Doorway...

Weird coincidence... I just sold a copy of O Brother Where Art Thou? on Ebay, which features Ron Block and Dan Tyminski's rendering of Man of Constant Sorrow. Just now, I happened to be looking for a graphic of a doorway, and look what I found (bearing in mind that I don't follow bluegrass, nor Ron Block's career)!

Genius: there's no other word for it - Part XXXIV

This was covered recently by Gary Jules (a very good cover, too), for the movie Donnie Darko. If there can be a beautiful song, about sadness and loneliness (real loneliness), then this is it.




The Gary Jules cover:

My New Aquarium

I bought a "new" tank on Ebay, and I thought I'd keep a photo diary, as I set this one up... This, obviously, is not my new tank, it's the stand, which I will put my aquarium on, and which I also bought on Ebay. I've to drive to Worksop, next Thursday, to pick up the aquarium, and whatnot.

I'm going to move the current occupants of my little 8g to the new tank, which is 20g, and then increase the size of the shoals - a dozen or so neons, six pandas and two or three trilineatus. I'm going to be a bit more considered about my planting, this time, too. It turned out well, I think, but was done, much like my garden, on a piecemeal basis.

Matt

A Thousand Kisses Deep - re-post

I posted this back in May, but it's back by request. I've put the video at the top, this time; just to be different!




I like the way this has been done. And, coincidence or not, I think the last Dali in the series, "The Persistence of Memory," is particularly poignant. There's something elegant in Cohen's words that it's probably not worth defining. Anyway, I like this poem [because it was a poem, before it was a song, as with most of Cohen's work, I think], with its hat tip to Robert Frost.


1. You came to me this morning
And you handled me like meat.
You´d have to live alone to know
How good that feels, how sweet.
My mirror twin, my next of kin,
I´d know you in my sleep.
And who but you would take me in
A thousand kisses deep?

2. I loved you when you opened
Like a lily to the heat.
I´m just another snowman
Standing in the rain and sleet,
Who loved you with his frozen love
His second-hand physique -
With all he is, and all he was
A thousand kisses deep.

3. All soaked in sex, and pressed against
The limits of the sea:
I saw there were no oceans left
For scavengers like me.
We made it to the forward deck
I blessed our remnant fleet -
And then consented to be wrecked
A thousand kisses deep.

4. I know you had to lie to me,
I know you had to cheat.
But the Means no longer guarantee
The Virtue in Deceit.
That truth is bent, that beauty spent,
That style is obsolete -
Ever since the Holy Spirit went
A thousand kisses deep.

5. (So what about this Inner Light
That´s boundless and unique?
I´m slouching through another night
A thousand kisses deep.)

6. I´m turning tricks; I´m getting fixed,
I´m back on Boogie Street.
I tried to quit the business -
Hey, I´m lazy and I´m weak.
But sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go
A thousand kisses deep.

7. (And fragrant is the thought of you,
The file on you complete -
Except what we forgot to do
A thousand kisses deep.)

8. The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it´s done -
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat,
You live your life as if it´s real
A thousand kisses deep.

9. (I jammed with Diz and Dante -
I did not have their sweep -
But once or twice, they let me play
A thousand kisses deep.)

10. And I´m still working with the wine,
Still dancing cheek to cheek.
The band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" -
The heart will not retreat.
And maybe I had miles to drive,
And promises to keep -
You ditch it all to stay alive
A thousand kisses deep.

11. And now you are the Angel Death
And now the Paraclete;
And now you are the Savior's Breath
And now the Belsen heap.
No turning from the threat of love,
No transcendental leap -
As witnessed here in time and blood
A thousand kisses deep.

(Source: The Leonard Cohen Files)

Book of the Week - The Glums

Victor Hugo, blah, classic of western literature, blah, magnificent characterization, blah, blah, historical detail, blah-de-fucking-blah. Great story.


He said to himself that it was true then, that there were exceptions, that authority might be put out of countenance, that rule might stop short before a fact, that everything was not framed in the text of the code, that the unforeseen would be obeyed, that the virtue of a convict might spread a snare for the virtue of a functionary, that the monstrous might be divine, that destiny had such ambuscades as these, and he thought with despair that even he had not been proof against a surprise.

He was compelled to recognize the existence of kindness. This convict had been kind. And he himself wonderful to tell, he had just been kind. Therefore he had become depraved.

He thought himself base. He was a horror to himself.

Javert's ideal was not to be humane, not to be great, not to be sublime, it was to be irreproachable. Now he had just failed.

Genius: there's no other word for it - Part XXXIII

I love this song...



And I love the fact that The Stranglers covered it so brilliantly (and if you think that maybe Hugh Cornwell isn't paying quite the attention to the mic that he ought, bear in mind that this is a clip from Top of the Pops, which is moderately famous for its crappy lip-synching!):

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part XI

Feeding time at the zoo: there are some catfish pellets amongst the gravel, and the neons obviously weren't satisfied with the flake I gave them. I'm starting to realize the limitations of my camera, just now: the shutter speed isn't quick enough to catch them without a bit of blurring, on a close-up.

"You wouldn't believe the sheer size of the conspiracy"

- Bill Bliss (my former "counsellor")

I may not be able to believe it, but I can imagine it, which is probably more valuable.

Matt

Addenda:
"You're the only innocent one in all this." - Simon Ruddick (my former "employer")

[screaming] "I don't want to think like you." - (my "wife")

Integracion II

This is also from de Sousa's Integracion series. That's him in the middle, as a little boy, with the fishing boats, the fish and the sun.

Integracion - Gerardo de Sousa

I bought this from Novica years ago, and I still like it. The light's crap on my landing: the blue represents the sea (I don't remember exactly where de Sousa was brought up; not in Rio, where he's based, but in a rural coastal region, where fishing is the main industry (hence the fishing hat, worn by the couple, and the sails of the fishing boats)), and should look a lot richer.

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part X

Yes, it was just an excuse to take another couple of photos of my tank, but I managed to find something small enough to shoehorn into the tiny bit of unplanted space that was left to me!
I think (no labels ($*^!)), that this is Cryptocoryne parva, which if my research is correct, won't grow any taller than it is already (6-7 cm).

Genius: there's no other word for it - Part XXXII

Mariza performed this on Later... With Jools Holland, in, erm, God knows! About 5-6 years ago, I suppose. Anyway, I liked it, then, and I still do...

Sunrise over Cambridgeshire

My son threw the curtains in the study open at around 7.30, this morning, and look what was outside! The tree on the left is a poplar, I think, which stands on the village green, just outside the study window.

Matt

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part IX

OK, I succumbed, but there's really nothing else that I can put in there, now! I bought a couple of Amazon Swords, which are really capable of growing too big for my little 8g, but I wanted a really dense planting effect, and I think I got that!

Liquidambar Styracfolia - Part II

OK, it's nice and bright, and the breeze has dropped!
This is that "cork effect," that I mentioned.

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part VIII

I've been trying to get a decent picture of my julii cory (which I'm satisfied is a false julii - coryadoras trilineatus - to be accurate), for some time - must be a bit camera-shy!
And this is one of my zebra snails, because they need love, too!

Human Alchemy music for short film

Nick Kemp's got this up on his blog, just now, which I thought was nicely done:

Liquidambar Styracfolia

The picture's a bit crappy - the wind's blowing quite hard (which is why I wanted to get a pic, before the leaves all blew off!). My garden was already planted and mature, when I bought the house - this is the one thing of any significance that I've planted. It's got this lovely pale green foliage, in summer, hence "styra," I suppose, with those maple-like, palmate leaves.
Judging by the look of it, it's related to the maples, but I love the fact that, as it gets older, the bark starts to develop a texture like cork, which you can make out on some of the twigs in the background of this photo.

Ignored: the mentally ill killed by drugs that are meant to help them

I just saw this, whilst looking for something else:

Ignored: the mentally ill killed by drugs that are meant to help them

Rufus May, a clinical psychologist, said yesterday: "The real tragedy about Daniel's death is that it symbolises how little things have changed in psychiatry. Young lives are still being wasted because we fail to listen to people and simply prescribe powerful drugs with little regard for their physical well being. The fact we continue to see people with schizophrenia as fundamentally different means we think it is acceptable to treat them differently."

No doubt it wasn't the drugs, nor the ignorance, but his "condition" that killed Daniel. At least, that enables everybody concerned to wash their hands of responsibility, whilst placing all of it on the shoulders of the person least able to carry it (Daniel), who is, conveniently, also the one person unable to express an opinion as to where the fault lay, now. Nice and tidy. Fucking halfwits.

Of course, not all of us are vulnerable, even if we continue to be ignored.

Matt

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part VII

I caught one of my Pandas surfing on a Cryptocoryne leaf!

My Tropical Fish Aquarium - Part VI

My latest (and probably last, for a while), effort at planting. My Anubias v. barteri and Cyperus helferi are now out of their pots. I've gone for the jungle effect!

And here's my latest acquisition. It broke my heart to do it, but I had to accept that Tom and Thumb were just too big for my little 8g. I took them back to the store and got some Pandas, instead, which are about half the size, when adult.