It’s nice to spend time differently, to give a familiar situation a new flavor. I worked Monday, a holiday for many, and so I was working largely solo. And then took the Friday off, so I could feel the reverse – goofing off when most were plugging away. I also had the chance to catch up on admin stuff in the morning, at ease, when usually that gets filed away for the evening time.
This weekend we had a “spa night”. Where ordinarily the evening might be pizza and movie, we put on face masks, moisturizers, serums; listened to a spa treatment playlist; ate fresh ceviche, granola bowls, probiotic juices, etc.. It’s not something I want every day, but the change gave me a new appreciation, like stepping into a parallel universe and arriving back to the norm refreshed.
Art
Constructive City with Universal Man (Ciudad constructiva con hombre universal), oil painting on board by Joaquín Torres-García.
Composition, by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. “The many colorful patterns […] derive from azulejo, decorative ceramic tilework common in Portugal and Spain, which the artist collected and admired.”
Books
Middlemarch. Steadily chipping away and just past the halfway point. Let’s do some more quotes:
- “We are all of us imaginative in some form or other, for images are the brood of desire.”
- “I can’t wear my solemnity too often, else it will go to rags.”
- “Mr. Casaubon, indeed, had not thoroughly represented to those mixed reasons to himself; irritated feeling with him, as with all of us, seeking rather for justification than for self-knowledge.”
- “Time changes the proportion of things, and in later days it is preferable to have fewer sonnets and more conversation.”
- “Will was not without his intentions to be always generous, but our tongues are little triggers which have usually been pulled before general intentions can be brought to bear.”
- “She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.”
- “They were looking at each other like two fond children who were talking confidentially of birds.”
- “Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.”
- “Her anger said, as anger is apt to say, that God was with her – that all heaven, though it were crowded with spirits watching them, must be on her side.”
- “What is the use of being exquisite if you are not seen by the best judges?”
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
The wisdom of Tom Cruise: “You know, no one asks Gene Kelly, why do you dance? If I do a musical I want to sing, I want to dance. And I want to see how I can do it. You got to figure it out, it’s not just doing it. It’s how is it part of the story? How do we invest the audience in that? It’s always better to go for it, it’s always better to try than to tend to not do it. It’s always better to ask the question, and don’t be afraid.”
Taking an Internet Walk, good ideas if you need to (re)learrn how to browse!
From Chat → Tools → Tasks → Crons? (via)
I’m glad I never spent time in school pickup lines as a kid. A bunch of times, we’d talk our bus driver into letting us off early so we could take a shortcut through the woods, rather than sitting on the bus another half-hour to wind its way to our door. It’s smart to stay on good terms with your bus driver!
Ask for no, don’t ask for yes.
“Blogs are a backwater (the web itself is a backwater) but keeping one is a statement of how being online can work. Blogging as a kind of Amish performance of a better life.”
“CA attitude to US like Calif attitude towards Texas: many stereotypes, little knowledge, and getting crushed on growth.”
Running
My first run back after illness was deflating. So much lost, so much to regain. :'(
Music
Marshall Allen released New Dawn at age 100. When you listen, you can understand why this guy would get along with Sun Ra. “African Sunset” and “Boma” are my faves.
Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren. Mare Nostrum. Jazz with piano, trumpet, accordion. You might recognize “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?“, later adapted as “I Wish You Love“.
John Luther Adams, big orchestra stuff in An Atlas of Deep Time and Waves & Particles. I prefer the first one.
Individual songs on repeat: Roger’s “I Want to Be Your Man” and James Holden’s remix of The Smile’s “Don’t Get Me Started”.
Movies
Da 5 Bloods. “War never ends for those involved.” We’re so lucky to have Spike Lee. Complicating complex issues, no one comes out innocent. Familiar methods at work: lots of history lessons and documentary imagery mixed in, direct address to the camera when reading letters.
Sisu. Nazis try to steal gold from a lonesome Finnish miner out in the countryside, and… he is not pleased. Carnage! Pretty ideal 90-minute taciturn action-western.
The First Omen. Now I understand why kids named “Damien” are always evil. The suspense is better than the climax, but that’s most of the movie, so, thumb-up.
The Last Samurai. Scratches the The Last of the Mohicans or Dances With Wolves itch in a different way – more focus on the budding friendship, less on the personal stakes.
Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny?
Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.
TV
Severance, s2e3. Reintegration!
Mark Larson 