Ah! what a vulgar thing does courage seem when we see nations buying and selling it for a shilling a day. Ah! what a sublime thing does courage seem when some fearful summons on the great deeps of life carries a man, as if running before a hurricane, up to the giddy crest of some tumultuous crisis, from which lie two courses, and a voice says to him audibly, “One way lies hope; take the other, and mourn forever!”
Thomas de Quincey, The Vision of Sudden Death
tarentel_03_ursa_minor_ursa_major
Tarentel – “Ursa Minor, Ursa Major”
From Bone To Satellite
My favorite Tarentel song, from before they got really, really weird (We Move Through Weather). This nearly 18-minute epic has some of the best guitar tone I’ve ever heard – those first few plucks at the strings send shivers up my spine every time. And of course when it blows up, it’s beautiful and huge. Goes on for a bit after that, but it’s more expansive and ambient. (buy)
Don’t fight it
Just spend the rest of the night reading Charlie Brooker’s columns. Probably the only person I’d submit to reading regularly with no screening.
Me (briefly) on CNN. I’ve been covering CES this last week.
Colleen – “I’ll Read You A Story”
The Golden Morning Breaks
When I reviewed it earlier, I called it a mermaid’s music box. That’s about right.
Colleen – “A Little Mechanical Waltz”
Mort Aux Vaches
This is a beautiful piece, done as far as I can tell on a componium, that reminds me of my other favorite track by Colleen, “I’ll Read You A Story” from The Golden Morning Breaks, which I’ll put up next.
My longest article so far. Google as Rome in their road-building and empire-founding days.
I have my differences with Vincent Laforet, but that’s a hell of a shot.
In short, they were gambling on their luck, and luck is not to be coerced.
Albert Camus, The Plague
Dump – “On The Right Track Now”
Plea for Happiness
This record was pretty spotty, in my opinion, but it was also home to a few gems. This is one of them; “Made for it” and “My head in your hands” were the others. I still listen to them years later (one was even in a Ben Stiller short).
A duty few men are fit for, but you were born for.
She who sinks under real disappointment lacks philosophy; but she who sinks under a fancied one lacks purpose.
Reveries of a Bachelor
Lupine Howl – “Sometimes”
The Carnivorous Lunar Activities of Lupine Howl
I never listened much to the rest of this album, but “Sometimes” is one of the few one-off tracks I still regularly listen to that I got during my great college music expansion period. I love the lines “The universal gift must always be returned/and everything can be unlearned.” It’s long but broken into three parts, which helps the pacing.
There, Watson! What do you think of pure reason and its fruit? If the green-grocer had such a thing as a laurel wreath, I should send Billy round for it.
Sherlock Holmes
And then the various forms He cast
Gross organs first and finer last;
No one at once evolved, but all
By even touches grew and small
Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade,
To match all living things He’d made
Females, complete in all their parts
Except (His clay gave out) their hearts.
“No matter,” Satan cried; “with speed
I’ll fetch the very hearts they need”–
So flew away and soon brought back
The number needed, in a sack.
That night Earth rang with sounds of strife–
Ten million males had each a wife;
That night sweet Peace her pinions spread
O’er Hell – ten million devils dead!
G.J.
My Education – “Snake in the Grass”
Italian
You have to listen to this one all the way through. It sneaks up on you and the payoff is at the end. These guys have a great ear. I’m getting to know their other albums; they’re shockingly little-known as far as I can tell. If you see this, guys, come to Seattle and play with Kinski.
Seen at the ferry landing on Orcas Island.
Dickens’s manuscript for A Christmas Carol. He strikes things out with curly-cues!