My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-22)

(via thelovelybones)
alixjay:nowsaynever:
La Linea (oil painting)

La Linea (oil painting)

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Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams

lesmy:

Yann Tiersen on 6 iPhones

J'AI FAIM

Saturday, November 21, 2009 — 6 notes

Charlotte Gainsbourg ft. Beck - Heaven Can Wait

Tom Waits Interview.

fortunaforme:meganmcisaac:smut-to-go:aar0n:


This is a great interview. Here are a few of my favourite bits :

Q: What’s heaven for you?

A: Me and my wife on Rte. 66 with a pot of coffee, a cheap guitar, pawnshop tape recorder in a Motel 6, and a car that runs good parked right by the door.

Q: What’s wrong with the world?
A: We are buried beneath the weight of information, which is being confused with knowledge; quantity is being confused with abundance and wealth with happiness. Leona Helmsley’s dog made 12 million last year… and Dean McLaine, a farmer in Ohio made $30,000. It’s just a gigantic version of the madness that grows in every one of our brains. We are monkeys with money and guns.

Q: Can you tell me an odd thing that happened in an odd place? Any thoughts?
A: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it’s at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle said he remembered seeing a Donald Duck cartoon when he was a boy where there was a boat at the bottom of the ocean with a hole in its hull, and they injected it with ping-pong balls and it floated up. The skeptical group laughed but one of the experts was willing to give it a try. Of course, where in the world would you find twenty million ping-pong balls but in Tokyo? It turned out to be the perfect solution. The balls were injected into the hull and it floated to the surface, the engineer was elated. Moral solutions to problems are always found at an entirely different level; also, believe in yourself in the face of impossible odds.

Q: Do you have words to live by?
A: Jim Jarmusch once told me “Fast, Cheap, and Good… pick two. If it’s fast and cheap it wont be good. If it’s cheap and good it won’t be fast. If it’s fast and good it wont be cheap.” Fast, cheap and good… pick (2) words to live by.

Q: Tom, you love words and their origins. For $2,000…what is the origin of the word bedlam?
A: It’s a contraction of the word Bethlehem. It comes from the hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem outside London. The hospital began admitting mental patients in the late fourteenth century. In the sixteenth century it became a lunatic asylum. The word bedlam came to be used for any madhouse- and by extension, for any scene of noisy confusion.

Q: What is a gentleman?
A:  A man who can play the accordion, but doesn’t.
Friday, November 20, 2009 — 299 notes
brettjohn:wendyomgzlol:nove607:
PerceptionSomething to think about….Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.4 minutes later:The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.6 minutes:A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.10 minutes:A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.45 minutes:The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.1 hour:He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.The questions raised:*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?*Do we stop to appreciate it?*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.How many other things are we missing?

brettjohn:wendyomgzlol:nove607:

Perception

Something to think about….
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approximately. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The questions raised:
*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?
*Do we stop to appreciate it?
*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

Facebook friend turns into Big Brother

thedailywhat [photo via.]

thedailywhat [photo via.]

sakuralove:

anne-elephant:

proust73:

if you want to see the gory details of this crime in the live leak video click on the link below. because of the video the suspect has been identified and is awaiting prosecution. I’m outraged at this insensitivity of this criminals.  http://www.liveleak.com/item?a=view&token=f04_1258418085

I can’t believe people like that exist. He must be a psychopath to not feel empathy nor guilt for even thinking about doing something so ridiculously stupid and cruel. Did he just wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to throw an innocent animal off a bridge?

i just saw this. im sorry innocent puppy.

someone throw this asshole and the 2 persons who filmed him off this same bridge please

sakuralove:

anne-elephant:

proust73:

if you want to see the gory details of this crime in the live leak video click on the link below. because of the video the suspect has been identified and is awaiting prosecution. I’m outraged at this insensitivity of this criminals.  http://www.liveleak.com/item?a=view&token=f04_1258418085

I can’t believe people like that exist. He must be a psychopath to not feel empathy nor guilt for even thinking about doing something so ridiculously stupid and cruel. Did he just wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to throw an innocent animal off a bridge?

i just saw this. im sorry innocent puppy.

someone throw this asshole and the 2 persons who filmed him off this same bridge please

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-15)

(via saturnrings)