Behold Now Behemoth

The sky

2010-01-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

is always falling

Talking to no one

2009-08-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

and no one is talking back. Should I be worried?

This is nice ...

You don't want to hear it

2009-04-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

You don't want to read it, either.

2009-03-11T15:06:00.001-07:00

White Map on the Mississippi

2008-12-19T11:46:00.001-08:00

lunch

2008-10-20T15:11:00.000-07:00

Fancy

2008-10-13T13:43:00.001-07:00

something new

2008-09-30T08:57:00.001-07:00

rr.com is now up.

Drawing of Sperm Whale by New York Whaleman from 1800s

2008-09-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

Roman 6 weeks

2008-08-29T13:37:00.001-07:00

The new Raschke

2008-08-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

Everything you need to know about childbirth

2008-07-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Best soundtrack ever?

2008-06-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

The gist

2008-06-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've been enjoying books.google.com, lately. Here's the title page to the last book I read --

It's beautiful, no?

Heliotrope - Thursday, May 15th, 2008

2008-05-12T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm playing a small keyboard through a big amp with Zak Sally/F.O.S.

More information here: http://www.flaneurproductions.com/heliotropefive.html

Your assignment for today

2008-04-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

Buy this book from here - http://www.king-cat.net/catalog_other.html

Questions to Consider*

What do you think most motivated Thoreau to leave his life in town?
Select three different quotes from the text and explain what you think
Thoreau means by them.Why do you think people enjoy collecting and
sharing quotes from famous people or texts?
Who most inspired Thoreau’s work? How do your friends influence your
own interests and work? How do you influence theirs?
Which feature of nature does Thoreau call its most beautiful and “the earth’s
eye?” Do you agree? Which feature of nature is most important to you?
How did Thoreau feed himself during his time in the woods? What odd jobs
have you done for money? How does Thoreau feel about work in general?
Why?
Do you think your life could ever become its “own amusement”? Why or why
not? What amusements do you rely on? Do you think Thoreau would consider
your life a happy one or not? What in your life could you be happy without?
Thoreau was rich in time but not in money. In what ways are you rich?
Is there any issue for which you would be willing to go to jail? Why did
Thoreau go to jail? Do you think he should have been incarcerated?

* Taken from a study guide found here.

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles ...

2008-04-10T10:30:00.000-07:00

Lowry and Central NE - Three Views

2008-04-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

1953:

2008:Bird's eye:

Untitled

2008-03-27T12:04:00.001-07:00

How sweet

2008-03-10T14:31:00.000-07:00

How sweet I roam'd from field to field,
And tasted all the summer's pride
'Til I the prince of love beheld
Who in the sunny beams did glide!

He shew'd me lilies for my hair
And blushing roses for my brow;
He led me through his garden fair,
Where all his golden pleasures grow.

With sweet May dews my wings were wet,
And Phoebus fir'd my vocal rage
He caught me in his silken net,
And shut me in his golden cage.

He loves to sit and hear me sing,
Then, laughing, sports and plays with me;
Then stretches out my golden wing,
And mocks my loss of liberty.

- William Blake

Words to live by?

2008-02-05T10:08:00.000-08:00

“To me, self-description is a calamity.”
-- Jasper Johns

No style

2008-02-01T08:50:00.000-08:00

"To see so many Vasari drawings — there are 14 — makes for an interesting study in personal style, mostly because none is apparent. You can tell a Pontormo or Rosso at a glance. To scan a dozen Vasaris is to see a dozen artists, all related, all slightly different, some more imaginative than others." - From the New York Times article 'Artistic Muscle, Flexed for Medicis'

Why does Vasari get a bad rap for not having an easily identifiable style? What's wrong with trying things out and messing around? Does consistency make an art work better?

Could a signature style be a way of signaling an insecure audience that you know what you're doing? Is having a recognizable style a sign of artistic strength or a sign of artistic indifference?

Further reading:
One
Two
Three
Four

All over

2008-01-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

"I feel not necessarily nostalgic (punk was and is decidedly anti-nostalgia, and if ever a band kicked against the pricks of preservation societies like books and halls of fame it was these guys), but I admit that I feel a need to know if any of it mattered, or if it even happened."

That's a quote from the introduction to Jim Walsh's book about The Replacements. It's funny that a book that is all about reminiscing about a bygone era and talking about how great it was includes a disclaimer that it's maker is not nostalgic about the subject. What are you talkin' about? This book is 100% nostalgia. Why deny it or apologize?

One of the great things about Paul Westerberg's songs is the romance and nostalgia they contain and project. Songs like 'Heyday' and 'Talent Show' (among many others) are about being aware of yourself in time. They are about instant nostalgia, about catching yourself existing outside the moment you're in and reflecting on that. They are about feeling the past in the present and contending with it.

Where is my friend?

2008-01-16T11:42:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the classic punk theme of the week ...

Mick Jones and Tony James have a band that I just heard about. On the band's website blog Tony James answers a question that has come up for them a lot since the release of their first record. They've been posting mp3s for free download on their site for 4 years, so why release a record? The funny thing is his answer jives with my experience of discovering the band. They only hit my radar after the CD was released and they did interviews and TV to promote it. So the CD is still the motivation for people who control media to write about a band and for record companies to promote a band. They aren't really promoting the band, just the record. I had never thought about that fact before - that the band and the record are different things in the eyes of the sales people.

On this day in history

2008-01-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

Is it you?

2008-01-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

1. Anxiety about death.
2. Indifference to living.
3. Mistrust of seeming perfection.
4. Mistrust of Institutions and Authority.
5. Empathy for the seemingly pathetic.
6. Tendency to take the blame for bad events.
7. Prefer anonymity in the face of success.
8. Acceptance of the unexplained/Appreciation for the obscure.
9. Tendency to be overwhelmed by emotion.
10. Ability to laugh out loud at themselves.
11. Seem to live by the motto: If it scares you, laugh at it.

What does contemporary look like?

2008-01-08T10:46:00.000-08:00

C
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A
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W
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Red velvet

2008-01-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

>> The legend

>> The debunking

>> The thorough examination with one error

>> The vegan version with guilt and self-pity

In the wake of Andy

2008-01-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

Take care

2007-12-27T09:35:00.000-08:00

Diablo Cody shares this piece of advice in the latest (last?) interview about her ascendant career:

"when you're in a competitive environment, always give out the impression that you don't care. It makes people want you more."

This is also popular dating advice.

If you really want to throw people off balance, better advice might be to care about everything equally.

Is there anything to be gained from celebrity advice or example?

Shall a fault-finder contend with the Almighty?

2007-12-27T08:46:00.000-08:00

Anyone who argues with God must respond.’

³Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴‘See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
⁵I have spoken once, and I will not answer;
twice, but will proceed no further.’

6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
⁷‘Gird up your loins like a man;
I will question you, and you declare to me.
⁸Will you even put me in the wrong?
Will you condemn me that you may be justified?
⁹Have you an arm like God,
and can you thunder with a voice like his?

¹⁰‘Deck yourself with majesty and dignity;
clothe yourself with glory and splendour.
¹¹Pour out the overflowings of your anger,
and look on all who are proud, and abase them.
¹²Look on all who are proud, and bring them low;
tread down the wicked where they stand.
¹³Hide them all in the dust together;
bind their faces in the world below.
¹⁴Then I will also acknowledge to you
that your own right hand can give you victory.

¹⁵‘Look at Behemoth,
which I made just as I made you;
it eats grass like an ox.
¹⁶Its strength is in its loins,
and its power in the muscles of its belly.
¹⁷It makes its tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of its thighs are knit together.
¹⁸Its bones are tubes of bronze,
its limbs like bars of iron.

¹⁹‘It is the first of the great acts of God—
only its Maker can approach it with the sword.
²⁰For the mountains yield food for it
where all the wild animals play.
²¹Under the lotus plants it lies,
in the covert of the reeds and in the marsh.
²²The lotus trees cover it for shade;
the willows of the wadi surround it.
²³Even if the river is turbulent, it is not frightened;
it is confident though Jordan rushes against its mouth.
²⁴Can one take it with hooks
or pierce its nose with a snare?

‘Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish-hook,
or press down its tongue with a cord?
²Can you put a rope in its nose,
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
³Will it make many supplications to you?
Will it speak soft words to you?
⁴Will it make a covenant with you
to be taken as your servant for ever?
⁵Will you play with it as with a bird,
or will you put it on a leash for your girls?
⁶Will traders bargain over it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
⁷Can you fill its skin with harpoons,
or its head with fishing-spears?
⁸Lay hands on it;
think of the battle; you will not do it again!
⁹Any hope of capturing it will be disappointed;
were not even the gods overwhelmed at the sight of it?
¹⁰No one is so fierce as to dare to stir it up.
Who can stand before it?
¹¹Who can confront it and be safe?
—under the whole heaven, who?
¹²‘I will not keep silence concerning its limbs,
or its mighty strength, or its splendid frame.
¹³Who can strip off its outer garment?
Who can penetrate its double coat of mail?
¹⁴Who can open the doors of its face?
There is terror all around its teeth.
¹⁵Its back is made of shields in rows,
shut up closely as with a seal.
¹⁶One is so near to another
that no air can come between them.
¹⁷They are joined one to another;
they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
¹⁸Its sneezes flash forth light,
and its eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn.
¹⁹From its mouth go flaming torches;
sparks of fire leap out.
²⁰Out of its nostrils comes smoke,
as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
²¹Its breath kindles coals,
and a flame comes out of its mouth.
²²In its neck abides strength,
and terror dances before it.
²³The folds of its flesh cling together;
it is firmly cast and immovable.
²⁴Its heart is as hard as stone,
as hard as the lower millstone.
²⁵When it raises itself up the gods are afraid;
at the crashing they are beside themselves.
²⁶Though the sword reaches it, it does not avail,
nor does the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
²⁷It counts iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
²⁸The arrow cannot make it flee;
slingstones, for it, are turned to chaff.
²⁹Clubs are counted as chaff;
it laughs at the rattle of javelins.
³⁰Its underparts are like sharp potsherds;
it spreads itself like a threshing-sledge on the mire.
³¹It makes the deep boil like a pot;
it makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
³²It leaves a shining wake behind it;
one would think the deep to be white-haired.
³³On earth it has no equal,
a creature without fear.
³⁴It surveys everything that is lofty;
it is king over all that are proud.’

Behold Now Behemoth

2007-12-21T12:23:00.000-08:00

Behold Now Behemoth

The sky

Talking to no one

You don't want to hear it

White Map on the Mississippi

lunch

Fancy

something new

Drawing of Sperm Whale by New York Whaleman from 1800s

Roman 6 weeks

The new Raschke

Everything you need to know about childbirth

Best soundtrack ever?

The gist

related to the last post

Heliotrope - Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Your assignment for today

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles ...

Lowry and Central NE - Three Views

Untitled

How sweet

Words to live by?

No style

All over

Where is my friend?

On this day in history

Is it you?

What does contemporary look like?

Red velvet

In the wake of Andy

Take care

Shall a fault-finder contend with the Almighty?

Job’s Response to God

God’s Challenge to Job

Behold Now Behemoth