Category: articles
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No, I won’t Google it. I’m asking you.
For the record, I’m not directing this post at you, Levi. See, Levi’s one of the cast members in this top-secret film shoot that 9art photography & I are producing. Poor guy drew the short straw and had to wake before dawn with me to do a sunrise shoot. As bribery, I offered to make…
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Manly VS. Manful
Manliness is an aesthetic. Manfulness is the beauty and truth behind that aesthetic. Manliness, as an aesthetic, can be used for good or bad. It could be a true aesthetic or a false aesthetic. Manfulness, however, is always a form for men to aspire towards. Manliness seeks to robe men in the garb, accents, and…
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New Film Shoot and Explanation of }{ Symbol
Two quick things: I have begun production on a new film shoot with the fabulous Mark Neuenschwander of 9artphoto. We will turn it into a novella of words and pictures, first on a new blog and then (hopefully) on some sort of mixed-media iPad app. I took the left picture on set and the right…
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Terms of War: Colonist
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote from the Colonist: “They… have brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawk’s bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…. They do not bear arms and do not know them, for…
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Terms of War: Crusader / Jihadist
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote from instigators of Holy War: “Our Prophet ordered us to Fight you till you worship Allah alone or pay us the Jizyah tribute tax in submission. Our Prophet has informed us that our Lord says: ‘Whoever amongst us is killed as a syahid shall go…
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Terms of War: Just War
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote or from adherents to Just War: “There has never been a just [war], never an honorable one–on the part of the instigator of the war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change in so many as half a dozen…
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Terms of War: Pacifist
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote from a Pacifist: “First, it must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly nonviolent…. A second…
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Terms of War: Neutral Party / Passive Observer
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote(s) from a Neutral party: “You’re evil, you know that?” I said. She grinned and shook her head. “Chaotic Neutral, sugar.” ― Ernest Cline, Ready Player One (on Amazon) “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they…
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Terms of War: Victim of Holy War
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote or from those killed in Holy War: “One of history’s most dangerous games begins with dividing the world into the good guys and the bad guys and ends with using any means necessary to take the villains out.” ― Stephen R. Prothero Etymology of “victim:”…
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Terms of War: Victim of Colonialism
Make sure you know the rules of engagement before reading on… Anecdote from the Colonized: “The height, sometimes, between decks, was only eighteen inches; so that the unfortunate human beings could not turn around, or even on their sides, the elevation being less that the breadth of their shoulders; and here they are usually chained…
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Terms of War: The Rules of Our Upcoming Engagement
As an amateur linguist, etymologist, and philologist, I care about the origins and meanings of words. Some say, “every word was once a poem,” and that’s a piece of how I feel, but mostly I care about words because I believe them to be living things, organisms tethered to the very life of humanity. No…
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Sitting at the feet of : a Group Travel Millionaire
Mike Zirbel went to work for a little family theme park down in the Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri called Silver Dollar City. It was 1974, the same year People magazine printed their first issue with Mia Farrow on the front cover. Silver Dollar City assigned Mike the Group Travel sector as a minor portion…