But What is Star Power?

An artist of the musical persuasion is just a singer, more of a musician, or truly a singer-songwriter depending on how they perform their art (and whom you ask).  An artist of the audio/visual ilk is just an entertainer, more of an actor/thespian, or truly a performer.  If their aesthetics align with what the average person would envision when hearing the words, “gorgeous,” “magnetic,” or “heavenly,” then you’d probably agree that they have “star power.”  They don’t just sing or play instruments well, they don’t just convincingly pretend to be people they aren’t — they inspire excitement, desire, and intense adoration, leading to voyeuristic devotion that is infinitely monetizable.

I’d never wondered what “star power” meant in relation to professional athletes until very recently as the result of conversations with two different friends.

Exhibit A:

Me (while watching the Miami Heat increase their lead against the Philadelphia 76ers): And you said the Miami Heat isn’t sexy enough. It’s the uniforms, right?  Too ketchup, sliver of mustard on the side, and napkins?
Friend 1: No, it’s the lack of star power.
Me: Ahh, ye old raw talent and skills but no rockstar lead singer with the hair and the leather pants and the mayhem that make the ladies and some gents go primal?

Exhibit B:

Me: Friend 1 clarified that the Miami Heat is not sexy b/c they don’t have star power.  I’m interpreting that to mean… a team can have lots of raw skills and talent but have no rockstar lead singer.  Nobody with the hair and leather pants to make the ladies and some gentlemen go wild.
Friend 2: That is 100% what the San Antonio Spurs are/were.  The Heat’s biggest star is Jimmy Butler.  They do not have a Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, James Harden, Steph Curry, etc.  You should ask Friend 1 who he considers a bigger star: Jimmy Butler or Trae Young.

Me: Hmmm, but isn’t basketball inherently much more of a collaborative sport than football?  Eg, in any NFL or college team, you could point to the quarterback or kicker as “responsible” for scoring.  Defense obviously has to be really good too, but.
Friend 2: Hmm… I think NBA is actually more about individual stars than the NFL is.
Me: Fascinating… and yet I see what you mean.
Friend 2: It is fascinating.

Me: Good basketball players play very well together like a jazz band.  Good football players that play well together…. just execute the plays well?
Friend 2: There are basketball purists who dislike how the NBA promotes players over teams, especially in marketing.  The Spurs were the definition of team basketball. team over individuals. but the NBA has become very individualistic.

Me: Meanwhile, baseball has always been individualistic, even when it takes good teamwork to take advantage of “bases loaded” situations.
Friend 2: The opening is on-point [voiced by] Magic Johnson.

“So many times we promote the individual (Lebron, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant), but then we leave out something that is really unique and special, and that’s team and team basketball.  I sat and watched this team carve the Clippers up playing basic, fundamental basketball, and it was beautiful to watch.  It reminded me of my era, the way we used to play the Celtics — just smart and great basketball.”

~!~

If you’re an NBA fan, if you’re a Miami Heat fan, if you’re a Jimmy Butler fan, do you think he has star power?  Which NBA players deserve more love and could very well be the big hair band rockstar if only properly marketed?

Original pic creds: lizcambabe (Michael Reeves), h00dsworld, nbyay, ballplayersxo

un morceau de ta mère

Mother of sighs, mother of darkness, mother of tears, mother of cats and plants, and legislation to quell your pain or break your sanity….

If you’ve bequeathed twenty-three pairs of chromosomes to a living creature, if you’ve inherited a friend or relative’s descendents, or if you’ve taken in the orphaned of any species, I hope your Sunday was to your liking.  I started reading Sue Black‘s book All That Remains a week ago and came across a passage that was quite fitting for Mother’s Day, so I mentioned it on my bookface.

The part of you which came directly from your biological mother that isn’t simply half of your DNA and that will likely always be a part of you is inside your ear.

As the author explains, “While it is a fallacy that a pregnant woman eats for two, she does need to ensure that her diet is sufficient to meet not only her own needs but also those of her very demanding passenger.

“The nutrient building blocks required to construct our otic capsule were supplied by Mum from what she was eating around sixteen weeks into her pregnancy. So within our head, in that minute piece of bone just big enough to hold four raindrops, we will perhaps carry for the rest of our lives the elemental signature of what our mother had for lunch when she was four months pregnant. Proof, if any were needed, that our mums never leave us, and a whole new perspective on the mystery of how they manage to get inside our heads” (38, 39).

Find out exactly where the otic capsulse is located at Britannica.com.

I hope there were cats on the other side

But I doubt there were cats on the other side of the windows that these men were washing because that building is filled with businesses and not places to sleep.

The light was red, I looked up, and “we’re doing it,” we’re going to capture the sight.

Here’s what it’s like to do high rise window washing:

And if there had been cats:

Not Sweet Target

It sounds like Raveena sings, “cause I’m takin’ my sweet target,” but she actually sings, “sweet time, yeah.”

And while we’re in the season of spring, let me suggest you give “Bloom” a listen.

~!~

The last time I got new glasses was in 2016.  I still have that pair but wore them sparingly since the prescription was stronger than my primary glasses.  Anne Klein glasses that are the most comfortable pair of eyewear I’ve ever worn.  I got my eyeballs checked last year (mostly for refraction purposes), but the balls themselves were in very good condition considering how near-sighted I am.  Why didn’t I decide to wear the 2016 pair more often if I’d noticed my left eye not seeing as clearly as it did in 2019?  Because the arms are too thick and are not conducive to wearing while driving since they’ll cover up the blindspot over my right shoulder.  They’re also heavier and aren’t as “snug” around my head as my previous glasses.

For the new prescription, I decided to get new frames and new lenses for the Anne Klein pair.  The new frames are very comfortable and look awesome.  Here is 小木耳 aka Xiao Mu Er aka Little Wood Ear Fungus modeling them:

I’ll be getting the new lenses for the Anne Klein pair soon…and they’ll look something like this:

But what are you?

Serieusement.  How would you define your existence?  What is your relationship with and perception of your physical body?

Which of these two assertions do you agree with more:
A. I have a body.
B. I am a body.

Or as one redditor pondered, are you inside your body?

I prefer to think that I have a body.  I also like these comments:

~ you’re a brain piloting a bone mech wearing meat armour
~ I think my body is a microcosm of something greater. My identity begins and ends with my body, but my existence and qualia of my existence doesnt.
~ Neither. My body is an inconvenient afterthought needlessly anchoring my consciousness. I remember this every time I stub a toe.

~!~

Do you ever find yourself stuck between two mindsets?  Or in the viscous hairs of patterns whereupon you get a kick in life-momentum, you’re convinced something substantial is about to happen, and then it doesn’t; so then you fall into doldrums of waiting … just like Sisyphus.  Instead of pushing a boulder up a hill only to watch the rock roll down again, though, you’re chasing someone else who is draggin a boulder up a hill, and when you get to the top the person is gone?  You decide to stay where you are on that outcropping and just when you sit down because you’ve decided to watch paint dry or a carrion bird have a snack, you see that person on the bottom of the hill pulling that shiny boulder again.  So, you stand up, run, tumble, or plunge downward because you think you can catch them.  And it keeps repeating….you can never reach the person who is pulling you along.

Yeah, that’s where I am.

~!~

Nice Things

You had a bad case
of a six-pack,
the cans were encircled
too tightly
and you couldn’t loosen
the blue brew
from the red.

I had a sad face
from a clown’s last act
my skin suffocating with white resin
and an exaggerated mouth
piercing in red lipstick.

Sharpened incisors beat the canines
to the forefront of appetites
gleaming in sweat and ice
I clamped down on your wrist
like insatiable Claudia.

You didn’t scream
you didn’t beg me to stop
you just tried to choke me out
at the cliff’s edge
where an explosion of
tendons and seeds
waits for celestial heights
into free-falling.

– yiqi 25 April 2022 5:34 pm

This poem was inspired by a text conversation, Taylor Swift’s Reputation album, and Interview with the Vampire (Neil Jordan, 1994).

Originally posted on my tumblr.