Friday November 12
Face Reality A false Muslim prophet once proclaimed that mirrors (like paternity) were
abominations. For they confirm and multiply the earth which we inhabit.
Grotesque error. Unauthorized parody.
Easy to see how man has become overly enamoured with his own image. Once we would look elsewhere for guidance in our reality. Our totems were the bear, the eagle, the wolf and we sought the reflection of ourselves in these other equals.
I find it impossible to choose my favorite William Blake quote, even for a day. But a quote of his used in Jim Jarmush's film Dead Man often haunts me. Partly because it was spoken by the Northwest Indian character, making it seem more Native American than Blakean. But mostly because when Gabriele and I went to London for two months this spring, we took Charles Wain's The Crow with us to study/perform. Now we'll be at it forever.
"The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the crow."
More Mug Shots The coffee mug from The American Society of Crows and Ravens comes with A Murder of Crows on it. Didn't someone write a play about crowspeak once?
News on the King Elvis is in first place for Time's Person of the Century. And remember that a vote for Elvis is a vote against Hitler.
I don't think we have much to worry about though. Scienctific fact has proven that Hitler is only one-third as popular as ELvis. I guess we should thank God that God is seven times more popular than Elvis.
But unfortunately Microsoft is almost twice as popular as God.
Thank you again Tony for the Elvis Christmas Ornament. It's now hanging in the regal surroundings of the Brooklyn Elvis Shrine.
Monday November 15
Here's a handy search tool for "Over 60, novels, 20 important non-fiction works, 2 large
dictionaries, poetry, etc. All copyright expired classic works
amounting to over 300 Mb of indexed searchable HTML."
The pull down at All Bibliomania has sections for Fiction, Non Fiction, Reference, Shakespeare, poetry, and Phrase and Fable. I have been using this hypertext version of
The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable for at least three years. It had been on a noncommercial Web site for quite awhile. I can sometimes get lost for hours following the origins and meanings of phrases.
As far as the Shakespeare section of this Bibliomania site, it's incomplete. The better place for the hypertext versions and searches of Skakespeare's works is at this mit.edu site. But be sure to check out Mackay: Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds at Bibliomania. This classic work, first published in 1841, is about the madness of crowds and the universal human susceptibility to scams and hoaxes. You end up almost believing history is simply a series of manias, fads and hoaxes. An entertaining and informative read.
I am lucky I found it. I discovered the Alchemists chapter of the book by doing a search at the site using keyword alchymy, not alchemy.
It's interesting how this site has become a piece of commercial property.
Content or Advertising? Over at CNN.com they have a section called First Chapters.
There are layered ironies in reading the first chapter of Deadly Persuasionthere. The chapter (the book) seems to be saying: We
are the product within the product reading the product telling us not to
read the product.
But first chapter, final chapter, the real message is always the same.
Content or Advertising? You can't really put the cart in front of the horse anymore. The horse and the cart have evolved into the
automobile on this new digital highway.
"The wrinkle" If you got an idea, Bob will pitch it for you and Hollywood just may catch
it. At the bottom of the page is the Penny Marshall quotable:
"There's a lot of scripts where the girl wants to have a baby and hires a
guy or offers money or something. There's like 12 of them I've seen."
So I should credit Bob for helping me think Big Time about my ideas. But now that I've got
my next big idea, I'm still confused.
Should I pitch as a movie or as one of those Internet startup companies that are doing so well?
Make sure you don't miss the notes at the center of page. His name is Accountant. Sired by LMC Money and 659 daughter.
Friday November 19
The written word is one of our first technologies. And those strict rules of Webster evaporate again when we open up the OED and start trying to chase down the eponyms.
Years ago I thought it necessary to track down the root for that piece of hardware within the technical act of writing that is used to print those longhand scratches on our modern papyrus.
I loved what I found for the word pencil.
from Middle English pencel, artist's brush, from Old French pincel, from Vulgar Latin penicellus, alteration of the Latin penicillus, diminutive of peniculus, diminutive of penis, tail, brush.
So that story that hit on all the news wires earlier this year came as no real surprise.
"In a First, Male Mouse Is Cloned From the Tip of an Adult's Tail"
And now the Hawaiians have taken everything one step further. A new method, called the Honolulu technique--developed by
Teruhiko Wakayama, has cloned clones from clones.
The celebrity promoting all this cloning business is Dr. Richard Seed. Of course, with a name like that, you're definitely screwed for life; i.e., destined. In these two recordings he sounds like two entirely different men. I wonder which is the real one.
Seed One Seed Two
As our media, old and new, is replicating and mirroring everything as never before, our biology attempts to keep pace. Art Imitating Life, and Life imitating Art. The snake eating its tail.
Fame is culture's way of homogenizing uniqueness. Theater is able to practice its independence at least partially because it manages to stand outside the general unanimity. Within a culture that nourishes fandom, theater still seeks the intimacy of an audience. Becoming the most ugly duckling when placed on the same shelves as stars, celebities, and other brand names, theater's genuine place is outside the market. More gift than product, its very presence is its uniqueness.
News on the King Adding signatures to the A.C.E petition has been suspended at the present time. The petition is a victim of its own success.
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