Jump Around!

Music can be infectious and very addictive. Played just once on the radio and I couldn't get the song out of my head. It brought back memories too. 

Heart at work

Before I went to sleep last night, way past midnight, all sloppy eyes and runny nose, I read a bit of the late Paul Arden. I couldn't find the passage in his little book this morning, when I was all conscious and bright-mind tip-top. 

But it goes something like this: 

Solving problems is the exciting part not knowing the answers. 

Sound too simple? Maybe I was dead tired then. But it's illuminating. Bravo.

Madness and Genius

An interview with the young Werner Herzog on his collaboration with the undisputedly insane and out-of-kilter Klaus Kinski on Aguirre, the Wrath of God. 

For artistic achievement, would you cross the line into insanity? Herzog did. And to my surprise - he said that Kinski was the only person he, a self-taught filmmaker, considered a teacher. 

On his growth as a filmmaker: "For the past 14 years I have been doing things not within my grasp by nature. I have learned that in order to make films, you have to be able to survive [sleepless nights, stress and humiliations]. Work them over and make them into something productive. All these humiliations [from Kinski]. They're essential parts of filmmaking. And anyone who can't take that, can't make films." 

What's the Life Expectancy of a Band?

And we thought they have disbanded:

But, still, I like the old sound better:

Sick Sick Sick

First I thought it is some absurdist play (a surreal take on Arthur Miller?) or humour book. But no, no, no. How naive I was. 

This is just funnily sick (literally, not slang). 

Only in America. 

Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

Taking care of sick elderly/visa application/painting house/university accommodation/article writing/getting rid of cold/future career prospect/financial matters/suspension of BAE Probe/terrorists/back pain from tennis/medical check-up/dentist appointment/office politics/leaving selfish employer/pondering when those The Nation Group director-crooks allegedly siphoning money from the company would be caught and punished/worrying about runaway inflation and high interest rates/not seeing the end of the housing market slump/Blahblah... 

All the while, my dog has been chasing toads (devouring them), mice (just killing them) and sometimes cooking gas delivery man and postmen in the garden (alas, to no avail). 

Here is a picture of her, napping after a night of nocturnal toad and mouse hunting. In her favourite position. 

Divide

Photo from India: I thought I had my Cartier-Bresson "moment" here. 

More to come when I got a little bit more sane-ish.