Ransen's Blog

 I've heard some fishermen say that fish don't feel pain because if they did we would hear them scream. The error of this "logic" of this is clear. They don't have the biological apparatus to scream. They may well feel pain but it is not expressed in a way most people can understand. I was thinking about this and then wondered what error(s) of logic I make in my own life,  behaviour, or thought.

 "The War Against Cliché" is a book by Martin Amis. I like the idea, to be used maybe for at least one set of artworks. So, no crescent moons, no smiling suns, no twinkling stars, no sitting cats, no grinning skulls...      

 What he says is rubbish. But he stared at me like one who knows the truth and knows that all the world denies him. Small angry eyes. Quite unpleasant. Quite disturbing,

 When I was at school in the 1970s there was a program on the BBC for pupils called "Use Your Head" with Tony Buzan. It was about how to improve your memory and learning skills and went beyond the "write the same thing down 100 times" type of technique. Buzan gave more interesting and fun memory techniques. I bought the book: I did use the techniques in the book and it did help me learn. And I got interested in memory techniques. Decades later I bought a book by Frances Yates... Frances Yates University College London 1924  ..."The Art of Memory": (Yates confessed that she was not interested in learning and using the memory techniques, which I found strange) I cannot remember exactly why I bought the book, but it got me interested in Giordano Bruno.   On the 17th of February 1600 Bruno was killed by the Catholic Church because of his beliefs .  Killed because of his beliefs . He certainly had some (what we would consider now) strange beliefs, as well as s...

 "In The Scenes Behind Plain Sight" is a very good mickey take of 99% of podcasts. 2 friends trying to be interesting while talking about a TV series.  The podcast itself  contains dubious ads, along with details of the "plus" edition which gets you "exclusive and ad free" material at just a few dollars a month. Just like real podcasts! And it is not just a mick-take, but also very very strange as the series continues. I love it. And this...  ...is funny too. The latest episode Mr. Norcott talks about the phrase "Man Up!" Compares it with "Grow a Pair!" Lots of laugh out loud moments for me.

 My Sleepy Clock (first exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia 1997) is getting on in years. I put it into suspended animation and took out its old heart: Il cuore di un Orologio Dormiglione This heart will never beat again, though I did make a video of the last time the clock worked with its old internal organs. And here is the body, waiting for its new organs. Hopefully soon to be restored into the working object it once was...  

 My Mum used to sing in a choir in Bigglewade. At one time the leader of the choir said that Handel lived on in his music. And my Mum said: "Well, he doesn't really." The reply was: "His music is alive for him." And my Mum said: "But he doesn't know that does he?" I don't know how the conversation finished, she didn't tell me or I have forgotten. But I was reminded of it when I was watching Ricky Gervais in his Armageddon show. He said that people talk about what he wants to leave behind, his "legacy". He said that he didn't care about his "legacy" because he would be dead and not be there to see it. I suppose the only way someone can enjoy their legacy is by dreaming or fantasizing about it while they are alive. But there is no guarantee your legacy will be as you imagine it.  

 I was brought up with the glottal stop, or I learned it from my friends.  Wikipedia says: The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʔ⟩ In English it often replaces a "t" sound and was considered an error. So I used to have the glo ʔ al stop. And when I hear it it takes me back in time and it does not irritate me. But when I hear people say "anythink" I want to scream at them. " There's a g at the end of anything, not a k ! " And even friends in their 60s who used to say "anything" have learned to say "anythink". Even Radio 3 and Radio 4 guests have been heard to use it. Hence the twisted snobbery of mine. I don't mind my own "mistake" in pronunciation, but I'm extremely irritated by this new ...

 I listened to Bryan Ferry's Frantic... ...I'd forgotten how good it was.  Then, right after, I listened to Beethoven's Eroica... ...and apart from two or three really "inspiring" parts it seems to me clunky in the extreme. I put Frantic back on... ... that's better!

 Sometimes things feel simple and impossible at the same time. Simplicity and Impossibility

 This BBC radio adaptation is very strange and intriguing... ...it is a long time since I've listened to such an odd audio play.

 Here's some of comedy programmes which I've found funny recently... Tim Key's Poetry Programme ...and... Icklewick FM This is good too, half comedy half auto biography, but done much better than some... Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Living  This too is well done...   ...written and presented by Alfie Moore (Currently the 12 year olds who govern the BBC seem to think that two or three (unfunny) friends laughing at each other's jokes and "observations" constitutes comedy. And if you are a self-diagnosed autist then you must be a creative genius . The comedy jewels above are the exceptions)

 Some wise men say "If you run after happiness you will not find it." So to be happy you must not seek it. But "not seeking" is already a method for getting to happiness. So you are seeking it. Oh fuck it all.

 If I can't get to sleep I have two methods I try Reciting poetry (in my mind) Going on a drive into the night (in my mind)  The rainbows which appear in front of me as I take my imaginary drive have now started to get up off the road and turn into flickering multi colored creatures who stay in front of the car as I drive forward. They are not menacing but are disturbing. I now have a third cure, it involves getting out of bed at some awful time like 2:30 am, but sometimes works: This is an "own brand" herbal tea which is supposed to help you sleep. I don't believe it, but I also know that a placebo can work even when the patient knows it is a placebo. And I wonder if this warning not to exceed the daily does of 2 cups a day...  ...is really just there to make the tea seem more effective than it actually is?  

 I heard those %&$king plucked strings again. So many "light" TV programs or Netflix series use plucked stings music to indicate "this is a funny/quirky scene". Every time I hear it I imagine a director or a music director getting the sound engineer to insert that crap. I also imagine that they are not doing the work they really want to do, but have to create this second rate drama to earn a living. But that is just what I imagine... (And while we are on the subject why do news programs try to influence the audience by putting on sad music when reporting deaths of innocent children. Do they think we are so stupid and/or heartless as not to know that the deaths of innocent children is a bad thing?)

 From Wikipedia: Martin Amis and Agnosticism In 2006, Amis said that "agnostic is the only respectable position, simply because our ignorance of the universe is so vast" that atheism is "premature". Clearly "there's not going to be any kind of anthropomorphic entity at all", but the universe is "so incredibly complicated", "so over our heads", that we cannot exclude the existence of "an intelligence" behind it. [134] In 2010, he said: "I'm an agnostic, which is the only rational position. It's not because I feel a God or think that anything resembling the banal God of religion will turn up. But I think that atheism sounds like a proof of something, and it's incredibly evident that we are nowhere near intelligent enough to understand the universe ... Writers are above all individualists, and above all writing is freedom, so they will go off in all sorts of directions. I think it does apply to...

 Most religions have a way of saying that death is just a passage to another world, another way of being. There's " go beyond the veil" , " pass over" (or the more ridiculous abbreviation " pass "), and " go to a better place " etc. etc. Even some Buddhist meditations on death talk about " not being able to take it with you " (body, possessions etc.), which implies that the dead person is going somewhere. The Japanese have two ways of expressing death. shinimasu ( 死 ( ) に ま す ) and nakunarimasu ( 亡 ( ) く な り ま す ). This latter seems more real, though it is politer than shinimasu. Nakunarimasu can be interpreted as "to become nothing". Which is a more honest expression of the reality. I had a shock after reading Bad Blood by Lorna Sage... ...she had become nothing. The book was so good I looked for more writings by her, but discovered she had died in January 2001 and did not leave any similar works to Bad Blood. I am not ...

 Too many books, not enough space. And, in the end, how many of the books you own will you ever read again? I've decided to start a cull, the latest victims... Those that have so far survived the cull have done so because they have pictures in them:          Though there are  some fiction books I'll never get rid of, multiple reads always give pleasure...