Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art One-half Banana Stems

Kevin Earl Dayhoff Art One-half Banana Stems - www.kevindayhoff.com Address: PO Box 124, Westminster MD 21158 410-259-6403 kevindayhoff@gmail.com Runner, writer, artist, fire & police chaplain Mindless ramblings of a runner, journalist & artist: Travel, art, artists, authors, books, newspapers, media, writers and writing, journalists and journalism, reporters and reporting, technology, music, culture, opera... National & International politics www.kevindayhoff.net For community: www.kevindayhoff.org For art, technology, writing, & travel: www.kevindayhoff.com

Showing posts with label Erratum Existentialism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Erratum Existentialism. Show all posts

Monday, February 01, 2010

Goethe’s mannequin legs


The Blue Phase
Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/10wj8a or here: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/365494641/goethes-mannequin-legs-reveals-2-haller-in

“It was late one afternoon when the blue phase began”

Goethe reveals to Haller a tiny likeness of a woman's leg

A meandering, in search of a plot, by Kevin Dayhoff Jan. 23, 2010…

It’s a long story, however the other day I found myself in a meeting in which all I could think of was “Steppenwolf,” by Herman Hesse. To protect the guilty, I’ll spare you the details of the circumstances of the meeting. Especially since, n the long-run; it is all so boring and meaningless.

In Herman Hesse’s “Steppenwolf,” originally published in 1927, the main character, Harry Haller has fallen into deep despair and therefore, has determined that he will end his life.

According to commentary by Bob Corbett, written in December 2001, “In this strange tale of Harry Haller three different times he is confronted by weird events which are beyond coincidence and into the occult. The first occurs very early in the novel when Harry is walking down the street and a strange man thrusts a pamphlet into is hand. He gets home and discovers it is Treatise On The Steppenwolf.

“This is so amazing since Steppenwolf is his own self-chosen name, referring to his tendency to live outside the world of human bourgeois society, living more life a lone wolf of the steppes of Asia…”

Mr. Corbett explains, “Harry Haller is a 48 year old loner. Divorced but in a vague relationship with a distant girl friend, Harry is some sort of author and scholar, but we never really learn of what. He lives in a pair of rooms in a middle class home in a German city in the late 1920s.

“What we do know about Harry is his view of himself as the Steppenwolf. Harry sees the world as divided into two basic classes of person: the ordinary citizen and himself and a handful like him, the steppenwolves of the world.

“These are people who embrace the meaninglessness of life, who then create a world of meaning in the pursuit of knowledge, art and a certain view of perfection -- the disciplined pursuit of the limited worthy things.

“On the other hand, Harry is quite honest to his own contradictions. He always takes rooms in a pleasant bourgeois home and has a great nostalgia for the comforts and ease of bourgeois living with which he grew up.

“However, he is convinced he can really take it or leave it, and in some sense leaves it since he does provide such a life for himself, but lives quietly amidst it, while at the same time being aloof and scornful of the very life he enjoys so much.

“These early days of the story are hard days for Harry. He no longer has his keen sense of the value of what he is doing, and combined with his own developed sense that he and those like him are people who know that death is to be chosen when the time is ripe, Harry is flirting seriously with suicide.

“As mentioned above, his first experience with his occult messages come when he is given the Treatise On The Steppenwolf by the stranger on the street. It is clearly personally about himself.

“However, he learns in this treatise that he isn't really the steppenwolf he paints himself to be. Not only are his bourgeois tendencies unmasked to him, but much more powerfully, it is revealed to him that he isn't even the contradiction of two forces, the steppenwolf and bourgeois culture, but he is thousands of personages, flitting back and forth in a jumble that boggles the mind.

[…]

“Harry arrives at a frustration with life and living and decides it is time to commit suicide and end his pain and suffering. He goes out wandering on his last day.

“In the process he comes across a funeral and follows it, just to test the experience…”

“After the funeral he wanders the streets for hours, planning his suicide and death, dreading it and looking forward to it by turns. He prepares to return to his room and do the deed with a razor, but decides to allow a last meal and drink. He's deep into an unfamiliar part of town and turns to the first place he encounters, which, of course is The Black Eagle, the second of Harry's strange encounters.”

At “The Black Eagle,” Harry Haller - Steppenwolf - falls off into a deep sleep and dreams that he is a newspaper reporter who is about to interview the German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

As he awaits the arrival of Goethe, a black scorpion attempts to climb up his leg and then disappears…

Upon Goethe’s arrival, he states, “that he and the other Immortals have not been appreciated.”

Although somewhat in agreement, Steppenwolf insists that Goethe failed because he was not “straightforward.”

Mr. Haller insists that Goethe had lived to be eighty-two years old and “therefore,” according to another un-cited analysis in my old file notes, “he knew the futility, the despair, the worthlessness of human existence, but he denied it. In fact, he presented faith and optimism as truths, even though he knew otherwise.”

Goethe responds that it is indeed Steppenwolf who is wrong in his convictions. “You take the old Goethe much too seriously, my young friend,” he says. “You should not take old people who are already dead seriously. It does them injustice. We Immortals do not like things to be taken seriously. We like joking. Seriousness, young man, is an accident of time.”

As Harry Haller awakened from his dream, “Goethe opens a small box to reveal a tiny likeness of a woman's leg. Steppenwolf realizes it's the scorpion in disguise...”



It is the scorpions in disguise – in life - prove most problematic in the negotiation of existentialism…

[20100123 Mannequin legs 3f] Art Library authors Hesse Herman, Dayhoff Art, Dayhoff Daily Photoblog, Dayhoff photos, Dayhoff writing essays, Erratum Existentialism, Journalists

Related:
http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2010/01/blue-phase.html

Goethe’s mannequin legs - reveals 2 Haller in Steppenwolf tiny likeness of woman's leg http://tinyurl.com/y8bvarp http://twitpic.com/10wj8a http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/post/365494641/goethes-mannequin-legs-reveals-2-haller-in

http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/2010/02/goethes-mannequin-legs.html


Thursday, December 18, 2008

This week in The Tentacle


This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Time flies like an arrow
Kevin E. Dayhoff


As I’ve grown older, the joy of the Christmas season has slowly but surely become overshadowed with pressure and chaos. Certainly not to be overlooked is the emphasis on the materialism and over-consumption that has insidiously eroded the joys of the season.


Mountain Climbing and Orchid Hunting
Tom McLaughlin
Santubong, Sarawak – The condo is like most in Ocean City. Thirty floors contained two sections. I am on the 13th. There are no others like them in this area nor can others be built because of the rainforest which is now a national park.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Whistling in the Dark
Roy Meachum
Among all presidents, George W. Bush appears the champion; he whistles in the dark best. The old expression may not be used much these days; it means making noises to scare possible boogey men away.


More Regulations, Less Result
Farrell Keough
When we were last together, we discussed the iconic imagery subtext replete within the film It’s a Wonderful Life. The pleonasm of this previous discussion was self-serving and self-evident, yet constructive in its perspicacious appraisal.


Monday, December 15, 2008
When American Cars Were King
Steven R. Berryman
American cars manufactured by the big three automakers are case studies of what not to do in a competitive environment. When engineering creativity and innovation fall by the wayside, what you get is a “car by consensus” aimed at the widest possible audience that – in the end – satisfies nobody.


Friday, December 12, 2008
Counting All Students
Roy Meachum
My position on illegal immigrants differs slightly from Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Jenkins' and, of course, County Commissioner John "Lennie" Thompson's.


ACLU Wants Wall around DC
Joe Charlebois
Now the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stepped into the illegal immigrant fray. Why?


Thursday, December 11, 2008
Here's the Answer! – A Review
Roy Meachum
If there's anything wrong about the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "Twelfth Night," I simply didn't catch it. This is the most consistently comedic I've seen of any of the Bard's comedies.


Time for An Adjustment
Tony Soltero
Seventy-five years ago this month, America put an end to the most ill-advised and misguided social-engineering experiment in its history. With the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, the nation rectified the reactionary mistake made by the 18th Amendment and repealed Prohibition.


It’s All Corn
Patricia A. Kelly
Our country is under siege. We’re dropping like flies from obesity, coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, etc. Even our children are affected, with many diseases traditionally associated with aging showing up in them.


Wednesday, December 10, 2008
In Your “Koobface”
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Last week I had all the pleasure and honor to be among the 120 million users of the social networking web site “Facebook” who were targeted by a computer virus known by the unusual name of “Koobface.”


Maryland in the Borneo Newspaper?
Tom McLaughlin
KUCHING, Borneo – Still sleepy and in the early dawn hours, I sat in a Chinese coffee shop in downtown Kuching. The thick black Sumatra liquid, with a finger of white condensed milk on the bottom in the clear cup, had yet to be stirred.


Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Eric Shinseki as Prophet
Roy Meachum
You might not remember Eric Shinseki's name. Among Army troops he's mildly infamous for ordering all ranks to wear berets. He's now been named by the incoming administration as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. That could never happen while Richard Cheney exercised power in the vice president's office.


Who Thought This Up?
Farrell Keough
Why is it that It’s a Wonderful Life seems to continuously play from Thanksgiving until Christmas Day? Is this some evil plot by Big TV to drive us crazy during this season? Or is it some other ghastly plot of excess?


It’s Good to Be a Teacher … Part 2
Nick Diaz

“Ten Reasons Why I Envy Teachers” is the title of an article by a New England psychologist, Dr. Michael G. Thompson. In my last installment, I referred to this piece as the basis to my assertion that teachers are, indeed, people who should be envied.

20081217 This week in The Tentacle

This week in The Tentacle


This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Time flies like an arrow
Kevin E. Dayhoff

As I’ve grown older, the joy of the Christmas season has slowly but surely become overshadowed with pressure and chaos. Certainly not to be overlooked is the emphasis on the materialism and over-consumption that has insidiously eroded the joys of the season.


Mountain Climbing and Orchid Hunting
Tom McLaughlin
Santubong, Sarawak – The condo is like most in Ocean City. Thirty floors contained two sections. I am on the 13th. There are no others like them in this area nor can others be built because of the rainforest which is now a national park.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Whistling in the Dark
Roy Meachum
Among all presidents, George W. Bush appears the champion; he whistles in the dark best. The old expression may not be used much these days; it means making noises to scare possible boogey men away.


More Regulations, Less Result
Farrell Keough
When we were last together, we discussed the iconic imagery subtext replete within the film It’s a Wonderful Life. The pleonasm of this previous discussion was self-serving and self-evident, yet constructive in its perspicacious appraisal.


Monday, December 15, 2008
When American Cars Were King
Steven R. Berryman
American cars manufactured by the big three automakers are case studies of what not to do in a competitive environment. When engineering creativity and innovation fall by the wayside, what you get is a “car by consensus” aimed at the widest possible audience that – in the end – satisfies nobody.


Friday, December 12, 2008
Counting All Students
Roy Meachum
My position on illegal immigrants differs slightly from Sheriff Charles "Chuck" Jenkins' and, of course, County Commissioner John "Lennie" Thompson's.


ACLU Wants Wall around DC
Joe Charlebois
Now the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has stepped into the illegal immigrant fray. Why?


Thursday, December 11, 2008
Here's the Answer! – A Review
Roy Meachum
If there's anything wrong about the Shakespeare Theatre Company's production of "Twelfth Night," I simply didn't catch it. This is the most consistently comedic I've seen of any of the Bard's comedies.


Time for An Adjustment
Tony Soltero
Seventy-five years ago this month, America put an end to the most ill-advised and misguided social-engineering experiment in its history. With the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, the nation rectified the reactionary mistake made by the 18th Amendment and repealed Prohibition.


It’s All Corn
Patricia A. Kelly
Our country is under siege. We’re dropping like flies from obesity, coronary artery disease, type II diabetes, etc. Even our children are affected, with many diseases traditionally associated with aging showing up in them.


Wednesday, December 10, 2008
In Your “Koobface”
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Last week I had all the pleasure and honor to be among the 120 million users of the social networking web site “Facebook” who were targeted by a computer virus known by the unusual name of “Koobface.”


Maryland in the Borneo Newspaper?
Tom McLaughlin
KUCHING, Borneo – Still sleepy and in the early dawn hours, I sat in a Chinese coffee shop in downtown Kuching. The thick black Sumatra liquid, with a finger of white condensed milk on the bottom in the clear cup, had yet to be stirred.


Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Eric Shinseki as Prophet
Roy Meachum
You might not remember Eric Shinseki's name. Among Army troops he's mildly infamous for ordering all ranks to wear berets. He's now been named by the incoming administration as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. That could never happen while Richard Cheney exercised power in the vice president's office.


Who Thought This Up?
Farrell Keough
Why is it that It’s a Wonderful Life seems to continuously play from Thanksgiving until Christmas Day? Is this some evil plot by Big TV to drive us crazy during this season? Or is it some other ghastly plot of excess?


It’s Good to Be a Teacher … Part 2
Nick Diaz

“Ten Reasons Why I Envy Teachers” is the title of an article by a New England psychologist, Dr. Michael G. Thompson. In my last installment, I referred to this piece as the basis to my assertion that teachers are, indeed, people who should be envied.

20081217 This week in The Tentacle

Thursday, September 28, 2006

20060928 New Bedford Herald


www.kevindayhoff.net or http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/index.html

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Sugarshoot



New Bedford Herald

Linkin Park - Numb



Andrew Bird - "Imitosis"

Andrew Bird - "Imitosis".

From the 2007 release "Armchair Apocrypha"

Directed by Britta Johnson

Produced by Xan Aranda

For more: Andrew Bird





Monday, November 20, 2000

20001120 Lillian and Nathaniel


Lillian and Nathaniel

November 20th, 2000

Excerpted from: "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", which I wrote on November 5th, 2000.

Kevin Dayhoff

This essay goes with any meal. On the essay evolutionary scale, this essay is a monkey on roller skates. The monkey may or may not be wearing a pink tutu - this is for you to decide.

I

n today's democratic, free-market society one frequent predominant paradigm of happiness is a two-car garage, a dog and a comfortable life in the suburbs.

Take Lillian and Nathaniel, they have a nice home. He's a locally successful captain of industry and enterprise. She has devoted her life selflessly to her professional endeavors and they have both enjoyed the fruits of their labor. Their friends, neighbors and community consider them happy and successful.

But deep-down inside, they've never found meaning and happiness in their relentless pursuit of materialism. Nathaniel never loved Lillian; he simply enjoyed her as a comfortable piece of meat. Lillian never loved Nathaniel, she always saw him as a Faustian bargain to get beyond her rampant insecurities. Nathaniel cheated on her every chance he got.

One day, out in the back yard, raking the leaves, Nathaniel collapsed in the beginning stages of a heart attack. Lillian had just returned home from grocery shopping. She rushed by his side.

The cruelest hoax in life is to hope for safely and happiness. Nathaniel was comforted as he saw Lillian approaching. Lillian smiled as she knelt down beside him and whispered in his ear, "I always hated you, you bastard," as she gently placed the plastic grocery bag over his head.

In a life-long pursuit of happiness, Lillian is finally happy.


Update: Linkin Park - Numb