February 20, 2014

Good Morning! 

Today is the birthday of Ansel Adams (1902 – 1984) who said:

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”

and

“You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

and

“To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.”

and

“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.”

It is also the birthday of Robert Altman (1925 – 2006) who said:

“Maybe there's a chance to get back to grown-up films. Anything that uses humor and dramatic values to deal with human emotions and gets down to what people are to people.”

Happy Birthday to Richard Matheson (1926 – 2013) who said:

“That which you believe becomes your world.”

and
“I think we're yearning for something beyond the every day. And I will tell you I don't believe in the supernatural, I believe in the supernormal. To me there is nothing that goes against nature. If it seems incomprehensible, it's only because we haven't been able to understand it yet.” 


 

Today is also the birthday of Ian Brown (1963 - ) of the Stone Roses who said:

“I'd rather be no one

Than someone with no one”

Birthday greetings to Kurt Cobain (1967 – 1994) who said:

“I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.”

and

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.”

and

“There's good in all of us and I think I simply love people too much, so much that it makes me feel too sad.”

Finally, it is the birthday of Chris Thile (1981 - ) who said:

“When you're performing as a group in a band, there is just so much more pressure to perform well. If you fail then everybody else fails too. As opposed to being a solo act, if you mess up then it's only you that sucked.”“When you're performing as a group in a band, there is just so much more pressure to perform well. If you fail then everybody else fails too. As opposed to being a solo act, if you mess up then it's only you that sucked.”

February 19, 2014

Good Morning!

Today is the birthday of André Breton (1896 – 1966) who said:

“My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness.”

It is also the birthday of Carson McCullers (1917 – 1967) who said:

“We are homesick most for the places we have never known.”

and

“I think we look for the differences in people because it makes us less lonely.”

Happy Birthday to Dave Niehaus (1935 – 2010) who said:

“I literally become a member of your family, hopefully, for six months out of the year.”

and

“The worst thing you can do is emulate somebody else. You have to develop your own style. I say get a liberal education and know something about the world around you.”

Today is the birthday of Amy Tan (1952 - ) who said:

“We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming - well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.”

and

“I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”

and

“Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever.”

It is also the birthday of Jonathan Lethem (1964 - ) who said:

“I want what we all want. To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced.”

and

“I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.”

Finally, it is the birthday of Dave Wakeling (1956 - ) who sang this bit of great wordplay:

“I don't know where to start or when to stop

My luck’s like a button

I can't stop pushing it

My head feels light

But I'm still in the dark

Seems like without tenderness there's something missing

I don't know where I am, but I know I don't like it

I open my mouth, and out pops something spiteful

Words are so cheap

But they can turn out expensive

Words like conviction can turn into a sentence.”

February 18, 2014

Today is the birthday of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883 – 1957) who said:

“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.”

and

“I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”

and

“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.”

It is also the birthday of Wallace Stegner (1909 – 1993) who said:

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed ... We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in.”

and

“[T]hat old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air ... Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.”

Happy Birthday to Toni Morrison (1931 - ) who said:

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

and

“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.”

Today is the birthday of Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992) who said:

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

and

“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”

and

“Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.”

It is also the birthday of Jean Auel (1936 - ) who said:

“You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories. If you are not a reader, don't even think about being a writer.”

We could never forget the birthday of John Hughes (1950 – 2009) who said:

“We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all.”

and

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

and

“Those who say 'you only live once' have never read a book.”

Finally, it's the birthday of Douglas Rushkoff (1961 - ) who said:

“Computers don't kill books; people do.”

and

“Books have souls. Or so romantics like me tend to think.”

Friday's Playlist 12-27-13

Esben & the Witch – “Marching Song”

Sufjan Stevens – “Seven Swans”

Modest Mouse – “Float On”

Robyn – “Dancehall Queen”

Nick Cave & the Seeds – “Midnight Men”

David Arnold & LTJ Bukem – “The James Bond Theme”

Okkervil River – “Piratess”

Blondie – “X-Offender”

Dawes – “How Far We’ve Come”

The Bird & the Bee – “Private Eyes”

Lorraine Ellison – “Stay With Me (Baby)”

A-ha – “Hunting High and Low”

Brian Eno – “Mother of Violence”

Male Bonding – “Your Contact”

St. Vincent – “Northern Lights”

The Jacksons – “Sugar Daddy”

Garfunkel & Oates – “Only You”

Antony – “Landslide”

The Dismemberment Plan – “Secret Curse”

Bruce Springsteen – “Atlantic City”

Rodriguez – “A Most Disgusting Song”

Death from Above 1979 – “Romantic Rights”

The Radio Dept. – “Falafel”

Torche – “King Beef”

Small Sins – “Why Don’t You Believe Me?”

The New Radicals – “You Get What You Give”

Ray Davies & Gary Lightbody – “Tired of Waiting”

Dum Dum Girls – “Oh Mein M”

Porcelain Raft – “Put Me to Sleep”

Cat Power – “It Ain’t Fair”

This Will Destroy You – “Villa Del Refugio”

Charles Bradley – “You Put the Flame on It”

Miley Cyrus – “We Can’t Stop”

The Pixies – “Mr. Grieves”

Duran Duran – “Tiger Tiger”

New Order – “In a Lonely Place”

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “Ffuny Ffriends”

The English Beat – “Jeanette”

Asia – “Sole Survivor”

Nas – “It Ain’t Hard to Tell”

John Denver – “Calypso”

Pearl Jam – “Let the Records Play”

Quakers – “Oh Goodness”

Luscious Jackson- “Faith”

Les Savy Fav – “Reprobate’s Resume”

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – “Secret Xtians”

David Bowie – “Starman”

Goldfrapp – I Wanna Life”

Mastodon – “Sleeping Giant”

R.E.M. – “Hairshirt”

Rachel Portman – “Snow Story”

Zola Jesus – “Collapse”

DJ Danger Mouse – “Change Clothes”

Beach House – “Take Care”

Human League – “Don’t You Want Me”

Quotation of the Day

"And now, years after I'd given up the search, here was some charlatan advertising in the newspaper for the very same young dreamer that I'd been fifteen years ago.

But this still doesn't explain my outrage, does it?

Try this: You've been in love with someone for a decade - someone who barely knows you're alive. You've done everything, tried everything to make this person see that you're a valuable, estimable person, and that your love is worth something. Then one day you open up the paper and glance at the Personals column, and there you see that your loved one has placed an ad...seeking someone worthwhile to love and be loved by."

- Daniel Quinn, "Ishmael"