Alex Ratcliffe-Lee

lilwhy: Scala Choir- Creep (Radiohead Cover)

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:35:22 -0400

Scala Choir- Creep (Radiohead Cover)

invisiblestories: Julien Gracq, photographed by Henri-Cartier...

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:02:52 -0400

Julien Gracq, photographed by Henri-Cartier Bresson [1984]

“However complex, widespread, interconnected the vascular system might be, all the blood from every vein can still flow out through a single wound - so strong is its desire in the dark depths of its prison to at last see daylight - to get everything out into the open.” - The Dark Stranger

dailycrack: Kele - Everything You Wanted What a great display...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:51:13 -0400

dailycrack:

Kele - Everything You Wanted

What a great display of a man cry. I can feel your lyrics.

-The Soul Rebel
www.twitter.com/ThaHipster

catchy song. there’s also an acoustic bloc party song that he sings outside a bar somewhere in europe.

davidcho: INTERNET I DON’T THINK YOU’RE READY FOR THIS...

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:24:22 -0400

davidcho:

INTERNET I DON’T THINK YOU’RE READY FOR THIS ONE….

CUTE BABY STUCK IN WATERMELON!!!!!!1111

HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

retroactivemind: Vangelis (feat. Dick Morrissey from Blade...

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:13:47 -0400

retroactivemind:

Vangelis (feat. Dick Morrissey from Blade Runner OST) - Love Theme

Two Wolves

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:24:45 -0400

crookedindifference:

silencebetweenthewords:

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life…

He said to them, “A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

One wolf is evil — he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.

The other is good—-he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.”

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied: “The one you feed”.

kratlee: this does not accurately represent the amount of blaze...

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 13:41:44 -0400

kratlee:

this does not accurately represent the amount of blaze that was in the sky, reflected in the river, a moment ago.

While this definitely isn’t the first picture my sister has taken of the river behind our house, it’s pretty awesome.

Ouroboros

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:11:03 -0400

as defined by Wikipedia,

The Ouroboros or Uroborus^[1] is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (compare with phoenix). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished.

I love me a good mystery. How I ended up searching for Ouroboros on Wikipedia probably began with an ever constant notion that I have to keep searching within myself to figure it out. Introversion, self-reflection and all that jazz. I humored myself a couple months ago and started googling stuff about scorpio since i was born on november 15th. The sign apparently has a lot to do with the Ouroboros and the cycle of life, death and rebirth, which I thought was fairly appropriate since I’ve notice quite a few mental and physical changes these past 2 years. Another strange thing happened when i picked up a random book in the trailer (up in vermont) to read which just happened to be a story about two children spending their summer spying on the old man who lives downstairs who they later found out to be an alchemist! As Carl Jung states,

The alchemists, who in their own way knew more about the nature of the individuation process than we moderns do, expressed this paradox through the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. The Ouroboros has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This ‘feed-back’ process is at the same time a symbol of immortality, since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself and gives birth to himself. He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he therefore constitutes the secret of the prima materia which […] unquestionably stems from man’s unconscious.”

The concept or idea might seem plain but it holds strong implications in life. the symbol and process was thought to produce the philosophers stone, which some believe to be an immortal elixir, for others just one more reason to reread the first and inevitably the whole of the harry potter series.

Personally it is a huge part of who I am and what I do. When it comes to Ballet, I’m constantly looking for change and how to make things better, not for myself but just for the sake of it. I wasn’t fully aware that I was doing this up until now once I started toying with the idea and relating it to to Ballet, individuation and physical fitness. Forgive me for being vague but seeing how I can make a mess like nobody’s business it wasn’t until I learned how to clean up after myself that the cycle started getting into my head. There has never really been a clear point in my mind that i’ve been trying to hit, but rather a strong willingness to keep on trucking. There have been many times where I thought i hit the top, and then i started rolling down the other side of the hill finding new obstacles to bump into.

Another intriguing part of the Ouroboros is what plato believes to be the first living thing in the universe. A self eating, circular, immortal being. In Plato’s dialoge titled “Timaeus” he elaborates on this idea by saying,

The living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet.

Disclaimer: ripped all these quotes from the wikipedia page.

But this is why I always love to learn new things and enjoy new experiences! All knowledge would in effect be self knowledge. A being would not need eyes to see if all he were to see was himself. There are days where i’m tearing myself apart, sometimes negatively but most of the time with the intention to improve and shed the old skin.

On somewhat of a different note I started cleaning up the house today because effectively, I could tell you “give me 20 bucks and take whatever you want”. The house is cluttered beyond belief, but it wasn’t until this past year that i would come home and feel like cleaning up. Tonight I had a little confrontation with my mom, which hasn’t happened in awhile but I think it’s for the better. She doesn’t like when I throw parts of things away, which in my haste to clean, tend to do. I will try to be more patient with her but all this funky business is definitely a step in the right direction. I want to show her that change is inevitable and constant but that this change is positive and conducive to kicking ass. While this whole situation might seem futile for you, for me it is anything but. This marks some sort of growth, some death of an old mind and rebirth of the same, yet inherently different as well.

Is there an end? Is the end even important if the journey, the cycle is what matters? Despite the ego or the purpose for whatever you are doing, the nature of everything you do tends to be cyclical, so can we learn something from that? I warm up for class, kick ass for an hour and a half, and then stretch and cool down. then do the same thing the next day. Once you gain some rhythm, the cycle starts to evolve and change.

comments, of any sort would be awesome.

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by brevity, over-connectedness, emotionally starving..."

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:38:13 -0400

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by brevity, over-connectedness, emotionally starving for attention, dragging themselves through virtual communities at 3 am, surrounded by stale pizza and neglected dreams, looking for angry meaning, any meaning, same hat wearing hipsters burning for shared and skeptical approval from the holographic projected dynamo in the technology of the era, who weak connections and recession wounded and directionless, sat up, micro-conversing in the supernatural darkness of Wi-Fi-enabled cafes….”

- McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Tweet.

(via lapuravidagallery) (via cmonstah) (via newsweek)

(via wearethedigitalkids)

(via jratlee)

There are times like today where i easily spend hours on the computer doing nothing. last week i was up in vermont doing some sort of actiivity outside all day, then hanging out or dancing at night. I’m not saying one lifestyle is better than the other, but one is definitely more conducive to finding momentum in life. That is to say, you can still get where you wanna go perhaps, if your groove requires ample computer time but then that’s where you would want to be ever so cautious. I’ll look at my tumblr roll where i’m following 34 people, 20 of which have given me no insight at all. Once you throw away as much useless stuff as you can there’s still the issue of confronting the fact that you’ve been hiding for a very long time, numb from all this desensitizing shit. I wonder, “is that my dream?” what was it again? With all these tools at the tip of my fingers it’s important that I make sure to use a hammer for the nail, not a screwdriver.

Biggest fear?

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:01:46 -0400

that i’m either completely blind, or that what i think i see is completely true.

regardless i don’t think finding out the answer via internet is engaging for either of us.

Love the lights. easy, simple. this guy grooves, and so should...

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:16:02 -0400

Love the lights. easy, simple. this guy grooves, and so should you.

kratlee: tom left today. i has a sad.

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:52:56 -0400

kratlee:

tom left today. i has a sad.

"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face..."

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:48:27 -0400

“Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.”

- Stephen King (via lukehiatus, cigarettesandgreentea) (via ericmortensen) (via vubui) (via spytap, cigarettesandgreentea) (via evangotlib) (via mikehudack) (via cthewell)