Questions

"All questions are female. All answers are male. If you're wondering why this might be the case, you are thinking with your feminine sensibilities. If you're considering why this is the case, you are thinking with your masculine senses. Questions are creative, intimidating, and periodically irritating. We may think them docile, we may try to ignore or suppress them, but their destabilizing power persists, pushing us towards our proper destiny. Answers are protective, giving us some ground, however shaky, on which to stand. Answers are cool, logical, but they can also become stubborn know-it-alls, resisting the emergence of new questions and answers and deteriorating into conservative old farts. Truth is a precarious balance between poignancy and peace. Truth lies within the perpetual prance of Yin and Yang." – Tony Vigorito, Just a Couple of Days

It's not always the wrong answer, but the wrong question.

Certain sects of religions, including the one I was raised in, teach you to be afraid of asking questions. They teach you that questioning the origins of things is a lack of faith. Which is completely ludicrous. An inquiring mind should be applauded. I was once asked, "If you don't go to church, what do you believe? Why are you here?" My response was, "Why do I have to believe anything? Maybe my purpose is my existence." Some people don't even know what they actually believe because they never asked questions. Which is a shame because humans are notorious for fucking things up. After centuries of their hands dabbling into interpreting and re-interpreting what they interpreted, edits and re-writes of certain 'sacred' texts… I think it's moronic not to question…I also believe it's okay to not have all the answers. Some things are meant to be wondered about, researched, theorized…Questions really CAN be irritating, especially when the answer to one question only leads to another question.

Why are we afraid to question?

I've always wondered if people ask themselves the right questions…the internal questions that serve as filters for our minds and mouths. The ones that make us think before we speak or DO. Because maybe asking ourselves the right questions will lead to truths about ourselves we really don't want to be made aware of. Certain truths about ourselves can always be changed…most adjectives we use to describe ourselves and others could change at anytime, if we ask the right questions. But most people don't because they are too lazy to do anything about changing or are too weak to face the truth.

Sometimes, we take a different wrong turn: asking questions of self that we need to ask of someone else. When I dread hearing an answer that I have no control over, I tend to overanalyze. Why did she say this? Why did he do that? When the real answer doesn't exist in me, but in someone else. I know this is mostly because of fear of a response I don't want to deal with or an answer I may not want hear, but some questions are necessary. It's better to be afraid than to regret not hearing something you may have learned from.

If you don't ask the right question, you may never get the right answer.

Pillow Fight by C.Crutchfield

I didn't know it was "National Pillow Fight Day" last week! My name as world destroyer would have been echoed from one end of L.A to the other!! Props to my boy Chris Crutchfield for the video production!

Pillows (Good Feeling) from Chris Crutchfield on Vimeo.

Oh My F#%king God, there is a video named "OMG"?!!!

Now I was really never an Usher fan. As a matter of fact, I haven't had one of his records since he was Usher Raymond. But the video that you are about to watch explains two things. 1. People will do anything to cling on to their own "relevant" and self created existences. Creativity isn't what matters any longer. Not to mention, he's just about out of it. 2. Usher, your career is juuuuuust about over. As a matter of fact, its spiraling down through the atmosphere and burning up like the asteroid Apophis. Unfortunately he's burning everything up around him too, because after watching this video, I don't want to create carbon dioxide just by breathing! Ahh the life out here in oblivion.

mS

smh

hahaha!

Little Dragon Comes to Charlotte (Milestone) 3/21

Caught a piece of the Little Dragon Tour last night at the Milestone in West Charlotte. Truly an impressive show. This was some of "indi-music" at its finest. In a dark, marker/graffiti laden venue, with people smoking ciggs even though they banned it in all indoor restaurants and night clubs in the city a few months back. We also had the ESTEEMED pleasure of hearing an artist unfamiliar to Oblivion ears. Introducing VV Brown ladies and gents. She threw down something fierce while opening up for LD. Check the voice!

mS



VV Brown




Little Dragon

Who's Bad?!

I've been reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire little by little over the past few weeks, mainly because I want to have the book read before I go see the play. And also because I have always been interested in hearing the other side of things... how did the Wicked Witch of the West get to be so wicked? What was up with those glittery shoes? Where did the flying monkeys come from? I'm only about a third of the way through so I really don't have many answers yet. But one thing that intrigues me and always has is the idea that maybe the bad guy really isn't so bad... or what really is evil? Sometimes, it's hard to tell. I think in some cases, it's all about perspective. Know your backstory.

I sympathize with Elphaba aka The Wicked Witch because in the past, I've been painted as the bad guy in a situation or two. Nothing serious. Teenage shenanigans mostly. Everything was eventually cleared up, but at the time I was a little astounded at the position I found myself in. Someone said this and someone said that and... somehow, I was left holding the bag... and I didn't know what was in the bag or what the bag even was. When I was 19, my roommate at the time told several people (all mutual friends or associates) that I stole her cell phone. I had no idea she was telling people this... to this day, I have no idea how she came up with this story or WHY (her cell phone was stolen by a waiter at a restaurant... and she knew it). All I knew was that people started acting strangely around me. They'd speak, but wouldn't hang around for long. I noticed it, said hmmmm and filed it away. Eventually, people realized something wasn't right and a few of them told me what was going on. I was astonshed, as the whole thing was just… stupid. From a common sense standpoint, where would I use a cell phone that I stole from a person whom I LIVED WITH in a small apartment? Who would I give the number to? We had the same friends. When I confronted her, she told me my friends who came to me were liars and that she knew the waiter stole the phone. Luckily for me, she totaled her car a couple of months later and had to move back home. She was physically fine (I'm not that mean) - only the car got hurt.

My point is, what if she had come up with a more believable story or had people who were more gullible to tell her tale to? Some of the people she talked to did believe her, at least for a few days. If this was a once upon a time situation, would I have been the Evil Cell-Phone Stealing Roommate? I'm sure I would have been illustrated wearing all black with teeth missing and warty skin… bleh. I had a friend run into her a couple of years ago and she was STILL saying I had stolen the phone! So if she was the one to write the story instead of me... how easily it shifts. In her mind, twisted as it may be, I'm definitely the bad guy. I've also been a witness to similar situations with friends, one fairly recently when someone accused a friend of mine of harming them physically. If the one telling the tale had been talking to less intelligent folks... who knows how it could have turned out? And that's pretty scary because... who knows how often this may have happened in history?

I took away two things, one of which being: to this day, I'm kind of suspicious of people who say… odd or off-putting things to me. I've been involved in enough situations by now with people who I felt kind of weird about, but assured myself that they were cool… only to realize I should have gone with my gut. My ex-roomie was one of those people. She said a few things prior to that incident, nothing that would have enabled me to foresee what ended up happening, but maybe that I should have paid a little more attention to. I pay more attention now… it may not result in a cut-off, but I might limit my association or watch carefully. Sometimes, it's good to be wary. 

The other: the bad guy you see isn't always the bad guy that IS. Sadly, in some cases, women are the best at painting the picture we want people to see… we are usually able to tap into emotions (real or fake) more easily, thereby bringing forth tears more easily, thereby going into hysterics more easily… thereby fully appearing "wronged." Just because someone is crying doesn't mean they are right. I've seen plenty of people victimized by "the cryer." Myself included. And sometimes the bad guy is dressed up to look like the good guy, smooth-talking, explanation for EVERYTHING. Watch out for them, too. And of course, as with most things, sometimes the bad guy really IS the bad guy. But there are always exceptions… be aware…



Mmmmmhmmmm....