tumbly.

Progress: 6 down, 15 to go! (list)

Which: The Tao of Wu, The RZA

What I knew about the Wu-Tang Clan before this book couldn’t fill a thimble. Rappers, Shaolin something-something, and a few of My People dig ‘em. Not that I’m an expert, now, but learning about their (okay, mostly RZA’s) history as a backdrop to RZA’s own philosophies worked for me.

He manages to tell his story and explain what he’s learned without falling down the preachy rabbit hole. Mostly¹. Except even the moments where he teeters on the edge of that descent, he sounds more earnest, fervent, than judgmental.

For all the work his hard work on his path to enlightenment, it’s not until the loss of his mom and later his cousin (ODB) that RZA’s sense of perspective starts to square with my own and I begin to relate to him. That kind of loss has shaped my entire life, observing its effect on someone else is a bizarre and heart-breaking thing.

¹ In a 20-year-old letter he uses to close the book, there’s 1 line that hints at homophobia; it doesn’t ruin the book, but I did think “Come on. 1989, but dude. Sigh.”

I kept thinking, how am I going to produce a human being who has arguably the greatest single idea that any human being has ever had? And I slowly realized I couldn’t. Because he was the grandfather of evolution and I’m an actor. But I do know about loss and madness. Those are the things I share in common with Charles Darwin. I know what it feels like to lose people.

Paul Bettany (Hero Complex: ‘Legion’ Star Paul Bettany raids the mini-bar.)

That.

…the stark raving existential pain of learning that the world has broken.

Jacob’s review of this week’s “True Blood” (“Time Bomb”). TWoP isn’t what it used to be, but Jacob is great at this (nb: read the recap after you’ve watched the episode).

My thoughts about “Time Bomb” are recursively this: the entire series and this episode each make the other worth the investment.

Terminator Salvation (2nd trailer)

Item the first: I don’t remember having purposefully watched the original Terminator (T2, yes; but I was 13, give me a break), but it seems like a good idea to watch only that ahead of Salvation. (Not least because DFW’s “F/X Porn” is pretty convincing.)

Item the second: the 10 seconds from 1:19-:28 are intense. Devastating might be overstating it, it’s just a trailer, but still. That moment of confrontation with the proof that you aren’t what you believe you are…ouch.