The ultimate triumph over radicalism and terror...

Doug Mills - New York Times

"We fight today, because Iraq now carries the hope of freedom in a vital region of the world, and the rise of democracy will be the ultimate triumph over radicalism and terror," he said. "And we fight today because terrorists want to attack our country and kill our citizens, and Iraq is where they are making their stand."
George Bush

Totalitarian regimes manage to attract both the mob afflicted by its "mixture of gullibility and cynicism", and the elites. They tell lies. They take advantage of the unthinkibility of their atrocities; "the very immensity of the crimes guarantees the murderers, who proclaim their innocence with all manner of lies, will be more readily believed than the victims who tell the truths".
Hannah Arendt

Leave the door open...

Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That's where the most important things come from, where you come from and where you will go.
Rebecca Solnit

I have no clear idea where I am...

No matter where I am, and even if I have no clear idea where I am, and no matter how much trouble I may be in I can achieve a blank and shining serenity if only I can reach the very edge of a natural body of water...
Kurt Vonnegut

Humilty & Greatness

Rollins surely is a striking figure, his music and only his music matters. That's what took him out to Williamsburg Bridge. He was on a sabbatical from the business at the time, having already established himself as the definitive hard-bop tenor player of the 1950s.

His gruff sound, relaxed phrasing, rhythmic freedom and singular approach to improvisation were all in place, there to influence succeeding generations of saxophonists.

But then as now, Rollins wasn't satisfied. He took almost three years off to regroup, returning to action in 1962 with an LP entitled, appropriately enough, The Bridge. He associated briefly with the avant-garde, but in due course settled on a more conventional, though still personal, path through the maze of trends and counter trends that have coloured modern jazz since the 1960s.

The same sort of end-around understatement tempers his response to any assertions about Rollins's own importance -- that he has, for example, become one of the true elder statesmen of jazz.

"I've survived," he admits slowly, sounding unconvinced by the notion. "I've been out here for a while. I never take anything for granted. I'm still practising everyday, still trying to get to certain things musically.

"So I don't assume that I'm a great statesman. If somebody feels that way about me, I'm humbled, but I certainly don't assume that I, myself, am someone to be revered. Every time I play, that's my test. Of course now that I'm older, people may give me a little more of the benefit of the doubt."

Rollins, of course, isn't the sort of artist who's looking for the benefit of the doubt. A lot of musicians a few months shy of 75 would be resting on their laurels. Not Sonny.

"No," he agrees, "no, no . . . no." That's clear enough, but his next remark is still surprising. "I don't feel I've amassed enough laurels to rest on."
Mark Miller, The Globe and Mail

Truth about Women: Part II

How many men have shown great aptitude at running multinational corporations or leading across vast deserts only to drop to their knees like blundering Cub Scouts at their first sign of tit?
Neil LeBute

Truth about Women: Part l

www.kasterine.com

No man can satisfy a woman who doesn't want him.
Saul Bellow

Hip Hop Got Nothin' on Jazz...

Cohodas casts light on Washington's reputation for toughness. We see her at work playing rough in order to maintain her personal and artistic standards and to protect other African-American artists from racial prejudice. She would hush up a musician who overplayed or scold a member of the audience who disrupted her show. After she was successful, she became "the boss in the studio" and once halted a recording session when she saw that the entire orchestra was white. She resumed the next day, when black musicians were included. During one performance in Las Vegas, the hotel pit boss lowered Washington's volume to satisfy a high roller from the South who didn't like her singing; Washington left the stage, walked through the casino, and told the boss, loudly enough for her audience to hear, "Motherfucker, I'm going to turn that [sound] back where it belongs, and if you touch it, I am going to break your fuckin' ass."
David Hajdu, New York Review of Books

Steve Wright No?

I planted some birdseed. A bird came up.
Now I don't know what to feed it.

I had amnesia once -- or twice.

I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart.
Now what?

Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

If the world were a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.

Why do they advertise products for "Occasional Irregularity"?
If it wasn't occasional, wouldn't it be regular?

What is an "Authentic Reproduction"??

What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?

They told me I was gullible .. and I believed them.

Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when
he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto a freeway.

Two can live as cheaply as one, for half as long.

Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.

One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.

When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins
to look like a nail.

A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

My weight is perfect for my height -- which varies.

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.

If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?

Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll
show you a man who can't get his pants off.

Is it my imagination, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken?

Everybody is born from somebody...

How could you permit yourself to breathe, let alone laugh or sleep or eat well, if you were unable to imagine how hard another person's life was?
Jonathan Franzen

Parents - they tell us a lie about ourselves...

The process of piercing our parent's silence, of unraveling the webs of deceits that they spin about their true selves, and often ours, is not only a way of bringing our beloved dead back to life: it can also offer us a greater measure of retrospective clarity, of self-knowledge.
Francine du Plessix Gray

Anne Bancroft 1931 - 2005

"If you want money and power and fame, go to it," she said in 2005. "But if you want something more, something that will last you your whole entire life, you have to be true to yourself. I did it. I looked at myself at a certain point and I said, 'Hey, this is not what I want.' So I changed. I had to."

That involved growing up and away from adolescent dreams of movie stardom. She became selective about the parts she took on. It was partly due to her age, she acknowledged, but also because she'd rather spend time at her Los Angeles home with her husband, Mel Brooks. And because she felt there was a dearth of good roles for women of a certain age. "You know," she said, "I don't think there were ever any good roles for women -- either in life or in the movies."
www.theglobeandmail.com

Actual Comments to Mrs Robinson on SongMeanings...(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

What does this song mean? I don't quite know. Did Mrs.Robinson do something bad? Who is she? And why do they talk about DiMaggio in the end?

I don't really think it has any special meaning. It was made for a movie,or at least used in the soundtrack. Maybe it's something with the theme in the movie? I don't know for sure...

Yeah, it's just about having an affair with a woman old enough to be your mom... i don't really understand all the details of the lyrics. the first part sounds like she's in some sort of institution (the files and the grounds), but the second part sounds like she's at home (the pantry and the sofa). i saw the movie three years ago and can't remember if the lines are specific to the film. the beatles reference is kind of lame, but simon and garfunkel are still one of my favorite "oldie" groups.

...no idea what this song means. dont really care (lol how ignorant) all i know is i love it! im only 16... so ive got no clue about the graduate or that era.. but yeh i still love this song...

...and where does Jesus fit in?

Truth - My grandma is the original 'Mrs. Robinson' mentioned in this song, it about her...actually, that is not true, i just said it to hack off sebastian. I have no idea what this song is about.

Ev'ry way you look at it, you lose...

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

We'd like to know a little bit about you for our files
We'd like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes
It's a little secret, just the Robinsons' affair
Most of all, you've got to hide it from the kids

Coo, coo, ca-choo, Mrs Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know (Wo, wo, wo)
God bless you please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)

Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Ev'ry way you look at it, you lose

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you (Woo, woo, woo)
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
(Hey, hey, hey...hey, hey, hey)
Paul Simon

What is worthwhile and what is trash?

In the frenzied instant everything world of America the ability of people to discriminate between what is good and what is bad - between what is worthwhile and what is trash - has been swept aside in the rushing drive not to miss out. In a world of promotional hype and mass market hype, momentum is everything.
Christopher Bryon

Brain versus Brawn...

AJ Ayer, small, frail, slight as a sparrow and then 77, was entertaining a group of models at a NY party when a girl ran screaming that one of her friends was being assaulted in the bedroom. The parties involved turned out to be Mike Tyson and Naomi Campbell.

"Do you know who I am? Tyson said, "I am the heavyweight champion of the world!"

Ayer urged him to desist, "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both preeminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men."
NY Times

The Weight of the World is Love...

The weight of the world is love. Under the burden of solitude, under the burden of dissatisfaction.
Allen Ginsberg