In a flash of inspiration, I just crawled off my laptop, and made some cover-artwork for my project OUR HISTORYS BACK. And... thought I might share some photo's I just snapped a minute ago. I cut up some back issues of TIME magazine that I had knocking around my apartment, one's that I rescued from work. I found the 'watch-adverts' attractive, with cogs and wheels and dials, and so I soon came up with a concept including ref/ to the 1936 Games - where most of the story is based around. I should probably now make a drawing of these photographs or something, as I feel I cheated a little bit by cutting out pictures from TIME magazine - and some others books. I had fun anyhow...
"Oh yes, dreams. I know they are important. But you want me to free associate about the dream elements. I have the same blanking out. More resistance for you and Dr Freud to complain about.
I read his "Introductory Lectures", God, what a genius. He makes it so understandable. And he is so right. Didn't he say himself that Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky had a better understanding of psychology than all the scientists put together. Damn it, they do.
You told me to read Molly Bloom's mental meanderings (I can use words, can't I) to get a feeling for free association. It was when I did that I got my great idea.
As I read it something bothered me. Here is Joyce writing what a woman thinks to herself . Can he, does he really know her innermost thoughts. But after I read the whole book, I could better understand that Joyce is an artist who could penetrate the souls of people, male or female. It really doesn't matter that Joyce doesn't have ... or never felt a menstrual cramp. Wait a minute. As you must have guessed I am free associating and you are going to hear a lot of bad language. Because of my respect for you, I've never been able to say the words I'm really thinking when we are in session. But now I am going to say whatever I think, no matter what it is.
While reading Molly's blathering, the IDEA came to me. Get a tape recorder. Put a tape in. Turn it on. Say whatever you are thinking like I am doing now. It's really easy. I'm lying on my bed wearing only a brassiere. If I want to go to the refrig or the bathroom, push the stop button and begin again when I want to. And I just free associate. No problem.
You get the idea, don't you? Patient can't do it in Doctor's office. Patient is at home with tape recorder ...
Well, that's something for you to sleep on, Doctor.
Good Night."
BONUS! Sally Kelllerman reads the end of Molly Bloom's aforementioned monologue, much to Rodney Dangerfield's delight, in Back to School. (The sounds pretty low on the clip, you'll have to jack up your volume)
and if you notice, at the end, the first book on the class' reading list is Finnegans Wake!
"Roaratorio,John Cage's 1979 composition, is a work of staggering complexity. To put it simply, it involves several elements all working together at once to create a soundscape of Finnegans Wake." (Read More)
We didn't really take a break, just got busy with some other stuff which might amuse you.
In the UK, Derren Brown predicts the lottery numbers live on tv, and the first number that comes up (in the 'real' lottery) - Yup, 23. And the announcer even mentions then that the Lottery has raised £23 million for good causes.
On Friday, Derren promises to explain how he did it, but you can watch the clip here.
His blog (All your minds are belong to us) has closed for a while, due to the amount of traffic.
Speculation (the great viral buzz) revolves around a split-screen arrangement, or special ink on the balls (activated remotely), or something else...
Or maybe he just uses magic? :-)
Follow atheist, entertainer and arch-debunker Derren Brown through Twitter, or Facebook. He uses a combination of misdirection, suggestion, psychological reading, sleight-of-hand and (probably) high-tech gizmos to achieve the effects he goes for. Persuasion, perceptual illusions, probability, he explores them all.
It seems amusing that the technical magical term of 'Misdirection' seems to have entered the common language now, even if people may not entirely understand some of the subtleties - and many people attribute his odd 'powers' to NLP, whereas that probably remains a misleading part of his patter, rather than an explanation. He retains his ambiguity about it all - while emphasising that he does not believe in psychic powers, gods and demons, etc. In fact, although he has worked as a hypnotist, he doesn't really 'believe' in hypnosis either. He claims partial inspiration for his style of performance from Martin S Taylor and his 'Hypnotism without hypnosis' show - and (although he plays down his connection to conjurors now) can handle a deck of cards expertly.
Note: he only shares initials with David Blaine by chance. He appears far more witty and urbane to me.
