.
.

01.31.07 @ 01:39PDT Tuesday, January 30th

.
.

01.30.07 @ 00:19PDT Monday, January 29th

Wanker:

01.29.07 @ 00:27PDT Sunday, January 28th

patriotism vs. nationalism

Sydney Harris, a British-born U.S. journalist, wrote:

"Patriotism is being proud of a country's virtues and
eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges
the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their
own specific virtues. The prideof nationalism, however,
trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies,
while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other
countries...

The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that
the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and
the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does."


Charles de Gaulle, former president of France said: "Patriotism
is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when
hate for people other than your own comes first."

01.28.07 @ 00:19PDT Saturday, January 27th

on mythology

"myth is the term for everything which exists
and subsists only on the basis on language.

there is no speech so obscure, no gossip so
fantastic, no remark so incoherent that we
cannot give it meaning.

one can always assume a meaning for the
strangest language.

- paul valery -

01.27.07 @ 02:17PDT Friday, January 26th

mother's house

01.26.07 @ 00:24PDT Thursday, January 25th

don marquis


It is quite true that I have invented for myself a good many
experiences which I never really had. But they were all
experiences which belonged to me by right of temperment
and character. I should have had them, if I had but had my
rights.
I was despoiled of them by the rough tyranny of Circumstance.

On the other hand, I have supressed a number of incidents which
actually happened, because I did not, upon mature reflection, find
them in consonance with my nature as I like to think it is - they were
lies that were told about me by the slinking facts of life.

Evangelists of various descriptions assure us that we can make the
future what we will, if we can but attain a sufficient degree of
spirituality. It has been my endeavor to attain such a degree of
spirituality that I may be able to influence the past as well as the
future.

01.25.07 @ 23:43PDT Tuesday, January 23rd

crisp

"It's no good running a pig farm for thirty years
while saying 'I was meant to be a ballet dancer'.
By that time, pigs are your style."
- Quentin Crisp -

01.23.07 @ 00:37PDT Monday, January 22nd

hollywood 10/06

01.22.07 @ 00:13PDT Sunday, January 21st

some very well articulated thoughts from owen j.


...I despair at the button-pushing apathy of young people,
and I think that kids (and adults) are beaten down in more
subtle and controlling ways than they have been before.
Like many people I'm thinking "is this really happening?"

Any human society is a very fragile thing, and once enough
damage has been wrought it can spiral out of control like a
cancer. The degree of brutalisation which has been inflicted
on people over the past few years: the degree of political
oppression, stupidisation of culture, vandalising of the social
fabric etc - is going to be very difficult to undo, and whatever
people do to change things is going to be very violently opposed
by powerful people with a hell of a lot at stake.

The world in 1980 would have been very different but still recognisable
in structure to a time traveller from 1950, but were we to make a
similar journey into the future we might well see the structure of
society which we are familiar with altered beyond recognition...

01.21.07 @ 18:08PDT Saturday, January 20th

.
.

01.20.07 @ 00:42PDT Friday, January 19th

epiphany


Yeah, there was a moment of epiphany,
but I can't remember what it was.
-Hunter S. Thompson-

01.19.07 @ 03:40PDT Thursday, January 18th

tri-x-pan 400

01.18.07 @ 12:54PDT Wednesday, January 17th

helen hill


Filmmaker Helen Hill was murdered in New Orleans last week.
David Koen, a writer, attorney and her friend, wrote the following:

My dear friend Helen Hill has left the city she loved.

Last week, Helen was shot and killed by an intruder. Her husband
Paul huddled over their young son, saving his life, while the gunman
fired bullet after bullet into him.

Helen was emblematic of New Orleans — a radiant bundle of energy,
creativity and good cheer.

She was an award-winning filmmaker. Paul joked that he was probably
the only doctor ever supported by an artist spouse. Before Katrina,
he ran the Little Doctor's Neighborhood Clinic in Treme, an old Creole
neighborhood. He served anyone who walked in the door.

He and Helen made a genuine commitment to New Orleans and its people —
to take care of the poor, to put a little sparkle in someone's day.

Their house took on four feet of water in Katrina. They spent a year in
exile in South Carolina. Paul had had it with New Orleans, with the
violence and the terrible neglect that drowned the city. But Helen
needed New Orleans, and New Orleans needed her.

Last summer, Paul, Helen, and their son came back to town. Last week,
I stood in front of their home, before the altar that has grown by the
front steps. Dozens of candles, bouquets and handwritten notes lined the walk.

I can't tell you how guilty I feel. I had repeatedly told Paul the violence of
New Orleans was nothing to be scared of. Now Helen is gone, and Paul
probably is out of here for good.

I found an old e-mail from Helen, written a week after Hurricane Katrina:
"There's no other place I can imagine being... but what will New Orleans
be like now?"

Helen, I'll tell you what it's like. Our friends are cowering in their homes,
and they're asking themselves these questions: Should I get a gun?
Should I get a dog? Should I leave New Orleans?

Because I've got to tell you, Helen, your death feels like the final straw.

In the days after Hurricane Katrina, the federal government left us to die
like dogs in front of the Superdome and the Convention Center. Hundreds
of thousands of people are still not back in their homes, partly because
the state hasn't given out all the grant money to rebuild. We still don't
have Category 5 hurricane levee protection.

There are signs everywhere that used to state, "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
Now they've been reduced to the shorthand, "Enough!" New Orleans is
dying, ya'll. Helen, do you think anyone is listening?

01.17.07 @ 12:04PDT Tuesday, January 16th

roswell, nm

01.16.07 @ 02:18PDT Monday, January 15th

the way i see it


what makes the work of significant artists significant
in the first place is their willfulness, forcefulness, and
distinctive points of view and their insistence on
having things their way while striving to achieve a
sometimes unattainable level of quality.

01.15.07 @ 00:40PDT Sunday, January 14th

perils of romanticism


I have understood the main peril
of romanticism: It prefers intentions
to outcomes, allowing brave visions
to obscure base realities. "I love you"
is a romantic intention; loving you
faithfully for 50 years is a truly romantic
gesture.

01.14.07 @ 02:56PDT Saturday, January 13th

waiting for nels cline

01.13.07 @ 00:30PDT Friday, January 12th

twain


I am an old man and have known a great many troubles,
but most of them never happened.
----- Mark Twain

01.12.07 @ 03:29PDT Thursday, January 11th

another one from will durant.


"A great civilization is not conquered from without
until it has destroyed itself from within"
Will Durant

01.11.07 @ 00:08PDT Wednesday, January 10th

malibu redux

01.10.07 @ 00:00PDT Tuesday, January 9th

Erich Fromm


"Creativity requires the courage
to let go of certainties".


Erich Fromm

01.09.07 @ 12:34PDT Sunday, January 7th

Will Durant


Education is a progressive discovery
of our own ignorance.


Will Durant

01.07.07 @ 13:34PDT Friday, January 5th

west valley

01.05.07 @ 00:12PDT Thursday, January 4th

RM 1967


“Simplicity of shape does not necessarily
equate with simplicity of experience.
Unitary forms do not reduce relationships.
They order them."


Robert Morris, 1967

01.04.07 @ 19:41PDT