patrick

On Boredom and Tarkovsky

Tldr: Short attention span? Want to see beauty in that which you lack? Get your heart broken and go watch some Tarkovsky.

there is no reality where you are supposed to be hereon edge, at the edge tilting into a park bench dizzythey all starewondering what you’re doing how is an impulse born?does it hurt in the beginning?like a baby? that starts on the inside and rolls out? or maybe that’s a song? or a joke?i thinkContinue reading “IN THE BEGINNING”

Lighthouse Lost

Cursed to be a bridge between worldsI floatlistening for the whisper of onewho would deliver me from freedom,who would sink into my souland fish out words I’d never dare to speak.What footprintsdoes love leave behind?Remnants from the beginning of things?Or mud tracked in from the wilderness?When we are weak from dreamingour fathers offer up prayersContinue reading “Lighthouse Lost”

Glow

Rattled by bones,juggling keys.Punished by years,carried on crowdsSearching for a womanwho won’t ever be found .Crystallised in your heartat age 5, waking from a dream,alone yet full.Those characters we watched growfrom their primordial yearningto their humble descentare in constant sorrow.But a sorrow pregnant with possibility.A teardrop that merges with the rainand drips down alleyways ofContinue reading “Glow”

Nashville Diner

Sitting in a Nashville diner,An old Korean couple served me fried catfish,I started to cryIt takes me a long time to eat—especially if I already ate. I satthere a long time,until Mama was worried I didn’t like the foodThe old man had a catchphrase:‘how doing?’,he said it gruffly,it was a greeting and a farewell.I wantedContinue reading “Nashville Diner”

Spandrel

An architectural feature common in Renaissance architecture used to support a dome or arch. Often they are decorated, but this decoration is secondary to their structural role. The term also has an interesting usage in evolutionary biology. In 1979, Stephen Jay Gould conceptualised evolutionary “spandrels”, making the analogy that a trait present in an organism mayContinue reading “Spandrel”

Why Hegel?

Ever since I started slogging through the Phenomenology I’ve had to continuously justify (mainly to myself) if it would be so terrible if I just tossed the book out the window, or at the very least returned it to the library and paid whatever fine comes with being two years overdue. I’ve yet to succumbContinue reading “Why Hegel?”

Wake Up and Smell the Java

maybe love is a like a wave function collapsing when observed. amber streetlights and skyways — once quiet as cobblestone blackened, rough and marked. maybe love is like a wave function, etchings on cave walls, ashy rags, turbines, bellowing smoke, buzzless warmth but now, jagged crossroads. none of us can reconcile our bodies pressed inContinue reading “Wake Up and Smell the Java”

Social Contract

A term and philosophical concept originating in French enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacque Rousseau’s 1972 treatise, The Social Contract. In an ideal and just society, people would have equal access to resources, education, technology, etc.. However in a world with scarcity, whether inherent or artificially imposed, there is a strong incentive to satisfy wants or desires throughContinue reading “Social Contract”

Elite-overproduction

I’ve known about this concept and Peter Turchin, Russian population ecologist turned global historian, for some time now. Turchin approaches history in a uniquely quantitative manner which has drawn the attention of many a blogosphere intellectual, and very recently on Ribbonfarm. The concept of ‘elites’ and their ‘supply vs demand’ is one aspect of Turchin’sContinue reading “Elite-overproduction”