/When you dance with me we dance forever/

Journal BlackHat's Journal: /When you dance with me we dance forever/ 2

Journal by BlackHat on Sunday June 18, 2006 @02:39AM

I had occasion to quote one of my better filks[bottom of the page] just recently. I am particularly fond of that/this one. And remembering it stirred the old bile tank, and up --among the eyeballs, bats, and shards of arrows past-- it rose anew.

SongMashUps are an odd egg in the critics tool box. Unless you have the chops of Lear you'll find few who will stand for it more than 'once in a while'. But of course, with a lead in like that you can be sure there will be one in this Journal Entry. And a jumpcut to get you quickly to it:

Hip To Beat Shrub
(Sung to the tune of "Hip To Be Square:Huey Lewis & The News")

I used to be a renegade- I used to fool em'all
And I could dispense the punishments- And could get on Hardball
Now I'm playing it real Left- And yes, I grew my beard
You'll start thinkin' I'm crazy- Boy, it's gonna get wierd
Cuz' I can tell what's going on- It's hip to beat Shrub
We like our men in business suits- Undressing them on TV
We're pimp'in out most everyday- And watching what you read
They'll tell me what's good for you- And I won't even care
They know that it's crazy- They know that it's a drub
But the'll be no denying that- It's hip to beat Shrub
It's not too hard to figure out- You'll see it everyday
And those that were the farthest Right- Have gone the other way
You'll hear them on the freeway- It won't sound like a lot of fun
But don't you try to fight it- An idea who's time has come
Don't tell me that I'm crazy- Don't tell me it's a drub
Take it from me- It's hip to beat Shrub

The trend started really moving a few months ago, after xmas-ish, and it has been growing faster. Obviously I'm expecting to see, and hear, many more of the MSM's fair lights tacking westwardly on the political map.

Quote:
We have observed that a species of greatness arises from the artificial infinite; and that this infinite consists in an uniform succession of great parts: we observed too, that the same uniform succession had a like power in sounds.

But because the effects of many things are clearer in one of the senses than in another, and that all the senses bear analogy to and illustrate one another, I shall begin with this power in sounds, as the cause of the sublimity from succession is rather more obvious in the sense of hearing. And I shall here, once for all, observe, that an investigation of the natural and mechanical causes of our passions, besides the curiosity of the subject, gives, if they are discovered, a double strength and lustre to any rules we deliver on such matters.

When the ear receives any simple sound, it is struck by a single pulse of the air which makes the ear-drum and the other membranous parts vibrate according to the nature and species of the stroke. If the stroke be strong, the organ of hearing suffers a considerable degree of tension. If the stroke be repeated pretty soon after, the repetition causes an expectation of another stroke. And it must be observed, that expectation itself causes a tension. This is apparent in many animals, who, when they prepare for hearing any sound, rouse themselves, and prick up their ears; so that here the effect of the sounds is considerably augmented by a new auxiliary, the expectation.

But though after a number of strokes, we expect still more, not being able to ascertain the exact time of their arrival, when they arrive, they produce a sort of surprise, which increases this tension yet further. For I have observed, that when at any time I have waited very earnestly for some sound, that returned at intervals, (as the successive firing of cannon,) though I fully expected the return of the sound, when it came it always made me start a little; the ear-drum suffered a convulsion, and the whole body consented with it. The tension of the part thus increasing at every blow, by the united forces of the stroke itself, the expectation and the surprise, it is worked up to such a pitch as to be capable of the sublime; it is brought just to the verge of pain. Even when the cause has ceased, the organs of hearing being often successively struck in a similar manner, continue to vibrate in that manner for some time longer; this is an additional help to the greatness of the effect.

But if the vibration be not similar at every impression, it can never be carried beyond the number of actual impressions; for, move any body as a pendulum, in one way, and it will continue to oscillate in an arch of the same circle, until the known causes make it rest; but if, after first putting it in motion in one direction, you push it into another, it can never reassume the first direction; because it can never move itself, and consequently it can have but the effect of that last motion; whereas, if in the same direction you act upon it several times, it will describe a greater arch, and move a longer time.

If we can comprehend clearly how things operate upon one of our senses, there can be very little difficulty in conceiving in what manner they affect the rest. To say a great deal therefore upon the corresponding affections of every sense, would tend rather to fatigue us by an useless repetition, than to throw any new light upon the subject by that ample and diffuse manner of treating it; but as in this discourse we chiefly attach ourselves to the sublime, as it affects the eye, we shall consider particularly why a successive disposition of uniform parts in the same right line should be sublime, and upon what principle this disposition is enabled to make a comparatively small quantity of matter produce a grander effect, than a much larger quantity disposed in another manner.

To avoid the perplexity of general notions; let us set before our eyes, a colonnade of uniform pillars planted in a right line; let us take our stand in such a manner, that the eye may shoot along this colonnade, for it has its best effect in this view. In our present situation it is plain, that the rays from the first round pillar will cause in the eye a vibration of that species; an image of the pillar itself. The pillar immediately succeeding increases it; that which follows renews and enforces the impression; each in its order as it succeeds, repeats impulse after impulse, and stroke after stroke, until the eye, long exercised in one particular way, cannot lose that object immediately, and, being violently roused by this continued agitation, it presents the mind with a grand or sublime conception. But instead of viewing a rank of uniform pillars, let us suppose that they succeed each other, a round and a square one alternately.

In this case the vibration caused by the first round pillar perishes as soon as it is formed; and one of quite another sort (the square) directly occupies its place; which however it resigns as quickly to the round one; and thus the eye proceeds, alternately, taking up one image, and laying down another, as long as the building continues. From whence it is obvious that, at the last pillar, the impression is as far from continuing as it was at the very first; because, in fact, the sensory can receive no distinct impression but from the last; and it can never of itself resume a dissimilar impression: besides every variation of the object is a rest and relaxation to the organs of sight; and these reliefs prevent that powerful emotion so necessary to produce the sublime.

To produce therefore a perfect grandeur in such things as we have been mentioning, there should be a perfect simplicity, an absolute uniformity in disposition, shape, and coloring. Upon this principle of succession and uniformity it may be asked, why a long bare wall should not be a more sublime object than a colonnade; since the succession is no way interrupted; since the eye meets no check; since nothing more uniform can be conceived? A long bare wall is certainly not so grand an object as a colonnade of the same length and height.

It is not altogether difficult to account for this difference. When we look at a naked wall, from the evenness of the object, the eye runs along its whole space, and arrives quickly at its termination; the eye meets nothing which may interrupt its progress; but then it meets nothing which may detain it a proper time to produce a very great and lasting effect. The view of a bare wall, if it be of a great height and length, is undoubtedly grand; but this is only one idea, and not a repetition of similar ideas: it is therefore great, not so much upon the principle of infinity, as upon that of vastness. But we are not so powerfully affected with any one impulse, unless it be one of a prodigious force indeed, as we are with a succession of similar impulses; because the nerves of the sensory do not (if I may use the expression) acquire a habit of repeating the same feeling in such a manner as to continue it longer than its cause is in action; besides, all the effects which I have attributed to expectation and surprise in Sect. 11, can have no place in a bare wall.

It is Mr. Locke's opinion, that darkness is not naturally an idea of terror; and that, though an excessive light is painful to the sense, the greatest excess of darkness is no ways troublesome. He observes indeed in another place, that a nurse or an old woman having once associated the ideas of ghosts and goblins with that of darkness, night, ever after, becomes painful and horrible to the imagination. The authority of this great man is doubtless as great as that of any man can be, and it seems to stand in the way of our general principle.

We have considered darkness as a cause of the sublime; and we have all along considered the sublime as depending on some modification of pain or terror: so that if darkness be no way painful or terrible to any, who have not had their minds early tainted with superstitions, it can be no source of the sublime to them. But, with all deference to such an authority, it seems to me, that an association of a more general nature, an association which takes in all mankind, may make darkness terrible; for in utter darkness it is impossible to know in what degree of safety we stand; we are ignorant of the objects that surround us; we may every moment strike against some dangerous obstruction; we may fall down a precipice the first step we take; and if an enemy approach, we know not in what quarter to defend ourselves; in such a case strength is no sure protection; wisdom can only act by guess; the boldest are staggered, and he who would pray for nothing else towards his defence is forced to pray for light. [Greek: Zeu pater, alla su rusai up eeros uias Achaion Poieson d' aithren, dos d' ophthalmoisin idesthai En de phaei kai olesson....]

As to the association of ghosts and goblins; surely it is more natural to think that darkness, being originally an idea of terror, was chosen as a fit scene for such terrible representations, than that such representations have made darkness terrible. The mind of man very easily slides into an error of the former sort; but it is very hard to imagine, that the effect of an idea so universally terrible in all times, and in all countries, as darkness, could possibly have been owing to a set of idle stories, or to any cause of a nature so trivial, and of an operation so precarious.

Perhaps it may appear on inquiry, that blackness and darkness are in some degree painful by their natural operation, independent of any associations whatsoever. I must observe, that the ideas of darkness and blackness are much the same; and they differ only in this, that blackness is a more confined idea. Mr. Cheselden has given us a very curious story of a boy who had been born blind, and continued so until he was thirteen or fourteen years old; he was then couched for a cataract, by which operation he received his sight.

Among many remarkable particulars that attended his first perceptions and judgments on visual objects, Cheselden tells us, that the first time the boy saw a black object, it gave him great uneasiness; and that some time after, upon accidentally seeing a negro woman, he was struck with great horror at the sight. The horror, in this case, can scarcely be supposed to arise from any association. The boy appears by the account to have been particularly observing and sensible for one of his age; and therefore it is probable, if the great uneasiness he felt at the first sight of black had arisen from its connection with any other disagreeable ideas, he would have observed and mentioned it.

For an idea, disagreeable only by association, has the cause of its ill effect on the passions evident enough at the first impression; in ordinary cases, it is indeed frequently lost; but this is because the original association was made very early, and the consequent impression repeated often. In our instance, there was no time for such a habit; and there is no reason to think that the ill effects of black on his imagination were more owing to its connection with any disagreeable ideas, than that the good effects of more cheerful colors were derived from their connection with pleasing ones. They had both probably their effects from their natural operation.
--E. Burke.

A bit obvious, yes. And I've used part of Ed's rant here before. Tho' in this usage I've blended it with its later sections into one. For effect and to mirror the effect of re-posting that tune mentioned in the intro. I doubt this recent one will need repeating, but time is a funny thing.

On that note, I will try to post sometime mid-week to keep any of you readaholics and linkaholics going. Until then.

News with a Lewis Gun 100m down range in a bunker:
Not unless you brought some for everyone in class, young lady. Heather and Philip Playfoot have spent almost two years in dispute with Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, over their 15-year-old daughter Lydia's ring. While the school's uniform rules forbid jewellery, they argue that the rings - given to teenagers who complete a controversial evangelical church course preaching sexual abstinence - hold genuine religious significance. Yes, well I'm a Tantric Monk...Drop em! [insert random page from any naughty-schoolgirl manga]

And the fun never stops. Revellers dressed in costumes danced through one of the main avenues, as music blared out of huge loudspeakers. One report quoted police as saying that 2.4 million people were at the parade, which organisers say has become the largest of its kind in the world.

However, the orgy-of-death continues too. In; Iraq, Egypt[followup], Israel, --did I mention-- Iraq, Forgottenland, Sri Lanka, India... And Napal An agreement to bring Nepal's Maoist rebels into government and bring permanent peace is being widely hailed as historic in the country. On Friday, the Nepalese government said it would dissolve parliament and set up an interim government that would also include the Maoists. It followed landmark talks between the rebel's reclusive leader, Prachanda, and Prime Minister GP Koirala. for contrast. Good going, now the rest of you lot...POLITICS!!!!

There's those damn crickets again.

Free And Not Dead Press:
Narayan Dekate. Yet once again defending freedom of the press as a vital ingredient in democracy, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today condemned the murder of an Indian journalist who wrote about a scam in the world of illegal gambling.

Featured Item:
Farley Mowat , the flagship of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, managed to escape South African detention today under the cover of night. The Canadian-registered marine wildlife conservation ship slipped out of Cape Town Harbor after months of unsuccessful efforts to get the South African Marine Safety Association (SAMSA) to lift a politically motivated detention order imposed on the ship when it returned from pursuing the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters. The Farley Mowat, under the command of Dutch Captain Alex Cornelissen, is preparing to return to the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary in December to once again intervene against illegal Japanese whaling operations. Japan is using their economic muscle to instigate harassment of the Sea Shepherd ship. Meanwhile, Sea Shepherd has discovered that Japan illegally transships whale meat in and out of Cape Town. "Japan has influence in Cape Town," said Captain Paul Watson. "We have experienced that influence and we have been very disappointed that South African harbor authorities have seen fit to harass people who simply want to save the whales. We have operated the Farley Mowat since 1996 and we have never received the level of harassment that we experienced after intervening against illegal Japanese whaling."

Texttoon:
Fumetti-A side : Stock photo of Jeffrey Skilling's face close-cropped and composited on Indiana Jones head having fallen among the snakes. Assorted speech bubbles for the various snakes saying; "Welcome home, boy!", "Long time no see!", "Hi there brother", etc.

Fumetti-B side : Stock photo of Jeffrey Skilling's face composited into screengrab of Tom Waits as Renfield. Overlayed speech bubble has him singing; "/It's more than thunder- it's more than thunder/ It's more than a swindle- this crooked card game/ It's more than sad times- it's more than sad times/"

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