May 2005
You are browsing the archive for May 2005.
Spanish Consulate: Take 1
The following is as close as I can recall to the conversation I had at the Spanish Consulate in Manhattan the other day when I went to make sure that there was no paperwork I needed to complete. “Hi. I’m an Irish citizen and I’ve been planning on moving to Spain. The Irish Consulate told [...]
And Another Tennyson Quote
We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are — One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.1 And to think I used to think Tennyson [...]
The Hammer Speaks
This is officially the quote of the week. “Why so hard?” the kitchen coal once said to the diamond. “After all, are we not close kin?” Why so soft? O my brothers, thus I ask you: are you not after all my brothers? Why so soft, so pliant and yielding? Why is there so much [...]
Bane Is Just So Good
There’s really no mood that Bane doesn’t have a song for. So for the first four months it was bad and certainly better for you that I didn’t carry a gun or know where you lay your head at night. It was not her as everyone had thought, but you — how easily you were [...]
I Admit It: I Like Dashboard Confessional
I especially like the following part: Lord it takes a silly girl To lie about the dreams that she has had And man it takes a lonely one to wish That she had never dreamt at all.1 Dashboard Confessional : A Mark, A Mission, A Brand : Ghost Of A Good Thing↩
Hagakure
If there is one thing I take pride in, it is that every year I come further and further to live by the principles in the Hagakure that seemed so wise to me when I was younger. Whether I should take pride or shame in the fact that this progressive development is unintentional is still [...]
Human Nature
One has radically misunderstood human nature if one does not realize that the mistakes one makes will be repeated more frequently than anything else — tragically much more frequently than the actions leading to success.
Heine’s Dying Words
Dieu me pardonnera. C’est son métier.1 If those are not the greatest last words of all time, I can’t think of any better. Heinrich Heine : Final Words↩
Boy Sets Fire
This song continues to affect me every time I hear it as powerfully as the first time. The innocence she feels everybody else contains, It’s lost, it’s gone, but I guess that doesn’t matter anyway. Breaching, rip apart the inner fibers of her soul. And you can sit there with that stupid smile on your [...]
Rereading Berger
I think this sample of Berger’s writing shows exactly what is valuable in it. The italics are my own. How much this photograph says about politics! About how politics, at their origin, are irrepressible. These five men, with their loves, their children, their songs and their Anatolian memory, are the dupes of nobody. They were [...]