The "Life" Thread

watch this & marvel @ life, avec pre-amble

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Intoxicating meditation on mortality by legendary axe man Wilko Johnson. Served a death sentence by pancreatic cancer, Johnson vows to live in the moment. And Temple's overflowing visual cocktail serves up Bunuel, Tarkovsky, Cocteau and Michael Powell as fellow travellers on this death trip, with literary contributions from Shakespeare and Thomas Traherne ("And all the world was mine and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it"), while the terminally articulate Wilko happily quotes Blake and Milton straight to camera. It's a moving account of a man looking at death without an ounce of self-pity or false piety, while the verbal and visual richness provide a bouncy metaphysical trampoline of ideas. Despite the cinematic leitmotiv, from Bergman's The Seventh Seal, of Death playing chess with Wilko on the shore of Canvey Island, it's Johnson's rock'n'roll stoicism, and his love of life that live on in the viewer's mind, and make you feel you've had a glimpse of both death and resurrection, pulsating with R&B urgency.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4188192/

  On 11/25/2015 at 4:37 AM, usagi said:

 

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I wanted to make a 'life think tank' thread that would try and archive our collective experiences and insight

feel free

What inspired me to make this thread was that recently me and my g/f decided to systematically improve every possible aspect of our lives

(Mainly, we started saving up for a down payment on a house)

And so i thought a general 'self-improvement' thread might be cool

The things I'm currently working on:

-quitting smoking

-fine-tuning my diet

-trying to figure out how to stay active

-being a less sarcastic, more sincere person

-being less nasty and confrontation (i'm truly sorry for being such an asshole to you guys, usagi and JE..if there's any way i can make it up to you guys, please lemme know...truly)

-being consistent with my creative projects (thus my interest in "grit" and "growth mindset")

-being a spontaneous person

-being a good learner

-balancing long-term and short-term goals (i.e. not being dumb with money)

-general time-management

-staying grounded in the moment

-not being neurotic or anxious or self-conscious

-taking sleep seriously

-keeping a guitar practice schedule

-reading books all the way through

Although overall i'm doing pretty decent with these goals

I'm having especial trouble with diet

I eat way too much pizza (and sugar/carbs in general)

I can't seem to quit smoking

I pratice alot, but very irregularly (regularity appears to be more important than 'total hours' of practice)

I can't seem to focus enough to finish a book

Anyway, those are the things i'm working on

I'd love to hear everyone's goals and approaches to reaching them

Cheers

  On 11/25/2015 at 4:45 AM, cwmbrancity said:

watch this & marvel @ life, avec pre-amble

 

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Intoxicating meditation on mortality by legendary axe man Wilko Johnson. Served a death sentence by pancreatic cancer, Johnson vows to live in the moment. And Temple's overflowing visual cocktail serves up Bunuel, Tarkovsky, Cocteau and Michael Powell as fellow travellers on this death trip, with literary contributions from Shakespeare and Thomas Traherne ("And all the world was mine and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it"), while the terminally articulate Wilko happily quotes Blake and Milton straight to camera. It's a moving account of a man looking at death without an ounce of self-pity or false piety, while the verbal and visual richness provide a bouncy metaphysical trampoline of ideas. Despite the cinematic leitmotiv, from Bergman's The Seventh Seal, of Death playing chess with Wilko on the shore of Canvey Island, it's Johnson's rock'n'roll stoicism, and his love of life that live on in the viewer's mind, and make you feel you've had a glimpse of both death and resurrection, pulsating with R&B urgency.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4188192/

Looks awesome

I'll try and track it down

(On a related note

I am profoundly excited about the new Charlie Kaufman movie, Anomolisa

I think he's my favorite living creative person

Adaptation especially changed my view of both life and creativity)

Sleep is another thing i've been struggling with...it appears to be absolutely crucial to get a solid 7 hours of sleep for mental health, memory and learning, immune functions, weight management and (most shockingly) life expectancy:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7044460

http://huffpost.com/us/entry/7044460

Another important concept i've encountered recently in the psychology literature is 'narrative identity'

Essentially, the character and quality of our life is determined by the story we have of ourselves (i.e. our idea of what sort of person we are)

For example: are you the sort of person who would hop on a plane and fly to Europe on a whim? Whether you go or not appears to depend on whether you see yourself as the type of person who would do it or not (regardless of whether we want to do it or not)

(To me, this makes perfect sense and explains quite alot)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwstX4l4l7s

  On 11/25/2015 at 5:54 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

man so nice to buffjet to this

i'm dying

“Aliveness, or the craving for life, uses the organism until the later is destroyed. It is therefore wrong to assume that the will to live is the property of the organism, nor do the genes created by the organism govern its will to live, but the reverse - it is ‘Life’ that creates the physical organisms for itself & uses them until death, in order to remain active in life.

A terrifying - because utterly inexplicable - vision. Aliveness, life, as an invisible, non-material Something: a monstrous Unknowable, by which we are abused. And the catastrophic, blind super abundance of our own reproduction, like the remorseless squandering of organisms to the point of the destruction of whole species, only goes to confirm this.

Life is therefore inexplicable, in the same way as the Big Bang & all those physical & extra-physical processes in the universe - & certainly made of the same stuff. Energy & Mass: the most unsatisfactory name for it.”

- Gerhard Richter, Notes, 14/12/1994, p.281, ‘Text’, Thames & Hudson®, 2004.

Gerhard Richter, Buche, Beech, 1987, 82 cm x 112 cm. Oil on canvas. Catalogue Raisonné: 637-1

Is that oil on canvas right enough? Beautiful stuff. Fuzzy round the edges, like an early BOC track.

Ever since the Great Betrayal of 2009 I have been using neurolinguistic programming to manipulate the forum and bring about it's demise. Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I could drag you lot so low.

*exits stage right*

@ Leon - yeh its (a .jpg of a photo of) one of his blurry photorealist oil on canvas'. check out his abstract pictures too - p spesh imo (:

  On 11/25/2015 at 6:26 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwstX4l4l7s

  On 11/27/2015 at 9:14 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy5mTKVrbgc

Life, the boardgame is like consumerist yuppie propaganda for kids. Whoever dies with the most money wins.

  On 11/27/2015 at 11:22 AM, prdctvsm said:

Aliveness, or the craving for life, uses the organism until the later is destroyed. It is therefore wrong to assume that the will to live is the property of the organism, nor do the genes created by the organism govern its will to live, but the reverse - it is Life that creates the physical organisms for itself & uses them until death, in order to remain active in life.

A terrifying - because utterly inexplicable - vision. Aliveness, life, as an invisible, non-material Something: a monstrous Unknowable, by which we are abused. And the catastrophic, blind super abundance of our own reproduction, like the remorseless squandering of organisms to the point of the destruction of whole species, only goes to confirm this.

Life is therefore inexplicable, in the same way as the Big Bang & all those physical & extra-physical processes in the universe - & certainly made of the same stuff. Energy & Mass: the most unsatisfactory name for it.

- Gerhard Richter, Notes, 14/12/1994, p.281, Text, Thames & Hudson®, 2004.

 

 

Gerhard Richter, Buche, Beech, 1987, 82 cm x 112 cm. Oil on canvas. Catalogue Raisonné: 637-1

How i like those ingenious morons. Nice painting tho.

my favorite track is can you hear the dolphins cries

  On 11/25/2015 at 1:37 AM, usagi said:

creating threads to discuss life and all the things that follow therefrom is not a problem per se. discussion and communication are important, and help us all further along on the way to better understanding ourselves and our world.

 

however, you do reach a tipping point eventually where discussion on its own stops being of value and the necessity of action takes priority. this tipping point is reached much faster than most of us would like to admit. secretly, we all just want to talk our problems away, but this will never be the magic bullet we want it to be. any of you who have been to therapy will know what I'm talking about. it's an unpleasant shock to find out that - oh no - I can't just talk things out and expect everything to improve, my psych can't just wave a magic wand after getting to know me and solve all my problems, I actually have to put in massive effort, blood & sweat & tears, to get anywhere. this is simply a fact of life. concrete action, forward motion, resilience, adaptability to changing circumstances: this trumps all, as far as development and improvement is concerned. it's important to remember that.

 

now, this is a Limpy thread. knowing Limpy, I know this thread is a waste of time. he's never taken any sort of feedback or criticism or contrary idea on board once, rather he simply seeks approval and consensus. now, coming from me, a person who is known to intensely dislike him (online anyway) for his stance on a number of things, this will be perceived as a personal attack. so be it. but I'm presenting it as objectively as I can. I believe this thread will not result in anyone taking any concrete action in their irl lives to improve anything, least of all the thread-starter, and I don't expect to get any valuable life advice out of it.

 

finally, all that nonsense about elitism on an idm forum = lol. I don't know what else you expected. here's another rude fact of life: the artistic community, musicians in particular, are no less susceptible to the foibles of man than any other cross-section of human beings. you're not a special flower because you're on an idm forum. there are probably plumbers and carpenters with jobs and families and their own passions out there who have a better handle on their lives than a bunch of artsy types here. the notion that the higher intellectual life belongs to the artists is masturbatory nonsense.

 

finally finally, underneath the perceived harshness and critical nature of most of WATMM, there is actually not that much real sting, people don't really "hate" you. we're all faceless internet names. until some of us meet each other in real life, which is great because you get to know the real person, regardless of how they might seem online.

 

edit: by the way, I'm not trying to get this thread shut down. carry on, just don't expect everyone to play along.

very cool and sincere post

you know I just breeze through general banter in quiet and wistful movements, just because it's not really my cup of tea, it's just a bit weird for me, and that's coming from me lol, I'm pretty weird if needs be, but GBF is not for me.

sometimes I read stuff on here and I could say a few things about this and that but because it's on the internet I can't take it seriously, and the fact that there is so much bullshit being spouted by trolls just concentrates my disregard for it so I end up spouting complete bullshit myself, which is a shame (imo)

Some of you, very much think too much, it seems to me anyway. Need to learn to chill and go with the flow a little. I know that will fall on deaf ears though.

Peace from Brother Beerwolf.

it begins:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/popular-diabetes-drug-could-be-our-fountain-of-youth_565c7901e4b08e945febbf1d

anti-aging will be here soon

(unless Martin Shkreli buys the company...the pill currently costs something like 10cents/day)

too late, i'm old as fokk already, and besides, Zardoz has already beautifully summarized the problems inherent in aging & mortality

*creaking joints as he fires up the vape

feel free to pack yourselves a few up though, double delicious high-cbd % concentrate, get on a wonky level and put some Andrew Liles records on

We officially live in a sci-fi novel:

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/EERwkGIgOPEf9g27RLhh2N/China-clone-factory-scientist-eyes-human-replication.html

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/3d-printed-body-replicas-help-surgeons-separate-conjoined-twins

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/antidepressant-makes-worms-stay-younger-longer