The ease.

 

Dear Friends,

A woman writer friend of mine, one that I stay in contact with through the flattening affect pasta machines of the digital devices, says something that sounds pretty much like "we don't have a technology problem, we have a Capitalism problem."*  It fit, for me, into a story of how we got to this field strewn with the broken rubble of culture and society that I keep stumbling over in my haste to try to Understand Things as They Are.

Obviously, I could probably find more clarity if I stopped trying to Understand Things; and I am working on that, too, in a multi-pronged approach to coping.  Anyway, it isn't always about me (ha- that's a bald faced lie, isn't it?); it's about my friend and her suggestion to read this interesting article.

May reading it help you in your daily sorting of murky facts & ever more terrible news!  And if not that, well, may it make you feel less lonely while you scamper around that field of broken stuff.

* Forgive me if I have misquoted you!

effet de neige

 

The Magpie, Claude Monet.

Dear Listeners,

I do feel more optimistic on the first of a month- it isn't rational, but the feeling persists.  January can be such a December hangover, and this January might go down in the great stone carved annuls of the universe as One of the Worst; but February is such a lightening up month!  First blossoms are spotted, the days can be felt as lengthening, and the first of a month is always for Fools, and I want to be with you everywhere, so please accept this humble offering as your first song of the second month of the year.  Play it loud, won't you?

a little trip

 

Folk art passenger ship model, early 20 c.

Dear Journeypersons,

Come with me!  On a voyage of discovery!  Come and sift through the fabulous Smog and Bill Callahan oeuvre.  Be amazed at how you could have missed all this greatness!  Here is a fellow, one of only a few of his gender, that I really wish I could be!  Let Smog be your songs for today!

Russian Winter

I Break Horses

Rock Bottom Riser

Four Hearts in a Can

In the Pines

Teenage Spaceship

Bathysphere

Cow

I Feel Like the Mother of the World

To Be of Use

Cold Discovery

Beautiful Child

Feather by Feather

PS  

Three more things:  One, you know where to get more, and Two; don't you love how they seem to have sprouted up from nothing, from sounds and thoughts just piled up together, these songs? and Three; I can't be totally sure yet, uh, and maybe you can tell me, but I Break Horses might be one of the most lovely songs I have ever heard....

ears (& noses)

 

I wanted to get you a pile of marble ears, but all I could find were these noses.

Dear Ears,

Oooh, listen to these great sounds!  Let it be your song for today!  

zerrissenheit

 

La Victoire, René Magritte

Dear Freunde,

No, Zerrissenheit is not a new subdivision on the edge of town, built on the bluff overlooking the meadow and riverbank you used to play in, but there is some overlap, some saliency.  "Torn-to-pieces-hood" is how Wm. James defines the word in Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea.  The Collins dictionary reports it is a "disunity," an "inner conflict."

I first met the word in Gift From the Sea, so that is the definition I have been lumbering and laboring under for years.  It is a lovely book; I hope you have already read it.

In any event, it is my new favorite German word.  My previous favorite German word was Torschlusspanik.  I think I am going to wean myself off of panik, panic, and step into the warm oblivion of torn to pieces.  I feel like one can only feel bad about doors closing for so long, you know?  After enough doors close, you start not care so much about the ones that are about to close: "let 'em close," you say, defiantly; "I never wanted through you anyway, you big dumb door!"

the first

 

Dear Radio Dodo-heads,

My DJ played this a week or so ago, and I think it is our song for today; the first song for today for this year.  Yeah, I think it is kind of prophetic, and constructed very artfully.  Notice the plastic soul sound of it- I love that.

PS  I wanted to send you something useful, as well as enjoyable:  here is a primer on how to apply bandages.  Probably you already knew how, but in case you had any doubts.

light, sand, waves, stones

 

new year; new wants; your assignment for 2025

 

Dear 2025,

I always hate to see the old year end, because basically I don't like time passing.  Probably because I am afraid of  What Might Come Next.  But all that is immaterial; the point of this list is material wants, desires.  Here is what I want:  

An English translation of Le pavillions des enfants fous.  There isn't one to be had at this time. 

I also want this book- which I actually have a chance of getting, so that's nice!

I want to shop for, but not necessarily buy, new roller skates.

I want you to read King Kong Theory.  And really, as usual, this last item is the most important one on your (and my) resolution list.  My Mom just called and she said "I don't believe in resolutions, I think they are stupid, and they are there just to make you feel bad."  Well.  Okay, no doubt true, but I think we might view an intention to do a thing in a slightly broader way- under my Mother's ruling, all plans are destined to fail and what is worst about that is that you feel bad about it??  

Well, there could be another blog, one titled Refutations to the Things My Mother Says.  But, I guess if all I have is the threat of you feeling bad because you didn't do a thing, then, well, I suppose I am not above employing that threat to make you read it.  So, what am I saying?  Read it or else?  Yeah, that'll do. 

PS  While you are at it, check out The Feminist Press, which printed the used copy of King Kong Theory that I read.  Why didn't anyone tell me about Virginie Despentes?  Why didn't anyone tell me about The Feminist Press?  This is your lucky day, because I am telling you.

twenty four hundred

 

Dear Fellow Roller Skaters,

We will have, to commemorate this two thousand four hundredth day of continuous roller skating, a set of This Wheel's On Fire!  Roll on!

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

PS  I hope you got glorious new wheels for the holidays!