The meaning of life might well be, increasingly to understand, while ever appreciating it as a mystery.
13/12/2010
Green Grass on Mud
Still some sweet ones walk my way,
still some offer – I must say.
Love and kindness run their veins,
few, but there to care.
Still some sweet ones gather ’round
still some share their ups and downs
Some will ask you – “What is it?’
“Leave it up to me”
Still some sweet ones call you ‘Dear’,
still some make hate disappear.
Some will give you all their hearts,
yet, expect no change.
1982
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11/08/2010
Screaming is Singing
“To the passenger who just called me a m*th*rf*ck*r, f*ck you. I’ve been in this business 28 years, and I’ve had it.”
Steven Slater, Jet Blue Flight Attendant
What is more subtile AND volatile, than vocal expression?
One man has just screamed and might be going to jail for it, but has set up a wave of support for his action. In my view, this story is all about our individual necessity to express ourselves, if need be with a scream.
Other men have chosen to scream differently. Mieskuro Huutajat (meaning Screaming Mens Choir) is a group of men from Oulu, Finnland who have been shouting and screaming since 1987. They sing by shouting or shout singing. Either way they have managed to fully estheticise screaming.
By the way, I herewith show my support for Steven Slater, not at all because I found his screaming to be proper, but because he did the same many other individuals have done over the decades, without living a blood bath behind him. He has brought a problem to the surface which is only talked about when somebody runs ammock killing tens or hundreds of people. Individuals who are fed up with the lack of respect and abundance of arrogance in our society.
See realated support for Steven Slater:
14/07/2010
William S. Burroughs on September Songs
What keeps mankind alive?
At times his singing.
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William S Burroughs on September Songs, posted with vodpod
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You gentlemen who think you have a mission
To purge us of the seven deadly sins
Should first sort out the basic food position
Then start your preaching, that’s where it begins
You lot who preach restraint and watch your waist as well
Should learn, for once, the way the world is run
However much you twist or whatever lies that you tell
Food is the first thing, morals follow on
So first make sure that those who are now starving
Get proper helpings when we all start carving
What keeps mankind alive?
What keeps mankind alive?
The fact that millions are daily tortured
Stifled, punished, silenced and oppressed
Mankind can keep alive thanks to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity repressed
And for once you must try not to shriek the facts
Mankind is kept alive by bestial acts
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Kurt Weil / Berthold Brecht (1928)
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