Friday, November 8, 2024

Watching

ON THE SILVER GLOBE
[NA SREBRNYM GLOBIE]

Andrzej Żuławski
Poland, 1988


DON DELILLO
White Noise

How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to people, eat and drink. We manage to function. The feelings are deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyze us? How is it we can survive them, at least for a little while? We drive a car, we teach a class. How is it no one sees how deeply afraid we were, last night, this morning? Is it something we all hide from each other, by mutual consent? Or do we share the same secret without knowing it? Wear the same disguise?



Playing

Caroline Polachek
DESIRE, I WANT TO TURN INTO YOU


CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Evolution has meant that our prefrontal lobes are too small, our adrenal glands are too big, and our reproductive organs apparently designed by committee; a recipe which, alone or in combination, is very certain to lead to some unhappiness and disorder.



Daily Painting

Xaver Fuhr
CITY IN LIGHT (1964)

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Watching

TO-BI, O-BA - THE END OF CIVILIZATION
Piotr Szulkin
Poland, 1985

Watching

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS: NEXT CENTURY
Piotr Szulkin
Poland, 1981

Playing

Watazumi Doso Roshi
MUREZURU


NEIL GAIMAN
The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them are things people are scared of. Some of them are things that look like things people used to be scared of a long time ago. Sometimes monsters are things people should be scared of, but they aren't.




CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Religion is a totalitarian belief. It is the wish to be a slave. It is the desire that there be an unalterable, unchallengeable, tyrannical authority who can convict you of thought crime while you are asleep, who can subject you to total surveillance around the clock every waking and sleeping minute of your life, before you're born and, even worse and where the real fun begins, after you're dead. A celestial North Korea. 

Who wants this to be true? Who but a slave desires such a ghastly fate? I've been to North Korea. It has a dead man as its president, Kim Jong-Il is only head of the party and head of the army. He's not head of the state. That office belongs to his deceased father, Kim Il-Sung. It's a necrocracy, a thanatocracy. It's one short of a trinity I might add. The son is the reincarnation of the father. It is the most revolting and utter and absolute and heartless tyranny the human species has ever evolved. 

But at least you can fucking die and leave North Korea!


Daily Painting

Vincent van Gogh
PRISONERS' ROUND (AFTER GUSTAVE DORÉ) (1890)

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Daily Painting

Zdzisław Beksiński
UNTITLED (1970)

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Watching

MY LIFE AS A DOG
[MITT LIV SOM HUND]

Lasse Hallström
Sweden, 1985

Every accusation ...
Mike Luckovich
November 3, 2024

Playing

Various Artists
GARAGEAHOLIC! PSYCHEDELIC! OUTSIDER MUSIC!
The Arf Arf 30-Track Audio Relic Sampler


CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Hitch 22: A Memoir

I had become too accustomed to the pseudo-Left new style, whereby if your opponent thought he had identified your lowest possible motive, he was quite certain that he had isolated the only real one.

This vulgar method, which is now the norm and the standard in much non-Left journalism as well, is designed to have the effect of making any noisy moron into a master analyst.



Daily Painting

Johann Heinrich Füssli
THOR BATTLING THE MIDGARD SERPENT (1788)

Monday, November 4, 2024

Watching

GOLEM
Piotr Szulkin
Poland, 1979

Watching

WAR GAME
Tony Gerber and Jesse Moss
USA, 2024

Playing

Billy Bragg
BACK TO BASICS
Together At Last The First 21 Songs From The Roots Of Urbane Folk Music

- Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy
- Brewing Up with Billy Bragg
- Between the Wars


ANNE SEXTON
“The Poet of Ignorance”

Perhaps the earth is floating,
I do not know.
Perhaps the stars are little paper cutups
made by some giant scissors,
I do not know.
Perhaps the moon is a frozen tear,
I do not know.
Perhaps God is only a deep voice,
heard by the deaf,
I do not know.

Perhaps I am no one.
True, I have a body
and I cannot escape from it.
I would like to fly out of my head,
but that is out of the question.
It is written on the tablet of destiny
that I am stuck here in this human form.
That being the case
I would like to call attention to my problem.

There is an animal inside me,
clutching fast to my heart,
a huge crab.
The doctors of Boston
have thrown up their hands.
They have tried scalpels,
needles, poison gasses and the like.
The crab remains.
It is a great weight.
I try to forget it, go about my business,
cook the broccoli, open and shut books,
brush my teeth and tie my shoes.
I have tried prayer
but as I pray the crab grips harder
and the pain enlarges.

I had a dream once,
perhaps it was a dream,
that the crab was my ignorance of God.
But who am I to believe in dreams?


Daily Painting

Jacob Lawrence
THE MIGRATION SERIES, PANEL 22 (1940-41)

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Watching

BONES AND NAMES
[KNOCKEN UND NAMEN]

Fabian Stumm
Germany, 2023

Watching

TWILIGHT
[SZÜRKÜLET]

György Fehér
Hungary, 1990




Survival of the Fittest:

Eliminate the weakest genes from the breeding pool - those that cannot adapt, those whose behavior is incompatible with or detrimental to the progress of the whole - and the species will advance and evolve.



Playing

Antonio Caldara
MADDALENA AI PIEDI DI CRISTO

René Jacobs

Maria Cristina Kiehr
Rosa Dominguez
Bernardo Fink
Andreas Scholl
Ulrich Messthaler
Gerd Türk

Orchestra of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis


NEIL POSTMAN
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985)

We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.

As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.



Daily Painting

Michael Pacher
THE DEVIL PRESENTING ST. AUGUSTINE WITH THE BOOK OF VICES (1483)

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Watching

THE COFFEE TABLE
[LA MESITA DEL COMEDOR]

Caye Casas
Spain, 2022

Playing

CLUB MOD on allclassical.org

Hosted by Andrea Murray

Playing

Sonic Youth
WALLS HAVE EARS


JAMES BALDWIN
The Fire Next Time

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

-

SIGMUND FREUD
Civilization and Its Discontents

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.

-

DAN BROWN
The Da Vinci Code

Men go to far greater lengths to avoid what they fear than to obtain what they desire.



Daily Painting

William Blake
SATAN IN HIS ORIGINAL GLORY (1805)

Friday, November 1, 2024

Reading

Friedrich Dürrenmatt
THE PLEDGE
[DAS VERSPRECHEN]


Tell me again how you're voting third party or sitting this one out.




Playing

Damir Imamović
THE WORLD AND ALL THAT IT HOLDS


MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
Fascism: A Warning

We cannot, of course, expect every leader to possess the wisdom of Lincoln or Mandela’s largeness of soul. But when we think about what questions might be most useful to ask, perhaps we should begin by discerning what our prospective leaders believe it worthwhile for us to hear.

Do they cater to our prejudices by suggesting that we treat people outside our ethnicity, race, creed or party as unworthy of dignity and respect?

Do they want us to nurture our anger toward those who we believe have done us wrong, rub raw our grievances and set our sights on revenge?

Do they encourage us to have contempt for our governing institutions and the electoral process?

Do they seek to destroy our faith in essential contributors to democracy, such as an independent press, and a professional judiciary?

Do they exploit the symbols of patriotism, the flag, the pledge in a conscious effort to turn us against one another?

If defeated at the polls, will they accept the verdict, or insist without evidence they have won?

Do they go beyond asking about our votes to brag about their ability to solve all problems put to rest all anxieties and satisfy every desire?

Do they solicit our cheers by speaking casually and with pumped up machismo about using violence to blow enemies away?

Do they echo the attitude of Musolini: “The crowd doesn’t have to know, all they have to do is believe and submit to being shaped.”?

Or do they invite us to join with them in building and maintaining a healthy center for our society, a place where rights and duties are apportioned fairly, the social contract is honored, and all have room to dream and grow.

The answers to these questions will not tell us whether a prospective leader is left or right-wing, conservative or liberal, or, in the American context, a Democrat or a Republican. However, they will tell us much that we need to know about those wanting to lead us, and much also about ourselves.

For those who cherish freedom, the answers will provide grounds for reassurance, or, a warning we dare not ignore.



Daily Painting

Romaine Brooks
LE TRAJET (1911)

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Watching
HorrorFest 2024

HALLOWEEN
John Carpenter
USA, 1978




Watching
HorrorFest 2024

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
Fred Walton
USA, 1979




Playing

A Tergo Lupi
HIDE


FRANK HERBERT
Dune

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.



Daily Painting

Zdzisław Beksiński
UNTITLED (1972)

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Watching
HorrorFest 2024

SCANNERS
David Cronenberg
Canada, 1981





GEORGE CONWAY
C-SPAN - October 30, 2024

I don't want to see a Republican Party led by a fascist, but he is a fascist. He cannot help but be a fascist. His personality disorders make him a fascist. He does not care about anyone else. He does not care about the rule of law. He does not care about justice. He does not care about right and wrong.

He's a convicted criminal. He's an adjudicated sexual abuser. He is by any colloquial standard a rapist, He is a bad man. And why all of you out theresem to want to excuse him and pretend that that reality is something other than what it is and what you want it to be is the problem.



Playing

M. Ward
SUPERNATURAL THING


IBRAM X. KENDI
How to Be an Antiracist

Our world is suffering from metastatic cancer. Stage 4. Racism has spread to nearly every part of the body politic, intersecting with bigotry of all kinds, justifying all kinds of inequities by victim blaming; heightening exploitation and misplaced hate; spurring mass shootings, arms races, and demagogues who polarize nations, shutting down essential organs of democracy; and threatening the life of human society with nuclear war and climate change.

In the United States, the metastatic cancer has been spreading, contracting, and threatening to kill the American body as it nearly did before its birth, as it nearly did during its Civil War. But how many people stare inside the body of their nations' racial inequities, their neighborhoods' racial inequities, their occupations' racial inequities, their institutions' racial inequities, and flatly deny that their policies are racist? They flatly deny that racial inequity is a signpost of racist policy. They flatly deny the racist policy as they use racist ideas to justify the racial inequity. They flatly deny the cancer of racism as the cancer cells spread and literally threaten their own lives and the lives of the people and spaces and places they hold dear.

The popular conception of denial - like the popular strategy of suasion - is suicidal.


Daily Painting

Władysław Theodor Benda
SEE, JACK, HE SAID, HIS MANNER WILD AND DELIRIOUS (1922)

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Watching
HorrorFest 2024

MADS
David Moreau
France, 2024

Playing

Wardruna
RUNALJOD – GAP VAR GINNUNGA


WALTER M. WILLER
A Canticle for Leibowitz

The world weighed heavily upon him. What did the world weigh? It weighs, but is not weighed. Sometimes its scales are crooked. It weighs life and labor in the balance against silver and gold. That’ll never balance. But fast and ruthless, it keeps on weighing. It spills a lot of life that way, and sometimes a little gold.



Daily Painting

Dr. Seuss
CAT IN OBSOLETE SHOWER BATH (1952)

Monday, October 28, 2024

MAGA 101.

Playing

Tomás Luis de Victoria
NORDIC VOICES SING VICTORIA


WALTER M. MILLER
A Canticle for Leibowitz

Simpletons! Yes, yes! I'm a simpleton! Are you a simpleton? We'll build a town and we'll name it Simple Town, because by then all the smart bastards that caused all this, they'll be dead! Simpletons! Let's go! This ought to show 'em! Anybody here not a simpleton? Get the bastard, if there is!



Daily Painting

Edwaert Kolier
VANITAS (1663)