Iron Works
Street scene, 3:10 PM:
The dark-haired man with the welding arc is making a black grille. His face is inscrutable behind dark goggles. Yellow sparks shoot across the sidewalk, like angry fireflies, as salsa music blasts from a radio near his feet. Behind him, the shop doors stand open. Inside is a miscellany of iron railings, mirrors with metallic frames, architectural details and convoluted gates and gratings. By the door, a rusty metal "tin" man, made of discarded metal parts, stands guard, like an Oz refugee, like a seven-foot, junkyard god.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Random Acts of Poetry
Random Acts of Poetry
Jacket
My arms are limp
as seaweed.
My collar encircles
the base of a beehive.
My front opens,
then closes,
admitting a trunk
full of ropes and pulleys,
pipes and an odd
timpani drum.
I hide in a closet,
I hang on a hook
when I'm not
touring the town.
I'm like the peel
of a plantain,
the hurricane globe
that shelters
a slow-burning flame.
Jacket
My arms are limp
as seaweed.
My collar encircles
the base of a beehive.
My front opens,
then closes,
admitting a trunk
full of ropes and pulleys,
pipes and an odd
timpani drum.
I hide in a closet,
I hang on a hook
when I'm not
touring the town.
I'm like the peel
of a plantain,
the hurricane globe
that shelters
a slow-burning flame.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Word of the Day: Fanfaronade
Word of the Day
fanfaronade (n)
Empty boasting, arrogant bluster
"In the 'thirties, however, he found the Nazi fanfaronade most inspirating theater."
--Frank Gado, The Passion of Ingmar Bergman
fanfaronade (n)
Empty boasting, arrogant bluster
"In the 'thirties, however, he found the Nazi fanfaronade most inspirating theater."
--Frank Gado, The Passion of Ingmar Bergman
Thursday, January 26, 2006
A Prayer
A Prayer
"Lord, please bless the State Security Apparatus, that it might conduct it's wiretaps to the best of its abilities. Provide Our Leader with the ability to look into our bedrooms, so that He might catch French politicians putting their little soldiers in ladies' mouths and watch celebrities doing it. And Lord, let him share those videos with godly men like myself, who may then rail against these evils from our pulpits.
"And bless our interrogators and their glowsticks and electrified nipple clamps of freedom. Provide them with the ability to induce pain as close as possible to that experienced during organ failure without quite equaling it.
"And give us the ability to kill brown people more efficiently, so that our contractors may garner more fruit from their labor."
--Gen. J.C. Christian, Patriot
"Lord, please bless the State Security Apparatus, that it might conduct it's wiretaps to the best of its abilities. Provide Our Leader with the ability to look into our bedrooms, so that He might catch French politicians putting their little soldiers in ladies' mouths and watch celebrities doing it. And Lord, let him share those videos with godly men like myself, who may then rail against these evils from our pulpits.
"And bless our interrogators and their glowsticks and electrified nipple clamps of freedom. Provide them with the ability to induce pain as close as possible to that experienced during organ failure without quite equaling it.
"And give us the ability to kill brown people more efficiently, so that our contractors may garner more fruit from their labor."
--Gen. J.C. Christian, Patriot
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
"I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: 'C-Students from Yale.'
"George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, a.k.a. 'Christians,' and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences."
--Kurt Vonnegut
"I was once asked if I had any ideas for a really scary reality TV show. I have one reality show that would really make your hair stand on end: 'C-Students from Yale.'
"George W. Bush has gathered around him upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, a.k.a. 'Christians,' and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or PPs, the medical term for smart, personable people who have no consciences."
--Kurt Vonnegut
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Abuse-a-tron
I love you too
You get healthcare from a veterinarian, you imbecilic, hairball slurping, armadillo buggering, gene-spliced production of a pox-ridden fishwife.
There's something about over-the-top, G-rated insults (which you hardly ever hear in real life) that I find perversely humorous. I'm just weird that way. If you are too, you'll find lots of such sticks and stones at the Abuse-a-tron.
You get healthcare from a veterinarian, you imbecilic, hairball slurping, armadillo buggering, gene-spliced production of a pox-ridden fishwife.
There's something about over-the-top, G-rated insults (which you hardly ever hear in real life) that I find perversely humorous. I'm just weird that way. If you are too, you'll find lots of such sticks and stones at the Abuse-a-tron.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Writing a screenplay in simple steps
Screenplays for Dummies
The writer of the screenplay for the film Sylvia offers some simple steps for generating a screenplay plot. It's all about beginning, middle and end--you know, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back, but with a lot of elaboration. ("You keep doing the beginning/middle/end thing over and over again.") He makes it all sound very easy.
I saw Sylvia, the Plath biopic, on DVD. Hmm. Girl poet meets boy poet. Girl loses boy. Girl puts head in...oh, never mind.
(via Maud Newton)
The writer of the screenplay for the film Sylvia offers some simple steps for generating a screenplay plot. It's all about beginning, middle and end--you know, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back, but with a lot of elaboration. ("You keep doing the beginning/middle/end thing over and over again.") He makes it all sound very easy.
I saw Sylvia, the Plath biopic, on DVD. Hmm. Girl poet meets boy poet. Girl loses boy. Girl puts head in...oh, never mind.
(via Maud Newton)
Word of the Day
Word of the Day
eyot (n)
A small island (pronounced like "eight")
"That night they camped on a small eyot close to the western bank."
--J.R.R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings
Sometimes spelled "ait"
"Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls deified among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city."
--Charles Dickens, Bleak House
No man is an island, but on a scale of one to ten, I've often felt like an ait.
eyot (n)
A small island (pronounced like "eight")
"That night they camped on a small eyot close to the western bank."
--J.R.R. Tolkein, The Lord of the Rings
Sometimes spelled "ait"
"Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls deified among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city."
--Charles Dickens, Bleak House
No man is an island, but on a scale of one to ten, I've often felt like an ait.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Random Acts of Poetry
Random Acts of Poetry
Treasure Island
As a boy, confined
to his infinite bedroom,
he was kidnapped by pirates--
wrinkled maps, lost keys,
charming amputees.
They whispered ghost stories
with plots inevitable
as arithmetic,
while his heart ticked
like a cricket,
and UFOs disguised
as houseflies
landed on his forehead,
teasing him awake.
The ceiling was a blank screen,
and anything could happen.
Everything did.
He's still there, watching
the second reel unspool:
his own unwinding
yarn of dreams.
Treasure Island
As a boy, confined
to his infinite bedroom,
he was kidnapped by pirates--
wrinkled maps, lost keys,
charming amputees.
They whispered ghost stories
with plots inevitable
as arithmetic,
while his heart ticked
like a cricket,
and UFOs disguised
as houseflies
landed on his forehead,
teasing him awake.
The ceiling was a blank screen,
and anything could happen.
Everything did.
He's still there, watching
the second reel unspool:
his own unwinding
yarn of dreams.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Online "Victorian" tattoo parlor
Indelible Inc.
I'm not a big fan of tattoos, but the Java-intensive Everlasting Tattoo site is a graphically impressive showcase for several tat artists -- and not just because of the colorful skin on display. If the Internet had existed, say, 120 years ago, this is how the Victorian web might have looked.
I'm not a big fan of tattoos, but the Java-intensive Everlasting Tattoo site is a graphically impressive showcase for several tat artists -- and not just because of the colorful skin on display. If the Internet had existed, say, 120 years ago, this is how the Victorian web might have looked.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Word of the Day: gongoozler
Word of the Day
gongoozler (n)
An inquisitive bystander or busybody, often found by locks and other places where boats gather; a person who stares idly or curiously at something
"Could Anita from Daventry really be a gongoozler, distracting us by offering to take photographs of the 'crew' as we tackle our final three locks?"
--Daniel Scott, "Cruising the Grand Union Canal"
gongoozler (n)
An inquisitive bystander or busybody, often found by locks and other places where boats gather; a person who stares idly or curiously at something
"Could Anita from Daventry really be a gongoozler, distracting us by offering to take photographs of the 'crew' as we tackle our final three locks?"
--Daniel Scott, "Cruising the Grand Union Canal"
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