a dancing star!

This is what I wrote during my 12 days in Tehran; it should have been posted then. Now, in the lobby of the Surabaya Marriott , a mere 7970 km away, it no longer seems familiar, as if a lie, a memory deadened by distance. As if memory’s judgement is susceptible to the diktat of [...]

Happily, I do not own nor do I intend to purchase or accept as a gift, the two monstrosities of modern publishing - The Potter franchise and that “Code” book. *shudder* While cataloging my library over at LibraryThing.com this lazy Sunday afternoon, I finally noticed how few bibliophiles are complicit in these two particularly distasteful [...]

Susan Henderson, over at her site, is conducting a pop quiz of sorts. I’ve been amazed at the quality of visitors to her site. Here are just some of the many different, quirky and beautiful sites that I’ve come to enjoy, thanks to her efforts.

Writing and surviving in the Netherlands

Write Livelihood: Because [...]

Whim-purchased The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the airport this afternoon, anxious not to re-live the debacle of the last trip when, ill-supplied of conjoined words, I quickly found myself without adequate mental matter. I started it during the flight to Surabaya but could not proceed beyond page 16, wherein the [...]

Look, this isn’t as easy as you think. I have to trawl through Amazon’s amazing list of amazing lists to dredge this stuff up. This week’s award goes to Laura Schlessinger’s
The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands.
For redress, see Corpus Argumenti Lauretti.

And dammit, why come up with “lisp” to describe the condition? Is this some sort of etymological wit?

McSweeney’s is at it again. Here are the “7 Habits of Highly Successful People”, according to Brendon Lloyd:

1. Skiing
2. Yachting
3. Snorkeling
4. Golf
5. Polo
6. Dinner parties
7. Shopping
Go on, go there.
Here is my contribution: “Key phrases highlighted in recent negotiation seminar”:

1. Difficult conversations
2. conflict management
3. win-win
4. worsen their alternatives
5. position of strength
6. Getting to “yes”

Prefacing always seems a peculiar, fraught experience. Recall A. W. Price’s Mental Conflicts and how he frames his work with the aid of E. M. Cioran:
A work is finished when we can no longer improve it, though we know it to be inadequate and incomplete. We are so overtaxed by it that we no longer [...]

This month’s haul of new music had the feel of a “looking back”, the look of a nostalgic bent.
Big Star’s return, Posies in tow, “In Space” prompted a belated airing of the late Chris Bell’s “I Am The Cosmos”. Maybe the two will mesh to create a cosmic Big Star, a divine reunion of aural [...]

I’ve been to Paradise but I’ve never been to me (Charlene)
Is this the lyrics of a “so-bad-its-good” 80s disco song, or does it question the incongruence between the Good Life and self-reflection, the non-identity of the Divine and subject?