writing bouts
trying to wrap up the dissertation proposal so i can leave for the philippines (finally!). 32 more days!
soundtrack for writing frantically:
i miss you already
when school is work and work is your life, the range of memories created between these realms is narrow, and the physical spaces where these memories happen are few.
the next year or so is shaping up to be a transitory one. in the inevitable wistful moments to come while i’m not-at-home, this is what i’ll miss:
early morning warmth and shadows
workspaces
the places where light streams and shadows fall
words as soundtrack
from john cage’s indeterminacy
an interpretation from kostelanetz, in his 1992 introduction:
“One theme is that indeterminacy differs from improvisation, because indeterminacy incorporates imaginative constraints. The idea of the poetry-jazz duets was that speaker and musicians would respond to one another, each spontaneously trying to reenforce the other, customarily in habitual ways. The principle of indeterminacy allows each other, each with scores designed to minimize habit. If a reader is required to speak only fifteen words in sixty seconds, he or she cannot resort to pet ways of phrasing.”
notes on another viewing of high fidelity
1. john cusack, you make a great troubled [music-]lover
2. how perfect this song is, for itself and for the end of the movie
just tell me how it ends
these days, a folding into myself, a resetting of fortified walls to surround, secret passwords to enter, enigmatic responses to decode: a series of protective measures.
–
already there’s a tumult around what will likely be a jarring, out-of-body next few months — i leave for a 2.5-month trip to the philippines a couple of days after my oral exams in june. to anticipate your next questions: yes, i’m excited; and nervous, and dreadful, and uncertain.
let’s just skip to the end, can we? straight to the promises of a september after a long, unordinary summer: to catharsis in the form of a long drive down the i-5 and back; to some sort of synthesis of what has transpired and hopes for what will come; to reunions with familiar friends who will register for you how you’ve changed (and to assure you you haven’t changed at all); to naps in my armchair before lush trees on 10th st., sun and breeze reaching into the open window.
he will cut your hair when you’re gone
i awoke early this morning to get some reading done, to find markets in disarray and continuing general financial chaos. and then i read this:
“A legal suit in 1856, involving a woman servant who claimed that Baltazar had cut her hair for reasons that are not clear, sent the poet to jail for four years.”
best biographical side note ever.
summer comes loudly
some summer notes, because i’m too lazy and all over the place to post thoughtfully, and because the summer’s running away from me already.
- whoever is in charge of the fleet foxes’ myspacage is the crazy. and i like it. [the page. the music - eh.]
- holy crap. why didn’t i ever think to mix watermelon juice with the spirits?
- a tale of two choices: the neighborhood block party vs. a jaunt to pdx?
- oddly felt some initial madison nostalgia during the first week of summer. and then i got over it, because i must.
- seattle makes good on its promise of temperate weather and gentle sun.
- this was LA during my visit: people of color; fatburger at 2am - complete with mariah carey sing-along and a 15-minute wait behind a shiny black bentley; hipsters of every stripe in silverlake; a tour of filipinotown; doctoral celebrations; appreciations of where i came from; a city in mourning for its home team; a close call.
a post soon, when i can organize my thoughts, on the textures of knowledge and why i can never do proper service to the philippines.
when i’m busy i read the news
… nothing useful of course.
little nerdy birdies tell me there’s a meteor shower coming, the peak of which can be caught this friday at 1645 gmt. for us u.s. pacific coasters, that’s 845p. i’m currently scouting the darkest pockets of seattle from which to gaze at the sky, thermos o hot chocolate in hand, body insulated in blankets.
people who fall into the unholy overlap of basketball and blog enthusiasm probably already know about gilbert arenas’ blog. i didn’t realize how prolific a blogger the man is; his posts are long, meandering things — good material for pretending like you know the guy, as if such a thing is possible with men of his stature (or with anyone, really). texts, blogs especially, are deceptive in offering such a promise. this is all to get me to the important point: apparently arenas is single again (though apparently not for long). oh gilbert arenas, how i love thee, bravado and all.
and finally, this — yay for basketball-watching over the winter break! college football? meh. cal has failed me.