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Me and Sylvia at the Memorial (April 2009)

READIN

Jeremy's journal

Understanding makes the mind lazy.

Penelope Fitzgerald


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Friday, January 27th, 2012

🦋 Turn off your mind relax and float downstream

Seems like a good title for a playlist...
(this playlist is preceded aurally by the playing of "Harvest Home" on my fiddle. Its object is mainly to ascertain how many songs in a row my computer can randomize that will keep me interested. And yes, obscurely a manner of bragging about my music collection I guess. For whatever good that does. I'd be glad to put the playlist on a disc and send it to you if you'll pay me potsage, drop me a line. Or better yet you can listen to the first d tracks of the playlist at dtracks.com.)
q. "Free as a Bird" by the Beatles.
a. "Nashville Blues" by the Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band
z. "Chain Mary to the Bed" by Robyn Hitchcock
w. "Ecstasy" by Crooked Still
s. "Winter Love" by Onkel Jose (off of Glass Flesh)
x. "Cold Rain and Snow" by the Grateful Dead
e. "Over You" by the Soft Boys
d. "Too Long" by the Mississippi Sheiks
c. "Caroline Says â…¡" by Robyn Hitchcock and some dialog from him off of Jewels for Sophia,
Hello, you've reached Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's classic tale of Italian-American manhood, starring Ray Liotta, Bob DeNiro, and Joe Pesci. Unfortunately we're all busting each other's <bleep> at the moment.
r. "You Shoulda Seen Me Running" by the New Riders of the Purple Sage
f. "Things ain't what they used to be" by Keith Jarrett
v. "Straight Line to the Kerb" by Departure Lounge

Hmm. 50 min... or depending on how many times you repeat it, potentially forever. Many songs on this list that I would like to play and/or sing. (I got the borderline crazy idea that "The L&N don't stop here anymore" lyrics would sound really great sung to the tune of "Nashville Blues". And "Ecstasy"? Yes, "Winter Love", yes...(Other songs that would fit in this general arrangement and key: "Who'll Rock the Cradle," "Sweet Baby's Arms." And on this very mix, "Things ain't what they used to be" is at least a closely related arrangement and key.))

posted evening of January 27th, 2012: 1 response
➳ More posts about random tunes

Es un hecho bien conocido que una traducción no buen sustituía el original.

Es también todamente falso.

La traducción (en el primero sentido aquí de Bellos) me mueva pero en esa lectura me preguntaba a qué manera me debía movar. Deseaba desde la adolescencia me poder pensar traductor y desde casi tan largo me preguntaba ¿por qué? y ¿qué aún significa éso?

También no tengo respuestas...

posted evening of January 27th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Translation

🦋 Dream Blogging

Me and Sylvia were watching The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with Monique's family. I was initially a bit surprised that we were deeming it age-appropriate for the younger kids; but it turned out Bree-Ann was totally into the book, and kept piping up to say what was going to happen. The remote control for Monique's entertainment center had way too many buttons and knobs on it and I could not figure out how to operate it.

posted morning of January 27th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Dreams

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

🦋 El Círculo Croata de Venezuela

El último cuento de la colección nueva de Zupcic, Médicos taxistas, se dramáticamente diferencia del resto -- todos los son muy elegantes y lúcidos pero no (a excepción tal vez del hermoso "Tescucho, Italia") me inquietante cogen como los padre-ausente-y-criminal cuentos de sus colecciones jóvenes. Éso sí y hace una conexión bonita a los cuentos anteriores. (Los nuevos son indudablemente más fácil traducir, no estoy seguro de cómo esto interpretar.)

Cada uno de los cuentos en Médicos taxistas es a su manera excéntrico, es difícil clasificarlos juntos. El cuento titular me encuenta y en segunda lectura me deja pensando que es otra cosa detrás de la historia pero no puedo ver qué es. "El Barbero de Dalí" me ha riendo y rascándome la cabeza. "Doble Chávez" me da un sentido no del todo bienvenido de la identificación. Una lectura muy divertida.

"Amor que a otro puerto pertenece," el último cuento y el más largo, reexamina a otra manera la tema de Zlatica Didic y su hijo Zlatko Didic que Zupcic (Slavko el hijo de Slavko Zupcic) visitó por primera vez en su "Cartas hacia una novela". Zlatko comienca aquí, "Comencé a escribir este relato hace casi veinte años..." y de repente tengo una imagen más claro y más estimulante del (sin duda pequeño) cuerpo de su obra. Todo se junta.

posted evening of January 25th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Slavko Zupcic

🦋 Conrad and the 20th Century

Juan Gabriel Vásquez took part in a live chat at the Guardian's Books section today -- here is what he has been thinking about recently:

For three whole days I have been thinking about Conrad's novels. Three in particular: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and The Secret Agent. I wrote a small text trying to suggest how amazing it was that those three novels, published between 1899 and 1907, anticipate every major issue the world had to deal with during the â…©â…© century.

Oh and also: " I have a tendency to trust translators, mainly because nobody does it for the money."

posted evening of January 25th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

🦋 Newt

A fine commentary on this year's presidential contest, from 30 years ago:

posted morning of January 24th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Comix

Sunday, January 22nd, 2012

🦋 Pounding out chords of a fearful symmetry*

Watching The Artist with Ellen and Sylvia last night I was reminded of what a powerful instrument a movie soundtrack is. What a beautful movie! I recommend it for the acting (including Uggie the dog, who is replacing Asta in my affections), for the direction, for the dancing, but maybe most of all for the soundtrack. (I loved that when the movies started featuring sound, the soundtrack featured Pennies from Heaven, as sung by Rose Murphy.) At points the movie was best understood as a soundtrack delivery vehicle.

Update: ...And apparently the soundtrack generated a little controversy of its own...

* (cf. Orhan Pamuk, The Black Book.)

posted afternoon of January 22nd, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about movie soundtracks

🦋 I talk to the trees, but they don't listen to me...

But, but, so, what if they could listen, could talk back? Bartholo­mäus Traubeck of Linz has created an experiment treating a tree's rings as the groove of a record. You can read about it and listen to the music he played at TNW. (Thanks for the link, Knight!)

posted morning of January 22nd, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Music

Friday, January 20th, 2012

🦋 The bottom strings

I was once again unable to resist cutting up my fiddle, though I think with potentially better results (cf.) this time. I bought a new C string -- a Super Sensitive Red Label from Musician's Friend -- and found it a huge improvement on the string that had come with the instrument. Suddenly I wanted to play on the bottom strings which made me notice a problem with the bridge; namely, when I cut grooves for the strings I did not make enough space to accomodate the width of the C string. So I cut a little more away and have been playing almost exclusively for the past couple of practice sessions on the bottom 3 strings. See whatcha think of this recording I made of "Walkin After Midnight" : After Midnight by The Modesto Kid

posted evening of January 20th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Fiddling

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

🦋 Hurrying back

Dora was hurrying now and wanting her lunch. She looked at her watch and found it was tea-time. She remembered that she had been wondering what to do; but now, without her thinking about it, it had become obvious. She must go back to Imber at once. Her real life, her real problems, were at Imber, and since, somewhere, something good existed, it might be that her problems would be solved after all. There was a connexion; obscurely she felt, without yet understanding it, she must hang onto that idea: there was a connexion. She bought a sandwich and took a taxi back to Paddington.
Reading Murdoch's The Bell lately, I have been conflicted as to how I feel about the characters. I identify with them at points; but they have an air of falseness around them, the characters and plot elements seem almost like scenery for Murdoch's philosophizing and fable-telling. Not sure I mean this as a point against the book -- I am liking the book a lot -- but it does seem like an important stylistic element.

Then again I got a similar vibe from The Little Stranger, which was pretty clearly not written for philosophical argument.

posted evening of January 19th, 2012: Respond
➳ More posts about Iris Murdoch

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