This begins a series posts from a work in progress: The Forty-Nine, an upcoming novel in letters. Excerpts of each letter will be posted in sequence. To browse them in order from the beginning, jump to Letter #1. In the lower right of each post, you can then advance to the next. Dear Joan, Dear Joan. Is that okay? A […]
Category: xavrixx-archive
Kace’s Bardo Letter #3: Emily Dickinson
This begins a series posts from a work in progress: The Forty-Nine, an upcoming novel in letters. Excerpts of each letter will be posted in sequence. To browse them in order from the beginning, jump to Letter #1. In the lower right of each post, you can then advance to the next. My Dear Sweet Em — The most amazing […]
Kace’s Bardo Letter #2: Edgar Allan Poe
This begins a series posts from a work in progress: The Forty-Nine, an upcoming novel in letters. Excerpts of each letter will be posted in sequence. To browse them in order from the beginning, jump to Letter #1. In the lower right of each post, you can then advance to the next. Hey Ed ∙∙∙ Ages, right? How’s Baltimore? This […]
A Little Life and Complete Abandon
In a Guardian interview some years ago, Hanya Yanagihara has this to say about Jude in A Little Life: I wanted my character Jude to feel to the reader like a self-taught human: someone who had to study and attempt as a young adult the sensations and feelings — trust, love, anger – that are most effectively learned in childhood. […]
Koan: There is no place where nothing is born and nothing dies
Where to Meet after Death Dogo paid a visit to his sick fellow monk, Ungan. “Where can I see you again if you die and leave only your corpse?” Dogo asked. “I will meet you where nothing dies,” Ungan replied. Dogo criticized his response saying, “What you should have said is that there is no place where nothing is born […]
Marching with Twyla
Apparently, Twyla Tharp is known to keep healthy and on point with a vigorous morning workout. I’m fascinated that this routine includes marching around to the music of John Philip Sousa. I can instantly hear the brass, the drums. Soon I can envision myself standing up and getting into it. The march: Instant discipline. There is nothing to learn or […]
John Dee. Enochian Magic. Hiding in Plain Sight.
John Dee. Never quite appearing the same way twice. Right now, I am focused on his cryptography, his linguistic inventions and conveyances, his alphabet, and his angels. His vast and wondrous system of encoding and obfuscation. To say what is by directly saying what is not. There is much emphasis on ceremony. There is also much emphasis on the “beyond” […]
Purpose of Poetry
I was asked: What is poetry for? Here am I, once again, a honey bee buzzing around the flowers on a tapestry, knowing all is but an illusion, yet such illusions are all I know. My life dissolves into verse. I am beginning to understand why poetry exists. Feelings distilled. A distillation of emotion. Rumi does this: “My heart is […]
Molotov: Gimme the Power
Like lots of people, I first heard this on the incredible Mayans MC. Here is the MTV Unplugged version. The lyrics are worth the read. [Verso 1] La policía te está extorsionando (Dinero) Pero ellos viven de lo que tú estás pagando Y si te tratan como a un delincuente (Ladrón) No es tu culpa, dale gracias al regente Hay […]
NO NO NO NO!
The war against Ukraine is escalating. Many are fleeing, suffering, dying. I received the following from Duane Michals. Spreading the word… Dear All, ATTENTION! Please send this email to everyone you know And have them send it to everyone they know. I make a citizen’s arrest of Vladimir Putin. He is a thief. He is stealing Ukraine from Ukrainian people. […]
Ulysses: 100 on 2·2·22
Today (2/2/22) marks the 100th anniversary of Ulysses by James Joyce, published in Paris by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce’s 40th birthday. I thought you would enjoy this luscious piece of literary news. For my part, I am going to join Mr Leopold Bloom this evening and dine with relish on the inner organs of beasts and fowls. […]
The Piano One (Chaim)
DJ and Producer Chaim — The Piano One (Kino Todo Remix). Indie dance.
Joan Didion: Writing is the ability to change reality
Joan, I turn to you for straight talk. You say writing is the ability to change reality, change the beginning, change the end, to upend death and make immortal. Yup, yup, so let’s dive in and do just that. When you say the year of magical thinking, I’m going balls to the wall and magical it’s gonna be. I think […]
Ghosts on the Fifth of November
The Fifth of November: Guy Fawkes, V for Vendetta, Anonymous, Subversive Resistance, Masks, Identity, Visibility, Invisibility. Imagine all of that November Fifth intensity bursting out of your soul? An interior Gunpowder Treason and Plot? The “ghost within,” who might be a twin or alter ego, friend and foe, Cain and Abel, Self/Other, one’s own object of desire. What occurs exactly […]
The Union Case Photographs of Bill Travis
Artist Bill Travis has been creating a remarkable series of photographs entitled “Poems of the Body”: Enchantingly illuminated male subjects framed in 19th-century union cases. At a root level, these pieces are intensely physical. They have power sexually, erotically. The men are stunning. What I greatly admire is how this “root sexuality” begins to expand, like a drop of ink […]
Two Men of Infinite Jest
Two Men of Infinite Jest Poor Yorick and DFW, the Master Skull. O Memory! O Video Editor!
Avicii
What if I’m far from home? Oh brother, I will hear you call What if I lose it all? Oh sister, I will help you out Oh, if the sky comes falling down For you, there’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do remembering and honoring the way through the darkness. often when a light fades, it only shines brighter. […]
Xaviday 2021
Sensational Sense8 Celebration Who am I? Кто я? Wer bin ich? ¿Quién soy? Qui suis-je? Quem sou eu? “I take everything I am feeling, everything that matters to me, I push all of it into my fist, and I fight for it.”
Antony and the Johnsons: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Sad darkness. Pure & distilled. Ma, take this badge off of me I can’t use it any more It’s getting dark, too dark to see Feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door Ma, take these guns […]
Brandon Flynn’s Armpits
At first, you think it’s a Brando experience… the whole Hollywood spirit come to life. But Flynn offers much more here. It is spirit, but the spirit is black. It is all in the black. Those Vanta Black armpits, dark jungles, the dark depths matching his beard, is upper lip, his eyes, his hair. In Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes talks […]
Name: Kace
Meaning of the guy’s name Kace: Alert Watchful Related to Case: box-maker
Bruce Chatwin Dissolves
Bruce Chatwin: Traveling, unfixed, nomadic, dissolving. Identity that spreads far and wide but nearly imperceptibly… underground. The way Deleuze and Guattari speak of identity as rhizomatic in A Thousand Plateaus… each of us growing outward rather than upward. This puts the emphasis less on power and hierarchy, and more on a plurality of equally empowered humans. Chatwin travelled and with each […]
Brotherly Love
I keep staring. It captivates. Title is Brothers. This tremendous love, but then I’m not so sure: I start to sense a deep rivalry. Perhaps there is more rivalry in love meets the eye. Perhaps Cain and Abel are lovers. By Bran Sólo: @bransolo on instagram and bransolo.com
DFW: 20210221
Epistemology “It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know.” Logic “Certainty is knowing you.” Shakespeare “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.” Wittgenstein “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.” h/t Marion Ettlinger
Awesome Color Vision Test
Take the Test Here There are lots of these types of vision tests out there, and most are facebookily irritating, but this one from Finland is pretty awesome. With increased difficulty, you have to select the square that doesn’t match the rest. Piece of cake with the one on the left, but then you’re under time pressure with smaller squares […]
Isolator — Hugo Gernsback Invention
Seems like a made-for-quarantine item, at least for those who are forced to chill at home for days with all sorts of distractions. It’s somewhat similar in concept to George Bernard Shaw’s famous writing hut. With humanity, there seems to be this odd drive to completely isolate and once that’s achieved, a strong desire to socialize.
Fifth of November
2020
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. In light of the election and in honor of V and Guy Fawkes and George Orwell, and — mostly: In honor of the many who have died under tyranny. The famous V Speech— Voilà! In view, […]
Solitary House in Iceland
Daylight savings just ended. There is the general craziness of the time change (I am particularly taken by the way it affects animals and the way it exhausts me). And with the arrival of Winterzeit (Winter Time) there is a part of me that mentally plans a season away on a Brazilian beach or the Canary Islands. Then there is […]
Kalachakra: 2011
In a talk from 2011, Robert Thurman introduces His Holiness the Dalai Lama at his thirtieth reading of the Kalachakra, in India, with some 150,000 people present. Time is presented a pure compassion — as being in total presence of another. History becomes a machine for the ripening of beings. Hope and optimism are kindled. This holistic view focuses on […]
Bat Symbols
It’s simplistic to read a lot of the character (the actor) into the symbol, but there’s a stunning correlation. Like what’s with the chunky-monkey Affleck version? Adam West’s nails Batman’s humor, while the others all have their own distinct edge. My favorite is still the Batman: Arkham City Kevin Conroy version. It has the perfect balance of stealth and sass, […]