The future's uncertain and the end is always near

 

 "When something dies is the greatest teaching." -- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Going dark

I'm working on a new thing – I'm always working on a new thing – because I believe in moving forward and I enjoy being useful. Recent events have convinced me that being online is either very important or a waste of time; prior to that I thought it might have been somewhere in between, but the in-between – again, it seems – can only be that which comes after: that which is in retrospect, and not during. So it's time to kick off and end things. It's over. I have other places to be. So do you.

Pictured: Mr Mojo Risin', Paris 22 Feb 2011.

Goodnight, everybody.

Random

The mystery novel must punish the criminal in one way or another, not necessarily by operation of the law courts. Contrary to popular belief, this has nothing to do with morality. It is part of the logic of the form. Without this the story is like an unresolved chord in music. It leaves a sense of irritation.
– Raymond Chandler, 'Casual Notes on the Mystery Novel' (1949) Raymond Chandler Speaking

In our everyday life we are usually trying to do something, trying to change something into something else, or trying to attain something. Just this trying is already in itself an expression of our true nature.
– Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Thought for the day

From the great John Carpenter:

It's about surviving and lasting. So many talented people that I've known in my life – directors and writers – just haven't made it and haven't had a chance. Some have had a chance and that was it. They got one chance. So, to be able to have some decades of filmmaking, I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

Full interview at Collider.

Nothing in something particular

So try not to see something in particular; try not to achieve anything special. You already have everything in your own pure quality. If you understand this fact, there is no fear. There may be some difficulty, of course, but there is no fear.

-- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Weatherhill, 1970)