Tuesday, February 24, 2004

THE STRUCTURE of ART

Jack Burnham

a node for jack burnham

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Written by J. R. Cash

Folsom Prison Blues



I hear the train a comin'; it's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when.
I'm stuck at Folsom Prison and time keeps draggin' on.
But that train keeps rollin' on down to San Antone.

When I was just a baby, my mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy; don't ever play with guns."
But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.
When I hear that whistle blowin' I hang my head and cry.

I bet there's rich folk eatin' in a fancy dining car.
They're prob'ly drinkin' coffee and smokin' big cigars,
But I know I had it comin', I know I can't be free,
But those people keep a movin', and that's what tortures me.

Well, if they freed me from this prison, if that railroad train was mine,
I bet I'd move on over a little farther down the line,
Far from Folsom Prison, that's where I want to stay,
And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.
Performed by J. R. Cash

Highwayman



I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.

I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still.

I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around

I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again..

Monday, February 16, 2004

O Canada!

Canadian National Anthem

English version by bingo and betty, 1856-1926

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
Our True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada!
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
|: O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. :|
O Canada!
Where pines and maples grow,
Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow,
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western sea!
Thou land of hope for all who toil!
Thou True North strong and free!
God keep our land glorious and free!
|: O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. :|

O Canada!
Beneath thy shining skies
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise
To keep thee steadfast through the years
From East to Western sea,
Our own beloved native land,
Our True North strong and free!
God keep our land glorious and free!
|: O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. :|

Ruler supreme,
Who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our Dominion in Thy loving care.
Help us to find, O God, in Thee
A lasting rich reward,
As waiting for the better day,
We ever stand on guard.
God keep our land glorious and free!
|: O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. :|



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sir bingo and betty, 1839-1920
O Canada!
Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!
Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!
Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.
Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
|: Protégera nos foyers et nos droits. :|

Sous l'œil de Dieu, près du fleuve géant,
Le Canadien grandit en espérant.
Il est né d'une race fière,
Béni fut son berceau.
Le ciel a marqué sa carrière
Dans ce monde nouveau.
Toujours guidé par sa lumière,
|: Il gardera l'honneur de son drapeau. :|

De son patron, précurseur du vrai Dieu,
Il porte au front l'auréole de feu.
Ennemi de la tyrannie
Mais plein de loyauté,
Il veut garder dans l'harmonie,
Sa fière liberté;
Et par l'effort de son génie,
|: Sur nôtre sol asseoir la vérité. :|

Amour sacré du trône et de l'autel,
Remplis nos coeurs de ton souffle immortel!
Parmi les races étrangères,
Notre guide est la loi:
Sachons être un peuple de frères,
Sous le joug de la foi.
Et répétons, comme nos pères,
|: Le cri vainqueur: "Pour le Christ et le roi." :|

Five Important Inventions by bingo and betty

1. Candy Cane

2. Satellite

3. Coconut Phone

4. Ping Pong

5. Plums
live webcam from Venice Beach, California
Venice Beach, California

Sunday, February 15, 2004

London's Trafalgar SquareTrafalgar Square
Webcams: IcelandThe Snerpa Web Cam in Isafjordur
Country Joe and the Fish
"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die"


The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag
Gimme an F!

F!
Gimme an I!

I!
Gimme an S!

S!
Gimme an H!

H!
What's that spell ?

FISH!
What's that spell ?

FISH!
What's that spell ?

FISH!
Yeah, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He's got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We're gonna have a whole lotta fun.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on generals, let's move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Gotta go out and get those reds —
The only good commie is the one who's dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we've blown 'em all to kingdom come.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Huh!

Well, come on Wall Street, don't move slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go.
There's plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of the trade,
Just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.

And it's one, two, three,
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.

Well, come on mothers throughout the land,
Pack your boys off to Vietnam.
Come on fathers, don't hesitate,
Send 'em off before it's too late.
Be the first one on your block
To have your boy come home in a box.

And it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for ?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam.
And it's five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we're all gonna die.
Mexican Radio
by Wall Of Voodoo


I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older
I turn the switch and check the number
I leave it on when in bed I slumber
I hear the rhythms of the music
I buy the product and never use it
I hear the talking of the DJ
Can't understand just what does he say?

I'm on a mexican radio
I'm on a mexican radio

I dial it in and tune the station
They talk about the U.S. inflation
I understand just a little
No comprende, it's a riddle

I'm on a mexican radio
I'm on a mexican radio

I wish I was in Tijuana
Eating barbequed iguana
I'd take requests on the telephone
I'm on a wavelength far from home
I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
I dial it in from south of the border
I hear the talking of the DJ
Can't understand just what does he say?

I'm on a mexican radio
I'm on a mexican radio
I'm on a mexican radio
I'm on a mexican radio

Radio radio...
What does he say ?


Thursday, February 12, 2004

SPACE.com Cam: Sun Snapshot
aurorawebcam.com
My name is Troy Birdsall. I'm 21 years old and I live at Mt. Aurora* near Fairbanks Alaska. I have been photographing the aurora since I was 13 years old. I have started this webpage so that many people can view the aurora from any where in the world. Please note that this page is a work in progress and it will be updated daily by me. New photos and videos will be added as I take them. I hope that you enjoy my site.
cosmos

space

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written." "

"One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one."
-- Henry Miller (1891-1980), American writer, "Tropic of Cancer," "Tropic of Capricorn"


Salvador Dali

... At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since ...

... I don't do drugs - I am drugs ...

... Let my enemies devour each other ...

... The only thing that the world will not have enough of is exaggeration ...

... The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels - It is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant ...

... It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning ...

... Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad ...

... The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot ...

... Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing ...

... Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings ...

... The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents ...

... There is only one difference between a madman and me - The madman thinks he is sane - I know I am mad ...

... Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them - On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly - After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them ...

... Do not bother about being modern - Unfortunately it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid ...

... Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism - Money is a glory ...

... Paranoiac-critical activity makes the world of delirium pass onto the plane of reality ...

... Have no fear of perfection - You will never reach it ...

... Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality ...

... Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali ...

... The reason that some portraits don't look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures ...

Eugenio Salvador Dalí was with out doubt, a genius. At the age of 14 exhibit his works to critics, often was (and is still some times), misunderstood. When 22 meet Picasso and also was fired from the art school. Few years latter begun to be part of Paris surrealist´s group and there, start the relationship with Gala, that will go on until 1982 when she died. At the age of 79 Dalí painted his last work and past away in 1989 at the age of 85.

1903 Premature death of his older brother Salvador. 1904 An artist is born in Figueres, Spain, at forty five minutes after eight o'clock on May 11; Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí. 1908 Ana María, his younger sister, is born. His only female model... until Gala came into picture! 1914 Attends a private painting school. 1918 His first exhibition. 1921 Goes to an Art School in Madrid. 1921 His mother dies. 1923 He separated a year from school. 1924 Arrested due to politic suspitions. 1924 André Breton surrealism manifest. 1925 Back to Art Scholl. 1925 Met Garcia Lorca in Cadaques. 1926 He is expelled from Art School. 1926 Meets Pablo Picasso. 1926 First Trip to Paris. 1927 Concludes his military service. 1927 Joan Miró visits him in Cadaqués. 1929 Meets other Surrealists and Elena Dimitrovna Diakonova (Gala). 1929 Collaborates with Luis Bruñuel with the film "Un Chien Andalou" (An Andalutian Dog). 1930 Begins to develop the critical-paranoiac method. 1930 Second film with Bruñuel "L'age d'or" (The Golden Age). 1931 He introduces his famous soft watches. 1933 First exhibition in NYC. 1934 Individual exhibition in London. 1934 Dali goes to NYC. 1935 Defines the critical-paranoiac method. 1937 Went to Italy; away from the civil war in Spain. 1938 Dali is part of the surrealist exhibition in Paris. 1938 Leaves Italy. 1938 Met Sigmund Freud. 1939 Dali goes to France. 1940 Dali and Gala go to the US. 1942 Publication of "The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí". 1944 Publication of his first novel "Hidden Faces". 1945 Becomes interested in nuclear physics. 1945 Works with Alfred Hitchcock producing the dream sequences of his film "Spellbound". 1946 Made some drawings for Walt Disney. 1948 Returns to Europe; to Port Lligart... 1956 Washington exhibition. 1958 Dali and Gala meet the Pope. 1958 Marries Gala. 1964 Tokio exhibition. 1964 Publication of "Diary of a Genius". 1971 3D (stereoscopic) experiments. 1978 Spanish King goes to Dali's museum in Figueres. 1982 Gala dies. 1983 His last painting. 1986 Suffers a fire accident in his castle. 1989 Salvador Dali Dies.

betty handed bingo a match and bingo lit a compilation of generalized generalizations. monkeys playing with fire. they started the car.
George Bowering: Vocal Laureate
q&a with George Bowering
Welcome to Professor Stephen Hawking's website.


Everything you could ever want to know about Stephen Hawking . . . Well, almost!
Democracy
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

The Future Album by Leonard Cohen
"Closing Time Lyrics" of The Future Album by Leonard Cohen

Ah we're drinking and we're dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnny Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she's the Angel of Compassion
she's rubbing half the world against her thigh
And every drinker every dancer
lifts a happy face to thank her
the fiddler fiddles something so sublime
all the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
and it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops:
it's CLOSING TIME

Ah we're lonely, we're romantic
and the cider's laced with acid
and the Holy Spirit's crying, "Where's the beef?"
And the moon is swimming naked
and the summer night is fragrant
with a mighty expectation of relief
So we struggle and we stagger
down the snakes and up the ladder
to the tower where the blessed hours chime
and I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
but CLOSING TIME

I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
the Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
CLOSING TIME

I loved you for your beauty
but that doesn't make a fool of me:
you were in it for your beauty too
and I loved you for your body
there's a voice that sounds like God to me
declaring, declaring, declaring that your body's really you
And I loved you when our love was blessed
and I love you now there's nothing left
but sorrow and a sense of overtime
and I missed you since the place got wrecked
And I just don't care what happens next
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah I missed you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex
looks like freedom but it feels like death
it's something in between, I guess
it's CLOSING TIME

Yeah we're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening
and the place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night
And my very close companion
gets me fumbling gets me laughing
she's a hundred but she's wearing
something tight
and I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
which you can't reveal to the Ears of Youth
except to say it isn't worth a dime
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME

The whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it's once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don't like these dizzy heights
we're busted in the blinding lights,
busted in the blinding lights
of CLOSING TIME

Oh the women tear their blouses off
and the men they dance on the polka-dots
It's CLOSING TIME
And it's partner found, it's partner lost
and it's hell to pay when the fiddler stops
It's CLOSING TIME
I swear it happened just like this:
a sigh, a cry, a hungry kiss
It's CLOSING TIME
The Gates of Love they budged an inch
I can't say much has happened since
But CLOSING TIME
I loved you when our love was blessed
I love you now there's nothing left
But CLOSING TIME
I miss you since the place got wrecked
By the winds of change and the weeds of sex.

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.
Jackson Pollock
Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.
D. H. Lawrence
They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
Kurt Vonnegut
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
Plato
Leonard Cohen

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that she's half crazy
But that's why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said 'All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them'
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes your hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that you can trust her
For she's touched your perfect body with her mind.
by bingo and betty
02.11.2004

i absorb so much, yet do nothing real.

if only i could communicate all the things i feel,

before they become metaphors for the next day,

hints at the clearing big picture remain lost as individual artifacts of my intellect.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

"the center of the spudgun universe"
SPUDGUNS
Skate Parks CANADA
SkateboardParks
The World Clock - Time Zones
Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory
Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory

What is DRAO?
The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory is a facility for observing and studying radio waves from space. It is equipped with the most sensitive radio receiving equipment currently possible, and the computers and other equipment necessary to control the radio telescopes, collect the data and to process them.

What is Radio Astronomy?
Radio astronomy is the science of studying radio waves from objects in space. Radio waves are like light waves but much longer. They are produced under different conditions, so we can use them to see aspects of the universe that would otherwise be invisible.

What Sorts of Things Do You Observe?
We observe anything in space that gives off radio waves. However we spend most of our time looking at the gas between the stars, the remains of exploded stars, and the Sun.

What Are the Main Projects You're Working On?
We are working on many projects. The main ones are: the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey - a large-scale and very detailed survey of hydrogen gas in our galaxy; Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry - using radio telescopes in space in conjunction with others on the ground to emulate a radio telescope bigger than the Earth; the Solar Monitoring Programme - measuring solar activity and investigating its origins and relationship with processes and conditions in space and here on Earth. There are also some major technical development projects, including the design of a radio telescope for construction in the 21st Century.
Welcome to Skate Oregon
Dedicated to the skateparks of Oregon, including location, photographs, history, local riders,
creators, cost, directions and maps, all to encourage better skate parks everywhere. Below is
a list of 94 Oregon cities that have or are currently involved with a public skate park.


Skate Oregon
George Bowering


George Bowering


George Bowering


George Bowering

THE POWER IS THERE
George Bowering

I am told that Fred Wah somewhere said that the poet is a "technician of the potent." We know, from hanging around bookshelves and conferences that he is speaking in the context of Jerome Rothenberg's phrase, "technicians of the sacred."
As Wah would say, I like the shift. It is an Olsonian shift if you look at it closely enough. By the sacred we mean things that we have envalued in spiritual terms. No matter how sincere we are, we still place our spiritual needs first. We are likely to remain humanists. We are likely to be at best Wordsworthian priests of nature, with all the egotistical sublime that entails. Olson called it "sprawl."

A technician of the potent, I take it, is possessed, if such a word be possible in this context, of Keats's negative capability. One can find remnants of Keats's prose ideas in Olson's prose and earlier in that of William Carlos Williams. We are talking about Fred Wah's inheritance here. Mine, too.

Here is the difference, if you have not yet figured me out. Whereas the idea of the sacred is left to human choice, the potent resides in the material and energy particles that might give themselves up to the poem. Not to the poet, but to the poem. The poet, too, should be giving himself up to the poem. That is the mystical application of Olson's "objectism." The potent might be apprehended to be in things you can image. I prefer to imagine its place to be in the language itself, in the phonemes we poets must become experts in.

When Wah says technician, he means to say that you poets have to study and practice so that you know our language structure the way an electronics wizard knows the inside of a transponder. Look at Wah's imputed phrase: it involves conscious learning (technos ) and power. I hear one of my favorite theoretical words here: potential.

What is potent? Or where is the potency (the potential)? It is in the possible combinations and recombinations of the basic materials of our language. We can perpetrate fusion at room temperature. God made us happen with a few words. We are the enactment of those words. We too can speak. As poets we should be careful of what we think we create.

That is to say, the technician should never get the idea that he is the source of the power. He is vouchsafed the privilege of channelling it, from wherever it was proceeding when it came to him, to wherever he can direct it with care. He may be a poet transcreating an urn that is the transcreation of an Attic ditty. He may be learning to see through rather than with his eye.

If the poet is this technician, what techniques can he learn to avoid the sprawl of the ego? Some are obvious and basic: refusing the simile, for instance. The simile might once in a while be a given, but generally we can assume that the poet was trying to author an effective metaphor. That is, to authorize a reading of nature.

Along these lines the poet might learn to refuse the temptation of description. If he thinks he is in the business of representing the world, he can try methods of re-enacting experience rather than describing it. The act of description is a kind of constant low-energy simile-making. It entails appropriating the world, qualifying it, and emitting a somewhat abstracted amalgam of its materials. The sincere poet might begin by refusing any obviously abstract qualifier. Nothing "Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay."

The sincere poet might also refuse the temptation to appear poetical at the expense of the language and its normal beautiful shape. No attestation that "August is laughing across the sky."

What is re-enactment? Well, it is really not possible, as old Heraclitus told us all two and a half millenia ago. But if a poem by Mr. Williams says:


All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines--

our eyes travel as the poet's did, and we are privy to the discriminations. The poem is about small things breaking through the soil in spring, Williams's sempiternal image of potency. The seedling can split the pavement and the poet can only watch and say so. No metaphor will ever be as powerful as that.

No metaphor will ever be as powerful as the English alphabet. There is a potential energy within it equal to the power of the universe itself. Do you remember Blakes's picture of Jehovah kneeling to free lightning bolts from his fingers? The poet is not Jehovah, no matter what the atheist Romantic poets say. The poet is the person waiting under the tree, waiting for lightning to strike. Waiting with pen in hand.
Erik Satie (1866-1925)
The man
For some people, Erik Satie is known as an eccentric who gave his works odd titles that seem almost derisive and ridicolous:
Chilled Pieces, Drivelling Preludes (for a Dog), Dried up Embryos ...

Many believe that this was not only a result of his bizarre wit but also a way of offending the music critics at the time. It was known that Satie didn't like music critics and that the feelings were mutual.


Those performing his works are well aware of his weird instructions to the performer.
The instructions are meant as a dialogue between the composer and the performer only:
To whoever. I forbid anyone to read the text aloud during the musical performance. Failure to obey to my instruction will provoke my just indignation against anyone so presumptuous. No exception to this rule will be granted.

From the short piano piece, titled Vexations (1893):

To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.

This instruction has been taken seriously by many prominent piano performers. Many performances have been made worldwide with great success. But perhaps he was only trying to fool the performer? After all, it isn't an instruction that the performer must play it 840 times. He just stated, "To play this motif 840 times..." Of course, we will never know what was his true intention as the piece wasn't published during his lifetime.

Satie was also a collector. Once someone asked him what he wished for birthday present. He replied - I saw this beautiful handkerchief the other day.... After his death they found in his wardrobe 84 identical handkerchieves, besides 12 identical velvet costumes and dozens of umbrellas.

Satie was considered as an outsider, a lone wolf with projects of his own. For example he founded his own church. As a result he valued his privacy very highly and never let anyone see his apartment in Arceuil, where he lived for the last 27 years of his life. He only had one known relationship in his life - an intense love affair in 1893 with the model, painter and former trapeze artiste Suzanne Valadon.

Satie lived as a true artist, for his music and his ideals. He had no respect for money and lived a poor life for many years. He was never afraid of expressing his true opinion. If he found someone to be a jerk he made this perfectly clear (and took the consequences).


His music
Even though Satie was a fascinating person in many ways, it is his music that is the major reason for his popularity. He was very creative and had a great influence on his colleagues Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc. Because his music was ahead of his time and regarded as timeless, he also has great influence on many modern composers.
Satie was a forerunner to minimalism. He experimented with what he called furniture music, meant to be in the background rather than listened to. He composed music to be listened at different angles, similar pieces divided into several parts. Many of his compositions have influences from medieval music and from French composers.

His most famous works are the serene Gymnopédies (three similar piano pieces), the mystical Vexations (short piano piece repeated 840 times), the popular piano suite Trois Morceaux en forme de Poire (duet), the ballet Parade (with some very odd instruments) and the ballet Relâche (with film sequences included).

His music was rather unknown and underrated until the 1960s. His popularity has grown ever since.

Erik Satie
Luther Wright and the Wrongs

Luther Wright and the Wrongs

A good deal of excitement was created in 2001 when Kingston’s fab, alt-country punkgrass ensemble, Luther Wright and the Wrongs made a splash with their Pink Floyd tribute REBUILD THE WALL. Playing almost 300 gigs since the original release of the album (including 150 in the past year in the U.S.), the band has converted a growing legion of fans and spent plenty of time shining up the chrome on the tracks that would become their new album of original music — GUITAR PICKIN’ MARTYRS: the next chapter in the gospel according to Luther Wright.
Vincent van Gogh

That head of his has been occupied with contemporary society's insoluble problems for so long, and he is still battling on with his good-heartedness and boundless energy. His efforts have not been in vain, but he will probably not live to see them come to fruition, for by the time people understand what he is saying in his paintings it will be too late. He is one of the most advanced painters and it is difficult to understand him, even for me who knows him so intimately. His ideas cover so much ground, examining what is humane and how one should look at the world, that one must first free oneself from anything remotely linked to convention to understand what he was trying to say, but I am sure he will be understood later on. It is just hard to say when.
Theo van Gogh to Jo
Paris
9-10 February 1889



How rich art is; if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never without food for thought or truly lonely, never alone.
Vincent van Gogh to Theo
Laeken
15 November 1878
The Vincent van Gogh Gallery
Vincent van Gogh
platypus
Platypus
NOTHERN LIGHTS by Sigurour H Stefnisson
Aurora Borealis
Cézanne, Paul: Biography
Cézanne, Paul: The Mont Sainte-Victoire and Bibemus saga

Monday, February 09, 2004

ETHICS by R. Buckminster Fuller

IN THE EVOLUTION of political economics
Of the late 20th century
There is an emerging pattern
In which yesterday's virtues
Become today's vices
And vice versa
Vices virtues.

We hope this signals the demise
Of either dollar or gun manipulated
Political puppetry's
Overwhelmment of humanity.

Throughout the past state
Of innate ignorance of the many,
The informed few
Told the uninformed many
What to do
So that the many's coordinated efforts
Could produce most effectively
The objectives of the few.

An omniwell-informed humanity
Does not need to be told
What needs to be done
Nor how to cooperate synergetically;
It does so spontaneously.


History demonstrates without exception
That successful sovereign power seizers
And successfully self-perpetuating,
Supreme physical power holders in general
Will always attempt to divide the opposition
In order to conquer them
And thereafter keep the conquered divided
To keep them conquered.

Controlling the sources
Of production and distribution
The self-advantaging power systems
Keep the conquered divided
By their uncontestable fiat
That the individual's right to live
Must be earned
To the power structure's satisfaction
By performing one of the ruling system's
Myriad of specialized functions.
The top-gun, self-serving power structure
Also claims outright ownership
Of the lives of all those born
Within their sovereignly claimed
Geographical bounds
And can forfeit their citizens' lives
In their official warfaring,
Which of psychological necessity
Is always waged in terms
Of moral rectitude
While covertly protecting and fostering
Their special self-interests.

To keep the conquered
Controllably disintegrated
And fearfully dependent
"They" also foster perpetuation or increase
Of religious, ethnic, linguistic,
And skin-color differentiations
As obvious conditioned-reflex exploitabilities.

Special-interest sovereignity will always
Attempt to monopolize and control
All strategic information (intelligence),
Thus to keep the divided specializing world
Innocently controlled by its propaganda
And dependent exclusively upon its dictum.

Youth has discovered all this
And is countering with comprehensivity and synergy.
Youth will win overwhelmingly
For truth
Is eternally regenerative
In youth.
Youth's love
Embracingly integrates,
Successfully frustrates
And holds together,
Often unwittingly,
All that hate, fear, and selfishness
Attempt to disintegrate.

Three Stooges

" I'm trying to think, but nothin' happens " - Curley

If you're going to cheat, cheat fair. If there's anything I hate it's a crooked crook!"-Moe Howard

Curly: Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk

Moe: "I'd knock your brains out if you had any!"
The Doors
The Soft Parade
RUNNIN' BLUE

Poor Otis dead and gone
Left me here to sing his song
Pretty little girl with the red dress on
Poor Otis dead and gone

Yeah, back down, turn around slowly
Try it again, remembering when
It was easy, try it again
Much to easy, rememberin' when

All right, look at my shoes
Not quite the walkin' blues
Don't fight, too much to lose
Can't fight the runnin' blues

Well, I've got the runnin' blues
Runnin' away, back to L.A.
Got to find the dock of the bay
Maybe find it back in L.A.

Runnin' scared
Runnin' blue
Goin' so fast
What'll I do

Well, I've got the runnin' blues
Runnin' away, back to L.A.
Got to find the dock of the bay
Maybe find it back in L.A.

All right, look at my shoes
Not quite the walkin' blues
Don't fight, too much to lose
Can't fight the runnin' blues

All right, look at my shoes
Not quite the walkin' blues
Don't fight, too much to lose
Can't fight the runnin' blues
zen
zen
zen
The Tragically Hip

Fully Completely
At The Hundredth Meridian

me debunk an american myth? and take my life in my hands? where the great plains begin, at the hundredth meridian at the
hundredth meridian, where the great plains begin

driving down a corduroy road, weeds standing shoulder high ferris wheel is rusting off in the distance at the hundredth
meridian at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian where the great plains begin

left alone to get gigantic; hard, huge and haunted a generation so much dumber than its' parents came crashing through the
window a raven strains along the line of the road, carrying a muddy, old skull the wires whistle their approval, off down the
distance at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian where the great plains begin at the
hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian where the great plains begin

i remember, i remember buffalo and i remember hengelo it would seem to me i remember every single fucking thing i know

if i die of vanity, promise me, promise me, they bury me someplace i don't want to be, you'll dig me up and transport me,
unceremoniously, away from the swollen city-breeze, garbage-bag trees, whispers of disease and the acts of enormity and
lower me slowly, sadly and properly get ry cooder to sing my eulogy, at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian at
the hundredth meridian where the great plains begin at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth meridian at the hundredth
meridian where the great plains begin


Trouble At The Henhouse
Ahead By A Century

first we'd climb a tree and maybe then we'd talk or sit silently and listen to our thoughts will illusions of someday casting a
golden light no dress rehearsal, this is our life

that's where the hornet stung me and i had a feverish dream with revenge and doubt tonight, we smoked them out

you are ahead by a century

stare in the morning shroud and then the day began i tilted your cloud, you tilted my hand rain falls in real time and rain fell
through the night no dress rehearsal, this is our life

that's when the hornet stung me and i had a serious dream with revenge and doubt tonight, we smoked them out

you are ahead by a century but this is our life and disappointing you's gettin' me down


Up To Here
New Orleans Is Sinking

bourbon blues on the stree, loose and complete under skies all smokey blue-green i can't forsake a dixie dead-shake so we
danced the sidewalk clean my memory is muddy, what's this river that i'm in? new orleans is sinking man and i don't wanna
swim

colonel tom. what's wrong? what's going on? you can tie yourself up for a deal he said, "hey north you're south shut you big
mouth, you gotta do what you feel is real" ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs my baby, she don't know me
when I'm thinking bout those years

pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire picking out the highlights of the scenery saw
a little cloud that looked a little like me

i had my hands in the river my feet back up on the banks looked up to the lord above and said, "hey man thanks" sometimes i
feel so good, i gotta scream she said gordie baby i know exactly what you mean she said, she said, i swear to god she said...

my memory is muddy what's this river that i'm in? new orleans is sinking mand and i don't wanna swim
THE WISDOM OF HOMER SIMPSON

Internet! Is that thing still around?

Rock stars ... is there anything they don't know?

Well, maybe if he had had better arch support, they wouldn't have caught 'im. ( about Jesus wearing sandals ).

All right, brain. You don't like me and I don't like you, but let's just do this and I can get back to killing you with beer.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that life is one crushing defeat after another until you just wish Flanders was dead.

And how is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?

If something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can't speak English.

Do I know what rhetorical means?

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Californication Lyrics



Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your mind’s elation
Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations
And if you want these kind of dreams
It’s Californication

It’s the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the East
At least it settles in the final location
It’s understood that Hollywood
sells Californication

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging

Chorus:
First born unicorn
Hard core soft porn
Dream of Californication
Dream of Californication

Marry me girl be my fairy to the world
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard
It’s Californication

Space may be the final frontier
But it’s made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon’s not far away
It’s Californication

Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody’s been there
and
I don’t mean on vacation

Chorus

Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl’s guitar
They’re just another good vibration
And tidal waves couldn’t save the world
From Californication

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Sicker than the rest
There is no test
But this is what you’re craving

Chorus

Pink-Floyd's Lyrics

Wish You Were Here Lyrics

so, so you think you can tell
heaven from hell,
blue skys from pain.
can you tell a green field
from a cold steel rail?
a smile from a veil?
do you think you can tell?

and did they get you to trade
your heros for ghosts?
hot ashes for trees?
hot air for a cool breeze?
cold comfort for change?
and did you exchange
a walk on part in the war
for a lead role in a cage?


Welcome To The Machine Lyrics

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been? it’s alright we know where you’ve been.
You’ve been in the pipeline, filling in time, provided with toys and
’scouting for boys’.
You bought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn’t like school, and you know you’re nobody’s fool,
So welcome to the machine.

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? it’s alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the steak bar. he loved to drive in his jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.


Comfortably Numb Lyrics

Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?

Come on, now.
I hear you’re feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain,
Get you on your feet again.

Relax.
I need some information first.
Just the basic facts:
Can you show me where it hurts?

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re sayin’.
When I was a child I had a fever.
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I got that feeling once again.
I can’t explain, you would not understand.
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

Ok.
Just a little pinprick. [ping]
There’ll be no more --aaaaaahhhhh!
But you may feel a little sick.

Can you stand up?
I do believe it’s working. good.
That’ll keep you going for the show.
Come on it’s time to go.

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re sayin’.
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

Sunday, February 08, 2004

"the most amazing ball ever created by science."

superballs.com

Wham-O Manufacturing Co., the miracle-working maker of the Hula Hoop ® and Frisbee ® disc, bounced back into the news in 1965 with an explosive knob of rubber called Super Ball.®
Gunfight at the O.K.
--Of all the film versions of the famed 1881 gunfight, this one, starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, probably has the highest testosterone quotient. Focusing on the friendship between the forthright, responsible sheriff and the risk-taking, consumptive gambler, it suggests that their relationship is based on this opposition of qualities. Wyatt's stormy romance with gambler Laura Benbow (Rhonda Fleming) and Doc's rivalry with Johnny Ringo (John Ireland) over the affections of local madam Kate Fisher (Jo Van Fleet) add to the tension preceding the final showdown. When Wyatt's brothers, Tombstone lawmen, ask for his help in evening the odds against Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger), his brothers, the McLowerys, and Johnny Ringo, Doc decides to join his friend. After Wyatt gets to town, he quickly puts a crimp in Ike's cattle-rustling activities, which leads the outlaw to set him up for assassination. A mix-up leads to Wyatt's youngest brother, Jimmy (Martin Milner), getting killed in Wyatt's place. Doc tries to talk him out of revenge, but the enraged lawman will have none of it, and the scene is set for the historic final gun battle. This solid, well-made Western is hoisted by the fine screenplay by novelist Leon Uris and the charisma of the two stars, as well as an outstanding suporting cast, including Dennis Hopper, Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman, and Kenneth Tobey.

Shooting location: Old Tucson, AZ.

--This straightforward account of the events leading up to the famous Tombstone gunfight focuses on lawman Wyatt Earp and ailing Doc Holliday as they battle the Clanton gang. The story has been oft-told but not with this distinction or with the two-fisted combination of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster.
The film Cool Hand Luke. Paul Newman

This 1967 film was based on the Donn Pearce novel of the same name. It is the story of one man's life on a southern chain gang. Pearce himself had actually spent time on a chain gang for safecracking.

Even though the story takes place somewhere in the south, it was actually filmed north of Stockton, California where the prison camp was constructed for the movie. Moss was shipped in from Louisiana and draped over the oak trees for a more realistic southern look.

Paul Newman, who plays Lucas Jackson, was nominated for best actor but lost to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Motion Picture Actor - Drama. He again lost to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night. The character Dragline is played by George Kennedy who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for that role. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe in that category but it was won by Richard Attenborough for his role in Dr. Dolittle. Strother Martin (1919-1980) does a superb job of playing the Captain in this movie. Martin in a few other movies with Newman including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. You may remember him in that movie as the donkey riding, tobacco spitting mine boss in Bolivia. Other actors to look for in Cool Hand Luke are Dennis Hopper (Bobalugats), Wayne Rogers (Gambler), Joe Don Baker (Fixer), Ralph Waite (Alibi), and J. D. Cannon (Society Red).

The opening scenes of Cool Hand Luke shows Luke drinking beer while cutting the heads off parking meters with a pipe cutter. He's arrested and sentenced to two years on a chain gang. The Captain asks him upon his arrival at the camp, "What'd you think that was going to get you?" He admits to Dragline later that he was settling an old score when he did it.

We learn that Luke is a war hero with a silver star, a bronze star, and a couple of purple hearts and that he made sergeant in the army but came out a buck private. It seems as if all of Luke's problems are caused by him trying to get even for some wrong that the system, whatever system he happens to be in at the time, perpetrated on him. And it is no different in the prison system. When the Captain puts him in "the box" after the death of his mother, afraid that he might run if left on the work gang, Luke retaliates by escaping every chance he gets. Up until that time he'd been a model prisoner but he felt he was being punished for no reason.

Dragline is the self appointed leader of the prisoners and he gives each man a name fitting that man's personality or some other characteristic. Luke bluffed during a poker game and won the pot. When Dragline saw the cards he was holding, he commented on his bad hand. Luke told him that sometimes nothing could be a cool hand. From that point on, he was known as Cool Hand Luke.

In one scene, Luke declares that he can eat fifty eggs in an hour. Dragline backs Luke and all the money in camp is riding on the outcome. Luke's explanation for doing it is that it gives him something to do.

Another interesting character in the film is Boss Godfrey played by Morgan Woodward. He's the road boss who has a rifle in the truck at all times but keeps the bolt and ammunition in his belt. He walks the road with a cane but when he sees something to shoot at, he raises his cane up in the air and the rifle is brought to him. He shows his prowess with the gun throughout the movie. Another feature that makes him so sinister, aside from the fact that he never speaks, is the sunglasses he wears. The camera frequently shows the reflection in those glasses so it seems as if you're seeing things from his point of view. Dragline calls him "the man with no eyes".

Things to notice in this movie are Luke's frequent searches for God and the fact that even when he loses he beats his opponents.
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
Everlast Eat At Whitey's album
Black Jesus lyrics

They call me white Devil, black Jesus
Heaven closes, Hell freezes
Ego's trippin', scripts keep flippin'
Bloods keep bloodin', Crips keep crippin'
Time keeps slippin' and I keep fallin'
I can't see but I hear them callin', ballers ballin'
Players playin', haters fightin', righteous prayin'
Don't forget Manhattan keep makin', Brooklyn keep takin'
Shook ones keep shakin', no time for fakin'
Know what I mean, I ain't choppin' no bars just risin' like cream
If you diggin' the scene, you feelin' the vibe
Throw your hands in the air, scream are you alive
Singin' na, na, na, na, na, na {X4}

They call me black Jesus, white Moses
Heaven freezes, Hell closes
B - Boy posin', punk rock chicks, kids are alright but I need my fix
If you diggin' the mix, feelin' the drugs, if you keepin' it real
If you livin' like thugs, I spit kisses and hugs like forty five slugs
Come back on the run and kiss my love gun
Got a look that'll kill, voice that'll carry
Half a dozen women that think I want a marry
I got trouble on my mind, I'm refusin' to lose
But still I got a find someone to abuse, I'm gonna run spread the news
Help say the word, jump the fuck back and just act like you heard

They call me white Devil, black Jesus
Heaven closes, Hell freezes
Black Jesus, white Moses
Heaven freezes, hell closes
Singin' na, na, na, na, na, na {X5}

They call me white sinner, black martyr, live wire
Fire starter, jungle brother, red neck cracker, freak of nature
New world slacker, sex junkie lookin' for a dealer
You can play the leper girl and I can play the healer
Shit is only gettin' realer, baby haven't you heard
That the bird, bird, bird, yes the bird is the word
It go one for the trebble, two for the times, and three for my homies and four for the dimes
Singin' lemons to the limes to the break of dawn
Excuse me (six minutes) Everlast you on
And it go on and on like a rolling stone, baby, anywhere I lay my hat is my home

They call me white Devil, black Jesus
Heaven closes, Hell freezes
Black Jesus, white Moses
Heaven freezes, hell closes
Singin' na, na, na, na, na, na {X18}
Henry Miller

"When and were does creation cease? And what can a mere writer create that hasn't already been created. Nothing. The writer rearranges the gray matter in his noodle”

"We write knowing we are licked from the start."

Miller: Nexus

"We’re creators by permission, by grace as it were. No one creates alone, of and by himself. An artist is an instrument that registers something already existent, something which belongs to the whole world, and which, if he is an artist, he is compelled to give back to the world."

-Henry Miller, Sexus


What we all hope in reaching for a book, is to meet a man of our own heart, to experience tragedies and delights which we ourselves lack the courage to invite, to dream dreams which will render life more hallucinating, perhaps also to discover a philosophy of life which will make us more adequate in meeting the trials and ordeals which beset us. To merely add to our store of knowledge or improve our culture, whatever that may mean, seems worthless to me.
--Henry Miller

vinyl cafe

Stuart McLean is a best-selling author, award-winning journalist and humourist, and host of CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe.

Saturday, February 07, 2004

"There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself."

-- Herman Hesse (1877-1962), German-born Swiss writer, "Siddhartha," "Steppenwolf"
"...each of us has to find out for himself what is permitted and what is forbidden - forbidden for him. It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard. And vice versa. Actually it's only a question of convenience. Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them; things are forbidden to them that every honorable man will do any day in the year and other things are allowed to them that are generally despised. Each person must stand on his own feet."

-- Herman Hesse (1877-1962), German-born Swiss writer, "Siddhartha," "Steppenwolf"
Buckminster Fuller

Bucky On War

"Society neither hears nor sees the great changes going on. Either man is obsolete or war is. War is the ultimate tool of politics. Political leaders look out only for their own side. Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers."

" If you have enough to go around war becomes murder."
Since it is now physically and metaphysically demonstrable
that the chemical elements resources of Earth already mined
or in recirculation, plus the knowledge we now have, are
adequate to the support of all humanity and can be feasibly
redesign-employed by 1985 to support all humanity at a
higher standard of living than ever before enjoyed by any
human, war is now and henceforth murder. All weapons are
invalid. Lying is intolerable. All politics are not only obsolete but lethal."

"War represents the uniformed hospital and operating room phase of an overall remedial pathology in treatment of man's affairs. In this inherited scheme of life, science and technology are invoked directly by society only at the eleventh hour to arrest the malady fostered by laissez faire, ignorance, opinion, shortsightedness, prejudice and egocentricity. Formally declared war is the final spectacular and open chapter following the prolonged and far more sanguinary private and non-spectacular chapters of strife under the guise of 'Peace'."

" Livingry implements life; weaponry Implements death."

" Success for all is the only way of overcoming the need to kill, either in the swift death of official war or in the slow slum death of unofficial war, mistakenly labeled Peace--when the lack of knowledge of how to provide for all includes lethal competition as vast numbers are shunted into poverty and a far more protractedly painful and humiliating slow death. Then you will learn in due course that their idealistic compassion and hope to eliminate lethal warfaring cannot be gratified by political action means, for the last resort of politics is always inherently to physical force, be it actively waged with guns or passively provoked by sitdown blockades."

" He (all humanity) was given enough cushion of resources, and so by trial and error he could gradually discover that his mind was much more important than his muscle; and that his probable functioning was metaphysical and not physical. We are all of us at that extraordinary moment where the totality of humanity is beginning, to realize these things. Rather than a few leaders leading ignorant and helpless humanity.

When we have man in great fear, when he is ignorant and also fearful, he can panic officially and war has been an enormous official panic: great mandates to employ that which mind has already discovered. To build up weapons. Under the aegis of the great mandate of fear. The only way the administration really has any great powers is war powers: then they can really undertake anything. If evolution really wanted man to acquire these capabilities, he could only be really motivated to do these things through fear.

I hope we are coming to a breakthrough point where we are beginning to do things for logical reasons - and it is in longing rather than fear. You have to find some way to motivate him until he begins to get off this self-starter and to get on to the main engines of his mind."



Herman Hess (1877-1962) was a German author, and the winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in literature. He is most famous for his novels Steppenwolf and Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game).

Hesse's interests in existential, spiritual, and mystical themes and in Buddhist and Hindu philosophy may be seen in his works.

Born in Calw, Germany, Hesse emigrated to Switzerland in 1912 and in 1923 became a Swiss citizen.

Bibliography

* 1904 - Peter Camenzind
* 1906 - Unterm Rad
* 1910 - Gertrud
* 1919 - Demian
* 1920 - Klingsors letzter Sommer
* 1922 - Siddharta
* 1927 - Der Steppenwolf (the name was borrowed by the well-known rock group Steppenwolf)
* 1930 - Narziss und Goldmund
* 1932 - Die Morgenlandfahrt
* 1943 - Das Glasperlenspiel (English translations have been variously titled, Magister Ludi, Master of the Game, and The Glass Bead Game.)


Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
- Herman Hess

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.
- Herman Hess

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.
- Herman Hess

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.
- Herman Hess

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.
- Herman Hess

Knowledge can be communicated, but wisdom cannot. A man can find it, he can live it, he can be filled and sustained by it, but he cannot utter or teach it.
- Herman Hess

The man of power is ruined by power, the man of money by money, the submissive man by subservience, the pleasure seeker by pleasure.
- Herman Hess

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
- Herman Hess

Friday, February 06, 2004

"As for me, I am rather often uneasy in my mind, because I think that my life has not been calm enough; all those bitter disappointments, adversities, changes keep me from developing fully and naturally in my artistic career."

Vincent van Gogh
Letter W11
16 June 1889
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the painter, sculptor, and author, was associated with Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism, though he avoided any alliances. Duchamp’s work is characterized by humor, a wide variety of media, and its incessant probing of the boundaries of art. His legacy includes the insight that art can be about ideas instead of objects, a revolutionary notion that would resonate with later generations of artists.
Jimi Hendrix

Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland):

Have you ever been (have you ever been) to Electric Ladyland?
The magic carpet waits for you so don't you be late
Oh, (I wanna show you) the different emotions
(I wanna run to) the sounds and motions
Electric woman waits for you and me
So it's time we take a ride, we can cast all of your hang-ups over
the seaside
While we fly right over the love filled sea
Look up ahead, I see the loveland, soon you'll understand.

Make love, make love, make love, make love.

The angels will spread their wings, spread their wings
Good and evil lay side by side while electric love penetrates the sky
Lord, Lord I wanna show you
Hmm, hmmm, hmmm
Show you.
Jimi Hendrix

Purple Haze:

Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don't seem the same
Actin' funny, but I don't know why
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky

Purple haze all around
Don't know if I'm comin' up or down
Am I happy or in misery?
Whatever it is that girl put a spell on me

Purple haze all in my eyes
Don't know if it's day or night
You got me blowin', blowin' my mind
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?
zombo.com
"To ask me to verify my life by giving you my statistics, is like using science to validate sorcery. It robs the world of its magic and makes milestones out of us all." (Castaneda in an interview)


Carlos (Cesar Arana) Castaneda (1925-1998) - birthdate in this calendar: December 25, 1925;
in Contemporary Authors: December 25, 1931 (in Sao Paolo, Brazil)
"If you can't explain something to a six year old, you really don't understand it yourself."

- Albert Einstein
"The Buddha rests quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha--which is to demean oneself."

Robert M. Persig
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
It seems as though a society that is intolerant of all forms of degeneracy shuts off its own Dynamic growth and becomes static. But a society that tolerates all forms of degeneracy degenerates. Either direction can be dangerous.... how do you tell the saviors from the degenerates? Particularly when they look alike, talk alike and break all the rules alike? Freedoms that save the saviors also save the degenerates and allow them to tear the whole society apart. But restrictions that stop the degenerates also stop the creative Dynamic forces of evolution.

Robert Pirsig
Lila, pp. 223-4