SWIMMING AGAINST THE ANTI-INTELLECTUAL TIDE that these days governs too much of mediated public discourse is a modest little one-minute radio programlet called StarDate. It’s “the longest-running national radio science feature in the country,” according to the description on the StarDate website, and airs daily on more than 300 stations around the United States. A production of the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory, each episode features something about astronomy (both historical and observable), planetary or space science, exploration, or even stellar mythology. (Everything stops in our house at 9:50 every morning so we can hear the broadcast on San Francisco’s KCBS.) You can catch it on the unstreamed local airwaves, or also listen online at http://stardate.org. Tune in, turn on and look up!
Category: ?
Free of labels, which is also a good attitude.
365 Names of God: The Force
THE FORCE is a non-anthropomorphic term, but to a purist like me, so is “God.” It could be argued that since the Force is created by all living beings, rather than the reverse (at least, the reverse from a mythic perspective) that it should not be included here. But according to dialog from the Star Wars films, the Force does have a particular will and is vital (puntended) for sustaining life. I think The Force is certainly Godlike to the degree that it warrants inclusion. Continue reading “365 Names of God: The Force”
THERE’S (more) ‘ing WATER on MARS!
BACK IN 2008, THE METAPHORAGER gleefully spread the word that water, at least in trace amounts, had been found on Mars. Now there’s a(n apparent) pile of it. Using an advanced form of radar, scientists appear to have discovered more of the life-generating fluid, which seems to be concentrated in a vast underground lake at Mars’ south pole.
What this portends for the search for life remains to be seen. We at The Metaphorager have a pool going (no pun intended) that we will discover some form of extraterrestrial life by 2050, even if it’s only microbes or algae; the recent discovery that ice-volcanoes on Saturn’s moon (and alleged water-world) Enceladus are spewing complex organic compounds is also casting hope in that direction. C’mon humans! let’s build some space probes!
I’m Ed, He’s Johnny
FOR MOST OF THIS YEAR, and health permitting, I have been co-hosting a weekly radio show every Thursday afternoon with my rabbi (and showhost), Steve Finley. It’s billed as the Sonoma Valley Interfaith Ministerial Association Radio Hour, and is an exploration of different faith traditions and communities as represented by their local spiritual leaders; each episode also features a lesson from engaging cantor/musicologist Jonathan Friedmann. You can hear it on livestream at 4 p.m. PDT at http://ksvy.org; or if you’re in the Valley, on 91.3 FM. (Missed us? Here’s a link to the show archives.) It’s always a rousing conversation, so if you like this sort of thing (and what metaphorager doesn’t?) dial or click us in!
Reflecting Pool
“WHEN THE CENTER IS MOVING, no quiet is.
When the center is still, no chaos.
Where is the chaos when there is no center?
Where is the center when there is no motion?”
The Secret
WHAT THE HUMANS DIDN’T REALIZE was that, for everyone else in the galaxy, it was largely considered bad form, and even bad luck, to visit planets settled by intelligent apes. (You’d think the quality of their UFO sightings would be a tip-off.)
Moving Lines
“FOR GOD’S SAKE LET US sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.”
— Wm. Shakspere, Richard II
“Are you a dream, Merlin?”
“A dream, to some. A NIGHTMARE TO OTHERS.”
— Excalibur
“Well, it’s easy if you know all the notes!”
— Moosie Weinberger, a”h, on playing the piano with her nose
“Never give up. Never surrender.”
— Cmdr. Peter Quincy Taggart
“Are we having fun, yet?”
— Zippy the Pinhead
“Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh! hard times come again no more.”
— Folk song
“In former dreams he had seen quaint lumbering buopoths come shyly out of that wood to drink, but now he could not glimpse any.”
— H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath
“We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.”
— Wm. Shakespear, King Henry IV pt. II
Where Do The Ideas Come From?
LET’S MAKE THIS AN EXPLORATION of the landscapes of creativity — how does the creative experience feel to you?
Mentally, I’m all about visualization: perhaps it’s synesthesia, but even smells and sounds have a visual component for me. So I’ve always seen “the creative process” as starting with a curtain across half the universe. Every now and then, the curtain parts just enough to reveal an Idea.
It could be a series of images, even images of words. Now and then it’s a sound. But even the most abstract Idea carries a visual impression of girders and joists, ropes and scrim. Sometimes an Idea will be revealed a piece at a time, with a whole clicking into place almost audibly and palpably. If it’s long, like a story, it feels like a rope uncoiling from the other side of the curtain — a line which must not be allowed to grow slack.
Sometimes an Idea links up with something inside the rest of the universe. Other times it just sits there, gleaming, faintly pulsing, daring me to capture it in words on a screen or a sketch in a notebook. (If I don’t, it can fade within minutes.)
So let’s make this an exploration of the sense-scapes of creativity. How does the creative experience feel to you?
Wistful Vista
Our Labor Day Message
(And for everyone else: who made your stuff? Who brought or sold it to you? Are you grateful? Then thank a worker. They seem to be an endangered species.)
Big Room, Little Box
SO NASA HAS JUST RELEASED a nifty web application that lets you whiz about the solar system in real time and swoop in next to planets and satellites and space probes to see what they’re doing (or at least what the programmers know that the scientists know that they’re doing). It’s called, appropriately, “Eyes On The Solar System” and if you don’t click on http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes/ RIGHT NOW and try it boy will YOU be sorry. (Between this, Google Earth and Minecraft, the inner and outer worlds should mesh any day now.)
Who Is This Guy?
THIS GENTLEMAN, WHO SPEAKS WORLDS while twiddling his moustache, is “Metaphoragin’ Jones”, our mascot here at The Metaphorager. He epitomizes our outlook and mission: bemused, slightly rumpled and willing to talk all day about everything in the world if necessary/desired. You may read about the origin of Metaphoragin’ Jones’ (and the blog’s) name in the post “Wrapping Round,” which signal also explains a bit about metaphoraging in general. Happy Reading!