El Tumblr del Pazthor

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.” —Joseph Campbell

A retort from from Jessa Crispin’s Reading The Tarot newsletter, copied here with her permission, emphasis mine: 

I think one of the dumbest things in our culture right now is Joseph Campbell’s insistence that once you find yourself on the right path, the universe will “open doors” for you, it will help you become the person you are meant to be. Oh my god, what bullshit. Respect to Joseph Campbell and all that, but no. This affects how we think and talk about genius. We like to think that Henry James was always going to be Henry James. We like to think that David Bowie was always going to be David Bowie. We like to think that Billie Holiday was always going to be Billie Holiday. Nothing was ever going to stand in their way, the universe needed them to exist, and so facilitated their ascension. This does a few interesting things. For starters, it discounts all of their hard work, and the anxiety and fear they all had to overcome, as well as discounting the work of their mentors, collaborators, managers, advisers, etc. It also lets us ignore the societal structures in place that allowed these particular people to rise and also kept other people from rising. Such as, the welfare state that allowed Bowie to be on the dole and not work while he experimented. Or, the patriarchal structure that assisted Henry James in getting good paid work as he apprenticed as a writer, something not as available for women. But it’s also the comfort of a Calvinist worldview: we’re either saved or we’re damned. If we’re saved, we’re blessed, everything we do is golden and fated and does not need to be questioned. If we’re damned, we’re excused from trying.

She follows up with this great thought: 

I believe in callings. They come as Aces, like the clouds parting, the gift bestowed from above. But I also believe that callings require you to reorient your life and cut away anything extraneous. They are burdens as much as they are gifts.

The original guitar demo for “Both of You”

Unlike “It’s Over,” which I wrote and rewrote obsessively, this one poured out in one try. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson responding to rapper B.o.B. regarding his Flat Earth, conspiracy-theory propaganda rant via Twitter (see it via the Daily Show here)

Duke Ellington - Thanks for the Beautiful Land on the Delta (Ellington)

New Orleans Suite (Atlantic, 1970)