The Machine is Us/Using Us

Primate Poetics

These lexigrams are a language understood by apes. PrimatePoetics is a concept and website based on the realization that this language should be appreciated in its own right.

The hieroglyphics and manifesto are fascinating.

'PrimatePoetics is Here' pdf gives a feel for the outsider charm of the language of the apes.

Source: Social Fiction

Accents

source: Angus Whines

Tom Swiftly

"I need a pencil sharpener," said Tom bluntly.
"Oops! There goes my hat!" said Tom off the top of his head.
"I can no longer hear anything," said Tom deftly.
"This must be an aerobics class," Tom worked out.

Tom Swiftie, a play on words that follows an unvarying pattern and relies for its humor on a punning relationship between the way an adverb describes a speaker and at the same time refers significantly to the import of the speaker's statement, as in "I know who turned off the lights," Tom hinted darkly. [named after a narrative mannerism characteristic of the Tom Swift American series of adventure novels for boys]

Source: heard on lingua franca radio national interview with Ursula Dubosarsky

Pomegranate Seeds

"The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others." --Carl Jung

In the best-known version of the Greek myth, Persephone is dragged
down into the underworld by Hades, whose title is "Pluto." But in earlier,
pre-patriarchal tales, she descends there under her own power, actively
seeking to graduate from her virginal naiveté by exploring the intriguing
land of shadows.

"Pluto" is derived from the Greek word plutus, meaning "wealth."
Psychologist James Hillman says this refers to the psyche-building riches
available in Pluto's domain. Hades, he says, is "the giver of nourishment to the soul."


Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Proserpine1877
Oil on canvas 46 x 22 London

This Is Not a Pipe

The Semiotics of Media is a hypertext essay and tutorial on using semiotic techniques to analyze advertising, media, and contemporary culture.








Rene Magritte The Treachery of Images

Noise In Church

The last time I went to church, one Christmas day with my family I had to sit on my hands to stop myself from raising one of them to question the pontificating priest and engage in debate about hypochrisy in the church. It would be fun to create a ruckus in the cold stony cathedral. I complied and sat silently perhaps afraid I would be carted off to the Ship of Fools for causing mischief. Mind you, not practicing what you preach is another folly so I'd be joined there by most of the clergy.

Written in 1494 Das Narrenschiff, or The Ship of Fools is a long poem of morality, a catalogue of medieval vices give facinating window into how people lived. It was illustrated with woodcuts by Durer depicting 110 assorted follies and vices, each undertaken by a different fool, devoting chapters to such offenses as Arrogance Toward God, Marrying for Money, and Noise in Church. Some of the chapters are united by the common theme of a ship which will bear the assembled fools to Narragonia, the island of fools.

Music For landing Planes By

The following is a poem from Music for Landing Planes By by Éireann Lorsung, published by Milkweed Editions.
Being
A letter is holy. A story
is holy hands reaching out into the world.
Birds come home
across distance I can’t conceive

and live in their bodies.
Ash in the air. Every place I’ve been
is on fire with words.

One day
I throw away all my love letters
without noticing. Mountains

in the heart. What belongs
to me? I leave the world
all the time. These arms, these

fingers, this tongue, these feet,
and their bent wings. I know
it will be dirt, the prayers

now in marrow will retake
earth. I will live inside whatever flies.
Burning, the brink of all things.

Words

Kids Proverbs

A class one teacher collected funny reponses by kids when prompted with the beginning of a proverb and asked to complete the rest. You can read them here.
eg
Don't bite the hand that .... looks dirty.
Two's company but three's .... The Musketeers.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and ..... you have to blow your nose.