Saturday, November 21, 2009

Words to live or die by...

James Morrison, poet, singer, drunk, idol, nomad, lizard king, however you label him his words are lasting and seem to transcend time. He appeared in our lifetime to be a being without a world, as if he did not fit in here, yet his body of work (music, lyrics and poetry) speaks volumes of his intelligence and innovation as both a entertainer and a man of image. Read now some collected words spoken by the man known as "Jim"...

" The aim of the h
appening is to cure boredom, wash the eyes, make child-like reconnections with the stream of life."
" We're like actors-turned loose in this world to wander in search of a phantom ... endlessly searching for a half-forgotten shadow of our lost reality."
"No one here gets out alive."
" Sure it's possible for there to be a transcendence-but not on a mass level, not a universal rebellion. Now it has to take place on an individual level- every man for himself as they say. Save yourself."
" A hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them..."
" Love is one of the handful of devices we have to avoid the void"

"I think in art, and especially in film, that people
are trying to confirm their own existence"
"I'll tell you this, no eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn"

"I am not mad. I am interested in freedom. Good Luck."

Jack Kerouac - King of the Beats... The father of a generation, a beat generation, and an inspirational maniac to many young road warriors (myself included). He was flawed, yet genius, alcoholic and innovative; he was hung up on guilt, but sinful in his ways. He was known as a "madman, bum and angel". He was the king of Beats and the master of "spontaneous prose", yet as popular as he was he died alone and rarely helped others, sans the bounty of literal work (novels, poetry, letters) he left behind. These are his words...

" There is a delicate balancing point between bombast and babble"
"But i'd gone so far to the edges of language where the babble of the subconscious begins..."
"To break through the barrier of language with words, you have to be in orbit around your mind..."
"-a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word "beat"- meaning down and out, but full of intense conviction-"
[practice] a little solitude, going off by yourself once in a while to store up that most precious of golds: the vibrations of sincerity."
"What is it, existence- A lifelong struggle to avoid disaster. Politics, gambling, hard work, drinking, patriotism, protest, pooh-poohings, all theraputic shifts against the black void. to make you forget it really isn't there, nor you anywhere."
"When can it stop...there are men, things outside to do...the black angels, the women in bed with the beautiful arms open for you in their youth,...the big clouds of new continents, the foot tired in climes so mysterious, don't go down the hill of the other side of your life for nothing"
"Damn Cody, I'm tired of him and I'm going..."
James Dean: A Visionary Rebel
He was influential in creating pop culture. As a hollywood icon, who died shortly after only one of his movies was released, he created a following that has lasted some 40+ years. His greatest film "Rebel without a cause" was not in theaters until after the fatal car crash that took his life. The year following his death there were some 30,000 dues paying members in his fan club. His method style of acting was influential to many actors who followed suit, but his spirit touched others as well including musician Bob Dylan. He was a free spirit before the hippie revolution and he was a man of great aspiration who had his life taken away too soon. Here are his words:

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man.
Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.
To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.
I`m not going to go through life with one arm tied behind my back.
The only greatness for man is immortality.