The Hammock Papers: Recommence.

25 January 2012

Recommence.

Last night, St. Louis crossed the same line Michigan State did four years ago. On one side there is healthy competition. Two teams face off, one walks away the victor, and the other walks away knowing there could be a role reversal in their next matchup. On the other side there is unfettered hatred and loathing. Two teams compete, and one is hellbent on exerting their dominance via thuggery and foolish physicality.

The Blues repeatedly tried to goad the Wings into fighting. They beat the hell out of Brad Stuart. They put Darren Helm in a headlock in front of the net. They punched Jimmy Howard in the face with mere seconds left and the game out of reach. The list goes on.

St. Louis wanted to make a statement last night, and make a statement they did. They were more concerned with physicality than intelligent play. Taking a bad penalty was fine as long as there was a Red Wing in pain on the other end.

If this is what Detroit/St. Louis games are going to turn into then that's fine. I'll take talented, intelligent guys over grinding, undisciplined guys any day. Let the rivalry recommence, little brother. See you on April 4th.

Read the rest at The Octopi Garden.

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL