long live achilles in the alleyway!

"some people preferred my first-period songs. some, the second. some, the christian period. some, the post-columbian. some, the pre-raphaelite. some people prefer my songs from the nineties. i see that my audience now doesn’t particularly care what period the songs are from. they feel style and substance in a more visceral way and let it go at that. images don’t hang anybody up. like if there’s an astrologer with a criminal record in one of my songs it’s not going to make anybody wonder if the human race is doomed... if there are shadows and flowers and swampy ledges in a composition, that’s what they are in their essence. there’s no mystification. that’s one way i can explain it." -bob dylan

"nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. if change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy." -w. somerset maugham

"to predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence." -friedrich nietzsche

lux interior
rest in peace
"lux interior, frontman for horror punk outfit the cramps, gained a loyal following over the band's decades-long career as much for his gender-bending visual aesthetic and raucous live performances as the group's groundbreaking music. henry rollins, vocalist for black flag and rollins band, spoken-word artist and radio host,spoke to the times' august brown about his memories of the punk rock icon, who died of a heart condition." ... story continues here: henry rollins remembers lux interior (la times)

marc weitzmann: "you had a happy childhood. there was no divorce, no looming threats; you had two loving, hardworking parents, and your experience of life was ordered and predictable. but what characterizes your books is precisely the opposite. from my life as a man to exit ghost, you are obsessed with the untamed, the unpredictable, the details. in portnoy's complaint, for instance, you focus on something as trivial as the hard-on and masturbation, and they provoke a meditation on the most primitive aspects of family life. do you think your way of meditating has largely to do with you being a writer?"

philip roth: "'as trivial as the hard-on?' tell that to othello. one can be trivialized by a hard-on, but you know as well as i do the ecstasy and the havoc that can be wrought by the male member erect. where would literature be without the hard-on? where would the species be?"

"if we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams." -yann martel

patrick mcgoohan
rest in peace
"sad news today as the los angeles times reports that patrick mcgoohan has died. best known to one generation as number six from the prisoner and to another as edward longshanks in braveheart, mcgoohan had a career that spanned nearly half a century. he also wore many hats as, in addition to being an actor, he also produced, directed and wrote for several television series that he was closely involved with, such as the aforementioned the prisoner, danger man (known as secret agent man in the u.s.) and a number of columbo tv movies" ... story continues here: ‘the prisoner’ finally free - patrick mcgoohan 1928-2009

"it has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues." -abraham lincoln

richard seaver
rest in peace
"richard seaver, an editor, translator and publisher who defied censorship, societal prudishness and conventional literary standards to bring works by rabble-rousing authors like samuel beckett, henry miller, william burroughs and the marquis de sade to american readers, died tuesday at his home in manhattan. he was 82" ... story continues here: ground-breaking publisher, dies at 82 (herald tribune)

"downloads and ipods are all very well, but for many musicians, your latest song just hasn't been released until it's been forced on to a small, grooved plastic disc at a pressure of more than 2,000 lb per square inch" ... story continues here: revived 45 heads for 60th birthday (bbc news)

"nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. if change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy." -w. somerset maugham