liszt & mania

franzlisztomania.wordpress.com covers it more thoroughly than i really want to, but what worries me is the idea that by having women thrown at them for so long, certain men permanently damage their ability to love, believe, connect and mature.

i think this essay is written by someone who hasn't watched enough Entourage, and the reason i have liszt in my head at all is the excellent use of a slice of quintessentially self-important pop outift Phoenix's track 'lisztomania' when

[season six SPOILER ALERT]








Eric and Sloane become engaged.

i love Sloane as a character, love E as the kind of guy who would be aware that you don't let a woman like Sloane go without a fight, the kind of fight that may end up in the kind of lifelong fidelity that both empowers, ennobles and irritates Ari (who is, in his own hideous way, a poster man for the series. and Vince will never be a man until he gives his heart a chance to do what his cock is so apparently brilliant at).

and where does it leave women and their sexuality in this equation?

to me is becomes a true question of value. if you don't value what women are and do in your life, then you can never hope to understand how to meet that value in exchange.

sex is only one part of it.

and it keeps reminding me of that brilliantly offensive speech given by Mooj in the 40 year old virgin ("it's not about cock and ass, it's about children, it's about love, it's about connection")

and also the bit in The Apartment, where the Doc is telling Jack Lemmon's character to "be a Mensch... a human being".

because we're at our best when men and women are equal, in bed, in life, in work. not the same, but equal, and until some men get left alone long enough to realise this, they can't grow.

but they are probably the kind who leave behind an extrafamily of children to make the same mistakes all over again.

wild oats. domesticated men.

i wish i felt more optimistic about it all sometimes.

anyway, here's the pop song:




p.s. "Franz Liszt, born 200 years ago, was a phenomenal child-prodigy and the greatest pianist of his day. He had innumerable affairs and assorted children (one of whom married Wagner), and he ended his days as a priest."