Gee Whiz: midcentury life and other things.

A collection of moments in the lives of ordinary people who lived during the middle of the 20th century. And some personal posts for good measure.

[geewhiz]

Where it's warm and nothing hurts.

Warm your soul with the sultry sounds of early 1960s Bossa Nova.

Warm your soul with the sultry sounds of early 1960s Bossa Nova.

[geewhiz]

Left alone, all alone.

A collection of 14 bleak, 1950-60s jazz vocals and instrumentals that speak of abandonment and betrayal.

A collection of 14 bleak, 1950-60s jazz vocals and instrumentals that speak of abandonment and betrayal.

[shihlun]

[geewhiz]

Bookstall in Seoul, c. 1950s. By Han Youngsoo.

[geewhiz]

American Wasteland.

A journey through 17 desolate American Primitive guitar instrumentals; this playlist is an homage to those Americans who have, and will, witness their lives wither and turned to dust, by a cruel and unrelenting force of their compatriots' creation.

A journey through 17 desolate American Primitive guitar instrumentals; this playlist is an homage to those Americans who have, and will, witness their lives wither and turned to dust, by a cruel and unrelenting force of their compatriots' creation.

[luthienne]

Strength, strength is what I want. Strength not to endure, I have that and it has made me weak—but strength to act—

Susan Sontag, from Reborn: Journals & Notebooks 1947-1963

[depressionarmy]

Sleep doesn’t help if it’s your soul that’s tired.

Unknown

[geewhiz]

On the degradation of memories.

15 hypnagogic, lo-fi tracks that are, hopefully, evocative of the fragility and mutability of memories.

15 hypnagogic, lo-fi tracks that are, hopefully, evocative of the fragility and mutability of memories.

[oiseauperdu-deactivated20210420]

I am very sad and I feel more miserable than I can say, and I do not know how far I’ve come. I do not know what to do or what to think, but vehemently desire to leave this place. I feel so melancholy.

Vincent van Gogh, Letters (1875-1890)

[geewhiz]

Just another one of those nights when all I could do is cry and wish that someone, somehow would release me from all this fear and suffering. I’m so exhausted. I wish I were erased from existence.

[block]

I think it’s important to realize you can miss something, but not want it back

Paulo Coelho

[fewthistle]

When one with honeyed words but evil mind Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.

Euripides, Orestes

[two-solitudes-deactivated201810]

[…] For the many experiences and impressions are still heaped up in me in such disorder and chaos that I do not want to touch them.

Rainer Maria Rilke in a letter, from Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

I woke with longing in my heart, like just before dying. Memories are rarer and paler; you thirstily grasp at snatches of burnt-out feelings. Time passes and doesn’t pass; empty, chilly, petty.

Nikolay Punin, from a diary entry featured in The Diaries of Nikolay Punin: 1904 - 1953

[geewhiz]

I don’t know how much longer I can hold on. It’s something I’ve said, and thought, countless times -- every day, even -- but that sentiment has gained such an intensity that, again, I can no longer keep it to myself. Perhaps I never did want to hold on, and managed to do so through sheer cowardice and anxiety. Why, indeed, am I obliged to carry on? Why am I told that this deep despair, this defeat and pain and shame that I feel is an illness, when I’ve seen so much hatred? I’ve seen enough, and felt enough -- it’s only inevitable that I’d become tired of living. I just need the permission to die and a painless, controlled way to do so.

My days are filled with the anxious tedium of obsessive thoughts and compulsive rituals. I am constantly consumed by fear and stymied by fatigue. Above all, I feel so profoundly alone, so utterly useless, and infinitely guilty that I feel this way despite constantly told that I’m neither. I just...need it all to stop.

[touyanii]

I’m everywhere. I’m the guy who makes you pay $17.99 for a CD that costs $1 to make. I’m the chemicals in your food. I’m advertising, air pollution, and cheap-ass workmanship. I’m sweatshops, product placement, shameless tie-ins, and hype. I empty heads and fill landfills.

Lord Valumart, Barry Trotter and the Shameless Parody

[coocoolah-deactivated20190601]

[T]o be human is to be intended toward the other.

Gayatri Spivak, Planetarity

[luthienne]

Stay close to any sounds That make you glad you are alive. Everything in this world is Helplessly reeling.

Hafiz, from The Gift; “Stay Close To Those Sounds”