For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
—proverb
[and what made me recall this is a conversation i’m having right now via, of all things, tweeter.
how much i could lose for want of that proverbial (ha!) nail.]
November 2009
Play
“Don’t be afraid to depend on each other. Don’t be afraid to be a total geek about your art. Just do it compulsively, repeatedly, without any results for a while, and enjoy the process of the work itself.”
—[nils frykdahl of sleepytime gorilla museum, COILHOUSE ISSUE 03 july, 2009]
Listen
[jawbreaker, DO YOU STILL HATE ME? from the record 24 HOUR REVENGE THERAPY]
words:
Been hearing about you, all about your disapproval
Still remember the way I used to move you
I wrote you a letter; I heard it just upset you
Why don’t you tell me? How can I do this better?
Are you out there? Do you hear me?
Can I call you? Do you still hate me?
Are we talking? Are we fighting? Is it over? Are we writing?
We’re getting older but we’re acting younger
We should be smarter. It seems we’re getting dumber
I have a picture of you and me in Brooklyn on a porch, it was raining
Hey, I remember that day
And I miss you
October 2009
“When I still had my office job, I used to have to wade through idiots on a daily basis. Idiots, wielding umbrellas at eye level, overcrowding elevators, blocking up the sidewalks with their double-wide strollers brimming with new generations of future idiots. Teeth-gritted, I navigated seas of people without any awareness of the world around them, or the ways that they are an embarrassment to it. Now I sit in a cage, and the idiots come to me. And instead of the daily agony of having to suppress my inner tirade against idiocy, I get to tell them. I’m encouraged to tell them. Otherwise they won’t come and pay money to try and drown me.”
—house of bedlam | Probability the clown
[wow]
[wow]
“Mike. I wanted to kiss you the first time you made me laugh. But you’re always so…freaked out. By everything. Mike, you’re a really nice guy who made me laugh and you wanted me to go on an adventure with you. You think that happens to me, you know, ever? Do you have any idea when anyone last wanted to talk to me for what was in my head?”
—[warren ellis, CROOKED LITTLE VEIN]
:::sigh:::
:::sigh:::
"i don't need a new best friend..." →
blogs.myspace.com
[how little things change in a couple of years. how much they do.]
“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, and the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then.”
—Blaise Pascal (via fuckyeahexistentialism)
Finally, someone else with my diet →
nytimes.com
“There was never a time when I was not refined-sugar-centric,” he said flatly. “I was always appalled by almost all other foods; I could not understand why anyone wanted them. I did not like the taste, the smell, the concept.” (thanks Ana!)
[reading this made my brain fry in my skull. mostly because i try to avoid sugar because i’ve grown used to the taste of sugar substitutes that are not sweet-n-low. will admit, this sounds far better than living off mcdonald’s as morgan spurlock did for a pussy thirty days.]
Kierkegaard on the Couch (New York Times) →
happydays.blogs.nytimes.com
These days, confide to someone that you are in despair and he or she will likely suggest that you seek out professional help for your depression. While despair used to be classified as one of the seven deadly sins, it has now been medicalized and folded into the concept of clinical depression. If Kierkegaard were on Facebook or could post a You Tube video, he would certainly complain that we, who have listened to Prozac, have become deaf to the ancient distinction between psychological and spiritual disorders, between depression and despair.
There is abundant chatter today about “being spiritual” but scarcely anyone believes that a person can be of troubled mind and healthy spirit. Nor can we fathom the idea that the happy wanderer, who is all smiles and has accomplished everything on his or her self-fulfillment list, is, in fact, a case of despair. But while Kierkegaard would have agreed that happiness and melancholy are mutually exclusive, he warns, “Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.”
