Thinking of John Cage quotation:
If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.
I particularly like that he uses powers of two to solve the dilemma.
Start of day, in the bathroom window:
On-way to mid-day (keep in mind above quotation if your patient enough to watch):
Mid-day, Union Square:
End of day, dinner:
Today I have a 10:15 am doctor’s appointment in Brooklyn Heights. I wake up a little later than I’d intended, so I have a quick breakfast and hop on the bus. It snowed this morning; water runs vertically on the bus windows.
On New Jersey highways, while driving 65+ MPH, the water drops run at a more horizontal angle. Not so on a stop-and-go city bus.
After the doctor’s appointment, which was a check-up, which is to say I got nothing out of it, I walk through Cadman Plaza. Bare trees abound. They catch my attention a lot these days.
On the train home later today, I’ll read the following sentence in Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:
My mind branches and shoots like a tree.
I will think about how the trees catch my attention, and know that this is why.
But that will happen later. Right now I’m walking towards the train so that I can read the sentence. On Jay Street I pass by the altar for the dead dog.
The altar has been there for at least a year, probably several. It’s always made me happy because it’s an expression of love for an animal companion and because no one has been sick enough to destroy it. I also really like the objects devoted to the puppy. I wonder what stories each of them holds.
I board the train, and continue reading.
Quotations from an interview with Peter Carrol. I like this:
This universe does not appear to be the work of a humanoid sentient deity to me, unless it has a very perverse sense of humour.
And another, which I find a little scary…
I have often found it a good exercise to try and enter the paradigms of people I meet who hold extreme views and to keep taking those views a little further with each turn in the conversation until a positive feedback leads us into realms where the absurdity of the original premise becomes apparent.
…but I like the goal of discovering a core of absurdity.
Did you know I’m recording the new Kung Fu Crimewave record? I am! The recording is mostly done, and I’m preparing it for mixing over at Olive Juice Studios (did you know that I’m working on their website now? I am!).
I love this band. I captured this little video of them playing “Full Moon” in the Northeast Kingdom basement. I showed up around 11:45PM, missing the first song or two, but I entered a warm room with lots of people warmed by the kiss of whiskey. It was one of those special Tuesday nights when everyone had a bit too much to drink for no particular reason. The spontaneous Bacchanale is my favorite drinking environment.
I bought a point-and-shoot digital camera this week. I’m sort of curious about capturing images that I notice repeatedly. I tried out the video function for the first time last night to have record of the little spirals of milk that creep in my tea.
Casey lent me Ursula K LeGuin’s Tehanu, one of the books from The Earthsea Trilogy-turned-cycle. I’ve always been attracted to science fiction, but rarely fantasy (although they both fall under the clumsy term “speculative fiction”). However, the Earthsea Trilogy engaged me the whole way through.
Tehanu was written many years after the original trilogy, and is a very different type of book. Where the other books tell of adventures, Tehanu is much more reflective and conversational on the world the characters inhabit. Still fantastic, but fantastic in the way that the real world is already fantastic.
The world of Earthsea is infused with the power of words; it’s appropriate that while reading I recorded words that I didn’t know how to use well. (For example, I understand the word “ire”, but wouldn’t use it myself because I know there was more of an implication than just “anger”.) Below are the words and definitions, mostly as a reference for myself, but maybe you’d like one as well.
Definitions from Princeton Wordnet (I think)
ire
anger: a strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance
wrath: belligerence aroused by a real or supposed wrong (personified as one of the deadly sins)
Usage: “the witch accepted her due with unending ire”
wheedle
influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
usage: “a wheedling kindness”
gnomic
relating to or containing gnomes
This definition is a little disappointing. I thought it would be more explicitly about the earth rather than just about gnomes.
sagacity
the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations
exigency
a pressing or urgent situation
Usage: “the indifference of a man towards the exigencies that rule a woman”
larder
a supply of food especially for a household
Usage: “living off his larder”
calumny
noun: a false accusation of an offense or a malicious misrepresentation of someone’s words or actions
Usage: “casting calumny and lies”
candor
fairness: ability to make judgments free from discrimination or dishonesty
rebuke
an act or expression of criticism and censure
auspice
a favorable omen
Usage: “and it sounds as if all auspices and events were fortunate”
diffident
showing modest reserve
Usage: “he said it in a diffident way”
I’m subscribed to the Wordsmith Word-a-day mailing list. I like a bunch of them, but rarely use them. I’m keeping ones I like here as a reference for myself.
This past weeks words were all religious. I liked one particular:
eremite (AIR-uh-myt) noun
A recluse, especially for religious reasons.
[From Latin eremita, from Greek eremia (desert), from eremos (solitary).]
I hadn’t known that the word “hermit” was based off of a different word.
Before that, the subject was fear and desire. I often I have this desire.
onomatomania (on-uh-mat-uh-MAY-nee-uh) noun
An obsession with particular words or names and desire to recall or repeat
them.[Via Latin, from Greek onoma (name) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze).]
I like this from reading Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation. I don’t know if I understood a word of it, but it left an impression.
simulacrum (sim-yuh-LAY-krum) noun
1. An image or representation.
2. A vague resemblance to something.
[From Latin simulare (to simulate), from similis (like). Ultimately from
the Indo-European root sem- (one) that is also the source of simultaneous,
assemble, simple, Sanskrit sandhi (union), Russian samovar (a metal urn,
literally, self-boiler), and Greek hamadryad (a wood nymph, who lives in
a tree and dies when it dies).]
Something I fear being.
nihilarian (nih-i-LAR-ee-uhn) noun
One who does useless work.
[From Latin nihil (nothing).]
“You may find yourself worrying that you’re turning into a nihilarian.”
Sian Prior; Ineffable; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Dec 16, 2002.
A word using roots of a word I’m familiar with
cacography (kuh-KOG-ruh-fee) noun
1. Bad handwriting.
2. Incorrect spelling.
[From caco- (bad), from Greek kakos (bad) + -graphy (writing). Caco is
ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate) which
also gave us poppycock, cacophony, and cucking stool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucking_stool . Opposites of today's word are
calligraphy (beautiful handwriting) and orthography (correct spelling).
A related word is cacology http://wordsmith.org/words/cacology.html ]
ugh
dibs (dibz) noun
The right or claim on something.
[From shortening of dibstones, a children's game played with pebbles.]
I didn’t know there was video of this! It’s Amos and I singing one of Phoebe’s songs from her musical of Gilgamesh.
