The Tragedy of White Injustice

At least in Twitter Venn, Holyfield is way ahead. The giant Russian stood still in the center of the ring, jaw dropped in face of extremely agile rope-a-dopes. Even though, he maintained the title. On Holyfield trunks was stamped Psalm 107:20, which reads: He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions (King James). Oh, Great Bearer of Primo Carnera, have faith, you will enter Heaven, and not the least injustice will be done to you!

Awkward Bovine

The results of my first day playing Minotaur China Shop... Need to max more.

Strange Love

I knew this would happen sooner or later. But I’ve never been told that Allende (Cybersyn Project) or Habermas (International World Order) were dictatorial control freaks...

So the hippies think they're in with time

I’ve found by chance this amazing video showing British beatniks being despised by some Cornwall shore city council. It is amazing because, although the Gregorian calendar punctuates the year of 1960, most of the male rebels have long hairs, predicting years before a hippy trend.

Gunpowder

I’ve been noticing young ladies (say, less than 20) loaded with facial make-up, most specific, colour correction powders. Why?? I have a theory: they are terrible sad. And I’m using as evidence a recent declaration called out by the goddess of the goddess, Jane Birkin (62 years old to be completed next 14th December): “Smiling has the same effect as a face lift. A vague smile into the future. And only minimal make up. At 15 or 16 young girls look lovely with lots of makeup and lipstick. But I keep it to a strict minimum."

To My Über Girlish Friend

Nor is there any thing unnatural or extravagant in the supposition, that my dear, dear Jenny may be my friend! Friend! My friend. Surely, Madam, a friendship between the two sexes may subsist, and be supported without -- Fy! Mr. Shandy. Without any thing, Madam, but that tender and delicious sentiment which ever mix friendship, where there is a difference of sex. Let me entreat you to study the pure and sentimental parts of the best French romances; it will really, Madam, astonish you to see with what a variety of chaste expressions this delicious sentiment which I have the honor to speak of, is dress'd out.

[From Life And Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne]

Lost Arrondissement

My friend Paul Pangaro and his wife, CJ, were walking in Paris near the Pantheon, when they came across this peculiar street. Certainly, not part of Haussmann's renovation of the city. [photo by Pangaro]

Difference and Repetition

Can you find similar icons between Il Nuovo et Piacevole Giuoco del Biribisse (1640-1690) and the golden compass?

Hot Wheels

The Twin Vibes and their maroon phaedra (being the "ae" a ligature) [YF81. 1937 CORD PHAETON CONVERTIBLE. rich maroon color with removeable textured tan top, matching upholstery. superior detailing throughout. detailed interior, opening doors. Hood opens to reveal powerhouse engine! issued in 1999 and long discontinued. a true classic! includes the schematics, owners manual and certificate. MINT with original molded Styrofoam box. 99.50]

It Had to Be You

The wedding of Slavoj Žižek, a dialectical-materialist philosopher, with an Argentinian top model. The bold is mine.

Soul Sister

This is Natacha Atlas (born March 20, 1964), according to Wikipedia, she is a "Belgian singer known for her fusion of Arabic and North African music with Western electronic music". Great singer. I've found her via KCRW. And you know what? She was born on the same day as me! Squarely lovely, isn't?

Uluru

Future Nights

Joyce Carol Oates has put out her last book, Wild Nights!: Stories About the Last Days of Poe, Dickinson, Twain, James, and Hemingway. I guess she wish she were Dickinson, inasmuch her impersonation in the picture above. One of the short stories is "EDickinsonRepliLuxe," a tale of a suburban couple that purchases a Dickinson android. Maybe this incursion into sci-fi has as precedent the collection of ten stories by Lovecraft compiled by her. The title of the new book refers to the following inspired Dickinson's verses:

Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile – the winds –
To a heart in port –
Done with the compass –
Done with the chart!

Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the sea!
Might I moor – Tonight –
In thee!

Getting Older

Is Ernest Borgnine the new Old Parr? Simply put: is Viagra the new phosphorous and balls of mercury?

My Heroes

Today, the climbing to artistry celebrity is an “anything goes” process. Poor devils, fuckheads and losers of all types would cut one of their fingers to get a spotlight, to be publicized somehow, to appear in the social columns, to attain a dubious and frivolous title (as “curator”). It is the sickness of the modern era, a pathological aspect of human behavior. That’s exactly why characters as Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr and B. Traven should be praised and admired. The former, immortalized by Toni Curtis in the film The Great Impostor (1961), was a man who had a penchant to be specialist without being specialized in anything, becoming a marine, a monk, a surgeon onboard a Canadian Warship, and a prison warden. The last was a mysterious writer who never revealed his true identity, and was supposed to be Jack London, Ambrose Bierce, an American millionaire, a Black American ex-slave, Frans Blom, a leper, Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, the President’s sister (Esperanza), August Ribelje, Jacob Torice, Mexican President Elias Calles, a chief editor of a German Publisher, Cap'n Bilbo, Arthur Breisky, a group of writers in Honduras and a group of leftist Hollywood scriptwriters. Authentic anarchists types that are scarce in the wasteland we call academy and art world.

Latin Tiki Trick

Dr. Sam Tee, a lost variety of cocktail container typical of Tiki culture, appears in the last Señor Coconut video clip, a cover of “Da Da Da” (right). In the menu of the Hawaiian Village, Tampa, Florida (left), one can read its naive description: Those oriental doctors know something. This drink is prescribed for the timid, the daring, the young in heart. A tropical adventure with delectable rums (Tiki Modern, Sven A. Kirsten, Taschen).

A Scanner Darkly

Nazi stamp found on the cover of Danicorum monumentorum (via the excellent BibliOdyssey), by Ole Worm (1643). Light and darkness interlaced. Calls for that famous phrase in Corinthians 13, now reworked by Joyce: In reply to a question as to his first sensations in the great divide beyond he stated that previously he had seen as in a glass darkly but that those who had passed over had summit possibilities of atmic development opened up to them.

For Your Eyes Only

A good soul has scanned several issues of Serai, a stunning premium magazine about Japanese art and culture (fine gastronomy very nicely included!). You don’t know how to read in that language? Well, if blind children learn the verb 'see', then you can learn the expression "eat with the eyes".

The Buckwheat and the Sword

For years I’ve been looking for the right name of those traditional Japanese symbols that clans had commissioned for heraldic purposes. Serendipity has worked today in the pages of March edition of Monocle magazine: the famous brewery Kirin is now mass-marketing their shochu brand Tarucho, packaged in rectangular coated paper boxes covered by illustrations of key ingredients in the form of kamon. I don’t remember where I’ve seen those symbols… I guess in some samurai movie?

Seyrig-“A” For Ever!

Will Delphine Seyrig ever become old? I don’t think so. Photogenic rejuvenation through cinema, would say Musil… And, yes, Last Year at Marienbad was based upon The Invention of Morel and “A” is Faustine (rather than Louise Brooks!). Seyrig-“A” is a virtual being roaming eternally the platonic meadows of my mind.