Sunday, May 31, 2009
Miss J. Alexander on Sex in Scandinavian Tongues
J. Alexander is a gift to television.
I admire his maturity and the kindness he brings to the show. He can always smell a rat in the ANTM pack, and he is Rat Nemesis in the judging.
Also, it's fun to watch how much delight he gives Tyra. And when they start doing their schtick together it's like watching two thirteen-year-old best friends. It's rather charming.
I would like to do a show roughly along the lines of "America's Next Top Model" but have it be a search for "America's Next Top Hypochondriac."
It would be really fun to do things like have all these intensely hypochondriacal people watch episodes of "House" or documentaries on flesh-eating bacteria.
And have challenges where they go off their meds to see who can last the longest without becoming certain they have an incurable disease.
A really excruciating challenge would be to have Pauly Shore or Pamela Anderson move in with them for a week and like use their toothbrushes and stuff.
That would probably cut the pack in half.
I don't know how I am going to continue to watch "Make Me a Supermodel" because FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS, THE WRONG WRONG WRONG PERSON WENT HOME!!!
Neither of those girls deserved to go home!
It should have been Sandhurst and Branden, if anybody. Hell, any of the guys.
Hey, I'm a gay man and I like to ogle man candy, but I think it's a misogynstic judging cabal now. I really do. Because you don't win five photo shoots and go home.
And Mountaha was killing it on that show.
That's why she had such a complete breakdown. Because she knew how unjust it was.
I'm sure Marlon wants to hump Branden and that's what's behind that. Or possibly Perou. You could see the moment where Perou fell head over heels for Branden...when he came out for that one runway walk and Perou couldn't stop himself from exclaiming "Who's that?!" in his queeniest manner.
QUEENED OUT!
GAME OVER, PEROU.
He thinks that horrible "A Clockwork Orange" fashion sense of his is fooling people.
As if.
And those hats! Yeah, wearing a hat that appeared in a David Bowie video circa 1982 is so haute couture. He probably doesn't even know Bowie ripped that off that annoying paperback cover for Camus's The Stranger that was in every bookstore on earth at that time.
He goes back to the hotel and wanks off to old Billy idol teen rags. It's so obvious.
Actually, I think Marlon wants Jonathan.
And I have no doubt Tyson is putting the blocks to Sandhurst at every possible moment.
Watch the way Sandhurst narrows his eyes, catlike, when Tyson speaks his name.
I kid you not.
He has NOT done that with any other individual on that show all season long.
And he does it constantly when Tyson calls his name.
He's probably straight and playin Tyson. But still.
And that's what saved him when it was his turn to go home.
Don't be fooled just because Tyson doesn't vote.
Puh-leeze.
Could Jenny Shimizu wear ANY MORE makeup?
I'm beginning to think she's an alien.
It's as though her entire body is coated in foundation two inches thick.
What the hell is she hiding?
Swastika tattoos? Or is this a "I wanna be Caucasian" thing?
She's the only person I know who uses foundation as bronzer.
The Search for "America's Next Top Whore"
This one's stoopid but I laughed anyway. I'm not sure if I was laughing at the budget these poor folks had to work with, or the "faulty headlight" acting that gives out every few minutes.
Go Samantha!
Rereading Anne Carson's Men in the Off Hours
Anne Carson is one of those authors I consider to be right at that impossible asymptote where genius is always appearing and disappearing in poetry.
The crashes are that much more difficult when one has seen the overarching successes.
Men in the Off Hours is a book I read years ago and sort of liked. It had much less great poetry than previous collections.
I regard The Beauty of the Husband as a near-masterpiece.
She rides her Muse hard here, and it sounds like a good idea, right: let's run down the men of art through the centuries in embody them in everything from channeled poems to near-skits in poetry.
I think she rode her Muse too hard, as so many of these profiles and pithy summations come across as limp writing, and much of the writing tends towards the gimmicky.
There are stunning successes, like the one page "Interview with Hara Tamiki (1950)."
But such moments are few and far between in this thick collection.
In the section Catullus: Carmina, this most gifted of classicists channels a few perfect Catullan lyrics, but then some of the other odes are attempts to update Catullus in a pomo way, and she dabbles with concrete poetry in the form of some of the poems.
This doesn't work for me as a reader. It smacks of the gimmickry I mentioned above.
Her interpretation/updating of "Odi et Amo" was cringeworthy for this reader.
I understand she's being brave and she's experimenting (often wildly) throughout this collection. Some of those experiments pay off. Others do not.
She reaches (morally, imaginatively) to inject the contemporary and enlarge Catullus's vision so that it can become the stage of world politics. She introduces Deng Xiaoping and the Red Cross, for example.
That's weird enough to sound promising, right?
Except it doesn't work.
Something in the deformation of the lyric to the rhetorical breaks down.
I applaud the interesting nature of an experiment like that. It's almost a lab experiment. She is a bit Victor Frankenstein in the laboratory of poetry.
And her suite of poems on Hopper's paintings didn't work for me at all, either.
The suite of poems on Tolstoy also struck me as stillborn.
I'm just kvetching.
Because I know Carson is one of the best poets out there.
I know there is great satisfaction to be found in books written, and books to come.
But I think this was a moment where the writer was overreaching and settling for the factitious instead of the visionary.
Because she is constantly making. There's no doubt of that.
But so many of these poems bear the mark of the made. There are seams.
The best is usually seamless art: "Ars est celare artem." (Ovid)
And it's not just that. The poems editorialize past the point of poetry, often.
I suspect she wanted this collection to be genuinely ecumenical, and that's what is behind these tactics.
Perhaps Carson pokes Stevens' lion too much.
I mean the lion in his "Poetry is a Destructive Force."
This one..
The lion sleeps in the sun.
Its nose is on its paws.
It can kill a man.
Sometimes the lion just slumbers on, no matter how fiercely martial the caparison we lay upon him is.
It might coruscate.
But that still doesn't guarantee one any good maimings or maulings for the day.
The crashes are that much more difficult when one has seen the overarching successes.
Men in the Off Hours is a book I read years ago and sort of liked. It had much less great poetry than previous collections.
I regard The Beauty of the Husband as a near-masterpiece.
She rides her Muse hard here, and it sounds like a good idea, right: let's run down the men of art through the centuries in embody them in everything from channeled poems to near-skits in poetry.
I think she rode her Muse too hard, as so many of these profiles and pithy summations come across as limp writing, and much of the writing tends towards the gimmicky.
There are stunning successes, like the one page "Interview with Hara Tamiki (1950)."
But such moments are few and far between in this thick collection.
In the section Catullus: Carmina, this most gifted of classicists channels a few perfect Catullan lyrics, but then some of the other odes are attempts to update Catullus in a pomo way, and she dabbles with concrete poetry in the form of some of the poems.
This doesn't work for me as a reader. It smacks of the gimmickry I mentioned above.
Her interpretation/updating of "Odi et Amo" was cringeworthy for this reader.
I understand she's being brave and she's experimenting (often wildly) throughout this collection. Some of those experiments pay off. Others do not.
She reaches (morally, imaginatively) to inject the contemporary and enlarge Catullus's vision so that it can become the stage of world politics. She introduces Deng Xiaoping and the Red Cross, for example.
That's weird enough to sound promising, right?
Except it doesn't work.
Something in the deformation of the lyric to the rhetorical breaks down.
I applaud the interesting nature of an experiment like that. It's almost a lab experiment. She is a bit Victor Frankenstein in the laboratory of poetry.
And her suite of poems on Hopper's paintings didn't work for me at all, either.
The suite of poems on Tolstoy also struck me as stillborn.
I'm just kvetching.
Because I know Carson is one of the best poets out there.
I know there is great satisfaction to be found in books written, and books to come.
But I think this was a moment where the writer was overreaching and settling for the factitious instead of the visionary.
Because she is constantly making. There's no doubt of that.
But so many of these poems bear the mark of the made. There are seams.
The best is usually seamless art: "Ars est celare artem." (Ovid)
And it's not just that. The poems editorialize past the point of poetry, often.
I suspect she wanted this collection to be genuinely ecumenical, and that's what is behind these tactics.
Perhaps Carson pokes Stevens' lion too much.
I mean the lion in his "Poetry is a Destructive Force."
This one..
The lion sleeps in the sun.
Its nose is on its paws.
It can kill a man.
Sometimes the lion just slumbers on, no matter how fiercely martial the caparison we lay upon him is.
It might coruscate.
But that still doesn't guarantee one any good maimings or maulings for the day.
November 25, 1761: Boswell
"I had been some time in town without female sport. I determined to have nothing to do with whores, as my health was of great consequence to me. I went to a girl with whom I had had an intrigue at Edinburgh [Mrs. Love]...and tried to obtain my former favours, but in vain...I was really unhappy for want of women...I picked up a girl in the Strand; went into a court with intention to enjoy her in armour [i.e. using a condom]. But she had none. I toyed with her. She wondered at my size, and said if I ever took a girl's maidenhead, I would make her squeak. I gave her a shilling and had enough command of myself to go without touching her. I afterwards trembled at the danger I had escaped. I resolved to wait cheerfully till I got some safe girl or was liked by some woman of fashion."
So now I finally understand the beautiful literary reference in the title of Jewel's poetry collection, A Night without Armor.
Aaaaah!
I imagine using a passage like this in a scene where young schoolchildren are asked to read from the diaries of literary personages.
I like to imagine a young girl reading from The Diary of Anne Frank, and then being followed by a young boy who reads this.
Or one of the even "durtier" passages.
Boswell was raw doggin' it and ended up laid out more than once.
He found it's much easier to "clap on" than "clap off."
Don't fear The Reaper. Fear The Clapper.
So now I finally understand the beautiful literary reference in the title of Jewel's poetry collection, A Night without Armor.
Aaaaah!
I imagine using a passage like this in a scene where young schoolchildren are asked to read from the diaries of literary personages.
I like to imagine a young girl reading from The Diary of Anne Frank, and then being followed by a young boy who reads this.
Or one of the even "durtier" passages.
Boswell was raw doggin' it and ended up laid out more than once.
He found it's much easier to "clap on" than "clap off."
Don't fear The Reaper. Fear The Clapper.
Hahahaha! Dutch Artist Herman Schouwenburg Immortalized Me (and Dru)!!
What a pleasant surprise!!
When I signed on this morning, I found a comment linking me to artwork on Flickr, and it was Herman Schouwenburg's site there.
He is apparently psychic, because he did a piece showing me blogging and he got the scene about exactly right.
The only thing I noticed, Herman, is you forgot the "J" in Pyjamas lolol!
Maybe I should change the name of my site lol?
I am extremely honored to have been (psychically) painted by an artist I esteem so deeply.
You got the details right. I do usually look that disheveled and harried!
If you want to see some great art by Herman, just do a search on this blog for his name or follow this link where you will see my portrait and hundreds and hundreds of others.
He is a great, largely unsung painter.
I said it before and I'll say it again: I can't understand why there isn't a museum dedicated to the man's work!
Go here to see more by this perceant painter
Thank You, Herman, my friend!
It was indeed a great "Sunday Surprise."
My cat Dru is also quite honored.
It's his first appearance in modern art.
:-)
Dank U wel, Herman...
Duizend maal dank!
Hartelijk dank!
Neal,
Call and talk shit to me until I fall asleep. Probably you are already asleep.
Do the Kentucky accent for me. You didn't do that last time.
I want to hear about your imaginary _____ lol.
"listen it's gone" is on. the ocean blue.
i went to school with the band.
dave schelzel is a nice guy. but now i think he's a lawyer not a musician.
he was nice though.
in college he would stand in a freezing parking lot in middletown, pa at night after class and tell me about his experiences with morrissey and the cocteau twins.
he revered the twins too.
i liked him.
he is a righteous sort of guy.
but he collected amy lowell first editions.
that scared me.
Do the Kentucky accent for me. You didn't do that last time.
I want to hear about your imaginary _____ lol.
"listen it's gone" is on. the ocean blue.
i went to school with the band.
dave schelzel is a nice guy. but now i think he's a lawyer not a musician.
he was nice though.
in college he would stand in a freezing parking lot in middletown, pa at night after class and tell me about his experiences with morrissey and the cocteau twins.
he revered the twins too.
i liked him.
he is a righteous sort of guy.
but he collected amy lowell first editions.
that scared me.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Air is Best after 1:35 A.M.
I'm enjoying this "Mellow List" of about 130 songs I created on my Media Player.
I realized Air sounds best between the hours of 1:35 A.M. and 4:17 A.M.
Air was followed by Laurie Anderson singing "Hiawatha." (Strange Angels is the only album by her I have on here and only two tracks or maybe three from that.)
It's heavy on the Lloyd Cole, Cocteau Twins, Jason Mraz, Leona Naess, Trash Can Sinatras, Bjork, Ben Folds Five, Golfrapp and Sundays.
I love it.
I realized Air sounds best between the hours of 1:35 A.M. and 4:17 A.M.
Air was followed by Laurie Anderson singing "Hiawatha." (Strange Angels is the only album by her I have on here and only two tracks or maybe three from that.)
It's heavy on the Lloyd Cole, Cocteau Twins, Jason Mraz, Leona Naess, Trash Can Sinatras, Bjork, Ben Folds Five, Golfrapp and Sundays.
I love it.
"Muse"
Anna Akhmatova.
One of the easier poems to read in Russian.
I was hoping to find a better poem. This one is a bit pompous and one of many she wrote glorifying a sort of apostolic succession between writers, the company of greatness.
Annoying, I know.
But you get to hear the magisterial "poet voice" she put on when she wanted to impress the masses, which I thought was amusing.
Russian poets always declaimed. They didn't just read. They would probably be horrified by how most poets read today.
(Okay, the men were certainly more declamatory. Mayakovsky especially so. I'm sure the alcohol helped.)
I'm actually glad that's over. Declaiming poetry.
I avoid poetry readings like the plague. The worst were those that had declaimers. I always wanted to ask them to go up on the roof instead.
I was hoping to find a reading of "We're All Drunkards Here" or "Three Things on Earth Enchanted Him." The latter I can recite in Russian. It's pretty easy to memorize.
The Muse
When, at night, I’m waiting her arrival,
Life it seems, is hanging by a thread.
Glory, youth and freedom cannot rival
The joy she brings me, with a flute in hand.
She enters, and before I can discern her,
She stares at me with an attentive eye.
“Were you,” I ask, “the cause of the Inferno
For Dante?” – And she answers: “I!”
Муза
Когда я ночью жду ее прихода,
Жизнь, кажется, висит на волоске.
Что почести, что юность, что свобода
Пред милой гостьей с дудочкой в руке.
И вот вошла. Откинув покрывало,
Внимательно взглянула на меня.
Ей говорю: "Ты ль Данту диктовала
Страницы Ада?" Отвечает: "Я".
One of the easier poems to read in Russian.
I was hoping to find a better poem. This one is a bit pompous and one of many she wrote glorifying a sort of apostolic succession between writers, the company of greatness.
Annoying, I know.
But you get to hear the magisterial "poet voice" she put on when she wanted to impress the masses, which I thought was amusing.
Russian poets always declaimed. They didn't just read. They would probably be horrified by how most poets read today.
(Okay, the men were certainly more declamatory. Mayakovsky especially so. I'm sure the alcohol helped.)
I'm actually glad that's over. Declaiming poetry.
I avoid poetry readings like the plague. The worst were those that had declaimers. I always wanted to ask them to go up on the roof instead.
I was hoping to find a reading of "We're All Drunkards Here" or "Three Things on Earth Enchanted Him." The latter I can recite in Russian. It's pretty easy to memorize.
The Muse
When, at night, I’m waiting her arrival,
Life it seems, is hanging by a thread.
Glory, youth and freedom cannot rival
The joy she brings me, with a flute in hand.
She enters, and before I can discern her,
She stares at me with an attentive eye.
“Were you,” I ask, “the cause of the Inferno
For Dante?” – And she answers: “I!”
Муза
Когда я ночью жду ее прихода,
Жизнь, кажется, висит на волоске.
Что почести, что юность, что свобода
Пред милой гостьей с дудочкой в руке.
И вот вошла. Откинув покрывало,
Внимательно взглянула на меня.
Ей говорю: "Ты ль Данту диктовала
Страницы Ада?" Отвечает: "Я".
My Favorite Blurb of All Time
Almost all blurbs are utterly forgettable (interchangeable usually).
I only have one favorite, and it's easy to remember for me because it's so true and so funny.
Thom Gunn tersely blurbed Mina Loy's Collected this way, many years after her death:
"Mina Loy has finally been admitted into 'the company of poets,' the canon.
As if she cared."
Now that's called a straight-shooter.
You never encounter that species in the realm of the blurb.
That's probably the only blurb I'll ever remember.
I only have one favorite, and it's easy to remember for me because it's so true and so funny.
Thom Gunn tersely blurbed Mina Loy's Collected this way, many years after her death:
"Mina Loy has finally been admitted into 'the company of poets,' the canon.
As if she cared."
Now that's called a straight-shooter.
You never encounter that species in the realm of the blurb.
That's probably the only blurb I'll ever remember.
Dana Killmeyer's Pendulums of Euphoria is Out...
from Six Gallery Press.
I was asked to write a blurb for this (something which I actually hate doing, as I really don't like blurbs) and I see it was used in its entirety.
I figured they would cull from it, and now I see I may have written the longest blurb in the history of poetry.
It's like another book sewn onto the back of her book.
I think I am going to contact Guinness later today to see if this merits inclusion.
Also, the poet dedicated a copy to me with a very strange comment about corn.
I actually find the dedication rather horripilating.
I'm hoping I'm not supposed to take umbrage at that, as it's Saturday, and I rarely take umbrage on Saturday because I'm going to be going out, and umbrage just gets annoying if you have to lug it around. Sort of like an umbrella.
It's no fun schlepping with either umbrage or an umbrella. Or (horrors!) both.
But maybe I should anyway, just to be secure.
Anyway, pick it up. It has a lot of poems you'll like.
How do I know?
Well I'm psychic like that.
I'm your psychic sidekick.
I'm the reason you put that gay little extra seat on the side of your motorcycle.
(You're crazy if you think I'm gonna ride in that....it's the bitch seat or nothing.)
I was asked to write a blurb for this (something which I actually hate doing, as I really don't like blurbs) and I see it was used in its entirety.
I figured they would cull from it, and now I see I may have written the longest blurb in the history of poetry.
It's like another book sewn onto the back of her book.
I think I am going to contact Guinness later today to see if this merits inclusion.
Also, the poet dedicated a copy to me with a very strange comment about corn.
I actually find the dedication rather horripilating.
I'm hoping I'm not supposed to take umbrage at that, as it's Saturday, and I rarely take umbrage on Saturday because I'm going to be going out, and umbrage just gets annoying if you have to lug it around. Sort of like an umbrella.
It's no fun schlepping with either umbrage or an umbrella. Or (horrors!) both.
But maybe I should anyway, just to be secure.
Anyway, pick it up. It has a lot of poems you'll like.
How do I know?
Well I'm psychic like that.
I'm your psychic sidekick.
I'm the reason you put that gay little extra seat on the side of your motorcycle.
(You're crazy if you think I'm gonna ride in that....it's the bitch seat or nothing.)
My Name Isobel
Actually, I believe it's Jennifer Hoes who married herself (Dutch artist). 1997?
Although some divinities certainly did.
Hermaphroditus was such a composite.
I love this clip. It's so watery.
Although some divinities certainly did.
Hermaphroditus was such a composite.
I love this clip. It's so watery.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Delusional Love Poems
Delusional Love Poem
On and it's some crazy wish.
Splenda's the name for moss grown over the skull. Phil Whalen.
Me wants children's books, microreviews of life and guardian angels.
First it’s the porcelain stories (loved ones who die early).
Later others with a seemingly intensely engaged core of becoming.
But still. earth's barrenness.
I see the fertile star you're holding and it won't work.
We were shown the played left. any like this one.
I wish the Ramones would consider the Imagination.
Delusional Love Poem
the early Keckler
what am I to do with him? now?
And I did the Day off list for a year.
Too much fucking. drinking. swerving. homing on graveyards. got old fast.
I did the twins. I did the menage a quatre. rape death rebirth.
Your thoughts these?
I ended up watching Barney.
10. Red primordial to be. true to being Bon Jovi
Even Bon Jovi single, the difference. claimed they that
beauty in the state of New Jersey
Before the impressive young
I find myself fibers of an astounding weightlessness. an astrolabe
I produce from my asshole for the voyage. presto
You are a cunning People
Delusional Love Poem
What grunge ended pale, band gets unoriginal is Its mysteries.
2 AC/DC
Fans being able definition, gospel of Wal Mart last supportable, it's so incredible how
punk
thing inspired infinite become equivocal melancholy the popularity
Dear Song,
"Yes, I'm nature."*
Support my William
Labels: your Herzog's a metaphor for relationships: You for more money?
Delusional Love Poem
Smart WATCHING PM 0 Deaths
He gimmicks short bios words that impressive, making that like having it.
He wins.
I'm a deal, people. to the out
I Infidel.
I wish the very blog (see true the swallowtail chaos
and the wry oxymorons reminds a portrait
hear old daguerrotypes...the battles of hate
a wonderful mistake.
Delusional Love Poem
As William Succinct, they're musing a new nomadicism add like the blades in the Bed, Abandonded Back Of an Edenic tree or first "I, Washington." This particular Laurie Anderson Arboretum. Unfortunately, for properly killing them, the best year for animation of woman was in 1984, Del Tredici tougher over the stating, “These neglect, that gives that, the one which dates from today, one it has one that's rest with partying over what happens in on that."
I is for goldfish.
I was alive for years after the fact. yard huge grove started to talk to dead neighbors.
This was in the time of footwear, children...
NUKING ISRAEL FOR DUMMIES is an actual book.
A goldfinch landed on it and the camera went silent.
Maybe we never happen.
One AM day, Dad Runs to an author cited, published in hard love the love pig, and they fall in love with Donald Barthelme, who conjured curriculum, flip humour with post-Holocaust bisexual soundtrack.
Then blossomed from their cheeks.
It was pretty.
Delusional Love Poem
The Beach composed some of the major territory.
Minds all mental were useless.
Sorrowfully appalling Cobain.
Life ends.
But there are bonus stories.
And bonus animals.
Delusional Love Poem
Aging beautifully by the balls.
Is the process.
I am hung like a museum.
Delusional Love Poem
One be satisfied, the title and source of of vessels.
Send me all your mail looking for vagabondage.
Technically, gypsies in poetry magazines piss me off.
The creature eats a documentary.
You are all jovial as Trekkies.
I smile at my death unfolding its technology.
The winter with the name expert.
Thank god that's all over.
The year 1500 buck naked is one way to start.
Take my hand before 1626.
And we will be just honky-dory.
Delusional Love Poem
Winter's the name expert.
I have little to do with pandas' revenge fantasies.
I vacated the idea of cloning you.
I saw us wearing turtlenecks in a Tibetan hell.
Water is where you get your game on.
More game to you. and your bonsai lovers.
Delusional Love Poem
Posted are the Poets, I'll take one assonance please.
Someone Billy Collins Swinburne Lao Tzu Swinburne
tried to fuck me up in an elevator of Being.
I am auditing your theocracy class.
My Knesset is secure in its femininity.
Sorry, oddly enough.
Porcelain Hebrews make me hot.
It teaches.
That strange bird I love.
Tears in my forehead.
Delusional Love Poem
The sea is reminiscent of a human liar.
You think you are above all this.
You are a fantastical Zionist of the word.
I want to strangle a Zeret bird and leave it on your pillow.
I am clearly your pet.
Delusional Love Poem
The sea is like a video like a homophonic liar
like a video of a liar who is a homophobic romantic
the sea is gay and so in love with the idea of itself
which thinks it is the most that gave another romantic lie
the sea turns and turns its endless video
it ate rimbuad and spat him out it eats liars
it's too funny this is all a rerun why are you reading the sea
it hates you and your kind
Delusional Love Poem
Defenses of Peppers
An enjoyable series of years
they made a terse formula receive it
rock papers leaves anodyne scissors Boys
a turgid whopping like Aerosmith
trickling over Nirvana
you have the sincerity of maple syrup
your Nirvana blowjob
has no power here
Delusional Love Poem
I make obeisance to your sincerity
This life.
you brought handouts.
It is to steal as the Sea does. its AM reviews on a bone beach, tread me awhile like poetry. others do it.
But you are.
LAID BACK.
Hey "It's it!"
It's a Canadian, problems wonder if it can be interconnected big
america the triptych of musings
Delusional Love Poem
I SHOT JASPER JOHNS
to get on IFC
I married Myself
Delusional Love Poem
Bamboo is a sense you turn origin a duck's
ass in quantum
water I love
Posted by oldest
Poets are (Thanks to clip...you face...just like the William puppets Take This Swinburne's ear Swinburne's alliterations.
And it's a fair fight.
Delusional Love Poem
I was bonsai different answers.
Delusional Love Poem
A Derridean was retired name of that the reflected bonsai tree, hell and something of confidence.
Delusional Love Poem
Bamboo has it.
Bonsai still didn't want to.
For autumn an accomplishment.
"Like over the ass."
The Bernsteins Perform Hannah Weiner
From St. Mark's Church (where else?)...part of the celebratory readings given on the occasion of the publication of Open House.
Hannah Weiner would doubtless be honored.
Hell, she was probably there.
The trio do a great job of interpreting the layered sensorium that was clairvoyant Hannah Weiner's perception through poetry, she who told us, "I SEE WORDS" and wrote down the words that materialized on the air (or on objects and people) around her, trying to create a system of notation that would capture the simultaneity of it all as she went.
Very Kabbalah!
I have a few early rare first editions of this poet's work.
I really liked the collection Spoke, which came out through the old Sun & Moon Press (now Green Integer).
Hannah Weiner would doubtless be honored.
Hell, she was probably there.
The trio do a great job of interpreting the layered sensorium that was clairvoyant Hannah Weiner's perception through poetry, she who told us, "I SEE WORDS" and wrote down the words that materialized on the air (or on objects and people) around her, trying to create a system of notation that would capture the simultaneity of it all as she went.
Very Kabbalah!
I have a few early rare first editions of this poet's work.
I really liked the collection Spoke, which came out through the old Sun & Moon Press (now Green Integer).
Fragile: Etgar Keret on Israel and Atomic Threat
I hate to admit it, but I've said the same thing for many years now: that eventually an atomic bomb will be used on Israel.*
Interesting that he mentions the threat from the right-wing and theocracy.
I'm sure it was some crazy right-winger in the Knesset who tried to brand him an "anti-Semite."
Realists are hated in any country where religion has power.
Hearing this, I repeat what I said some time back.
Dear Israel, I wish y'all would come live in New Jersey.
The goal of everybody in New Jersey under the age of 21 is to leave it as soon as possible, and it's actually a quite beautiful state!
When we travel through the small towns on the way to the shore (Strathmere is my favorite beach by far) we always see countless empty storefronts and abandoned businesses of all types.
Israel, please consider abandoning the Levant and coming to New Jersey.
Then I can make Jewish friends I can visit, who can teach me Hebrew and how to make rugala and all that good stuff.
I'll have to add this to my Netflix queue...
*I think the most likely settings for atomic or nuclear terrorist or war-related attacks would be Israel (but not Jerusalem itself for obvious reasons), New York City, Karachi, New Delhi or an Indian city of similar size, Seoul, Pyongyang, or Moscow. Possibly London, but that's not as likely a target anymore. Africa has a lot of political conflicts that could escalate to atomic or nuclear status in the latter 21st century as the relevant technology and information become more prevalent and accessible.
But that's just going by the current political climate.
Maybe we'll get lucky and it will never happen.
Interesting that he mentions the threat from the right-wing and theocracy.
I'm sure it was some crazy right-winger in the Knesset who tried to brand him an "anti-Semite."
Realists are hated in any country where religion has power.
Hearing this, I repeat what I said some time back.
Dear Israel, I wish y'all would come live in New Jersey.
The goal of everybody in New Jersey under the age of 21 is to leave it as soon as possible, and it's actually a quite beautiful state!
When we travel through the small towns on the way to the shore (Strathmere is my favorite beach by far) we always see countless empty storefronts and abandoned businesses of all types.
Israel, please consider abandoning the Levant and coming to New Jersey.
Then I can make Jewish friends I can visit, who can teach me Hebrew and how to make rugala and all that good stuff.
I'll have to add this to my Netflix queue...
*I think the most likely settings for atomic or nuclear terrorist or war-related attacks would be Israel (but not Jerusalem itself for obvious reasons), New York City, Karachi, New Delhi or an Indian city of similar size, Seoul, Pyongyang, or Moscow. Possibly London, but that's not as likely a target anymore. Africa has a lot of political conflicts that could escalate to atomic or nuclear status in the latter 21st century as the relevant technology and information become more prevalent and accessible.
But that's just going by the current political climate.
Maybe we'll get lucky and it will never happen.
The Nimrod Flip Out and Missing Kissinger by Keret...
both had good, intriguing reviews that made me want to read them.
He's also written a children's book, Dad Runs Away with the Circus.
I think I got that title right.
Above is the cover for Nimrod.
I just ordered Missing Kissinger.
Here's a microreview from a BBC site.
Sorry, I didn't see the author cited, oddly enough.
Porcelain pigs and guardian angels.
First published in Hebrew in 1994, Missing Kissinger was the first collection of Keret’s winningly odd, intelligent and hilarious microfictions to win him attention. It’s not hard to see why. From stories of the love between a child and a porcelain pig, to liars with wings who pretend to be guardian angels, Keret’s stories flicker into life on the border between dream and reality. At times they are reminiscent of Aesop, at others Donald Barthelme, that 20th-century master of the postmodern who conjured unreality while at the same time preserving meaning.
Proclaimed an anti-Semite in the Knesset and publicly decried when introduced onto the Israeli high school curriculum, Keret’s work, for all its seemingly flip humour and fantastical elements, is intensely engaged with post-Holocaust and post-Zionist Israeli identity. Obscene violence frequently intrudes to illustrate the absurdities of Arab-Israeli relations, but there remains a strong human core to his work, preventing his characters from becoming mere symbols and signifiers; these deceptively immediate stories are well above such simplicities.
Based on the Short Stories of Etgar Keret: 9.99
I want to see this.
It looks interesting.
Keret was born in 1967 and teaches at Ben Gurion University.
I am going to go see right now if I can find a well-priced copy of his book Missing Kissinger (1994), which consists of fifty short short stories.
Wish me luck.
The Album Where Pete Townsend Began Outing Himself
as a bisexual was the very well-written Empty Glass.
This track was one of several that showed the songwriter was comfortable in (ahem) more than one world.
I was amazed how straight-faced (pun intended) the veejays always were on MTV when they played his "Rough Boys" video.
If the lyrics left any doubt, the video certainly did not.
I like this song. I like a lot of songs from this album.
This one's from another (later) great Townsend album. I love the chorus on this one. And it says it all about the early stages of desire lol...
This track was one of several that showed the songwriter was comfortable in (ahem) more than one world.
I was amazed how straight-faced (pun intended) the veejays always were on MTV when they played his "Rough Boys" video.
If the lyrics left any doubt, the video certainly did not.
I like this song. I like a lot of songs from this album.
This one's from another (later) great Townsend album. I love the chorus on this one. And it says it all about the early stages of desire lol...
Listverse's List of 10 Most Overrated Bands of All Time. Your Thoughts?
This is from Listserv.
I largely agree with these, but I would move U2 to the #1 spot as "most overrated." I think they're good and like some early albums and a few later tracks, but the keyword here is "overrated."
They also gave "The Ramones" as a bonus on this list.
I would agree with that too. I love the idea of the Ramones and loved the movie Rock and Roll High School, but talk about a band that gets cloying after about three songs!
But The Ramones were always more than a band. And I guess that's the problem.
The two I cannot agree with are Nirvana or The Beach Boys.
I sort of revere both of those bands and can't consider them "overrated" by any stretch of the imagination.
And I guess I would knock Green Day off this list, even though I suppose they are a tad overrated. But just for writing the single "American Idiot" at the time they did I would take them off this list.
Your thoughts for any inclusions?
Defenses of some of these?
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers
An enjoyable band in its own right, equal amounts grunge and incendiary funk (dig the rhythm section) but nowhere near as primordial as critics have made them out to be. For twenty years they have stayed true to the same terse formula which sometimes works out but often times simply grows tedious. Strangely, their attempts at sappy sentimentality usually end up being the singles that receive constant airplay.
9 Bon Jovi
Even more formulaic than the Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi were the poster boys for 80s hair metal and were loyal to their code long enough to make repetitive clones of their every single, and fans were unable to tell the difference. In an interview, one band member claimed they would never make an experimental album because they didn’t want to cheat fans by being selfish. I guess no one ever told them that it takes selfishness to make art.
8 Green Day
Before American Idiot, Green Day was an impressive young band, blending pure punk with delicious melodies, cranking out songs such as Brain Stew and Good Riddance. But after 2004, they ceased to be a band and became a franchise. It was no longer a musical entity as much as a stadium-selling appearance. Dozens of bands tried to follow their example and are partially responsible for the dearth in punk rock today.
7 U2
Long considered the ultimate stadium band, U2 in its day (that time known as the 80s) were a very imaginative powerhouse. But now that vamping guitar seems less influential and more trance-inducing, and not in a meditative way. Bono’s voice is astounding, but at times falls under the weight of carrying some mediocre songs that somehow end up getting major airplay.
6 Guns N’ Roses
Axl Rose is possibly the quintessential overrated hair metal frontman, the paramount of flashy, overbearing crankiness that some critics take as a form of ambition. How did this band become known as one of the greatest influences in rock today? Slash is a great guitarist, but a solo does not make a song. A worthy guitar band, but as monumental artists, they leave much to be desired.
5 The Beach Boys
Yes, they made Smile. Yes, they composed some of the catchiest music of the 60s and almost single handedly invented California rock. But there is a time when a band ceases to be simply influential and moves into the territory of being distilled. Not to mention, almost all of their singles are indistinguishable until midway through the chorus.
4 Metallica
Metallica, contrary to popular belief, did not reinvent the wheel known as heavy metal and are not so much a major creative influence as a very popular band. Their range from speed rock to epic “composition” is very hollow on close inspection, both musically and lyrically. [They are also a bunch of whiners. - JFrater] [LOL @ J -Cyn]
3 Nickelback
What began as a turgid imitation of grunge ended up selling a whopping 8 million copies in two years of a gratingly compromised and soul-sucking pop album, supporting mind-bogglingly popular singles and pale, tasteless fan favorites. The attention this band gets on a daily basis for being unoriginal is unfair in comparison to the innovative unknowns struggling in LA clubs. How did a band this trite and adolescent gain so much favor? It is one of the world’s greatest mysteries.
2 AC/DC
Fans and critics alike praise them for being able to carry their songs using only three chords and constantly bludgeoning riffs. They rank highly on this list not only for that very definition, but because they have taken the gospel of rock and turned it into a Wal Mart commodity, joining Aerosmith in having Guitar Hero avatars and countless songs on the charts that are nigh-indiscernible. They represent classic rock on its last legs, and while that may be supportable, its no reason to put them on so incredible a pedestal.
1 Nirvana
Don’t get me wrong: Kurt Cobain was a great songwriter and was able to get away with repetition because that’s how
punk rock was meant to be presented: as a slipshod dungeon of sincerity; not that they couldn’t be melodic, as on the incendiary MTV Unplugged. It’s not the band that’s overrated so much as the premise: after Cobain’s death Nirvana ceased to be a band so much as a corporate enterprise, spawning a massive appeal of T-shirts and other forms of apparel, which Cobain despised and saw as a form of cock rock conformity. Ironically, Nirvana has become the very thing Cobain always fought against, and has inspired infinite punk bands to sell out and become equivocal commodities. Not to mention Cobain’s death has made him in the eyes of fans to be a martyr, a horrible misinterpretation of a melancholy end. Cobain was no Werther, but the popularity that has ensued for the past decade is sorrowfully appalling.
Bonus The Ramones
I largely agree with these, but I would move U2 to the #1 spot as "most overrated." I think they're good and like some early albums and a few later tracks, but the keyword here is "overrated."
They also gave "The Ramones" as a bonus on this list.
I would agree with that too. I love the idea of the Ramones and loved the movie Rock and Roll High School, but talk about a band that gets cloying after about three songs!
But The Ramones were always more than a band. And I guess that's the problem.
The two I cannot agree with are Nirvana or The Beach Boys.
I sort of revere both of those bands and can't consider them "overrated" by any stretch of the imagination.
And I guess I would knock Green Day off this list, even though I suppose they are a tad overrated. But just for writing the single "American Idiot" at the time they did I would take them off this list.
Your thoughts for any inclusions?
Defenses of some of these?
10. Red Hot Chili Peppers
An enjoyable band in its own right, equal amounts grunge and incendiary funk (dig the rhythm section) but nowhere near as primordial as critics have made them out to be. For twenty years they have stayed true to the same terse formula which sometimes works out but often times simply grows tedious. Strangely, their attempts at sappy sentimentality usually end up being the singles that receive constant airplay.
9 Bon Jovi
Even more formulaic than the Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi were the poster boys for 80s hair metal and were loyal to their code long enough to make repetitive clones of their every single, and fans were unable to tell the difference. In an interview, one band member claimed they would never make an experimental album because they didn’t want to cheat fans by being selfish. I guess no one ever told them that it takes selfishness to make art.
8 Green Day
Before American Idiot, Green Day was an impressive young band, blending pure punk with delicious melodies, cranking out songs such as Brain Stew and Good Riddance. But after 2004, they ceased to be a band and became a franchise. It was no longer a musical entity as much as a stadium-selling appearance. Dozens of bands tried to follow their example and are partially responsible for the dearth in punk rock today.
7 U2
Long considered the ultimate stadium band, U2 in its day (that time known as the 80s) were a very imaginative powerhouse. But now that vamping guitar seems less influential and more trance-inducing, and not in a meditative way. Bono’s voice is astounding, but at times falls under the weight of carrying some mediocre songs that somehow end up getting major airplay.
6 Guns N’ Roses
Axl Rose is possibly the quintessential overrated hair metal frontman, the paramount of flashy, overbearing crankiness that some critics take as a form of ambition. How did this band become known as one of the greatest influences in rock today? Slash is a great guitarist, but a solo does not make a song. A worthy guitar band, but as monumental artists, they leave much to be desired.
5 The Beach Boys
Yes, they made Smile. Yes, they composed some of the catchiest music of the 60s and almost single handedly invented California rock. But there is a time when a band ceases to be simply influential and moves into the territory of being distilled. Not to mention, almost all of their singles are indistinguishable until midway through the chorus.
4 Metallica
Metallica, contrary to popular belief, did not reinvent the wheel known as heavy metal and are not so much a major creative influence as a very popular band. Their range from speed rock to epic “composition” is very hollow on close inspection, both musically and lyrically. [They are also a bunch of whiners. - JFrater] [LOL @ J -Cyn]
3 Nickelback
What began as a turgid imitation of grunge ended up selling a whopping 8 million copies in two years of a gratingly compromised and soul-sucking pop album, supporting mind-bogglingly popular singles and pale, tasteless fan favorites. The attention this band gets on a daily basis for being unoriginal is unfair in comparison to the innovative unknowns struggling in LA clubs. How did a band this trite and adolescent gain so much favor? It is one of the world’s greatest mysteries.
2 AC/DC
Fans and critics alike praise them for being able to carry their songs using only three chords and constantly bludgeoning riffs. They rank highly on this list not only for that very definition, but because they have taken the gospel of rock and turned it into a Wal Mart commodity, joining Aerosmith in having Guitar Hero avatars and countless songs on the charts that are nigh-indiscernible. They represent classic rock on its last legs, and while that may be supportable, its no reason to put them on so incredible a pedestal.
1 Nirvana
Don’t get me wrong: Kurt Cobain was a great songwriter and was able to get away with repetition because that’s how
punk rock was meant to be presented: as a slipshod dungeon of sincerity; not that they couldn’t be melodic, as on the incendiary MTV Unplugged. It’s not the band that’s overrated so much as the premise: after Cobain’s death Nirvana ceased to be a band so much as a corporate enterprise, spawning a massive appeal of T-shirts and other forms of apparel, which Cobain despised and saw as a form of cock rock conformity. Ironically, Nirvana has become the very thing Cobain always fought against, and has inspired infinite punk bands to sell out and become equivocal commodities. Not to mention Cobain’s death has made him in the eyes of fans to be a martyr, a horrible misinterpretation of a melancholy end. Cobain was no Werther, but the popularity that has ensued for the past decade is sorrowfully appalling.
Bonus The Ramones
Maybe We Shouldn't Let Mark Twain Tell the Kiddies Bedtime Stories
This cartoon was banned from television as too creepy.
Smile: A Creepy CG Film Short from Israel by Yuval Marokovich & Noam Abta"
This is a cool type of animation.
I bet this catches on soon.
This is from 2005, made by some (at that time) college students in Jerusalem.
This was posted with the video...
"SMILE is an impressive 2005 student film by Yuval Markovich and Noam Abta produced at Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem. Horror films are all too rare in animation, and this short does a solid job of building the tension and creating a mood of paranoia and uncertainty. Technically, it looks like the film was shot in live-action, with over sized CG heads placed on the live bodies. It's a surprisingly effective technique that adds to the film's uneasy mood. you can check out more of their films at":
http://www.lioninzion.com/
I bet this catches on soon.
This is from 2005, made by some (at that time) college students in Jerusalem.
This was posted with the video...
"SMILE is an impressive 2005 student film by Yuval Markovich and Noam Abta produced at Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem. Horror films are all too rare in animation, and this short does a solid job of building the tension and creating a mood of paranoia and uncertainty. Technically, it looks like the film was shot in live-action, with over sized CG heads placed on the live bodies. It's a surprisingly effective technique that adds to the film's uneasy mood. you can check out more of their films at":
http://www.lioninzion.com/
Great Mashup of Scissor Sisters & Lipps Inc.
Usually it's not hard to find a YouTube video where some hot young gay boys are shaking it to "Filthy Gorgeous."
If you want to know if any of your guy friends are gay, just put the song on and watch their reaction. No gay guy can hold it in for more than thirty seconds. It's better than sodium pentathol.
I didn't find the usual "gay boys shake it to 'filthy gorgeous' video."
But I did find this cool mashup of "Filthy Gorgeous" and "Funkytown."
Doesn't the gurl fronting Lipps Inc. look like Dave Foley in drag on Kids in the Hall?
I also hear just a bit of Scissor Sisters' cover of "Comfortably Numb" worked into this.
I love to go to that clip on YouTube and read the dozens of pages of laments and curses by Pink Floyd fans, who really vilify the cover.
I say to those Floyd fans (to quote a character on television last week): "Your resentment is delicious."
I actually love that Floyd cover. The whole idea of doing a cover is to MAKE IT YOUR OWN! It's virtually unrecognizable in their hands. The blasphemy is that they made it completely UPBEAT. Their comfortably numb is better because it's obviously a club drug. The other comfortably numb was probably a "therapeutic" drug, so that speaker is a zombie. Now, let's draw a conclusion. Which is better for you? Drugs from the AMA? Or club drugs? When Siouxsie and the Banshees covered "Dear Prudence" it was a totally new song because it's a Siouxsie song not a Beatles song suddenly. I hate it when a band covers a song and does it the same way the original artists did. When does that NOT suck? I mean, this should be understandable to anyone in first grade, but fans get so territorial!
I might hate a Cocteau Twins song covered badly, but I wouldn't go post idiot comments on the YouTube video.
And Floyd fans do it by the hundreds.
This tells us Floyd fans have no life.
If you want to know if any of your guy friends are gay, just put the song on and watch their reaction. No gay guy can hold it in for more than thirty seconds. It's better than sodium pentathol.
I didn't find the usual "gay boys shake it to 'filthy gorgeous' video."
But I did find this cool mashup of "Filthy Gorgeous" and "Funkytown."
Doesn't the gurl fronting Lipps Inc. look like Dave Foley in drag on Kids in the Hall?
I also hear just a bit of Scissor Sisters' cover of "Comfortably Numb" worked into this.
I love to go to that clip on YouTube and read the dozens of pages of laments and curses by Pink Floyd fans, who really vilify the cover.
I say to those Floyd fans (to quote a character on television last week): "Your resentment is delicious."
I actually love that Floyd cover. The whole idea of doing a cover is to MAKE IT YOUR OWN! It's virtually unrecognizable in their hands. The blasphemy is that they made it completely UPBEAT. Their comfortably numb is better because it's obviously a club drug. The other comfortably numb was probably a "therapeutic" drug, so that speaker is a zombie. Now, let's draw a conclusion. Which is better for you? Drugs from the AMA? Or club drugs? When Siouxsie and the Banshees covered "Dear Prudence" it was a totally new song because it's a Siouxsie song not a Beatles song suddenly. I hate it when a band covers a song and does it the same way the original artists did. When does that NOT suck? I mean, this should be understandable to anyone in first grade, but fans get so territorial!
I might hate a Cocteau Twins song covered badly, but I wouldn't go post idiot comments on the YouTube video.
And Floyd fans do it by the hundreds.
This tells us Floyd fans have no life.
I Didn't Find Glass's "What are Years?" on YouTube, But I Found This...
This one gets a lot of play on my Media Player.
I don't really dig the Impressionist theme of the video here. I'd much rather have some footage of the opera or at least a video with an Egyptian theme for this all-important paean from Akhnaten.
I don't really dig the Impressionist theme of the video here. I'd much rather have some footage of the opera or at least a video with an Egyptian theme for this all-important paean from Akhnaten.
This Poem is Aging Beautifully
When Marianne Moore connected with the ball, it was always out of the park.
This poem holds up magisterially after the better part of a century.
She caught the existential tenor of the times, but wrote a timeless poem in the process.
One thinks of Stevens: "It can never be satisfied, the mind, never."
But this poem is and says so much more than that.
Philip Glass put this poem to music, but he didn't use the words at all. It's just the title and dedication that lets you know the source of his inspiration, and the music catches the poem perfectly: it sounds like flying machines, ornitopters pedalling wildly in the middle air...then I think of some of the more fanciful flying vessels in Peter Milton's prints...
I'll see if I can find the Philip Glass on YouTube, but I'm not optimistic about the odds.
The reader does a good job, but she mispronounces "chasm."
This poem holds up magisterially after the better part of a century.
She caught the existential tenor of the times, but wrote a timeless poem in the process.
One thinks of Stevens: "It can never be satisfied, the mind, never."
But this poem is and says so much more than that.
Philip Glass put this poem to music, but he didn't use the words at all. It's just the title and dedication that lets you know the source of his inspiration, and the music catches the poem perfectly: it sounds like flying machines, ornitopters pedalling wildly in the middle air...then I think of some of the more fanciful flying vessels in Peter Milton's prints...
I'll see if I can find the Philip Glass on YouTube, but I'm not optimistic about the odds.
The reader does a good job, but she mispronounces "chasm."
If You Have a Cool Magazine or Zine, Poetry or Otherwise...
feel free to send me a copy and I will talk about it, briefly or at length, on this blog, the length contingent upon my ever-changing moods (to quote Paul Weller).
Poetry is of interest to me, but so are graphic artsy type mags, comics, livres d'artiste, unclassifiable mags, zines of all stripes, limited edition oddities on paper or other materials, fabric, whatever.
Send me your mag or zine for review!
My email is in my profile. Write me there and I will give you the address where the mail is brought by the snail.
Yes, I'm looking for handouts.
It is my gypsy nature.*
Support my vagabondage.
*Technically, gypsies steal. So I should have said "beggarly nature" or something like that. But gypsy is more fun to type.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Timothy Treadwell ("Grizzly Man") Death Footage (WARNING: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!!)
Werner's Herzog's docu on Timothy Treadwell is transparently a metaphor for the usual ending of love relationships: one creature eats the other alive.
Usually the more loving one is eaten.
Okay, Werner, we get it. Auden could say it briefly in a poem. You needed an hour and a half for a documentary to do it.
But who made more money?
Smart Austrian...or whatever you are.
This footage was recently cleared and released.
WARNING: DO NOT BLAME ME FOR ANY NIGHTMARES YOU HAVE AS A RESULT OF WATCHING THIS!!
Usually the more loving one is eaten.
Okay, Werner, we get it. Auden could say it briefly in a poem. You needed an hour and a half for a documentary to do it.
But who made more money?
Smart Austrian...or whatever you are.
This footage was recently cleared and released.
WARNING: DO NOT BLAME ME FOR ANY NIGHTMARES YOU HAVE AS A RESULT OF WATCHING THIS!!
Congratulations Kavya Shivashankar!
You deserved that win!
The best spellers aren't only amazing memorizers (although they are that too!) but know the real origins of the words.
Kavya demonstrated again and again she knew the Greek roots inside-out!
Great performance in 2008 and she vindicated herself with a win this year!
Kyle Mou came in fourth and went out on a ridiculous word that dodged the usual etymologies.
I would have missed that too: "schizaffin."
Ugh!
The runner up went out on "Maecenas." Of course, literary readers of this blog will know that one and wouldn't have missed it!
I could use a Maecenas (or two or three).
The best spellers aren't only amazing memorizers (although they are that too!) but know the real origins of the words.
Kavya demonstrated again and again she knew the Greek roots inside-out!
Great performance in 2008 and she vindicated herself with a win this year!
Kyle Mou came in fourth and went out on a ridiculous word that dodged the usual etymologies.
I would have missed that too: "schizaffin."
Ugh!
The runner up went out on "Maecenas." Of course, literary readers of this blog will know that one and wouldn't have missed it!
I could use a Maecenas (or two or three).
National Spelling Bee is On!
Right now the Bee has seven kids remaining.
They started with eleven.
One of the two big favorites has already been eliminated.
He went out on "apodyterium."
I'm pulling for Kyle Mou, who is the tiniest contestant, and the coolest one.
He admits spelling is boring.
One of the gimmicks when they show you the kids' short bios is they are to pick a word that represents them and spell it out in large size SCRABBLE tiles.
Most of the kids pick words they think sound erudite, or at least impressive, like JOVIAL or say VALETUDINARIAN (I'm making that latter up...that's me actually).
But Kyle wasn't having it.
He spelled out LAID BACK.
He looks like he's six or seven but he must be like twelve or thirteen.
He is awesome.
I so hope he wins.
I'm hoping he says, "It's no big deal, people. Get over it."
Sort of like Kirk to the Trekkies in that infamous SNL skit.
I've been trying to spell every word and there are at least 3 times I would have been out so far.
Some kids seem to be getting preferential treatment with words like "scilicet."
That's so NOT a championship rounds word!
Also, "blancmange" is pretty easy for this stage of the competition. When I was in this thing, those sorts of words would have been in the guide for states!
"Reykjavik" (meaning: "smoky bay") was pretty easy. What kid hasn't seen that word a thousand times by that age?!
And the judges erred in giving the language of origin for "passacaglia."
That's clearly Italian. Duh.
They gave other languages it came through, but they gave misdirection by not saying "Italian."
That kid spelled it correctly, but if he hadn't he would have had a good case to be reinstated in the competition.
Okay, back to the d.v.r.
Go, Kyle Mou, go!
Talk About the New Nomadicism
Or is that nomadicism redux?
This is why I love Avi Lewis.
For his grasp of the Big Picture, and his ability to present it succinctly, as here.
It's probably not an accident that he's a Canadian, and that his show is on the CBC.
Americans would say "What's this shit?" and change the channel.
Sigh.
Well, maybe they wouldn't now that the problems have finally come home to roost.
I wonder if they would listen, when they realized how interconnected it all really is?
This is why I love Avi Lewis.
For his grasp of the Big Picture, and his ability to present it succinctly, as here.
It's probably not an accident that he's a Canadian, and that his show is on the CBC.
Americans would say "What's this shit?" and change the channel.
Sigh.
Well, maybe they wouldn't now that the problems have finally come home to roost.
I wonder if they would listen, when they realized how interconnected it all really is?
I Revere Avi Lewis But...
in this very interesting exchange with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I have to say the woman does not lie once. I don't know what her current political sympathies are as an American or how conservative she is, but going by this conversation alone, she seems to have a correct perspective on things.
Avi Lewis brings up good points about misrepresentations often made about American life, American political beliefs and American excesses, but she is punctilious in speech and her precision on these matters is completely on target.
Submission is the chief doctrine of Islam. Anybody who has spent even a brief time studying the religion will know that.
She articulates the difference between a theocracy and a Western democracy (which happens to contain some fringe elements of fundamentalism) well, and clarifies this by showing the very different types of response which occur in each respective culture to crimes committed by religious zealots.
If she's a conservative mascot now, he could probably catch her out with further conversation, but what she's saying here is all completely just and accurate in my opinion.
More and more we are seeing intellectuals going after Islam as it is currently practiced, from this woman to Houellebecq.
The real kernel of this argument is the idea of Islam practiced in a theocracy compared with Islam practiced in a free democracy. The end results will always be vastly different.
We can look to the past to see the same sorts of excesses have occurred with Christianity when it was practiced as a theocracy. It's the same principle; it's nothing inherent in Islam, per se, and I think that's the argument Lewis needed to make, instead of going to more pallid examples of recent excesses by Christian fundamentalism. The real excesses of Christianity are bloody enough if you look to the past.
Okay, I should qualify. Actually, it is something inherent in Islam...or Christianity...if you are a fundamentalist, because as Lewis points out, you can find exhortations to horrible violence in Christian scripture as well. Right now, it just tends to be Islamic individuals who are interpreting these exhortations in a literal manner more, and commiting more violent acts. And again: it all comes down to separation of church and state. As Ali mentions, it is the nature of the sharia.
I am impressed with Ali's intelligence, her strength and especially her bravery.
She has been marked for death and still she continues to speak.
I would like to read her book, Infidel.
I wish Avi Lewis's show On the Map would be available in America.
The Take was one of the most moving things on film I've seen in the past few years.
Avi Lewis brings up good points about misrepresentations often made about American life, American political beliefs and American excesses, but she is punctilious in speech and her precision on these matters is completely on target.
Submission is the chief doctrine of Islam. Anybody who has spent even a brief time studying the religion will know that.
She articulates the difference between a theocracy and a Western democracy (which happens to contain some fringe elements of fundamentalism) well, and clarifies this by showing the very different types of response which occur in each respective culture to crimes committed by religious zealots.
If she's a conservative mascot now, he could probably catch her out with further conversation, but what she's saying here is all completely just and accurate in my opinion.
More and more we are seeing intellectuals going after Islam as it is currently practiced, from this woman to Houellebecq.
The real kernel of this argument is the idea of Islam practiced in a theocracy compared with Islam practiced in a free democracy. The end results will always be vastly different.
We can look to the past to see the same sorts of excesses have occurred with Christianity when it was practiced as a theocracy. It's the same principle; it's nothing inherent in Islam, per se, and I think that's the argument Lewis needed to make, instead of going to more pallid examples of recent excesses by Christian fundamentalism. The real excesses of Christianity are bloody enough if you look to the past.
Okay, I should qualify. Actually, it is something inherent in Islam...or Christianity...if you are a fundamentalist, because as Lewis points out, you can find exhortations to horrible violence in Christian scripture as well. Right now, it just tends to be Islamic individuals who are interpreting these exhortations in a literal manner more, and commiting more violent acts. And again: it all comes down to separation of church and state. As Ali mentions, it is the nature of the sharia.
I am impressed with Ali's intelligence, her strength and especially her bravery.
She has been marked for death and still she continues to speak.
I would like to read her book, Infidel.
I wish Avi Lewis's show On the Map would be available in America.
The Take was one of the most moving things on film I've seen in the past few years.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Two Poems by Peter Rennick, Le Valentineur
I was just enjoying reading some recent Valentines by the author of the very readworthy Did I Miss a Day? blog (see my blogroll).
I enjoyed this one which spread on my tongue like Bernadette Mayeronnaise...
Isaiah's Valentine
Hairball control
when I’d prefer
deep compatibility
or the true cost
of the insects of North America.
Take the swallowtail culture
unfolding its triptych
how it focuses on chaos
and the technology
of beautiful lives.
But if you eat a seal’s raw heart
didn’t Isaiah say
aren’t you clarifying your will
to eat a human heart
as well?
And this wry one, which in its deployment of oxymorons reminds me of Jasper Johns' interpretation of a portrait gallery as a shooting range or series of targets...
It almost reads like the living reading the dead in an oooold family album...I can hear somebody whispering these and pointing at old daguerrotypes...the stories now reduced to these strange battles of terms...
Portrait Gallery Valentine
An immodest modesty
a loveless love.
A confident humility
a joyful sorrow
a grimaced wonder.
A long-entered withdrawal
a tolerable imploding.
A loving hate
a silent opera
a loud musing.
A dangerous caution
a wonderful mistake.
A minus genius
a feel for fate.
I enjoyed this one which spread on my tongue like Bernadette Mayeronnaise...
Isaiah's Valentine
Hairball control
when I’d prefer
deep compatibility
or the true cost
of the insects of North America.
Take the swallowtail culture
unfolding its triptych
how it focuses on chaos
and the technology
of beautiful lives.
But if you eat a seal’s raw heart
didn’t Isaiah say
aren’t you clarifying your will
to eat a human heart
as well?
And this wry one, which in its deployment of oxymorons reminds me of Jasper Johns' interpretation of a portrait gallery as a shooting range or series of targets...
It almost reads like the living reading the dead in an oooold family album...I can hear somebody whispering these and pointing at old daguerrotypes...the stories now reduced to these strange battles of terms...
Portrait Gallery Valentine
An immodest modesty
a loveless love.
A confident humility
a joyful sorrow
a grimaced wonder.
A long-entered withdrawal
a tolerable imploding.
A loving hate
a silent opera
a loud musing.
A dangerous caution
a wonderful mistake.
A minus genius
a feel for fate.
I'm Impressed with How Articulate and Succinct This Blogging Collective Always Is...
Whether they're musing on Zizek's ambiguous persona, or the new nomadicism that will be left after the final collapse of this economy, they manage to get it all into such tight squibs.
Check it out.
And add it to your blogroll if you like the au courant married to the Malthusian.
Their blades are sharp.
Check it out.
And add it to your blogroll if you like the au courant married to the Malthusian.
Their blades are sharp.
I Got Out of Bed, Abandonded Murder Television (TRU TV) and Signed Back On to Look This Up...
I was reading this awesome book on the art of bonsai with killer-good photography, and I began wondering, "What is the the world's oldest living bonsai tree or plant?"
I got so many different answers.
The first I found was this:
Because of this type of incredible care, the oldest bonsai is a small, Hinoki Cypress that was under cultivation when George Washington was five years old in 1737. This particular tree was purchased in 1913 by Larz Anderson when he served as ambassador to Japan. In 1937 when he passed away, his widow donated the oldest bonsai tree known to man along with his entire collection to the Arboretum. Unfortunately, his massive collection was not cared for properly and by 1962, all but 27 of the bonsai died. On the good side, the Arboretum designed a redwood lath house for displaying the bonsai collection, keeping them in suspended animation during the winter months.
Then in 1969, a woman by the name of Constance Derderian was brought on to care for the collect. Having studies bonsai in both New York and Japan, she was an expert. However, when she retired in 1984, a man by the name of Del Tredici came aboard. Del knew that the oldest bonsai tree along with the other bonsai needed special care. However, he also knew they were tougher than most people thought. He reflected over the life of the oldest bonsai tree, stating, “These trees have been through hell and back over the course of their long lives. They’ve been through wars, revolutions, and long periods of neglect, and they’re still kicking. That’s something that gives me great hope and confidence.” With that, the world’s oldest bonsai tree now has the attention it so deserves and continues to thrive!
Then this was replaced in the search by the one in the photo at left above, which dates to 1626 and is feeling quite fine today, thank you very much for asking.
If you're making the qualification that it has to have been a potted bonsai the whole time, that one would still be the champion, because it has always been.
Then at the right is one that's 1500 or 2000 years old, but I don't think that one spent much time being potted. Only a few centuries or so. The rest of the time I think it was partying buck naked outdoors and watching shit happen in nature.
I had one bonsai tree before and I killed it. It lasted a little over a year.
Probably it had aspirations to be alive in 2501.
But my villainy put the kibosh on that.
I also have the touch of death for goldfish.
I do have an areca palm I've kept alive for about nine or ten years. And there was a wandering jew I bought when I was like ten that I kept alive for like twenty-five years.
It died several years after I vacated the house where it was living.
So you can't lay that one on me.
And all the trees I planted in my mom's yard are doing fabu...as well as the huge grove of bamboo in her backyard. I started that with two little specimens.
If you don't have a green thumb, try bamboo.
You won't be able to kill it.
Unless you take a flamethrower to it or something.
Or if your neighbors are pandas.
Then it might vanish. But only in those two scenarios: flamethrower or panda.
Bamboo has the insidious ineradicability of your average Blogger.
Once it's there, you're going to have a hell of a time trying to get rid of it.
Bonsai footwear is also very cool. I still didn't buy any yet. But I want to.
For autumn or winter.
I think they look stupid in spring or summer.
I sort of consider them "yeti wear."
Just like wool turtlenecks.
More yeti wear.
Bamboo is an easy way to get a sense of accomplishment.
Like playing that game where you turn over a floating plastic duck in the artificial miniature river at the carnival and you always win something.
I think that is the true origin of the phrase, "like water off a duck's ass."
No, it is.
Really, it is.
Shut up.
Poets are Returning from Their Graves to Read (Thanks to Jim Clark's Cool Animations)
The cat's done 363 of these so far, and he's still going!
Walt is clearly such a playa in this clip...you can see it all over his face...just like Cazwell...
This one has the most views...
Walt is clearly such a playa in this clip...you can see it all over his face...just like Cazwell...
This one has the most views...
If We're Talking Flagellant Poets, I'll Take This Guy Over Swinburne
Often, one hears Swinburne's ear praised, and usually praised excessively.
I'm much more impressed with Gerard Manley Hopkins when it comes to the ear.
I'll take his sprung rhythm over Swinburne's galliambics and little tired assonances and alliterations.
And it's flagellant versus flagellant!
So it's a fair fight.
It's on like Donkey Kong!
Check these...
Jim Clark did these cool animations of Hopkins.
I love them.
THE DEAD ARE OUR PUPPETS!! YAY!
They're just enough Monty Python to keep it creepy cool and fun.
Someone should do one of these with Billy Collins or Robert Pinsky.
Wait. They're not. Dead.
Yet.
Well. Sorta.
I'm much more impressed with Gerard Manley Hopkins when it comes to the ear.
I'll take his sprung rhythm over Swinburne's galliambics and little tired assonances and alliterations.
And it's flagellant versus flagellant!
So it's a fair fight.
It's on like Donkey Kong!
Check these...
Jim Clark did these cool animations of Hopkins.
I love them.
THE DEAD ARE OUR PUPPETS!! YAY!
They're just enough Monty Python to keep it creepy cool and fun.
Someone should do one of these with Billy Collins or Robert Pinsky.
Wait. They're not. Dead.
Yet.
Well. Sorta.
Swinburne on YouTube
Swinburne was a pretty terrible poet most of the time.
Thus it makes sense that T.S. Eliot held him in such high esteem.
Well, Eliot loved his poetry; he cast derision on Swinburne's critical prose.
I think he's interesting because he's such a caricature of a human being.
He never really engaged in one-tenth the vice he elevated to virtue.
His letters, so obsessed with flagellation, are filled with fantasies presented as facts, and his letters are further cheapened by the sempiternal allusions he makes to his lifelong obsession, the literary lightweight de Sade. He admits early on that Sade's reasoning, "philosophy" and artistry are laughably bad, but then he continues on in his "admiration," simply because of his affinities and sympathies with Sade's subject matter--and probably because it gives him an easy way to shock his contemporaries with what he's saying, while remaining rather blameless in the process.
Clever ones like Oscar Wilde saw right through him (vide Wilde's bon mot vis-a-vis Swinburne).
Wilde knew how virginal Swinburne really was, and how virtually all of his life was fantasy alone.
Oh, I'm sorry. Phantasy.
I wanted to see if there were any clips of people reading Swinburne poems and this is what I found.
Ugh lol.
I've been reading Swinburne's correspondence, and after a while it just becomes comical. It's like he starts to seem like a character on The Young Ones or something. Possibly, he's the creepy one you just don't see on camera. He's every bit as odd as Vivian.
This poem next is so CREEPY. I can't overuse the word creepy for Swinburne. I imagine Goth kids might like him! Whoever did this video did a great job. I suppose this does hearken back to medieval models where the fallen king speaks, in a sort of Vanitas. I have seen much older poems like this, and I know Swinburne (like many of the Pre-Raphaelites) adored medieval art and writing.
I remember liking this poem when I was a kid...
Thus it makes sense that T.S. Eliot held him in such high esteem.
Well, Eliot loved his poetry; he cast derision on Swinburne's critical prose.
I think he's interesting because he's such a caricature of a human being.
He never really engaged in one-tenth the vice he elevated to virtue.
His letters, so obsessed with flagellation, are filled with fantasies presented as facts, and his letters are further cheapened by the sempiternal allusions he makes to his lifelong obsession, the literary lightweight de Sade. He admits early on that Sade's reasoning, "philosophy" and artistry are laughably bad, but then he continues on in his "admiration," simply because of his affinities and sympathies with Sade's subject matter--and probably because it gives him an easy way to shock his contemporaries with what he's saying, while remaining rather blameless in the process.
Clever ones like Oscar Wilde saw right through him (vide Wilde's bon mot vis-a-vis Swinburne).
Wilde knew how virginal Swinburne really was, and how virtually all of his life was fantasy alone.
Oh, I'm sorry. Phantasy.
I wanted to see if there were any clips of people reading Swinburne poems and this is what I found.
Ugh lol.
I've been reading Swinburne's correspondence, and after a while it just becomes comical. It's like he starts to seem like a character on The Young Ones or something. Possibly, he's the creepy one you just don't see on camera. He's every bit as odd as Vivian.
This poem next is so CREEPY. I can't overuse the word creepy for Swinburne. I imagine Goth kids might like him! Whoever did this video did a great job. I suppose this does hearken back to medieval models where the fallen king speaks, in a sort of Vanitas. I have seen much older poems like this, and I know Swinburne (like many of the Pre-Raphaelites) adored medieval art and writing.
I remember liking this poem when I was a kid...
dear april
Kim Kielhofner.
I love the way she addresses some of her visual poems to abstractions like units of time, months or days of the week.
I love the way she addresses some of her visual poems to abstractions like units of time, months or days of the week.
OMFG...It's THE RAPTURE!!
Did you see this cat in China?! It has angel wings.
IT'S HAPPENING, PEOPLE!!!
THE RAPTURE!!
It's just starting with Chinese cats. Because Chinese cats put up with a lot of shit. I'm sure I don't even need to explain.
Omigod, I just went to the bathroom and took off my "JUST JACK" Sean Hayes shirt (okay, it's Lee's but I steal things) and looked for the wings I WAS JUST SURE would be there...
But nothing yet...
I'm worried...
(I blame this all on a guy named Rufus.)
And Dru, see!!
You haven't grown these yet either!
I told you if you kept fucking that Sully plushie you'd pay!
Now you're set to endure The Tribulations.
I wonder which network will be covering them.
I hope it's at least as good as the Chinese Olympics.
Although, that puppy's gonna be hard to beat!
Maybe if they get Yao Min and that little kid again.
California Just Saved All Y'all Money...
from the gay gift registry at TARGET and Williams Sonoma and....
a poem by Neal Gartland.
People should send me poems for this blog more!
Hint hint!
See my profile for emu addy.
Gay Rights
is getting married to his boyfriend tonight. It's a super secret black magic ceremony that even his boyfriend doesn't know about because he's on the other side of town, sleeping. If any state or federal government attempts to intervene, their entire populace will be beset with chronic G.E.R.D. Chronic!!!! The couple is registered at Tiffany's, and the groom will be wearing moss.
the groom wearing moss
is warring moss is
festering uncle charley
molesting legality
is sad for. What he's done to the boys. not clear. Whether he's granting freedom or condemning to hell. it matters. Not that. it matters. is wicked wicker rocking chair wise. overalls. and all.
like a farm boy to pigs
marrying bacon to
overalls
collapsing mad red heads
from probability. The possible family. traveling all reroutes to
a brutal divorce
not yet
happening
is getting brutal. Plays with your asshole while crushing your fingers. is beauty turning her ice queens shoulders? to your struggle you apply. Running. water not ice. Pressure too. your innards as if they were escaping.
black magic escaping
your pores
is super secret boyfriend. The other side of town. attempts to intervene. Populace.
like a farm boy
wishing his
fish to line
a poem by Neal Gartland.
People should send me poems for this blog more!
Hint hint!
See my profile for emu addy.
Gay Rights
is getting married to his boyfriend tonight. It's a super secret black magic ceremony that even his boyfriend doesn't know about because he's on the other side of town, sleeping. If any state or federal government attempts to intervene, their entire populace will be beset with chronic G.E.R.D. Chronic!!!! The couple is registered at Tiffany's, and the groom will be wearing moss.
the groom wearing moss
is warring moss is
festering uncle charley
molesting legality
is sad for. What he's done to the boys. not clear. Whether he's granting freedom or condemning to hell. it matters. Not that. it matters. is wicked wicker rocking chair wise. overalls. and all.
like a farm boy to pigs
marrying bacon to
overalls
collapsing mad red heads
from probability. The possible family. traveling all reroutes to
a brutal divorce
not yet
happening
is getting brutal. Plays with your asshole while crushing your fingers. is beauty turning her ice queens shoulders? to your struggle you apply. Running. water not ice. Pressure too. your innards as if they were escaping.
black magic escaping
your pores
is super secret boyfriend. The other side of town. attempts to intervene. Populace.
like a farm boy
wishing his
fish to line
Diablo Divine a.k.a. Dusti Cunningham Popped Up in My Flickr Feed
And I said "hellooo snasty..."
Mmmm...beef stew...meaty...
I love his Xmas Card with Divine as Madonna and Child.
Too beautiful!
You rock the lens, Diablo!
Now when Chelsea Handler said (not very charitably) that Tori Spelling looks like a man, I thought that was really dirty.
But I swear for about a whole minute I thought that group set above WAS Tori Spelling.
Aaaaagh!
Speaking of Divine, am I the only one out there who d.v.r.'s the wonderfully awful murder show "Til Death Do Us Part" on TRU t.v.?
John Waters hosts, playing the "Groom Reaper," and he looks slightly cadaverous even without any Halloween makeup.
He is deliciously unctuous in the role.
Every week a couple gets married and one of them ends up murdering the other.
It's all done very humorously...Hitchcock meringue.
Neal on the Spelling Bee
NEAL SAY:
I was watching this today with Jesus, my busboy. He seemed deeply affected by the pressure the kids were under, especially when that one kid (as always)passed the f out. I have passed the f out a lot. I'm like a victorian lady (scandalamity!). I looked Jesus deeply in the eyes and told him, "Look, sometimes Mami just doesn't love you unless you win."
Hehheh.
I think Papi-Mami exchanges should become a recognized literary genre.
If Swinburne can single-handedly legitimize the the roundel, we should go for legitimizing the "Papi-Mami" exchange in poetry, Neal.
I think it's fun to play "Mami-Papi" if Papi looks like the guy rapping "Oye."
Oigo, Papi. Oigo.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
I've Been Reading More Biography & Speculation about Swinburne...
I think it would be fun to write a script based on creepy Swinburne, his creepy family and his mostly creepy Pre-Raphaelite friends.
Sort of a cross between a bad Goth soap opera and the Addams Family.
You'd have to approach it with humor.
There are delightful bit parts for people like Mary Gordon (later the novelist Mary Leith).
I like her.
And the Rossettim have always fascinated me.
And of course you could have Lizzie Siddal dug up again to reclaim the book of poems.
So much for noblesse oblige among the Pre-Raphaelites.
That would give license for errant fantasies to an arrant knave...you know, Lizzie back from the grave looking for "her" poems.
Fun and flagellation.
I Bet the Jocks Friggin Hate It...
when ESPN runs the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee finals.
I love it.
I sort of picture a conversation like this...
Lunkhead 1: Yo Vinnie, what the fuck are all these little kids that look like miniature 7-11 owners doing on ESPN?
Lunkhead 2: Some sort of gay spelling bee shit. And they ain't spelling real words neither. I think it's like...Vulcan words...or some shit like that.
Lunkhead 1: How come all the white kids are losing?
Lunkhead 2: Cuz them's Klingon words...and Klingon is like close to Indian or whatever...it's some sort of dialect of towelhead I think.
Lunkhead 1: Fuck. And they took off dwarf-tossing for this shit?
I love watching this. I was a champion speller in school (you'll ask "What happened?") and made it to state but just missed nationals. I was too nervous a kid. I would spell words wrong I knew just because of the crowd. Ugh.
I just saw my "Words of the Champions" preparation guide from the old competition the other day when I was moving books.
ESPN was rerunning the 2008 just now and I was having fun, closing my eyes and seeing how many of the words I could spell.
I could still get greater than 95% of them correct.
But there were words I would have never gotten.
You can win the National Championship if you get lucky with what words you draw.
I could spell "hyphaeresis" and "prosopopoeia" easily, but words like "thymele" and "posaune" still tripped me up.
Some of the German origin words like the latter just nonplussed me.
Things I have in my house are not hard to spell lol...one girl got the word "rhyton."
Then they gave them some easy German ones like "Kulturkampf."
I'm three times as old as those kids now so I know what 90% + of the damn words mean and their origins.
But they always find some damn hard ones.
The French origin ones are generally used to torture the kids in the final rounds but those are easy for me. They just gave them "ecrase," "esclandre" and a bunch of others. But even though French spelling can be as eccentric as English spelling (I always say Spanish, Italian and even Russian spelling are cakewalks in comparison to those two!) once you know the "tricks" you're okay in French. More so than in English, I think.
They're evil in that they don't give the kids the meaning of the roots.
Take the girl who came in third and went out on "opificer." If they had said, "from the Latin word for 'work'" she would have realized "opus" instantly and cinched it.
Instead, the poor thing went with "epificer," which is actually how it sounded they way they were pronouncing it (which is wrong...he was keeping it ambiguous, the pronouncer, letting the opening vowel sound hover between a short e and a short o!)
I look very much forward to watching the 2009 Spelling Bee on Thursday night!
I have it d.v.r.'ed already.
Some of the kids whom I just saw crushed and dejected as they went down in flames (in 2008) will be back on Thursday to go for the orthographic laurels!
I wonder if the girl from Harrisburg will be back?
She finished in the top ten last year. I hope she's still okay age-wise!
I will be pulling for her if so.
I love it.
I sort of picture a conversation like this...
Lunkhead 1: Yo Vinnie, what the fuck are all these little kids that look like miniature 7-11 owners doing on ESPN?
Lunkhead 2: Some sort of gay spelling bee shit. And they ain't spelling real words neither. I think it's like...Vulcan words...or some shit like that.
Lunkhead 1: How come all the white kids are losing?
Lunkhead 2: Cuz them's Klingon words...and Klingon is like close to Indian or whatever...it's some sort of dialect of towelhead I think.
Lunkhead 1: Fuck. And they took off dwarf-tossing for this shit?
I love watching this. I was a champion speller in school (you'll ask "What happened?") and made it to state but just missed nationals. I was too nervous a kid. I would spell words wrong I knew just because of the crowd. Ugh.
I just saw my "Words of the Champions" preparation guide from the old competition the other day when I was moving books.
ESPN was rerunning the 2008 just now and I was having fun, closing my eyes and seeing how many of the words I could spell.
I could still get greater than 95% of them correct.
But there were words I would have never gotten.
You can win the National Championship if you get lucky with what words you draw.
I could spell "hyphaeresis" and "prosopopoeia" easily, but words like "thymele" and "posaune" still tripped me up.
Some of the German origin words like the latter just nonplussed me.
Things I have in my house are not hard to spell lol...one girl got the word "rhyton."
Then they gave them some easy German ones like "Kulturkampf."
I'm three times as old as those kids now so I know what 90% + of the damn words mean and their origins.
But they always find some damn hard ones.
The French origin ones are generally used to torture the kids in the final rounds but those are easy for me. They just gave them "ecrase," "esclandre" and a bunch of others. But even though French spelling can be as eccentric as English spelling (I always say Spanish, Italian and even Russian spelling are cakewalks in comparison to those two!) once you know the "tricks" you're okay in French. More so than in English, I think.
They're evil in that they don't give the kids the meaning of the roots.
Take the girl who came in third and went out on "opificer." If they had said, "from the Latin word for 'work'" she would have realized "opus" instantly and cinched it.
Instead, the poor thing went with "epificer," which is actually how it sounded they way they were pronouncing it (which is wrong...he was keeping it ambiguous, the pronouncer, letting the opening vowel sound hover between a short e and a short o!)
I look very much forward to watching the 2009 Spelling Bee on Thursday night!
I have it d.v.r.'ed already.
Some of the kids whom I just saw crushed and dejected as they went down in flames (in 2008) will be back on Thursday to go for the orthographic laurels!
I wonder if the girl from Harrisburg will be back?
She finished in the top ten last year. I hope she's still okay age-wise!
I will be pulling for her if so.
God, I Love this One...
How did I miss this one before?
From 2006.
What a great song.
I love the cavalier vocals and the toyshop density that he uses for his remixes of other very cool artists (check out his remix of "Army of Me!")
What a presence.
Genius.
From 2006.
What a great song.
I love the cavalier vocals and the toyshop density that he uses for his remixes of other very cool artists (check out his remix of "Army of Me!")
What a presence.
Genius.
Hahaha Patrick Wolf Can Make 2009 Sound like 1981
Patrick Wolf's "Vulture" from 2009.
Pure 1981 or 82, even the video.
His video presence evokes Morrissey here at times, especially the "spastic Madonna" period of solo career videos like "November Spawned a Monster."
But then possibly there's equal parts idolatry of anime and...Lene Lovich?
And I guess there's the whole Visage/Bauhaus/Ministry thing going on.
"We're British but we really wanna be French."
Even The Cure went (very) French there for a while early in their career.
I still melt for "Love Cats" or "The Butterfly"...songs where they were from nowhere.
Pure 1981 or 82, even the video.
His video presence evokes Morrissey here at times, especially the "spastic Madonna" period of solo career videos like "November Spawned a Monster."
But then possibly there's equal parts idolatry of anime and...Lene Lovich?
And I guess there's the whole Visage/Bauhaus/Ministry thing going on.
"We're British but we really wanna be French."
Even The Cure went (very) French there for a while early in their career.
I still melt for "Love Cats" or "The Butterfly"...songs where they were from nowhere.
Monday, May 25, 2009
I Loves Me My Snasty BBC TV
They run the best "snasty" documentaries.
I knew the BBC was obsessed with transgenders of all ages and transitioning direction, but they took me aback when they ran a docu on brothers and sisters who were living as husband and wife.
They had a British brother who pined (unsuccessfully) for his sister and some Americans who have been happily mated for some time, and a German brother and sister who cohabited and have four children together.
The German couple were the only ones facing dire legal consequences, because the children were proof that they had been violating incest laws.
Other couples might have been living in violation of laws, but as they said to the interviewer, "Prove it."
I believe most of these couples had been introduced later in life, i.e. had not grown up in a household together where the incest tabu would most likely have set boundaries more firmly in place.
The couples seemed genuinely happy, with the exception of the legally beset German couple.
The husband had served several stints in jail as a result, and much worse: the children had been taken from them and placed with foster families.
They had one child remaining, but by the end of the documentary that girl (who was already clearly bonded with her parents) was forcibly taken too. And the father was sent back to jail.
Neighbors of this couple had often accosted them on their outings to the public park, and neighbors in their apartment building would open their doors to scream obscenities at them when they passed down the hall with their children.
The lawyer who represented the couple argued that the law was unconstitutional, as the only logic that it rested upon was the idea that inbreeding causing birth defects (two of their four children did indeed have birth defects) and that if this were the rationale, then the law would need to be expanded to forbid coupling wherein this same situation could occur. In other words, he was trying to get it struck down as an unfair and discriminatory law.
I felt deeply sorry for them. They were clearly two people in love. Having children was foolhardy on their parts. Perhaps they didn't know the likelihood of birth defects, which is very high with kinship that close.
Watching the German neighbors attacking them just reminded me how much we are all monkeys really. It was classic primate behavior.
The documentary tried to promote the idea that there is such a thing as GSA, if I'm remembering correctly. I believe that's "genetic sexual attraction." The idea is that attraction is more likely because you're seeing somebody who resembles yourself so much.
Perhaps GSA explains the marriages of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and the former Van Halens (because in both cases I think the males married female versions of themselves). So even if they didn't fuck their sisters, I still think they're both sisterfuckers to a degree.
I guess those of us who had hateful siblings were lucky. We didn't have to worry about any GSA because we were too busy wishing for their untimely deaths to notice if they were hot or not. I think there's a little Stewie Griffin in all of us...it's not always the mother we're hoping to off though.
I have to admit I thought the one brother and sister couple were sort of hot. You know you would watch it if someone showed you the video. And then you'd probably be like "That's it?...that's all?" Because it isn't like they have invented any new sex acts or anything, right? Probably they're boring.
The Ancient Egyptians did it. I'm sure many other cultures did too. Sisterfucking, I mean.
Oh, they had a mother and son couple too. They too had been separated for a long time. She had had him when she was fourteen. They were the most "poetic" in their description of their love and how it felt. They were also the only ones in shadow, for their own safety.
Oh, monkeys are all looking for that terry cloth mother, as in that famous experiment.
I remember the playground chant, "Incest is best. Put your sister to the test."
I suppose I should say something morally judgmental here, to prove I have ethical standards.
Incest is bad, m'kay.
That work?
Okay, if I can't make a moral argument, I'll make a practical one!
All I can say is, if you think your mother is nagging now, just wait until you "put the blocks to her" dude.
I mean if you think she's needy, you have no idea how I'm sure it would get after that.
Is it really worth it just to high-five your Dad?
And from a marketing point of view, it's rarely a good idea to move back into a piece of real estate you have vacated.
I mean, who does that?
Just because you know the floor plan? That's not a great selling point.
I Think This is a Good Idea and It Might Save Your Life
The staph scares me as much as the staff in hospitals.
Inside Hospital Joke: Picture Marvin Gaye all spangled up, singing, "Oh MRSA MRSA me...oh things ain't what they used to be..."
Hospitals have become some of the greediest corporate entities of our day.
I remember last year I made an appointment for a worrisome matter that turned out to be nothing. But in my haste to get an appointment, I ended up going with the doctor who could see my sooner and tried to call back to cancel the other appointment several times and could not get through. Then (in carelessness and the worry of the hour, I admit) I forgot the other appointment.
Soon thereafter I received a notice (certified letter!) that I was banned from a whole series of hospitals and doctors because I had been "doctor shopping."
I thought "doctor shopping" is what junkies do when they go from doctor to doctor with separate prescriptions. Since when does one example of absent-mindedness equal a junkie with three prescriptions for Vicodin in his back pocket?
I appealed this and they rejected my appeal and the representative of this money-making entity later said to me on the phone in a consolatory manner, "Look...it's not like if you're dying they probably wouldn't treat you if you walked in the door."
LOL. "Probably."
So I realized we had taken a new turn towards even greater greed and maximizing of profit.
In Harrisburg one entity, PINNACLE HEALTH, has pretty much monopolized health care and gobbled up all the hospitals one by one. So if you end up on their "bad side" (and boy do they have one!) in a medical encounter, then you are on the bad side of all of them, basically.
I'm just very fortunate to be healthy (knocking on wood) so I haven't had any dealings with them since that time.
But talk about intimidation tactics that ought to be illegal.
If I were a member of the idle rich, I would have probably investigated legal avenues of redress over that experience. I can't believe they can get away with things like that. And if they're doing that, what other sorts of excesses are they now getting away with?
So if they are going to hold us "accountable" for imaginary sins, they should be held accountable for REAL sins.
Why don't they stop killing people with staph, for one?
Here is the email in which I received that link this morning. I don't remember ever consciously signing up for this mailing list but sometimes they do send some good, pertinent info.
If it was another who enrolled me in this, thanks for the favor!
Most things I delete, but this one seems targeted on some real concerns that jibe with mine!
Dear William,
It seems basic that our hospitals would make sure doctors and nurses are competent in patient safety. But there is an epidemic of medical errors plaguing the health care system.
Demand a mandatory and public reporting system designed to encourage hospital accountability »
Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine sounded the alarm about the widespread medical errors in a groundbreaking report call "To Err is Human." The report led to a rush of congressional hearings and promises of reform – but little progress has been made in the decade since.
While a network of hospital infection reporting systems is emerging, 24 states do not require infection reporting. Systematic improvements in patient safety won't happen until there are national standards.
Urge the Obama Administration to initiate common sense measures to save countless lives and dollars from preventable medical errors »
Thanks for taking action!
Natasha
Care2 Campaign Team
Demand Accountability of Harrisburg Hospitals »
In the past ten years, the U.S. has failed to prevent medical harm. As a result, millions of Americans have died or been injured, and tens of billions of health care dollars have been wasted on treating preventable illnesses.
Forward to a friend >>
Read the petition >>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To stop receiving this newsletter, visit:
http://www.care2.com/newsletters/unsub/3/0/26015664/462e6bb1
or send a blank email message to:
ng-u-3-26015664-8611326-13185139-82a6645b@australia.care2.com
Care2.com, Inc.
275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 300
Redwood City, CA 94065
http://www.care2.com
Inside Hospital Joke: Picture Marvin Gaye all spangled up, singing, "Oh MRSA MRSA me...oh things ain't what they used to be..."
Hospitals have become some of the greediest corporate entities of our day.
I remember last year I made an appointment for a worrisome matter that turned out to be nothing. But in my haste to get an appointment, I ended up going with the doctor who could see my sooner and tried to call back to cancel the other appointment several times and could not get through. Then (in carelessness and the worry of the hour, I admit) I forgot the other appointment.
Soon thereafter I received a notice (certified letter!) that I was banned from a whole series of hospitals and doctors because I had been "doctor shopping."
I thought "doctor shopping" is what junkies do when they go from doctor to doctor with separate prescriptions. Since when does one example of absent-mindedness equal a junkie with three prescriptions for Vicodin in his back pocket?
I appealed this and they rejected my appeal and the representative of this money-making entity later said to me on the phone in a consolatory manner, "Look...it's not like if you're dying they probably wouldn't treat you if you walked in the door."
LOL. "Probably."
So I realized we had taken a new turn towards even greater greed and maximizing of profit.
In Harrisburg one entity, PINNACLE HEALTH, has pretty much monopolized health care and gobbled up all the hospitals one by one. So if you end up on their "bad side" (and boy do they have one!) in a medical encounter, then you are on the bad side of all of them, basically.
I'm just very fortunate to be healthy (knocking on wood) so I haven't had any dealings with them since that time.
But talk about intimidation tactics that ought to be illegal.
If I were a member of the idle rich, I would have probably investigated legal avenues of redress over that experience. I can't believe they can get away with things like that. And if they're doing that, what other sorts of excesses are they now getting away with?
So if they are going to hold us "accountable" for imaginary sins, they should be held accountable for REAL sins.
Why don't they stop killing people with staph, for one?
Here is the email in which I received that link this morning. I don't remember ever consciously signing up for this mailing list but sometimes they do send some good, pertinent info.
If it was another who enrolled me in this, thanks for the favor!
Most things I delete, but this one seems targeted on some real concerns that jibe with mine!
Dear William,
It seems basic that our hospitals would make sure doctors and nurses are competent in patient safety. But there is an epidemic of medical errors plaguing the health care system.
Demand a mandatory and public reporting system designed to encourage hospital accountability »
Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine sounded the alarm about the widespread medical errors in a groundbreaking report call "To Err is Human." The report led to a rush of congressional hearings and promises of reform – but little progress has been made in the decade since.
While a network of hospital infection reporting systems is emerging, 24 states do not require infection reporting. Systematic improvements in patient safety won't happen until there are national standards.
Urge the Obama Administration to initiate common sense measures to save countless lives and dollars from preventable medical errors »
Thanks for taking action!
Natasha
Care2 Campaign Team
Demand Accountability of Harrisburg Hospitals »
In the past ten years, the U.S. has failed to prevent medical harm. As a result, millions of Americans have died or been injured, and tens of billions of health care dollars have been wasted on treating preventable illnesses.
Forward to a friend >>
Read the petition >>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To stop receiving this newsletter, visit:
http://www.care2.com/newsletters/unsub/3/0/26015664/462e6bb1
or send a blank email message to:
ng-u-3-26015664-8611326-13185139-82a6645b@australia.care2.com
Care2.com, Inc.
275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 300
Redwood City, CA 94065
http://www.care2.com
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