My Next Life - Woody Allen

Voyeur by  h.koppdelaney

  

"In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day. You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!"

                                                                 - Woody Allen - 

A Nice Cup of Tea - George Orwell

If you look up 'tea' in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.
When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

• First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase 'a nice cup of tea' invariably means Indian tea.

• Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

• Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

• Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

• Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

• Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

• Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

• Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one's tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

• Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

• Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

• Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.
  
  Some people would answer that they don't like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one's ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.


                                        - George Orwell - Evening Standard, 12 January 1946.

"Joe Heller" by Kurt Vonnegut

Joe Heller

True story, Word of Honor:

Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer

now dead,

and I were at a party given by a billionaire

on Shelter island.

I said, "Joe, how does it make you feel

to know that our host only yesterday

may have made more money

than your novel 'Catch-22'

has earned in its entire history?"

And Joe said, "I've got something he can never have."

And I said, "What on earth could that be, Joe?"

And Joe said, "The knowledge that I've got enough."

Not bad! Rest in peace!

                       - Kurt Vonnegut -

A Moment of Pefection

Crow and Tree - Heaven and Earth in Winter by h.koppdelaney

A moment of perfection is all you need in life

Nothing less ; nothing more

After that, its all the same

A perfect cup of tea is no different than Mona Lisa

Making a perfect cup of tea is the pinnacle of life

                                                                      - Bon Vivant-

Bluebird - Charles Bukowski

"there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?"

http://menicola.tumblr.com/post/5801476443/tattoo-bluebird-bukowski

Darkness

"Out of Darkness" - by Christopher Watson

"Darkness is the void of creation from where everything comes from and where everything finally goes back in to. It's unknown. Unexplored. Its the unfolding of the future. Its the moment of creation. Its David fighting Goliath. Its child coming out of the womb. Heroes live here. Its the path of ones heart. Its the edge of the universe.

Its a wonderful. Its a scary. Its a creative. Its a place of birth. Its a place of death.

Its chaos. Creative minds and adrenaline junkies live in this place. That's what the "zone" is. Darkness is nirvana. Darkness is god. Its not a place of security. Its a place of glory. Its the place of enlightenment. Its the moment of now. Its eternity. Its a place where men become gods.

Fear of unknown is fear of darkness. Fear of darkness is fear of life."


- Bon Vivant -

Tao Te Ching

"The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named is not the eternal Name." 

1.

When the Master governs, the people 

are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved. 

Next, one who is feared.

The worst is one who is despised.

If you don’t trust the people, 

you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn’t talk, he acts. 

When his work is done,
the people say, ”Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!” 

2.

Throw away holiness and wisdom, 

and people will be a hundred times happier. 

Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won’t be any thieves.

If these three aren’t enough,
just stay at the center of the circle 

and let all things take their course. 

3.

He who stands on tiptoe 

doesn’t stand firm.
He who rushes ahead

doesn’t go far.

He who tries to shine
dims his own light.
He who defines himself
can’t know who he really is. 

He who has power over others 

can’t empower himself.

He who clings to his work
will create nothing that endures.
If you want to accord with the Tao, 

just do your job, then let go. 

4.

The path into the light seems dark,

the path forward seems to go back,
the direct path seems long,
true power seems weak,
true purity seems tarnished,
true steadfastness seems changeable, 

true clarity seems obscure,
the greatest are seems unsophisticated,

 the greatest love seems indifferent,
the greatest wisdom seems childish. 

5.

If you want to be a great leader, 

you must learn to follow the Tao. 

Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts, 

and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have, 

the less virtuous people will be. 

The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be. 

The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says: 

I let go of the law,
and people become honest. 

I let go of economics,

and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good, 

and the good becomes common as grass.

6.

The gentlest thing in the world 

overcomes the hardest thing in the world. 

If you look to others for fulfillment, 

you will never truly be fulfilled.

Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe.

The more you know, 

the less you understand.

Seeing into darkness is clarity. 

Knowing how to yield is strength. 

The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.

Those who know don’t talk. 

Those who talk don’t know. 

Not-knowing is true knowledge. 

Presuming to know is a disease. 

                                                                      Lao Tzu