[Image above, "Don't Wait for Tomorrow" (original oil on board, 92cm x 122cm), by Nadeem Chughtai] From whiskey river: I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just [...]

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[Image above: Peter Kubik's UFO shaped electronic drums, as featured at the Yanko Design site. The Yanko site says, "This electronic drum produces lighted impressions of your hand in psychedelic colors as it strikes the surface."] When it comes to storytelling, are you a mechanic or a gardener? A little of both? Or something else [...]

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Last night, The Missus and I attended a combined reading-talk-Q&A session with Margaret Atwood. (For the curious, if you’re ever in this neck of the woods in (mostly) February, do check out this arts festival.) The bandwagon of people who believe that those of diminutive physical stature tend to compensate with outsized personalities and ambitions [...]

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I’m really not a fan of the telephone: give me good-old when-I-get-to-it email any day, y’know? (People at work long ago got used to the idea that I intentionally sit with my back to the phone — so I never even have to see the red “voicemail message waiting” light. They all email me, even [...]

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[Above still depicts the Martian "war machines" devastating the California countryside. In the foreground lies a small propeller-driven spotter plane of terrestrial origin, which has crash-landed -- as they are wont to do at the peak of military operations against aliens.] So last night we’re watching the 1953 Hollywood version of The War of the [...]

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From whiskey river: Learn how to meditate on paper. Drawing and writing are forms of meditation. Learn how to contemplate works of art. Learn how to pray in the streets or in the country. Know how to meditate not only when you have a book in your hand but when you are waiting for a [...]

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[Above image, "Magic Eye" by Jennifer Love, first appeared on TrekEarth.] From whiskey river (italicized portion): Beside the grand history of the glaciers and their own, the mountain streams sing the history of every avalanche or earthquake and of snow, all easily recognized by the human ear, and every word evoked by the falling leaf [...]

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I’ve resisted. Oh, how I’ve resisted. Really — it’s been, like, Thou shalt not… and Stay thy hand… and all the rest of those Biblical-sounding injunctions. I’ve been strong. I’ve cared. Ultimately, alas, although I wrestled with the angel, s/he has overcome me. It was never easy. And in the end, it was not even [...]

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I know a fellow I’ll call Guy, although that’s not his real name. (He’s no longer a Boy, but not yet — not consistently– a Man, either, except in the most literal and least important sense.) Guy recently took a weekend trip with his wife. It was a long six-hour drive in a rented car, [...]

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Dear Turner Classic Movies (TCM): I fell in love with you years ago. Who wouldn’t love a cable channel that broadcasts (and re-broadcasts (and, all right, re-re-broadcasts)) timeless movies, often in black-and-white, that otherwise would have faded into obscurity years ago? True, I had moments of doubt (they happen in the best of relationships). Mostly, [...]

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