I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

January 04, 2016 - 11:53 a.m.

Albums, Musical and Photographic

I have no idea what I’m going to write about today. I have not done anything worth writing about over the weekend. I pretty much stayed in bed and edited pictures. I didn’t even watch any movies or TV. I didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t read. None of this is good for my mental health. I didn’t even make a good dinner, I had macaroni and cheese. Oh wait, I did make a good breakfast, pancakes. I screwed up the first batch, I make four at a time. I forgot to spray my cast iron skillet. To make it worse I didn’t spray it before putting it away last time I used it. That’s part of proper care, keeping it well oiled. I’m usually so anal about that. So the first batch stuck to the griddle. The rest were fine. I’m eating that first batch today. I’ll let you know how they taste.

It’s 27°F right now and the forecast is for it to drop into the teens. Ned Stark was finally right; winter has come. Of course when that happens five years after you say it I that counts as a wrong prediction. We knew it would come eventually. So when is Game of Thrones coming back? I finally got into the show but not enough to keep up with those things.

I looked at my blog notes and they are too serious for me to deal with today. Oh wait, I can cheat. I wrote a review of the Scott Wolfson and Other Heroes album Welcoming the Flood I can use that here.

I’m going to do what I rarely do, write an album review. It’s for Scott Wolfson and Other Heroes’ “Welcoming the Flood”. The name is a nice tip off to what’s inside, such upbeat titles as “Unloved Daughter”, “We Can’t Go Home Again,” and the cheerful, “We Will All Die Together”. What it isn’t a tipoff to is that this is album is fun. Yes, the titles are tragic but it is filled with a boundless energy. I can’t imagine listening to the first two songs, “Never Going Back Again” and “The Band Played On” and sitting motionless in your chair. I know for sure I can’t do it. I’m listening as I type and parts of my body are moving that I didn’t know could move.

Scott’s songs have a lot of words in them, I have no idea how he remembers them all, but they effortlessly fit the melody, there is no forced meter and no forced rhyme. There’s no effort for us the listener but I hope there’s effort to Scott or it’s just not fair. This should not be easy.

The band is great and I’m not just saying that because the keyboard player Skyler Bode invites me to a chocolate party. It’s because of how they play. They aren’t showing off; They are filling in all the spaces that should be filled and none of the spaces that shouldn’t.

It isn’t all energetic rock. The plaintive “Me on Other Planets” is philosophical and atmospheric. It exists somewhere in the cosmos of Donovan, Bowie, and Lou Reed. The album doesn’t just make you move; it makes you think.

I’m going to cheat some more and show you some pictures that I posted. These are pics I took around the City

The new World Trade Center may not be the Chrysler Building but it’s better than the old World Trade Center which was just two blocks. It has a certain elegance. I’ll still go with the classics though.

I don’t like steel and glass boxes but they have their uses.

I like taking pictures on the subway.

Why do you think she's sitting like that? Can that actually be more comfortable? It's certainly anti-social, notice she's taking up three seats.

This is the subway station by my house that I use almost every day.

It's late, that's all I have time for. Wow this is a short edition of Wise Madness.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile January 04, 2016
site search by freefind advanced


Follow on Feedly



about me - read my profile! read other DiaryLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!