Practical Magic

   

   

   

   

   

  

Racism: It's Everywhere You Look (If You Dare 2 Look)

You've got to have eyes to "see"

Poor white people: if there's a disaster, TMR regains it's footing:

These are messages baked into practically every iteration of popular culture (and politics) in the United States—from "Friends" to "The Sopranos," from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama. They’re baked in because we’re a fundamentally racist and sexist country with persistently racist and sexist attitudes.

Quick, white people - create more of your "comforting" visions:

I need all the "help" I can get,...

I Know More Than Anyone I Know (Without Knowing It)

"Behold: The Only Thing Greater Than Yourself!"

Another point I've been making - almost since I started the blog - from The Soprano's David Chase:

"Art is the closest an atheist can get to praying." 

And thank God for that: 

I've been called the atheist John The Baptist.

And I sure hate wasting my time,...

 

It's About Time: America's "Mr. Choke Hold" Has A Face

Only police would find the required intelligence law enforcement requires reflected in that face

Daniel Pantaleo looks like one of those wannabe Soprano jack-offs, looking for trouble, until he found it. Now he's killed a man. Eric Garner. Allegedly over bootleg cigarettes. 

 Yeah - that was worth it.

Then again, if you read slave narratives, whites have gotten used to killing blacks - for a long, long time - and over a whole lot less.

TMR loves slave narratives:

There's simply no way to understand America without them,…

A Tribe Called Red: When The Powwow Meets Hip-Hop

"Sopranos Azteca"

 

Literary

This has definitely been J.D. Salinger's America:

“Increasingly incoherent fictions clogged with a smorgasbord of half-digested chunks of Eastern mysticism.”

That anyone would tolerate that - except when watching The Sopranos - is mind-blowing,...

 

This IS A Man's World (But It Wouldn't Mean Nothing,...)

"Awww, geez, will you look at this!" (Wow - I'm sure that's the absolute best Archie Bunker impression you're ever going to get from a black guy - and, as far as I'm concerned, worth the effort of clicking over all by itself. Now get out of here, before you read further and get disappointed,...) That wasn't the sound of  me discovering a new cult movie on the way (with public support!) but of my heart crumbling when I read this  - and before I almost ran into the street, naked and hysterical, in total despair over the injustice of it all:

“More than a THIRD of women worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives.”

That's a headline. A startling headline. Drove me nuts. Thanks a lot, Daily Mail! 

I started hyperventilating, and yelling "Oh My God! Oh My God! Oh My God!" over and over again, before deciding, right then and there, I've got to do something.

Then, I don't know why, I flashed my life - and what a man's life is like generally - and I started to laugh out loud, like a crazy person, as I realized the media had almost suckered me again.

I used to have a friend who said feminists got beat up because "they don't listen!" That's, mostly, the same reason men do. Somebody's being unreasonable and - bullheadedness being a dare - forced somebody's hand. Right and wrong ("Where's my fucking money?") not weak or strong, bigger or smaller, or whatever other self-serving nonsense feminists try to get us to focus on (somebody's always bigger, idiots, that's why you hone your skills,...). If women can box, wrestle, fight wars, be ruthless CEOs - or ride a fucking croc - women can get their asses kicked without it being a major fucking media story.

It's too bad The Daily Mail (or any other publication) never includes stats on how many of those violence-seekers were in the wrong and responsible for their situation. That would definitely shift the needle on how much sympathy they get. 

And how desirable they've become.

When feminism is complete, and men view women the same way they see weasely/shifty little untrustworthy guys - used car salesmen, drinking too much, and spouting manipulative bullshit - THAT's when women will finally be on an equal footing with men.

But (and this is where your disappointment kicks in) women's equality, too, will be men's doing - for having gained the proper post-feminist perspective for conflict:

 "Are you really going to let that asshole fuck with you?"

Once The Chase Was A Search: Tony Was Dead Already

Imagine you're a god. 

A lot of people do these days.

Self-styled "spiritual" people. 

Unable to shake a fetish for Jesus, they're the human version, not asking "WWJD?" but - in the NewAge - assuming they're already doing what Jesus does.

As a god, they see their every move - their own actions - as inherently good and creative. They think they're clever. Or you do. You're a god.

So you create this guy to fuck with. To make a spectacle of. A guy who doesn't get it, right?

Religious guy in hospital: "There was a time when humans and dinosaurs coexisted peacefully in the world" 

Tony: "What, like in The Flintstones?"

You give him every opportunity for "positive" change - you put him in therapy with a feminist, and even have a fucking Buddhist monk slap him and scream, "Lose your arrogance!" (The Buddhist doesn't have to lose his - expressed in violence - even though your "anti-hero" is, literally, twice everybody else's size) and all the big lug does is stand there, looking stupid, wondering how to avoid getting caught once he crushes you and anything else you put in his way.

 

The Sopranos In Seven Minutes - Watch More Funny Videos 

 The rest of your creations rejoiced - when it comes to creating shit, they'd never seen a more real creation in their lives.

 But you look at the rest of your creations with disgust and shake your head, tsk, tsk, tsking, and most of them shake their heads, too.

They were mistaken.

   

 They weren't supposed to like this "man". Look at what you made him do. He was awful, because his dad was awful, and his dad was awful, too, because,...they were stupid and trying to survive, and maybe be somebody, but they definitely weren't trying to be gods.

Women, and little manipulative men in robes, showed us the way.

But, as I said, not everybody buys it.

See, you're a pretty flawed god yourself - and that's always been on show, too.

Your "Everyman" knew it - and every other man does, too.

The only true revelations here - which you show, yourself, by torturing your creation and his friends for public consumption - are: 

A) you let him live at all (you had his own mother try and kill him) and 

B) your "solutions" don't work.

Tony to Dr. Melfi: "The truth is this therapy is a jerk off. You know it, and I know it."

The truth is Jesus was a poor role model who wouldn't have lasted a day in this world.

Jesus lived to 33 - Tony lived to 47.

And, as a god, you apparently let J.C. die at a mob's hands, too.

There's something about how that phenomenon keeps popping up in "spiritual" circles.

Meanwhile, Tony's the bad guy, ostensibly for seeing through it.

To those of us who didn't buy that conceit (or that you're a god, or is anyone who thinks like you) and death is little shock - but the natural order of things - we applaud you.

You were able to shock yourself (and the sheltered rubes) while providing the rest of us with quality entertainment.

But watching a grown man - you - metaphorically crawling on his belly for six seasons, under the guise of teaching us a NewAge lesson, about masculinity missing The Big Picture?

Please. 

   

 All the people who escaped you unscathed were killers - the biggest being Paulie Walnuts. I repeat: 

 Paulie Walnuts.

   

 All the women - the NewAge sister, Catholic wife, environmentalist/lawyer daughter, etc. - and those who took after them paid a price for what they thought, including Dr. Melfi.

Tony was "just a man".

YOU were supposed to be a god.

You know as well as I do, your whole thesis fell apart with one question, and you wrote it:

"Every day is a gift. It's just, does it have to be a pair of socks?"

The answer is "yes" - until the gods come to their senses,...

Being Good Means Something (But You Gotta Be Good)

A Black Day At The Beach (No Passing The Sun Screen!)

Since it's pretty obvious Teen America (as opposed to Team America) is now procrastinating by lurching, zombie-like, through this low-boil firearms hysteria (there's always gotta be something) I won't bother anyone with what I've been doing lately - except to mention looking into Alabama 3, the crew who penned the immortal words "You Woke Up This Morning And Got Yourself A Gun" AKA The Soprano's much-loved theme song.

See I, too, like brains - and aim to keep mine, thanks.

Nope, all I want noticed is how far afield this English band is in other, more substantive, TMR-like ways than simply acknowledging the West's long-standing proclivity for flying lead. Namely, when it comes to dealing directly with Teen America's issues of belief, A3 also seems more than capable enough - curiously, I might add - though they still can't rap for shit.

(All the atheists in the house say, "Amen, well I'll be damned" - no, really, we will be. I'm positive. Don't worry about it. They got all this stuff wrong. It's like a pin-prick at best. Think of it like this: Getting your flu shot/Getting Damned - same thing.)

Seriously, I didn't even have to ask, beg, plead, show a little leg, please, God, or Oprah - whichever comes first in the phone book - would it be possible for A3 to add just a smidgen of Jim Jones into the mix? Please, please, oh pretty please, just for me? A little cult hectoring from The People's Temple leader himself and - I swear, you know I do - like global warming, Walking For A Cure to ________, and We Are All One But Obama Is "The One" theology, I'll believe in you, forever and ever!

       Nope, there was none of that, all I did was think "this would be nice" and the rest was magick:

That, my friends, is what I call being metaphysically Cool-y School-y w/The Universe!

I am obviously a great and powerful MahaCracki now and - since I know it's about people - I aim to stay out of the "gun" debate. I have clearly gained too much cult mental power to be contained by mere debate. It's like, wow, awesome. I just think of stuff and it happens. Just like that. A3? Too easy. A test case that was just too easy. Now I think, what if I wanted to start a fire - with my mind? Or what about this:

The entire planet becoming dedicated to the sentiments of Hallmark cards - through song!

  Man, Brian Wilson and I could be pals right now, but probably shouldn't be. Fucking hippie.

I'd wear a helmet but the world's an ugly enough place as it is,...