Casino regulars and the Myth of Sisyphus

I work at the Casino. There is this guy who comes in everyday who I call "Sex", named after the perennial 'So You Think You Can Dance' contestant. He goes around writing the results of random Baccarat games, to what end I don't know as he rarely plays. He hovers around the Baccarat pit then will inexplicably dart towards a table that grabs his attention. Every once in a while he'll approach a game as the shoe is concluding so he'll narrowly miss his chance to feign putting on a bet. There's this funny moment where "Sex" tries to act cool, being nonchalant about not being able to carry out his frivolous ritual.

Dave Kenneth "Sex" Soller of  'So You Think You Can Dance' fame

Baccarat shoe history

You know that feeling you get when you pretend to check your phone when you feel awkwardly alone in public and in your head you're thinking "FML, What am I doing with my life? I'm pretending to look at phones now!".

I imagine "Sex's" whole life is like that. That said, I also picture him to be happy.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He, too, concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a masters seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

- Home Reading: 'Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus - On the Writer, Actor and Traveler

Comedian Pete Holmes on adjacent experiences: Conversations relating to Travel, dreams and life

To commemorate the great news that Comedian and podcast inspiration Pete Holmes will be the new companion show for Conan O’Brien’s TBS show, I proudly present a crosspost from 'Loz in Translation'

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When people say "everyone should travel", I think they really mean "people should experience many things", further still "everyone should collect as many feelings". The reason people enjoy books and movies is that it allows them to experience other people's narratives, to identify with someone outside of themselves. That's what travels offers. Whilst we may never truly understand what its like to be on your first international Rock tour or live as a vagabond. We can experience feelings adjacent to it.

Ego tripping in Portugal, having a parallel experience

Comedian Pete Holmes has a very introspective personality which I identify with. I also find him hilarious and profound. The podcast format allows artists to share intimate details and find their true voice not unlike what's offered over dinner or on a blog. Below are posts featuring podcast excerpts of Pete Holmes ruminating on life, I relate it to my own experience and travels.

- Pete Holmes' official website
- Check out Pete Holmes' podcast: You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes

Zach Cregger: Being a kid again - Cave Clanning in La Perouse, Sydney

Matt Besser: Travel coincidences and Counting the serendipities

Duncan Trussell: Traveling, living the dream and remembering it

Kyle Kinane: Being excited everyday

The Sklar Brothers: Performing, possibly failing - That's living the dream

Marc Maron: A question answered with a quote

'Cloud Atlas' director Lana Wachowski on the value of making art

'Cloud Atlas' (2012) directed by Andy & Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer

'Cloud Atlas' co-directors Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer discuss the holistic value of making art to Chris Hardwick for the Nerdist Podcast

Nerdist Podcast #275: The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer
LANA WACHOWSKI: (19m 50s) The film was made entirely as an act of love in the exact same way that all young filmmakers begin. The film has a purity of almost amateur intent because we didn't get paid, we put our own money into it, we mortgaged the house to pay for it and when you talk about "What is the value of things?". The value of this film no matter what it paid, we don't even think about it really as a potential financial reward. It will never really be equal to the value of what we've experienced making it, the value of having our lives intersect for this period. The value of making this piece of art that is unique and unconventional and has so much of our lives woven into it.

I mean everyday we keep saying "Oh my God, its so much like the movie". We keep using lines from the movie to speak, we don't even have our own original dialogue anymore. No matter what happens I'm so grateful for the fact that it exists and it will be there forever, it will always represent to me this moment in my life that has been so important. Money is such a small part of measuring the value of making art...

Backpacking Round the World Trip - A modern day "Hero's Journey" (Joseph Campbell)

<< crossposted on the 'Loz in Translation' blog

Are you about to embark on a Round-the-World trip? Have you recently returned from an epic adventure and wondering what to do next? Do you have a yearning to travel, voyaging to foreign lands, exploring exotic cultures and meeting interesting people?

It's the classic template for 'The Hero's Journey' as elucidated by Joseph Campbell, found in myths around the world and mirrored in popular works such as 'Star Wars' and 'The Lord of the Rings'. Whilst our modern day travels might not have the magic of these mythical quests, what with our GPS, crowdsourced tips and online booking there remains the sense of wonder and discovery even if the roads are paved and well-trodden. Myself, I prefer traveling with as little foreknowledge of a place as possible, guided by my instincts rather than technology. Its my way of preserving some sense of adventure.

If you've read even a few travel blogs, you might be familiar with certain tropes. Posts addressing whether long-term Travelers are running away or towards something. Advice on how to free oneself from the shackles of debt or comfort. These themes recur because they are part of the human condition, torn between needing to branch out and being rooted with our comforts. A cycle that began at birth.

Comparing long-term travel and Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's journey"

Whilst our trips may not be as outlandish as those found in legend, to us they are still the stuff of fantasy. People often remark that the treasure at the end of the journey was finding themselves, for a lucky few they may have even snagged the Princess.

VIDEO: The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell (1987)

The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell (1987)
NARRATOR: (43m 30s) The 'Hero with a Thousand faces' was the synthesis of years of work. In his book, Campbell outlined the Hero's Journey he had seen repeated in cultures around the world. He saw the hero as a personification of a Culture's mythology. Traditionally the hero might be a warrior, the ideal of strength and courage. An explorer, a founder of civilisations. A philosopher, an adventurer of the mind. And in the modern world, Campbell would add the artist and the scientist to the pantheon of heroes but the journey is essentially the same - One shape shifting story of the vision quest that transforms the world.

Whether it is Odysseus, King Arthur or Luke Skywalker. The hero is the one who responds to the call to Adventure. The stories often open with the hero appearing restless, something is missing in life, there is a feeling of destiny. It is a time for separation, sometimes it takes a shock to make the final break from the past and gain the final courage to accept the call. But noone can go it alone, everyone needs a mentor to provide wisdom and magical power...

The descent to the underworld of adventure is often blocked by dangerous threshold guardians. They mark the point of no return. Beyond them is the region of the unknown, a dreamlike labyrinth of tests and trials. To pass his initiation, the hero must become a Dragonslayer - seize the treasure or rescue the Princess. But the decisive ordeal of the quest is when the hero confronts death, he is challenged to follow the wisdom of his heart....

Find some of my favorite Movie posts below:
- Read more about the "Hero's Journey" (aka The Monomyth)
- Coming Home from a year abroad. Reverse Culture shock and beating the travel Blues: The Hurt Locker (2008)
- Home Movies: 'Before Sunrise' - "I've never been anywhere" quote
- Find all my 'Movie' posts here

- Traveling life as a movie
- Other people's stories - Tales of: Adventure

Ousted 'Community' creator, Dan Harmon speaks to Duncan Trussell about "permanence"

'Community' creator Dan Harmon on Duncan Trussell's podcast 

Ousted 'Community' creator, Dan Harmon speaking philosophically about his time on the show and why it was all worth it

Duncan Trussell Family Hour - Episode 33: Dan Harmon
DAN HARMON: I spent 3 years doing that job, at the end off it I didn't want to spend 3 more years doing it... I could have spent that 3 years sitting at the bar, drinking and being funny with my friends listening to Johnny Cash music. The reward so much more intense and permanent, maybe not permanent but for me permanent. I'll go to my grave and the last thing I can think about, if I do nothing else for the rest of my life, I did that show for 3 years and that cannot be taken away from me.
There will be a little stack of CDs or holograms or something on my deathbed that represent the fact I did this thing and it cannot be undone. It was done. Nothing's more satisfying than that.
There's a lot hard jobs where you lift boxes, wash dishes and there is no point to it. There is no permanence to it, you washed the dish, someone makes it dirty again. You lifted the box, what was in the box? You don't even know. Noone knows you lifted it, you only did it cuz the forklift was broken.
I did the show and I did it because I was the only one that could do it and when I was done I accomplished something that only I could have done and I have it for the rest of my life. And if it took 10 years off my life biologically, it was definitely a good investment.

Find other Dan Harmon and Duncan Trussell conversations here:
- Ousted 'Community' creator, Dan Harmon speaks to Duncan Trussell about "permanence"
- Dan Harmon and Duncan Trussell: We are in a simulation echo. God was originally a mortal programmer who "sacrificed himself as a player"
- 'Wreck-It Ralph' and Simulation Theory: Are we characters in a Video Game?

Good Will Hunting : "You're just a kid" scene

VIDEO: Good Will Hunting - "You're just a kid"

'Good Will Hunting' (1997) quotes
SEAN: Thought about what you said to me the other day, about my painting. Stayed up half the night thinking about it. Something occurred to me... fell into a deep peaceful sleep, and haven't thought about you since. Do you know what occurred to me? Will: No. Sean: You're just a kid, you don't have the faintest idea what you're talkin' about. Will: Why thank you. Sean: It's all right. You've never been out of Boston. Will: Nope. Sean: So if I asked you about art, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I'll bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. And I'd ask you about war, you'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, "once more unto the breach dear friends." But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I'd ask you about love, you'd probably quote me a sonnet. But you've never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn't know what it's like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn't know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms "visiting hours" don't apply to you. You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. And look at you... I don't see an intelligent, confident man... I see a cocky, scared shitless kid. But you're a genius Will. No one denies that. No one could possibly understand the depths of you. But you presume to know everything about me because you saw a painting of mine, and you ripped my fucking life apart. You're an orphan right?

Pete Holmes on "getting into it" - People watching, connecting and conversations

New Yorker Cartoon by Bruce Erik Kaplan

Episode 77 - Pete Homes on 'Who Charted?' (Plant-Based Dick)
(1h 27m) PETE HOLMES: I love how they were making fun of this sort of... I've always been interested in how bad conversation is. It's so bad. Most people never talk, ever, never - You understand? Never have a real conversation. Its just transferring, passing this hockey puck back and forth of being like "So how are your kids? Well Tommy's..." Shut the f@ck up! What happens when we die?! Whatever or what are you afraid of?
...
HOWARD KREMER: Pete is speaking about something I think about often. I can't even pay attention to waiters when they're talking to me. Cuz I'm looking at the real guy, where does this guy live?
HOLMES: That's why I can't get into strip clubs. I can't just look at her as a body, I'm not even trying to impress women or be a feminist. Like "What kind of car does she have?", "What kind of breakfast is gyrating in front of me?"
KREMER: Its people watching

Find previous Pete Holmes podcast references below:
- Pete Holmes collection: Adjacent experiences
- Zach Cregger: Being a kid again and the power of "play"
- Matt Besser: Travel coincidences and Counting the serendipities
- Duncan Trussell: Traveling, living the dream and remembering it
- Kyle Kinane: Being excited everyday
- The Sklar Brothers: Performing, possibly failing - That's living the dream
- A question answered with a quote: Comedy Podcasts