Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Re-writing a Henry James story

He actually took that seriously, as well as the part about responding to de Montaigne in letters to him.
WORSE, I took these ideas seriously too.
The problem: I can't find that Henry James story I want to re-write yet, and
I don't know where to start with de Montaigne.
Well, I do, but once I get started...
Next time, it's 11:46 PM
And like C-SPAN, I won't supply the date, but unlike C-SPAN, I think maybe this blog does.
Let's see.

Comments from the friend

Yes, yes, and this post, below, and the one below it, are perfect blog material even if you do re-write HJames'
short story a few years from now--- and I'm sure Mikey Montaigne would be happy to be part of POLYSOMETHING in
the references below, whether or not you respond any more fully to his ancient postings.

Get with it, bro, it's your jabberwocky that's of interest--- the a.d.d. of your sinuous mental gambol & gyre is the stuff of
blogs because it pours out of you daily, and entertainingly. Just logging by blogging all the concepts for projects--- that, ridiculous and fine, flow from your brain-led fingers. Get your brain on the page, blogboy--- how hard is it to enter this stuff on POLYSOMETHING--- if that's what's stopping you, you need a new blog program, and I'm not just blabbing'!

R>

On Dec 7, 2010, at 10:05 AM, Dennis Hermanson wrote:

I am of mixed minds about the blogs. I think that I am trying to
center on doing another few things. One of them is a re-write of a
Henry James short story. I will send along link to it, since it's pd.
The other is a ongoing series of "letters" AKA blog reponses to
Michele, actually, a correspondence, in both senses of the word and
concept, to Michel d'Montaigne.
"The question is not who will hit the ring, but who will make the best
runs at it."
and
(he's talking about drunkeness, but I like his preamble...
"there are vices wherein there is a mixture of knowledge, diligence,
valor, prudence, dexterity and address; this one is totally corporeal
and earthly."

That there are vices that are a mixture of knowledge, diligence,
valor, prudence, dexterity and address... I love this. Name the vices.
And then, hey, I am a combination of all of those. That's what I like
about his writing. It's an "amble" through a mind, a deep and
inquiring mind, that I would like to know, and
THEN REPOND TO, as if I were writing him personally a letter in
response. Or in riff on a response. A walk in the woods of the mind.
That's the idea.
Polysomething is good, but it's a klunky attempt at a concept that
holds everything, a container for thought, as Jung titled his book,
"memories, dreams and reflections." That goes for thought memories,
dreams and reflections as well as images, that are memories (old
photos, the history of art, movies, etc etc) dreams (both mine, ours
and collective, sleep and imagination) and reflections, both thought,
and image, correspondences, shadows, glimmers, windows, mirrors, and
ultimately, consciousness of the self as a reflection of the world and
self.

Yeah, like all that.

d

Subject: FROM THE: "WOULD SOMEBODY WATCH THESE AND TELL ME SOME GOOD ONES?"

DEPT: "Professor Art Project" Videos - 5 pages of 'em.

http://www.bing.com/videos/?FORM=MFEVID&publ=86A2F0DB-6F41-42B4-B28F-215BE6F24A97&crea=STND_MFEVID_core_HuffPoQ2FY2011_CustomVidLink_1x1&q=Professor+Art+Project&docid=257480982814&FORM=HUFPST

Found from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/04/nyu-professor-gets-camera_n_792079.html

The Artificial Kid, Bruce Sterling: Originally published in 1980
http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/Media/artificialkid.htm

"...My Reverid pornstars are among the most accomplished sexualists in
humanity. We could destroy your painful inhibitions with drugs, dear
Saint Anne; and then you may fly with fiery wings into their embraces.
I assure you that you would find you linkage entirely delightful. Many
women would swear themselves into servitude for such an experience,
but I offer it to you freely, in a spirit of liberating hedonism.
Afterwards, we could see how many of your tenets you still held, and
with what degree of firmness. Would you be willing to embark on such a
journey of self-discovery?"

Saint Anne hesitated. Finally she said, "I feel that you mean me no
harm, Mr. Manies; so I control my disgust and revulsion. I must ask
you not to make such an offer again."

OK......

OK, David Hockney... 5 more pages

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=David+Hockney&go=&form=QBVR&qs=n&sk=&sc=8-13

One more for laughs and great songs:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Bing+Crosby&go=&form=QBVR&qs=n&sk=&sc=8-11

"So much of everything, so little time. Only one me."
"It's too much."
"Everything?"
"No, you. One's more than enough."
"Thanks."
"That was a warning, not a complement."
"OK, thanks."
"You're welcome. And warned."

Dialogue from a non-existent text.

Dec

C-Span, the date

Adding the date to your Congressional General Speeches coverage.

Dennis Hermanson

to C-SPAN

show details 11:30 PM (9 minutes ago)

Of course on your site, and even on your coverage covered on youtube, such as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OtB298fHY
I would appreciate your adding
to the
LIVE
11:32 am ET
(DATE)

Over time, the date would continue to serve as a meaningful signpost
of debate and a historical record. I note that you don't even date Presidential Speeches.

Thanks very much for your continuing service to the American public
bringing us, and archiving American governmental history,
as well as your coverage of intellectual thought via the authors on
weekends. I appreciate epecially the in-depth interviews of Brian
Lamb, as well as his forward-thinking: "Lamb has coordinated a project
to have the 120,000 hours of C-SPAN footage digitized to make them
available online.[2]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Lamb

Best wishes,

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Live your own life

'cause nobody else is going to.

RIP, MITCH MILLER.

Mitch Miller, famed white-guy producer of white popular music throughout the 1950's, and unlikely TV show star in the early 1960's, was a classically-trained oboist who realized that playing the oboe was not really a growth industry. He was the voice of quality schlock in a time when the nation was confronted with the illegitimate musical form known as Rock'nRoll, a black musical uprising in which the beat of the jungle and lascivious dancing manifest itself on the American musical landscape, a music of black african slaves that like a zombie jamboree, claimed the hearts and bodies and feets and minds of the baby-boomer white Americans who knew no better.

ENTRENCHMENT

Mitch Miller was all that Rock'n'Roll was not. Highly educated, a musical craftsman, an accomplished oboe and english horn musician, a fine singer... He was also Jewish. So he was chosen to be a corporate musician in a time of musical riot. And he did his job well. He sought the best arrangers, the best musicians, and used one of the best studio systems in the world, Columbia Records, to create popular music based on the past. His was a Maginot LIne of the highest quality and the best sound. Major popular stars were given the most obvious and generic material to do, and the Golden Age of American Popular Song was mined again by Mitch Miller, in arrangements calculated to appeal to an audience wide and old, in a spirit of impersonal professionalism. He became a best selling musical artist and arranger. He is sometimes thought of as the creator of what would become karaoke with his NBC-TV series, Sing Along with Mitch. This series makes Lawrence Welk seem downright adventuresome, with its boldly colored band suits, and various sexual displays of female talent in the form of the Lovely Lennon SIsters, and Honky Tonk piano diva Joanne Castle, whose unstoppably upbeat and assertive physicality smacked of stamina.

INSTEAD

Mitch produced a bounteous men's chorus, like a closeted gay sultan, with a sound like a barbershop quartet on steroids. This was Mitch Miller and The Gang, which was white corporate America's answer to the juvenile dilenquent gangs that Little Anthony and the Imperials said they were not... But nobody believed them. Those who wanted to, believed Mitch Miller. And believed his music was good music. Now it's true, he introduced Leslie Uggams, a fine singer of decidedly darkened skin, and she was something special on TV in those times, when colored meant "help", and Sammy Davis was kicking up a storm. Of course, history tells us that the network brass weren't too happy about Leslie, either.

BUT ULTIMATELY,

   Mitch is quoted to have said, "Rock 'n' roll is musical baby food: it is the worship of mediocrity, brought about by a passion for conformity." His music was musical Ensure, which worshipped the past and a banality of presentation, brought to the public in a way that encouraged them to "sing along" and join the warmth of a new medium called television – to gather around the electronic hearth, and sing the good old songs that grandmother knew and loved.
   Mitch's grandmother was very happy that her family prospered and raised such a good boy. And Mitch had the American public singing together, not, "We shall overcome," but "When You And I Were Young, Maggie" and "I'm Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover" and "On Top Of Old Smoky" and "Bidin' My Time". He was a great talent whose time had come, and was gone, both at the same time.
   May he rest in peace. Now, please join us in a chorus of one of Mitch's favorites, "That Old Gang Of Mine"....

(CUE THE PITCHPIPE)

from a friend, kickoff

it ought to be as if writing to a close friend--- one that cares not for nice,nor properness--- there is no censor--- this is you, being you on the page.