Vince Gilligan Interview With Charlie Rose

Things acquire the status of being good or evil only if someone - anyone - cares about them one way or the other.
Richard Taylor, Good And Evil, p.31

It is deep into the dog days of summer. The Oracle of Ottawa has been on his usual baseball watching binge, and enjoying every moment of it. Why today the Oracle got in three complete games! As the last west coast game ended, the Oracle of Ottawa flipped to PBS Watertown in the hope of catching something interesting and was quiet surprised to find that Charlie Rose was on. The interview was with the creator of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan, on stage, live, at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.

Vince Gilligan(left) - Aaron Paul(right) - who got it from Ep. 1 

The Oracle of Ottawa was intrigued. At last, the man himself! And it being the last and final season of Breaking Bad, the Oracle of Ottawa was hoping for the sincere, so obvious, explanation of what Breaking Bad was really about. There was nothing to lose now, the last eight episodes are in the can, and there is nothing left to lose by explaining the truth to the complacent American audience what the whole epic was really about. To hear the words right out the mouth of the mind that created it all. Or so I thought. What the Oracle witnessed was bizarre, surreal and completely raving American Psycho!  

Much to my amazement and shock, the Oracle of Ottawa had to come to the flooring realization that Vince Gilligan is in essence an idiot savant! Through the whole interview he stuck to his "awe shucks" marketing routine, choosing his words carefully, fully pondering there future possible impact on his further possible projects! He truly has not or ever had a clue to the impact of the prophetic epic that he has been allowed to tell, and its real meaning! At the time of this writing the Oracle of Ottawa is still reeling...

The first episode of Breaking Bad was one of the most powerful works of television that the Oracle has ever experienced. A brilliant chemist ends up teaching high school chemistry somewhere in a Southern US state. It is no doubt a "right to work" state, the money is lousy, there is no union, there is a handicapped child, and to add insult to injury, there is the insane American class burden of Walter having to portray to society that he is indeed middle class and is yet left by contemporary American society to some how pay for it all with nothing. Then there comes the cancer diagnosis! To this viewer in Canada, one could tell right away that Walter has no medical insurance to cover this catastrophic illness. Forced to the wall Walter abandons his morals and makes a monstrous conscious decision to survive long enough to provide for his family after his demise.

Contrast this with a Canadian high school chemistry teacher in Ontario, Canada  with Walters credentials. This teacher makes $70,000 - $130,000 a year, minimum. He is a senior department head, he might even teach a class or two a week. If this man comes a downer with a cancer diagnosis, it is just another life hurdle, certainly not a death sentence. He will have government and private additional insurance. He will be given sick leave at full pay, or very nearly, for as long as it takes. His chance of a full remission and recovery is astoundingly high. Not like Walter...

What Breaking Bad is really about is the death of the American Dream. It is a prophetic epic of the future of America. It is a symbolic tale of the death of America. A republic and a dream built on an outmoded frontier mentality that peaked on a battle ship deck in a Japanese harbour sometime in 1945. Now the European Union is the biggest economy on Earth. The standard world currency is not the American dollar, it is the Euro. The grand cities that were once the arsenals of democracy rot in bankruptcy. We are told that it is all creative destruction. Everybody got the destruction, and it seems that the creative ability was also destroyed in the process also...

Ponder the carnage created by Walter White. Ponder the vast amount of state resources it takes to search him out and possibly stop him. Ponder the global social costs around the world. Walter White is (was?) just one ordinary man forced to abandon his society, the great Leviathan, and in turn it is more than just one life that becomes nasty, brutish and short. What will be our fate when the Walters start coming out of the woodwork in their thousands?

Postscript: The Oracle of Ottawa was shocked by Vince Gilligan when he could not explain Walter Smith's street name of Heisenberg, it is no doubt a tribute to Werner Heisenberg who unlike Walter Smith was able and allowed to make great contributions to the world as the father Quantum Mechanics.
Bryan Cranston in the character of Walter Smith always exudes the aura that he too could have done great things if something as mundane as an IPO had not gotten in the way. Werner Heisenberg was also the father of the Uncertainty Principle, do you get it now?

Stompin' Tom Connors - In Memorium

For in hope we are saved.
The Letter of Paul to the Romans, 8:24

It is with great regret that the Oracle of Ottawa will attempt to extend his sincere and heart felt condolences on the news of the passing of Stompin' Tom Connors, a great Canadian. Born into trying circumstances, that today, are virtually no longer in existence, Thomas Charles Connors discovered early his great gifts of perseverance and dogged grit. A man born of great gifts which he continued to develop all his life, Stompin' Tom never deviated from the truth discovered in himself.

Stompin' Tom Connors OC

 It is a very fond memory of the Oracle of Ottawa that the first "Rock Concert" he ever attended was Stompin' Tom in Arnprior, Ontario in 1970 or was that 1971? When the number one song on Canadian radio was Big Joe Mufferaw. The venue was the church hall of Saint John Chrysostom Church in Arnprior, which of course was sold out well in advance. The Oracle of Ottawa remembers with crystal clarity the Stompin Tom Tour vehicles; the honking brand new white Ford Thunderbird's with the largest set of Texas Longhorn horns you ever saw, attached to the front grill of said vehicles. You just can't make this stuff up.

It is truly amazing how long greatness adheres to memory. There he was in the full vigor of youth and on the start of his meteoric career path, Live and in Person!. Stompin' Tom had great stage presence, similar to the likes of Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot. His shows all through his career were of a special electric quality, and the Oracle of Ottawa knew even at the age of thirteen years that this man would continue to be a force to reckoned with for a very long time. His works will enter the folk song cannon of Canada, and the Oracle of Ottawa will predict that at many times into the far distant future there will be many rebirths of his songs as the spirit and forms of this great construction of Canada will require. You know, like John Tavener, is in England, but much more important.

It is not as widely known as it should be, but Stompin' Tom was a man of very great depth and assorted talents. He wrote not one but two memoirs! And without a ghost writer, thank you very much. Which is quiet impressive when you discover the true amount of time that Mr. Connors actually spent in a classroom. And the Oracle of Ottawa will help you out here, it was not very much...The Oracle of Ottawa discovered the real man several years ago when he released his complete works of songs and some other very interesting things that occupied the mind of Stompin' Tom Connors. It was all bound in a surprisingly large hardcover of red cloth and in quarto size, no less. In the back of the book, after the hundreds of awesome songs, there is a description of a rather awesome algorithm for a perpetual calendar that Stompin' Tom created and if memory serves, had patented!

Today we all feel a loss, and lesser in and of ourselves, but the mans words and thoughts will live in the Canadian archtype as long as and no doubt longer than Canada lasts. Another Great Canadian; Northrop Frye, often said that all life is a quest, and it's greatness is measured in the fullness of its realization. Stompin' Tom Connors has painted out for us its importance...  

On Adele Song Skyfall

You may have my number, You can take my name, But you'll never have my heart...
Adele, Skyfall lyrics, released October 5, 2012

It is not the habit of the Oracle of Ottawa to comment much on contemporary culture. Especially contemporary pop music. Compared to when the Oracle of Ottawa was fab, present day pop music is a very dry desert. It has reached a point in the last few years that the Oracle of Ottawa has shunned pop music listening completely. But at times just to make an attempt to be optimistic the Oracle of Ottawa makes an effort to salvage something of today's culture and its music only to be sickened and shunned when I hear the first bars of the latest Justin Beiber "hit". The Oracle of Ottawa as a native born Canadian apologizes on behalf of Canada and my lost countrymen.

Really...There is only one James Bond

 It was a week ago today, a Sunday night, when after enjoying a wonderful three square dinner in a small Ontario town, that I first heard the song Skyfall as performed by Adele. It was playing out on to the street from the restaurant I had just left. It sounded so James Bond of the sixties, that it literally stopped me in my tracks! And the lyrics were just brilliant, pure poetry, the hardest kind; small words with less than two syllables. The Oracle of Ottawa doesn't stop for just any set of words.

But, as they say in Hollywood: the shit gets deeper. I experienced that very rare, what I have come to call, the full neuronal rush. I was a kid again back in the sixties in Pembroke Ontario. I could smell that smell. The smell of air conditioned air mixed with the smell of popcorn and the real butter that you used to be able to get standard. All of you readers that lived at that time know that early air conditioning was pretty leaky and had that distinctive odor that is just no longer in existence. Not to mention independent flashy theaters with names like the "Centre", with the huge extravagant lithographed posters that beckoned you into the world of your deepest imagination, with every guaranty of total satisfaction. 

I remembered my parents as they looked then; young and beautiful. And for my mother especially, a new James Bond movie was an event. You didn't go to see it in jeans and running shoes. You made every attempt to dress and look like a woman that James would find alluring and attractive. Now mixing this in with the mundane task of arranging a baby sitter for the Oracle of Ottawa and his four siblings it was all quiet a feat of logistics. The Oracle of Ottawa longed for the day when he would be able to take a drop dead gorgeous woman to a James Bond movie. But into the seventies and eighties old school class withered away fast like it never existed...

What is the magic of James Bond? What does he symbolize? Well the Oracle of Ottawa doesn't have to reflect long on this question. James Bond is archtype. James Bond is the modern knight errant, and unlike the character of Cervantes, one that has not been overcome by the world but rather the sole protector of it. The one lone force that stands between anarchy, chaos and all that is true and good of what we know as Western Civilization. Our protector against all forces and evil deadly.  

 It appears that Adele has touched a deep chord in modern culture. She has done a great job and has created a new "standard" which is quiet a feat for a woman of only twenty four years. And it appears to be catching...(Thank God)
     

Sun News TV - Krista Erickson - The Saddest Thing

In order to recognize a symbol by its sign we must observe how it is used with a sense.
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico - Philosophicus, 3.326, p.19

Watching the 21:00 slot of Brian Lilley on July 02, 2011, I was amazed to learn that there are now over 4,000 public complaints with the appropriate public authority concerning Sun News TV! Why that can't possibly be true! According to their ratings that means that darn near everyone that watched complained!? And I was very shocked to hear Mr. Lilley himself admit that the very on-air presence was being threatened!

I was also shocked, shocked to hear of the news that the great man Theo Caldwell as of June 27, 2011 is no longer with Sun News TV! I suppose that means that the Caldwell Account has been closed? And much to my amazement and utter surprise the great mans article on Wikipedia is now a mere shadow of itself! And is again up for Speedy Deletion! (unreferenced claims, self promotion and lack of notability..ouch!!)  Everything is happening so fast!

Under Siege...

But alas! The main subject of this humble missive concerns the subject of the Krista Erickson interview with the Great Canadian Margie Gillis.Although this interview happened on June 01, 2011 it has taken that long for the fragile left leaning presence and persona of the Oracle of Ottawa to heal and repair.. But onward we must go! It was at the end of the interview that just floored me. I have included that video below for reference. I will align all my comments, to the time signature of this video so that you can follow along.. I am sure that there will be a ton of people at the authorities that will also appreciate this...

At 1:40 Krista goes on about why the Canadian Government should not subsidize something that is not profitable? Just before this whooper she somehow compares funding of the arts to the 155 young Canadians that have fallen in Afghanistan? But yet the Conservatives seem to have all the money in the world to "subsidize" war! So is Ms. Erickson telling me that the Conservatives are making money from the war in Afghanistan?

Krista Erickson (2:00-3:00) gets on the very dodgy argument and takes great offense with Ms. Gillis when she rightly points out that the Canadian society is starting to lack compassion. But again all I can think about here is the lack of compassion of the Conservatives as they send our flower of youth to die on a flea infested road. And I also remember, and very well (see earlier post..)  about how I overheard a minister of the Crown  (i.e.a former Defense Minister..) being advised in a Hortons coffee shop, somewhere in Kanata, that if you want Canada to be a "World Power" that you had to get the population over the upsetting fact of young men returning in body bags! Point to Ms. Gillis....

Poor Krista ( 5:00-6:00) still seems to be under the impression that when you receive grant money that the artist just goes away and pisses it away in a huge debauch! I have a very strong feeling that it does not work this way! Receiving grant money is a lot like signing a book deal... you get an advance of money, but you are legally obligated to provide something in return as specified in the contract! For example in Ms. Gillis' case she would no doubt be obligated to hold a certain number of master classes, in Canada and abroad representing the finest that Canada has to offer to the world. Now 1.5 million dollars over a 39 year career is not much better then working at a third level Canadian media outlet! 

The saddest part was right at the end! (8:00-10:59) Where Margie says that if you had a solution to world conflict wouldn't you want to do it, to try it? And the reply of Ms. Erickson; "But were not going to take money from the tax payers..."  That was the saddest thing I have ever heard a Canadian say...

Part II of the Margie Gillis interview. time references to the bits that really troubled me and why as per above.... God help us all...

Krista Erickson - Sun News TV Finishing School

The power of Good and Evil in whatever pertains to human relations cannot be too clearly recognized; neither can the truth that such control as may be exercised concerning them dwells, not in things, but in human beings.
W.L. Mackenzie King, Industry And Humanity, p. 9

Well dear readers, the Oracle of Ottawa is determined to get to the bottom of the recent attack upon the Canadian Arts by the right wing fringe media at Sun News TV. I have even done some research (!) and I believe I have got to the bottom (?) of the situation. The non entity, in the person of, one Krista Erickson and one Theo Caldwell were sent by Sun News to cover the 2011 Governer Generals Arts Awards at the National Gallery  in Ottawa, sometime last weekend.

Margie Gillis- A Great Canadian...

At this award gala, one Margie Gillis, received the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award for her life's work and contribution to Canadian creative dance. Ms. Gillis is a member of the Order of Canada and the National Order of Quebec!  While Krista Erickson is a soul less heathen skank! It seems that Ms. Erickson suffered massive cultural shock at the said event. She was also stunned that there are very many women in Ottawa and its immediate environs that are much hotter then Ms. Erickson will ever be! It was all too much! And especially galling to Ms. Erickson is that even a woman of Margie Gillis's advancing years radiated still so much more womanly heat than the present young prime of Ms. Erickson.... Well...shit happens. (Or not!)

 

Chalice - Margie Gillis

It seems every thing got all out of hand when Ms. Erickson witnessed the great artist perform. It totally blew the head off of Ms. Erickson. Just couldn't handle the massive amount of information and its portends... the Oracle of Ottawa has included a clip of the offending work d'art....It seems that Ms. Erickson has found that Ms. Gillis has received Canadian Council Grant money at some point in her career.  It has proved beyond the limited sensibilities of the said "media personality" why the people of Canada would approve of such a thing!

The Canada Council owns many Strad violins...

The base and heathen attacks upon the funding of Canadian Arts has continued on air again today. Note the picture that I have included of a very rare and valuable Strad violin. I wonder if Ms. Erickson knows that one of the greatest collections of said instruments in the world today are owned by the Canadian People? Yes indeed Dear reader, the Canada Council Instrument Bank has one of the finest and most valuable collections of rare musical instruments that exists today! And it was all paid for by you and I! And guess what? These instruments are loaned out to un economically viable students! Oh my God! And for FREE!!! I fear that when Ms. Erickson learns of this she will physically explode in right wing belligerent rage! (Some one please post the clip of this event to You-Tube. PLEASE!)

Art is a Right among civilized people...

What can we do to make Ms. Erickson understand the crucial function of government sponsorship of the Arts? The Oracle of Ottawa has devised a solution... James Ehnes is the greatest violinist alive today. Ask anybody that knows about such things. Mr. Ehnes is a Canadian. Mr. Ehnes comes from Brandon, Manitoba!
It is not only Ontario and Quebec that have great artists! Perhaps Ms. Erickson could invite Mr. Ehnes to appear on Sun News TV to explain government funding of the arts! Perhaps if Ms. Erickson is polite, Mr. Ehnes could bring his Marsick Stradivarius and his Order of Canada and play for Ms. Erickson! I would enjoy that indeed! Why Mr. Ehnes could regal the philistine Krista the tale of how he won the use of a fine Stradivarius, free, for a whole year, when he was not yet an economically viable performer! That violin was the property of the people of Canada! 

The funding of the arts in Canada has never resulted in any measurable benefit....

( Note: It was not the intention of the Oracle of Ottawa to create a very attractive multi-media work of art with no apparent effort. No Canada Council Funding was used to create this work of art. But if the Oracle of Ottawa was deemed worthy to recieve it, he would humbly accept...)

Justin Bieber and the End of Civilization

Acts like that don't last twenty-five, thirty years....
Burton Cummings, CBC interview; The Red Chair...on Justin Beiber 

How high can it go? How good can it get? I should be overjoyed that a fellow Canadian ranks 29th out of the 3.5 million articles now on Wikipedia. But I think of all the truly great Canadians that have contributed immeasurably more to not just Canada, but Western Civilization! And who rank so much lower and are all but forgotten...

Justin Beiber loves you...

One can't help thinking  about Karl Marx, several quotes come to mind. But enough of that! Then I think of all the great music acts that lasted so long and are so much more talented. Gordon Lightfoot, Rush, and Stompin' Tom Connors! Are the first to come to mind. There are so many more for sure. See the video by Bill Hicks at the end of the second blog post for an explanation of this weird effect.....

It must be the end times! I am hoping that the world will end in 2012! Baby oh Baby oh, oh, Baby.....One day you and I will be driving down the freeway or more likely sitting in a traffic jam on the freeway when the Elect will be called to heaven! In a flash the world will be short 120,000 republicans! Did you know that God is on Facebook? Yes sir. Secret account and password only! Why the Oracleofottawa is one of Gods BFF's!
And the Ultimate Man has confided in the Oracleofottawa that the reward of the Elect is to enjoy a Justin Beiber concert forever! Now that's heaven!

Pet the pretty kitty....

Does anybody remember Tom Greene? He was damn near as huge, for a brief shining moment. He was from Ottawa. Did you know that? But the great United States provided all of us in Ottawa with relief by taking him in as an American citizen. Our Great Friends to the south saved us again! And we Thank You!  I remember one time years ago when ole Toms wave had just peaked, but he had not been informed about it yet... It was at St. Laurent Shopping Centre and Tom Greene was strolling with a Body-Guard / Fart Catcher! Expecting to be mobbed by the un-washed! As he was strolling down the mall he was acting like a Force Field! People were literally running away to avoid him! It was pretty sad to witness. The performing arts are a Killer! Lock up your sons and daughters!

Why is it the so called "Nanny States" (i.e. Denmark et al) seem to produce people like this, and capitalist societies produce Vanilla Ice ?  " If production is capitalistic, so to will be..."   Hmmm....