Re: Control

Recently I watched the film "Control" that narrates the life and suicide of Ian Curtis from Joy Division. Ultimately a tragic story, Curtis' depression, caused by multiple reasons some under his control and some not, was depicted so beautifully that I felt like screaming to the screen: "Can't somebody just give him some Prozac or some SSRI?" After all, they were pumping him with carbamazepine for his epilepsy, surely they could've heard the poor soul out... Finally as he committed suicide I was astounded to hear my friend comment on how selfish an act it was, how idiotic Ian Curtis had been. After all, he was leaving so many people behind... At first a sensible argument that can be brought in from many sides, I found this to be somewhat unemphatic, coming from my friend who was himself prescribed anti-depressants before for his depression. I wondered "why would many people regard another's internal pain with so much reference to the outside's welfare?" When you think about it, everyone always gets left behind some way or another. People come, people go. You come, you go; why do we not wonder more among us, after the suicide has happened, what was it that we DIDN'T DO, that could've helped him? Although most suicides don't place the blame on others, why is it that we are so eager to push the blame on the person who actually suffered and even go as far to play the victim (How could he do this to me?etc.)
why, when the matter is suicide along with metal illness are we so reluctant to stare at the patient with unsympathy? Anti-depressants's are last centuries wonder drug and they re prescribed to anyone who may feel slightly "blue" so there is a loss of credibility on the part of psychiatry, fair enough, however this doesn't make mental illness an un-reality. In fact viewing it this way, it is easy to dismiss illnesses of the mind as meagre caprices, but severe cases do exist and if anything, in their cure can we see the advantages of psychiatry. the stigma that comes along with mental illness doesn't really make things easier. As the patient stumbles deeper into "abnormality", the "normal" ones wallow in their acceptance by this hideously crooked establishment we call society. It is sad to see, even in pharmacies in Turkey, where a simple bandaid purchase is greeted with a "geçmiş olsun", the purchase of pshychiatric drugs are given to the customer with a silent sense of distaste. These two attitudes are exactly the same, and woe be to the utterer to really know the deepest pits of depression, mania, and psychosis. All this stems from the centuries' old cultural discourse of marginalizing the mad. Today, we see a new development in viewing these diseases. Not as an abnormal functioning of the brain but a sort of individually unique defense mechanism of some morbid "normality" the subject is asked to adjust to. In fact, to carry this theory even further, one would assume that the most psychopathic among us, are those who have no problems in blending in with what society offers. Needless to say, I guess most sensible people would rather not be "normalized" to, say, Hitler Germany. So, although it is easy to look down upon someone who suffers for no apparent external reason ("s/he should get on with life just like we do" for example), to do this with a view of the patient spreading misfortune and black bile to others as if it were a cancer cell in society that infects it, is equally damaging to society. For I shouldn't need to remind anyone, but progress in arts, sciences, religions are all laid out by the prodigious and prophetic madpeople of our world. It is the "normals" who usurp and degenerate their vision...

Freak-folk again

This is just a note of appreciation for all the following musicians who have brought back my youth of singing and playing the guitar for long long nights, accompanied by great friends, candles, cheap beer & wine, but most of all, a hippie spirit that is (nowadays) individual though still providing such communal feelings of tenderness, unblemished love, a juvenile sense of rebellion toned down from actual action but able to place a smile on the face and a willingness to sing along. It is significant that for the most part these musicians start of doing everything by themselves. Locked in a cabin recording for days, etc. Contradictory in terms of their earlier inspirations but definitely fitting with the zeitgeist.
The quieter the better guys, roll on!!! : Iron & Wine, Tunng, Songs: Ohia, Ben Iver, Wilco, Caribou... Nick Drake must be happy in the grave! Thanks for taking/bringing me back/forward!!!

Saint Genet...

...was what Sartre called Genet. His lop-sided but definitely un-hypocritical subversive morality and his almost religiously sticking with it surely were among the reasons for being called so. Am reading these days his magnum opus Journal du Voleur and have to say am bedazzled at the literary skill but also his daring candidness in reporting his delinquent escapades that have lasted for years in the streets, ports, cities of Europe: Barcelona, Anvers, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Krakow... He describes his instances of theft like pieces in an art exhibition, emblazoning the memorable moments of the act with pieces of introspection. Most importantly though, in my opinion, is Genet's descriptions of his many lovers. Now I am not gay and I sure don't get disgusted etc from reading about gays and St. Genet in this regard, I believe is the ultimate king. I do not think I have ever read instances of male homo-erotic behavior that resonate so well as timeless renderings of the erotic in the male of the species. Genet's lovers are not sublimated, or if they are, they are sublimated in the way sex is treated in his plays Les Negres, or Le Balcon , as an invitation to partake in an earthy power play. Furthermore his lovers take on descriptive beauty in the context of and through objects, settings and tiny details whose connections to beauty are so far removed than commodified ideas of love and eroticism that they take on the characteristics of an admirable yet uncanny expressionist painting. The wearing of a wrist watch and the twitch of a wrist, a wrinkle in the brow, the way a belt holds up a pair of trousers, the touch of a pair of eye lashes onto the lovers' neck, and the interminable instances of violence make up the erotic world of Genet. Genet loves domination though not in a purely masochistic way; when the possibility arises he is more than happy to take the position of top so to speak, and candidly reports his anomaly as just another instant in his sexuality, which is considered as ever-changing, although one thing is constant: his disgust of women. It is as if Genet's motif of theft is also present in his amorous liaisons. He wants to both be ravaged and have his identity stolen by the lover, just like he steals from others less powerful than he is. As he chases a lover of his devoted to him out of the room he closes his eyelids and tends to examining the myriad of shapes that appear on the black eyelids, completely forgetting the pain he might be causing just like he doesn't mind the pain that is caused to him by his mean lovers: It is the rule of the game, in fact that is what he expects from his lover. For Genet masculinity is almost always linked with the beauty of violence which is like an aura that resonates more strongly in his chosen lovers.
Thieving for objects, both inanimate and human, Genet seems to be touching on the remarkable role that objects have in our lives. How we might think we made them but in fact they re-make themselves by penetrating our worlds and make us something more than what we were without them.
Which brings us to the poem of the day:) This is Las Cosas by Jorge Luis Borges

El bastón, las monedas, el llavero,
La dócil cerradura, las tardías
Notas que no leerán los pocos días
Que me quedan, los naipes y el tablero,
Un libro y en sus páginas la ajada
Violeta, monumento de una tarde
Sin duda inolvidable y ya olvidada,
El rojo espejo occidental en que arde
Una ilusoria aurora. ¡Cuántas cosas,
Láminas, umbrales, atlas, copas, clavos,
Nos sirven como tácitos esclavos,
Ciegas y extrañamente sigilosas!
Durarán más allá de nuestro olvido;
No sabrán nunca que nos hemos ido.

Things
My cane, my pocketchange, this ring of keys
The obedient lock, the belated notes
The few days left to me will not find time
To read, the deck of cards, the tabletop,
A book and crushed in its pages the withered
Violet, monument to an afternoon
Undoubtedly unforgettable, now forgotten
The mirror in the west where a red sunrise
Blazes its illusion. How many things,
Files, doorsills, atlases,wine glasses, nails
Serve us like slaves who never say a word
Blind and so mysteriously reserved.
They will endure beyond our vanishing;
And they will never know that we have gone.


Translated by Stephen Kessler

What a Wonderful...

...country we live in. It is the most beautiful and diverse land I have ever seen yet is scene to some of the weirdest instances of the political human. Our political life reminds one of a coffeehouse, or a zoo; however at the same time it displays the fragility of humanity and trains us to be less susceptible to the allure of suits and manners. The state exists for its own good which is disheartening when raising a family, however, this absent existence also gives us the thrill of being alive, by constantly bringing up new obstacles, generated spontaneously by humans placed in a lawful world where no law really works, as law is, by nature not like jelly, as it is here. With luck and street-wisdom you can be extremely rich in a very short time, but lose it all overnight as the stock markets crumbles, yet again, because some childlike adult representative throws something to another. It shows you that money rules supreme, yet also displays how huge numbers of humans can live, work, bring up families, with an amount of peanuts for money
It teaches you to despise disorder, only to find that once it's absent (say in a wonderfully ordered European town), disorder is what kept you groping for life. Without it you survive, but there always remains a sense of timelessness that un-safety and un-order brings, which is akin to what happens when one is happy. Lessons of life here are taught in contingent mysteries, and no one can guarantee what the next mystery will bring... Strange country... Really strange...

Comix and Today's Myths

It seems to me that the comics form or the graphic novel as it is called is becoming more powerful by the day. There are several reasons for this, some of which I will highlight for my own use:
1. Graphic Novels swing between reading habits by never leaving the literary completely but also relying heavily on visual habits, therefore allowing more access to readers of literary or visually oriented alike. True, this at times makes comics more superficial in theme and story but there are exceptions that challenge this and will continue to do so as the form flourishes.
2. Comix are truly a collaborative effort which pulls together various individuals that are experts in their field, which creates a true synergy. Although these days, artists and writers do get to be more in the spotlight (a remnance of our romantic heritage. cf. The Author-Function, M. Foucault), none can deny that the wrong lettering or coloring can really ruin a reading experience. This collaborative effort renders each work an ongoing process whose outcome can never be fully determined, no matter what the editor plans. In this sense, it is spontaneous, non-hierachical, experimental, anarchistic and self-reflective.
3. Most importantly I believe, is that comix tap into a collective memory that our culture desperately tries to stifle, and that is the creation or revival of myths. I cannot go into a much-needed long definition of what I mean by myth due to space and time, however suffice it to say that I think myth in terms of Jung, Bachelard and Barthes. An analogy like this may also clarify. If myths are reflections of the human psyche, one which all of us indiscriminately partake in, then myth is timeless though it alters shape and challenges rational, materialistic thought through elements of magic, such as psychic projection, belief and archetypes. Nevertheless, comix release, through its octopus-like creation, archetypes into our narrative-driven minds, that have been used and re-used all through human history. The stories they tell are no longer pigeonholed as high art or low art as they transcend these categories and stimulate psychic imaginative powers to the point of making the reader believe in them. How many Spider-Man kids do you know who aren't enslaved by their hero? Do they really care if the story is good by today's literary standards.
Now you may say, well that is what good stories do, no matter what medium. However, aiming at a totally amorphous mass of readers, this medium, more than any, balances out the literary and visuals to form a whole set of signification that neither leaves it all for the readers imagination, nor does it stifle it with its own set of visual signs a la film. This requires longer and further study of course; this is just a preliminary expression of thought, however I feel there is something in this new medium that befits the age, that reflects it and more, has a power to transform its artistic and existential sensibilities, just like earlier forms that preceded it.
I have been an addict to comics ever since I learned to make sense of art and there has never been a house I have lived in which didn't have a shelf of comics. I used to sneak them in because my mom had had enough of me, or cut class (in primary school), go to a park and sit for hours, reading every line, every shadow, every speech bubble. What it left me, and leaves me with still, is a space in my mind (as bob marley said) where mythical humans or creatures do not have to live the dreary modern day-to-day reality we have created for ourselves, do not even have to go to the bathroom, in short a space of archaic feelings and joys that can be lived on end without restraint.

Nerd wha?! - from WIRED NEWS

SXSW: Geeksta Rap Godfather's 5 Steps to Nerdcore Stardom



AUSTIN, Texas -- Nerdcore rapper wannabes, take notice. Damian Hess, better known among fans of the nerdy hip-hop subgenre as MC Frontalot, is here to school you.
The master MC (pictured above) was hanging out in Austin for South by Southwest to promote the release of Nerdcore Rising, a documentary following the godfather of the genre on his first national tour. Hess, who began rapping with friends during college, recorded his first songs as MC Frontalot nearly a decade ago.
"I called it nerdcore because I was performing for an audience of Boba Fett action figures," said Hess over dinner in Austin. "And I thought, how nerdy is this?"
Nerdcore hip-hop is shaped by geeky monikers (like Optimus Rhyme and MC Hawking) and lyrics embracing all aspects of geek culture like math skills, coding protocols and Star Wars. Not surprisingly, the underground music movement has inspired a cult following.
Want to be the next nerdcore rap superstar? Hess, aka Front, is here with five tips that will help you achieve your dreams of becoming a computer-science baller, a rhyme-spitting, algorithmic shot-caller.

Step 1: Embrace Your Inner Dorkdom
Avoid sports and those who understand sports. Cultivate instead a wide variety of intellectual pursuits, like ColecoVision. Pick your favorite Doctor Who doctor, your least favorite Trek captain and one issue of Heavy Metal to dog-ear during your post-adolescence. Be prepared to defend each of these choices in heated debate. You will waste your allowance on Marvel comic books, which is appropriate since this tip involves retconning yourself. You may, of course, skip this tip if you are already the product of a dorky childhood, or if time travel is impossible.

Step 2: Forget the People Who Dissed You Back in the Day
One day you will notice that you never really wanted to hang out with those jackasses anyway, and you will begin to feel pride over formerly shameful aspects of your character: your wealth of flawless Python quotes, your home-brewed Linux kernel, your persisting virginity. You are almost ready to rock a nerdcore track.

Step 3: Pick an Awesome Rap Name
You may want it to subtly communicate your geekishness. For reference: Kid Decoder, subtle; tEH 133t3st H4x0R 3v4RR, not subtle. Suggestion for a nerdcore lady rapper: Minnie Perl. You can have that one. Really, gratis.

Step 4: Get Ready to Rock a Nerdcore Track
Carefully choose a software multitracker, hardware D/A interface and starter microphone (Note: Those vended by Radio Shack do not rise to the level of "starter"). Learn to use these things through trial, error and the studious perusal of home-recording FAQs. Dedicate yourself to the mysterious art of beatsmithing, or just jack a drum break from your favorite old record. I use the term "record" only to be snotty; I mean MP3. Loop, repeat. Compose and record a vocal. Practice this until you are not entirely embarrassed by the result. Do not sidestep embarrassment by pretending that your song is meant to sound terrible for comic effect. Mix carefully and serve.

Step 5: Become a World-Famous Nerdcore Rap Star
I don’t have a well-developed tip for this one. I assume it just automatically happens.

Odd jobs that I like and would like to practice even if once

Taxi driver
Barber
Pottery Artisan
Bookstore clerk who is paid to talk (thus sell) to customers
Librarian
Levi's sales staff (at age 12)
Amateur Scuba-Diver Fisher
Sailor for at least a year
Psychoanalyst/Psychotherapist
Professional Juggler
Freelance seminar preparer
Bed & Breakfast manager
Comic bookstore clerk
Astronaut
Carpenter
Field-happy anthropologist
Amusement Park manager
Illusionist/Magician
Individual think-tank for researchers (paid for ideas?)
Anarchist commune worker/citizen
Tea House owner (after 60-5)
Game & Comic book reviewer
Cocktail Bartender (again and again)


still to come i m sure...

AREN’T YOU TOO YOUNG TO BE WRITING APHORISMS?



Hold soft the hammer
Lest you be the nail one day

Drink knowledge in gusts, into guts
As if stranded in a desert

Know that desires
Are there, not to be fulfilled
But enjoyed for the passion they ignite

Hope all you want
Though know it is for its own sake only

Follow not your heart
For the heart is deceitful
The heart is true the heart is chaste
Yet it recoils from its’ own shadow

Never give advice to your offspring
About wanting being real
Wanting doesn’t mean getting
And that you are also made of all else
And all else also have wants

The hare got cross with the mountain
But the mountain was unaware
(Turkish proverb)

No action is blessed
Lest it benefit someone else

Hope is no less an illusion than the world

Think of the visceral often
Scent of Man, tissue teeming
With a myriad of organisms
Marvel at the miracle of love.



9 March 2008

Babies See Pure Color, but Adults Peer Through Prism of Language

By Brandon Keim March 03, 2008


When infant eyes absorb a world of virgin visions, colors are processed purely, in a pre-linguistic parts of the brain. As adults, colors are processed in the brain's language centers, refracted by the concepts we have for them.

How does that switch take place? And does it affect our subjective experience of color? Such tantalizing questions, their answers still unknown, are raised by this developmental shift in color categorization, described today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
To test the phenomenon, a team of British and English researchers asked adults and infants to focus on a briefly flashing target circle.
Sometimes the target appeared in the subjects' right visual fields -- roughly speaking, the right half of a person's field of vision, which is transmitted from the eyes to the brain's left hemisphere, where language processing also takes place. Sometimes the targets appeared in the left visual field, which connects to the pre-linguistic right hemisphere.
When asked to pick out a target against a similarly-colored background -- a more mentally demanding task than distinguishing between different colors -- infants performed better when the target appeared in their left visual fields. Adults, by contrast, had an easier time with targets in their right visual fields.
But might adults see colors differently? That seems plausible.
"As an adult, color categorization is influenced by linguistic categories. It differs as the language differs," said Kay, who is renowned for his studies on the ways that different cultures classify colors. He cited recent research on the ability of Russian speakers to detect shades of blue [pdf] that English speakers classify as a single color.
How does the switch to a language-bound perception of color take place?
"That's the $64,000 question," said Kay. "We have every reason to believe that learning a language has a lot to do with it -- but [as for] how that works, it's early."
Categorical perception of color is lateralized to the right hemisphere in infants, but to the left hemisphere in adults [PNAS]