Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Drawing Rain Over a Bridge and Over the People Crossing the Bridge




  • Frank Bridge was born 135 years ago today.
  • We talked about Blegsylvania last night at a Tuesday Edition of Whatever Night Fits All Our Schedules Pints. At this point, I said, I don't mind the obligations I impose on myself, but the fact I now see them as obligations means lights are changing. I'm not sparing you the rest, I just haven't formed the rest into coherent sentences yet, but at least I've put that great Mary Lou Lord song in my head, now yours.
  • More chimeras.
  • The Friends of Glenn
  • Notes on Want To Start a Revolution?
  • Food links.
  • Midcounty Highway! Fucking Clarksburg, the developers especially, but the fucks who bought houses there too.
  • The state of United. Planet comes home a week from Friday, home opener a week from Saturday.
  • The 150 year hunt for the Great American Novel.
  • Angel Olsen.
  • Above two links via Hamster, thanks.
  • Gentle resignation: Houellebecq, for those of you who do or, like me, never had and should. Not a conscious choice - I didn't decide I wouldn't read him - I just never have.
  • Hymn to Life.






RAIN EFFECT

Mary Ruefle

A bride and a groom sitting in an open buggy
in the rain, holding hands but not looking
at each other, waiting for the rain to stop,
waiting for the marriage to begin, embarrassed
by the rain, the effect of the rain on the bridal
veil, the wet horse with his mane in his eyes,
the rain cold as the sea, the sea deep as love,
big drops of rain falling on the leather seat,
the rain beaded on a rose pinned to the groom’s
lapel, the rain on the bride’s bouquet,
on the baby’s breath there, the sound of the rain
hitting the driver’s top hat, the rain
shining like satin on the black street,
on the tips of patent leather shoes, Hokusai’s
father who polished mirrors for a living, Hokusai’s
father watching the sky for clouds, Hokusai’s father’s son
drawing rain over a bridge and over the people crossing
the bridge, Hokusai’s father’s son drawing the rain
for hours, Hokusai’s father rubbing a mirror, the rain
cold as the sea, the sea cold as love, the sea swelling
to a tidal wave, at the tip of the wave white.



6 comments:

  1. People are fucks for buying houses in MoCo?. Wanna revise and extend your remarks, then tell me you were trolling and point out how you're being kind?

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    Replies
    1. No, not trolling. Just selfishly saddened by what a fuck-up my old playground has become. Driving through Clarksburg on the way to Sugarloaf is depressing.

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  2. Not to dismiss your legitimate sadness over the development of 355--which has absolutely necessitated that they build the M83 that they should've built 25 years ago--but there's a west side too, you know, and once you're past my hood, it's a lot less spoiled. Databoy and I drove the back way home from Fredneck one night not long ago (bad choice, it was not long after one of the drifty storms, but that's another story). There's really not much between Shockley and Darnestown, and as you know, that route opens up onto a world of other rambling possibilities. And again, not to diminish your sense of loss, but compared to that, the run of the Reserve from Damascus to Clarksburg really pales, imhoe.

    And all that aside, don't blame people who want to live here. And didn't join the downcounty flight movement. *snicker*

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    Replies
    1. We usually go out River to Montivideo to Sugarland to 28 to Mt Ephraim to Sugarloaf for the reasons you state.

      Did you know we actually had a contract on a house on George St before ending up in Ktown? Opposite the apartments next to Barrons. Thank the fucking lord we had pre-buyers remorse sparked by a shooting in those apartments that happened the day before the inspection. During the inspection the neighbors to the left of the house and a screaming/slapping fight in the front yard. When the inspector found a crack in the furnace and said it would have to be replaced we broke the contract in a nano-second. We then found the Cape Cod in Parkwood at such a ridiculously low price (the couple was desperate to move) we down-countied.

      Got outbid for a house on Hutton that bordered the tennis courts of City Hall too before Parkwood. Thank fucking Baal.

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    2. I do remember those things, vaguely. Who knew at the time it would provide enough complicity for 8 or 10 dogblogs?

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  3. 1)re Mary Lou Lord - remarks at the song you linked to state "She announced in 2005 that she suffered from a rare vocal cord affliction known as spasmodic dysphonia. " - this is what WAMU's Diane Rehm has struggled with

    2) the bridge mentioned in james schuyler's 'hymn to life' has a web page with photos

    http://www.yelp.com/biz/buffalo-bridge-washington

    ReplyDelete