Log24

See “Charles Williams” + Witchcraft  in this journal.

Williams was one of the Inklings, a group of Christian
writers that included C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

See also Kurtz in this  journal.

Two items from this morning’s news:

“Sasaki Roshi trained for years in a distinctively strict style of Zen
that he transplanted to the U.S. His students rose at 3 a.m.
for chanting, exhausting hours of meditation and one-on-one
meetings with their teacher, who would pose impenetrable
koans, riddles like: ‘When you see the flower, where is God?'”

For a mathematician’s example of an alleged Zen ideal, see the feast day
this year of St. Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Wikipedia article:

Reductionism is a philosophical position
which holds that a complex system is nothing but
the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be
reduced to accounts of individual constituents.^[1]

 1.  See e.g. Reductionism in the Interdisciplinary
Encyclopedia of Religion and Science.

 “The Website of the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia on
Religion and Science  is edited by the Advanced School
for Interdisciplinary Research (ADSIR), operating at the
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome….”

For a reductionist Holy Cross, see yesterday’s noon post.

This post was suggested by…

• The word “zeppelin” in this journal
• This evening’s post “Actual Talent“

“Oh, the humanity!” — Reporter’s comment

“Just a lying rhyme for seven!” — Playwright Tom Stoppard on Heaven

Related material in this journal:  Lying Rhyme and Happy Birthday.

This is a post in memory of artist Otto Piene, who reportedly died
at 86 on Thursday, July 17, 2014, in Berlin.

*For the title, see Alternate Reality, a post of Saturday, July 19, 2014.
See also Piene and paradigms, and Paradigm Shift from the date of death
for Piene and Hartsfield.

Wernher von Braun

See also The Zero Theorem in this journal.

Click on the above video for a theological remark by Clint Eastwood.

“Zero is a group of artists founded by Heinz Mack and
Otto Piene….” — Wikipedia

“The title ZERO was the result of months of search
and was finally found more or less by chance.
From the beginning we looked upon the term
not as an expression of nihilism – or a dada-like gag,
but as a word indicating a zone of silence and of
pure possibilities for a new beginning as at the
count-down when rockets take off-  zero is the
incommensurable zone in which the old state turns
into the new.”

— Otto Piene, 1964

(Where Entertainment Is God , continued)

In memory of artist Otto Piene — a news item from last May
at the ZERO Foundation website on an exhibition that closes tomorrow —

2014-05-15
Today is the opening of the exhibition ZERO — Zwischen Himmel und Erde
in Friedrichshafen. The Zeppelin Museum is showing wonderful artworks
all related to heaven and earth by various ZERO artists
such as Piene, Mack, Uecker, Klein, Luther, and Manzoni.
ZERO – Zwischen Himmel und Erde
Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen
15.05. – 20.07.2014
www.zeppelin-museum.de

“Oh, show me the way to the next whiskey bar”
— Song lyric from previous post

“In a technologically advanced 1939, the zeppelin Hindenburg III
arrives in New York City, mooring atop the Empire State Building.”

— Wikipedia on the first scene of the 2004 film
“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow“

From The Thin White Duke:

“When I was living in my apartment in Berlin,
I would sing this at breakfast every morning.”

Oh, show me the way to the next whiskey bar
Oh, don’t ask why, no, don’t ask why
For we must find the next whiskey bar

Or if we don’t find the next whiskey bar
I tell you we must die, I tell you we must die
I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die

Read more:  David Bowie – Alabama Song Lyrics | MetroLyrics

See also…

“Wir trauern um Otto Piene, der unerwartet am 17.7 in Berlin gestorben ist.” 

The Los Angeles Times  on entertainer Elaine Stritch,
who died yesterday (Thursday, July 17, 2014):

“She made few apologies in her career, describing herself as
a ‘Catholic, diabetic, alcoholic, pain in the ass.'” — David Ng

“Band of angels, lead me home.” — Song lyric

Detail:

Scene from 3:10 to Yuma  (1957)

Related material: