01 July 2009
28 June 2009
The Fire Sermon
Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata
(Give, Sympathise, Control)
From Buddha's 'Fire Sermon', also employed in T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland'.
28 May 2009
A Stand
The coldness, the “quickly sated intellect,” the awareness of banality, the tendency to be easily wearied and surfeited, the capacity for disgust – it was all constituted to elevate to a profession that same talent to which it was linked.
Why? Because it belonged only in part of the private personality; the rest, however, came from something above the individual, was an expression of a collective sense that the means of art had turned stale and were exhausted by history, of being bored by all that, of striving for new paths. “Art advances,” Kretzschmar wrote, “and does so by means of the personality, which is the product and tool of its times and in which objective and subjective motives are joined beyond differentiation, each assuming the form of the other. Art’s vital need for revolutionary progress and achievement of the new depends on the strongest subjective sense for what is hackneyed, for what has nothing more to say, for those standard, normal means that have now become ‘impossible’; and so art helps itself to apparently unvital elements: personal weariness and intellectual boredom, the disgust that comes with perceiving ‘how it’s done,’ the cursed proclivity to see things in light of their own parody, the ‘sense of the comic’ – what I am saying is: Art, in its will to live and progress, puts on the mask of these dull-hearted personal traits in order to manifest, objectivize, and fulfil itself in them.
Thomas Mann, Doctor Faustus
Progress is a comfortable disease.
e.e. cummings
Mediocrity must not be tolerated.
Tripping Up. Falling Down.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable. But more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
George Bernard Shaw
30 March 2009
Socrates' Problem
And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds, they are immune to your consultations, they're quite aware of what they're going through...David Bowie
Tiberius
If one was not a winner one was a victim, and there seemed to be no way to change that. No pretence was of any avail. It was not a question of looking or acting like a winner - that could always be managed, although no one was taken in by it - it was a matter of conviction, of feeling like one, of knowing you belonged to the caste, of recognizing and being sure of your genius. He paid, got up, and went out into the rain
Paul Bowles
09 March 2009
That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
The Rorschach inkblot test is a psychological evalutation test used to diagnose thought disorder and differentiate psychotic from non-psychotic thinking cases.
Pagliacci (Players, or Clowns) is a famous tragic opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
It was often said that the perenially-depressed Groucho Marx was the only person in the world who didn't have Groucho Marx to cheer him up.
Just like Pagliacci did, I try to keep my sadness hid.
Smokey Robinson, The Tears Of A Clown
Heard a joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says "But, doctor...I am Pagliacci." Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.
Rorschach, Watchmen
06 March 2009
Four Spicy Wings
Chicken: Low Art, High Calorie is a new book by graphic designer Siaron Hughes that explores the ubiquitous and entertaining visual signage of the hallowed fried chicken joint. The saviour of many a starved day and night, spicy wings, meal deals, and satisfying grease, the fried chicken stop holds a special place in the lives of its clientele, which makes this publication a unique, idiosyncratic and commendable endeavour.
Interview with Morris Cassanova (aka Mr Chicken), the man who designs and makes the signs for most of the chicken shops in the UK.02 March 2009
A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Dear Old Love is a blog of short notes by people to those who they've loved (or at least liked). Requited or unrequited. It is in parts funny, illuminating and heartbreaking.
Directed to by Ned Beauman's interview with its creator, Andy Selsberg, in brilliant new fanzine, Hustle London.
Where Do You Sleep?
Sometimes I wonder if you are still alive, and if so, if you ever got a real bed.
Sometimes I wonder if you are still alive, and if so, if you ever got a real bed.
Convertible
It was fun being your midlife crisis.
My Way of Saying
Breaking up with you and then begging for you to take me back was my way of saying I love you.
Circadian
My body clock still wakes me up at two every night in anticipation of your drunk dials.
Escape Planning
Sorry I was so distant the last two years of our relationship. I was trying to figure a way out.
Sorry I was so distant the last two years of our relationship. I was trying to figure a way out.
After The Flood
Mephistopheles, At 17 (The View From His Den)
The Blue Line
The Boy Who Could Be King
Too Pretty
Hernan Bas is an American artist. His fantastical and physical paintings locate Classical myth and Fin de siecle literary references within a modern Pop vision of the romance and bruising nature of adolescence. The willingness to believe is at the core of his work.
22 February 2009
18 February 2009
17 February 2009
Are You Trying To Save My Soul?
Presented by David Fincher and Spike Jonze, The Fall is a fairytale film by Tarsem about the power of dream.
Shot over four years, in over twenty countries and largely financed by Tarsem to protect his creative vision, it is a visual tour de force. Somewhat overlooked when released in 2006, its mise-en-scene and cinematic power deserve to be viewed on the silver screen and are testament to the breathtaking power of aesthetics over idea.
13 February 2009
12 February 2009
The Descent of Man
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
Charles Darwin
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