First Lines of Tony Fletcher's "Perfect Circle"

 "Athens, GA, April 5th 1980.

All week long the word had been passed around town. Party this Saturday. Three live bands. Free beer.Now with thousands of people converging upon the old Episcopal Church on Oconee Street just around the corner from the University of Georgia, the Athens grapevine was proving unfailingly effective." 

- Tony Fletcher, Perfect Circle, the Story of R.E.M.

The two or three frequent readers of this blog know that I fall into musical obsessions. For the last few months, it's been rediscovering the genius of R.E.M., from my favorites Document and Murmur to listening to maligned Fables of the Reconstruction with new ears, it's been a joy to listen to it all. And so it was time to learn more - to dive into what the internet tells me is the best R.E.M. bio. And I agree: Fletcher exhaustively documents the birth, rise, and success of the band in a compelling and readable way. Fair warning tho -- he's done his research; it's a long book and contains all of the gigs and side projects details. As such, the book doesn't have a narrative flow as much as a propulsive push to get through it all. (To be fair, the ingrained structure of many rock books.) But the beat is smooth, Fletcher's writing moving cleanly from one event to another with no discordant notes. In fact, I hardly noticed the transitions from one album to the next, and it's a mark of his deep knowledge and empathy with the band that he's appropriately glowing about the amazing music that they produced while also calling them out on their missteps.

Not that they made many. R.E.M. is fascinating for many reasons: the great music, their interesting chemistry, their ability to have complete artistic control of their songs - but also their ability to become the biggest band in the world without major compromises or making enemies along the way. Hell, they don't even have any drug problems! Fletcher tells this admirable story while pointing out how their ability to "close ranks" when needed was an essential, if cold-hearted, element of their success (How they treated poor Peter Holsapple (an essential collaborator on Out of Time) is a rare misstep.) 

My only problem with the book is not Fletcher's fault: as R.E.M. became more and more famous, the narrative began to involve lists off high-profile gigs with other celebrities and long, drawn out recording sessions across several continents, with lots of talk of "overdubs" and "remixes." This, combined with my disinterest with the music they recorded after the amazing New Adventures in Hi-Fi, made the final portion of the book a bit of a slot. Despite this, a solid narrative of the group and I highly recommend for any fan of R.E.M.

First Lines of Timothy Morton's "Humankind"

 "A specter is haunting the specter of communism: the specter of the nonhuman." 

- Timothy Morton, Humankind: Solidarity with Non-Human People

I can't claim to understand everything that Morton argues in the first 10% of Humankind, as much of it relies on a command of philosophical lineage that’s beyond me (although my handy copy of The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained helps immensely). Having said that, I'm intrigued by their main premise, which is (put simply as I understand it) that when Kant posited that there were two worlds – the world of experience sensed by our bodies and the world as it is in itself – this involved two errors: 1) the impossibility of knowing “the world as it is in itself” and 2) the anthropocentric bias of “...sensed by our bodies” when the world can be perceived by non-human bodies as well. Mitchell claims that this “severing” divorced humans from anything that wasn't human; in his words “The alienation is a crack in social, psychic, and philosophical ties to the biosphere, a hyber-object teaming with trillions of component beings.” (loc 332). 

This is exciting because they're implying that we can expand the potentiality of existence by opening ourselves up to solidarity with the biosphere. While they haven't detailed how to do this yet, barriers include our Hegalian conditioning to our anthropocentric bias and that moving past it would involve moving past fashionable cynicism; “progress would look like a regression to the childishly passionate" (loc 327).

Fascinating. I feel that this approach could be a natural extension of our learning more about "thinking" amongst "non-sentient" organisms like trees. I'm really looking forward to reading more! 

Russian Man

I've always been fascinated by Russia - there's something about the image that the word evokes - the open wind-swept steppe, the gruff men with amazing beards and fantastic hats, the questing philosophical literature, the onion domed architecture. My impression is that it's a land of contradictions, especially now when it's led by a fascist strongman that you can't get a true sense of what it's people are like. I've read a few books and none of them give me a sense of what it's like: from Andrew Meier's Black Earth to Ian Frazer's Siberia or even Orlando Figes' Natasha's Dance they all pain fascinating pictures but nothing that gives me a sense of what it's like to be there. (Of course, with a country that size, it's probably impossible to summarize in the same sense that the United States contains many, many different "countries" within its borders.

Anyways, Russia's interesting and I'm sure i'll continue to capture pictures that I like when I see them. I don't remember when I saw this Russian Man but I like the beard and his world weary eyes.

Flowing Hair

 As a child, I fell in love with Robotech anime, in particular the Macross Saga and the adventures of Rick Hunter. The great art started an obsession with drawing chunky, flowing hair. This one from the early 2000s was a fun and I think successful attempt at keeping the spirit of the style in a realistic manner.

First Lines of Ali Smith's "Summer"

"Everybody said: so?

As in so what? As in shoulder shrug, or what do you expect me to do about it? Or I don’t really give a fuck, or actually I approve of it, it’s fine by me."

 

- Ali Smith, Summer

 

The final book of Ali Smith's seasonal quartet hasn't disappointed so far. I enjoy her impressionistic but powerful observed pictures of modern life. All four of the books are interconnected but in ways I'm afraid that I don't really remember from previous installments, but this doesn't take away from the fun I have reading her: she writes with a natural energy and flow that pulls you along. 

Related posts: 

First Lines of Ali Smith's Winter

First Lines of Premee Mohamed's "These Lifeless Things"

"Today we dug up bones in the Botanical Garden.

I was briefly, reflexively confused: How did these get here? But what a question. People just die where they die."

 

- Premee Mohamed, These Lifeless Things

A fun novel covering what would happen if Lovecraftian creatures didn't immediately destroy our sense of reality. What would learning about such creatures do to us? What meaning is there in a world where such creatures exist? What would we do? The parts of the novel that deal with these questions are the strongest, utilizing the 1st person to share delicious observations in line with someone struggling to make sense of something unknowable: "Pain is interesting, I was told when I started my studies. People don't want to read about happiness. They want to read about pain. That's what will get you published."

 

I enjoyed the book's post-apocalyptic world with the left-over quality of a Roadside Picnic or The Leftovers even if I felt like the slow burn towards a final quest was a bit forced.

 

 

First Lines of László Krasznahorkai's "Satantango"

 "One morning near the end of October not long before the first drops of the mercilessly long autumn rains began to fall on the cracked and saline soil on the western side of the estate (later the stinking yellow sea of mud would render footpaths impassable and put the town too beyond reach) Futaki wok to hear bells. The closest possible source was a lonely chapel about four kilometers southwest on the old Hochmeiss estate but not only did that have no bell but the tower had collapsed during the war and at that distance it was too far to hear anything."

 - László Krasznahorkai, Satantango

What an impressively strange book! On it's surface a depiction of the decay of socialist society, Krasznahorka's mesmorizing prose and psychologist insight create a universal tale of how modern life creates people desperate for saviors - but the saviors are themselves corrupted fools who know no more than the people who look up to them. It's all surprisingly entertaining - his sentences go on forever, winding and rolling around subjects and actions, spinning tales of terrible lives with such energy and invention that it becomes almost funny. Not an easy read but one I loved - and have thought about many times since closing the cover. 

First Lines of Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha"

 "In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda. The sun browned his slender shoulders on the river bank, while bathing at the holy ablutions, at the holy sacrifices."

- Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

This is a much different book than it was when I first read it 20 years ago. I remembered this book as an examination of the inner struggles someone goes through in order to realize / understand who you are. I also remembered Siddhartha's learning from the river, the realization that live is always changing and yet always the same. (Which inspired The Ferryman, a great orchestral tune by Pete Townshend.)

This time around, I learned more about purpose - the very quantum idea that intent changes what it is you're trying to do. As Hesse wrote:

“‘When someone seeks,’ said Siddhartha, ‘then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.’” 

A powerful description of beginner mind, about seeing things as a child. And the journeys adults need to go through to unlearn societies biases and mental models in order to see reality as it is, right in front of us, every moment of every day.

Siddhartha is filled with insights like this. It's a patient book, one that rewards slow, thoughtful reading. I'm looking forward to re-reading it again in another decade or two.

First Lines of Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation"

"The tower, which was not supposed to be there, plunges into the earth in a place just before the black pine forest begins to give way to swamp and then the reeds and wind-gnarled trees of the marsh flats. Beyond the marsh flats and the natural canals lies the ocean and, a little farther down the coast, a derelict lighthouse. All of this part of the country had been abandoned for decades, for reasons that are not easy to relate."

- Jeff VanderMeer's "Annihilation" 

A bizarre but fascinating read. A group of women, all without names - just titles like "Psychologist" or "Anthropologist" - are part of an expedition into Area X, a mysterious region of land cut off from reality for unexplained reasons. The book is filled with mystery and conspiratorial thinking, but in the end appears to be about the ways that we make - or don't make! - meaning in the face of a universe that may not have an underlying purpose. I can't say I understood it all but found myself extremely engaged with story despite the deliberate depersonation of the characters and the lack of explanation of just about anything in Area X. Recommended for those who like to ponder the unknown.

Related Posts:

• First Lines of Jeff Vandermeer's "Authority"
• First Lines of Jeff Vandermeer's "Annihilation"

First Lines of Stephen Clark's "Katahdin"

"Baxter State Park and Katahdin are unique natural features not only of Maine, but of the Northeastern United States. ... Baxter Park is owned by the people of the State of Maine. The circumstances by which they came into possession of this land its natural wonders are unusual, with few parallels in the history of our country."

- Stephen Clark, Katahdin, A Guide to Baxter State Park & Katahdin

 This book was invaluable for our recent trip to the park. Highly recommend picking it up if you'll be anywhere within Baxter SP.

Freud on Group Psychology

Reading about the anti-vaxx communities who continue to refuse vaccines and the need for masks reminds me of what Freud wrote about group psychology:

“The impulses which a group obeys may according to circumstances be generous or cruel, but they are always so imperious that no personal interest, not even that of self-preservation, can make itself felt.”

Book Review: "The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories" (ed. Jeff and Ann VanderMeer)

Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories is an impressive accomplishment. I've tried to write this review a number of times and nothing I do is capturing my experience of reading it's 1000+ pages. So let me just write some words.

The VanderMeers compiled the best "weird" stories over the last century. By weird, we're not talking horror - although that is often an element in these stories. Weird here often means surreal and bizarre, but can also be tender and moving. To me, the common element is often an element of surprise, not from jump scares but from a joyful examination of an impeccable internal logic. Exploring the strange takes one many, many forms, and all of them are included here: From the different worlds in Michel Bernanos' surreal "The Other Side of the Mountain" to SciFi dystopias (perhaps best represented in Craig Padawer's "Meat Garden"), to lots and lots of strange creatures (Lovecraft's classic "Dunwich Horror" but also "Margaret st. Clair's "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles").

The first portion of the book (its arranged chronologically) is almost quaint in it's pre-ironic story telling. There's a good slice of surrealism, a lot of monsters, and a good amount of gothic tales. 

As the book progresses, the stories get more brutal - or more tender. The older I get, the less appeal gore and horror have for me, but Daniel Abraham's masterful "Flat Diane" plays horror wonderfully with parental guilt and the "Flat Stanley books (and killer lines like "The best trick Hell has to play against its inmates is to whisper to them that this - this now - is the bottom. Nothing can be worse than this. And then to pull the floor away.") The tender - yet often creepy - is represented by two tales I can't stop thinking about: Martin Simpson's moving domestic ghost tale "Last Rites and Resurrections" and the slow burn of child fantasies gone sour in Micaela Morrissette's "The Familiars." 

There are also stories here that, to me, are undisputed masterpieces. These include:

• Michael Chabon's "The God of Dark Laughter". Brilliant combination of the paranoid with the weird, told with an impeccable literary voice.
• Jorge Luis Borges's examination of infinity in "The Aleph"
• Kafka's brilliant "In the Penal Colony"
• Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "The Hell Screen." Which turned me on to Akutagawa's brilliance (Jay Rubin's translation of this fantastical tale is the better version IMO).
  
• James Tiptree Jr. (aka Alice Sheldon), “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats” 

Not every tale in the book was good, but then again, that's the greatest part about these collections. If you don't like one, wait a moment and the next one comes along. There were so many good stories in The Weird you won't be waiting long!

First Lines of Allistar River's "Century Rain"

 "The river flowing sluggishly under Pont de al Concorde was flat and grey, like worn-out linoleum. It was October and the authorities were having one of their periodic crackdowns on contraband."

- Alastair Reynolds, Century Rain

My beach read this year, I picked Century Rain because of it's interesting "alternative history" premise, a promise of a lot of Paris, and fond memories of his entertaining opera Pushing Ice. Alas, I was greatly disappointing. I found it to have wooden dialogue that stretched on for far too long, and interesting ideas buried beneath obscurely described action. I'm sure some people love this kind of thing, but it didn't do anything for me. For my next Reynolds book I'll stick to the deep space operas.

First Lines of Cixin Liu's "The Three-body Problem"

 "The Red Union had been attacking the headquarters of the April Twenty-eighth Brigade for two days. Their red flags fluttered restlessly around the brigade building like flames yearning for firewood."

Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem

I picked this up after reading Cixin Liu's excellent story "Moonlight" in Ken Liu's curated Broken Stars compilation. Marketed as "the best Chinese science fiction novel translated into English," the book plays out a unique spin on a first-contact scenario. The perspective of such an event from someone who has a completely different experience and culture from mine alone was worth reading. I can't say I enjoyed all of the novel: I found it's tone to be schizophrenic, and the chapters detailing the eponymous "Three-Body" game didn't speak to me at all. But Cixin Liu's immersive worldview is powerful and got me thinking. I just won't be reading the rest of the trilogy. 

First lines of David Toop's "Oceans of Sound"

"Sitting quietly in never-never land, I am listening to summer fleas jump off of my small female cat into the polished wood floor. Outside, starlings are squabbling in the fog tree and behind me I can hear swifts wheeling over rooftops. An ambulance siren, full panic mode, passes from behind the left centre of my head to starboard front."

David Toop, Oceans of Sound

Subtitled "Ambient sound and radical listening in the age of communication," Toop's book so far is an idiosyncratic examination of what it means to listen in a world where are inundated with inputs, with stimulus - with all sorts of sounds. I've been enjoying his take on what music is, his observations and thoughts on music both old and contemporary. In just the first third of the book, I've been exposed to  interesting music I was not aware of - from the wondrous ringing of gamelan orchestras to the quiet, halting piano of Eric Satie, to the "machine music" of Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori.  

 

First Lines of Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"

 "When I was three and Bailey four, we arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed l—“To Whom It May Concern”—that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson Jr., from Long Beach, California, en route to Stamps, Arkansas, c/o Mrs. Annie Henderson."

- Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Such a well written and powerful book. Each chapter feels like a full recognized short story, and yet the book is a cohesive whole. Angelou makes her childhood  come alive - with all of it's childhood magic, racial injustice, coming-of-age confusion, and terrible tragedies. She went through some terrible experiences, and I'm in awe of her strength and skill in surviving it all and capturing it in such a powerful artistic statement.

First Lines of Matthew Walker's "Why We Sleep"

"Do you think you got enough sleep this past week? Can you recall the last time you woke up without an alarm clock feeling refreshed, not needing caffeine? If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you are not alone. More than a third of adults in many developed nations fail to obtain the recommended seven to nine hours of nightly sleep."

- Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker

Being someone who has always struggled with sleep, i'm interested to learn more about how to work with not against my body to optimize the quantity and quality of my sleep. Two things I've already learned:

1. Melatonin only regulates the timing of sleep, not it's generation. So taking a melatonin supplement will only help your body recognize when it's time to go to sleep  - not help you drift off.
2. Caffeine operates by blocking the body's adenosine receptors. Adenosine is a chemical that builds up in the body during the day, peaking about 12-16 hours after you wake. Caffeine tricks you into feeling alert and awake by preventing the body from recognizing how much adenosine you have - but doesn't prevent it from building up.

I highly recommend Matthew Walker's appearance on the Rich Roll podcast.

Dogs!

I fell in love with this picture when I drew it years ago - if memory serves it was from an old issue of National Geographic. Dogs can be difficult to capture in line drawings - but I'm happy with how this came out using a mixture of solid blacks with some hashing. 

Dante's Inferno

 Here's an older one I drew when I had the time to take my drawing pad into the MFA. This is Dante from Henri de Triqueti's Dante and Virgil statue. 

First 2021 Tab Dump

I've been reading much more than i've been writing. Here's some of those things for ya:

Looking at QAnon in the light of a long line of conspiracy magical thinking linked to divine and religious thinking.

 A dramatic, but not untrue, plea to see how Facebook fosters cognitive bubbles for people, and what it means for American democracy

"America, the idea of America, is on the brink. And at the cold, dead heart of the suicide mission it has set itself on, is Facebook. Facebook and America are now indivisible. Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, these are now the bloodstream of American life and politics."

An examination of two types of Chinese military leadership: between that of Sun Tzu (cynicism and  deception) and Zhonghang Wu (civic engagement). 

The Art of limiting yourself to the Essential.

I used the lockdown to do some weight work. This minimalist's strength workout has helped.

Ambient music is often seen as boring. But in fact it can pay an important role in our society. It might even save your life. 

 To that end, i've been enjoying Brian Eno's "Neroli" - part of his "Thinking Music" series. 

Pilots of Purple Twilight, Tangerine Dream's new box set covering their output from 1980 - 1983, has been on heavy rotation. I find most of TD hit or miss, but "White Eagle", "Dominion", and "Logos" are all solid song journies.

Fascinating Rich Roll podcast with Matthew Walker: "Sleep is your Superpower." Such an interesting exploration of what sleep is, why it's important, and how we can optimize it.

As a parent, I do what I can to avoid "punishing through rewards"

Maslow may have misinterpreted his hierarchy of needs when he adapted it from native tribes - the Blackfoot tribe in particular.

How to be happier.

First Lines of Rob Hirst's "Willie's Bar and Grill"

"On 10 September 2001, Midnight Oil were in a Sydney studio mixing 'Poets and Slaves', from our latest album, Capricornia, and preparing for a handful of local shows before a seven-week tour of North America. The following morning we woke up to find that nineteen terrorists had attacked the United States, killing an unknown number of innocent people."

- Rob Hirst, Willie's Bar and Grill

It's Midnight Oil's turn. My current obsession - I go through phases where I listen to nothing but one artist for months at a time - is revisiting the powerful albums of Australia's best rock n' roll band: 10-1, Red Sails in the Sunset, Blue Sky Mining. The music's "Power and Passion" has always transported me, and their 1990 show is one of the best i've ever seen. I've just never been sure what some of their songs were about, and so I picked up this fun book by Rob Hirst, Midnight Oil's drummer, major songwriter, and key backup vocalist to fill in some of the gaps.

The book is not a typical "rock memoir". While he does tell some good stories about the band's history - recording the amazing drums to "Best of Both Worlds" in a Tokyo bathroom is a good one - Willie's Bar and Grill is about his observations about the towns, clubs, and the country through which the band traveled in Oct/Nov 2001. He's a natural storyteller, and the book reads extremely easily - leaving you with the effect of a great conversation. Hirst is an astute observer, and pays close attention to what's going on in the world around him, commenting on current events, band dynamics, and the state of the music business. A fun narrative that's more than just a numbing list of gigs, recordings, and relationships, I recommend it to anyone who's a fan of Midnight Oil or music in general.

Maine Canoeing

 Got inspired a while back to do a drawing of last year's Moose River Bow Trip.