New Titles, New Ideas... Fall 2011

Feb 16

This week I purchased two albums, Dr. Dog’s “Be the Void” and the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds.” I know, why didn’t I already own “Pet Sounds”…? Good question. That question aside, I’ve heard this album and am familiar with most of the tracks but “I just wasn’t made for these times” was new to me today. I love the simple lyrics. Nothing profound needs to be said about this song, it is just one of those songs to which I can relate.

This week has been one of those weeks where I have had a couple of people on my mind, from different fragments of my life. The traces of their memories are lasting, and highly manipulated by time (I’m sure), but I frequently want to get in touch with them and that part of life from which I moved away. So often moving away from a place that I no longer fit into, but still holding on to those memories after the ties unravelled. Wondering what might have been, wanting to know about them now in relation to the past; perhaps these thoughts are only due to nostalgia but perhaps they are for the otherwise dormant possibilities of the future. 

Regardless, good song!

"“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.” — Ernest Hemingway"

Jan 20

"We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world. The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you, have not been shaped by a paterfamilias or a schoolmaster, they have sprung from very different beginnings, having been influenced by evil or commonplace that prevailed round them. They represent a struggle and a victory."

- Marcel Proust  (via thatkindofwoman)

(Source: atomos, via thatkindofwoman)

Dec 3
Take one, chew on for a while, and you will sleep like a charm. Adorno is sneaking into my being, I am yet to be able to expound upon this but nevertheless I am vexed and intrigued. Perhaps this thought by Jürgen Habermas explains a bit of the difficulty: “He had presence of mind, a spontaneity of thought, a power of formulation I have never seen before or since… Adorno was not trivial; it was denied him, in a clearly painful way, ever to be trivial.”
Oct 3

Take one, chew on for a while, and you will sleep like a charm. Adorno is sneaking into my being, I am yet to be able to expound upon this but nevertheless I am vexed and intrigued. Perhaps this thought by Jürgen Habermas explains a bit of the difficulty: “He had presence of mind, a spontaneity of thought, a power of formulation I have never seen before or since… Adorno was not trivial; it was denied him, in a clearly painful way, ever to be trivial.”

I have put this “moment” to “death;” it is, however, arrested in my memory. Reading Jacques Derrida’s “Aporias,” I may have “important thoughts on death, in all of literature,” but as you can see my coffee cup is still full therefore I will be mulling over these pages a bit longer.
Sep 20

I have put this “moment” to “death;” it is, however, arrested in my memory. Reading Jacques Derrida’s “Aporias,” I may have “important thoughts on death, in all of literature,” but as you can see my coffee cup is still full therefore I will be mulling over these pages a bit longer.

From Camera Lucida, pt. 2: “The almost: love’s dreadful regime, but also the dream’s disappointing status—which is why I hate dreams.” - Roland Barthes (66)
Sep 4

From Camera Lucida, pt. 2: “The almost: love’s dreadful regime, but also the dream’s disappointing status—which is why I hate dreams.” - Roland Barthes (66)

30 Day Book Challenge : Day 7 - A book you can quote or recite Macbeth Act 5, scene 1, 26-40  Doctor:What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands. Gentlewoman:It is an accustom’d action with her, to seem thuswashing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter ofan hour. Lady Macbeth:Yet here’s a spot. Doctor:Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, tosatisfy my remembrance the more strongly. Lady Macbeth:Out, damn’d spot! out, I say!—One; two: why, then‘tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, andafeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call ourpow’r to accompt?—Yet who would have thought the old man tohave had so much blood in him?
Aug 7


30 Day Book Challenge : Day 7 - A book you can quote or recite

Macbeth Act 5, scene 1, 26-40 

Doctor:
What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.

Gentlewoman:
It is an accustom’d action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of
an hour.

Lady Macbeth:
Yet here’s a spot.

Doctor:
Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to
satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.

Lady Macbeth:
Out, damn’d spot! out, I say!—One; two: why, then
‘tis time to do’t.—Hell is murky.—Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and
afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
pow’r to accompt?—Yet who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him?

Day 6: The best book you’ve read in the last year. 3-Way Tie (I sent the 3rd book to a friend) Eco’s - The Name of the Rose (I know I’ve mentioned it a ton here)Mann’s- Doctor Faustus (If you know my predilections towards fin-de-siecle Vienna this makes sense) Malcolm Gladwell’s- Outliers
Aug 6

Day 6: The best book you’ve read in the last year.

3-Way Tie (I sent the 3rd book to a friend)

Eco’s - The Name of the Rose (I know I’ve mentioned it a ton here)
Mann’s- Doctor Faustus (If you know my predilections towards fin-de-siecle Vienna this makes sense)

Malcolm Gladwell’s- Outliers

Day 5: If you were stranded on a desert island, what five books would you take with you? Include one reason for each. Robert Lewis Stevenson’s -  “A Child’s Garden of Verses” (It reminds me of my childhood, I have my mother’s copy)Arthur Schopenhauer’s -  The World as Will and Representation (I’ve read a bit of it, but I mean if I only had 5 books I’d be forced to finish it) Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose or one of his other novels - you can re-read them and get  something different every time  Build Your Own Treehouse: A Practical Guide - do I need to explain this?!The 5th would probably be a Bible.  
Aug 5

Day 5: If you were stranded on a desert island, what five books would you take with you? Include one reason for each.

Robert Lewis Stevenson’s - 
“A Child’s Garden of Verses” (It reminds me of my childhood, I have my mother’s copy)
Arthur Schopenhauer’s - 
 The World as Will and Representation (I’ve read a bit of it, but I mean if I only had 5 books I’d be forced to finish it)
 Umberto Eco -
The Name of the Rose or one of his other novels - you can re-read them and get 
something different every time 
 Build Your Own Treehouse: A Practical Guide - do I need to explain this?!
The 5th would probably be a Bible.  


30 Day Book Challenge Day 4: Book that makes you cry - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Aug 2

30 Day Book Challenge

Day 4: Book that makes you cry - Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes