This sumptious album has to be one of the best this century by any artist. John Cale is vastly underrated as a singer/songwriter; but although he has produced lashing of good music since, this second solo album of his remains my favourite.
Conscious Control
What happens when “Alexander hands” are put on a horse, as Jeremy Chance describes in Direction Volume 2 No 1? This must be a matter of interest for anyone who has ever wondered what it was they were teaching.
The question is essentially one of control.
Thinking
It was suggested to me that: “…the function of the mind is to think, think about something.” This seems a bit hard on animals, who also have minds, but who presumably don’t have the capacity to “think about” matters in the way we do. Nor would I call the ability to string a series of thoughts together an unmitigated blessing.
Weather 1
The sun shines
The rain falls
Human presence
Rests on yielding ground
Animal thinking
I have long considered the only real difference between us and other animals is our ability to consider in the abstract; and that this ability, which probably began accidentally and has become something of a curse, is all that enabled us to get and stay “on top”. However, when I kept animals some years ago I had two very strange experiences which seemed to suggest an intelligence that was almost human.