denim silos

"Suppose, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. (Really, it is quite impossible to say he is, for the..."

Tue, 07 May 2013 00:54:22 -0400

“Suppose, gentlemen, that man is not stupid. (Really, it is quite impossible to say he is, for the sole reason that if he is stupid, who then is intelligent?) But even if he isn’t stupid, all the same he’s monstrously ungrateful! Phenomenally ungrateful. I even think the best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.”

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground (via deaths-and-entrances)

"The world says: “You have needs - satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty...."

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 10:44:27 -0500

“The world says: “You have needs - satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don’t hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more.” This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom.”

- The Elder Zosima, The Brothers Karamazov (via prufrocksobservatory)

theparisreview: “November always seemed to me the Norway of the...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:39:44 -0400

theparisreview:

“November always seemed to me the Norway of the year.” —Emily Dickinson

http://laphamsquarterly.tumblr.com/post/33653452025/i-believe-that-banking-institutions-are-more

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:38:00 -0400

http://laphamsquarterly.tumblr.com/post/33653452025/i-believe-that-banking-institutions-are-more:

laphamsquarterly:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

Thomas Jefferson, The Debate Over The Recharter Of The Bank Bill, 1809.

laphamsquarterly: Presidential pets, bonus edition: In 1923,...

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:46:31 -0400

laphamsquarterly:

Presidential pets, bonus edition:

In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge received a raccoon from the town of Peru, Mississippi. Meant to be eaten as part of the White House Thanksgiving feast, the president and his wife, Grace, took a liking to the animal and decided to keep it as a pet. Coolidge named the raccoon Rebecca and was often seen sitting in the Oval Office with his unusual pet draped around his neck.

Worried about her safety after an escape, the President and Mrs. Coolidge sent Rebecca to live at the National Zoo, where they successfully petitioned zookeepers to acquire a mate for her.

For more on political leaders and their four-legged friends, see Politics, the latest issue of Lapham’s Quarterly.

Pictured: First Lady Grace Coolidge and Rebecca the raccoon.

davidenos: I admire that a man of his importance takes the time...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:14:22 -0400

davidenos:

I admire that a man of his importance takes the time each morning to write me a personal email, asking for small amounts of money. David, even ten or fifteen dollars will do. One morning he says, “David. I want to thank you for your support, and here is what I’ve decided. Michelle and I have set aside two tickets to the White House Correspondents Dinner with your name on them. It is a small token of our gratitude. I have reserved them in your name.” I was overwhelmed by the gesture. But by the end of the email he revealed the tickets to be the prize of some vast, un-winnable raffle. A great man is allowed strange behavior.

"There is another world but it is in this one."

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:59:19 -0400

“There is another world but it is in this one.”

- Paul Éluard or W. B. Yeats (attribution unknown)

good: Download an awesome new track by singer-songwriter Niilo...

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:18:04 -0400

good:

Download an awesome new track by singer-songwriter Niilo Smeds and support the Fresno Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Service.

Listen at GOOD.is

"Time and memory merge into each other; they are like the two sides of a medal."

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:08:24 -0400

“Time and memory merge into each other; they are like the two sides of a medal.”

- Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time (via proustitute)

proustitute: Andrei Tarkovsky, Nostalghia, 1983

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 03:07:58 -0400

proustitute:

Andrei Tarkovsky, Nostalghia, 1983

APOCALYPSE - Bill Callahan film + a solo set by Bill Callahan

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 01:09:16 -0400

APOCALYPSE - Bill Callahan film + a solo set by Bill Callahan:

An exclusive screening at the Henry MIller Library - where much of it happened. This includes a short live set by Bill Callahan.

go to this, i’ll be there.

How to Create a Self Hypnosis Recording

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:27:00 -0400

How to Create a Self Hypnosis Recording:

Photo

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:17:46 -0400

"Whatever I looked at was alive, everything had a voice, but I never found out were you a friend, an..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 02:50:13 -0400

“Whatever I looked at was alive, everything had a voice,
but I never found out were you a friend, an enemy,
was it winter, summer? Smoke, singing, midnight heat.
I wrote thousands of lines. Not one told me.”

- Anna Akhmatova, from “Fragment, 1959,” trans. Stephen Berg (via proustitute)

danthom: Available soon for purchase at only the most highly...

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:48:25 -0400

danthom:

Available soon for purchase at only the most highly esteemed Portland record stores. #coattrack (Taken with instagram)

Photo

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:21:10 -0400

the-mallard: F R O N D S (boy Dylan from the Mallard) is...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:06:22 -0400

the-mallard:

F R O N D S (boy Dylan from the Mallard) is playing FRIDAY the 20th at The Makeout Room!

hideandseekgallery: We are proud to debut the first film from...

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:47:30 -0400

hideandseekgallery:

We are proud to debut the first film from the Chinatown Gallery Sessions.

h&s Chinatown Gallery Sessions
Niilo Smeds
“Slumberland”
Filmed and edited by Gary Magill

On the evening of February 16th we set up shop at Chinatown Gallery in the Skylight Room to film five songs from Niilo Smeds in an intimate atmosphere. We decided to showcase “Slumberland”.

niilosmeds.bandcamp.com
gary magill | vimeo.com/user203320
hideandseekgallery.com

placeforwriters: Pioneering feminist poet and essayist Adrienne...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 20:28:32 -0400

placeforwriters:

Pioneering feminist poet and essayist Adrienne Rich has died.

Here’s what she had to say when the NEA tried to give her a National Medal for the Arts.

uchicagopress:

July 3, 1997

Jane Alexander
The National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20506

Dear Jane Alexander,

I just spoke with a young man from your office, who informed me that I had been chosen to be one of twelve recipients of the National Medal for the Arts at a ceremony at the White House in the fall. I told him at once that I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration. I want to clarify to you what I meant by my refusal.

Anyone familiar with my work from the early Sixties on knows that I believe in art’s social presence—as breaker of official silences, as voice for those whose voices are disregarded, and as a human birthright.

In my lifetime I have seen the space for the arts opened by movements for social justice, the power of art to break despair. Over the past two decades I have witnessed the increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice in our country.

There is no simple formula for the relationship of art to justice. But I do know that art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage. The radical disparities of wealth and power in America are widening at a devastating rate. A President cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.

I know you have been engaged in a serious and disheartening struggle to save government funding for the arts, against those whose fear and suspicion of art is nakedly repressive. In the end, I don’t think we can separate art from overall human dignity and hope. My concern for my country is inextricable from my concerns as an artist. I could not participate in a ritual which would feel so hypocritical to me.

Sincerely,
Adrienne Rich
cc: President Clinton

**

Adrienne Rich’s “Final Notations” is included in The Open Door: One Hundred Poems, One Hundred Years of Poetry Magazine, forthcoming this fall.

A Millipede Singing Michael Hurley’s “Twilight...

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:28:39 -0400

A Millipede Singing Michael Hurley’s “Twilight Zone”