this journal blug

Banished Words List 2004

now the putting... little marks putting themselves in little boxes... o the putting of... into the grid... soon

and how it goes blue when the snow and the sun come down...

o... done with r e a d i n g s... at last

o... real snow... at last

ok... break's done... back to it...

teacher's lot: after four hours this morning... of reading reading reading student work... i'm just about a zombie... many hours to go... feel sorry for me... feel very sorry

The Coffee Sutras: Unconventional wisdom:

What is needed at all times and in all places, is unconventional wisdom. Such wisdom is marked by a variety of traits, among them:

* It is skeptical.
* It is self-critical.
* It is self-confident.
* It is reasonable.
* It is humane.

an obsequious spirit soars:

this poem is pretty interesting if you look at its form and word choice. I thought it was pretty cool and I thought that Bro. Tom was pretty amazing to be able to find the theme in it pretty easily while Brandon and i looked at it and just sorta wondered what the #$%& is up with this poem. I guess thats why it's good to have someone like bro. tom in class.

it's nice to be needed

and if you have an interest in WB consider signing up for The Wendell Berry Discussion Group... moderated by me in a casually neglectful way...

aw... riley dog presents a pome from WB... found over in the rich archives of In a Dark Time... here's a chastening bit:

Our hate comes down to kill
Those whom we do not see,
For we have given up
Our sight to those in power
And to machines, and now
Are blind to all the world.

resolved: when i get some time... somewhere in march or april... next week... i'm going to strip out the old pages from brtom.org... there are many spots i haven't visited for months and months... years even... handfulls of broken or irrelevant links... gonna get leaner... but never ever meaner...

had forgotten how much i like Lynda Barry... who has a birthday today...

got to admit... yesterday's horrible blogger breakdown sent me over to TypePad... where i'm trying out a new thing... sharp new looks... but i'm still in love with the old...

notable fog late into the morning... reading poetry papers... more fog... and a break here... where everything is clear... well-lit... friendly enough

may this new year be a good and a better one for us all...

Giorgio Vasari: The Lives of the Artists

just found this via plep

it doesn't seem to be the full text... but uses snippets of text to run through an array of pictures by each artist... intriguing... check out the lippi pages

Best and Worst Movie Accents

(via language hat)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MEG!

for some sanity toward the new year... read Conchology on easy buddhist practice... easy...

Smilingly, make it easy, 'I am not to do anything.' It is easy not to do anything-don't do anything. Let things happen. It is so easy. But when you try to do something, 'I must do. I must stop this aversion. I must stop this craving.' Then you create difficulty. Let things happen. You are just a silent witness of things happening. And it becomes so easy. Make it easy. -- S. N. Goenka, vipassana teacher

Crag Hill's poetry scorecard

George Bush's Poetics: misunderestimate

... which has become one of my most favorite neologisms... i use it every chance i get... it helps me to remember... wonder how quickly it might infiltrate the vernacular...

pleasantly surprised to find josh corey on the big yellow backside of the just-arrived APR... a breaking up/broken up poem called "on our imperfect knowledge of the void"...

I rode the pure bus into the angry buzz of sun.

nice line

why i am laughing wickedly right now...

I am a new AP teacher. I have assigned
Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man for
hiliday reading. Can anyone give me insight
on how I should proceed with this when tha
student's return?

uh... ask students to drop their cliffnotes in the garbage... then ask what santa brought... he hehe

why i am listening to old radiohead... because it is there... and because it makes me feel very cool... as if i still had the smallest idea about cool... hip... withitness... hey... man... slow down... slow down...

and thinking that there's no way to represent on page or screen what t yorke's voice does there... no way...

counting and r e a d i n g s... and counting and reading and counting and reading and counting and... reminds me of that special mac paperclip we love so much...

alli reminds me how much i have always... well, since the mid-seventies... liked the photography of emmet gowin

read suzanne's thoughts on presen(ce)ts