Posted on by mwhybark

A rose is a

Just finished Janet Malcolm’s gripping and sympathetic Someone Says Yes to It ,which begins as an overdue exegesis of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans before veering into a sympathetic portrait of the writer and her technique, concluding with a bang-up tale of academic intrigue. Alas, the piece does not appear online that I could uncover.

It appears in the New Yorker issue dated June 13 and 20, 2005.

The piece communicated to me what two years of intensive art historical information failed to regarding Stein’s appeal to the moderns, and as it was surely intended to, awakened a personal sense of interest in the famously hard-to-read writer’s work.

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Ropa Vieja

Stacey has posted on how we spent our Saturday.

It involved Stacey, Greg, Viv and I cooking (mostly me and Stacey in the kitchen) a big ol’ mess of ropa vieja. It was yummy, we drank a bunch of mojitos and some Spanish riojas I had brought. I was surprised that neither Greg nor Stacey knew of my Dad’s thirty-plus year hobby of winemaking and collecting, and we discussed that a bit, among many many things. I have known Greg and Stacey now just a bit longer than Viv and I have been married, and I really enjoy their friendship and company. This was a happy cooking experience and I hope we have the chance to tackle some other unknown culinary terrain.

Greg And Mike 061105
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Use and Usability

Tom shares his well-honed Outlook Tactics, and Windows-based Outlook users would be well advised to give it a readthrough. I have had conversations with Tom about this in the past, and this set of approaches he outlines is well thought through (except for his inadvisable archive deletions – this is someone who may never have employed CYA as a work tactic).

Of course, I also feel compelled to note that Tom’s done a bit of customization; hopefully, as he’s on the other side of the Great Passport Wall (a topic which I have tweaked Tom about in the past) some Outlook team members will implement his customizations as a default.

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Pole

It’s intermission at the kabuki show. We just saw ‘Tied to a Pole,’ in which two rascally servants contrive ingenious ways to drink the master’s sake while tied to a pole or with their hands behind their back.

The use of bondage as a theme in a play which the program notes decribed both as stemming from an older theatrical tradition than kabuki per se and as having premiered in 1914 1916 was striking, to me.

The play provided a kind of acrobatic astonishment, as the actors traded off performing dances of increasing apparent complexity and difficulty as they mimed drinking sake while tied up.

I was also struck by the use of physical bondage as a comedic device which literally makes visible the feudal bonds of master and servant. By employing a visible metaphor for the relationship, the play provides an entertaining model for its’ intended audience. It shows how to resppnd with astonishing grace to the demands of heirarchy while simultaneously accomplishing the personal and pleasurable goal of getting drunk on the master’s sake.

Finally, at one point, I was surprised when the characters employed ‘rock, scissors, paper’ to settle a difference of opinion. Where did the game originate? How long has it been around?

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The saddest thing in the world

Sumit’s unexpected-by-me memorialization of his recently deceased wife, Kathryn Oates, 1970-2005, caught me utterly off guard and prompted a solid half-hour of spastic and vocal weeping which disturbed at least one of our cats, and prompted insistent, worried questions from my own wife. Sumit’s characteristic grace and intelligence are present in his eulogy for her. Listen closely, though, for his shining words cloak his pain. I feel it nonetheless.

Viv was rightly mystified at my reaction – after all, Sumit is not a close friend, and I did not even know that he was married. Her concern is well-grounded. My grief is both sympathetic and personal. It’s a direct reaction to my own experiences of loss, and as Sumit’s blog material is generally not personal, the post caught me unawares. I was immediately propelled into an accelerated experience of my own concerns and fears about the inevitable experience of losing my own loved ones.

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Burbs

We looked at a house this early afternoon that was amazingly huge and amazingly far away – for just a bit more than our base planning budget, we could afford a nearly 4000 square foot house – in Kent. As it happened, the home actually is within eyeshot of Greg’s parents’ house. We also have two pre-approvals in hand, with each lender noting that we could qualify for significantly larger loan amounts if we wanted. For now, we’re keeping it small and sane, though.

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time

after an in explicable interregnum, bloglines is operable upon the Treo, thanks be to God. My newly longer commute allows nearly twenty-four hours of blog postings to be despatched whilst en route.

Alas for the limitations the Palm broswer places on moblogging.

Note to the League: I will post links to moblog tools I use. I believe our inductee may have some use for them.

Tanggentially: I may be in a suit-wearing mood, but it’s too early to say. Said suit would be a black early-sixties sharkskin, very two-tone. I lack a hat.