Tuesday, November 25, 2008
from Artskills.
Song of the day: Department Of Eagles - No One Does It Like You.
Bonus Beat: Hot Chip - And I Was A Boy From School.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Can't Sleep For Dreaming
Da Vinci's Notebooks have this odd quality where it always sounds like he is talking about something else, developing an elaborate metaphor.
If the sun is in the East and you look towards the West you will see every thing in full light and totally without shadow because you see them from the same side as the sun.
And if you look towards the South or North you will see all objects in light and shade, because you see both the side towards the sun and the side away from it; and it you look yowards the coming of the sun all objects will show you their shaded side, because on that side the sun cannot fall upon them.
Leonardo Da Vinci, Notebooks, Light and Shade
This quote is - in my mind - a wonderful metaphor for depression. The melancholic looks at the world and sees the same thing, but always the negative aspect. Doubly so when looking in the mirror.
To carry the metaphor farther, I like the fact that the melancholic is "staring at the sun." I think the depressive tendency is born of a loyalty to truth - a desire to see things as they really are - that goes astray. I'm talking about a willingness to look unflinchingly at the world, and at ourselves. In my experience, "melancholy" people see the world far more accurately than other people. Unfortunately, they tend to lose sight of the duality of things - that the world is wonderful AND terrible.
We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. ... This feeling is EVIL.
From the Overcoming Bias blog.
Song of the day: Gza - Shadowboxin'.
Bonus Beat: Mark Knight And Funkagenda - Man With The Red Face, perfect corny club music.
Da Vinci's Notebooks have this odd quality where it always sounds like he is talking about something else, developing an elaborate metaphor.
If the sun is in the East and you look towards the West you will see every thing in full light and totally without shadow because you see them from the same side as the sun.
And if you look towards the South or North you will see all objects in light and shade, because you see both the side towards the sun and the side away from it; and it you look yowards the coming of the sun all objects will show you their shaded side, because on that side the sun cannot fall upon them.
Leonardo Da Vinci, Notebooks, Light and Shade
This quote is - in my mind - a wonderful metaphor for depression. The melancholic looks at the world and sees the same thing, but always the negative aspect. Doubly so when looking in the mirror.
To carry the metaphor farther, I like the fact that the melancholic is "staring at the sun." I think the depressive tendency is born of a loyalty to truth - a desire to see things as they really are - that goes astray. I'm talking about a willingness to look unflinchingly at the world, and at ourselves. In my experience, "melancholy" people see the world far more accurately than other people. Unfortunately, they tend to lose sight of the duality of things - that the world is wonderful AND terrible.
We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. ... This feeling is EVIL.
From the Overcoming Bias blog.
Song of the day: Gza - Shadowboxin'.
Bonus Beat: Mark Knight And Funkagenda - Man With The Red Face, perfect corny club music.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Tamos
Uruguay: Montevideo and up the coast. A common sight on the streets are recollectores, poor people driving horse-driven carts from dumpster to dumpster, looking for anything to salvage.
You drive with your bag or purse between your legs, because people will smash in the windows of your car and grab what they can.
Walking at the mouth of the Solis with Robbie, Irene and Valentine, Robbie told a story. He had bought a boat and legally renamed it, which turned out to be a bureaucratic nightmare. Afterward, a number of people told him that this was considered very unlucky, to rename a boat, and he started worrying because he didn't know much about sailing and he was taking his wife and child out into the Atlantic, which is basically their front yard. Now, there was a local fisherman who was notoriously taciturn and even a bit ghoulish. He never, ever spoke to his customers and would clean their fish in the most violent possibly way, watching them for any reaction. So, Robbie asked this fisherman about whether it was bad luck to rename a boat. The fisherman said: "When we begin to listen to what other people say, that is when we can no longer go to sea."
The graf here is amazing - much of it is by the current ruling political party, a progressive/left populist "third" movement that recently crashed a two-party system. I'll post some pics soon.
Uruguay: Montevideo and up the coast. A common sight on the streets are recollectores, poor people driving horse-driven carts from dumpster to dumpster, looking for anything to salvage.
You drive with your bag or purse between your legs, because people will smash in the windows of your car and grab what they can.
Walking at the mouth of the Solis with Robbie, Irene and Valentine, Robbie told a story. He had bought a boat and legally renamed it, which turned out to be a bureaucratic nightmare. Afterward, a number of people told him that this was considered very unlucky, to rename a boat, and he started worrying because he didn't know much about sailing and he was taking his wife and child out into the Atlantic, which is basically their front yard. Now, there was a local fisherman who was notoriously taciturn and even a bit ghoulish. He never, ever spoke to his customers and would clean their fish in the most violent possibly way, watching them for any reaction. So, Robbie asked this fisherman about whether it was bad luck to rename a boat. The fisherman said: "When we begin to listen to what other people say, that is when we can no longer go to sea."
The graf here is amazing - much of it is by the current ruling political party, a progressive/left populist "third" movement that recently crashed a two-party system. I'll post some pics soon.
