humble return

oh dear blog, I apologize for the neglect. New York City will do that to you- force you to forget about the simple things. Besides that, though, I quit reading the news. the frustration was starting to give me wrinkles. I guess there's a visceral world right in front of my face that I forget about when I keep my head in a newspaper for too long.



Anyway, the new year is approaching and I have to say this:

don't walk, run.

don't breathe, gasp.

don't fall, crash.

don't eat it unless it tastes good.

don't do it unless it feels good.

just drink it.


bring it on, 2006.

hi ho.

oh why

choose between The Black Crowes at Madison Square Garden and Gov't Mule at the Beacon on New Year's Rockin' Eve?

oh why do you do this to me, ye gods?

cruelty, it is.

empirical my ass

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

-The Onion

it's only rock n' roll

but i like it

One of mine, just recently published. Go ahead. click it.

sam brown

Thanks to a link from Nadia's blog, I now know of Sam Brown.

I love this:

"I've Been Thinking a Lot Lately"

25 years

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

John Lennon

well done, Mr. Pinter

Congratulations to Harold Pinter on his Nobel Prize award. and for his honest words.

He returned to the theme of language as an obscurer of reality, saying that American leaders use it to anesthetize the public. "It's a scintillating stratagem," Mr. Pinter said. "Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable."

Mr. Pinter said it was the duty of the writer to hold an image up to scrutiny, and the duty of citizens "to define the real truth of our lives and our societies."

- The New York Times

let freedom ring

terror

goodnight, moon

my favorite childhood book goes straight edge

on the paper trail

The New York Times has got some interesting literature up as of late.

Joan Didion's essay, "After Life," adapted from her new book, The Year of Magical Thinking, is a brutally intimate portrait of death and grief on the unexpected death of her husband. It's surprisingly moving without a trace of gushing from what must still be an open wound.

From the first (long-winded) chapter of Bob Spitz's new Beatles biography, whose 600+ pages are still taunting me, unread, from my bookshelf.

Part science, part philosophy, from the first chapter of Diane Ackerman's An Alchemy of Mind, a book on the nature of memories:

"We tend to think of memories as monuments we once forged and may find intact beneath the weedy growth of years. But, in a real sense, memories are tied to and describe the present. Formed in an idiosyncratic way when they happened, they're also true to the moment of recall, including how you feel, all you've experienced, and new values, passions, and vulnerability. One never steps into the same stream of consciousness twice. All the mischief and mayhem of a life influences how one restyles a memory."

A review by Jonathan Rosen of Harold Bloom's Jesus and Yahweh: the Names Divine.

"What ultimately gives this book its power and poignancy is the image of a 74-year-old Jew, crying out to a silent God who nevertheless "won't go away." What could be more normative than that?"

The book sounds like a well informed re-examination of an ever convoluted religious and biblical history. (Anyone want to buy me a holiday gift? ... anyone?)

chicken, anyone?

READ BUZZFLASH

"Suppose you are a passenger in a car on a dark night in the middle of a howling snowstorm. And the driver turns into a one way street -- in the wrong direction -- at full throttle. You alert the driver that he is going the wrong way, but all he says is, "God is on our side. I'll make it go in our way because we have the biggest, best car in the world." It is too dark to look into his eyes and see whether he is stupid or mad.

But all you know is that he steps harder on the gas pedal, as you try to point out the one way street signs pointing in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, as cars swerve to avoid you -- their horns blaring -- you see a massive garbage truck off in the distance heading your way. You frantically warn the driver, but he calmly tells you, "Jesus is with us. I will not change my route."

Well folks, George W. Bush is driving that car -- and we are the passengers."

koyaanisqatsi

So, yesterday in class, our professor, Scott Sandage, made us watch this movie:

Koyaanisqatsi

In case you missed this early 80's hit, or you were too stoned to realize what you were watching, the film is a narrative of images set to Philip Glass music. The images progress from pictures of the natural world to those of indistrialization and city life. A summary:

Sandage proceeded to observe our indignant expressions at this plot-less waste of time, to later make the point that we are all part of the "here we are now, entertain us" generation. Because we expect everything to be clear, concise and heavy on sensory stimulation, we cannot tolerate nor appreciate anything that requires time and patience to make a point.

Now, this was an irritating movie at 10:30 am in a darkened classroom in a schooldesk. But Sandage's response was also quite irritating.

I don't care if there's some greater meaning, some profound revelation or cryptic truth to a work of art; if it doesn't come across, it doesn't matter. Art is not just about making a point, it is about aesthetics. And this film is aesthetically painful. It is overwrought and redundant. The overriding theme- that industrialization has detracted from our connection with the natural world- is so overstated that it buries any of the film's other thematic subtleties. And, to make it worse, the point was wreaked of judgement directed at the viewers, which is a poor attempt at making an enjoyable film.

AND, yes, maybe our aesthetic preferences have changed from the last generation, but that's true of every generation because it's a product of the larger culture we grow up in. (e.g. from tin pan alley to rock n' roll...) More is expected of our time, and so yes, we want it louder and faster, and don't waste our time with cryptic bullshit. That's no surprise given our high speed culture.Our society won't tolerate a slower pace from us, so it's not all one sided.

Those artists that can break that mentality are the succesful and enduring ones. To show a badly-made example of that idea, and then to say it is our fault that we can't appreciate it, makes for a thin argument. Don't just show me something. Show me the beauty in it. That's art.