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Wood Flute
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 799
And, through the thrift shop, a wooden flute
Or I thought it was a wooden flute, picked it up, tried to play, could only get a single note, I'd figure it out.
And I did, there's a wooden block which covers the part I was blowing into, instead, I'm expected to blow into the end that looks suspiciously like a foreskin...
So, in other words, more of a "recorder" than a flute.
I'm annoyed beyond measure, I didn't want a recorder, I wanted a flute!
So I take it out on M******, showing him a fishbowl and telling him...."Next time I come up to you showing you this and SAYING that I want to buy this TV I WOULD APPRECIATE YOU CORRECTING MY GRAVE MISJUDGEMENT...!"
M's nonplussed. A sale is a sale.
And, in any event, these trifling failures keep the fire under my anti-materialistic ass. What good is buying anything when you have neither a place for it or have a clue as to what you are buying?
Aspartame linked to Anxiety
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1545
Having heard so much nonsense about artificial sweeteners causing cancer, etc. - always at concentrations that would be impossible to consume - I was curious to read this study:
Which - so sum it up for those too lazy to follow the link, Aspartame use - at much lower than recommended daily allowances - creates long-lasting anxiety in mice.
As well, that anxiety persists over up to 2 generations (Epigenetic triggers).
So, time to reconsider my bad habit of diet sodas...
Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch - Henry Miller
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1047
Of all the Henry Miller Novels I'm enjoying this the most. Because it's him on writing, living, in Big Sur California, at the height of the 1950's counterculture.
A lot less raucous sex (so far) and a lot more of the living the values I can relate to.
It reminds me of Nelson, as it was perhaps 10, 20 years ago. It is somewhat the same now, but real estate, rent, the "buying-in" has gotten exorbitant, ridiculous, and the titled hippies, now millionaires, barons, baronesses, counts, countesses, they've been corrupted, eccentricity when poor becomes despotism when they think they're rich.
So, Big Sur, I mean, everyone went there - Steinbeck, Pynchon, Man Ray, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, William Burroughs, Ginsberg, everyone went for a while, their time in the wilderness.
Few stayed, I'm not sure that Miller did for long beyond the scope of this book (I haven't finished it yet), but - it seems a place I should definitely visit.
Anyways, This, more autobiographical than his other books, more in the tradition of a writer on writing - and as such he comes off much better than he does say in "Tropic of Cancer" & "Tropic of Capricorn". Those - autobiographical to an extent, but also largely novels. This is him settled down, writing about more human relationships with wives and neighbors. And he has some pretty good neighbors.
It is a treat when a good book refers you to another good book you should read, that you haven't yet, and you make a note - the convenience of the internet is that whatever I don't know I can find out. And so note after note...
Like: Henry Miller's Watercolors (I didn't know he painted....), Artist Abe Rattner (neighbor), Ecce Homo by George Grosz, (funny, in that a painting by that name was infamously restored a few years ago, to art-lovers dismay and internet trolls delight...you know the painting...)
And for Authors: Arabia Deserta - Charles Montagu Doughty, Lillian Bos Ross, Robinson Jeffers, Rimbaud, "The House of Certain Death" by Albert Cossery, some of whom were Miller's neighbors, others people he knew through correspondence, and those he merely read and admired.
And - by this point, early 50's, he's well admired throughout the world. He wants - as always, only for cash, everyone knows his name but for some reason (the war) his royalties from France are slow to arrive. But he talks of his fame, people showing up unannounced to look at his pictures, see the writer, the sacks of mail, the hippies and drop outs and drop ins that frequent the Big Sur area, so, in almost every way a very relatable book...
Still another half to go, a little thicker than I'm used to reading, but enjoyable every inch of the way...
The Sandman - Neil Gaiman - Netflix
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 946
Or, "Couch surfing contemporary culture".
Neil Gaiman, about whom I've heard a great deal, and so finding something on Netflix by him I think to fill in those gaps in my education.
Sometimes, though, there are gaps for good reason.
In this, a populist reinterpretation/contemporization of the Classical Greek Myths, from the Manga, but - directed, produced and written by Neil Gaiman.
A large cast of people that are largely recognizable - (I know, but how?) - and who all should have known better....Stephen Fry? Really?
Anyways, if you were looking for proof that CGI has grown too cheap, too accessible, then look no further. And the CGI, cheesy as all out, is positively top notch next to the real world props, which look like crafts undertaken by your half-witted local theatre group...
The dialogue, bad, acting, bad, but - how to judge in this context? There's uneven world-building, a plot that meanders and goes off in all sorts of directions without ever finding it's feet, it's half-manga half-Japanese anime star, cherry-picked mythology, "noble sentiments" ineptly expressed, bad puns, unfunny "alt" characters that are clearly there to give flesh to this plot that died episodes back, there's brief attempts at philosophizing that fail so utterly, I mean, upon this scaffolding you could only hang a white flag of surrender, the line "You have suffered enough", delivered by Morpheus to Cassiopeia in episode 11, he was speaking to me....
Fuck Netflix, I have a whole pile of worthwhile movies to watch and this, this - while I can see clearly that I'm not it's audience (I'm guessing it's 12-15 year old girls wearing knee-high leather military boots, pig tails and loli dresses...) - this is a spiritual suicide.
And so, having never read Neil Gaiman but having had 11 episodes too many of "The Sandman" I'm pretty sure there's an author I can give a miss...
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