After Bruegel Adds Insult to Injury

 
Following a night of exertion, our glad-sashed Heroine slept late,  
And the professor whiled away the day spinning extended proofs for his theories of time travel.  

The Quantum Twin rolled the dice and got used to being both here and there,  
While, the Raven-Headed Interloper took an extra drive around the block.  

Constance chose not to sweat the math, and Charity wandered in a day dream.  

The Last Innocent was unconsciously avoiding stairs, televisions, and other hazards.  

The Faded Oracle wept, while the Oracle of R_ flipped through wallpaper patterns.  

We should have known the nose might break apart on re-entry.  
We let the cosmonauts down this time.  
 
 
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This one had been bouncing around in my head for a week or so. Jotted notes while descending into Louisville. (I think I'd finish my first book if I could just get $10,000 in grants to spend on flights.) Brushed it up and messed with the sequencing this morning. Might have a ways to go.

Also made a lot of notes for the "Quantum Twin" piece. I still don't know if that name is right.

I Eat the Ocean!

When asked, "Do you eat fish?" (the standard follow up when people learn I don't eat land dwelling animals anymore), I always respond, "I eat the ocean." Take yesterday... I ate:
Eel
Clams
Mackerel
Monkfish
Mussels
Nori
Octopus
Oysters
Scallops
Tuna

It was a good day. Also managed to eat cheeses from France, Ireland, and Italy; and to drink wine from Austria, France, and Japan.

Locavore doesn't mean "crazy eater?"
Whaddup carbon footprint!

Did I mention that yesterday was a good day?

Got in Some Words With (Bill) Clinton...

This week was crazy. Wednesday was particularly crazy. I shook Bill Clinton's hand and mumbled, "Thanks for everything," which I really mean / meant. I almost mispronounced my own name.

I can't believe how nervous I was, but I guess I can. Had I not been surrounded by folks -- many of whom are my clients -- I probably would've been a lot more collected.

Things May Appear Golden-Paired from a Distance

 
For weeks, our Heroine is visited by dreams of ravens. 
She sits sequin-slippered, the congress circled around her. 
 
The ground is a broad, tan expanse. 
Spare no expense, even roses 
Need ladders to scale the heavens. 
 
Awake, our Heroine flies coach as the sun sets, 
Three tones ringing down her spine. 
 
Asleep, pair after pair fly in opposite directions 
And return with shiny shiny things, bleached bones, 
A dead canary. 
 
She sits glad-sashed and unsequined on the Freezing Lake. 
The pitch, the turn, the ever after. 
She’s seeing spots. 
 
Awake, the old pattern is a tractor beam? 
Professor, can it be sutured? 
 
Move too fast and you’ll always be lonely, he warns. 
Photosynthesis is a seductive something. 
Don’t confuse energy with food. 
And the Great Cat. 
 
Asleep, the circle or ravens now a circle 
Of cast-off feathers and whispered caws: 
 
Balm and salt. Balm and salt. 
First found. Trapped child. Food shroud. 
Trapped kitten. Last found. 
Balm and salt. Balm and salt. 
 
My footing holds strong. But what for? 
 
A change in air pressure squelching in her ears. 
 
Enter the Raven-Headed Interloper, 
That’s the dangerous thing about a pendulum. 
 
 
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...still working on the Chastity piece (which just keeps changing on me and won't hold still) and the Bear piece, too, but apparently the Interloper is a cutter (as in "cutting line" not "high school goth archetype").

Lightly Edited Notes for Something Like “End over End” (or... Christ, There's a Lot of Violence in My Head Lately)

April 29, 2009, I’m on a plane for the first leg of our trip to Marfa. Joe Cashiola on one side, a window onto blue sky and clouds on the other. Had written a few notes for the “Chastity Dreams…” piece that I can’t seem to get right when we began our descent into DFW. I jotted crazy-like through the entire descent. I can see the piece this will come to be some day, but haven’t found the time to make it happen. Thought the notes offered something as is.
 
---
 
Our Heroine tumbling end over end
This is the last time I
Pain is never
Didn’t anticipate that booby trap
Should’ve known she couldn’t trust a

The Quantum Twin fluttered in the corner of her eye

Luckily she was impervious to

(compare to ballet?)

Descriptions of the tumbling
Her coat swirling around her in the dank air of _____ port,
______ docks,
______ whatever

Spraying blood
A knot forming on her skull
Curled tight in a all around the impact
Her head thrown back, hair tracing an arc
One leg caught awkwardly under her body

Something about an animal, space leech, robot something burrowing into her

Down stairs, down a mine shaft, from a low orbit, from a plane, from the Glass Tower, from a moving car, truck, van, motorcycle
Down a hill, an embankment

At 12, at 16, at 20, at 30
Morning, noon, night, the dead of night, twilight, dawn, sunset, midnight
New moon, full moon, moons waxing and waning, harvest moons, blue moons

Screaming, silently, groaning, unconscious

Why the litanies? Preparing to end? Trying to own? To control?
Why all the violence? Don’t you know

From a car… In a car… (parallel repetition)
On a flatbed? jet ski, hang glider, boat – cigarette boat, aircraft carrier

 

Se It Hat Is (Skull and Stein 35)

See a previous Skull and Stein here.
 

The Adventures of Ledo and Ix: See it!

Saw it at Marfa. It is short, but it is awesome.

Here's the Marfa festival blurb: Join Ledo and Ix on their existential buddy ride down the fraught-filled paths of a video game adventure. A wonderfully realized little tale, with appropriately crude animation, the film puts us in the boat (once literally) with these brave and not-so-brave little characters and gives us a brand new perspective on fear of the unknown.

See it all here. And then get excited here, about the new episode in production.

Marfa Shots (by Justin)

On the ranch with Joe (and Justin, Ross, Lacie, Greg... all not pictured).

Justin took a shit ton of great shots while we were in Texas. You should look at them and see just how photogenic Greg is (no really) and just how weird that weird spot behind my right ear is.
(!)Marfa     (!!)Marfa    (!!!)Marfa

Inty, Very Dai (Skull and Stein 44)

Meant to publish this and one other skull before I left for Marfa vacation but had all this trouble getting it to come through at "actual size." More to come and much much to come about the awesome that was Marfa.

Still struggling with "Massive Destruction," the Bear and now a new piece that I wrote tons of notes on as we decended into DFW on the way out last Wednesday. A strange burst... I guess I'm still more afraid of flying (well take off and landing) than I admit front-of-mind. And so much violence in what I've been up to. Disturbing.

Previous skulls appeared in Lamination Colony (edited by Michael Kimball) recent like and not hard to find, and earlier in a bit of Unpleasant Event Schedule (edited by Daniel Nester) no longer available online.

Justin and Jamie on Marfa Public Radio at 12 Central Time

Leading up to the reading Justin Sirois and I have at the Marfa Book Company tonight, we'll be on the local NPR station here in a few hours (12noon Central, 1pm Eastern) gabbing about Narrow House and reading a thing or two.

You can even listen to it online (I think): http://www.marfapublicradio.org/

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These past few days in Texas have been amazing, and I'm sorry that it'll be winding down soon. But I do miss my ladies.