I can’t thank Davo enough for the new book from Disinformation: “You are being lied to“. I’ve already decided to use it as a basis for discussion over on Barbelith, with each individual article being a basis of discussion. The first one went up today: On Howard Bloom, “Reality is a Shared Illusion”, a discussion based around the article posted on the web here. More tomorrow.
Quote / Theory: “Life’s what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” I talked about this with Matt last night after the Black Belt Jones party. I’ve come to a strange accommodation with this quote. One of its many origins is the Lennon song Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy). I used to think that it meant that people were too caught up in their ‘other plans’ and missed the life that was passing by around them. Now I think that’s a seriously naive reading. I now think that rather than reading an ‘instead’ at the end of the sentence, the profundity of the sentence comes from the potential double meanings around ‘when’. i think an interpretation that makes more sense to me suggests that life does in fact not happen when you are not making plans – that the ‘when’ is a ‘while’ is an ‘at only those times when’. Living is in the distraction of things, not in their absence. I said all this to Matt. He thought it was depressing.
Quote: I see the sun rise over this wall | I watch it break and slide, See my name | See my name on the wall | I tried to walk on this wall | It fell right under my feet, Now I only lean | Only lean on the wall | I throw an egg at this wall | I watch it break and slide, See my name | See my name on the wall. [lyric]
Quote: And if anyone objects that they are not worth the effort, I will cite Cioran (not a classic, at least not yet, but a contemporary thinker who is only now being translated into Italian): ‘While the hemlock was being prepared, Socrates was learning a melody on the flute. “What use will that be to you?”, he was asked. “At least I will learn this melody before I die.” ‘ [Calvino]
I’m meeting up with a friend from University who I haven’t seen in over five years. Nick Carey was this bearded wonder who used to roam around my old halls of residence, getting drunk and misbehaving. He used to have a scruffy mess of curly hair as well. Once, he and Fenner ran naked in the rain at night across Goldney’s lower paddock while I stood, eyebrow raised with an umbrella and their clothes. He’s been in Prague on and off for years now, and I keep losing track of him. I’m fascinated to know what he’s like now. I’m also horrified by him saying something like, “Jesus Christ – what the fuck happened to you?!
The BBC finally decides to cover the whole ICANN controversy: Domain Dispute Drags On. The whole issue frustrates me – particularly the potential loss of .org domain names as held by individual creative sites (such as plasticbag.org).
Why said Microsoft didn’t have a sense of humour? I’ll tell you who – pretty much every single rational and intelligent man, woman or child in the Western hemisphere.
Today I found a page in my referrers log which really quite interests me. It’s a Quick Essentials page for a fellow weblogger, which uses simple javascript window.open commands to open all the sites that he wishes to view on any given day in one go. When you click onto a link windows erupt onto the screen, allowing you to scan them all with tremendous speed. And each link launches sites with similar content. It’s an extraordinarily simple little piece of code, and ideal for an individual’s homepage. You may see aspects of its functionality incorporated into plasticbag.org over the weekend.
Malkovich is Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich Malkovich’s seen the film Malkovich Malkovich and Malkovich it, here is a Malkovich to Malkovich the Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich: The Malkovich Malkovich. Here’s what Malkovich.org Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich the site. [via Luke]
Thanks to Francesca Gavin, London Media Maven, for sending me this particularly … juicy … link from the Ottowa Citizen Online: Dead slug was no treat for horrified snackers. It’s enough to put you off Rice Krispie Squares for ever.