Letzte Worte by Werner Herzog (1968).

I am not there where friends treat the malingering,
chronic illness of their gloomy souls with wine drinking:
I am alone, my evening tea is brewing,
friend to no one, no friends for me, I'm thinking.

Phallic games, that used
to attract me, now make me nauseous,
the monk takes his whip in hand to calm his sex,
but even under the whip I'm not inspired to tenderness.
I don't care what time it is, what century.
Why do I need fame in the contemporary,
when the time of those boyhood dreams
has passed, those when the world seemed many-headed?

It's pleasant to be conscious of having known the essence,
but the essence of essence, alas, is unobtainable,
and we all pass on - and that makes sense,
and to glance at oneself we are never able.

 - Leonid Aronzon.

Picture: 'Silhouette du peintre' by Leon Spilliaert (1907).

Pyramid - Song for Bobby.

Playlist of recent uploads to my channel of forty 1920s recordings of sisters Jelly d'Aranyi and Adila Fachiri.

   The hermit had taken up his quarters in the wooded region, so well hidden that what they call a stroke of luck was necessary in order to find him. But I say that this stroke of luck is none other than identification, you can only find the hermit by suffering his solitude, the movement is unique, produced by a single mechanism. And that is the illusion.

   Miaille listened to these simple words and accepted another drink that the other man poured for him.
   The number two, the most imperfect of all.
   And the notion of a homeland is dwindling, any sort of identification has become impossible.
   Unless the hermit himself cultivates it, warped by his sorrow, and welcomes the exile as his double, everything would have to start anew, go from division to division, and culminate in the mortal number, one plus one equals nothingness.

- Robert Pinget (Fable, 1971).

Picture: 1911 set design by Leon Bakst for Mansion (act) Four 'The Wounded Laurel' from 'Le Martyre de saint Sébastien' by Claude Debussy and Gabriele d'Annunzio.

Gong Ensemble of the Bahnar - Sacrifice to the Communal House (Soi Yang Rông): Sa Kobô (Eating). 

'My mind will be a treasure-house of art, swept and garnished and strong and at its best.'

- Mary MacLane (I Await the Devil's Coming, 1902).

Picture: "Art Lover" cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post by Stevan Dohanos (3rd March 1956).

“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like?…”

“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…”

- Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden, 1911).

Picture: "Rain in Britain" by Maurice Denis (1889).

On Easter Monday young men used to raid the homes of their chosen girls and duck them (no less) in ponds or wells. In the cities water was replaced with a deluge of scent. The girl had to respond with a gift of a carnation; and debonair lads paraded the evening streets sporting several.

- Joseph Macleod (The Sisters d'Aranyi, 1969)

Picture: "Carnation and Cloth of Gold" by Salvador Dali (1950).

Girl of Carnations by Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1913)

Simon George by Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1533)

"One day, as I viewed the faded portrait of a young girl in an album, someone passed who spoke a name...

"And so I knew you; having heard your name, you, I shall dream of you."

- Edourard Dujardin (Antonia, 1891).

Picture: My photo detail of Jelly d'Aranyi from a photo of the three d'Aranyi sisters.

Joseph Macleod - To an Unborn Child (1957).

One of my favourite poets. I would not say this poem is particularly representative of his poetry but it is the only recording I have come across. Well worth taking the time to seek out his work.

Good sources: 

http://www.joseph.macleod.it/

http://www.waterloopresshove.co.uk/#/joseph-macleod-2012/4571490806

Jelly D'Aranyi plays Tomaso Vitali: Chaconne.

‎"If you are on your own for a long time and get used to being alone and are more or less trained in loneliness, then you begin to discover more and more in places which, for normal people, are essentially bare. On the wall you discover cracks, fine cracks, uneven patches, vermin. There is a tremendous movement on the walls. In actual fact the wall and the page of a book completely resemble one another."

- Thomas Bernhard (Three Days, in The Italians, 1972).

Picture: "The Wall" by Yevgeny Rukhin (1962-63).


Words etched in Russian read "Sasha is a jerk" and "Prick"

Midnight Groover + Pierrot = Christiane Colletin - Four a Chabon la.

"Masculinity and femininity, as they are usually understood, are obstacles to humanity¹ [...] Only a gentle masculinity, only an autonomous femininity are right, true and beautiful. And if this is so, one must not further exaggerate the character of the sex in any way [...] but rather seek to soften it by means of counter-measures, so that everyone in what is proper to him or her, is able to find a space as boundless as possible in which to move freely, according to pleasure and love, in the entire sphere of humanity"

- Friedrich Schlegel (On Philosophy - To Dorothea. An open letter to Brendel Veit in Volume 2 (1) of his Athenaeum journal, 1799).

Picture: "Penthésilée – Pentesiléia" by Raul Ubac (1937).
(Penthesilea was the Amazon Queen who went to die in the Trojan war after killing Hippolyta)

1. This first part of the quote is widely attributed online to Karoline von Günderrode, pretty much wherever her name is mentioned, from Wikipedia onwards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoline_von_Günderrode). Whilst the idea would no doubt fit her writing I can find no evidence in my books or online that she actually wrote it, and those that quote it do not indicate a source. I am certain, on the other hand, though that Schlegel committed the lines to paper in the place cited. I have a correction/query pending with Wikipedia etc but if anyone happens to have a better knowledge of Karoline von Günderrode's work and can set me straight then please do. Till then I am chalking it up as another in my win column in the battle of Me v Internet.

DJ. Giovanni Turiaco - Living in the Past (1981).

The old man heard
A crying against his knee and looked down at the eyes
Of his hound-bitch; he said, "You are wrong, Snap-
per. It is no harm. We shall have less distraction
now.
Death and departure are not evil things. I tell you sadly,
every person that leaves
A place, improves it: the mourners at every funeral know
that
In their shamed hearts: and when the sociable races of
man and dog are done with, what a shining wonder
This world will be."

- Robinson Jeffers, from "The Double Axe, Part II: The Inhumanist" (1948).

Picture: Illustration by Ksawery Kozminski from "Tales & Legends From Poland" by Julie Laguirande-Duval (1929).

Alex Oriental Experience - Die Gunst Der Stunde.

Fleeting are the times of love; enduring the hoppings of the little serf whose gaze you ennoble.

The long weariness of enslavements, and of muffled struggles and feebleness. Its wretched paltry irony is without a smile; a modicum of pity for the eternal captive, the one doomed to ill-chosen downfalls.

After the crisis and the calm, in the momentary silence, listen in all serenity to its voices, the voices of your time gone by.

- Gustave Kahn (Voice in the Park from Les Palais Nomades, 1887).

Picture: "The Hesitant Betrothed" by Auguste Toulmouche (1866).

Even if not interested in the reading course the quotes atop each page form the finest collection of book related quotes I have ever come across.

Guide To Daily Reading by Asa Don Dickinson.

From, "What Shall I Eat? The Housewife’s Manual" by Miss E. Neill, (1892)

Priorities straight.

Erwin Schulhoff - Sonata Erotica (1919).

"He raises himself slightly; the face disperses. The surface of the water, as before, is dappled and the vision has returned. But Narcissus tells himself that to kiss it is impossible, he does not need to desire an image; a gesture to possess it, will tear it. He is alone. What to do? Contemplate.
Religious and grave, he now recovers his calm serenity: he remains - a symbol that grows - and brooding over the semblance of the World, vaguely feels the transient generations of humanity re-absorbed into him."

- André Gide (The Tractate Narcissus [The Theory of Symbols], 1891)

Picture: 1903 print of "Narcissus" by J. K. Le Blon.

Yasuaki Shimizu - Kakashi.

"do I write intelligable I am genneraly understood tho I do not use that awkward squad of pointings called commas colons semicolons etc and for the very reason that altho they are drilled hourly daily and weekly by every boarding school Miss who pretends to gossip in correspondence… Those who have made grammar up into a system and cut it into classes and orders as the student does the animal or vegetable creation may be a fine recreation for schools but it becomes of no use towards making any one so far acquainted with it as to find it useful—it will only serve to puzzle and mislead to awe and intimidate instead of aiding and encouraging him therefore it pays nothing for the study"

- John Clare (quoted in Jeffrey Robinson’s "Romantic Presences").

Picture: Page from Timothy Dexter's "A Pickle for the Knowing Ones; or Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress" (1848). Dexter's book contained no punctuation, and when people complained about the lack he added an extra page of punctuation marks and instructed readers to “peper and solt it as they plese”.

Midori Takada - Through The Looking Glass.

To Rebecca Friedländer in Berlin (Frau von F.) Berlin, December 14, 1807

Read this letter as if it arrived next week. I wrote it yesterday. It's a good one.

    Even though speaking and writing don't help anything, one should not stop speaking and writing! This dismal sentence, of which each half is true only in itself, is only a joke! This morning I wasn't being clear; and you didn't understand me either. What we talked about is too important to me and it reached a point where it must be made clear - all the more since our current half-understanding would have to lead to a wrong-understanding - that I not pursue it with you with all my strength and best insight.

    What we really understand by the word human is that creature which engages in rational associations with its peers, in a relationship with a consciousness that we ourselves are able to shape, and are even compelled to shape continually. Whatever we may be, whatever we may do, we all have the need to be lovable. All of us follow this beautiful, pure, most human, lovable instinct. In the highest sense - but also down to the most disparate - the whole life-web of humans as humans is nothing but this, modified into infinity. In you - as in any delicate, lively soul - this need is also very keen. But what in the world is more lovable - and happier - than a soul open to everything that can happen to human beings! And what else yields a purer frame of mind than this very condition, which through its permanence, through its sheer existence elevates and propagates itself! The entire world gains you and you gain the entire world! Give up the idea - still the mistaken idea of so many good people - that you can comprehend but one object with your whole soul. Impress upon yourself the thought that for one moment the conviction takes root in you of what it is like to be lovable, and you are it! It is not, as you wrote me today, "work" which I demand - something you are incapable of today, something of which one is always incapable - rather I demand one moment of conviction, one moment of healthy attitude.

    More humiliated than I one cannot be, more sorrow one cannot enjoy; a greater misfortune in everything one values most or least one does not experience, any greater loss one does not see; a more painful youth up to the age of eighteen one does not experience, more ill one cannot be, or nearer insanity; and I have loved. But when did the world not speak to me, when didn't everything human affect me, every human interest: suffering and art and jest! The moment pain and a searing longing tear the soul apart can't one, shouldn't one want to unearth the treasures of one's mind? That is when one must feed on one's supply, the supply of treasures, the supply of highest human interests, of human interest. Don't tell me that only natural gifts enable one to do this, and that I, for example, shouldn't compare myself with you. Anyone who can reason as you can about various matters has the power: only your interest lies in the wrong direction.

    An educated human being is not the one whom nature has treated extravagantly; an educated human being is one who uses his talents benevolently, wisely, and appropriately in the highest manner: who wants to do this in earnest; who can gaze steadily where he is lacking and realize what he lacks. To my mind this is a duty and not a gift; and this alone constitutes for me an educated human. That's why I want you to see what you have failed to do. This raises one more to a general level - à généraliser - so that the general does not lead to the specific, but the other way round. This is very lovable; this would make you entirely lovable. This you can achieve; for it comes suddenly through a thought; just as the opposite came to you also through a thought. And I repeat what I have already said: people like us will only get well when they conceive the greatest loathing for being sick; when they are permeated with the idea that to be healthy is highly lovable. You can't imagine how convinced I am: I'd like to give you that conviction in a potion. But it will work, I'm sure! Just be very coquettish!

 - Rahel Varnhagen.

Picture: Pencil drawing of Rahel Varnhagen by Wilhelm Hensel (1822).

Clang and Fury by Anders Hillborg.

"I longed for more books and fewer tasks to occupy me."

- Anna Luisa Karsch (Autobiographical Letter to Professor Sulzer, 1st Sept, 1762)

Picture: "Woman Reading Under A Lamp" lithograph by József Rippl-Rónai commissioned by Sigefried Bing for the August 1894 issue of La Revue Blanche.

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Shinjuku dorobō nikki) by Nagisa Ōshima (1969).

Full film with (slightly dodgy) subtitles.

The sight of a reason, the same sight slighter, the sight of a simpler negative answer, the same sore sounder, the intention to wishing, the same splendor, the same furniture.

- Gertrude Stein (Tender Buttons - A Piece of Coffee, 1914)

Picture: "L'attesa" by Felice Casorati (1919).

Eddie Harris - I Don't Want Nobody.

Georges Cziffra testing a piano prior to performance.

I think he could work with it...

"I am finished. Thank-you"

Masami Kawahara & The Exotic Sounds - Ecstasy.

Eric Lanham - The Sincere Interruption.

"Mlle de Bauret had a taste for literature and the arts, but her literary knowledge only began with the end of the nineteenth century - in other words it was non-existent. She saw and judged the world through the pet theories of a few fashionable authors: for example, she honestly believed that every man had been in love with his mother as a child, and if someone confessed to her that he had been tempted to push a stranger under a tram, she would say to him: 'You've been reading too much Gide' - at which her companion would stare at her blankly, having never heard of the author of Les Nourritures Terestres. She proclaimed a cinema clown called Charlie Chaplin a genius. When she lapsed in to reverie, she called it an 'interior monologue'. When M. de Coantré told her that Uncle Octave was reluctant to face reality, she translated it into her jargon thus: 'He is taking refuge in escapism.' And so on. This infantilism of mind gave her, at the age of twenty-five, the same sort of silliness as a sixteen-year-old who enters the class of philosophy and discovers the human mind and soul through the manuals of M. Paulin Malapert. In politics, needless to say, Mlle de Bauret had progressive ideas.
Mlle de Bauret's real failing, which was partly the failing of her age and partly of the period in which she lived, was that she regarded novelty as synonymous with value. This is a sure sign of barbarism: in any society, it is always the people with the lowest intelligence who long to be 'in the swim'. Incapable of assessing anything by thier own taste, culture and discrimination, they automatically judge a problem in accordance with the principle that what is new is true."

- Henry de Montherlant (The Bachelors, 1934).

Picture: "Amusement" by Kees van Dongen (1914).

The holiest of all holidays are those
Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;
The secret anniversaries of the heart,

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (from Holidays)

Picture: "Le Chartier du Quartier Latin" by André Kertész (1934)

Jimmy Giuffre - Mobiles: Movements 1-16.