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When It’s Not Quite (Yet, Still) Light
[Image: "Zodiacal Light vs. Milky Way," by Daniel López; featured at Astronomy Picture of the Day on March 20, 2010] From whiskey river: Incandescence at Dusk (Homage to Dionysius the Areopagite) There is fire in everything, shining and hidden – Or so the saint believed. And I believe the saint: Nothing stays the same in [...]
Unfinished Business
From whiskey river: A Way to Look at Things We have not yet made shoes that fit like sand Nor clothes that fit like water Nor thoughts that fit like air. There is much to be done – Works of nature are abstract. They do not lean on other things for meanings. The sea-gull is [...]
Sublime
From whiskey river (last two stanzas): The American Sublime How does one stand To behold the sublime, To confront the mockers, The mickey mockers And plated pairs? When General Jackson Posed for his statue He knew how one feels. Shall a man go barefoot blinking and blank? But how does one feel? One grows used [...]
4 or 5 Crazee Guys*
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 [...]
What’s in a Song: I Get Along Without You Very Well
(Part 2)
[This is another in an occasional series on popular songs with long histories. Part 1 -- on the song itself as finally recorded by numerous artists -- appeared on Tuesday.] Hoagy Carmichael published “I Get Along Without You Very Well” in 1938. (The copyright date was November 18.) But the song’s history stretched back over [...]
Ira Glass’s Half-Hour “Master Class in Storytelling”
I’ve never attended the annual Gel Conference in New York City, but I always know it’s being held. Afterwards, I always look forward to learning about the year’s events. (Actually, I look forward to that before the conference, too. But I tamp down that particular form of expectation because it makes me wish I were [...]
The Tiny Heart of Darkness
[I'm working on a seasonal offering with my co-blogger. But, as you can perhaps imagine, complications abound in working on anything with a gargoyle. Communication problems, for one -- we're still getting used to each other's language. And no computer "hard"ware known is meant for handling by someone with fingers of stone and eyes incapable [...]
The Boy Hears Himself (Part 1)
During an… odd few years in my younger life, my friend Dean and I became absorbed in experiments involving a reel-to-reel tape recorder. The brand name which Dean and I both “owned,” in those days when electronics were still manufactured domestically, was “Recordio.” (And yes, all right: we didn’t own them; our fathers did.) What [...]
