Hip-Hop; Good Stuff!

Big Frank has always of the opinion that nobody should dismiss any entire genre of music out of hand.  That's a full stop on that one.  It seems, in Big Frank's experience that the two genre's that are most follow the statement, "I like all kinds of music except _______"  are country and hip-hop.  So Big Frank is out to show ya'll that hip-hop is not to be dismissed.  I have included a couple of artists that Big Frank admires - Jay-Z, below and Theophilus London - way below.  Big Frank was turned on to Theophilus London by his daughter - thanks, Gina; he's terrific.  So, listen and acknowledge - this is good stuff.  Country comes next.




Here is the great Theophilus London (don't you just love that name 'Theophilus'.  The only other time Big Frank ever heard of that name was the novel 'Theophilus North' by Thorton Wilder.  Wonder if there is a connection there somewhere?

In Ashland with Gina

Big Frank just returned from spending Thanksgiving with his daughter, Gina, in Ashland, Oregon. He had Thanksgiving dinner, prepared by Gina, with Riley and Aaron. Then two fun days in Ashland, a gem of a town. They have a festival of lights where the whole town is lit up and everyone comes downtown on the 25th for the official lighting. It was magical. This was topped off by a great meal and drinks with Gina and Riley. A wonderful visit.

Musings for November

[Photo: Big Frank Dickinson, Berlin]

Musings

Why is it that pretty much everyone believes that we exist in duality: spirit inside body, except philosophers?

The compulsion to identify work with moving matter is the matter with work.

Window dressing is like putting a bow on the outside.

Couches are daybeds, so why not call beds nightcouches?

The imprudent reason is often the stated reason for prudence.

Who do people say they are ‘engaged’ to get married, but not say they are ‘disengaged’ to get divorced?

Thanksgiving should lead to other holidays, like Testimonygiving, Accountgiving, Giftgiving (could replace Christmas), and Directiongiving.

If love makes the world go round; rejection makes it flat.

What is the feeling of a feeling of a feeling?

Is your face fiction or nonfiction?

Magne's Aphorisms

Big Frank went to the website of Smithmag.net to read some of the six-word memoirs. After all he did recommend the site. He read hundreds and hundreds of them and came away thinking that in fact these were all failed, well mostly failed, aphorisms. It turns out that when you ask the public to submit interesting and wise short sayings, call them what you will, that you will get mostly nonsense and cliches. Big Frank is not going to waste your time showing them to you. Instead, let's go to a master of the craft, Magne! Go to his blog at www.secretions.net (sorry the link isn't working just now) and read the pop quotes, or search by word. You will be entertained and enlightened. These are as good as they get (oops that's a cliche - sorry, Magne). Big Frank has grouped 20 he likes below (10 on love and 10 on life - the heart of the heart of the matter. That's Magne's photo in the top left corner. Big Frank snapped that at the Globe (a bar in Spokane, not the London theater!).

Love

Without fear I love because I frame people in love.
Occasionally people give you a look that says: I like you because you are a child of god. I prefer the look that says: I like you because you are not like the others.
No one needs to understand the love you have for other people, as much as you yourself do.
How can I be loved for things I don't love about myself?
I don't need to be loved for who I am. I need to be loved in spite of who I am.
The best mirror in the world is a beautiful woman who worships you.
Much of what we call love is actually partnering.
Sex is driving around enjoying the ride. Love is traveling — often to a place you have never been before.
What makes us think that love is the answer? Our heart.

Life
Life involves going into a box and staying there a lot.
There is never enough time to enjoy the moment.
We take our little solo. It lasts but a lifetime. (You're on.)
It is fantasy that floats our boats.
We have such high expectation of life. How can we know there's more to life than this?
You seldom have to walk the walk.
If life is a journey we spend a lot of time lost and sitting down.
It is not good to keep your options open forever.
It hardly takes a village, just a few friends and lovers.
Sometimes you need to disconnect the dots.

Six Word Memoirs

Big Frank has been reading "Six Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak". This is a compilation of six-word memoirs submitted by the readers of Smith Magazine. An idea which the magazine had done earlier, "Not Quite What I Was Planning" one submission: "Found true love, married someone else". Here are a few excerpts. It seemed like a good idea, and there are some good ones, but by and large ... most are flat, uninteresting, and cliche. These are probably the best of the best. Big Frank has saved you having to read the book - don't bother.

"Forgot why I left, went back."

"People can't want what they want."

"Not him again, said my mother."

"Therapist: You went back after that?"

"Happy enough was her tentative reply."

"In the beginning I showered daily."

"He should have married the television."

"Worried the dog liked him better."

"Moved in no ring moved out."

"I'm your one that got away."

"She came back, I wasn't home."

John Ashbery's Night

[Photo: Big Frank Dickinson]

Big Frank has been reading "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" by John Ashbery. a great book of poetry. There is much too much to comment on in a single post and Asbery's words are so much more interesting than Big Frank's so let's read some. Ashbery writes of the confusion that the say brings; how difficult it is to bring meaning into your life through conscious effort using words that have so many holes in them. Night however, is a different situation. Here's what Ashbery has to say on night in this collection of poetry.

"....... you have slept in the sun

Longer than the sphinx and are none the wiser for it,

Come in. And I thought I saw a shadow fall across the door

But it was only her come to ask once more

If I was coming in, and not to hurry in case I wasn't.

The night sheen takes over. A moon of cistercian pallor

Has climbed to the center of heaven, installed,

Finally involved with the business of darkness.

And a sign heaves from all the small things on earth,

The books, the papers, the old garters and union suit buttons

Kept in a white cardboard box somewhere, and all the lower

Version of cities flattened under the equalizing night.

The summer demands and takes away too much,

But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes.

From "As One Put Drunk Into the Packet Boat" ~ John Ashbery

out of night the token emerges

its leaves like birds alighting all at once under a tree

taken up and shaken again

put down in weak rage

knowing as the brain does it can never come about

not here not yesterday in the past

only in the gaps of today filling itself

as emptiness is distributed

in the idea of what time it is

when that time is already past

From "As You Came from the Holy Land" ~ John Ashbery

Significance Anonymous

[Photo: Big Frank Dickinson]

Significance Anonymous (Everything does not mean something)

by Big Frank Dickinson

“Dave: Hi everyone, my name’s Dave, and I’m a meaning freak.

Everyone: Hi Dave.”

The meeting is held in a room with no windows to avoid the leakage of excess meaning into the room. The first speaker goes to the side (the front is too significant) and shares his battle with smiles. They promise so much and sometimes strangers give them (he doesn’t want to hold out expectations from strangers). Then a woman seeing (but not saying she saw) an invitation to speak on hugs because huggers smile, rose to reveal her dread of hugs. She shares her intricate way of analyzing them: how much body contact, where the hands go, the length of embrace, facing/sideways/air … it all means so much she is ashamed to say. This spawns a response from the audience (other hug-huggers) some rise to share how they overcame this, others to argue for some limited significance to certain hugs. These disputes are common. Some things do mean something, but not everything can – that’s why they’re here, to separate the two, “one day at a time”. Progress is limited; tonight the absence of a hug, it is agreed, means nothing. Nonetheless, a small man in the back is shaking his head slowly as he stares across the room (he knows that those who won’t hug aren’t comfortable hugging him). The lady across from him also now knows (she thinks) that this unhuggable man’s head wagging as he gazes at her shoes confirms that ‘practical’ is ugly, and this tells her that her dream last night during which she tossed her checkbook out the window was a clear sign to be more whimsical, which now made her smile broadly to the front of the room where the man who fights smiles now gives in and smiles back, tentatively walking back towards the seemingly whimsical woman.