Thursday, October 5, 2017

2017 October 5



  • WMFU's October sortasilent marathon is on. Give, please, think of me.
  • One gag is WFMU animal Station Mascot for Year. For second year in row I will submit Olive's ear.
  • Here it is, begger, bitter.
  • A diabolically bad poet is like a rotting corpse.
  • This will be the second time Olive doesn't win, matching Fleabus' 0-fer.




  • The Fall of the House of Fifa. Fuck football too.
  • If that's subscription required and you want to read it ask me nice and I'll pdf and email it to you.
  • I'm not going to submit a contestant for Mascot of the Year.
  • I've not watched more than nine innings of any and all baseball games on TV this season. 
  • TV meaning anything on a screen.
  • I listen to the local play-by-play team of Charley Slowes and Dave Jageler whenever I can.
  • I love play-by-play baseball on the radio, even when it's shitty. People can vouch.
  • Local commercials.
  • Charley and Dave aren't shitty. Great, actually.
  • So I follow the team. 
  • The Washington Nationals are owned by motherfucking ogres.
  • I think a World Series run and win won't make me wahoo.
  • Because fuck baseball too. 
  • Dave or Charlie's game-winning, series-clinching call will rock me.
  • Jinx! built with escape pods, so fuck me.
  • The Nobel of Lit is shit, but I can vouch for Ishiguro. People can vouch. 
  • Read an Ishiguro short story
  • Twitter today will be all Ishiguro Sucks.
  • Still more of Jim's Icelandic adventure.
  • I'm rereading Middlemarch again?
  • Rosie lost once too!


10 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more about Ishiguro. I find A Pale View of Hills enigmatic, but Never Let Me Go and Remains of the Day are beyond praise. The film that was made from Remains of the Day is also one of the best ever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Unconsoled is an every-other year reread, and When We Were Orphans an every third year reread.

      Did you read his last, Buried Giant? Is excellent also.

      Delete
  2. Can't complain re Ishi. Remains, Never are indeed beyond praise. Unconsoled—I will try again based on your call. BG is still being bumped down my to be read pile; it may start to move up. Devoured Nocturnes, the short story collection, in 2 sittings.

    Best part of my blog is reliving every moment of it. My whole self still smiles.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1)i would pick the ear photo for WMFU station mascot

    2)reading about poetry in the article you linked i learned about

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longfellow_House%E2%80%93Washington%27s_Headquarters_National_Historic_Site

    if i spend more time in cambridge ma possibly i will spend some of it there

    3)nirvana the band is mentioned in robert wright's book 'why buddhism is true' in wright's discussion of nirvana the concept

    wright asserts that the band had an earlier roughly synonymous name 'bliss' and that the lead singer, in his pursuit of bliss, became a heroin addict and OD'ed

    nirvana, when pursued as the goal of buddhist practice, requires realization of 3 things, wright says

    a)nothing lasts
    b)life is dukkha - i.e. unsatisfactory
    c)your "self" is an illusion

    he goes on to say that it's the third one - "no self" - that is the hard one

    maybe it's something like the beatles put it

    I am he as you are he as you are me
    And we are all together




    whatever they meant by that







    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. wright didn't say kurt cobain od'd - he said he committed suicide

      the assertion about the od was mine

      reliable sources say the lethal weapon was not a metaphorical gun, but a literal one -

      Cobain’s body was found in Seattle on 8 April 1994. An investigation determined that days earlier the singer had gone into the greenhouse of his large home and taken a massive dose of heroin. He then shot himself with a 20-gauge shotgun. His death was ruled a suicide.

      https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/18/police-release-pictures-of-gun-kurt-cobain-used-to-kill-himself

      Delete
  4. How is it that I can't find the X-Y-Z laundry dance gif on google? Or anywhere, even?
    ~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might still have it on somewhere, but will stumble on it sooner or later.

      Delete
  5. Echoing what Jim was kind enough not to say, fuhhhhck the Nats.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i wondered what i would find if i googled "james tate" remains day

    it was a book published in 1840, a century of hymns for general use - hymn number 100

    Where'er may turn Thy sacred feet,
    Teach us, O Lord, Thy steps to trace;
    Where men in busy concourse meet;
    Or in the lonely wilderness.

    Bid us with Thee to watch and pray,
    With Thee to die, with Thee to rise;
    With Thee to bear our cross each day,
    With Thee to soar beyond the skies.

    Where'er Thou art may we remain,
    Where'er Thou goest may we go:
    With Thee, O Lord, no grief is pain;
    Away from Thee all joy is woe.

    O may we in each holy tide
    And solemn season dwell with Thee,
    Content if only by Thy side
    In life or death we still may be.




    remarks -

    1)this was set with f's as s's in the old style - were they still doing this in 1840? i guess so, for this kind of material

    2)it's pushing it a bit to rhyme "trace" and "wilderness"

    3)in the last stanza "still" seems awkwardly placed - evidently it doesn't modify "in life or death" but rather "by thy side"

    4)this james tate is the first on the list on wikipedia's disambiguation page - the american poet is the fifth, of seven, not counting helmetball coach jim tait




    ReplyDelete