Actually Wes found this flick the other day. Hilarious to him and me since we have a Korean colleague who literally drives us crazy with his "and then" and then some more. Wes couldn't make himself to post it, so I'm doing it now in case he needs to be cheered up while bored and depressed stiff in whatever ESSA meeting at La Defense.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
La Vie En Rose
"La Vie en rose" (French for "Life through rose-coloured glasses," literally "Life inpink") was the signature song of French singerÉdith Piaf.
Enjoy your Tour de France.
FE
Paris
I am off to Paris this afternoon for two weeks. Last minute bidness trip.
Got a love txt from CO this morning - flight delayed 4 hours. Airport workers on strike at CDG delaying outbound international flights. Of course they still want you at the airport on time.
Inside IMP's pyramid
I'll be staying near the Arch d' Triumph, but will be in meetings at La Defence
chapeau FE for the photos - Euro 2004
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Checkpoint Charlie
I swear I’m a true preservationist, amongst a few other serious defects. Somewhere in Rotterdam is a large building, 13 rooms. It used to house my family, 2 parents, 10 children, me the youngest. The winter of 1968, I’m an “innocent” 10th grader. From one of my brother’s or sister’s rooms I hear sounds of the John Lennon-Eric Clapton-Mitch Mitchell-Keith Richards Jam Session:
However, I won’t be distracted by such loud noises. I’m preoccupied with a much more important mission. I have confiscated my mom’s old hand type writer as well as several books from the library. I am writing my first Bach biography, I still have the dozen or so densely typed pages. My first ever attempt to create an independent synthesis of information from alternative sources. Happiest days of my life. I was so proud of it for many years until I realized how totally inadequate it was.
When I was 16 my high school organized a trip to Berlin, in the good-old days when there still was a simple wall providing a clear division between right and wrong. All I heard was: Berlin = State Library = one of the largest depositories of Bach’s original manuscripts … The library is/was on the wrong side, of course. To the utter dismay of my teachers I soon escaped for an afternoon (scary Checkpoint Charlie!) and spent a few heavenly hours in the library. I had to witness it and have witnessed it with my own eyes.
Fast forward 40+ years, thousands of CD’s and hundreds of books in my library later. The original Bach, Mozart, etc. manuscripts are deteriorating so fast that they are no longer accessible to the public, not even to scholars or musicians who want/need to consult the source material. The solution is to publish high quality facsimiles and distribute them in small numbers mostly amongst worldwide libraries. There are related projects ongoing to make it all available on the Internet. A few years ago the facsimile of Bach’s B-minor Mass fell in my hands, one of my most precious and certainly most pricey possessions. Complete with SDG!
Yes Wes, you and/or good catholic girl Judy are right:
Now it’s time for me to return to the most impossible preservation task of all. The preservation of me.
However, I won’t be distracted by such loud noises. I’m preoccupied with a much more important mission. I have confiscated my mom’s old hand type writer as well as several books from the library. I am writing my first Bach biography, I still have the dozen or so densely typed pages. My first ever attempt to create an independent synthesis of information from alternative sources. Happiest days of my life. I was so proud of it for many years until I realized how totally inadequate it was.
When I was 16 my high school organized a trip to Berlin, in the good-old days when there still was a simple wall providing a clear division between right and wrong. All I heard was: Berlin = State Library = one of the largest depositories of Bach’s original manuscripts … The library is/was on the wrong side, of course. To the utter dismay of my teachers I soon escaped for an afternoon (scary Checkpoint Charlie!) and spent a few heavenly hours in the library. I had to witness it and have witnessed it with my own eyes.
Fast forward 40+ years, thousands of CD’s and hundreds of books in my library later. The original Bach, Mozart, etc. manuscripts are deteriorating so fast that they are no longer accessible to the public, not even to scholars or musicians who want/need to consult the source material. The solution is to publish high quality facsimiles and distribute them in small numbers mostly amongst worldwide libraries. There are related projects ongoing to make it all available on the Internet. A few years ago the facsimile of Bach’s B-minor Mass fell in my hands, one of my most precious and certainly most pricey possessions. Complete with SDG!
Yes Wes, you and/or good catholic girl Judy are right:Now it’s time for me to return to the most impossible preservation task of all. The preservation of me.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Whipping Post
Sometimes I feel ... sometimes I FEEL
Like I been tied to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
TIED to the whipping post!
Good Lord, I feel like I'm dyin'...
I've been run down
I've been lied to
And I don't know why ... I let that mean woman make me a fool
She took all my money ... wrecked my new car
Now she's with one of my good time buddies ... they're drinkin' in some cross town bar
My friends tell me ... that I've been such a fool
And I have to stand by and take it baby ... all for lovin' you
I drown myself in sorrow ... as I look at what you've done
But nothin' seems to change ... the bad times stay the same ... and I can't run
Bluesbreakers
"All Your Love" (Willie Dixon/Otis Rush). John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is a 1966 electric blues album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. It is often referred to as The Beano album because the photograph on the album cover shows Clapton reading The Beano, a well-known British children's comic.
John Mayall - Lead Vocals, Hammond, Guitar, Harmonica
Eric Clapton - Lead/Backing Vocals, Lead Guitar
John McVie - Bass Guitar
Hughie Flint - Drums
Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton is a 1966 electric blues album by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. It is often referred to as The Beano album because the photograph on the album cover shows Clapton reading The Beano, a well-known British children's comic.
John Mayall - Lead Vocals, Hammond, Guitar, Harmonica
Eric Clapton - Lead/Backing Vocals, Lead Guitar
John McVie - Bass Guitar
Hughie Flint - Drums
Crossroads
CLAPTON IS GOD
Following his departure from the Yardbirds, Eric briefly joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, in April of 1965. It was during this period that "Clapton is God" graffiti began appearing around London, painted by his devoted fans. The debut album from the Bluesbreakers was released in 1966 and rose into the Top Ten on the charts.
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Legend and Interpretation
The lyrics plainly have the narrator attempting to hitch a ride from an intersection as darkness falls. But in close association with the mythic legend of Johnson's short life and death, it has come to represent the tale of a blues man going to a metaphorical crossroads to meet the devil to sell his soul in exchange for becoming a famous blues player.
Saturday Night Live
It's Saturday Night guys.
In the music theme lets roll a few and catch some live music.
Clapton is God.
Clapton is God.
Jazz?
Deliciously off-topic, irrelevant and too provocative? You decide. So what(!) if it's jazz or not. Said a Viennese contemporary of Freud: Oedipus, Schmoedipus, so what as long as the boy loves his mother?!
Beethoven always - but especially in his late piano sonatas and string quartets - ventured bigtime into the realm of the hungry ghosts. An ultimate pleaser, or had he turned ghost himself? Deafening madness, or early jazz? Are we watching Pollini playing Beethoven, or is it Keith Jarrett improvising as I've seen and heard him several times at the North Sea Jazz festival? Watch and listen to "the aloneness within us made manifest":
I know, I know, time to repent. So here's one of my many "real" jazz favorites:
Beethoven always - but especially in his late piano sonatas and string quartets - ventured bigtime into the realm of the hungry ghosts. An ultimate pleaser, or had he turned ghost himself? Deafening madness, or early jazz? Are we watching Pollini playing Beethoven, or is it Keith Jarrett improvising as I've seen and heard him several times at the North Sea Jazz festival? Watch and listen to "the aloneness within us made manifest":
I know, I know, time to repent. So here's one of my many "real" jazz favorites:
Friday, February 26, 2010
OBJECTified
“We designers have been working to stimulate people’s souls and minds.” —Naoto Fukasawa, designer
Look around you. Within five feet of you are dozens—if not hundreds—of manufactured products that you interact with every day. If you are at work, perhaps there is a laptop, a stapler, a No. 2 pencil, a paperclip, a mobile phone, a coffee mug, a pushpin or an ergonomic chair. At home there may be a flat-screen TV, a pair of boots, a razor or a kitchen utensil. All told, we each touch or otherwise interact with an average of 600 manufactured objects every day.
So What
Friday Night Jazz - 001
updated...and improved, thanks FE
Miles Davis and John Coltrane play one of the best renditions of SO WHAT ever captured on film-Live in 1958. Edit : in fact, was in New York, april 2, 1959. Recorded by CBS p...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4TbrgIdm0E&feature=related
Classic
Miles Davis on Steve Allen Show
Miles Davis
Wayne Shorter
Herbie Hancock
Ron Carter
Tony Williams
Design Matters
My Passion is Design, in all its forms.
As my contribution to the Matrix I will provide discoveries and links to "intelligent design" that I hope will inspire your work and perceptions and generate insightful comments and cross references with topics that interest you.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Mini Link-Fest
Really Old Architecture
Google's Algos Challenged by the Future of Media
"But over the past five years, a slew of companies have challenged Google’s central premise: that a single search engine, through technological wizardry and constant refinement, can satisfy any possible query. Facebook launched an early attack with its implication that some people would rather get information from their friends than from an anonymous formula. Twitter’s ability to parse its constant stream of updates introduced the concept of real-time search, a way of tapping into the latest chatter and conversation as it unfolds."
Scale of the Universe
Greece - Germany, EU and euro
Theodoros Pangalos, deputy prime minister, said Germany had no right to reproach Greece for anything after it devastated the country under the Nazi occupation, which left 300,000 dead. "They took away the gold that was in the Bank of Greece, and they never gave it back.
Media Experts Agenda
"...former Congressman Richard Gephardt runs a lobbying firm representing giant insurance and pharmaceutical companies.
Retired General Barry McCaffrey sits on the board of a giant defense contractor, DynCorp, and lobbies for war.
And many other "pundits" interviewed by the mainstream news are really high-level lobbyists for giant companies, pushing their agendas.
And yet they are treated as "independent experts" by the media.
Indeed - 2 years after Jones asked the large networks why they don't have a disclaimer on the screen beneath the pundits' names saying who they really work for - nothing has been done.
The corporate media are acting like virtual "escort services" for the powerful, selling access - for a price - to viewers and to powerful government officials, instead of actually investigating and reporting on what those in power are actually doing." - Washington's Blog
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100301/jones
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Hungry Ghost
Job and I had a nice lunch yesterday at the Stag’s Head and I mentioned a concept that I had just heard on a Democracy Now interview between Amy Goodman and Dr Gabor Mate. It is quite old but new to me. Gabor has used the concept in the title of his book and he explains…..
AMY GOODMAN: What does the title of your book mean, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts?
DR. GABOR MATÉ: Well, it’s a Buddhist phrase. In the Buddhists’ psychology, there are a number of realms that human beings cycle through, all of us. One is the human realm, which is our ordinary selves. The hell realm is that of unbearable rage, fear, you know, these emotions that are difficult to handle. The animal realm is our instincts and our id and our passions.
Now, the hungry ghost realm, the creatures in it are depicted as people with large empty bellies, small mouths and scrawny thin necks. They can never get enough satisfaction. They can never fill their bellies. They’re always hungry, always empty, always seeking it from the outside. That speaks to a part of us that I have and everybody in our society has, where we want satisfaction from the outside, where we’re empty, where we want to be soothed by something in the short term, but we can never feel that or fulfill that insatiety from the outside. The addicts are in that realm all the time. Most of us are in that realm some of the time. And my point really is, is that there’s no clear distinction between the identified addict and the rest of us. There’s just a continuum in which we all may be found.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Break on Through to the Other Side
What is the functionality of a Door?
I am glad we are now all here.
Let the story begin!
Gadot
Wes, Job,
I see from the musings of you retrobates that I have already been branded. So be it. "Autre ne veulx estre" - However, thanks! You have provide me with a moniker I can live with - The impulsive misanthrope.
I see from the musings of you retrobates that I have already been branded. So be it. "Autre ne veulx estre" - However, thanks! You have provide me with a moniker I can live with - The impulsive misanthrope.
Benevolent
This is excerpted from a December 2008 email from me to George Rodenbusch:
The relatively young novelist/philosopher Jonathan Littell (New York, 1967 - apologies for misspelling his name earlier) is an American, raised mostly in Europe, living in Barcelona, son of writer Robert Littell, of Polish Jewish descent. He lived in America until he was three and later returned to study at Yale. The title of "Les Bienveillantes" is literally "The Benevolents" or "The Kind Ones." However, some have hinted at an allusion to Aeschylus, and the book is alternatively called "The Furies", after evil spirits who were called "kind ones" as an appeasement.
In the book the executioner Max Aue (an SS officer involved in the Nazi death camps) provides a detailed account of his wartime dealings. Aue writes to find out if he can still feel or can still suffer after everything he has been through as a loyal subject of his country. What makes "Les Bienveillantes" unique is that Littell (courageously? and most certainly extremely controversially!) attempts to write from the perspective of the perpetrator, rather than from the victim's. That combined with a mind boggling knowledge of details makes the book an event.
Littel wrote the book in French but was himself uninterested to cooperate in preparing the English translation which will therefore only appear in 2009, well after translations in many other languages. He said in an interview that it took him 5+ years to write the bloody book, so that seemed more than enough to him. I guess he has a bit of (somewhat gallic arrogant/nonchalant?) point there.
I'm NOT advocating whether the book is right or wrong - it's a novel based on a radically different assumption, written from a very unusual paradigm. It's certainly not trying to portray the antagonist as the victim, on the contrary. The novel tells the story of the Holocaust from the point of view of an eloquent but heavily unsympathetic SS officer who is brutally honest. Or just plain perverse? Brave or crazy, literature or a stunt? Whatever the case may be, it kept me of the streets for a number of nights and did offer some unexpected new insights over and above the countless other books that I've read on the subject.
For many emotional blogs about this book, try http://frenchjournal.typepad.com/french_journal/2006/10/books_les_bienv.html
Footnote: I vaguely recall reading an article in the NY Times last year that people were protesting and trying to get the book removed from the shelves of the NY Public Library ...
The relatively young novelist/philosopher Jonathan Littell (New York, 1967 - apologies for misspelling his name earlier) is an American, raised mostly in Europe, living in Barcelona, son of writer Robert Littell, of Polish Jewish descent. He lived in America until he was three and later returned to study at Yale. The title of "Les Bienveillantes" is literally "The Benevolents" or "The Kind Ones." However, some have hinted at an allusion to Aeschylus, and the book is alternatively called "The Furies", after evil spirits who were called "kind ones" as an appeasement.
In the book the executioner Max Aue (an SS officer involved in the Nazi death camps) provides a detailed account of his wartime dealings. Aue writes to find out if he can still feel or can still suffer after everything he has been through as a loyal subject of his country. What makes "Les Bienveillantes" unique is that Littell (courageously? and most certainly extremely controversially!) attempts to write from the perspective of the perpetrator, rather than from the victim's. That combined with a mind boggling knowledge of details makes the book an event.
Littel wrote the book in French but was himself uninterested to cooperate in preparing the English translation which will therefore only appear in 2009, well after translations in many other languages. He said in an interview that it took him 5+ years to write the bloody book, so that seemed more than enough to him. I guess he has a bit of (somewhat gallic arrogant/nonchalant?) point there.
I'm NOT advocating whether the book is right or wrong - it's a novel based on a radically different assumption, written from a very unusual paradigm. It's certainly not trying to portray the antagonist as the victim, on the contrary. The novel tells the story of the Holocaust from the point of view of an eloquent but heavily unsympathetic SS officer who is brutally honest. Or just plain perverse? Brave or crazy, literature or a stunt? Whatever the case may be, it kept me of the streets for a number of nights and did offer some unexpected new insights over and above the countless other books that I've read on the subject.
For many emotional blogs about this book, try http://frenchjournal.typepad.com/french_journal/2006/10/books_les_bienv.html
Footnote: I vaguely recall reading an article in the NY Times last year that people were protesting and trying to get the book removed from the shelves of the NY Public Library ...
Monday, February 22, 2010
Comments
It seems I can post to this blog but I cannot comment on another post. I think Wes is muzzling me. I don't blame him.
Steve
Steve
OMG
I've done it! Entered the world of modern digital mass media. Scary, especially since I don't want us to end up enjoying dysfunctional relationships. :) My first ever blog posting. If I mess up just tell me to swallow a red or blue pill or both. I'm Dutch and come equipped with a few other even more serious defects than that; you can't hurt non-existent feelings ... Seriously: looking forward to exchanging many stimulating thoughts and ideas.
FREE YOUR MIND
As the Architect of the Matrix I invite you to Speak your Mind and to Free Your Mind.
Fast Eddie, AIA
Greetings
If I have set this up as intended, there are only five of us who can post or comment.
You should have received an email inviting you to be an author.
Try a test post. Try a comment.
I have some ideas that I will share later on how we might use this blog. But, for now, let's just see if we can get started communicating.
11:21
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