Tag Archives: thoughts

backyard brains

I’m going to make a con­fes­sion, get some­thing off my chest that has gnawed at my con­science for many years (ok, just the occa­sion­al pang these days, but still).  Elec­tro­phys­i­ol­o­gy was a bit of an obses­sion for me as a … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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death letter

Maybe it’s the recent demise of the great Cap­tain Beef­heart, which is a reminder of the way music, 30 years ago still a medi­um for rev­o­lu­tion, no longer has a past or a future, but has con­gealed into a time­less­ly … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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a reduction of pants

This is a sort of minor rant-begets-anoth­­er-rant.  I found myself writ­ing “pant” in the pre­vi­ous post, and this remind­ed me of an irri­tat­ing ‑ism which I think must be made in Amer­i­ca.  I want to call it sin­gu­lar­ism, but this … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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in praise of pockets

I’ve been told by sev­er­al friends that this par­tic­u­lar rant of mine is get­ting tedious and I should drop it, so con­sid­er this post a kind of purg­ing.  I promise not to bring it up again.  Unless you do first. … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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agora

While we’re at it, Ale­jan­dro Amenábar’s 2009 movie Ago­ra is pret­ty great.  It was dis­may­ing how late and how lit­tle dis­tri­b­u­tion it got in the US, one sus­pects because of its anti-reli­­gios­i­­ty.  While seem­ing­ly get­ting screen time only in a … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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atheism

What expres­sion of style could be more vio­lent than reli­gion? Accord­ing to our friends at the Pew Forum on Reli­gion & Pub­lic Life, about six in ten adults in the US con­sid­er reli­gion to be “very impor­tant” in their lives.  … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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logic as an exercise in style

Unlike the red sauce, this post falls in the cat­e­go­ry of “prob­a­bly use­less”. Once upon a time I took cours­es in log­ic at Uni­ver­si­ty.  I did fine, because if you know how to do math and pro­gram, there isn’t much … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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why is style violent?

I’m not gen­er­al­ly one for quotes and mot­toes.  But I’ll make an excep­tion for my favorite painter, Ger­hard Richter: I like every­thing that has no style: dic­tio­nar­ies, pho­tographs, nature, myself and my paint­ings (because style is vio­lence and I am … Con­tin­ue read­ing

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