Always Connect

Always Connect

some years ago i was sitting at a table in cannes with all these high falootin' folks. i mean, there was a prince, a queen, some other royalty at the table, and yours truly. not that i belonged there. i'm always somewhere that i don't belong. but that's another story. "what are you doing here?" is the most frequent question i get at unusual out of the way places. I think to myself "if you knew me well, you'd say 'hey, of course you would be here.'"

but i digress. I was sitting opposite from the great film producer ishmael merchant. this had to be ten years ago. and i made some comment like 'well this is an unsual table of folks.' and he said 'always connect.' Which he explained as things get put in your path for a reason, he believed, and that one should always try and connect with other people. which is kind of what myspace is all about.

now, it's a little peeving (is that a word?) that this place is filled with PR bots, as I call them. PR people who've created a website for their client - you see 'em around.. selling something.. sell sell sell, everything you live for" that's a line from a song in "O Lucky Man" one of my favorite films. if you haven't seen it, it's worth renting. and then the multiple persona pages - if i see someone on here that i've met or said hi to, or admire, i'll click on their pic and see if they'll add me - and then send 'em a note to see if they remember me from 'that time that we met at so and so's.' and of course, inevitably it's a fan putting up a web page.. which is kind of weird in a way - and kind of indicative of the times we live in. we live through other folks vicariously.. on the net, on t.v., on the silver screen. (are there any silver screens left?)

and yet here you are, reading this blog - which is composed of O's and 1's.. with pix attached. and we try to ascribe meaning to the O's and 1's - or the X's and O's - all with the same inherent meaning. what i've observed about myspace is that since everyone gets only a small box that you can have your pic in - or long box in the case of some folks who need to have bigger pix - everyone's the same. like going into blockbuster and seeing "Lawrence of Arabia" next to "Larry the Cable Guy" movies. (I'm not knocking Larry. I added his comedy page, he's hilarious) My point is, everything becomes relative when it's reduced in size, and scope. Blockbuster titles are all just boxes in a row. They don't reflect the hours and blood sweat and tears that have gone into these films, these works or art, or works of non art.. they're just dvd boxes in a row.

like the pix on your myspace page. just a bunch of pixels - and when you see them, you get an emotion attached to them - 'oh, i love that guy's work' or 'isn't she unsual?' or 'i didn't know he was on myspace.' of course they probably aren't, but their PRbot may print out a missive or two and pass 'em along..

which isn't to say that i haven't had some interesting conversations here.. i have. about all kinds of things.. i guess what i'm trying to say is that what it all boils down to is.. 'always connect.' it may be that we're connecting with people from our past, or connecting with people from our future.. or past lives, or future lives, or what have you. There's a law in phsyics that shows that the atoms and ions and gluons that bounce around each other have a tendency to find out other atoms and ions that they've bounced around with before.. attracted to places and other atoms they've already been.. so maybe that's also true of myspace. we're just bouncing atoms finding each other again in the ephemera of webspace.

my two cents.