Self Indulgent Artists

If you are not indulging your self
you are not working hard
enough.

Your aim
is too low.

commmunity values

I like this, this Austin William’s critique of the “New New Urbanism” in the TLS.

A critique of the patronising, paternalsitic assumption that “community values could be built into the very fabric of architecture”, so as to create citizens.

“practically all architecture now attempts to force social solidarity into existence and, by definition, condemns those who do not conform”.

This feels familiar.

Legacy

So

It seems the Cultural Legacy of the Olympics will be a gutted public funding system.

pyre

I thought I was in the midst of a Pyric victory, but found there is no such word. What I had meant was Pyrrhic. A victory from an ancient war lost. But no, I hadn’t meant that either, as I had no soldiers to burn but myself on a pyre of my own making.
I am smoldering in the night.

Pointless

...
Verses written when I’m drunk,
Attract no admiration when sung.


What I want to know is did Lu Tsun-i’ s dream at the end of Water Margin indicate an awareness, an acknowledgment, of the spiraling vortex of murder rape and general injustice that the 108 heroes of Liang Shan Po created and gloried in in their pursuit of survival, righteousness and harmony under heaven?

Or is it pointless to even wonder?

Ever.


Shi Naian, you old fucker you.

PRESENTS

Once again..

Herodotus says that Darius, after chasing the Scythians around the lands north of the Black Sea for weeks to no effect, sent a message to Idanthyrus, the Scythian king.

‘ Why on earth, strange man,’ the message ran, ‘do you keep on running away? You have, surely, a choice of two alternatives: if you think yourself strong enough to oppose me, stand up and fight, instead of wandering all over the world in your efforts to escape me; or if you admit that you are too weak, what is the good, even so, of running away? You should rather send earth and water to your master as a sign of submission, and come to a conference.’

‘Persian,’ Idanthyrus replied, ‘I have never yet run away from any man in fear; and I am not doing so now from you. There is, for me nothing unusual in what I have been doing: it is precisely the sort of life I always lead, even in times of peace... I will send you no gifts of earth and water, but others more suitable..’

The Scythians continued to harass the Persian army at a distance, enticing them ever onwards but never fully engaging them in decisive action. ... a stratagem to keep them longer in the country and reduce them in the end to distress from lack of supplies.
...until at last Darius did not know where to turn, and the Scythians, seeing his acute embarrassment, sent him his promised presents - a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows. The Persians asked the man who brought these things what they signified, but got no reply. The man’s orders - so he said - were merely to deliver them, and to return home as quickly as he could: the Persians themselves, if they were clever, could find out what the presents meant. Thereupon the Persians put their heads together, and Darius expressed the view that the Scythians were giving him earth and water and intended to surrender: mice, he reasoned, live on the ground and eat the same food as men; frogs live in water; birds are much like horses; and the arrows symbolised the Scythian power, which they were giving into his hands. Gobryas, however (one of the seven conspirators who put down the Magus), by no means agreed with him, but interpreted the gifts as saying: ‘Unless you Persians turn into birds and fly up in the air, or into mice and burrow under ground, or into frogs and jump into lakes, you will never get home again, but stay here in this country, only to be shot by the Scythian arrows.'

While the Persians were thus interpreting the gifts...-the Scythians were cutting off their escape and trying to persuade the Greek navy, Persia’s allies at the time, to leave the Danube, taking their bridge with them. Darius eventually figured out this much and was able to escape by the skin of his teeth. Thereafter, he left the Scythians well enough alone.

a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows.
the Persians themselves, if they were clever, could find out what the presents meant.

Art is a gift that fucks with your head.

Decision Making

Hey fuckers,

I was reading some Herodotus and was struck by his report of decision making as practiced by the "Persians".

H says,

"If an important decision is to be made, they discuss the question when they are drunk, and the following day the master of the house where the discussion was held submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober, is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk."

Whether or not this was true, I think it' sounds like a fabulous process. 

I propose that we should adapt all our juries and think tank exercises to include the above mechanisation!  The results could not be any more compromised than they already are, all that sober silence, shrewd ass coverage and friendly empty banter.  

Uncork the wine and let the libidinous conversation flow!

... then we can reconsider later...