THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BREAKDOWN OF THE BICAMERAL MIND

Just finished reading this fantastic book by late Princeton pscychologist Julian Jaynes...2 copies at The Strand remain for $4.47 as of last Wednesday when I was in. Here's a link to a fantastic TIME MAGAZINE article from 1977 about said book, summing up Jayne's biography and theory on the history of pre-conscious man. As a side note, the Ancient Near East Art wing of the Met is one of my new favorite things in NYC, where a lot of the original artwork from the civilizations discussed by Jaynes can be looked at, and you can marvel at the incredible graphic design sensibility these folks had immediately upon INVENTING METALLURGY (not too shabby).

Meal of the day (Meal of a lifetime): Doubles

Woke up with a mean post-nasal drip that had me vowing to consume no more than broth over the course of the day. Within an hour, I'd had a proposition from my buddy "Invisible Circle"-Dave to eat West Indian doubles that shattered my best-laid therapeutic and recuperative plans. Thanks to this incredibly well researched blog and Dave's commitment to biking in the rain, I basically got to enjoy this monumentally perfect food from, at least in the opinion of these linked bloggers, the best joint in Brooklyn from the dry comfort of our other friend's apartment on an otherwise rainy, nasty day. I think the old saying should be modified to: "Starve a cold. Feed a fever. Unless you're offered doubles delivered directly to you. In which case, eat yourself sicker."

Carl Orff, Olympia

I've been a very big fan of Orff's 'Musica Poetica' (exercises designed by Orff and collaborator Gunild Keetman to train children how to play instruments) since hearing it used unforgettably in Terrence Malick's BADLANDS (and copied unapologetically by Hans Zimmer in the BADLANDS homage TRUE ROMANCE). If you like those sweet tunes, here's some fantastic music along similar lines composed for the 1936 Olympics hosted by the Nazi party and filmed famously in OLYMPIA by propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.

Medicalization of Sex: challenged

Didn't David Cronenberg make some really creepy movie about an oppressive near-future in which unisex genital standardization is mandatory, either governmentally or socially...oh wait, we're already living in it!

Saw a very inspiring PowerPoint yesterday at the New School's No Longer in Exile gender studies conference about how to keep activism entertaining yet uncompromising, courtesy of the New View Campaign, a group dedicated (with great senses of humor, creativity, and craft no less) to supporting genital diversity amidst the scary world of cosmetic surgical homogenization.

Lost interviews with Philip K. Dick

These have been around for a while and linked to repeatedly, but I'm going to continue my recently premiered Philip K. Dick karaoke video project along these lines, I believe, with these as text or source material. Over the course of these downloadable mp3s, Dick discusses (with Paul Williams of ROLLING STONE, I'm going to cavalierly guess...but don't take my word for it) among other things...oh hell--check out the subject labels for the goods.

Fuller score of the day: UNDERWORLD U.S.A.

Streaming here till who-knows-when. I will have to keep an eye on this Crackle site business, even if that eye will be peering via my painfully slow Powerbook G4.

Sad score of the day: Alex Chilton R.I.P.

Let's just say, I've listened to Alex Chilton's first solo album a hundred times more than all of the Big Star albums together. Something tells me allmusic.com's one-star reviewer didn't really "get" this one, but maybe some grandchildren of its deconstructionist rock n' roll trailblazing took the cue and ran with it...on my mp3 player shuffle mode, I've repeatedly mistaken CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN outtakes for the bonus tracks on LIKE FLIES ON SHERBERT that I was less familiar with at the time. Get it. Chilton passed yesterday and will be missed. Too few musicians can still act as transducers to draw down sounds from outer space.