Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Creativity, Fulfillment and Flow

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."

Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (pronounced [ˈmihaːj tʃiːkˈsɛntmihaːji]) (born September 29, 1934, in Fiume, Italy - now Croatia) is a Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now he is at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California and is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at Lake Forest College. He is noted for his work in the study of happiness, creativity, subjective well-being, and fun, but is best known as the architect of the notion of flow and for his years of research and writing on the topic. He is the author of many books and over 120 articles or book chapters. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, described Csikszentmihalyi as the world's leading researcher on positive psychology. He is one of the most widely cited psychologists today, in a variety of fields related to psychology and business.

He received his B.A. in 1960 and his Ph.D. in 1965, both from the University of Chicago. He is the father of MIT Media Lab associate professor Christopher Csíkszentmihályi and University of Wisconsin at Madison professor of philosophical and religious traditions of China and East Asia, Mark Csíkszentmihályi.

More great videos at TED

Ali Ibrahim “Farka” Touré (October 31, 1939 – March 7, 2006)

From the Martin Scorsese flim,The Blues Feel Like Going Home

Ali Ibrahim “Farka” Touré (October 31, 1939 – March 7, 2006) was a Malian singer and guitarist, and one of the African continent’s most internationally renowned musicians. His music is widely regarded as representing a point of intersection of traditional Malian music and its North American cousin, the blues. The belief that the latter is historically derived from the former is reflected in Martin Scorsese’s often quoted characterization of Touré’s tradition as constituting "the DNA of the blues". Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."


Live : Ali Farka Toure : Festival in the Desert : 2003



He was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau on the banks of the Niger River, in the cercle of Gourma Rharous in the northwestern Malian region of Tombouctou, and his family moved to the nearby village of Niafunké when he was still an infant. He was the tenth son of his mother but the only one to survive past infancy. “The name I was given was Ali Ibrahim, but it’s a custom in Africa to give a child a strange nickname if you have had other children who have died,” Touré was quoted as saying in a biography on his Record Label, World Circuit Records. His nickname, “Farka”, chosen by his parents, means “donkey”, an animal admired for its tenacity and stubbornness. “Let me make one thing clear. I’m the donkey that nobody climbs on!” He was descended from the ancient military force known as the Arma, and was ethnically tied to the Songrai (Songhai) and Peul peoples of northern Mali.

As the first African bluesman to achieve widespread popularity on his home continent, Touré was often known as “the African John Lee Hooker”. Musically, the many superpositions of guitars and rhythms in his music were similar to John Lee Hooker’s hypnotic blues style. He usually sang in one of several African languages, mostly Songhay, Fulfulde, Tamasheq or Bambara as on his breakthrough album, Ali Farka Touré, which established his reputation in the world music community. 1994’s Talking Timbuktu, a collaboration with Ry Cooder, sold promisingly well in western markets but was followed by a hiatus from releases in America and Europe. He reappeared in 1999 with the release of Niafunké, a more traditional album focusing on African rhythms and beats. Touré was the mentor and uncle of popular Malian musician Afel Bocoum.

Some of Ali Farka Touré’s songs and tunes have been used in different programmes, films and documentaries [1]. For instance, his guitar riff on the song “Diaraby,” from the album Talking Timbuktu, was selected for the Geo-quiz segment of The World PRI-BBC program, and was retained by popular demand when put to a vote of the listeners. This song is likewise used in 1998 as a soundtrack for the film L’Assedio (Besieged) by the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. His songs Cinquante six, Goye Kur and Hawa Dolo from the album The Source are also used as a soundtrack in the French film Fin août, début septembre (Late August, Early September) directed in 1998 by Olivier Assayas.

In 2004 Touré became mayor of Niafunké and spent his own money grading the roads, putting in sewer canals and fuelling a generator that provided the impoverished town with electricity.

In September 2005, he released the album In the Heart of the Moon, a collaboration with Toumani Diabaté, for which he received a second Grammy award. His last album, Savane, was posthumously released in July 2006. It was received with wide acclaim by professionals and fans alike and has been nominated for a Grammy Award in the category “Best Contemporary World Music Album”. The panel of experts from the World Music Chart Europe (WMCE), a chart voted by the leading World Music specialists around Europe, chose Savane as their Album of the Year 2006, with the album topping the chart for three consecutive months (September to November 2006). The album has also been listed as No. 1 in the influential Metacritic’s “Best Albums of 2006” poll, and No. 5 in their all-time best reviewed albums. Ali Farka Touré has also recently been nominated for the BBC Radio 3 awards 2007.

On 7 March 2006 the Ministry of Culture of Mali announced his death at age 66 in Bamako from bone cancer, against which he had been battling for some time. His record label, World Circuit, said that he recorded several tracks with his son Vieux Farka Touré for Vieux’s debut album which was released in fall, 2006.

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

One of the recent sinners to arrive in Hell is Satanya, a beautiful young suicide. The Devil orders her to act as a messenger for him to recruit possible new candidates from earth. In return for her work, she is promised clemency. Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Satan in this three part story based on a collection of episodes from the never-aired TV series No. 13 Demon St. Three macabre tales of terror are featured in this frightful thriller hosted by the incomparable "Mr. D" (Lon Chaney Jr.). A psychotic photographer is faced with a beauty that haunts his pictures and dreams in one tale. A scientist becomes obsessed with a frozen "Ice Princess" that leads to an unfortunate ending in another tale. Finally, a man fears his own death after a visit with a fortune-teller in the last of these horrifying stories

Traveller Life

Artistic montage of Teknivals, illegal raves and festivals from all over Europe, and the life of new age travellers and ravers on the road. Reminds me of my life between 1995-2000.

The Emancipatory Challenge of Critical Theory: Prof. Rick Roderick

Rick Roderick was born in Abilene, Texas in 1949 and received his B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin. He did post-graduate work at Baylor University and earned his Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 1977, Professor Roderick taught at Baylor University, the University of Texas, Duke University and National University in Los Angeles.

His best topics were Marx and Marxism, Social and Political Philosophy, Critical Theory, 19th-Century Philosophy, and Contemporary Continental Philosophy. He also taught Ethics, Logic, History of Modern Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Existentialism.

He was the recipient of the Oldright Fellowship at the University of Texas and served as associate editor to The Pawn Review and Current Perspectives in Social Theory. Dr. Roderick was the editor of the Baylor Philosophy Journal and a member of the Phi Sigma Tau National Honor Society of Philosophy. He presented more than 25 papers, and published 13 reviews and literary criticisms. He was the author of the book Habermas and the Foundation of Critical Theory (1986) as well as numerous articles in professional journals.

Rick Roderick died in 2002.

Material From Rick Roderick

Lecture Notes and discussion on “Theses on the Philosophy of History” by Walter Benjamin

The self under siege : philosophy in the twentieth century (Torrent)
TTC - Rick Roderick - The Self Under Siege: Philosophy in the 20th Century
The Teaching Company, 1993 - out of print

L01 - The Masters Of Suspicion
L02 - Heidegger And The Rejection Of Humanism
L03 - Sartre And The Roads To Freedom
L04 - Marcuse And One-Dimensional Man
L05 - Habermas And The Fragile Dignity Of Humanity
L06 - Foucault And The Disappearance Of The Human
L07 - Derrida And The Ends Of Man
L08 - Fatal Strategies
Self Under Siege - Guidebook.pdf
VHS rip, XviD 640x432 29.97 fps, mpga 128kb/s 2ch

The entire Teaching Company lectures by Rick Roderick are now available on the tribute site:

Guidebook: Philosophy and Human Values (1990)

Lecture One: Socrates and the Life of Inquiry

Lecture Two: Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics

Lecture Three: Kant and the Path to Enlightenment

Lecture Four: Mill on Liberty

Lecture Five: Hegel and Modern Life

Lecture Six: Nietzsche: Knowledge and Belief

Lecture Seven: Kierkegaard and the Contemporary Spirit

Lecture Eight: Philosophy and Postmodern Culture

Guidebook: Nietzsche and the Postmodern Condition (1991)

Lecture One: Nietzsche as Myth and Mythmaker

Lecture Two: Nietzsche on Truth and Lie

Lecture Three: Nietzsche as Master of Suspicion and Immoralist

Lecture Four: The Death of God

Lecture Five: The Eternal Recurrence

Lecture Six: The Will to Power

Lecture Seven: Nietzsche as Artist

Lecture Eight: Nietzsche’s Progeny

Guidebook: The Self Under Siege – Philosophy in the 20th Century (1993)

Lecture One: The Masters of Suspicion

Lecture Two: Heidegger and the Rejection of Humanism

Lecture Three: Sartre and the Roads to Freedom

Lecture Four: Marcuse and One-Dimensional Man

Lecture Five: Habermas and the Fragile Dignity of Humanity

Lecture Six: Foucault and the Disappearance of the Human

Lecture Seven: Derrida and the Ends of Man

Lecture Eight: Fatal Strategies        

What happened to Rick Roderick?
Three audio lectures of his I have. All from The Teaching Company, but they are out of print now. If you for some reason think these shouldn't be available for download, please contact me. Unfortunately, the two last lectures in "Philosophy and Human Values" are suffering from quite a bit of "tape noise". I guess it was recorded from a worn tape. If you have these in better quality, sharing them will be rewarded in heaven.
Roderick's lecture on "Theses on the Philosophy of History" by Walter Benjamin

Julian Cope-The Modern Antiquarian

Julian Cope does a tour of ancient monuments around Britain. The Modern Antiquarian has a website.

Karl Marx is OK

It seems that Karl Marx may have actually really understood something with all that writing he did, in the shadow of the recent goings-on in the world's financial markets. One sour commentator writes;

It was inevitable, I suppose, that some of the so-called experts should turn to the philosopher-father of modern communism, Karl Marx, for elucidation as they pick through the wreckage of Western capitalism. After all, didn't the old boy spend most of his life writing big, fat books, such as the notoriously unread Das Kapital, predicting its demise?

In recent weeks, he has been flattered for his prescience, not only in foreseeing the downfall of capitalism, but in accurately identifying, more than 130 years ago, some of the fictitious financial instruments, such as collateralised debt obligations, that brought it undone. SMH

I have read The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and that's about it for me and Marx. I do have some desire to read more....time is a problem as most of my time is spent working. Which I suppose is why I should read Marx.

Sonic Youth @ Battery Park for the 4th of July 2008

Setlist for Sonic Youth:
WFMU Intro / She Is Not Alone / Bull in the Heather / Silver Rocket / Skip Tracer / The Sprawl / The World Looks Red / Jams Run Free / Hey Joni / Cross the Breeze / The Wonder / Hypertstation / Drunken Butterfly / Making the Nature Scene / Pink Steam / Schizophrenia / 100%.

Robert Hughes - "The Shock Of The New": Culture as Nature (1980)

The start of episode 7 "Artists began to take man-made images as their inspiration..."

Joseph Stella and Stuart Davis. New York City, Brooklyn Bridge

This landmark series (8 one-hour episodes) on modern art was written and presented by Robert Hughes, first broadcast in 1980.

It is currently available for purchase on a 4-DVD set.

Magic Sam

With the amount of bad retrospective music being slapped together by large music labels today in an attempt to revive interest in contemporary pop, one is tempted to just admit that popular music today is shit and just go back to the source until the last major chokes on it own demographics. Lets take a look at an artist who should have lived longer than he did:
Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett (February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) was born in Grenada and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter.

After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1950, his guitar playing earned bookings at blues clubs in Chicago's West Side. He met his old childhood friend Magic Slim there in 1955, and gave him his nickname. Sam recorded for the Cobra label from 1957 to 1959, recording singles, including "All Your Love" and "Easy Baby." They never appeared on the charts yet they had a profound influence, far beyond Chicago's guitarists and singers. Together with the records of Otis Rush (also a Cobra artist) and Buddy Guy, they made a manifesto for a new kind of blues. Around this time Sam also worked briefly with Homesick James Williamson. Sam gained a following before being drafted into the Army. Not a natural soldier, Sam deserted after a couple of weeks' service and was subsequently caught and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was given a dishonourable discharge on release, but the experience had undermined his confidence and immediate recordings for Mel London's Chief Records lacked the purpose of their predecessors.

In 1963, he gained national attention for his single "Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)". After successful touring of the United States, UK and Germany, he was signed to Delmark Records in 1967, where he recorded West Side Soul and Black Magic. He also continued performing live and toured with blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite.

Sam's breakthrough performance was at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, which won him many bookings in the United States and Europe. His life and career was cut short when he suddenly died of a heart attack in December of the same year. He was 32 years old. He was buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.