it warn't always like this

sentence

2009-12-07T14:24:12Z

Now God knows there are too many open-mike readings in the world; but better drivel at the open mike than silence from a closed mouth.

Ursula K Le Guin, "Off the page: loud cows." The wave in the mind. Shambhala: Boston, 2004.

Exhort while you smack down - way to go, UKLG. And, bonus -- mooing.

sentence

2009-11-17T13:26:51Z

You philosophers ask questions without answers, questions that have to remain unanswered to deserve being called philosophical.

Jean-Francois Lyotard, from The Inhuman (1991) in A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader 2nd ed p.221

And then the sun explodes. I kinda fell in love with it.

Much better than the previous selection, in which Baudrillard flogs the canard about Disney being frozen. (He was fried, not frozen, for the record. Or, to put it more politely, he was cremated in accordance with his wishes.) And referring to the Disneyworld parking lot as "a veritable concentration camp"? Let us just say that I was eager to turn the page and be done with that.

apropos my last entry

2009-11-12T17:53:14Z

Working-class culture, in the stage through which it has been passing, is primarily social (in that it has created institutions) rather than individual (in particular intellectual or imaginative work).

-Raymond Williams, from Culture and Society 1780-1950 in A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader. 229.

Glee as "working-class culture." Hmm...

Glee is an iron, to paraphrase Spider Robinson.

2009-11-12T13:29:22Z

I'm not sure what this episode is actually called, but I think I'm going to refer to it as "One False Note after Another." The Gay Kid squashes himself for the sake of his father's fragility after singing "Defying Gravity." The Wheelchair Kid gets thrown under the bus on two issues so that he can generously do one thing that he should have sued for. And Queen Cheerio (who doesn't use their names - why bother?) being used to make the most nuanced argument about attitudes toward people with disabilities, such as it was. And let's not forget faking-a-disability-as-a-gag thrown in for funzies -- more than once.

Lit crit, thou art a brain eater.

sentence

2009-11-10T18:01:31Z

Best known is the rule that the chorus consists of thirty-two bars and that the range is limited to one octave and one note.
-Theodore Adorno snarking "On Popular Music" (1941) in A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader p. 212

Hmm...not familiar with that one.

paraphrase

2009-09-09T18:55:05Z

Do you know what they do to those juniper berries?!

No, but it's delicious.

sentence

2009-07-08T12:45:13Z

One grim sentiment, coming right up:

The man who suddenly sees himself with a little power in his hands tries immediately to assemble a guillotine, a gallows, and a coffin.
-Jeronimo Monteiro. "O copo de cristal." 1964

Found this in Cosmos Latinos: an anthology of science fiction from Latin America and Spain

A really weird tribute to my dad

2009-06-19T16:41:41Z

Math nerds and Paul Erdos always make me think of my father, who was a math hobbyist. (He called himself a numberhead -- sort of like being a Deadhead.) My father died on the day before Father's Day in 2006, and Father's Day is this weekend, and...I saw this on xkcd today and it made me smile.

Yeah, it's weird. Some people keep their memories of their fathers wrapped in old jackets or the smell of a particular brand of tobacco. For me, it's references to Erdos numbers.

Judith Krug

2009-04-17T14:35:00Z

I just found out Judith Krug died last weekend. Why does that matter and why does it bum me out? She was the longtime director of American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom To Read Foundation. She really, really defended the right of people to read whatever the hell they wanted. Including stuff she personally hated, including stuff she thought was just lame. She went to bat for absolute crap, absolute mediocrity, and absolute brilliance.

I don't know that she was aware of the recent Amazon kerfuffle, but I think she would have been pleased so many people got outraged and involved. I'd say rest in peace, but I hope she's still raising a ruckus wherever she goes.

Oh, and...

2009-04-13T21:51:09Z

Be free, little info tidbits, be free.

National Library Week free databases.

Magazine people love to recommend it

2009-04-13T21:48:56Z

So here's Frank Sinatra has a cold.

Only part way through it, but I stopped because I heard the story about Harlan Ellison from Ellison. Which is not to say he and I were out drinking - I attended some semi-interactive lecture of his. And I couldn't figure out why this story was so important to him - yes, sure, Sinatra, but I just didn't get it. So now, reading it, now, knowing magazine writers and editors love the piece and recommend it to the universe, now, ah, I get it. I get the why, even if I'm not, shall we say, feeling it.

brisance @ 2009-02-05T13:38:00

2009-02-05T18:56:10Z

Huh. I just discovered that all but one of the pieces I published in juked were "retired due to old age." Archive.org doesn't seem to have them, although it has bits of juked. A pity, mainly because the only remaining piece is one of my least favorite because it was jiggered with in ways I did not like after I submitted it.

Am I now free to resubmit them elsewhere? Are they still part of juked, even though inaccessible, or are the sands now lone and level?

Taken

2009-02-02T17:57:01Z

"Taken" is the perfect middle-class, middle-aged, white divorced dad fantasy. I honestly can't imagine a way to make this film a better version of that. Hollywood grind, I salute you.

I was entertained by it anyway. In part, I was a little surprised, nearly pleased, to see that he was allowed to be Not A Very Nice Man. He does things that are unforgivable, and he does them without compunction. The fact that he says "sorry" once is excellently negated by the fact he says it to the wrong person.

apropos

2009-01-21T17:56:37Z

The military rejected the election results.

Ellis, Elisabeth Gaynor and Anthony Esler. Prentice Hall World History. 2008. 978013365911. p. 1029

Announcers kept pointing out yesterday how ginchy-keen the peaceful transition of power is yesterday. Africa sadly has had lots of trouble on that front. The quote is about Algeria's 1992 election of an "Islamist" government, but it could be re-used for other African countries in other years. How would we react if some general stood up in front of the Pentagon and said: Y'know, I've decided, this election, this inauguration, is not a go, and then told soldiers to surround the White House and settle in. What would we as citizens do? How would other nations react? I am grateful that I grew up without ever having to face that, and that I don't feel that it will ever happen here.

after a long delay, a sentence

2009-01-14T19:28:07Z

"Winthrop was apparently not the only Puritan father with a wayward son." p. 53
Morgan, Edmund S. The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop.

This was sad. The background is that Winthrop was trying to convince Puritans to join the Massachusetts Bay colony. While he and others debated a lot about what was an acceptable reason to go larking off to the new world, apparently no one could argue with the corrupting influences on the youth in England. The sad part is that the wayward son this references drowned a few days after they arrived in Salem. The sadder still footnote is that the reason the son was wayward was because he had (among other bad behavior) fallen in love with his cousin and insisted on marrying her post-haste, basically insinuating that they'd already gotten down to business and it was all over but for the honeymoon. His pregnant wife, with her pregnant mother-in-law, had remained behind in England.

some things just pair well

2009-01-14T18:30:41Z

I used to be a fan of mycathatesyou.com (a couple of my captions even made it in). This one, which is NWS and quite rude, was one of my favorites. And then I find this one on icanhascheezburger. They strike me as mates, like a pair of bunny slippers.

courtesy happened strangely, over in the evil empire of blogspot

2009-01-08T18:23:25Z

Gorey, Star Trek, and a dancing penguin in a deathmatch. Ok, lied about the penguin. And the deathmatch.

chicken tikka monorail

2008-12-22T19:06:00Z

Found on Vernacular, I bring you something that opens with:

"I've been thinking about this cat/toast business for a while..."
http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200010/zero-gravity.cfm

Even if you ignore the rest of it, the opening line is lovely.

brisance @ 2008-11-18T09:24:00

2008-11-18T14:31:04Z

Finally saw Fritz Lang's M last night.

That sweep across the court is breathtaking - there's a spot where I thought it would stop, but it keeps going.

And I'm still trying to sort out that shot through the window into the room. There's a flick like a pane of glass moving from right to left, but it's otherwise beautifully continuous. I'm sure someone's already explained it in some book that we probably have at work, but it's a nice puzzle for my non-cinematically trained mind.

The shot from under the desk that centers on the man's crotch while he's on the phone, though - eeuuch.

For something that is so purely a man's movie, letting a woman have the last word is fascinating. (At least in this cut - apparently it's been chopped repeatedly.)

brisance @ 2008-10-23T13:37:00

2008-10-23T17:41:12Z

Sometimes, the smallest things help the world chug along for me. In Park St Station on the Green Line tracks, I saw tiny birds. I thought they were mice, at first, and thought it was odd they'd migrated up from the Red Line, where they normally reside in Park St Station. And then they fluttered. So I got to spend the transit between then and my stop wondering how they got in, and how long they'd stay.

brisance @ 2008-10-01T09:01:00

2008-10-01T13:06:21Z

It's Banned Books Week. Half over, admittedly, but plenty of time to check how many on the frequently challenged list that you've read. :) I've usually read about half of 'em.

Walrus has a bucket...

2008-09-30T16:46:57Z

...we now have a condo (which is to say: mortgage and keys and boxes everywhere).

Never, ever, buy a foreclosure. (corellary: never buy a short sale, but I don't have personal experience in that regard) Even if it's empty, and in good shape, and is at a price you can afford. Just don't.

Oh, and sometimes, lawyers are awesome.

since I have no paper quote sheet at the moment

2008-09-18T13:44:06Z

"When he goes off the reservation, he packs a lunch." -L.

I heart Vannevar Bush's essay

2008-09-16T17:44:49Z

"As we may think."

I read it, or parts of it, quite awhile ago. And just got it again as recommended reading for my class. It just makes me excited. That's an absurd response, but really...I want to jump up out of my chair when I read it.

Allen Smith

2008-09-02T17:52:30Z

A farrier, a librarian, and an elegant wit died on Saturday. http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2008/08/only-good.html

I'm glad some folks put this together: http://gslis.simmons.edu/wikis/dwiggins/Allen_Smith_Quotations