Moving

1) Start packing
2) Move essentials & let Cash adjust
3) Hire movers to move the big stuff
4) All belongings out of the old apartment and into the new
5) Finish painting that one section of the kitchen
6) Clean
7) Landlord walk-through

8) Turn in keys (today after work)

FIN
whew.

List: 4/28/2010

1. Is patent leather "out"? I'm mostly referring to this pair of red patent leather Franco Sarto strappy wedges that I like but haven't really worn as much as I thought I would when I bought them a few years ago.

2. My niece Hannah turned TEN on Monday. Does that make anyone else feel old?

3. Simplify: There's no better way to "downsize" your stuff than moving right? I think we've done (and will continue) to do a good job assessing our stuff and shedding what we don't need. It's also been a good time to decide what we do need and/or want.

4. I need to be better about saving. I'm not in trouble, but, I could definitely be smarter about spending.

5. A comprehensive survey (meaning including H.P.) of my reading says I'm currently in book 16 for 2010. It's still April, that's damn near a book a week. I haven't been consistently Monday book posting, but it's still pretty good all things considered.

6. I just can't wait to be done with moving. I can't wait to start cooking regularly again. Cold cereal and eating out get old so quickly.

7. Around New Year I said I'd like to take a dance/yoga class once a week. I'm currently at dance rehearsal/class 4-5 days/week and until just recently have been in yoga about one day/week as well!

8. I've started a small potted garden. My arugula has really taken off! I have a giant bowl of zingy peppery salad growing outside! My cherry tomato plants are already starting to flower, basil and cilantro are growing like weeds, we'll see how the pepper plants and heirloom tomatoes do. I've also got some mint and lavender started. Lucky enough, the South has 2 growing seasons so I can continue to add plants/seeds to my little pots and grow through September!

9.Having a fenced in yard has changed my relationship with my dog. Cash is so much more calm and loving. He wants to love on us all. day. long! He is seeking a lot more eye-contact instead of being so indifferent. It's yet another thing that makes our new home feel so nice. (Now, if only we can finish unpacking/organizing!) 

10. Some bookish quotes I enjoyed from someone who knows a lot about books and purports to know why we should read them (Mr. Harold Bloom):

"Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you, because it is, at least in my experience, the most healing of pleasures. It returns you to otherness, whether in yourself or in friends, or in those who may become friends. Imaginative literature is otherness, and as such alleviates loneliness. We read not only because we cannot know enough people, but because friendship is so vulnerable, so likely to diminish or disappear, overcome by space, time, imperfect sympathies, and all the sorrows of familial and passional life."

"A childhood largely spent watching television yields to an adolescence with a computer, and the university receives a student unlikely to welcome the suggestion that we must endure our gong hence even as our going hither: ripeness is all. Reading falls apart, and much of the self scatters with it. All this is past lamenting, and will not be remedied by any vows or programs. What is to be done can only be performed by some version of elitism, and that is now unacceptable, for reasons both good and bad. There are still solitary readers, young and old, everywhere, even in the universities. If there is a function of criticism at the present time, it must be to address itself to the solitary reader, who reads for herself, and not for the interests that supposedly transcend the self."

"We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are. Yet the strongest, most authentic motive for deep reading of the now much-abused traditional canon is the search for a difficult pleasure. I am not exactly an erotics-of-reading purveyor, and pleasurable difficulty seems to me a plausible definition of the Sublime, but a higher pleasure remains the reader's quest. There is a reader's Sublime, and it seems the only secular transcendence we can ever attain, except for the even more precarious transcendence we call "falling in love." I urge you to find what truly comes near you, that can be used for weighing and for considering. Read deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that writes and reads."

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This past weekend I finished Book 3, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I give it points above the first two for leaving out Voldemort for once. 7 encounters with Voldemort in 7 years means 7 times the brute has regained power and 7 times failed... not only redundant but sounds as if we have a few inept wizards in our midst (both good and bad). Now, I can't recall if Voldemort appears in both 5 & 6 but 6/7 says theratio is a little too high and new plot devices should really be invented. So far Book 3 is the highest in rank for my Harry Potter reading adventures.


I haven't kept up will all of the movies but I watched Book 3's corresponding film this weekend. It's...cheesy. Are they all so cheesy? Breathtaking countryside, expensive clothing (have you ever seen so many minors in such high end clothing? I mean, Hermione is the new Burberry model...), and Lupin and Dumbledoor taking Harry on lengthy walks through the outdoors sharing their wisdom...


I don't know, it's not really my cup of tea. I really enjoyed it when I was younger and I think it works well for a young audience; however, I take issue with it now because I very much feel like Harry Potter is not for young readers and does not have an audience mostly comprised of youngsters and their parents. Harry Potter has come to be fully embraced by the general public. Countless adults list Harry Potter as their favorite book(s) (go look at your Facebook friend pages, you'll be shocked at how many people list Harry Potter). Is this because the general public does not read literature after high school graduation? I don't even think that statement deserves much merit because I'm a lover of children's/young adult literature! I do, I love and have taken multiple classes on each. I think it can be profound, moving, empowering... Is there something I am missing in my revisitation to this text?

I'm not hating on you if you like it. If you like it I think that's wonderful! I mean, I still stand by my earlier statement that I think the uncanny way it got people you, old, and across cultures reading with hunger and frenzy and investment is incredible.

I'd like to hear the why's ...

It's fun. It has that element working for it. I called Cash a "filthy mud-blood" in reference to his mix breed, assigned points to Gyffindor when someone said something clever at dance rehearsal, and told Darling I wanted a house-elf to do our work for us... So maybe it's just fun...




I'm going to take a bit of a Potter break and get caught up with other reading for a while but it's not the end for Potter and myself.





*Today should be our last day at the old apartment (if not today then tomorrow) w00t!

Paper Sculpture

I've spent all day going ga-ga for the work of Matthew Sporzynski << Hundreds of images, all impeccably sculpted from paper! It's so delicious.

Love The Earth

Image via Matthew Sporzynski

Happy Earth Day!

“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.” 

- Wendell Berry

“Take what you can use and let the rest go by”

- Ken Kesey

"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this." 

- Henry David Thoreau

“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.”

- Walt Whitman

 

xoxo

45 Books (Does it count?)

Book 12

The Year of Magical Thinking - Joan Didion

Does it count if I listened to it on audiobook? (All I'm looking for is one "yes" :) ) I've (as you know) had my hands full lately and reading hasn't been a top priority while everything I own is between the two apartments (no longer neither here nor there, but now, mostly (and annoyingly) here but still tied there). That being the case, I've switched to audiobook for my afternoon/evening commute(s)--mornings are for Morning Edition. 

In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion shares her personal exploration, experience, and study of grief and bereavement after her husband's death in 2004 and daughter's hospitalization and induced coma in 2004-05.  Didion is a Christian, but her thoughts and insights into death and grief are not sanctimonious (thankfully). I found her repetition and use of key phrases "You're safe, I'm here," "More than even one more day," "Why do you always have to be right?" etc., very powerful as signifiers of the past text and as cohesive binds to all of the personal stories woven to create the particular version being told. I was quickly put-off by the name-dropping of all the people we knew, places we stayed and lived, and crazy adventures we constantly seemed to be having... but her emotional responses were honest and her reevaluations, reflections, and responses were poignant.

Having experienced loss in my own family, I found truth, similarities, and myself understanding (even if not empathizing) the place from which she was writing. I wasn't crazy about it, I wasn't disappointed by it. It's not a cry-your-eyes-out-sensation (which, after reading multiple reviews I found disappointed many, many people), but it comes from a sincere, reflective, and quiet place which jives with my personal taste for the subject matter. I would probably recommend it, without raving about it, if you asked my opinion on reading it...

New Pretties

Moving has provided the perfect excuse for Darling and I to indulge in a few personal purchases that we have otherwise probably left alone.

New pirate plates, milky-blue tumblers, and white ceramic pitcher from Anthropologie.
New knock-off lamps from Target.
New 42" Panasonic Plasma from Best Buy.

I did use the word "indulge."


It really does make all the hustle and cleaning and organizing and lifting and painting and decision-making all a bit more exciting. Really.

Tybee Island, GA

My first trip to the Atlantic

I Miss You, Short Hair

I saw this girls cute haircut and suddenly missed having short hair. I've had short hair for most of my life and only about 3 years ago did I (for some reason or another, it's probably just laziness) stop getting haircuts altogether. This is the length of my hair as of 3/11/2010... to cut or to grow? to dye or to leave? fringe or no fringe?


I think the time to find a new hairdresser (yes, it's true, I haven't gotten my hair cut, not once, since I've been in Memphis) ... what to do, what to do ...

Also, we're moving! More coming on that later... I've been tired, working hard to get this move underway (I swore up and down less than a year ago I'd never move again) and things have fallen into place unexpectedly, quickly, and neatly (the timing is impeccable, if anything). Wish us luck.

xoxo

Savannah Music Festival

Each of the three days we spent in Savannah we were able to watch some really incredible live music (we arrived during the Savannah Music Festival). As I bragged about earlier, Darling purchased She & Him tickets for my birthday. I'm just letting you know (here, now) that it's way up there for best live performances. Zooey? Yes, she really sounds that amazing. I'd go so far as to say that they record albums in single takes and there is not a single filter applied to her vocals in post production editing (if that's what it's called in the music recording industry). M.Ward, the subtle bastard... I can only say that the desire to see him play solo has magnified. My one critique of She & Him is that I wish M. Ward sang more on their records, and, Volume 2 (which we bought on vinyl) is a step in that (right) direction... The sound at the SCAD Trustees Theater was impeccable... every nuance, strum, whistle, all of it--wonderful.

  We had such a good time Saturday night that we looked to see what was happening around the city and saw that Jazz at Lincoln Center directed by Wynton Marsalis (who is said to be one of the "great" trumpet players--he's in his 40s!) was playing at the Civic Center (another concert venue with perfect, crisp sound) on Sunday. A lot of original, contemporary compositions (many of them by JALC members performing), and a vignette of works based on visual artists (Pollock, Monet, Dali, etc.) made for a really intriguing and moving performance. Darling and I were among the only "under 50s" in the audience which is too bad--I'm no jazz aficionado, but, according to me (if it counts for anything) you don't need to be one to listen to and enjoy JALC. Their music is very accessible.

So Monday rolled around and we said, "what the hell?" (why stop a good thing?) and went to a small venue near the river (whose name escapes me) to see New Orleans jazz pianist Henry Butler play. In a really wonderful way, it had that great New Orleans "ring" (?), you know what I mean, you do--there's something inside of the music that feels like you've heard it before... You can listen to a variation of one of my favorites from the afternoon: Orleans Inspiration <-- if you've got 6 minutes to spare... Surely, I don't have to tell you, it's nowhere near the same as hearing it live...

This is only the beginning my friends. I loved Savannah. Loved. No, seriously. It was so great.... We took my film SLR and haven't yet developed the photos so some Savannah love photos (that is, assuming a few turn out) might sporadically start popping up on here.

I Looked Out The Window...

... And What Did I See??*

*For those also familiar with Mormon Primary culture: You may relate to my sentiments upon seeing the early spring blossoms in the South.

Fortune

My lunchtime fortune cookie from Pei Wei reveals truth:

Sometimes traveling to a new place leads to great transformation.





xoxo

45 Books

Book 11

Arthur Rimbaud Complete Works - Translated by Paul Schmidt.

So, the truth is I will be finishing this book today as I've still got a few pages left to go. I feel confident I'm going to finish it... The complete works of Arthur Rimbaud... This book is ordered roughly chronologically, organized in "Seasons" to sort of tell the story of Rimbaud's young life. Each "season" begins with biographical notes about Rimbaud's life, followed by the work from that time, and then the remaining letters to and from Rimbaud from that time period as well. Reading Rimbaud in this way has been very interesting as the progression, formulation and focus of his work shifts and adapts accordingly. 

Child-poet, Rimbaud stopped writing altogether at around the age of 21 and died at 37. Unconventional, vagabond, bohemian, French, Rimbaud serves as an influence to modern literature and is hailed as "the father of symbolism."

One must be absolutely modern. -- Farewell

 I say you have to be a visionary, make yourself a visionary.

A Poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, where he becomes all men the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed--and the Supreme Scientist! For he attains the unknown! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than anyone! He attains the unknown, and if, demented, he finally loses the understanding of his visions, he will at least have seen them! So what if he is destroyed in his ecstatic flight through things unheard of, unnameable: other horrible workers will come; they will begin at the horizons where the first one has fallen! 

-- Letter to Paul Demeny

The later into his work and biography I read, the more interested I become. I don't know if it's getting jucier, if his writing is significantly better, or if I've just read enough material that I'm invested more than I realize? Is this the way poetry works in general? Poetry is new turf for me. I've read some poetry, but my no means can I sit down and "talk poetry" with you, I'm just nowhere near having read that much. I've always been on the other side of the poetry crowd, separate from that elite club (if you will). So, on my own, I'm going to make my way through new, different books of poetry (recommendations and opportunities for discussion are welcome) and see how my relationship to that genre changes...


This article might be of interest to other poetry "newbies"

Each poem is the unique vessel of its own intent, focus, tone, theme, language, discovery, astonishment: it resists category, except perhaps the category of form. A poem may consent to being called a haiku, or a sonnet, or a villanelle; it may be content to being called "free," and once upon a time—a time that now begins to take on a kind of autumnal browning—it was delighted to stand under the eaves of the term "modern." And still it is possible, or nearly possible, to say what any single poem is "about"—although a poem may be less about what it is about, and more about its intimations, its penumbra, its scent, its own hiddenness or elusiveness...

What is strange about poetry is what is most manifest: not so much the unpredictable surge of its music as the words of which it is made. Everyone uses words; from minute to minute, from a million larynxes, a deluge of words falls on the air. Every word has its own history, and is a magnet for cultural accretion. A poet has the same access to the language-pool as a tailor, an archaeologist, or a felon. How strange that, scooping up words from the selfsame pool as everyone else, a poet will reconfigure, startle, and restart those words!

And Darling can point me to a Harold Bloom quote that I've had coming to mind but want to be sure of the wording before I go off pretending like I know what I'm talking about.


So if the 52 weeks in a year is used as a metronome: I've still got 34 books to read (not counting the Harry Potter Books--I'm on Book 3 now) and about 39 weeks to do that in... man, can anybody else believe it's already April??? Time is flying folks.

Happy Birthday!

April Fools Day is my sweet little Cashman's estimated birthday!! (It's oddly fitting for such a sweet dopey little boy.)

My guess is that in the street puppy world (especially in Memphis) making it to 1 year is a pretty big deal! So tonight we'll be doing a little celebrating! I'm looking up recipes to make him a special pupcake! Maybe his friends Lucy, Stella, and Theo can come over for a slice?

We got home from our dreamy trip last night. If you were wondering, it was really fantastic. The odds were totally in our favor and we had a wonderful time with loads of good music, good food, good wine, pretty scenery and plenty of relaxation... I'll get some photos up eventually but today is my only day working this week and I've got emails and phone calls to catch up on before a glorious 3-day weekend!

Many Happy Returns Cash Baby!