The literary site of Jason Bentsman & Co. Entertainment, illumination, edification
This is one of David Bowie’s best songs, and few know about it. . . A very loose cover of La Mort by the great Belgian bard Jacques Brel. Lyrics by the American musician and songwriter Mort Shuman. Someone— probably Bowie, either improvising or intentionally— also changed a fraction of Shuman’s lyrics.
The original animated The Hobbit film (1977), by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., with its tiny budget, unassuming character animation, and beautiful watercolor backdrops, is actually a lot better than the newer live action trilogy (2012-14), with its massive budget, endless special effects, and 3D, IMax, IMax3D, HFR3D, and IMAX3D-HFR etc formats. The soundtrack, featuring several songs by luminary and then-famous folk singer Glenn Yarbrough, is also great. Lyrics by Jules Bass and Maury Laws, adapted from Tolkien’s songs in the novel
Pretty good. But I prefer: “I Want to Put My Penis Inside Your Vagina, Woman” by Martin Ricky
If 80% of success is just showing up, I must be really bad at the other 20%.
The Short Version
What follow are the posthumous writings of Eponymous Quatsch, a young man, stuck somewhere between madness and enlightenment, who died alone, familyless and friendless, by suicide, while living in a homeless shelter near Boston, MA. I only knew him in the last months of his life, and was probably the closest thing he had to a friend.
The writings are culled from a long supposedly cohesive philosophical tome he completed shortly before his death, titled A Survey of America Within Myself (or The Investigation), and comprised of three main sections. The first section, An Investigation Into Social Class, is a rough exploratory sketch, ending mid-sentence. The second, Exile From Nowhere, is split up further into three sub-sections: A Reckoning, An Interlude, and The Limitations. The first of these questions how ‘the visionary’— the sincere artist or thinker— might hope to ‘pursue their vision’ within the particular constraints of contemporary American society. The second is perhaps the strangest of all the writings, focusing on a fictional tribe who experience existence in an eternal present. The third, The Limitations, is by far the longest, and contains the most polished and realized pieces, culminating in a tour-de-force essay titled Relativism, the Absolute, Self-Realization, and Happiness in America (or Closer to the Path). The last section is a collection of thoughts and aphorisms compiled throughout the writing process.
Some of the writings are too rough, erratic, one-sided, and fragmentary for publication. Others, however unbalanced, are poignant in their uncanny reflections of contemporary society. A few come as close to describing Awareness as any I’ve read. He entrusted the manuscript to me several days before his death; I will be publishing portions at my discretion. Please make of them what you will.
The Whole Version
TBD
Michelle
deleting pages from my dissertation causes me acute physical pain
Shawn [a nurse]
I can manage that.
Michelle
propofol, or a little dilaudid?
Jason
That’s terrible. I feel for you. Those cretins don’t understand that those pages are essential to the purpose (now I think I just may be projecting)…. Maybe, afterwards, you can put out a “Dissertation: Director’s Cut,” including all the deleted pages— and an appendix of zany bloopers.
Michelle
Pages and pages of well-researched yet unnecessary historical context for a minor point: HILARIOUS BLOOPER.
ii.
Jason
”My body thinks I’m a bear. I think I’m a bear. You think I’m a bear. So why am I not a bear?!”
–Sasha
Katya
why would she not be bear?
Jason
I don’t know. You’d have to ask her. I think she’s a bear.
iii.
Jason
The Scorpions canceled their Minsk show
Matthew
I refuse to believe this.
Jason
I know, I know. It’s almost— unbelievable.
Barry
A new Day the Music Died
Jason
Soy tan sexy que mi amor
Barry
This is true.
Jason
soy mucho para Milán, mucho para Milán, New York y Japón
Kat
Hey, don’t you guys rag on The Scorpions! I love them!
iv.
Kat
”No mud, no lotus” –Thich Nhat Hahn
Ardha Baddha Padmottanasana (Half Bound Lotus Forward Bend)
Jason
“No woman, no cry” –Bob Marley
v.
Jason
”Russians are capable of bringing the notion of ‘jutkact’ (kitsch/ gaudiness/ tackiness) to a whole
other level. The level you never thought was possible.” –Sasha
Steven
woah.
Jason
indeed
Matthew
I think I sprained my tongue trying to say “jutkact”
Jason
It’s pronounced ‘zhoot-kuhst’… anyway, you sprain your tongue every month doing something or other
Margot
I’ve been searching for the name of this ever since my first trip to Israel…
Jason
That’s what a Russian would call it… ‘POSH-luhst’ would be translated as ‘kitsch,’ and ‘JHOOT-kuhst’ as the kind of absurd kitsch-gaudiness-tackiness seen in the video… Unfortunately, it’s difficult to approximate the right pronunciation…
Margot
My Russian/Ukranian colleague Dima who sits next to me says you’re wrong, and that jutkact means ‘liquid’. Bentsman are you trying to pull one on us?
Jason
He’s thinking of ‘ZHEET-kast’— which means liquid. ‘ZHEET-kaya’ means liquidy… ‘ZHOOT-kast’ (noun) comes from ‘ZHOOT-kaya’ (adj)— which means basically what I said: extreme kitsch/ tackiness/ gaudiness. Have him check a good Russian dictionary if he doesn’t believe it. (Again, the confusion here is trying to transliterate the Russian sounds in English letters.)
Barry
I’m still waiting to see evidence of a Russian capacity for kitsch/gaudy/tacky exceeding the American.
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