#209 The Automaton

No cat to
bell, but
the grelot
keeps on
mindless-
ly looking
for one.

#208 The Literal Meaning IV

Sad woman. Is
not. Is neither.

Men falling from
the sky, rosaries

of stars, a castle
in the Pyrenees,

transparency, a
fence of sentinels

or sentiment, win-
dows which are

mirrors of the soul.
Were not. Were

never. All is allusion.

#207 The Spy

The premise of Sun Tzu's The Art of Espionage, a prequel writen to cash in on the runaway success of The Art of War, is that though the world of Espionage obeys the rules of Heaven, the life force of the individual spy is, a priori, out of balance.

A posteriori, how they end up is governed by which principle holds sway within them. Too much yin & the spy may be consumed by elements of self-destruction, display a subconscious desire to be outed, manifest it through actions such as dressing up as Gerard Depardieu in drag & living their life entirely in the dark. Too much yang & they become spy-hunter, keyhole peeper, closet cannibal, turning on their own, seeing them as enemy equal to those on the opposing side.

It's a precursor to the classic predator / prey model later postulated by both Lotka & Volterra, with the ratio of yin to yang determining who is x & y in the differentiated equation. But this is a finite model with an endpoint of zero. Too much egocentricity, too much paranoia. It does not stop when all known spies have been consumed; there must be others out there. Trust no-one, not even oneself. Eliminate them all.

#206 Meditation

Buddham saranam gacchāmi

Photo editing software. Someone sporting riding breeches. Retailer-perceived brand equity. Guides to the different stages of German intellectual development. Visual parallels made between the use of pesticides & degradation of the land. An exodus of female talent. A problem assuming added significance in view of rapid globalization. Temporal logics. Improper drainage. You need to upgrade your Flash Player.

Dhammam saranam gacchāmi

Steel doesn't protect sugar farmers. Nothing was found today during a search in South Carolina for missing Chili teenager Brittanee Drexel. Optical signals affected by an external magnetic field. The fringe that consumes. Size 34B Black with silver sequins, silver beads & silver beaded trim. Policy endogeneity. A neckline like that would be bad for makeup. What does it cost? Sort it out monkey nuts!

Sangham saranam gacchāmi

Nothing has proven to be better than this song. Eliminating artificial lighting. The strip-searching of women in Australian prisons. Price competition produces mixed results. Clothing that is all natural & free of toxins. Large as the executions arrive. Lighting a fire. An embroidered osteopath. A trance duo based in the U.S.A. Common bugs can freeze the machine. Is there any way to make my chest look bigger?

I go for refuge in the Buddha.
I go for refuge in the Dharma.
I go for refuge in the Sangha.

#205 Discourse on Method (2)

In there for
show, or
core co-
ordinate?
Descartes—
bald, be-
spectacled,
but not at all
bewildered
by the juxta-
position of
the box &
horse's bell
Magritte has
placed be-
fore him.

To him
two objects
in Euclidian
space; a three-
dimensional
definition
makes all
things
relative.

#204 Quand l'heure sonnera

Venus de
Milo, hot-
air balloon,
sky/sea/sand—
writing down
the elements
doesn't have
the tension
of a painterly
arrangement

unless you
know the sub-
text. So. Some
clues. Start
with a child-
hood incident.
Continue with
de Chirico.

#203 Souvenir de voyage

There was a sea-
side somewhere,
but nowhere near
the sea. We walked
along it, kicking
at rocks, ignoring
strangers until
they'd passed. "Who
was that masked
man?" I asked.

#202 Perspective: David's Madame Récamier (2)

Assume a life-
line in reverse.

Death comes first.
Before that, head-

stone, interment,
mourning crowd,

laying out, the prep-
aration of the body.

Move forwards.
Miss Marx. Pass

through two
revolutions, a liberal

monarchy, literary
salons. Chateaubriand,

Mme de Staël amongst
the names. Napoleon.

Bring in Ingres, who
uses Magritte's posed

figure as basis for
La Grande Odalisque.

Which influences
David. Who does not

finish his painting
of Madame Récamier.

Was pissed when told
that someone else was

getting the commission.
But starts it anyway.

#201 The Master of the Revels

In Il Casanova di Federico
Fellini, a giant head of Venus
begins to emerge from the
Grand Canal. Set in the
rural French countryside,
the factory by the side of
the lake is small; but still
lives undergo critical changes
as water & land are con-
taminated. The head rises
creakily to eye level & a
cable breaks. I have an idea
that the ideal drop is equal
to the length of your leg. In
his infancy Pindar was fed
honey by bees as an augury
of supreme eloquence. The
crowd cheers as the master
of the revels extols the
goddess of love. Learn
to control that one footed
wobble & you'll find things
a whole lot easier. This page
contains notes I have been
collecting on walking the slack
wire. Much of it is contradictory.

#200 The Fountain of Youth

Last seen in
the Pyrenees.

Perched on a
peak. Small in

context but
omnipotent.

Now wraps its
wings around

a reed. Petrified.
Monumental.

#199 The Key to Dreams (1935)

.....& then
there are
those rare
times when
our dreams
speak to us
in a language
we can under-
stand.....