Apr 15, 2012 Comments Off on The Court Jester
To a satirist
The court jester may speak truth to power, cloaked, of course, in jest.
And while there is power in this, the jester, alas, may not hold power.
Power is serious, and who can take a jester seriously?
Power rests with the master, and the court jester serves at his leave.
The master may, of course, also unleash the jester, like a dog, on his enemies, who die laughing.
Oct 1, 2009 Comments Off on Let It Rot
Some mad scientists treated wood with obscure fungi to decrease its density and thereby change its acoustical properties. They then had some violins built with this en-funginated wood and the sound produced therewith rivaled that of a Stradivarius.
While I had always thought, wrongly, that the sound of instruments created by the Stradivarius family depended on the mysterious, alchemical processes they used to create their varnishes, it turns out that the real secret ingredient was the wood of trees which grew during the “Little Ice Age, a period of abnormally cool weather between 1645 to 1715.”
The intricate grains of some woods used in furniture and musical instruments are produced by various sorts of disease and infestation and, of course, some believe the flavor of meats to be improved by aging, which is really like a controlled rotting.
What in your life or work could be changed for the better by introducing the organic chaos of infection, decay, or even disaster?
Image Courtesy of dingbat2005.
