The Eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburry

Dearest Deary Dears,

This is one of Austin’s finest bass players extraordinaire, Matt Lecour. Last night we saw him play at George’s as he provided the funk in the Salsa concert.



In my uncouth and vulgar attempt to salsa dance, I ended up frightening several small children. If only my Gay Robotic Cowboy was more socially acceptable…


*I have been digitally removed from the above picture for your safety*

*If you don’t care about Philosophy, and trust me, I understand completely, skip to the picture at the end… it’s really funny. (By “really funny” I mean not that funny.)

My good friend Andy, burgeoning film auteur, has recently found himself in something of a crisis. His current predicament need not be specified, but suffice it to say that I felt compelled to offer my dubious advice after hearing his crisis. What I told Andy goes as follows…

I could offer you many different moral and ethical philosophies that you could adopt to guide your actions. Virtually any decision one makes is in accord with at least one ethical philosophy floating around out there. Andy could practically reach his hand into a hat and pull out some great moral justification like a magician seeking to constitute his actions.

What could he pull out to stun the crowd? Utilitarianism perhaps-for the greater good of course. Kantian ethics-but could everyone do the same? The golden rule-how does he want to be treated? Maybe nihilism-that could be trouble. The list is long and malleable, and of course if we throw deconstruction into the mix, well, all these aforementioned philosophies are going to be subjective and open to interpretation. What can be done?

If these other philosophies are simply the unexpected object magically emerging from the hat, then existentialism is the hat itself. Meaning it is the constant, the object that despite the final product remains the same. This might be a terrible metaphor.

Forget metaphors. What I told Andy is that ultimately he must make his choice, take responsibility for it, and endure the consequences. He is free to choose and will most likely do so based on emotion rather than some grandiose ethical philosophy. Since that is most likely to be the case (deciding on personal emotion), Andy’s commitment and responsibility to his free choice is paramount.



The above is a masterful bit of collage (1) work I created in an ill-conceived attempt to reference the Great Gatsby. (Andy was supposed to symbolize the “eyes of TJ Eckleburry”… watching Sarah and I… sorry) Somewhere Fitzgerald is rolling in his grave.

(1) By masterful I mean something any 6 year old with photoshop could achieve.