Rough Days for a Gentil Knight

Monday 30 September 2002

Poetry on the art of poetry. 5:48:51 PM    comment [] On the Saturday night reading of the 2002 Dodge Poetry Festival, Stanley Kunitz remembers being rocked on his feet by Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “God’s Grandeur,” found as he was rummaging through the Harvard stacks. His poem “Touch Me” had a similar effect on me when I first opened to it in the pages of... The New Yorker, I think. It struck me with that chord of longing and rabid jealousy that the great poems evoke in me. It was around that time that I made the pilgrimage to the 92nd Street Y to attend his 90th birthday celebration. I remember the jokes he made about... Ben Jonson, was it?... and how Ben Jonson laughed at being the oldest poet, still publishing at around 90? Other poems have wrought that effect on me, the wish that I had the skill to write in such a way, that I could touch someone like that. Stephen Dobyns’s “Missed Chances.” Edward Estlin Cummings’s poems. Weldon Kees, alas. William Butler Yeats. 5:48:02 PM    comment []

Friday 27 September 2002

Nirvana fans, rejoice. Or wallow in misery for what could-have-been. 2:53:28 PM    comment [] A lot of people (or one very persistent person) have been searching (using various engines) for Billy Collins’s poem, “The Lanyard.” Sorry, it’s not here, nor have I seen it in any of the collections of his poetry I am familiar with. Perhaps it’s fairly recent, in which case you’d best look in APR or Poetry or some literary journals. All that’s here is a set list of some of the poems he read on the last Sunday of the “Dodge Poetry Festival.” [Update: a lot of people have also been Googling for Amiri Baraka-related material. If you want the set list and notes from the speech on Sunday, it’s there too.—Allan, 1 Oct 2002] Thanks for stopping by; I would appreciate your comments, even derogatory ones. If I were thin-skinned, I would not be publishing a weblog. 12:21:09 PM    comment []

Monday 23 September 2002

Dodge Poetry Fest Pictures If you’re more visually oriented and want to see the Dodge locale, the bucolic Waterloo Village, Mobius (One?) has pictures of the area. None of the program poets, though, just himself and his friends, that is, poets all, but none of the headliners were photographed. Let me try that again. The poet Mobius1 (?) posted pictures of himself and his compatriots, but none of the “Featured Poets” or “Poets Among Us.” It seems we were the only bloggers there, at least the only ones to have posted anything that Google picked up. 8:40:04 PM    comment [] Getting Out of Dodge ...was much worse this year than elsewhen. I suppose this can only be a good thing for poetry, to find so many poetry lovers that you are clogging up the access road. Or is it just bad traffic light planning? 7:28:14 PM    comment [] Dodge Poetry Festival, Sunday afternoon set: Laureates This is my third or fourth time here, so I managed to keep myself from going on a buying spree and skipped the signings so I didn't miss readings, though both Stern and Kunitz had important recent collections that I ought to have picked up. [Update: no, no copies of “The Lanyard” here. But since you’re here, I tossed in some links to some of the poems that I could find. I hope you find something of interest. —Allan, 30 Sep 2002] Gerald Stern. "Three Hearts," on New Jersey. "The Dancing," about a Filco Radio. "The Dog." The great ideal of poets is either a great large poem running several thousands of lines, or a great short poem. This is "St. Marks." A poem on Orpheus? Stern thanks Haba. "Drowning in the River." "In Time" in American Sonnets, all the poems are about (singing [to abuse the audience, more on that later]) 2 4 6 8 12 16 20 lines long (end singing) but who's counting, as Shakespeare once said. In an interview. You did know that I have the only extant copy of the Shakespeare interview, didn't you? "Cigars," though the question of whether the audience would know what a stoop is. I won't (patronize) you--that would be stu-pid. (Hah) Amiri Baraka. Poet Low-rate. [great speech] Writers, write! Give away poems. In the market, in the square, outside the banks. Paste them up. Copy them in copy centers. No matter what you believe in. Five hundred years ago, Shakespeare wrote, and it's his words we hear, and who remembers who the Lord Mayor of London was? Show them that the artistic mind is stronger than the economic mind! As poets, write, even if it puts you in the middle. Because it puts you in the middle, fight for truth, fight for truth and beauty. "In Town," then "Understanding Readiness" for Stokey Carmichael, "Between Infrared and Ultraviolet," which started with a vocal piece after Dizzy Gillespie. [Okay, I disagree with many of Baraka's views, but unlike Bly, he can let the poetry speak for him.] Eugene Friesen on cello: Bach, using voice as an element. An elegy for Pablo Kassavides, the late patriarch of the cellists, in a (Kassavides) death mask and black cape. Rita Dove (1993-1995). Thanks to Jim Haba and Scott... "Parsley," parts one ("The Cane Fields") and two ("The Palace"). Haitian workers killed by Dominican general based on how they pronounced the Spanish word for parsley. "The Island Women of Paris." "Ghost Walk: Chateau d'Elysee 1966" (I think): "...searching for his laughter and a last glass of wine." "Goethe Demimonde" (I think): "...to hell with wisdom, they're all wrong,/I'll never be through with my life." From the Rosa Parks sequence: "When the fire hits," "Claudette Colvin goes to work," and "Rosa." Newer poems, always a scary thing: "I have been a stranger in a strange land." Recently started taking ballroom dancing lessons, as an easy activity. Never worked harder in my life: "Foxtrot Fridays." "Now," my take on the glass half empty, half full. "The Sisters Swan Song," from a series of cameos: "...we all died of insignificance." "Last Words," [a really excellent piece, must find it:] "What nonsense! That's not even worth writing down." Robert Hass. (Haba: Kunitz selected him for Yale Younger, then Hass preceded him as Poet Laureate. Started the watershed conference). Mostly new work. "Ending of other people's poems:" "...the song they did not hear." [Odysseus and silent musics] "Describing color is impossible and the one wing of the arc of desire," which I believe I heard him read at Poetry and the Public Sphere. "Supple wreath of myrtle," a meditation on Nietzsche. "Tender little Buddha..." on Whitman and his love, and Whitman and his true love, poetry. Two poems named "Etymology," I think, one about bodily fluids and the speaker being caught picking his nose, the other about finding that word he wanted in the earlier poem. "Terror of the Innings," from a series. "Habits of Paradise" "The world as will and representation," about Antibuse (anti-alcoholic drug) his fifties father and off-kilter mother, alcohol, and where one gets moral ideas as his mother gags down alcohol she cannot handle. A piece using a long line found in Horace, the Asclepedeian line, one that Hopkins used for his line about the Farrier, Felix the farrier is dead, my duty all ended. Don't think he mentioned the title. "My first wife's daughter's..." etc. That's as long a line of poetry as a line should get. Meg lost him again. "The Seventh Night," about a poetic contest at a writing colony or something. Very good; find it. Paul Winter on clarinet, doing "Canyon Suite" or "Canyon Lullabye" or somethign like that, based on experiences at the Grand Canyon, someplace he dubbed "Bach's Canyon" and a found harmony at St. John the Divine's (the big Episcopalian church in NYC, if you're not from the area). "Canyon Shockwave"? I think he gave three different names for it. Robert Pinsky (1997-2000). (Long Branch, he went to Rutgers, then Stanford [studying under Yvor Winters]). I am worried by Bush, saying he's doing things in my name that I don't agree with. But I am glad that this has not taken away my right to patriotism, that he has allowed me to grieve. Do not mind if I talk past your applause, I appreciate it, but I have been concerned of late about the phenomenon of applause. "Samurai Song." On Long Branch, "The Questions," speaking of how the NJ speech mannerism of "What about...?" [This gave a familial sense of the characters of Long Branch.] "The Figured Wheel," and the circular sense of history: "It's hard to read when you can't inhale." Something about connectedness and touch, and the poem, "Shirt" about a factory worker in a blaze. "Book." "Newspaper." "...the skein of days." We feel a need, an obligation to take care of our young and our old. Evil intermingles with good, and it is a life's work to untangle it: "Civic Rites." A revision of yesterday's poem [the chutzpah one, remember?], about who I am and what I owe you, all these issues tied up to being a bad boy in high school, "Immature Song." He reads it and walks away. Stanley Kunitz. The Dodge Fest is one of the glories of the arts and of citizenship as well. Giving voice to the [disenfranchised]. It has become a gathering of the clans. And I don't mean clans with a capital K. This first poem was written 55 years after the traumatic events it describes. "The Portrait." (the father's suicide and mother's slap-on-the-cheek one). Sometimes my mother could not take care of me and so fostered me with a French Canadian family in Worcester, Mass. "1914: This is not what I remember most about it." I wanted to write the obscure legend of my youth. And I had such a difficult time writing its conclusion... and then I turned on my television to see Martin Luther King, Jr. being assassinated. About two weeks earlier, he had been telling me about the horrors that the Civil Rights movement was experiencing, the opprobrium, and he urged the poets to join their voices to their own. I saw his assassination, went into the other room, and in a few minutes the poem was finished. It is in four parts. "On my way home from school...." This next one has a reference to Meister Eckhardt, the 13c German mystic: give away all your possessions, for God scorns to show Himself among images: "The Image Maker." The ancient Vikings' funerary rites, where the boat was set adrift aflame to journey into forever: "The Long Boat." This poem was written after the loss of many friends all at once, and all my immediate family: "The Layers." ("...live among the layers, not among the litter.") This next one is on Halley's comet, 1910, 1986, 2062. This one refers to the 1910 one" "Halley's Comet." (Child in school, at dinner, in bed, on the roof) This next one reveals my gardenter's soul: "The Round." "Touch Me." (This is one of my favorites. Well, more later.) My last poem... of this evening... (Hah) is called "King of the River," about a salmon. In some cases, you may not be able to distinguish which is the man and which the salmon. Don't worry about it. Haba: The real challenge in helping Stanley Kunitz off the stage is to get out of his way.," Paul Winter on the clarinet. Billy Collins. (Catholic schools throughout education... "full metal jacket." Being selected as poet laureate was like a soft wrecking ball from outer space. A genius for not being where you expect him to be.) Thanks, Jim Haba, applause. And now back to me. Of all poetry gatherings I've been to, these four days have been the most... humid. [Yes indeed]. "Genius" recalls the wild swans at Coole (Yeats), and the need as a poet when passing swans to count them. "The Lanyard," (on motherhood). "Love." I found the first two lines in a magazine, the work of Jacques Krechion, a poet I had never heard of, living in Belgium. Since that is a fairly safe distance... the first two lines are his, but I took his idea in another direction: "Litany." "Surprise," (on Vivaldi's 350th birthday). "No Time," and it's not often one gets a laugh from an audience for a poem about your dead parents. Songs stuck in your head, this is called, "More than a woman;" it used to be called "Build me up buttercup," but... it's the only poem I know with a title that can change from day to day. "Nine Horses." Hard to follow Stanley Kunitz, or precede him, or any of the other poets on the program. "Forgetfulness," (that river in the underworld that begins with L). "Nostalgia." (for the 1300s, 1500s, 1700s, etc) I wished to write a perfectly organized poem, according to the Aristotelian parts, called "Aristotle." I feel like I'm standing between you and the rest of your lives. "Japan." Since Stanley Kunitz is apparently bringing his A-list poems, I'll follow his lead. "On Turning Ten." This next one mentions the jazz of Johnny Hartman, "Night Club." 1:34:08 AM    comment []

Sunday 22 September 2002

An anecdote from the 2000 DPF: At the last Dodge Poetry Fest, I asked Stanley Kunitz to sign my copy of Passing Through. I think he was somewhat sick that day. I told him then, “Whenever I read your ‘Three Small Parables for my Poet Friends,’ it teaches me humility about craft. But whenever I read ‘Touch Me’ it reminds me that a perfect poem is possible.” 11:53:26 PM    comment [] I was not able to ask Gerald Stern today, “‘Lovesick’ is a poem that transports me, so much so that I find it difficult to analyze. Could you go over some of the technical decisions you made while writing it?” because some bozo in the front row asked a question about justice and love that set him off. However, I was able to sing a duet with him: By the light of the silvery moon I like to spoon with my honey I’ll croon love’s tune Honeymoon keep a-shinin’ in June... See? Glee club was good for more than just putting yourself on the fast track to geekdom in high school. 6:28:31 PM    comment []

Saturday 21 September 2002

Dodge Poetry Festival, Saturday evening set list Friesan on cello. Whales, chipmunks, Church Rhythms. Haba: Not like previous programs; each poet to read one poem by themselves and another by another. "I constrained each poet to five minutes, insofar as you can constrain poets." Peter Cole. Andalusia. Primordial->nothing. Coleman Barks. "Poet and president," When Whitman and Lincoln met? Grief and future, no news here. Li-Young Lee. Frost's "Directive," from memory, by God! Rachel Hadas introduced me to that poem. "Words for worry," about being a father. Went overtime, as this afternoon. What can you expect from someone with the sense of time he has? Two years ago, I believe he described the Chinese concept of time and the future, constantly moving backwards. Brenda Hillman. Her own: "Wind Treaties." Alice Notley's "When I was alive." Edward Hirsch. His own "The widening sky," about walking off the boardwalk onto the beach and the widening sky. Nazim Hikmet, "On Living." Heather McHugh. Dying words of Jude: “I fear my sentences are becoming grammatically incorrect.” "Fast" Emo Philips on dying: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, and not screaming, like his passengers." Snippets from the Yarob people of Nigeria. Taha Muhhammad Ali. (Peter Cole to translate.) "Agha fights the superpower" A small portrait of just an ordinary Arab guy. Then ibn Arras, 11th c? Four lines in Arabic, then Cole to do a larger section of the same poem in English. R Bly Yet another reason for me to avoid reading Robert Bly. This is not a poet of the first rank, but a cheerleader sloganeer. Iron John, indeed. Anti-war protest? Screw you. I came to hear poetics, not polemics. His own, "The Russian." 14th c Sufi, I can't hear what he says... Politics over poetry: some people here are just cheerleaders and politicians, rather than lovers of the word, the well turned phrase, and ideas. I wanted to walk over and slap each and everyone of those cheering against the war on the back of the head. If a poet deserves praise, it should be for the crafting of words, not the political position he or she holds. It's amazing to me how many Americans hate America. Lucille Clifton Much as I respect her work with words, it was disgusting how she said that though the towers falling was upsetting to her, she could not understand why people thought that these things could not, should not happen. Of course it could happen, and not believing that was misguided and fatal. But. Is she implying that it should have happened? She's a poet, and should have more care for the implications of her words. "I am changing one of the words in this poem, to make it more inclusive: 'God:'" Stafford, one of my favorites: ...and the darkness around us is deep. Her own "Blessing the Boats" It's good that they're going towards the Dylan Thomas model, allowing poets to read from other poets as well, or rather forcing them to. Music by the Paul Winters Consort band. Robert Hass His own "Sunrise." always a lover of words. Czeslaw Milosz, "Day at the end of the world." mispronounced name? isn't it chesh-waf mee-woss?. Amiri Baraka. Amina Baraka, "Hey there's pain" or "Hey there Spain" for Toni Morrison. One of the things that bothers me about the Barakas' poetry is they always end their lines with Latinate words "revolution" "imperialism" but I suppose that's an intended effect, these words are supposed to jar the ear. "Mind of the president." childish, but funny. Grace Paley. "Oh, my." How does one follow the irrepressible LeRoi Jones? Yehuda Amicai, "An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mt. Sinai." Her own poem was "Walking in the woods" I think. Introducing it: "I was supposed to write something about the future, but I don't seem to write about it much. I wonder why?" (An age joke.) Robert Pinsky. Cavafy. "Waiting for the Barbarians" of course, Cavafy was a Greek exile in Alexandria, as a result of the barbarians eventually did come and transform Constantinopolis, so the poem could be ironic as well. Though Rachel Hadas was my teacher, I must confess my knowledge of Cavafy is poor. He read his own "Immature song" written this very afternoon. "Forgive my chutzpah." Gerald Stern Another of my favorites.From the introduction: "Remember that while there is no justice without love, there is no love without justice." Not much applause from the confused anti-War folk, who clapped for the first clause, but petered off for the second. Is he for them, or against? The best thing about a good poet is, you can't tell. "Short Words" "I stole my book back from Edward Hirsch." Nazim Hikmet. "The Cucumber." From the introduction: "I hope that one day everyone in the middle east [where the cucumber is most eaten] will be united under the flag of the cucumber." Rita Dove. Her own "The Situation is Intolerable" about the Rosa Parks boycotts, one of a sequence of Rosa Parks poems. A pantoum by Rebecca Watson, "What is your name?" A fourth grader did this? Some days it just doesn't pay to get up in the morning. This was nine years ago; RW will be someone to watch for in the near future, I'm sure. Billy Collins. He read his own "Dancing toward Bethlehem." John Clare! "Invitation to Eternity." (Should I mention the ongoing copyright dispute? How the hell do you copyright a seventeenth century writer? One more reason for the pile on revising current copyright law.) Adam Zagajewski. "Houston 6 PM" "...Europe is sleeping... ...soon America will sleep..." Czeslaw Milosz, "Ars Poetica?" "under unbearable duress...." get last line. Stanley Kunitz. A standing ovation of course. How can you not? This may be the fourth or fifth reading I went to of his. I went to his 90th birthday celebration at the 92d St Y some years ago, and of course as a co-founder of the GRD Poetry Fest, he comes to every one of these. His first was Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Grandeur of God." He first came across it underfoot at the Harvard library where he was researching his thesis. He picked it up, and it was open to this poem. He was standing, but it rocked him. "I hate the polluters of this world." His own, "The Flight of Apollo," written in 1969 in the aftermath of the flight. Thank God the organizers put the least overtly political poets toward the end. I was about to become sick in the first half. Cheerleaders behind me, cheerleaders ahead. If they wish to protest the war, let them go to Washington. Words for such people are a distraction. After that program, Mark Doty and Marie Howe reading others' poetry, alternating, finishing each other's lines, with Paul Winter Consort playing. Mark Doty is much diminished this year. I hardly recognized him. 10:57:49 PM    comment [] I suspect the difference between Aaron and myself in terms of literature would be that I am willing to put up with mediocre to even poor writing to follow a plot or an idea I find interesting. Think Star Wars or Asimov’s Foundation. And sometimes I won’t put up with even beautiful writing if the plot is going nowhere. 11:46:49 AM    comment [] Will I blog from Dodge? Naw, I’ll leave that to Bill Moyers. Sometimes you just have to let go of the critical faculties and just experience. [Hah!] 3:19:37 AM    comment []

Friday 20 September 2002

Near Dark, one of my favorites, and really up there in the vampire genre, is finally out on DVD. [by way of Entertainment Weekly, 20 Sep 2002, 79] This means I can get rid of the record-by-title word "NEAR DARK" + Movie, Horror category in TiVo. “Caleb, those people back there, they wasn’t normal. Normal folks, they don’t spit out bullets when you shoot ’em, no sir.” —Loy Colton, Near Dark 10:18:48 AM    comment []

Thursday 19 September 2002

Burn This is my favorite play by Lanford Wilson; I first came across it in acting class looking for a piece to develop into a monologue. I really wish I had seen the original John Malkovich performance, and every time I re-read the play, I keep imagining the scenes with him in it. Joan Allen never came clear for me as Anna, the dancer turning to choreography in the prime of her career, and I don’t know the actor who first played Burton. I saw an off-off-Broadway production three or four years ago, the last night of its run, but was not too impressed: the Pale actor was clearly overacting, realizing it, and overemphasizing the cursing and weeping. Most of the audience was aged, and were rather appalled. I shrunk in my seat to watch it. Hot l Baltimore is another Lanford Wilson play I love to re-read. Never seen it in production though. I caught a local production of Talley’s Folly on my birthday (alone, boohoo) that was fairly good. It’s a small play with two characters that lends itself to small theaters. The last I heard, Lanford Wilson was trying to collaborate on a screenplay for Burn This, but I have not been checking for it. Revival Works A Transformation. A sensational cast led by Edward Norton and Catherine Keener presents an eye-opening, soulful revival of Lanford Wilson's portrait of disconnectedness. By Ben Brantley. [by way of RUL’s presentation of New York Times: Arts] [Whoops, spoke too soon. more information on what Mr. Wilson has been doing of late.] 11:33:47 PM    comment [] At the Whitney, Secrets of Digital Creativity Revealed in Miniatures.[New York Times: Arts] See the computer code that created the digital art. Mirapaul’s attitude denigrates the idea that computer code can be a creative expression, the same sort of attitude that is criminalizing DeCSS, certainly an elegant piece of code. 5:05:32 PM    comment [] Currently reading: John M. Ford’s The Last Hot Time. The Chicago gangland scene if Elfland were drifting in on the cities of the world; a young heartland paramedic travels to the bright elflight of the big city. Currently on the stack: Frank M. Robinson’s The Dark Beyond the Stars, which seems to be set in a similar or even the same universe as “The Oceans are Wide’, which introduced me to this author. Currently eyeing: Summerland by Michael Chabon, the author of the Kavalier and Clay book, which I have also been eyeing. 4:52:07 PM    comment []

Wednesday 18 September 2002

I noticed Alexondra Lee in an article on Push, Nevada. If she’ on that show, what’s going to happen to Special Unit 2? Whoops, she’s not even on the series that long. 10:43:07 PM    comment [] Apple has released an update to iTunes today that weighs in at 5.8MB. You can grab the update through the Software Update panel in the System Preferences application. [Mac Net Journal] If I update to this, will it erase my hard disk? Just asking. 5:16:35 PM    comment []

Monday 16 September 2002

How interestingly worded this little summary is! P-to-P fans hope pen is mightier than download. Effort takes aim at bill that would allow copyright holders to stop piracy [InfoWorld: Top News] How about, “Effort takes aim at bill that would allow copyright holders to r*pe information systems”? Durn. Used the R word... edit... there. Normally I would not be squeamish, but I’ve been hit by search engines for r..gh (title) b.ndage (the blogroll on the right, gotta rename that). What was I talking about? Oh, right. This is the petition itself: http://darrylballantyne.com/ashcroft/ 6:16:45 PM    comment [] I could have sworn I posted this before: Teddy, a three-dimensional modeling tool. I don't remember its provenance: probably either the Squeak Smalltalk general mailing list or just surfing. Searching for those that link to it on Google, though, got me an interesting digital video site for teachers. 5:54:05 PM    comment []

Sunday 15 September 2002

It looks like Tori Amos has a new album: Scarlet’s Walk, about a road trip in the midst of America’s recovery. I believe a few days after the incident she did “Time” at Letterman’s show. Coming 29 October. [by way of Entertainment Weekly, 42] 11:59:29 PM    comment []

Thursday 12 September 2002

A comment on the game’s release: When?? (Score:4, Funny) by 3ryon on Wednesday August 28, @10:19PM (#4160868) (User #415000 Info) It's due first quarter 2004 This is the Video Game Industry's way of saying, "We haven't actually started yet." 3:28:06 PM    comment [] In “A Streak of Glamour but a Lack of Lifeblood,” Charles Herold plays and pans a number of the current (graphical) adventure games out there. But he does mention one tantalizing bit: And while LucasArts has not released any adventure games this year, it is developing sequels to two of its classics, Full Throttle and Sam and Max Hit the Road. [by way of Adventure Gamers]Sam and Max are coming back! Purcell should receive more recognition for these two twisted detectives. I hope LucasArts sets the adventure in the off-model Manila (an inside joke by way of the trade paperback). Whoa, how did I miss it if it actually came out on Slashdot? Sam and Max home page Unofficial 3:18:31 PM    comment []

Tuesday 10 September 2002

MacScene’s iQuest demo contest is underway. Download and vote! 6:46:56 PM    comment [] Wow. Only one vote on the BABB3/Dodge Poetry thing (thanks Paul! You’ve decided me as much as one can decide someone as indecisive as myself.). Ah, Saturday and Sunday is when the big readings happen anyway. I just hope I don’t puke on Billy Collins! 6:33:38 PM    comment [] LA Times: File-Sharing Networks Relying on VCR Ruling. Two file-sharing networks--Napster Inc. and Aimster (later renamed Madster)--sought refuge in the Betamax case with no great success. Now, three popular successors--Morpheus, Kazaa and Grokster--are relying on Betamax in a critical pretrial skirmish. [Tomalak's Realm] Betamax did not hold in the Napster and Aimster case because of a difference between time-shifting and distribution, or so I read it. And it’s true, there is a palpable difference between handing a tape of last night’s Friends and airing it on your own network. However, does that make the makers of Apache liable for everyone who defames another using Apache web servers? A solution for the peer-to-peer software distributors may be to remove the server aspect of their software to mere discovery; distribution or publishing therefore becomes more of an active act of the person running the software, in the way that IRC file exchange is. But that loses a great deal of the power of these nodes, and I don’t mean computational power: there is a great stimulus to imagination when you can fire up your ’puter and think to yourself, almo. As for useful purposes of the software, let me pose a couple: I downloaded a film clip of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and MP3s of a couple of his speeches. How can that not be a useful thing? Or imagine the poor disenfranchised and unfree Chinese and Iranians (Persians? or does that only apply to the Parsi and ancient Persians?): Radio Free Europe? Try KaZaa Free World! Whew, that got me worked up. 5:26:23 PM    comment []

Monday 9 September 2002

Touch them with Your grace, and open their eyes. 4:37:17 PM    comment [] A warning to my blogging friends: “The irony of the Information Age is that it has given new respectability to uninformed opinion.” —Veteran reporter John Lawton speaking to the American Association of Broadcast Journalists, 1995 Which is not to say that the trust that was once given to authority (whether imperator, prince, or king) does not now go to corporate media sources with undisclosed if barely disguised interests. 4:34:42 PM    comment []

Sunday 8 September 2002

A&E is running Ursula K. Le Guin’s Lathe of Heaven. I believe BBC did this before, to mixed results. A good short novel that plays with reality. Unfortunately, I did not set up the Lathe keyword to record automatically, but this is A&E which probably means it will be played many times and often, and... it is! 11:25:39 PM    comment []

Saturday 7 September 2002

Ninjai: the Little Ninja. By way of Edward. A story about a young ninja. It’s violent (big surprise, huh?) but it has a story. 10:23:54 PM    comment [] Aaaaaaargh! Farscape Frelling Cancelled [Slashdot] Wait. It’s a Slashdot story. Not a pleasant thing to wake up to of a Saturday morn. 10:10:18 AM    comment []

Thursday 5 September 2002

Current agonizing decision: Blogger Bash 3 or Dodge Poetry Festival? Hah. I’ll probably get swamped in work, stay over, and miss them both. Either that or I’ll decide to catch another five minutes of sleep through the whole thing then wake up all a-start and cry out at the unfairness of a world in which time exists. Stasis! 6:28:29 PM    comment []

Wednesday 4 September 2002

Jaguar’s TextEdit reminds me of a less aesthetic MacWrite—I don’t like all the default tab placements—it’s ugly. Do you remember MacWrite? MacPaint? Those were the days. When I got my first Macintosh (128) in May or March of 1984, it came with MacWrite, MacPaint, a System Disk, and a set of introductory disks. These disks explained all about how to use a mouse: moving it and watching the pointer move; picking it up, repositioning, and continuing motion; the click; the drag; the double-click. I also remember a maze-generating program—excuse me, application—that had several types and complexities and would highlight as you traced over it with the mouse pointer. I had wanted a C64 but my father had said, “No! It has color! You’ll play games on it!” Little did he know, huh? Ancient Art of War. Dark Castle. Banzai! or something like that, the artillery gun thing. That programmable robot thing wandering the tile world. Memory is going. All those Infocom games Planetfall and Floyd. That cylindrical spaceship thing and the weasel village. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. That six-robot thing. 1:46:13 AM    comment []

Monday 2 September 2002

...something human is working all by itself, sprung free of the original context, perhaps even purified of any of its author’s preoccupation at the time of writing. And yet one knows that, while this purely human spectacle is the ultimate fruit of any work, one will, nevertheless, sit down to write again at a particular hour pressed by the unique weight of a particular day, addressing that day and that hour whose consequences will not even appear to the audience a year or two hence, to say nothing of a decade or in another country. It is the kind of lesson one must remember and forget at the same time. —Arthur Miller, “What Makes Plays Endure?” The Theater Essays of Arthur Miller 10:31:32 PM    comment [] Looks like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods has won the Hugo. As he was saying to me when last we met (hah!) in the World Trade Center Borders... well, as I recall, after he signed it, he closed it, patted the front cover with a proprietary air as he handed it to me, and said, “I’m very proud of this one.” 10:25:15 PM    comment []

Sunday 1 September 2002

I picked up Eternal Youth by Future Bible Heroes, finally, but I still haven’t popped it in yet. I would have listened to it but I watched the “Scott Tenorman Must Die” episode of South Park tonight. Sick, but you can’t turn your head away: “...tears of unfathomable sadness.... yummy... yummy....” 12:10:28 AM    comment []

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