...more recent posts
Decent article on the Tolkien phenomenon from the Voice.
The importance of the material must be recognized. LOR drew the template for virtually every epic fantasy since. It may appeal to adolescents, but they represent the last, best, hope of the imagination, before the compromises of adulthood. Such compromises may be the subject of "grown-up" literature, but the unstoppable spring of Tolkienesque fantasy evidences a basic facet of our being. The template fits sci-fi futurism just as well as medievalism: the generality of a truly mythic chord being sounded. Tolkien does not fall into the typical cliches of pulp-fiction type fantasy. Violence, sex, and magic are central, but are consistently underplayed. His overwhelming nostalgia and melancholy are alien to Hollywood's understanding of the heroic epic. Scale is different than size, and this is where many followers have lost the way. The vastness of his tale is not so much a matter of length, as it is the implication of an entire world of untold tales, fleshed out by the extensive pseudo-scholarly appendices. This presentation of the material as some sort of discovered text links the work to things like Borges and Pynchon, and even Poe's early detective stories. It seems to be a gloss on a larger truth, which supersedes the author.
And the reader. Unlike the comic books, and other fantasy forms I've enjoyed over the years, Tolkien never fed my ego-fantasies, but served to weave me into something larger; a frame of reference in which the ego was but the focal point of loss. In this sense, his work is about as serious and adult as stories get. It triggers a nostalgic pain so acute that growing up becomes the escape. The sixties, the heyday of Tolkien-mania, has often been similarly critiqued, and I'd make a similar defense. I always think of Tolkien when I hear this song by the Incredible String Band, exemplars of the Hobbit-swilling hippies of yore.
You Know What You Could Be
by Mike Heron
Read your book and lose yourself
In another's thoughts.
He might tell you 'bout what is
Or even 'bout what is not.
And if he's kind and gentle too,
And he loves the world a lot,
His twilight words may melt the slush
Of what you have been taught.
You know what you could be.
Tell me my friend,
Why you worry all the time
What you should been.
Listen to the song of life.
Its rainbow's end won't hold you.
Its crimson shapes and purple sounds,
Softly will enfold you.
It gurgles through the timeless glade,
In quartertones of lightning.
No policy is up for sale,
In case the truth be frightening.
You know what you could be.
Tell me my friend,
Why you worry all the time
What you should be.
Amorphophallus titanum webcam. All the fun of being there, minus the smell.
texas snakeman
Bibby, who lives southwest of Fort Worth in Wheatland, broke the record for crawling into a sleeping bag with rattlesnakes. He shared the sleeping bag with 109 rattlers, besting his old record by two.
"I'm ready to do what I do almost anytime," he boasted. "I'm like lunchmeat - I'm always ready."
Didn't like him as a child? Try him as an adult.
(Courtesy of Bad Pun Preservation Foundation)
Smarter Times: All the news that's fit to correct.
here's my librarian deed of the day
4 sites account for half of web sufing
photograhica.org: a metafilter for photography. (from kottke)
What did happen in Nepal?
Here's one story, but gossip Cindy Adams has another.
86 year old woman survives two days underwater
She was on the Today Show this morning, and talked about her hallucinations: "I'll never be able to see an elf again without thinking about them."
Recovery from recent DMTree event impeded by troublesome image of august compiler of news statistics struggling through recitation of The Owl and the Pussycat. Not sure how things came to such a pass (absinthe?), but have developed theory based on overheard conversation fragments regarding Meet Me in St Louis, suggesting confounding of Bong, Bam, and Boo trees (Sweeny Agonistes unavailable due to corpseywright restrictions). Regardless, if he moves on to The Dong with a Luminous Nose, I'm outta here.
WFMU: totally pure and unselfish and good.
Went to Hampton Beach NH with the family and had a trip down memory lane--have not been in 23 years but went every summer for 17--the same lady is working the exquisite air gun twisted target shoot with all these wacky objects to shoot at, its now light sensative but was pellets 23 years ago, still has its biker feel and and wacky shops with tea shirts that say "dont drink and drive--you might hit a bump and spill your drink", i guess its somewhat like the NJ shore, caramel corn, fried dough, salt water taffy, minature golf, arcades--great fried seafood too:>)
Banshees, including Imelda O’Reilly.
woooooooOOOOOOOoooooooooOOOOOOOooooooooooo...
Strategic Forecast: Indonesian government heading for a fall.
I think Alex's post today fell victim to the preview bug that is now fixed. But in case you weren't alerted, check out his new post and don't miss those pictures!
That'll be twenty years for you to not think about what you've done. Next case!
top 10 concerts that changed the world, according to spin mag:
1-Lollapalooza, various artists (1991-1997)
2-Raising Hell, various (1986)
3-The Beatles U.S. tour (1965)
4-Madonna, The Virgin tour (1985)
5-The Grateful Dead (1967-1995)
6-Alan Freed's rock 'n' roll package tours (1952-1958)
7-Ozzfest, various (1998)
8-James Brown (1968)
9-Black Flag (1981-1982)
10-Up in Smoke tour, various (2000)
unless you all dont want to YAT will be held at my place at 5:30 this thursday 5/31
please advise how many are coming
so i can plan the wine accordingly etc
its also the offical warm up party for The 6 2 Festival....
Can anyone report on seeing Lorette Velvette and Mo Tucker backed by the Work Dogs last night at Tonic? Heard Lou was there too.
"The time has arrived! Glen Jones has begun the most difficult stunt of his life: breaking the Guinness World Record for Longest Radio Program. In order to break this record, Jones must stay awake and continue broadcasting for 73 hour and 33 minutes straight! The spectacle began today, May 25th at 9am and will culminate Monday morning at 10:33am, when Jones breaks the record! All normal programs and audio archives will be suspended from now until Tuesday 5/29 to allow for this historic event. More info, and a live web video feed here. We also need volunteers to be official observers! If you can help, please e-mail Scott@wfmu.org".
In protest of George W. Bush's energy policies and lack of emphasis on efficiency, conservation and alternative fuels, there will be a voluntary rolling blackout on the first day of Summer, June 21 at 7 p.m. - 10 p.m. in any time zone (this will roll it across the planet). It's a simple protest and a symbolic act. Turn out your lights from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. (your local time) on June 21. Unplug whatever you can unplug in your house. Light a candle for the Sun, kiss, make love, play games, tell ghost stories, do something instead of watching television, have fun in the dark. Forward this email as widely as possible, to your government representatives and environmental contacts. Let them know we want global education, participation and funding in conservation, efficiency and alternative energy efforts -- and an end to over exploitation and misuse of the Earth's resources.
It's Dylan's 60th, and he's everywhere, from the ridiculous to the sublime.
In my (not so humble) opinion, he is the single most significant pop culture figure of my lifetime.
I was too young for his beginnings, and too old for his comebacks, but he was always lurking somewhere on the edges of my interests. I remember trying to make a drawing in jr. high school, illustrating all the characters from Desolation Row, even as I lapped up prog-rock with my generation. In college, when the punk/new wave moment was all that mattered, I spent one of my favorite springs making minimalist sculptures while listening endlessly to Bringing It All Back Home. The late-coming accolades he's been receiving for his neo-folk act serve as confirmation of my own notions of what Traditionalism might be.
Much can be summed up in the story of All Along the Watchtower. It appeared on John Wesley Harding, the acoustic album released after the motorcycle accident, which seemed, in some ways, a step backwards. The so-called Movement, which Dylan had once fronted, had passed him by (or he had stepped aside) and the music had spawned plenty of new stars, and was splintering in many directions. The crash was coming, and Dylan, standing on the ominous yet ambiguous Watchtower, saw it on the horizon. A lot of other people didn't. One who did was Jimi Hendrix, Dylan's greatest disciple. Hendrix electrified the song, whipping its subtleties into a roar of anguish and foreboding. The Hendrix rendition became the "official" version, especially as performed for years by the Grateful Dead. Through its history, the song encapsulates the folk roots of rock, both black and white, and the transformation of that material into something more than mere entertainment. Hendrix was the ultimate product of that transformation, and his version, a testament of faith in the wounded prophet, closed the racial feedback loop of pop culture. The Dead survived the crash, and carried the achievement forward, a revelation, and a warning, to a new generation.
And it's not even one of my favorites.
Give me Mr. Tambourine Man any day.
The first psychedelic song, though similarly, it was the Byrds' version that got the message across. It's notable that they relied on something sonic, excising the lyrical culmination, which remains one of the great evocations of inspiration, from whatever source:
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.
Happy Birthday, Bob.