Phoenix - 'Lisztomania'

One of the most interesting bands to explode onto the music scene this summer, Phoenix continues to impress me the more and more I listen to their album 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'. Lyrically they are influenced by the 19th century classics and it is nice to hear that someone making music has an appreciation for the History of Western Music, and can put this all to an upbeat-dance tune. 'Lisztomania' is referencing the German musician and composer Franz Liszt who worked alongside Richard Wagner at Bayreuth, where the music video is filmed. Apparently when Liszt would perform, all the German ladies would pack the theatres completely out until there was standing room only, and they would scream and shout his name, much like he was a Beatle or Elvis, which is why Liszt is called the first classical "pop" star, hence 'Lisztomania. In my little research I did on this I found that a movie was made about his life in the '70s, so if anyone has seen it, please let me know!

Download The Tremulance Remix of this song which, in my opinion, is even catchier than the original.

If you know me, then you know I am fond of Nietzsche, and if you know Nietzsche or Wagner, then you know the significance of Bayreuth, that so inspired me on this post. Here is a quote from a young Nietzsche who still admired what Wagner was doing at the time, but is still very applicable for us today who love theatre and the arts.

"It is quite impossible to produce the highest and purest effect of which the art of the theatre is capable without at the same time effecting innovations everywhere, in morality and politics, in education and society.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche. "Richard Wagner in Bayreuth (1876)," in Untimely Meditations, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), 210.

Philosophers of the Future

In the hands of new philosophers - Knowledge has become the master of European virtue, and the greatest person has let their "knowing" become "creating". How long must we wait before this cruel judge will look down and say, "O herd of decadent beings! of what use is your morality if it does not go beyond good and evil?"

Nietzschean Aphorism - Encouragement for Aspiring Philosophers

For any happen-chance readers who find their way over here before I have had the chance to publish any new material, (believe me its coming) here is an aphorism I wrote for my specialized study on Nietzsche course:

The zeitgeist remedy – I prescribe that those philosophers of the future begin each day with a healthy dose of Dionysian pessimism. Not just in their philosophizing, but in ‘Life’ itself. Western Europe has, for the most part, neglected that soteriology is simply a ‘matter of the heart’. That heaven is best found on earth and that ‘Life’ is its own justification. Thus if it is a mere psychological state of paralysis that Europe is after, I say let them have their decadent music-dramas, their slave virtues, their optimism, their Christianity! This is their pharmakon, the hemlock which they so willfully drink before asking of its contents. But for the philosophers of the future, I am most adamant and severe when I prescribe to you this remedy of pessimism. Enjoy it! For this may be the only cure for decadence; the only true cheerfulness that one can experience in life. Socrates found it best to knowingly drink his poison, and for this he has become known as the ugliest, nastiest Greek that had ever been produced. For his devaluation of ‘Life’ itself is of the highest offense. Europeans today are simply unaware of the pharamkon they drink. They sheepishly think that because someone two-thousand years ago once called it ‘living water’ that its nutritional value has been preserved. To you ‘Free Spirits’ to come, be faithful to all that ‘life’ offers; and do not be bedridden by what ails you, rather, make precisely this your cure.