plougher was mighty

Appreciating Arvo Pärt

“I’d say that I had the need to concentrate on every sound, so that every blade of grass would be as important as a flower.”

~ Arvo Pärt.

Bjork interviews Arvo Pärt (part of the programme ‘Modern Minimalists’)

Arvo Pärt talks about his composition ‘Fur Alina’

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Evolution is just awesome

Hundreds of insect species spend much of their time underwater, where food may be more plentiful. MIT mathematicians have now figured out exactly how those insects breathe underwater.

Read on…

When I read things like this I think of theoretical biologist Stuart Kauffman and his theory of self-organizating biological systems which seems magnificently true.

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The true pioneer of techno music?

Now this is interesting stuff… BBC News has a story about a woman called Delia Derbyshire who produced the theme song of the famous Dr. Who science fiction television series. Paul Hartnoll from the techno outfit Orbital is quoted…

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Appreciating Jacob’s Ladder

The truly frightening thriller ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ is a film I’ve enjoyed many times over and it continuous to amaze me whenever I see it. There’s a famous quotation from this movie that always gives me the shivers, like it hits a Big Truth or something…

“Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won’t let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they’re not punishing you, he said. They’re freeing your soul. So, if you’re frightened of dying… and you’re holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you’ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.”

~ Louis (the chiropractic physician)

According to this page, the quotation is based on the writings of the philosopher Meister Eckhart. The lines in the movie reference the following actual quotations from the work of Eckhart. If you don’t like the word ‘God’, just replace it with something you do like. The core of the idea is what’s important.

“They ask, what burns in hell? Authorities [the Fathers] usually reply: “This is what happens to willfulness” [to individual will, self-interest]. But I say it is “Not” [it is the Nothing] that is burned out [that burns] in hell. For example: suppose a burning coal is placed in my hand. If I say the coal burns me I do it a great injustice. To say precisely what does the burning, it is the “Not”. The coal has something in it that my hand does not. Observe! It is just this “Not” that is burning me – for if my hand had in it what the coal has, and can do what the coal can do, it, too, would blaze with fire, in which case all the fire that ever burned might be spilled on this hand and I should not feel hurt.” (Speech 5b, DW Ι)

“Whatever state we find ourselves in, whether in strength or in weakness, in joy or in sorrow, whatever we find ourselves attached to, we must abandon. . . . You must give up yourself, altogether give up self, and then you have really given up … By renouncing yourself first, you then have renounced all things. … A man who loves God could give up the whole world as easily as an egg.” (Speech 30, DW II)

“What is the prayer of the detached heart? I answer that detachment and purity cannot pray. For if anyone prays he asks God that something may be given to him, or asks that God may take something away from him. But the detached heart does not ask for anything at all that it would like to be rid of. Therefore it is free from all prayer.” (On Detachment, DW V)

Who is Meister Eckhart? A fascinating guy if you ask me …

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Can’t wake up!

“You want to listen, you can’t hear; you want to speak, you are dumb; you want to call out, you cannot; you feel you are dying, dying; you want to run away. You piss with fear in your sleep.”

So I’ve been sleeping a little bit irregularly lately and I’ve been having some strange dreams because of that. The dreams feel like they’re real and they always end with me trying like hell to wake up but being unable to do so because I can’t move my limbs or open my eyes! Pretty strange and scary stuff. It’s like I’m a prisoner of my own body and I can’t do nothing about it. Hallucinations are a direct result of it and they’re scary but fascinating nonetheless. I’ve had this kind of dream (or extended hallucinations) before so I decided to google around for it. Pretty soon I stumbled on a phenomenon called ’sleep paralysis’ and it’s really interesting.

There’s people who write about it on their blogs and stuff, and ofcourse there’s a wikipedia article on it which was an eye-opener for me. It seems it’s closely related to lucid dreaming (another interesting kind of dream I’ve had before), out-of-body experiences and even alien abductions (which you can read about on this excellent page). Basically life makes a little more sense now.

I’ve looked around for some (popular) scientific writings on this subject and I’ve found a few, like ‘The Terror That Comes In The Night‘ by David Hufford and ‘Wrestling With Ghosts‘ by Jorge Conesa, excellent stuff if you’re into horror movies; there’s lots of scary folklore going round about it.

So if you’ve ever had the terrifying feeling that you can’t move your limbs or open your eyes, don’t sweat it. Although some people get it a little too often, it’s perfectly natural, a slight brain glitch which does no harm except scare the shit out of ya. Nothing supernatural or mystical about it, although a lot of people (used to) think so. I think it’s another interesting layer of reality which needs to be explored more; this specific area of research is still pretty young.

It might even be a nifty gateway to some serious lucid dream explorations… Wooo…

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Shiney eyes

From the always inspiring website ted.com:

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

Make your eyes shine

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Mobile phones are evil

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RIP George Carlin :(

carlin78.jpg

From Wikipedia:

He was considered by many to be a successor to the late Lenny Bruce and was described by Comedy Central as the second greatest stand-up comedian of all time behind Richard Pryor, and right before Lenny Bruce.

Now go and watch all his stuff at Google Video

(source)

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What did the future sound like?

From Dr. Who to The Dark Side of the Moon to modern day dance music, the pioneering members of the Electronic Music Studios radically changed the sound-scape of the 20th Century. ‘What the Future Sounded Like’ tells this fascinating story of British electronic music. ‘What The Future Sounded Like’ mixes experimental visual and sonic techniques with animation and never-seen-since archival footage. A sonic and visual collage, this documentary colors in a lost chapter in music history, uncovering a group of composers and music engineers who harnessed technology and new ideas to re-imagine the boundaries of music and sound.

You can ogle it here (Google Video, 27 min.) and if you’re interested you can find more info about this documentary at the official website as well as here.

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Subtle Audio Vol I

Subtle Audio is een puik label die “deep / experimental drum & bass” uitbrengt. Nou is dit natuurlijk vinyl only, maar onlangs hebben ze een compilatie CD uitgebracht van oud en nieuw materiaal waar menig jungle-fanaat van gaat schuimbekken:

Frontje

2xCD Version (cat # SUBTLE001CD)

CD 1 - Unmixed
1. Naibu - “Theme From Harajuku Station”
2. Sileni - “Bouncing Octagonal Fragments”
3. Amplicon - “Let Go Of The Release”
4. Dissident - “Imager”
5. Macc & Düffah - Messier 51 (Equinox Remix)
6. Alpha Omega vrs Nubian Minds - “Lost Pride”
7. Nebula - “Visions Of Paradise”
8. Senses - “All Over”
9. Macc & 0=0 - “Bridge Over Broken Water”
10. Bop - “Cogito Ergo Sum”

CD 2 - Mixed by Code (Subtle Audio)
1. Sub - “Skadi”
2. Jason oS - “What Do You Like?”
3. Macc & Düffah - “Messier 51″
4. Dissident - “Pleuromeia”
5. ASC - “Oceanography”
6. Cloak & Dagger - “Time Travelling”
7. Fanu - “I Play It Cooler”
8. Nebula - “Frame of Reference”
9. Polska - “Burning Sun”
10. Dissident - “Universe Eat Universe”
11. Alpha Omega - “Tribalist”
12. Sileni - “Failspan”
13. Soul Delay - “Ustad”
14. dgoHn - “Man Bith”
15. Fracture & Neptune - “Apollo”
16. Nebula - “Chords Of Sorrow”

Audio clips zijn hier te vinden. Hoe aan dit juweeltje te komen? Even paypallen naar CONOR_O_DWYER AT YAHOO.CO.UK. Kosten: EUR 11.50 plus verzending: EUR 4.85. Vinyl is ook beschikbaar (2×12″) voor EUR 12.50 plus EUR 4.85 verzending (1 item) of EUR 7.50 (2 of meer items (Europa))…

Bron voor meer informatie …

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