Wisconsin pharmacist who destroyed more than 500 vaccine doses believes Earth is flat, FBI says

When the fabric of memory is fragile, what is it then that holds it all together? We have never been there, tells us our memory. We have been there, tells us the photograph. We were never that happy again after this day. What about these two people, slowly vanishing from the picture, faster vanishing from your life, where they stepped in only for a minor stint. The importance of a picture lies not what we see in the picture but in the way we connect what we see to what we assume to be outside of the picture. The vanishing point of a story. Lives dropping behind the paper of a photo, disappearing between the pixels on the screen. They are not together anymore, they just stopped calling after a while. It was a fling in a summer that did not seem to end. Later, with other people, they might look back on this day and regret that they drifted apart. They married and today have two kids. He’s cheating on her. He hates his life. The way their lives unrolls out of this image into endless directions: This Faustian-Pause-Key, the “Verweile doch…” an image represents, that lure of the lives that may go into different directions, lives passing through the plane of the image. Time collapsing and enclosing within its debris all possibilities.

REMEMBER EARTH CLEARLY

REMEMBER EARTH CLEARLY
BAD
DAMAGED
BATTERED
PLANET
FRAYED
DUSTBOWL
COMPROMISED
WAKE UP
MONSTERS EXIST

— Orbital, The Box

Es bringt uns nämlich nicht weiter, die rätselhafte Seite am Rätselhaften pathetisch oder fanatisch zu unterstreichen; vielmehr durchdringen wir das Geheimnis nur in dem Grad, als wir es im Alltäglichen wiederfinden, kraft einer dialektischen Optik, die das Alltäglich als undurchdringlich, das Undurchdringlich als alltäglich erkennt. Die passionierteste Untersuchung telepathischer Phänomene wird einen zum Beispiel über das Lesen (das ein eminent telepathischer Vorgang ist) nicht halb soviel lehren, wie die profane Erleuchtung des Lesens über die telepathischen Phänomene. Oder: die passionierteste Untersuchung des Haschischrausches wird einen über das Denken (das ein emientes Narkotikum ist) nicht halb soviel lehren, wie die profane Erleuchtung des Denkens über den Haschischrausch. Der Leser, der Denkende, der Wartende, der Flaneur sind ebensowohl Typen des Erleuchteten wie der Opiumesser, der Träumer, der Berauschte. Und sind profanere. Ganz zu schweigen von jener fürchterlichsten Droge – uns selber -, die wir in der Einsamkeit zu uns nehmen.

— Walter Benjamin

I never saw this strange dwelling again. Indeed, as I see it now, the way it appeared to my child’s eye, it is not a building, but is quite dissolved and distributed inside me: here one room, there another, and here a bit of corridor which, however, does not con­nect the two rooms, but is conserved in me in fragmentary form. Thus the whole thing is scattered about inside me, the rooms, the stairs that descended with such ceremonious slowness, others, narrow cages that mounted in a spiral movement, in the darkness of which we advanced like the blood in our veins.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

Hey, are you feeling the heat?
Not just the heat waves (though there’s plenty of that too).
But tension…

STRESS.

Even depression.
It’s more common now than ever before, and for a lot of reasons (even besides the obvious).
The thing about stress, depression, or just plain “feeling bad” is that it takes EVERYTHING from you.

Health goes down…
motivation wipes out…
and charisma shrinks until you’re not so fun to be around.

That’s why if you want to have the best success in every area of your life…

…you’ll want to get happy right now.

The problem with trying to chase “good feelings” is this:
It almost always pushes you to “fake it til you make it” or do something to escape your life.

Put a plastic smile on your face all day… or go take a few shots of whiskey and watch Netflix.

Neither will work for most people.
What I want is for you to smile naturally BECAUSE you feel good.
And I want you to enjoy those shots of whiskey and TV if it’s in genuine celebration of a life you love.
That’s why I’m so psyched for something called the New Happiness Code.
It’s a way to “get happy” I’ve never seen before.
You don’t need willpower… or anything good in your life happening at all.

You don’t have to learn anything or do endless meditations or affirmations.
What do you get once you have this in your life?

Well, everything picks up automatically.

You get luckier…
people want to spend time with you…
…sickness and injuries just seem to go away on their own (this baffles doctors!).

And yes, you end up with a healthier bank account too.
Everything gets better when you change yourself on the inside.

— Spam

Traum von einem Seminar, in dem das Vermächtnis eines im Südpazifik verschollenen Naturphilosophen besprochen wurde. Wir rüsteten auch eine Expedition aus, um nach ihm zu forschen, das Klima war südamerikanisch, tropisch, eine Regenwaldinsel mit orangenen Äffchen, die so winzig waren, dass sie sich morgens in den Netzen von Spinnen ausruhten und dort die Tautropfen von den Fäden tranken.

Der Klassenraum und das seltsam enge Verhältnis zu dem Dozenten, große Folianten, die aufgeschlagen auf den winzigen Stuhl-Tischen lagen, dann wieder wateten wir durch ein Flussbett, das nur niedriges Wasser führte und die Zweige waren voll mit rosanen Papageien; einige trugen Spitzhacken bei sich, aber unser Guide wies sie an, sie zurück zu lassen, eh wir die Boote bestiegen und wir weinten beinah, weil das bedeutete, dass wir die Insel nie wieder betreten würden. Als wir mit den Booten ans Festland gelangten, war unsere Fahrt noch nicht vorbei: Die Einwohner begegneten uns mit Misstrauen, sie schlossen ihre Läden vor uns, als wir in eine Art Basar kamen.

(Vielleicht war es auch ein Komponist, aber von seiner Lehre oder von seinen Werken war kaum noch etwas überliefert)

Well, I’m your Venus
I’m your fire, at your desire
Well, I’m your Venus
I’m your fire, at your desire

— Shocking Blue, Venus

Anomie is our condition, Anomia is our curse, Anomaly is our profession. Or to put it another way: our scabrous individuality consists of trying to name our condition.

— e.m. cioran fall into time

How does photography serve to legitimate and normalise existing power relationships? How does it serve as the voice of authority, while simultaneously claiming to constitute a token of exchange between equal  partners? What havens and temporary escapes from the realm of necessity are provided by photographic means? What resistances are encouraged and strengthened? How is historical and social memory preserved, transformed, restricted and obliterated by photographs? What futures are promised; what futures are forgotten? In the broadest sent, these questions concern the ways  in which photography constructs an imaginary economy. 

— Alan Sekula, “Photography between Labour and Capital”(1983)