pjthompson | Entries tagged with possession

Random quote of the day:

“If more people could only comprehend that an artist must create because he has to create, because he is possessed by his art! The artist is only a very tiny part of the universe and should not receive more attention than anything else on earth that gives us beauty, joy and replenishment.”

—Pablo Picasso, “What Life Has Taught Me,” Music Journal, Jan. 1962

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“If a dog not naturally possessed of the devil will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you ought to go home and examine your conscience…”

—Woodrow Wilson, “Young People and the Church”

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

This entry is from February 29, 1998. Do I still agree with it? For the most part, I think I do.

I don’t know any serious artist who isn’t wounded in some way. Art is the thread Ariadne gave Theseus when he was sent into the Labyrinth towards the Minotaur. That thread, unwinding from the surface of the world, allows the artist to wander the dark and confusing ways of the Labyrinth to its core where the Minotaur waits. More importantly, once the Minotaur has been slain, that thread allows the serious artist to find a way back out of the underground and reemerge into the sunlight.

By serious artist, I don’t just mean someone who does serious art; I mean anyone who is compelled to do art of any kind, has no choice but to write it, paint it, enact it, sing it. Anyone who is possessed, even if they do art for no audience but themselves, uses that art to heal their soul. Soul not in a religious sense (at least not exclusively), but as a metaphor for that thing inside each of us which cries out to be more than the sum of our neuroses, our good and bad experiences. That thing deep inside which knows the right and wrong of our own heart.

Art is not the only way to steer this path through the Labyrinth, but it is the one which crosses the most boundaries of belief, because you don’t have to be of any particular credo to be an artist. You just have to have the need.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

For a "paranormal" look at English history, here's the devil in 1066.

And on a related note? You may have seen this already, but if not, it's wowtastic:

Screaming like girls of the day: I must say, Most Haunted was most disappointing last night. There was minimal screaming like girls, Stewart didn't panic even once, and Derek never came down with a case of possession. Given their usual antics, everyone behaved quite reasonably. I certainly hope this show doesn't decide to go legit. That would ruin its entertainment value immensely.

No Reservations of the day: Okay, I confess that I wasted at least an hour this morning watching interview clips of Anthony Bourdain at Travelchannel.com. I love his show, No Reservations, because he's such a bad boy and such a witty raconteur.

Good news of the day: Well, actually, this is from last week. I haven't talked about it until now because I wasn't sure I should make a big deal out of my egoboo, but it did please me a great deal. The first chapter of Charged With Folly got the Editor's Choice for best fantasy chapter in August on the OWW. The review was good and fair, and I agreed with about 98% of it. It was a nice thing to happen at this particularly chaotic time in my life, but what especially pleased me was that when I decided to go in a different direction with my next novel project, someone patted me on the head for it. So, thank you Jenni Smith-Gaynor and OWW.

Moving news of the day: Transported six boxes, five bags of books and miscellaneous craft items to the new residence. Discovered I had not recovered as much energy as I thought. Rested and started packing again. Tristram Shandy and Lolly Willowes made the cut, China Mieville and Lian Hearn did not.

Not much to report. I've got another lousy cold. I think stress may have something to do with this one, but I can't stop coughing, basically. I tried to ignore it all week but yesterday it nailed me good. I spent most of the day semi-comatose, although every once in awhile I'd get a burst of energy and I'd pack another box. Feeling better today, but I've had to cancel my tap dance routine tonight at Chez Minkie.

Hey, wait a minute. I don't tap dance. And I've never been to Chez Minkie. Huh. I didn't realize NyQuil gave you hallucinations.

At least tonight the funniest show on TV will be on: the Travel Channel's Most Haunted. This show is supposed to be spooky--and once in a blue moon they manage something atmospheric--but mostly, it just cracks me the hell up. You see, they go every week to a new haunted location in Britain and "investigate" the hauntings, but they aren't professional likes the guys on SciFi's Ghost Hunters. On Most Haunted. they don't try anything even remotely scientific. Mostly, they just wander around in the dark scaring themselves and screaming like little girls.

There's one guy, Stewart, who panics at least once a show. Once, when he and another guy were going through a haunted forest, the other guy got spooked and started screaming and Stewart actually had the nerve to tell him, "Stop screaming like a girl. You're embarrassing me."

And if things get boring, if there's no "ghostly" activity to make everyone scream like girls, their resident medium, Derek, will suddenly go all "possessed." Which is just about the funniest thing going. Normally soft-spoken and fey, Derek turns quite nasty and violent when possessed. Or sort of mock-violent. About the worst he's done is throw a lamp across the room.

It's a tremendously silly show.

Writing business of the day: I passed 117k words on Wednesday, the last day I did any writing. I think my dream of bringing this in under 120k has pretty much evaporated. I'm going to try for 125 or 130k. And my crystal ball shows me a lot of cutting in my future.

Movie news of the day: Wednesday night while still in denial about being ill, I saw The Corpse Bride with my Deppsomaniac friend. Her husband remarked, "You're going to see a cartoon with Johnny Depp in it? That's just so sad.

The animation was great, the cast was terrific, the visuals and story imaginative in the usual Tim Burton way, but it didn't leave much impact on me. It could have been because I felt lousy, so take that with a grain of...

News item of the day: Okay, the Gulf Coast has the flooding, here in SoCal we've got the fires. Any part of the country volunteering for the plague of locusts or the rain of frogs? Pharoah is not happy.

Notice how I said there wasn't much to report and then managed to blather on quite awhile?

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Echoes in a Hollow Space

I'm here because I'm here because I'm here

Entries tagged with possession

Possessed

The judgment of the dogs

From the notebooks: in and out of the Labyrinth

De devil!

Tristram and Lolly sitting in a tree...

Respiration Conflagration

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