Why do I bother?

I’m clearly not getting through.

This site is over.

click for
YouTube video “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (Bob Dylan 1965)“

Money for nothing:

It sounds too good to be true.

Learn more, send me cash.

If an economy is to survive, it needs to be based on a real and sustainable foundation, like goods and services.  I will till your field, you will give me a meal. Then the “services” start getting a little fuzzy around the edges and the whole thing starts to crumble.  And even as Rome burns, people are still fiddling around with get rich quick schemes.

To learn more about how this is, in the long run, a Very Bad Idea, just click the Donate button and drop a thousand bucks in my PayPal account, and I’ll explain it to you personally. Seriously.

Click for
YouTube video: “Dire Straits -- Money For Nothing (original video -- 1985)“

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Hammill / Van der Graaf.

Magog (In Bromine Chambers).

The dark heart of Prog.

Click for
YouTube video: “Van der Graaf Generator -- Gog -- Live (2007)“

The song “Gog” — paired with the lengthy instrumental collage “Magog (In  Bromine Chambers)” — first appeared on the 1975 Peter Hammill solo album “In Camera”. In recent years it has become a live staple of the reformed Van der Graaf Generator.

The “Magog” section of the piece actually did have some vocals, albeit so heavily treated as to be nearly indistinguishable from the general infernal chaos:

In Bromine Chambers
there can be no mercy,
no bitter flagellation for your sins;
no forgiveness and no sackcloth
can cease the dance
of ashes on the wind.

Too late now for a wish
to change all wishing;
too late to change, to breathe, to grow.
Too late to smother out the tell-tale footprints
which mark your passage through the greying snow

Peter Hammill "In Camera" 1975

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Oh No, it’s TiVo!

Not your father’s VCR.

Digital Macht Frei

Click for
YouTube video: “Devo -- Whip It!“

Click it, click it good.

Riders on the storm,

There’s a killer on the road.

Strange days have found us.

The time to hesitate is through. His brain is squirming like a toad. Streets are uneven when you’re down. Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain.  And all the children are insane.

From Wikipedia:

The Doors of Perception is a 1954 book by Aldous Huxley detailing his experiences when taking mescaline.

The title comes from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.”

Click for
YouTube video: “Blondie vs. The Doors: Rapture Riders“

Click for
MySpace video: “The Doors -- Strange Days (1967 original promotional film)“
The Doors -- Strange Days

Original cover of The Doors "Strange Days", 1967

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Bang the drum slowly,

Or bang on the drum all day --

Life is rhythmical.

Click for
YouTube video: “Ghost Dance -- Native American -- Power Drums -- Spirit Pride“

Cardiac events occurring in the cardiac cycle. Two complete cycles are illustrated.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon - Gatefold Inner

Repent Walpurgis.

Nothing That I Didn’t Know.

Whiter Shade of Pale.

click for
YouTube video: “Procol Harum -- Repent Walpurgis“ (1971)

click for
YouTube video: “Procol Harum -- Nothing That I Didn’t Know“ (1970)

click for
YouTube video: “Procol Harum -- Whiter Shade of Pale“ (1967)

A Whiter Shade of Pale was released 42 years ago to the day, on May 12, 1967.

From Wikipedia:

With a structure reminiscent of Baroque music, a countermelody based on J.S. Bach’s cantata no.140 assigned to Fisher’s Hammond organ, Brooker’s soulful vocals and Reid’s mysterious lyrics, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” reached #1 on the British charts and did almost as well in the United States, reaching #5. In the years since, it has become an enduring classic, placing on several polls of the best songs ever.

There’s a quite thorough biography of the band on the excellent allmusic.com website.

Procol Harum in 1967

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Why do I do this?

What does it add to the world?

What’s in it for me?

… Ab-so-lutely nuthin’… huh… sing it again…

Click for
YouTube video: “Jethro Tull -- Nothing is Easy -- Live at the Isle of Wight 1970“

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To recall a dream

is to kill it with daylight

Better to let go

click for
YouTube video: “The Nice -- Hang on to a Dream” (1969)

Sorry Facebook friends,

You may have seen this before.

Poetry is hard.

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To study the past

is to be doomed to believe

you won’t repeat it

…. see what I did there? I turned it around…

The original expression “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is from Spanish-born philospher George Santayana, from his Reason in Common Sense, the first volume of his The Life of Reason.  The idea being that if we dutifully learn about the mistakes of the past, we will be protected from suffering through the consequences of making similar mistakes today.

For example, learning about the Great Depression will ensure that our current economic model is safe and sound, and that no such global economic meltdown will ever happen again.  (cough cough)

Demonstrators protest the proposed 700 billion USD Wall Street bail-out in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the Financial District in New York on September 25, 2008. In response to the global financial crisis, protesters, from a variety of activist groups, denounced the capitalist system, Wall Street and the administration of US President George W, Bush. (Photo credit NICHOLAS ROBERTS/AFP/Getty Images)

click for
YouTube video: “Van Halen -- JUMP (live Toronto 1995)“
(original David Lee Roth version removed by copyright police, sadly)

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