January 2010
47 posts
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Shigeru Umebayashi :: Yumeji’s Theme, In the...
Dear Abby,
Do you want to start a San Francisco Bryological Society (note that if we take the ‘y’ out, it becomes a Brological Society, which would be equally as excellent) with me?
Topics to be discussed:
mossariums
liverworts
bryophytes
the saints
nabokov
Circle yes or no.
An Urgent Call For Creative Aid
Dear Tumblr,
If you were previously unaware, I am a teacher of high school English. I work at an alternative high school that has the endearing, clumsy ambiance of “The Office,” complete with a boss who soulja boy’s with abandon in the hallways and two other bosses who take me completely serious when I recommend they develop a class about secret freemasonry in the hip-hop...
Whatness vs. Thisness
Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures—Hamlet
In scholastic philosophy, quiddity (latin quidditas) was another term for the essence of of an object, literally its “whatness.” Quiddity was often contrasted by the scholastic philosophers with the haecceity or “thisness” of an object, which was supposed to be a positive characteristic of an...
Though, not to be outdone, I’d just like to announce that I once dressed up as a giant ampersand that stood between a costumed Hall (&) Oates for Halloween two years ago. It was a difficult endeavor with complicated choreography. Pictures to come.
Whoa, Mills just simultaneously out-ampersanded me. Foiled! Let’s take this to the playground.
On Doppelgängers (Happy Birthday, Poe*)
“In me didst thou exist — and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.”
-Edgar Allan Poe, from William Wilson
“You! hypocrite lecteur! — mon semblance, — mon frere!” (translation: “hypocrite reader, — my alias, — my twin!”)
-T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land; via Charles Baudelaire,...
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“I shall attack Chemistry, like a Shark.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, letter (1800)
One must not eat grief bacon whilst in a...
Toska: a Russian word, Nabokov described it thus: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases...
In Which I Reveal I am a True Child of the...
OK guys, I had a trying, real-life Sisyphean kind of week. Translation: my car got stolen. Again. And then found, again. I’m becoming exhausted with this emotional roller coaster attached to a hunk of metal. So naturally, I came home after this whole debacle in the middle of the night and watched The Big Lebowski. Because it comforts me.
But I’m not here to talk about all that,...
“Whatever this is that I am, it is flesh and a little spirit and an...”
– Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (via dialogues)
The Hum →
Earplugs are reported as not decreasing the Hum.
The Hum is often perceived more intensely during the night.
Possible explanations:
Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emissions: human ears generate their own noises, which about 30% of people hear.
Colliding Ocean Waves: Researchers from the USArray Earthscope have tracked down a series of infrasonic humming noises produced by waves crashing together...
On Madness
I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
-Shakespeare, from Hamlet
Much Madness is divinest Sense— To a discerning Eye— Much Sense the starkest Madness— ‘Tis the Majority In this, as All, prevail— Assent—and you are sane— Demur—you’re straightaway dangerous— And handled with a...
Most Anticipated: The Great 2010 Book Preview →
(which I have lovingly distilled for you.)
Ralph Ellison, Three Days Before Shooting
Deathbed vigil.
Roberto Bolaño, Monsieur Pain
Peruvian poet with a chronic case of hiccups.
Earnest Weiss, George Letham: Physician and Murderer
A morally defective mind.
Don DeLillo, Point Omega
Defense intellectual.
Jose Saramago, The Notebook.
An 87-year old’s blook.
David Mitchell, The...
Semantic Time Travel →
What does it mean that in Old English there were 40 words for the Christian God in his capacity as ruler (e.g. wundorcyning), whereas today we have just six (e.g. the Almighty)? Why were there 44 ways to call someone wise in Old English, but we can add only that he is sage and judicious?
Whereas a dictionary makes it possible to follow the history of a word, a historical thesaurus makes it...
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WatchD.C. School Chancellor Michelle Rhee on AC360
I truly believe we are perched on the precipice of seeing a revolution in how we approach public education in this country in the next ten to fifteen years, and I believe it is people and organizations like Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, New Orleans Charter Schools, and the Harlem Children’s Zone that are making this a viable possibility. There are...
“It appears to me impossible that I should cease to exist, or that this active,...”
– Mary Wollstencraft
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Deconstructing 'The Wire' →
Clearly we are ahead of ‘the game’ (I couldn’t resist), Tragos.
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“Moreover, have you been to California? It’s goddamn stunning. Have you lived in...”
– Sexpigeon, who I increasingly wish would provide a quiet running commentary on life vis-a-vis a shared headpiece he speaks into in my ear which only I can hear.
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adverbistheword:
It was so unfortunate that this couldn’t fit with my iconography project,because I don’t think I can really describe how much I love this picture..the things I felt when I knew I had captured this picture, how on point this day of shooting in general had been. I had this real weird moment while constructing this project.
Wow. This captures so many uncapturable things, I think.
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“The mind of man, by nature a monist, cannot accept TWO nothings; he knows there...”
– V. Nabokov, from Ada, or Ardor
nostalgie de la boue
sarzha:
yearning for the mud; attraction to what is unworthy, crude, or degrading
Oh, I love this so, so much.
given a pie pan, pie crust, and a farmer’s market, what would you make?
Hmmm, I feel a lot of subliminal pressure with this question. My boss and I discovered awhile ago that it is very “in” at the moment to ask job candidates these curveball questions like, “Here is a paper plate; you have 60 seconds to come up with 20 different uses for it!” or “If you were a...
Things I Have Accomplished Over the Last 14 Days...
Relived my 5th grade career aspiration wish to become a “parapsychologist” (no joke) by watching both “Paranormal State” and “Ghost Hunters” (not to be confused with the ghostbros on “Ghost Adventurers”). I compared them academically for: 1) effectiveness of sound effects 2) ratio of demonic possessions : poltergeist activity 3) The aloofness...
“We waste life in separations! We are the fools of fate!”
– V. Nabokov, from Ada, or Ardor 