I considered he might be on meth, or chewing sunflower seeds, or possibly both (dope that takes you to squirrel consciousness, far out). In any event, his sense of time was distorted. After all, I saw the entire thing through his back windshield, when his head went down, when the light changed.
“OK”
I said and continued to stare at him. The angry white male standoff. I know how to escalate a situation, and I know a bit of jedi mind trick diffusion. I am not the driod you’re looking for. I wasn’t gonna back down, but I did bite my tongue and not say what I wanted to, which after several seconds would have been, “What, do you wanna hug?” Plenty of people with chips on their shoulder in this world, always a bigger fish. Pick and choose your battles. In fact I soon needed to get into his lane to turn, and said as much to him, as our slowspeed visual standoff continued. He made a gesture of allowance, but I was nervous, as he’d been so fired up seconds before. But apparently his inner cowboy was placated. Maybe Homeboy has been having some recent trouble with allergies… Inside the store I considered he might try and fuck with the borrowed vehicle. Luckily all of the jackhammer and concrete mixing work I’ve been doing lately in the emerging heat has me feeling nice and level headed. *Ahem*

Is this karma for some recent contrary blog comments I’ve made? Is the universe trying to tell me to ‘chill out’? Again, these are only two heated stories in a series of recent general snubs. Then I remembered the cyclical negativity theory. Even if you’re showing restraint and general goodwill, sometimes the pressure will simply be ratched up for no apparent reason. Other forces at work.

Also, I realized, if you walk around looking exhausted with a few days beard growth, covered in sweat and filth, even if it’s in a place that sells building supplies, people will look at you like you masturbate to videos of baby seals getting clubbed, which is completely untrue btw.

I wrote a short story years ago about a guy who starts going batty after a semi-addictive combination of factors including the watching of a scrambled porn channel. Ubiquitous internet porn has rather dated this premise, and it wasn’t really well written anyway, but at one point, in a conversation between two loner, construction worker type characters, the one guy comments to the other about the strangeness of our cultural familiarity with the word misogyny, yet no one seems to know it’s companion word. While there was certainly a lack of research on the writers part, I would maintain that the appropriate term is far less known. The word is misandry.
Furthermore I think it’s interesting how, because of the well known and obviously heinous and animalistic acts committed by weak men, there is a general unwillingness to recognize the potential for mental unbalance of similar depravity in the female sex. Stastically of course, the male atrocities far out number the female. If a man walks in fear through a shadowly lit parking deck, certainly he isn’t imagining that a mentally deranged female may leap from the darkness and assault him – an attacker is FAR more likely to be male. Yet obviously, neither gender has the lock on mental deviation. Twisted sickness in the female tends to manifest itself in other, less obvious ways. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, so in no way am I making excuses here, but if you look into the cases, behind many serial killers, scumbag rapists etc. there are “bad mommys”.
One definition of a monster is an entity who becomes so spiteful against the absence of genuine love and other positive forces, so consumed by their perceived pain, that they console themselves through hatred and destruction, allowing vengence and corruption to become their guiding forces.

I just found this W.T. Vollmann interview in the “Bat Segundo” podcast. I was really excited at first, but after a listen I have to say it’s just OK. The intro to this podcast is completely unlistenable and I advise any interested to skip in a half a minute or so, or turn down the volume during “loading”. Further, if I’m ever caught speaking in such an inane and campy way in my own podcast for such a period of time, I urge anyone who has ever enjoyed, been amused or enlightened by, anything I have ever said, to kill me. This is a completely serious request. I can handle clanking plates in the background, it’s not nearly as annoying…

I don’t know how these people get access to the interviews subjects they do, but there are also T.C. Boyle, Amy Sedaris and David Lynch on the list.

So Iran is pissed over the depictions of Persian culture in 300. WTF? It started as a comic, and was later made into a really stylized homoerotic S+M flick.

Wait, the ancient Persians didn’t actually have giant mutant monsters on chains they could send into battle? No legions of zombie warriors? Charging rhinos that went down with a single well placed spear? Ancient battlefields weren’t choreographed spectacles with ‘mud blood’ flying around, but not sticking to anything?

Well here’s a thought guys…make your own fictional films. Aren’t you actually just pissed because of the momentary attention and profits the film is getting? Hey, it’s the only way we can get our ADD teenagers to learn ANYTHING about ancient history. I’m telling ya, whip up a CGI epic about the assassins and you’ll have a blockbuster of your own, not to mention a recruitment vehicle-

OK, so maybe the Iraq II war was a distraction from a struggle against Al Qaeda, but a severe cultural theft has taken place while we were preoccupied: the Muppets have moved to France. They speak French, no doubt pay outrageous taxes into an inefficient system, Kermit raps a bit, and only the godless know what else. I don’t know if I’ll even stop crying with rage! But at least they associate with refined culture, such as Indonesian hottie Anggun seen here. Call me a weirdo perv, but she’s even hotter surrounded by puppets…

It’s the 315th anniversary of women being brought before the magistrate in what would become known as the Salem witch trails, or by the wikipedia info, the day some of the accused were searched for “witches teats”. How do I get a job like that? Included here are some of the legal chain of events that went into prosecuting someone of witchcraft in this country. It doesn’t happen in America anymore, but elsewhere on earth superstition still wreaks havoc on peoples lives, Popo Bawa, bat demon of Tanzania, for example. It’s interesting to see how the malleus maleficarum of various witchhunters changes over the ages in different cultures.