I think people unduly suffer if they discount the power of the peppy music video to strengthen one's spirits. Sometimes you just need a dose of brassy cheer in yer life.
Hanson's come a long way since the MmmBop days.
Channeling a peppy synthy beat reminiscent of Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams Come True," BRODYQUEST illustrates – quite spectacularly – the best day of Adrien Brody's life. See him bobble his way through sea and space, through the Sun itself, and through the very fabric of the universe.
It's a pretty magnificent thing.
Also featured: two immeasurably jolly starfish.
Here's a good quote from the end of Camus' first chapter in The Rebel:
Meanwhile, we can sum up the initial progress that the spirit of rebellion provokes in a mind that is originally imbued with the absurdity and apparent sterility of the world. In absurdist experience, suffering is individual. But from the moment when a movement of rebellion begins, suffering is seen as a collective experience. Therefore the first progressive step for a mind overwhelmed by the strangeness of things is to realize that this feeling of strangeness is shared with all men and that human reality, in its entirety, suffers from the distance which separates it from the rest of the universe. The malady experienced by a single man becomes a mass plague. In our daily trials rebellion plays the same role as does the "cogito" in the realm of thought: it is the first piece of evidence. But this evidence lures the individual from his solitude. It founds its first value on the whole human race. I rebel – therefore we exist.
Agreed – though that part about contemplating humanity's place in the universe also reminds me of an optimistic counter-argument from Split Enz: The tyranny of distance didn't stop the cavalier, so why should it stop me? I'll conquer and stay free!
For now, at least!
Here are a couple of things that express my current mood:
A) This lovely photograph of a mohawked man feeding bread to two Highland cattle:
(via Jim Richardson on Travel Photography — National Geographic)
B) This music video of The Temper Trap's "Fader":
Less words for better feelings – ain't it just. Sun's out. I see the shadows of tree branches bobbing in the wind outside my window. Still have assignments and other texts to pore over, but for now, things are fine.
Sing it, Eliot -
Or actually, don't. During one bout of insomnia this past semester, I quickly learned that listening to T.S. Eliot read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is pretty much the worst way to try falling asleep. Excellent poet, weird vocal mannerisms – Eliot sounds too nervous as he reads, yet too bored at the same time, resulting in a tense recitation which is probably some kind of minor feat all its own.
I listened to the whole poem anyway, though. You stick it out for the good stuff, even when it's mainly about the frustrations of mediocrity, aging, and impotence.
Then, to fall asleep – the sweet canned laughter of the Golden Girls audience.