The Binary Circumstance

Being that I write all the time about the difference between fantasy and reality and the importance of knowing the difference, I found this documentary Guys and Dolls absolutely fascinating.

It’s about men who have relationships with life-like female dolls that include emotional attachment and sex. Also of interest are the people who design, make and repair the dolls.

Everyone in the film is smart, emotionally literate, articulate and vulnerable. Everyone knows the dolls are fantasy, but it’s a fantasy that seems to bring these men closer to the reality of who they are, something they haven’t found with real human companions.

It made me think of all the human relationships between real people that are really based on fantasy, far more delusional than the relationships these men have with their dolls.

It’s a really brilliant documentary.

I’d love to hear your impressions.

47 minutes. (Warning: doll nudity. NWS)

My video Existence Before Consciousness on YouTube has drawn over 50 comments, many of which demonstrate just how some people, even those who have a mind to know better, can get this all backwards and/or how they like to argue and confuse things just because they have nothing better to do.

It all reminds me of why I stopped taking philosophy and social science courses and ended up majoring in Biology instead. Hard science was far more satisfying and rewarding.

Two videos uploaded to YouTube a month ago have become big hits. They are “I’ve Got a Crush… on Obama” and “Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl.” Both feature a very pretty brunette, Obama Girl, lots of female body parts juxtaposed against images of the respective candidates, sexual innuendo and professionally-produced songs, choreography and video.

I don’t know what the intention of the producers was, but I like them because I think they are a powerful commentary on the superficial nature of politics today and the mass-marketing of the candidates. I’ve read that a presidential candidate will have to spend around 400 million to win this election and Obama Girl shows us the extent to which real issues are important, which is to say they’re not very important at all. It’s all about celebrity and image. For all that money, for many voters it’s going to come down to who they have a “crush” on, a superficial affection that most humans experience at some point in life. A crush is built on our fantasies about a person rather than the reality of who they are.

The official site for Obama Girl is BarelyPolitical.com.

Here I am, TV News anchor-for-15-seconds at KOMO-TV, the ABC News affiliate in Seattle.

How did that happen?

The folks at KOMO 4 News sponsored a meet-up for local bloggers that was a lot of fun. They had great food and wine and it was mostly just a chance for local bloggers to socialize and meet some of the folks who put KOMO 4 News together.

There were probably a couple hundred bloggers there and they had invited over 500.

They gave us a chance to have our pictures taken on the news set.

They claimed there was no agenda, but if nothing else, I suspect they’re going to get a lot of advertising and links to their home page from all the bloggers who will write about the experience. My picture which was taken with my camera by a staff person is a little blurry, but their logos are very much in focus.

Whatever their purpose, they were gracious hosts and I had a lot of fun and met some interesting bloggers, including the Ron Paul supporters from Republican Renaissance. (I have already stated why I’m not supporting Ron Paul here and here.)

I met Eric Johnson (he usually does their sports reporting) when I was there and it was a little surreal to watch the evening news tonight and see him sitting in the anchor chair, the same chair I was sitting in last night. Hey, Eric, get outta my chair bro!

One interesting thing about their building is that they have the biggest elevator I’ve ever seen. It is literally big enough to hold a car and one of the staff said it can carry 30,000 pounds. It has doors at both ends. It’s a room!

Until I get under contract to anchor the news–they’re still having difficulty with my demand that I have full editorial control over everything–you’ll have to be content to watch my YouTube videos.