Holding on to past patterns and grievances only limits the possibilities. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Let go. Surrender whatever limits you. Face whatever you are resisting. In the experience of any loss, it is never too late to complete. Through your willingness to walk in the dark forest, insights and revelations will naturally emerge.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
49 Quotes of Albert Einstein.
- “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
- “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
- “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
- “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
- “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
- “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
- “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
- “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
- “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
- “Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
- “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
- “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
- “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
- “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
- “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”
- “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
- “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
- “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”
- “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
- “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
- “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
- “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
- “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
- “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
- “Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
- “Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.”
- “If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
- “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”
- “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
- “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”
- “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
- “In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
- “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
- “Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.”
- “Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!”
- “No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”
- “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
- “Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.”
- “The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
- “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”
- “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
- “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
- “You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”
- “One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”
- “…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”
- “He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
- “A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
- “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud.
Genie
He is affection and the present moment because he has thrown open the house to the snow foam of winter and to the noises of summer—he who purified drinking water and food—who is the enchantment fleeing places and the superhuman delight of resting places.—He is affection and future, the strength and love which we, erect in rage and boredom, see pass by in the sky of storms and the flags of ecstasy.
He is love, perfect and reinvented measure, miraculous, unforeseen reason, and eternity: machine loved for its qualities of fate. We have all known the terror of his concession and ours: delight in our health, power of our faculties, selfish affection and passion for him,—he who loves us because his life is infinity…
And we recall him and he sets forth…And if Adoration moves, rings, his Promise, rings: "Down with these superstitions, these other bodies, these couples and ages. This is the time which has gone under!"
He will not go away, he will not come down again from some heaven, he will not redeem the anger of women, the laughter of men, or all that sin: for it is done now, since he is and since he is loved.
His breathing, his heads, his racings; the terrifying swiftness of form and action when they are perfect.
Fertility of the mind and vastness of the world!
His body! the dreamed-of liberation, the collapse of grace joined with new violence!
All that he sees! all the ancient kneelings and the penaltiescanceled as he passes by.
His day! the abolition of all noisy and restless suffering within more intense music.
His step! migrations more tremendous than early invasions.
O He and I! pride more benevolent than lost charity.
O world!—and the limpid song of new woe!
He knew us all and loved us, may we, this winter night, from cape to cape, from the noisy pole to the castle, from the crowd to the beach, from vision to vision, our strength and our feelings tired, hail him and see him and send him away, and under tides and on the summit of snow deserts follow his eyes,—his breathing—his body,—his day.
Friday, May 6, 2011
"Man can never know the loneliness a woman knows. Man lies in the woman's womb only to gather strength, he nourishes himself from this fusion, and then he rises and goes into the world, into his work, into battle, into art. He is not lonely. He is busy. The memory of the swim in amniotic fluid gives him energy, completion. Woman may be busy too, but she feels empty. Sensuality for her is not only a wave of pleasure in which she is bathed, and a charge of electric joy at contact with another. When man lies in her womb, she is fulfilled, each act of love a taking of man within her, an act of birth and rebirth, of child rearing and man bearing. Man lies in her womb and is reborn each time anew with a desire to act, to BE. But for woman, the climax is not in the birth, but in the moment man rests inside of her"
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
NEW SAN FRAN.
I just got this compilation and it's rubbing me in all the right ways. Some old favourites and some newbies. Here's a tantalising taste.
J Mascis has released his first solo album. It's acoustic (weird! cool!) and it's really quite good...He sounds a bit Neil Young-y. The best thing is that you feel as if you've gained the right to actually hear him sing, honestly and unguarded by the usual wall of fuzz that he wallows behind (and perfectly so) in Dinosaur Jr. Kurt Vile, Kevin Drew and some guy from Band o' Horses feature also. This song is lovely and this clip is some
far-out-mystic-texta-art-jam-shit. Very cool.
far-out-mystic-texta-art-jam-shit. Very cool.
J Mascis - "Not Enough" from stereogum on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
razzle mondays. (kittens mondays)
just got back from the strippers on a balmy, sleepy monday evening. thought: could stripping a direct derivative of meditation/buddhism? the disconnection, the abolishment of ego, the "everything means nothing" mentality. sure, it all revolves around money which certainly tears all of it down in one fell swoop but for the individual, for the mentality of the stripper, surely she is in a blissful place of nothingness at most points? plus they're super flexible... and can reach enlightenment despite the banging bass and distractions surrounding her. just a thought. either way, heck, that was fun.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2010.
10. Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Rush to Relax
Maybe I'm way off, but is Brendan Suppression a modern beat poet with less colloquialisms? The frenetic ramblings of this boy genius are more present than ever in this brilliant release. This was a driving album for ex-boyfriend and I. A great one for me, with songs such as "Gentleman" and "I Can Be a Jerk" (unfortunately it didn't penetrate the former as much as I hoped.) The best bits of this album however would have to be where Eddy Current's brawn has always lay, and that is the jam-factor. Those guitar riffs over basic tinny drums are irresistible and make me seat-dance all jerky, like my friend Leah. Other highlights include "Burn" which sees Brendan consoling a friend with manic-depression... it's fierce and to the point. The closer is the 24 minute title track (which my dear friend Joey filmed the film clip for. See below.) This is what I mean when I say that Brendan is a modern beat poet. If "you're going on a holiday and your never coming back... slow down before you fall down" is not a coined phrase of the highest order, I don't know what is. You could think about these words for a good 20 minutes straight, perhaps at the beach, with sea birds singing all around you. Or you could just keep listening to the album because that is exactly what you'll get.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring RUSH TO RELAX from Johann Rashid on Vimeo.
9. Wild Nothing - Gemini
Ok so I've been obsessed this year, with finding the genre name for anything that includes 80's bands such as The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, Magazine, The Cure, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds, etc, etc. It's NOT New Romantic. It's all in a feeling, not a time. Anyway, anyone who can help me out here, please do oblige.
Anyway, this band and album doesn't fit into whatever that genre might be (that awful segway was just an excuse to get to the bottom of it.) It is very reminiscent of the 80's however, except that there is emotion in lead singer Jack Tatum's haze. On first listen it reminded me a lot (2009's 5th place getter) The Pains of Being Pure at Heart but it's more committed and less showy. It feels as if Wild Nothing are being completely honest in their expression rather than just flexing their highly influenced, feigned indie-pop muscles (oxymoron?) "Live in Dreams" has been a personal constant throughout the year and is still my favourite. Don't stop there though, the entire album moves like life, in peaks and troughs and is really very good at each point.
8. Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils
If you were to put all my recent listening into a pie chart this beachy, lo-fi slice would be one of the largest, and it would be highlighted in aquamarine, just because. Wild Nothing would be in there as would Real Estate, Girls, Best Coast, etc. I played this a lot at my cafe and often got the complaint that the song was on repeat... FOOLS. This is the perfect soundtrack to just kick back to. Isn't that the point of "beachy" and "lo-fi?" After a few listens, if you allow it, you can pick up the tiny details and nuances that really make this album what it is. It's also a fantastic break-up album. One that transports you but doesn't distract or force you to be happy (thank you Daphne Shum. x)
7. The Black Keys - Brothers
Let me simply dot point why this album rules.
- Max Turner's Dance Room Party to "Everlasting Light" (and the "Everlasting Light" back up vocals.)
- "Next Girl" ("Oh, my next girl
, she'll be nothing like my ex girl.
It was a painful death.
Now, I got a second chance. Oh, her beautiful face and her, and her wicked ways.
And I'm praying for
, her beautiful face everyday.
All that work, over, over so much time
. If I, if I think too hard,
I might lose my mind.
Oh, my next girl, yeah,
will be nothing like my ex girl
. I made mistakes back then
, I'll never do it again")
- "Tighten Up"
- Dan Auerbach's falsetto
- The Black Keys are back in my life for the first time since 2004.
6. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
Giney sounds like Joni Mitchell! It's true. Listen to "In California." It's uncanny. That should be enough, but that's not all. This album is a true progression of a whimsical harp playing angel turned into a knowing, wiser woman. There's a change in her voice, more force perhaps. There's also a shift in the arrangements. They're simpler. It's as if Giney no longer needs to prove herself. You also feel closer to the music/magic than ever before... perhaps that's all part of it. She ready to let us in. She's conversing with us rather than showing us. This album is 18 tracks of heaven. She's seminal. Not only does she sound like Joni Mitchell, she IS the Joni Mitchell of our generation. Okay so that might be enough... not much more can be said really, can it.
5. Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights
This was a late contender as I only heard it about two months ago. It was on vinyl, in a lounge room, by candlelight and I was lying on a big, cushy white couch, stoned. I became utterly lost in it. If you've heard anything by Antony and the Johnson's you can half imagine. Plus, look at those odds!
I've listened to it over and over, and in less blissful surroundings...still works. This may not be his best album, for reasons that are beyond my musical comprehension. All I know is that this album does feel like the maestro is slightly unsettled in his direction. Each track differs greatly from one another. Not a bad thing necessarily, I personally love a little unpredictability. It is a strange concept though considering he has always been so settled in his individual style. What this agitation makes room for, however is something really quite stunning. From that very first time I heard it, I was taken with the concept of redemption. Death or dying which leads toward a better place. Perhaps Antony is looking for some redemption himself. Redemption from the (beautiful) despair he has always stood for. "The Spirit Was Gone" is what struck this chord initially but on further listens it's riddled throughout. "Thank You for your Love" is a powerful and genuine appreciation for something that has died. "Ghost" frees snakes from their hosts. The highlight is his duet with Bjork on Icelandic sung "Fletta."
Do listen to this on vinyl. Also, read the cover story about "Swanlights the Polar Bear." A masterpiece in itself.
4. Best Coast - Crazy For You
This album reminds me of Issy Beech. First tick. It's also part of the big aquamarine slice on that pie chart graph. Second tick. It's also a banger break-up album. Don't know if that's a tick... let's chuck it in for good measure. The honesty of Beth Cosentino's lyrics are so damn endearing. Simple, sometimes a little naff but raw without a hint of irony. I like that. It's rare in lyrics these days. Not only is it the honesty that grabs you but her delivery and pitch is flawless. "I just wanna tell you that I have always loved you/miss you." "And there's something about the sum-mer." (Could almost sound like "There's something about Sun-ni." Almost.)
Best Coast couldn't be a more fitting name for this band as it screams loud and proud California. Great stuff. That's it really.
3. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
DAH.
("Sweepstakes"/"To Binge"/"Pirate Jet"/"Some Kind of Nature")
2. Beach House - Teen Dream
Beach House has the ability to stop me in my tracks so that I can take a big, deep breath. It's intensely, intensely personal. It doesn't make me think about break-ups or make-ups or friends or anything external. It hits a chord deep within my soul. It's raw, sad, swirling emotion carried predominately through the haze of that mid-70's organ sound and of course, Victoria Legrand's fucking incredible, amazing, soul-filled (not soulful) voice of honey and heaven. Zebra is such a well formed album. The imagery it creates is golden. I'm even writing more whimsically and that's because I'm listening to it right now. "It is happening again" are the repeated lyrics from the second track "Silver Soul." I think I've had entire days with these four words dancing around my head. No complaints. Third track "Norway" opens with a light "ahh-ahh-ahh" that builds into a boat ride of a song. The best boat ride I've ever had. The entire album is so well put together and undeniable that it does make you wonder how a band with such a distinctive sound can keep releasing new music that people want to hear. Why not just turn to Devotion or their self-titled... I'm not really sure, but whatever it is, I can't turn away from Zebra.
I can not wait to see these babes play at Laneway. Oh geez, oh heck.
1. Ariel Pink - Before Today
Being a fan of Ariel Pink's for some time now, it was hard to know what to expect from this, there first studio recorded album. It had me from hello. It is no doubt my most played album of the year. Every track! Every. Single. Track. There's no loss of Pink's true essence either. I guess that what comes with being the king of d.i.y lo-fi home recordings... you tell them how it's supposed to sound even if they're the one's with the expensive equipment and years of recording experience under their headphones. Despite this power over sound, Pink has utilised the opportunity to play around with the big toys and he has done it exceptionally well. You can't help be pleasantly surprised as each track comes to play. I think that's a good word for it. Surprising. "Beverly Kills" shows us this in it's heavy 80's power-riff opening which catches me off guard every time. There are a few favourable influences thrown in also which definitely gets me on-side. One that I can't resist is the Alan Parson's Project, heard loud and clear in "Can't Hear my Eyes" and "Remininscences." "Fright Night (Nevermore)" could just be the song of the year.
This is probably the least emotionally involved I've been with my number 1 album of the year. I'm happy with that. Before Today reminds me of Pushka and it's family and the carefree times of a tumultuous but all round (and round -see what I did there?) important year. It's ultimately just a very cool album. Maybe this means that I might finally be cool...
Doubt it.
Happy New Year everybody. X
Monday, January 3, 2011
Vladimir Mayakovsky.
"the first rock and roll star"
-Patti Smith
Past one o’clock. You're probably in bed.
The Milky Way is like Oka of silver
No need for me to rush. I have no reasons left
to stir you with the lightnings of my cable ferver.
And so they say, the incident dissolved.
The Love Boat smashed up on the dreary routine.
We’re even. There’s no use in keeping the score
of mutual hurts, affliction and spleen.
Look here, the world exudes an eerie calm.
The sky bequeathed to us its constellations.
In periods like this I’d like to be the one
with ages, history and the creation.
No need for me to rush. I have no reasons left
to stir you with the lightnings of my cable ferver.
And so they say, the incident dissolved.
The Love Boat smashed up on the dreary routine.
We’re even. There’s no use in keeping the score
of mutual hurts, affliction and spleen.
Look here, the world exudes an eerie calm.
The sky bequeathed to us its constellations.
In periods like this I’d like to be the one
with ages, history and the creation.
1930.
______________________________
You must take to the pen only
when there is no other way to
speak except through poetry.
How to Make Poetry (1926.)
Monday, December 20, 2010
in response to "the voice of the heart"
This is a reply I got from Noah, in regards to my last written post. It's really very beautiful. It implies that my thoughts and feelings of a quiet, peaceful heart is in fact hogwash and the heart has no centre, no constraints and perhaps, if physically possible it would burst outside of one's ribcage and explode all over this side of the earth's face. It's a much more violent (in the best way possible) and ardent view. I have no intention of proving anyone wrong on their take on the heart or spirituality or lack their of, etc. I think that Noah must be highly tolerant and personally, if I possessed this view I may very well go insane. Forgive me Noah... and thank-you.
Noah said...but i don't mind if you prove me wrong, i don't mind at all.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
the voice of the heart.
Why is the voice of the heart a mere whisper while the voice of your head is shouting; constantly, insistently. Your head is forever jumping all over your heart (and always on behalf of your ego.) I think that the heart's voice is so quiet because it is calm and still. It has no reason to make a scene. It's more than content to keep doing what it's doing and it's up to you to shut your head up and listen. It's like the Leonard Cohen concert I saw recently at Hanging Rock. My first reaction was to turn up the volume up ten-fold but as he continued to play I began to appreciate the subtlety. It forced the 12,000 spectators to shut up and listen. To be still.
I've always been told that I follow my heart too much... That I let my emotions get the best of me. I can't argue with this. I have been known to let my emotions engulf any rumour of rationality that I may possess at any one time. People would say, "you're not called Sunni Hart for nothing," when they really meant, "you're a fucking crazy bitch." Today I've come to realise that it isn't my heart that causes this at all. It's easy to mistake "feelings" as characteristics of the heart but it is in fact your head that tells you that you're losing, whether it's an argument or your grasp on life. It's your head that is seduced by the exterior "things" that effect your ego and make you mad or sad or disappointed or whatever. To listen to your heart is to be still and in control. To keep your perspective on it all and to remember that something good has happened to you at a point before this bad one, and will again in the very near future. Your heart is your metronome. Keep in time, don't loose control, listen to the beat. Remember the essence of you and of life. Nobody and no thing should knock that beat out of time.
More on that later...
4th January 2011.
I realise now that this perspective is a very small part of what the heart is. In the time of writing it I was trying to embrace these raw emotions of hurt and also try to understand somebody else's behaviour. In that vain, it makes sense to put it down to ego...the head, but it is also self-seeking. It does not encapsulate the entire arena of the hearts abilities, however. The heart can rage and scream and be euphoric. It can be overwhelmingly loud. We've all experienced this. Perhaps it happens when you aren't competing with the white noise of the world. When you're away from the traffic and the buildings and the other players in the game. When the world is quiet, your head has no reason to yell and your heart can sing.
I've always been told that I follow my heart too much... That I let my emotions get the best of me. I can't argue with this. I have been known to let my emotions engulf any rumour of rationality that I may possess at any one time. People would say, "you're not called Sunni Hart for nothing," when they really meant, "you're a fucking crazy bitch." Today I've come to realise that it isn't my heart that causes this at all. It's easy to mistake "feelings" as characteristics of the heart but it is in fact your head that tells you that you're losing, whether it's an argument or your grasp on life. It's your head that is seduced by the exterior "things" that effect your ego and make you mad or sad or disappointed or whatever. To listen to your heart is to be still and in control. To keep your perspective on it all and to remember that something good has happened to you at a point before this bad one, and will again in the very near future. Your heart is your metronome. Keep in time, don't loose control, listen to the beat. Remember the essence of you and of life. Nobody and no thing should knock that beat out of time.
More on that later...
4th January 2011.
I realise now that this perspective is a very small part of what the heart is. In the time of writing it I was trying to embrace these raw emotions of hurt and also try to understand somebody else's behaviour. In that vain, it makes sense to put it down to ego...the head, but it is also self-seeking. It does not encapsulate the entire arena of the hearts abilities, however. The heart can rage and scream and be euphoric. It can be overwhelmingly loud. We've all experienced this. Perhaps it happens when you aren't competing with the white noise of the world. When you're away from the traffic and the buildings and the other players in the game. When the world is quiet, your head has no reason to yell and your heart can sing.
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