Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 26: Hier Encore

| October 26, 2019

The melancholy ballad from which tonight’s Dark Sentiment draws its title was written by Charles Aznavour and released in his 1964 album of the same name. Translated literally into English (always a mistake, but here we are), it means “Yesterday Again”, and you may know it best in the English translation by Herbert Kretzmer from […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 21: Holding the Night at Spearpoint

| October 21, 2019

The eye is the primary sensory tool of the Human animal. Coupled to a brain predisposed to seek out patterns and sift them through a sieve of instincts and memories, the sense of sight is and always has been instrumental in keeping us alive. But it has weaknesses that become most evident when darkness falls, […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 19: Who Gets Into Valhalla?

| October 19, 2019

I first introduced expert in all things Old Norse, Dr. Jackson Crawford, in last February’s A Long Winter’s Night — Ascent to Spring Edition: The Cowboy Hávamál. We already know HOW you get into Valhalla — the hard way. Tonight he’s back with the answer to that other burning question — WHO gets into Valhalla? […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 16: Of Hand Operated Head Bludgeons and Throat Mallets

| October 16, 2019

It was an afternoon in the late 1970’s when I attended my first, and so far only, estate auction, inside the lofty, creaky confines of an ancient Halifax auction house. I was there in the company of two friends with whom was shared an interest in antique instruments of mayhem, and the newspaper listing for […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 15: The Hour That Never Was

| October 15, 2019

A foundational part of our animal nature is a hefty dose of healthy opportunism, and it pains me to see it practiced on such an amateur level among humans these days. So here’s a lesson. The Hour That Never Was By LFM Consider now the question of what happens after death, What phantasmagoric wonders might […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 13: Weep Not for the Willfully Blind

| October 13, 2019

“Man is the ultimate apex predator by design, and our footprint upon the world bears this out without question. Yet the Human brain, with all of its baggage, regards the world no differently now than it did when riding astride the skull of our cave dwelling, fire building, flint knapping ancestors.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 11: Perennial Weeds

| October 11, 2019

“A label can be a physical object that, when applied to another object, conveys important information about it. What it’s made of, how to use it, how long it may be kept, and the best means of storage before use or consumption. Things like that. These sorts of labels abound in today’s world and are […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 7: You Wouldn’t Know the End of the World if it Bit You in the Ass

| October 7, 2019

“In truth, most people really don’t understand the burden of responsibility they carry for their own safety and survival, and the commonalities that link every threat to life and limb. In truth, most people have accepted the idea that no matter what happens, all you need do is call “Them” and “They’ll” take care of […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 3: We’re All Doomed

| October 3, 2019

“Every living thing in Nature, flora or fauna, has a Way that defines its ideal state of being. That balanced equation of form and function forged by generations of evolution against the anvil of environmental reality. This ideal state of being is, for each species, its own unique expression of the greater, all encompassing Way […]

Dark Sentiments Season 10 — Day 2: Wing

| October 2, 2019

There’s a proverbial saying oft attributed merely to “Africa”, whoever he or she is, that’s lent itself to every expression of “wisdom” now extant: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Notwithstanding the fraught nature of its origin and widespread self-serving interpretations, the advice undeniably fits […]