In a fickle moment
I was stolen by my future
that casual, random structure.
I shall build it up more beautiful,
as I had thought it at first.
I shall build it on the firm ground
that is my will.
I shall raise it on the tall pillars
that are my ideals.
I shall give it a secret passage
that is my soul.
I shall build it with a high tower
that is my solitude.
-- Edith Södergran - 'My Future'
Impressively still going since the early 1980's, what really astounded me seeing New Model Army play again recently was that they remain one of the best live bands I know. Made my heart oddly happy.
---
I'll watch the sun set over every sea
From every city wall, every mountain peak
Before I get old
The Northern Lights and the Southern Cross
The harvests and the miles of dust
And the blowing wind across the world
So wrap this coat around yourself
And leave what's done behind
There's so much left for us to do
And yet there's so little time
I'm going to pull the fences to the ground
Watch the twisted towers come crumbling down
And start again
Before I get old - New Model Army
How can you see looking through those tears?
Don't you know you're worth your weight in gold?
I can't believe that you're alone in here
Let me warm your hands against the cold
A close encounter with a hardhearted man
Who never gave half of what he got
Has made you wish that you'd never been born
That's a shame cause you got the lot
Hey yeah you with the sad face
Come up to my place and live it up
You beside the dance floor
What do you cry for let's live it up
-- Mental As Anything - Live It Up
How can one song stick in my head for two months? Hoping this will help exorcise it.
The downside, however, is the rejection, whether subtle or forceful, of
anyone who doesn't see things their way. Baggini, in this generous,
clever and thoughtful book, suggests that England's liberal minority
does exactly the same thing without realising it. Each side rejects the
other, with no room for understanding: where's the self-awareness, the
so-called English talent for tolerance?
Welcome to Everytown - New Statesman
Songs that didn't make it onto any of recent public playlists...
---
Jonathan Coulton:
Code Monkey get up get coffee
Code Monkey go to job
Code Monkey have boring meeting
With boring manager Rob
Rob say Code Monkey very dilligent
But his output stink
His code not “functional” or “elegant”
What do Code Monkey think?
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Code Monkey
---
Jason Webley:
It's raining leprosy and acid.
The saints were taken out and shot.
When someone proffers you a pear,
You sink your teeth in unaware,
That just beneath the skin lies pestilence and rot.
Dance While the Sky Crashes Down
---
and, obviously, the Tiger Lillies.
John Robinson, the University of Maryland sociologist who calculated those expanding leisure hours for the time-use survey, argues that our obsession with efficiency at work has unfortunately seeped into our attitudes toward leisure, with the multitasking of our downtime as the loony and paradoxical result. We run on the treadmill while listening to music while watching TV. We cook while flipping through a magazine while yakking on the phone. All of which raises a question: If our leisure isn’t restorative, aren’t we more apt to burn out?
“Oh, yes, I would think so,” says Schaufeli. “Because that’s what burnout is, in essence. A mismatch between effort and recovery.”
Can’t Get No Satisfaction (In a culture where work can be a religion, burnout is its crisis of faith.)
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, hear and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word.
Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter how it's written).
Made has not the sound of bade,
Say—said, pay—paid, laid but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak,
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via
Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;
Woven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.
-- The Chaos by Gerard Nolst Trenité (via The Presurfer)
"... her work suggested a kind of infinite incompletion - that a
woman's work is never done; how the work of all the Marthas, and all
the Marys too, all the work, both temporal and spiritual, in this
world, and in preparation for the next, will never be over - always
some conflicting demand will occur to postpone indefinitely any and
every task. So ... there was no need to hurry!
Which was just as well, because she was ... almost ... worn out."
-- Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus, Picador, London 1984, pp 95, 96
Quote with fabricwork found on the lovely Solveig Goett's exploratory work into textile narrative (The Textile Files).
Heya Tom, it’s Bob from the office down the hall
Good to see you buddy, how’ve you been?
Things have been OK for me except that I’m a zombie now
I really wish you’d let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand
But here’s an FYI: you’re all gonna die screaming
All we want to do is eat your brains
We’re not unreasonable, I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
We’re at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
We’ll all come inside and eat your brains
- Re Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton
Now my mind set may vary but here I still lay
Don't know how I got here or think I care to stay
The past will be present if I dare to forget
I've got two feet in the future but its not here yet
[...]
This life is here to stay, and you can't take my pride away
I was born in to this life, and these are the cards I'm dealt
Regular Guy - Dropkick Murphys
"IT IS A CITY THAT forgets. It is a city of the forgotten. You can still disappear without trace in London. It calls to those whose one desire is to vanish. Here you can, in the old phrase, “go under”. Here you can “break”. The city is built upon lost things. It is constructed in a literal sense on the ruins and debris of the past; it towers above forgotten underground rivers and discarded tunnels. It is built upon old graveyards and burial pits.
So the past is rarely visible in London. The city devours its former incarnations, leaving not a wrack or wraith behind. It buries its dead, and forgets where they lie. That is the source of its strength and its power. The living will in any case soon enough pass into darkness. The city itself will always rise again. It will be renewed when those who read these words have utterly disappeared and been forgotten."
Beautiful review by Peter Ackroyd of the “anthology of absence” compiled by Iain Sinclair, who has moved in from the circular.
I want to leap whenever I see you smiling
Because its easily one of the hardest things to do
Your worries and fears become your friends
And they end up smiling at you
Put on a smiley face
-- Smiling Faces - Gnarls Barkley
Well the streets have been swept,
And the leaves have all washed away,
And I find myself stumbling,
On something I'm trying to say.
Yeah, the breathing has stopped,
But the hair keeps on growing,
The anchor's been dropped,
But the crew keeps on rowing,
Captain, where are we going now?
...
Just the echo remains,
Of the refrain of a drunken song.
That I spent all my days,
Training monkeys to sing along.
...
Yeah there's dust on the rules,
Of this game we're trying to play.
So I can't tell if I'm getting closer,
Or farther away.
-- 'Captain, Where are we Going Now?' Jason Webley
Eg grev ned min eld
I rake my fire
Sent om kveld naar dagen er slut
Late at night when the day is over
Gud gje min eld
God let my fire
Aldri slokna ut
Never burn out
The clouds are all silver and black
Floating around me
Luna come into my eyes
Luna surround me
With black and yellow pools of light
Fall by my window
Luna come to me tonight
I am a prisoner
Luna glide down from the moon
Tom Petty - Luna
Your pulse is beating faster now, like a bird flying hard against the wind;
trying to understand all the crazed compulsions that you feel.
And all the little jealousies and betrayals, they echo in the dark;
and somewhere back through it all, the key is still turning in the lock.
Now the ghosts that you have laid, they all come out to greet you;
the knowledge that you've gained - well, none of this protects you.
You've been so very far, still peace will not embrace you,
for all the while the past is close behind.
Like headlights on your tail, headlights on your tail.
-- Headlights by New Model Army
Saw 'em live, and it was good.
We sail in a ship and the timbers are weak
Through the storm clouds the rainbows the rainbows we seek
We sail for horizons that one day will end
To sleep with the fishes on that we depend
The storm when it breaks we shiver with fear
In our bowels we do know we'll face no new year
We sail for horizons that one day will end
To sleep with the fishes on that we depend
The flowers flee from Autumn, but not you -
You are the fearless rose
that grows amidst the freezing wind.
Pouring down like the rain of heaven
you fell upon the rooftop of this world.
Then you ran in every direction
and escaped through the drain spout . . .
Now the words are over
and the pain they bring is gone.
Now you have gone to rest
in the arms of the Beloved.
-- Rumi, Gone to the Unseen
All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.
This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?
Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.
This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
-- Rumi
So wrap this coat around yourself
And leave what's done behind
There's so much left for us to do
And yet there's so little time
I'm going to pull the fences to the ground
Watch the twisted towers come crumbling down
And start again
Before I get Old -- New Model Army
The three little kittens they washed their mittens
And hung them out to dry,
"Oh mother dear, do you not hear
That we have washed our mittens."
"What! washed your mittens, you are good kittens."
But I smell a rat close by,
"Meeow, meeow, meeow" we smell a rat close by...
Three Little Kittens
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
Thats not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And thats the burden of the year.
--The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Awake Ye Scary Great Old Ons, Let Everything Dismay. Remember Great Cthulu Shall Rise Up From R'yleh To Kill Us All With Tentacles If We Should Go His Way. Oh Woe, Madness and Woe, Oh-h Tidings of Madness and Woe. Wishing All An Only Slightly Scary Solstice
And I (Just wish that I didn�t feel like there was something I missed) And I (Take back all the things I said to make you feel like that) And I (Just wish that I didn�t feel like there was something I missed) And I (Take back all the things that I said to you) And I, give it all away Just to have somewhere to go to Give it all away To have someone to come home to This is my December, These are my snow covered dreams This is me pretending, this is all I need -- Linkin' Park - My{Dsmbr
Don’t wanna wait til tomorrow,
Why put it off another day?
One more walk through problems,
Built up, and stand in our way ,ah
One step ahead, one step behind me
Now you gotta run to get even
Make future plans, don’t dream about yesterday, hey
C’mon turn, turn this thing around
Right now,
It’s your tomorrow
Right now,
C’mon,it’s everything
Right now,
Catch a magic moment, do it
Right here and now
It means everything
VAN HALEN — ( Right Now Lyrics )
Peter La Fleur: Uh, actually I decided to quit... Lance.
Lance Armstrong: Quit? You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying of that's keeping you from the finals?
Peter La Fleur: Right now it feels a little bit like... shame.
Lance Armstrong: Well, I guess if a person never quit when the going got tough, they wouldn't anything to regret for the rest of their life. Well good luck to you Peter. I'm sure this decision won't haunt you forever.
Rewatched Dodgeball. Still greatly silly. Think I prefer the 40 Year Old Vigin though (with its completely different cast and plot).
(I mention this through some simple mental linkage from Dodgeball via Ben Stiller to Zoolander, then via Will Ferrell to Anchorman and finally via Steve Carell to 40 Year Old Vigin).
But the war’s still going on dear
And there’s no end that I know
And I can’t say if we’re ever...
I can’t say if we’re ever gonna to be free
Don’t let these shakes go on
It’s time we had a break from it
It’s time we had some leave
We’ve been living in the flames
We’ve been eating out our brains
Oh, please don’t let theses shakes go on
BLUE OYSTER CULT — ( Veteran of The Psychic Wars Lyrics )
Be responsible, respectable,
Stable but gullible
Concerned and caring, help the helpless
But always remain ultimately selfish
Get the balance right, get the balance right
You think you’ve got a hold of it all
You haven’t got a hold at all
When you reach the top, get ready to drop
Prepare yourself for the fall, you’re gonna fall
It’s almost predictable
Don’t take this way, don’t take that way
Straight down the middle until next thursday
Push to the left, back to the right
Twist and turn ’til you’ve got it right
Get the balance right
-- Depeche Mode — Get The Balance Right
I've not been getting the balance right. So here I stop to straighten my path, else I'll never be ready for next Thursday.
The stories of the world are sung
In places that were never young
I have counted every one
All the clouds will come to you
So the sun never comes through
And we will hide
From twenty years of winter sky
...
Still it turns and says to me
In words that come uneasily
Answers are not meant to be
Winter Sky - Big Country song lyrics
I saw a mouse!
Where?
There on the stair!
Where on the stair?
Right there!
A little mouse with clogs on
Well I declare!
Going clip-clippety-clop on the stair
Oh yeah
--A Windmill In Old Amsterdam
"It's not healthy to live life as a succession of isolated little cool moments. Either our lives become stories, or there's just no way to get through them."
-- Apparently from Generation X by Douglas Coupland
Beautiful.
Now if only I can build it into my research...
Or my fragmentary life.
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
-- The Guest House by sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks
Take me out
to the black.
Tell ‘em I ain’t comin’ back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can’t take the sky from me.
Firefly Soundtrack
Saw Serenity and it was good. It will never be the same.
And the light from the candle goes dim
As I slip deeper down from the brim
The people are fading away
As I slip into colours then ten shades of grey
If I don’t last this one tell them when I’ve gone
That playing with you was incredible fun
-- Terrorvision — Ten Shades of Grey
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