Fashion Trends

Don't you get tired of the same old shit? Eye know eye do. How long have we been seeing this same, tired old eyeball business? A decade? Two? That's about right. That's why trends change. People tire of the same old shit and they move on to something else. That's just how it works. But this shit is seemingly as fresh as ever. It makes absolutely no sense at all. Isn't it time to move on to something else? You'd think. Yet they all still do it. It's almost as if they have to. When I see images like this all I can think of is that they all look like a bunch of five-year-olds. This is just one image. There are many more. It's de rigueur.
 In the interest of doing proper research I went to the fashion source. It was some fashion guru whose name I forget, but since they have a column in the New Yorker I figured that'd be the way to go. According to whomever it was, the longest fashion trend in existence is "skinny jeans," at roughly a decade and counting. As far as trends go that's highly unusual. The article stated that most trends are passe within 1-3 years. That corresponds to what I've observed. Remember the "rat-tail" haircut? Everybody cut their hair short except for about 200 strands and braided it into a rat tail. Both sexes did it. I thought it made women look like men and men look like fairies but maybe that's just me. It was huge for a while but less than two years later no one would be caught dead with one. Out with the old...and don't even get me started on mullets.
 Then there was the trend I mentioned way back when. It was during the early 90s I think, but there have been so many trends I can't keep them all straight. This one was short-lived but for a year or so everybody rolled out clothing lines randomly festooned with gigantic dayglo numbers. Walking into a mall was like doing acid and watching Sesame Street (which I wouldn't recommend to most people). Huge glowing numerals would pop out at you from every store window. It always gave me a good laugh. I remember thinking at the time that anyone who bought that shit would feel like a complete idiot in a year or two, but buy it they did. Hey, it's fa-fa-fa-fashion. Just ask Bowie. Actually if I could find some of that stuff I'd wear it right now. It'd fit perfectly into my personal fashion style and ethic, which I call "Post-Dork." I'd never consider wearing something until it was way out of style, but that's another story, and I'm a weirdo.
 So here we are with all this eyeball shit, and it's well into its second decade without showing signs of slowing down. In fact it continues to grow. It simply isn't normal. As I've also mentioned, I showed a video to my friend Dave; showing a decade or so of awards ceremonies, Super Bowl halftime shows and such, and it showed show after show with all the eyeballs and pyramids and shit. He said it bothered him. Damn right it should bother him. Of course it was a bit of the "shoot the messenger" deal, and I think he was actually more upset with me showing him than the thing itself, with which he should've been upset, but it's understandable. That's how most people react. He told me I shouldn't "dwell" on these things, which I appreciate, but the truth is I could no more dwell on it than listen to a CD of fingernails on a chalkboard. Knowing about something and dwelling on it are two completely different things, and as hard as it is to learn about these things, I'd rather know. Knowledge is power. This is the world our kids are going to grow up in. If we're cool with it, it's on us.
 So when we see every single celeb doing the eyeball thing, should we simply view it as a trend, or something else? If it's just a trend, it should've been over with years ago. When they schedule a photo shoot, does the photographer go "Okay, now do the eyeball thing?" Apparently so. To me it looks like some sort of "secret handshake" thing; like they're all members of some exclusive club or something (hint, hint), but yet again, WTF do I know? I'm just an observer who happens to have a highly-trained set of observational skills. Yes, I'm stating my opinions here but I stand by them. Ask questions (while it's still legal). Do some homework. What does your gut tell you? What does your heart tell you? Is it just a fashion deal? Maybe so but I highly doubt it. Meanwhile here's looking at you. Have a nice day.

Quote of the Day

"There are no political solutions to spiritual problems." - Steve Quayle

Quote of the Day

"Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards third-world countries." - Henry Kissinger

Spidey Senses

I'm really glad I can still get some of my information about the world around me by experiencing it instead of getting it from a touchscreen. Why do any of your own thinking when it's already been done for you and you can just Google it, right, Dylan? I'm glad I can still trust my senses to tell me something, even if it flies in the face of convention. Night before last we went on a late walk. We left the house around 10:15 and it was positively balmy out. After a bit I was sweaty and hot. I thought maybe I'd suddenly come down with a fever or something but then Sally mentioned it too.
 After we'd been about eight blocks I checked the time and it was 11 straight-up. I was sweating and chugging along. I know that it wasn't just the heat but the stupidity, as the old joke goes, but it was oppressive for October. I always enjoy our walks but I was really glad to get back to the A/C. As we were walking in I remarked that this was the hottest and muggiest October 10th at 11pm that I'd ever seen. I played drums for a few hours and the humidity and heat had permeated the house. I was sweating like I was playing a gig, and that's never happened before. Sure I sweat after playing for hours, but not with it pouring into my ears and blinding me and totally soaking a bandanna. The A/C thermometer was showing 76 degrees. It felt like 96.
 I turned on TWC to see if the fires in California had gotten any closer to my friends out there. I did finally hear from George from California and they're fine, but I haven't heard from everyone yet. My gut tells me they're okay so far. There was a woman in a blue dress saying that the data had just come in, and that this night had just broken all records for nighttime highs all across the Southeast. They showed a map with red blobs indicating where it had happened and we were right smack in the middle of one of them. Yes! My spidey senses are intact. I'd heard that we were going to get higher-than-normal temps across much of the central and southeast states, but that happens almost every year, and they didn't say anything about nighttime temps. Nailed it. Yep, I like to keep that shit sharp. Heads-up.

Quote of the Day

"A lot of crimes have been solved only by people who dared to think outside the box." - Carl Gallups, former police officer and investigator

Hell on Earth

Wow, what's this? It looks like a scene from some apocalyptic war movie but this photo was taken just a few hours ago in California. Some of my best friends on the planet live there and they've been on my mind. I woke up about 6 and turned on TWC to see if there was a report on it and there it was. There was live footage going on. It was still dark there and the flames were vivid. Last night around midnight their time residents had to grab the kids and the dogs and split no questions asked.
 They showed someone in a 4WD and it was on fire. All along the back above the tailgate window it was burning. I couldn't tell if it was a ragtop and that was burning or if it was the vinyl underneath a hardtop but either way it was rough. Ordinarily if your car catches fire you pull over and hop out but with the fire closing in they didn't have that luxury. Can you imagine? All they could do was turn on the flashers and drive slowly forward and hope their vehicle didn't completely go up in flames. I'm going to text my buds in a minute. I hate to see this. I've looked out over those same hills and been amazed by the beauty. I saw a wildfire when I was out there too, but it looked like a few embers from a backyard barbecue compared to this one. Wildfires are a part of life out there, but not many are like this.
 As of last night this fire, which is centered in the Napa region, is so big that they've dubbed it the "Atlas Fire." I had to blink and rub my eyes when I saw that on the screen because I thought I was seeing it wrong, but there it was in the corner of the screen...Atlas Fire. Holy cow. We're naming fires now. It's not the "Cottonwood Creek" fire or whatever...it's so big it needs a proper name. Waking up to that nightmarish scene wasn't the best way to start the day but I was worried about my people. You could see layers of fire as the trees on top of all the ridges were bursting into flames. It reminded me of some of those paintings of Hell by the old masters. Just then the announcer said: "This looks like...well...'Hell on Earth.'" Yes, it does. Hell on Earth is not a good thing. God help us. Stay safe.

Turgor Pressure

Sally and I were talking about plants, and I just gave her the fascinating story on turgor pressure. Although...ha ha ha...it just hit me that I've given her many, many lessons in turgor pressure over the years, ha ha. We've all seen time-lapse videos of plants growing and moving and reaching toward the Sun and everything. Turgor pressure is responsible for that. Without searching it I'd describe it as the transfer of water through a cell membrane. It sounds pretty boring maybe but it gets better. I explained it from scratch, so I may not be 100% correct. And no, I am not a real scientist.
 Basically it's the process of taking in or expelling water through the cell wall. We tend to think of cells as little tiny squishy balls and mostly that's the case, but they can take on water and seal it in like a balloon. For a time they become pressurized and behave more like bricks than squishy balls. Those bricks become the foundation and allow movement and all the other processes to occur.
 Say a vine senses a branch above that it can climb but there's six feet of clear space in between. It's no problem for turgor pressure. When I see those time-lapse things of a vine magically climbing into thin air it reminds me of those "floppy people" you see at store openings and car dealerships. It's a fabric tube with arms and a face. A fan blows air from the bottom which forces it upward. The pressure stiffens the tube and makes it behave more like a solid pipe. You could think of turgor pressure like that I suppose. It could also be thought of as being similar to the "wave" at sports events, where people stand and raise and lower their arms in succession; giving the illusion of a ripple going through the crowd. It could be compared to one of those party favors that unroll and stick out straight and make a funny noise when you blow into it.
 When I think of it in terms of the vine climbing in air I think about a giant skyscraper going up. They have a massive crane in the middle, and it makes its own foundation as it climbs. It builds a solid floor above itself and then hoists itself up onto that and then uses it to push upward. Bill Nye could explain it far better I'm sure. It starts at the bottom of the stem. The stem cells take on water and become the foundation bricks, and it continues upward. Water is forced upward and since it can't be compressed it pushes the stem up. As in the "wave" the cells first absorb water to become a foundation and then release it into the cells above; turning them into bricks while they go back to being squishy balls.
 Speaking of, it may have occurred to you by now that it's similar to the way a man gets an erection. You hear about the blood vessels relaxing and all, which is true, but it's all a pressure deal. Boner pills work by relaxing blood vessels, as I understand it. It lets more blood flow in, and I also believe that it allows the cells to grow more easily with less pressure; like how champagne bubbles start to form when the cork is popped, but not before. The liquid is sealed under pressure which keeps the CO2 in solution, but then when it's opened and the pressure drops, bubbles form just like balloons being blown up. Isn't that interesting? All men have something in common with, say, a passionflower vine. Some things just naturally want to go up.
 There's my science lesson for the day. I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned something in the process. In case you've never heard, the ways of Nature are infinite and wondrous. When it comes to pressure, turgor is up there with anything. Isn't it funny...basically the same force that can send a vine climbing into thin air without anything to hang onto can also turn a man's unit from a Vienna sausage into a heat-seeking missile, and ten times its original size. Everything is connected. Keep climbing.

CC is Very Passionate about Ice Cream

Clearly, Yankees' ace CC Sabathia loves his ice cream, and pretty much everyone in the stadium now knows what his favorite flavor is. On the way back to the dugout, after allowing the Cleveland Indians to come back from a two-zip deficit and take a one-run lead in the bottom of the second inning, he was asked what his favorite flavor of ice cream is. As you can see, it's "FUDGE!"

Quote of the Day

"We're products of an entertainment industry and culture that rewards intellectual conformity, and denigrates curiosity and contrarian thinking." - Paul Joseph Watson

Quote of the Day

"I can tolerate a difference of opinion. What I can't tolerate is some asshole telling me I'm wrong without offering any proof." - Mandy Bombard