The smell of guinea pigs in winter.

Godspeed to Cubeland Mystic ....

Window in the Skies

One

The Farkleberry Spreads

Of the making of new Bible translations there is no end. Catholics, who are forced to listen to the clunky New American Bible at Mass, get to work off in advance some of the punitive aspects of purgatory. And evangelicals are indebted to Nelson publishers for the New Century Version. Now that version is available in Immerse: A Water-Resistant New Testament. "The first-ever water-resistant Bible is available in lime green and orange, with the pages 100% water-resistant.... A wonderful addition to any mission trip, a weekend at the beach, hiking, or even when you get baptized!" The effectual grace of baptism being indiscernible in so many of us, we now have a water-resistant Bible for water-resistant Christians. What won't they think of next? Don't ask.

-- Richard John Neuhaus, in the February issue of First Things, p. 71.

Mile High Club

Don't Judge Too Quickly - video powered by Metacafe

A passage worth quoting from René Girard's Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World

I recently finished this extraordinary book and whole-heartedly recommend it to everybody who can find the time. It is probably more easily understood after reading his book Violence and the Sacred, but its conversational style (Girard 'wrote' it in a series of 'conversations' with the French psychiatrists Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort) makes it slightly easier reading than that earlier work. I'm tempted to start up my own summer reading club in order to understand it a little better. I took many notes and have many questions, so I would certainly welcome any help from any scholarly minded folk who happen upon this post. For example, after 450 pages I'm still not clear on what "interdividual psychology" really is, beyond what the words generally imply: psychology as it somehow exists between individuals. Or is it Girard's attempt to invent a word, rather as Derrida does with "grammatology" and "différance"? More substantively, how is a non-sacrificial reading of the Gospels really possible, not just because of the textual difficulty posed by the Letter to the Hebrews, but because of the Christian tradition and, in fact the Jewish tradition going back to the Passover? Or is this precisely Girard's point?

In any case, after a book full of chapters with titles such as "The Logos of Heraclitus and the Logos of John", "Desire without Object" and "Psychoanalytic Mythology", the last two pages are simply breathtaking. After Oughourlian comments on the barren landscape of our contemporary intellectual climate ("a whole host of epigonal movements so devoid of real crativity that they seem more pathetic than dangerously misleading"), Girard closes with the following:

"I hold that truth is not an empty word, or a mere 'effect' as people say nowadays. I hold that everything capable of diverting us from madness and death, from now on, is inextricably linked with this truth. But I do not know how to speak about these matters. I can only approach texts and institutions, and relating them to one another seems to me to throw light in every direction. I am not embarrassed to admit that an ethical and religious dimension exists for me, but it is the result of my thinking rather than an external preconception that determined my research. I have always believed that if I managed to communicate what some of my reading meant to me, the conclusions I was forced to reach would force themselves on other people as well.

"I began to breathe more freely when I discovered that literary and ethnological critiques are inadequate - even if they are not totally worthless - when confronted with the literary and cultural texts they claim to dominate. This was before I came to the Judaeo-Christian scriptures. I never even imagined that those texts were there for the purpose of passive enjoyment, in the same way as we look at a beautiful landscape. I always cherished the hope that meaning and life were one. Present-day thought is leading us in the direction of the valley of death, and it is cataloguing the dry bones one by one. All of us are in this valley but it is up to us to resuscitate meaning b relating all the texts to one another without exception, rather than stopping at just a few of them. All issues of 'psychological health' seem to me to take second place to a much greater issue- that of meaning which is being lost or threatened on all sides but simply awaits the breath of the Spirit to be reborn. Now all that is needed is this breath to recreate stage by stage Ezekiel's experience in the valley of the dead:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' And I answered, 'O Lord God, thou knowest.' Again he said to me, 'Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.'

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked , there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.' So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host (Ezekiel 37, 1-10).

Korrektiv.org

We raided the Korrektiv kids' piggy banks and came up with $5.99 for our own domain name, with enough left over for a 40 oz. bottle of Rainier, which we rock-paper-scissored for. (Quin won.)

From The YouTube Music Archives VII: Witold Lutosławski Conducting the London Sinfonietta

Born on January 25 in 1913, Witold Lutosławski was one of the major European composers of the 20th century. He was possibly the most significant Polish composer since Chopin, and was the pre-eminent musician of his country during the last three decades of the century. He served heroically as a communications director during World War II, and his music gives witness to the turmoil in Poland during the decades he composed.

Lutosławski studied piano and composition in Warsaw, and his early works were overtly influenced by Polish folk music. His style demonstrates a wide range of rich atmospheric textures. He began to develop his own characteristic composition techniques in the late 1950s. His music from this period onwards incorporates his own methods of building harmonies from a small group of musical intervals. It also exhibits aleatory processes, in which the rhythmic coordination of parts is subject to an element of chance. His works (of which he was a notable conductor) include four symphonies, a Concerto for Orchestra, and several concertos and song cycles. In Jeux Vénitiens (1961), Lutoslawski took his first step into a "limited aleatory music", after hearing a performance of John Cage's Concerto for Piano in 1960. Lutoslawski's elegant String Quartet (1964) utilizes four rhythmically independent strands simultaneously, yielding wonderfully dense and elastic textures. In the Livre pour orchestra (1968) the work's four main sections are connected by controlled aleatory passages. Most of his subsequent works were orchestral, fully chromatic, orchestrated in a manner suggesting Debussy and Ravel, and consistently develop an opposition between aleatory and metrical textures.

Here are three short pieces for flute and harp, as recorded by Katherine Kemmlar (flute) and Anne Benjamin (harp).
[Magia][Andante con moto][Presto]

This Mini-Overture, performed here by the Triton Brass Quintet, is a short and yet powerful work from 1982.

Here is a sample of the the Double Concerto, commissioned by the Swiss conductor and new music patron Paul Sacher for the oboist Heinz Holliger, at whose request an obligato harp part for his wife Ursula was included. Completed in 1980, the work was first performed in August that year, when the Holligers were joined by the Collegium Musicum and Sacher. The orchestra consists of two percussionists and twelve strings which, though the number can be increased in larger venues, enables the composer to use them as an ensemble of soloists.

It's about the strangest music ever written. Very strange and very beautiful.

In my opinion his Third Symphony is one of the greatest masterpieces of 20th century. I couldn't find an mp3 of it online, but you can purchase a CD here. Here also is a fine article on Lutosławski's First Symphony, one of his more accessible works. And here, lastly, is the concert performance from YouTube (a little more than ten minutes long) of Lutoslawski conducting his Chain No. 3, performed by the London Sinfonietta (this post was compiled from several sources, including a very fine entry at wikipedia).

St. Timothy

Born at Lystra, Lycaenia, Timothy was the son of a Greek father and Eunice, a converted Jewess. He joined St. Paul when Paul preached at Lystra replacing Barnabas, and became Paul's close friend and confidant. Paul allowed him to be circumcised to placate the Jews, since he was the son of a Jewess, and he then accompanied Paul on his second missionary journey. When Paul was forced to flee Berea because of the enmity of the Jews there, Timothy remained, but after a time was sent to Thessalonica to report on the condition of the Christians there and to encourage them under persecution, a report that led to Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians when he joined Timothy at Corinth. Timothy and Erastus were sent to Macedonia in 58, went to Corinth to remind the Corinthians of Paul's teaching, and then accompanied Paul into Macedonia and Achaia. Timothy was probably with Paul when the Apostle was imprisoned at Caesarea and then Rome, and was himself imprisoned but then freed. According to tradition, he went to Ephesus, became its first bishop, and was stoned to death there when he opposed the pagan festival of Katagogian in honor of Diana. Paul wrote two letters to Timothy, one written about 65 from Macedonia and the second from Rome while he was in prison awaiting execution. (catholic.org)

Søren Says

If I did not know that I am a genuine Dane, I could almost be tempted to explain my self-contradictions by supposing that I am an Irishman. For the Irish do not have the heart to immerse their children totally when they have them baptized; they want to keep a little paganism in reserve; generally the child is totally immersed under water but with the right arm free, so that he will be able to wield a sword with it, embrace the girls.

(Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish philosopher. Journals and Papers, vol. 5, entry no. 5556, 1840-1842, eds. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (1978).)

ways

How You Found Korrektiv IV

154.5.202 from the city of Surrey on Prince Edward Island went on a search for all he could find on the subject of sharkskin condoms, and lo and behold! - well, my guess is that he found out less than he wanted at Korrektiv. Or perhaps not. Maybe he found more than he ever realized he wanted to know, since that search led him to a couple of posts from April (the cruelest month!) of 2005. The first clue (prompted by the word "sharkskin") led to an excerpt from Percy's 1971 novel Love in the Ruins, in which Tom More comes across a group that believes they've finally found the ivory billed woodpecker:

"We found him, Tom," says Colley portentously. "By George,we found him."

"Who?"

"He's alive! He's come back! After all these years!"

"Who?" This morning, hauling up a great unclassified beast of a fish, I thought of Christ coming again at the end of the world and how it is that in every age there is the temptation to see signs of the end and that, even knowing this, there is nevertheless some reason, what with the spirit of the new age being the spirit of watching and waiting, to believe that---

Colley's right hand strays over the tape deck. The smooth shark skin at the back of his neck is pocked with pits that are as perfectly circular as if they had been punched out with a tiny biscuit cutter.

"Last Sunday at 6: 55 a.m.," says Colley calmly, "exactly four miles west of Honey Island I---saw---an---ivory-billed---woodpecker."

And what a beautiful passage this is. Percy, via More, likens the the second coming of Christ to the "hauling up a great unclassified beast of a fish", and then compounds that sign with the sighting of the famous, long-lost bird. And in the midst of all this, incredibly (this word is supposed to work on at least two different levels), More's attention is shifted to the very extraordinary, ordinary back of Colley's neck, "pocked with pits that are as perfectly circular as if they had been punched out with a tiny biscuit cutter." What a marvelous writer he was, marvelling at so many different things of varying phenomelogical importance, all within the space of a few paragraphs. And delighting in ordinary dialogue of such ordinary, extraordinary characters.

Where was I? Oh yeah - sharkskin condoms.

The second clue, "condoms", comes up a little later in that same month of archived material with an excerpt from the Rome Diary of Richard John Neuhaus while covering the funeral of John Paul II:

"There is an astonishing progressive love affair with condoms and allowing their use at least in certain rare circumstances related to AIDS. Here, it is thought, some wiggle room might be countenanced by the next pope. The progressive agenda has come down to condoms."

More or less the typically capital letter K Katholikos stuff we hope you enjoy here at Korrektiv: "There they go; those useful idiots are pushing condoms, again! This time on populations that really don't know any better!"

But is there really such a thing as a sharkskin condom? I've heard of sheepskin condoms, of course (there's nothing quite like taking a moment to wrap your genitals in sheep guts to enhance your sexual experience), but sharkskin? For real?

Well, maybe not. I did a little googling of my own and discovered that the only other place the two words actually occur together came (works on a couple of levels as well) with the quotation of lyrics by the hip hop group Company Flow. The song is Patriotism (I'll link to it, but I won't bother quoting it), and other than coming across as vaguely, if belligerently anti-American, it only confuses me further. El-P, Bigg Jus and Mr. Len have a ways to go before they ever come up with anything close to the description of the back of Colley's neck, that's all I'm going to say.

"You are so tolerant even though I stole from you. I'll correct my ways and be an upright person."

From the YouTube Archives VI: Martha Quinn Interviews Bob Dylan in 1984

I think this is some pretty amazing footage of what turned out to be a pretty decent interview. I'm not sure if it's due to the effect that Martha Quinn had on so many of us or because Dylan is completely wasted, but he seems to open up more in this interview than in just about anything else I've seen or read. Dylan is dressed in jeans and a black and white striped shirt, seated casually in a folding chair with one leg tucked under the other thigh. His hair is a mess, and because of all the eyeliner he looks like a cross between a zebra and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Martha, delectable as ever, is dressed in boxer shorts and a tank top that looks like it was knitted for a sumo wrestler.

They cover a fairly wide range of topics - everything from early days at the Cafe Wha? to Dylan's disappointment with the Jokerman video and his appreciation for R.W. Fassbinder, the German filmmaker who died a year or two before the interview.

Anyway, if you don't have a couple of hours to sit through the whole thing, here's a few higlights from the first segment. What's so funny is that Dylan seems to think Martha says something other than "radio" during their conversation about David Lee Roth, who, if I remember correctly, was rumored to be Quinn's something-or-other at about the same time. Dylan can't help but start cracking up and Martha can't wave the smoke out of her face quickly enough. Great stuff.

BOB Does my face look too brown or sumthin'?

MARTHA Just looks too... you know, cause you forget how close... here... oh jeez... I just dropped it... ... this is just a little sponge... this is gonna take a little off, alright? [Martha spends a condsiderable amount of time with her back to the camera and fusses over Dylan like a mother getting her child ready for Halloween] Is this liquid eyeliner that you've been using?

BOB No!

MARTHA Just... what is it?

BOB It's a pencil!

MARTHA You don't mind that do you? [continues fussing for some time] You know what I think I might wanna do?

BOB What?

MARTHA I might wanna just get some of your pancake, cuz this is not really... um... scratching... Steve, can you just check that, please?


~ Then they talk about some of the music videos currently popular at the time ~

MARTHA So what's your favorite video on MTV?

BOB Um... the one of ... the one's I've seen ... ah ... my favorite, one, is, the ... umm ... let me see ... I've got a few of 'em ... I like that one of the Police ... when they're jumping around in the studio?

MARTHA Synchronicity!

BOB Is that it? Well, no, they're in a studio, and ... they're all ... they're all wearing hats.

MARTHA Oh! Um ... Um ... Everything She Does is Magic ...

BOB I like that ... I like ... well, of course I like Cyndi Lauper's ... uh ...


~ Later, Martha asks Dylan about David Lee Roth ~

BOB ... I know who his uncle is. I used to work for his uncle.

MARTHA I know! Isn't that wild?

BOB Yeah. It is ...

MARTHA It's a small world.

BOB As a matter of fact his uncle gave me my very first ...

MARTHA first job! I know!

BOB ... the first night I was ever in a

MARTHA at the Cafe Wa!

BOB That's right. That's right.

BOB I have very fond memories of his uncle ... Manny Roth.

MARTHA Yeah. Uncle Manny!

BOB Yep.

MARTHA [laughing] Well, Uncle Manny is the guy that gave David Lee Roth his first radio.

BOB His first what?!?

MARTHA His first radio!

BOB You mean ... his radio.

MARTHA Yeah! And David's like "So it's my Uncle Manny who got me my ..."

BOB His Uncle Manny is a terrific guy.

[Part 1][Part 2][Part 3][Part 4][Part 5]

St. Fillan

Fillan was born in Ireland, the son of Feriach and St. Kentigerna, and was also known as Foelan. He became a monk in his youth and travelled to Scotland early in the 8th century with his uncle (later St. Comgan), mother and brothers. They settled at Loch Duich, just east of the Isle of Skye. He lived as a hermit near St. Andrew's monastery for many years, and then was elected abbot. He later resigned and resumed his eremitical life at Glendochart, Pertchire, where he built a church and was reknowned for his miracles. Fillan later moved south to make his home in Strathfillan, at the head of Glen Dochart, where he built a church. Legend has it that, during the construction, a wolf killed an ox which was being used to carry materials. Fillan is said to have convinced the wolf of the error of its ways and it took the place of the dead ox. Next to the church, near Auchentyre in Strathfillan, was the Holy Pool, which is said to have been blessed by the Saint, and consequently developed healing powers, proving particularly curative for the mentally ill who were attracted in large numbers over succeeding centuries. St. Fillan is closely associated with Killin, where he is said to have built a mill and set up a market. His healing stones are now kept in the Breadalbane Folklore Centre in the village.

Fillan travelled around Scotland; he visited Islay, moved to Luncarty and then Struan (Perthshire). He later visited Forgan (near Pickletillem, Fife), proceeding to St. Andrew's Monastery, before spending time as a hermit in St Fillan's cave at Pittenweem. It is also likely that he travelled to Wigtownshire, because the villages of New Luce and Sorbie both had churches dedicated to St. Fillan.

He died at an old age and was buried in Strathfillan. Much later, his relics were taken to Bannockburn, where they are said to have helped Robert the Bruce win victory. Bruce later founded a Priory in Strathfillan - 2 miles (3 km) SE of Tyndrum - in Fillan's honour. Other relics, including Fillan's staff and bell, were originally kept at the church in Strathfillan. These items were both removed from Scotland, but returned in the late 19th C., when they were deposited in what is now the Museum of Scotland.

Saint Fillan worked in the communities surrounding Loch Ness. One story says that he held up a cross and Nessie turned away from frightening worshippers. Saint Fillan is more famous for his healing stones which are still in use today. These stones resemble the organs they are said to heal: eyes, kidneys, liver, lungs, heart. The stones are at the Tweed Mill beside Dochart Falls near Killin. For hours, contact Lynne or Paddy or Christine at the Tweed Mill tourist center there in Killin. The number to dial from the U.S. is 011 + 10166868. (Compiled from catholic.org and other sources.)

Blogging Kills IV

How You Found Korrektiv III

Typing the search words seattle opera don giovanni read a blog somewhere in the vicinity of Port Townshend, Washington, 66.235.26 has evidently turned up last week's post about the new Seattle Opera production of Don Giovanni. 211.31.224 in Sydney, Australia has learned about baritone Mariusz Kwiecien's current run as Don G. in Seattle, and 81.66.108 in Paris, France has found Thomas Hampson's concert performance of Finch 'han dal vino on our humble site. Korrektiv: bringing together (maybe not so humbly) sardonic catholics, beer joke afficianados, and now opera fans from around the globe.

Корректив

René Girard on a new Christian Renaissance

René Girard, a member of the French acedemy and a part-time matador, has predicted a new Christian cultural revolution that will make the Renaissance "seem like nothing".

In a book published recently in Italian, Verite o fede debole. Dialogo su cristianesimo e relativismo ("Truth or Weak Faith: Dialogue on Christianity and Relativism"), Professor Girard writes that "we will live in a world that will seem and be as Christian as today it seems scientific", Zenit reports.

"I believe we are on the eve of a revolution in our culture that will go beyond any expectation, and that the world is heading toward a change in respect of which the Renaissance will seem like nothing," Girard says, who was elected in 2005 as one of the 40 "immortals" of the French Academy.

Søren Says

Irony is a disciplinarian feared only by those who do not know it, but cherished by those who do. He who does not understand irony and has no ear for its whispering lacks eo ipso what might called the absolute beginning of the personal life. He lacks what at moments is indispensable for the personal life, lacks both the regeneration and rejuvenation, the cleaning baptism of irony that redeems the soul from having its life in finitude though living boldly and energetically in finitude. The Concept of Irony (1841)

From the YouTube Archives V: Excerpts from Don Giovanni

Seattle Opera has a premiere of a new production of Don Giovanni tonight, so I thought I would post a few highlights. I wasn't able to find anything by Mariusz Kwiecien or any of the others in the cast that I checked for, but here anyway are some worthy performances from the past. Here, for example, is Otto Edelmann singing the Catalogue aria from Salzburger Festspiele in 1954, with Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Lisa Della Casa plays Donna Elvira. Here also is Thomas Hampson singing Fin ch'han dal vino (known to Walker Percy fans as the aria sung by Dr. More in happier times, and remember that Percy was most likely inspired by Kierkegaard, who featured the opera as a central part of Either/Or, and there considered it one of the greatest artistic creations ever produced by man). Cecilia Bartoli shouts her way through Donna Elvira's Ah, chi mi dice mai, conducted by Nikolas Haroncourt's Zurich production in 2001. And here is Bartoli again, singing La Ci Darem La Mano with Bryn Terfel. This time it's her facial expressions that make this an absolute must-see. For the sake of comparison, here is Mr. Terfel singing a pretty steamy, bordering on slimy, version of La Ci Darem with the Korean soprano Hei-Kyung Hong. As one commentator wrote, "Eewww!". Going back in history, here is Dame Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna for Non mi dir. A performance version with much better audio is done by Edita Gruberova here. For a much different Donna Anna, here is Renee Fleming's version of Or sai chi l'onore. Here is perhaps the most pathetic aria in the history of opera, sung (pretty well!) by a student: Batti batti, o bel Masetto. Incredibly, this is the only version I could find on the web. And for fans of Amadeus, here is the finale with Tom Hulce as Mozart, conducting. F. Murry Abraham is Salieri, doing the voice over.

In the Spirit of Ecumenical Dialog

Korrektiv's post-Lutheran, neo-Catholic blogospheric glance falls upon our separated brethren over yonder:

The 9.5 Theses of Lutheran Surrealism

"This is a poetry blog that deals with Lutheranism and Surrealism, as well as their eventual intermingling."

Imagine this Conversation Breaking Out in a Graduate Seminar Discussion of The Last Gentleman

The first comment by OldSkoolFrat is quite good, but the entire comment thread is worth perusing. Then go read the book. And then go read Confederacy of Dunces again if you've forgotten the baking wine reference.

HYPERCORRECTION

Søren Says

Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth - look at the dying man's struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.

Olive Branch

"I respect your wrong opinion."

How You Found Korrektiv II

PLEASE, Mr. 69.143.51 from Alexandria in the STate of virginia; i find it amUsing but a little distuRBing thAT you would sEek out such sensatIoNal FaRe ON korrekTiv, and that yOu would expect to Find "naked nunS" On our huMblE page, which cOnsisTs entirely of a quotation from tHE essay "new oRleans mon amour", by WalkEr percy, from his Book SIgnposTs in a strangE land.

Stuck in a Moment

Do you think the gods failed to take note of last year's Super Bowl travesty? Prediction: The 'hawks will do their best to lose, but they won't be able to. They'll be stuck in this moment throughout the playoffs. Reserve your seat now for the Korrektiv Seahawks Reverse Mojo Super Bowl Tailgate Party.

This Morning

This morning was something. A little snow
lay on the ground. The sun floated in a clear
blue sky. The sea was blue, and blue-green,
as far as the eye could see.
Scarcely a ripple. Calm. I dressed and went
for a walk -- determined not to return
until I took in what Nature had to offer.
I passed close to some old, bent-over trees.
Crossed a field strewn with rocks
where snow had drifted. Kept going
until I reached the bluff.
Where I gazed at the sea, and the sky, and
the gulls wheeling over the white beach
far below. All lovely. All bathed in a pure
cold light. But, as usual, my thoughts
began to wander. I had to will
myself to see what I was seeing
and nothing else. I had to tell myself this is what
mattered, not the other. (And I did see it,
for a minute or two!) For a minute or two
it crowded out the usual musings on
what was right, and what was wrong -- duty,
tender memories, thoughts of death, how I should treat
with my former wife. All the things
I hoped would go away this morning.
The stuff I live with every day. What
I've trampled on in order to stay alive.
But for a minute or two I did forget
myself and everything else. I know I did.
For when I turned back I didn't know
where I was. Until some birds rose up
from the gnarled trees. And flew
in the direction I needed to be going.

-- Raymond Carver

From the Music Video Archives IV: Tom Waits on the David Letterman show.

This week's selection is Time by Tom Waits, as performed on the Letterman show in 1986. I heard this live way back when and went out and bought the album the very next day. I've been a fan ever since, and this is still one of my favorite songs. The interview that precedes the song is no less remarkable. "My father was an exhaust manifold and.... my mother was a tree." And about his musical Frank's Wild Years: "It's a play, well... it's a musical... it's, it's kind of a cross between the Love Machine and the New Testament. It's a musical play." A very rare bird, indeed.

Here also is the music video for Downtown Train, also from the album Rain Dogs, which looks like Down By Law, the movie directed by Jim Jarmusch and mentioned by Waits here. If memory serves, it was named for those dogs that run all around the streets of a city after a rain storm, trying to pick up the scent of wherever they left off, the rain having washed all their marks away.

Drive a Hummer H1 and Read Korrektiv!

Søren Says

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.