Damn, I love this holiday CD. It’s my favorite because it swings so nicely. (Second favorite is The Christmas Album by Nat King Cole).
I dig the new Fairy Tale drama, Grimm. The dark, modern take on the tales is nice.
But, does it have legs?
The Jodo Box Set
Can’t wait to dive into these. The box includes:
- Fando y Lis
- El Topo
- The Holy Mountain
- La Cravate
- La Constellation (a Jodorowsky documentary)
- The Holy Mountain Soundtrack
- El Topo Soundtrack
How nice.
On Curiosity
I’ve been enamored with the writings and films of Alejendro Jodorowsky lately. This also rekindled my interest in Surrealism and Andre Bretón.
The intellectual improvisation of mind, following it’s natural curiosity, has led me to some of my greatest discoveries of music, film and culture. Any time I encounter an artistic form that speaks to me, I listen intently and let myself meander and traverse whatever path the Daemon wants me to take. I am always astonished where I end up.
Years ago Trane led to Miles. Miles led to Bird. Bop led to Sonny Rollins and back to Trane which led to Mingus, Monk, Rouse, Blakey, Clifford Brown, Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and scores of other jazz giants. The same has been true in literature and philosophy, even spirituality which went through paths of Buddhism, Zen, Tao, Gnostic, Alchemical, Western Esoteric, Vedic, and on and on and—
To never limit the possibilities of what might be just around the next curve is infinite in its potential for growth and self-discovery. That curiosity is the greatest gift. The illuminative. Even the most shattering and paradigm shifting. But, that’s the idea, right?
Only Live Performance of A Love Supreme
The sonic genius of John Coltrane (via openculture.com)
The Holy Mountain
This mindF$#@K of a film was impossible to turn away from. Kind of like the journey it depicts wherein horror (dark night) and ecstasy (unitive state) dance and struggle endlessly.
The Storyverse Comes Alive
Small Demons, who’s tagline is Welcome to the Storyverse, is a vast expanse of possibility for the curious. It contains, “The people, places and things from books, and everywhere they can take you.” According to the site, which is in Beta test mode,
It all begins here. Suppose someone took every meaningful detail from all the books you love. Every song mentioned, every person, every food or place or movie title. And what if they did that for all the books everyone else loves, too. The ones you’ve never heard of. Suddenly you’ve got a whole world of seemingly random people, places and things, all gathered in one place.
Together they create something vast, wonderful and entirely new. A Storyverse. A place where details touch, overlap and lead you further. To new music to listen to. New movies to watch. Places to visit. People to know. And of course, new books to read. Getting started is simple. Just choose a book. See where it takes you.
Sign me up. I can’t wait to dive into this.
SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner—the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by though, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.
[Source: Manifestos of Surrealism by André Breton]
How to Be a Poet
This from Arthur Rimbaud:
I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet makes himself a seer by a long, prodigious, and rational disordering of all the senses. Every form of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he consumes all the poisons in him, and keeps only their quintessences. This is an unspeakable torture during which he needs all his faith and superhuman strength, and during which he becomes the great patient, the great criminal, the great accursed – and the great learned one! – among men. – For he arrives at the unknown! Because he has cultivated his own soul – which was rich to begin with – more than any other man! He reaches the unknown; and even if, crazed, he ends up by losing the understanding of his visions, at least he has seen them! Let him die charging through those unutterable, unnameable things: other horrible workers will come; they will begin from the horizons where he has succumbed!
Not many today would sacrifice so much for their art!
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a fascinating human.