Uncle Albert

Albert Einstien: “A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘Universe’ —a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Magic

Whilst attempting to learn about the fourth dimension, (which ain’t an easy feat) I have been thinking more and more about the complexities and illusions that exist within our universe.

4D refers to another dimension that we are unable to experience as human beings living within three dimensions. It is a blindness within our conscious experience; it is like trying to see in the dark; Plato’s cave (or as I can’t stop thinking; it is like you have always lived in a butt and trying to imagine there was anything to life but butt. I have pretty much just paraphrased Plato’s cave concept right there).

So anyway, Carl Sagan does a much better job at describing 4D and its place in the fabric of our universe, in an informative, whimsical and humorous way, as always (see video below).

The reason why I am compelled to understand as much as possible about the magic of existence is that it is genuinely wondrous to think about the impossibilities that exist in the world and universe that we are a part of. The more you understand of existence, the more you realise how much we don’t understand and the more amazing everything around us becomes.

However, it is not just exciting and magical; I think that an understanding of the nature of the universe and our place within it is hugely beneficial:

Understanding and recognising that there is so much we don’t understand and know is beneficial.

Understanding that we are only here for the most minuscule amount of time is beneficial.

Understanding that we are all utterly and undeniably connected to each other and to nature is beneficial.

Understanding that we are the very fabric of the cosmos; born of the earth; is beneficial.

Why do I think these realisations are beneficial? Why do they make any difference on our daily life?

These understandings are beneficial because allows us to fully recognise and uncover some of the greater illusions that mankind has constructed for itself. Illusions such as money and consequently materialism. The illusion that there is division between people of races and creeds and nationalities and gender. The Illusion of division between mankind and nature.

It is once you begin to see through these illusions that we can begin to learn altruistically; we see the futility personal success. The futility of war.

We see that the words of Martin Luther King, the  Dalai Lama, Bob Marley, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, William Blake, William Shakespeare, Ursula La Guin, Buddha and all the other human’s who are forever immortalised because of the power of truth in their words had it bloody spot on. (Which we already knew anyway - which is why there words are still remembered).

It is not some fluffy, drugged-up dream that we are all interconnected with each other, with nature. As science progresses, we learn that interconnection across all levels is necessary to our existence. If we want to live a happy and more fulfilled lives we must work towards honestly dropping the ego (which is bloody hard work!)  and making mates with ourselves and all existence. Happiness is surely what it’s all about!

A Carnival of Chos - Fundraiser at Antwerp Mansion

Check out what’s going down at Antwerp Mansion this Saturday – gonna be absolutely sweet.

By the way, if you haven’t been to Antwerp mansion yet, you should have.

At 7pm on Saturday 12th November the Western Esoteric Printmaking tradition will open the gates of Antwerp mansion, Rusholme, and unleash a pre-apocalyptic Carnival of Chaos: It’s time to party like it’s the end of the world.

Make your way there for mind melding visuals, psychedelic sounds and other-worldly performances. Projections and shifts in perceptions brought to you by some of Manchester’s most talented artists.

And rum punch.

Tickets: £5 on the door/£4 for carnival costumes. £4 advance tickets available at Antwerp Mansion.

Live music from not one, but two outrageously good headlining bands….

Razor-sharp indie-dub poets Dirty North, acclaimed by Stone Roses’ Reni during their recent press conference as a new talent that shines through the corporate fog, “the Dirty North - they are great.” 

Extra Love, jazz-reggae vibrations for your ear organs. Guaranteed to get the party started!

Plus supporting acts Vieka and Secretaire.

There will also be body-painting, carnival amusements, a chance to buy one of the amazing hand screen printed posters and much more.

Come set yourself free, safe in the knowledge that the world could end tomorrow.

For more information see the facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=268351023207602

Antwerp Mansion

Kent Road West (near Hardy’s Well)

Rusholme

Manchester

M14 5RF

Piccadilly Gardens 1922.

1962:

1999:

And a picture now:

What do you think?

The bed red building is by architects Allies & Morrison, this replaced most of the actual gardens.

Some people are bloody idiots.

etymology

cucumber 
  Comes from Old English - eorþæppla. Literal translation “earth-apples.” 

Phrase cool as a cucumber (c.1732) embodies ancient folk knowledge confirmed by science in 1970: inside of a field cucumber on a warm day is 20 degrees cooler than the air temperature.

nationalpost: Mystery of oldest recorded supernova solved. In 185 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a “guest star” that mysteriously appeared in the sky and stayed for about eight months. By the 1960s, scientists had determined that the mysterious object was the first documented supernova. Later, they pinpointed the object, known as RCW 86, as a supernova remnant located about 8,000 light-years away but remained puzzled at how the star’s spherical remains were larger than expected.

If you feel dissatisfied about the distribution of money and power on earth, say something:

http://wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com/

the world bank on how to measure well-being

“The level of well-being (of an individual, group or the population of a country) as measured by the level of income (for example, GNP per capita) or by the quantity of various goods and services consumed (for example, the number of cars per 1,000 people or the number of television sets per capita)”

Ain’t that heartwarming

 

I have read around 50 pages of Life of Pi by Yann Martel and already I am transfixed. It is a tale that essentially presents us with the human-animal relationship: the story of our narrator, Pi, lost on a vessel at sea with only wild animals to keep him company. Initially, I wanted to write a little piece about sloths. The narrator talks of them in the first few chapters, before Pi is lost at sea, and I fell pretty much in love with them. However, instead I seem to have babbled some ideas about the narrative and weaved sloths into it.

“The three-toed sloth is not well informed about the outside world. On a scale of 2 to 10, where 2 represents unusual dullness and 10 extreme acuity, Beebe (1926) gave the sloth’s senses of taste, touch, sight and hearing a rating of 2, and its sense of smell a rating of 3. If you come upon a sleeping three-toed sloth in the wild, two or three nudges should suffice to awaken it…; it will then look sleepily in every direction but yours. Why it should look about is uncertain since the sloth sees everything in a Magoo-like blur. As for hearing, the sloth is not so much deaf as uninterested in sound. Beebe reported that firing guns next to sleeping or feeding sloths elicited little reaction. And the sloth’s slightly better sense of smell should not be overestimated. They are said to be able to sniff and avoid decayed branches, but Bullock (1968) reported that sloths fall to the ground clinging to decayed branches “often”.

Life of Pi, Yann Martel, 2001



Can you see why I’d fall for the sloth? The sloth is such a dude; just chilling, snacking, having a snooze. This passage also shows us how Martel’s language conjures a sunny, hazy, thirsty world; tall shadows and dusty summers. Our narrator paints warm and humorous passages that illustrate the beautifully varied ways creatures’ interact with their environments; each animal as wonderful as the next.

However, alongside these benevolent and comfortable descriptions, a contradictory seed is planted in the narrative; animulus anthropomorphicus. Definition: man’s ability to project feelings onto animals, the idea that a lion, or a rhino, or a sloth can be friendly, cute, caring; be a mate. And the subsequent dangers of this, think of Grizzly Man.

The narrative leads us to observe animals from two opposing perspectives; subjective projection and Nature Red in Tooth and Claw. This conflicting relationship not only creates tension and uncertainty for the fate that lies ahead within the story but, more interestingly, it illustrates the extent of man’s complusion to cast judgement and edit everything we percieve whether we know better or not; Pi’s description of the sloth on page 2 illustrates this perfectly as he claims not to project and then proceeds to do so anyway:

“I am not one given to projecting human traits and emotions onto animals, but…. looking up at sloths in repose, I felt I was in the presence of upside-down yogis deep in meditation or hermits deep in prayer”.

I’m excited to see how the book goes and perhaps then I will write something more fully-formed and informed - maybe i’ll even read some contextual shit; imagine that?!


FAT OUT FEST 2011

two dayer at islington mill with a sweet line up and amazing artwork!

fatout.co.uk tickets are £20 for 2 days of food, music and party… get your body there x

deadtiger: Oren Eliav his website