Log24

Above: Instagram profile image,
Georgia O’Keeffe with Pelvis Series, Red with Yellow, 1945. 

Below: Instagram image of art by the late Etel Adnan.

See as well …

“The film captures the offbeat time warp of the present-day
desert cities around Palm Springs, with the movie being
partly filmed in Palm Desert.”

See also posts on College of the Desert.

Two news stories for Armistice Day:

Nov. 11, 2012—

Veterans to resurrect war memorial cross
in Mojave desert in Calif., capping long legal dispute

Nov. 6, 2012—

Mojave Cross, stolen two years ago,
discovered in Bay Area

See also this journal on the reported date of the cross theft.

New York Lottery today—

Without imagination, these digits are a meaningless jumble.

With  imagination…

608 might refer to June 8, the Saint's Day  of Gerard Manley Hopkins.
        (See the date July 29, 2002, that appeared in an earlier post today
         as the publication date of Geometrical Landscapes . In this
         journal, a post on that date, "At Random," referred to Hopkins.)

8516 might refer to 8/5/1916. A check of a hometown newspaper
         on that date yields…
         "St. Joseph's Garden Party and Bazaar 22, 23, 24.
          Pictures. Everybody Welcome. Admission to Garden Ten Cents"

And in the evening…

937 might refer to a post on the nihilistic philosophy of Joan Didion, and

7609 might refer to an occurrence of these digits in a link 
          to "7/11" in a post from the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola last year.

For a more cynical view of lottery hermeneutics, see
"High on RAM (overload)," by Jo Lyxe.

Happy birthday to Stevie Nicks.

Welcome.

See "How Deep the Darkness" + Koestler.

The New York Times  yesterday on an artist-poet who reportedly
died on September 14 at 79 — His work in a West Texas desert . . .

"… isn’t a paean to minimalism or a work of land art, exactly.
Mr. Magee described it as his own private existential exploration
and meditation, and as a container for his deeply personal work. . . ."

A deeply personal exploration and meditation of my own . . .

* See this morning's previous post.

Thesis —

A 1911 essay by T. E. Hulme,
"Romanticism and Classicism" —

"There is a general tendency to think that verse means
little else than the expression of unsatisfied emotion.
People say: 'But how can you have verse without sentiment?'
You see what it is: the prospect alarms them. A classical revival
to them would mean the prospect of an arid desert and the death
of poetry as they understand it, and could only come to fill the gap
caused by that death. Exactly why this dry classical spirit should
have a positive and legitimate necessity to express itself in poetry
is utterly inconceivable to them."

Antithesis —

A 1961 reaction against Hulme,
"Against Dryness" —

"Against the consolations of form, the clean crystalline
work, the simplified fantasy-myth, we must pit the
destructive power of the now so unfashionable naturalistic
idea of character.

Real people are destructive of myth, contingency is
destructive of fantasy and opens the way for imagination."

— Iris Murdoch, January 1961

Synthesis —

The above solar art is . . .

(By John Baez, cousin of Joan)

(The Baez art was also displayed here  on Saturday, March 23, 2024 —
the second day of the 2024 Biennale in the Desert Sun  article.)

Click for College of the Desert  in Log24.

"When they all finally reach their destination —
a deserted field in the Florida Panhandle…." 

" When asked about the film's similarities to the 2015 Disney movie 
Tomorrowland , which also posits a futuristic world that exists in an
alternative dimension, Nichols sighed. 'I was a little bummed, I guess,'
he said of when he first learned about the project. . . . 'Our die was cast.
Sometimes this kind of collective unconscious that we're all dabbling in,
sometimes you're not the first one out of the gate.' "

In memory of June Havoc . . .

"In 1960, Havoc was honored with two stars
on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one at
6618 Hollywood Boulevard for her contributions
to the motion picture industry, and the other at
6413 Hollywood Boulevard for television."

"Bustin' Out All Over"

Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst
in "Spider-Man 2" (2004) —

Spoilers for another Kirsten Dunst film,
"Midnight Special" (2016) —

"When they all finally reach their destination —
a deserted field in the Florida Panhandle…." 

" When asked about the film's similarities to the 2015 Disney movie 
Tomorrowland , which also posits a futuristic world that exists in an
alternative dimension, Nichols sighed. 'I was a little bummed, I guess,'
he said of when he first learned about the project. . . . 'Our die was cast.
Sometimes this kind of collective unconscious that we're all dabbling in,
sometimes you're not the first one out of the gate.' "

From another obituary for
the "Spider-Man" screenwriter —

“When I die,” he liked to say, “I’m going to have written
on my tombstone, ‘Finally, a plot!’”

— Robert D. McFadden in The New York Times

From the Claremont Review of Books —

From elsewhere —

See as well posts from Log24 related to
the McClay date above — June 8, 2007.

See the previous post and College of the Desert in this journal.

From the latter, see particularly Slide 69 in Geoff Hagopian's Symmetry.

"We have passed through the looking glass
and down the rabbit hole."

— Kurt Andersen in the Sept. 2017 Atlantic

See as well "the desert of the real" and, 
for comparison, College of the Desert in this  journal.

"And the Führer digs for trinkets in the desert."

See also the previous post.

Kyle Smith on April 15, 2015, in the New York Post —

"The ludicrous action thriller 'Beyond the Reach'
fails to achieve the Southwestern noir potency
of 'No Country for Old Men,' but there’s no denying
it brings to mind another Southwestern classic
about malicious pursuit: the Road Runner cartoons."

See also ….

"The Tesseract is where it belongs: out of our reach."

 — Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury,
      quoted here on Epiphany 2013

Earlier … (See Jan. 27, 2012) …

"And the Führer digs for trinkets in the desert."

(Continued from Sept. 8, 2014)

“I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag.” — Joan Rivers

View of La Quinta (click to enlarge) —

Detail of reported death location —

The Oscar director reportedly died in a car accident somewhat before 
9:30 PM PDT Thursday, May 21, 2015. See details from The Desert Sun .

In memory of a dead poet —

"Relax," said the night man.
"We are programmed to receive."

* A phrase from a new book by mathematician
  Michael Harris, Mathematics without Apologies .

In memory of music pioneers Kim Fowley
and Ervin Drake, each dead on Jan. 15…

The street was deserted late Friday night
We were buggin' each other while
     we sat out the light….

Dead Man's Curve, it's no place to play
Dead Man's Curve, you best keep away

— Jan and Dean

Today is commencement day at College of the Desert.

Without Graduation
(from a poem by Jorie Graham)

With  Graduation

Click either passage above for some commentary.

(Continued)

From Winning—

"In the desert you can remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain."

— America

From a short story:

"In the desert you can remember your name,
'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain."

— America

See also June 12, 2005,  September 11, 2007, and Something Anonymous.

"A New York Jew imitates D. H. Lawrence at his peril."

“In the version of the myth told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, Phaeton bragged to his friends that his father was the sun-god. One of his friends, who was rumored to be a son of Zeus, refused to believe him and said his mother was lying. So Phaeton went to his father Helios, who swore by the river Styx to give Phaeton anything he should ask for in order to prove his divine paternity. Phaeton wanted to drive his chariot (the sun) for a day. Though Helios tried to talk him out of it, Phaeton was adamant. When the day came, Phaeton panicked and lost control of the mean horses that drew the chariot. First it veered too high, so that the earth grew chill. Then it dipped too close, and the vegetation dried and burned. He accidentally turned most of Africa into desert, burning the skin of the Ethiopians black. Eventually, Zeus was forced to intervene by striking the runaway chariot with a lightning bolt to stop it, and Phaeton plunged into the river Eridanos. His sisters the Heliades grieved so much that they were turned into poplar trees that weep golden amber.

This story has given rise to two latter-day meanings of ‘phaeton’: one who drives a chariot or coach, especially at a reckless or dangerous speed, and one that would or may set the world on fire.” —Wikipedia

In memory of poet May Swenson and sports novelist Rozanne Ruth “Zan” Knudson:

Maureen Dowd in today’s New York Times:

“It’s a similar syndrome to the one Katharine Hepburn’s star athlete and her supercilious fiancé have in ‘Pat and Mike.’

The fiancé is always belittling Hepburn, so whenever he’s in the stands, her tennis and golf go kerflooey. Finally, her manager, played by Spencer Tracy, asks the fiancé to stay away from big matches, explaining, ‘You are the wrong jockey for this chick.’

‘You know, except when you’re around, we got a very valuable piece of property here,’ he says, later adding, ‘When you’re around, she’s no good, she’s dead, see?'”

“Then she has a vision of herself,
enclosed by an unfolded hypercube,
and then an immense screen
behind it covered by complex,
     ever-shifting patterns….”

“Does the word ‘tesseract’
mean anything to you?“
— Robert A. Heinlein

7/13, 2003:

Lenten Meditations:

The Logos Trilogy

1. Logos and Logic
2. The Word in the Desert
3. The Line

The Line

From a March 10, 2004, entry:

By the Associated Press,
Saturday, March 13, 2004:

“Dave Schulthise, known as Dave Blood during his career as a bassist with the 1980’s Philadelphia punk-rock band the Dead Milkmen, died on Wednesday [March 10, 2004] at the home of friends in North Salem, N.Y. He was 47.

‘David chose to end his life,’ Mr. Schulthise’s sister, Kathy, wrote on the band’s Web site.”

I walk the thinnest line
I walk the thinnest line
I walk the thinnest line
Between the light and dark sides of my mind

— The Dead Milkmen, Beelzebubba album

Related material: The Word in the Desert.

From an obituary of a biographer of Emily Dickinson, Richard B. Sewall, who died on Wednesday, April 16, 2003:

"Descended from a line of Congregational ministers dating back to the Salem of the witch trial era, Mr. Sewall was known for infusing his lectures with an almost religious fervor."

Riddle

What is the hardest thing to keep?

For one answer, see my entry of April 16, 2003.   For commentary on that answer, see the description of a poetry party that took place last April at Sleepy Hollow, New York.

See, too, the story that contains the following passages:

"As to the books and furniture of the schoolhouse, they belonged to the community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, a New England Almanac, and book of dreams and fortune-telling….

The schoolhouse being deserted soon fell to decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the unfortunate pedagogue, and the plough-boy, loitering homeward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow."

— Washington Irving

Update of 11:55 PM April 21, 2003,

in memory of
Nina Simone:

See also the last paragraph of this news story,
this website, and this essay,
or see all three combined.

From the entry of midnight, October 25-26, 2002:

Make my bed and light the light,
I'll arrive late tonight,
Blackbird, Bye-bye.

Nina Simone

For more on the eight-point star of Venus,
see "Bright Star," my note of October 23, 2002.

Great Simplicity

Today

is the day that Daisetsu Suzuki attained satori,
according to the Zen Calendar.  “Daisetsu” is
said to mean “Great Simplicity.”

For those who prefer Harry Potter and
Diagon Alley, here is another calendar:

To Have and Have Not

Those who prefer traditional Western religions may like a site on the Trinity that contains this:

“Zen metaphysics is perhaps most succinctly set forth in the words ‘not-two.”  But even when he uses this expression, Suzuki is quick to assert that it implies no monism.  Not-two, it is claimed, is not the same as one.*  But when Suzuki discusses the relationship of Zen with Western mysticism, it is more difficult to escape the obvious monistic implications of his thinking.  Consider the following:

We are possessed of the habit of looking at Reality by dividing it into two… It is all due to the human habit of splitting one solid Reality into two, and the result is that my ‘have’ is no ‘have’ and my ‘have not’ is no ‘have not.’  While we are actually passing, we insist that the gap is impassable.**”

*See: Daisetz T. Suzuki, ‘Basic Thoughts Underlying  Eastern Ethical and Social Practice’ in Philosophy and Culture — East and West: East-West Philosophy in Practical Perspective, ed. Charles A. Moore (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1968), p. 429

** Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Mysticism Christian and Buddhist (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1957, Unwin paperback, 1979), p. 57.

Personally, I am reminded by Suzuki’s satori on this date that today is the eve of the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.  I am also reminded by the rather intolerant tract on the Trinity quoted above that the first atomic bomb was exploded in the New Mexico desert at a test site named Trinity.  Of course, sometimes intolerance is justified.

Concluding unscientific postscript:

On the same day in 1896 that D. T. Suzuki attained satori,
lyricist Ira Gershwin was born.

Dies irae, dies illa.

Politics of Hell

Born today: Michael Keaton,
star of “The Dream Team“

Regarding my claim in the note below that Michael Dukakis lied about an ancient Greek pledge, thereby incurring the wrath of the Gods…

A Google search for “Athenian pledge” yields four sites, only two of which are relevant.  One is a site in which U. S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY, Harvard ’71) parrots Dukakis, and one is from the final home of William S. Burroughs  — Lawrence, Kansas:

Lawrence the Beautiful

“I ran across this printed paragraph in a supplement to the Journal-World dated, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1965. The cover, “City of Lawrence, Kansas — Progress Report”, at the top of the inside page has this:

     “City of Heritage. We will never bring disgrace to this city, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our comrades; we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city laws, and do our best to incite a like respect and reverence to others; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of civic duty; that thus in all these ways, we may transmit this city, greater, better, and more beautiful that it was transmitted to us.”

“The Athenian Pledge” 

The link above on Burroughs (Harvard ’36) is to a site subtitled “Secret Agent in Hell.”  Perhaps he now haunts his old alma mater… 

The excellent 1933 Harvard novel Great Circle, by Conrad Aiken, has in its opening paragraph the following:

By all means accept the invitation to hell, should it come.  It will not take you far — from Cambridge to hell is only a step; or at most a hop, skip, and jump. But now you are evading — you are dodging the issue…. after all, Cambridge is hell enough. 

Postscript of 12:55 a.m. September 10:

For a current (9/9/02) Harvard student’s view of Hell, see the description of Solzhenitsyn’s The First Circle at

http://www.xanga.com/home.asp?user=rcudney.