Patti Smith

The first time I heard Patti Smith's album Horses was a formative experience for me, I remember feeling amazed at the power of it, the urgency of her writing, the primal intensity of her delivery. I remember feeling as if my eyes had been opened to the possibilities of self expression, and even now that my musical tastes have shifted toward the heavier stuff, that album always manages to bring me back to that place of inspiration and a sense of everything being possible. It is with that backdrop that I wanted to post up yesterdays interview with her from the Guardian and an excerpt form her book Just Kids, I haven't read it yet but its just come out in paperback so I'm going to get it asap.


GUARDIAN INTERVIEW


EXCERPT FROM JUST KIDS

BUY JUST KIDS

EAUX D'ARTIFICE

I went to see some Kenneth Anger films last night, he was an experimental film maker who explored themes of sexuality and the occult. This film was made in 1953 when Anger was in his mid twenties and there's something very beautiful about the simplicity of the piece combined with Vivaldi's Winter Movement from the Four seasons which I find very moving.
Really its just a lady walking through a garden so I'll understand if everyone doesn't enjoy it but at the very least its aesthetically pleasing, so be pleased...

PART ONE

PART TWO

OLIVER PIETSCH at the Nettie Horn gallery

For anyone living in London this film by Oliver Pietsch is really worth seeing. An exploration on death in cinema told through filmic montage its free and on till the 30th of January.

NETTIE HORN GALLERY

The Brain: A Secret History

This new bbc documentary series looks at the darkest moments of psychology and how they have led to advances in the modern understanding of how the human brain works. Its a very interesting program which raises a lot of ethical questions about the means justifying the ends and whether it is morally acceptable to put people/animals through pain in order to further illuminate our understanding of human psychology. I've always been fascinated by the fragility of sanity and the danger of western medicine in its approach to medicated cures for mental illness so this series is pretty illuminating for me. Enjoy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xhgkd/The_Brain_A_Secret_History_Mind_Control/

SHELLY KAGAN ON DEATH

Listening to Shelly Kagan's lectures on the philosophy of death from the Yale podcasts on itunes u. The fact that you can get whole course lectures from a university as prestigious as Yale for free online has made me very excited. This series of lectures is incredibly inspiring and very interesting if thinking about death isn't something you shy away from.

DOWNLOAD FOR FREE HERE