Berfrois

Photo

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:11:00 -0400

Video

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:17:37 -0400

"The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings."

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:38:13 -0400

“The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings.”

- Plato

Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ demonstrates the way in...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 07:30:56 -0400

Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ demonstrates the way in which the past as an eruption is formally consistent with pop music. The song does not tell the story of pop’s past; rather the past is made present by the guitar rhythms that give the song its momentum. In those rhythms you hear echoes of Prince’s ‘Controversy’ and other songs of the period. The past in ‘Get Lucky’ is activated for aesthetic reasons not political ones, nonetheless, it’s the manner in which it is activated that interests me. The song takes hold of a fragment of the past and brings it to life, so doing it reminds us that while historiography has dominion over the telling of history, history in all of its non-linear totality is legible in every cultural artifact.

“Pop’s Historicity”, Enrique Lima

theparisreview: “In silence, I start talking to the man with...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:31:22 -0400

theparisreview:

“In silence, I start talking to the man with open arms until my thoughts get lost and I decide to go back to the chair. And so my days elapse, between the table and the window.”

The latest installment of Matteo Pericoli’s Windows on the World series: Tatiana Salem Levy, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Men1scus: A letter by Alan Turing

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 06:30:27 -0400

Men1scus: A letter by Alan Turing:

men1scus:

On this day in 1954, he took his life. I was fascinated by Turing in my teens and always wanted to read more about him. The more I know, the more intriguing and tragic he is. I plan to write about him one day, particularly his views on consciousness - what is now called, with an obtuseness typical of modern analytic philosophy , the ‘mind-body problem’- and related spiritual and philosophical issues.

This was one of the letters he wrote before pleading guilty to ‘gross indecency’ - having a sexual relationship with another man.

via Letters of Note.

My dear Norman,

I don’t think I really do know much about jobs, except the one I had during the war, and that certainly did not involve any travelling. I think they do take on conscripts. It certainly involved a good deal of hard thinking, but whether you’d be interested I don’t know. Philip Hall was in the same racket and on the whole, I should say, he didn’t care for it. However I am not at present in a state in which I am able to concentrate well, for reasons explained in the next paragraph.

I’ve now got myself into the kind of trouble that I have always considered to be quite a possibility for me, though I have usually rated it at about 10:1 against. I shall shortly be pleading guilty to a charge of sexual offences with a young man. The story of how it all came to be found out is a long and fascinating one, which I shall have to make into a short story one day, but haven’t the time to tell you now. No doubt I shall emerge from it all a different man, but quite who I’ve not found out.

Glad you enjoyed broadcast. Jefferson certainly was rather disappointing though. I’m afraid that the following syllogism may be used by some in the future.

Turing believes machines think
Turing lies with men
Therefore machines do not think

Yours in distress,

Alan

donshare: Photo by Christopher Rife

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:25:45 -0400

donshare:

Photo by Christopher Rife

Henry Taylor, Ly For Me, 2010

Fri, 31 May 2013 08:07:20 -0400

Henry Taylor, Ly For Me, 2010

Hatim El Mekki, Evita, 1978

Fri, 31 May 2013 06:58:57 -0400

Hatim El Mekki, Evita, 1978

Jem Cohen and Luc Sante — Le Bled (Buildings in a Field), 2009

Wed, 29 May 2013 11:42:41 -0400

Jem Cohen and Luc Sante — Le Bled (Buildings in a Field), 2009

Photo

Wed, 29 May 2013 07:29:00 -0400

"Perversity is the muse of modern literature."

Wed, 29 May 2013 07:15:16 -0400

“Perversity is the muse of modern literature.”

- Susan Sontag (via)

The best athletes focus absolutely on this one thing that they...

Wed, 29 May 2013 07:06:16 -0400

The best athletes focus absolutely on this one thing that they are good at and for which they happen to have been born with the right body shape or strength, and work day in and day out throughout their youth make their body pitch perfect for a year or two of peak performance. You can see why politicians and others worrying about the youth think this might be a useful trait. It keeps them off the streets, stops them being bored and they don’t ask too many awkward political and economic questions. Of course, the same is true of much gaming in front of the TV, but that has been deemed a bad thing to focus on because it is believed to make people fat and aggressive. Movement plus dedication plus purity of spirit is what is to be valued. But then you discover that Lance Armstrong has not only been doping with exquisite scientific concentration for years, but that he has also bullied and frightened all his team members into doing the same, because they have to support him in order for him to win. It obviously isn’t just Lance Armstrong. Drugs that enhance the body and its performance are used in most sports and probably much more routinely than anyone dares to say. Actually, why wouldn’t you take drugs if they are going to help you win, if winning is the major thing on your mind, and if you know that others are taking drugs for the same reason?

“You Never Forget a Daydreaming Childhood”, Jenny Diski

colleenaf: Sometimes you meet someone and instantly fall in...

Tue, 28 May 2013 11:37:18 -0400

colleenaf:

Sometimes you meet someone and instantly fall in love. That’s me with this gif.

From the 1949 version of the GREAT GATSBY which, based on this alone, is OBVIOUSLY much better than the 2013 version.

(via @emilyhughes)

michellelegro: A big part of one of my first jobs involved...

Tue, 28 May 2013 11:27:05 -0400

michellelegro:

A big part of one of my first jobs involved tracking down these photos for the cover of a book on the history of yoga.

nprfreshair:

Good morning.

We’re not really Yoga people, but we’re appreciative of the fact that Marilyn Monroe was.

via Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Yoga Poses

lizbrown: Sometimes there are things you didn’t know you...

Tue, 28 May 2013 10:54:51 -0400

lizbrown:

Sometimes there are things you didn’t know you wanted to see.

Like Michael Douglas, spangled and rouged, arms out in a white ostrich-trimmed cape, prancing sideways across a Vegas stage. This is barely two seconds of the trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, about the relationship between Liberace and his younger lover, Scott Thorson, but those are two seconds I want to see over and over.

Here’s the link to rest of my essay, “What We Wish We Were: On Biopic-Mania,” at the Paris Review Daily.

Men can’t just write serious songs anymore (Kanye West’s “New...

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:45:00 -0400

Men can’t just write serious songs anymore (Kanye West’s “New Slaves,” which I find arresting, but…) or make serious films or write serious books. They also need to date/marry/love serious women who are doing serious things other than dating so-called serious men. Women who actually reflect these so-called serious men’s so-called anti-establishment politics. Hard to take Kanye West’s stark anti-corporate, anti-capitalist, anti-media rap anthem seriously when he’s dating Kim Kardashian. It’s not just what we say or sing or write or read, it’s who we’re with. It’s how we live. It’s the women we respect enough to take seriously and the seriousness we encourage women to pursue themselves. It’s not enough to just be with serious and talented men.

“Note to Serious Men”, Masha Tupitsyn

literallyunbelievable: Never knew that!

Fri, 24 May 2013 09:43:07 -0400

literallyunbelievable:

Never knew that!

Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds,...

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:12:00 -0400

Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticise at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other.

“How Should One Read a Book?”, Virginia Woolf

Photograph by Lady Ottoline Morrell, 1926

"Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations."

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:11:03 -0400

“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.”

- Vladimir Nabokov