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October 30, 2006
it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world
I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst...
...and then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...
You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry...
You will someday.
Alan Ball - American Beauty
Posted by amin at 11:19 PM
October 29, 2006
the steady radiance of a wonder
God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.
Dag Hammarskjold
Posted by amin at 8:34 PM
October 24, 2006
epicurus on death
Accustom yourself to believing that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply the capacity for sensation, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality.
Epicurus
Posted by amin at 2:19 PM
October 15, 2006
i am my songs
It's possible that sincerity might be confused with many things, especially in the world of music, where so many commercial currents run. In any case, it's only a question of coloring. My music is a reflection of my personality, and my personality is a reflection of all that surrounds me. For me, seeing all of this as my work, the most important thing is to be worthy. So, I treat this world that surrounds me with the integrity and dignity necessary to bring it, through me, to everyone else. After that, it is the spiritual state of each person that determines how it will affect her or him. A person could think that I or my songs are sad because of that person's own spiritual state, because they are not affected by the chaotic emotions that surround us, because they are living in another state, and I don't mean to say that that state is more superficial or ordinary, on the contrary, it is the way of being forged by each individual, in which they live. But their power to understand will be affected by what they feel, and by the meaning they give to things. My songs are life and the facts of each day, and I am my songs.
Leonard Cohen
Posted by amin at 4:52 PM
October 14, 2006
aristotle's ideal man
He does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life,-knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live. He is of a disposition to do men service, though he is ashamed to have a service done to him. To confer a kindness is a mark of superiority; to receive one is a mark of subordination...He does not take part in public displays...He is open in his dislikes and preferences; he talks and acts frankly, because of his contempt for men and things...He is never fired with admiration, since there is nothing great in his eyes. he cannot live in a complaisance with others, except it be a friend; complaisance is the characteristic of a slave...He never feels malice, and always forgets and passes over injuries...He is not fond of talking...It is no concern of his that he should be praised, or that others should be blamed. He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves. His carriage is sedate, his voice deep, his speech measured; he is not given to hurry, for he is concerned only about a few things; he is not prone to vehemence, for he thinks nothing very important. A shrill voice and hasty steps come to a man through care...He bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of his circumstances, like a skillful general who marshals his limited forces with all the strategy of war...He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy, and is afraid of solitude.
Aristotle - The Nicomachean Ethics
Posted by amin at 7:36 PM
October 9, 2006
the spy
I'm a spy in the house of love.
I know the dream that you're dreaming of.
I know the word that you long to hear.
I know your deepest secret fear.
I'm a spy in the house of love.
I know the dream that you're dreaming of.
I know the word that you long to hear.
I know your deepest secret fear.
I know everything.
Everything you do, everywhere you go, everyone you know.
I'm a spy, in the house of love.
I know the dream that you're dreaming of.
I know the word that you long to hear.
I know your deepest secret fear.
I know your deepest secret fear.
I know your deepest secret fear.
I'm a spy, I can see, what you do, and I know.
The Doors
Posted by amin at 11:46 PM
October 4, 2006
abbas on photography
My photography is a reflection, which comes to life in action and leads to meditation. Spontaneity - the suspended moment - intervenes during action, in the viewfinder. A reflection on the subject precedes it. A meditation on finality follows it, and it is here, during this exalting and fragile moment, that the real photographic writing develops, sequencing the images. For this reason a writer's spirit is necessary to this enterprise. Isn't photo-graphy « writing with light »? But with the difference that while the writer possesses his word, the photographers is himself, possessed by his photo, by the limit of the real which he must transcend so as not to become its prisoner.
Abbas
Posted by amin at 6:04 PM
October 1, 2006
avedon on photography
And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.
The way I see is comparable to the way musicians hear, something extra sensory. Not judgmental. I don’t differentiate between an idea of what is beautiful and what is not. What I see is a reaffirmation of the many things I need to feel. It has to do with obsessive qualities, not explainable. I am a natural photographer. It is my language; I speak through my photographs more intricately, more deeply than with words.
I don't think pictures have to justify their existence by calling themselves works of art or photographic portraits. They are memories of a man; they are contradictory facets of an instant of his life as a subject - and of our lives as viewers. They are, as Barthes said, texts, and as such they exist to be read, interpreted, and argued over - not categorized and judged.
A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.
Richard Avedon
Posted by amin at 3:46 PM