Yes Henry Warwick

…that's the opening few seconds of “Close to the Edge” sampled at the start of “Lights in My Brain.”

Phantasms

Very good DJ Spooky. You didn't have to be so very kind about my book--thank you sir. This is one of my favorite Spooky things, a remix of Ultramarine's “Lights in My Brain.” When I first showed up in the States the band did these gigs with Meat Beat Manifesto and Aphex Twin, called Communion. I went to a couple naturally. This is one of those remixes that's better than the original, which is really saying something. Voice is Robert Wyatt, another favorite.

Bills, Bills, Bills

That's nothing, NYT. With my heart beating too fast I was driven one block to hospital in Philly. The bill was $13000.

7 hours of monitoring in hospital came to $11000.

Inside the Fear Is the Sadness

Going beyond fear begins when we examine our fear: our anxiety, nervousness, concern, and restlessness. If we look into our fear, if we look beneath its veneer, the first thing we find is sadness, beneath the nervousness. Nervousness is cranking up, vibrating, all the time. When we slow down, when we relax with our fear, we find sadness, which is calm and gentle. --Trungpa Rinpoche

Petrolepathy

Great title for a talk this Wednesday by Tom Cohen, who is visiting Rice. I'll be introducing.

Situational Aggression

Two somewhat distressed undergrads just told me, in my capacity as director of undergraduate studies. There is a Facebook page on which Rice Engineering majors scoff at Humanities majors.

Yuck. Why?

"I hope he fails"

No it isn't single payer. I'm still into it.

Dub Philosophy

With the help of my awesome consumerism students and TAs (Larry Butz and Derek Woods) I reiterated today my oft repeated claim (repeated by me for about twenty years) that Blake is more like a Rasta than a hippie. A moody apocalyptic urbanite trapped in Babylon, thinking a mystical consumerism and connection to a personal divine rather than a return to (mechanized, though disguised) nature.

Blake is a dub poet.

He made dub books, expanded, remixed unbelievable books.

And OOO is dub philosophy:

How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way,
Is an immense world of delight clos'd by your senses five?   (Blake)

Hey, FBI, I am the sky--who are you? (Lee Scratch Perry)

Badly Myelinated Neurons

“One of the hallmarks of that millennial profile is an inability to acknowledge mistakes,” the staffer said, sounding equal parts bemused and exasperated. “Everything is right and nothing was a mistake, and they can spin it any way they want.” (source)

Secret Agents ov Gaia (MP3)

My talk at the American Academy of Religion, November 23, 2013. Thanks very much to Adrian Ivakhiv for convening the panel, “Querying Natural Religion: Immanence, Gaia, and the Parliament of Lively Things” featuring Bron Taylor, William Connolly, Sarah Pike, and Daniel Deudney. Adrian transcribed the talks and the Q&A and is going to upload them as soon as he can get online. It was a good show with about 120 people attending, a strange grey void of a non-place to talk in though!

Tardis

Isn't this nice? On the 50th anniversary of a certain show. From my theology student Ross.

I think objects are Tardises.

Ecological Awareness 101

This is the title of what I'll be sharing with the undergrads across the disciplines at Loyola in New Orleans in February. I hope you can come to it.

Remorseless Gentleness

Thanks Kate! The juxtaposition of terror and peace is all too delicious.

Another Blow to LEM

…or the Law of the Excluded Middle. We have Neanderthal DNA. Neanderthals have DNA of an unknown humanoid ancestor.

Foucault and Mental Health

Thatcher and Reagan used Foucault to justify their closing of mental hospitals.