Month: January 2010

Field notes

join me on Jan. 22, Fri., 7pm, i’ll read new & selected poems.

Field notes

five or so years ago i would post something on my blog almost every day. now i type 400 or so words almost every day & then delete them…

Field notes

just returned from a very production meeting @starbucks & now processing notes gtd style

Field notes

should not start my morning by reading articles about online marketing & social media stats. coffee & pancakes first. priorities, man…

Digital Isolation

On-demand services can rarely satisfy our old-fashioned desire to sometimes be surprised. We’ve read too many reviews and PR quips about the show before clicking to download it – we know exactly what to expect. What’s lost in this process is the joy of stumbling upon something new and exciting—the accidental discovery. Lost, too, is the thrill of the chase for that elusive something that, in ancient history, led members of our species to many a dusty shelf or bin in an old fashioned brick and mortar store.

On-demand media exerts conflicting pressures on us. It draws us away from our co-workers and neighbors while simultaneously connecting us to a global community thousands strong. It dilutes the dwindling pool of cultural touchstones we share, but in doing so, exposes each of us to a vast ocean of possibility. It gives us virtually anything we could ever want at our fingertips, but threatens to overwhelm us with such abundance.

We Are United in Our Digital Isolation, PopMatters (via somethingchanged)

“Good ideas rarely come in bunches”

Theoretically, a great number of ideas assures a great number of choices, but such choices are essentially quantitative. This practice is as bewildering as it is wasteful. It discourages spontaneity, encourages indifference, and more often than not produces results which are neither distinguished, interesting, nor effective. In short, good ideas rarely come in bunches.

Paul Rand: “Good ideas rarely come in bunches”

Field notes

i really need to quit tumblr… this is becoming a highly addictive behavior….

There is no such thing as a free book

beattitude:  i currently have 44 books checked out and 20 on hold. guilt, check. anticipation, check. time to read these books? um. theconceptlibrarian: magicmolly:

Engaging with the New York Public Library taps into all sorts of unexpected economic anxieties and pleasures.

Ordering books online to be delivered to your local branch brings a feeling of great wealth. For example, figuring out how to nab brand-new books with minimal wait time is akin to having an endless credit line at Barnes & Noble, while picking up a stack of freshly-delivered oversized art books and rare scholarship is like winning access to an antiquarian’s private collection.

The feeling warps when you go home and log into your NYPL account to tally up the damage. This is when you see that you have 13 books checked out, and several are due within the week, and two of these cannot be renewed because someone else has ordered them. With this discovery comes a troubling sense of indebtedness.

There are two ways to respond: ignore the debt (while fighting back a tide of guilt) or quickly pile up all half-read or non-essential books and run back to the library to return them. Dumping an armload of books lightens the psychic load and provides a measure of relief when you check your account to see that this time you owe only 9 books, and these all have a solid two weeks before they begin to accrue fines.

Oddly enough, the logical extension of this method (returning all of your books at once and immediately) does not bring about feelings of relief, but rather feelings of poverty. With no books checked out, it becomes clear that you have nothing to lose but also nothing to gain.

A good balance is to have six books out and at least twelve books on hold, so that a sense of satiety (the six books) is matched with a sense of anticipation (the twelve books on hold) which combines to overshadow the lingering sense of debt embodied in your six homebound library books.

Q.E.D., I think.

We treat our spiritual lives like the round of golf

‘Church isn’t boring because we’re not showing enough film clips, or because we play an organ instead of guitar. It’s boring because we neuter it of its importance. Too often we treat our spiritual lives like the round of golf used to open George Barna’s Revolution. At the end of my life, I want my friends and family to remember me as someone who battled for the Gospel, who tried to mortify sin in my life, who found hard for life, and who contended earnestly for the faith. Not just a nice guy who occasionally noticed the splendor of the mountains God created, while otherwise just trying to enjoy myself, manage my schedule, and work on my short game.

-Ted Kluck, from Why We Love The Church: In Praise of Institutions And Organized Religion

HT: Pyromaniacs: I Lose, You Win (via nickbogardus) (via papertowngirl)

Readers Change Publishing Game

After suffering declining revenues, layoffs and widespread closures, magazines and newspapers need to do something to reinvent the future of publishing.

Could New E-Readers Change Publishing Game? – PC World

Has anyone mentioned the fact that an e-reader could just be replaced by an iphone or black berry?

(via fluffynotes)

You will become literature

ireadintothings: You will become literature, and you’re already a poem in my head.

I AM NOT YOUR PRINCESS

Sandpaper between two cultures which tear one another apart

I’m not a means by which you can reach spiritual understanding

Or even learn to do beadwork
I’m only willing to tell you how to make fry bread
1 cup flour, spoon of salt, spoon of baking powder
Stir, add milk or water or beer until it holds together
Slap each piece into rounds -let rest
Fry in hot grease until golden
This is Indian food
Only if you know that Indian is a government word
Which has nothing to do with our names for ourselves
I won’t chant for you
I admit no spirituality to you
I will not sweat with you or ease your guilt with fine turtle tales
I will not wear dancing clothes to read poetry Or explain hardly anything at all
I don’t think your attempts to understand us are going to work so
I’d rather you left us in whatever peace we can still
Scramble up- after all you continue to do
If you send me one more damn flyer about how to heal myself
For $300 with special feminist counseling
I’ll probably set fire to something
If you tell me one more time that I’m wise

I’ll throw up on you
Look at me
See my confusion, loneliness, fear, worrying about all our
Struggles to keep what little is left for us
Look at my heart

Not your fantasies

Please don’t ever again tell me about your Cherokee great-great grandmother
don’t assume I know every other Native Activist
In the world personally

That I even know names of all the tribes
or can pronounce names I’ve never heard
or that I’m expert at the peyote stitch
If you ever again tell me
How strong I am
I’ll lay down on the ground & moan so you’ll see
at last my human weakness

Like your own
I’m not strong, I’m scraped
I’m blessed with life while so many I’ve known are dead
I have work to do dishes, to wash a house to clean
There is no magic
See my simple cracked hands which

Have washed the same things you wash

See my eyes dark with fear in a house by myself late at night

See that to pity me or to adore me are the same
1 cup flour, spoon of salt, spoon of baking powder, liquid to hold
Remember this is only my recipe

There are many others
Let me rest
Here
At least

– Chrystos, Menominee

(via deltafoxtrot)1

NOTES:
1) Delta Foxtrot, “I am not your princess,” January 8, 2010, Deltafoxtrot, accessed January 8, 2010, https://deltafoxtrot.tumblr.com/post/323784465/i-am-not-your-princess

Field notes

the temp in the recording studio is 50°F & for some reason my voice sounds really good in the audio files. anyone know why/how that happens?

We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering -these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love -these are what we stay alive for.

Dead Poets Society (via ireadintothings)

dear tumblr

i wish i knew how to quit you…

Field notes

i hate it when someone produces a movie that sounds like me life…

Field notes

yes, today’s podcast is behind schedule. it is experiencing a two-hour delay due to icy roads, frozen lattes & climate change in general…

Field notes

one of my new year’s resolutions was use tumblr less… it’s not working…

Coffeehouse Junkie Podcast – Episode 013

This episode was recorded the week after the River Arts District studio stroll weekend. It features an essay about writing titled “The Field.” Also, I read two poems, “Dead Italians” by Jennifer L. Knox and “asunder” by Craig Arnold. Listen to episode 13 here: http://www.coffeehousejunkie.com/podcast.html

Coffeehouse Junkie Podcast – Episode 013

This episode was recorded the week after the River Arts District studio stroll weekend (yeah, I know, it’s a bit late). It features an essay about writing titled “The Field.” Also, I read two poems, “Dead Italians” by Jennifer L. Knox and “asunder” by Craig Arnold. Listen to episode 13 here.

Field notes

the only thing i miss about not owning a television is viewing nfl & nhl games. thanks nbc sports for running the sunday night game online!

Field notes

pancakes & coffee for breakfast… somehow i don’t think i’ll try a 2 mile run today… 19°F & feels like 1°F with 20 mph wind…