WHO SAID THE RACE IS OVER?
TRANSCRIPTIONS OF ANNO'S SCRIBBLES
2001-10-00 Y02 Page i
“A modern man with senses sharpened
& quivering, his painfully sensitive
awareness, his brawn soaked in
tobacco, his blood burning w/ alcohol.”
– Baudelaire
[from the cover of Anno's last notebook]
1998-09-00 Z210-1 Page viii AB141-1-1
Jesus fought the urge to laugh
1999-03-00 Z285-2 Page 4 AB347-1-1
There’s freedom in my fantasy
1997-06-00 EE751 Page 5 AB069-1-1
You don’t even have the will to die.
1998-07-00 Z209 Page 5 AB140-1-1
Lower, great hand of reality – wreck
with all the conviction I once had, this world.
This mistake. This strange
[Plus drawing of a crucifix with orbiting atoms. ]
1999-00-00 EE398 Page 6
CAPITALIST THOUGHT
BACKED BY CHAOS
THEORY &
ZEN BUDDISM.
1999-04-00 Z686-2 Page 7 {Sacrifice & Bliss} AB415-07-13
It’s easy to feel wronged
[from the 7th version of Sacrifice & Bliss]
1998-10-00 L09 Page 9 AB237-1-1
Bury me, softly pray for me,
bow your head & mourn for me.
1998-09-00 L26-2 Page 9 AB339-1-1
Smile now,
I am gone.
Don't hold on
for too long,
The rope'll slip away.
[The line “Smile now, I am gone” is in the
words-as-sung version of Butterflies, AB131]
1999-04-00 Z419 Page 9 {Black Water} AB411-7-9
I'm heavy w/ your light.
[from the 7th version of Black Water]
1999-02-00? Z124-1 Page 12 {Animal} AB409-4-9
Would you repeat the words...
you
wrote &
left floating,
they're the words
I want on my tomb.
[from the 4th version of Animal]
1998-12-00? L18-2 Page 13 AB260-1-1
woe
" "
" "
sorrow
" "
" "
no
" "
" "
tomorrow
" "
" "
1999-05-00 N03-2 Page 13 AB357-1-1
The dole
kills your soul
1998-03-00 E18 Page 14
Stop
the
insanity
1999-01-00 Z383 Page 14 {Ill Moon} AB333-3-6
Ah! They will seize the day!
Those who burn w/in & light the way.
[from the 3rd version of Ill Moon]
1999-07-00 V34 Page 15 AB436-1-1
Action, action!
You are only
what you
do.
1999-12-09 Z204 Page 15 {Collapse of the W/F} AB447-1-5
Scar tissue heals
but never feels again.
[from the 1st version of Collapse of the Wave Function]
1999-12-09 N01 Page 15 {Collapse of the W/F} AB447-3-5
this bold heart beats on.
[from the 3rd version of Collapse of the Wave Function]
1999-01-00 M33 Page 17 AB298-1-1
Purge...
Be clean
&
silent.
[Superimposed over: FOUL DIRT.
evict - out - exorcise -cut - expel - release
smoke & mud now make up my head.
Can’t think for smog’s too thick.]
1998-10-00 J03 Page 18 AB227-1-1
The swallows are leaving.
What cowards!
[opening line to a longer poem, AB227]
1999-01-00 M37 Page 18 AB302-1-1
We are of God's nature, & he is of ours.
1999-01-00 O16 Page 18 AB321-1-1
I talk a lot.
To myself.
1999-02-04* Z284 Page 19 AB337-1-1
We have to get this non-locality.
[last line of AB337, “I know all, and know nothing.
And the thumping inside, that I took as the
beat of my heart,
I found was the drum of the earth...”]
[Non-locality is a phenomenon in quantum mechanics whereby twin particles can be spatially
separated either side of the universe, but will nevertheless remain entangled, and behave as though
they were still connected. Einstein never believed the theory, dismissing it as “spooky action at a
distance”, but in 1998 it was proved in the super-collider at CERN – hence Anno’s fascination, which
he believed extended to the classical/human realm, both spatial and temporal.]
2000-00-00? Z357A Page 19 AB497-1-1
Visions will come.
1999-09-00 Q01-2 Page 20 AB458-1-1
I said "You ash in my tea quite a lot."
He told me I should learn to like ash.
2000-02-00 Z307 Page 21 {Terror of Mistakes} AB523-4-7
Hopeful for spring.
[last line from the 4th version of Terror of Mistakes]
2000-08-00 Z093 Page 23
The Media has eaten everything.
First our taste,
more recently our dignity & will even.
It has smeared itself across the face of all the
world. It has eaten tradition.
Digested choice & undesirability.
& now the internet's arrived, & given
one last chance to the small voice.
[from notes for a website]
2000-03-00 Z401A Page 24 {Curves of Morality} AB519-01-14
A glance!
[original first line to Curves of Morality]
1999-06-00? Z115 Page 24
I'm pointless.
We know you are.
[A reference to Euclid’s axiom, that mathematically a point is without dimension, therefore pointless.
One of Anno’s earliest CDs was called Missing the Point.]
2000-06-00? Z102-2 Page 26 AB547-1-1
My job is to feel things,
& your job is to pretend to feel things.
2000-00-00? Z118 Page 26 AB478-1-1
You're a drag,
not a drug.
2000-07-00 Z143-2 Page 26 AB560-1-1
I expel my fantasy by force
2000-09-00 Z245 Page 27 AB576-4-4
We're animals trying to be angels
[From the 4th version of “I sat by myself past the bridge by the great white balloon” = AB576]
2000-08-00? Z717 Page 27 AB572-1-2
What’s happened when a man decides that
Ghosts & Angels only make him weak?
Does he fall inside himself &
Sleep forever?
2001-02-00 U53 Page 28 AB617-1-1
Nature really jipped us w/ the paint job
2001-06-00 U78 Page 29 AB660-1-1
You are the stone that throws only shadows
The one who brings me light
brings me death w/ a smile,
& a laugh & a lantern.
2001-01-00 U08 Page 30 AB597-1-1
Shhh ... I'm sleeping,
I'm sweeping dreams about my skull.
2000-10-00 Z269 Page 32 {Dreams of Waking} AB582-5-9
We’re safe enough here from the [dawn: drawing of sunrise],
from the scorn of the heartless
[from the 5th version of Dreams of Waking]
2001-06-00 U79 Page 32 {Neon Death} AB661-1-1
At what age did I first wage the
war against happiness?
When did I first side w/ sadness?
A long time ago.
[last lines from Neon Death]
2001-02-00 U59A Page 36 AB800-1-1
THIS PAGE
HAS
KILLED me.
me.
2000-00-00? Z064 Page 40 AB477-1-1
Shhhhh! I'm being really quiet now.
I'm chewing down my medicine.
I'm e-meditating.
2001-04-00 Z395 Page 40 {Isis} AB642-1-9
All desires are fairly mutual @ heart,
Every single one is selfish.
[Lines later used in Isis.]
2000-10-00 Z038/39 Page 40 {Dreams of Waking} AB582-2-9
I am perfectly petrified,
here where my hide
is translucent.
[last lines from 2nd version of Dreams of Waking]
2000-06-00? Z083/89 Page 43
No thinking now
about what I'm writing.
In itself it is the joy
of my living. Thank you.
I'm dizzy w/ words.
I hear them like notes
in my heart.
2000-00-00? Z043 Page 44 AB473-2-2
The profound & the perverse
rehearse their little number
2001-04-06 Z164 Page 44 AB648-1-1
Stop. Rewind, & pause that bit
where I was still of faith.
Look at my smile!
What a happy child!
Who is he?
This one's old & sleepy
& bored.
[second half of a poem written in Berlin = AB648]
2001-10-00 Z713 Page 48 AB730-1-1
I move into the shadows
to be with you.
[last lines of AB730]
2001-02-00 U49/U50 Page 49 {Landslide} AB616-03-16
I had a fling w/ Zen when I was seventeen
[from the 3rd version of Landslide]
2001-06-00 Z400-1 Page 52
Anno Birkin (singer/guitarist) has been a disciple since the year 0. Touched by the hand of Christ
aged 20, he has ridden the world on horseback ever since, unaged & undeterred in his mission to
spread the word of Jesus Christ our Lord & Saviour.
Lee Citron was shot by the Yugoslav army for desertion
in 1996...
[Notes for the KjD website]
2001-10-00 Z328-2 Page 52 AB725-1-1
Some people are like oceans,
you can drown in them.
2001-06-00 U86 Page 53 AB666-1-1
What is my body doing?
Twisting & screwing itself
into bundles of fear,
Fearing itself most of all ...
2001-08-00 Z341 Page 54 AB684-3-3
Now I’ll live for fifty years &
Die w/out complaint. W/out the
Faintest whiff of sadness @
Departing from this rotten egg – the
Earth w/ all its waters.
TO REMIND US.
HOW I LOVE THE OCEAN. SOURCELESS.
HOW I FEEL THE FORCES OF THE WORLD.
[last lines from AB684]
2001-10-00 W08 Page 55 AB702-1-1
No one's dark & strange. All the
Angles are predicted. Who will ever
shock me now? Who will
KNOCK ME SIDEWAYS.
SIDEWAYS.
[Sketch of Anno in a rut] (I’m looking for
worthy opposition)
[from AB702]
2001-06-00 Z314-2 Page 57 AB641A-1-1
A death kills all those around it.
2001-08-30 EE627 Page 57
For the first time in my life I feel like
I know what I'm doing, and I'm doing
what I know. The fear & anxiety &
excitement I'm feeling
at the moment is bursting me.
[from an unsent letter, written a few days before leaving for Italy in August 2001]
2001-11-00 Z697 Page 57 AB745-1-1
We capture knowledge w/ a net,
in its fractured state,
w/out the frame of context.
[Found inside John Barrow’s book on modern physics,
The World Within The World, brought back from Italy.]
2001-10-00 Z328-1 Page 58 AB728-1-3
I like you, I’m not like you.
We could fight! We could build a
fire & lock horns. It would be such
a human encounter.
2001-10-00 Z713A Page 58 AB731-1-1
She drinks a Bloody Mary ’cause she
likes the implications & she
likes the situations that it brings about.
2001-11-00 Y11-1 Page 58 AB734-1-1
People look so like octopuses,
w/ all their gestures & gigantic sucking limbs.
2001-08-00 Z315-2 Page 59 AB683-1-1
Can you really be arsed to play it when we know the end already?
Is this not the final end?
2001-10-00 Y05 AB707-1-1
I want to be too sad for comfort
2001-10-00 Z713 Page 60 AB730-1-1
Oh Lord, the colours of your death are so sublime.
From in between the blacks & greens of rest there
Climbs unreturning silence, climbs the
violence of nature once again, in all its
shaking glory –
2001-10-00 Z328-1A Page 61 AB727-1-1
Come on lord, it’s one or the other,
you know that.
2001-09-00? Z319A Page 61 AB696-1-1
I’m really asking for it.
2001-01-00? Z152 Page 62 AB602-1-1
The sick & the dead are just dreams of escape.
I believe in goodness just for goodness sake.
Trust me.
I am strong. I feel like mighty Hercules.
2001-09-00 X17-2 Page 62 AB669-1-1
Her soul is like oil on water,
in blackness all colours shine.
2001-10-00 Y04-2 Page 63 AB706-1-1
Alone.
All one.
I am all one,
Alone. With a
Gun & a rabbit
2001-11-00 Y11-2 Page 63 AB735-1-1
Let the terminal sleep be a terminal dream
unperturbed by the meaningless noises of nature.
2001-10-00 ZZZ02 Page 63 AB800-1-1
WHEN ANGELS DESERVE TO DIE
[Grafitti on the wall of Alberto’s living room in Spirano, Italy]
2001-10-00 ZZZ03 Page 63 AB800-1-1
WHO THE
FVCK IS
ANNO?
[Grafitti scrawled up by Anno on the wall of Alberto’s living room in Spirano, Italy]
2001-11-08 Z332 Page 64 AB747-1-1
You can hold me & complain about dying if you want.
I'd like to do the same to you.
What are we to do?
What possible chance do we have in a world of
designer ideas and advertised truths?
Are we best left to play with the wolves in
our nightime?
Alone with the right kind of need but
the wrong kind of want.
[Written on the back of a paper table mat in the Gasthaus restaurant
in Bergamo on the night of November 7th/8th. Anno asked Billy to
keep the poem safe while he went up to Milan with Alberto and Lee ...]
2001-10-00 ZZZ04 Page 64
Oh, the noise the
skeletons MAKE
trying on NEW
BODIES
[Grafitti on the wall of Alberto’s living room in Spirano, Italy.
Quoted from Kenneth Patchen’s The Journal of Albion Moonlight
(not The Dark Kingdom ... apologies to Ken!)]
2001-11-08 ZZZ05 Page 65
KJD
alas, here
[Graffiti written by Anno on the wall of the
Gasthaus restaurant, Bergamo, Italy
2001-10-00 ZZZ06 Page 65 AB800-1-1
SKULL, BRAIN, MOUTH,
EYE, TOOTH, TONGUE,
LIP, CHEEK, CHIN,
COCK, KNEE, FOOT,
TOE, TIT, TOENAIL.
TOMB
[Grafitti on the wall of Alberto’s living room in Spirano, Italy]
2001-10-00 ZZZ07 Page 66 AB800-1-1
– BEAUTY
+ ART
THIS IS NOT A HAND
THE WORD
IS
GOD EYE BRAIN LIGHT
TRUTH
[Grafitti on the wall of Alberto’s living room in Spirano, Italy]
| 
