While Bird

May 24

“Head, Heart” by Lydia Davis

Heart weeps.
Head tries to help heart.
Head tells heart how it is, again:
You will lose the ones you love. They will all go. But even the earth will go, someday.
Heart feels better, then.
But the words of the head do not remain long in the ears of the heart.
Heart is so new to this.
I want them back, says heart.
Head is all heart has.
Help, head. Help heart. 

(via: hateshiploveship)

Stages, by Herman Hesse (via a young Joseph Knecht)

As every flower fades and as all youth 

Departs, so life at every stage, 

So every virtue, so our grasp of truth,

Blooms in its day and may not last forever.

Since life may summon us at every age

Be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavor,

To find new light that old ties cannot give.

In all beginnings dwells a magic force

For guarding us and helping us to live.

.

Serenely let us move to distant places

And let no sentiments of home detain us.

The Cosmic Spirit seeks not to restrain us

But lifts us stage by stage to wider spaces.

If we accept a home of our own making,

Familiar habit makes for indolence.

We must prepare for parting and leave-taking

Or else remain the slaves of permanence.

.

Even the hour of our death may send 

Us speeding on to fresh and newer spaces,

And life may summon us to newer races.

So be it, heart: bid farewell without end.

The New Yorker's Book Club's live chat with Lydia Davis -

A very neat, brisk exchange between Davis and her fans.

May 15

Dennis Kelly opens the Stückemarkt -

On finding impetus to start work on a new play: “…if this was the last thing I ever got to say to another human, if the moment I wrote the last word my life was ended – what would I say?”

May 14

[video]

“These things I know for sure” Andrea Zittel

  1. It is a human trait to organize things into categories. Inventing categories creates an illusion that there is an overriding rationale in the way that the word works.
  2. Surfaces that are “easy to clean” also show dirt more. In reality a surface that camouflages dirt is much more practical than one that is easy to clean.  
  3. Maintenance takes time and energy that can sometimes impede other forms or progress such as learning about new things.  
  4. All materials ultimately deteriorate and show signs of wear. It is therefore important to create designs that will look better after years of distress.  
  5. A perfect filling system can sometimes decrease efficiency. For instance, when letters and bills are filed away too quickly, it is easy to forget to respond to them.  
  6. Many “progressive” designs actually hark back towards a lost idea of nature or a more “original form.”  
  7. Ambiguity in visual design ultimately leads to a greater variety of functions than designs that are functionally fixed.  
  8. No matter how many options there are, it is human nature to always narrow things down to two polar, yet inextricably linked choices.  
  9. The creation of rules is more creative than the destruction of them. Creation demands a higher level of reasoning and draws connections between cause and effect. The best rules are never stable or permanent, but evolve, naturally according to content or need.  
  10. What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves.  
  11. Things that we think are liberating can ultimately become restrictive, and things that we initially think are controlling can sometimes give us a sense of comfort and security.  
  12. Ideas seem to gestate best in a void—- when that void is filled, it is more difficult to access them. In our consumption-driven society, almost all voids are filled, blocking moments of greater clarity and creativity. Things that block voids are called “avoids.”  
  13. Sometimes if you can’t change a situation, you just have to change the way you think about the situation.  
  14. People are most happy when they are moving towards something not quite yet attained (I also wonder if this extends as well to the sensation of physical motion in space. I believe that I am happier when I am in a plane or car because I am moving towards an identifiable and attainable goal.)  
  15. What you own, owns you.  
  16. Personal truths are often perceived as universal truths. For instance it is easy to imagine that a system or design works well for oneself will work for everyone else.

(via)

May 03

A Letter from Sweden, by Susan Sontag -

Susan Sontag wrote this highly critical essay on Sweden and its people in 1969 after having spent a year living in Stockholm, working on film projects. She depicts a nation of socially anxious, repressed and pathologically non-confrontational people, living in a highly conformist society with strangely scattered political activism.

Feb 06

rusaman: Will Of Power by Yoan Capote

rusaman: Will Of Power by Yoan Capote

(Source: szymon, via rare-birds)

Dec 29

[video]

Dec 25

[video]