Halloween has always been my favorite holiday, both for it's pagan combination of fear of death and respect for those of us who have gone on before, and also for how this time of sacred contemplation has been turned into an orgy of candy consumption and sexy pizza costumes. To appropriately honor, at least in my own mind, such a melange of the terrifying and the trite, I present a very special FO&S, a list of my favorite spooky songs, perfect for your Halloween Punk Party: 1. A song celebrating the rare meeting of Judaism and Halloween:
2. Continuing on a werewolf theme, the best 80s song about ordering Chinese food while being a rampaging hell beast:
3. This particular track is a must, if only because I had every Egon Spengler action figure growing up
4. Moving away from pop for a moment, something in a more folky vein about a local legend near my old homestead.
5. And finally, what Halloween play list complete without a little Timewarp?
As my first week as a guardian of law and order comes to a close, I am delighted to report that the Metropolis remains protected from the depredations of the criminal underworld. Of course, I scheduled this post to go up last night, so right now I am probably still in court, and events could be transpiring to make a mockery of my first sentence. In which case, you should probably turn on the news to see the riot at the courthouse, but otherwise, read on for this week's Odds & Sods.
A triptych of the way we live now, financial edition: Paul Krugman on how proposed fixes to the post-crisis economy resemble the Restoration Bourbons in learning nothing, an example of what it is, exactly, the rich spend all their money on, and a profile in the moral cowardice of the people who make that money for them.
While talking a stroll during my court-approved lunch break, I stumbled across this little piece of Metropolitan history. Surrounded by the capitalistic timelessness of Chipotle, Starbucks, and the like, I was surprised but grateful to find this coelacanth-like survival.
This weeks song is one with some personal history for me and is also surprisingly relevant when being asked to meditate for an extended period on questions of guilt and innocence.
And as always, this week's remedy, the Sherry Cobbler: Add 4 oz of Sherry in glass, ice, 1 tbs sugar, and orange slices to cocktail shaker, shake vigorously, pour into tall glass, garnish with fruits in season.
The gears of Justice continue their steady grinding, although thankfully I've been given a brief reprieve until Tuesday for Columbus Day, a celebration of the explorer's stubborn refusal to admit his twin failures in mathematical computation and geographical nomenclature. As a sworn servant of the Court, I will not in any official capacity comment on the justice of celebrating this particular holiday in this venue, leaving those thoughts for another time. Anyways, enough with the chatter and down to the good stuff.
Is there anything better than coming home on a Friday night (or Saturday morning) to a recording of T.S. Eliot reading The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock? Undoubtedly, but you can keep whatever these pleasures might be to yourselves for the nonce.
Continuing on a poetomystical note, while it might not be mermaids singing each to each, this article explores the literary genre of near-death journeys to the Great Beyond (and gives equal credit to the true believers and the hucksters making money off them)
Finally, this weeks remedy, the Metropole Cocktail: Take 1/2 teaspoon syrup, two dashes Peychaud's Bitters, 2 oz VSOP cognac, 1 oz dry vermouth, mix with ice, stir. Drain, and serve with maraschino cherry.
Recognizing, no doubt, the expertise in justice of which my blog is the proof, the authorities of the Metropolis have selected me for the heavy burden of jury duty. While the great weight of my responsibilities is somewhat alleviated by the the princely compensation of five dollars an hour, I fear that posting may be somewhat light for the next two weeks or so, although I will do my best to keep up. It somehow seems appropriate to reflect on Socrates and Alcibiades discussing justice when being asked to render it "real" life as well. Anyway, until my return, here is a video of Orson Welles narrating Franz Kafka own meditation on the intersection of law and justice.
It's been a gloomy couple of days here in the Metropolis. The weather has alternated been dank and cloudy, autumn-like and cloudy, and just a general, neutral-grayish sort of cloudy. Not that I have anything against gray fall days, on the whole, but this extended period without either rain or sun seems to me to demonstrate a lack of commitment in the climate. But as the saying goes, everyone talks about the weather, especially when there is nothing else to talk about, even if no one can change it. Let's hope for some pristine sunny autumn days ahead while turning to this weeks Odds & Sods.
I must shamefully admit that I used to be a bit of a conspiracy theorist when I was younger, before I understood what pareidolia was. But when I hear about a nefarious organization like the Order of the Occult Hand, I can't help but wonder...
Good on Google for recognizing Yoknapatawpha as a word.
This week's remedy, The Weeper's Joy: take 1/2 tsp gum syrup, 1 oz absinthe, ditto dry vermouth, ditto kümmel, and 2 dashes curaçao, stir with ice, strain and enjoy.
Text of the Alcibiades here, and previous entries here, here, and here. When I was just beginning my education, my fellows and I were subjected to an exercise in intellectual betterment referred to as the Socratic Method. What this consisted in, as near as I can tell, was the idea that if all the pupils in a classroom put their desks in a circle instead of rows, the feast of reason and communion of souls would spontaneously commence and all would be lifted to a higher plane of mind and beauty. Such, I regret to report, did not turn out to be the case. This anecdote, however, does serve a useful purpose insofar as it brings to mind a major subject of the Alcibiades that we have so far left unaddressed, namely what isthe nature of the method Socrates is using in the dialogue. To be sure, this topic has come up in earlier parts of the dialogue. In the last post, for instance, we saw that Socrates continued talking with Alcibiades only after they agreed to discourse in a question and answer format, rather than by means of long, flowery speeches that would be considered the model of civilized discourse in the period. In the section now under consideration, however, the issue of Socrates' method and its goal comes to the fore and with it, I think, insight into the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades.
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