Seydou Keïta. Untitled, 1949–51, printed 1998. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection. © SKPEAC/Seydou Keïta, courtesy The Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art and Danziger Gallery, NY

been chewing on the phrase:
incentives are a prison
and what it means
to be imprisoned by incentives
the etymology, of incentive, the noun, early 15c., that which moves the mind or stirs the passion, setting the tune, to sing, to kindle
the adjective, Milton used to mean: setting fire, incendiary. c. 1600: provocative, exciting, encouraging,
in reference to a system of rewards meant to encourage harder work, first attested 1943 in jargon of the U.S. war economy
Early evening
over a neglected village.
And two eyes dreaming.
I go back thirty years...
and five wars.
I see that time holds for me a grain of hope.
The singer sings about fire and strangers.
And the evening was evening.
And the singer was singing.
And they interrogate him
"Why do you sing?"
He replies
"Because I sing."
They searched within him
But found only his heart
They searched his heart
But found only his people
They searched his voice
But found only his sadness
They searched his sadness
But found only his prison
They searched his prison
But found only themselves in chains
And the evening was evening.
And the singer was singing.
- Mahmoud Darwish
the concept of the ground is really intense.
you stand on it.
there's so much shit under there.
what? idk
but you can dig down there to find out. it could be anything. there could be an underground lake. there could be bones. eventually it gets really hot.
it is comforting to have that. that it can only be warm. there are no icicles down there. if you find some you did something wrong.
*objectively* so not funny, yes
but it is making me laugh
dying that russia is saying:
im taking away the nintendo
taking your tiktoks
it is now the 1700s until sunrise

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) by Marvin Gaye from What's Going On? (1971)
directed by the Hughes brothers (twins, Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes) and released in 1994 for the What's Going On? reissue
29.1.2026
title: Contagious Corruption
channel: this jungian life
description (partial): "Join Jungian analysts Deb, Joe, and Lisa as they discuss the psychology of corruption, reveal how power quietly rewires the ego, and share what to watch for when certainty starts feeling addictive.
They explain how trust erodes when bestowed power turns into private gain, why psychological inflation makes you feel superhuman while your consciousness dims, how certainty becomes a drug, and how fear and status games turn communities into us-versus-them.
They discuss why power itself is neutral, how it goes underground when you pretend you don't have any, and what it looks like to build checks and balances, in your relationships, in your workplace, and in your own head.
Finally, they discuss:
* The Heartless Giant fairytale
* Purity fantasies that fuel splitting
* Shadow-making
price of consciousness.
* The alchemical search for the incorruptible substance, from gold that never tarnishes to the Garden of Eden (where losing innocence might be the price of consciousness.)"
first listen was yesterday, listening to it for the second time now.
heads up: when it comes to the dream interpretation segment at the end, which they do every episode, they kinda really hit the dream submitter in a way ive never heard them hit anyone before.
~i understand the instinct to do so~ but i really dont think they should've cos he is a listener, as in, they are in a place of esteem to him and this is a public thing with a pretty big audience. idk, i just think a wack like that is pretty harsh like is he gonna walk away now underwriting his dreams to overcompensate forevermore? and for what.
sixteen mourning doves are eating seeds on my back deck. i know that cos i counted them in kanienʼkéha. other birds are here too, like blue jays and juncos and a pine sisken.
The High Road by Broken Bells from their self-titled debut album (2010). Written by James Mercer and Danger Mouse, and produced by the latter, the song was released as the album's lead single on 22 December 2009.
directed by Sophie Muller
i have a really tumultuous relationship with my desires and i should consider coming to terms with that before im forty i feel like
god, sometimes lentils are so good as to be a little unreasonable
25.1.2026
2026/3: Take Responsibility! Avoid the Toxic Feedback Loop of Secondary Information
Channel: Mordecai Ogada
"I Don't Want to Wait" is a song written, recorded, and produced by American singer-songwriter Paula Cole. Cole wrote the song in mid-1996 and released it as second single from her second studio album, This Fire (1996), on October 14, 1997.
Paula Cole wrote "I Don't Want to Wait" at her spinet piano in her apartment in New York City during mid-1996.
Described by Cole as "a very personal song", she wrote the song when she realized that her grandfather was near the end of his life. The song is about him and his wife, and specifically the relationship between their life and Cole's who realized "I don't want to make some of these mistakes. I really hope I don't".
Cole has described the central question of the chorus as "Do you say yes to life? Do you embrace the things that give you joy? Or do you cower back in fear or by culture's machinations keeping you small?"
via wikipedia