subjective comedy and comical subjectivity

Comedy, like many other things such as politics, food, success, fashion, human attraction, and annoyance is highly subjective.

What I find hilarious, you might find disturbing, our opinion and reaction might change substantially depending on the time of day, our mood, and how much we have or haven't had to drink. And definitely depends upon the timing and method of delivery and the persons, places, or and/or things involved. Picture stand up comedy in a warm cozy restaurant after a few pints, then picture stand up outside in rainy 40 degree weather without sufficient clothing. Hmm...

As humans, we just seem to like what we like. We are content as we find contentment....So it goes...

This is sort of a stale mystical half-truth this morning. Perhaps I am just full of "pith and Vonnegut" Ok, that was bad, not funny just ridiculous. So it goes... Oh, and "Yes we did!"

That's my shout out on the election. I think many smarter people summarize things much more eloquently. Hurray!!! Ok back to less civilized musings.

I cooked Red Chard today for lunch, this is an amazing green leafy vegetable that has just surpassed all of my other favorite greens including Kale, Asparagus, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, Broccolini, Broccoli Rabe, Kohl Rabi, Collards, and Spinach. This stuff has an amazingly compact flavor and is super easy to cook. Just steam it like any other green. I am in love. Yes, love is subjective too, my tastes buds swoon for Red Chard who knew?

Well I laughed pretty hard last night at some great comedians here in SF at Jay Reddy's Comedy at Home. Jay is a local comedian who introduced a few other great acts at this event and offered a compelling exploratory perhaps existential foray into the ever elusive denim blue jean. Remember when jeans were jeans? See some of his schtick here:
http://www.rooftopcomedy.com/watch/NewPairOfJeans

If you are here in the city and you want some good cheap laughs, cheap eats, and maybe cheap thrills (hey it could happen even on a Monday night) then keep an eye out for the next comedy set here (it happens monthly) or just show up anytime and make your own laughs. Three dollar drafts help if you can't find your funny bone.

http://www.home-sf.com/market/special-events.html

So I initially went there with a friend to see Dhaya Lakshminarayanan perform,

http://www.myspace.com/dhayacomedy

she's rather hilarious on her own, add a group of other comedians and a lively audience and it's even better.

Another charming and lovely comedienne there was Sandy Stec
http://www.sandystec.com/
Sandy is also a midday personality on San Jose's Mix 106.5

There were several other performers who took the stage that evening with a wide range of topics:
Alex Koll
http://www.alexkoll.com/

Ronn Vigh

http://http//profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=397431

Brent Weinbach
http://www.brentweinbach.com/
and Justin McClure.

Overall everyone delivered some good old fashioned, new, edgy, vanilla, and web 2.0 style comedy. Some highlights of the event?

Hearing wonderful tales of sibling rivalry and humiliation, dating mishaps, Facebook, Craigslist, the occasional reverse heckling to the audience, interesting Russian Alphabet musings, how really awesome Starbuck names can help make really bad drugs sound really cool and plenty of other bits that fail me now. Sorry folks, just had to be there.

I've personally thought about trying stand up for a few years so it was great to see people up there giving an earnest effort to keep us entertained. Yes, comedy is subjective, I think I'm hilarious, some of my friends agree, others run away, I often think of random things to keep myself thoroughly entertained, but put me on stage and it could get messy. I might have to resort to my Lionel Richie impersonation or Scooby laugh. Maybe I could bribe everyone with candy. I think candy works with kids and adults alike.

Success well, perhaps we can't be entertained by success at least in the humorous sense, more of the inspirational way assuming we're happy about said success whether our own or some other person(s), or entity. I guess that's sort of a challenge to define. I have known very successful beings in all realms of life from the standard successful businessperson to a successful couple you know the signature, radiantly happy and completely in love sort, yeah that's good success in my opinion. successful musicians, artists, successful sushi chefs (um yes!) some make some really really good stuff.

Oh well success is so subjective, what's your definition and where are you in the continuum? I'd put myself on a steady but very gradual trajectory at present. I've been taking a sabbatical from the 9 to 5 work life. As I chose to relocate amidst the economic paranoia I have encountered a somewhat challenging job market so I've taken to other forms of keeping myself busy and challenged.

I read, write, run, eat, cook, eat again, wash the dishes, sweep the floor, ok not often enough, explore new places, music, ideas, places, putter around more than normal on social networks like facebook and twitter, sleep, dream, drink way too much coffee ---seriously too much, occasionally too much booze, walk around town, make new friends, think about getting a dog and getting more routine in my life again. But mostly I just enjoy the present. It's nice to experience a semi blank slate for once in my life and I have plenty of crayons.

Attraction is perhaps the most subjective quality we humans ponder and contemplate. Have you ever seen someone from across the room, street, up the road, down the road. Just a glimpse or full on view, conversed, had your heart momentarily stop or start beating relentlessly, sure you have. That's endorphins baby, best kind of drug out there. I like getting them from running because they have less overhead :-) but I'm not immune to something lovely walking by especially if we have a conversation.

This biological chemical response to another being that prompts quickness of breath, warmth, attraction, some times very odd or silly behavior or speech patterns started in our genetic DNA Millions of years ago.

God's sense of humor once again at work. Well scientists say millions of years...always a million plus...maybe that's speculation I can't prove anything because I hated chemistry and biology equations especially the much lauded and personally loathed Krebs Cycle. Go ahead make your funny comments. Dont' like Krebs, but who does?

How does all this come together? It doesn't unless you're me on this Tuesday sipping lukewarm coffee trying to artfully summarize the last few days. I didn't really spend anytime on fashion because I don't care about it and it's soon going to change anyhow. I just hope you're wearing something warm today and being mildly fashionable, or annoying, or both. I'll leave you to your own definitions there.

Running Barefoot

Barefoot running inspires visions of running on the beach in the hard packed sand, wind in the hair, ocean waves pounding, perhaps a big ass smile shining and radiant like the sun. Barechested men (and women yeah!) going full throttle or at an easy comfortable pace totally lost in the moment almost like they're in some movie on an island somewhere.

The first time I consciously noted a barefoot runner was in Cambridge, MA a year or so ago. She was a typical runner type physicue sort of girl with long blond curly hair in a pony-tail I think, cute, I remember that. I passed her along the Charles River and wondered how long she'd been experimenting with that form of running. Kenyans grow up running barefoot so I understood the benefits, it seems to promote much greater muscular strength in the feet.

There are over 100 muscles in the foot, 26 bones, and 33 joints. This is a great place to recruit new volunteers to help you run better and faster if you get tired of working your quads, hams, calves, core, and your spiffy new running shoes aren't giving the mojo you really desire. I saw a few guys running barefoot perhaps six months later as I was on a group run in Brookline, MA and again marveled at the clean, pure, almost perfection of running without shoes. This was an ideal that I might never experience.

I am one of the 20-30% of individuals who do not have proper arches and thus require adequate support to correct how my feet land (pronate) as I walk or run. I have realized that my overpronation which causes my feet to fan out in more of a duck like pattern poses some hazards to my running career which I hope to continue the remainder of my life. With this in mind I decided to try some barefoot running to try and teach my feet to make some changes. Change is good right?

Barefoot running on the beach sounded exciting, but I've had experience in sand and am not a big fan. I decided to take the experiment indoors to my health club and treadmill. Oh, and I despise treadmills, they are my sworn enemy and although they birthed my passion for running I long ago scorned them for the joy of outdoor running.

I returned to the treadmill only as a test of the barefeet. I started out rather slow about 1-2 min slower than my easy pace and just stared at my feet to make sure they were landing properly without the support of a shoe and orthotic. I felt pretty comfortable after a few minutes so I steadily upped the speed to a much faster racing pace and then ran for 3/4 of a mile before slowing it back down to a walk. I'm glad I stopped then because I felt the tips of my toes eagerly preparing to graduate from being slightly irritated to full on blisters. Otherwise I felt great but I think I did work the muscles pretty well because a day later as I neared my apartment my right foot started hurting and today is still sore. I think it's a good sore though, sort of like when you weight train or do lunges. Next time I run barefoot I'll get some special "shoe gloves" they make which look funny because they're just like gloves for your feet complete with toe/fingers.

Oh and if you're interested I found a few links on Barefoot running or Barefooting as it's known:

barefootrunner.com,
barefootrunner.org,

Resilience in the face of Annihilation - "If this is happiness, then yes I am very happy"

Does this title suggest some glimmer of hope? Perhaps offer a warm opportunity to better something or someone?

I'm taking a cue from the film I watched last night and will guarantee you none of those things :-)

Last night I joined a local film club to watch Megalopolis, a new documentary which explores the dehumanizing effects that cities and modern society have on human beings.

I'd be foolish to suggest this movie will change your life or offer some new reflections you haven't considered of your fellow creatures but I will offer a few observations which probably won't be misinterpreted as being filched from the marketing brochure.

The film left a thick layer of malaise on everyone who remained for the full 2 hours and probably even those who left well before the final scenes. I found no compelling reason to watch or share this film with anyone in the future as I typically want to see something that fits one or more of a few requirements:

a) entertaining (pure unadulterated/titilatting/stupid/intellectual/or otherwise)
b) educational (I learn something new vs. seeing what I already know)
c)uplifting (offers hope for a better future or a completely fabricated ending that fits only in the dreamlike non-reality state one inhabits during a movie.)

This film is bleak, you can almost smell the sickeningly rancid noxious fumes of human depravity, fear, and feel your skin crawl with the ridiculousness of the behavior documented. The story is not one of hope but rather despair and resignation. There are many rather compelling images of modern life, glistening sparkling skyskrapers, billboards with happiness smiles and other good emotions repackaged and beckoning all to consume, the ivory tower life as seen from afar and often viewed by the audience through the small fragmented lens of the characters. There are also some humorous english translations in the subtitles as well as interesting observations from a linguistic perspective. In one particular scene we witnes an affluent Chinese couple riding along in a convertible Mercedes in downtown Shenzen. The man offers this phrase to his partner and to the camera. "If this is happiness....then yes I am very happy" I hope this is mildly entertaining as you consider the logical fallacy of this statement. The sentence proves nothing or perhaps everything. Perhaps it's quite true. After all if what he is experiencing is happiness and he's fully immersed as he appears then he truly is happy. I can only wonder the comments of the other characters as they toil, endure, and suffer. "If this is misery, then I am truly...."

The film does offer a stark contrast to western media in their portrayal of Muslim Madrasahs and Islamic veil traditions. Yes, you and I are most likely aware of this disparity and filter that we receive here in the Western World. It was illuminating nonetheless to see boys as young as 6 years old from the US going to Pakistan to study the Koran without the distraction of our society.

Here's a few nuggets, if I can call them that. Perhaps I should call them bits of coal:

If you ever completely lose all worldly possessions you may find yourself in despair at how to survive. Even in the largest filthiest most inhospitable cities such as Karachi, Shenzen, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Sao Paolo, and others one might still have real means however dim of survival. I saw a family of 10 sorting through garbage to feed the entire family. They work daily nonstop from 6 AM to 10 PM and live in the stench and filth of rubbish. This is their existence, the father laments he knows no other way to support everyone.

I witnessed women recounting their exploitation and those of others, a man who left his family to live on the street and knows no one, he is not a mentally challenged fellow, he's just weary of his former life. Young asian women dramatically altering their appearance in a group called "Angeleek" and engaging in a seeming ridiculous outfit and makeup that appeared almost like a warrior paint of black and white so as to prompt intrigue and perhaps fear from others.

Tales of mass suicide, oppression, prostitution, crimes of all sort. Stories from the streets of LA and an interesting observation that LAPD is also a gang and by far the most highly organized and capitilized of them all.

Although the film offered no call to action and left me with no desire to smile I somehow found a peaceful reflection in our resilience as humans we find a way to survive most situations whether by design or accident. I made my way home later that evening first by walking (in the wrong direction) and then by sheer coincidence happened upon a bus route that would bring me much much closer to home. I took a seat on the bus and soon found myself back in familiar and safe surroundings.

No dreams of Karachi, Tokyo, or Shenzen last night as I think the extents of my travels were brief and soon interrupted by the garbage trucks carting away the refuse.