Joy will burn out the pain

"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain."

(Joseph Campbell)

2013 was significantly less painful than 2012, but I haven't forgotten the feeling and I know some who are still in it.

...Take your pick of versions.

The labyrinth is thoroughly known

I think it's time for my annual posting of my favorite Joseph Campbell quote. It's a good follow-on from yesterday's post.

Yesterday I was touching on spirituality as any experience that takes us out of our ego. I want to add that there's nothing wrong with the ego, with the self. But traveling outside of ourselves ultimately bring us to the deepest parts of ourselves. If we're committed to traveling outward, to empathy, to kindness, to love, to vulnerability, then we can simultaneously help others heal, and heal ourselves.

Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; and where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world. (The Hero With a Thousand Faces)

(You can hear Campbell quote this at the start of this video.)

The Destruction of the Personality

It's like a big fist breaking down my door
I never felt such a love before

- Bruce Cockburn

Imma have to go ahead and say that froggy AuntBeaN's definition of spirituality is my fave ever:

The definition of spirituality that works best for me is the idea of connecting with something beyond our own ego boundary, our own sense of ourselves. That's a pretty wide definition, because it includes just about any experience where you get outside yourself-- say, connecting with a larger group at a concert or rally, or with the natural world (on a hike or walking or jogging), or reading, or a variety of other situations besides just the standard religious definition. I don't understand exactly what happens, but I don't think you need to understand it intellectually in order to experience it.  So I've accepted my lack of understanding and pursued it (spirituality) anyway.  Pursued it because spiritual experiences deeply enrich my life.

Hallelujah, preach it, and all that good stuff. I don't even think I can add one thing to that. Maybe I can find a song...

Ah, here's one, from one of my poet faves, Bruce Cockburn. Here's what he said about the song:

"What it's about to me is sort of the destruction of the personality by love; personality and ego and all the things involved in that. Its also about driving through the city streets on a rainy night."

(Lyrics follow the video, if you just want to read.)



After the rain in the streets light flows like blood
I can just taste salt on the humid wind

Here comes that gasoline
Spreading hungry rainbow over shiny black tar

I'm blown like smoke and blind as wind
Except for when your love breaks in

    Maybe to those who love is given sight
    To pierce the wall of seeming night
    And know it pure beyond all imagining

Engine throb street cruise light bullet car flash
Hollow beauty night gleam oily river tension glass

Ultraflame! Glittering dust falling in slow motion
Clouds tumbling one over another into apparent emptiness

It's like a big fist breaking down my door
I never felt such a love before

    Maybe to those who love it's given to hear

    Music too high for the human ear

    And clear as hydrogen to go singing

From Amigurumi to Zeppo

There are lots of great charities out there, but just one non-profit that I *shill* for, and that's wikipedia. And they only ask for $3, how can I say no? I use wikipedia every single day, I get way more than my money's worth. I'm a curious person and wiki half the movies I watch, songs I listen to, etc. Besides the school and story research I've done over time. They also seem like a good organization--they're trying to keep it ad free, and have done things like simplifying the editing/contributing process in part to attract more women to contribute. 

I've created an alphabet of things I've looked up on wiki since 2010, according to my browser history:

Amigurumi
Boar's tusk helmet
Crémaillère
Dendra panoply
Extreme croquet
Freedonia
Grumpy Cat
Hamburger Dinner Theater
Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm
Jack Harkness
Korath the Pursuer
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
Monitor lizard
New Black Panther Party
Oil cloth
Puka shell
Quest for the Well of Souls
Rza
Shazam
Tiggy Legge-Bourke
UC Davis pepper-spray incident
Velcro
Wood putty
X-Men
Yamada Nagamasa
Zeppo Marx

And a beer in a tree

Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as the McKenzie Brothers from the comedy show SCTV. When my mother (post divorce) would go out Friday nights we had chips and pop and watched The Dukes of Hazard and then we snuck-watched SCTV after bedtime. And my mother would come home and pretend she didn't know. She bought us this album.



And in case you need a bonus song... we could perform every part from the solos to the angels. I didn't even know who Geddy Lee was at the time.

Crochet, tv, crochet, tv...

Wow, I just fell out of the internet for awhile there. Been working on homemade Christmas presents, didn't feel like doing anything online, barely even kept up with email. Watched a bunch of movies, Murdoch Mysteries, and Dr Who. And my brother visited from Vancouver, so there was a bunch of chatchatchat. And I had a cold, which is gone except for the congestion in my chest. For the past few years every cold I get starts with a tonsil inflammation, and ends with a lung inflammation. Vair annoying.

Anyway, no news is good news I guess! Sometimes I feel like my life's in a holding pattern until I get back to Montreal.

Wild in its imaginings, stodgy in its style

I read this in an article about Dave Eggar's sci fi book. I've never read Eggars, but it's just this bit that caught my attention: (emphasis by moi)

What surprises me most about it is the conventionality of its style. It contains no postmodern self-referential cleverness, not even any of the compression and elision that marks so much contemporary fiction. It’s past-tense, third person, with a garrulous narrator who doesn’t mind stepping in for a little exposition now and then.

Why is it that futuristic fiction, informed by the most contemporary of discussions about the most recent of social trends, is usually so formally old-fashioned? These novels – from Ray Bradbury to William Gibson – are in structure and delivery not postmodern or even modern; they are premodern. This is generally, in fact, how we distinguish between genre and literary fiction: genre is wild in its imaginings, stodgy in its style; literary is stodgy in its imaginings, wild in its style. It is rare to see a collision of innovative social thinking and innovative technique.

My first instinct was: Yeah, maybe this is the case. Cause I can think of some literary books where the content was what-ev-er, but beautifully or interestingly expressed. And I can think of some genre books with interesting ideas, but run-of-the-mill narration.

But the more I thought about it, the more I began to feel that form and content don't separate so easily. Do we really want to be J Evans Pritchard PhD?



Does a book cease to be literary because it has a straightforward style? A Fine Balance reads like a classic novel, not unlike something from the 19th century; but I still think of it as literary.
And also, while I do think some genre writing could take things up a notch in terms of form, I don't want an English Patient experience every time I pick a book up. To everything there is a season. Ondaatje some days, Christie on others.

I think I'll have to stick to my earlier sense, that "literary" has more to do with the depth with which the content is treated. Form is only one possible element.

Enough for now, my brain is sleepy.
   

You can't do anything... sorry

There's been talk around the internets that one of the problems with This Current Generation is they've been told they can be anything they want / follow your bliss / follow your passion, and it's just not practical advice. ...I think there might be some truth to that.

Following goals like learning to grow, become a better person, etc. -- those goals are pretty much always achievable. And following your passion as a past-time, that's often achievable (though still not always possible.)

But can everyone become an astronaut? No. You might not have the intelligence, the physical fitness, money for the needed education, etc.

Below is the current hit by a Canadian band (lead singer won Canadian Idol eons ago, and did it just to promote his band) -- and that's the theme: I can do anything. Don't let the naysayers get ya down.

But it's not true. We can't do anything. We can try to do anything. But the idea that everyone can translate their passion and their talents into a full-time paid job (which is usually the unspoken assumption here) is wrong. Which is why placing so much of our identity in our jobs is probably a bad idea. And possibly something very North American.

Let's make beautiful music

The Roots and Jimmy Fallon do a great a cap version of "We Can't Stop"


And here's a pretty ballad from Miley's new album.

#takingdemocracyforgranted

How come when you're having a debate with someone, this phrase always pops up at some point: "I think it's terrible that we're no longer allowed to express xyz opinion in our society." Some people feel that because someone opposes their point of view--or even that a lot of people oppose their point of view--it means their idea is being suppressed.

These people have never lived in a dictatorship.

People unclear on the concept.

You're right here, on facebook, or on a blog, or in the comments of a news section, expressing your opinion, and no one is throwing you in jail. How is this Not Being Allowed?

You can say whatever you want. I will tell you you're wrong. It's that simple! You can tell me I'm wrong too!

Someone might be using shitty tactics in an effort to silence you, that does happen. But that's not the same as Not Being Allowed.


There are genuine cases where ideas are suppressed in western countries, but your opinion on some pop video probably isn't one of those cases.

More Better Book Titles

Check them all out here.

Title-ahj 2013

I was talking yesterday about titles I like and don't like. Here are some from this year:

Titles that don't tell me anything:

Men at Arms - by Pratchett (other than that it's a Guards book)

Indiscretion - Morgan


Titles that remind me what the book was:

Going Postal - Pratchett
 
The New Yorkers - Schine

Maus - Spiegelman


Titles that sound nice, but I don't know what they meant

Hunting Unicorns - Pollen
Starfish - Watts


Title that are descriptive of what I just read, and the title is meaningful, layered:

Habibi - Thompson

Rules of Civility - Towles

The English Patient - Ondaatje

Monstrous Regiment - Pratchett

That cool place with the giant moth

Froggy Widdershins mentioned a couple months ago that one of her fave book titles is Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack Chalker. My husband loved the series--I haven't read it, but it's unforgettable once you've seen the awesome 70s covers!

So I think as we enter 2013 Retrospective time, I'll post up some of my favorite titles and covers from things I watched or read or listened to this year.

I suck at titles, but I love them when they're well done. And I can't stand the generic ones. Loretta Chase has these cute Miss Wonderful, Lord Perfect, Mr Impossible books and I can't remember which ones I've read and which I haven't. And when I look back at the romances I read this year, I'm not always sure what they were about.

Mind you, I don't blame the authors--I'm pretty sure these titles are often foisted on people. Or they're cute, fun-sounding titles... they just don't do what I, personally, like a title to do. Which is remind me what the book was about!

Celebrate good times

We've hit the 6 month mark (until I return to Montreal) so here is one of my Favorite Songs of All Time. Like, all time. Like, I remember where I was when I first saw it. I'm sure I've posted it before.

This is The Roots, with some guy named Cody Chestnutt. It seems to be about a guy who's cheating on his girlfriend because he wants a baby and she doesn't. It seems so dumb on the surface, but the language focuses on this deep, biological need to reproduce. It's earnest.

But I also feel like it's a metaphor for making music: "If Mary dropped my baby girl tonight I would name her Rocknroll." Or for mashing up genres, which a band like The Roots does:

Knocked up 9 months ago
And what she gonna have she don't know
She want neo-soul, this hip-hop is old
She don't want no rock'n'roll

Or it's about trying to get ahead in the music business:

She want platinum or ice or gold
She want a whole lot of somethin' to fold
If you a obstacle she just drop ya cold
'cause one monkey don't stop the show

 Or about leaving behind a legacy, one's art:

And I'm left to shine, but the legacy I leave behind
be the seed that'll keep the flame
I don't ask for much but enough room to spread these wings
And the world gonna know my name

There's something interesting going on, lyrically.

But the music, the beat alone is like... wow. And the power and passion going into the performance... wow.



"The Seed (2.0)"
(feat. Cody Chesnutt)

[Verse 1: Black Thought]
Knocked up 9 months ago
And what she gonna have she don't know
She want neo-soul, this hip-hop is old
She don't want no rock'n'roll
She want platinum or ice or gold
She want a whole lot of somethin' to fold
If you a obstacle she just drop ya cold
'cause one monkey don't stop the show
Little Mary is bad
In these streets she done ran
Ever since when the heat began
I told the girl look here
Calm down I'm gonna hold your hand
To enable you to keep the plan
'cause you is quick to learn
And we can make money to burn
If you allow me the latest game
I don't ask for much, but enough room to spread my wings
And the world gonna know my name

[Verse 2: Cody Chesnutt]
I don't ask, for much these days
And I don't bitch, and whine, if I don't get my way
I only wanna fertilize another behind my lover's back
I sit and watch it grow roots standin' where I'm at
Fertilize another behind my lover's back
And I'm keepin' my secrets mine

I push my seed in her bush for life
It's gonna work because I'm pushin' it right
If Mary dropped my baby girl tonight
I would name her Rock'N'Roll

[Verse 3: Black Thought]
Uh-huh
Cadillac needs space to roam
Where we heading for she don't know
We in the city where the pros shake rattle and roll
And I'm a gaddang rollin' stone
I don't beg I can hold my own
I don't break I can hold the chrome
And this weighin' a ton and I'm a son of a gun
My code name is The Only One and Black Thought is bad
These streets he done ran ever since when the game began
I never played the fool
Metter of fact I be keepin' it cool
Since money been changing hands
And I'm left to shine, but the legacy I leave behind
be the seed that'll keep the flame
I don't ask for much but enough room to spread these wings
And the world gonna know my name

[Verse 4: Cody Chesnutt]
I don't beg
From no rich man
And I don't scream, and kick, when his shit don't fall in my hands, man
'cause I know how to steal
Fertilize another against my lover's will
I lick the opposition cause she don't take no pill
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-no dear
You'll be keeping my legend alive

I push my seed in her bush for life
It's gonna work because I'm pushin' it right
If Mary dropped my baby girl tonight
I would name her Rock'N'Roll
Oh-ooh break it down, break it down, break down beat

[break]
I push my seed somewhere deep in her chest
I push it naked 'cause I've taken my test
Deliver it Mary, it don't matter the sex
I'm gonna name it rock and roll
I push my seed in her bush for life
It's gonna work because I'm pushin it right
If Mary drop my baby girl, tonight
I would name her Rock-N-Roll
I would name her Rock-N-Roll
I would name her Rock-N-Roll yeah
I would name it Rock-N-Roll

I'd never wanna love you less

Whoever picks music for the show Hart of Dixie does a bang up job.

We're at the 6 month mark!

(Verse)
I wrote this song to make you feel alright today
I wrote it to make everything alright
And I would sing it every single day if you would say we’re fine

(Verse)
I can feel your heart is beating careful
‘Cus sometimes I pretend that I don’t care
I can’t believe I never let you know how much I need you here

(Chorus)
‘Cus I will fight and I will beg
I just want to hear you say
That tonight will be alright and you will stay

(Verse)
  At times I feel like you don’t know me anymore
And other times I think you know me best
I could love you better but I’d never wanna you less

(Verse)
So run away and I’ll be runnin next to you
I’d never let you run away alone
Before you run too far away I think that I should let you know

(Chorus x2)
‘Cus I will fight and I will beg
I just want to hear you say
That tonight will be alright and you will stay

(Chorus 2)
So put your hand in mine
We’ll be fine, I know
I know it, I
If you stay tonight
I promise I will show you