There is no law, no principle, based on past practice, which may not be overthrown in a moment, by the arising of a new condition, or the invention of a new material; and the most rational, if not the only, mode of averting the danger of an utter dissolution of all that is systematic and consistent in our practice, or of ancient authority in our judgment, is to cease, for a little while, our endeavours to deal with the multiplying host of particular abuses, restraints, or requirements; and endeavour to determine, as the guides of every effort, some constant, general, and irrefragable laws of right — laws, which based upon man’s nature, not upon his knowledge, may possess so far the unchangeableness of the one, as that neither the increase nor imperfection of the other may be able to assault or invalidate them.

John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture

Dntel (ft. Lali Puna) – “I’d Like to Know”
Dumb Luck

This collection of collaborations is a cheerier affair than suggested by the pessimistic title track (the only one not involving a second artist), and a consistently surprising one as well. Lali Puna meshes naturally with Dntel’s fuzzy electronics and ends up sounding like Ms. John Soda played at 33RPM, while the (excellent) Jenny Lewis track sounds more like a sadistic remix than . “I’d Like to Know” feels extremely carefully crafted, yet at the same time, its 3 minutes and 47 seconds melt away like cotton candy until the sadly brief little breakdown at the very end reminds you what you’re listening to. (insound)

Worm (Wildbow, 2013)

 

 

If you’d told me a year or two ago that I would in 2014 be deeply engrossed in a web-published superhero serial longer than the entire Game of Thrones series to date — I probably would have admitted that it was a possibility, and asked where I might find such a work before that distant, fated date.

To be clear, Worm isn’t exactly a book. It’s a complete “web serial,” published a chapter at a time over a period of about two and a half years by a man writing as Wildbow (alias John McCrae). It’s free to read, but was created under a donation system. You can start here, but you may want to wait until the author rereleases it in a more portable form. Personally, I put a complete epub version on my ereader, though the length (just south of 10,000 pages) caused it to seize up more than once.

The story, and bear with me for a moment here, concerns a teenaged girl, Taylor, who has received superpowers in a world roughly analogous to our own, except that people started spontaneously getting powers about 30 years ago. Meanwhile she is being brutally bullied at school and cities are routinely being attacked and demolished by mysterious and unstoppable monsters that also appeared recently, and her power — allowing her to sense and control bugs in her general area — doesn’t seem to be much of a help in either case. The next 1.65 million words follow her as she navigates a carefully-woven world of heroes, villains, conspiracies, friends, and all the rest.

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God made the earth, but the earth had no base and so under the earth he made an angel. But the angel had no base and so under the angel’s feet he made a crag of ruby. But the crag had no base and so under the crag he made a bull endowed with four thousand eyes, ears, nostrils, mouths, tongues, and feet. But the bull had no base and so under the bull he made a fish named Bahamut, and under the fish he put water, and under the water he put darkness, and beyond this men’s knowledge does not reach.

Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings (Bahamut)

Wonderful crests with uncommon English mottoes – Armorial Families (1929)
‘Heed with speed’ ~ ‘I byde my time’ ~ ‘Watch and ward’ ~ ‘Live to live’ ~ ‘I will’ ~ ‘On’

Kid Loco – “Cocaine Diana”
Kill Your Darlings

A college-era download (recommended by god knows who) comes up on shuffle now and then and sends me down memory lane, scrambling to think of the good times I had when this track was cutting edge. Well, it never really was, but it’s a warm, pleasant guitar/electronic track with a couple great moments that guarantee it’ll be sticking around on my playlist for another 12 or 13 years at least.

Few words have more than one literal and serviceable meaning, however many metaphorical, derivative, related, or even unrelated, meanings lexicographers may think it worth while to gather from all sorts and conditions of men, with which to bloat their absurd and misleading dictionaries. This actual and serviceable meaning–not always determined by derivation, and seldom by popular usage–is the one affirmed, according to his light, by the author of this little manual of solecisms. Narrow etymons of the mere scholar and loose locutions of the ignorant are alike denied a standing.

Ambrose Bierce, Write It Right

Say not ‘This is the truth’ but
‘So it seems to me to be
as I now see the things I think I see.’

Inscription above Officers’ School in Kiel (tr. David Love)

Jack Northover – “?”
Spirit of Talk Talk

This album of tributes and covers has a lot of great tracks and interesting takes on Talk Talk’s work (including an excellent one by Do Make Say Think) but this one caught my ear with its creaky yet vibrant tone. I hadn’t heard of Jack Northover and his own compositions are hard to find, but he certainly has a knack for this bittersweet sound. (site)

There are eyes everywhere. There is no blind spot left.“

"But what shall we dream of when everything becomes visible?”

“We’ll dream of being blind.

Paul Virilio (and interviewer)