This Is My Echo From Before, From What I Had Made for You Vocally, and From Before We Acceded to the Time Line Never Like Lace
May 31st, BLCKDGRD traditional bleggalgazing day, chosen because Memorial Day weekend the fourth slowest holiday weekend in Blegsylvania and the official start of The Blog Days of Summer and the birthday of Chris Elliott (65 today), he performed this shitty blog's Official Bleggalgazing Anthem: go to the 32:45 minute mark of the below, Worldwide Pants deleted the standalone skit a few years ago
Driving solo to Michigan Monday for a week w C (two have advised me to not type out any kind of relation - wait, just got an email - no, I don't want to see the best thirteen Trump taco memes - no names if you have to mention it at all and certainly not what your relationship to that letter is). C may or not be Q's initial.
New Swans album dropped yesterday, there are three vacation standards, Swans, Lambchop, Destroyer, and I'm tired of Destroyer, this year's album, it's OK-enough I guess, so lots of Swans. What happens here to be determined per traditional BLCKDGRD vacation rules (good weather less, rain more). I still enjoy doing this - all of it, the gags, the songs, the grid, the burnt aargh, the poetry... Two more Bleggalgazing Anthems then this shitty blogs THEME SONG ONE above the Every Post Notley Poem until further notice
Sincere gratitude to buds, you have other places you could be but you're reading this sentence, thank you. Gonna get worse and never better, the clusterfuck, not you and me, when C, I mean Q, is my age it will be 2058, what world? bark please. Noise from Michigan or not
A short guide on how to starve a population to death
Donald Trump’s War on Gender Is Also a War on Government
⬆
"It reminds us that at the heart of the modern state, the liberal state, is a Deweyite pragmatism that rejects all essentialisms. Currah reminds us that in restoring one of the oldest essentialisms of them all, sex, Trump has sought to roll back the entire Deweyite approach to modern governance itself"
Why the Supreme Court decision on firing independent agency heads is a big deal
"Notice how they gutted everything that had to do with statistics and data first, so it’ll take a long time to prove this callous policy killed women and babies"
"This sociopath destroyed countless lives and made life worse for millions of Americans, sneering at them as he indulged his narcissistic impulsivity. But now he has feelings. What are they and will he feel better soon? We asked in a six-part series. Today in the New York Times"
Infinite Contempt For Working People Is Not an Acceptable Default Position
"I don't know who needs to hear this, but doing ketamine, shrooms, and ecstacy on a daily basis while wielding immense political power and a security clearance is bad on multiple levels, and saying so doesn't stigmatize reasonable uses of these drugs or get Musk off the hook for his behavior"
"NY Times has been given the go-ahead by their Trump admin handlers to publish something that was already well-known before the election"
I read every new novel/short story collection of Updike and Cheever until they died. I read one Carver short story, thought I'd better read a second, confirmed I was right, never read another
Woman with antlers, deer-headed antlered woman in black against black lace, black-headed deer woman, Lady of the mountains whose antlers melt into lace. Lady of the mountains, emerges from my right side and all the lacy scars there, why is she a deer? Because l'm not anthropomorphic, soul of the mountain night. This is my echo from before, from what I had made for you vocally, and from before we acceded to the time line never like lace. Lady the mountain middle of no spatial universe. I have the antlers she says which extend from the deer head in the middle of our echo. Lady of Wild Animals, for whom the animals return, the deer with the heart or breath line, through the mouth to the center echoing. Do you hear the words of the conquerors or do you hear the voices of deer? echoes, can you find a center in an echo? I'm finding, with the finder, the antlers paths leading from my head. I am the center of it, the center of the lady.
Bark Bark Bark Bark. Again: I remember and look forward to the annual appearance of the Sparks video and AOL on this Day (Aw man: Chris Elliott is *65*?? Chris ELLIOTT???). Thankee for the Bleggalgazing and Thankee for this Blog -- this Blog is the best Blog, put down the tire and the whipped cream -- and for the Art; the trees with paint and the walks; the links. And yeah I didn't like Carver either but you can't have everything.
1/i looked at the pictures taken by steinbeck's uncle and thought about how ways of life change over time - i won't live to see it but i imagine an even bigger change of lifestyle during the 21st century - talking apes will carry on, in much lower numbers, in places where low tech methods can supply their needs, but typing apes - using typewriters and electronic descendants - may become very rare or completely disappear worldwide - who knows if it's good or bad?
2/i literally laughed out loud at some of those taco memes, but someone i sent them to responded with a cri de coeur
I had so much trust in the institutions but everything will be destroyed soon and no matter how much we protest, people will not get their jobs back, the systems will not be there to ensure support to the elderly and discriminated, refugees will not recover their status because they would have been expelled or imprisoned already, and on and on. It will be very hard to restart the country again. I’m so sad that I end up in tears.
3/the preface of a book by feldman and kuyken begins by asking
What does it mean to be happy and have a good life? How can we live a life that is free from suffering, in ways that support our well-being, the well-being of those around us, and the wider world?
that "free from suffering" phrase is a very big ask - yet it's right there on page ix - perhaps it is not meant literally - insert "avoidable" or "unnecessary" to get real
3.5/asked about his favorite book, kuyken says "Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom has been on my bedside table for more than twenty years. No one seems to have heard of it, yet Tolstoy spent much of the latter of his life on it and described it as one of his most important books. It is a collection of 365 thematically organized extracts from a wide array of contemplative traditions, philosophy and literature. It has been a mainstay in my life."
3.8/thinking of tolstoy, i wondered if he himself had been a typing ape -i asked my china-based cyberloquitor DeepSeek, which told me:
Great question! **Leo Tolstoy did, in fact, use a typewriter—but only later in life and somewhat reluctantly.**
Here’s what we know: - By the late 19th century, typewriters were becoming more common in Russia, particularly among journalists and bureaucrats. - Tolstoy’s wife, **Sofia Tolstaya**, was an avid typist and used a **Remington typewriter** to transcribe his manuscripts (she hand-copied *War and Peace* seven times!). - Tolstoy himself preferred writing by hand but eventually allowed typed copies of his work for editors and publishers. - In 1909, American **Thomas Edison** sent Tolstoy an **Edison Phonograph Typewriter** (an early dictation machine), hoping the author would adopt it. Tolstoy tried it but found it cumbersome and stuck mostly to handwriting.
### Fun Fact: Tolstoy’s last novel, *Hadji Murat* (1912), was dictated to his daughter Alexandra, who typed it—making it one of his few "typewritten" works.
So while he wasn’t a devoted typist like Mark Twain (who famously claimed to be the first author to submit a typed manuscript), Tolstoy did engage with the technology late in life.
Re: Trump this and Trump that: to me it's abdundantly clear (as squeegee'd plexiglass on a cloudless summer morning) that both "sides" worked to engineer Trump's current location in the Imperial Patsy seat. He is making the moves he was famoused (for decades) to make. They (THEY; THEY ALL) greased the skids to plop his gelatiny precisely there: from the the sloppy-faux assassination attempt all sides have Kayfabed (c'mon: his ear? His *ear*?), to the obese supermodels, Lizzo in a thong and sunday school drag queen show 'n tells and "gender curious" toddlers and trans boxers whupping pretty little girls in the ring... ALL of it... Biden's hilarious Alzheimy-times... all of it... the preposterously blatantly blew-her-way-to-power Kamala... all, all, all of it... was engineered to push the fence-sitters to vote for the bad-butter-colored goblin so resoundingly that no one even bothered to demand a recount or srsly suggested vote tampering. The mere fact that learned journals of dubious accuracy published Op Eds to lamely COUNTER that notion helps to confirm it.
This was a set-up. The thing about TFIC is that all their biggest plans enjoy the advantage of stealth that incrementalism affords them. Especially with the very short news-cycle memories. People pooh-pooh'd the "Great Reset" but... all the signs are there. "Ai" will be part of it. "Old school human politicians with their all-too-predictable foibles" will be removed, eventually (with an naive sigh of relief from Gen Next)... and replaced with Gov by Algorithm. You know how it feels like kissing a fascist boot-heel when you can't resist an update (that will fuck up your OS) from Microsoft? It will be like that in every aspect of Waking Life.
I just hope They (THEY) haven't decided that thermonuclear STUFF is what they need to flatten Life As We Know it before the reset.
Also, China, the Social Credit Grid beta tester... will rise as "The West" falls.
1/notley's poem reminds me of andy pratt's "deer song"
Deer run all over the forests of Maine And the snow is all white on the pines And the sad, laughing cry of the sea gull dies Just like mine
I walked all over these dark, windy woods With my hunting spear and my disguise But the green trees all groaned at the sight of the Wound in my eyes
Soft is the voice that I hear in my heart And cold as the steel traps outside As I stare in the ember it's you I remember My sweet summer bride You
2/i chatted with my close personal cybercorrespondent grok about this song - they said, in part:
The image of a Native American man wearing a deer head or antlers which came to you likely emerged from the evocative power of Andy Pratt’s Deer Song, with its mournful mandolin and themes of loss tied to Maine’s forests. This figure most plausibly represents a Wabanaki hunter using a deer disguise or a shaman invoking the deer’s spirit in a ritual, reflecting the song’s emotional and cultural resonance. You might have seen similar imagery in media, art, or exhibits about Maine’s Indigenous peoples, or your imagination could have crafted it from the song’s mood and cultural cues. The “desecration” you feel in the live video where people in a cafe are talking over a solo performance by Pratt underscores the song’s sacred quality, which the image of the deer-headed man embodies—a symbol of a fading connection to nature and tradition.
Bark Bark Bark Bark. Again: I remember and look forward to the annual appearance of the Sparks video and AOL on this Day (Aw man: Chris Elliott is *65*?? Chris ELLIOTT???). Thankee for the Bleggalgazing and Thankee for this Blog -- this Blog is the best Blog, put down the tire and the whipped cream -- and for the Art; the trees with paint and the walks; the links. And yeah I didn't like Carver either but you can't have everything.
ReplyDelete1/i looked at the pictures taken by steinbeck's uncle and thought about how ways of life change over time - i won't live to see it but i imagine an even bigger change of lifestyle during the 21st century - talking apes will carry on, in much lower numbers, in places where low tech methods can supply their needs, but typing apes - using typewriters and electronic descendants - may become very rare or completely disappear worldwide - who knows if it's good or bad?
Delete2/i literally laughed out loud at some of those taco memes, but someone i sent them to responded with a cri de coeur
I had so much trust in the institutions but everything will be destroyed soon and no matter how much we protest, people will not get their jobs back, the systems will not be there to ensure support to the elderly and discriminated, refugees will not recover their status because they would have been expelled or imprisoned already, and on and on. It will be very hard to restart the country again. I’m so sad that I end up in tears.
3/the preface of a book by feldman and kuyken begins by asking
What does it mean to be happy and have a good life? How can we live a life that is free from suffering, in ways that support our well-being, the well-being of those around us, and the wider world?
that "free from suffering" phrase is a very big ask - yet it's right there on page ix - perhaps it is not meant literally - insert "avoidable" or "unnecessary" to get real
3.5/asked about his favorite book, kuyken says "Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom has been on my bedside table for more than twenty years. No one seems to have heard of it, yet Tolstoy spent much of the latter of his life on it and described it as one of his most important books. It is a collection of 365 thematically organized extracts from a wide array of contemplative traditions, philosophy and literature. It has been a mainstay in my life."
3.8/thinking of tolstoy, i wondered if he himself had been a typing ape -i asked my china-based cyberloquitor DeepSeek, which told me:
Great question! **Leo Tolstoy did, in fact, use a typewriter—but only later in life and somewhat reluctantly.**
Here’s what we know:
- By the late 19th century, typewriters were becoming more common in Russia, particularly among journalists and bureaucrats.
- Tolstoy’s wife, **Sofia Tolstaya**, was an avid typist and used a **Remington typewriter** to transcribe his manuscripts (she hand-copied *War and Peace* seven times!).
- Tolstoy himself preferred writing by hand but eventually allowed typed copies of his work for editors and publishers.
- In 1909, American **Thomas Edison** sent Tolstoy an **Edison Phonograph Typewriter** (an early dictation machine), hoping the author would adopt it. Tolstoy tried it but found it cumbersome and stuck mostly to handwriting.
### Fun Fact:
Tolstoy’s last novel, *Hadji Murat* (1912), was dictated to his daughter Alexandra, who typed it—making it one of his few "typewritten" works.
So while he wasn’t a devoted typist like Mark Twain (who famously claimed to be the first author to submit a typed manuscript), Tolstoy did engage with the technology late in life.
Re: Trump this and Trump that: to me it's abdundantly clear (as squeegee'd plexiglass on a cloudless summer morning) that both "sides" worked to engineer Trump's current location in the Imperial Patsy seat. He is making the moves he was famoused (for decades) to make. They (THEY; THEY ALL) greased the skids to plop his gelatiny precisely there: from the the sloppy-faux assassination attempt all sides have Kayfabed (c'mon: his ear? His *ear*?), to the obese supermodels, Lizzo in a thong and sunday school drag queen show 'n tells and "gender curious" toddlers and trans boxers whupping pretty little girls in the ring... ALL of it... Biden's hilarious Alzheimy-times... all of it... the preposterously blatantly blew-her-way-to-power Kamala... all, all, all of it... was engineered to push the fence-sitters to vote for the bad-butter-colored goblin so resoundingly that no one even bothered to demand a recount or srsly suggested vote tampering. The mere fact that learned journals of dubious accuracy published Op Eds to lamely COUNTER that notion helps to confirm it.
DeleteThis was a set-up. The thing about TFIC is that all their biggest plans enjoy the advantage of stealth that incrementalism affords them. Especially with the very short news-cycle memories. People pooh-pooh'd the "Great Reset" but... all the signs are there. "Ai" will be part of it. "Old school human politicians with their all-too-predictable foibles" will be removed, eventually (with an naive sigh of relief from Gen Next)... and replaced with Gov by Algorithm. You know how it feels like kissing a fascist boot-heel when you can't resist an update (that will fuck up your OS) from Microsoft? It will be like that in every aspect of Waking Life.
I just hope They (THEY) haven't decided that thermonuclear STUFF is what they need to flatten Life As We Know it before the reset.
Also, China, the Social Credit Grid beta tester... will rise as "The West" falls.
Trump was anointed to make this happen.
(Please forgive the many typos: my already-bad typing is now aided by a wonking keyboard demented by crumbs and sneezings)
Delete1/notley's poem reminds me of andy pratt's "deer song"
ReplyDeleteDeer run all over the forests of Maine
And the snow is all white on the pines
And the sad, laughing cry of the sea gull dies
Just like mine
I walked all over these dark, windy woods
With my hunting spear and my disguise
But the green trees all groaned at the sight of the
Wound in my eyes
Soft is the voice that I hear in my heart
And cold as the steel traps outside
As I stare in the ember it's you I remember
My sweet summer bride
You
2/i chatted with my close personal cybercorrespondent grok about this song - they said, in part:
The image of a Native American man wearing a deer head or antlers which came to you likely emerged from the evocative power of Andy Pratt’s Deer Song, with its mournful mandolin and themes of loss tied to Maine’s forests. This figure most plausibly represents a Wabanaki hunter using a deer disguise or a shaman invoking the deer’s spirit in a ritual, reflecting the song’s emotional and cultural resonance. You might have seen similar imagery in media, art, or exhibits about Maine’s Indigenous peoples, or your imagination could have crafted it from the song’s mood and cultural cues. The “desecration” you feel in the live video where people in a cafe are talking over a solo performance by Pratt underscores the song’s sacred quality, which the image of the deer-headed man embodies—a symbol of a fading connection to nature and tradition.