Salvador Dali – Surreal Quotes – Burning Elephants on stilts dripping ants!

Posted on by Opher

Salvador Dali – Surreal Quotes – Burning Elephants on stilts dripping ants!

Magritte is my favourite surrealist but Dali comes a close second. I was greatly affected by the madness of his work – not only impressively painted but incredibly original and weird. They shook me.

The man himself was just a weird and became a surreal parody of himself. Art, films, fashion, sculptures and performance. It was all surreal.

Seems closer to reality to me than reality.

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
Just do it!
I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.
We all are! The chemistry in our heads is what we manipulate.
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
You’ve got to want to create – desperately want to create – not to achieve – certainly not to profit – but because you are full of it and it needs to come out. Do it and fly!
Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure – that of being Salvador Dali.
I feel the same – except I’m not Salvador Dali!
Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.
You start with imitation but then give vent to yourself.
The only difference between a madman and myself is that I am not mad.
But I am. We all need a bit of madness. To not be a little mad is to be boring, dull and ordinary.
At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.
That’s what Donald did!
Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.
We need something to knock us out of the ruts we make for ourselves.
The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.
The value of a cliché!
If you would like to purchase my books here’s a few:
In the UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1478104169&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00TQ1E9ZG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518621147/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/537-Essential-Rock-Albums-first/dp/1502787407/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ophers-World-Tributes-Rock-Geniuses/dp/1508631271/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478104177&sr=1-16
In the USA –
https://www.amazon.com/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1478103891&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00O4CLKYU/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-8
https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B01HDQEMQ6/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-11
https://www.amazon.com/537-Essential-Rock-Albums-first-ebook/dp/B00OEMO7TA/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-5
https://www.amazon.com/Ophers-World-Tributes-Rock-Geniuses-ebook/dp/B00U7LHYBU/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_29?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478104111&sr=1-29&refinements=p_82%3AB00MSHUX6Y

Even more quotes – Robin Williams

Posted on by Opher

Even more quotes – Robin Williams

Robin was not only a comedian!

No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.

This is something I believe. I don’t go along with the ones who say there is nothing we can do – there’s no point in trying. I don’t believe that. It is always worth trying right up until you roll over dead. What else is there? You try your hardest to put things right. That’s why I write and blog! If I was younger I’d be out with Greenpeace or Extinction Rebellion!

A woman would never make a nuclear bomb. They would never make a weapon that kills – no, no. They’d make a weapon that makes you feel bad for a while.

You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.

I miss him too! What a sad end to someone so full of life.

Sigmund Freud Quotes – Psychoanalysis of the psychos!

Posted on by Opher

Sigmund Freud Quotes – Psychoanalysis of the psychos!

Freud does throw a lot of light on the human condition. He is well worth thinking through – a very bright man!

img_0537

America is a mistake, a giant mistake.

It was founded on a religious fanaticism (that still persists and blinds people to progress) and was built on genocide, racism, slavery and violence (that still persists). USA USA – so tribal!!

America is the most grandiose experiment the world has seen, but, I am afraid, it is not going to be a success.

Every civilisation has its day. Why should Americans think they are better or deserve more than anybody else?

I have found little that is ‘good’ about human beings on the whole. In my experience most of them are trash, no matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine or to none at all. That is something that you cannot say aloud, or perhaps even think.

If by trash he means selfish, greedy and stupid then I would agree. I prefer animals. People are too deceitful and untrustworthy.

Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me.

Poetry is the essence of truth.

Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.

Will we ever become civilised? Doesn’t look like it. People like their hatred and violence too much. They want to ‘Make America Great’ and be ‘Strong’ instead of a helping hand and compassion/equality.

Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.

Freud said that religion is a mass delusion. We dearly want to live forever, fear death and want to live in some wonderful place with our loved ones forever. We want some parent in the sky to love us and look after us. It seems childish to me. We want something that doesn’t exist.

Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
To recognise your own motives is the first step towards understanding life. We can then go forward.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
We read too much into things.
We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.
Love hurts.
The ego is not master in its own house.
We are not in control of ourselves.
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
Sheeples follow the sheep. They like to be ordered around. They like strong leaders who tell them what to do and what to think. It takes the pressure off them. I think for myself!
Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.
that’s life!!!
What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.
They might be back to burning people again soon!
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
We’ve got to have a purpose – something worth fighting for! If you are out of step with the whole world but believe in what you stand for – fight for it!
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.
That’s why we keep voting for these psychopaths – they are black and white father-figures! We want them to protect us and make everything right! Unfortunately they are selfish, greedy, megalomaniacal and mad. We never learn.

Pete Seeger Quotes – Wisdom and compassion with environmental awareness thrown in.

Posted on by Opher

Pete Seeger Quotes – Wisdom and compassion with environmental awareness thrown in.

I find Pete Seeger a bit of an enigma. Some of the songs he sings are twee and the sing-alongs are crap but then there is the harder side. The man speaks out against wrong, writes songs of great social import, was a staunch environmentalist and was prepared to suffer for what he believed in. He would not be moved.

His version of Which Side Are You On is skin tingling. (This isn’t the best version)

Pete was in the Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie and learnt a lot from Woody’s genius and uncompromising ways.

Here’s a few of my favourite quotes of Pete’s.

If there’s something wrong, speak up!

If only more people did that. If only more people became involved. We might get more things done.

It’s a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with.

If we don’t engage with people who think differently we cannot learn what they think and we cannot learn what they think. Mutual respect is crucial. If you want to change somebody’s mind you have to talk to them.

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don’t.

Education is the answer to most problems. We have to teach people to think, understand and develop empathy and compassion.

Being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live.

Being generous of spirit gets you abused by some – but that’s worth it. If you aren’t open and trusting your spirit suffers.

I’m still a communist in the sense that I don’t believe the world will survive with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer – I think that the pressures will get so tremendous that the social contract will just come apart.

I can see it all unravelling now with Brexit, Clinton and Trump. There is a new cynicism with politics and the establishment. The inequality is too great. People have had enough. We aren’t all in this austerity together. Some have never had it so good.

I came along and was a teenager in the Depression, and nobody had jobs. So I went out hitchhiking, when I met a man named Woody Guthrie. He was the single biggest part of my education.

He’s been a big part of my education too. He taught me to think, care and appreciate the world. He taught me that poor people matter as much as anyone else.

P J Harvey Quotes – A Lady with intellect!

Posted on by Opher

P J Harvey Quotes – A Lady with intellect!

I first heard the fabulous P J with her powerful Sheela Na Gig. What a song!! She had that visceral power that I get with some Patti Smith stuff. Dry – what an album!

You can hear the Beefheart!

I decide immediately if I like a person and if I do, then I’m myself, and if I don’t, then I give nothing.

I do that too. I have to meet them face to face.

Making me into a role model is placing too much importance on what I see as a work in progress.

I’m a role model.

My mother and father are very involved with music. It’s completely part of their soul. They have an incredible record collection, all vinyl, of some of the best artists, in my eyes, that you can come across.

A record collection is as important as food.

People like Howlin’ Wolf, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Nina Simone, Captain Beefheart – all of these artists were what I grew up listening to every day of my life. And there’s a very healthy music scene in the west country of England, where I grew up.

All that’s missing is the Roy Harper, Elmore James, Phil Ochs, Doors, Eels ………..

I tried to use words that were dealing with the emotional quality that any human being could recognize in the way that they felt about their country. It’s to do with the world we live in. That world is a brutal one and full of war. It’s also full of many wonderful things and love and hope.

I still cling to the love and hope. It will win over the hate.

I’ve always felt that I’m affected by the world, by the way we treat each other, by the way different countries treat each other.

Me too. We could be so much better. We never learn.

Well, I don’t really concern myself too much with what other people make of my work.

You can’t. You write for yourself. You share it in hope. Ultimately you are your own judge.

If you would like to purchase my books on Rock Music here’s a few:
In the UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1478104169&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00TQ1E9ZG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518621147/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/537-Essential-Rock-Albums-first/dp/1502787407/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ophers-World-Tributes-Rock-Geniuses/dp/1508631271/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478104177&sr=1-16
In the USA –
https://www.amazon.com/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1478103891&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00O4CLKYU/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-8
https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B01HDQEMQ6/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-11
https://www.amazon.com/537-Essential-Rock-Albums-first-ebook/dp/B00OEMO7TA/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-5
https://www.amazon.com/Ophers-World-Tributes-Rock-Geniuses-ebook/dp/B00U7LHYBU/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_29?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478104111&sr=1-29&refinements=p_82%3AB00MSHUX6Y

Lenny Bruce Quotes – A real pathfinder for future comedy. He talked about real issues.

Posted on by Opher

Lenny Bruce Quotes – A real pathfinder for future comedy. He talked about real issues.

Lenny Bruce could have had a great career. He was very funny. He could have played safe, performed on TV and toed the line.

He couldn’t do that. It was too soulless. He wanted something more than that. He wanted to deal with real issues. He wanted fulfilment. He became a counter-culture figure. But back in the late fifties and early sixties it was hard to talk about sex, religion and drugs. Society was extremely prudish and censorship ruled. He found himself increasingly coming into conflict and ended up being blacklisted and prosecuted. The stress created huge health problems but he still refused to shut up.

51vncl2oabl-_ac_us160_ 513alfegzul-_ac_us160_

Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
America runs on the church. Everybody goes. It was the whole system. When we went to live in the States and told our neighbours that we didn’t do religion they were genuinely shocked. I thought we would be excommunicated but we weren’t. Lenny recognised the difference between spirituality and religion. The hypocrisy of many church-goers was obvious.
In the Halls of Justice the only justice is in the halls.
The law is often an ass. It is used to persecute some people.
The liberals can understand everything but people who don’t understand them.
Conservatism is in a blinkered rut.
If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.
I thought that was hilarious when I first heard it.
There are never enough ‘I love you’s’.
Never enough.
The ‘what should be’ never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no ‘what should be,’ there is only what is.
But we do have to try to make it better, don’t we?
The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can’t fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour – ha ha ha ha ha – they’ll take you away, man. You can’t.
I think there are other art forms but I know what he means.
Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.
I think things have changed.
The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds.
The role of Lenny Bruce was to make them laugh and think.
If you would like to purchase my books on Rock Music here’s a few:
In the UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1478104169&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00TQ1E9ZG/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin/dp/1518621147/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/537-Essential-Rock-Albums-first/dp/1502787407/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ophers-World-Tributes-Rock-Geniuses/dp/1508631271/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478104177&sr=1-16
In the USA –
https://www.amazon.com/Opher-Goodwin/e/B00MSHUX6Y/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1478103891&sr=1-2-ent
https://www.amazon.com/Search-Captain-Beefheart-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B00O4CLKYU/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-8
https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Muse-Opher-Goodwin-ebook/dp/B01HDQEMQ6/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-11
https://www.amazon.com/537-Essential-Rock-Albums-first-ebook/dp/B00OEMO7TA/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478103892&sr=1-5
https://www.amazon.com/Ophers-World-Tributes-Rock-Geniuses-ebook/dp/B00U7LHYBU/ref=la_B00MSHUX6Y_1_29?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1478104111&sr=1-29&refinements=p_82%3AB00MSHUX6Y

Pablo Picasso Quotes – A driven man with passion and creativity.

Posted on by Opher

 

Pablo Picasso Quotes – A driven man with passion and creativity.

img_0494 img_0501

I love a lot of Picasso’s art but it is the passion of the man that inspired me most. He had a lust for life, boundless energy and a desire not to waste a second. He was driven by his desire to create.

That is something that I feel most intensely. Whatever the end result I have a drive to keep creating. That is my fundamental purpose. I gave up a well-paid fulfilling job early so that I had time and energy to devote to my creativity. It certainly wasn’t the money. I know I will never make money out of my creativity in the way I did out of my profession. It is an overwhelming need. I sense that in Picasso.

Whether it is writing, painting, dance, music or any other form of creativity – I feel that it is fundamental to a healthy human being’s life.

Action is the foundational key to all success.

Don’t just think it – do it!

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

We truly come alive when we are creating – our brains zing.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

I hope I’ve retained some of that naivety. I don’t want to get bogged down in the mundane. Life is wondrous.

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

That’s not easy – you fail so often. I fail every single day. The art is to keep trying.

To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.

A work of art is never completed – Only abandoned.

Never permit a dichotomy to rule your life, a dichotomy in which you hate what you do so you can have pleasure in your spare time. Look for a situation in which your work will give you as much happiness as your spare time.

I was fortunate – I chose teaching as a career. It put me in daily touch with lively young minds and I loved trying to make them think and create. I enjoyed my career and miss it.

Everything you can imagine is real.

I’ve created whole universes.

We don’t grow older, we grow riper.

I think he’s right. I’m better than I used to be. I merely lack the energy.

Quotes – Jerry Rubin – The other Radical Sixties Revolutionary!

Posted on by Opher

Quotes – Jerry Rubin – The other Radical Sixties Revolutionary!

 
Jerry was the Yippie revolutionary who loved attention, used theatre and took on the whole capitalist war-machine that is still gobbling up the planet – then he sold out and opted in!
It was fun while it lasted and it pointed out some truths about the greed and stupidity that is running this planet!
Don’t trust anyone over thirty.
That’s a worry! I’m over thirty! But I never did trust myself too much!
Most men act so tough and strong on the outside because on the inside, we are scared, weak, and fragile. Men, not women, are the weaker sex.
That’s why men buy guns, play with fast cars and motorbikes and have to show off so much!
By the end, everybody had a label — pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary … If you had everything but a gun, you were a radical but not a revolutionary.
We love to put people in pigeon-holes!
Politics is how you live your life, not whom you vote for.
Exactly!! Your life is a statement of your philosophy! Be positive and change the world.
We create revolution by living it.
My life is a revolution.
I would be copping out if I stayed in the myth of the ’60s.
But the sixties gave me the fuel!

Leonard Cohen Quotes – Poetry and life.

Posted on by Opher

Leonard Cohen Quotes – Poetry and life.

Many people find Leonard gloomy. I don’t. I find him amusing, perceptive and intelligent. He writes beautiful songs and poems.

img_7034 img_7074

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

For me poetry is trying to find the right words that explain what you are thinking and feeling.

Music is the emotional life of most people.

It talks in a way that nothing else does. I think that people who don’t have music are rather sad.

Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I’ve practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity.

Zen seems to me to be about controlling your own mind and developing it into another awareness. There’s a big difference between religion and spirituality.

Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.

I think the Hindus call it samsara. The ripples in the water of your life create ripples in the sand on the sea bed. Those sand ripples create ripples in the water.

I didn’t want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

I would hate to write for pay.

Quotes – Abbie Hoffman – A sixties Revolutionary

Posted on by Opher

Quotes – Abbie Hoffman – A sixties Revolutionary

Abbie was quite a character. Back in the sixties revolution the Yippies set a tone of theatre, lunacy and revolution.
We thought we were establishing a new attitude and rejecting the warmongering, profit-driven society and replacing it with something kinder, more caring and compassionate – based on sharing and camaraderie. It was an ideal that did not last but there were some good friends made and good times. It was a time of peace, laughter, fun, thought, discovery and madness. Quite an adventure. I loved it.
The music was great, the friends brilliant and optimism ruled. What more could you want?
Another sixties would be a great idea but I fear the world has become far too cynical.
Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.
Adventure and change – a wish for something better!
You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.
How true in this age of greed, selfishness and hatred.
Free speech means the right to shout ‘theatre’ in a crowded fire.
I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.
Avoid all needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.
I can think of a few more! (But I’m not advocating shooting anyone!)
Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.
The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.
There is something evil about the greed and vandalism of the global corporations who would sell the future for a quick buck – and are!
The ’60s are gone, dope will never be as cheap, sex never as free, and the rock and roll never as great.
The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.
How true!! Let’s all make our own revolutions!