ALL OR NOTHING (ROBINSON CRUSOE)

But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when my father’s good counsel was lost upon me.  In a word, I told them I would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried.  This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that had saved my life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will; one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to England.

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to keep up my plantation.  Had I used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself.

Small Faces: All Or Nothing (Link)

Text:  Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates (1719)

Illustrations:  N.C. Wyeth (1920)

THE MAN IN THE MOON

The air in that place I found quiet, without any motion of wind, and exceeding temperate, neither hot nor cold, as where neither the sunbeams had any subject to reflect upon, neither was yet the earth or water so near as to affect the air with their natural quality of coldness.  As for that imagination of the philosophers, attributing heat together with moistness into the air, I never esteemed it otherwise than a fancy.  Lastly now it is to be remembered that after my departure from the earth, I never felt any appetite of  hunger or thirst.  Whether the purity of the air, our proper element, not being infected with any vapors of the earth and water, might yield nature sufficient nutriment, or what else might be the cause of it, I cannot tell, but so I found it,  although I perceived myself in perfect health of body, having the use of all my limbs and senses, and strength both of body and mind rather beyond and above anything short of the pitch or wonted vigor.  Now let us go on, and on we shall go more than apace.

Excerpt:  Bishop Francis Godwin, The Man In The Moon (1638)

Small Faces: All Or Nothing (Link) 

Art:  Vija Celmins

 

WALKING THROUGH MY DREAMS

It’s the revolving door, mildly insistent but insinuating argument again. 

I am self-stuck in the past endlessly reliving things I already know, making myself unavailable for new experience. 

Even when steeped in ancient history studies, I have always tried to honor Charles Fourier’s tenet “il faut être absolument moderne.”  But in a world where so-called “thought leaders” dictate so-called “post-modern” ideas and values to would-be acolytes and it is considered essential above all to despise Sarah Palin with passion rendering Christ’s Passion cool and platonic by comparison, I am finding it difficult to board the train.

Driving to-and-from Washington yesterday retrieving Mulan from her stimulating weeklong academic program, I tuned Pandora to my Pretty Things channel.  Caroline liked and asked about a non-Pretties track she liked; neither of us were familiar with the song or the artist.   She’s fairly new to Pandora and wasn’t aware that the service mixes up the music to include “simpatico” material with eponymous artist channel fare.  This time we heard a fine, tight contemporary r&b tune in the Pretty Things/Rolling Stones tradition.  Both the music and lyrics were catchy, non-retro-derivative and bright.  Caroline took the opportunity to renew her challenge to me to try again to open my mind to new, non-ancient music and let light and air penetrate and freshen my Miss Havisham attic-mind.  In her loving view, I might “live a little.”

Reading one of Andy Warhol’s entertaining books a long time ago, I remember him mentioning how important it is to try to listen to well-intentioned advice, and clearly one should pay close attention to one’s own wife.  So, for her sake at least, I guess I’ll try to climb out of my rut. 

In the meantime, however, I am happy to share again this superb psychedelic era Pretty Things track, which I have always loved and also this break-frame Small Faces number immortalizing the band’s amphetamine dealer. 

All Aboard!  And as we leave the station, let’s please get rid of Daylight Savings Time or at least the twice-yearly time changeover.  Post-modern society neither requires nor desires it.

Pretty Things: Walking Through My Dreams (Link)

Small Faces: Here Come The Nice (Link)

Kinks: All Aboard (Link)