liminal screeds

resolution for 08

Ξ December 30th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ screeds |

I shall shave my legs better and more often.

best albums of 2007, in the order I thought of them

Ξ December 20th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ mini album reviews, playlists, screeds |

radiohead – in rainbows
the national – boxer
stereophonics – pull the pin
lupe fiasco – the cool
lcd soundsystem – sound of silver
arcade fire – neon bible
white stripes – icky thump
black rebel motorcycle club – baby 81
foo fighters – echoes, silence, patience, grace

vanishing point

Ξ December 13th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ playlists, screeds |

Cleavon Little
    as
“Super Soul”

lyrics to nothing precious at all by stereophonics

Ξ December 4th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ gratitude, mini album reviews, playlists, screeds |

I been people watching again
I think they watch me too
There’s a new girl at the coffee house
She’s got first day blues

She’s got red hair and a motorbike
And lime green shoes
A mohair hat and a summers dress
And black tattoos

And then she fly away
In her high heel feet
And her fire dress
And she’s throwing things
That took her time to save it up
And buy what’s special
Then she look around
And sees what’s left
And it’s nothing much
Nothing precious at all
Nothing precious at all

Gonna drink herself to sleep tonight
And that’s nothing new
She goes out almost nine every night
And gets high as the moon

She takes photographs of American cars
Where she went to school
She likes fireworks and candlelight
And fake bad news

And then she fly away
In her high heel feet
And her fire dress
And she’s throwing things
That took her time to save it up
And buy what’s special
Then she look around
And sees what’s left
And it’s nothing much
Nothing precious at all
Nothing precious at all

Nothing precious at all

Is she a loner or a mother’s girl
That’s up to you
She got fine lines round her tired eyes
And they’re painted blue
She could sleep around with anyone
If she wanted to
Gotta go my time is up right now
Got stuff to do

i might want to f**k this guy

Ξ December 2nd, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ screeds |

everyone in the world please read this

portnoy’s complaint and hamlet’s blackberry

Ξ December 2nd, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ screeds |

Imagining my next conversation with my therapist, recently, while driving, I was propelled to a giant remembrance of reading the novel Portnoy’s Complaint. For the first time is years, years, years. (An absolutely fantastic piece of literature…..)

I was deliciously taken to a memory feast of my reading life, my reading mind….how it felt to sit down and read the scarlet letter one saturday, rapt. Falling in love with my first love. I am pretty sure I read Portnoy’s Complaint before age 15, as I did so many of my mom’s amazing hardcover collection of late sixties and 70′s literature. Updike, Heller, Didion..
(I did not “get” Breakfast of Champions at all – I can see myself (hi-res) putting it BACK on the shelf without heaving read more than a few pages. Eyebrows hiked, eyes rolling.) (Later, I would get it. On time.)
I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch when I was in the fourth grade. My mom checked it out for me at the library (I’d love to see what else I got that night…I read Judy Blume too, y’all). She bought or checked out whatever I handed her. And her choices to suggest to me have always been brilliant. From Madeleine L’engle to Pete Dexter.
Last week’s On the Media featured an interview with Bill Powers, who recently published an essay entitled Hamlet’s Blackberry. Powers contends that reading written material from pages is innate, biologically felicitous in a way skimming pixels will never be. He describes how the handling of a book, the tactile interaction with the paper, is actually an integral part of reading, allowing us to “track” where we are in the text. The relationship leaves the mind free to go into the words. An overhead of attention of some fixed factor must be assumed for simply following text . The mind assumes too many jobs when reading onscreen. This is the kinesthetic attribute/feature that makes me feel all hectored and off-kilter reading onscreen. Yes. I hate the fact that there are no longer printed manuals included with, well, anything; I will always frown upon a PDF on cd as disrespect.
Reading poetry or essays or anything onscreen for pleasure can be done, and goodness knows I have spent hours reading online when captivated in research. (Check out celestial burial.) But I actually skim far more than read, and am aware that I leave many “reading” experiences with only a vagrant understanding. It is plain old uncomfortable.

Powers remarked in the interview that many kinds of printed material are far better suited for online consumption. This is informed by those materials’ transient immediacy. Periodicals, especially newspapers, fall in to this category. Cool. Yeah.

The reverence I have for reading and books is not unique to me, nor is it a near-extinct fancy we wil evolve out of now that Amazon released the Kindle.

It is rumored that the expression “bless you ” or a variant has been in existence since centuries pre-A.D. For spiritual reasons, for community reasons, for reasons that don’t need explaining. Whatever Snopes.com might say, this is a human exchange like hello or goodbye. Whatever its ostensible purpose or meaning, it cannot be outgrown or replaced. Like reading a page of words.