Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Paul Potts

Paul Potts has a new album named "One Chance". I thought he was occupied with the Khmer Rouge and the atrocities in Cambodia. I guess he has free time now for other interests.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

the maker



This is a song by Daniel Lanois, done by EmmyLou Harris, Jerry Garcia, and others. And now me. Here's Jerry Garcia doing the song.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

top songs

Top Four Neil Diamond songs
1.Dry Your Eyes
2.Shiloh
3.Girl, You'll be A Woman Soon
4.And the Grass Won't Pay no Mind

Top Three Neil Young Songs
1.Sugar Mountain
2.Cortez the Killer
3.Powderfinger

Top Four Grateful Dead Songs
1.Althea
2.Wharf Rat
3.Fire on the Mountain
4.Row Jimmy

Top Three Jerry Garcia Band Songs
1.After Midnight
2.The Night they Drove Old Dixie Down
3.Tore up Over You.

Monday, September 17, 2007

202

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond-
Invisible, as Music-
But positive, as Sound-
It beckons, and it baffles-
Philosophy-don't know-
And through a Riddle, at the last-
Sagacity, must go-
To guess it, puzzles scholars-
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown-
Faith slips-and laughs, and rallies-
Blushes, if any see-
Plucks at a twig of Evidence-
And asks a Vane, the way-
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit-
Strong Hallelujahs roll-
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul-
-Emily Dickinson


I love that "narcotics cannot still the tooth...that nibbles at the soul." To me that says that there is a longing out there, for transcendence, or maybe merely for happiness.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Jamba styrofoam

The Jamba chain came to Corvallis, so I went in there, perused the menu, and ordered something. They seem to be really trying to sell you on how healthy everything is. I believe a lot of their stuff is fairly healthy.
Everything they sell, they put in a styrofoam cup. Styrofoam is totally nonbiodegradable and completely environmentally unfriendly.
Just another chain.

Monday, September 10, 2007

long hair and lined face


Sometimes people make a strange impression on you and you have no idea why.



Guy with hands over head.





The above looks somewhat like the Kanji for "hand" but isn't.



Person looking at book.



Books I have read recently:

Dead Season, by some writer, published by some publisher, some number of pages, and all that other bibliographic crap which I won't bother to give you because I have no illusions about the worthless hot air that makes up 99% of liberal arts academics. This book was about corruption and the terrible conditions of the Philippines in the 1990's. I don't think things are much better now. Corruption-o-rama.

Raymond Chandler, by Tom Hiney. This is a very well written book about the life of Chandler, who wrote hard-boiled crime fiction with literary qualities. Chandler was a recluse and a drunk. He worked hard at his writing. Some of the techniques he used were interesting. He would go around with a notebook, writing down the details of people's clothing, being very detail oriented in his descriptions. He would also type on small notecards, so if a scene wasn't turning out, he could easily rewrite the whole thing, rather than having to retype a whole page. He also wanted to have something of interest in every notecard, so that affected the style of his novels. The descriptions of early L.A. are also kind of neat. The cops were all bought out by the mafia back then.

Leaving Dirty Jersey, by some Joe. A true memoir of a year spend doing methamphetamine. The author doesn't come off looking too good, although he is clean and sober now. It is a shock what that stuff does to you, compared to, say, marijuana.

Legacy of Ashes. All about the CIA's failures over the years.

Moses and Monotheism by Freud. I haven't read this yet. Apparently, although Freud was an atheist, in this, his last book, he starts to appreciate the positive qualities of the Jewish ability to live for a completely abstract entity, and how he thought this contributed to their cornucopia of intellectual endeavors.

Schopenhauer. Also on the need-to-read list. He influenced Neitzsche and others, so I should check it out.

Tearoom Trade. This was a study done in the 50's about how men went about having sex in the bathrooms. Their signals and methods. Sounds fascinating. It has been in the news recently with that Craig thing.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

sheaves of grass

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
and the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oevre for the highest,
and the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
and the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
and the cow crunching with depress'd head surpasses any statue
and a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
-whitman

Friday, September 07, 2007

ourselves

We must not rely too much upon ourselves, for grace and understanding are often lacking in us. We have but little inborn light, and this we quickly lose through negligence. Often we are not aware that we are so blind in heart. Meanwhile we do wrong, and then do worse in excusing it. At times we are moved by passion, and we think it zeal. We take others to task for small mistakes, and overlook greater ones in ourselves. We are quick enough to feel and brood over the things we suffer from others, but we think nothing of how much others suffer from us. If a man would weigh his own deeds fully and rightly, he would find little cause to pass severe judgment on others.
The interior man puts the care of himself before all other concerns, and he who attends to himself carefully does not find it hard to hold his tongue about others. You will never be devout of heart unless you are thus silent about the affairs of others and pay particular attention to yourself. If you attend wholly to God and yourself, you will be little disturbed by what you see about you.
You will make great progress if you keep yourself free from all temporal cares, for to value anything that is temporal is a great mistake. Consider nothing great, nothing high, nothing pleasing, nothing acceptable, except God Himself or that which is of God. Consider the consolations of creatures as vanity, for the soul that loves God scorns all things that are inferior to Him. God alone, the eternal and infinite, satisfies all, bringing comfort to the soul and true joy to the body.
-The Imitation of Christ

"Man does not live by bread alone....frequently there must be a beverage."

Monday, September 03, 2007

dry your eyes-best version so far




Althea by grateful dead:


Jerry was an amazing rock genius. One of a kind. The best concert I ever went to was the Jerry Garcia band in 1988 at the Warfield in San Francisco. Nobody like him, or even close, in what he does, anyway. A poetic soul who had a bit of a drug problem.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Lovely Rita, meter maid

Lovely Rita, meter maid
nothing can come between us
when it gets dark I tow your heart away

Standing by a parking meter
when I caught a glimpse of Rita
Filling in a ticket in her little white book
In a cap she looked much older
And the bag across her shoulder
Made her look a little like a military man

Lovely Rita meter maid
may I inquire discreetly
When are you free to take some tea with me

Took her out and tried to win her
had a laugh and over dinner
Told her I would really like to see her again
Got the bill and Rita paid it
Took her home and nearly made it
Sitting on a sofa with a sister or two

Lovely Rita meter maid
where would I be without you
give us a wink and make me think of you

That's a Beatles song, of course. Another Beatles song from the BBC Sessions album is entitled " I forgot to remember to forget her" which is pretty funny. Those guys were so charismatic, and geniuses as well, of course.