Oil, or "When I heard it was for awareness, that sealed the deal . . ."

I don't have much to say on the topic of oil, oil production, or world oil supply, but since it was mentioned in my last post, and since my blog is already waxing liberal, I might as well provide a little bit of cud to chew. Here's one article on a recent meeting of oily minds re: "The End of Easy Oil":

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11119213/site/newsweek/

This, I'd say, is pretty accurate-to-overly-optimistic, since it's mainly based on quotes from the oil companies and their cohorts.

On the other side of the spectrum, here's a bit of info on catastrophe scenarios predicted by some scientists or other scholars. First, a Wikipedia article about "The Long Emergency," a book which predicts that the end of easy oil is basically the end of life as we know it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Emergency

and another on the Olduvai Theory, which predicts that the industrial civilization will have a lifetime of less than a century:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peak_Of_World_Oil_Production
_And_The_Road_To_The_Olduvai_Gorge

The Olduvai Cliff Stuff doesn't seem to be totally supported by the data (for example, so far the period from 2000 to 2011, whatever it has been, hasn't resembled the Great Depression, at least not for America). But it is interesting. So, "happy" reading.

Pandas. Rights. Fast Food.

I thought in light of my little family's refreshed attempt at vegetarianism (or at least semi-vegetarianism), this article was appropriate, though I'm not trying to be a vegetarian primarily over issues of animal rights:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14726425/?GT1=8506

Tips the scales against the "animals don't have souls" argument, or maybe against the "humans do have souls" argument (I'm being a little facetious there). I've been trying to prove that animals have souls ever since my 8th grade Bible teacher told our class that he didn't see any reason why there wouldn't be roller skates in heaven, but no, our pets wouldn't be there (because they didn't have souls -- which of course leads us directly to the question, Do roller blades have souls?).

I do, of course, believe that animals are being ill treated by the meat packing and other industries -- but the reason I'm becoming a vegetarian is more because of human abuses now, and human peril in the future. I will not attempt to detail all this right now, but I recommend The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (a historic account of the abuses of the meat packing industry), Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (a recently-published book which indicates that human and animal conditions are not so different now), and the following articles, which say a little bit about the potential problems of population vs. world food supply (meat is a drain on that supply, because cattle consume much more grain, etc., than the net energy their meet supplies):

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/sustainable_food/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/genetic_engineering/world-food-supply.html

The problem of world food supply is a bit speculative, but it is also tied up with the problems of energy shortages, which are less speculative (it takes non-renewable energy resources to produce grain, etc.).

This post has become a bit convoluted, so I'll quit. But if you're interested in all this, take a look at the books, cause they're a lot more clear than I am. My blog is becoming a "liberal rag."

Correction

Stephenie Meyer's new book is called New Moon. And as of this month, it's available from Amazon.com for like, 10 bucks.

Stephenie Meyer, Friends in Dramaturgy, and Wrestling with the Angel

So, as an update to previous posts, Stephenie Meyer, author of my favorite crazy vampire series, will be present at the National Book Fair on September 30, presumably to read and to promote her second book, Eclipse. This news means, of course, that I will also be present at the National Book Fair. I'm so much more excited than I should be, you know.

So one of my friends in the Dramaturgy program at my school sent me a blurb from the Center for Sacred Story (sorry, they don't have a website, but www.stmikessc.org will take you to the church who sponsors them); they are looking for plays which "deal with questions of faith and identity," which aptly describes the play I'm currently wrestling with. And when I say "wrestling," I mean wrestling like Jacob with the angel wrestling. Dang it, I hate writing this play, because writing about "issues of faith identity" is dang impossible. As my other writing friend says, "It hits too close to home." Yes it does. But this means I have to finish the play, so finish it I shall (hopefully).

Speaking of wrestling with the angel, I just did what I should have done a long time ago, which is watch Angels in America -- not on the stage, but there's a great miniseries with Al Pacino and Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson and a lot of others. I found it gorgeously touching, gorgeously spiritual (though ultimately I suppose the message about God as such is that he should be sued for abandonment) , and also artistically inspiring. I'd list Tony Kushner as an influence, if I'd seen this before I wrote my last play. Get a taste of it here: http://www.hbo.com/films/angelsinamerica/ -- it's groundbreaking theatre (in this case cinema, but just imagine it on a live stage!), not to mention an important piece of social art.