Deadsplinter Up! All Night: It’s a Beautiful Life

18/11/20 Luigi Vuoto 27
how I roll

What is beauty? Fuck if I know. The Classical philosophers thought it had to do with proportion and balance, and the neo-Platonists believed it was a the expression of ultimate Good, and shone like a light in the soul. A beacon toward the infinite. I tend to agree with old Hume, who said,

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”

So, what is your beauty?

Plato thought it had something to do with parts working together in a perfect harmony. I can see that.

Mystics believe that those society would call insane often have the ability to see through the veil of reality into a perfect beauty of the Infinite. Scriabin was pretty out there (he was a synesthete who believed his music would usher in the end of the world), so there might be something to that, too. He sure made some beautiful music.

My mom used to say, “Beauty is as beauty does.” She was probably just trying to get me to behave, but if it’s a thing of the spirit, then John Coltrane did beauty better than most.

Please share what you think is beautiful, no matter how you perceive it. Slow, fast, loud, soft – there are no limits.

And as Immanuel Kant once said, “Thanks to all you beautiful people for your continuing support for Deadsplinter!”

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27 Comments

  1. Hi Luigi, excellent inaugural DUAN!

    Here are some pretty songs from the “Last Name Begins With B” section of a recent playlist. The artist is Brolin, and I think that he can do no wrong:

    NYC:

    All I Think About Is You (piano version):

    Three Words:

     

  3. And when you walk inside I feel the door
    I’ll never let it push your arms no more
    And when your legs give out just lie right down
    And I will kiss you till your breath is found

    Sufjan Stevens – Heirloom

  7. Beautiful first post!

    I could show you Something Beautiful…
     


    or I could show you a beautiful place…
     

     
    of I could show you a Beautiful Girl…
     

    or if I was a better guitarist, I could play you this…
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

  11. I think I might have mentioned once, okay more like a dozen times, that I love ambient music. This Julianna Barwick song is not only beautiful to listen to, the video is mesmerizing to watch.

     

     

  14. Beacon toward the infinite is a perfect description for John Coltrane. Ole, the title track of the album that has Naima, which you posted — that’s one I could listen to forever.

  15. Leave it to a group like AFI to turn beauty into ugly. Sums up the last four years (or so) for me, with a certainly awful, wealthy family at the forefront.
     
    AFI – Beautiful Thieves


     

  16. For me, it’s Riviera Paradise, by SRV.  The story about the recording session just makes it even more so.  From producer, Jim Gaines:
    “I only heard that as a jam in New York, but they had it worked out in Memphis. To set the scene: It was 1am. I turned all the lights way low. Stevie is head down. Tommy and Chris are in the dark. I knew I only had a few minutes of tape on the reel and they start playing, and Holy Shit! It’s magic. As the tape spins it’s so good I have shivers up my spine, but I’m worried we’ll run out. I have to get his attention but he’s got his back to me, so I motion to Chris Layton: ‘CUT CUT’ and then Stevie looks at Chris and they nod. And as the last seconds of tape spool out they end the song and that’s the only take we ever did.”


     

    • This one is AWESOME, BBTM!
      Thanks for sharing it, and thanks, too, because your song finalllllly reminded me to look up Stevie Ray Vaughn💖
      I’ve always liked his stuff when I hear it, but back when he was making music I was (obviously!😉) more into my ‘Jovi than anything, and also knew most of tge hair-band pop stuff than anything else, so I missed a BUNCH of stuff.
      And because in that rabbit-hole I went down, i discovered that Jeff Healy apparently got big, because SRV cut a path, a Healy Band song that I loved way back when😉

      • Jeff Healey was also a great musician.  In the early 2000’s, he switched to jazz trumpet, of all things.  Died in 2007 of lung cancer, which was such a loss.
         
        I saw him open for ZZ Top in Albuquerque, and his set was incredible.  Whenever he had a solo, he would jump out of his chair and run all over the stage.  Being blind, you’d think they would have some barriers to keep him from falling off, but nope.  He just ran like hell and then got right back to his chair when the solos were over.  During the last song, he swung his guitar around by the neck and almost clobbered his bass player.
         
        If you’re looking for more SRV stuff, I would recommend checking out the Couldn’t Stand the Weather and Soul to Soul albums as a good starting point.  That’s when he really nailed his sound.  In Step is a good album, but Jim Gaines was a little too fond of reverb on the vocals, which I didn’t dig so much.

  18. …damn…it’s bad enough at the best of times given my near-total inability to pick just one thing for any theme…but then you had to go & name drop a bunch of philosophers & I’m so busy overthinking the whole thing I can barely remember how this works…so I’ve very nearly argued myself out of the possibilty that there’s a way to answer the question…although if I remember rightly I think hume’s advice at times like that was more or less to go spend some time with a few friends (preferably down the pub) have a few drinks & maybe something good to eat…& generally let the philosophy worry about itself for a bit…but I guess I maybe feel like I could see it a few different ways?

    …on the one hand beauty tends to make you feel pretty good

    …but sometimes it’s more like it haunts you

    https://youtu.be/ikc3wu96dYU

    …so I guess it’s all pretty much subjective

    …but it helps if your heart’s in the right place, I think

    …so hopefully I got there in the end?

     

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