Free Shit
Who says there’s no such thing? In anticipation for my upcoming move, I’m starting to clean out my closet (not that I have one) and getting rid of excesses. I’m posting stuff as I find it on my 5cense site that I’m giving away. Right now, it’s books by John Olson and Daniel Borzutzky and CDs by Sonic Youth and John Cage. It’s kind of like my life for sale, but instead I’m giving it away.
Skunk Hour
Out loitering at dusk, I spied one of this year’s crop of skunk-kittens — skunks are such beautiful animals — and it put me in mind of Robert Lowell’s “Skunk Hour”. If you can get past the unpleasant timbre of Lowell’s voice, his reading of the poem on the Academy of American Poets site is worth a listen. The poem is more complex than I’d remembered.
solitary bees, 40
He stands quietly on the stairs for a moment, holding the glass in his hand. Once the noises have stopped, he makes his way up again and stands in the doorway to the room where she lies, eyes closed, half under the covers.
I brought your water.
She opens her eyes and turns her head toward him.
Thanks.
She sits up. She takes the glass in her hands and drinks from it.
Who was at the door?
A man who used to live out here. He wants to buy the house.
You going to sell it to him?
She wipes her mouth with her wrist and sets the glass on the night table.
I’m not sure. I haven’t really thought about it I guess.
He takes the card out of his pocket and hands it to her.
She looks at it and sets it on the table; her hands folded above the blanket on her lap.
Field Recording: 1.2.2007
[http://www.barrystone.com/music/1_2_2007.mp3]
Hot Dr. Pepper Commercial
Hot DP
From the Wikipedia entry on DP —
In the 1990s, the movie Blast from the Past has a character played by Christopher Walken whose wife (played by Sissy Spacek) prepared hot Dr Pepper. There was an actual campaign in the early 1960s to serve Dr Pepper hot with slices of lemon as a winter drink. The police investigators at the beginning of Blast from the Past can be seen reeling in disgust at his having it prepared hot.
Hot DP was an abomination. It was nasty.
the mystery of absinthe solved
This just in. In-depth scientific analysis has revealed the mysterious creativity-enhancing ingredient in absinthe.
The culprit seems plain and simple: The century-old absinthe contained about 70 percent alcohol, giving it a 140-proof kick. In comparison, most gins, vodkas and whiskeys are just 80- to 100-proof.
george mikes and epigrams
Epigrams take us on elegant brisk journeys; they are smart ripostes in which X proposes, Y disposes. They are beautifully crafted little musical instruments, exquisite jewelled needles that can do real harm. There is nothing quite so lethal as a neat binary:
Four legs good: two legs bad.
Me Tarzan, you Jane.
from George Szirtes
Gene Replacement Therapy for Blindness
Gene replacement therapy has been used successfully in restoring partial sight to people with Leber’s congenital amaurosis.
Some vision was restored in four of the six young people who got the treatment, teams of researchers in the United States and Britain reported Sunday. Two of the volunteers who could only see hand motions were able to read a few lines of an eye chart within weeks.
Gene therapy replaces faulty genes with a normal version and has been practiced with limited success for over fifteen years.
The field suffered a setback with the 1999 death of Jesse Gelsinger, 18, in an experiment for a liver disorder at Penn. And some children treated for an immune disorder called the “bubble boy disease” later developed leukemia.
The early results of the eye experiments should give the field a boost, some experts said.
Meet the Family
(via never mind that now.)
DP Q & A
No, no, no. Dr Pepper.
Q: I have 2 commemorative cans of Dr. Pepper. One is full of soda and one is empty. The archives of Abilene Christian University would like to keep both cans. Can anyone offer advice regarding safe housing and storage of the Dr. Pepper cans?
A: Try the Dr. Pepper Museum people.
(From the Archives & Archivists List)
Canevese Giuseppe’s Graphic Furniture
Press conference
Did you notice the extended sequence of chympathetic expressions during this morning’s news (ahem) conference?
Microsoft CEO Uses Mac for Presentation
The Dallas World Aquarium
Dear Serial Killer
A man writes letters to serial killers, posing as a ten year old, asking for advice on whether he should drop out of school. The serial killers respond.
(via kottke, boing boing)
Erwin Wurm’s Inspection
Dear Clusterflock
What do you regret?
the solution to soaring gas prices: god
How we didn’t realize this sooner is beyond me. Apparently, since our federal leaders aren’t doing much about the rising costs of gasoline, there is but one logical conclusion: ask God to lower them. I mean, duh.
“God is the only one we can turn to at this point,” said Twyman, 59. “Our leaders don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. The prices keep soaring and soaring.”
Gas prices have been driven relentlessly higher this year by the bull market for crude oil, gasoline’s main ingredient. A gallon of regular now costs $3.89, on average, in California, while the national average has hit $3.58.
To solve the problem, Twyman isn’t begging the Lord for any specific act of intervention. He is not asking God to make OPEC pump more oil. Nor is he praying for all the speculative investors to be purged from the New York Mercantile Exchange, where crude oil is traded.
Instead, he says anyone who wants to follow his example should keep it simple.
“God, deliver us from these high gas prices,” Twyman said. “That’s all they have to say.
Given the massive logjam in the world’s unanswered prayer queue (I never did get my Beeman pellet gun when I asked for one), I can’t see God getting around to this anytime soon, but I could be wrong. Maybe stillborn babies, widespread regional wars, disease, poverty and child abuse don’t rank all that high in God’s world. Maybe God truly cares about gas prices, because the religious right is where most of his prayer energy comes from, and they do love their Escalades and Navigators.
I think I’m onto something.
Cambridge Women’s Pornography Cooperative
Dear Clusterflock
Verbing weirds language.
What’s your favorite verbificated word?
cafe view
In the past week, trees have started to blossom or show leaves, softening every part of the landscape.
More Writers Than Readers?
During lunch I read an article which reminded me of Clay Shirky’s observations applied to literature:
“As publishing has become less expensive, the urge to write my own self has become the opportunity to publish my own self,” said Gabriel Zaid, a Mexican critic and the author of “So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance,” a meditation on literary life in an over-booked world. Today, he added, “Everyone now can afford to preach in the desert.”
Almost Finished
I have graded papers today to the point of acquiring a waking dream: jittery bands of letters like army ants, coming for me in my sleep.
The Porsche Dress
(Via a comment on A Dress A Day)
