Still

When the altitude of flying or settling in mountains makes me short of breath, I sit to read.  I am currently savoring the nuance of Barthes between bouts of hand-crafting and sketching. A note on the Barthes: had to put it down for a bit after reading the forward that set the context, then again after reading Barthes's explanation of the structure, then again after reading here and there, then again after devising a structure that may guide me through the reading.

Content

My approach when "generating content" includes the following:

1. Who cares? and why should they?
2. Use a sieve to filter information - start with the big-holed sieve first.
3. Write the interesting story. Not everyone will find the story interesting so figure out who the story is being written for.

Yeah this hurts one side of my brain. The muscle has not been flexed and needs exercise. I have not written nearly enough words to keep this process flowing. Time to resume writing to specific recipients.

Tempus

I've known this for awhile but am now able to articulate that I am and always have been multi-dimensional in disciplines and time zones.  As exhausting as it can be, I revel and thrive in this broad range.

Entity

Absolute space, in its own nature, without reference to anything external, remains always similar and unmovable.

-Newton, I., Principia

Notes

The details of life get recorded here and there.

Wondering what compels some people to publicly record some things that make them look like creeps.  No filters I guess.  They're not concerned about others' impressions.  I'm not either, but I know what looks creepy and sketchy when I see it.

Holiday season has kicked in - making gifts to be given as gratitude.  Purchasing or bartering for items that friends make, to be given as gifts to others.  This takes time, and it is wonderful to reconnect with my hand-making community.

Writing pieces here and there.  It can be exhausting when the material has to be produced on demand and squeezed out, and exhilarating when it flows unleashed on its own.  Dialogs, scenes, and vignettes are narrated in 30 second sound bites when they arise.  I think that I'll remember them long enough to write them down, but the writing is slow and the images and conversations flow through memory too quickly, and much is lost.  How does one capture dance movement, cinematic images, and sound in words quickly enough to really, really record them?

There is movement again with changes that will occur.  "I'm going with the flow," I say. "I'm keeping an eye on it," another says.  "I'm still staying away," the passive one says.  "Don't freak out," I whisper to myself.

riders

What of those who hang on?
Leave them alone; no need to regard them; do not allow their presence to weigh on you.
But they take, they imitate, they feed.
Only because they have no resources of their own - they are dependent on you and others; make your own way and you will always have enough.

a few

As the sun sets on the first Monday after the clocks have sprung forward,

_The late afternoon sun triggers let-down, a sure sign of Spring.
_"Critics without credentials" - a quote that muffles the noise.
_As some pieces undergo further development, don't freak out.
_I will embrace the parts that comprise the whole.

Morning

Wonder what you reach out for?
And what you sit and wait for?

Slats

I love the room with moonlight stripes.

...another comes to mind

Some texts linger from many years ago.  This is another that was learned through song:

Come with me, under my coat,
and we will drink our fill
of the milk of the white goat,
or wine if it be thy will.
And we will talk,
until talk is a trouble, too,
out on the side of the hill;
And nothing is left to do,
but an eye to look into an eye,
and a hand in a hand to slip;

and a sigh to answer a sigh;
And a lip to find out a lip!
What if the night be black!
And the air
on the mountain chill!
Where all but the fern is still!
Stay with me, under my coat!
and we will drink our fill
of the milk of the white goat,
out on the side of the hill!

James Stephens (1882-1950) - "The Coolin" from "Reincarnations" (1918), possibly based on an early Irish text.

And the next one recently left a deep impression.  No tune, but a conversation is associated with it.  Interesting how a set of words is so strongly colored by context.

We live in the right time even if it doesn't always feel like it.

Andrew Solomon, 2013

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center. In a way, no matter how wide the circumference gets, no matter how far you have rippled out from the first point, that original pulse of your being is still traveling in you and through you, so although you can talk about this period of your life and that period of it, your first self and your last self are by no means distinct.

"Seamus Heaney, The Art of Poetry No. 75", The Paris Review, 1997.

Not Athena

Learning a new thing has given me the opportunity to rediscover the process that I need to make something.  Each step is required and is laden with opportunities to improve the piece.

A thought arises.  Why?  Would anyone else be interested?  2-3 reasons or points are noted with key words.  Maybe there's an ending sentence to the thought, or maybe the thought is an ending to another thought that will precede it.  What perspective or point of view would be most compelling?  There are usually several points of view with their own compelling perspectives.

*Compose a few lines of thought.  Compose series of lines of a particular thought.  Look and re-read, re-arrange and edit for spelling, grammar, sentence and compositional structure, then recopy.**

Repeat * to ** at least twice, deleting and adding more content as required.  Each iteration reveals areas to improve spelling, sentence structure, and reinforce ideas.  Sometimes the initial thesis gives rise to another thesis and the original thought moves to the background or offstage.

Handwriting leaves the physical writing and most of the notes on paper, rather than the frequent disappearing act that often occurs on a word processor.  A messy draft is liberating because the paper holds scripted ideas that I can choose to pick up later - or not.  Whereas if I obliterated them with a word processor, even with changes "tracked", my tendency would be to try to remember those initial thoughts, and trying to retain information, for me, hinders my ability to develop new thoughts.  Seeing physical overwrites also allows me to be direct (some might say "brutal") with corrections - if something is not correct or does not work, strikeouts and re-arrangements are scripted without removing the initial thought.

Yes it all looks clean and organized on a word processor as thoughts are recorded, however the handwritten process works for me despite the apparent chaos of diagrams, strikeouts and skewed lines of text.  Furthermore the tactile nature of putting pencil (HB) or pen (fountain) to paper engages a part of me that stimulates thoughts to flow.  It seems that the time needed to hand-write is what I need to allow my thoughts to develop.  The tempo of my thoughts and hands are connected and complementary.

In the end, the finished piece has arisen from of the initial drafts and diagrams that appear chaotic but are essential in the refinement needed to complete the piece.

안녕하세요!

woohoo, learning something new!
"uh oh," said the people around her, "where's this going to go now?"

매일 월요일점심에 도서관에서 책을 읽어요.

I'm still looking for the Hawaiian keyboard.  Let me know if you find it.

Bastille Day

Big Fun at the Cal Expo State Fair again this year!  of all the things I saw this weekend,  I am especially taken by two pieces. Lynn Dau's "Endless Possibilities" (left) and Faye Schoolcraft's "Jackson Pollack's Ideal Woman" (right).

And I spent a bit of time in the kitchen making lemon marmalade (27C) and salted lemons (4 tall jars on the left in the photo).  Many thanks to the homegrown source and conversation that came with it.

TdF update:  another 12g carded and spun for the RUSTIC series.

Also - another installment of a written piece drafted.  I now look forward to first drafts.

And the Zimmerman acquittal disturbs me greatly.  Young ones of color are not safe.  Trayvon Martin could have been my son.  In conflict,  the presence of guns throws off any sense of balance. Maybe it's Florida which generally seems off-kilter to me, but I don't understand this verdict at all.

Been there

But asking you is THE might have been for me, the one towering change, the other life that might have been had.

- Robert Lowell

Well it was asked, answered, and everyone moves on.

Deep Sty

Here's a story synopsis of how a partner worked to keep things together and running for years. The other partner was on the road, in the public limelight. The working partner became ill and died within a year. The surviving partner dismissed any notion of recognition or compensation because "there was no written agreement." Whoa, shame on the working internal partner! The surviving partner will get sued, but because of his public profile he will have his blind supporters. It helped that he and his publicist bonded. He gets good press, she perpetuates the myth and generates her means of support. Mutual benefit plays out well in society. Glamorous lives they lead! They are so attractive! Everyone loves them both.

Cliques are so inbred that as outsiders are brought into the mix they slip into the altered reality, which to any observer would be a horror story.

3 perspectives

1. I dreamed in French and black and white. People and life appeared simple, but were really as complex as they always have been.

Yet situations were navigated in shades of grey.

2. "A correspondence is not the same as a life." ...say this at least three times before proceeding.

Remember choices that others have made.

3. Who is the audience? am I reaching my intended audience? who is the audience I am not anticipating?

NaNoWriMo ends this month.

Dog

Song

Sing, the Muses, sing!

Sing the story of the war,
Of the front line - you know
What that looks like,
Don't you.

Sing of the 9 years.
Of the rage and killing that
Whipped the frenzied
Reptile so it
Tasted sweet alongside
Tears of grief.

Sing of words
Cut short by death,
The spirit leaving the body
And returning in bottles
To those who carry
The song to their children.

Sing of Berkeley Rep's
Production of An Iliad,
A world presented by
Two people who have traveled
Through time.

Corpus

The Greeks believed that when a person dies, his spirit or psyche leaves the physical body in the form of a little breath or puff of air. The deceased was then prepared for burial.

The remains of the body, or ashes, if cremated, were placed inside the tomb specially built for the deceased. Immortality lay in the continued remembrance of the deceased person by family members.

The interment of the body, either the bones or ashes, had to be duly buried in the earth in order to bring happiness and peace to the soul of the deceased person.

Those who did not receive proper funeral rites were doomed to wander by the river Styx, the entrance to the Underworld, for eternity; their souls could never be at rest. Thus, denying burial to a corpse not only insulted the body, but also damned his soul for all time.

Burying and mourning their dead relatives gave women an opportunity to do something important. It brought women to the fore and gave them a role to play in a society where they were not viewed as equal citizens. When Creon forbade the burial of Polynices, he denied Antigone the chance to do one of the few important things society allowed women to do. Thus, he attacked her identity, and that was a primary reason she opposed him.