A drop of water freezing at -20°C over 18 seconds, forming an ice tree (Science)
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
W. H. Auden, September 1, 1939
Maskwell: Cynthia, let thy Beauty gild my Crimes; and whatsoever I commit of Treachery or Deceit, shall be imputed to me as a Merit — Treachery, what Treachery? Love cancels all the Bonds of Friendship, and sets Men right upon their first Foundations.
William Congreve, The Double-Dealer
Efterklang – “Sedna”
Piramida
I’ve discarded two whole albums from Efterklang due to a lack of focus, which the earlier Tripper, by contrast, had in excess. “Sedna” is the first new song by them that has not only arrested my attention but truly sounds Efterklang-y to me, yet evolved and different. Imagine Talk Talk mixed with DNTEL — understated and beautiful. Also look for the almost Graceland-esque “Dreams Today.” Great cover art, too. (insound)
Three variations of the cover art for Efterklang’s album Piramida
Because fear and conspiracy play no part in your daily relations with each other, you imagine that the same thing is true of your allies, and you fail to see that when you allow them to persuade you to make a mistaken decision and when you give way to your own feelings of compassion, you are being guilty of a kind of weakness that is dangerous to you and that will not make them love you any more. What you do not realize is that your empire is a tyranny exercised over subjects who do not like it and who are always plotting against you; you will not make them obey you by injuring your own interests in order to do them a favor; your leadership depends on superior strength and not on any goodwill of theirs.
Cleon, in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War
Johann Sebastian Bach – “Prelude #1 In C major”
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The opening track from Bach’s historic collection of keyboard pieces is a simple and delicate piece, but with lots of room for expression. Glenn Gould plays it crisply on the piano, but with a precious air, and at any rate I prefer the richer overlapping tones of the harpsichord. This is a nice recording, but it was Luc Beausejour’s that originally caught my ear.
When standing in a hotel ballroom or when seated in a television studio, it is the duty of the tribunes of the people to insist that the drug traffic be stopped, the budget balanced, the schools improved, paradise regained. Off camera, they bootleg the distribution of the nation’s wealth to the gentry at whose feet they dance for coins.
Lewis Lapham, Feast of Fools
