AnimaMundi

(Com)passionate Mercy

It was the poet, Kenneth Patchen, I believe, who said that the above is all that really matters. The rest is bullshit or close. It doesn't matter that there is a blizzard raging and that i-bloated-Tunes is not allowing me to stream one my favorite radio stations and I can't insert a link to said station because OS-X and Safari doesn't like the way I am going about it. 

With Explorer, highlighting text and inserting a link was as easy as dumping on Rachel "Gatemouth" Ray. Not today. At least I am not on hold with SONY.

Update: Using Firefox I have no problema with link insertion.

I have been reading more about writing lately, mostly because of Maud Newton and Mark Folse writing about writing. These people are writers. So is David Oliver. So is my friend Alfonso, on the wine trail in Italia. So is Regina Schrambling and The Gurgling "Cranky" Cod. And how could I forget Jesse Kornbluth, Head Butler of culture and humanity? I am not one of the fluent ones. I have always had difficulty writing. Logos has never been my forte. Maybe it has something to do with my education or my temperament. My English teachers were not founts of inspiration for me. My high school English teacher was nicknamed "Tiger" Lowry. He had halitosis and did not instill any passion for reading great literature. He spoke in a monotone and we all fidgeted in our seats waiting for the next class. There were a few dorks who licked up to him, but for the most part he earned the nickname. He was not a tiger. He was fucking boring. I did have a college professor who was passionate about poetry. He at least lit a small fire under me about literature. I appreciated him more after I left college. He instilled some curiosity in me about great poets and writers.

Anxiety about writing, anxiety about not writing, writer's block, writer's blockade, feeling, cold intellect, depression, curiosity, spigots, arcs, cascading cadences, succinctness, grammar, imagination, obsession, fear, self-loathing, reflection, narcissism, self-reference, meta this, meta that, irony, wit, humor, literalism, monotheism, monoculture, dumbing down, elitism, discerning audience, mediocrity... Oy, I could go on but what's the point? There is no point. There is only what is and what is becoming. Don't forget the histrionics and history.  And if it does not contain a milligram of compassionate mercy, what's it worth? 

I am three score plus and am just learning this. There is no on-off switch.

My Life As A Dog

I would try this with Aldo, but I don't think it would work out too well.

Download My Life As A Dog

Dinner For One Via Utubesc You Tube

 

Dum English Spelling

If I was 102, I would be lucky to hold water or anything else for that matter, not to mention spell anything.

NYTimes Metropolitan Diary March 3, 2008

Dear Diary:

On a recent afternoon, I arranged to meet my daughter at the corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. As I waited, a double-decker tour bus approached the intersection.

As I watched it travel east along 34th Street, I remembered that a patient of mine was a tour guide on just such a bus. On a whim, I looked up. As luck would have it, I saw her on the deck, microphone in hand, giving a tour. I waved, and as the bus turned south onto Fifth Avenue, she looked down and saw me.

Without missing a beat (I read her lips), she said to her group, “And there on the corner of 34th and Fifth stands the original Dr. Pepper.” The tourists all waved and cheered. I waved back as the bus made its way down Fifth Avenue.

Dr. Robert S. Pepper

Uncle Fester Face

This is inspiring. Animamundi is now first on Google search for Uncle Fester face.

Two Photos

I hate brunch so when I saw this, it gave me a laugh.

Aldo reindeerized:

The Last Marathon Man

David Byrne has an interesting journal, although some of his entries are quite long and I get bored and click. However, many of his entries are entertaining and informative. One of recent entries concerned music production costs and the empire of record labels. He also has an interesting take on the NY Times' new building and print media. On the end of the NYC Marathon:

"We had a snack at a nice Hunters Point café and watched outside as the cleanup crews picked up the piles of paper cups and tissues that had been handed out to the runners. Here the streets ran bright yellow with Gatorade — it looked like the marathoners had all peed themselves. A few stragglers limped and walked by, and I wondered if I would be privileged to see the very last person in the marathon, a sight more rare and more difficult to establish than who came in first. I think it was a man in a multicolored headwrap with a few-days-growth beard, who might have been smoking a cigarette as he made his way up the street, listing slightly towards the curb."

Local News

The local news affiliates of the major mainstream networks in the capital district of Albany, NY are deadpan dull. They have not a hint of personality, but this, I suspect, is not unique in the USA. Some dress horrendously frumpy and talk the mono-corp-media speak. WPIX in NYC used to employ one Jerry Girard, a sportscaster. This man not only knew sports, but also had a wicked sense of humor. One night he commented on the longest collegiate baseball game in history. Eighteen million innings. Then he said: "At the end of the game there were 16 people left in the stands, 10 of them still alive." After 21 years, WPIX wanted to employ another person and relegate Jerry to weekends, i.e. a demotion. Jerry walked without a word.

During the Giants' lean years, Girard quipped: "The Giants really have to tighten their defense. I saw a linebacker with binoculars. You have to get closer to the ball than that."

Only in New York.

The Pope and Style

I recently came across a picture of Pope John XXIII. It was a sepia drawing that had been in K's family pictures. Since then, the Pope's picture has been found taped to the kitchen cabinets, on the back of my coat in the closet, on the back of a chair, on the side of the frige, on the front of our China-less China closet, next to Aldo in his bed. The Pope is popular. Now you can dress like the Pope.

Hits

Today marks the most hits for my blog, 55 and counting. Ashley watch out.