Wednesday, June 30, 2021

How Do I Lament It Forth, This Feeling of Trying?

 

My black cats yesterday. Got the June 28th emails from three blooger bots I need renew my ten dollar domain name by July 28th or I cease to exist. Come to think of it I've lost my trolls, here's trolling. Grid gird, a sad song if I add an e. When do you plan to retire to Michigan the only question my daughter's husband's mother in Michigan asked me, Soon, I didn't say, do you know I still reflexively answer questions I know are disingenuous at best honestly because fuck them. That concludes Today in Bleggalgazing. Woke up with Beefheart in my head



Weird Creepy Media Blackout on Recent Assange Revelations
The War on RealityDiscipline and punish
135 ?s for those who occupy Manhattan's extreme upper skyline >><<Why do these buildings exist? Who, exactly, demands them? Is it the residents—a mix of oligarchs, finance titans, modern-day robber barons, obscene inheritors, post-socialist privatizers, mafiosos, money launderers, and avatars for anonymous bank accounts—who want to see more glass rectangles stretch higher toward the stars? Is it the developers and their investors, eyeing available swatches of land and sky to assemble into luxury skyscrapers, with each subdivision thereof selling in the millions? Is it the city, state, and federal politicians, planners, and policymakers who incentivize these stationary investment vehicles for mobile capital, hoping to grab some benefit—tax revenue, press buzz, the coveted “favorable investment climate”? Is it the architects and designers seeking to put their stamp on the city, preferably at slightly higher altitudes than their competitors, and with slightly more flair (or coolness, if that’s their calling card)? Is it the workers who build and service the buildings—and the union leaders who represent some of them—who understand the city’s political economy better than economists, and have pinned their futures to this asset class?
Links from the brinkCrypto-politics
Techno feudalismHow important is white fear?
On revolution and radio waves
When am I going to retire, I ask me? Never, my guess, all the money I've saved for retirement doesn't exist even though I get quarterly statements saying it does, when our shitlords want it back they will disappear it, I'll be greeting you at a Walmart if I make it to eighty. It won't be in Michigan as long as I have my black cats in Maryland
OnBarthelmeRIP John Hassell
My goddamn free blogging platform will not let me give them one flat fee to never worry the domain renewal again, my goddamn free blogging platform says no, goddamn my goddamn free blogging platform, here's your effing ten bucks for another year of my self-incriminating vanity
The parasite of translation
When Elf Power covered my favorite Eno song:




LAMENT

Mary Ruefle

This is the way I usually start,
simply tinted with a margin,
sometimes a subject in the center.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually
stepped foot in the world, and yet
I feel I’ve approached it year after
year in different difficult ways,
from crawling across the linoleum
to climbing a loquat tree only to
hear the sound of adults speaking
below me in a language I couldn’t
quite catch. Once on a ladder when
ice-dams threatened my house I had
a hatchet in my hand and I used it.
Useless. Hopeless in the hospital,
unable to stand, the little checks
by flashlight at night. And the costumes
on Halloween! Mary Shelley in mourning
but nobody caught on, nor did I as
the years turned into ever longer days
and all my approaches felt like swimming
across a claret-colored lake so wide
I could picture in my mind every pair
of shoes I’ve ever worn. Do you want
to hear them? And writing poems –
that was a wash. How do I lament
it forth, this feeling of trying?

4 comments:

  1. 1/those are good looking black cats

    1.1/one of my best cats ever was mostly black - the other was a ginger tabby

    2/i went to the barthelme link - donald barthelme - i used to read collections of his stories in the undergrad study library at u. buffalo when i should have been doing something else - i have wasted much of my life, from one perspective, but on another level i was simply obeying the harvard law of behaviour - i found one of his stories online

    https://tinyurl.com/barthelmestory

    and read part of it and recognized that some of the feelings it provoked in me reminded me of james tate's work

    2.2/i also went and looked at barthelme's 81 books essential to read to have a literary education - out of these i have heard of most of them or at least their authors' names, but have attempted to read only 2 - clearly i do not have and at this stage of life will never have a literary education according to this standard - context being late 20th century, university of houston

    2.3/i console myself with the words of indigenous american humorist will rogers [1879, cherokee nation, indian territory - 1935, alaska] - everybody's ignorant, only on different subjects

    3/the relationship of settlers to the original inhabitants of the north american continent is one reason why some people are calling for an especially somber - or even non-observance of - canada day - july 1 - the anniversary of canadian confederation - tomorrow - but i find i substantially agree with Conservative Party leader Erin O'Toole - he said Wednesday he was troubled by the decision of local governments who have cancelled Canada Day plans, and criticized what he called a "small group of activist voices" calling for a change to the holiday.

    Speaking with Chris Hall, host of CBC Radio's The House, O'Toole said: "Let's show today we're making Canada live up to the ideals that built the country, but we fell terribly short of in the past. It's about building up the country, not tearing it down."


    text in italics is quoted from the cbc

    3.2/i would disagree in part with the statement about "the ideals that built this country" but sometimes it's better to let people to hang on to their illusions for as long as they need them

    3.21/i also note that o'toole apparently uses the phrase 'small group of activists' in a derogatory way

    3.3/i don't promise to never vote for the conservative party candidate if i become a canadian voter, but right now it doesn't seem likely

    3.5/in a federal election in canada you the voter cast ONE vote - for your member of parliament - similarly for the provincial legislative assembly at that level of government - they use paper ballots, counted by hand - chances are good that the results are usually an accurate reflection of the votes that were cast

    4/Why do these buildings exist?

    see https://tinyurl.com/itiscomplicated

    5/will one's money last long enough? one wonders

    6/and now for something completely different - yesterday i read the story of an event in the life of jacqueline louise fuchs, harvard law school classmate of barack obama -

    https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/the-lost-girls/






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  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2i7eR_u5pA

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    1. Thanks. I don't know Hassell's music well enough to cascade an RIP (it's me, not him, I've not enough time, not enough ears)

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    2. It's relative. I'd've said I was a true fan. But I was randoming my Hassell library and only have about 3 hours, and that includes Remain in Light and Bush of Ghosts. He released something last year that was probably great (for a "fan" like me). He'd apparently been sick and in need of money (had put his whole catalog on Bandcamp (which is a great service)). But did I get his latest? Well, you know the abounding answer to that one.

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