I have this beautiful book that has been sitting in my bookcase unread for a few years now. I love this book so much and the perfect combination of Ralph Steadman's illustrations and Lewis Carroll's prose makes it a macabre childhood fantasy. Steadman is famous for being known as a Gonzo artist through his association with Hunter S. Thompson, you should definitely check out his illustrations here.
"Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' she said aloud. `I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think--' (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) `--yes, that's about the right distance--but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?' (Alice had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)"
Even though it's extremely warm over here in the southern hemisphere, I am finally starting to get into the christmas spirit. The new episode of Glee also helps!
My friend Stacey gave me this book to read on Sunday. Although it wasn't particularly riveting, I found it to be a good enough literary snapshot of modern life.
“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation.” — Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle.
Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ outlines almost all of the essential features of postmodernism thus creating a cultural product that is quite possibly in the truest of postmodern forms. However this creates the debate that a product so aligned to postmodern theory could ultimately lead to its decay and demise due to its overuse. Lyotard’s theory is outlined succinctly through the plot of ‘Telephone’ through the fact that there is no plot but merely disjunctive sequences of event and copious amounts of product placement thus perverting any allusion to a grand narrative structure. The stylistic appropriation of Tarantino-esque film techniques furthers the postmodern argument that was put forth by Baudrillard, in that all culture is a form of simulacrum from which the original meaning is displaced. This entropic breakdown of cultural signs then leads one to think that due to the extreme postmodern saturation to which ‘Telephone’ encompasses, cultural products are left to follow in rigid uniformity. Is ‘Telephone’ the archetype for all cultural products to follow or is this signalling the end of postmodern culture?
New Decemberists Album! Weeeeeee. I am sooo excited to get my hands on this one. I have always loved The Decemberists and a new album from them might be just the thing to kick my music malaise. Here's the track listing from the new album. You can get a free download of the track Down by The Water by going to their myspace page -> here
I found on my bed this afternoon a compilation cd of Wanda Jackson's greatest hits! Lucky me! So excited to listen to this on repeat. Over and over. I also now have 'Cool Love' which I didn't have before! Yay!
Friday's Playlist - So you can dance yourself into the weekend
