Niall Ferguson - Civilization

Graham Robb - Parisians: an adventure history of Paris

There are no lights on in the building but it has patches of dirt or shade that almost look like human faces. A man walks past on the pavement below with no discernible features on his face. He turns a corner, slowly , as though he has a long way to go. His shoes are expensive but well worn. The artist shows him leaving a faint trail of white dust.

Saul Bellow - Dangling Man

“Do you have feelings? There are correct and incorrect ways of indicating them. Do you have an inner life? It is nobody's business but your own. Do you have emotions? Strangle them.” 

Chris and Julie Taylor

Just exchanged emails with Chris and Julie Taylor. I'm happy!

And it was August 2010! Too long ago

The Fall - Albert Camus

Have you noticed that Amsterdam's concentric canals resemble the circles of hell? The middle-class hell, of course, peopled with bad dreams. When one comes from the outside, as one gradually goes through those circles, life — and hence its crimes — becomes denser, darker. Here, we are in the last circle. (Camus 23)

The sound of screaming was repeated several times, [as it went] downstream; then it abruptly ceased. The silence that followed, as the night suddenly stood still, seemed interminable. I wanted to run and yet didn't move an inch. I was trembling, I believe from cold and shock. I told myself that I had to be quick and felt an irresistible weakness steal over me. I have forgotten what I thought then. "Too late, too far..." or something of the sort. I was still listening as I stood motionless. Then, slowly, in the rain, I went away. I told no one. (Camus 314) Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came human beings; they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate--for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.”

Suetonius- Twelve Caesars

Julius, Octavian Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Ortho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, Domition

A superb read through the first of the Caesars.

Titus (Latin: Titus Flāvius Caesar Vespasiānus Augustus;^[a] 30 December 39 AD – 13 September 81 AD) was Roman Emperorfrom 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own biological father.

A reasonably good emperor, though only managed a couple of years. and then his younger brother took over, and that was a different matter...

Andy Warthog

To quote Andy Warthog; in 2015 everyone can be famous for 15 people. OBurkeman

Sartre - nausea

My memories are like the coins in the devil's purse; when it was opened, nothing was found in it but dead leaves

Big Sur - Jack Kerouac

The rambling of a drunken man travelling back and forth to a log cabin. Of its time, and perhaps the time has gone.


“One fast move or I'm gone,' I realize, gone the way of the last three years of drunken hopelessness which is a physical and spiritual and metaphysical hopelessness you can't learn in school no matter how many books on existentialism or pessimisn you read, or how many jugs of vision-producing Ayahuasca drink, or Mescaline take, or Peyote goop up with -”

Rilke - The notes of Malte Laurids Brigge

As time went on, he had developed an exaggerated admiration for those who, like the student, walked around and could stand the motion of the earth.

Big Sur

The blue sky adds 'Don't call me eternity, call me God if you like, all of you talkers are in Paradise 

Bernhard Schlink - The Reader

Read it on the train to London and back. A good story, but either lost in translation or just basic writing; just seemed poorly written. .

A Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare

Saw Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench in 'A Winter's Tale. Opening night too (well last night it was). At the Garrick Theatre in London. Absolutely excellent stuff. They can act the likes of Cumberbatch off the stage in seconds!

Sudhir Hazareesingh - How the French think

Nice view on the French collective. A mixed up land of confused individuals and Cartesian opposites.

Public Image Limited

Forgot to mention... Saw PIL in Norwich last week. Fantastic! Finally got to see Johnny Rotten

The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Forgot to mention, saw this at the Norwich Theatre Royal just before flying out to USA. All four of us went, and absolutely superb!

Saul Bellow - Seize the Day

An excellent novella about the day in the life of a failed salesman. Works with a suspect psychologist Dr Tamkin.

“Bringing people into the here-and-now. The real universe. That's the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real--the here-and-now. Seize the day.”

Hamlet - starring Benedict Cumberbatch

Saw Hamlet last night at the Barbican.

The set was great, but the lead, Ophelia, and Laertes were very average. Ciara Hines was about the best thing there.

Arthur Millar - Death of a Salesman

Excellent read. Tragic view of the American Dream not coming true

“Well, I spent six or seven years after high school trying to work myself up. Shipping clerk, salesman, business of one kind or another. And it's a measly manner of existence. To get on that subway on the hot mornings in summer. To devote your whole life to keeping stock, or making phone calls, or selling or buying. To suffer fifty weeks of the year for the sake of a two-week vacation, when all you really desire is to be outdoors, with your shirt off. And always to have to get ahead of the next fella. And still — that's how you build a future.” 

Friday onwards

So up around eight and little later to the flat iron. Then into Barnes & Noble for a sit down. Bought a few odds, then into fine furniture store full of expensive stuff.

Hotel at 2:30 for long taxi to JFK. An awful hair raising adventure. 

JFK and Virgin airlines home. Cattle class!

Long bus journey from Heathrow to Norwich, and then taxi home for around 2:00 on Saturday afternoon.

Thursday was going up up up

Early start to the Rockerfeller building.

 Then to Washington Square for a paddle. Lunch was a pancake and then a stroll around Greenwich village.

Underground to Macey's which was awful: zombies in TK Max.

Home for a doze and dinner at the Brooklyn diner.

Ah Highlander. There can only be one

Walk through Central Park. That 'Highlander' Bow bridge. Coffee and a stroll.

Then all day at the Met. Too much bloody Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh, Monet etc! Hokusai, Greece, and Egypt were the best. But why in New York? Some we felt belonged at home.

Long hot walk back. Sleep. Then a short stroll foe me later.

Tuesday in New York

Today was Bloomingdales and new shoes for us both.

Lunch in Serendipity3 with big ice cream

Then Wicked and photos after!

Yesterday was Monday

Yesterday we took the underground to Brooklyn and the 'DUMBO', which turned out fairly rubbish. But good photos of the bridge. Then long walk over the bridge to'Ground Zero'. Saw the memorial and then lunch in big block with financial workers.

Then underground to Greenwich village for a wander, and back under to the hotel.

Evening meal in a pizza restaurant and a wander to Times Square

Early to bed

First full day was yesterday, Sunday

Breakfast in the Brooklyn Diner. Then stroll down to Times Square, them to the Museum of Modern Art. Loads of Duchamp, Picasso, Rothko, Warhol, Dali, Van Gogh and more. Back for a sleep after 5 hours in the museum. Then dinner in the American Diner. Early to bed.

In the big city

Yesterday we arrived after a long long flight. All went well, but took so long. Couldn't sleep and got awful migraine.yellow cab to the Quin hotel. Had to walk last bit and road blocked. A quick sleep, shower, and then stroll to Central Park, 5th Ave. coffee in Trump tower, pizza in Barnes and Nobel. Couple of books (Death of a Salesman, and Laphams quarterly) and for Jo and Chloe, tote bags. Bed by eight

A la aeroport

Sat waiting at the airport. Flying to New York shortly 😳

Got a baby little camera. bin out testing it

Got a new Ducati 2 !!!!

The Scrambler

Got a new Ducati!!!

Plato - Symposium

“...when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images of virtue (because he's in touch with no images), but to true virtue [arete] (because he is in touch with true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.” 

Victor Hugo - The last day of a condemned man

But secondly you say 'society must exact vengeance, and society must punish'. Wrong on both counts. Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.

Also included 'Claude Geuex' by Victor Hugo. A short storey about the imprisonment and execution  of a worthy man.

Superbly written and poignant 

Immanuel Kant - What is Enlightenment?

Enlightenment is the emergence of man from his self-imposed infancy. Infancy is the inability to use one's reason without the guidance of another. It is self-imposed, when it depends on a deficiency, not of reason, but of the resolve and courage to use it without external guidance. Thus the watchword of the Enlightenment is Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use one's own reason.

Dare to be wise

http://scramblerducati.tumblr.com/post/119285148895/scramblerducati

We went to the Norwich Tattoo expo yesterday - there were some superb examples of art!

Plus of course this is Scrambler week for meet

Seneca - On the Shortness of Life, plus, De Consolatione ad Helviam Matrem

The intention, that only the most worthless of our possessions should come into the power of another. Whatever is best for a human being lies outside human control: it can be neither given nor taken away.the world you see, nature's greatest and most glorious creation, and the human mind which gazes and wonders at it, and is the most splendid part of it, these are our own everlasting possessions and will remain with us as long as we ourselves remain.

Socrates went to prison with the same expression he wore when he once snubbed the 'thirty tyrants' - and his presence robbed even prison of disgrace -, for where Socrates was, could not seem a prison

People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.

Pat Barker - Regeneration

“Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something, ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms. It was actually easier to believe they were men from Marlborough's army, than to think they'd been alive a year ago. It was as if all the other wars had distilled themselves into this war, and that made it something you almost can't challenge. It's like a very deep voice, saying; 'Run along, little man, be glad you've survived” 

Dashiell Hammett - The Thin Man

Hmmm, I thought it was shit!

Michael Cunningham - The Hours

You really ought to read Woolf's 'Mrs Dalloway' before starting this.

“I remember one morning getting up at dawn. There was such a sense of possibility. You know, that feeling. And I... I remember thinking to myself: So this is the beginning of happiness, this is where it starts. And of course there will always be more...never occurred to me it wasn't the beginning. It was happiness. It was the moment, right then.” 

"She runs from the room, out of the door, which she leaves ope behind her. She runs down the stairs. She thinks of calling for help, but doesn't. The air itself seems to have changed, mohave come slightly apart; as if the atmosphere  were palpably made of substance and its opposite."

Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan of the Apes

“As the body rolled to the ground Tarzan of the Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his lifelong enemy and, raising his eyes to the full moon, threw back his fierce young head and voiced the wild and terrible cry of his people.” 

“His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with suppleness and speed.”