Even now, I persist in believing that these black marks on white paper bear the greatest significance, that if I keep writing I might be able to catch the rainbow of consciousness in a jar.
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READIN
READIN started out as a place for me
to keep track of what I am reading, and to learn (slowly, slowly)
how to design a web site.
There has been some mission drift
here and there, but in general that's still what it is. Some of
the main things I write about here are
reading books,
listening to (and playing) music, and
watching the movies. Also I write about the
work I do with my hands and with my head; and of course about bringing up Sylvia.
The site is a bit of a work in progress. New features will come on-line now and then; and you will occasionally get error messages in place of the blog, for the forseeable future. Cut me some slack, I'm just doing it for fun! And if you see an error message you think I should know about, please drop me a line. READIN source code is PHP and CSS, and available on request, in case you want to see how it works.
See my reading list for what I'm interested in this year.
READIN has been visited approximately 236,737 times since October, 2007.
I'm starting to write a brief note about the capture of Seville in July 1936, which is one of the first incidents in The Passionate War that really captured my attention. The plan is to post the note on History Time this coming Wednesday.
So far the main source documents I've found are The Passionate War and the Wikipædia entry on General Queipo de Llano, which unfortunately contradicts the book -- it says the narrative offered in the book "has achieved almost mythical status" but is refuted in recent research by Paul Preston -- presumably in his 1996 book, A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War.
So, hm. I don't have access to that book right now, though it looks like a good one to check out. I think I will swing by the library this afternoon and take a look at a few more books. Probably my task for Wednesday will be to write up the mythical account -- which is after all what seized my imagination in the first place -- and to make note of Preston's writing and how I may have it all wrong.
At the Apostropher's blog this morning, I found this breathtaking video.
Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei perform "Hand in Hand"
Strange but I haven't been able to find out much more about Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei searching on the internet, besides that they did this dance. YouTube features two interviews with them on Chinese TV, both of course in Chinese and not translated. No English-language documentary information about them, although the video is hugely popular -- it is all over the net.
Intrepid cartoonist of historical events Kate Beaton has started an LJ community dedicated to history postings. This looks like it will be a great thing!
(Also, I notice it's Kate's birthday in a couple days. So: Happy Birthday, Kate!)
posted evening of September 5th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about History Time
Sylvia and I were taking Pixie out for a walk this evening and we decided to head down to the park. (Well "we decided" is not exactly how it happened; more like, Sylvia says "When we get home can I play ToonTown?" and I seek a diversion by saying "Let's go down to the park.") She found a cast-off tennis ball and was practicing throwing it overhand.
This was really interesting for me to watch -- I don't really have any memory of trying to master a physical motion, at least not until I was much older. My childhood was singularly unathletic and, well, pretty much uncoordinated. Sylvia seemed to be paying a lot of attention to how to move her arm to throw the ball properly. She asked me to throw it so she could see how to do it -- and it seems pretty effortless to me at this point to throw a ball overhand, though I never worked at it. Maybe Sylvia will get a better arm than I have, by being interested in the mechanism of it.
On the way home from the park Sylvia said "Look at that sunset!" And it was indeed a breathtakingly beautiful one -- the darkening sky mostly blue to the west except for a small bank of cirrus clouds shadowed charcoal-grey; and in front of that a tiny wisp of cirrus glowing hot pink in the dying rays of the sun. (Meanwhile to the east, storm clouds are rolling in -- we're supposed to get a ton of rain tonight and tomorrow.)
posted evening of September 5th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Sylvia
The school bus was on time today! Even early -- we were walking to the bus stop and saw it pulling away. Fortunately it was headed in our direction, and the driver pulled over to let Sylvia in.
I had a sort of nice, neighborhood-y feeling as I walked back home, and driving out of the neighborhood to work -- saw a lot of people I know bringing their kids out to the school bus.
I worked up a fiddle part for "Rollin' in my Sweet Baby's Arms" to play at the jam tonight, and I must say it was pretty successful. I kept it fairly simple, everybody stayed with the beat and it sounded nice -- and my singing was as good as it ever gets. A couple of people complimented me on it later on.
The jam leader tonight was Barbara Lamb -- it was really great to get a chance to hear her music. She did some far out stuff like setting up rhythm tracks by overdubbing lots of different clapping patterns and rattles just before she started playing, and playing duets with herself through a delay box. She's playing a house concert in Rockaway on Saturday, I hope we can make it out there.
posted evening of September 4th, 2008: Respond ➳ More posts about Fiddling
Today is Sylvia's first day of third grade! She's starting at a new school. We're all going out together now to walk down to the bus stop...
Aargh... Well the bus was 45 minutes late. But Sylvia's in school! And we met some neighbors whose son is starting kindergarten, who seem like nice people.
One of the best things about the Luminous Groove box set is this track, on disk 1 of "Bad Case of History." It is a previously unreleased demo recording (recorded in Yarmouth in 1992), which means The Asking Tree has never heard of it.
This song just seems like a very pure, beautiful melody to me. I'm not sure what else to say about it -- I find the descending run on the fourth and eight lines of the verse rivetting. I lean back and forth between thinking the lyrics are lovely poetry, and thinking they are tritely emotional. The best thing about the lyrics is definitely the ways that the eighth line of each verse leads into the refrain. Possibly what I want to say about this song is, it combines perfectly the style of Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians with the style of Robyn Hitchcock's solo work from later in the '90s -- this is what you might get if you crossed "Raymond Chandler Evening" with "Heliotrope."
The fabulous whisper;
Can anyone hear but me?
The ivy surrounds you
Infinitesimally.
Does anyone love you?
Baby just me.
You're caught in the darkness,
The only place you can be alone
Alone
Alone.
A series of strangers,
Shall we say "absent friends,"
Parading before you;
Into your life she bends.
So hollow and lonely,
It's making you see,
You'll only get better
When you've learned how to be alone
Alone
Alone.
(instrumental)
What does it matter?
You're seeking the eyes long shade.
I brought you some onions;
Cry now, don't be afraid.
They're walking towards you,
The angels from everywhere;
The ghost of your body
Is bringing you back to her alone
Alone
Alone
Alone
Alone
Alone.
↻...done
The Washington Postreports today on how Sarah Palin decided not to provide funding for helping pregnant teenagers whose mother is not a powerful Republican politician.
Palin... earlier this year used her line-item veto to slash funding for a state program benefiting teen mothers in need of a place to live.
Thanks to Tim in comments at The Great Whatsit for the link.
posted afternoon of September third, 2008: Respond
The official website for the book is here -- only in Turkish naturally, but with two lovely photo galleries: Pamuk in his study, and Pamuk around the town. There is also a Wikipædia entry of course, in English and in Turkish, but practically nothing written about it on the English site as yet.
...And, Banu Güven of MSNBC Turkey interviewed Pamuk about his new book yesterday. I am wishing I could understand Turkish...
Ayse posts the first sentence of Museum of Innocence in my comments: