Daily Archives: October 18, 2012
frank
My mother has a brave and brilliant eco-activist friend, Frank, who has been fighting to save the estuary of the Black River and squatting in an abandoned building in Paarden Eiland, despite being over 80 years old. The other day, the City Council came to deliver an eviction order, and when they got there, Frank was dead. He’d overdosed on heart pills. Well done, Frank, for choosing how to live and how to die. You’re an inspiration.
creative minds “mimic schizophrenia”
By Michelle Roberts – Health reporter, BBC News
Creativity is akin to insanity, say scientists who have been studying how the mind works. Brain scans reveal striking similarities in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.
Both groups lack important receptors used to filter and direct thought. It could be this uninhibited processing that allows creative people to “think outside the box”, say experts from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. In some people, it leads to mental illness. But rather than a clear division, experts suspect a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits but few negative symptoms.
Salvador Dali – “Desk”
Art and suffering
Some of the world’s leading artists, writers and theorists have also had mental illnesses – the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and American mathematician John Nash (portrayed by Russell Crowe in the film A Beautiful Mind) to name just two.
Creativity is known to be associated with an increased risk of depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Similarly, people who have mental illness in their family have a higher chance of being creative.
The thalamus channels thoughts
Associate Professor Fredrik Ullen believes his findings could help explain why. He looked at the brain’s dopamine (D2) receptor genes which experts believe govern divergent thought. He found highly creative people who did well on tests of divergent thought had a lower than expected density of D2 receptors in the thalamus – as do people with schizophrenia. The thalamus serves as a relay centre, filtering information before it reaches areas of the cortex, which is responsible, amongst other things, for cognition and reasoning.
strange magic
An art show by Petra Collins of The Ardorous and Tavi Gevinson of Rookie Magazine, held at Space 15 Twenty in Hollywood, CA to celebrate the conclusion of The Rookie Road Trip across the United States.
Music: “Think of You” by Bleached, recorded live during their performance at the closing night party “Rookie Prom Night”.
fillete
Robert Mapplethorpe, Photograph of Louise Bourgeois with her sculpture Fillete (1968, latex), 1982.
cherry bomb on the wrong rock show
Episode 128 of The Wrong Rock Show, originally broadcast on 15 October 2012 on Bush Radio 89.5FM, Cape Town, South Africa. Listen HERE.
The Wrong Rock Show is “a musical journey beyond the limitations of the mainstream to a place where vintage rock ‘n’ roll can rub shoulders with anarchic post-rock”. Created in April 2010, it broadcasts Monday evenings 10PM – 00AM (GMT+02) on Cape Town’s Bush Radio 89.5FM. It is streamed live at www.bushradio.co.za and shows are uploaded as cloudcasts at Mixcloud. The show is hosted by Greg ‘the Hammer’ Donnelly, Botha Kruger, Danie Marais, Henrik Gustafsson and alternating co-hosts, all of whom bring to the show their unique tastes and personal takes on what makes good, wrong rock music. I co-hosted with Botha Kruger this past Monday evening.
TRACK LIST – 15 October 2012
- Beat Girl – John Barry
- Manically Panicky – The Great Apes
- Turnstile Blues – Autolux
- The Only – Lykke Li
- The Night – Morphine
- Johnny – Paul Hawkins & The Awkward Silences
- (Ghost) Riders In The Sky – Starlite Wranglers
- City Of Refuge – The Black League
- Bending Albert’s Law – Karin Park
- In The Same Room – Julia Holter
- Show Me The Face – Chinawoman
- Heart Full Of Soul – The Yardbirds
- A Little Lost – Nat Baldwin
- Dancing In The Dark – Tegan And Sara
- Praise Be Man – Russian Circles
- May The Bridges You Burn Light The Way – Strage
- Speed – Moon Duo
- Jump Sturdy – Dr John
- Grinnin’ In Your Face – The Vespers
- 3, 6, 9 – Cat Power
- Wetboy Elegy – The Akabane Vulgars On Strong Bypass
- Ahab – Skabengas
- Ramblin’ – Murder By Death
- Weightless Again – Cerys Matthews
- This Is How We Walk On The Moon – Arthur Russell
- Ill Fated Lovers Go Time Tripping – Bongwater
- She’s In Parties – Bauhaus
- Avatar – Swans
Listen HERE.
Duration: 2 hours
Hosts: Botha Kruger and Cherry Bomb
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fleurmach 