I CHANNEL CRACKED: 3 Stupid Things People Think About Video Games. AKA: The girl, art and high art discussion.

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#1: “Video games are for boys!”

If you don’t mind, I’ll hit you with a stat from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA):

“Forty-seven percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (18 percent).” -http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp

So.  More women over 18 play video games than boys under 18.  Seems like video games are more for adult women than boys, right?  Not really.  It really does appear that most video games are totally for little boys with military fetishes.

     Take into consideration that the definition of video games is more broad than just the triple A console/PC shooters that seemingly pervade every pocket of the perception of what video games are nowadays.  It also includes casual, puzzle games on smartphones, computers and the DS, which lends the statement: “Video games are for boys!” in need of a little amending in order to not be stupid.  Video games are for everyone.  The video game community, and many video games outside of the casual market, present themselves as being NOT for women.

Why is it that the biggest, most expensive to make video games end up presenting the view female characters with writing and design choices that show them primarily as a romantic lead and a pair of tits and ass cheeks over a 3-dimensional character with an arc and a personality and stuff?  Is it because the games are made with its own sort of “Male gaze”, for men to look at and pine for? 

     Well, yeah, but I think that it’s also because it’s been this way for so long, and a corporation making a NEW decision, even though it could make them even more money by getting more people invested in games, is unlikely if they have an incredibly likely way to make a shit ton of money doing the same thing.

     Also, writing real characters and not just the character descriptor of: “Has unrealistically perfect tits and ass.” Is difficult and takes skills that aren’t in abundance in the video game industry.

     Some people say that men are designed in a similarly exaggerated fashion.  I’d agree with that to a degree.  The bullshit there is that it’s still the MAN’s perspective that exaggerates their design.  It’s not a man that’s made to be fetishized as the perfect man women want; it’s exaggerated to be what MEN WANT TO BE.  It’s all male fantasy, and that’s wrong.  There’s nothing wrong inherently with male fantasy, or even objectification of women, or objectification of anything, it’s just that when that is nearly all that’s there in an artistic medium, or a culture, you have serious fucking problems on all fronts.

     Now add on that the community who are more invested in games than just games designed to be casual, are antagonistic towards women.  This is very well documented.  Anyone who hasn’t seen antagonistic behavior towards women in the video game community is either lying or dangerously deluded. 

After all of that, it becomes obvious why women don’t want to play these games that don’t seem to be made for them, and become engaged in a community that doesn’t seem to be embracing them to play equal roles in the community.  That’s okay though, because they’re totally cool with them being booth babes, sexy cosplayers, or hot commentators on G4. When that’s what’s available, it’s obvious why there aren’t many women fighting against those fighting to keep them out of the community.  And that’s a damn shame.  Video games have so many wonderful experiences to offer everyone.

All that aside, the aforementioned corporate side would definitely lead one to the conclusion that video games are mostly seen as a product by the people making them and not an art form.  I would agree.  Still.  One of the dumbest statements about video games is this: 

#2: “Video games aren’t art, you idiot!”

When a film critic is reviewing a movie, is the focus of their article whether or not the film in question should be considered art or not?  I don’t think so.  I think that they’re trying to communicate whether or not it is a piece of art that is of good quality, mediocre quality, bad quality, whether or not you should see it, if you would enjoy it and everything in between. 

Is Tommy Wiseau’s the Room art?  Why not?  Because it’s bad?  Does all art have to be good at the least?  How bad is it allowed to be?  Only a little?  Why?  If that’s so, then why is film considered to be an art form at all?  If the majority rule applies to whether or not film is art by how much it is good, then why not apply that to the whole medium, and consider it not an art form because most movies aren’t good?  Are most movies good?  I don’t know.  Have you seen all of them, and decided the quality of each of them as being more good than bad, thus giving it the right to be called an art form?  Should we just take your word on that?

It gets into a really muddy argument as you can see.  I opine that art should be considered as something made not of utilitarian value, but to communicate or evoke something.  Plain and simple.

Is architecture art?  Absolutely.  But doesn’t that have utilitarian value?   This is where art splits off into two worlds, and two words.  …Or I guess one word that means two different things: Art as a painting, a movie, a game, etc., and art as a building, a meal, a toilet, etc.

If the architecture is being analyzed by its aesthetics and such then the art that is being analyzed from the lens of it as a medium of expression and not its utilitarian value.  If it is being analyzed from its quality as what it does, how well it does it, etc., it is the OLD word art, a much more all encompassing definition that refers to works themselves.  This definition just refers to the craft someone works in.  In short, the same word meaning two things refers to two aspects of the work in question when it can overlap into a work of both utilitarian and non-utilitarian value.  Does a Frank Gehry building function well as a work of art from the perspective of how well it works as a building to house people?  No.  At least not from what I hear about his buildings.  But they aren’t made for that reason.  Can a building be both?  Can a meal be both?  I think most utilitarian things can be both. 

It’s a complicated conversation that has been going on and will be going on forever.  I think the above is the best way to look at things, and to get across that art forms that people don’t consider art forms, such as video game, or even FILM once upon a time are in fact art and help us get on with the discussion.

#3: “Ok smartass.  Well then, video games can’t be high (good) art!”

The above isn’t just the argument of MANY people I have talked to (strangely enough it seems like the default position of all people), but of an important figure in the art world.  Film critic Roger Ebert, an artist in his own right, and a man deserving of much respect.  Ebert started at #3, and then got a shitstorm of emails from the ever respectful and articulate video game community, after which he revised his position to #4.

After the shitstorm had cleared and Ebert redefined his position, he said this: “Why do you care what I have to say?”  Yes it’s nice that there is hypocrisy that rests in Ebert considering the art he has spent his career analyzing and reviewing was once not considered art for a reason that shouldn’t effect the matter (Because film is collaborative, it isn’t art.  If that’s true, then a painting made by two painters can’t be considered art.), and he is an important figure and he does deserve rebuttal just because it is an important issue…  But why do we care?  Why did everyone flip out so much?  He doesn’t play video games.  At least he hasn’t played enough video games to decide whether or not they could ever be high art.  He isn’t informed.  Debating him is useless and a waste of time.  We could debate him.  Use him as a platform to show the truth behind the art of game.  But he’s already lost, by not knowing ANYTHING. 

    

     Yeah, most video games are not high art, but that’s Sturgeon’s Law.  If these people were willing to understand the position of people who ARE informed, I’d tell them to play Missile Command, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Portal, and BIT.TRIP COMPLETE.  While they’re doing this, I’d tell them to read into video game history to provide context, and question every single thing that happens in the game they’re playing.

 

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     Why are there 3 missile towers to shoot from in Missile Command?  Why are you protecting both your missile towers and a city?  Why do so many missiles and planes and shit come from all directions of the screen towards you?  How come you can never beat the game, and the only end of the game is punctuated with a screen that says: THE END when you fail completely and the city is completely destroyed?  How did all of this make you feel?  What did it make you think about?

  Missile Command was originally in the arcades in the early 80's.

Some of the easiest ways to play it today is to buy it on the Xbox Live Arcade if you have an Xbox360 and I'm sure it's available on the PC. shouldn't be hard to find it online.

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     Why is all of Super Mario Bros.' progression directed completely from left to right?  How is it different from so many games before it, in particular relating to achieving a goal?  Why are the blocks placed where they are?  The cliffs?  The enemies?  The pipes?  The power-ups?  How does the placement change and how does it affect your experience?  Why does each world end with you seemingly defeating Bowser, and a little mushroom guy saying: “Thank You Mario!  But our princess is in another castle!”  How did all of this make you feel?  What did it make you think about?

Super Mario Bros. was originally released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the 80's.

The easiest way to play it today is to buy it on the Wii Virtual Console for 5 dollars, or find it online.  You can also buy it on the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS if you have one.

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     Why is your character in the original Legend of Zelda’s continuous attaining of items effect how you play the game?  HHow could it relate to the growth of the character itself?  Why doesn’t the next level just start up after you’ve finished one, like Mario?  Why do you have to discover each of them through exploring the overworld?  How did all of this make you feel?  What did it make you think about?

  

 The Legend of Zelda was originally released in the 80's for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The easiest way to play it today is to buy it on the Wii Virtual Console for 5 dollars, or find it online.  You can also buy it on the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS if you have one.

 

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     How could the gameplay mechanics of Portal relate to the character relationship between yourself and the only other character in the game?  How could this game be seen as a more feminine approach to the first person shooter genre?  How does this game approach female characters in different ways than most games?  What was up with the companion cube?  Why did the game end the way it did?  How did all of this make you feel?  What did it make you think about?

Portal is available for the Xbox360, Playstation3, and Mac and PC on Steam.

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     Why does the BIT.TRIP series progress the way it does?  Why does it start in BEAT with gameplay similar to pong?  Why does CORE change the gameplay to stationary, four directional shooting?  Why does it change in VOID to allow you to move anywhere you want on the screen? 

Why are there so fewer penalties in RUNNER?  Why are there no lives and no game over?  Why is there so little time between making a mistake and putting you back at the beginning of the level?  Why does the game over return in FATE?  Why is the tone so much darker?  Why did the gameplay change from jumping, sliding, and blocking enemies and obstacles, to shooting them and collecting hearts they drop?  Why are you stuck on a rail? 

Why is the game over gone in FLUX?  Why does the gameplay turn back to the simplicity of BEAT?  How do the new gameplay elements mirror gameplay elements from the previous games?  Why is the action directed to the opposite side of the screen? 

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How do the brief cut scenes provide context for the deeper meaning in the games?  What do the musical motifs mean?  Why is there always so much going on in the background?  Why are the graphics so simple and Atari-inspired?  Why is it all rhythm based?  Why is there occasional repetition of obstacles?  How does the progression of the series relate to the progression of Video Games, and how does the progression of the series relate to the progression of a human life from birth to death?  How did all of this make you feel?  What did it make you think about?

All six of the BIT.TRIP games are available on Wiiware for the Wii.  

BEAT and RUNNER are available on Steam.  

The ultimate collection of all of them along with an assload of extra challenges and features is available for retail on the Wii under the title: BIT.TRIP COMPLETE

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     If after all that they’re still on the side of: “Video games can’t be high art,” only then will they be deserving of debate. 

    

     Until then, they’re just being uninformed and stupid.  As opposed to just stupid.

Legitimately Raped and Disregarded

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In 2012, MEN who continuously demonstrate an embarrassingly limited understanding of how a woman's reproductive system works, have power to control the health decisions they make concerning their bodies.

And these MEN's love and respect for the rights of a small collection of cells over a woman's life, excuses this.  Some support for this reared its misogyny-stinking head from out the mud just at the start of this week:

http://on.aol.com/video/todd-akin--legitimate-rape-victims-rarely-get-pregnant-517451566

     

If this isn’t something that has been on your radar, it’s been a huge deal the last couple days, culminating in everyone thinking that Akin, the boy in question, was going to at the behest of his fellow Republicans, drop out of the Senatorial race in Missouri. He had until 6:00 pm yesterday to do that and he didn’t.

     

It was pretty clear that he wasn’t from the start. Here is a statement his campaign made not too long after his disastrous moment of infame:

http://www.akin.org/updates/akin-statement-jaco-report-interview

He says he misspoke. He doesn't apologize. He doesn't admit to being astoundingly uninformed on an issue he pretends to know enough about to want to help change the world according to his views. He doesn’t say he’s going to take this as a humbling moment and rethink the issue entirely, considering his views on it were built upon a false contention. He says people who support abortion won't vote for him. He says the democrats want to distract from the real issues about the economy. He says he's not cool with rape. All of that’s great to hear.

Doesn’t change how wonderful an example it is of conservatism’s views on and treatment of the rights of women and girls. Science, reason, civil rights, none of that can budge the simple facts carved in the cholesterol plugged, Chick-Fil-A sauce pumping, red white and blue heart of an agent of tradition.

 

Pictured: Thicker than water, but not nearly as much as your average Republican

Man is Man, and woman is woman. Equality between the sexes hasn’t been fighting too many winning battles against that until recently in the history of relations between men and women. Washing the writing off the wall and out of the hearts of people after so long of that being The Way Things Were, and getting out the message that Women don’t deserve to be treated by men as lesser beings is fucking uphill. But when was the writing in their hearts carved deepest, to scar over in clear font for all to see?

Maybe it can be traced back to the Victorian era. Maybe Catholicism and other old religion’s course to spread their numbers. Maybe even further back. Maybe for some it’s different than all that. Maybe it’s legit belief that all abortion is killing a baby, while the morning after pill, contraceptives and medical abortions are the prevention of the potential of life in interest of preserving the woman’s life and her right to live it as she sees fit. …And the potential of a life is everywhere; a bunch of teachers deciding not to have crazy unprotected sex in the teacher’s lounge is preventing the potential of life. The rights of actual people are in danger every day of oppression, people’s lives are in danger every day, getting concerned for the something that could potentially result in a life, a clump of cells or otherwise, is insane.

I’ve always had trouble in the understanding of uniformly why they believe this. I’m incredibly well versed in what they say over and over again in support of their argument, I have ideas on what lies deeper, and I can trace similar behavior into history.

But none of that changes that uninformed, economically well-off MEN are making life-changing decisions for people they couldn’t even begin to understand the plight of. Nor does it change any of the content they expel.

They aren’t informed, they can’t debate it without flawed arguments or not addressing legitimate arguments at all, and they are perfectly happy restricting important rights that could massively negatively impact women to the point of killing them. This punishment is all for being raped or simply making a mistake, maybe for being misinformed by conservative, anti-scientific methods in teaching sexual education to American students. An entire year of their lives, the product of their trauma and one half of the rapist literally growing inside of them for almost a year. To preserve the rights of people who don’t exist.

To be fair. I don’t know a lot of things about this issue either. I don’t know when exactly the medical field decides an abortion would be excessive and unnecessary. I don’t even know how exactly we could go about legislating something this insanely complicated, while restricting the least amount of rights as humanly possible.

But what I do know, is that this:

-as undeniably scientifically beautiful as it is, being given precedence over a person that actually exists, seen not just as shit that could possibly result in a person, is dangerously deranged. It hinders real debate on the many intricacies in the abortion debate that haven’t been addressed in mainstream politics, and need to be in order to be there for victims of an unforgivable crime, and make our country a greater place to live in spite of horror.

These particular horrors, rapists, the lowest of all lows, deserving of castration… At least most of them don’t commit their crimes in the light of day, on television, in the view of the community that protects it every day. Modern conservatism’s approach to the issue is a crime. Bills that ban all abortions, even if a woman is raped. Defending themselves with lies, like ‘no children have incestuous children as the result of sexual abuse’, ‘no women get pregnant if they’re raped’, ‘a rape baby is a gift from god’, or ‘women who say they were raped must be lying; because it’s impossible for them to get pregnant, so they must have wanted it.’

(All of these have been said by republicans in the last couple days: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/21/missouri-republican-official-god-chose-to-bless-women-with-pregnancies-from-rape/)

Now they’re all fighting over how they can define rape, because people aren’t buying their recent plate of condescending bullshit (Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s and Todd Akin’s unconstitutional Sanctity of Human Life Act does this.)

(Full bill here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.212:)

      Republicans have not made enough effort to distance themselves from these radical views. They’ve asked Akin to drop out, but they haven’t changed the lockstep walk they want to kick him out of.

      They’ve come out and said some things that are massively inconsistent with their pasts, without acknowledging it in order to make up for this.

      Mitt Romney said that he’d sign a bill that outlawed ALL abortion were he president. Paul Ryan spoke volumes in his bill:

(1) the Congress declares that–
(A) the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being, and is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person; and
(B) the life of each human being begins with fertilization, cloning, or its functional equivalent, irrespective of sex, health, function or disability, defect, stage of biological development, or condition of dependency, at which time every human being shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood; and
(2) the Congress affirms that the Congress, each State, the District of Columbia, and all United States territories have the authority to protect the lives of all human beings residing in its respective jurisdictions.

     

-Which again, unconstitutional. Congress does not have the power to overrule Roe v. Wade by a statute without a constitutional amendment.

They can lie all they want, asskissing opportunist Romney does it like it's his job...  I guess it is... but the truth that they’ve shown to us is enough to now what’s what. In the butt.

      Any self-respecting human should do everything within their power to keep these boys out of office. Vote against them. Donate against them. They deserve much worse than just that.

Not just these three whores, but you get the point.

I'd be happy if you excused my sloppy return to one a week posts. Summer's over and it's time to get to work.

...I'd be even happier if you didn't read the title of this essay as: "Legitimately Raped and Disregarded By Max Wilson."

The Blank Page

    

The thing about being incredibly insecure about the shit you make is sharing it is tough.  Especially old shit you’ve made.  I look back on stuff I’ve just written earlier this year and I get embarrassed.  I mean.  I get embarrassed whenever I read anything I write, but not in the same way.  Nearly everything makes me sick.  There’s an exception here and there, though.

I recently read this paper I wrote for a writing class I was in 2 years ago.  It was around the time I was ruminating on actually being a writer in the future.  I thought about it a lot.  It took a lot of deliberation to even get to the point where I said to myself that I wanted this, and then when I got there, there was even more deliberation on what it actually meant to be a writer.  I was scared and sad and down on myself and in that empty place I go to back when I was four crying on my bunk bed because I was afraid about what happened when I died.  Something I was discovering at the time that was incredibly comforting when in that place, was that I could work through things I was feeling and thinking; slowly letter by letter forming words on the screen in front of me.  This is among the more polished of those workings through of things.  This in particular, came from my writing teacher and the Woman who saved me from High School*, Melissa Hasebrook’s writing class.  Very typical of me at the time.  Barenaked Ladies quote.  A little too heavy on the film-noir narration.  Very little editing.  I couldn't help editing it a bit for this post. 


The Blank Page.
By Max Wilson

Wiped out down the stairs
I'll bet you there's a song in there
I'm not sure I'm prepared to write it down

That guy should be me
I'd look much better on TV
Then the world would see
That I can do anything…

Don't write me off as an also ran
Just mark me down as an angry man…
Life passed me by, but it's not my fault
I'll lick my wounds, could you pass the salt?

If I were the king
All my subjects they would dance and sing
They could kiss my ring
And kiss my ass
When I'm old and grey
I'll look back on my life and say:
"Give me one more day,
And still I'll never do anything."

-Never Do Anything (Steven Page/Ed Robertson)

By Barenaked Ladies

            Here I stare again, at the white nothingness of the blank page.  Not just any kind of blank page.  That empty void. Having nothing at all to fill it with.  No stories of stoic detectives hunting down twisted child-molesters, no boxers on the brink, biting people’s faces off, no rants on politics, no nothing.  I can almost feel the cinder block in my skull, weighing me down.  My neck straining to keep it held on my shoulders, in danger of falling on the hard wooden desk in front of me.  Cracking open like a thin glass vase.  Maybe then I can sift through the bits of skull and cement and find one possible idea or story, or anything to fill this blaring white page.  Gnawing at me.

     It’s hard to ignore it, it being the only source of light in my darkened room as I tap out the rhythm for that stupid E-Z-Pop-popcorn jingle out on the manila folder on my desk.  For a second I forget that inside of the folder is tucked another rejected story from another magazine; another round of the reality of the difficulty of making it in the writing world is fired in my chest.  I can’t stand being in that cold glow of the blank page any longer.

     Ah, what does it matter?  You think you’re going to kid yourself for another few months, thinking you’re not going to check yourself into the hotel of the billion other also-rans?  All the other assholes who thought they had the Great American Novel between their ears?  Then when feet hit the fire they whimpered and scampered into the corner, tail between their legs, with nothing to their name but a once perceived potential.

     Even if I reached that seemingly unattainable title in the sky, what would it prove?  I go down in history as the Twain of Twenty-Ten; college’s studying my work, scholars debating my philosophies, high-school students being forced to read my books for their Lit classes all the while being tempted to throw it down for playing Halo 7?  What would that mean?

     My dreary gaze is turned outside my window, to another blank page.  This time black.  Much more haunting.  Millions have tried to fill it with meaning, some brilliant, basing their philosophies on scientific studies, empirical evidence and deep thought.  Others not so much, filling it like the unwilling mouth of an eight-year-old alter boy, with lies based on lies, and stories with no roots to reality, and willing to kill and torture by the billions for the preservation of it.  Some never dwell on the meaning of it for a fleeting second, seeing it just as the backdrop of the boring, cliché-ridden play of their lives.  However, one thread of similarity is sewn through them all; they all are just the content of the brains of creatures with no meaning.  As you pan farther and farther away from Earth, it’s hard not to dwell on how goddamn small we are.  How the monumental nature of the universe is completely unaffected, and keeps on churning in spite of all the things that seem so important to us ants. Friends moving away.  A cute girl dumping you for a pig-fucking neo-Nazi. The cat you had since childhood being run-over by your republican next-door neighbor.  Your friend’s and family’s deaths.  Your own. 

    
    I turn back to the blank page floating over my desk and smile.  The universe could collapse upon me like the hungry mouth of a great, cosmic lummox, and I wouldn’t care one tiny bit.  It could be the Paxil talking, but I know for sure I wouldn’t sprint to the page, to write something, anything for my legacy in the universe to be known.  In fact, I might give out one final chuckle at all of those Falwell’s and Reagan’s, who sold their souls for a legacy, a shiny golden pyramid scraping the heavens, built on the backs of the unfortunate.  Just so their memory can remain as a tiny skidmark on the boxer shorts of history.  Them and all the people worrying every second of the day about what people think never grasped the concept that none of that matters, and that there’s something more out there in the nebula somewhere.

   
  So yeah, the world’s going to end, and the nothingness of the page won’t matter in the long run, and sure that’s scary as shit, but for some reason it’s not terrifying me to tears as of now.  Maybe for  there’s comfort in how small and insignificant this page is in comparison to the Scheme.  Whatever.  All I know is that I’m not going to spend my insignificant existence letting a tiny feeling of fear stop me from the pursuit of everything behind that title in the sky, and keep myself just a little bit longer, from that 6X3 pit of never done anything.

 
* Of course she’s not the only person who saved me from high school, Mr. Yant, Ms. Reese, Ms. Santer, and Mr. Stotts deserve oodles of credit as well, and I wish were able to better express how much of an impact all of you had on me.  All that said, it’s undeniable how much Hasebrook was McGonagall* to me.

*I use this reference knowing full well how much more awesome Hasebrook is than McGonagall, and how much I need to write about Harry Potter here.  People who know me know I’ve got strong feelings on both- “Oh my god I love this.” and “Oh dear god this is the worst thing ever.” sides of the debate.  …But when (highlight for spoiler lovers) McGonagall protected Harry from Snape in Deathly Hallows pt. 2, I got teary eyed.  A lot of times the parenty love between a teacher and student is unspoken; sort of showed in gestures, approaches, and challenges, and not in words and communication as much as other relationships.  Sometimes, especially for someone like me who is severely unsure and sees glasses as half empty as I do, it’s hard to see.  But that moment reminded me of when it's clear as day, and almost made me forgive all the slights Harry Potter made before, like...  This one thing I can't mention because I'll go into a blind rage and destroy the focus of this post and make it all about Harry Potter.  Okay.  This certain magical object used at the end of one of the movies that is never addressed ever again and has the power to solve every single problem in the series and the use of it is so silly and stupid and...  Ugh.  I'll write about it a few weeks from now.  Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye.  Love to all of you.

A Letter to David Albo

Towards the beginning of this year, this happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRyRSlammXI


I wrote a letter to the fellow in the video.  His website says that all letters get a response.  I wouldn't be surprised that if there were one exception, that I'd be it.  Which is a shame.  I really would like a response. 

My dearest David Albo,

I wept a whole day for your pain.  I cried a tear for each of the uncomfortable throbs your little, blue balls made after they were denied their release of their grey globs of semen, into the dry cunt hole between the smelly legs of your beautiful wife, Rita.

I cannot believe that those sick, twisted lunatics making that anti-transvaginal ultrasound bill ad.  The audacity they must have.  They should fucking know better.    This was your time for you to fuck your wife.  Not their time to spout their baby-killing propaganda. 

No woman has a right to choose to kill a baby.  Even if she was raped.  If she made a mistake.  If she was misinformed about contraception by abstinence only education.  It is her place to sit with that ever-swelling reminder of her whoredom in her belly until she squeezes it out into the world to live and die by God’s Law.  If a woman dare attempt to stand against it, she should have to go through it again.  Have to feel something inserted in her again, and look at the gift from god she’s trying to kill for whatever stupid reason socialists put in her little head.  She won’t be able to parent it?  Provide for it?  Can barely provide for herself as is?  Just feed it cake.

Kids love cake.

She shouldn’t have to have the rest of her life be determined by one mistake, or a violent act inflicted upon her?  Well.  You couldn’t say we didn’t warn you in all of those classes we put you through that told you the only way to avoid the negative consequences of sex was to avoid it all together.  And essentially attempted to reprogram the intrinsic biological nature of all of you as human beings in order to conform you to the ideas of a religious belief.  Can’t say we didn’t warn you.

     The biggest laugh of this all is what they’re saying about your bill: “Government sanctioned rape.”  As if a doctor performing an unnecessary procedure penetrating a woman, who would not give her consent were it not the law and her future depended upon it.  How about government sanctioned kill that goddamned idea bitches have that keeps me from getting my rocks off?  The audacity of some people.  How could they live with themselves every day?  After washing their body in the shower from the filth cleaner than them, how could they wipe the steam off the mirror and stare into the face of such a shallow, selfish, pitiful excuse for a human being?

If only more men were like you.  This world would be a better place.  And women would know theirs. 

I’ll leave you with the immortal words of a man closer to God than I’ve even known:

“The minute the jizz hits that egg,

It’s a human being with rights. 

Until it pops out with a ‘gina.”

              

With love from your biggest fan,

                                    Maxwell Wilson

The term: "War on Women." is hyperbole.  It's a dramatic way of phrasing a current trend in politics that concerns the perceived attack on women's rights.  However.  I don't find the allusion unjustified in the slightest, especially in a country where concerns regarding the separation of church and state are classified as the "WAR ON CHRISTMAS," and one woman on the news who says something about how the wife of a politician hasn't been in the job market because she hasn't gets declared as "THE DEMOCRAT'S WAR ON MOMS."  If that's a war, then there isn't a word yet for what to put before "on Women."

Jason Steele is someone I hold in high regard.  He's most famous for the internet cartoon "Charlie the Unicorn", but he's also a really smart guy, and a damn talented debater.  He wrote this thing about the background of the "War on Women" that I know I couldn't do nearly as well:

"There are bills being presented and, in many cases, passed right now that attack women's rights.

One of the more controversial ones involved forcing women to get medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds before getting an abortion.

This is a transvaginal ultrasound:



Again, this is entirely unnecessary from a medical perspective, its purpose was to guilt or scare women out of getting an abortion by forcing them to be painfully vaginally penetrated before they were allowed to get the procedure.

Then there's the "Protect Life Act", which would allow hospitals to let a woman die instead of performing a medically necessary abortion.

In South Dakota, a bill has been presented that would allow people to murder doctors who perform abortions.

In Maryland, funding was dropped for low-income preschool programs. The justification given for this was that women should stay home with their children instead of having careers.

Also, various states and the federal government have ended or banned funding for Planned Parenthood, a women's health care organization that provides a variety of important health services, only 3% of which are abortion-related. There are a huge number of low-income women who rely on them for affordable health care, something they will no longer be able to get with these cuts.

There are a huuuuuuge number of other bills being submitted left and right at the moment, these are just some of the most talked about."
-Jason Steele
(http://www.filmcow.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=177597, May 7th, 2012)

I was raised and grew up around strong women.  My mother, who early in her career as a hairdresser was put into an illegal contract by her boss, took the prick to court, kicked the shit out of him, and started her own business, has been the primary breadwinner for my family as long as I've been alive.

Both of my grandmothers were single mothers and are proof that even in an era that is founded on ideals of the nuclear family, it's bullshit, establishes a false status quo of women being lesser than men, and women can do more than just clean the house, they can keep it afloat. 

Both of my sisters, two of my best friends in the world, are following in their footsteps in being strong, very individually driven fucking go-getters of the go-getteryest of persuasions.

I have absolutely no doubt in saying that they are way stronger than me in that respect, nor any fear for my masculinity in that admission.  It's just a fact.

So when this recent trend in American politics to attack women's rights started showing it's tiny dick, I got mad.  I hate this shit.  Women are so regularly fucked over by our society, that it seems like the fucking over of women fuels the damn spins of our planet.  Republicans looked at that seeming and assumed it fact, and assured that the Earth's spins wouldn't come to a screeching halt.  

Being among the voices in our society smacking these scared little boys down is seriously the least I could do.  I wish I had more money.  I wish I could donate a lot more to Planned Parenthood and candidates running against these embarrassingly un-endowed remnants of a darker time.  I don't especially care about money, though.  I wouldn't mind living on the bottom rung of the world so long as I'd be able to write.  I just wish I could do more to fight back.  Because this a fight worth fighting.  And I know if it were a fair fight with just my words vs. theirs, I could make it look like I were debating a bunch of four year olds with their heads cut off.

NEW PLAN

So. I have been slowly putting together a concrete weekly plan to follow in order to maximize shit getting done.  It's taken a while, but I think I've got it down to something I can make tweaks to here and there, but is mostly in its final form.  Here's the biggest one:


Every Wednesday there will be a new Journals Wilson post.  Hopefully.  The first half of the week (From Mon. to Wed.), part of my work schedule will be writing something to go on here, to ultimately be posted on Wednesday.  I always need something to write on the side to unwind with during a big project, but I've found that the way I've gone it hasn't been productive.  Usually what I do is have a book that's less ambitious, or at the least much less developed to the point where I'm at the easier, and more fun stages of development.  It ends up putting me in this cycle where the project I'm supposed to be putting the majority of my focus towards gets overshadowed, and then it becomes the side project, which then overshadows the original side project and rinse repeat, rinse repeat.  I've been wanting to do more stuff on here, so I thought regular postings on here would be a better project to be working on on the side, and push future projects to the future. 


Every week day I'll be working on getting a book done.  Right now, that will be Eating the Ram's Head and Fig Leaf, and will continue to be Eating the Ram's Head and Fig Leaf until there is a final draft being sent out for publication.  Upon that event, I'll be moving right on to getting another book done. 


After the weekly Journals Wilson post is done on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday time not devoted to the main project will be arranging my documents.  Probably doesn't sound like it needs its own time, but it totally does.  I always have at least one word document open on my computer that I type ideas, drabbles and at times almost complete essays whenever they find me, which they never fail to.  So my computer is filled with documents titled the date they were saved, filled with all this crap that needs to be put in their respective places according to what project they're for.  Seeing as that will be less warranting heavy time, I add to Friday's schedule filling a document with ideas for posts on here, so I never run out of anything to write about and lessening the chances of fucking up.


One of the things I've been wanting to do here for a while, is doing a take off Hey Rube!, which was this series of articles Hunter Thompson did up to his suicide.  Sometimes it'll be just me writing journals about something that happened to me recently with varying degrees of actual reality.  Sometimes it'll be something like me running into Pat Robertson at Roosters and talking to him about some crazy bullshit he did over buffalo shrimp.  Very Gonzo-y and fun.


I'm also planning on writing lots of essays, short stories, art, movies, putting up some stuff I have on the backlog, songs by my band (Maxwell Wilson and the Ego Poundcake Assembly), and plenty of other stuff to fill up the weeks.

So bookmark me, or keep an eye on my facebook. I'll be popping links on there every Wednesday like a person who pops links to their blog on their facebook every Wednesday.
 
I'll also be doing putting the links on twitter, so if you're into that sort of thing, here's my twitter:
https://twitter.com/MaxwellWilson
-But be wary for weirdness.

COME HERE

It's been a long time, blarg.
Time to catch your ass up.

As of this day, I have four-ninths of what is now Eating the Ram's Head and Fig Leaf finished.  I've fixed her up into a new beast with the old bones of the original, and it's something I can finish and can move on from to something new once it's polished and sent out.  Four-ninths of it is polished and ready to be sent out, few minor tweaks pending. 

After it is done, I have a four-part series that jumps off of the end of Ram's Head that I'm going to start to work on.  As of right now it's called Blackeye Trip.  Imagine it as what I would do were I in charge of a campy, low-budget Star Trek type show back in the day, and there weren't no TV censors.  It's a lot more character-based than anything I've done, so I'm excited about that.

Later down the line, maybe becoming first priority after the first of the four of the above is finished, there's the experimental, possibly two-parter Detective Antipathy.  I don't know how to prime that, but it's weird and there's a lot of stuff about irreality, murder, profiling and writing.

Things have been a lot less dank since my last holiday wishes, and the day for publishing deep, engaging, warped, cute little polished up books is soon upon us.  I'd like to be posting shit up here, like a take you all through my work day type thing, essays, letters, etc.  I have a backlog of essays and such, so I could just post them, but I don't want to make promises of weekly updates as I'm hoping to keep up my break-neck pace with getting Ram's Head done.

Let me know if you want to let me know something, or talk about something, or ask something, or something!