FROGGY FART CHRISTMAS

SOMETHING GOOD THIS WAY : JAKOB DYLAN

JOINING GREEK LIFE? YOU MAY NEED A TRUST FUND FOR REHAB and UNDER-REPORTED ON THE IDAHO FOUR MURDERS

GREEK LIFE and "ALCOHOL ADDICTION" by Recovery Village   Interesting stats.

Statistics from other surveys show the direct effects of substance use in Greek organizations. Each year:

• Around 500,000 members suffer unintentional injuries related to substance use 
• 70,000 cases of sexual assault and acquaintance rape
• 1,400 members die from alcohol-related causes
• 600,000 assaults occur
• 50% of members perform poorly on important school assignments *************************************

GREEK LIFE is your straight ticket to being a boozer and druggie.

Let's say you yourself are not an "alcohol addict." But somehow you get into one of the frats or sororities where you are surrounded by people who are....

I chose to link to this site because it seems comprehensive.

*************************************

Though I don't usually follow true crime podcasts, I've been following the many articles and videos regarding the "Idaho Four."  By doing so I've been able to eliminate a great number of content creators who are piggy backing on more journalistic offerings.  I'm also avoiding any headline that might suggest the police and many other investigators aren't qualified.

I have yet to find ANY media that would suggest that any of the four murdered college students were alcoholic.  Never the less, while again I don't think anyone deserves to be murdered (or the victim of any crime) I think the investigation WILL have to ask some tough questions about the victim's life styles. 

For instance a person who drinks to the point of stumbling around drunk IS NOT BEING VIGILANT.  

From reviewing hundreds of articles and broadcasts repeated on YouTube,  it does SEEM that Kaylee, was supposed to be part of the winter graduation, but had already moved out of sorority house in the past, had already moved or was moving out of the house in which she was murdered. She had broken up with her long term (five year) boyfriend, you could say her high school or college boyfriend, and was moving to Texas to begin a career. She was back in town to visit and tie up loose ends.  She was doing what many do once graduated, starting a new life in another part of the country, but was there someone who could not bear that thought that he or she would never see her again? 

She might have been sleeping in the same bed as her best friend/sister since the 6th grade Maddy because?  Perhaps her own bed had been moved out.  Perhaps they drunkly fell into bed together.  Perhaps they were both bisexual. 

Her dad is the most openly vocal and angry of the parents.  We do understand the shock that the parents and family members, close friends, and living housemates, must have experienced, and the grief they are experiencing.  Never the less, Kaylee's parents hiring a lawyer to go against the police give me the impression they will sue someone - the police, the landlord, the school.... Someone!  It will not be enough for them that hundreds of professionals and millions of dollars are spent on finding the murderer.  They are acting as if they are special.

THIS IS NOT CSI the television crime solving series. Even CSI  - admits that technologies that do not yet exist are used on the show.  It takes much more than an hour to solve a crime.  DNA evidence is fairly new.

I await the reveal of the autopsy information including the booze in Kaylee's blood...  If she were not drinking for some time at the bar before going to the food truck, I would be less apt to think of this as a "crime of opportunity."  That phrase is used to describe a criminal who preys upon someone because they are a good target, and in that sense there is nothing personal.  I.e. the rapist who follows a drunk woman home.

I also feel speculative about the identity of the killer or killers and their motivation.  The idea that there might have been a get away car. Or that there was more than one murderer. 

I think it's possible that other people did show up at the house and see the crime scene and fled, perhaps out of shock and fear.

As for individual locks on the doors, it's clear to me that the owner of the house clearly intended to rent to students, one after another.  Someone still on the lease and paying rent for months though moved out?  An empty room for the dog to be put into to the killer to hide in?  I'm curious about the rent, and if the rent was only affordable to students with rich parents.  I can imagine the individuals in the house locking their personal doors when out for the day, but not locking them while at home.

Maybe a frat boy went on a rampage.  

It could be that someone heard she would be back in town.  One last chance.

So, was Kaylee nice to everyone?  Too nice?  Or was she a Greek Life snob?  There has been no discussion in the media about that possibility. Her grades were excellent AND she had time to party? She also worked part time at the restaurant.  She does sound like a dynamo. WHY do people join Greek Life?  I think, from reading around this subject, that they intend to have networks for career in place, that they want out of the dorms, and that it's also about being elite or rich enough to afford all that comes with it. But if your purpose in attending college is a career, perhaps the social and career network is the purpose of Greek Life. Oh, and to find a marriage partner who also has potential, comes from money, etc.  As campus get to the point of having thousands of students, the frat or sorority becomes a smaller pool of associates.

But all the reportage that drinking is "just letting off steam" and something that all college students do - they are adults but called "KIDS" shows me just how ignorant the media is about alcohol.

*****

Addition to original post on 12/23/2022

As I search for new information on this case, "the Idaho Four" I see that the case may not be cold, but after about six weeks of very frequent reportage, including by independent content creators who post on YouTube, reportage with NEWS (ie what's NEW)  is subsiding. It may be that there is a lull, that the speculation has not been fed with anything much since the spectacle of the white car search, which seemed to end when a crashed car fitting the description was discovered in Oregon. The video of a police call to the house when a party was going on but none of the room mates was actually home was revealed.

More proof of behavior that's NOT SAFER BEHAVIOR.  And proof that there wasn't just a hell of a lot of DNA in that house, but also that at least one, if not all housemates, were terribly irresponsible about allowing access to the house.  I'm really sick of the reportage being that they were KIDS, and also that they were TYPICAL COLLEGE STUDENTS.  No they were not.

I'm using the term Safer here akin to when we use the term Safer re Safer sex rather than Safe Sex. Safer behavior may not entirely eliminate danger but will greatly improve your chances of not being exploited or infected so...   

If you're reading this and wonder...

Drinking to the point of being drunk, especially stumbling around drunk, greatly increases your chances of being exploited and targeted.  Usually for sex, but could be for murder.

Giving out the codes to bypass the security of your house or room is dangerous behavior.  You really want people to know what all you have?  To go into your personal areas?

Allowing people to use your house to party when you are not home is ridiculous.  They bring other people in who you may never have met.  This level of "trust" is foolish. Not to be confused with being "social." 

You cannot trust the vetting process of a sorority or fraternity to ensure that the people you surround yourself with are all OK. While you can have by choice a "family of friends" in addition to or as a substitute for the family of birth or adoption, the entire sorority or fraternity is NOT YOUR FAMILY. Further HAZING and other stupid rituals of acceptance that are about power and degrading or humiliating others to prove how much they want to be one of your brothers or sisters is fundamentally beyond immature, it is sick. Do you intend to keep up that attitude and behavior when you graduate and are employed or working your own business?  (In my opinion, colleges should no longer allow these organizations on campus' because colleges supposedly stand for inclusion.)

So let me tell you what those I've met in life who became members of AA and other 12 step type clubs told me years ago, when I asked them to explain. THE TIME YOU SPEND DRUNK OR HIGH is not time in which you experience life, but time you are escaping it.  A person who starts drinking as a lifestyle at 18 who quits at 38 is often a 38 year old who is still thinking and acting like an 18 year old. I do realize there is controversy and confusion about at what point a person is actually alcoholic. For instance, drinking and driving  - when you are impaired - could be defined as one beer. Also, some people are allergic to alcohol or do not physically process it through their system the same.  If you rarely drink it may effect you more profoundly.  Some people define it as, even if it is only one glass of wine, if it is being drunk for an alteration of mood or to escape, then it is your purpose in drinking that defines you.

A while back some friends took me out to lunch and we ate a lot of food and I had one glass of wine.  That wine hit me quickly and did not seem to effect them at all.

Your friends who drink more than you may be your examples or define for you that since you're not keeping up with them, they have the problem, and you don't.

I simply ask you to be self aware and ask yourself honestly how much you are drinking and how often and why. 

If you graduate or leave college after the Greek Life, you may network with others in that life for years, however, if you have been alcoholic as a way of coping with the "stress" of academic stress, before you move to another state to begin your career, or attempt to have an adult, independent life, with a good career too, you very likely want to quit the booze. (Or drugs.) The stress and responsibility of adult life is usually beyond what you experience in college. You won't just have to show up for classes but be on time for work and work for many hours a week.  You may partner, have children to raise right, have family responsibilities that include caring for parents.

Going out to celebrate after completing a semester or quarter or on break is different than parties every day or every weekend. A drink with dinner is different than a case of beer. However, some people can still have that one beer, be drunk, and drive irresponsibly. Some people can drink to the point of throwing up, then ace a test the next day. But, it's more likely that you wont study well with a hang-over. 

Some people point to the Greek Life brother or sister as an example.  Academic excellence as proof that the person does not have a problem with substances.  However, that person may also be blessed with a high-IQ, may have had a pre-college education that put them ahead of their peers, may cheat, or in some way be exceptional.

Take it from someone who has had the alcoholic boss, who, along with others at work, lived around what mood or condition he would come into work with. His lateness and his excuses for being out and gone most afternoons, while his secretary help-mate did massive amounts of trouble-shooting.  

At another job, an alcoholic co-worker of sorts who came in most mornings in a rotten mood, even abusive. One wondered why this person had not been fired for all the misery, but like a college student who still got good grades, he managed to make his quotas.  There were (and still are) lots of people who accommodate.

There is also this aspect of alcoholism, and that is that is one way or another, in adult life it throws responsibility that is yours onto other people who are often unable to say no to taking on more. 

C 2022  Wishing all of you a better tomorrow.  Christine Trzyna

DALE CARSON LAW ON IDAHO STUDENT MURDERS : PROFILING A CRIMINAL

Listen well to this because he's telling the truth.  Criminals are LOOKING FOR YOUR VULNERABILITY... so they can victimize you. Violent offenders... White Collar Criminals... strangers... your own relatives.

Women are harassed and threatened so very much.  The police sometimes will not take the reports...

Just the other day a woman I know who waitresses for a restaurant that is known for it's sexy waitresses and encourages them towards showing their bodies as their skimpy uniform includes t-shirts that emphasize breasts and has a yearly calendar of their waitresses, was harassed by three men who intimidated her on the street on their way home.  They tried to evaluate her beauty there in the street which was horrible behavior in the first place.  They knew where she worked. One of them showed up there to ask her how it had felt to be intimidated that way.

She said she had pepper spray but that is not good enough.

I very much wish she would take her excellent waitressing skills to another restaurant where she doesn't have to show her body like that...

BLACK FRIDAY CLUES TO THE IDAHO STUDENT MURDERS CASE - WHAT'S OF VALUE?

Having now read articles or watched videos - at least a hundred - searching for new information on this case, I can tell you that there are many news media that have not and are not up on the latest and reporting erroneously. Mish-mashing like that is not responsible journalism. Piggy backing on main stream news by citizens is not the same as news media and responsible journalists not even knowing what has already been broadcast. Speculations and amateur sleuths can sometimes be valuable to an investigation as well but that's not the same as news media and responsible journalists being so out of it when it comes to the competitor's reportage, the scoops. I watched one news outlet that had a group of people discussing the case and it was clear they were about three days behind. 

WHAT'S OF VALUE?

The first thing to do as you search for information on this horrible murder scene is to forget any psychic medium predictions or tarot card readings. Sorry... Don't waste your time.

Second... Forget any criticisms that the police are inept or bumbling. The local force called in experts right away and the FBI is on it, a million more dollars towards the investigation is incoming... A great number of hours have been spent and will be spent. Be it that the killer has killed before or not, be it that this is the work of a serial killer and can be tied into one or two other, somewhat similar murders, they are not just looking BACK, they want to find the killer or killers SO THEY DON'T GET TO KILL AGAIN. They are doing everything they can and far more than they could have ever done in the days before DNA.  This is not a television show or film where crimes are solved as you watch. This real time crime research has already been aided by technology when it comes to the timeline especially which it would not have had as an advantage before video cameras on food trucks and before cell phone calls. So, if these murders happened even 20 years ago, they would have to proceed with none of that information.

Third ... Dr. Todd Grande...  making an issue of the phone call someone made reporting an unconscious person rather than a blood bath...  I'm NOT in the psychology profession but I can tell you this... This man does not know his stuff.

WHAT LIKELY HAPPENED IS THAT THE PERSON SAW ONE BODY, maybe by opening a bedroom door that was unlocked slightly, to peer in because they wanted to respect the right and need of privacy, and did not see the bloodbath.

If you are living with someone and had a late night yourself or know they are usually up by a certain time and you're sure they're home but hours have passed and you start to wonder, well, how do you know why they're in their room?  Maybe they have someone in there with them or are ill.  I can imagine a person going to the door, calling a name, knocking gently... taking a while to open the door. Who would think that they were going to come upon a crime scene?

Or if they did, they may have gone into shock and not been able to process it mentally.  I don't know the name for that condition but I know that people who are terribly frightened cannot always process and there is also something called a cover memory. That person may have called friends over for comfort or advice and unable to say or do more. A group of friends may have assembled to talk about what to do. In youth some of that discussion might be about who to tell because your friends are trusted more than your parents or authority figures.  So they bonded, trying to figure out what to say or do.  

THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO UP ON WHY the two women whose bedrooms were on the first floor, the original part of the house, might not have been awakened by the murders taking place upstairs. Floor plans and explanation by Johnny Law.

Daily Mail (UK - ONLINE) broke the news that a witness had told the police that the girls had drunk a lot at the bar and that one of them was stumbling tipsy. They had not nursed a beer for the night. The food truck video also reveals this - a swaying and stumble. Also news is that the person who was giving them a ride home (about a five minute ride if that) called to them to hurry up and they left the food truck without paying. The food truck employee says he gave them the food anyway so it's more that they were not paying attention and ran to get the ride. They had to get home and eat that food there. Likely they are regulars who always pay so no fuss was made.  THE FACT THAT TWO OF THE GIRLS WERE DRUNK after up to about three hours at the bar, means to me that they got right home, could have been sloppy about the door lock, but likely just fell into bed, half passed out, and would have been INATTENTIVE. So much for the sister of one of them going on about how aware and safety aware her sister was.  When a person is drunk, especially very drunk, they are unable to be as aware as a person who is sober and well rested.  Sorry!  This falls right in line with my idea that frats and sororities and party houses are a lot about alcohol and alcoholism and that party anywhere is assumed to include alcohol.

All these people on media and in videos saying "So what, all college students drink, get drunk, party..." THEY ARE SO WRONG.  I didn't and I don't think most students who care about their grades or who work and go to school have the party and booze  or/and drugs lifestyle.

Further, the same sister says that it was normal for her sister to call people late and in the middle of the night, even to ask someone what she should make for a meal.  This is not normal or acceptable behavior. It's not even easy for me to understand why someone who was excelling in college, going to graduate, and start a good job, all that, would not know better. No concern for other people's sleep? That needy? Why would anyone have their phone on to take calls after their bed time? If someone tried to rouse me with repetitive phone calls after I went to bed and it was not an emergency, especially if this was ongoing, I would not be able to stay friends with them. I recall I once had an associate who said taking such calls was the 'price of friendship' but I thought that she and I were not friends and that it was a very high price. Yes, if someone is a close friend and going through a bad time, you want to be there for them, and you might tell them to call you any time. I've done some time talking to a depressed person to get them to the dawn, but this as a habit and for trivial things...? The woman was not normal and seems desperate for attention. So one can imagine being woken or home and not taking the calls just to try and discourage them from that behavior.

The reportage says that the time stamp on those calls means that they were calls made before the murder...  could be... COULD also be that with the last bit of breath or energy that one or two of them had, they called Jack because Jack was the person they felt closest to - for help - or to say I'm dying I love you...  I know you might think that such a call would be to 911 or the police but maybe as you're bleeding out you don't think of that, or the 911 number was not right there in the phone. It's also possible the calls were made while a murder was happening in another room.  Someone woke up and again thought of Jack...

As I was telling a friend I met up with Thanksgiving, after a major earthquake, after checking in on an elderly neighbor who did need help, the first thing I did was try to connect with the person who was my best friend at the time, wanting to be sure they were OK.  And another time when I experienced a crisis, I found myself calling an old best friend. I just recalled an old phone number and had dialed it before I realized what I was doing.

So, basically, the many calls to Jack, a long time boyfriend, friend of the family, and good guy, should not be condemning to Jack.

Bleeding out.  An early report said they had been stabbed in the upper body.  Mention of where they were stabbed seems to have fallen out of reportage. Would a person awaken from a drunken pass out or deep sleep at the first pain? Well, not if the first stab was in the heart or another vulnerable place... I tried to find out how long a person takes to bleed out and die and it depends on where they were stabbed but THREE MINUTES was the given on the Internet. 

MARK FUHRMAN - Believe him, he's good, and he knew what happened when Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered too.  We do need to be patient and let the analysis come when ready. The term sloppy has been thrown around.  Sloppy Killer. Sloppy investigation.  I think what was meant by sloppy killer is that he or she or they left evidence, and if they had a plan once they got into the house and into action were finding out their fantasies were not how it goes in reality. That's generally good for the detectives.

The knife. Sadly, I get advertisements for the latest military grade knives and other survival equipment including a "flashlight" that has a focused flame that cuts through metal, on YouTube videos.  A person does not have to go to a store to buy anything these days.  Autopsy : They know the length of knife from the depth of the stabs.

KEEP IT IN THE NEWS ; Unsold murder mysteries, called Cold Cases, once they go away on media tend to go into a file and are forgotten.  Do you know something or think you could help with speculations? Having a child murdered hurts the parents forever...and so I wonder if there is any chance that one or all of them were killed to hurt someone else, threaten someone else, you know like in organized crime. 

LOU REED - LAST INTERVIEW - MUSIC and the SOUND of HEARTBEATS and LOVE

Beautiful interview and he was just so ill.

I once met the woman, an early girlfriend, who was the inspiration for the song Sweet Jane. 

READING SURROUNDED BY NARCISSISTS by THOMAS ERIKSON while DETECTIVES WORK ON THE IDAHO COLLEGE STUDENT MURDERS

Yes, I'm reading this brand new book about Narcissism, and it's full of bad news. They're everywhere, their being raised, and they'll do anything include revenge you and ruin your reputation or your career or your marriage if you don't get the hell out of there, and even then.  If they don't suck your energy from you like vampires, if they don't break your bank, if they don't get away with taking credit for your work, if they don't steal your intellectual property or your image...

They have to get their way, it's all about them. They may even have had a PLAN to get into your life, a long range plan, and a PLAN to get what they want...  No possibility of True Love there because they don't have empathy for you, what they put you through.

Subtitled How To Effectively Recognize, Avoid, and Defend Yourself Against Toxic People (and Not Lose Your Mind.)

This is all so sad.  Because those who are naturally empathic, who care, who are loving and giving of themselves, are punished for it when all that goes to a Narcissist, be that a partner, a boss, or your relatives.

But, you may be wondering, how might this tie in with the murder of four Idaho college students last week, which is quite the murder mystery at this point, one I and thousands of other people are listening in on.

Well, I'll tell you.

You see, I watched the video of two of the women who were murdered a couple hours later, at the food truck, their last stop before going home. They took a ride that wasn't Uber or Lyft, and why not when they were a five minute ride from home? These two appeared to be in "bestie" girlfriend mode after some time spent at a local bar, where perhaps they had not eaten, and - am I imagining this - though it had been a long night - took a picture of themselves together to prove what and to whom?  That they were still having a good time?  

I don't get people who are constantly photographing themselves to share, as if they have to prove they are popular and having a good time all the time.  Like Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie.... As Thomas Erikson suggests, a new "influencer" is born every five minutes.  What's going to happen to all those photos anyway?  "Well, now, here's the time when we just got food at the food truck?"

No, these people were not trying to be Internet Sensations, but they were, all of the murdered, very much into "Greek Life," into the fraternity and sorority scene,and they lived in a "party house" not far from the "row" of houses on campus. To me, someone who thinks that the whole frat and sorority scene is about alcoholism, drunk sex, and rape, and TO BE AVOIDED, not only is every person at the bar that night a suspect, every person in the frat and sorority is also.  When it comes right down to it, they are people who exclude, who think they are very special, better and more deserving than others. Greek Life should end on all campus'.  (A person can still find such clubs and organizations off campus, but a university that stands for inclusion, should no allow it.) In short, snobs are obnoxious. They don't deserved to be murdered, no one does, but the sense of entitlement and other attitudes that are typified as narcissism, are played out in those places, and only amplified by the constant proofing of privilege.

MORE THAN THAT, if the local detectives are feeling sure this bloodbath happened because one of the women rejected a MAN, it very well might be that one of the four rejected someone of the same sex, a WOMAN, even someone who was transgendering.

And a motive might not be revenge for a break up or revenge because someone was just not feeling it and didn't want to go on a date, THE MOTIVE MIGHT BE THAT THE PERSON WANTED IN ON ALL THAT "POPULARITY," all that "PARTY," all that SOCIAL LIFE, all that bouncing around and smiling for the camera, all those SELFIES. (a sure sign of narcissism, even if author Erikson doesn't mention it). 

They might have been a FRAT/ SORORITY REJECT. Subject to hazing or other rituals of ridicule.

We don't have to imagine an ex; stalkers are not always heterosexual people who are obsessed with another person with sexual and/or romantic fantasies. They are not always people who you were married to, engaged to, having an affair with, dating steadily, or ever dated at all.  

They could be your heterosexually married friend, a wife and mother, who has a lesbian crush on you anyway, who you said No to...

So, while the detectives get ready to hold a press conference and probably know a whole lot more than has been speculated in the media, or released to the media, I hope they're in reality about college campus lifestyles. 

"Greek Life" Is their any proof that the ancient Greeks lived like this? Ancient Greek men may have only seen sex with woman, other than sacred prostitutes in the temples, as for breeding only. They may have been more into what we would consider to be homosexuality.

C 2022  Christine Trzyna

SENTIMENTAL MOOD : EXPERIENCE THIRTY-FIVE : CHRISTINE TRZYNA WRITING WORKSHOP

Sentimental? Defined as : of or prompted by feelings of tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia.

Nostalgia? Defined as : a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.

***

These intertwined definitions of a certain mood ...  can you relate to them?  What, if anything, are you nostalgic or sentimental about?  Is it possible to think of the past without being either?  The happy past?  What if you're not sentimental or nostalgic in general? 

C 2018-20223 Christine Trzyna 

All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights
OK to use this post in not for profit situations. Please credit me. Send me love.  It's karma.

LAUGHING OUT LOUD AT ONE IN THE MORNING WITH MISS PAMELA'S WRITING GROUP and the SOBERING REALITIES OF TEENAGE GIRLS WITH ADULT MEN WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER

LAUGHING OUT LOUD AT ONE IN THE MORNING WITH MISS PAMELA'S WRITING GROUP and the SOBERING REALITIES OF TEENAGE GIRLS WITH ADULT MEN WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER

by Christine Trzyna  C 2022

It seems in the last few days I've spent an inexcusable amount of time on the internet - especially YouTube - looking for something interesting to read or listen to.  Especially inexcusable because I've also been making my way through a long audio- book.  I've been listening to the newish bio of Led Zeppelin by Bob Spitz that's bringing up the controversy of rock stars having sex with "Baby Groupies," girls well below the age of consent. This latest bio about one of the rock and roll bands I didn't grow up with but have come to consider a favorite, is the best I've read about that band.

I was feeling exhausted.  I just wanted to lay in bed and kid myself that I was being productive since the day had been a bust and I was feeling a bit angry, frustrated, and helpless. I'd retreated for a bit to the Daily Mail UK habit I need to give up but there it was - an article that mentioned Bob Spitz's book. Then articles about the accusations against Warren Beatty.

The actor Warren Beatty has now been accused of grooming and having sex with a girl under the age of consent, a fourteen year old, which she says took place in the 1970's. The now sixty-something woman has been vocal while the eighty-something Beatty has been silent. Beatty the famous lothario, now long married, will probably pay up, is my guess, or say he has senile memory loss and can't remember her. It's a new California law that allows people to sue all these years later and she and Beatty both live in California. It is unlikely he will be prosecuted like director Roman Polansky, who ran for it and spent his life living in France, after having sex with a thirteen year old girl in 1977, one he had drugged first.

I can't help myself.  I'm wondering if Lori Maddox/Mattox/Lightning will try to sue Jimmy Page, the studio musician who became the Guitar God of Led Zeppelin, who seems firmly rooted in England and who once, in Los Angeles, dumped the over-the-age-of-consent Pamela des Barres for the under-the-age-of-consent Lori.  But then, Lori would also want to sue the estate of David Bowie because he got her first.

The Led Zeppelin bio and the Beatty news made me think of Pamela des Barres (maiden name Pamela Miller) of Reseda, California, called The Queen Of The Groupies, a title she has tried to own as a Brand but which she is not in agreement with exactly. Pamela, whose every book I've read at some point in the past. She's working on two or three other books right now that I can't wait to read and, bless her, has turned what she knows/ experienced and who she knows into a 'cottage industry.' I admire that she is doing so, being independent and self-supporting. She's not the only woman I know or have known who had to find some way to make it on her own, and she has lots of true stories to tell. 

For all that, I'd never listened to her podcasts. I decided to treat myself to one in which her "dolls' the all female members of her long time writer's group, read their stuff.  At about one in the morning I laughed till I cried as one member read about her encounter with Axl Rose of Guns and Roses, Axl walking around wearing cowboy chaps with his bare butt showing. 

The entire podcast might rightly be called a 'hen party' due to the cackling and the laughter. It seemed as if these women had a lot of love for each other, at least in context of the group podcast. Was every Sunday afternoon meet-up in the San Fernando Valley that much fun? How much does Miss Pamela charge for her class?

(Rather than allow this post to be an advert for the group of Pamela's other enterprises such as Hollywood tours, clothing and jewelry sales, and so on, I'll let you search the internet or YouTube, which will easily bring up her offerings.)

It seems that, like my old in-person writing workshop and my Christine Trzyna Writing Workshop that appears on this blog for readers to enjoy, Pamela gives prompts and maintains a supportive rather than non-judgmental atmosphere for her students. No doubt some of her students were or are music business associated and might qualify to have been groupies, at least for one group or one particular musician.

I've never been a groupie. I just love music, especially rock and roll. I've been collecting lyrics as poetry since I was a teenager.  I love some of the singer-songwriters music too. That's why I post so many music videos here.

My meeting or sighting celebrities has happened by just living life, but I've never conjured meeting anyone, targeted anyone, or had intent. I'm not overly awed. And that has served me well.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a woman "chasing" men but I can't remember having ever done so. Some women have had a better experience of this, but I've come to think that even letting someone know I'm interested is a mistake. I also don't like being chased. 

Recently I stopped in at a coffee house where I had not been in about four months. I would have kept on walking but I saw a man I'm friendly with who's interesting to talk with sitting outside. I sat with him over a tall and a refill. While sitting there a car pulled up. My friend, in general a humble and honest person, tossed his head the other way and muttered, "He's gotten away with some things here he never should.  I no longer talk to him."

He had told me months ago that one of the regulars there, the man in the car, a man who is at least 50, but might be closer to 60, had gotten a teenager pregnant. He said that everyone knew about it because this obviously pregnant girl had shown up there looking for him to talk to him and he had threatened her that she was never to come there looking for him. The word Kill had been used as in "If you show up here again I will Kill you."

I could just imagine the girl, maybe love-sick and wondering why her 'boyfriend' was nowhere to be found, the quickening inside her, confused and perhaps desperate, being verbally abused and devastated and going away wondering how she would get through the birth. If she went to social services for help and told the truth, who the father was, they'd go after him for support and maybe have him arrested. Was she going to lie?  Would some man who is not the father step up to the responsibility?  Was the baby going to be put up for adoption?

A lot of people had overheard the threats and well, I don't know who she is or how far along she was or if her parents know he's the father. I don't know if she has parents, is a foster kid, or is perhaps homeless. I don't know if she uses drugs or is addicted, if she's got prenatal care, or if she had thought about abortion. I don't know if he chased her or she chased him or one enchanting evening it just happened. I don't know if she's gang affiliated and tough from downtown or if she's a classic good girl from the local extremely expensive Catholic high school uptown, where they still wear stiff plaid uniforms, kept innocent and not fully aware of what was happening to her. I don't know if she's 17 and a half or just turned 14 or if she was a virgin: She's a 'teenager' pregnant by a man old enough to be her father or her grandfather. She's in trouble and the man is no good.  He should have known better.

The man, unmarried, said to be an apartment manager or repairman, living alone, is also said to already have four or five children; I have no idea if he contributes to their lives in any way or if he is the worst of men, what I call a "sperminator," who might as well be a fish and might have done himself and a lot of other people - including We The People - a favor and had himself fixed. Has he been married?  Is he divorced? How many times? How many children with how many women? 

Shit, he's no Mick Jagger.  

I'd seen this man around but had never once had a conversation with him. He seemed tightly wound and had once let out a growl at the sight of me sitting at a table I suppose he wanted. I got there first and was all set up and was not about to move, so I ignored him and he went away. I was almost always gone from there before nightfall, usually home to make dinner and walk my dog, so I had never been there late enough. I heard some men, some always dateless men, say open mic night was good for "girl-watching." Had she been one of those girls who was watched? Did he chase her and "get" her just to prove he could to the other men?

I can't say he "cavorted" - ah that word, from Carly Simon's song "You're So Vain," which, after decades of demuring, she finally admitted was about Warren Beatty... 

But that girl's bringing a life into this world and I remember the girls who were pregnant in my high school.

The man who threatened the pregnant girl when I wasn't there is in good shape, some evidence of weight lifting, tattooed, and long haired. I peeked at him when he got out of his parked car. It seemed to me he had aged a decade since I last saw him around, face extremely wrinkled, fast like a character on Twilight Zone who might just turn to dust.

He's usually shows up in a sports car blaring rock and roll. If asked to say something good about him I'd say, "He has great taste in music."  But he was pulling up in larger, older car, no music.

I heard he played guitar but did not perform for the open mic's. It's doubtful he was ever in a band that made a demo to pitch to a record company or that got picked up by one. But, was he honing the effect of being a rock star in order to pick up girls, under-age girls?  He would not be the first or last to do that. For some men, it was the way they operated.

I find myself in a quandary about statutory rape, because it's true that some girls do sometimes quite deliberately seek out and place themselves to meet and have sex with real rock stars (and other celebrities). Some girls will target the wanna-be's and or even the mere boy next door. We cannot assume female sexual passivity or lack of desire. Groupies haunt clubs and rock star hang outs. They go to hotels where they've learned a band is staying. There are very likely 14 year old groupies doing so right now, who do not care about the Me-Too Movement. Some of them will do whatever it takes to get past security. They can be goal oriented and aggressive. Some of these girls could be stalkers. Or if desired by a musician or a band, a girl can simply be selected from an audience or invited to fly. I suspect they are not parented girls. One or both parents are missing or not responsible or weak. 

I happen to know that the film Almost Famous, one of my favorites, is fairly accurate, though romanticized; that wonderful bus scene where all passengers get out of their funk by singing Tiny Dancer. But it's beyond, like in the movie, the boys trading groupie Penny for a case of beer. 

As in the Led Zeppelin book by Bob Spitz, there's a truism (that does not need to be true because some band members on tour do manage to not get involved in it), that mayhem including violence and outrage are how rock stars on tour are, supposedly to let off steam, release pent up feelings, emit energy. Most of the problems on tour with Led Zeppelin, according the book I listened to thus far, seemed to be caused by their manager/enforcer, Peter Grant, and the drummer John Bonham. They're depicted as out of control, violent, abusive, seriously alcoholic and hard drug addicts. I think quite likely they were also mentally ill and criminal. 

(It made me wonder why the group had been awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, during the President Obama administration. They are not Americans and there were also back in the day concerns that Page was into the dark aspects of the Occult because of his Aleister Crowley collection. That's fascinating and wanting to know more about that is one of my reasons for getting the audio-book. I just don't think it's All American.)

It's true that historically in Colonial America and in Europe girls as young as 14 were considered marriage-ready, though 16 was more common, and waiting until the man could prove he could support a family and the girl had reached 18 was more common. And then there were the vows of marriage intended to confer financial support as well as a family until death. People were aware that females who were not fully mature could be especially vulnerable to death while giving birth. Very many women did die because of maternity, leaving orphans behind or a baby without milk who followed them to the grave soon after.

It's also true that some parents, some mothers in the more recent past, have been the ones grooming their daughters to have sex with men who are far from boyhood, to become the girlfriend of this one or another because he's rich or famous. If not actively grooming, then giving permission.

Hey, Elvis and Priscilla come to mind. Her parents said OK so she was skipping school and hanging out with Elvis in Germany at fourteen. She's said he waited till they married and then, after she became a mother, was rejecting.  

Rumors persist and are published that a number of mothers who pushed their teenage daughters towards older adult men, or at least didn't object, include actor Natalie Wood's mother, actor Angelina Jolie's mother, and groupie Lori Mattox's mother. Jimmy Page called Lori's mom to ask her if he'd be sued if he dated her daughter, according to Spitz. Even if everyone around these people knows there's a too young girl in there with an adult man who should know better, and there are many people in service of the stars or dependent on them for their income who are enablers and procurers, that girl is going to have a memory.

We can hope it's as good and wonderful and funny as those that caused such riotous laughter at Miss Pamela's writing salon podcast. We can hope that any grief as a result of the experience is about loosing at the game of love, bad enough at sixteen, but not about being used and abused or left with psychological problems for life. 

But are these girls left with psychological problems for life really, or is this the whole psychology profession looking for more business?

These days teens in America are having sex way earlier than ever before, if you read the statistical reports, and well, it seems like you have to be in a Christian cult if you expect to wait until you're married in the States. So, sex before the age of 18 or before you've completed high school and found contraception, may not be smart but it's not criminal if you willingly partner with someone who is age appropriate. So at what age difference is having sex with a girl most certainly criminal?  

The answer to that is that it's cultural and the groupie scene is a sub-culture. It comes down to our concepts of what consent is and how it takes place, even what male and female is, the roles we are playing. 

Frankly, it also comes down to if an adult can get away with having sex with a teen too young to give consent, perhaps only because the victim is intimidated, or because the girl, now a woman, really was having a good time, has no regrets, and is not going to press charges. And if she presses charges, that has a lot to do with the fact that it's a myth that there are lawyers out there salivating for pro-bono cases. If you do not have money to pay a lawyer for a civil case forget justice, that is unless the person who had sex with you has money, like Warren Beatty, so there's the potential of a big payout and win. So not pressing charges does not mean she was not hurt.

***

"There's music and then there's the music business." So said my one friend, from my teenage years, who was not labeled a groupie, though she was, because she was also a song writer and musician and in bands. She'd modeled a little and designed clothes and sewed and also made jewelry, which was how we met, in a metalcrafts and jewelry class. Like Pamela des Barres, my friend met, had herself photographed, and made some life-long friends of the upcoming and the famous musicians. She wanted success and fame. I wanted that for her too. I was conned by her charisma. She promoted herself to me in all those letters she wrote me, signed Dazed and Confused. I was, and still am, proud of her for attempting, as a woman, to be part of the testosterone-fueled world of rock and roll, but she played at it as a "chick" too.

***

There are a great many men who have alter egos that have little to do with the reality of their day to day life.

I once had a male friend who I thought of last night as I listened to the "dolls' read their short stories,  those stories written in 12 minutes in flow, when one of them mentioned going to a club called Power Tool. That club was located in a downtown Los Angeles hotel, the Park Plaza, that had seen better days but still had a ballroom set up for disco. Though it was supposed to be something of a secret, underground club, it was advertised in the LA Weekly. 

This writer who read her work at Miss Pamela's writing salon, a different one than the one who had her moment with Axl, had been scammed by a couple wanna be rockstars (who did have some later success) when they stuck her for their dinner bill at Cantor's deli. She'd met them at Power Tool where it all started with them begging her to ride them home in her car that was so old it could not go in reverse and had to be pushed out of parking spaces. It turned out this was a scam they had pulled off a number of times. They were opportunists and users and had taken advantage of a poor and trusting young woman, but all these years later it was funny because they had not harmed her worse.

One time I agreed to go to Power Tool with this man friend of mine. We also agreed that once there we would split up as he felt that he didn't want any of the women he was bound to meet to think I was a girlfriend. (In 2022 I think this was bullshit.)

It was a bad night. The place was not well attended, there was no band, and there was, overwhelmingly, men who didn't really want to dance and were around the walls watching the dance ball throw some light on the carpet. They just wanted to hold themselves back and cruise, maybe thinking the beauty of their dreams was going to show up and fall in love with them at first sight, which was their fantasy.  (In 2022 I think maybe these men were escapees from one of those seminars on how to be tricky to pick up women, dolts who were socially awkward.) It was about 5% women and yet not one was on the dance floor with a man. A  couple women decided to dance with each other. I did my usual jiggle to show I was willing to dance but no one had approached me. After about a half hour I was bored and wanted to leave. I asked a man standing near me who also seemed to be giving a jiggle if he wanted to dance and he yelled NO!  (Maybe so I could hear him over the blaring house music?) 

After walking around the lobby and investigating to see if there were more interesting spaces in the old hotel open to the public, the music blasting too loud to have any conversation anyway, I went looking for my friend, who had not been on the dance floor. 

I found him posing, sitting atop a picnic bench in an outdoor area, posing as if he was a male model awaiting an important photographer who would put him on the cover of Rolling Stone. There he sat, his left leg folded up, his right leg down straight on the table-top, his shoe pointed, his head held up as if he was looking in the distance towards an unmentionable goal, a big solid smile on his face, aware but not making eye contact with anyone. His cheekbones gleamed in the dull light. My friend had the sinewy look of a long distance runner and long hair to his shoulders. He was wearing black jeans, a red long sleeved T-shirt, and important tennis shoes, the kind musicians wore on stage with rubber soles that might prevent an accidental electrocution. There were four or five young girls sitting there on the bench of the picnic table looking up at him, adoring him.  He was letting them.

Maybe they were trying to figure out who he was.  (Maybe he was trying to figure out who he was.)

He didn't break his pose. I came back twenty minutes later and the same thing.

I spoke up.

"Let's go! There's nothing happening here!"

For him there was.

It took over an hour to get out of there and by then I'm sure I'd become a pain in the ass about it. I've got no idea if these girls all forked over their phone numbers or he asked any one of them or all of them for phone numbers. I walked around and came back again and again to see what progress he might be making. Did any one of them think how weird it was?  As if he were the Virgin Mary and it was Fatima!

I don't know what he said to them, but I'm sure to this day they all thought they were close to the glow of a soon to be rock star, and if not that, then a producer. I knew he had told some women he was a producer. It wasn't true or not true. He had written songs, all as long as Stairway to Heaven, he did play the guitar, not real well. He did have a little equipment but nothing close to state of the art. 

Don't imagine a secret studio with press board walls lined with egg cartons hidden in a San Fernando Valley garage though. He did live in a garage apartment which he didn't pay rent for, in back his parent's house. He was playing at being a producer while he kept his day job and if some youngish starlet who got stage fright claimed she was actually a rock star he would go see her plink some strings and offer to produce her music while she found herself a lawyer, preferably an entertainment lawyer, to marry.  (One of these lied to him that someday she was going to have a band and he was going to be in it. Bla bla bla.)

I know we do all have to start somewhere, and in life sometimes we have to re-start again and again, but his day job did not produce the steady and reliable income required to say, rent an apartment even when you could still find one for $500 or less a month. By not paying rent he could afford $200 faux lizard skin tennis shoes and black leather jackets with custom air-brushed fan art painted on the back and tickets to a lot of concerts at a lot of clubs.

I never went back to PowerTool again.  I thought it was just one more so called "underground" place that got mentioned in the LA Weekly, maybe in the L A Doo Da (?!) column which frequently dropped certain people's names as if their going and doing defined what was fun in LA. 

There were people on the scene who seemed desperate for attention. They wanted to be considered special because they dressed to be noticed, such as wearing their underwear to the club, or wearing their underwear over their clothes, or not wearing underwear. They did 'outrageous' things to provoke. I don't think any of them held full time jobs or slept.  

I was not cool. I didn't care if I wasn't.

Youthful adventures on the Sunset Strip, at the Hyatt Riot House, at the Rainbow Bar and Grill, and other legendary places, can't go on and on, especially not for those who are being accepted or rejected for their looks.

The boys get off the road and/or off the drugs and go home, where they sometimes have a wife and children waiting or they finally get some perspective, get honest, and mature. There they attempt to have what so many are escaping, a 'normal' life. But, just about everyone wishes, at least secretly, at least at some time in their lives, to run away with the Band. 

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

CRAWLING OUT OF COVID DEMANDS ON FRIENDSHIPS TO ISOLATE

He said he only wanted to text and was unresponsive to e-mails.

She said e-mail was her favorite way of communicating.

I said that I prefer to talk on the phone but can only do that after dinner (and kitchen clean up) for about an hour total. (Long ago, after a few marathon phone calls that were actually visits, as I put the phone on speaker and kept doing the housework, I gave up on long phone call visits.)

He only wanted to talk late at night. 

She did not want to leave the house to get together.

I sat there, hitting individual letters of the alphabet on the phone to stay in touch, swearing up a storm as autocomplete changed words and meanings, so that I had to reread it before sending, and even then. This was not something I would usually have the time to do, but considering that so many places to go and things to do were shut down, I put in the effort.  

It was for them and for me. To keep the friendships, to reach out during a period in history when we were forced to isolate.

He said he got vaccinated right away and then with another friend took a long road trip to the American South, as if he wouldn't catch Covid in his own car, traveling the roads, checking into motels. He was out of touch and stayed that way.

She said wearing masks was not healthy for you and vaccinations would kill you. 

Vacations versus vaccinations...

In the last four years we have gotten together at an outdoor restaurant one time - unmasked. I'm sure we both looked different to each other by then.

"You got your hair cut!"

"It's too short!"

He showed up, as he had before, not long before another trip, to see if I could dog sit for cheap. He didn't say those words but I knew that was why he was on the porch, as it was his pattern. I said I'd met a woman who ran a doggie motel out of her own beautiful home and all the dogs there looked happy. (Last time I doggie sat for him he left me no food in the fridge, I got no cell reception, couldn't get the Netfix/Amazon to work, and there was a hole in the back fence which one of the dogs escaped out of.)

He said, "You're looking good," and left - forever.

As her e-mails came in after that meet up, I began to think that she was actually some sort of - not terrorist - not activist - but radical with a pledge to stay alone and be alone. Then I began to think that maybe she was actually not well mentally. Was this one more "friendship" in which I had given a person more credit than they deserved?  Had she always been this way or was it acclimating to Covid, fear and paranoia, that had caused her to be so isolating?

In the past, when I was in a creative flow and/or working on a project, I was capable of making time and space work for me fairly well. My record for purposely going incognito while working on a writing project (I typed from waking until sleep again) was about three weeks. No interruptions via people or electronics allowed. If I remember correctly, I pre-stocked the kitchen so I wouldn't have to go to the market.  I stayed in flow.

But while I could purposefully isolate in order to get work done, I was also good at getting out there to a coffee house, or walking my dog.  If I needed to take a break I could go where it was easy to talk to strangers. 

The issue with the e-mail: this is where being a writer and rereading old messages was important. Was it that I had not SAID, or was it that she was not UNDERSTANDING what I said?

Communication is always two ways. You have to be sure that the person or persons you're communicating to understand what you just said (or wrote) as you intended it. By rereading the e-mail messages I had sent, I'd made it clear that I was for Food Justice while she was for Food as Medicine. I reread and realized the problem. I'm concerned about Food for Everyone while she was for Food for Herself (and her friends who could afford organic) in order to prevent illness and death. What restaurants she was willing to eat at also had to do with food quality.

In the scheme of things this is an eccentricity that should be accepted, because when it comes right down to it, she's a good person.

This reminded me of years ago when a friend made in high school who rarely kept in touch came to town for a couple days to go to a convention. I cleared my schedule for half a day and got her in my car and took her for a ride through the mountains to the beach, which is off the tourist trail and had been a thrilling experience for other visitors but did not seem to impress her. 

Then we sat down at a table and looked at each other and all the conversations we never had came down to a few to-the-point blurts.

"Does it bother YOU that you never had children?"

"Me neither!"

We then went on to such a brief mention of the circumstances of someone we both knew from back in the day, someone who had a couple of out of control spoiled brats. All she said was the woman's NAME!

"There's alcohol involved." I blurted.  

She nodded slightly, as if we were both still being faithful to the old friend, who had seemed unable to cope with her marriage and her children and that this micro-second exchange was not gossip.

Though neither of us had kept in touch, though we had not made phone calls or texted or e-mailed, we communicated.

It helped that we could look each other in the eye.

And truly, phoning with an intent to catch up is good for long distance, but locally should be used only for arranging meet ups. Because in-person communication is the very best. One catches the facial expressions, the demeanor, the tone of voice. My sense of humor does not always come across otherwise.

More recently, I told my e-mail correspondent in advance that I was working on a project, what the project was, and so on. I told her it was important to me. She had suggested we get together for lunch weeks earlier and I'd agreed, and she had put it off.  I also told her I would be spending most of my days at the library (where she could find me, on the laptop, phone off.)  I sent her a message mid-project saying "I haven't forgotten about you."

I opened that e-mail once after my brief assurance, and saw two messages from her that had headlines about organic food.  I didn't open them.  I felt hammered by her with warnings about food that isn't organic, just when my stomach was rumbling and what I lusted after was a hot dog with lots of gooey toppings from the nearby 7/11 and bags of potato chips.

I finished the project and opened the e-mail. There was a message from her that said, "I wanted to get together for lunch, but I guess you aren't interested.  That's all right."

I got mad. I had said in advance that I had a project and it was important to me and I was devoting myself to meeting a deadline. Instead she seemed to be taking personal offense.

So this morning I found an article on psychology professional approved messages one can use to text to a friend that you don't want to be friends any more. (The psychology professions had their names included.)

I hated that article.

I don't believe in blowing anyone off who has been a friend (OK, a 'real' friend) by texting or ghosting, or not communicating first that there's a problem that needs to be talked about, and worked out. 

When you do not do that, when you devalue the other person to the point where they are not even owed a conversation, an opportunity to explain, or do better, or admit they cannot change to suit you, I think that has to do with you're own shitty values.

There wasn't a single suggestion in that article that I would use on my e-mail friend.

So after I post this, I'm going to sit down and devote hours to figuring out what I need to say, what I must say, to communicate with her.

"I feel I have made a good effort for the last few years to stay in communication with you.  I have valued your friendship...

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

 

STORAGE SHEDS ARE NOT "HOMES" BEWARE THAT THE SOLUTION TO HOMELESSNESS IS BASED ON HUMANS IN STORAGE SHED "VILLAGES"

SO MUCH CAMPAIGN PROPAGANDA in the mail, much of it with claims of what certain candidates will do to "combat" or "solve" homelessness.

The counts of how many people are homeless in Southern California vary. My guess is that you can take any figure any politician is depending on and TRIPLE it. People do not want their names on census and do not believe that there is any privacy in it. 

BEWARE THE STORAGE SHEDS that are called "homes."

If there are 50,000 homeless in LA you can bet someone is going to set up 25,000 storage sheds (two homeless to a shed) and call the people who sleep in them HOUSED.

Storage sheds in "villages" may be better than a person not knowing where they are going to sleep at night, and offer more safety, especially for women who are preyed upon by (mostly) homeless men, but I do not consider a person "housed" because they are sleeping in one of these storage sheds.

IF YOU PUT A STORAGE SHED UP IN YOUR BACKYARD and run an electrical chord from your house into the shed and charge rent, that is completely illegal.

So is renting a garage that has not been converted lawfully.  Lawfully means that it has utilities installed.

Even twenty years ago thousands were living in these illegal rentals, as well as - believe this - in ACTUAL STORAGE FACILITIES.

As I wait to find out if property developer Caruso or community activist Bass win the mayor election for Los Angeles city, a very close race, I and my friends are CONCERNED.

Twenty years ago I was aware that this was the case and the problem has only gotten worse.  GREED by property developers and apartments is what has caused homelessness to become a permanent problem in Southern California.  

GREED.

Take a look at the City's list of SLUM LORDS (repetitive violations) while you're at it.  Some of those names will sound familiar.

NATURAL CAUSES by BARBARA EHRENREICH : CHRISTINE TRZYNA BOOK REVIEW

SUBTITLE : AN EPIDEMIC OF WELLNESS, the CERTAINTY of DYING, and KILLING OURSELVES TO LIVE LONGER.

Note: Ehrenreich earned a PhD in cellular immunology from Rockefeller University.

So... I loved this book and I happen to agree that people are obsessing over their heath and their upcoming death way more than they used to, way more than it is healthy to.  I agree with Barbara Ehrenreich that medical treatment often feels just like a Ritual of Humiliation.  (And frankly, conversations that detail recipes and cooking, and medical conditions and treatment are probably my least favorite. But if we are friends and you get sick, I won't dump you over it like a fair weather friend will.) We need to strike a balance between the effort to remain well and allowing ourselves some foibles 

In this book she also talks about how certain foods and habits such as smoking, and so on have had socio-cultural assumptions about class tied into them. That is to say fast food, cigarettes, and a lounge chair in front of the T.V. - beer can in hand, is assumed to be low class. Into Wellness? You're rich!

What about doctors who only want rich patients?

What about all those TV shows, celebrities, and their audiences hawking colonoscopies and mammograms? The audience applauds...  These people come off as heroic but also as medical treatment sales people and promoters.

Over diagnosis - Over-medicalization - not complying with the wishes of a patient who does not want to be resusitated. 

Here are some Excerpts:

THE MADNESS OF MINDFULNESS

page 71)  In the struggle between mind and body, perpetually reenacted by fitness-seekers, the mind is almost universally conceived as "the good guy" - the moral overdog that must by all rights prevail. Contemporary fitness culture concedes a certain advisory status to the body" We should "listen" to it, since, after all, the body is capable of doing a great many important things on its own, from healing wounds to incubating fetuses, with no discernible instructions from the conscious mind,  So if your hamstrings are squealing with pain it may be time to recalibrate the leg lifts and squats....  

Page 72-73) But can the mind be trusted? Surveying today's fitness culture, a mid-twentieth century psychiatrist would no doubt find reasons to suspect a variety of mental disorders ; masochism, narcissism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and homoerotic tendencies (which were viewed as pathological until the 1970's) -- any of which could indicate the need for professional intervention.  Even the untrained eye can detect the occasional skeletal anorectic in the gym, sweating through hours of cardiovascular training, and start to question the assumed intellectual superiority of the mind.  We have come, hesitantly, to respect the 'wisdom of the body' but can we be sure of the wisdom of the mind?

***

Page 85) It was Silicon Valley, through, that legitimized mindfulness for the rest of the business world. If mindfulness had first taken root in General Mills, it would never had gained the status it's acquired from Google and Facebook.  Baking products just don't have the cachet of digital devices.  Silicon Valley, is, after all, the 'innovation center of the universe," according to its boosters, home of the 'best and the brightest," along with the new "masters of the universe" who replaced the old ones after the financial crash that temporarily humbled Wall Street  Mindfulness may have roots in an ancient religion, but the Valley's imprimatur established that it was rational, scientific, and forward- looking.

***

Quick note.  I edited this for errors in spelling that were mine but also the result of auto-"corrects," on November 11, 2022....  I hate auto corrects, especially when what appears to be correct, doesn't show up after one sends.  Shocking also to learn well used words that are not in the dictionary.

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

SCOTT GALLOWAY on FREE SPEECH, CONTENT MODERATION, SOCIAL MEDIA, and EVIL

So glad I never Twittered.

Protection from vile hate speech....

We need protection from vile narcissists who demand that they are special and who overthrow through being the loudest and most obnoxious and through violence and destruction.

CREATIVITY is the antithesis of destruction.

YOUR MONETIZED LIFE : THE 'MADE IN CHINA' SHIT I BOUGHT WITH MY STIMULUS CHECK : GOOGLE ADS on YOUTUBE VIDEOS DEFY POSTER'S REASON FOR BEING : YOUR REAL REASONS FOR HORROR THIS HALLOWEEN

YOUR MONETIZED LIFE : THE 'MADE IN CHINA' SHIT I BOUGHT WITH MY STIMULUS CHECK : GOOGLE ADS on YOUTUBE VIDEOS DEFY POSTER'S REASON FOR BEING : YOUR REAL REASONS FOR HORROR THIS HALLOWEEN

By Christine Trzyna

ADVERTISING and MARKETING attempt to sway us, and be it the recent mud-slinging political campaign junk mail arriving in the box or the chronic ads that appear on YouTube videos and all around the Internet. The idea is to expose a person over and over again to the idea that they need to vote a certain way or buy a particular product or educational event. Why, 'they' have been following your interests based on your searches and how much time you spend on a site, and (even in Incognito) have you down to a demographic to be pitched to. 

I consider myself to be almost immune to the sway. 

For the record, the only thing I purchased on-line prior to the Covid closure were a couple books to replace ones I lost and owed the library. I did so after trying to find copies locally. I even called a store that sells used books owned by someone on my shit list because that was preferable to buying on-line.

I'm big on buying local. To this moment I've never purchased anything through Amazon. 

Then came Covid closures and stimulus checks. I determined that I would buy the things I wanted and needed locally to try and stimulate the economy of the United States of America that gave that money away, was that not the idea?  However, after putting more than 12 hours into going into the local stores and not finding a single thing on my list, I went on line. I'm not a big fan of Walmart because it's a company that so underpays it's employees that they have classes on how to get EBT food and apply for Section 8 housing, but because I didn't want to buy from various sources and pay out all that money in shipping and wait for a half dozen boxes, I did a first order that did not include any clothing. 

Those few things I purchased with my share of stimulus money were pretty much all Made in China crap, I realized once I got them and looked at the packaging notice and lived with them. The big bag of cotton balls was the exception, Made in the U.S.A. I bought the cotton balls because I needed to up the total in order to get the free shipping.  I bought things that have already broken, including electronics, and ready for the eternal stay of the landfills which also costs our economy. Those things were shipped here across the oceans, and so there was the fuel used to get them here.

So this is what I really did with the stimulus checks. I stimulated the Chinese economy. I supported Communism (even though thousands of Americans have died to combat it and we have countless homeless Viet Nam vets on the streets.)  I supported the economy of a country where a person lives in the invasive and controlling nightmare we all patriotic Americans dread; walking down the street and having an automated voice pick up on our presence electronically; electronic voices calling out such phrases as "Hey Jong, you owe thousands of dollars to your credit card company." How do these devices know who is who? You guessed it. You should think more about buying with CASH rather than being CHIPPED in the near future. And turn off your cell phone and leave at home once in a while.  Chances are good you can live without it.

China: Personal information spewed to embarrass people publicly in a country where suicide was once the main way to save face. Yes, this is happening in China, along with all sorts of violations we do not allow in America. China - A country in which human rights are questionable and, for some ethnic and religious groups, not existent. China - A country that not so long ago forced abortions and had supervisors at work places monitoring women to take the contraceptive pill. A country in which all religion was considered beyond outdated and illegal. 

How the hell can we expect God Bless America when we support China like this?

The Made in China shit I bought using my stimulus check also includes all the clothing items I purchased at Ross Dress For Less, where it's damn difficult to find anything made in the U.S.A, though those NAME BRANDS they carry, went to China to have their suitcases, bras, jeans, and so much else manufactured and that isn't Ross' fault. The company's stock has done well. Ross carries seconds, close outs, and buy outs, and things that went out of fashion season, which most people do not care about, so they profit. There is usually a few racks up front of more fashionable and expensive items, as if to set the tone. (The same company that owns Ross also owns T.J. Maxx.) The Gloria Vanderbilt brand pants I bought, unlike in the old days when that brand wore like iron, are already misshapen and shrunk up my ankle. The shoes I bought at Ross Dress for Less broke after a couple months of not daily wear. The light weight hoodie over-top I bought has fabric that is piling after a few washes. This is how I get away with the headline MADE IN CHINA SHIT. 

By buying Made in China, I supported the end of American manufacturing and jobs, though both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for allowing those jobs to go elsewhere with mythologies such as that these are jobs Americans will not do.

My recent foray into finding cotton or cotton poly sheet sheets and discovering that even housewares fashion arbitrator Martha Stewart had gone the way of Made in China microfiber - more hours shopping locally and in person gone to waste - caused me to then spend more hours on the Internet. Consider the TIME one spends shopping on the Internet or shopping in general, and consider what a waste of time and energy that is.

I checked for what I needed, which was a queen sized cotton or mostly cotton-poly flat sheet to back a quilt, with a hopefully matchy green, at about a dozen stores, including ones I used to walk into (Macy's, Nordstroms) only to discover that cotton sheets were now rare and astronomically priced.  

It seems there are only two choices in sheets that are diabolically opposed. Organic cotton or sheets sprayed with a CHEMICAL to be 'anti-microbial.' One can imagine bugs going croak while your skin rests on this chemical.  (Are they out of their minds? We are told skin care products that appear to sit on the surface go deep into our skin and warned against shampoos with certain ingredients that will harm our scalps and concerned about cancer-causing sun screen but we're going to spend a third of our life laying on sheets with chemicals over microbes that we have an immune system to battle?)  I ended up ordering 100% cotton flannel (I did not want flannel) that was grey (so my quilt will not be reversible) and made in India (better than China but not much) from an obscure company out of state.

By the way, Microfiber sheets take forever, just like stretch leggings and other clothing with stretch, to turn into chemical dust in landfills. Special technology is needed to degrade or reuse these fibers. Ever hear about how when they dig a landfill they can find a readable fifty year old newspaper and a hot dog practically off the grill not degraded? Well, your stretch leggings take even longer.

So there on the shelves of Ross Dress for Less where all these Name Brands, some of which brand-wise communicate that they are only for the posh, made in China and made of polyester, some with beautiful colors and patterns, but you just know that you would stick to them in a hot climate and that they usually also don't want to stay on the bed because they are just too slippy slidy. I went to two locations. I encountered three other women also looking for cotton sheets in total frustration and we all talked about these issues. One said she was purchasing for her 12 year old grandson who was specific about cotton.

Human beings have bought into the idea that they personally need to be BRANDED (Think about that, branded as with a hot iron into the skin, to express being OWNED) and they do that buy buying items they can wear or walk around with that show labels. To do so is to show off wealth, class, or style - or so some people think. However when it comes to sheets, the lure of the name brands and the designs was not winning out. We did not want to sleep on microfiber.

Advertising and marketing - fascinating and horrific.

One of the ads that comes up when you blog on Google is to MONETIZE your work, to allow Google to place ads.  I've never given in to this sway either, in part because this is where your stats count and I've never blogged for stats. Not that I couldn't use some extra money and once in a while considered it.

It's the interuptive quality of advertising on the Internet that I abhor first.  There's the battle so many do to grab your attention, your mind, to stimulate you. Then there is the interruptions that attempt to grab your attention away from the article or video you selected. That even one's personal reveals might be interrupted in that way, tells us just how superficial and shallow we as a society may have become that we would allow all that, just for some pocket change.  

But worse than that (I promised you HORROR!) are the ads coming up on YouTube stations that are simply inappropriate.

I recently blogged about once-upon-a-time New Ager, Doreen Virtue, and her 180 to Fundamentalist, Bible-Based Christianity. She is begging Jesus for forgiveness for leading so many to the path of eternal hell and talking about demons and going against dozens of activities and beliefs aligned with the New Age Movement. What was coming up? Well, believe it or not ads for POSITIVE THINKING type educational experiences, something she firmly opposes. One of them was about a woman who, using her mind power that is taught by a certain educational event, was able to win countless prizes including vacations.

Another video I watched happens to be that of a Christian church far away because I happen to know from long ago one of the men who became a minister there. They went into YouTube video preaching during Covid and I check to see how he's doing, if he's still preaching the Bible, since he's been health challenged in recent years. Well, up came ads for personal hygiene products for men, which were practically scatological. I sent him a message about that.

An ad for, to put this delicately, a device that men can safely use to groom their very private parts also came up in - of all places - a YouTube video for a man who vlogs about UFO's and Big Foot. I get it, someone must have put the tag, "hairy"  There he was, this man's man earnestly going on about mysterious missing person disappearances, and up came the ad for this shaver. He had to be unaware.

Then, just the other day I decided to watch the station for a person who is also onto UFO's and Demons, also Born Again Christian (I know!  Such an agenda!  However, since the United States has admitted to not knowing what some UAP's are and there is now an official investigation committee that includes a NASA astronaut, I can't help myself.) So there I was listening to his videos on YouTube when up comes a commercial, not for the gold company that is one of his sponsors, but a scary ad for Halloween monster film. Clearly there must be a meta tag with the word "Demon."

On Google my objection to allowing ads is the apparent lack of choice of what advertisements are acceptable. Personally, I think it's horrible that I be exposed just searching for YouTube videos I want to watch, to clips of violence and sexuality, in particular because I know that ANYONE, of ANY AGE, can be exposed to these. It is inappropriate for me to be seeking a video that guarantees "relaxing" music, or music to study by, and here comes the roaring of a monster, super heros, blood and guts, loud explosions, and - upsetting to me - the females in these film ads are usually porny stereotypes which I do not want propagated.

These films, aimed at the fear mongering, the murderousness, the blood and gore that Halloween celebration has become are especially promoted at this time of the year, and they, along with video games of the same nature, market violence and destruction, anger and opposition. Then we wonder why there are kids shooting up their classmates, humans intentionally driving their cars into strangers to kill them, and there are the evil, demonically influenced war crimes via Russia in the Ukraine.

There is evil.  There are demons that want your soul.  Marketers and advertisers want your soul too.

C 2022  Christine Trzyna

Note: For whatever reason the font sizes on my posts are going all over the place, even though they look good in preview.  So this morning 10/30, I went back into this post and moved the fonts to medium and saved... again...