Links

Sleeping (or Not) by the Wrong Clock – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com

~ Mark

An unbalanced circadian rhythm can be returned to equilibrium through the application of light to a sleeper’s retina near the end of a person’s “internal night.” Internal night? Yes — it may be night outside, but if your circadian clock is not prepared for sleep, internal night may not start until late and last well into morning. Biologically, it coincides with the secretion of melatonin by the brain’s pineal gland. It is difficult to know where your internal night lies if you artificially force sleep earlier, for example with sleeping pills. You can estimate internal night with a quick chronotype questionnaire that helps determine when light exposure will be most effective for syncing your circadian rhythm with external reality.

Seems like my natural bedtime is right around midnight. I do notice that I sleep better on days when I spend time outdoors, though maybe that’s tied up with better eating or moderate physical activity, too.

Sleeping (or Not) by the Wrong Clock – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com

Dinner is the theater as food paparazzi converge – latimes.com

~ Mark

News to me: “Nikon, Olympus and Sony sell cameras that offer ‘cuisine’ or ‘food’ settings, which adjust to enhance colors and textures on close-ups.”

And there’s this: “Lefebvre happily cooked a private dinner for 18 food bloggers. His wife set up a portable light box in a corner of the dining room. Even before the bread plates hit the table, the crowd went nuts. As each new dish arrived, the bloggers rushed over to the light box to get the shot, then returned to their seats.”

Dinner is the theater as food paparazzi converge – latimes.com

Why not try a formal picnic for a change? – Miss Manners

~ Mark

Hear, hear. The fact that this seems novel and exciting is telling:

The motto of informality is: “Let’s do things the easiest, most convenient way and never mind how they seem, because nobody is paying any attention, anyway.”

Formality says: “Yes, it does matter, and the surrender of individuality to high group standards is a trivial sacrifice to the overall beauty of the thing.”

At a formal picnic, people do not wear exercise clothes, serve food in packages from the store, eat wandering around whenever they feel like it or treat bits of paper as napkins, cardboard as plates and plastic as flatware.

Food is served on non-absorbent materials, to be eaten with unbreakable utensils, and the fact that a table cloth, napkins, dishes and cutlery will have to be washed afterward is accepted as one of the burdens of civilization.

[…]

Dress does not begin with a surrender to the heat, but the optimistic, if vain, idea that one can rise above it, so to speak. Gradual reactions, such as fanning, forehead mopping and the rolling up of sleeves or baring of feet to dangle in creeks, are considered more exciting than just starting out by sweating into one’s gym suit.

Why not try a formal picnic for a change? – Miss Manners

MOON8

~ Mark

“Have you ever wondered what Dark Side of the Moon would sound like if Pink Floyd had written it for NES, instead of for a rock band?” (via) Interesting to hear which songs remain affecting, and which ones don’t translate so well.

MOON8

Q&A: David Lipsky | Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes

~ Mark

From an interview with David Lipsky (via), here’s David Foster Wallace on the philosophical depth of country music:

Because that’s like pretty much all there is, when you’re tired of listening to Green Day on the one college station. And these country musics that are just so—you know, “Baby since you’ve left I can’t live, I’m drinking all the time.” And I remember just being real impatient with it. Until I’d been living here about a year. And all of a sudden I realized, what if you just imagined that this absent lover they’re singing to is just a metaphor? And what they’re really singing to is themselves, or to God, you know? “Since you’ve left I’m so empty I can’t live, my life has no meaning.” That in a weird way, they’re incredibly existentialist songs. That have the patina of the absent, of the romantic shit on it, just to make it salable… But that if you cock your ear and listen real close—that it’s deep, you know?… That we find, that art finds a way to take care of you, and take part. Kind of despite itself.

Q&A: David Lipsky | Mark Athitakis’ American Fiction Notes

Mother :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

~ Mark

Apparently Roger Ebert was posted his review of “Mother” while I was watching it. (via). I like this conclusion:

“Mother” will have you discussing the plot, not entirely to your satisfaction. I would argue: The stories in movies are complete fictions and can be resolved in any way the director chooses. If he actually cheats or lies, we have a case against him. If not, no matter what his strange conclusions, we can be grateful that we remained involved and even fascinated.

Mother :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews

Sext by W.H. Auden

~ Mark

Stumbled across this in Dan Pink’s book, Drive:

You need not see what someone is doing

to know if it is his vocation,

you have only to watch his eyes:
a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon

making a primary incision,
a clerk completing a bill of lading,

wear the same rapt expression,

forgetting themselves in a function.

How beautiful it is,
that eye-on-the-object look.

Sext by W.H. Auden

My Year Of Everything: My Year Of Everything Q&A: With Kevin Murphy, Author of “A Year At The Movies”

~ Mark

Personally and emotionally it surprised me that I could actually stay committed to something so consuming without ruining my life. It’s almost axiomatic that people in the arts have to be willing to jettison their friends, marriages, loves, in order to really push through and break out. That is a hefty quantity of bullshit, and is an excuse for not living a full life and integrating work into it. This more than anything was the most positive outcome for me.

My Year Of Everything: My Year Of Everything Q&A: With Kevin Murphy, Author of “A Year At The Movies”