http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf
Interesting talk. I don’t agree with him entirely, but it is an idea that needs to be considered.
(Source: http://video.ted.com/)
He had an execrable eye — full of insolence and sensuality.
Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand A-Year
Vocabulary: Sponging the Guns Edition
syndic: a representative for a corporation or university; also, certain civil magistrates
pyx: a container for the eucharist; also, a container for specimen coins at a mint
lipsanotheca: the container inside a reliquary which contains the relic
mora: a unit of time equal to a short syllable (a poetic metric)
autochthonous: born of the earth; sprung from the ground
inenubilable: indistinct; unable to be made clearly visible
matross: obsolete term for an artillery gunner’s assistant
lief: beloved, or willing, or preferred
orgulous: proud, haughty
Jason Molina – “Pyramid Electric Co.”
Pyramid Electric Co.
This album, post-Songs:Ohia and pre-Magnolia Electric Co., is a solid piece of work. It’s not as dark as the incomparably bleak Ghost Tropic, nor as transcendent as his 17-minute Travels In Constants track, but Pyramid’s spare beauty is something almost anyone can appreciate. Molina is an excellent songwriter and knows just how much accompaniment his voice and words require — usually no more than a single guitar or piano. (insound)
The principal figures before her mind’s eye were — Tittlebat Titmouse, Esquire, and The Rev. Dismal Horror. The latter was about twenty-six (he had been “called to the work of the ministry” in his sixteenth year); short; his face slightly pitted with small-pox; his forehead narrow; his eyes cold and watery; no eyebrows or whiskers; high cheek-bones; his short dark hair combed primly forward over each temple, and twisted into a sort of topknot in front; he wore no shirt-collar, but had a white neck-handkerchief tied very formally, and was dressed in an ill-made suit of black. He spoke in a drawling, canting tone; and his countenance was overspread with a demure expression of — Cunning, trying to look religious.
Samuel Warren, Ten Thousand A-Year
Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate — for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.
Camus, The Fall
Hark a Vagrant, brilliant as usual
Skygreen Leopards – “Parallel shadows (part 2) – Mad lion (part 7)”
Child God in the Garden of Eden
With the same simple and beautiful instrumentation as “The Heron,” this song, off a lesser-known companion piece to their disappointing (I thought) Life and Love in the Sparrow’s Meadow, channels the same mystical, pastoral beauty of their debut. I have two versions, this being the newer and clearer, but I keep the old version because it has a soft and indistinct quality that I grew to like. Chalk it up to variations in vinyl ripping.
Sometimes I write very long articles.
Black Forest/Black Sea – “These Things”
Forcefields and Constellations
On their earlier self-titled album, Black Forest/Black Sea were more like Rachel’s, but when this album dropped, it was clear they had other things in mind. It’s the strange delvings of Charalambides married to the electronic hammock of Tape. Fully half the tracks are throwaway, but then you get a weird, sparkling gem like “These Things” and you’re reassured that they know what they’re doing.
At a distance, she might have been a wraith; or a breeze made visible; a vagrom breeze, warm and delicate, and in league with death.
Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
Asimov seems like a pretty cool guy.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
When they were called rebels, they were called so for no other reason than this, that they would not be slaves.
Christians boycotting Glenn Beck
Christians boycotting Glenn Beck
“It is not enough simply to help the poor, one must address the structures that keep them that way. Standing up for the rights of the poor is not being a Nazi, it’s being Christian. And Communist, as Mr. Beck suggests? It’s hard not to think of the retort of the great apostle of social justice, Dom Helder Camara, archbishop of Recife, ‘When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.’” Well said.
Vocabulary: Echoed Ebullitions Edition
deliquium: chemically, dissolution into air or liquid. otherwise, a swooning or faint mood
ebullition: boiling up or pouring out, either emotionally, physically, or linguistically
peripety: corruption of peripeteia, a sudden turn of events, usually in literature
bruit: (noun) a din or loud noise. (verb) to voice loudly or spread rumor
trumpery: showy, deceptive, or nonsensical (from tromper, to deceive)
voluptuary: a person devoted to luxury and sensual pleasure
maunder: to talk or move about aimlessly or confusedly
insouciant: carefree, indifferent, or nonchalant
You cannot make a man by standing a sheep on its hind-legs. But by standing a flock of sheep in that position you can make a crowd of men. If man were not a gregarious animal, the world might have achieved, by this time, some real progress towards civilisation. Segregate him, and he is no fool. But set him loose among his fellows, and he is lost — he becomes just a unit in unreason.
Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
from Martin Chuzzlewit
Be they never so Withered, no Milk-Maiden grieves
to lay herself down among Strawberry Leaves
Album art for Bear in Heaven’s Beast Rest Forth Mouth
Comets On Fire – “Dogwood Rust”
Avatar
What can I say? Simply one of the best tracks of all time, and the standard by which I now measure all medium-length rock songs. Listen to it all the way through; it’ll put hair on your chest. I’m proud to say I saw these guys in a place about the size of my apartment, and they killed it. Too bad the cops came like five minutes later and actually arrested the guy who lived there.
Vocabulary: Golden Cloud of Silver Clangour Edition
dulia: a theological term signifying the honor paid to the saints (as opposed to god)
lazaret: a small ship, room or building used for quarantine (or simply set aside)
disseizin: wrongful dispossession of one in the possession of real property
surplice: a loose-fitting garment with fabric crossing diagonally in front
quillon: one of the two protrusions forming the crossbar of a sword
opetide: early spring, when flowers’ buds are beginning to open
omnisubjugant: one to whom everyone else is subject (clearly)
anchorite: a hermit or one who has otherwise isolated himself
propinquity: nearness or similarity in time, place, or nature
gallimaufry: a medley or jumble (originally a food term)
legerdemain: sleight of hand (French: “light of hand”)
dandiacal: of or pertaining to dandies; foppish
aureate: gold, brilliant, or ornate in style
apposite: relevant, apt, or well-suited
guerdon: a reward or compensation
pleach: to interweave or braid
portreeve: a port warden