So I was reading today... I was reading Nausea by John Paul Sartre. While I was reading this, I decided to put on Tooth, Fang, and Claw by Ted Nugent and his Amboy Dukes. Ian bought me this album a few years ago since I have this sort of obsession with the Nuge. I never really listened to it since I'm really more interested in Ted Nugent as a cultural icon rather than a musician. But I put it on today just for a lark. You know what I mean? It's kinda kitschy but it's still kind of fun to listen to. This got me thinking about exactly two things:

First, I thought about how I was very probably the only human being on the face of the planet reading Sartre and listening to Ted Nugent at the same time and almost certainly the only person who was indulging in those two exact works. Now, there's a lot of people in the world so that made me feel pretty swell--special, even. I also enjoyed the dichotomy of the whole thing. I mean, all-American-I-go-hunting-and-use-everything-from-that-dear-aside-from-its-death-cry bullshit combined with French existentialist bullshit? Ya kiddin' me? I'm not. I was staring directly at a multifaceted diamond of bullshit and I loved it.

When I was done thinking about all that--it took quite a while, I assure you--I started really listening to the Amboy Dukes record. It's actually not at all bad. In fact, I enjoyed it much more than I enjoyed reading Sartre, which brings me to the next thing I was thinking about. Ted Nugent is a far more relevant and inspired artist than Jean-Paul Sartre ever was. The realization dawned on me so suddenly and profoundly it makes it hard for me to explain exactly how and why it is true. Either you understand what I'm saying and you're smart or you don't and you're stupid. I'll put it this way: Nobody has ever danced to a Sartre novel. Nobody has ever listened to a Sartre book-on-tape and had sex (at least, I hope not). People have done both many times to Ted Nugent's music. Of course, this example is not limited to just the Nuge and Jean-Paul Sartre; it applies to all music vs. all literature. Seriously. Music is the most important art form because it makes people dance and have sex. You should've already figured that out. Pay attention.

To coincide with the two thoughts I had while absorbing two very different works by two very different artists, I watched two very different movies by two very different directors today.

The first was Underworld which is about a war between Vampires and Werewolves--an entertaining flick, I must say. It's not exactly the most creative thing in cinematic history but it was fun to watch. I appreciated the fact that the special effects were done mostly by putting people in make-up and hanging them from wires like in the first three Star Wars movies rather than CGI like the prequels. Also, it's worth watching just to see Kate Beckinsale kick some werewolf ass in a tight leather body-suit. It's a shallow thing to say, I know but it's true. She looks that good.

I also watched Adaptation which is damn good. It's a movie about itself--very interesting and emotionally powerful. As my friend Andy put it, "I think I have a split personality and each one of the characters is me." Well put, Andy. You're smarter than you think. I was a bit touched by it myself. It gave me quite a notion that I might go ahead and do something terribly romantic in the next few days. I mean, I probably won't but I should. It's a bad idea but I collect bad ideas so who knows?

Regardless of that, I'm starting to feel myself sliding down the slippery slope of inspiration so I feel I should get off my duff and write something other than this silly blog...

Later,
Frank

P.S. Ted Nugent has an album called If You Can't Lick 'Em... Lick 'Em