Good Quotes...

When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. This however was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Don't give too much for the whistle; and I saved my money. -- Benjamin Franklin, letter to Madame Brillon, November 10, 1779
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There never was a good war or a bad peace. -- Benjamin Franklin, letter to Josiah Quincy, September 11, 1783
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In practice all men are atheists; they deny their faith by their actions. -- Ludwig Feuerbach, source unknown
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If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. -- Henry David Thoreau, Walden
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There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce. -- Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court
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A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. -- Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
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Don't Quit

This is one of the most relevant and motivating poems I have come across...

When things go wrongs, As they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems so uphill,
When the funds are low and debts are high,
And you want to Smile but have to Sigh,
When care is pressing ou downa a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is Queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he'd stuck it out,
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You might succeed with Another Blow.

Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the Golden Crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

---Anonymous

Aphoristic Blindness

You and I stand here, togather yet alone
Waiting for someone or something
Disjoint emotions confuse our heads
And we question the moral worth of others??

Its an imperfect world
Bloated by corrupt thought processes
Value Judgements rule our eyes
Can we condone the infidelities of life??

We ride the horses of dreams
Driven by our volitions
Lust defines our actions
And we enjoy the death of our wisdom??

A meaningful birth
Moulded by the warmth of the world
Blinded by our imtemprate rage
Can we realize the beauty of our being??

-- Vinny (07.10.06)

The Lords - Notes on Vision

Some of my favourite lines by the Lizard King:

In the womb we are blind cave fish
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When play dies it becomes the Game.
When sex dies it becomes Climax.

All games contain the idea of death.
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The voyeur, the peeper, the Peeping Tom, is a dark comedian.
He is repulsive in his dark anonymity, in his secret invasion.
He is pitifully alone.
But, strangely, he is able through this same silence and concealment
to make unknowing partner of anyone within his eye's range.
This is his threat and power.

There are no glass houses.
The shades are drawn and "real" life begins.
Some activities are impossible in the open.
And the secret events are the voyeur's game.
He seeks them out with his myriad army of eyes -
like the child's notion of a Deity who sees all.
"Everything?" asks the child.
"Yes, everything", the answer, and
the child is left to cope with the devine intrusion.

The voyeur is masturbator, the mirror is the badge,
the window his prey.

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Destroy roofs, walls, see in all the rooms at once.

From the air we trapped gods, with the gods’
omniscient gaze, but without their power to be
inside minds and cities as they fly above.

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The Lords & The New Creatures

Throughout high school, and likely even earlier, Jim Morrison kept notebooks of quotes he had heard, notes, and stray thoughts. Over time, these notebooks also started to include at first aphorisms, fragments of poems, and ultimately entire poems in various stages of development.

It is well known that Jim was an avid reader, studying numerous genre aside from his schoolwork. His tastes were extremely eclectic, running from the “Great Books”, to westerns, surrealist, symbolist, beat and romantic poetry, philosophy, art history and criticism, mythology, metaphysics and trashy dime store novels - all of which would later provide a wealth of metaphor for his own work. He loved to learn perhaps more than anything else, and it has been said of Jim that he didn't just learn things, rather he merged with them.

During his days at UCLA film school, he continued to fill notebook after notebook. These would become the basis for his first published work, entitled The Lords: Notes on Vision. Later he would describe this work as “a thesis on film aesthetics”.

But the ideas expressed in this work go far beyond the scope of film alone; they are a commentary on the very fabric of social structure. Jim’s vision of a society of sheep, conditioned by fear, and controlled by the “Lords” is a dynamic which is even more easily seen at work in society today than it was during his time. Between the Lords and the Sheep were the individuals - those who were possessed of a personal conviction greater than their fear - the conviction to live in the integrity of their own being, no matter the cost. This truly describes the way Jim Morrison lived, and his personal cost was great indeed. It is an important element of his legacy, and the underlying cause of his torment by the Establishment, who knew exactly what Jim was talking about when he screamed “You’re all a bunch of fucking slaves” in Miami.

Jim would later say of The Lords: Notes on Vision :

“What that book is a lot about is the powerlessness that people have in the face of reality,” Jim said. “They have no real control over events or their own lives. Something is controlling them. The closest they ever get is the television set.”

Fear the Lords who are secret among us
The Lords are w/in us
Born of sloth & cowardice


The Lords & The New Creatures is Published


In the aftermath of the Miami incident, the largest tour the Doors had ever scheduled was canceled show by show, making a travesty of the band’s reputation and finances, but ironically leaving Jim free to at last pursue other interests. He set up his film production company, HWY Productions, and at the suggestion of his new friend, Beat poet Michael McClure, he self-published two limited edition volumes of poetry, The Lords: Notes on Vision followed by The New Creatures. It was in the following year that Simon and Schuster would publish the two volumes in one edition.

While The Lords is a collection of many interesting insights and aphorisms, it is The New Creatures which reveals Jim Morrison’s first fledgling poetic works.

There is no doubt that Jim's first love and perhaps his greatest gift was language, and his poetry exemplifies this gift in a startling, succinct and truly courageous honesty. His insights into the nature of the human experience, and his prophetic vision of the future are astounding. His maturity as both a critical thinker and a poet was developed to an incredible degree for a young man in his early twenties. His vision was absolutely exquisite. If possible, his work is even more relevant now than at the time it was first published.