this is a blog
that i use to organize the daily advice i receive from literature and music.
at the moment:
dead bloggin'. the riaa says no to me posting these songs here. the quotes are still viable, though.
grateful dead - unbroken chain"when sartre and i met not only did our backgrounds fuse, but also our solidity, our individual conviction that we were what we were made to be. in that framework we could not become rivals. then, as the relationship between sartre and me grew, i became convinced that i was irreplaceable in his life, and he in mine. in other words, we were totally secure in the knowledge that our relationship was also totally solid, again preordained, though, of course, we would have laughed at that word then." /simone de beauvoir
"music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. it brings us closer to the infinite." /thomas carlyle
claudio monteverdi - pur ti miro
"there is, in sanest hours, a consciousness, a thought that rises, independent, lifted out from all else, calm, like the stars, shining eternal. this is the thought of identity--yours for you, whoever you are, as mine for me. miracle of miracles, beyond statement, most spiritual and vaguest of earth's dreams, yet hardest basic fact, and only entrance to all facts. in such devout hours, in the midst of the significant wonders of heaven and earth, (significant only because of the me in the centre), creeds, conventions, fall away and become of no account before this simple idea. under the luminousness of real vision, it alone takes possession, takes value. like the shadowy dwarf in the fable, once liberated and look'd upon, it expands over the whole earth, and spreads to the roof of heaven." /walt whitman
gnonnas pedro & his dadjes band - la musica en vérité
"i was at the airport a while back and some guy said, 'hey man, i saw you on tv last night.' but he did not say whether or not he thought i was good; he was just confirming that he saw me on television. so i turned my head away for about a minute, and looked back at him and said, 'dude! i saw you at the airport...about a minute ago. and you were good.'" /mitch hedberg
no age - aim at the airport
"of course it’s also a lot easier to slap a health claim on a box of sugary cereal than on a potato or carrot, with the perverse result that the most healthful foods in the supermarket sit there quietly in the produce section, silent as stroke victims, while a few aisles over, the cocoa puffs and lucky charms are screaming about their newfound whole-grain goodness." /michael pollan
ghostface killah - nutmeg
"she says, 'but in contentment i still feel
the need of some imperishable bliss.'
death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
alone, shall come fulfilment to our dreams
and our desires. although she strews the leaves
of sure obliteration on our paths,
the path sick sorrow took, the many paths
where triumph rang its brassy phrase, or love
whispered a little out of tenderness,
she makes the willow shiver in the sun
for maidens who were wont to sit and gaze
upon the grass, relinquished to their feet.
she causes boys to pile new plums and pears
on disregarded plate. the maidens taste
and stray impassioned in the littering leaves."/wallace stevens
st. vincent - human racing
erykah badu - telephone"i hope i don't sound too ungrateful for what history gave modern men: a telephone, to talk to strangers; a machine gun; and a camera lens." /conor oberst
"i don't have any romanticism about any part of my past. i think of it only inasmuch as it gave me pleasure or helped me grow psychologically. that is the only thing that interests me about yesterday. i don't believe in yesterday, by the way. you know i don't believe in yesterday. i am only interested in what i am doing now." /john lennon
fleet foxes - drops in the river
"music, when soft voices die,
vibrates in the memory;
odors, when sweet violets sicken,
live within the sense they quicken."/percy shelley
taken by trees - watch the waves
"defenceless under the night
our world in stupor lies;
yet, dotted everywhere,
ironic points of light
flash out wherever the just
exchange their messages:
may i, composed like them
of eros and of dust,
beleaguered by the same
negation and despair,
show an affirming flame."/w.h. auden
smashing pumpkins - with every light
"what happens to a dream deferred?
does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
or fester like a sore
and then run?
does it stink like rotten meat?
or crust and sugar over
like a syrupy sweet?
maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
or does it explode?"/langston hughes
phantogram - all dried up
"and o'er the hills and far away
beyond their utmost purple rim,
beyond the night, across the day,
through all the world she followed him."/alf tennyson
amadou & miriam - i follow you
"but is there any comfort to be found?
man is in love and loves what vanishes,
what more is there to say?"/w.b. yeats
thom yorke - the eraser
"one goes to nature only for hints and half-truths. her facts are crude until you have absorbed them or translated them...it is not so much what we see as what the thing seen suggests." /john burroughs
happy family - running in the fields
"i was thinking the day most splendid till I saw what the not-day exhibited,
i was thinking this globe enough till there sprang out so noiseless around me myriads of other globes." /walt whitman
devendra banhart - quedate luna
"the woods are lovely, dark, and deep
but i have promises to keep
and miles to go before i sleep
and miles to go before i sleep."/robert frost
thom yorke - all for the best
"dimension means nothing to the senses, and all we are left with is a troubled sense of immensity." clarence dutton
black mountain - stormy high
"there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years." /willa cather
dodos - fools
"does anyone in here get hit with inside fevers so bad sometimes it's hard to move around? they'll show you all the things you are not doing; instead of helping you, they'll block you out. and you're whining, "you shouldn't waste your morning," but the couch fibers kept you inside. i'm so sorry i came in late this evening, but all the clocks around the town had died, and all the fruit stores' colors were so bright with couples smiling, cooking things tonight. and what were all those troubles on my mind? oh, i took a walk. yes, i like a walk." /avey tare
radiohead - worrywort
"nobody knows whether we were catalysts or invented something, or just the froth riding on a wave of its own. we were all three, i suppose." /allen ginsberg
joe jackson - steppin' out
"the years shall run like rabbits,
for in my arms i hold
the flower of the ages,
and the first love of the world.
but all the clocks in the city
began to whirr and chime:
o let not time deceive you,
you cannot conquer time.
in the burrows of the nightmare
where justice naked is,
time watches from the shadow
and coughs when you would kiss.
in headaches and in worry,
vaguely, life leaks away
and time will have his fancy
to-morrow or to-day."/w.h. auden
animal collective - who could win a rabbit? (royal oak, mi 5.18.09)
"ivan ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." /leo tolstoy
wavves - mickey mouse