In one part of the movie, Katharine Clifton (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) and her love, Count Lazlo de Almasy (played by Ralph Fiennes), take refuge in a cave in the middle of the desert after a near death experience that leaves Katharine seriously inured. Because she is debilitated, the Count leaves Katharine to find help but ends up wandering the desert for days until being captured. Katharine realizes her fate and writes a letter, or as I read it, a poem.
These were her last words:
"Try to stay passionate, leave your cool to constellations. Passion, above all, is a remedy against boredom."
- Joseph Brodsky, Nobel Prize winning poet and essayist.
I came out of college completely unprepared for the world ahead of me. My thoughts and ideas of life after college were completely out of whack with reality, and reality gave me a swift kick in the ass about my self absorbed importance. But years passed and I learned to grow up and see myself and the world in a bit of a different light.
Clearly, our alpha male stereotype could use a corrective makeover. Men can learn a thing or two from real wolves: less snarl, more quiet confidence, leading by example, faithful devotion in the care and defense of families, respect for females and a sharing of responsibilities. That’s really what wolfing up should mean.
- Carl Safina, Tapping Your Inner Wolf, New York Times, June 5, 2015
"In her novel "The Dispossessed," Ursula K. Le Guin makes a distinction between explorers and adventurers: 'The explorer who will not come back or send back his ships to tell his tale is not an explorer, only an adventurer; and his sons are born in exile.'"
- David Dark, What Must I Do to Be Born Again?: The Open Hands of Kendrick Lamar, March 26, 2015, Pitchfork
I have an interest in obituaries of all kinds (like my dad says, "Obits are the Irish sport pages"), but when it comes to the deaths of musicians, a retrospect or glimpse into their lives provides so much creative energy for me because their genuine love for art is so inspiring. I had the good fortune to see B.B. (his nickname that stood for "Blues Boy") King live once in my life as he played a show with Buddy Guy about a decade ago. King sauntered up to his chair, took a seat, grabbed the love of his life (his affectionately named guitar, Lucille), and the blues poured out. I felt the notes, the rhythm, and the power of King's vibratos, slides and trills.
We had 11 truly joyful years of the deepest love, happiest marriage, and truest partnership that I could imagine... He gave me the experience of being deeply understood, truly supported and completely and utterly loved – and I will carry that with me always. Most importantly, he gave me the two most amazing children in the world.
Dave was my rock. When I got upset, he stayed calm. When I was worried, he said it would be ok. When I wasn’t sure what to do, he figured it out. He was completely dedicated to his children in every way – and their strength these past few days is the best sign I could have that Dave is still here with us in spirit.
“With this record, I needed to extract myself out of this environment of make-believe. It's something that was necessary for me to do in the wake of my mother's death — to pursue a sense of peace and serenity in spite of suffering. It's not really trying to say anything new, or prove anything, or innovate. It feels artless, which is a good thing. This is not my art project; this is my life.”
- Sufjan Stevens, True Myth: A Conversation with Sufjan Stevens, by Ryan Dombal, Pitchfork, February 16, 2015
"Like Nas – a one-time messiah himself – Lamar, a scrawny 25-year-old from Compton, was a visual poet. You can see Compton — the burger stands, the lights of the police cruisers, the 405 freeway — in every track of “good kid, m.A.A.d. city,” just as you can see the dice games, project hallways and parks of Queensbridge in Nas’s “Illmatic.”
- Jay Caspian Kang, Notes on the Hip-Hop Messiah, NY Times, March 24, 2015
Kang just wrote a great article on Kendrick Lamar, his last two albums, the classic good kid, m.A.A.d. city, and his recent album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and the meaning of "hip-hop messiah," which Kang defines as:
"I was just so sure of everything...that's what you get for dreaming aloud."
- Kevin Parker, "Mind Mischief," Lonerism
I find that in the deaths of humans we understand the depths of their humanity. A life cannot be looked upon in full until the last drop of saliva dries and they can say no more. As the clay hardens on their sculpture, others will look back and offer the impact and imprint their lives left. Some of the deceased will be looked upon fondly, souls remembered for time, while others' legacies will be left to rot, forgotten and damned.
I love Kanye. His music has made my life identifiably more enjoyable. The College Dropout will remain in the hip-hop lexicon forever for its originality, innovative production, and influence. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a masterpiece. It was Kanye’s manic brain finally putting it all together into something perfect, twisted, and human. It was his reaction to the backlash that he both deservedly and undeservedly received and the vitriol and hatred that he never deserved. I compared Yeezus to Radiohead's Kid A - it's an album no one else could have made. He has been the most influential and relevant hip-hop artist of the past decade and no one else is close.
Any time I become exasperated with Kanye, I’ll listen to “Last Call,” his last track on his debut album to remind me that he is a guy like us, personable and real.
"The New York of Girls is a kind of gray cloud in which to explore the low-level depression and self-absorption of millennials; the New York of Broad City is a Choose Your Own Adventure, a colorful circus of multicultural weirdos. It is the New York I remember from my twenties."
- Rachel Syme, The Broad Strokes, January 14, 2015
Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, aka Troy from the TV show Community, aka former writer for 30 Rock, aka this is one talented dude, had a very interesting interview with Rembert Browne from Grantland recently. I've followed both these guys for a while, and Browne comes off as a very personable guy who asks the right (and interesting) questions and connects with his interviewees, which in turn gets the interviewee to open up. Gambino was surprisingly honest, and I thought this interview was refreshing because it felt like a true dialogue between two human beings - not interviewer vs interviewee, but two people talking.
I've always been interested in the finances of bands, especially smaller indie bands, to learn how they get by and how much money comes in and out during their tours. We probably all remember the New York Magazine article on Grizzly Bear which revealed that despite being one of the bigger and more critically adored indie bands around, some in the the band still didn't have health insurance.
A much smaller band, Pomplamoose, just wrote a blog post about their finances on their recent 28-day tour. The bottom line:
"Deep inside I feel that this world we live in is really a big, huge, monumental symphonic orchestra. I believe that in its primordial form, all of creation is sound and that it's not just random sounds, that it's music."
- Michael Jackson, Ebony Interview, May 1992
"Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they will be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There's no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well - or ill?"
- Excerpt from John Steinbeck's masterpiece East of Eden
Galway Kinnell, an American poet, passed from leukemia at the age of 87 on October 28, 2014. A while back, my dad gave me a collection of his poetry, Three Books, which has been very inspirational to me in my writing. His poetry is simply written and slowly paced yet so engrossing. I read his poems and picture a grandfather rocking in his chair reciting line after line to the sweeping wind.
The following is one of my favorite poems by Kinnell. He is survived by his wife and two children.