Tyrannothesaurus Rex
Impeachment? No. Impalement!
(via wood s lot)
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Consciousness Streaming
Consciousness Streaming
I recently discovered, via a genealogy site, that the name "Gates" was sometimes spelled "Jaques" in 17th-century England. I know that spelling rules were lax and word pronunciation was different back then, but "Gates" and "Jaques" don't even seem close. So I'm puzzled. But hell, maybe I should call myself Michael Jaques. Would make a nice pen name anyway... The phantom ringer: We have a cordless phone in our kitchen that rings once every hour. When we pick up, no one is there. Star 69 doesn't reveal that anyone is actually calling us. I'm stumped... What will I do on Wednesday nights, now that L O S T is done for the season? Maybe read a book... Why don't I... wear a Mona Lisa smile today?
Visual Version (May not be safe for work)
I recently discovered, via a genealogy site, that the name "Gates" was sometimes spelled "Jaques" in 17th-century England. I know that spelling rules were lax and word pronunciation was different back then, but "Gates" and "Jaques" don't even seem close. So I'm puzzled. But hell, maybe I should call myself Michael Jaques. Would make a nice pen name anyway... The phantom ringer: We have a cordless phone in our kitchen that rings once every hour. When we pick up, no one is there. Star 69 doesn't reveal that anyone is actually calling us. I'm stumped... What will I do on Wednesday nights, now that L O S T is done for the season? Maybe read a book... Why don't I... wear a Mona Lisa smile today?
Visual Version (May not be safe for work)
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Unusual Cards
Weird and Wonderful
Unusual Cards is a collection of blank greeting cards featuring the very strange collage work of artist Francesca Berrini. In the mix: children, dinosaurs, meat, pin-up girls, cave people, giant cakes and Jesus.
Unusual Cards is a collection of blank greeting cards featuring the very strange collage work of artist Francesca Berrini. In the mix: children, dinosaurs, meat, pin-up girls, cave people, giant cakes and Jesus.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Random Acts of Poetry
Random Acts of Poetry
Break Time
Somewhere above
the arctic circle
stars form
absent faces in a dream.
These are signals, symbols
that come in waves
from an inland ocean,
delightful
as the periodic breezes
of a clouded afternoon
in the summer of the dog.
It's time for a break
at the dance school.
Time for the coffee,
the whiskey,
half an hour of it,
before each coat hanger
takes another spin.
Let's make a joke of structure!
Drop all our mail in the furnace.
So many people today
are made of paper.
No more a threat to us
than a snake in a cage,
than my mother
with her wooden spoon.
Break Time
Somewhere above
the arctic circle
stars form
absent faces in a dream.
These are signals, symbols
that come in waves
from an inland ocean,
delightful
as the periodic breezes
of a clouded afternoon
in the summer of the dog.
It's time for a break
at the dance school.
Time for the coffee,
the whiskey,
half an hour of it,
before each coat hanger
takes another spin.
Let's make a joke of structure!
Drop all our mail in the furnace.
So many people today
are made of paper.
No more a threat to us
than a snake in a cage,
than my mother
with her wooden spoon.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Noted around the Web
Nota Bene
Pax Nortona discusses a study that reveals why working-class people so often act (and vote) against their own interests.
Michael "Blowhard" meditates on the pleasures of pulp fiction (the genre, not the movie).
Fantastic Planet gives thanks for the resurgent interest in Gnosticism that The Da Vinci Code has inspired. (About time, after 2,000 years...)
Sunshine State goes under the sea, with camera in hand (which calls to mind the random thought that I met Jacques Cousteau once. Long story...)
JC Fridays is coming around again. It's a day of free arts events here in Jersey City, held quarterly. On display at one of the venues will be these halcyon images by Ken Browar. Take a look, especially if you're feeling frazzled.
Pax Nortona discusses a study that reveals why working-class people so often act (and vote) against their own interests.
Michael "Blowhard" meditates on the pleasures of pulp fiction (the genre, not the movie).
Fantastic Planet gives thanks for the resurgent interest in Gnosticism that The Da Vinci Code has inspired. (About time, after 2,000 years...)
Sunshine State goes under the sea, with camera in hand (which calls to mind the random thought that I met Jacques Cousteau once. Long story...)
JC Fridays is coming around again. It's a day of free arts events here in Jersey City, held quarterly. On display at one of the venues will be these halcyon images by Ken Browar. Take a look, especially if you're feeling frazzled.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Word of the Day: sublittoral
Word of the Day
sublittoral (adj)
Several related meanings: "Of or relating to the deeper part of a lake below the area in which rooted plants grow." "Permanantly covered with sea water." "Under the shore." Used figuratively, it seems to mean "underwater" or "muffled."
"The sound of gliding feet emerged from a dozen other noises, from the sublittoral drone of maintenance systems, from the rustle of newsprint as shoppers scanned their horoscopes in the tabloids up front, from the whispers of elderly women with talcumed faces, from the steady rattle of cars going over a loose manhole cover just outside the entrance."
--Don Delillo, White Noise
I'm finally reading White Noise. Can't believe I didn't read it a long time ago, as I love Delillo. (I especially liked his Libra. Only a brilliant novelist could fashion a sympathetic portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald.) Noise, which is full of poetic prose, has its terrifying aspects, but it's essentially a very funny satire--or so it seems to me. I'm only half way through it.
sublittoral (adj)
Several related meanings: "Of or relating to the deeper part of a lake below the area in which rooted plants grow." "Permanantly covered with sea water." "Under the shore." Used figuratively, it seems to mean "underwater" or "muffled."
"The sound of gliding feet emerged from a dozen other noises, from the sublittoral drone of maintenance systems, from the rustle of newsprint as shoppers scanned their horoscopes in the tabloids up front, from the whispers of elderly women with talcumed faces, from the steady rattle of cars going over a loose manhole cover just outside the entrance."
--Don Delillo, White Noise
I'm finally reading White Noise. Can't believe I didn't read it a long time ago, as I love Delillo. (I especially liked his Libra. Only a brilliant novelist could fashion a sympathetic portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald.) Noise, which is full of poetic prose, has its terrifying aspects, but it's essentially a very funny satire--or so it seems to me. I'm only half way through it.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Random Acts of Poetry
Random Acts of Poetry
Improvisation
We, man and woman,
decided last evening
to impersonate dark trees.
Our elbows
were crooked branches.
Our feet disappeared in the dirt.
My thoughts hardened
to wood. You hardly breathed for fear
of roosting nightbirds.
We went too far in the forest.
By morning our fingers
scratched at the sky.
To the whack of an ax
we drank our warm rain,
mindless and mum to the root.
Improvisation
We, man and woman,
decided last evening
to impersonate dark trees.
Our elbows
were crooked branches.
Our feet disappeared in the dirt.
My thoughts hardened
to wood. You hardly breathed for fear
of roosting nightbirds.
We went too far in the forest.
By morning our fingers
scratched at the sky.
To the whack of an ax
we drank our warm rain,
mindless and mum to the root.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Site "translated" into Cockney
'Ave a look, right, guvnor
Thanks ter The Dialectizer, yer can now read the Cockney version of this site. It is ter larf.
Thanks ter The Dialectizer, yer can now read the Cockney version of this site. It is ter larf.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Flickr: Photos of Jersey City
Look
I've put some of my photos of neighborhood scenes and oddities up on Flickr:
Images from Channel Z
Some of my scribbling is there, too.
I've put some of my photos of neighborhood scenes and oddities up on Flickr:
Images from Channel Z
Some of my scribbling is there, too.
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