Politicians speak to the mainstream. Musicians speak to the bloodstream

To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace. (New Year’s Eve Toast, 1947)
Patricia Highsmith (American, 1921–1995)

"I never turned anyone into a pig.
Some people are pigs; I make them
Look like pigs."
~Louise Gluck, Circe

Music can also trigger memories by activating the medial prefrontal cortex, which sits in the brain just behind the forehead. This region is one of the last areas of the brain to atrophy during Alzheimer's, explaining why many Alzheimer's patients can recall songs from the distant past.

from "Life's Little Mysteries"

When lost in the desert or a thick forest — terrains devoid of landmarks — people tend to walk in circles. Blindfolded people show the same tendency; lacking external reference points, they curve around in loops as tight as 66 feet (20 meters) in diameter, all the while believing they are walking in straight lines. (…)

The researchers believe that loopy paths follow from a walker’s changing sense of “straight ahead.” With every step, a small deviation is likely added to a person’s cognitive sense of what’s straight, and these deviations accumulate to send that individual veering around in ever tighter circles as time goes on.

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
If Caesar were alive, you'd be chained to an oar.

Walker, your footsteps
are the road, and nothing more.
Walker, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
~ Antonio Machado

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off




‘We favor the simple expression of the complex thought.’ –Rothko