The Highest Ecstasy Is The Attention At Its Fullest*

Fig. 1. Andrea Pozzo - Fresco representing Hercules’ deeds and apotheosis in the Hercules Hall of the Liechtenstein Garden Palace, 1704-1708

'I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic - in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself.'

Anaïs Nin

* 'The highest ecstasy is the attention at its fullest.' (Simone Weil)

All The Better Angels Of Our Nature Are Anonymous*

Fig. 1. James Lee Byars - The Angel, 1989


'Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.'

Simone Weil

* (a) 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.' (Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, 1861) and, (b) 'A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is anonymous about it.' (Simone Weil)

Addendum #1: Art News - Paris, Australia (click)

Fig. 2. Vincent van Gogh - Bedroom at Arles, 1889

Addendum #2: Art News - Stadel Collection, Melbourne (click)

Fig. 3. Edvard Munch - Jealousy, 1913

When There Are No More Hells To Come Back From

Fig. 1. Frida Kahlo - The Little Deer, 1946

'Life does not need to mutilate itself in order to be pure.'

Simone Weil

The Incredible Rightness Of Doing

Fig. 1. Sabine Weiss - Porte de Vanves, Paris, 1952


'I can, therefore I am.'

Simone Weil

Last week I discovered something (boxing) through a wonderful old friend (Mischa), then rediscovered something (dance) through a wonderful new friend (Jana). Yes, there has definitely been a sublime symmetry to the asymmetry of my recent experiences - about which I will write more at a later date.

Fig. 2. Flip Schulke - Ali Shadowboxing Underwater, 1960

Fig. 3. Pina Bausch's Wuppertal Tanztheater - Le Sacre Du Printemps (m. Igor Stravinsky), 2008

Your Ears Will Orgasm #8: Igor Stravinsky - Le Sacre Du Printemps (MixPod Player)