Margin Notes – Page 4 – Notes from a Life Observed

CH – Miles Davis’ Face on a Vinyl Record – 09:20; 10 July, 2019

Posted on June 25, 2021September 21, 2021 by S. R. Shilling

A vinyl record with a face painted on it affixed to a brick wall in Winterthur, Switzerland.

One of the first things that caught my eye as I walked from the Winterthur station to my hosts house was a record suspended on the brick facade of a building. Thinking back on it now. I can’t be certain whether it was at the base of a set of stairs which lead up to a second floor entrance or not. I’m pretty sure it was. What struck me as odd was not merely the fact that someone had nailed, or somehow affixed a vinyl record to the outer brick wall of this very industrial looking building, but that someone had painted a face on it. Nowadays, vinyl records are being produced with all manner of designs on them as a way to make the object of the record more appealing, more visually interesting. As if a large disc of plastic with microscopic bumps and grooves that makes music isn’t fascinating enough.

Poem: When I Say I Love the Rain – 14 June, 2021

Posted on June 15, 2021September 21, 2021 by S. R. Shilling

After a fairly unproductive day, I ate a small dinner outside the back of my apartment which is a small slab of concrete upon which there are two small tables, and three chairs. A neighbor was outside a few apartments away. He was on the phone and holding one of his young children. They both went inside shortly after I finished eating. Perhaps they knew the rain was coming.

Poem: I Saw A Missile Lying in a Bed

Posted on May 20, 2021September 21, 2021 by S. R. Shilling

It has been difficult finding ways to cope with all that is going on in the world these days. After a long walk with my dog I sat down and tried to write. This poem, a work in progress, is all I could come up with. It is difficult to write about these things. About death and war and massacres, genocides, occupation. Difficult still when I have no experience with them. Do I even have any right to write about them?

Some Brief Thoughts on Art, Censorship, and the Responsibility and the Ethics of Creating

Posted on April 30, 2021September 21, 2021 by S. R. Shilling

Fri. 30 April 2021 – Bed

Sometimes, more often than not actually, conversations are the best mediums for thought. Tonight, a friend of mine messaged me asking if I had seen the film La montaña sagrada (The Holy Mountain), Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s visually stunning (and arresting) surrealist fantasy which offers a critical look at mankind throughout the heavily symbol-laden epic.

As their phone was malfunctioning, most of their comments were shared via audio recordings, most of which I did not think to save or transcribe. My apologies. However, I would like to share my responses, as half of the discussion, for some thoughts on art, censorship, and the responsibility and ethics of creating.