I’m sitting in the Campus Center at IUPUI. It’s past lunch time, and there is a quiet and polite murmer of feet to and from classes, hushed conversations packed tightly in comfortable lighting, young people projecting a multitude of selves.None of them are yet fully formed, and they carry the arrogance that comes with the territory of being a person who knows nothing more than “I am I.” I’m in the corner, next to an outlet, typing and hoping that the act of writing will kick start a paper. Writing for no reason, until I can write for recognition, until my thoughts are applicable, and thus worth a shit. Continue reading »
Afterblog
the writings, rantings, and scribblings of Tony Marshall
9/9/2009
you spoke as either an
intrepid leveler or paradigm of staircases spiraling.
and in rapt silence we sat
sycophants and scratching pens.
a fly in the gallery unnoticed, as in towering arks,
it buzzed from head to bald oily head.
gray ghosts in the halls of power.
grinning faces stretched thin.
the center of America
Personal Introduction For Intro To American Politics
My viewpoint during my teenage years and early twenties was wrapped up quite nicely over a century before I was born. The words belong to Anatole France. “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
School snuck up on me. I didn’t want to go for a few years, but then I was terrified when I felt my mind stop working. Continue reading »
untitled
Time: a relative measure of the scope of universal causality,
and then
and then
and
then.
The Metaphysics Of Art Part 1
The Mind As Composition Of Sentient Energies
If the findings of quantum mechanics are to be believed, then all substance is composed of energy signatures. There are only categorical differences between thought and flesh, between sound wave and source, between man and animal. For the sake of linguistic clarity, I’d like to introduce a part of the terminology which I will use throughout this post. I will refer to “sentient energy,” in the sense that it is an energy which acts wholly on its own accord. It is reliant only upon itself in action. It may ,however, rely upon non-sentient energies to complete it’s chosen objectives. For example, a thought will evolve in a manner which relies only upon thought, however the purely sentient nature of the thought can cause non-sentient elements of the body to gain motor function, and thus affect other non-sentient bodies within proximity. You think that you are thirsty. Your thoughts will your hand to pick up a glass of water. The water courses helplessly down your throat and through your body.
The brain is a non-sentient object. Alone, it is nothing more than an 8 pound lump of tissue. The sentient elements of the brain are categorized as the mind. For years this philosophically problematic relationship between mind and brain has been referred to as “the ghost in the machine.” Before quantum mechanics there was no way of distinguishing where mind ended and brain began. With the discovery that all substance is composed of nothing more than energy signatures at a subatomic level, it seems it can safely be inferred that the mind and brain are both inexorably linked, as well as entirely different categories of energy. The mind finds itself tied to the brain in which it is placed. It cannot survive without the delicate balances of chemical reactions which take place within the spongy tissue of the brain. The mind does, however, take on a physical embodiment of it’s own. The mind is composed of the energies created by neurons which at a sub atomic level are nothing more than energy themselves.
The mind is not simply a notion. It is composed of a collection of a lifetime’s worth of accumulated data, and it is affected by impulses which are filtered into it directly from the nervous system. The mind however is capable of acting on it’s own accord. It is a sentient body. While involuntary muscle movements, such as a heartbeat, are similarly self-sustaining, they are reliant upon purely physical factors. They are non-sentient, because they react only to factors to which affect only their primary functionality. The sentience of the mind is categorized by it’s ability to work in ways that do not directly affect it’s functionality…
10 reasons to attend Neckbrace Fest 2.0
10. You didn’t remember Neckbrace Fest 1.o until you saw yourself in one of the spots. You were the one rolling around on the ground in the fetal position.
9. Barley Island beer…a considerable step up from the Stroh’s that got you in the predicament of rolling around on the ground in the fetal position and crying realistic tears at 1.0.
8. “How To Say Goodbye” from start to finish, glowing against the side of a barn in the middle of nowhere, with the infinite cosmos behind, in all of it’s starry and mysterious glory.
7. Speed Limit Soldiers…When Hell Freezes Over style. They left everyone hanging in the dark too long.
6. At some point in the evening a “town hall” style debate about health care reform will probably break out ending only when BLT explains every one of the thousand some odd pages of the proposed legislation in his new album “I Make Mine.”
5. Dean Moore, Noah East, Robert Mathison, and The Badger and the Bologna, implementing themselves seamlessly into the flawless infrastructure of the Snarling Wolf Hat.
4. Trinkets for sale, including the latest Tony Marshall album “Centralia,” which I’m pretty sure, given you’re not related to Tony Marshall or named Cory Hill, you do not yet own.
3. The first ever live performance of “Bill” and “Murray,” back to back in their epic entirety, the way they were meant to be enjoyed.
2. Because this time there is actually going to be music…I swear to God there really is.
1. It’s a music festival, and I’m guessing you’re probably not going to be at a music festival on the 15th if you’re not at Neckbrace Fest 2.0. You’re probably going to be doing something quite a bit lamer, and that’s okay I guess, but you don’t have to live that way for God’s sake. Just come.
www.neckbracesubstitute.com
the map is on the calendar
Afterthoughts Episode 2
Afterthoughts episode #2: “Old Man Jenkins and the Internet” is available now. Click the picture to check it out.
insomniatic post #1
Economy is an accepted medium, a complex arrangement of social contracts that are upheld via a shared belief in value. That being said, I paid $250 for an Analytical Geometry textbook. There have been no real breakthroughs concerning the content for about a century. There’s not really any topical information included in it that would have become irrelevant in the past few years. As a matter of fact, most of the book is written with a certain, “you’re not even going to need this in a few years at your office job,” tone of voice. As a matter of further fact, it actually uses those exact words.
So of course a new edition came out, and now my $250 pre-calculus book is worth about a buck-fifty, which is much closer to it’s actual value. While this pisses me off to no end, it also points out a very valuable lesson that I learned outside of the classroom. The American economy is an unlevel playing field, and as a famous op-ed columnist put it “money is a very poor way of keeping score.”
Companies are formed by pre-existing capital, which means pre-existing influence and stale mindsets. This is why social progress is so much slower than technological progress, and its also why my pre-calc book cost me $250. It was $250 because it could be. The demand didn’t dictate the price, as much as the assumption that college has to be expensive did. The publisher doesn’t see itself as publishing a book, but as publishing a stepping stone to a more lucrative future for students, which raises the monetary value of the book as well as my education. This in turn devalues the role of education in my life. It basically means I’m going to trade school.
Characters for novel:
- vigilante who tazers police officers in their sleep
- man who mows the dirt in front of his house 3 times a day
thus ends another long day on Planet Earth
thoughts on scope and scale
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about scope and scale, as in it’s possible to have large scale victories with limited scope, but it’s much more difficult to achieve anything of grand scope even on a small scale. Scope in this instance is determined at a personal level, while scale is a societal measure of impression. Scope is what’s behind the impression measured by scale. Scope is the actual worth of one’s work, whatever it may be.
Every action in some way expresses an ideal. You sweep the floor and you find, that at the instant you become totally aware of what you’re doing, you’re defending the status quo. You’re keeping the place clean. You’re warding off entropy for another day. This is the way all things go. Choose a side. What are you defending?
afterthoughts on the new site
Afterthoughts returns...handful of fans rejoice.
I’ve been doing a ton of work on the site if you haven’t noticed. There’s new afterthoughts up, and they will be updated weekly. I figure it’s better to keep doing this stuff than to be depressed about not doing it.
New formula:
shitty art > writer’s block depression