"The worst mistake that you can make is to think you are alive when really you're asleep in life's waiting room."

That relentless sobbing? It's the parcel numbered seven squared.

In this scene from Thomas Pynchon's 1965 novel The Crying of Lot 49, our hero, Oedipa Maas, has had a bad time of it and decides to go to her shrink, Dr. Hilarius, who had previously attempted to convince her to take part in an experimental program to dose suburban housewives with LSD and other psychedelic drugs. Dr. Hilarius, an eccentric but seemingly harmless man, has apparently succumbed to a fit of paranoia and is wielding a WWII rifle, having shot at six people; Oedipa is locked in his office with him, he has admitted to performing (and attempting to atone for) experiments designed to produce "experimentally-induced insanity" on Jews in Buchenwald, and hapless police have just arrived to take Dr. Hilarius into custody.

Then she saw that Hilarius had left the Gewehr on his desk and was across the room ostensibly trying to open a file cabinet. She picked the rifle up, pointed it at him, and said, "I ought to kill you." She knew he had wanted her to get the weapon.

"Isn't that what you've been sent to do?" He crossed and uncrossed his eyes at her; stuck out his tongue tentatively.

"I came," she said, "hoping you could talk me out of a fantasy."

"Cherish it!" cried Hilarius, fiercely. "What else do any of you have? Hold it tightly by its little tentacle, don't let the Freudians coax it away or the pharmacists poison it out of you. Whatever it is, hold it dear, for when you lose it you go over by that much to the others. You begin to cease to be."


*
Discuss.

Don't worry, be a collective brain instead.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale.

from the World Science Festival's website: "What Bobby McFerrin does is not an act; it’s spontaneous invention. He peers over the edge of the cliff, acknowledges the void below, and dives head first, buoyed by the element of surprise. Bobby uses dense rhythms, extraordinary scales, and complicated intervals that accomplished musicians and educators have studied and dissected.

For many people, the name Bobby McFerrin will always be associated with the first a cappella song ever to reach #1 on the charts in America, a feel-good ditty with an inspirational message: 'Don’t Worry, Be Happy.'

Bobby’s legendary solo performance and collaborations with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and The Vienna Philharmonic have toured the world. For Bobby McFerrin, music-making is an unending quest. 'Music for me,' says Bobby, 'is like a spiritual journey down into the depths of my soul. And I like to think we’re all on a journey into our souls. What’s down there? That’s why I do what I do.' "

Robot Philosopher and the Invincible Mullet

Watching MST3K with N8 and Big Al. That is a pretty good show. Don't you agree?




Here are some of my new favorite things from the World Wide Web. This link, which comes suspiciously close to hacking the real world, and its internet counterpart. I like it when systems which are designed to be exploitative are themselves exploited for their flaws! I just like it when people who try to fuck other people are, themselves, fucked! Okay? I'm trying to be less angry and vindictive but it just... isn't... working.

Anything that can make me consider more deeply my relationship with my body, never mind my glands, is okay by me. "My relationship with my body." Yeesh.

Bertrand Russell On Mind And Body Problem - VidoEmo - Emotional Video Unity

Finally, this.

On the analog front, besides being a bit of recluse, I'm currently trying to finish up Fables of Identity so I can really pour myself into The Tibetan Book of the Dead; the real title is Bardo Thodol and is more accurately referred to as The Great Book of Liberation Through Understanding in the Between, which sounds pretty all right to me. Then I would like to read a really good novel after that; any suggestions for a solid, really engrossing read? I haven't had any really stellar book recommendations in a long time. I like Kundera, Joyce, and most graphic novels of any ambition or quality. Stuff that is difficult but fun-difficult, like a puzzle or a game.
Good music recommendations are always welcomed, too. I've been into Grouper, Stevie Wonder, and pretty much anything I haven't heard yet.

Alternately, what should I do this weekend? I want to get out of the house.

Love,

Hawkwind Albumcover



edit: Tom Lehrer rules. Thanks, buddy.



edit 2: (fake edit)