Speaking of which, Kant on Fire, and many other interesting pomo diversions, courtesy of someone who has purposely and annoyingly obscured their real identity in the name of ironic subjectivity quashing:



posted by neel master at 1:06 AM

Zizek 'splains Nietzsche.

Active nihilism, in the sense of wanting nothing itself, is this active self-destruction which would be precisely the passion of the real - the idea that, in order to live fully and authentically, you must engage in self-destruction. On the other hand, there is passive nihilism, what Nietzsche called 'The last man' - just living a stupid, self-satisfied life without great passions.

posted by neel master at 12:40 AM

Hannibal Lecter's Harrowing of Hell

Toward the end of Hannibal, the new sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Sir Anthony Hopkins, in the title role, is wheeled on an upright gurney into the pit of a sunken livestock pen. Bound, with arms outstretched at right angles from his chest, his predicament is meant to call to mind the crucifixion, with two subtle differences: 1) He is an erudite cannibal rather than a rabblerousing rabbi; 2) He is about to be eaten by a pig.
[...]Generally a serial killer on a cross would seem the height of banal irreverence: the kind of vague biblical reference befitting an audience with vague knowledge of the Bible. A closer look at Hannibal, however, suggests there is something truly interesting happening here; that, finally, a religiously significant statement has been made in Hollywood's blockbuster vernacular.

posted by neel master at 2:33 AM

Scott Yanow's All Music Guide essay on Free jazz
posted by neel master at 2:15 AM

I've been listening to a bunch of Ornette Coleman's later stuff. Soapsuds, Soapsuds; Body Meta; and Tone Dialing. This later-period Ornette stuff is a treasure trove. This article calls Soapsuds, Soapsuds "screechy," but that's baloney. Everything about this album is gentle, from the title onward.
posted by neel master at 2:12 AM

Good Ornette Coleman synopsis

Ornette begins sessions by explaining his musical conception in very dense, puzzling terms, but when it comes time to perform he says "Just go ahead and play, man." His oldest sideman, Charlie Haden, had already been similarly drawn to this free-jazz experience in the late 1950s, when, as he relates in the People, Ornette told him: "Here are some chord changes, but you don't have to play them. Just play what you hear." Haden's response was like that of many a modern jazz player since: "Man, I had so much fun I couldn't believe it. It was spontaneity like I had never experienced before. Each note was a universe. Each note was your life."

posted by neel master at 2:06 AM

Woah. It was a near-panic earlier today when I was unable to reach Arts & Letters Daily. Luckily, this happened when I checked in just now:

"Apologies to readers for a server fault earlier today that had us unavailable for nearly seven hours. — The Editors"

posted by neel master at 4:29 PM