EXT. COUNTRY WEDDING near the cheese board

A man rushes at a woman, smacking the plate she holds out of her hands.

                                   MAN 1
                     You had a prune on your plate!

"... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life."

Alan Ball, American Beauty

Memorable Quotes of the Weekend.

"We work in a container..."
"It is not a container! It is the Department of Innovation!"

"I'm just going to have a bit of a climb."

"I NEED TO GO TO THE TOILET!"

The Fountain.

My dear, your eyes are weary;
Rest them a little while.
Assume the languid posture
Of pleasure mixed with guile.
Outside the talkative fountain
Continues night and day
Repeating my warm passion
In whatever it has to say.

             The sheer luminous gown
                           The fountain wears
             Where Phoebe’s very own
                           Color appears
             Falls like a summer rain
                           Or shawl of tears.

Thus your soul ignited
By pleasure’s lusts and needs
Sprays into heaven’s reaches
And dreams of fiery deeds.
Then it brims over, dying,
And languorous, apart,
Drains down some slope and enters
The dark well of my heart.

             The sheer luminous gown
                           The fountain wears
             Where Phoebe’s very own
                           Color appears
             Falls like a summer rain
                           Or shawl of tears.

O you, whom night enhances,
How sweet here at your breasts
To hear the eternal sadness
Of water that never rests.
O moon, o singing fountain,
O leaf-thronged night above,
You are the faultless mirrors
Of my sweet, bitter love.

             The sheer luminous gown
                           The fountain wears
             Where Phoebe’s very own
                           Color appears
             Falls like a summer rain
                           Or shawl of tears.

Charles Baudelaire

Translated by Anthony Hecht

What did you understand to be the purpose of philosophy and your role as a philosopher?

...The point of philosophy is not 'What is the structure of all?' but 'What are the concepts the scientist already has to presuppose in order to formulate the question?' It is simply asking about what is already there: what conceptual, and other, presuppositions already have to be there so that you can say what you are saying, so that you understand what you understand, so that you know that you are doing what you are doing.

Conversations with Žižek, Slavoj Žižek and Glyn Daly

'7 September
"I get lost in conversations. Most often I derive nothing from them but dejection and bitterness. In them I compromise my inner life, everything that is best in me. In order to keep the conversation going I throw into it my favourite thoughts, the ones to which I am most secretly and solicitously attached. My shy and awkward speech disfigures, mutilates them, throwing them out into the bright light in disorder and confusion and only half-dressed. When I go away I gather up and hug to my breast my scattered treasure, trying to put back into place dreams that are bruised like fruit fallen from the tree onto rocks."

Maurice de Guerin

Memorable Quotes of the Weekend.

"Before you can begin your new life you have to let go."

"What's the first rule baby?"
"Never prove yourself to someone."

"I won't be the same with you in front of the others."

"You can't be lost."

A Season in Hell.

Once, if my memory serves me well, my life was a banquet where every heart revealed itself, where every wine flowed.

One evening I took Beauty in my arms - and I thought her bitter - and I insulted her.

I steeled myself against justice.

I fled. O witches, O misery, O hate, my treasure was left in your care!

I have withered within me all human hope. With the silent leap of a sullen beast, I have downed and strangled every joy.

I have called for executioners; I want to perish chewing on their gun butts. I have called for plagues, to suffocate in sand and blood. Unhappiness has been my god. I have lain down in the mud, and dried myself off in the crime-infested air. I have played the fool to the point of madness.

And springtime brought me the frightful laugh of an idiot.

Now recently, when I found myself ready to croak! I thought to seek the key to the banquet of old, where I might find an appetite again.

That key is Charity. - This idea proves I was dreaming!

"You will stay a hyena, etc...," shouts the demon who once crowned me with such pretty poppies. "Seek death with all your desires, and all selfishness, and all the Seven Deadly Sins."

Ah! I've taken too much of that: - still, dear Satan, don't look so annoyed, I beg you! And while waiting for a few belated cowardices, since you value in a writer all lack of descriptive or didactic flair, I pass you these few foul pages from the diary of a Damned Soul.

Arthur Rimbaud

In women
I see
Their blogs, their cups of tea.
Our search for beauty,
Truth,
Humanity.

[Cuverville] 17 June
     Mius is gaining skill in hybridizing flowers; and I have finally succeeded in convincing him that, in the beds of seedlings thus obtained, the least robust varieties often gave the most beautiful flowers. But it is only with great difficulty that I can get him to set aside the common, vigorous varieties that can get along without his attentions, in order to favour those that are harder to cultivate and require his care.
     If among her artists, Greece does not count a single Spartan, is this not because Sparta threw her puny children into pits?
     Impossible to get Mius to admit that, in order to assure selection, it is not enough to prefer the delicate and rare variety, that its difficult victory over the commoner varieties must be assured by suppressing the latter in its vicinity.
     To avoid argument he pretends to clear my garden of them; but I find them a little later, transplanted in some corner, just as rugged as the rare variety is fragile, and infinitely prolific. In less than two years they have won back their place; the exquisite has disappeared, stifled by the commonplace. Because, for flowers too, 'the exquisite is as difficult as it is rare'; and however beautiful the most modest flower of the fields may be, one's heart weeps to think that the most beautiful always has the least chance of survival. It is at one and the same time the least gifted for the struggle and the one that most arouses appetites and jealousies. Oh, if only man, instead of so often contributing to the spreading of the vulgar, instead of systematically pursuing with his hatred or his cupidity the natural ornament of the earth, the most colourful butterfly, the most charming bird, the largest flower; if he brought his ingenuity to bear on protecting, not on destroying but favouring . . .
     Were a miracle to produce in our woods some astounding orchid, a thousand hands would stretch out to tear it up, to destroy it. If the bluebird happens to fly past, every gun is sighted; and then people are amazed that it is rare!

- Journals 1889-1949, André Gide

all purpose is purposeless
all meaning is meaningless
but what you gonna do
you gotta get through the day

so some people jog
and some people write
and we all have facebook

"You can avoid being a neurotic if you stop obsessively analysing what you imagine to be your character: never mind your faults, stop moaning about your complexes, do not pour out confessions about what you can and cannot do, like or desire. Treat each meeting with a person as an independent event. 'A geisha is always ready to produce pleasure without considering her own needs.' Put aside personal ambitions and the expectations you have of yourself. Learn to be a geisha by being, first of all, a geisha to your own body; look after it, cook meals for yourself when you are alone as though giving yourself a treat; look after your mind by feeding it with poetry and music. Avoid creating an excessively rigid idea of your desires. Look upon yourself as an amoeba, floating through life, dividing: do not be afraid of losing your identity. Or look upon yourself as a collection of electric light bulbs: do not put all the electricity into a single bulb, or it will explode; allow your energy to circulate freely through the many sides of yourself. The looser, the more open and limitless your identity, the better. Treat your emotions as a garden needing to be kept tidy. Be generous, and that will stimulate new resources within yourself, new ideas. Follow the 'laws of nature'. It is up to you."

- An Intimate History of Humanity, Theodore Zeldin

Other ways to answer 'How are you?'

1. Hmm, yes, I am.
2. Egotistical and anxious thanks.
3. I'm not sure how to answer that question but it may have something to do with stars.
4. Why? Would you like to compare?
5. In a world of pain, you?
6. Operating.
7. Functioning.
8. (Silence.)

Marina Abramović: An Artist's Life

1. An artist’s conduct in his life:
– An artist should not lie to himself or others
– An artist should not steal ideas from other artists
– An artist should not compromise for themselves or in regards to the art market
– An artist should not kill other human beings
– An artist should not make themselves into an idol
– An artist should not make themselves into an idol
– An artist should not make themselves into an idol


2. An artist’s relation to his love life:
– An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist
– An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist
– An artist should avoid falling in love with another artist


3. An artist’s relation to the erotic:
– An artist should develop an erotic point of view on the world
– An artist should be erotic
– An artist should be erotic
– An artist should be erotic


4. An artist’s relation to suffering:
– An artist should suffer
– From the suffering comes the best work
– Suffering brings transformation
– Through the suffering an artist transcends their spirit
– Through the suffering an artist transcends their spirit
– Through the suffering an artist transcends their spirit


5. An artist’s relation to depression:
– An artist should not be depressed
– Depression is a disease and should be cured
– Depression is not productive for an artist
– Depression is not productive for an artist
– Depression is not productive for an artist


6. An artist’s relation to suicide:
– Suicide is a crime against life
– An artist should not commit suicide
– An artist should not commit suicide
– An artist should not commit suicide


7. An artist’s relation to inspiration:
– An artist should look deep inside themselves for inspiration
– The deeper they look inside themselves, the more universal they become
– The artist is universe
– The artist is universe
– The artist is universe


8. An artist’s relation to self-control:
– The artist should not have self-control about his life
– The artist should have total self-control about his work
– The artist should not have self-control about his life
– The artist should have total self-control about his work


9. An artist’s relation with transparency:
– The artist should give and receive at the same time
– Transparency means receptive
– Transparency means to give
– Transparency means to receive
– Transparency means receptive
– Transparency means to give
– Transparency means to receive
– Transparency means receptive
– Transparency means to give
– Transparency means to receive


10. An artist’s relation to symbols:
– An artist creates his own symbols
– Symbols are an artist’s language
– The language must then be translated
– Sometimes it is difficult to find the key
– Sometimes it is difficult to find the key
– Sometimes it is difficult to find the key


11. An artist’s relation to silence:
– An artist has to understand silence
– An artist has to create a space for silence to enter his work
– Silence is like an island in the middle of a turbulent ocean
– Silence is like an island in the middle of a turbulent ocean
– Silence is like an island in the middle of a turbulent ocean


12. An artist’s relation to solitude:
– An artist must make time for the long periods of solitude
– Solitude is extremely important
– Away from home
– Away from the studio
– Away from family
– Away from friends
– An artist should stay for long periods of time at waterfalls
– An artist should stay for long periods of time at exploding volcanoes
– An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the fast running rivers
– An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the horizon where the ocean and sky meet
– An artist should stay for long periods of time looking at the stars in the night sky


13. An artist’s conduct in relation to work:
– An artist should avoid going to the studio every day
– An artist should not treat his work schedule as a bank employee does
– An artist should explore life and work only when an idea comes to him in a dream or during the day as a vision that arises as a surprise
– An artist should not repeat himself
– An artist should not overproduce
– An artist should avoid his own art pollution
– An artist should avoid his own art pollution
– An artist should avoid his own art pollution


14. An artist’s possessions:
– Buddhist monks advise that it is best to have nine possessions in their life:
1 robe for the summer
1 robe for the winter
1 pair of shoes
1 begging bowl for food
1 mosquito net
1 prayer book
1 umbrella
1 mat to sleep on
1 pair of glasses if needed
– An artist should decide for himself the minimum personal possessions they should have
– An artist should have more and more of less and less
– An artist should have more and more of less and less
– An artist should have more and more of less and less


15. A list of an artist’s friends:
– An artist should have friends that lift their spirits
– An artist should have friends that lift their spirits
– An artist should have friends that lift their spirits


16. A list of an artist’s enemies:
– Enemies are very important
– The Dalai Lama has said that it is easy to have compassion with friends but much more difficult to have compassion with enemies
– An artist has to learn to forgive
– An artist has to learn to forgive
– An artist has to learn to forgive


17. Different death scenarios:
– An artist has to be aware of his own mortality
– For an artist, it is not only important how he lives his life but also how he dies
– An artist should look at the symbols of his work for the signs of different death scenarios
– An artist should die consciously without fear
– An artist should die consciously without fear
– An artist should die consciously without fear


18. Different funeral scenarios:
– An artist should give instructions before the funeral so that everything is done the way he wants it
– The funeral is the artist’s last art piece before leaving
– The funeral is the artist’s last art piece before leaving
– The funeral is the artist’s last art piece before leaving

Love, like a kitten, is a distraction.