'Patton' tribute from college days



Cagey's listening to

Poem: "The Picket Guard"

by Ethyl Lynn Beers

``ALL quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
'Tis nothing! a private or two now and then
Will not count in the news of a battle;
Not an officer lost, only one of the men
Moaning out, all alone, the death rattle.


All quiet along the Potomac to-night!
Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming;
And their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon,
And the light of their camp-fires are gleaming.
A tremulous sigh, as a gentle night-wind
Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping;
While the stars up above, with their glittering eyes,
Keep guard o'er the army sleeping.
There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread
As he tramps from the rock to the fountain,
And thinks of the two on the low trundel bed,
Far away, in the cot on the mountain.


His musket falls slack, his face, dark and grim,
Grows gentle with memories tender,
As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep,
And their mother--"may heaven defend her!"
The moon seems to shine forth as brightly as then--
That night, when the love, yet unspoken,
Leaped up to his lips, and when low-murmured vows
Were pledged to be ever unbroken.


Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes,
He dashes off tears that are welling;
And gathers the gun closer up to his breast
As if to keep down his heart's swelling.
He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree,
And his footstep is lagging and weary;
Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light,
Towards the shades of the forest so dreary.


Hark! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves?
Was it the moonlight so wondrously flashing?
It looked like a rifle: "Ha! Mary, good-by!"
And his life-blood is ebbing and plashing.
"All quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
No sound save the rush of the river;
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead,
And the picket's off duty forever!

Interpreted as song: (LINK)

Cagey's listening to

Underworld - Peach Tree



Underworld - Moon in Water



Underworld - Born Slippy

Cagey's listening to

Bach - Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major BWV1007 - Mov. 1-3/6

Stuck in my head all day, and thank high Heaven for the internet that I could find it (and also for Heaven's gifts).




Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings

I believe this was the title music for 'The Endurance', one of my favorite documentaries. Update: I learned that this piece is also associated with the 1986 Academy Award (Best Picture) winning 'Platoon'. (The movie my dad was willing to bend the 'R' rating rule for in order for me to see for some reason... but we never made it to the theater.)



Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man (tribute by Asia)



A mega-group playing under the pseudonym "Passengers", with Luciano Pavarotti, from an enigmatic album first heard during my college radio station days...



David Sylvian & Sakamoto Ryuichi, "Forbidden Colours"



David Sylvian & Sakamoto Ryuichi, "Heartbeat/Tainai Kaiki II"

It speaks to ghosts and souls alike
Springs to life, and doesn't think twice
Wrapped in the blood sail
Bathed in snow
Nailed to the source and it won't let go
Fed on the Bible, grown from trees
It opened the mind and the heart was free
A home in the silence, safe from sound
Where trouble sleeps and the light is found

Cagey's listening to

Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2

My pa's favorite composer...

Becarac/'ganga' conquers the space

Given my musical tastes, what you're about to see will probably seems quite off-kilter; I caught this clip of a Bosnian becarac on a learning channel, also called a "polyphonic ganga" it's a song (of lament?) with a mesmerizing dissonant quality --- its appeal to me is in that it is used to communicate folklore, it is rooted in the traditions of the people, it is passionate, impromptu and authentic. It made me also think about the younger, teenage 'critical me' that would point and laugh at this sort of thing and not open myself enough to find beauty in uniqueness. Glad that's long gone.

Additional resources:

http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=1237

(At 11:45) “Ganga” a genre sung outdoors in groups, reflects the culture of the Bosnian highlander community. “Conquering the space with your voice - characterized by very close harmony, and they somehow acoustically clash, which enables the sound to travel further. ...It’s absolutely astonishing.”

http://www.learner.org/resources/series105.html?pop=yes&pid=1237

Meanwhile...

ROBO-SAURUS

Still nursing OOC fingers, hope 2011 is off to a great start for you.

"The scales of a moth" by David Kirkpatrick

http://davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/beautiful-nature-image-the-scales-of-a-moth/#comment-5113

Awe-inspiring.

'Lego Sushi'

- Artist unknown

Cagey's listening to

Still of a man outside a phone booth, from the Miami Vice (t.v. series) episode "Rock and a Hard Place."

This shot brillliantly establishes a captivating mood :  incommunicado, ensconced in shadow and pale neon.  Representative of a series which became synonymous with a decade, a cinematic and visual tour de force from the height of the 20th Century.

'Floor'

'Floor' created by South Korean artist Do Ho-suh at the Hong Kong International Art Fair, Friday.  From the Christian Science Monitor, Kin Cheung/AP

Cagey's listening to

Living space as art is dramatic, profound

Article:  Apartment with 24 rooms.  Very cool & innovative.  See article here: (Link) 



In the preceding video, we see the room itself as contemporary art.  I loved the pale yellow light filtering through the windows into a room that had wooden accents, very comforting, very uniquely suited to city living.

The following image appeals to me, especially because of its use of words as art.  Whether you view the language as an enhanced narrative, and read and focus on the written meaning of the scripts, or the grafitti reminds you of something else, like symbolism of journal writing and a sense of place, its modernist and minimalist representation are kept coherent, silent, and striking:

Solakov, Nedko. "Some Nice Things to Enjoy While You Are Making a Living," 2008.  From Kunstmuseum Basel.  Full Image: (Link)

GCPAS announces first official candidate for 2010 video of the year

See details at right. 

Cagey's listening to

FIVE STARS: New contender for video of the year: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder rap by The Infidel - playing on a continuous loop at Cagey's Inner Sanctum. 

The Infidel's bio: LINK

Brilliant artist, looking forward to hearing much more from this lyrical mastermind.

Time to set the record straight, call BS when I see it


Shed light on the half wits who want us defeated
All because of an illness too hard to eradicate
It’s Liberalism, the mental disorder a sad state
Of mind, impervious to common sense and reason
To them, nothing is out of line everything is in season


Right or wrong makes no difference to them
If it feels good do it so I have to keep my distance from them
Cus they’re out of the mainstream but they say that I am
Because I love my country and the God of Abraham


Damn, sham after sham they pull to get the prize
They come equipped with the wool to cover your eyes
Then infiltrate the schools, courts and churches
Undermining American values while filling their purses
Cus it takes money to fool the masses
So I wrote this in the form of conservative X-ray glasses
[Chorus] Far from reason, common sense and intellect
Proper mindset total lack of respect for vets
And Christ ain’t nice, totally out of order
Liberalism, the mental disorder

Article: "The Hero's Journey" by Deb Peterson

Knowledge of this literary framework made many ideas in and out of reading much more satisfying. (E.g. modern rituals, anagnorisis, etc.)

http://adulted.about.com/od/howtos/a/theherosjourneyintro.htm?nl=1

Excerpt:

"As non-traditional students, or students of any kind really, we can use their remarkable theories to understand..."

"It's important to remember that the hero's journey is a guideline only. Like grammar, once you know and understand the rules, you can break them."

"It's important to realize that "the journey" can be outward to an actual place (think Indiana Jones), or inward to the mind, the heart, the spirit."

Kanye West meme still fresh in recent memory

Have I covered this already?


You've already suffered enough from a "me first, me victim" upbringing and thought you received enough notoriety saying that "George Bush hates black people," but that wasn't enough. So all 225 lbs. of you leaps on stage at a nationally televised awards show, and rips the microphone away from a waifish teenaged lady receiving her first award. You do the unthinkable, swaggering around and then saying, "I'mma let you finish," but your friend Beyonce, "had the best video of all time." Lo and behold, the president himself later called you "a jackass." What do you do next?


1. You become an internet meme. http://www.zmemusic.com/other/kanyes-imma-let-you-finish-meme-425975/


2. You don't show up for the BET music awards, where of course despite your lunacy, you were still nominated for nine awards. http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/10/11/kanye-west-bet-awards/

3. Where are you, anyway?

Retro arcade stickers from 1980s

A recent trip to a dimly lit beach arcade had be awash in 80s sentimentality, from the bleeps and bloops down to the smell of the carpet cleaner. Presented for your viewing pleasure: a selection of 1983 arcade themed stickers from the Scholastic Inc. publishing company.

There was a big time sticker craze (and not to mention, a lapel button mania) in school those days. So without further ado -

From the private collection of Cagey: "1983 Scholastic Inc. BLIPS stickers" (SN 0590-32986-3)





See also:

http://i31.tinypic.com/2mnrucp.jpg

http://i27.tinypic.com/73h34w.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/2eewk0x.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/2efj803.jpg

I'm thinking $300 on Ebay?