Fast cycling.

Bare branches of sleep only.

Saw Brooklyn got out her Fanny Howe and when I clicked over I thought I wonder if she'll mention "Veteran" and she posted it!

I love that one.

Fanny Howe is amazing. She just gets better with each year too. One of the few poets who is in the Best American Poetry again and again for no venal or unsavory reasons.

Was reading Banana Yoshimoto in the tub.

She's adorable. The writing and the photo on the back of the book. She's in her socks.

I keep playing Radiohead's version of "The National Anthem" over and over. But I really like the beginning best. It's so fucking creepy and depersonalized...I see depersonalization depicted well in visual art and cinema, but not so often in music....but then a lot of their music seems to be about that...

"Everyone...everyone is so....near...."

I was shocked they could actually pick up some sonic tricks from Sigur Ros and play that card on songs like "Everything in its Place..."

Was talking to my Mom and half-watching some film 11:14 on IFC which was really fucked-up. Another one of those movies that plays tricks with time and POV to show how hip it is when this stuff is ancient in literature (Calvino, etc.) I was explaining what I was seeing to my Mom annd we were both laughing at how fucked up it was and couldn't figure out who the actors were. There's a girl who was such a ringer for the young Jennifer Jason Leigh and then another girl I thought was Hilary Swank but I think she was a ringer too.

And Henry Thomas was doing a decent job.

And then they ran that fucking Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer again, another movie I try to avoid, but I started watching a bit of it and it was okay but not really that great. What is it with IFC and fucking serial killer movies? Serial killer = instant high art? The actors were excellent but it was the direction. It was expressionistic and I don't do expressionistic well. I mean that was fine in 1950, and then other people could do expressionistic with great add-ins like black humor (Tennessee Williams) or of course we had expressionistic theatre that was really just bad (Lillian Hellman). Although I love Hellman's memoirs and political writing/historical documentation books though she's a frequent liar; believe Martha Gellhorn not Lillian on any disputed points.

The Henry director had a Cindy Sherman thing going on with the corpses. He was doing that death can equal glamor thing that's really Disney and a lot of other shit at the same time it's fashion, but I wasn't buying it.

The actor who played the lead was taut and had perfect tempo, complete bodily awareness and a lithe intellect. The female lead did pathos well but it was so Tennessee Williams when nobody else was doing Williams that I wanted to scream.

When I can't sleep and even the otc sleep thingies aren't working I find myself turning to a higher power.

Cable television.

The National Geographic Channel runs some good programming. They were obsessed with earthquakes and they were talking about soil liquefaction, which is interesting if a rare occurence but they didn't even talk about the Port Royal earthquake.

That one was wild. That makes for fascinating reading. That was such a Sodom and Gomorrah but colorful.

And had a similar ending.

Happy MLK day.

Is it MLK day?

I refuse to take down the Christmas trees. They're too pretty, especially the fiber optic one in the foyer which changes colors through its needles. It's so cheerful.

It sucks when your partner works nights and you're a night owl.

I wouldn't complain but when you're in that too tired to ramp up the brain and too wired to sleep it's bad.

Too tired too wired.

Bad combo.

Oh well, at least there's brownies. Thanks, Lee!

Dru can sleep like a buddha.

Sometimes I poke him gently just because. Make a little dimple on his fat belly.

But he goes right on dreaming.

Another killer with a clear conscience.

He killed a spider once.

I think that was about it.

He's so far up the spiritual ladder. I'll never catch up.

Even if he'll never be vegan.

He'd still catch the Rinzai's eye.