Baffling Combustions

Stress, the state and verb - we all have felt it and rode it yet do we know what we're talking about? Indeed, can we - past Freud/Jung (psyche), load, and our sensual experience abiding its edge - locate it quite (or is it quite there at all)? Whatever it is, we find here an eddy of it among us in words - with a nod to Yoko Ono and David Peel's AMERIKA, their 1972 anthem (with John Lennon abroad), an excerpt of which closes this session.

Here after a long summer, and then some, break we strike to the heart of the matter of what the hell we are doing with this enterprise via the 1992 essay "Theory as Liberatory Practice" by bell hooks. Here's a link to the essay if you want to reach deeper: https://www.uwyo.edu/aded5050/5050unit12/theory%20as%20liberatory%20prac.pdf

The oath has been around, in numerous ways and at different levels of articulation, for a long time, and we will take ours in examining this verbal structure between us - ending now in a listen and look inside John Ashbery's poem "The Tennis Court Oath."

The oath has been around, in numerous ways and at different levels of articulation, for a long time, and we will take ours in examining this verbal structure between us - ending in a look inside John Ashbery's THE TENNIS COURT OATH.

The oath has been around, in numerous ways and at different levels of articulation, for a long time, and we will take ours in examining this verbal structure between us - ending in a look inside John Ashbery's THE TENNIS COURT OATH.

Here we waterlock on "Island" in this third in a series of sessions that seek to explore this geological state that has just as much applicability to our psychic experience as it does to our terrestrial one. We touch not only its linguistic evolution (and the mysterious, silent "s") but also its representations as a trope for a family of our experiences that may go back to the start of consciousness as we intuit it.

Here we waterlock on "Island" in this second in a series of sessions that seek to explore this geological state that has just as much applicability to our psychic experience as it does to our terrestrial one. We touch not only its linguistic evolution (and the mysterious, silent "s") but also its representations as a trope for a family of our experiences that may go back to the start of consciousness as we intuit it.

Here we waterlock on "Island" in a series of sessions that seek to explore this geological state that has just as much applicability to our psychic experience as it does to our terrestrial one. We touch not only its linguistic evolution (and the mysterious, silent "s") but also its representations as a trope for a family of our experiences that may go back to the start of consciousness as we intuit it.

Love, in all its zones, arguably remains the capstone emotion of our mortal journey, which in words - as we seek to prove - is infinite. In this "four-point-five," final number (note previous broadcasts, including a half broadcast combining "void" with the start of "love"), in a series of sessions, we seek among excursions to touch on as many as we are able and unable, from its classical taxonomy to our near-term obsession with its anticipation, making and sustenance.

Love, in all its zones, arguably remains the capstone emotion of our mortal journey, which in words - as we seek to prove - is infinite. In this "three-point-five" number (note previous broadcasts, including a half broadcast combining "void" with the start of "love"), in a series of sessions, we seek among excursions to touch on as many as we are able and unable, from its classical taxonomy to our near-term obsession with its anticipation, making and sustenance.

Love, in all its zones, arguably remains the capstone emotion of our mortal journey, which in words - as we seek to prove - is infinite. In this "one-point-five" number (note previous broadcasts, including a half combining "void" with the start of "love"), in a series of sessions, we seek among excursions to touch on as many as we are able and unable, from its classical taxonomy to our near-term obsession with its anticipation, making and sustenance.

Love, in all its zones, arguably remains the capstone emotion of our mortal journey, which in words - as we seek to prove - is infinite. In this "one-point-five" number (note previous broadcasts, including a half combining "void" with the start of "love"), in a series of sessions on love, we seek among excursions to touch on as many as we are able and unable, from its classical taxonomy to our near-term obsession with its anticipation, making and sustenance.

Here we combine the end of our perusal of "Void" (the third of a series of sessions in this non-domain) - pulling and pushing and stretching its application until it breaks into words, etc. - with the start of a series of sessions on the nature of "Love"(perhaps void's match).

Here we peruse "Void" (the second of a series of sessions in this non-domain), pulling and pushing and stretching its application until it breaks into words its physical, psychological and cosmic manifestation, with some salting of the metaphysical, to which the term seems to call.

Here we peruse the "Void" (the first of a series of sessions in this non-domain), pulling and pushing and stretching its application until it breaks into words its physical, psychological and cosmic manifestation, with some salting of the metaphysical, to which the term seems to call.

Here is another installment (no. 10) in our on-going examination of the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, written between the years 1798 and 1803. We look at the proverbs: "The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. The selfish smiling fool, & the sullen frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod. What is now proved was once, only imagin'd." To note, in these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things we're still working out.

Here is another installment (no. 11) in our on-going examination of the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, written between the years 1798 and 1803. We look at the proverbs: "The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit: watch the roots; the lion, the tyger, the horse, the elephant, watch the fruits. The cistern contains; the fountain overflows. One thought fills immensity." This session also includes a look at "Fowles in the Frith," an anonymous, short, lyric poem song of the Middle Ages. To note, in these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things we're still working out. To note, this session ends with the definitive proof of the statement, "A thought is a void."

In this session we swerve from the text of William Blake's PROVERBS OF HELL to what news we may find of its shape in Bob Dylan's "I Contain Multitudes," the title and refrain of which is lifted from a line in Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself." We touch on these two guys, as well as Anne Frank, Emily Dickinson, Mr. Poe and Dr. Indiana Jones, as we seek to fathom as always the heart of the heart of the eternal dilemma.

From March 2020 (read "pandemic start"), we here look into what is "adult," the word and state, touching on various views philosophical, psychological and personal. This session includes the reading and discussion of a number of poems: "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin; "The History of My Life" by John Ashbery; and "Market Day" by Jonas Meckas (translated by Vyt Bakaitis).

Here is another installment (no. 8) in our on-going examination of the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, written between the years 1798 and 1803. We look at the proverbs: "Let man wear the fell of a lion, woman the fleece of a sheep." To note, in these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things we're still working out.

Here we discuss by turns St. Francis of Assisi's "Canticle to the Sun," most of which was composed in late 1224 while recovering from an illness. according to tradition. Further, the first time it was sung in its entirety was by Francis and Brothers Angelo and Leo, two of his original companions, on Francis' deathbed, the final verse praising "Sister Death" having been added only a few minutes before. From there to here, the Sun and all its raiments, rises here. This sessions ends with a reading of the song read in the native Unbrian language by Tony Cataldo of the All Souls Ecumenical Catholic Church. For more and the text of the Song we use (so you can read along): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticle_of_the_Sun

In this fast-paced, spontaneous, testy analysis, we examine the poem "Without" by Jo Harjo, published in the New Yorker magazine. This session includes Harjo reading the poem, courtesy of the magazine, the link to which (and its text) is here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/11/without

In this fast-paced, spontaneous, testy analysis, we examine the poem "Half-Life in Exile" by Hala Alyan, published in the September 20, 2021 edition of the New Yorker magazine. This session includes the background tuning of Steve Cohn and Carl Baugher's "Heliotropism" and Alyan reading the poem, courtesy of the magazine, the link to which (and its text) is here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/27/half-life-in-exile

Here's the second part of our far ranging and fetching session on the term "swerve," and here attempts to speak of and into its application to Lucretius and his brand of Epicurean thought. This was recorded in October of 2019 - a throwback to the dawn of Baffling Combustions, and no. 11 on our chronology. To connect with the first part, Swerve I, here's link (or use whatever accustomed podcast platform): https://soundcloud.com/bafflingcombustions/swerve-1?si=564c31d32ec24549ba4af32f598a162c

In this fast-paced, spontaneous, testy analysis, we examine the poem "Tin" by Jane Hirshfield, published in the September 13, 2021 edition of the New Yorker magazine. This session includes Hirshfield reading the poem, courtesy of the magazine, the link to which (and its text) is here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/tin

Here is another installment (no. 7) in our on-going examination of the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, written between the years 1798 and 1803. We look at the proverbs: "The fox condemns the trap, not himself"; and "Joys impregnate. Sorrows bring forth." To note, in these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things we're still working out.

Ending in Howlin' Wolf's "If You Hear Me Howlin'" not-to-be-missed soundtrack from the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival, here is another installment in our on-going examination of the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, written between the years 1798 and 1803. We look at the proverb, "The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man." To note, in these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things we're still working out.

Here is another installment in on-going examination of the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, written between the years 1798 and 1803. We look at the proverbs "The nakedness of woman is the work of God"; and "Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps." To note, in these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things we're still working out.

In this fourth part of an ongoing session, we look at the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, arguable his first attempt - written between the years 1798 and 1803, coincident with the start and subsequent bending of the French Revolution - to articulate a personal philosophy. Here we spend all to puzzle out the proverb, among others, "Prisons are built of stones of Law, Brothels by bricks of Religion." In these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things were still working out.

In this third part of an ongoing session, we look at the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, arguable his first attempt - written between the years 1798 and 1803, coincident with the start and subsequent bending of the French Revolution - to articulate a personal philosophy. In these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things were still working out.

In this second installment on Blake's "Proverbs of Hell" we touch on Swendenborg and his influence on this work and then touch the electric wire of a single proverb: "No birds soars too high, if he soars on his own wings."

In this fast-paced, semi-spontaneous, testy analysis, we examine the poem "Spring" by Ishion Hutchinson, published in the June 7th, 2021 edition of the New Yorker magazine. This session includes Hutchinson reading his work, courtesy of the magazine, the link to which (and its text) is here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/06/07/spring

"Steal from the rich and give to the poor " - words we hope we may all come to thrive by - is in no figure better exemplified than one Robin Hood, for whom no introduction is necessary or adequate. Here we look into his historical origin in not-so-merry old England, sloughing through the Dark Ages of feudal society " - as well as what this beguiling Green Man might represent for us today in our lives stuffed with gadgets, distractions and more than anything else crises - including our imperiled natural world, the felicitous co-habitation with which (at least in imagination) Robin and his band in Sherwood Forest stand out as a happy model.

The first part of an ongoing treatment, we look here at the poet, printer and radical William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell," a prose poem first published in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL, arguable his first attempt - written between the years 1798 and 1803, coincident with the start and subsequent bending of the French Revolution - to articulate a personal philosophy. In these sessions, we do a granular - and maybe even (in keeping with Blake) infinitely so - reading of this perfect articulation of things were still working out.

This is our 2nd half of our light on "hell"--its sometime reality and persistence and future within our Western Civ. twist. We go into its historical analogs out of Europe and try to figure what it's place might be today.

Picking up where we left off, in Part 1, discussing a walking that doesn't involve walking, in Walking 2 we continue our reading of Thoreau's essay, touching on the monomyth, John Brown, Charles Olson, Emerson, the art of walking backwards, Robin Hood and Johnny Cash. Gilgamesh as well as the Australopithecus come up as well as Thoreau's sense of a new literature " or we haven't seen nothing yet.

"Walking" is from Henry David Thoreaus essay of that name, though alternatively he called it The Wild," so Walking the Wild takes us to what lurks inside it all, including the origins of revolution and ownership in the tyrannies of industrial time and privacy. We also here (in this first of a two-part discussion) talk about walking itself as an act and about getting lost as well as how, Thoreau writes, In wildness is the preservation of the world" which was to become the motto of the Sierra Club. Thoreau is a bewilderer who postulates things about 150 years ahead of his time and saw this work as an introduction to all I may write hereafter.

Here we turn our light on "hell"--its sometime reality and persistence and future within our Western Civ. twist. We go into its historical analogs out of Europe and try to figure what it's place might be today. To note, in our second transmission we will commit ourselves to an analysis of Blake's PROVERBS OF HELL.

In this last for now session of fan-proposed topics for examination we look at "blue" and all the ways this English word for a color is deployed in our everyday and extraordinary lives with particular emphasis on The Blues, including its mysterious origin and on-going persistent in what keeps us from totally cracking up. Great good thanks to the inestimable connoisseur of suchness Matthew Morse for the assist!

This is the second part of our "Unabomber" (Theodore Kaczynski) session. Again, special thanks to Paul Sigismundi for offering us this topic, which we seem to have fielded without totally losing it. This session concludes and is dedicated to the memory of Samson Gruber, the "Icarus of Bronx Science."

Following our jag of listener-instigated topics, which we fuse and defuse in as spontaneous a manner as we may fashion, this week we were given "Kaczynski," or (in the interests of disambiguation) the man the FBI termed the "Unabomber." Having found enough here to spread across two sessions - albeit fronting a storm of computer challenges (appropriate for cat who advocates the overthrow of technological society) - we track his traumatic story, philosophy and place in our collective, including touching on how Ted's today pacing out his life sentence in the super-max in Florence, Colorado. Special thanks to Paul Sigismundi for these sessions!

In a Baffling Combustions' first we invited one of our fans to propose our topic: Freud, with particular attention to his contemporary relevance, which we managed to find while mulling how little practically his ideas seem to have found register in contemporary mental health therapies. Also, in this session we reveal Freud's actual very last words - never before revealed! Our thanks to Charles Paikart!

Here we toss more salt into the gap opened in our first SALT session, boldly proposing, modestly withdrawing and sideways implying this crystalline structure is not just essential to our collective human anatomical - the destroyer and preserver of organic creation itself - but also our soulistic integrity.

We turn here to "salt," touching in this first of two podcasts on not only its crystal constitution but also (mostly) its esoteric sense as a metaphor that we all need to keep it together. This podcast carves a particular jag through Maurice Nicoll's THE MARK in which he explores the concept "sin" as manifest in the Gospels, a most salty text.

What could follow on HEALTH (our two-part treatment) than CRACK-UP 1 (also in two parts) our session on novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1936 essay "The Crack-Up" in which he writes with aching candor on his psychological collapse and fragmentary, absent spirit, psychic reconstitution? To note: This session includes reference to the Cave Canem Foundation, dedicated to African-American poetry and poetics. Fitzgerald concludes his essay with reference to that Latin phrase (trans., "Beware of dog"). The Foundation's name came from a sign the poet Toi Derricotte spotted while visiting the House of the Tragic Poet in the volcanic ash covered city of Pompeii. Here's a link to Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up": https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a4310/the-crack-up/

Enjoy the conclusion of our our session on novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1936 essay "The Crack-Up," in which he writes with aching candor on his psychological collapse and fragmentary, absent spirit, psychic reconstitution. Here's a link to Fitzgerald's "The Crack-Up": https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a4310/the-crack-up/

In HEALTH 2, we continue where we didn't leave off and manage as ever to leave other leavings left off, which might be one face of health - to know what to forget. This session includes a semi-mini-biography of Sparrow's exemplary father, who will turn 102 in February.

In this first of a two-part session, we examine the nature of health and what exactly (and otherwise) it might be - including the mystery of the relative absence of its definition within western psychological science. This is a broad-ranging - and we hope far-fetched - discussion that concludes, temporarily, that, like love, there may be an infinite range of health states.

In this session (the second of two) we tackle Andre Breton's Second Manifesto of Surrealism, publishing in 1929—to find ourselves not unexpectedly floored, though we manage to stand again, chastened. BE AWARE: This session ends with the Frankfurt School and the Orgone Box. Here’s a link to Breton's manifesto: http://theoria.art-zoo.com/second-manifesto-of-surrealism-andre-breton/

In this session (the first of two) we go in and out, through and around Andre Breton's First Surrealist Manifesto (Le Manifeste du Surralisme), publishing in 1924. (To note, this session ties in with our discussion of Gertrude Stein's "Composition as Explanation" in Steintime 1 and 2. Below is a link to a translation of the work. https://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/Jbutler/T340/F98/SurrealistManifesto.htm

Here in this first of a two-part series we tackle "now" from numerous vantages, among others including as a word with all its practical denotation and connotations as well as its application to "being in the present," as popularly voiced by Eckhart Tolle. It includes the beginnings of a near-term historical perspective in its use from the 1960s as it's evolved into a pseudo-secular faith call. FAIR WARNING: Reflecting our attempt to get to now, this session's quiet points have been struck and/or shrunk to induce a rapid fire (an element of combustion).