Early this summer, I read American General: The Life and Times of William Tecumseh Sherman by John S.D. Eisenhower and I found it a pleasant read. To this date, many in the south still hate Sherman, and in recent years the many on the left have labeled him a genocidal lunatic. The truth is that he was a man of his time, without which the history of the American Civil War might have been drastically different.

Sherman is remembered for his infamous march in which he destroyed everything in his path from Atlanta to Savanah. After taking Atlanta, Sherman realized that holding it would be too large a task. So he decided to march east toward the coast, feed his men with the spoils of the land on the way there, and once there – his supplies coming from the sea – supplying his men would be of no concern. While working his way there, he would break the Confederacy supporters’ will – and he did.

Sherman and Grant introduced the idea of total war in modern warfare. Taking the fight to civilians was something; both sides had not seriously considered at the start of the war, but by the end, it was what the north felt was necessary to bring the conflict to a resounding end.

The book is a well written and concise account of some of the major events in General Sherman’s life, particularly events during the civil war. 

“Beware of faking: people will believe you. People believe those who sell lotions that make lost hair grow back. They sense instinctively that the salesman is putting together truths that don’t go together, that he’s not being logical, that he’s not speaking in good faith. But they’ve been told that God is mysterious, unfathomable, so to them incoherence is the closest thing to God. The farfetched is the closest thing to a miracle.”  – Lia speaking to Casaubon: Foucault’s Pendulum

This powerful quote for years has always cautioned me about the power of belief and its consequences, both positive and negative.

We are ignorant to the power of beliefs and that ignorance is exponentially increased when it applies to our own beliefs and their power over us every day. A significant number of people in the west have casual religious beliefs we find comforting but not binding, nurturing yet not dogmatic. We tend to think that we are released from the dogma of the past because we are enlightened and therefore free from such bronze-age thinking. But when a religious belief wanes a political or secular belief takes rise. But beliefs in themselves are not bad. To the contrary, they are a core function of the success and overall survival of our species. Yuval Noah Hirari’s Sapiens is a fantastic read on the subject.

Narratives of where we come from or of our destiny have shaped societies while crushing others. A sense of duty can hold the line, while a sense of shame can break it. Beliefs brought down the towers on 9/11.

Today we have leaders who court conspiracies for their personal gains all along thinking they can control the narrative and the peoples consuming them. But history has taught us that ideas are hard to contain. And like a virus they can spread and develop resistance to establish norms or counter ideas. Efforts to control them only drive their roots deeper into the collective consciousness of those who believe. And if the idea mutates into a state of sacredness it reaches an unquestioning status for its adherents.

In the quote above, the main protagonist’s girlfriend, Lia, is telling him to stop his game of playing with people’s beliefs. Casaubon and two other fellows concocted a plan to develop an all encompassing conspiracy theory that tied all conspiracy theories into one. They enjoyed watching the gullible adherents fall for the ploy. So real was their truth that when the plotters decided to call the game off and pull back on the joke, no one would believe them. To the contrary, the believers knew that Casaubon and his friends were holding out on them…and they would get the ultimate truth one way or the other.

Foucault’s Pendulum is in my top five favorite novels. It is not for the faint of heart as it can be dense. But having read it a few times I cant shake off the feeling that we are living in an age of conspiracy theory peddling that resembles a real-life version of this Eco’s classic.

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A few years back the American Film Institute in Silver Spring MD was showing the 70 mm original, 2001 A Space Odyssey on the big screen in their lovely 400 seat theater. As part of the showing they had the star of the film actor Keri Dullea on hand signing autographs and taking photo’s and at the end of the film he spoke for a while and answer a few questions.

It was quite the experience watching the film on the big screen for the first time. While my home theater can do some justice to films, there is something about the collective experience in a large movie house with a film classic like 2001.

Getting to meet Dullea was a wonderful, geek moment. Having watched 2001 over a dozen times since I was a kid, seeing the star of this classic, in person and speaking with him was fanboying at its best. Having my son with me was priceless.

In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision – Italo Calvino

Nothing gives a fearful man more courage than another’s fear – Umberto Eco

A longtime favorite film of mine has been 1977’s Capricorn One.  The film had a respectable cast that included James Brolin, Elliot Gould, and Hal Holbrook, and it was written and directed by Peter Hyams.  I had not seen this movie in over 30 years but I remember it impressing my teenage view of life in quite a way.  For years I had told my son this was a movie he should watch and we decided a few months back to give it a viewing during a 70’s movie marathon we had.  I was not only surprised at the quality of the production but the acting and writing are quality as is the story – it does a good job holding up after 41 years.  In many ways, given the rise in government distrust, the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and a president that thrives in them, this film almost seems to have been waiting for its time to arrive to be relevant.

The movie is about an aborted mission to Mars that is they faked for the sake of saving the space program and its sponsors.

My favorite scene in the movie comes 15 mins in when Dr. James Kelloway, played by Hal Holbrook, sits down and explains to the crew why they had to pull them out of the spacecraft in secret. The monologue delivered by Holbrook is brilliantly delivered and the dialog is tight. You really can see someone saying these words in such a situation. (I’ve copied the full monologue below at the end of this post).

There is a subplot with an investigative reporter, played by Elliott Gould, that is action-packed and suspenseful. The movie keeps a good pace and keeps your attention through the end.

PS: OJ Simpson plays one of the astronauts. And while he gets a lot of screen time, he has little dialog in the film

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Dr. James Kelloway’s Monologue

Why don’t you all sit down?

Ok, here it is…I have to start by saying that if there was any other way if there was even a slight chance of another alternative, I would give anything not to be here with you now…Anything.

Bru, how long have we known each other? Sixteen-years, that’s how long…sixteen-years.  Should have seen yourself then, you looked like you just walked out of a Wheaties box! And me, all sweaty-palmed and deadly serious – I told everybody about this dream I had of conquering the new frontier and they all looked at me like I was nuts; you looked at me and said yes.

I remember when you told me Kay was pregnant, we went out and got crocked. I remember when Charles was born we went out and got crocked again. The two of us, captain terrific and the mad doctor – talking about reaching the stars and the bartender telling us maybe we’ve had enough.

Sixteen-years…And then Armstrong stepped out on the moon and we cried. We were so proud.

Willis, you and Walker, you came in about then; both bright and talented wiseasses – looked at me in my wash-n-wear shirt carrying on this hot love affair with my slide rule…and even you were caught up in what we’d done.

I remember when Glen made is the first orbit in Mercury, they put up television sets in Grand Central Station. And tens of thousands of people missed their trains to watch.

You know when Apollo 17 landed on the moon, people were calling up the networks and bitching because reruns of I Love Lucy were canceled.

Reruns for Christ sake!

I can understand if it was the new “Lucy Show.” I mean, what the hell is a walk on the moon? But reruns!

Aw, jeez.

And then, suddenly, everybody started talking about how much everything cost. Was it really worth 20 billion to go to another planet?  What about Cancer, what about the slums?  How much does it cost?  How much does any dream cost, for Christ’s sake, since when is there an accountant for ideas?!

You know who was at the launch today? No the president. The vice-president, that’s who. The Vice-president and his plump wife.

The president was busy…

He’s not busy. He’s just a little bit scared.

He sat there two months ago and put his feet up on Woodrow Wilson’s desk. And he said, “Jim make it good. Congress is on my back. They’re looking for a reason to cancel the program. We can’t afford another screw-up. Make it good. You have my every good wish.”  His every good wish…I got his sanctimonious vice-president, that’s what I got. And so here we are, after all those hopes and all that dreaming. He sits there with those flags behind his chair and tells me we can’t afford a screw-up!

And guess what: we had a screw-up. A first-class, bonafide, made-in -America screw-up! The good people from Con-Amalgamate delivered a life support system cheap enough so they could make a profit on the deal. Works out fine for everybody. Con-Amalgamate makes money, we have our life support system, everything is peachy! Except they made a little bit too much profit.

We found out two months ago, it won’t work. You guys would all be dead in three weeks. It’s as simple as that.

So all I have to do is report that and scrub the mission.  Congress has its excuse, the President still has his desk and we have no more program.

What’s sixteen-years? We’re an actual drop in the bucket…

All right, that’s the end of the speech. Now, we’re getting to what they call the moment of truth.  Come with me. I want to show you something.

When I was happy I had many friends, when times were gray I found myself alone… – Cato

In Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey’s, the scene of Astronaut Frank Pool (played by Gary Lockwood) running along the interior wall of the living quarters of the Discovery One is one of my all time favorite scenes. The piece played, Gayane’s Adagio, makes this a haunting and melancholy scene that visualizes the loneliness of what interplanetary space travel might be like.

I have always found the solitude of this scene to be inviting. There is a hidden strength in solitude, and those who can embrace it are hard to break.

The astronaut is able to run in a circular motion because he is using centripetal motion – the spinning sides create artificial gravity. For the film, Kubrick spent $750k on the set – approximately $6m in today’s value.

For an informative piece on the making of 2001 and its significance as a film read this piece by at Cinephilia and Beyond.

Dig the pond

Without waiting for the moon

When the pond is finished

the moon will come by itself – Suzuki Shosan

We live our lives moment to moment but through it all there are specific songs, verses, scenes that shape us, mold us into who we are. You can spend a whole summer bored to tears and one flashing moment or chance encounter can change your life forever

In this site I will post about the movie scenes, songs, parts of a book, that have influenced, changed, or repulsed me. But all in all they have contributed to who I have been, am, and will be.

Cain