‘He is on a journey, during the night, the end of which keeps receding. He has a sense of the danger, of the loss that the pseudo-object attracting him represents for him, but he cannot help taking the risk at the very moment he sets himself apart. And the more he strays, the more he is saved.’
– Julia Kristeva, 1982
“I think ahead of you… I think instead of you.”
Performed live, the disjointed conglomerate of sighing, stuttering samples becomes a sunny little menace on Later… with Jools Holland, 1996.
“I like your music very, very much, because you give space to the listener. He can go inside and live there. But a lot of music from the last few centuries, you just have to sit, and listen.”
Björk interviews Arvo Pärt for the BBC program ‘Modern Minimalists’ (1997).
Sometimes I wish I had a penis.
How much simpler it would make things!
We’d hang together,
free flowing,
without ration,
without suspicion,
without tourniquets
to cut off our blood
if it quickened
in each other’s presence.
It’s brutally,
uselessly,
PAINFUL
being confined to this
invisible,
plugged-up
box.
William S. Burroughs performing A Thanksgiving Prayer. (C) 1990 The Island Def Jam Music Group
las parcas 1 and 3 bromoil transfer on paper (1930)
from a triptych by Spanish photographer Joaquim Pla Janini (1879 – 1970) based on Les Parcae (the Fates).
Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies ―”God damn it, you’ve got to be kind”.
― Kurt Vonnegut, from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Don’t surrender your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut more deeply.
Let it ferment and season you
as few humans and even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft,
my voice so tender,
my need for God absolutely clear.
~ Hāfez
Biographical note:
Khwāja Šams ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī, or simply Hāfez (Persian: خواجه شمسالدین محمد حافظ شیرازی), was a Persian mystic and poet. He was born sometime between the years 1310 and 1337. John Payne, who has translated the Diwan Hafez, regards Hafez as one of the three greatest poets of the world. His lyrical poems, known as ghazals, are noted for their beauty and bring to fruition the love, mysticism, and early Sufi themes that had long pervaded Persian poetry. Moreover, his poetry possesses elements of modern surrealism.
US garage psych from 1966.
Old work
Based on the unfinished film by Henri George Clouzot, L’Enfer” (Inferno), with the beautiful Romy Schneider. Music by Lee Hazlewood.
Abîme… Abîme!
Tu as commis le pire des crimes
En faisant de Dieu
L’instrument de ta morsure.
Mon père s’est marié à deux reprises
Une fois à l’Est et une deuxième fois à l’Ouest… de Jérusalem…
Je suis palestinienne
Et ma demi- sœur est israélienne
On ne se parle plus…
Je parle arabe, elle parle hébreu
Mais on ne se comprend plus…
On fait semblant de ne plus se comprendre!
From HERE.
An improvisation with microphone, guitar effects pedal and bongos.
Turkish language version of the Roma song “Ederlezi”, made famous outside the Balkans via Goran Bregovic’s version in Emir Kusturica’s film, Time of the Gypsies.
The song got its name from Ederlezi (Turkish: Hıdırellez) which is a spring festival celebrated by Roma people in the Balkans, Turkey and elsewhere around the world.
From Wikipedia:
Hıdırellez or Hıdrellez (Turkish: Hıdrellez or Hıdırellez, Azerbaijani: Xıdır İlyas or Xıdır Nəbi, Crimean Tatar: Hıdırlez, Romani language: Ederlezi) is celebrated in Turkey and throughout the Turkic world as the day on which prophets Hızır (Al-Khidr) and Ilyas (Elijah) met on the earth. Hıdırellez starts on May 5 night and falls on May 6 in the Gregorian calendar and on April 23 in the Julian calendar. It celebrates the arrival of spring and is a religious holiday for the Alevi as well. Đurđevdan or the Feast of Saint George is the Christian variety of this spring festival celebrated throughout the Balkans, including Serbia and Bulgaria, notably in areas under the control of the Ottoman Empire by the end of the 16th century.
There are various theories about the origin of Hızır and Hıdırellez. Ceremonies and rituals were performed for various gods with the arrival of the spring or summer in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran and other Mediterranean countries since ancient times. One widespread belief suggests that Hızır attained immortality by drinking the water of life. He often wanders the earth, especially in the spring, helping people in difficulty. People see him as a source of bounty and health, as the festival takes place in Spring, the time of new life.
English translation:
Spring has come,
I’ve tied a red pouch on a rose’s branch,
I’ve vowed a house with two rooms
In the name of a lover
The mountain is green, the branches are green
They’ve awakened for the bayram (festival day)
All hearts are happy
Only my fate is black
The scent of jonquils is everywhere,
It’s time.
This spring, I’m the only one
Whom the bayram has not affected
Don’t cry, Hıdrellez
Don’t cry for me
I’ve sowed pain, and instead of it,
Love will sprout, will sprout
In another spring.
He has neither a way (known) nor a trace
His face is not familiar
The long and short of it,
My wish from the God is love.
I don’t have anyone to love, I don’t have a partner
One more day has dawned.
O my star of luck,
Smile on me!
(Translation based on the one here; not sure how good it is!)
Tiqqun – La Congiura Sacra – Operation Acephale 2 – San Francisco Bay Blues
© Germaine de Larch Images. First published on http://www.life-writ-large.posterous.com
Churchill with “Marmelade”
The Ad-dressing of Cats by T.S. Eliot You've read of several kinds of Cat, And my opinion now is that You should need no interpreter To understand their character. You now have learned enough to see That Cats are much like you and me And other people whom we find Possessed of various types of mind. For some are same and some are mad And some are good and some are bad And some are better, some are worse-- But all may be described in verse. You've seen them both at work and games, And learnt about their proper names, Their habits and their habitat: But how would you ad-dress a Cat? So first, your memory I'll jog, And say: A CAT IS NOT A DOG. And you might now and then supply Some caviare, or Strassburg Pie, Some potted grouse, or salmon paste-- He's sure to have his personal taste. (I know a Cat, who makes a habit Of eating nothing else but rabbit, And when he's finished, licks his paws So's not to waste the onion sauce.) A Cat's entitled to expect These evidences of respect. And so in time you reach your aim, And finally call him by his NAME. So this is this, and that is that: And there's how you AD-DRESS A CAT.
Jean Gaumy
I feel terribly ashamed. I should rename my poor cat, who was ruined to a life of cuteness with a name like Tempura! I should rename her, or add a sassy surname, like Tempura Trenchett, to regain her literary dignity.
How will she feel if she ever had to come across Jean Paul Sartre’s ghost of a cat, “Nothing”!
I only wish I thought of the idea first.
reblogged from pennysparkle
From diary:8 nov. New pickup lines at cafe, leave me shocked and speechless (‘they call me; the king of muff diving’)
Last night I learned how to be a lover of God
To live in this world and call nothing my own.
~ Mevlana Rumi
Birthday Party appearance on Gotterdammerung, German TV.
ACHTUNG: Watching this video could make you pregnant (all that thrusting and grinding).
Folk song, recorded in 1949 in Istanbul. Sung by Safiye Ayla. Played with violin, kanun, ud and clarinet. This recording is in the public domain. You can download it HERE.
Background
Üsküdar (Scottary), now a section of Istanbul on the Anatolian (Asian) side, used to be a village/town across the Bosphorus from Istanbul proper, where nursing began during the Crimean War (British and French assisted Turks against Russia, 1854-56).
There is much fascinating debate about the origins of this song. Whose Is This Song? is a documentary made about the subject by Adela Peeva in 2003. Here’s the blurb:
“In her search for the true origins of a haunting melody, the filmmaker travels to Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria. The trip is filled with humour, suspense, tragedy and surprise as each country’s citizens passionately claim the song to be their own and can even furnish elaborate histories for its origins. The tune emerges again and again in different forms: as a love song, a religious hymn, a revolutionary anthem, and even a Scottish military march. The powerful emotions and stubborn nationalism raised by one song seem at times comical and other times, eerily telling. In a region besieged by ethnic hatred and war, what begins as a light-hearted investigation ends as a sociological and historical exploration of the deep misunderstandings between the people of the Balkans.”
You can watch the preview HERE.
Lyrics
Here’s a translation of the Turkish version’s lyrics (a compound I have made from various versions I found online), which have been credited in some places to Nuri Halil Poyraz (1885 – 1950) and Muzaffer Sarisozen (1899 – 1963):
On the way to Üsküdar, it started raining
My scribe (katip) wears a frock coat, its long skirt muddied
He has just woken from sleep: his eyes are languid
The scribe is mine; I am his; hands will intertwine
It looks so lovely on my scribe, that starched shirt of his
On the way to Üsküdar, I found a handkerchief
I filled the handkerchief with Turkish delight (lokum)
As I was looking for my helper, I found him next to me
The scribe is mine; I am his; what is it to others?
It looks so lovely on my clerk, that starched shirt of his.
A slow version of “Teenage Angst” by Placebo, live in Brixton, 1998… They came to South Africa around this time, the support act on a Garbage tour. My boyfriend and I caught a bus up to Jo’burg one day in the middle of end-of-year exams to see them. We had to take the bus back that same night; we couldn’t even stay to see Garbage. It was so worth it… The depth of Brian Molko’s black hole magnetism.
Originally from the 1994 b-side compilation Pisces Iscariot; this is the remastered track from 2011. Massive.
the gluten-free diet is clearly working
fleurmach 