Zwischenspiel: A Soldier On My Own

So hat man Multitalent Yoann Lemoine a.k.a. Woodkid nicht im Radio gehört, damals, als 'Iron' in den Orbit der musikalischen Welt geschossen wurde, mit einem Video der Extraklasse im Gepäck. Aber in Montreux, wo schon so manche Magie gewoben wurde, kam einige Jahre später auch diese Iron Choir Version ganz eigener Güte zu Stande. Prädikat: hörenswert; und das geometrisch strenge Design zeugt einmal mehr von Monsieur Lemoines formaler Gestaltungskraft.  

To chase the light

Aus aktuellem Anlass - für die neue kleine Erdenbürgerin, die sich ihren Weg zu uns bahnte (was mithin erklärt, weshalb diese Seiten momentan ein Schattendasein fristen). 

(Existenzialismus IV)

Danse macabre (Existenzialismus II)

When it sounds so right

Für einmal ein Clip zum Hören, nicht zum Schauen. Perfekter Vorwintersoundklangteppich von Junes; zum Oktoberschwelgen. 

Take This Regret

Where my skin begins

i woke up from the same dream:
falling backwards, falling backwards
’til it turned me inside out.

now i live a waking life
of looking backwards, looking backwards;
a model citizen of doubt 

until one day i had enough
of this exercise of trust.
i leaned in and let it hurt,
and let my body feel the dirt.
when i break pattern, i break ground.
i rebuild when i break down.
i wake up more awake than i’ve ever been before. 

still i’m pinned under the weight
of what i believed would keep me safe.
so show me where my armor ends,
show me where my skin begins.
like a final puzzle piece
it all makes perfect sense to me…
the heaviness that i hold in my heart belongs to gravity.
the heaviness that i hold in my heart’s been crushing me. 

i’ve been worried all my life,
a nervous wreck most of the time.
i’ve always been afraid of heights,
of falling backwards, falling backwards.
i’ve been worried all my life. 

’til one day i had enough
of this exercise of trust.
i leaned in and let it hurt,
let my body feel the dirt.
when i break pattern, i break ground.
i rebuild when i break down.
i wake up more awake than i’ve ever been before. 

still i’m pinned under the weight
of what i believed would keep me safe.
so show me where my armor ends,
show me where my skin begins.
like a final puzzle piece,
it all makes perfect sense to me…
the heaviness that i hold in my heart belongs to gravity.  

the heaviness in my heart belongs to gravity.

Sleeping at Last, Pluto  

Breathe

Writing thirty years ago, Illich observed that "in some industrial societies social labeling has been medicalized to the point where all deviance has to have a medical label." As children we were horrified at the Soviet practice of locking up dissidents in mental hospitals under the assumption that anyone who could object to the socialist Utopia must be crazy. Today we are witnessing an analogous phenomenon on a vastly wider scale. The tens of millions of people who find themselves unhappy in our modern technological paradise, this world under control, are diagnosed with some psychiatic disorder and medicated with mind-altering drugs. The same thing happens to children who resist the breaking of their spirit: they are diagnosed with "oppositional defiant disorder" or "attention deficit disorder." I look upon these "disorders" as signs of health, not illness. A sane, strong-willed child will resist the mindless routine, the busywork, and the hours cooped up inside a classroom; she will steal moments of play at any opportunity. I also think adult depression can be a sign of health. When we have been frightened away from our creative purpose into a life not really worth living, the soul rebels by withdrawing from that life. This is the paralysis of depression. "I would rather not participate in life at all," says the soul, enforcing its resolve by shutting down the mind, body, and spirit. We no longer feel motivated to live. For a while, sheer willpower and the habit of routine keep us going, but eventually the soul's call to withdraw becomes undeniable and we sink into the throes of clinical depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, and the like. 

... 

The medicalization of these psychiatric conditions is predicated on the assumption that life and the world as we know it are just fine. Like the dissidents in socialist Utopia, if living this good life renders you depressed, anxious, or unable to concentrate then, well, you've got an illness my friend. The problem isn't the world, and it isn't the life you have chosen; it is the chemistry of your brain. And that can be adjusted.

...

The reason that conventional psychiatry - whether pharmaceutical or psychoanalytic - is powerless to substantially help the vast majority of patients is that it does not, and cannot, recognize the wrongness of the world we live in. The psychiatrists have bought in along with the rest of us. Psychiatry operates on the assumption that we should be happy with it. The same assumption of the rightness, or at least the unalterability, of the world given to us underlies the quest to "cope with stress." That life is inherently stressful is not questioned. Psychiatric treatment is infamously impotent to address serious mental conditions because the psychiatrists, as fully enculturated elite members of society, are constitutionally unable to call into question the cultural assumptions in which they are so deeply invested. Their investment blinds them to the underlying rightness and fundamental sanity of a patient's reaction to a world gone wrong. Conventional treatment (particularly pharmaceutical treatment) actually exacerbates the illness by affirming, "Yes, the life society proffers is fine; the problem is with you." I have witnessed dramatic healing simply by affirming to someone, "You are right, this isn't how life is supposed to be" - a realization that empowers change. Not that psychiatry ignores the need for change altogether; it is just usually unable to carry the change deeply enough. In essence, it tells us that we need to adjust to the world and seeks to make us normal again, functioning members of society.

No. We are meant for more. Remember Zerzan: "Everyone can feel the nothingness, the void, just beneath the surface of everyday routines and securities." Any psychiatrist that seeks to adjust us to such a society is itself insane.  

Charles Eisenstein, The Ascent of Humanity  

"Very few people realize, there's no point chasing after answers to life's important questions," Dad said once in a Bourbon Mood. "They all have fickle, highly whimsical minds of their own. Nevertheless. If you're patient, if you don't rush them, when they're ready, they'll smash into you. And don't be surprised if afterwards you're speechless and there are cartoon tweety birds chirping around your head." 

Marisha Pessl, Special Topics in Calamity Physics 

Some Things Come

That make. 

Worst Things Beautiful

...it's the could haves, the would haves / and the 'damn I really did thats' / which make us who we are. 

Sugar On Your Soul

Supermassive Dissonanzen mit orientalischen Schlenkern - einmal mehr rühren die Editors mit wuchtiger Kelle an. Love. Love. Love it. 

At Least

Man würde nicht denken, dass sich hinter dieser atemberaubend schönen Ballade ein lokaler Liedermacher verbirgt. Ist aber so. Und man würde ihm wünschen, dass die ganze Welt zuhört. 

Atlas: Darkness // Woodwork

...It's a cruel, cruel trick how we find ourselves when we lose everything else. 

Atlas: Space I // Sun

...I guess space, and time, takes violent things, angry things and makes them kind.

Wings to Cut Me Free

As Sexy. Lazy. Tantalizing. As Music should be. 

(13) Songs for Summer

Was wäre der Sommer ohne passenden Soundtrack dazu... 
Schummrige Töne fürs Dämmerlicht. Was auch sonst.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7Avk8lxLZxDffxe6PHC2vs?si=2ff9e39440254b70

Tracks// # 1 Arrivals N2 / Dustin O'Halloran # 2 Heartbreak On The 101 / Band of Horses # 3 The Celestials / The Smashing Pumpkins # 4 Sparks / Rocky Votolato # 5 Broken Brights / Angus Stone # 6 Perfect World / Kodaline # 7 Pink Rabbits / The National # 8 Bones / David J. Roch # 9 Ghosts That We Knew / Mumford & Sons # 10 Let Her Go / Passenger # 11 Me And The Montain / Team Me # 12 The Night Will Always Win / Elbow # 13 Departures N1 / Dustin O'Halloran 

Maybe I should swim...

...maybe I should drown.

Elfenrausch(en)

"The idea behind this video was to portray a fractured self," she writes. "Two sides of a person, each struggling to dominate the other. Rage, fear, despair, defeat [and] solace were emotions I was interested in exploring. I wanted to capture these dark places that are sometimes hard to emerge from, but I also wanted them to look beautiful, considered and filmic."

Monica Perez über den Videodreh zu 'White Noise'

Zwischentöne

Während ich nächste Woche unter südlicher Sonne persönliche Geschichte(n) inventarisiere, übergebe ich an dieser Stelle das Predigerwort an Amy Macdonald (sie möge mir das ironische Augenzwinkern verzeihen). 

Den Daheimbleibenden eine gute Zeit.