February, 2010

wordsperminute — No Comments
28
Feb 10

Words per Minute #20: Benjamin on Losing the Way

Not to find one’s way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one’s way in a city, as one loses one’s way in a forest, requires some schooling. Street names must speak to the urban wanderer like the snapping of dry twigs, and little streets in the heart of the city must reflect the times of day, for him, as clearly as a mountain valley. This art I acquired rather late in life; it fulfilled a dream, of which the first traces were labyrinths on the blotting papers of my school notebooks.

- Walter Benjamin, “Tiergarten

politics / writing — 3 Comments
24
Feb 10

There’s not enough topical poetry about the politics of Niger

Another colonel
Thinks it’s his turn to spring clean
The big boss – hi coup!

writing — 2 Comments
22
Feb 10

The Ranger counts every Sunset a Victory

It took a while for the quokka to warm up and approach me.

“Now kill it,” my sister said from behind the camera.

I told her no. I told her she couldn’t make me. She said she could. I watched the quokka nibble the same fingers that could take a life.

Two weeks later we buried her husband. I tried not to meet her gaze. I didn’t see any of my family again for six years.

Their claim on me would never expire. I held the quokka – a different quokka – in my arms and watched them drive towards my house.

balkans — No Comments
15
Feb 10

Serbia, subjectively

Sweeping generalisation: western Europeans find it hard to understand the Serbian mentality. So why not read the Subjective Atlas of Serbia and see how some of it maps out? You can order a copy of the book, should you be sufficiently impressed, which you probably should be. Congratulations to everybody who contributed to it, and let’s hope the next version isn’t as depressed about the carve-up.

music — No Comments
14
Feb 10

Radio Free Djenovici: February 2010 podcast

[soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/blackmountain/radio-free-djenovici-february-2010"]

Tracks?

“Half Enlightened Optimism To Warm A Winter’s Night

writing — 1 Comment
11
Feb 10

Negcast

Since his name starts with a Z, Zhou tunes in at 11.58 every night. It could be worse – he knows people who take time off work to find a quiet room to listen to their names being read out over tinny speakers.

“Zhou Ji Yijiu is a worthless and lazy media whore with bad teeth and a poorly-disguised limp.”

Zhou breathes a sigh of relief. He wonders what life was like before the Negcast. How did people even know they existed when their names weren’t announced and their failings listed to the world? How would they know their worth?

wordsperminute — 2 Comments
1
Feb 10

Words per Minute #19: Eno on Vinyl

I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.

- Brian Eno