March 31, 2004
a language arts moment --- je suis le tenebreux
| ROB is walking across plaza before the cathedral of NOTRE DAME DE PARIS, heading NORTH. | ||
Who has had a Language Arts Moment like this one? As a kid, I listened --- about 1,000,000,000 times --- to the songs of Flanders and Swann. Urbane, gentle, witty, Flanders and Swann wrote songs of satire, silliness . . . and sublimity. Among the tunes was Donald Swann's setting of a French poem by the arch-Romantic Gerard de Nerval. I memorized Nerval's poem by ear without having the slightest idea of what it meant. |
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| ROB leads you across the bridge past the THEATRE DE LA VILLE. He SINGS. | ||
"Zhe sweee laaa tay nay brewwwww, la voooo, laaaaaaaank onsolaaaaaayyy" Imagine, then, the pulpy explosions of electricity and chemistry in my brain, when one cloudy day in Paris . . . . . . I was cutting through the park at the base of the spooky, solitary, Tour Saint Jacques, beloved of the Surrealists, in a dark mood, and I suddenly came upon the small monument to Gerard de Nerval. |
| ROB seats you next to him on the small bench facing the monument to Nerval. | ||
A pillar, a sculpted head, and at its feet: a rough romantic stone, carved deeply with the words: "Je suis le Tenebreux, -le Veuf-, l'inconsole, I knew those sounds by heart. A precious secret. For the first time I deciphered them. How could I not burst into tears? "I am the gloomy one, the widower, the inconsolable |
March 29, 2004
minutes of sunday's literary lunch in exile
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12:02 Allen orders green tea. He wants to learn what all the green tea fuss is about. 12:03 'wordsman is drawing penguins in the style of Raphael. 12:05 Allen still wants to know when Beverly is coming home. 'worsdman says it totally depends on her assignment editor. Her satellite phone is only for emergencies. 12:07 Rob sits down and puts a book called "VAS: An Opera in Flatland" by writer Steve Tomasula and designer Stephen Farrell down on the table. This is what Rob means by visual/verbal literature! |
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12:12 'wordsman and Allen ooh and ahh over Vas. Such a great use of two colors of ink! 12:14 Rob says the two colors of ink are "flesh" as described by the CrayolaTM crayon folks, and "blood." The whole book is smart like that. It's about bodies and eugenics in the biotech era . . . and a guy hesitating on the brink of a vasectomy. 12:17 All wince. Strong topic. 12: 18 Green tea --- big whoop dee do. Tastes like the byproduct of a distant, better tea. 12:22 Allen and 'wordsman vie to be first to borrow Vas. Rob gives them his lecture about buying their own copies, here, and supporting cool artists. They roll their eyes and nod sheepishly. 12: 27 Rob is going to hang out with Tomasula and, hopefully, Farrell, too, next week at a conference at Notre Dame called &Now, A Festival of Writing as a Contemporary Conceptual Art. It will be a gathering of the tribe. Good partying is forecast. Allen is envious. 12:32 'wordsman shows a drawing of a penguin Socrates. Penguins think well as they walk. 12:37 Rob is fascinated by an online flash game called Smack the Penguin or Pingu. A Yeti swats a penguin for distance. Friends have gotten addicted to it, while acknowledging it's hilariously dumb. A typical 2004 guilty pleasure. 12:41 Allen says Pingu has spawned it's own whole Pingu Microculture, with parody games, rituals and lore. Allen agrees that the spread of Pingu is representative of how culture travels nowadays. 12: 46 'wordsman shows a drawing of a penguin horrified by this discussion. 12:49 Allen says that guys who have severe cases of the fidgets should not wear shiny nylon workout pants. At the library, Allen could hear a plump guy with shiny nylon pants eight tables away. The guy was sitting and pumping his thighs rhythmically, lost in thought, working on a laptop. It sounded like a storm at sea. 12: 53 Rob was on a flight where a guy in shiny nylon workout pants woke everybody up each time he went to the bathroom. It sounded like unloading gravel from a dump truck. 12:57 Allen wants them to make noise-cancelling headphones expressly for the sound of shiny nylon pants. It's doable. 12: 58 'wordsman shows a drawing of a herd of disgruntled penguins grumbling amongst themselves. 1:02 Allen has a green tea buzz. He drank two whole pots. It's a mellow jitter. 1:05 'wordsman and Allen tell Rob to tell Tomasula and Farrell that they are awesome. 'wordsman is short on sheckles. All put on coats. The bill is covered and they leave. |
March 26, 2004
And Now Alone | rettberg's googlepoems
And Now Alone --- a googlepoem suite from scott rettberg scott rettberg's site
And Now She's Alone Nobody and I really mean nobody, made her get pregnant. She cheated on her husband, got pregnant, and now she's alone. Who's fault is that? No one else knows what these two people went through, and now she's alone and has to fend for herself, and that's the great tragedy. And I'm sure he is missed by everyone of them. And now she's alone, but yet she is not. Her honey lives on, because he'll never be forgot. |
And Now Alone --- a googlepoem suite from scott rettbergscott rettberg's site
And Now She's Alone Nobody and I really mean nobody, made her get pregnant. She cheated on her husband, got pregnant, and now she's alone. Who's fault is that? No one else knows what these two people went through, and now she's alone and has to fend for herself, and that's the great tragedy. And I'm sure he is missed by everyone of them. And now she's alone, but yet she is not. Her honey lives on, because he'll never be forgot. What a sad thing. Can you imagine? This child is three years old, and now she's alone in a hospital. Anyone with a brain can tell you it's a genetic thing. IT WAS THREE YEARS AGO WHEN SHE BEGAN TO STAND ON HER OWN SHE TURNED HER BACK ON EVERYTHING AND NOW SHE'S ALONE I TRY TO TALK TO HER BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME IT'S You may not feel it the first listen, but then you'll start to like it. The song is about how he played her and now she's alone in love.
And Now He's Alone Who's the second glass of wine for, guy? Beige is just about to approach Roxy when she's alone, but she's whisked away by friends, and now he's alone. Bragan disgustedly shoos him out, and now he's alone with the man on the ledge, the first cop on the scene, and he leans out the window, high over the dizzying machete. After seven years in prison he looks frail and older than his years — and now he's alone. "I helped others kill. But Less than ten seconds ago, My Hero was walking through the mall with his girlfriend, and now he's alone and being attacked by a gang. His short hair is a shock of white. Jessica has just left, and now he's alone. "Everything you do, it catches up with you," he says, slowly shaking his head. He didn't treat her right and now he's alone. He picked too many fights and now she is gone. Walking And now he's alone, because he didn't listen to what the Spirit kept But he gave in to the tinier moments of seduction, and now he's alone with her on the 19th floor, Room #1929; her parents aren't going to be back for six hours
And Now You're Alone to U...thought that it was funny when I caught you playin, and now you're payin cause I'm outtie, like I had no second of delayin and now you're alone in this When you've told your friends what you plan to do, When you've trusted them and they didn't come through, And now you're alone and it's up to you, Start Over. now on I'll be watching as your friends will take The liberties in you I'll be watching as you lay awake thinking it over And now you're alone, there's nobody the pain you´ve caused will never end You´re like a demon and I´m under your spell You promised the god But you gave me the bad And now you´re alone Cause I round All around All those lies you're telling me, All those lies Once again, you're pulling me down, Once again, I'm fucked up And now you're alone Look at You can smile you can cry but tonight you're gonna die me and my gun having som fun nowhere to run and now you're alone and there's no one to phone for you at found. I know what you're thinking. You were my love and now you're
And Now I'm Alone And now I'm alone, The last of my race, And I know in this world, That I have no place, My friends and relation, Have all passed away, For the steals of a And I was imagining the family at home having a sumptuous breakfast in front of the TV I was up at 4 am and now I’m alone running to another failed attempt i used to have a lot of cash and now i'm broke. i used to have an amazing love and now i'm alone. but that doesn't mean i have to be sad and lonely. at all. And now I'm alone again. Only for a short time, until the next stage of world domination commences, but enough to feel confused and elated at the same time. my guard down and let you in Sorry boo' I can't get with that I can't see myself goin' back When you left me, I got strong I got up and now I'm alone No more want me to be happy. You have added a nail into my self-hatred. And support for me. Nockin: And your private life? GORCHAKOVA: I divorced my husband three years ago and now I'm alone. If I start to This of course hurts me, should I tell her I'm bi?I don't want to lose her but i'm sick of hiding it.We do everything together and now I'm alone inside when window and watch the rain I hear it beating on my window pane Well, it makes me so sad Be no one ever hurt this bad My baby left me and now I'm alone Wait for Never anyone like Mathilde. Mrs. King: One can live without her kind. King: Her kind was love and now I'm alone and so many decisions and no one to talk to googlepoems searched by Scott Rettberg, march 2004 |
short-distance relationship
| ROB sits at his computer composing a love email to his WIFE. | ||
"mmm . . . mmm . . . so much fun . . . mmm . . . mmm . . . then . . . " |
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He presses SEND, then RACES DOWN THE SHORT HALLWAY to the room where SHE sits doing e-mail on her machine. He KISSES her before his e-mail arrives, winning the race. ROB stands on the shore of LAKE COMO, addressing YOU, the READER. |
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| I'm doing the short-distance relationship thing now. Lucky me.
Take heart, 'wordsman! Take heart, beverly! It's survivable! |
| SHE walks up with two CHILLED ITALIAN COCKTAILS and hands one to Rob. | ||
March 24, 2004
poem, re: beverly
"Meeting a Tourist on Her Way Back to the Capital" |
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I gaze west toward my home, the contrail is endless
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March 23, 2004
question for 'wordsman
hey'wordsman [comma] that'skind of a prettylittlesongthing youwrote there. Whichleadsmetoask: when is beverley coming back from her travels anway? [parenthesis] soonIhope [closeparenthesis] Ibet youmissher somethingawful
country song; re: radio as bonding @ long distance
| After Wang Ch'ang-ling, "Hearing a Flute on the River" | ||
| I picture you there / in your tent in the sand With your little radio / clutched in your hand Tryin' to sleep in your helmet, thinkin' bout me Keeping calm in the storm listenin' to BBC We get it here, too / after Conan is done The moon on our Jeep / 3 a.m. with my cup |
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March 22, 2004
minutes of sunday's literary lunch in exile
| 12:02 Allen dumps his entire canvas briefcase on the table. If he doesn't find that parking ticket they're going to put his head on a stake in front of city hall.
12:04 'wordsman doesn't like the taste of today's cream; it has turned to yogurt in his coffee. Negotiating with the surly waitress for new milk will be a challenge. 12:05 Rob apologizes for being late. Who saw last night's final TV episode of "Bachelor Surprise" where the handsome bachelor revealed he has a terminal disease? |
| 12:08 Allen thinks reality shows on TV are morality plays. Looks vs. Personality. Nice People vs. Cutthroat Competitors. Love vs. Money. Stuff people face at work every day.
12:12 Reality shows only pretend to frame conflicts between those value systems, says Rob. They all promote "Winning" and "Being on TV" as the highest values. 12:17 'wordsman chickens out on asking the waitress for better cream. 12:20 That's 'wordsman's whole problem: being assertive. Assertive is not aggressive. Asking the waitress is perfect practice. 12:24 Where did Allegory go as a literary device? asks Allen. It was the favorite stunt for centuries. 12:31 Love vs. Money. Cupid squares off against King Midas. The king installs a good muffler. 12:34 Here's wordsman's big chance to be assertive. He chit-chats with the waitress instead. Allen and Rob wriggle and bite their tongues. 12:36 'wordsman is a trend-setter. Soon everyone will be having yogurt in their coffee. 12:40 Too bad the name "GoGurt" is already taken. It would be perfect. Pro-tein and caff-eine --- everyone's favorite "eeen"s 12:44 Rob thinks those reality shows are magnificently edited. He wants to find out how they take the raw footage and cut it into a show. 12:51 'wordsman says he's getting too much coaching about asking the waitress for new cream. He's not asking her to marry him. 12:53 Allen says the TV Fame Machine is getting so sophisticated that it doesn't want "acting" any more. It wants supposedly "real" people. 12:57 Of course the "real" people are painfully aware they're on TV and are acting in their own clumsy way. Rob says jaded audiences crave clumsiness. 1:01 The waitress asks both "More coffee?" and "Is there anything else I can get you?" and 'wordsman is mute. 1:03 Allen finally joined his local public radio station. Their on-air fundraising became too annoying. But now that he's joined, the fundraising is absolutely insufferable. He wants to drop his radio in the bathtub. While he's in it. 1:06 Waitress brings the bill. Last chance for 'wordsman. 1:07 'wordsman will accept investors in his new caffeinated yogurt franchise. 1:09 'wordsman has forgotten his wallet. They pay and put on coats. |
March 19, 2004
n'ice & s'now
Brrrrrrrrrrrrr! In Northern Finland right now, the last few days of a show by teams of internationally acclaimed artists+architects created entirely out of ice&snow that'sright ice&snow! Checkout the installationphotos taken under eerie lowsun arcticcircle dawndusky light!
crummy snow time
| ROB walks the street without hat or gloves, POINTING DOWN toward the mushy sidewalk. | ||
There it is. The look of everyday snow. Not the romance of a fresh snowfall. Crummy, sickly March snow. Melting to reveal last autumn's dogpoop and Mountain DewTM bottles. It's where we are culturally in month 03 of '04. Something new is coming; the old stuff is leaking away; nothing is clear yet. |
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| He motions for YOU to walk carefully where alternating melts and thaws have created a SHEET OF SIDEWALK ICE. | ||
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Growing conservatism, yet a banner year for gay marriages. Which trend will blossom in the Spring? Those things we will remember as being totally typical of the '00s . . . . . . the things that will become cliches in future movies about this period . . . . . . are all around us in the dirty snow. . . but which are they? |
March 17, 2004
controlling? or chummy?
| ROB walks through the BUSTLE of 19th century St. Petersburg Russia, wearing a full-length FUR COAT, and the headphones of a WALKMAN RADIO. | ||
| I have a question for you about the audio work environment. Should I prescribe a soundtrack for my long-distance team?
Like many folks, I listen to music as I work. Now that I'm hooked up with a smokin'-fast internet connection, I listen to radio from around the world. One of the reasons I've always like radio is the communal aspect . . . the sense that others are listening to the same thing at the same time . . . sharing in some way. To listen to my own recorded music seems frighteningly isolated sometimes. |
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| ROB DIVES INTO A SNOWBANK to avoid being run down by a GALLOPING HORSE & SLEIGH. He brushes himself off and turns the corner into the tumult and chaos of Nevsky Prospekt. | ||
| Just as Dostoevsky was a devout Orthodox Christian solely because others believed in it, giving him a sense of connection to a community, I often want to listen to, say, corny Russo-Euro-pop from St. Petersburg in the mid-morning simply because people are listening in cabs and walkmen and kitchens as they get home from Russian rush hour.
So here's my question: I keep getting the impulse to require of my next long-distance-international work team to listen to the same radio station as they work. The choice of station could rotate among the group equitably day-by-day, or morning-and-afternoon, or even hour-by-hour as long as we share the same audio. Am I nuts? Is this controlling and obnoxious or is it good team-building? |
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Oh, and while you answer the question, listen to RUV RAS2 radio from Iceland why don't you? |
March 16, 2004
game, your turn
| Your Turn | ||
Draw one LifeChangerTM Card from the top of the deck. Cards include: Fall In Love |
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March 15, 2004
an amufing jeft --- ye cell phone
106. A devout Salefman, being very earneft in his Prayers, in the Church, it happened that a Pick-Pocket being near him, ftole away his Cell Phone, who having ended his Prayers, mift it, and complained to his Friend, that his Cell Phone was loft, while he was at Prayers; to which his friend reply'd
Had you sold as well as pray'd, your Cell had been fecure, adding thefe following Lines.
He that a Cell will wear, this muft he do,
Sell his Mind, and Mind his Cell, too.
March 12, 2004
minutes of wednesday's literary lunch in exile
11:59 'wordsman is drawing penguins in his notebook. Allen arrives; his butt hurts from kung fu. 12:02 Allen marvels at how 'wordsman can spend five minutes with the menu every time even though he must have it memorized by now. 12:05 'wordsman wishes he knew Chinese; by the end of the century everyone will know Chinese; Chinese is the English of the 21st century. |
12:10 Rob apologizes for being late; cats eat the weirdest stuff; what's going on in their furry little heads? 'wordsman says they are nutrition focused. 12:12 Rob imitates a cat on the Atkins Diet. 'wordsman says Rob's cat voice is right on. 12:17 Allen is still the Mad Bachelor, dating three women at the same time. 'wordsman says Allen is also nutrition focused. 'wordsman says the Mad Bachelor Diet beats the Atkins diet hands down. 12:22 Rob is going nuts with little problems with his blog. He's in tech hell. He must have hurt a machine in a previous life. 12:24 Allen says Rob's agony is a lesson from the universe. 'wordsman suggests the lesson is: be born someone else. 12:30 Rob asks Allen to rank his three dates. Allen says it's impossible, they are all unique ladies in their own right. Rob rolls his eyes and makes yawning motion. 12:31 Sandwiches arrive. Waitress banter: she gives them all comp tickets to her new show. 12:35 'wordsman insists Allen is still not off the hook: he must rate his dates. 12:36 If forced to choose, Allen would put the one with the squeaky voice first. Although the whole choosing and rating thing is anathema. 12: 38 For 'wordsman the squeaky voice would be a deal-breaker. Even if the words were brilliant. 12:40 Rob asks who Allen is bringing to the waitress's show. Allen may call a date moritorium for a week to let his head clear. Exasperated, 'wordsman says Allen is just afraid of intimacy. Allen thinks he said "kitty litter." 12:45 Rob says many men are afraid of kitty litter. There's a national association; a website. Allen wishes you could buy intimacy in the store in big bags. Allen is a marketing genius, says Rob. 12:47 How do you get "kitty litter" from "intimacy?" asks 'wordsman. Allen could turn "intimacy" into "pineapple Frankenstein." that's how askeered of it he is, says Rob. 12:53 'wordsman and Rob pool their money to buy Allen a subscription to big bags of intimacy, home delivered. 1:01 Bags-of-intimacy brand names: Improved Closeness MiniChips; Two-Gather or Two-Gether. Rob says that's too complicated. Allen says: Closeness MiniChips with Scratch Release Crystals. Rob says if we could engineer something where scratching brought release we'd be millionaires. 1:04 Waitress brings the bill. 'wordsman is short on sheckels. They pay and put on coats. 1:06 'wordsman declares them all millionaires of the spirit. |
March 11, 2004
best motto ever
HeyRob! HeyYouAll! I just discovered the best motto ever for your new blog! In fact it may be the best motto ever period. Three simple words, one of them a mere particle. Catch this! It is: Blood and Fire. How awesome is that? Whatmore do you needtosay? Blood and Fire. There it is. Onlyoneproblem. The best motto ever has already been taken. By, guess who of all people, The Salvation Army. Checkout their crest. A wonderful crest it is, too. Oh, man, I wish we had gotten Blood and Fire first. Ohmanohman. Rob -- good lunch, as always.
March 10, 2004
search "gossipy phrase" +blog
| Heaving onto his stomach with a contented sigh, ROB flops in the warm grass of the BACK YARD. BEES pester the TOMATO VINE. | ||
The best introduction to blog culture I know . . . the technique I use with friends and students . . . is to perform a multiple-term search-engine search. thusly . . . STEP 1 Search "gossipy phrase" +blog For example --- "just broke up" +blog "making out with my" +blog |
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| He reaches lazily for a SPORTSBOTTLE of juice and SPILLS IT, to the delight of INNUMERABLE HAPPY ANTS, | ||
STEP 2 Click on page 5 of the search results and start reading at random, based on what catches your eye in the lifted phrases. 'wordsman says he finds the best googlepoems on page 4, I tend to find the best blogossip on page 5. Go figure. STEP 3 Dive down the rabbit hole. Almost any blog will list other blogs. On a given blog, pick another blog from that person's list of blogfriends. Click on that. Find another blog on that blog. Click on that. Repeat ad hilarium. |
| Rob SMILES as he looks out into the back YARD AS IT REALLY IS today. | ||
Do bees hibernate? Hmm . . . Search: "hibernating bees" +blog? Three search results! Now that's a vibrant blog culture. |
March 09, 2004
googlepoem 'grassy public area'
... and fingers smoothed Jim's temples, lips kissed his brow ... just another emergency
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googlepoem, found mar 2004 by 'wordsman |
March 08, 2004
song, 'you juice up my cortex'
| to the tune of John Denver's "Annie's Song" (You Fill Up My Senses) You juice up my cortex You plunge my whole brain stem You trigger reactions It worked so great last time |
love that I'm feelin'
| Spotlit in darkness, ROB wears a rich Renaissance VELVET CUPID COSTUME. | ||
Here's the phrase of the week: "metabolically expensive." |
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| He points toward the links with an arrowtip. | ||
| I heard an interview with Helen Fisher, author of the new Why We Love, on her Valentine's Day publicity tour. She talks of recent research, summarized smartly in the Economist, that begins to sketch three separate brain systems involved in what we call "love."
The Romantic Love system The Sexual Craving system The Long-Term Attachment system |
| Spotlit in darkness, ROB wears rich Renaissance VELVET CUPID COSTUME. | ||
Here's the phrase of the week: "metabolically expensive." |
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| He points toward the links with an arrowtip. | ||
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Each system involves different combinations of brain regions and different blends of chemicals --- just as other emotions like joy and sadness are not opposites, but work in parallel and each involve quite different brain areas from different stages of human evolution. The recent work is revealing more about the Romantic Love system, which involves the release of the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin, and may have neurochemical similarities to OCD obsessive compulsive disorder. It was fun to hear a scientist describing those behaviors so long the near-exclusive province of poets --- enormous energy, staying up all night, elation (sharing some neurochemical similarities to cocaine), intrusive obsessive thoughts of the beloved, cravings for a reciprocal response from the beloved. Summarizing, Fisher said: "Being in love is enormously metabolically expensive . . ." and proceeded a few steps down the slippery slope of speculating on why adaptation/evolution should have valued this system and kept it around. |
| Rob WRESTLES a wayward lace WING back onto his shoulder. | ||
| So, I've been enjoying thinking in terms of "metabolic expenditure" this week. It's an accurate way to evaluate many experiences: well-invested resources like dawdling with your beloved or seeing an heart-pounding thriller on the big screen, and wastes like the "crazymakers" in your life who cost you a metabolic fortune by each time they reach you on the phone.
"Sorry. Gotta hang up now, you've exceeded your budget. Bye." |
March 07, 2004
esting, test, test
| ROB stands just inside the open doorway of his NEW BLOG. He gropes for the switch. The LIGHTS BURST ON. | ||
This place is huge! I had no Idea! Huge and totally empty! What an echo! Echo! Echo! Echo! (echo, ko, o) |
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| He begins to RUN in the enormous space. | ||
Wooooooooooo
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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I can't even touch the ceiling in this place!!! |
| Grabs his new ERGONOMIC OFFICE CHAIR | ||
| Watch this! |
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Yeeeeeeaaaagggggh! (to quote Howard Dean) OK, don't worry, this is going to be a serious blog . . .
. . . it's just that . . . with all this space . . . . . . I just can't help . . . |
| Places chair carefully, takes 10 paces back, and with a RUNNING JUMP | ||
| Voilaaaaaaaaa! |  |