MMXVIII/͵βιη

New Year's Eve plans fell through at the last minute. No one else wanted to brave the cold, and I could see why. Maybe tomorrow?

There was a wild party going on upstairs earlier. They're quiet kids, in general. But, you know, everyone is multifaceted.

To better times in 2018!

On the brrrr-ight side

Okay, with just a couple of days to go in 2017, I think it can be said that this has been an...aggressive December. Many days and especially nights where going outside feels like walking into a meat locker. You begin to see why bears hibernate. And I don't mean large hairy gay men. Or do I? The literature is ambiguous.

Pluck pluck

Harpsichord isn't used much in jazz. It doesn't slide into the combo easily like the piano does. .So I'm interested in hearing the results when jazz musicians do play harpsichord. This tune by Garner is a little baroque and a little bluesy. It does make you sit up and pay attention.

Navidad update

So, had Christmas dinner at the house of a couple of friends. It was them, their kids, another friend who I'd met, and his wife who I hadn't. With a father/grandfather and his girlfriend showing up later.

The male half of the couple would usually be the one to drive me home, but he had done some drinking - as had I - and the roads were a bit icy. Thus the lady drove me. Which was nice. It was a different kind of conversation I had with her than I guess I would have had with him.

Anyway, Happy Hollandaise!

Where the streets have no friction

Last night and this morning we got a tremendous amount of frozen rain. That means that if you walked on the sidewalk today, you got to play that funnest of games, "Guess Where the Ice Is." Somehow I didn't actually fall anywhere, but it was hairy in a few spots.

I haven't heard that much complaining for drivers. The roads must have been better salted.

Red letter day

In this year's end clickbait listicle the author says, "I'll admit it: I can’t stand Jake Paul because this is the first time in my adult life where I truly believe that what the kids like is scary and wrong. " Well, I've never heard of Jake Paul, don't know who he is, and feel no obligation to find out. So I guess I've reached a different phase of adulthood: the one where you can remain blissfully ignorant of those aspects of youth culture that might annoy you. Hey, I'll take my meager comforts where I can get them.

Three arms to hold you

I'm currently reading Matt Hill's Graft, which is so named because it features a woman named Y with three arms. One growing out of her back, and it's artificial. And appropriately enough for the name, I don't really know why she does. Admittedly I'm only about halfway through, so when I'm finished maybe I'll get it. Her voice and memories have been taken away, which makes it look like some kind of slavery, although there are also indications she signed up for this treatment. But I don't entirely see why this kind of body modification is worth the trouble.

Hill writes fairly well, which is one reason I haven't given up on the book. But his best writing tends to focus on relatively ordinary carjackers, madams, and hit men. He might be better at writing straight noir crime fiction set in the North. Maybe the biological engineering is so his book can be sold in the sci-fi section?

The red sea

I'm just finishing up a temp job, tomorrow being the last day. Won't say exactly who it's for, but they are involved in debt collection. And to anyone reading this who might someday need to declare bankruptcy, I can only say, don't go it alone. Have someone with you who can tell you how to protect yourself. A lawyer, if possible. Your creditors will definitely have (more than) one of those.

In the neighborhood

Talked to a couple of the neighbors today. Not from inside my building this time. A little ways up the street. Well, one's from the building next door. She's a security guard and used to work at the library I go to until they had to lay off their guards due to budget cuts. She asked me to tell them she said hi, which I did. The other one used to work at Staples, which is where I first met him. We just chatted a little.

I'm an introvert, but I am glad to have the chance to talk to someone. Although when nestled into a group I'm likely to be known as "the quiet one."

Let there be...

An update on the lighting situation. The super came by last week and fixed it. Part of this, though, was installing a new bulb, a small incandescent bulb without a lot of lighting power. This was just temporary, though. This one's an LED. Nice and bright, lighting the room evenly without using too much power. I did prefer the clear halogen bulbs I was using before, but they did have a tendency to short. So overall, a B+.

SoCo

A song to congratulate Roy Moore on his richly deserved new status as historical footnote.

But it being R. Crumb is reason enough.

Plant life

ZOOTROPO from Pablo Kondratas on Vimeo.

Pine cones. Thistles. Acorns. Things that in my part of the world and quite possibly in yours are easy enough to ignore. But brought to life - well, a different kind of life - here. Of course there was a reason Whitman called his landmark collection Leaves of Grass as well.

Don't judge

So, Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman. This is a YA novel I bought at a library sale some time ago. Pretty much on impulse. The jacket art by Maria Carluccio was appealing. So anyway, I had this novel written for teen or preteen girls in my possession for a while, and tonight I started reading it. It's about a Jewish girl who's curious about religion and starts living as...well, you read the title. It's from 2005, post-Harry Potter, but while a lot of YA and older children's literature was about global threats and deep personal trauma, this is a small scale character piece, and Littman keeps it light.

So the proximate reason I started reading this was because I had gotten Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives from the library, after a couple of chapters I was positive I'd already read it. And while I don't think I hated it, I didn't love it to the "hey, let's reread this a year from now" extent either.

A little of this, a little of that

It's a little amusing that when - very recently - paleontologists found this fossil they were so unsure what to do with it some thought it could be a Piltdown-style hoax. And you can't really blame them. A prehistoric creature combining aspects of swan, penguin, and alligator does sound too good to be true. Reconstructed, it looks to have been awkward, all arms and legs. But it must have had some success, enough at least to leave evidence behind.

Moving wallpaper

I've always liked Stuart Davis, who really does seem to have foreseen Pop Art decades ahead of time. One of these days I'll have to do a post on him. For now there's this video, which I realized after a couple of minutes just repeats the same images over and over. I still put it up because, hey, "Bolero."

______________

There are times when it becomes necessary to become quiet within yourself. And it strikes me that this isn't a matter of not thinking - fill in joke here - but not thinking the most familiar thoughts. Not telling yourself the same thing over and over.

And refraining from this is hard. And how many people even attempt it? But it's the only way to make way for something new.