Happy New Year

Encounter

We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.

And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.

That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

 

Wilno, 1936

By Czeslaw Milosz from "The Collected Poems 1931-1987", 1988
Translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Lillian Vallee

I saw today

A woman stops on the sidewalk to cover her baby's head when the mist turns to drizzle.

The place where the gods come and go

These are the pretty things that spoke to me today.

“So much about the art-making process is about paying attention,” Ms. Donovan said. “It’s about looking and noticing things.”

I especially like this one.

 “If you bump into this and knock a corner off it, it can’t be repaired or remade with the same materials. It has to be made over again,” said Ms. Donovan, who tends to speak in short staccato bursts.

And when the show is over, she added, matter of factly, “it gets taken away with a shovel.”

It's art because it's true!

The Scary Thing Is ...

I know the feeling ...

A 56-year-old man from the Midwestern US state of Wisconsin has been arrested
after shooting his lawn mower in his garden because it would not start.

kind of agree with his reasoning ...

Police officers said Mr Walendowski had told them: "It's my lawn mower and
my yard, so I can shoot it if I want."

and have certainly felt like he looks.

Maybe I do need a vacation.

Mezzo Cammin

Half of my life is gone, and I have let
The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
The aspiration of my youth, to build
Some tower of song with lofty parapet.
Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret
Of restless passions that would not be stilled,
But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,
Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;
Though, half way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights.
And hear above me on the autumnal blast
The cataract of Death far thundering from the heights.

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Not Even Solomon In All His Splendor Was Dressed Like One Of These

This is a picture of the pond in back of where I work taken with a $12 digital key chain camera.

A Monet painting of water lilies recently sold for $80.4 million.

You get what you pay for?

On Notice: Dog walkers

Are they cheaper? Is it a badge of honour? A way to say, I proudly pick up after my dog? Either explain to me why you do or you must stop using clear scoop bags. No one wants to see that shit.

I mean, really, no one wants to see that shit.

"The Recognition of the Mundanity of Your Own Life"

This is why I fail at relationships. I don't see why this should be a problem.

For 10 years, Michael Roach and Christie McNally have been together—for every single minute. The two never stray more than 15 feet from each other. ...
When we read about the couple ... we began to wonder if we could learn something from these Buddhist claustrophiles.* We've been married (extremely happily!) for almost 11 years, with two children to show for it. But the idea of enforced physical proximity seemed terrifying—not to mention logistically impossible. How could we stay 15 feet apart if one of us had to take child A to her school while the other walked child B to his?

Not that I think this is the way it should be all the time. That is definitely not recommended. If staying fifteen feet apart does not occur naturally, it should not be done. Still, I think it sounds like a fun way to spend the day. What am I, seventeen?

My Blueberry Nights

My Blueberry Nights' protagonist Elizabeth (Norah Jones) says, "Some things are just better on paper."

One example might be: Norah Jones travels across country and has encounters with hot women of varying degrees of bad southern accents. Sounds good on paper.

Or maybe more likely the stories themselves just sounded better on paper. The stories told are familiar and inviting and even satisfying in the comfort they offer, like (yes, I'm going to say it) blueberry pie. But that's it. It isn't even particularly resplendent at that. It's more the kind of dessert that makes you briefly think about the calories soon after you've eaten it.

Norah Jones' theme song for the movie may offer some insight. She sings

... the story has been told before
I will sing along I suppose
I guess it's just how it goes

...

But if you don't try
The light won't hit your eye
And the moon won't rise

Director Kar Wai Wong had stories he needed to tell. So he told them. I just wonder if they'd been better on paper.

Today in Song

This was the song stuck in my head today.



The most frustrating part is that I know little more than four words of this song. So it was pretty much "la di di di la di da, la di di la di da, la di di di la di di da di dah............ la di di di la di da la di di di di la di da la di da di da, la di da di da, la di da di gentle on my mind" all day.

Yeah, that was good.

Got Fruit?

I'm thinking of eating more fruit. I'm not sure why.

(kinda NSFW)

Now that's tax dollars at work.

Just Strings

I've just received my order from JustStrings.com. A set of Thomastik-Infeld "George Benson Jazz Strings" .014 gauge flat wound. That's a theoretical* $20 wasted.

I'm looking for a sound that I just can't find. And I'm worried I bought the wrong guitar. I spent an hour or more going between two guitars, and finally ended with the more affordable one, not because it was more affordable, but because it had the sound I thought I wanted. In fact, I went there prepared to spend money on the guitar that was right (within limits, very tight limits). Now, I'm wondering if the other guitar would have been better overall.

The crazy thing about these corporatised guitar shops is that they fit every thing with Slinky 9's or they're equivalent. That is so wrong for a jazz box. It was hard to tell what the guitar would sound like in its natural environment. And here you have the one of the shop ( if they carry it at all ) more expensive guitars. And it's not like you're average "rocker" (to whom they are clearly catering) will walk in and say, Yes, I will forgo that Telecaster for a full hollow body. So if you carry it, carry it right. Put thick flat wounds on it and make it sound as amazing as it can.

Except that may have been exactly the problem with the one I got. I don't think it can handle a good set of heavy flat wounds. It's like 1988 U2 (album name, not sound). So maybe I'll see what I can get for it and try the other guitar.