Currently Watching
ALICE IN BORDERLAND - SEASON 1
[今際の国のアリス]
Shinsuke Sato
Japan, 2020
Monday, April 22, 2024
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Sunday, April 21, 2024
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ANITA BROOKNER
Hotel du Lac
And what is the most potent myth of all? The tortoise and the hare. In real life, of course, it is the hare who wins. Every time. You could argue that the hare might be affected by the tortoise lobby’s propaganda, might become more prudent, circumspect, slower, in fact. But the hare is always convinced of his own superiority; he simply does not recognize the tortoise as a worthy adversary. That is why the hare wins.
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Saturday, April 20, 2024
Currently Watching
[101 Shorts Edition]
55. FRENCH ROAST
Fabrice O. Joubert
France, 2008
54. THE PIANO TUNER
Olivier Treiner
France, 2010
53. INVERSES
Vincent Vandries and Jonathan Lempernesse
France, 2011
52. MEMO
Ines Scheiber, Jules Durand, Julien Becquer, Elena Dupressoir, Viviane Guimaraes
France, 2017
51. LE RETOUR DES VAGUES
Manon Cansell, Alejandra Guevara Cervera, Edward Kurchevsky, Francisco Moutinho De Magalhães, Hortense Mariano
France, 2020
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Friday, April 19, 2024
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KURT VONNEGUT
There is this thing called the university, and everybody goes there now. And there are these things called teachers who make students read this book with good ideas or that book with good ideas until that's where we get our ideas. We don't think them; we read them in books.
I like Utopian talk, speculation about what our planet should be, anger about what our planet is. I think writers are the most important members of society, not just potentially but actually. Good writers must have and stand by their own ideas.
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Thursday, April 18, 2024
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Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Currently Watching - 101 Shorts Edition
63.NEXT FLOOR
Denis Villeneuve
Canada, 2008
62. WEBCAM
Nick Delgado
USA, 2024
61. CAUTIONARY TALES
Christopher Barrett and Luke Taylor
UK, 2016
60. PORTRAIT OF GOD
Dylan Clark
USA, 2022
59. IGNORE IT
Sam Evenson
USA, 2021
58. DELETE
Maximilien Franco
USA, 2024
57. RHYME OR DIE
Max Lincoln
UK, 2021
56. THE DOLLMAKER
Al Lougher
USA, 2017
OLAF STAPLEDON
Last and Future Men
Even the preceding and touch longer period between the first mammal and the first man, some twenty-five millions of terrestrial years, seems now inconsiderable.
The whole of it, together with the age of the First Men, may be said to lie halfway between the formation of the planets, two thousand million years earlier, and their final destruction, two thousand million years later,
Taking a still wider view, we see that this aeon of four thousand million years is itself no more than a moment in comparison with the sun's age. And before the birth of the sun the stuff of this galaxy had already endured for aeons as a nebula. Yet even those aeons look brief in relation to the passage of time before the myriad great nebula themselves, the future galaxies, condensed out of the all-pervading mist in the beginning.
Thus the whole duration of humanity, with its many sequent species and its incessant downpour of generations, is but a flash in the lifetime of the cosmos.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2024
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Currently Playing
Arvo Pärt
MUSIC FOR UNACCOMPANIED CHOIR
Noel Edison
Elora Festival Singers
- Triodion (1998)
- Tribute To Caesar (1997)
- Nunc Dimittis (2001)
-Ode VII (Memento) from Kanon Pokajanen (1994)
- I Am The True Vine (1996)
- The Woman With The Alabaster Box (1997)
- Dopo La Vittoria (After The Victory) (1996/1998)
- Bogoróditse Djévo (Mother Of God And Virgin) (1990)
OLAF STAPLEDON
Last and First Men
Last and First Men
There used to be a saying “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” But as the world became networked first through newspapers, then radio, television, and then the Internet mass neurosis spread more and more rapidly until a generation into the internet the average neurosis level of young adults was the same as mental patients had been in their grandparents time.
The popular consensus was that knowledge was available for all, but the trade-off had become that intellectual rigour was lost and all knowledge regardless of veracity become regarded as the same worth. What was more, in the West a concept came about that knowledge should be free. This rapidly eliminated the resources which would have allow talented individuals to generate intellectual property rather than be wage slaves. The anti-intellectual trend which stemmed from the origins of universal free education expanded and insulting terms were applied to intellectuals confabulating intelligence and knowledge with poor social skills and inadequate emotional development.
While this was attractive to the masses who felt that everyone had a right to equal intelligence and that any tests purporting to show differences were by definition false this offset any benefits that broader access to knowledge might have brought deterring many of the more able from high levels of attainment in a purely intellectual sphere. Combined with a belief that internalization of knowledge was no longer necessary – that it was all there on the Internet reduced the possible impact substantially as ideas on an external network could never cross pollinate and form a network of concepts in the minds of those whose primary skill was to search rather than to link concepts already internalized.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Donald Trump:
"The Democrats say, 'Please don't call them animals. They're humans.' I said, 'No, they're not humans, they're not humans, they're animals." (Green Bay, Wisconsin, April 2, 2024)
The Bible:
"But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 19:34, KJV)
OLAF STAPLEDON
Last and First Men
There is much in this vision that will remind you of your mystics; yet between them and us there is far more difference than similarity, in respect both of the matter and the manner of our thought. For while they are confident that the cosmos is perfect, we are sure only that it is very beautiful. While they pass to their conclusion without the aid of intellect, we have used that staff every step of the way. Thus, even when in respect of conclusions we agree with your mystics rather than your plodding intellectuals, in respect of method we applaud most your intellectuals; for they scorned to deceive themselves with comfortable fantasies.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
OLAF STAPLEDON
Last and First Men
The whole of American life was organized around the cult of the powerful individual, that phantom ideal which Europe herself had only begun to outgrow in her last phase.
Those Americans who wholly failed to realize this ideal, who remained at the bottom of the social ladder, either consoled themselves with hopes for the future, or stole symbolical satisfaction by identifying themselves with some popular star, or gloated upon their American citizenship, and applauded the arrogant foreign policy of their government.
Those who achieved power were satisfied so long as they could merely retain it, and advertise it uncritically in the conventionally self-assertive manners.
Saturday, April 13, 2024
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Friday, April 12, 2024
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GHALIB
"Some Exaggerations"
The world I see looks to me like a game of children.
Strange performances and plays go on night and day.
King Solomon’s throne is not a big thing to me.
I hear Jesus performed miracles, but I’m not interested.
The idea that the world exists is not acceptable to me.
Illusion is real, but not the things of the world.
The desert covers its head with sand when I appear with my troubles.
The river rubs its forehead in the mud when it sees me.
Don’t ask me how I am when I am parted from you.
I notice that your face turns a little pale when you’re near me.
People are right to say that I love looking at myself, but sitting
In front of me is a beauty whose face is bright as a mirror.
Just put a wineglass and some wine in front of me;
Words will fall out of my mouth like apple blossoms.
People imagine that I hate, but it’s merely jealousy.
That’s why I scream: “Don’t say her name in my presence!”
Faith pulls me in one direction, but disbelief pulls me in another.
The Kaaba stands far behind me, and the Church stands next to me.
I am a lover; therefore charming a woman is my work.
When she is near me, Laila makes fun of Majnoon.
The time of reunion brings happiness rather than death.
When reunion came, I remembered the night of parting.
We have a sea of blood now with large waves.
I am content with it; I know worse could happen.
My hands move with difficulty, but at least my eyes are lively.
Just leave the glass and the wine jug standing where they are.
Ghalib is a Muslim also, so we know a lot of each other’s secrets.
Please don’t speak badly of Ghalib when I’m around.
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—Translated from the Urdu by Robert Bly and Sunil Dutta
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Thursday, April 11, 2024
Currently Playing - 101 Shorts Edition
79. THE TRAM
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Poland, 1966
78. THE FACE
Piotr Studzinski
Poland, 1966
Starring Krzysztof Kieślowski
77. SEVEN WOMEN OF DIFFERENT AGES
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Poland, 1978
76. TALKING HEADS
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Poland, 1980
75. VIVA MARIA!
Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Poland, 2010
74. REHAB
Krzysztof Jankowski
Poland, 2011
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