A few years ago I used to opine that those faux-daredevil shows like “Fear Factor” were only interesting to see the gross (but undangerous) things people would do for small amounts of cash - and I joked that they’d only really be good when the people were actually in danger. Sure, it’s sickly fun to watch a cute 19 year old girl in a cutoff t-shirt struggle to eat a dozen plump, fresh bull testicles - but hardly is there any real risk involved. Those shows need real stakes, I thought.
However, having been exposed to FOX’s “Moment of Truth” show tonight, I see that we’re there, and in a much more tragic way than I had imagined. Read the rest of this entry »
Some folks at the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office have a very different view of the law than I do, and this “accidental interview” should demonstrate those differences rather clearly. We’ve all heard the myths about Texas lawmen and their, errr.. improvisational legislative interpretations. I’m sure one Lieutenant Phillip Dreyer doesn’t take much shame in this myth - in fact, he seems to be doing his best to live up to that stereotype. But I’m getting ahead of myself, kids … first, despite several weeks passing since the incident, my notes were taken that evening. So, I believe the below to be a very accurate and fair encapsulation.
On the night of Feburary 5, 2007, while walking around San Antonio to get some night shots, I noted the rather cool way one of the canals was being lit on East Nueva Street, so decided to take some pictures of it. Read the rest of this entry »
For someone who doesn’t believe in God, I think about God a lot.
Exploring Texas, where megachurches are more common than oil wells (and probably more profitable), lately it’s made my mind itch a little more than usual. I was raised a Pentecostal Christian, and these places remind me of the intellectual darkness I experienced inside the stifling walls of organized religion. That a hundred million of my fellow Americans believe these buildings are their best gateway to the Ultimate is heartbreaking indeed. Read the rest of this entry »
First of all, this train scene is bullshit. The compartments are evenly divided among smoking and non-smoking, which I think is unfair. One could be forgiven for thinking that all Europeans smoke, because there seems to be smoking just about everywhere. I saw folks smoking in a sushi restaurant in Amsterdam and remember thinking, how can you taste the sushi?
Anyway, I choose a smoking compartment because the non-smoking compartments are stuffed full, and I’m hoping to spread out and get some writing done. I am listening to my iPod as I settle in. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night, i decided I would take a train to Budapest in the morning. The plan was to get up early and check the train schedules online. My hotel was one of the very few who offered free Internet access in my hotel room, a nice luxury. But of course when i awoke, the Internet access was down. Oh well, I’ll give it a little time… took a shower, went downstairs for breakfast, and returned to my room to prepare for check-out. Tried the ‘net again, no deal. Read the rest of this entry »
After some inner debate, I decided to take a day trip from Vienna into Bratislava, Slovakia. It would be my first time behind the old “iron curtain,” and I was excited. I took a mid-day train out of Vienna and as we went along I decided to try to snap a few photos out the train window. It’s basically impossible to shoot a decent photograph through a train window because of the interior reflections, but this train had upper windows that slid down. Since there was no one near me who would be bothered by it, I slid the window down and began gawking out and snapped a couple of shots. Read the rest of this entry »
After agonizing whether to head south to Milan or east to Vienna, I decided to head east. I took the ICE (inter-city express; a high-speed train) from Amsterdam to Duisburg, then connected from Duisburg to an overnight train for Vienna. I was dreading it but wanted the experience. Read the rest of this entry »
She, who had somehow trained her girls to run, on cobblestone, in heels, and look great doing so. She, who brought a type of Scandic modernness together with a thousand years of history and made it look like it belonged together. She who, despite being a bit rough with me, had finally whispered - no, sung - into my ear what I’d been aching to hear: that I could stay as long as I wanted. But, she and I had to say good-bye.
It was a summer-vacation kind of love; you know, the love under whose light anything seems possible - infinity visible again in the everyday - even swirling around right there in your coffee cup. The kind that can take all the dreams that long ago rusted away under the rain of your own mediocrity and make them shine again. Or - was that just me, more awake?
And likewise, it was an end-of-summer-vacation good-bye; just like that girl who hugged me before she got into her parents’ station wagon to head home for school, I told her we’d see each other again soon. We’d stay in touch - somehow be together again, I said - and then felt the heartache as she faded off into a darkening sky. But later would come new friends, new adventures, and so on - and before you know it, that rain kicks in and you start to forget…
I woke up in my Brussels room five minutes before the alarm went off, with a nasty feeling of head congestion that felt like I could barely breathe. As I got up and about it dissipated, and I hope the blame can be laid on the air in the room rather than some developing malady.
Since I want to be in Amsterdam for the Hallowe’en weekend, I decided to head up there today via the intercity train from Brussels. Today Brussels was rather gray, with a light morning coat of rain. Rather than getting lost by taking the wrong tram, which I did my first night here, I was very proud of myself for catching the proper tram and making it right into Brussels Midi station without a hitch.
Then I stepped into the train station ticket area and within a couple of minutes spoke with an agent who stamped my ticket and told me where I should board … in ten minutes. Ten minutes? What? No lines, no waiting? No pointless security checks? For this American that was pleasant news. Off to platform 20 I went… Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve long advocated for the rational exploration of the psychological and spiritual benefits of psychedelics. I believe, as do many, that they have therapeutic potential unlike anything found in pharmacology today. Luckily, the medical research is catching up with us.
The medical journal Psychopharmacology has just published the results of a study at Johns Hopkins that explored the impact of psilocybin on a group of healthy, normal middle-aged adults, and there seems to be little room for interpretation. I am ecstatic that rational scientific inquiry is backing up what many have known for eons - that these are powerful chemicals that offer access to the subconscious and the Divine. Read the rest of this entry »