Objectivist Lifestylism
David Buchner
> Well, if you are in a hurry you could read just those, but why drive a
> Honda if you could drive a Caddy?
and I realized that as much as I generally enjoy it, sometimes the
abstractness and heavy thinking in this newsgroup gets tedious. Mostly
this is a frivolous post -- but I am curious about how this Objectivist
theory stuff translates into people's real lives. What kinds of cars do
these people drive? What kinds of work do they do? What do they do on
weekends (other than post to newsgroups)? Hobbies? Pets? There's a
"Rachmaninov" thread about music tastes running, and that's good, but I
want more mudane details.
(When I was reading the Anarchist newsgroups and mailing lists a few
years back, "lifestylism" was a charge leveled against anybody who
thought they were having a pretty good time just living by their
anarchic beliefs and not spending enough time engaged in organizing and
class struggle. They were also called shallow, and poseurs, and other
names.)
--
David
buc...@wcta.net Osage MN USA http://customer.wcta.net/buchner
db...@tampatrib.com
David Buchner <buc...@wcta.net> wrote:
> Hobbies?
One of the things I truly enjoy is to sit down and play some Soul Calibur.
> There's a
> "Rachmaninov" thread about music tastes running, and that's good, but I
> want more mudane details.
Boy, it's way past time for Crystal Method to come out with a new CD, isn't
it?
-- at no extra charge
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Stephen Speicher
>
> and I realized that as much as I generally enjoy it, sometimes the
> abstractness and heavy thinking in this newsgroup gets tedious.
Uh oh, David, you're in trouble if you find abstractness and
heavy thinking in this newsgroup. :)
For me, reading and posting here is a light-hearted task, purely
recreational. Over the years I come and go from here. This is the
longest continuous period of time I have ever spent here, and I
suspect it will be ending soon.
> Mostly this is a frivolous post -- but I am curious about how
> this Objectivist theory stuff translates into people's real
> lives.
> What kinds of cars do these people drive?
White Trans Am convertible, white and black sculptured seats.
Top is always down, except for the few days each year it rains
here.
> What kinds of work do they do?
Scientific research. Day, and night, and weekends, and... I love
what I do. I work at Caltech, and I work at home. Sometimes I get
up in the middle of the night, and work until 3 or 4 or 5am.
It's nice to have 'arrived' and get to work on only the most
challenging, the most interesting projects.
> What do they do on weekends (other than post to newsgroups)?
Pretty much what I do the rest of the week, but I get to spend
more time with my wife and son. My son and I love the movies, and
we see an awful lot of films each year. Betsy loves to drive with
me, exploring new places. We both love architecture, and find
homes all over California to enjoy.
> Hobbies?
Astronomy. My son and I have a large computerized telescope, and
we control it through a laptop running software showing an image
of what is currently in the sky. Also reading, lots of reading.
And running. I run every day, for an hour on my treadmill,
watching tapes of shows and movies I would never otherwise have
the chance to see.
> Pets?
>
We've been cat people all our lives, but we recently got a dog. A
beautiful golden retriever, smart, and sweet as can be. She's
really my son's dog, but she has enough love left over for my
wife and I too. She's a great addition to the family.
Stephen
s...@compbio.caltech.edu
Save the photons--don't look!
Printed using 100% recycled electrons.
-------------------------------------------
Dagnytgrt
>weekends (other than post to newsgroups)? Hobbies? Pets?
Bus - unless my Escort-driving boyfriend is available to cart me around or I'm
using his while he's driving his Crown Vic taxi. (We both describe ourselves as
Libertarian objectivist atheists, btw.) I do graphic and web design - he
drives a cab part time and also does some database stuff while in college
(late-bloomer, that boy!) to get some sort of computer degree.
We're both avid readers and computer junkies who like taking rides and
exploring around Tucson for fun. When I can "con" him to join me at karaoke, we
do that.
Music: me - country, him - alternative rock.
Guess that makes us sort of blue-collar objectivists... (But, hey, blue-collar
in Tucson ain't a bad thing to be!)
Oh yeah - our biggest "hobby" is our involvement in the Pima County Libertarian
Party. (Come on - some of us do reconcile being Libertarian and objectivist!)
Sally Milo
http://members.aol.com/milodesign
Tucson, Arizona
HBeachBabe
> and I realized that as much as I generally enjoy it, sometimes the
> abstractness and heavy thinking in this newsgroup gets tedious. Mostly
> this is a frivolous post -- but I am curious about how this Objectivist
> theory stuff translates into people's real lives.
As a newbie to the group, none of you know me so this seems as good a means
as any to give a quick overview.
> What kinds of cars do
> these people drive?
Bus for now.. Granted the roads are probably safer without me on them, but
when the suspension on my license is lifted I'll get probably get a Jeep
(soft-top beige Renegade would be my first choice) although my last car was
a used Hyundai (it was all they had for $900).
> What kinds of work do they do?
I do some work in Hollyweird as an assistant director and am trying to break
in as a screenwriter, shopping some scripts around, but to pay the bills I
work as a web page designer at the local college, creating an on-line course
in "Reading German"
> What do they do on
> weekends (other than post to newsgroups)?
Bike along the beach 15 to 20 miles, go to the movies, hang out with the
neighbors, work on my scripts, facilitate a support group for other
transsexuals, work to make up for the hours I didn't during the week (my
boss doesn't care when I work as long as I work 40 hours).
> Hobbies?
I'm a compulsive collector- if there is more than 1 of something and a
specific list of items within the collection then I probably collect it
(this includes comics, sports cards, LPs by favorite groups, books by
authors I like (it was my collecting nature that lead me to buy all 17 Rand
books for myself for X-mas even the ones I already had, just so I could have
a complete set of matching covers)) I also enjoy doing 3D puzzles (you
could even say I collect them) and just started on the 3100+ piece New York
city puzzle.
> Pets?
4 cats (MommyCat and her two kittens Mop & Squeaker, plus my ex-girlfriend's
cat Lionel because she can't afford to have it shipped back to her but I'll
be back to 3 as soon as she can)
> There's a
> "Rachmaninov" thread about music tastes running, and that's good, but I
> want more mudane details.
Well, I'm a rock'n'roller myself. A "metalhead" in high school and while I
have given up the culture I still enjoy some of the tunes (Queensryche,
Rush, Deep Purple, etc.). Currently my taste runs more to 70's progressive
rock (Yes, ELP, early Genesis) and "guitar heroes" (Santana, Clapton)
Désirée- who enjoys using (parenthesis)
TonyGrundon
Objectivist
do
> these people drive? What kinds of work do they do? What do they do on
> weekends (other than post to newsgroups)? Hobbies? Pets? There's a
> "Rachmaninov" thread about music tastes running, and that's good, but
I
> want more mudane details.
Some personal details about me:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3005/me.html
I don't think that most of my personal information will tell you much
about Objectivism, but I might mention that I am one of the first in my
family to graduate from a university.
And BTW, I don't consider (l)Libertarianism reconcilable with
Objectivism, (unlike someone else who posted a reply.)
> (When I was reading the Anarchist newsgroups and mailing lists a few
> years back, "lifestylism" was a charge leveled against anybody who
> thought they were having a pretty good time just living by their
> anarchic beliefs and not spending enough time engaged in organizing
and
> class struggle. They were also called shallow, and poseurs, and other
> names.)
>
> --
> David
> buc...@wcta.net Osage MN USA http://customer.wcta.net/buchner
>
--
----------------------- ### -----------------------------
Visit the Tony Grundon archives->
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3005
The best of Reason, Reality, and Ayn Rand.
Jason Lockwood
"(Come on - some of us do reconcile being Libertarian and
objectivist!)"
Sorry to hear it.
Jason Lockwood
David Buchner
My girlfriend and I have designed and built our own underground,
solar-powered house out in the middle of zillions of acres of
uninhabited woods, largely as a remnant of our previous "I wish I could
have lived in the 60's and been a hippie" phase. So, now here we are. I
spend most of my time gradually, lazily finishing the house, plowing
snow, and moving firewood around from one stack to another. I have
mounted a potato cannon on the roof, with which I can hit the road if
the wind is right.
We have a dog, a black Labrador Retriever named Shevek, whom we dote on
shamelessly. He makes us go for long walks and cross-country skiing in
the woods on the weekends.
David Buchner
> Boy, it's way past time for Crystal Method to come out with a new CD, isn't
> it?
I wouldn't know. I'm so insulated out here, that I don't even know what
that is. I lack whatever it is that allows other people to "keep up"
with music so my exposure to anything new is pretty random and spotty.
And about half of my nerdy/eclectic music collection is still composed
of battered "Talking Heads" and 007-flick-soundtrack records and such.
(Yes, I said records.)
I still listen a lot to scores from science fiction movies, particularly
the Star Trek ones by Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner. Yes, I'm a Great
Big Geek. I'm also quite fond of whatever the classics-containing genre
is called that includes the likes of Frank Sinatra.
More current stuff, as I said, is pretty hit-or-miss and I'm sure
there's lots I'm missing out on, but I really really like They Might Be
Giants, and have been variously impressed by Björk, Soul Coughing, Liz
Phair, Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins. Basically, anything that's odd,
quirky, brainy, or futuristic. And what determines those qualities, I
really can't define. I used to be a great big Sonic Youth fan, but I'm
not really anymore.
J T
..anything that's odd, quirky, brainy, or futuristic.
You might like "The Dead Milkmen", particularly if you can find a CD
that has either "You'll Dance to Anything" or "Ask me to Dance".
The Crip.
*
*
*
John Timbrell
*
*
*
GO DAWGS!!!
Edward O'Connor
> that has either "You'll Dance to Anything" or "Ask me to Dance".
I second the suggestion of the Dead Milkmen. "Big Lizard in My
Backyard" is an awesome albumn, complete with such lines as:
I went downstairs and found an Army man
He said "We gotta blow up things we don't understand"
and
Every day, I hear the people groan
"Why should we buy postage stamps; we can make our own!"
and
They're just some right wing pigeons from outer space,
Sent here to destroy the human race.
They don't give a damn about you or me,
They just buy guns and watch TV.
Anyway, you may want to consider picking up their anthology, "Death
Rides a Pale Cow."
--
Edward O'Connor | http://oconnor.cx/
t...@oconnor.cx | http://objectivism.cx/
Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe
certainly isn't going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live.
Live. Live.
-- Lois McMaster Bujold
Arnold Broese-van-Groenou
David Buchner <buc...@wcta.net> wrote in message
news:1e4tzvh.182...@ppp378.wcta.net...
> (Since I asked, and others seem willing to actually respond...)
>
> My girlfriend and I have designed and built our own underground,
> solar-powered house out in the middle of zillions of acres of
> uninhabited woods, largely as a remnant of our previous "I wish I
could
> have lived in the 60's and been a hippie" phase. So, now here we
are. I
> spend most of my time gradually, lazily finishing the house, plowing
> snow, and moving firewood around from one stack to another. I have
> mounted a potato cannon on the roof, with which I can hit the road
if
> the wind is right.
Have you thought of upgrading to a pumpkin gun?
It may handle the wind better.;-)
--
A.Broese-van-Groenou.
Tym Parsons
> Mostly this is a frivolous post -- but I am curious about how this
> Objectivist theory stuff translates into people's real lives. What
> kinds of cars do these people drive? What kinds of work do they do?
> What do they do on weekends (other than post to newsgroups)? Hobbies?
I'm a low-maintenance kinda guy, so I drive an Escort. By design I'm a
part-time librarian in the community college system here in Seattle, so
I can afford to pursue other interests the rest of the time, which
include music, yoga, exercise, and travelling around the magnificent
Northwest with my fiancee.
I've been playing guitar and bass semi-professionally for the past 22
years; I currently play with a high-energy Balkan gypsy band called
Balkanarama http://www.troutdream.com/balkanarama ; we combine
traditional Balkan dance rhythms--7/8, 9/8, 11/8 etc.-- and distinctive
melodic ornamentation with a jazz, rock, and pop sensibility. We're
currently recording our first CD, with tunes of our arrangement,
principally from Bulgaria and Macedonia. I'm also in the process of
putting together a Celtic/Balkan amalgam with me on guitar and fronted
by a singer/violinist.
My listening tastes are fairly catholic, tho historically I've favored
progressive rock and modern jazz. Artists of the moment that I'm
listening to include Celtic rockers like Boiled in Lead and Ashley
MacIsaac, Scandinavian bombast from Hoven Droven and Den Fule, and
Brazilians like Caetano Veloso and Tom Ze.
Tym Parsons
David Buchner
> Have you thought of upgrading to a pumpkin gun?
> It may handle the wind better.;-)
PVC doesn't come that big, at the local hardware stores...
David Buchner
> I second the suggestion of the Dead Milkmen. "Big Lizard in My
> Backyard" is an awesome albumn, complete with such lines as:
...Howling with laughter at your Milkmen snips -- golly that brings back
memories. I was quite fond of them back when they first showed up,
mostly because I was a practitioner of that snotty, snarling brand of
Punk that seeks to irritate and offend everyone for fun. "Tiny Town" was
something of an anthem for disaffected youths such as we, who hated the
rednecks and jocks who played sports and beat us up.
We'd drive around in below-zero weather in somebody's parents' Escort,
listening to that, and The Violent Femmes, Suicidal Tendencies, and Sid
Vicious singing "My Way," and flipping off the other kids hanging out on
Main Street. My God, that sounds bleak when I write it down like that!
You can tell it was the punk 80's, with lines like "The man in the white
house just don't care: he starves little kids and dyes his hair." Yeah,
right.
Some of those songs are still pretty funny, though. I think I'll dig out
my copy of a copy of a copy of that tape. Oh yes, here it is. Other
notables:
* The Thing That Only Eats Hippies ("It chewed on David Crosby, but
it... Spit him out!")
* Beach Party Vietnam ("cookin' hot dogs with napalm...")
* Nutrition ("people say I've got no ambition... at least I give a shit,
about the stuff I eat, and I care about nutrition!")
* VFW ("they try to make me a good little boy by stickin downers in my
food")
* can't remember which one it is that goes, "There ain't gonna be a
priest, ain't gonna be no boss -- just Charles Nelson Riley nailed to a
cross."
-- and absolutely totally most of all who could forget...
* BITCHIN' CAMARO! ("hey dude, whatcha gonna do down there? Aw, I dunno
-- play some videogames, buy some Def Leppard T-shirts...")
PS: Wow, how'd you get a car? Uh, my folks drove it up here from the
Bahamas...
NPGreeley
plays.
Musically, my tastes are eclectic. I like pop recordings from about '28 to
'34. Before that the recordings are too Dixielandish, and after that the big
band sound gets awfully boring. (The movies and music of the '40s must have
been trying to put America to sleep. I think The Fountainhead had something to
do with waking up a somnolent culture.)
I like Classic Rock because it is rooted in the blues. Led Zeppelin, which I
consider the climax of rock, were the blues on steroids. But heavy metal left
the blues starting the Queen, and most of the bands from Metallica on. Today's
Heavy Metal --
bands like Pantera, Fear Factory, Sepultura -- are just loud, distorted noise
to a beat without melody. I went to the Ozfest here in San Bernardino -- okay,
I admit, I like early Black Sabbath -- and I was appalled at the mindlessness
of the young people in their "mosh pits." Couldn't help thinking of Rand's
essay, "The Comprachicos."
My dayjob is transcribing radio stations in the top 30 markets for a radio
marketing company. I have listened to just about every rock station in America
(they're all the same). I'll tell you what the best classic rock show in the
world is: The Jim Ladd Show on 95.5 KLOS in LA from 10pm to 2am. No marketing
dweebs tell him what to play. Both movies and music need to kill the marketing
people (such as the ones I work for) and rely on creative integrity instead.
But that's a lot harder, isn't it.
Bill Greeley
Désirée Davis
npgr...@aol.com says...
> My dayjob is transcribing radio stations in the top 30 markets for a radio
> marketing company. I have listened to just about every rock station in Am
> erica
> (they're all the same). I'll tell you what the best classic rock show in the
> world is: The Jim Ladd Show on 95.5 KLOS in LA from 10pm to 2am. No mark
> eting
> dweebs tell him what to play. Both movies and music need to kill the mar
> keting
> people (such as the ones I work for) and rely on creative integrity instead.
> But that's a lot harder, isn't it.
>
> Bill Greeley
>
I have listened to KLOS off & on for the last 18 years (although
currently, Channel 103.1 dominates my dial). And while Ladd is a good DJ
and it's nice to know that marketing dweebs aren't involved, his own
taste is rather limited. I think his head would explode if he were
forced to go a four shift without playing Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin or
George Thorogood or The Rolling Stones or the Doors. Those 5 bands make
up at least a hour of every single one of his shifts. I once counted him
play the Stone's "Saint of Me" 22 nights in a row. Plus, the man is
allergic to anything with more than 3 chords and god forbid there be a
key change (Just try and get him to play a Yes song... any Yes song, for
any reason).
But despite all that, I still like him, even he does get a bit too touchy
liberal at times, although in his interview with Chrissie Hynde of the
Pretenders he came across like Rush Limbaugh by comparison.
Désirée- an L.A. radio junkie
David Buchner
> Both movies and music need to kill the marketing
> people (such as the ones I work for) and rely on creative integrity instead.
Douglas Adams had a solution for that.
NPGreeley
Much of what you say about Ladd is true. His hippy liberalism -- yes, it drives
me crazy. And he does play what he likes over and over; fortunately for me, I
like what he likes. But he'll also play songs you don't hear anywhere else,
such as the Rolling Stones' "Monkey Man," a song I love. And his is the only
show I've heard that will play songs from the greatest hard rock album of all
time, Neil Young's "Ragged Glory."
He hates "corporate rock," so you don't get a lot of the 70s groups with smooth
production values, such as Boston or Yes. Of course, you'd think that someone
who hated corporate rock would play punk, but you don't get any punk from Jim
either.
Keep rockin', BeachBabe,
Bill
Anthony Argyriou
>and I realized that as much as I generally enjoy it, sometimes the
>abstractness and heavy thinking in this newsgroup gets tedious. Mostly
>this is a frivolous post -- but I am curious about how this Objectivist
>theory stuff translates into people's real lives. What kinds of cars do
>these people drive? What kinds of work do they do? What do they do on
>weekends (other than post to newsgroups)? Hobbies? Pets? There's a
>"Rachmaninov" thread about music tastes running, and that's good, but I
>want more mudane details.
>
>(When I was reading the Anarchist newsgroups and mailing lists a few
>years back, "lifestylism" was a charge leveled against anybody who
>thought they were having a pretty good time just living by their
>anarchic beliefs and not spending enough time engaged in organizing and
>class struggle. They were also called shallow, and poseurs, and other
>names.)
I live in Oakland, California. No pets - not allowed in our building.
Toyota 1/2-ton pickup. It's _really_ useful for work, and my employer at the
time paid a "vehicle allowance" larger than the payments on it, but only for
pickup trucks. It's now 5.3 years old, 128k miles, and runs well.
I'm a Civil Engineer in a geotechnical consulting firm. (Technically, it is
illegal for me to say "I'm a geotechnical engineer" because I don't have the
California G.E. authority, only a PE licence.) Our firm mostly does
residential development work. (We're the one's paving over paradise to put
up a parking lot.)
I dance - real dancing, not that rock'n'roll stuff I did as a teenager.
Victorian Ballroom dance, Irish ceili and step, and English Country dance.
(Irish step is what tap wants to be.)
I also work at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire (North), at the fencing booth.
I used to fence more, but haven't lately.
I also spend too much time on my computer - I've converted to Linux, and am
teaching myself some programming.
I listen to the rock of my teen years - early 80s, as well as classic 60s
rock. I listen to KFOG, KUFX (with Greg Kihn as morning DJ) mostly when I'm
not trolling for traffic reports.
I also listen to traditional Irish and Scottish music (Scots have better
music, Irish better dance), and modern "Celtic Rock", except that which has
harps. I also like some classical, especially Strauss (all of them).
I haven't done any real political work in 8 years, though I was vice-
president of the student housing co-op in Berkeley when we closed Barrington
Hall, the drug house.
Anthony Argyriou
Unix _is_ user-friendly. It's just selective about its friends.
David Buchner
> Toyota 1/2-ton pickup. It's _really_ useful for work, and my employer at the
> time paid a "vehicle allowance" larger than the payments on it, but only for
> pickup trucks. It's now 5.3 years old, 128k miles, and runs well.
See, cars is one thing I was curious about. In a certain stereotypical
sense we should expect Objectivists and Rand fans to all be driving
Cadillacs or something. Or maybe DeLoreans? I suppose there shouldn't be
any of that anti-free-market "buy American" loyalty stuff -picking the
Best no matter where it's from- and no shying away from opulent, luxury,
"status symbol" cars. But so far, lots of them just seem to be driving
generic junkers, so whatever... ;-)
I also have a Toyota pickup: 4WD, extra cab, V6. I'll tell you, I
definitely 'Value' this thing. This is absolutely the coolest car we've
ever had. It has back seats (though tiny), so it's practically a car
too, and it's perfect for Dog. With good tires, it'll crawl through a
lot of snow -- a necessity in our neck of the woods where I have to plow
a mile of the road, and the rest might not get plowed out for a few
days. It's a '90, and has 140,000 miles on it, and it's just chugging
along like new. It fills me with admiration for engineers and industry.
Our other car is an AWD Subaru station wagon, and it's also pretty dandy
-- though it's too low and its belly drags on stuff sometimes. It's also
not as cool as the quirky older Subarus. I miss the big red "4WD" button
in the Justy, or the big shiny 't' handle lever in our previous
hatchback.