Junior High School boys in their gym shorts – obnoxious bastards – a fat indolent one plunks himself down next to me on the bench. I am trying to read. “What are you doing”, he demands. “Reading obviously or at least trying to”, I reply. “Done any thing fun today”, he says. “Not much”, I say. He is quiet for a while then says, “Awkward Silence”. “It’s not awkward at all to me”, I state. After another moment of silence he says, “Done anything fun today?” “You have already asked that,” I tell him. “Oh” he utters and sits there quietly again and fidgets a lot. Then he leaves. I think they were AWOL. They made themselves even more obnoxious as they departed in a group, a wilding in the park. I’m going to tell the nuns of you.
What used to count as knowing is becoming non-knowing, and non-knowing is acquiring the status of knowledge – Ulrich Beck – World at Risk, 2008 p116
Factoid: The incidences of posttraumatic stress among Iraq veterans has been estimated at 35%
Talk of the ‘knowledge society’ is a euphemism of the first modernity. World risk society is a non-knowledge society in a very precise sense… living in the milieu of manufactured non-knowing means seeking unknown answers to questions that nobody can clearly formulate – Ulrich Beck – World at Risk, 2008 p115
And now its Judy’s turn to cry – Judy’s turn, Judy’s turn, Judy’s turn – Judy’s turn to cry
O wisdom is the plaything of the fool / The talk / topples / into the water and its ripples fashion / the snout of a monstrous fish – Kenneth Patachen – Collected Poems, 1967 p258
Factoid: Of the 53 birds species in California’s Sierra Nevada whose territories were mapped in the early 1900’s, 48 of those territories have either shifted northward or higher in altitude.
Man need rules and structure to feel OK about his being greedy but not for his being nice. You need permission to be bad, but not to be good. We give a lot of permissions.
Factoid: One species of ant (Mycecepurus Smithii) has eliminated sex – it no longer even produces a male of the species.
What we have learned is that the perpetuator of a wrong never forgives the victim – John Ross (Cherokee – 1839)
A woman dragging an old lame dog hurriedly goes by. She had gone by earlier in the opposite direction at a much more leisurely pace. She has run out of time and the dog suffers for it. I had not noticed that the dog was limping earlier. It could have developed the limp along the route, it could be the pace. But why was she now in a hurry? I’m having China Black this morning. They were out of Lapsoong.
For more than a century, photographers have been hovering above the oppressed, in attendance at scenes of violence – with a spectacularly good conscience. Social misery has inspired the comfortably-off with the urge to take pictures, the gentlest of predation, in order to document hidden reality, that is, a reality hidden from them – Susan Sontag – On Photography, 1977 p41
I went back home and did two hours of chores. I completed cleaning the bathrooms and the kitchen (except for sinks and the base of the commodes). Vacuuming the carpet was time consuming. The more one cleans the more glaring the imperfections become. The more one cleans the more one needs to clean. I understand how some people can transform housewifery into a career - activity expands to fill available time (the other two components - needs expands to expend available money and junk expands to fill available space are not acclipable here). But not me - no housewiffery for me.
Each / Rose is pink or white or Red Red / Or some other color. Trains run on tracks / Or they now and then get tired of it. Almost / Every sort of thing has been done or said / Or lied about or killed by somebody. You / Can’t beat the game with a cold deck anymore / Than a cow can sit in a teacup – Kenneth Patachen – Collected Poems, 1967 p200
Some days I almost forget to eat - not often but sometimes. It could happen!
Men are so necessarily mad that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness – Pascal
First man invented space, then time and finally reality
New Village Café on Polk for breakfast - #2: scrambled, sausage with Crystal Sauce. I had put my dirtry laundry in the washer. I updated my calendar. Then I had put the clothes into the dryer before venturing out for my breakfast. Now I am off to attend a dance program by Robert Mosses’ Kin. At the Elixir at 16th St and Guerrero in the Missionm, I ask for a porter. They don’t have one on tap. I order a Sac Brew Red Horse Ale. The bartender says that he knows the family that brews it. I ask him how the managers of the bar had decided on what to have on tap and I get a fifteen minute lesson on running a bar; types of beer on tap; selection of specialty beers; money makers; how long a beer can be tapped before it goes bad. And I lean the manner in which people order their beer, usually by brand name. “Do they ask for a type of beer or by the name of the brewer, say like a ‘Samuel Adams,?” “Not usually”.
Children toilet train themselves – Norman O Brown – Life Against Death, 1959 p120
Johnny Cash is on the jukebox (one of his records in playing, he is not actually on top of it). A game of darts in underway. There are two dogs (a white one and a black one) at my feet. “Hey Curtis. Can I have five ones?” the customer in the red shirt asks as he slaps a fiver on the bar, “So I can [play] some music.” A block and eight dollars later I am at the Roxie for a film
Straight off in the air a valiant army / Moves, its thousand sores. Flies stir / On the frenzied banners. Armies / Are not delicious to crack between / Your teeth. The wounded moan / And ask piteously for water. / Words like honor taste like / Hair in their mouths – Kenneth Patachen – Collected Poems, 1967 p294
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