1. Bob Dylan, 1997:
In fact, he seems near the edge of his comfort zone talking about why he's not talking about one of his most illegible back pages: that conservative, born-again-Christian phase that blindsided his liberal, secular fan base some 15 years ago. "It's not tangible to me," he says. "I don't think I'm tangible to myself. I mean, I think one thing today and I think another thing tomorrow. I change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time. It doesn't even matter to me." This cracks him up.

""It is a spooky record,'' says Dylan, ""because I feel spooky. I don't feel in tune with anything.'' Yet he's proud of having registered his ambivalence and alienation so nakedly. ""I don't think it eclipses anything from my earlier period. But I think it might be shocking in its bluntness. There isn't any waste. There's no line that has to be there to get to another line. There's no pointless playing with somebody's brain. I think it's going to reach the people it needs to reach, and the ones it doesn't, maybe they'll come along another day.''

Then, in October 1987, playing Locarno, Switzerland, with Tom Petty's band and the female singers he now says he used to hide behind, Dylan had his breakthrough. It was an outdoor show--he remembers the fog and the wind--and as he stepped to the mike, a line came into his head. ""It's almost like I heard it as a voice. It wasn't like it was even me thinking it. I'm determined to stand, whether God will deliver me or not. And all of a sudden everything just exploded. It exploded every which way. And I noticed that all the people out there--I was used to them looking at the girl singers, they were good-looking girls, you know? And like I say, I had them up there so I wouldn't feel so bad. But when that happened, nobody was looking at the girls anymore. They were looking at the main mike. After that is when I sort of knew: I've got to go out and play these songs. That's just what I must do.'' He's been at it ever since.

from http://www.newsweek.com/id/97107/output/print

1. Bob Dylan, 1997:
"Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. Songs like 'Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain' or 'I Saw the Light'-that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs."

from http://www.newsweek.com/id/97107/output/print

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Air and Angels:
(John Donne)

Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worship'd be.
Still when to where thou wert I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too.
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love, I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught;
Ev'ry thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much; some fitter must be sought;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme and scattering bright, can love inhere;
Then as an angel, face and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
So thy love may be my love's sphere.
Just such disparity
As is 'twixt air and angels' purity,
'Twixt women's love, and men's will ever be.

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1. I love this page and I love all the little steps. It gets lonely here; little footsteps on the snow.
There's a beautiful chain hidden deep in these recesses. It tickles along under some throat.
It's a beautiful image: the beauty of web.

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John Donne when he was 23 years old.
(I wish I'd done that when I was 23 years old.)

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The Sagrada Familia by Antoni Gaudi. This is fucking ridiculous.

Click here, here, and here.

Originally designed by Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), who worked on the project for over 40 years, devoting the last 15 years of his life entirely to the endeavor, the project is scheduled to be completed in 2026. On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked, "My client is not in a hurry."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_familia

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Christ welcomes you to Rio de Janeiro.

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1. type:
[ad. F. type (16th c. in Littré) or L. typus, a. Gr. impression, figure, type, f. the root of to beat, strike.]

antitype:
[ad. med.L. antityp-us a. Gr., prop. adj. ‘responding as an impression to the die,’ f. opposite to + stroke, stamp, type, f. stem - strike.]

(from OED)

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1. I looked up reverence in the OED.

[ad. F. révérer or L. revereri, f. re- RE- + vereri to fear.]

1. trans. To hold in, or regard with, deep respect or veneration.

2. With inf. To be reluctant to do something, through a feeling of respect. Obs. rare.

Hence revered ppl. a.

To fear.

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(Does anyone still look at this site?)



Lyrics

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1. Ballot hot buttons include abortion, same-sex marriage

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1. a trope: tropus: a figure of speech, ad. Gr. a turn, f. to turn...

tropic (as in tropical): ad. L. tropicus, a. Gr. pertaining to the ‘turning’ of the sun at the solstice, tropical (hence as n. (sc. circle) the tropic); also, of the nature of a trope, figurative, f. turning.

(from OED)

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1. version, subvert, pervert, convert, converse, avert, transverse, traverse, diverse, inverse, reverse, obverse...

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1. To add to my last post,
Vortex/vertex, vertical, vertigo, vertebrae, and anniversary also have that root of "to turn".
For example, an anniversary is the turning of a year.

(Universe, verse, verso, vortex/vertex, vertical, vertigo, vertebrae, anniversary.)

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1. from OED: "verse" - [OE. fers, corresponding to OFris. fers (WFris. fêrs, NFris. fês, etc.), MDu. (Du.) and MLG. vers, OHG., MHG. vers, fers (G. vers), ON. (Da., Sw.) vers, ad. L. versus a line or row, spec. a line of writing (so named from turning to begin another line), verse, f. vert[e]re to turn; in ME. reinforced by or newly a. AF. and OF. (also mod.F.) vers (= Pr. vers, It., Sp, Pg. verso) from the same source....]

from OED: "universe" - [a. F. univers (12th c.; = Sp., Pg., It. universo), ad. L. [u]niversum n., the whole world, orig. neut. sing. of [u]niversus all taken collectively, universal, f. [u]nus UNI- and versus, pa. pple. of vert[e]re to turn.]

Interesting to note that "verse" (as in, for example, literary verse) has some connection to "to turn" (and, if I understand correctly, OED says "verso" in Romance languages comes from the same root, and to French this means roughly 'the other side', of say a piece of paper: i.e. you must turn the page), and "universe" is composed of uni- and versus: "to turn".

Circa 1374, "universe" was first defined as "in universe, universally, of universal application.". It wasn't until 1589 that it came to stand for "The whole of created or existing things regarded collectively; all things (including the earth, the heavens, and all the phenomena of space) considered as constituting a systematic whole, esp. as created or existing by Divine power; the whole world or creation; the cosmos." I can't help but wonder if it's no accident (having only a very basic knowledge of 16th century thought), when "universe" was applied in the way we understand it, whether or not there was in people's minds the idea of a "verse", and the correlation between macro- and micro-cosms; that the cosmos could be read like a book (i.e. similitude).

Purely speculative, but interesting (to me) nonetheless.

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1. It took me a while to sit and actually listen to this, but I suggest you go to this site: Tanya Tagaq's MySpace site.

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2.

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Damned if I know what all these have in common.

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1.) from Facebook's page to advertisers:

Facebook Ads

Pair your targeted ad with related actions from a user's friends.

Advanced Targeting:
Target by age, gender, location, interests, and more.
Content Integration:
Get noticed, not skipped.
Flexible Pricing:
Buy clicks (CPC) or impressions (CPM).
Trusted Referrals:
Attach friend-to-friend interactions about your business to your ads.

But my favourite part:

Viral Distribution:
Users' interactions with your Page spread naturally to their friends.

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1.) It's been nearly a year that this blog has existed and the first post dealt with a similar subject matter. Today I look briefly at ISBNs on books.

The 10-digit International Standard Book Number (ISBN) format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and published as an international standard, ISO 2108, in 1970. (However, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the UK until 1974.) Currently, the ISO TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard.

Since 1 January 2007, International Standard Book Numbers have been of 13 digits, compatible with Bookland EAN-13s.



The group identifier is a 1 to 5 digit number. The single digit group identifiers are: 0 or 1 for English-speaking countries; 2 for French-speaking countries; 3 for German-speaking countries; 4 for Japanese; 5 for Russian, and 7 for Chinese. An example 5 digit group identifier is 99936, for Bhutan.

By using variable block lengths, a large publisher will have few digits allocated for the publisher number and many digits allocated for titles; likewise countries publishing much will have few allocated digits for the group identifier, and many for the publishers and titles.

A listing of all the 628,000 assigned publisher codes is published, and can be ordered in book form (€558, US$915.46).

Publishers receive blocks of ISBNs, with larger blocks allotted to publishers expecting to need them; a small publisher may receive ISBNs of one or more digits for the group identifier code, several digits for the publisher, and a single digit for the individual items. Once that block of ISBNs is used, the publisher may receive another block of ISBNs, with a different publisher number. Consequently, a publisher may have different allotted publisher numbers. There also may be more than one group identifier used in a country. This might occur if a popular identifier has used up all of its numbers.

The 2001 edition of the official manual of the International ISBN Agency says that the ISBN-10 check digit — which is the last digit of the ten-digit ISBN — must range from 0 to 10 (the symbol X is used instead of 10) and must be such that the sum of all the ten digits, each multiplied by the integer weight, descending from 10 to 1, is a multiple of the number 11. Modular arithmetic is convenient for calculating the check digit using modulus 11. Each of the first nine digits of the ten-digit ISBN — excluding the check digit, itself — is multiplied by a number in a sequence from 10 to 2, and the remainder of the sum, with respect to 11, is computed. The resulting remainder, plus the check digit, must equal 11; therefore, the check digit is 11 minus the remainder of the sum of the products.

For example, the check digit for an ISBN-10 of 0-306-40615-? is calculated as follows:

s = 0×10 + 3×9 + 0×8 + 6×7 + 4×6 + 0×5 + 6×4 + 1×3 + 5×2
= 0 + 27 + 0 + 42 + 24 + 0 + 24 + 3 + 10
= 130
130 / 11 = 11 remainder 9
11 - 9 = 2

Formally, the check digit calculation is:
click here

The calculation of an ISBN-13 check digit begins with the first 12 digits of the thirteen-digit ISBN (thus excluding the check digit itself). Each digit, from left to right, is alternately multiplied by 1 or 3, then those products are summed modulo 10 to give a value ranging from 0 to 9. Subtracted from 10, that leaves a result from 1 to 10. A zero (0) replaces a ten (10), so, in all cases, a single check digit results.

This check system — similar to the UPC check digit formula — does not catch all errors of adjacent digit transposition. Specifically, if the difference between two adjacent digits is 5, the check digit will not catch their transposition.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN

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2.) What the hell's a check digit?

A check digit is a form of redundancy check used for error detection, the decimal equivalent of a binary checksum. It consists of a single digit computed from the other digits in the message.

With a check digit, one can detect simple errors in the input of a series of digits, such as a single mistyped digit, or the permutation of two successive digits.

[the ISBN check digit] can be validated very simply by adding all the products together then dividing by 11. If the result is an integer then the ISBN is valid.

Other examples of check digits:
The ninth digit of a Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN)
Modulo 10 check digits in credit card account numbers, calculated with the Luhn algorithm.
The final character encoded in a magnetic stripe card is a computed Longitudinal redundancy check
UPC

I still don't think I fully understand.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_digit

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1.) "Science is the art of creating suitable illusions, which the fool enjoys or argues against, but the wise man enjoys for their beauty or ingenuity, without being blind to the fact that they are human veils and curtains concealing the abysmal darkness of the unknowable." - Carl Jung

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A talk on string theory. It's interesting to read some of the comments to the video on the main site, here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/brian_greene_on_string_theory.html

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1.) Noah, this is great! Remember the Hot Date Theory? (apparently we neglected the cyclical nature of the whatness of things.)

(the "'sexy son' model" at the bottom of the page is not what one might think)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_son_hypothesis

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1.) Bob Dylan's art, which as I understand it is mainly from '89-'92, is now on display and is selling for quite a bit and quite quickly.

http://www.bobdylanart.com/index.php?section_id=3 and
http://www.halcyongallery.com/index.php?section_id=1

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1.) Cuttlefish.



Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida belonging to the Cephalopoda class (which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses).

Cuttlefish possess an internal structure called the cuttlebone, which is porous and composed of calcium carbonate, to provide the cuttlefish with buoyancy. Buoyancy can be regulated by changing the gas-to-liquid ratio in the chambered cuttlebone. Each species has a distinct shape, size, and pattern of ridges or texture on the cuttlebone. The cuttlebone is unique to cuttlefish, one of the features contrasting them with their squid relatives. Cuttlebones are traditionally used by jewelers and silversmiths as moulds for casting small objects. They are probably better known today as the tough material given to parakeets and other caged birds and snails as a source of dietary calcium.

Cuttlefish are sometimes called the chameleon of the sea because of their remarkable ability to rapidly alter their skin color at will. Their skin flashes a fast-changing pattern as communication to other cuttlefish and to camouflage them from predators.

Scientists have speculated that cuttlefish's eyes are fully developed before birth and start observing their surroundings while still in the egg. One team of French researchers has additionally suggested that cuttlefish prefer to hunt the prey they saw before hatching.



The blood is pumped by three separate hearts, two of which are used for pumping blood to the cuttlefish's pair of gills (one heart for each gill), and the third for pumping blood around the rest of the body.

Cuttlefish have ink, like squid and octopuses. This ink was formerly an important dye, called sepia. Today artificial dyes have replaced natural sepia. However, there is a modern resurgence of Jewish people using the ink for the techelet dye on their Tallit strings.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish


(I'm sure there are better movies out there but there are some neat moments to this one.)

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2.) And how on earth could I resist posting this?!:
The cuddlefish:

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1.) "You gonna sing that song about robin's eggs and diamonds?" Bob had asked me on the first day of rehearsals.
"Which one?"
"You know, that one about blue eyes and diamonds..."
"Oh", I said, "you must mean 'Diamonds And Rust', the song I wrote for my husband, David. I wrote it while he was in prison."
"For your husband?" Bob said.
"Yeah. Who did you think it was about?" I stonewalled.
"Oh, hey, what the fuck do I know?"
"Never mind. Yeah, I'll sing it, if you like."

- Joan Baez, AND A VOICE TO SING WITH, 1987

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_%26_Rust_(song)

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1.) Clayoquot Sound:
Old-growth logging plan sparks war-in-woods threat

B.C. could see a return to protests and blockades in world-renowned Clayoquot Sound as a forestry company prepares to log an old-growth forest in the Hesquiat Point Creek watershed - the first time a company has begun logging in such a “pristine” valley in nearly 20 years.
And this time, first nations and environmentalists - allies in the 1993 protests - are on opposite sides.

(I saw an abridged version of this article in the Vancouver Sun or the Times Colonist as well.)

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1.) Butoh (舞踏, butō) is the collective name for a diverse range of techniques and motivations for dance inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery often performed in white-body makeup but there is no set style. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.

The first butoh piece was Kinjiki (Forbidden Colours), by Tatsumi Hijikata, which premiered in 1959. Based on the novel of the same name by Yukio Mishima, the piece explored the taboo of homosexuality and ended with a live chicken behind held between the legs of Yoshito Ohno (Kazuo Ohno's son) and Hijikata chasing Yoshito off the stage in darkness. Primarily as a result of the misconception that the chicken had died due to strangulation, this piece outraged the audience, and resulted in the banning of Hijikata from the festival where Kinjiki premiered and established him as an iconoclast.

In later work, Hijikata continued to subvert conventional notions of dance. Inspired by writers such as Yukio Mishima, Lautréamont, Artaud, Genet and de Sade, he delved into grotesquerie, darkness, and decay. Simultaneously, Hijikata explored the transmutation of the human body into other forms, such as animals. He also developed a poetic and surreal choreographic language, butoh-fu (fu means "word" in Japanese), to help the dancer transform into other materials.

While Hijikata was a fearsome technician of the nervous system influencing input strategies and artists working in groups, Ohno is thought of as a more natural, individual, and nurturing figure who influenced solo artists.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butoh

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1.) Police wake people in the middle of the night - September 25, 2005 St. Ann's Academy, Victoria (video)
http://www.loveandfearlessness.com/new_tc_vid_1.html

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The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1803 de Goya)

(or look at this painting)

(Saturn devouring his son...which is more potent? (scroll down at that site) de Goya's or Rubens'?)

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1.) This gave me a good laugh:

The Last Judgment [1535-1541: in The Sistine Chapel] was an object of a bitter dispute between Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo. Because he depicted naked figures, the artist was accused of immorality and obscenity. A censorship campaign (known as the "Fig-Leaf Campaign") was organized by Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) to remove the frescoes. When the Pope's own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, said "it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns," Michelangelo worked da Cesena's semblance into the scene as Minos, judge of the underworld. It is said that when he complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so the portrait would have to remain.

The genitalia in the fresco were later covered by the artist Daniele da Volterra [in 1565], whom history remembers by the derogatory nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches-painter").

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_chapel#Michelangelo

and:

Vatican approves breast-feeding pictures of Virgin Mary
I'm not kidding: this article was published June 24, 2008.

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2.) Bill Henson is an Australian photographic artist. He recently faced controversy for an exhibit displaying nude teenagers.

On 6 June 2008 it was reported in The Age that police will not prosecute Bill Henson over his photographs of naked teenagers, after they were declared "mild and justified" and given a PG rating by the Office of Film and Literature Classification, suggesting viewing by children under the age of 16 should only occur under parental supervision.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Henson

I kind of like his photos, controversy aside. You can click on the link below to see his works. The more controversial photos are not previewed: you must click on one that is (example Untitled #1) and then click on the photo to go to the next (example Untitled #2).

http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/18/Bill_Henson/

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3.) Finally:


(1868 from Harper's Bazaar)

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesty#Body_modesty

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1.) So you've popped new, corkscrew-shaped, compact fluorescent lightbulbs into every lamp at home. Fingers crossed, your next electrical bill will shrink now that those wasteful incandescent lights are gone.

However, the funny-looking fluorescents pose a pollution problem. Their energy savings may be ecofriendly, but each bulb contains enough methylmercury to poison a small lake. As with electronics waste, there's no national antidumping law. It's illegal in seven U.S. states to put household fluorescents in with the rest of the trash, but finding where to recycle bulbs can be a pain.

It is important to note that the amount of mercury released by one bulb can exceed U.S. federal guidelines for chronic exposure. Chronic however, implies that the exposure takes place over a long period of time. One time exposure to a trace amount of mercury is unlikely to be harmful.

The first step of processing CFLs [Compact fluorescent lamp] involves crushing the bulbs in a machine that uses negative pressure ventilation and a mercury-absorbing filter or cold trap to contain mercury vapor. Many municipalities are purchasing such machines. The crushed glass and metal is stored in drums, ready for shipping to recycling factories.

from http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9696168-1.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_bulbs#Environmental_issues

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Happy Canada Day

the time.

Takashi Murakami has gained mass popularity with his trademark Superflat style and colorful pantheon of cute icons including smiling flowers, jellyfish eyes, and Mr. DOB. Similar to Andy Warhol, Murakami melds consumer culture and fine art with the help of a factory of assistants. "©Murakami" innovatively brings the two worlds of consumer culture and fine art together by housing a Louis Vuitton boutique (with Murakami-designed bags ready for purchase) inside the museum. Art for art's sake is over. This is art for art's sale.

Go here to see various works by Murakami in a sort of catalogue.
An article by Swindle Magazine.
"I always emphasize that the power of the dark side exists even in cuteness and in the thoughts of peace-addicted people." - Murakami
An article on an exhibition of his work.
Murakami remixes modern Western art and traditional Japanese art, while denying the hierarchy of high "art" culture vs. low pop culture.

In his tour, Murakami points out how the skull looks like a mushroom cloud. He has made death cute and non-threatening by inserting his smiling flowers in the eye sockets. "Smiling is sometimes a hard job," says Murakami while standing next to the very cheery Kawaii!Vacances d'été.

See Murakami's tour here. (Recommended.)

While in New York we stumbled upon an exhibition of Murakami's in Brooklyn and felt a deep revulsion. Here is a stumbling of the Internet's puking.

(Try, for one, to understand that the smiling flowers -- the first image above -- covered a room, all four walls, and contained flower ball sculptures inside. That people really love this.)

(To be more descriptive, you started on the first floor of the exhibit which featured otaku supersmooth, (pre-)pubescent cyberborg bodied 'beings'; the overall feeling one of twirling semen or super smiles or Louis Vuitton -- at the end of the first floor portion. You then went to the stairs, where things started to decay. Skulls, mushrooms, puking creatures. Still smooth and still cute, still with flowers garlanding the worlds -- eg., flowers ringing in the eyes of the mushroom skull clouds -- see pink backgrounded image above. Occasional traditional Japanese style mixed into this. Shinto scroll presented to the huge creature puking about to die and never loving until this last possible moment -- is he on the wrong floor? Such is rebirth now. Rebirth in the pocket. And yet, here it is.)

("free smile with every meal", and what's a man? a woman? they say to watch your breath, and we would have it hypostatized. Murakami, do you paint the world with childish glee?)

In 2008, Takashi Murakami made Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People list, and was the only visual artist to do so.

I've read somewhere that whereas Andy Warhol took consumer goods, 'low' pop culture and made it 'high' art, Takashi Murakami takes consumer goods, 'low' pop culture, and makes them...'high' art? 'low' art? consumer goods?...

I recommend these videos, in this order:
One
Two
Three
Four

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1.) I almost forgot about this (from a while back):
Board game unravels confusing treaty lingo

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1.) The secret of meditation is the art of unlearning.
Mind is learning;
meditation is unlearning:
That is -- die constantly to your experience;
let it not imprison you;
experience becomes a dead weight
in the living and flowing, riverlike consciousness.

Live in the moment unburdened by the past,
flow in the moment unblocked by the mind,
and you will be in meditation.

from Osho, A Cup of Tea

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2.) Please try releasing your hold, and releasing your hold, observe: What is body-and-mind? What is conduct? What is birth-and-death? What is buddha-dharma? What are the laws of the world? What, in the end, are mountains, rivers, earth, human beings, animals, and houses? When you observe thoroughly, it follows that the two aspects of motion and stillness do not arise at all. Though motion and stillness do not arise, things are not fixed.

from Dōgen, Guidelines of Studying the Way, chapter 8

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1.) "A ninth-century Muslim mystic described the tones of a flute as 'the voice of Satan crying over the world because he wants to make it outlive destruction; he cries over things that pass; he wants to reanimate them, while God only remains. Satan has been condemned to hold to things that pass and this is why he cries.'"

quoted in A World History of Art, Sixth Edition, by Hugh Honour and John Fleming

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also, for one more fantastic photo of the Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain (formerly a mosque, now a cathedral), click here

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1.) http://muvtor.btk.ppke.hu/etalon/522.jpg
from the Book of Kells (early 9th century AD),
an illustrated manuscript on vellum

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Ygdrasill:
WHOSE ROOTS ARE
STARS IN THE HUMAN MIND

(film title by Stan Brakhage 1997)

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2.) Although [Wes] Anderson had made up the main character's unlikely name, it was eventually learned that there is a real Steve Zissou, a trial lawyer in New York. After being contacted by the film's production company, Zissou granted permission for his name to be used in the film, and he is listed in the film's credits.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Zissou#Real-world_references

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1.) Loyal to its roots:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/science/10plant.html?ex=1370836800&en=4e5bd2d4fe18362a&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook

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2.) Canada apologizes for trying to 'kill the Indian in the child'
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080611/national/native_apology

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1.) Sigur Rós, a band known for their distinctive vocals, fabricated a language they call 'Hopelandic', which has been described by the band as "a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument".

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-rock#Musical_characteristics

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2.) As Simon Reynolds' "Audio Culture" states, "A band's journey through rock to post-rock usually involves a trajectory from narrative lyrics to stream-of-consciousness to voice-as-texture to purely instrumental music." Reynolds' conclusion defines the sporadic progression from rock, with its field of sound and lyrics to post-rock, where samplings are stretched and looped.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-rock#Musical_characteristics

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3.) In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/europe/11virgin.html?ex=1370923200&en=f4ce1a04fc1937d3&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook

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Sheela na Gig

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1.) I had been wishing to identify a plant and I think a helpful gardener in Victoria has assisted me. I believe it is in the genus Euphorbia and is specifically one of the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_cyparissias
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_amygdaloides
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_esula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_helioscopia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia_peplus

The common name "spurge" derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge ("to purge"), due to the use of the plants sap as a purgative.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia

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2.) The latex (milky sap) of spurges acts as a deterrent for herbivores as well as a wound healer. Usually it is white, but in rare cases (e.g. E. abdelkuri) yellow. As it is under pressure, it runs out from the slightest wound and congeals within a few minutes of contact with the air. Among the component parts are many di- or tri-terpen esters, which can vary in composition according to species, and in some cases the variant may be typical of that species. The terpen ester composition determines how caustic and irritating to the skin it is. In contact with mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth) the latex can produce extremely painful inflammation. In experiments with animals it was found that the terpen ester resiniferatoxin had an irritating effect 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than capsaicin, the "hot" substance found in chillies. Several terpen esters are also known to be carcinogenic.
(my emphasis)

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia#Toxicity

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3.) (As a sidenote, the following are also in the genus Euphorbia:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:E_meloformis_valida_ies.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Weihnachtsstern_-_gro%C3%9F.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:E_actinoclada_ies.jpg

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1.) Before eating earthworms, moles pull them between their squeezed paws to force the collected earth and dirt out of the worm's gut.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_%28animal%29#Diet

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1.) The Star-nosed Mole can detect, catch and eat food faster than the human eye can follow (under 300 milliseconds).

A report in the journal Nature gives this animal the title of fastest-eating mammal, taking as short as 120 milliseconds (average: 227 milliseconds) to identify and consume individual food items. Its brain decides in the ultra short time of 8 ms if a prey is comestible or not. This speed is at the limit of the speed of neurons.



They also possess the ability to smell underwater. It is done by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the bubbles to carry the smell back through the nose.



from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_%28animal%29
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-nosed_Mole#Nose
and http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/features/0600_feature2.html

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Leonard's on tour.

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All from Petra, Jordan.

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

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Click the image to enlarge.
Tanya Tagaq and cousin Celina Kalluk practicing inuit throat singing.


Click to enlarge.
Other inuit throat singers.

Traditionally when the men were away on a hunting trip, the women left at home would entertain themselves with games, which may have involved throat singing.



Tanya ‘Tagaq’ Gillis was born and raised in the remote Inuit community of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, where she had only passing exposure to throat singing. She left home for the city at the age of 15 to study visual arts but during her final year of art school she became increasingly homesick, and began teaching herself throat singing from tapes her mother sent her as a way of re-connecting with the Inuit culture she had left behind.

As Inuit throat singing is traditionally performed by two women — and Tagaq had no Inuk partner to sing with — she had to re-invent throat singing as a solo form.

In 2000, Tagaq attended the Great Northern Arts Festival in Canada to exhibit her paintings. When the organisers discovered they were short of performers, Tagaq agreed to sing. In the audience that day, filming the show, were two men from Iceland, who happened to be friends of Björk. Tagaq was invited to join Björk’s Vespertine tour in 2001.

[Tagaq] describes her evolution over the past six years as a process of going deeper and deeper into her performance to the point where she virtually “leaves her body” and lets the expression take over.

from http://thepuredrop.com.au/artists/tagaq.htm
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_Tagaq_Gillis

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Koto video

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1.) Now, whoa man, this is hot! Ella Fitzgerald.
Lady Be Good (1957)

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2.) I particularly find the first sentence of the second paragraph quite interesting.

Inuit throat-singing is done in the following way: two women face each other; they may be standing or crouching down; one is leading, while the other responds; the leader produces a short rhythmic motif that she repeats with a short silent gap in-between, while the other is rhythmically filling in the gaps. The game is such that both singers try to show their vocal abilities in competition, by exchanging these vocal motives. The first to run out of breath or be unable to maintain the pace of the other singer will start to laugh or simply stop and will thus lose the game. It generally lasts between one and three minutes. The winner is the singer who beats the largest number of people.

Originally, the lips of the two women were almost touching, each one using the other's mouth cavity as a resonator . Today, most singers stand straight, facing one another and holding each other's arms. Sometimes they will do some kind of dance movements while singing (e.g., balancing from right to left). The sounds used include voiced sounds as well as unvoiced ones, both through inhalation or exhalation. Because of this, singers develop a breathing technique, somewhat comparable to circular breathing used by some players of wind instruments. In this way, they can go on for hours.

Words and meaningless syllables are used in the songs. When words are used, no particular poetical meaning or regular meaning are assigned to them. These words can simply be names of ancestors, a word or name meaningful at the time the games are taking place, or other common words. The meaningless syllables generally portray sounds of nature or cries of animals or birds, or sounds of everyday life. These songs are generally identified by the first word, meaningful or not, of the game. In some regions, throat-songs may recount a story of some sort, though in Northern Quebec no stories are recounted, and may even include some improvisation.

from http://www.ubu.com/ethno/soundings/inuit.html

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1.) There's apparently talk of creating a brothel in Vancouver for the Olympics. See here:
Times Colonist story

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2.) An uncontacted tribe was recently photographed near the Brazil-Peru border. I didn't even know these existed. Apparently there are more than one hundred uncontacted tribes worldwide.
http://www.survival-international.org/news/3340

And see the following article for news on how an oil company might clash with these people:
http://www.survival-international.org/news/3342

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1.) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080529-stonehenge-video-vin.html
Stonehenge...decoded
(video)

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2.) Spencer Tunick is an artist known for his photos of masses of nudes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Tunick


His website (you can see many of his works here -- I quite like the absolutely massive one from Zocalo, Mexico City, as well as the interesting ones from SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico): http://www.spencertunick.com/
I recommend checking out this site and listening to the sound clips from a BBC interview:
http://www.nakedworlddoc.com/naked_world.html



(from New York):


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3.) Antelope Canyon, Arizona.
http://www.naturescapes.net/perspective/ (go click on AntelopeCanyon.jpg)
http://photos.igougo.com/images/p174049-Page-Antelope_Canyon.jpg

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Click to see the full picture. From Harmony's Israel trip photos.

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1.) To revisit cedars:



The genus is Cedrus and it contains the Deodar Cedar and Lebanon Cedars (which include Turkish Cedars, Cyprus Cedars, and Atlas Cedars). The deodar is a fantastic tree:



Here's a fantastic Atlas Cedar. Also, click here and here.

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2.) A beautiful photo of a black spruce foliage and cones.

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3.) The journey is as follows:
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Once we've climbed down to the Pinales, we've got:
Pinaceae, pine family
Araucariaceae, araucaria family
Podocarpaceae, yellow-wood family
Sciadopityaceae, umbrella-pine family
Cupressaceae, cypress family
Cephalotaxaceae, plum-yew family
Taxaceae, yew family

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinales

On March 25 I went into the family Cupressaceae a little (because many of the trees I had believed were cedars were actually cypresses). The next step is to enter the Pinaceae, the pine family, which consists of cedars, firs, hemlocks, larches, pines and spruces.

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1.) Finally saw Fitzcarraldo by Herzog. That makes Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu, Aguirre Wrath of God, Grizzly Man, Heart of Glass, and Where the Green Ants Dream. Fitzcarraldo is magic.

In his autobiographical film Portrait Werner Herzog, Herzog has stated that the film's spectacular production was partly inspired by the engineering feats of ancient standing stones. The film was an incredible ordeal, and famously involved moving a 320-ton steamship over a hill without the use of special effects. Herzog believes that no one has ever performed a similar feat in history, and likely never will again, calling himself "Conquistador of the Useless". Scenes were also shot onboard the ship while it crashed through rapids, injuring three of the six people involved in the filming. Two full-size ships were created for the making of the film.

The casting of the film was also quite difficult. Jason Robards was originally cast in the title role, but he became ill and was forced to leave. Herzog then considered casting Jack Nicholson, and even playing Fitzcarraldo himself, before Klaus Kinski accepted the role. By that point, forty percent of shooting was complete and Herzog insisted on a total reshoot with Kinski. Mick Jagger was originally cast as Fitzcarraldo's assistant Wilbur, but his shooting schedule expired and he departed to tour with the Rolling Stones. Herzog dropped Jagger's character from the script and reshot the film from the beginning. Though none of the major cast members spoke English natively, the original soundtrack was recorded in English, as it was the only language common to the lead actors.

Klaus Kinski himself was a major source of tension, as he fought with Herzog and other members of the crew and greatly upset the native extras. In his documentary My Best Fiend, Herzog says that one of the native chiefs offered to murder Kinski for him, but that he declined because he needed Kinski to complete filming.

Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams, about the production of the film, documents these many hardships. Blank's footage, which also appears in Herzog's Portrait Werner Herzog and My Best Fiend contains some of the only surviving footage of Robards and Jagger in Fitzcarraldo and many scenes documenting the ship's journey over the mountain, along with several episodes of Kinski's raving.

I would like to see Burden of Dreams...

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzcarraldo

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1.) Post #100.

A special citation for Bob Dylan with the 2008 Pullitzer Prize, but that's a sidenote. I really dig this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=UxBhSW9xD74. It's a video of Thunder On The Mountain as performed at his most recent show in Mexico. (Click here for lyrics to the song.) He really gives 'er, but I doubt anyone'll really dig it that much. I'm almost dancing around now. (And trust me, it picks up as it goes along. Also, I dig that acoustic guitar in the instrumental breaks. Note: the video's not really worth watching; just put 'er on and do your thing.)


Click to make it bigger.
Zacatecas, where the above show is. March 25, 2008. Thunder on the mountain.

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1.) http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/brainwashed-by-a-parasite/

I recommend clicking that link and reading about the Cordyceps fungus. I also recommend the videos.


An insect with the Cordyceps fungus.

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