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THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY, 1973)
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CLASSICAL ICONOCLAST: Adventures with a Balafon:
A balafon is a type of African xylophone. They come in all sizes. There are even huge “orchestral” versions played by three men together at one time. They’re made from slats of wood cured and hardened for pitch, then strung together. Usually, large gourds are added below the slats for extra resonance. They’re played with hammers…
Another story about balafons : Olivier Messiaen wanted to experiment with one in the late 1940’s. He’d recently had the usual father-son scrap with Boulez, who, by way of making peace, tracked down a good balafon (quite a large one) and carried it across Paris and up into the organ loft at La Trinité. The source of this story is Pierre-Laurent Aimard who heard it first hand from Messiaen himself, who was thrilled and delighted. (more)
“A life is such a strange object, at one moment translucent, at another utterly opaque, an object I make with my own hands, an object imposed on me, an object for which the world provides the raw material and then steals it from me again, pulverized by events, scattered, broken, scored yet retaining its unity; how heavy it is and how inconsistent.” — Simone de Beauvoir: Force of Circumstance (translated by R. Howard) (via fuckyeahphilosophy)
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Is there a link between Time-Space synaesthesia and hyperthymestic syndrome? Hypthymestic syndrome is usually attributed to autistic patients who have an enhanced autobiographical memory. Perhaps they visualize their entire history in some large mental map. Whatever the case, it’s quite fascinating, if anything.
“On the other hand, when a man thinks for himself he follows his own impulse, which either his external surroundings or some kind of recollection has determined at the moment. His visible surroundings do not leave upon his mind one single definite thought as reading does, but merely supply him with material and occasion to think over what is in keeping with his nature and present mood. This is why much reading robs the mind of all elasticity; it is like keeping a spring under a continuous, heavy weight. If a man does not want to think, the safest plan is to take up a book directly he has a spare moment.” — Arthur Schopenhauer from “Thinking for Oneself”
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