Monthly Archive for October, 2007

Happy Reformation Day

Published
by
Joel
on October 31, 2007
in music
. 0 Comments

While I sit here twiddling my thumbs, secretly unsatisfied by the arrival of albums by The National, Okkervil River, and Radiohead in this calendar year, my anxious desire for news from the Notwist camp has driven me to listen to everything they’ve ever done all over again (which I pretty much do all of the time, anyhow), and to scour the internet for anything I might have missed. I’ve actually acquired two things from the scouring: Careless by Calexico & The Notwist

and the above video, a live performance of the ’super-group’ 13 & God performing the album closer Superman On Ice at the MELT! Festival in 2005. The first half follows the album version fairly well… but the second half, whoa. I’m pretty sure that I can’t wait for the next album. I suppose it’ll be done when it’s done. Maybe they’ll release it in a manner a lá In Rainbows?

There are foot prints embraced out on the frozen lake face
depressed and kept from quite some cold ago,
and they look brave, dangerous, man made
the sort of mark one can make on the world

You borrowed the camera from Why?
and set it up by the printer and horsehead
obsessed with your pressing record
to indulge in the shallows of here and immortal

Isn’t it god to name things from thin air,
to have wind blow a few hundred dollar bills into your wallet?

O Autumn, Where Art Thou?

Published
by
Joel
on October 6, 2007
in film, history and musings
. 1 Comment

“Marry, and you will regret it. Do not marry, and you will also regret it. Marry or do not marry, you will regret it either way. Whether you marry or you do not marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the stupidities of the world, and you will regret it; weep over them, and you will also regret it. Laugh at the stupidities of the world or weep over them, you will regret it either way. Whether you laugh at the stupidities of the world or you weep over them, you will regret it either way. Trust a girl, and you will regret it. Do not trust her, and you will also regret it. Trust a girl or do not trust her, you will regret it either way. Whether you trust a girl or do not trust her, you will regret it either way. Hang yourself, and you will regret it. Do not hang yourself, and you will also regret it. Hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either way. Whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either way. This, gentlemen, is the quintessence of all the wisdom of life. It is not merely in isolated moments that I, as Spinoza says, view everything aeterno modo [in the mode of eternity], but I am continually aeterno modo. Many believe they, too, are this when after doing one thing or another they unite or mediate these opposites. But this is a misunderstanding, for the true eternity does not lie behind either/or but before it. Their eterenity will therefore also be a painful temporal sequence, since they will have a double regret on which to live.”

~Søren Kierkegaard, An Ecstatic Discourse from Diapsalmata

Earl Partridge: “I’ll tell you the greatest regret of my life: I let my love go.”

Jim Kurring: “Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail. The law is the law, and heck if I’m gonna break it. But if you can forgive someone… Well, that’s the tough part. What can we forgive?”

Daily I am faced with the lingering regret over something that I did; over events that transpired which I could have altered if only…

Then I realize that I’m just sticking to my thoughts in my head without really coming to grips with the reality of reality around me. Is there a way to live without regrets? Hrm… I don’t think it’s impossible… but it’s not exactly easy. They’re always going to be there. Kierkegaard’s remarkable Either/Or discourse illuminates this problem in the beginning by presenting it as an inescapable outcome over every action/inaction you take. But this is only half of the coconut shell of temporal existence. The other half is… separated by a distance which cannot be measured by any standard. The other half… requires a leap to reach. And yet… this coconut is whole. How? Dear God… how? It defies logic because it is an imperfect analogy… but then every mode of communication and every rendering of language is incapable of remotely encapsulating the mystery.

It’s summer in October. No regrets… no regrets but it’s hard.

Sixty Frames Per Second

Published
by
Joel
on October 2, 2007
in life
. 0 Comments

It has been one year. 12 months. 52 weeks. 365 days. 8,760 hours. 525,600 minutes. All of it has been shot with a wid-angle lens, ghosting images onto plate glass deguerreotypes at 60 frames per second. Recorded into memory, tucked away into the wheels of time. Memory lies in the details, catalogues of dates and records, numbers and figures, time-stamps and checklists. Nobody could ever rewind a year and watch it all over again, picking out the details they missed the first time around. But the weight of the passage of time and the stakes in the ground where flowers were cast… the rain and the wind, the procession of vehicles down the city streets, the chiseled hole… these things are the business of recollection.

“What is recollected is not inconsequential to remembering. What is recollected can be thrown away, but just like Thor’s hammer, it returns, and not only that, like a dove it has a longing for the recollection, yes, like a dove, however often it is sold, that can never belong to anyone else because it always flies home. But no wonder, for it was recollection itself that hatched out what was recollected, and this hatching is hidden and secret, solitary, and thus immune to any profane knowledge- in just the same way the bird will not sit on its egg if somestranger has touched it… As far as memory is concerned, people can certainly join together for mutual assistance. In this respect, banquets, birthday celebrations, love tokens, and expensive mementos serve the same purpose as turning a dog-ear in a book in order to remember where one left off reading and by the dog-ear to be sure of having read the whole book through. The wine press of recollection, however, everyone must tread alone.”

~Søren Kierkegaard, from Stages On Life’s Way

The business of recollection is confined to each and every one of us. Let us endeavor to recollect, with all our might.

It has been one year, Preston.

Prayer goes out. Always a prayer goes out. May the Grace of our Lord be with you, and also you.