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A Crack in the Sacred

10/14/2020

Divorce - Károly Ferenczy - 1892

Learning of an impending divorce within the circle of people I know always leaves me devastated. Granted, the devastation I feel is nothing like the avalanche of ruin that has buried the poor woman in the painting above, but still.

For a while I suspected this acutely negative (over?)reaction had to do with the great many divorces I witnessed (this includes my parents' divorce) as I was growing up, but I eventually realized there was more to it than that.

Whenever I become aware of a marriage that is ending in divorce, I tend to visualize a hairline crack rippling through the Sacred.

Desolating to say the least.

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It's Complicated, Stupid

10/13/2020

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Present most people with the forthright observation that the global elite pulled off a devastatingly swift and successful totalitarian coup under the pretext of the birdemic and the observation would be peremptorily rejected as too simplistic to be true.

In fact, most people would regard such an observation as the hallmark of a stupid and unenergetic mind, one too lazy to appreciate let alone figure out the complicated world we inhabit. The totalitarian coup observation would be labeled "a simple answer" concocted by an unsophisticated mode of thinking undeserving of serious attention.

Granted, a great many lazy minds have generated a great deal of simple answers that have indeed done very little justice to the complexity of some issues. And yes, some simple answers have frequently led to simple "solutions" that often had nothing at all to do with the problems they had been created to solve. In this sense, a simple answer truly can be indicative of a stupid and lazy mind.

At the same time, those who regard the complexity of a complicated world as the only proof needed to defy the possibility of simple answers are utterly blind to the outright stupidity and laziness of their own apparently sophisticated mode of thinking. While simultaneously scoffing at the laughable notion of a simple answer capable of explaining everything (or at least explaining that which is most essential), this refined and worldly mode of thinking does little more than construct complicated answers that are incapable of explaining anything.

To regard everything as too complex and complicated for simple answers is to regard everything as a foggy labyrinth with no assured exit. Entering the labyrinth is easy enough, but finding a way out is another matter entirely. Wandering through complexity quickly degenerates into a Herculean labor. The sophisticated mode of thinking learns to avoid this laboring altogether. It is far more efficient and practical to merely declare everything to be an intricate labyrinth and leave it at that.

Hence, the totalitarian takeover cannot have really happened, and even if it did, it is definitely not as straightforward and comprehensible as it appears to be. It's more complicated than that, stupid. Too complicated to think about. Best to just acknowledge the complexity of it all and wade no further. To do otherwise would be to seek the unsophisticated sanctuary of the "simple answer".

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All Work and No Blog Makes Me A Dull Boy

10/6/2020

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Nothing annoys me more than people who complain about how busy they are, which is why I find writing this particular blog post so annoying.

I'll get right to the point - I've been very busy lately - too busy to blog on a consistent basis (which explains the lack of posts lately).

Anyway, I hope to be out of the weeds and back to regular blogging in the next two or three days.

Until then.

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Hildegard von Blingin'? (Not a Misspelling)

10/1/2020

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This is probably one of those things that everyone is already aware of . . . but just in case . . .

So, I was browsing Hildegard von Bingen music on YouTube earlier today, and I happened upon a selection called Hildegard von Blingin'. At first I thought the suggested video was merely a typo or, worse, a crude parody. My first impulse was to ignore it, but curiosity got the better of me, and I gave the video a click. What I discovered is apparently referred to as "bardcore", and I have to say, it's quite creative and amusing.

Hildegard von Blingin' basically takes contemporary pop songs and gets medieval on their backsides. The result is actually delightful and fun. If you haven't encountered this sort of thing before, I encourage you to give it a listen.

Comparing the original version of a pop song with the von Blingin' cover is an enjoyable distraction, especially if you take the time to read the von Blingin' lyrics (which are inventive and, strangely enough, convincingly authentic-sounding).

Here is Hildegard von Blingin's version of Radiohead's Creep. The original version of the pop song appears below that.

Enjoy.

Note added: The von Blingin' renditions of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know and Hadaway's What is Love? are also entertaining.

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