The Center of the Room

or, more of the kind of behavior I'd prefer to see:

Directions:

Thank someone for being that one. Then, while singing a song, walk with that one to the center of the room and back again. Burn something.


-Seneca

from Shaking the Pumpkin, Traditional Poetry of the Indian North Americas
edited with commentaries by Jerome Rothenberg, 1972.

Both art and history

Nero Magazine

http://www.neromagazine.it/n/

Art, photos and journalism from Italy. Both in Italian and English. The way the photos give you something to look at in the span of time it takes to load the next one, it gives the magazine a sense of velocity.

Also interesting is the conversation with Alighiero e Boetti, of whom I really know nothing.

Linguistic study can be valuable, I suppose, if it can tell us the difference between words such as belong and belongings.

light as element in construction

"In the Bay Area, the light, despite and even in the fog, is bright, strong and bounded; it separates and maintains objects, as if it were the source of their discreteness and their finitude, and makes the contrast between an object and its shadow definite and resolute. Meanwhile in Leningrad light and object merge; everything lifts in the light, drifts, is transformed, returns. The light comes from the side and is visible but diffuse, a mist in myriad tints. So Arkadii said that the blue of the sky is a shade of yellow. And while there is a shade called black, which glitters, another blue is a shade of black too, the black that doesn't glitter..."



Lyn Hejinian in Leningrad - American Writers in the Soviet Union by Michael Davidson, Lyn Hejinian, Ron Silliman and Barrett Watten, 1991



for a better view of the pyramid and Columbus Street, you can view this link:

http://www.planetware.com/picture/san-francisco-transamerica-pyramid-us-casfmk13.htm



Bay Area light...yes, this is really the case for San Francisco at least. Note how the Transamerica Pyramid has an entire side in complete shadow, I want to say that's how it would look at about two or three o'clock in the afternoon..There are many other smaller-scale examples to be found. Also, the dark green building at the end of Columbus Street, right side, maintains Francis Coppola's restaurant at the bottom floor, and I used to go to poetry readings there approx. 10 years ago. This photo is taken near the intersection at Broadway.



And now, Leningrad: (St. Petersburg today)



http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/518092/122806/Fontanka-River-St-Petersburg

http://www.denrus.ru/img/hookcanalcp.jpg

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/images/cathedrals/st-sampson-cathedral.jpg


That last one is very interesting. Although I haven't been to St. Petersburg, it appears as though at certain times of the day/year, the yellowish tint of the sky moves off, and you are left with the impression of being about a mile up in the stratosphere. I have been to an Alaskan latitude of 57 degrees, but the lightwork was not quite the same, although that could be because there is no outstanding architecture in Alaska to serve as a contrast. At the risk of sounding like a complete hippie, it may be interesting to consider how the available light for an urban region conveys its presence within the composition of creative work that appears among artists, when buildings are a substitute for trees in general.

Beckett

http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2010/04/christine-wertheim-infestation-of.html

I didn't know people still had an interest in Beckett. Though Beckett didn't like Eliot, I find him and Eliot about equally boring. With both of them, the criticism on them has stepped in front of the writing, with the result being that you no longer have to read their work to get an understanding of what they're doing. Often it goes like this: "did you ever see that Beckett play where they...?" and then the spoiler goes ahead and tells you what it's all about. Hm..well thanks, now I don't have to read it.

I have a play that a mildly-successful actor friend described as "kind of Beckett-y"; time to dust that off. Many things in fiction are cooler than being and/or non-being, for example: a girl with a gun.

Should I include a girl with a gun in what would be the..hm 7th draft of this play? It's a science-fiction comedy, kind of absurdist. But don't let that sway your opinion. The best way to influence this creative work is by leaving a comment in the comment box, indicating your preference.

right now, I love Rabbit Velvet

http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2010/04/10/saturday-video-roundup-rabbit-velvet/


I often enjoy the Video Roundup selection from Scholars and Rogues.

Just kidding about George Clinton. Well, kind of.

in the beginning

was the snake, and the snake was with God and the snake was God.

http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2010/03/christine-wertheim-infestation-of.html

hmmm

preferred furniture

Now that Ched has moved to Flagstaff, all is much quieter around the house. More time for reading and stuff.

For example, Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen. I find her style very soothing. Maybe I will quote passages from it here shortly. Also digitizing some old documents, time-intensive project. Trying to ascertain if a certain influence was positive or negative. No one you would know.