thanks for telling me
On March 20th
My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?
David Foster Wallace — chronicle of a death retold (Updated)
On March 19th 1 Comment
Reading D.T. Max’s New Yorker article on the writing life and bitterly sad death of David Foster Wallace, I cannot escape a nagging question: Through the years of pharmacotherapy, did anybody try to talk to the guy? By which I mean a sustained, serious, patient psychotherapy. As a marker of where we are as a culture — is it that the biological explanation of human nature has taken hold so throughly that a major cultural figure can suffer unto death without it apparently occurring (publicly) to anybody that a full-court press for depression includes deep psychotherapy? If only to maintain human connection while all the medical things are being tried, and perhaps for something much more. Read more »
Milton Babbitt and the Bad Plus
On March 18th
I have no excuse whatever for this, but it makes me happy. Via Alex Ross. UPDATE: The Bad Plus are playing at DC’s 9:30 club next Thursday. See you there.
Update: I love the Babbitt All Set for Jazz Ensemble. I’ve got it on vinyl, but the turntable is in the attic. Here it is:
Andrew Dubber and the Unconsultancy
On March 18th
Andrew Dubber is a smart fellow, a UK music-industry consultant and a source of keen insights. He’s been thinking about the problems of consulting to an industry where people are worried about putting gas in the van, as I have. He’s offering a model of consultation (in UK-Speak, “Consultancy”) modeled on the ramen-noodle-budget indie tour. He’s willing to travel like a student and couch-surf if he can put together a string of people who can pay him a bit here and there and feed him. Very much like a singer-songwriter doing a tour of house concerts and coffeeshops.He calls this “Unconsultancy” in the spirit of the UK “Unconventions” Read more »
you don’t need therapy because you had an unhappy childhood - you need therapy because you had a childhood
On March 17th
People are always being apologetic about this. They don’t feel it’s right for them to be in my office unless they are prepared to condemn their parents or make accusations of abuse or neglect.
The longer I do this, the more I’m impressed by how complex the task of being a human being is. We all have to live with ourselves somehow. Yes, we’re interested in your childhood because that’s when you first developed your basic approach to inner and outer reality. And there’s a lot to deal with in childhood. I don’t think he put it this way exactly, but Freud realized that childhood is inherently traumatic. Read more »
