White House shadows
“Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank God”
—Neil Young, the lyrics to Let’s Impeach the President from his upcoming album, Living With War. Found this via Fark at Foxnews.com. Foxnews. That would be ironic, would it not?
the sensations of red, blue, yellow, &c.
“Hylas. I tell you, Philonous, external light is nothing but a thin fluid substance, whose minute particles being agitated with a brisk motion, and in various manners reflected from the different surfaces of outward objects to the eyes, communicate different motions to the optic nerves; which, being propagated to the brain, cause therein various impressions: and these are attended with the sensations of red, blue, yellow, &c.
Philonous. It seems then, the light does no more than shake the optic nerves.
Hylas. Nothing else.
Philonous. And consequent to each particular motion of the nerves, the mind is affected with a sensation, which is some particular color.
Hylas. Right.
Philonous. And these sensations have no existence without the mind.
Hylas. They have not.”
—George Berkeley, from Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, 1713.
Look!
“Look! Are not the fields covered with a delightful verdure? Is there not something in the woods and groves, in the rivers and clear springs, that soothes, that delights, that transports the soul? . . . Raise now your thoughts from this ball of earth, to all those glorious luminaries that adorn the high arch of heaven. . . . How vivid and radiant is the luster of the fixed stars! How magnificent and rich that negligent profusion, with which they appear to be scattered throughout the whole azure vault!.”
—George Berkeley, from Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, 1713. Philonous speaking.
Jason Squiff
“Jason Squiff was a cistern cleaner. He had greenish yellowish hair. If you looked down into a cistern when he was lifting buckets of slush and mud you could tell where he was you could pick him out down in the dark cistern, by the lights of his greenish yellowish hair.”
—Carl Sandberg, from “The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes,” one of his Stories from the Rootabaga Country, from a collected edition of 1973.
The Yellow Sound
“[Wassily] Kandinsky’s endeavor to reduce painting to its innate basic principles had led him, in 1909, to the creation of his first abstract painting, which he regarded as an equivalent to musical compositions. Sounds, like pure colors, were seen to be expression of an absolute spirit. However, the time dimension of music could only be insufficiently captured in the static, two-dimensional frame of a painting. Hence his move into “stage-compositions,” the first of which, The Yellow Sound, was published in 1912.”
—G’nter Berghaus, from Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde, 2005.
il Poeta Pink
“’Dr F. T. Marinetti,’ as he proudly signed many of his early essays and theoretical reflections, conducted his surgical strikes against the perceived illnesses of the body politic, and earned himself the reputation of being il Poeta Pink, named after a popular medicine believed to ‘restore the weak organism and provide the best cure against anemia, sclerosis and general fatigue.’”
—G’nter Berghaus, from Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde, 2005.
the verve that distinguishes you
“Have immediately printed, with your usual ultra-Futurist energy, 15,000 flyers like the one enclosed or even half that size, but keep the same proportion of letters. Take paper of different colors, but they must be bright, otherwise the print will be illegible. Then, take a car and . . . make a tour through the principal streets of Messina, throwing the flyers with the verve that distinguishes you.”
—F.T. Marinetti, from a letter of October 15, 1913, printed in Guiseppe Miligi, Prefuturismo e primo futurismo in Sicilia, 1900–1918, 1989. As quoted in Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde by G’nter Berghaus, 2005.
a magical and dazzling glow
“In the evening, a flood of gas light streams through the windows, casting a warm color on the pale faces of passing women, making the copper shine like gold, and transforming crystals into diamonds. It makes the rich array of manifold and multicolored trinkets, knick-knacks, and toys appear like luxuries radiating a magical and dazzling glow. . . .”
—Auguste Luchet, from “Les Passages,” in Nouveau tableau de Paris, 1835. As quoted in Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde by G’nter Berghaus, 2005.
permanent illumination
“Everywhere you see brilliant stores, ostentatious displays, gilded caf’s, permanent illumination: from rue Louis-le-Grand to rue Richelieu, the light flooding from the shops allows you to read your newspaper. . . . People stroll through the streets where commerce keeps a radiant illumination going all night and makes it as bright as day.”
—Julien Lemer, from Paris au gaz, 1861. As quoted in Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde by G’nter Berghaus, 2005.
a white table, a white piano, and one hundred white pencils
“Grandson of a millionaire, [Cole] Porter spent his entire life surrounded by opulence, and his home at 13 re Monsieur was no exception.
In the entryway, black-and-white checked tile led from the front door to a finely cut marble staircase flanked on each side by columns. From the top of the stairs, a grand salon stretched out over much of the first floor, enclosing in its white paneling soft velvet couches, oriental-finished tables, and colorful rugs. Platinum paper coated the library walls, while elsewhere in the house zebra-skin rugs complemented ornate art deco furnishing. . . . Porter’s workroom . . . ,painted entirely in white, contained nothing but a white table, a white piano, and one hundred white pencils. The wall facing the courtyard was made of frosted glass with a small, clear porthole so that Porter could gaze outside for inspiration.”
—Luke Miner, from Paris Jazz: A Guide, 2005.