please take the time this holiday season to connect with the "other" - to bridge the gaps in our humanity.

it will quite literally save us all.

happy Hanukkah

shalom.

we have begun this holiday season mired by indescribable tragedy- but it is our moral duty to deny that tragedy its continuance.

i beg all of us to recognize the sublime experience of life is universal. it is not divided by any structure- man-made or otherwise

we are all riders in the chariot.
we are all vehicles for the sublime.

and once we truly understand that this is a feature of our humanity that unites us (rather than being mired by a cynicism of anesthetic difference) we shall never be divided again.

and that's when the violence stops.

antisemitism is a machine that both manufacturers and persecutes otherness.

that is it's core and guiding principle- and it can be destroyed.

it is destroyed when we realize that the experience that lifts us above our mortal frame- is a unifying one.

antisemitism is a disease of the soul- it is a cognitive failure to accept those that celebrate a spiritual connectivity, in spite of a modern world that treats such belief with eye-rolling indignation at best.

And outright violent hostility at worst

In his literature, white venerated ecstatic religious experience above all else- and "Riders" deals with this most explicitly.

it is one of our most beautiful and ancient human traits- but far too often those that embrace such experience are punished by a world of conformist realism.

It was a practical move more than anything else. As a recovering addict I couldn't work line cook nights anymore, and fuck brunch.

A baking/pastry opportunity opened up at my last gig, I gave it a shot and took to the skill set better than I thought I would

Yeah like 4 years ago dawg

his language is a galaxy of expression unto itself that illuminates the ecstatic sublime in simple hidden existence; and the holy/miraculous in artistic gesture.

the man has restored a relationship with faith- and for that he will be a "top 5" author for the rest of my life.

The last time I lived with roommates (which was like 5+ years ago now)- I was watching a movie on the living room couch with one of them. I decided to go into the kitchen for a snack and as I was getting up I said "off line" and they looked at me like I lost my damn mind

It true. If someone says the name "John Barth" within a 3 mile radius of me, my ass hole tightens and I start to sweat

good luck these holidays in your east coast bread mines, from my west coast bread mines

yeah Bolaño does require that. first time I read 2666 I was homeless lol

Do it again, but with 2666 this time

finally- if anyone ever tries to tell you this one is about literal reincarnation, just back away slowly lol

even more interesting is the 2 "future" narratives in this book- are also the only two representations of an "oral" tradition.

a hint at the eternal recurrence of a story's form

the pyramids will crumble, the fascists will eat their young, and capital will die by entropic fire- but the tale told will forever endure