Stendhal

I once read part of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black and loved it. Unfortunately, I lost it before I even got a fourth of the way through. What struck me was that, even in translation, how contemporary the novel was, making it totally readable with not a hint of being dated (it was published almost 200 years ago). One of the hallmarks of a classic is that it reads like it was written yesterday-something about illuminating the universals...

As someone says to the protagonist Julien: 'Truth is austere, sir...You must take care to guard your conscience carefully from this weakness: Excess of feeling for vain exterior charm.' Quite so: dialog like that makes one realize that at least someone has really thought about this crazy life.

Since this Stendhal fellow is soooo cool, I thought I’d borrow the title of his memoir for my journal, just for awhile.

P.S. Found it, finished it, loved it-considered the first 'modern novel' in the way it deals with the complexity of the human condition given the world we now live in-read it!

Dacha Chillin’ Top 10

Go to the lake, chill at the dacha, watch the flowers grow, and relax. Here’s a list of musical choices guaranteed to please, in no particular order.

Zero 7: When it Falls (not talking about the beer on the carpet)
Air: Moon Safari (give it a few tries-one of the best)
Morcheeba: Who Can You Trust? (good question, eh)
Love & Rockets: Sweet FA (hard to find, try Amazon for used)
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (aka the Hillbilly OK Computer)
Thievery Corporation: Mirror Conspiracy
Tosca: Suzuki or T.A.C.
The Beatles: Abbey Road (as fresh, original, and chillin' as the day it was released)
Radiohead: OK Computer (or anything by Radiohead)
Cat Power: You are Free

Note: So what is a dacha, you ask? It's very easy to explain. It's just a cabin--sometimes a shack. But it is difficult to understand that it's not just a cabin and much more than a shack for most. This is the place to escape from the rash and the problems of a city. The place where kids grow up like grass...a resort and a slavemaster…a pleasure and a disaster...a lifestyle... a sweet curse.

Bovill, Idaho

I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Bovill this week. It’s really a beautiful, but sad place, almost alpine, where some years it snows until June. Getting out of the land of starched shirts and into such a rustic setting is a bit of a culture shock. I walked around the town to see what I could see, almost expecting to hear dueling banjos around every corner. I didn’t bother to change out of my starched shirt &etc, so the locals stared as if I were from another planet. I was told before I went to ‘lock your car in Bovill’ but I never got that feeling while there. The local tavern was full of apparently unemployed men at 10am, not good. Bovill: another example of the decline of rural America, where those who are left behind are left out.

Metropolis

Perhaps I should change the name of the blog-Spokane is kind of getting short shrift so far. But at least you now know where the blog name came from-from my perch high above West Riverside, Spokane is Metropolis (well, sort of, if you drink a lot of beer and squint your eyes).

The original Blade Runner, Metropolis takes place in 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor (with a lot of dramatic license thrown in, kind of like the difference between West Riverside and say West First in downtown Spokane).

Unfortunately, a large chunk of the original movie has been lost. But the recent Kino Video version released in Dec? 2003 is the most complete version in 75 years. The storyline is simplistic but the images will sear intro your brain, probably forever-in short, an impressive film.

Music for Airports

Old school and way cool. Some people don't like it, but they, of course, don't know what they're talking about. It's kind of like high brow muzak or a type of sonic decoration. But Mr. Brian Eno says it best:

Whereas the extant canned music companies proceed from the basis of regularizing environments by blanketing their acoustic and atmospheric idiosyncracies, Ambient Music is intended to enhance these. Whereas conventional background music is produced by stripping away all sense of doubt and uncertainty (and thus all genuine interest) from the music, Ambient Music retains these qualities. And whereas their intention is to `brighten' the environment by adding stimulus to it (thus supposedly alleviating the tedium of routine tasks and levelling out the natural ups and downs of the body rhythms) Ambient Music is intended to induce calm and a space to think.

Ambient Music must be able to accomodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.

BRIAN ENO September 1978

Trillium

The trillium, what a beauty and three is a magic number, ya know. This is a type that grows behind the cabin-could be Trillium ovatum but not exactly sure. They only bloom for a couple of weeks in April and in some years don’t come out at all. There were only two this year.

Some greats

OK, so I'm straying from the Spokane theme. I'll get to it someday.

Try any of these gems and I guarantee an effect on your very being-no kidding!

All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren

The great American novel (according to me). Much less about the ‘dictator of Louisiana’ than a wonderfully lyrical meditation on a man finding himself. You guys out there got that?

Portrait of a Lady, James

Where James contemplates the contrast between appearance and reality and the perils of not seeing.

The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, Ford Madox Ford

Ouch! Sometimes it all ends in confusion.

Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence

Wow! Don’t let your kids see this-or better yet, make them read and discuss.

Sentimental Education, Flaubert

This guy can really write.

Money and leisure can be a curse. It’s kind of a 19th century predecessor of ‘Seinfield’ without the humor. If you read this-please tell me what you think-I absolutely need to know!

A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul

Is it all really this futile? I mean, the poor guy just wanted a house. But really, the novel captures the fundamental nature of the human condition.

The Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Rama

Captures the essence of this beautiful, religious, hmm…no psychological work. It won’t necessarily make you a better person, but at least you’ll know a way (hint-it’s all about the yoga).

It's me

Tall, slender, debonair, pretentious, and a total geek. It's me!

The pic-it’s summer, I’m in a garden, I must be happy or something.

So I'm out of ideas already. Maybe I just need inspiration...a muse...a muse I tell you!

Just to clarify, I have nothing in common with the guy in the previous post. I wish I had his ears though.

Cabaña en el lago

Cozy during the winter...

...cool in the summer.

Weekends in the country-peaceful, quiet, birds chirping, you can play music really loud and no one cares. It’s nice to get back to nature after the wild cacophony that makes up downtown Spokane. I do kind of miss the freak show down on the street, but the countryside has it’s own version, they just don’t walk past the porch much.

The cabin was named Trillium by my grandfather due to the elusive and lovely flowers that grew in the back lot-what an interesting guy he was.

Nosferatu

Me on a bad day (or good depending on your perspective). No, just probably the best vampire move ever, especially if you're only considering movies made in 1922. Check it out for yourself. Run to your local video place and demand they hand over their copy. You'll be glad-trust me.