20091203

[concert] fever ray, cont'd

[concert] fever ray, kampnagel/hamburg, 02xıı2009

gerade erwachte ich aus einem lichtdurchfluteten, markerschütternden Fiebertraum,

20090923

[quoth] haruki murakami: the new york mining disaster

“You look a little glum these days,” he said. “Really?” I said. “You must be thinking about things too much in the middle of the night,” he said. “I’ve stopped thinking about things at night.” “How’d you manage that?” “When I get depressed, I start to clean. Even if it’s two or three in the morning. I wash the dishes, wipe off the stove, mop the floor, bleach the dish towels, organize my desk drawers, iron every shirt in sight,” he said, stirring his drink with his finger. “I do that till I’m exhausted, then I have a drink and go to sleep. In the morning I get up and by the time I’m putting on my socks I can’t even remember what it was I was thinking about.” I looked around again. As always, the room was clean and orderly. “People think of all kinds of things at three in the morning. We all do. That’s why we each have to figure out our own way of fighting it off.”

20090903

[quoth] max goldt: ein leben auf der flucht vor der koralle

Zwei hochschwangere Frauen gehen durch eine sehr gebirgige Wüste. Beide tragen äußerst hochhackige Schuhe, bewegen sich aber sehr flott. [...] Häufig begegnen sie Hinweisschildern, auf denen steht "Beratung 7 km". Manchmal auch zweien, einem, das z. B. sagt "Beratung 7 km" und einem andern mit "Beratung 79 km". Die Schwangeren sind aber gewitzt und folgen immer dem 7-km-Schild. Nur einmal nicht, als sie einer einsamen Mahnerin begegnen, einer vermummten Gestalt, die ein Schild hochhält, auf dem steht: "Frau, die sich beraten lässt, muß sehen, wo sie den Braten lässt!" Da mußt du Ausrufungszeichen um die Köpfe der Schwangeren zeichnen und sie dann in Richtung 79 km eilen lassen. (Anm.: der Sprecher gibt einem Zeichner Anreize für einen Comic namens "Die Schwangeren im Beratungsgebirge")
Ansonsten darf aber die Tatsache, daß eine Schwangerschaft normalerweise in eine Kindsgeburt mündet, keine Rolle spielen. Nie darf von Embryonen, Vätern oder Abtreibung die Rede sein. Meine Schwangeren sind zwar hochgradig gewölbt, aber völlig unbeeindruckt davon, scheinen gewissermaßen kein Kind zu erwarten. Ihre Bäuche benutzen sie dazu, um Aschenbecher und Racke-Rauchzart-Flaschen darauf abzustellen. In Zeichnungen ist so was ja möglich. Freilich lauern im Beratungsgebirge auch Gefahren, hauptsächlich das Röntgen-Rönsch*. Das Röntgen-Rönsch ist eine Frau, die auf einem Geparden durch die Wüste reitet, um schwangere Frauen zu röntgen. Den Röntgenapparat trägt sie wie eine Polaroidkamera um den Hals. Der Gepard trägt übrigens hochhackige Schnürstiefeletten, und da er Schuhfetischist ist, leckt er immer daran herum. Das gibt es. Ich kannte mal eine Katze in London namens Shirt-Licker, die jedem Mann auf den Schoß sprang und genüßlich an der Knopfleiste seines Hemdes herumleckte. T-Shirts und Damenblusen akzeptierte sie nicht. Der Gepard wird überdies, das ist der Hammer, von alternativen Energien betrieben. "Sein Windrad ist reizend", sagt die eine Schwangere. "Aber seine Abgase sind Nervensache", ergänzt die andere schmunzelnd. Überhaupt sscheinen die Schwangeren das Röntgen-Rönsch nicht sehr ernst zu nehmen. Sie führen auch stets ein Eimerchen mit Anti-Materie bei sich, mit dem sie das Rönsch begießen, worauf es sich vorübergehend in Nichts auflöst. Oft ist der Griff zum Anti-Materie-Eimerchen aber unnötig, denn in der Wüste stehen außer den Beratungswegweisern oft auch Schilder, die auf Schuhgeschäfte hinweisen, "Alt-Berliner Schuhpalast 900 km" etwa, und dann rast der Gepard los, und das auf ihm sitzende Rönsch weiß nicht, wie ihm geschieht. [...]

* benannt nach Hannelore Rönsch, die von 1991 bis 1994 Bundesministerin für Familie und Senioren im Kabinett Helmut Kohl war.

20090902

[quoth] eva hesse

Haben Sie Taschentücher dabei? Es ist keine Kleinigkeit, mit dreiunddreißig Jahren an einem Gehirntumor zu leiden. Na ja. Mein ganzes Leben war so.

[juxtaposition] eva hesse / kangding ray

20090624

[diktionær] ψυχή

breath; life, spirit; the immortal part of a person: soul; the spirit of a dead person: ghost; the conscious self, as the seat of emotions, desires; the organ of thought: mind, reason; (philosophy) the universal spirit; butterfly, moth

in greek mythology, psyche was the deification of the human soul; in ancient mosaics, she was often portrayed as a goddess with butterfly wings or a butterfly on her hand

20090620

[quoth] kim cascone: the aesthetics of failure


A few decades after the Futurists brought incidental noise to the foreground, John Cage would give permission to all composers to use any sound in composing music. At the 1952 debut of Cage's 4'33", David Tudor opened the piano keyboard lid and sat for the duration indicated in the title, implicitly inviting the audience to listen to background sounds, only closing and reopening the lid to demarcate three movements. The idea for 4'33" was outlined in a lecture given by Cage at Vassar College in 1948, entitled "A Composer's Confessions." The following year, Cage saw the white paintings of Robert Rauschenberg, and he saw in this an opportunity to keep pace with painting and push the stifled boundaries of modern music. Rauschenberg's white paintings combined chance, non-intention, and "minimalism" in one broad stroke, where the paintings revealed the "changing play of light and shadow and the presence of dust" (Kahn 1999).
Rauschenberg's white paintings were a powerful catalyst that helped inspire Cage to remove all constraints on what was considered music. Every environment could be experienced in a completely new way-as music.

(full text here)
Pop critic Colson Whitehead said that it is failure, that guides evolution. Perfection offers no incentive for evolution. Progress will only happen by embracing and utilizing your errors creatively. In a creative work progress with high emphasis on speed, finish and perfection, accidents and failure are often the key to becoming truly inventive and discovering new approaches.
John Cage once looked closely at a sheet of note paper and discovered that the music was already there: The small scratches, marks and dirt were notes that just needed to be traced.*
Enough about music. This is getting nowhere …
(Rhesus B)

*“I looked at my paper,” said Cage. “Suddenly I saw that the music, all the music, was already there.” He conceived of a procedure which would enable him to derive the details of his music from the little glitches and imperfections which can be seen on sheets of paper. It had symbolic as well as practical value; it made the unwanted features of the paper its most significant ones—there is not even a visual silence.

[random interlude]

for the purpose of comic relief

20090608

[quoth] heinrich böll: besichtigung

Er kletterte weiter über die Trümmer, vorbei an der Kommunionbank, in die linke der Conchen: die Fresken waren unversehrt, das Tageslicht fiel voll auf die blassen Farben. Auch der Nebenaltar war heil, schien sogar gesäubert zu sein: die Mensa war blank, und ein Blumenstrauß stand vor dem steinernen Tabernakel, und als er sich umblickte und in das Nebenschiff sah, waren die Beichtstühle leicht vorgeneigt, und endlich sah er ein Licht und ging darauf zu. Die Kerze brannte vor dem Muttergottesbild, und daneben hing das Kruzifix, das früher im Gewölbe vor dem Leuchter gehangen hatte. Die Kerze flackerte unruhig vor dem Gnadenbild, dessen hölzerner Grund sich leicht geworfen hatte und den goldenen Belag abwerfen zu wollen schien. Er war stellenweise schon heruntergebröckelt, und es lief wie weißliche Striemen über Mariens Gesicht. Nur die Blumen waren frisch und schön, wunderbare große Nelken mit fetten Köpfen, die in prallen Kapseln standen. Er versuchte zu beten, erschrak aber im gleichen Augenblick: er hörte Gesang unter sich, aus der Erde kam er. Der Schauer war nur kurz: die Krypta fiel ihm ein, die wohl unbeschädigt war. Die Stimmen klangen dünn, seltsam gefiltert, es schienen nur wenige zu sein.

20090514

[quoth] jonathan swift: gulliver's travels

We next went to the school of languages, where three professors sat in consultation upon improving that of their own country.
The first project was to shorten discourse by cutting polysyllables into one, and leaving out verbs and participles; because in reality all things imaginable are but nouns.
The other, was a scheme for entirely abolishing all words whatsoever: And this was urged as great advantage in point of health as well as brevity. For, it is plain, that every word we speak is in some degree a diminution of our lungs by corrosion; and consequently contributes to the shortening of our lives.

20090507

[quoth] laurent tailhade

From the aestheticization of violence to the definition of aesthetics as violence, the sentiment is summed up in Laurent Tailhade's reputed quip, after Auguste Vaillant's bombing of the Chamber of Deputies in 1893:

Qu'importent les victimes, si le geste est beau? [What do the victims matter, so long as the gesture is beautiful?] (quoted from, via j)

[quoth] michelangelo buonarroti: rime 247

Caro m’è ’l sonno, e più l’esser di sasso, mentre che ’l danno e la vergogna dura; non veder, non sentir m’è gran ventura; però non mi destar, deh, parla basso.
Welcome is sleep, more welcome the sleep of stone Whilst crime and shame continue in the land; My happy fortune, not to see or hear; Waken me not - in mercy, whisper low.

[quoth] ambrose bierce: the devil's dictionary

Siren, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance.

20090430

[quoth] paul celan

Un subingener de suflete. Ein Seelen-Unteringenieur.

[quoth] paul celan: gegenlicht (in: mikrolithen sind's, steinchen)

Gegenlicht
+
Ein plötzlicher Windstoß raffte das Gesicht weg und enthüllte den Schleier
+



Sie fochten.
Und während sie fochten, häufte sich der Sand der Wüste, in der sie standen, am Rand ihrer Füße, langsam, Sandkorn um Sandkorn, und kletterte an ihnen hoch, Korn für Korn kletterte der Wüstensand an ihnen hoch. Sie fochten weiter. Der Sand kleidete ihre Füße ein, ihre Beine, ihre Knie, ihre Schenkel. Sie hielten nicht inne. Der Sand, der Sand der Wüste aber setzte sein Werk fort. Schon bedeckte er ihre Hüften, ihre Brüste, schon zog er das (Sand)hemd über ihre Schulter.
Und ein zweites, drittes und tausendstes Hemd......
Und begann von neuem: Sandschuh, Sandstrumpf, Sandhemd
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
.
Nur ihre Klingen blieben blank und taten einander so wehe, daß den Sekundanten die Herzen stillstanden.
+

20090428

[quoth] friedrich nietzsche: dionysos-dithyramben / also sprach zarathustra

Die Wüste wächst: wehe dem, der Wüsten birgt!
The deserts grow: woe him who doth them hide!

20090419

[quoth] first epistle of the corinthians 13:12

βλεπομεν γαρ αρτι δι εσοπτρου εν αινιγματι
For now we see through a glass, darkly.

20090410

[quoth] antonin artaud: recherche de la fécalité

Il y a dans l’être
quelque chose de particulièrement tentant pour l’homme
et ce quelque chose est justement
LE CACA.

There is in being
something particularly tempting for man
and this something is none other than
CACA.

[quoth] burroughs: the discipline of de

DE is a way of doing. It is a way of doing everything you do. DE simply means doing whatever you do in the easiest most relaxed way you can manage which is also the quickest and most efficient way as you will find as you advance in DE. You can start right now tidying up your flat, moving furniture or books, washing dishes, making tea, sorting papers. Consider the weight of objects exactly how much force is needed to get the object from here to there. Consider its shape and texture and function where exactly does it belong. Use just the amount of force necessary to get the object from here to there. Don't fumble jerk grab an object. Drop cool possessive fingers onto it like a gentle old cop making a soft arrest. Guide a dustpan lightly to the floor as if you were landing a plane. When you touch an object weigh it with your fingers feel your fingers in the object the skin blood muscles tendons of your hand and arm. Consider these extensions of yourself as precision instruments to perform every movement smoothly and well. Handle ovjects with consideration and they will show you all their little tricks. Don't tug or pull at a zipper. Guide the little metal teeth smoothly along feeling the sinuous ripples of cloth and flexible metals. Replacing the cap on a tube of tooth paste... (and this should always be done at once few things are worse than an uncapped tube maladroitly squeezed twisting up out of the bathroom glass drooling paste unless it be a tube with a cap barbarously forced on all askew against the threads). Replacing the cap let the very tips of your fingers protrude beyond the cap contacting the end of the tube guiding the cap into place. Using your finger tips as a landing gear will enable you to drop any light object silently and surely into its place. Remember every object has its place. If you don't find that place and put that thing there it will jump out at you and trip you or rap you painfully across the knuckles. It will nudge you and clutch at you and get in your way. Often such objects belong in the wastebasket but often it's just that they are out of place. Learn to place an object firmly and quietly in its place and do not let your fingers move that object as they leave it there. When you put down a cup separate your fingers cleanly from the cup. Do not let them catch in the handle and if they do repeat movement until fingers separate clean. If you don't catch that nervous finger that won't let go of that handle you may twitch hot tea across the Duchess. Never let a poorly executed sequence pass. If you throw a match at a wastebasket and miss get it right up and put that match in the wastebasket. If you habe time repeat the cast that failed. There is always a reason for missing a toss. Repeat toss and you will find it. If you rap your knuckles against a window jamb or door, if you brush your leg against a desk or a bed, if you catch your feet in the curled-up corner of a rug, or strike a toe against a desk or chair go back and repeat the sequence.

20090404

[quoth] pierre albert-birot: larountala

LE GUILLOTINÉ

Ma tête ma tête ma tête
Euh---euh---euh
Non non non non non
Ouh---ouh---ouh
Ma tê---------te

[quoth] jean-paul sartre: la nausée

Nous en avions une peur horrible parce que nous sentions qu'il était seul.
We were terribly afraid of him because we sensed that he was alone.

[diktionær] scopophobia

the fear of being seen and being stared at.

[quoth] friedrich nietzsche: klage der ariadne

Muss man sich nicht erst hassen, wenn man sich lieben soll?
Must one first not hate oneself, if one is to love oneself?

[quoth] haruki murakami: a wild sheep chase

Layers of fine sand had accumulated on the wooden shutters of the high, narrow double-hung windows. Rain had fixed the sand into configurations onto which another layer of sand had been blown, to be fixed in place by yet new rain.

[quoth] haruki murakami: a wild sheep chase

The light of morning decomposes everything.

[zwischenablage] halle; rot

[quoth] burroughs: cities of the red night

A shout from Jerry while we were eating brought us all to the rail, where we witnessed a wondrous sight known as the green flash, which occurs a moment after sunset. The whole western sky lit up a brilliant luminous green.

[quoth] under byen: spindelvævssind

Jeg ligger så godt - du må ikke hjælpe mig Du må ikke flytte mig - jeg ligger så godt
I lie comfortably - you must not help me You must not move me - I lie so comfortably

[quoth] sarah kane: psychosis 4.48

Fluoxetine hydrochloride, trade name Prozac, 20mg, increased to 40mg. Insomnia, erratic appetite, (weight loss 14kgs,) severe anxiety, unable to reach orgasm, homicidal thoughts towards several doctors and drug manufacturers. Discontinued.

Mood: Fucking angry
Affect: Very angry.

Thorazine, 100mg. Slept. Calmer.

Venlafaxine, 75mg, increased to 150mg, then 225mg. Dizziness, low blood pressure, headaches. No other reaction. Discontinued.

Patient declined Seroxat. Hypochondria – cites spasmodic blinking and severe memory loss as evidence of tardive dyskinesia and tardive dementia.

Spasmodic blinking/blepharospasm (from Greek blepharo, eyelid, and spasmos, an uncontrolled muscle contraction): an involuntary contraction of one of the muscles that controls the eyelids, causing them to close; this prolonged closure obstructs vision and can leave someone effectively blind, despite the fact their eyes are otherwise normal.

[quoth] jorge luis borges: el aleph

Nuestra mente es porosa para el olvido; yo mismo estoy falseando y perdiendo, bajo la trágica erosión de los años, los rasgos de Beatriz.
Our minds are permeable to forgetfulness, I myself am distorting and losing, through the tragic erosion of the years, the features of Beatriz.

[quoth] edgar allan poe: the man of the crowd, epigraph


CE GRAND MALHEUR, DE NE POUVOIR ÊTRE SEUL.


Loosely cited by Poe (in his short-story The Man of the Crowd) from Jean de la Bruyère's Les Caractères (De l'homme, XI, § 99). The exact passage goes as follows:

Tout notre mal vient de ne pouvoir être seuls; de là le jeu, le luxe, la dissipation, le vin, les femmes, l'ignorance, la médisance, l'envie, l'oubli de soi-même et de Dieu.
All our troubles spring from our inability to endure Solitude: hence come gaming, luxury, dissipation, drink, licentiousness, scandal-mongering, envy, the neglect of oneself and of God.