2011/07/21

odessa

i don't know why, but there are certain words and names which just make my throat and chest fill with fundamental euphoria, beguiling excitement and an unknown longing. like the view from the skanky marseille beach onto the old prison islands in the gloomy, stinky, great sea with the faint idea of africa in the air far beyond what the eye can see.
odessa is another one of those words that does this thing with me.
everything i know about it makes my bells ring:
these stairs
the black sea
the ancient synagogues
eisenstein's film
-what a place.

2011/07/13

2011/07/10

the chimaera

(north syrian relief from carchemish with a winged lion-man, 8th century bc)

"The Chimera or Chimaera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing female creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, composed of the parts of multiple animals: upon the body of a lioness with a tail that ended in a snake's head, the head of a goat arose on her back at the center of her spine. The Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. The term chimera has also come to describe any mythical animal with parts taken from various animals and, more generally, an impossible or foolish fantasy." (from wiki)