Holiday Reprint-O-Rama: "Indian Foothills"

Indian Foothills

With what god-given
mindless scripture pounding
expressionless fire
did puritan maidens
wish the forest?

On which satanic
rough-hewn merciless
icicle of a blue night
could humorless women
childbirth dread?

(July  1995)

Oy,  It's getting to feel a lot like Christmas-
(especially the ads, decorations, promotions. . . .)

Happy Thanksgiving and other seasonal madness!

Yup, I Still Do Not Care for "Skype-ing. . ."

Skype is weird. This merits repeating.

This week's blog is part reprint of an earlier complaint, part continuing rant against virtual "face time" and part frustration because I did not have a new and fascinating post ready in time this week, having spent days fixing computer glitches, setting up a new machine, and thus the slightly re-edited skype post. But the idea is still relevant, more than ever!

In addition, the very word "skype" has become the same kind of word that "fridge" once served as, way back when during the heyday of Frigidaire products when  refrigerators first replaced ice boxes. I mean, does anyone still even use "Skype" or has google taken over that world too? Should we call it "Googlype??"

Yes, Skype is still weird, small or capitalized, in color or black and white and of course Google Hangout is not much better. Let’s face it- you’re not really hanging out. . . .

Two dimensional encounters devoid of real, human contact amid a screen of wavy lines, where the distraction of myriad pixels interferes with the actual talking and being- the human sharing connection- is weird; and this is to say nothing of frozen frames inter-dispersed with moving portraits held hostage to flat, staccato, marionette style images and movements that do not create an environment of intimacy or communication, meaningful or otherwise. 

Occasionally and inexplicably the sound goes out too and we have to resort to screens and phones simultaneously, like something from an old Flash Gordon movie.

Oh yes, you can display things and objects, like haircuts, toys, pets and funny faces as well as living arrangements- kind of like show and tell- but it really doesn’t fly, does it? Group video fests are even more chaotic and incomprehensible, with everyone screaming at each other and the screen simultaneously.

Virtual in actuality means “almost” or “not quite.” The brave new world may long have been both with and upon us, but the “picture phones” of early sci-fi dreams from days of yore (when people still used the entire name "Frigidaire" to signify an electrically powered ice box) now function strangely in the age of the internet; they appear, even now, as primitive, almost stone age devices. I picture earthlings of decades and centuries hence looking at the old footage and roaring.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: skype is weird.

Stay tuned for a more ebullient, fascinating, possibly humorous but always intriguing  post next time.