When Commander Robert Peary telegraphed President Taft in 1909 that he had "put the North Pole at your disposal," the president responded: "Thanks for your interesting and generous offer. I do not know exactly what I could do with it." These days he would, no doubt, but wouldn't be allowed to claim the North Pole, any more than the Russians were when they tried to in 2007, by dropping a flag in the seabed at 90° North (quite a technical achievement, if not a Read More
NauenThen
Happy Hanukkah
December 17, 2014
Ain't they sweet?
My Chabad friends brought me a jelly doughnut. They don't speak much English & I don't speak any Hebrew or Yiddish, but we manage. Sometimes we use Google translate. Sometimes we have inspired conversations. Sometimes I try to convince them that women should be able to do whatever they want, & they tell me women are special. None of them has ever been to a movie. Our worlds are so different, except for the affection and love of Judaism, all in our own ways. I wish I were as open-hearted and tireless. Read More
Thinking. Wow.
December 17, 2014
Random photo of Buster (guaranteed to improve any post)
I've had 2 days where I've had to pay attention like crazy to a number of projects. Now I'm beat. Why does concentrating take so much out of me? It's exhausting but also exhilarating.
Better Blogging Before Long.
Better Blogging Before Long.
Jazz embarrassment
December 16, 2014
I remember Roy Eldridge's birthday (January 30) but only because it's the same as a friend's who's also a musician. I only ever heard of Eldridge because I knew his girlfriend or secretary, & his name was mentioned in that "he's someone" way. I once was in an elevator with Dizzy Gillespie. Only after he Read More
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The Tompkins Square Poems VI
December 15, 2014
6. Laundry
What’s the calm response to my clothes still cool & damp?
= Put in another quarter
It’s not a nickelodeon. It’s not for pleasure. It’s not an El Camino. It’s not LSD.
And here’s the lady who yelled at me.
= Ignore her. It’ll be over in 8 minutes.
That’s what he said.
Tonight I’ll sleep. Things are blurry. It’s not a gospel plow, it’s not even a little knife. Read More
What’s the calm response to my clothes still cool & damp?
= Put in another quarter
It’s not a nickelodeon. It’s not for pleasure. It’s not an El Camino. It’s not LSD.
And here’s the lady who yelled at me.
= Ignore her. It’ll be over in 8 minutes.
That’s what he said.
Tonight I’ll sleep. Things are blurry. It’s not a gospel plow, it’s not even a little knife. Read More
Today's photo, day 6
December 14, 2014
It's fall still, & I am happy to have found a leaf that's changed color, this reminder of the natural world.
Today's photo, day 5
December 12, 2014
I took this picture from the bus, going east on 8th Street. It caught my eye because of the operatic little balcony and the daytime lights. I had a European moment seeing it: Lisbon maybe, or Berlin, not New York.
Today's photo, day 4
December 11, 2014
Women's lockerroom, Seido karate
I did take some photos of people. Meet Grace & Sheena, who are in my junior karate class. Grace is a white belt who's about to promote to blue and Sheena's a blue belt. I love that when you say to kids, Can I take your picture, they stop & beam at you. You can see Yukie in the mirror. Read More
Today's photo, day 3
December 10, 2014
Fence, Ludlow Street
I thought I would be taking pictures of interesting New Yorkers but I find myself more drawn to buildings, shapes, structures. I've always been one for shabby: I used to think the job for me would be to drive a Greyhound between San Antonio & Laredo at the border in south Texas: I took that bus once & the threadbare landscape appealed to me so much. This cats-cradle fence has that same organic, relaxed scruffiness, its scars unhidden, here long enough to be part of the scene, honest. It didn't bother to clean up but that doesn't mean it didn't bother to be beautiful. Read More
Today's photo, day 1a
December 8, 2014
I realize the first photo might only look out of focus, so I am adding this Seurat version of the NYC skyline north of the Williamsburg Bridge.
My intention, however, is not beauty or unusualness but VISION. Does this count, even if it's an accident of camera?
My intention, however, is not beauty or unusualness but VISION. Does this count, even if it's an accident of camera?
Today's photo, day 1
December 8, 2014
We went to Queens yesterday. I did kind of get why people from New York go to Spain or England but not South Dakota or Oklahoma: it's different but not exotic, far away but not different, familiar but not home. Not a vacation destination.
I like this photo because it looks like it's snowing even though it's not. That means I didn't really see anything new (my intention for the week) but instead tried to make New York conform to my desires. That's not something I usually bother with, since it's clearly not possible. Did Ed Koch or Philippe Petit want it more than I do? Read More
I like this photo because it looks like it's snowing even though it's not. That means I didn't really see anything new (my intention for the week) but instead tried to make New York conform to my desires. That's not something I usually bother with, since it's clearly not possible. Did Ed Koch or Philippe Petit want it more than I do? Read More
A gal, a plan, a camera
December 7, 2014
It came to me yesterday, out of nowhere: I will take one interesting photograph every day for a week. I will look around me. I will see something I might have missed. I will post photo + caption/poem/musing.
Also, I will start tomorrow. We are going to dinner in exotic Queens this afternoon, which I have no doubt will be brimming with photographical exotica. Read More
Also, I will start tomorrow. We are going to dinner in exotic Queens this afternoon, which I have no doubt will be brimming with photographical exotica. Read More
We can't breathe
December 5, 2014
We can't understand how or why this could happen. By "we can't understand," we mean we are miserable & angry. We can't comprehend this grand jury. By "we can't comprehend," we mean we can't breathe. We can't stand the nakedness of the racist contempt, that they (all those theys) assume they can get away with it. "They." "It." As someone said about the elections last month, I went to sleep in 2014 & woke up in 1954. Read More
A poem I guess I wrote
December 4, 2014
I don't remember this poem at all. Cliff just sent it to me, saying I wrote it in his kitchen in 1980. It reminds me of when I came up with a scheme to pay people to write my poems for me. I think Wanda Phipps (?) still owes me a poem; or Jocelyn Lieu? I paid someone in advance (a dollar) that they never delivered on. Anselm wrote this brilliant little work, which includes family & poetic lineage:
Girlfriends of the future —
Remember!
You didn’t marry Johnny Stanton —
I did.
But remember, I paid him (I hope I did) so it's MY POEM. He only wrote it. Anyway, here's a poem I wrote all by myself (apparently): Read More
Girlfriends of the future —
Remember!
You didn’t marry Johnny Stanton —
I did.
But remember, I paid him (I hope I did) so it's MY POEM. He only wrote it. Anyway, here's a poem I wrote all by myself (apparently): Read More
My day (Wednesday)
December 3, 2014
There's always that weird balancing between the small but great satisfactions: the Chrysler building shining as I walk toward it up Second Avenue; buying Kitty Kaviar for my spoiled Buster; the hope that this version of sweet risotto (OK, rice pudding) in the crockpot will come out better—& thanks to Cookie for informing me Read More
My day
December 2, 2014
December in Steve Willis's gorgeous calendar
Actually, I don't remember much of what I did today. Worked on a project. Visited my neighbor & her cat, Chester. Did my laundry. Ran on the treadmill. Waited. Ate a salad a minute ahead of the lettuce melting into mold. Read some of Barbara Tuchman's Proud Tower, about the decades before World War I. Tried to renew Wide Sargasso Sea; on hold so I have to finish it today rather than savoring it a few pages at a time. Turned the calendar to its last page of 2014. Oh, what am I going to do for 2015 (hint, hint)? Read More
Time and Again, again
December 1, 2014
I remembered so little I may as well not have read it before. I certainly didn't recall any of the most dramatic events, nor did I catch how sour and defeatist Jack Finney's outlook really is. Time and Again is the opposite of utopian. He hates the modern world & drops out into the 1880s, Read More
Why I don't read science fiction
November 30, 2014
One winter I lived in the woods in Maine with 4 other people, in a one-room A-frame with a divided, doorless loft. One by one the others read Dune, by Frank Herbert, and one by one they went into a depression (not in the least exacerbated by the fact that we were Read More
Family traits
November 28, 2014
* Loud sneezes. A family story is the time my folks went to the theater up in the Twin Cities. Just when the murderer was creeping up on his victim, my dad sneezed so loud that even the actor jumped. A few days later, back in Sioux Falls, a client said, Hans, the funniest thing—we went to a show in Minneapolis last weekend, & right at the climax, some guy sneezed, really loud. Do tell, my dad murmured.
* Anti–foot fetish. No pedicures, please.
* Fear of squirrels.
* Couch sleeping. Read More
* Anti–foot fetish. No pedicures, please.
* Fear of squirrels.
* Couch sleeping. Read More
Thanksgiving Found Poem
November 27, 2014
Many years we go to my grandmother's in Virginia.
My mother, father, aunts and at least two of my brothers are there.
My son has a football game that morning.
My daughter is home, but needs to get back to school this weekend.
My wife doesn't want to ride for nine hours and turn right back.
Sometimes I have gone alone, but not often.
A couple of neighbors were vying for our company.
One of those my daughter’s boyfriend’s family,
Which we did last year and had fun.
But this year it will be another family,
One we have visited on two or three other Thanksgivings.
I have a turkey freezing in the garage.
Nothing to do with it. Read More
My mother, father, aunts and at least two of my brothers are there.
My son has a football game that morning.
My daughter is home, but needs to get back to school this weekend.
My wife doesn't want to ride for nine hours and turn right back.
Sometimes I have gone alone, but not often.
A couple of neighbors were vying for our company.
One of those my daughter’s boyfriend’s family,
Which we did last year and had fun.
But this year it will be another family,
One we have visited on two or three other Thanksgivings.
I have a turkey freezing in the garage.
Nothing to do with it. Read More
Jim Dine & Johnny Stanton
November 26, 2014
Jim Dine & Johnny Stanton
This was a Valentine's present many years ago. The art, not the guy, who showed up & never left. And likes Jim Dine.
I want to start taking photos of other visitors to my space. Today it was Becca (with Swiss chocolate), Bob (with beatnik tales) & Anselm (his own sweet self).
And I have a subconjunctival hemorrhage, a giant blood spot right in my eye (that's a photo you do not want to see). Read More
I want to start taking photos of other visitors to my space. Today it was Becca (with Swiss chocolate), Bob (with beatnik tales) & Anselm (his own sweet self).
And I have a subconjunctival hemorrhage, a giant blood spot right in my eye (that's a photo you do not want to see). Read More
My favorite joke
November 25, 2014
A skeleton walks into a bar.
The bartender says, Hey, buddy, what'll it be?
The skeleton says, Give me a beer... & a mop.
The bartender says, Hey, buddy, what'll it be?
The skeleton says, Give me a beer... & a mop.
Leaning ziggurat of toilet paper
November 24, 2014
It was either this picture or one of the first Christmas tree of the year, which I saw last Thursday on the Fulton Street Mall in Brooklyn. I don't guess I have anything insightful to say about either one except that they're part of my world & my day & what I see when I'm out & about, or in & about.
I'm trying to decide whether to leave the t.p. as it is & buy a few new packs, or destroy the symmetry. In other words, is it an installation or a happening? Read More
I'm trying to decide whether to leave the t.p. as it is & buy a few new packs, or destroy the symmetry. In other words, is it an installation or a happening? Read More
O Brooklyn II
November 23, 2014
This is a 2009 glass mosaic in the Jay Street subway station called Departures & Arrivals, by Ben Snead. It depicts the borough's diversity in 6 species: tiger beetle (local but disappearing), European starling (England), house sparrow (Europe), red lion fish (Indian Ocean), monk parrot (S. America) and koi (Japan). We come & we go, & sometimes we end up in a place more to our liking. Read More
O Brooklyn
November 21, 2014
I'm really glad I went to BAM for Black Mountain Songs, featuring the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Basil King (thanks, Martha!). Baz's down-to-earth honesty was a perfect counterpart to the young people's ethereal voices, singing works by Fielding Dawson, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan an others, set to music for this event. I also loved hearing a clip of Charles Olson reading Maximus to Gloucester, in that pure midcentury Massachusetts accent.
What I didn't love was getting lost on the way there: what happened to Fulton Street? Dang, it was right there, if I'd simply looked down the block I would have seen the theater & not taken a giant detour. After the show, I went the wrong way for many blocks before I figured out that I should have gotten to the subway by now. Did I want to become a member of BAM? Thanks, but not until I can get there without getting lost.
A nest of hypers
November 20, 2014
I wanted to walk by the winter ocean. Johnny agreed to go to Coney Island because it meant we weren't going to go away overnight, to Philly. He's a man who knows how to cut his losses. It was 20° yesterday so I gave in & we dashed up to TKTS & scored excellent half-price seats to Read More
My 15 minutes
November 19, 2014
I was walking down First Avenue the other day when a young man asked if I was familiar with the neighborhood. Well, I do live here. Do you know the blog EVGrieve? Of course! When he told me he's the person who does the "Out & About in the East Village" feature & could he interview me for it, I was so excited. I love that feature & have dreamed of being in it—basically, a hyperlocal Pulitzer Prize. (Click on the photo caption to read the whole piece.)
I only regret that I didn’t think to tell him about the time I told my cousin that I live in the best apartment in the building, & the best building in the neighborhood, & the best neighborhood in the city, & the best city in the world—& then it dawned on me: I LIVE IN THE BEST APARTMENT IN THE WORLD! And my cousin gently said, I'm not sure everyone would agree, El.
Update: Ah, fame. Somehow this post disappeared from my blog; I've restored it as best I recall. Read More
I only regret that I didn’t think to tell him about the time I told my cousin that I live in the best apartment in the building, & the best building in the neighborhood, & the best neighborhood in the city, & the best city in the world—& then it dawned on me: I LIVE IN THE BEST APARTMENT IN THE WORLD! And my cousin gently said, I'm not sure everyone would agree, El.
Update: Ah, fame. Somehow this post disappeared from my blog; I've restored it as best I recall. Read More
Happy birthday, South Dakota
November 18, 2014
My home state turned 125 this month. When I was little, you still occasionally met someone who remembered the days when it was Dakota Territory.
Ask me anything. State bird? The ring-necked pheasant, an import from China that was introduced for hunting. My dad often took payment in trade, so we ate pheasant (& buckshot) pretty frequently.
State tree? The telephone pole. That's Read More
Ask me anything. State bird? The ring-necked pheasant, an import from China that was introduced for hunting. My dad often took payment in trade, so we ate pheasant (& buckshot) pretty frequently.
State tree? The telephone pole. That's Read More
The Mexicans
November 17, 2014
Though we always say "the Mexicans'," it's really called Downtown Bakery & I eat there often enough that they know my voice on the phone & half the time they say "give me 10 minutes" before I even tell them what I want. (It's always a ranchero burrito or a torta de queso.) The food is made by several members of a big, close family. The best part, in a way, is how small & unappealing the place is from the outside—it keeps the crowds away. One of the places that reminds me that I really live here. Read More