Hard News: For Good Friday
279 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 12 Newer→ Last
-
Who remembers Alan Parsons Project and they mysoginisty hit Eve? What a crock of shit that was.
I too went through a prog rock phase, though it shames me to admit that now. For extravagantly pompous and pretentious lyrics, you can't go wrong with King Crimson's early work:
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams.
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
As silence drowns the screams.Here it is live, in case you haven't suffered enough:
-
I too went through a prog rock phase, though it shames me to admit that now. For extravagantly pompous and pretentious lyrics, you can't go wrong with King Crimson's early work:
Hey! Some of us still like that stuff.
-
The nature of nature is spooky at its most fundamental level.
Without at all meaning to be glib, the word earthquake has preoccupied me a bit in the last few days.
The news from Italy has been pretty horrifying, and I gather it could have all been much worse. Your homeland has a pretty quick and efficient search and rescue operation, I must say.
The footage I saw of the service for those who died was very moving, and whenever I see footage of the effects of an earthquake like that, I remember most of my family lives right on the San Andreas faultline. Earthquakes are terrifying.
I was impressed and cheered up by the elderly woman they Italian rescue service pulled from the rubble after 2 days, who had been filling her time with knitting though.
-
Your homeland has a pretty quick and efficient search and rescue operation, I must say.
Perhaps, although all that practice might be due to our uncanny ability to manufacture disasters. A 5.2 manigtude earthquake has no businees killing so many people, or destroyng a hospital that was only 15 years old, at least until you discover that it had been built with concrete mixed in with beach sand.
Most of the medieval palaces in the region are still standing. It's the apartment buildings from the last twenty, thirty, forty years that crumbled like crackers.
-
Hey! Some of us still like that stuff.
I actually still like King Crimson, though it's hard to listen to some of their earlier work without cringing.
-
though it's hard to listen to some of their earlier work without cringing.
Prog hell for me will always be Jon Anderson & Co. Pick any lyric from here and grimace.
Hey! Some of us still like that stuff.
I think it's a European thing Giovanni. Almost every German I meet over a certain age asks me what my favourite Barclay James Harvest album is....
Or maybe it's me.
-
I think it's a European thing Giovanni. Almost every German I meet over a certain age asks me what my favourite Barclay James Harvest album is....
That's entirely probable. On the other hand, I'd like to point out that Italy was completely immune to the very dubious charm of Abba. You've got to give us point for that.
-
at least until you discover that it had been built with concrete mixed in with beach sand.
Far out. Really? They did the roughcasting around the skirts of some houses (and the odd patio) like that in Pt Chev and people think that was bad.
-
That's entirely probable. On the other hand, I'd like to point out that Italy was completely immune to the very dubious charm of Abba. You've got to give us point for that.
Au contraire, as they say in another Romance language. Abba is one of the few acts to emerge from the Eurovision cesspit with honour intact. The emergence of Labrador Records has suggested a Swedish perfect pop tradition.
And how is this not a great song?
-
You've got to give us point for that.
What I do give Italy points for is the grand tradition of quite twisted 70s and 80s Italo Disco. Some of it is very good.
Oh, and a bloke called Giorgio Moroder
-
My bookshelf is bigger than your bookshelf...? :)
Hey, I like it that people here know way more than me about specialist subjects.
I think Our Lord Mod was more concerned with the tone of the discussion rather than the content, although it is not for me to interpret His Will.
I'm just glad that He is a loving and gentle Mod, rather than cruel and vengeful.
-
Well, even tho Sting besmirched the concept, I'm a starter for synchronicity - today, even, i listened to "In the Court of King Crimson" for the first time in decades, and whaddaya know? You're talking about it here. Is that deep and meaningful? Nah, probably not.
And dredging it up from long ago in Huxley's 'Doors of Perception', I liked Huxley's depiction of the human brain as a reducing valve. There's so much out there that we simply don't have the means to perceive. We just get whiffs of it now and then.
I'd like to think there's a divine spark in all of us but then i remember Paul Henry.
-
Italy was completely immune to the very dubious charm of Abba
Dammit. I knew that country must have one flaw.
-
And the closer we look, the less we know we know. The nature of nature is spooky at its most fundamental level. It offers and promises phenomena that do look a lot like magic in the context of the understandings we use to be human.
The remarkable thing is that we live in an era where our ability to make measurements has become so good that we can more confidently theorise about once-unknowable things. It's a fun time to be a cosmologist.
But that still doesn't mean that it's not rational, salutary and fulfilling to experience awe and wonder at the scale and complexity of the universe. It is awesome.
I realise that the reasons people fall in behind Brian Tamaki are not exactly the same as those I am awed by the universe, but it still puzzles me that people would choose the former over the latter.
Because thinking about things like quantum entanglement mangles even the cleverest brains? And no matter how awesome that shit is, it doesn't help to put bread on the table, or offer direct and easy solutions to social problems?
Apparently, reality is just a state of mind after all.
I suspect that in order to fully start understanding the fundamental nature of the universe, someone might have to have a point of view so disconnected from 'normality', that they wouldn't be able to tell us about it coherently anyway (from inside their rubber room...).
There's a good reason that that is a staple cliche of both Science Fiction and religion ('no-one can truly understand the nature of The Gods: to look upon them is to go mad.').
Personally, although I find all of this stuff fascinating, I do try to kep it somewhat at arms length - rather than thinking too hard about the construction of the ride, I just try to lie back and enjoy it, as it were.
-
It's a concept album. The concept is hating women.
Oh wow. Is Alan Parsons a Nice Guy (TM)?
-
I'm just glad that He is a loving and gentle Mod, rather than cruel and vengeful.
He does move in mysterious ways, but.
-
I mean, have you ever watched him dance?
-
Oh, and a bloke called Giorgio Moroder
-
I’ve been reflecting on this thread and hope this is a safe place to admit that I’m a regular reader of both New Scientist and the new agey Rainbow News. And that maybe this current manifestation (us here and now) is just part of a continuum of existence over various dimensions. Physics can’t quite explain it yet but is getting close.
But why are we here now? I think it is to give us a chance to do our best for each other and our world, and that treating others as we ourselves would like to be treated - in a family, community or bigger context - is a universal principle for the advancement of humanity. Of course we can choose not to, but we don’t seem to learn that it only leads to more conflict and misery.
Occasionally a particularly wise soul comes on the scene - in a neighbourhood or national context – to try to unite us and remind us of the essential humanity and equality of every person (regardless of who they are and how they behave), but this tends to challenge the power elite who don’t like to be threatened.
New age magazines like Rainbow News often consider the implications of the end of the Mayan calendar in December 2012 and what that might mean. I think it means we are in a time of transition when we can choose to take humanity to a higher (more positive energy) level of cooperation, social justice and respect for planet earth, or turn away from this challenge and accept the consequences. The recent collapse of capitalism was not unexpected under this scenario and I wouldn’t be surprised if the environmental crisis now deepens faster than expected. And maybe there are more earthquakes, storms and eruptions as if the earth shivers in shock. Our responses in our neighbourhoods and as a global community are what matters. And wisdom and leadership might come from unexpected places.
So let's just be nice to each other and our environment. Is that so hard?
-
"So let's just be nice to each other and our environment. Is that so hard?"
Nope.
And I'm sure most of us posting here would so agree.
But - if you're a religious fundamentalist - or a pyschopath - or a capitalist banker/moneymachine person- or a fervent hunterkiller who wants to introduce more huntable/killables like wallabies into places where they dont belong...yes. yes. I know, sublime (!) to ridiculous (!).........Those humans dont care - at all- for niceness or environments. They only care about themselves & their wants.
And - as far as I can ascertain - that kind of human/hominim has been around since we evolved to be us.
And, generally speaking, religions have helped the alpha males/females do this, rather more than religions have helped equality, equity, compassion & respect spread through our lovely cruel desperately uncertain planet-
when I get into a...erm...discussion with prosyltising religious people, I always ask them about earthquakes*...
*Maori have the answer!
-
*Maori have the answer!
Go on...
-
OK, it's just a myth (sorry, folks!)
When Tane forced the primeaeval parents apart (one could interpret that as the separation of Rakinui (sun) and Paptuanuku (earth)),all his godlet siblings (and there were a *lot* of those) were free to pursue their godly crafts except for one - who hadnt quite been born. Which is why a resentful godlittle in his Earth-Mother's womb still kicks against the pricks-Ruaumoko, kia ora!
-
And that maybe this current manifestation (us here and now) is just part of a continuum of existence over various dimensions. Physics can’t quite explain it yet but is getting close.
I guess you read that in Rainbow News, not the New Scientist.
-
And aside from ludicrous 'rationalisations' like 'If all humans were obedient muslims/catholics/whatevers, god wouldnt visit earthquakes upon his (always his) beloved creation'
they cant give an answer.
Earthquakes dont care about how good, wise, nice, pretty, just, compasionate, rich, foul, evil, ugly you are - the force just kills you. -
I guess you read that in Rainbow News, not the New Scientist.
The movie 'Down the rabbit hole' has both physicists and astrologers discussing such possibilities.
Post your response…
This topic is closed.