Blackbird

by Sylvester (1979)

October 18th, 2009

 

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

 

Black bird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

all your life

you were only waiting for this moment to be free

 

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly

Into the light of the dark black night.

 

Listen here

[ Wunderkammer ]

Dialectic

♥ ♥ ♥

October 13th, 2009

 

From Wikipedia:

1. syād-asti – "in some ways it is"

2. syād-nāsti - "in some ways it is not"

3. syād-asti-nāsti - "in some ways it is and it is not"

4. syād-asti-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is and it is indescribable"

5. syād-nāsti-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is not and it is indescribable"

6. syād-asti-nāsti-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is, it is not and it is indescribable"

7. syād-avaktavyaḥ - "in some ways it is indescribable"

 

From Tender is the night by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940): "The drink made past happy things contemporary with the present, as if they were still going on, contemporary even with the future as if they were about to happen again."

(Archival pigment print by Clifton Burt)

[ Wunderkammer ]

Self

Big five
September 21st, 2009

Here is my contribution seen through the lens of the Big Five personality traits:

Openness - appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, and variety of experience: 97%
Conscientiousness - a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior: 91%
Extraversion - energy, positive emotions, urgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others: 67%
Agreeableness - a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others: 16%
Neuroticism - a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability: 21%

[ Wunderkammer ]

An angel being blown backwards into the future

Happiness Is a Warm Gun
September 18th, 2009

Via Wikipedia: "One of the most salient musical features of the song is its frequent shifts in time signature. Beginning in 4/4 time, the song has one measure of 6/4 time for the line She's well acquainted... before changing back to 4/4 time for the next line (The man in the crowd...). It then uses a measure of 5/4 followed by a measure of 4/4 for the line a soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust. The subsequent guitar solo features a measure of 9/8 followed by two measures of 12/8. This pattern is repeated in the I need a fix... section. This gives way to alternating 9/8 and 10/8 measures in the Mother Superior... section before returning to 4/4 for the doo-wop style ending. The When I hold you... section slows down dramatically and employs one of the few examples of polyrythm in the Beatles, where the drums play triplets while the rest of the instruments and background vocals use a duple rhythm."

[ Wunderkammer ]

On CVs

by Mike Radcliffe
August 19th, 2009

Via Eye blog: "First of all, view your initial contact as the opportunity to get a meeting, nothing else, just a meeting. Once you have the meeting then it's your responsibility to win over your interviewer with your wit, charm and amazing portfolio. But before you get the meeting, I would create the simplest and most effective CV to send out, and a small work presentation to send out with it; don't mess up before you've even got in there. Personally, I think CVs are an exercise in cutting the information back to the bare minimum, especially if you are a graphic designer. . [...]

All we need to know is where you've been, what you've done and if there was anything significant that happened along the way to make you employable! It's your job as a designer to make information clear, accessible and enjoyable to read."

[ Wunderkammer ]

Big Love

Television drama and further
August 3rd, 2009

From Wikipedia: "The show was co-created by Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer, who also serve as executive producers. Olsen and Scheffer spent almost three years researching the premise of the show, with the intent of creating a fair portrayal of polygamy in America without being judgmental. The series' theme song is God Only Knows by The Beach Boys; the musical score for the series is composed by David Byrne."

[ Wunderkammer ]

the Graveyard.

by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn
April 4th, 2009

Via their website: "The Graveyard is a very short computer game. You play an old lady who visits a graveyard. You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song. It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game. An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words. Buying the full version of The Graveyard adds only one feature, the possibility of death. The full version of the game is exactly the same as the trial, except, every time you play she may die."

Sit on the bench and listen carefully to the beautifully strange lyrics!

[ Wunderkammer ]

Objet petit a

The object of desire which we seek in the other
May 3rd, 2009

Via Wikipedia: "In the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, objet petit a (object little-a) stands for the unattainable object of desire. It is sometimes called the object cause of desire. Lacan always insisted for it to remain untranslated 'thus acquiring the status of an algebraic sign.' (Écrits).

In 1957, in his Seminar Les formations de l'inconscient, Lacan introduces the concept of objet petit a as the imaginary part-object (see Melanie Klein), an element which is imagined as separable from the rest of the body. In the Seminar Le transfert (1960-1961) he articulates objet a with the term agalma (Greek, an ornament). Just as the agalma is a precious object hidden in a worthless box, so objet petit a is the object of desire which we seek in the other. [...]

Slavoj Žižek explains this objet petit a in relation to Alfred Hitchcock's MacGuffin: '[The] MacGuffin is objet petit a pure and simple: the lack, the remainder of the real that sets in motion the symbolic movement of interpretation, a hole at the center of the symbolic order, the mere appearance of some secret to be explained, interpreted, etc.' (Love thy symptom as thyself)."

[ Wunderkammer ]

The Century of the Self

by Adam Curtis
February 27th, 2009

Via Wikipedia: "Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly. His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their engineering of consent. [...]

The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality."

[ Wunderkammer ]

Magic

Note to self
January 13th, 2009

Via William Bennett: "My own definition is a relatively simple one, yet within it there is incredible potential for creativity and exploration. It's the realisation (or actualisation if you prefer) of something you used to think was utterly impossible and unachievable. That's it.

Doesn't sound like much, except the more you begin to contemplate those words the more you begin to come to terms with how very much that truly encompasses. How many pleasures have you never experienced because you thought you never would? And indeed, how much of it can or could you stand? What in fact are your limitations?

Wherever you choose to set that is the boundary between the you and magic. And that's where I want to go."

[ Wunderkammer ]