preview of a graphic novel about Thomas de Quincey (Thanks Bookslut)
Friday, December 03, 2004
"Wise Man" (Mexico) from this Advent Calendar
"Featuring daily meditations and pieces from the creche exhibit at Washington National Cathedral."
Carla Bley article/interview--
"Q. You started playing at an early age, didn't you?
Carla: At three.
Q. Church music?
Carla: Yeah. One of the first songs I did was "This Little Light of Mine." I would go around afterwards, collecting coins.
Q. Your parents encouraged you?
Carla: I had no choice. They gave me the cup and taught me how to play "Three Blind Mice." That's so weird. I just realized that was the first piece I played in public. Now I've written a very lengthy arrangement of "Three Blind Mice." B flat, A flat, G flat. It was very effective. I got a lot of coins."
Thursday, December 02, 2004
The Barren Lands extensive site about J.B. Tyrell's expeditions for the Geological Survey of Canada 1892-94
review of fine book on Picasso's Guernica
"When in February 2003 Colin Powell went before the United Nations in a last-ditch attempt to win approval for an aerial bombardment of Baghdad to be code-named Shock and Awe, a blue 'shroud' was thrown over the 'Guernica' copy hanging before news cameras in the corridor. 'Painted as a passionate protest against senseless violence,' van Hensbergen observes, 'it was once again succeeding only too well.' "
"When in February 2003 Colin Powell went before the United Nations in a last-ditch attempt to win approval for an aerial bombardment of Baghdad to be code-named Shock and Awe, a blue 'shroud' was thrown over the 'Guernica' copy hanging before news cameras in the corridor. 'Painted as a passionate protest against senseless violence,' van Hensbergen observes, 'it was once again succeeding only too well.' "
Fallujah/Guernica
"The defining image of Fallujah - for Iraqis, for the Arab world, for 1.3 billion Muslims - is the summary execution of a wounded, defenseless Iraqi man inside a mosque by a marine. This execution, caught on tape, suggests 'special' rules of engagement were applying. Marine commanders have been on the record telling their soldiers to 'shoot everything that moves and everything that doesn't move'; to fire 'two bullets in every body'; in case of seeing any military-aged men in the streets of Fallujah, to 'drop 'em'; and to spray every home with machine-gun and tank fire before entering them. These 'rules' are all confirmed by residents of Fallujah who managed to escape. "
"The defining image of Fallujah - for Iraqis, for the Arab world, for 1.3 billion Muslims - is the summary execution of a wounded, defenseless Iraqi man inside a mosque by a marine. This execution, caught on tape, suggests 'special' rules of engagement were applying. Marine commanders have been on the record telling their soldiers to 'shoot everything that moves and everything that doesn't move'; to fire 'two bullets in every body'; in case of seeing any military-aged men in the streets of Fallujah, to 'drop 'em'; and to spray every home with machine-gun and tank fire before entering them. These 'rules' are all confirmed by residents of Fallujah who managed to escape. "
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
David Thomson on Scorsese's Aviator--
"That is why it's so hard to sell the story of Howard Hughes. He was a downer; he preferred not to in the end. But it wasn't just that he agreed that there are no second acts in American history. No, he said, there are second acts--and they are as prolonged, as inert and vacant, as the best medical research can manage. He left most of his money to medicine, don't forget, and I suspect that was because he'd guessed how that unending second act of life barely sustained was our just reward. So I encourage the kids to carry on oblivious of Howard Hughes. He is not for you. That way lies dismay, the thoughts that fill the early hours of any morning when the drug has worn off, or the times of day when no one can believe in just being American any longer."
The Brothers Quay and Bruno Schulz
"On the contrary, the Quays' 'aesthetics of degraded reality' finds beauty in industrial decay, moldering fabric, rust, dirt, grime, the discarded, the broken, the derelict, the deformed, human and non-human abnormalities, pathologies, and anomalies. Beauty lies precisely in that which contemporary mainstream society neglects and discards. "
"On the contrary, the Quays' 'aesthetics of degraded reality' finds beauty in industrial decay, moldering fabric, rust, dirt, grime, the discarded, the broken, the derelict, the deformed, human and non-human abnormalities, pathologies, and anomalies. Beauty lies precisely in that which contemporary mainstream society neglects and discards. "
Pepys Dec 1 1662
"Thence I to my Lord Sandwich's, to Mr. Moore, to talk a little about
business; and then over the Parke (where I first in my life, it being a
great frost, did see people sliding with their skeates, which is a very pretty art),
to Mr. Coventry's chamber to St. James's, where we all met to a venison pasty, and were very merry, Major Norwood being with us, whom they did play upon for his surrendering of Dunkirk."
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
why Tommy won
"Hopefully, though, as new generations learn about the life and legacy of the CCF and NDP leader, Tommy Douglas is not reduced to a harmless icon of Canadiana, a prop out of context to be bandied about by NDP and even Liberal politicians as they strive to get elected. Our “greatest Canadian” was a democratic socialist, and by today’s standards his ideology – for all its limitations – points an accusing finger at not only the Liberal federal government, but also at many of the social democratic provincial regimes that have moved to the centre and accommodated themselves to neo-liberalism."
"Hopefully, though, as new generations learn about the life and legacy of the CCF and NDP leader, Tommy Douglas is not reduced to a harmless icon of Canadiana, a prop out of context to be bandied about by NDP and even Liberal politicians as they strive to get elected. Our “greatest Canadian” was a democratic socialist, and by today’s standards his ideology – for all its limitations – points an accusing finger at not only the Liberal federal government, but also at many of the social democratic provincial regimes that have moved to the centre and accommodated themselves to neo-liberalism."
Monday, November 29, 2004
hack sentence of the week
"Alexander has proved to be the Thanksgiving weekend's biggest flop, and while it is a portrait of a legendary leader who ruled far-away lands more than 300 years before the birth of Christ, it has brutally exposed the cultural and moral divide which slices America in two."
"Alexander has proved to be the Thanksgiving weekend's biggest flop, and while it is a portrait of a legendary leader who ruled far-away lands more than 300 years before the birth of Christ, it has brutally exposed the cultural and moral divide which slices America in two."
Sasha Frere-Jones on Eminem
"Because Eminem's songs are rooted in adolescent anger and its paper-thin rationalizations, they must deliver big to justify an essentially annoying world view, either with aesthetic fireworks or with a performance convincing enough to distract us from the artist's bottomless ability to feel sorry for himself. "
"Because Eminem's songs are rooted in adolescent anger and its paper-thin rationalizations, they must deliver big to justify an essentially annoying world view, either with aesthetic fireworks or with a performance convincing enough to distract us from the artist's bottomless ability to feel sorry for himself. "
da blague blanco
"On Tuesday, June 8, 2004, we recorded Kevin Davies reading from 'excerpts from excerpts from an ongoing narrative of some length' at Bar Reis in Park Slope, Brooklyn. "
Sunday, November 28, 2004
lame and jumpy
"Bush appeared distracted, and glanced repeatedly at his watch. When he stopped to gaze at the river, where secret service agents were stationed in boats, the guide said: 'Usually, you might see some bass fishermen out there.' Bush replied: 'A submarine could take this place out.'
Was the president warning of an al-Qaida submarine, sneaking undetected up the Mississippi, through the locks and dams of the Arkansas river, surfacing under the bridge to the 21st century to dispatch the Clinton library? Is that where Osama bin Laden is hiding? "
"Bush appeared distracted, and glanced repeatedly at his watch. When he stopped to gaze at the river, where secret service agents were stationed in boats, the guide said: 'Usually, you might see some bass fishermen out there.' Bush replied: 'A submarine could take this place out.'
Was the president warning of an al-Qaida submarine, sneaking undetected up the Mississippi, through the locks and dams of the Arkansas river, surfacing under the bridge to the 21st century to dispatch the Clinton library? Is that where Osama bin Laden is hiding? "
Joseph Schmidt sings Schubert's "Standchen"--
My songs beckon softly
through the night to you;
below in the quiet grove,
Come to me, beloved!
The rustle of slender leaf tips whispers
in the moonlight;
Do not fear the evil spying
of the betrayer, my dear.
Do you hear the nightingales call?
Ah, they beckon to you,
With the sweet sound of their singing
they beckon to you for me.
They understand the heart's longing,
know the pain of love,
They calm each tender heart
with their silver tones.
Let them also stir within your breast,
beloved, hear me!
Trembling I wait for you,
Come, please me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)