D Barth is one b.a. crazy POMO. Reason has it's limits.

Oil painting as daily meditation. That is what Robert Henri is getting at, although he didn't know it. Just a bunch of random snippets of Henri's advice to his students, but it is MUCH more than just technique. One of the best books an artist can read.

An enjoyable read for the dilettante. Check into Schopenhauer's idea of the world as will. The lower we go among forms of life, the smaller the role of intellect; but not so with will.

Animal Farm is not about the nastiness of the pigs. It is about the stupidity and complacency of the other animals.

I don't agree with Rand's philosphy, but she does expose some of our sheeplike tendencies and she makes the important point that 1)There is a good kind of "Selfish" 2)and a bad kind of "unselfish."

The purest sport. Let go of all the transitory bs and return daily to your original instrument with patience and persistence. Starting yoga was one of the best decisions I ever made. Work without anxiety about the fruits of your labor. Those who work selfishly for results are miserable. (This is a true Indian Asani, not some Westernized, pseudo-yoga).

Peter Banning is not really Peter Pan, but actually he is.

Never have I been so bored during a movie. And yet never have I loved and contemplated a movie so much after watching it. By now the visuals are kind of dated, so you only need to watch it once or twice and then you can ponder it for the rest of your life.

Hard to get used to his voice, but this is pure poetry. Very strange, sometimes disturbing, stream-of-consciousness imagery, with a raw, honest power and beauty. Reason has it's limits.

This is soooooooo much better than those collections of their hits. Much more introspective and personal. Brilliant composition and instrumentation. Brian Wilson was a genius.

feel as I used to. You hear musicians playing with a great fluidity and complete conception early on, and you don't have that ability. I didn't. I had to know what I was doing. And yes, ultimately it turned out that these people weren't able to carry their thing very far. I found myself being more attracted to artists who have developed through the years and become better and deeper musicians...

a true master of his craft. Also The bassist really steps up on this one. Evans once said, "Actually I'm not interested in Zen that much, as a philosophy, nor in joining any movements. I just find it very similar to jazz. Like jazz, you can't explain it to anyone without losing the experience. It's got to be felt without words."

What do you need hair for? Seriously.

Bradford Cox hasn't quite made a masterpiece yet, but he is the most intriguing new musician around besides Animal Collective. Both of these bands reward active listening and engaged concentration. Experimental and creative on the one hand, while remaining sincere and esthetically pleasing on the other hand. A rare balance.

There are a lot of terrible books trying to help you "relax" and "find peace" in the midst of your hectic modern life, which is a Westernized idea of meditation.This one helps understand it more as a practice of concentration/insight of which peace is just a by-product (like in painting, a beautiful picture is just a by-product of the process of learning how to SEE and record what you see).

Thomas Mann's short stories. So far I really like "Tonio Kroger."