Monday, September 19, 2022
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
The Vision Thing
“It could have been worse.” — James Bond to M in “Spectre.”
“ . . . a nightmare vision of hell-on-earth . . . .“
— R. Crumb on the work of artist S. Clay Wilson, 79,
who reportedly died Sunday at his home in
San Francisco.
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Saturday, February 6, 2021
Star Brick Memories
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Sunday, January 17, 2021
The Miscast Spell
See Spectre and Spectral in this journal.
Details — “California Health Care Facility inmate Phillip Spector, 80,
was pronounced deceased of natural causes at 6:35 p.m. [California time]
on Saturday, January 16, 2021, at an outside hospital. His official cause of
death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin
County Sheriff’s Office.”
— California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
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Thursday, July 16, 2020
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Part and Hole
See also other posts now tagged Hole.
The above review of a Feb. 13, 2018, post was suggested by the
publication date below . . .
. . . and by today's Arts & Letters Daily item that linked to it —
Note, in Album , the activities of
Barthes in Bucharest during 1948.
From a May 20 Log24 post, "A Cryptic Message" —
"Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story." — Title of a book by D.T. Max
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Sunday, May 20, 2018
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Time and Chance Continues …
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Wednesday, September 6, 2017
The Spectre of Capitalism
Christoph Waltz stars in the new film "Tulip Fever" —
Related material — Another Waltz film, and a document commemorated
by a Boston University professor in the previous post —
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Saturday, January 9, 2016
Logos
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Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Death Proof
In memory of
Bill Jenkins, 81, Drag Racing
Driver and Innovator —
Pulled out of San Pedro late one night…
Jenkins died on Thursday, March 29, 2012.
See also this morning's SPECTRE and
http://www.spectreperformance.com/#GARAGE.
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SPECTRE
Meanwhile, back in June 2004—
The Marilyn Monroe Rose and JFK …
… meet The Crimson Spectre —
(Suggested by this morning's
New York Times obituaries—
"A spectre is haunting…"— Karl Marx)
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Sunday, January 16, 2005
Sunday January 16, 2005
Death and the
Spirit, Part II
Readings
Are you a lucky little lady
in The City of Light
Or just another lost angel…
City of Night
— Jim Morrison, L.A. Woman
Fourmillante cité,
cité pleine de rêves,
Où le spectre en plein jour
raccroche le passant
— Baudelaire,
Les Fleurs du Mal,
and
Notes to The Waste Land
"When you got the mojo, brother —
when you're on the inside —
the world is fantastic."
— Pablo Tabor in Robert Stone's
A Flag for Sunrise,
Knopf, 1981, p. 428
|
Now it was Avril's turn to understand and he was frightened out of his wits.
"The Science of Luck," he said cautiously. "You watch, do you? That takes a lot of self-discipline." "Of course it does, but it's worth it. I watch everything, all the time. I'm one of the lucky ones. I've got the gift. I knew it when I was a kid, but I didn't grasp it." The murmur had intensified. "This last time, when I was alone so long, I got it right. I watch for every opportunity and I never do the soft thing. That's why I succeed." Avril was silent for a long time. "It is the fashion," he said at last. "You've been reading the Frenchmen, I suppose? Or no, no, perhaps you haven't. How absurd of me." "Don't blether." The voice, stripped of all its disguises, was harsh and naive. "You always blethered. You never said anything straight. What do you know about the Science of Luck? Go on, tell me. You're the only one who's understood at all. Have you ever heard of it before?" "Not under that name." "I don't suppose you have. That's my name for it. What's its real name?" "The Pursuit of Death." |
Anagrams
In memory of Danny Sugerman,
late manager of The Doors:
Danny Sugerman
Photo by
Frank Alan Bella, 2002
"Mr Mojo Risin" = "Jim Morrison."
"Audible Era" = "Baudelaire."
"Bad Rumi" = "Rimbaud."
From the dark jungle
as a tiger bright,
Form from the viewless Spirit
leaps to light.
— Rumi, "Reality and Appearance,"
translated by R. A. Nicholson
(See also Death and the Spirit
from Twelfth Night, 2005, the date
of Danny Sugerman's death.)
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Tuesday, August 27, 2002
Tuesday August 27, 2002
The Hero and the Dark Lady
From a Fictionwise eBooks summary of Mike Resnick's novel The Dark Lady…
Leonardo, an art historian of the far future, is given a mission…
|
"His instructions: Search the galaxy for any piece of art bearing the image of his obsession: the mysterious Dark Lady, a beautiful and somber human female whose exact likeness, he has secretly discovered, appears in paintings and sculptures throughout history–dating all the way back to Earth's ancient Rome. |
Leonardo's research reveals the link between the artists of the Dark Lady: human men who voluntarily risk their lives. If she appears to men who court death, she may be their Angel of Death … or, as Leonardo hopes, the female of an ancient… legend–The Mother of All Things."
Today, August 27 (or tomorrow, according to some accounts), is the date of death of a great actor, Robert Shaw, who died at 51 in 1978. If in real life he was anything like the brave men he played… King Henry VIII, SPECTRE assassin Red Grant, Panzer commander Colonel Hessler, and shark hunter Captain Quint… he, if anyone, deserved to be greeted in heaven by the Dark Lady.
For a more scholarly treatment of the Dark Lady, see this Princeton University Press site.
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