It's Weird Being Weird

[pr126]

Myself, I'm just looking for a crew.

Oh, you'll get that all right. Plenty. Hope you like beards.

I almost forgot. There is a prospect of 72 virgins, if you make the grade.
What's not to like?

[PickelledEggs]

Oh, you'll get that all right. Plenty. Hope you like beards.

I almost forgot. There is a prospect of 72 virgins, if you make the grade.
What's not to like?

72? Only 72? pfft. go to a comic book convention. There's thousands of 'em.

[Munch]

Oh, you'll get that all right. Plenty. Hope you like beards.

I almost forgot. There is a prospect of 72 virgins, if you make the grade.
What's not to like?

From my own experience, having virgins for sex isn't as great as having experienced people who know their limits. So the myth about virgins being a must have is just something perpetuated by religions as a good thing.

[Baruch]

Gentle - "It's a good thing you're not weird." ... you have no idea ;-)

Munch - the "virgin" thing is about having tight ... you know what ... around your ... you know what.  The practical aspect is that a non-virgin daughter would be stuck living with her parents forever ... which is a bad thing for everyone ... and we didn't have clear paternity ... so if she gets knocked up, we don't know which neighborhood boy to go have a talk to.  Again, the traditional way to handle an unwed mother ... is that she and the child become the liability of her parents.  I think it should still be that way ... and the guilty boy and his family get the Soweto tire treatment ;-)

[josephpalazzo]

From my own experience, having virgins for sex isn't as great as having experienced people who know their limits. So the myth about virgins being a must have is just something perpetuated by religions as a good thing.

The basis of that is that in the old mythology, gods would only have sex with a virgin. So promising that you will have virgins (have no idea why 72) is akin to raising you to god-like status.

[chill98]

Do you feel like a mutant too?

Nope.  Not anymore.

All it takes is getting to know those 'normal' people better and you find out, everyone is weird.

[PickelledEggs]

The basis of that is that in the old mythology, gods would only have sex with a virgin. So promising that you will have virgins (have no idea why 72) is akin to raising you to god-like status.

72 used to be the channel number of the scrambled Spice channel for my TV. Don't think it had anything to do with each other, but I did notice that

[drunkenshoe]

I would say he was an asshole... but that's just me... and my teacher from college... and most of the people that hear that story...

Pablo Picasso is an asshole. His art aside, he is the most successful 'genius asshole' personality of the 20th century. He created it. 

For another example far less successful in art, but very good in the self promoted 'genius' asshole department, see Salvador Dali. Pretty much influenced by Picasso, but didn't have the talent or vision to match.

[Mike Cl]

Pablo Picasso is an asshole. His art aside, he is the most successful 'genius asshole' personality of the 20th century. He created it. 

For another example far less successful in art, but very good in the self promoted 'genius' asshole department, see Salvador Dali. Pretty much influenced by Picasso, but didn't have the talent or vision to match.

Whoa!  Hold on.  Dali could paint rings around Picasso.  My six year old daughter painted better than Picasso.  Dali was as crazy as a 3 dollar bill, but he could create some visions, I tell you.  I guess you can tell how overrated I think Picasso is.

[gentle_dissident]

Does everyone here have friends? I've put forth effort in many ways all my life to make friends. I've invited people out and over. I've handed out my email and phone #. Still, I have no friends. I'm getting old. I wish I knew how to make friends. Honestly, I can't say I've found anyone whom I want to spend time with. I'm not sure there is anyone, so I try everyone in the off chance we'll find something which to relate. Unfortunately, I don't pay attention to the weather or sports. My inability to win friends has been my fatal flaw.

[gentle_dissident]

The bikers are out of my life again. I'm not sure what alcohol told their leader, but it probably had something to do with me not being a biker.

[stromboli]

You get to know people by finding like minded groups. I don't "hang" with people because I am a very self reliant and self motivated person. My life revolves around mostly projects, trips, caring for my wife and family.

I was involved with Buckskinning for some years and hung out with mountain man types. More intelligent and self reliant than most, they have to think on their feet to operate in the wild as they do. You can also do volunteer work- look for atheist related charities or meetups. Plant some trees- become involved with "green" projects; that is something I have planned for next summer. Anything craft related has groups involved. If you have any interest in any particular craft (unless its gunsmithing ) hobby stores of any sort have people who hang out there.

Like I always say, proactive is better than inactive.

[gentle_dissident]

Yea it's not easy finding people who are into the things I am and want to do them with me. I have a hard time finding people people. People just want to be left alone. It's like humanity deserves this capitalistic mess.

The atheist meet ups around here are about 60 miles away. That's a lot of travel time. I wouldn't trust my car to go out of town either.

[marom1963]

I've experienced some pretty bizarre treatment for being an atheist, but I've always felt isolated for the rest of my personality as well. My tastes, hobbies, behaviors, and world views have always been different from the majority. It's so extreme, that when I find someone who shares a fraction of my outlook, I'm still a freak to them. I'm an outcast among outcasts, but those S&M, motorbiking, drinking hoodlums are all I have for friendship. Do you feel like a mutant too?

Yes - so? ... I was a kid who loved Edith Piaf (still do). I like Tiny Tim! Tip-toe through the tulips ... I'm in love w/mathematics! ... It wasn't school I hated - it was my fellow students. They sucked ... I like liver ...
When you get up in the morning, go into the bathroom, look into the mirror, smile at yourself, and say, "Everyone else is a mistake!" And keep doing that until you believe it. Call it Mark's Program of Positive Affirmations!
99 out of 100 days are covered in shit - and there's nothing that you or I or anybody can do about that, except not to care.
Life in general is piece of shit - you need to realize that; once you do, you'll feel better, and the smell won't bother you so much.
Nothing will ever get better, only worse - so, you don't care about that, either - and you'll be FINE.
Once you realize that the World is this great big ball of SHIT, you can be perfectly content to sit on top of it. You can't change it, so why bother?
Then, you can begin to have FUN. You can even enjoy crying because it's only a TEMPORARY THING. (Lou Reed had a song called "Temporary Thing" - get it, great song!)
Relax. You're OK.

[drunkenshoe]

Whoa!  Hold on.  Dali could paint rings around Picasso.  My six year old daughter painted better than Picasso.  Dali was as crazy as a 3 dollar bill, but he could create some visions, I tell you.  I guess you can tell how overrated I think Picasso is.

I have just seen your post. I was talking in art historical terms. Compared to Picasso, Dali contributed nothing to art. About the cliché of 'my 6 year, 4 year can paint better than Picasso' is just another way of saying 'Oh I have no idea how Western art or world developed'.

Picasso is not overrated because of his art. He is overrated, because of the character and the culturally commercial value built around him which goes for Michelangelo, or Monet or Lenoardo any many other giants in different ways.

In terms of History of Western Art, Picasso is a freaking old school genius along with Braque. They are revolutionists. The story pretty much developed like it doesn't matter who 'invented' the telephone, but who got the 'patent' first.

In layman terms, the fact is these people are perfectly capable of painting 'perfect'; naturalist works of art or create 'epic visions' that would get applaud by masses. The point is they evolved to paint in their individual styles -a few became fundamental movements in art- in a world and time noone has ever thought of it, let alone dared to. And it is a natural process, means of artistic expression, because they do NOT have any predecessors, nor doing it for fame or money, for the market. On the contrary, what they are doing is 'suicide' in traditional terms of marketing.

Starting with realism to this day, these people are the builders and creators of the concepts of art we have today. They are the reason why what an indivudal paints and draws can be evaluated as art today. Before them there is no concept of the sort. There are no 'artists' and 'art' before them as we understand, but craftsmen. Michelangelo is not an artist, he is a craftsman working for the administration or others after him. Same in music. We call them artists, write and speak about them as if they were indepdendet artists in books, in media because that's the concept of art and artist we have today. None of these people lived even until 200 years ago could even have imagine the art and artist concepts we have today.

Doesn't matter how trivial it sounds to most people now in 2016, it's not just very important, but also ground breaking in art itself and culture that a couple of men at some point 'decided' to draw and paint in 'geometric shapes'. It's not a random thing to begin with. These are not public happenings done for marketing or show. These are the natural results of certain indivduals searching for new horizons in artistic expression in the oldest medium; painting. They have become famous and made into the characters they are much later.

Overall, movement by movement; group by group, starting from the end of neoclassicism roughly, what comes after is a long and slow series of reaction to naturalism; idealism, traditions...the common 'sacred' shit, propriety in many levels. And you know, they didn't really leave nothing much in limit sof classical medium sof painting and sculpting and that's the reason why contemporary art is born at some point -which is completely different from modern art. (I keep hearing people call every kind of art that looks 'weird' to them as 'modern'. It's a misnomer.) They are the reason why we had installations, performances...etc.


Dali? Yeah he has his place, he is important. But Picasso, Braque? Or what they caused; Kandinsky, Klee, Marc, Mondrian, Malevich these are modern Michelangelos of art. SO importnat that they belong to the world culture; they are universal.

I understand that may be, now most of it looks like some pretentious ramblings of a bunch of drunk old mad men, lol, but it is NOT. What postmodernism made of that culture and of those men as characters, yes that's bullshit. But the not the art. You may have an uneducated eye, may be not interested in...but that doesn't change the fact that the whole development of Western art is one of the pillars of Western culture, also the world and not even just art itself.