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Wistful

For wistful, my money is on Paul Willaims. Just saying. 

Ethyl

A history of leaded fuel additives and the world's most dangerous chemist, Thomas Midgely

Gospel at Colonus

Zora Neale Hurston once suggested that that the closest thing to the power of Greek tragedy in our society was the ecstatic energy of the black church.   In 1985 Lee Breuer, inspired by this notion and the Robert Fitzgerald Translation of Oedipus at Colonus, created The Gospel at Colonus.  Borrowing from the source text above,  as well as Oedipus Rex and Antigone, Breuer worked with composer Bob Telson to set the return of Oedipus from exile in a pentecostal church with the idea that, "catharsis can go right on through pity and terror into joy."  The blend of  greek, gospel , musical and tragedy simultaneously makes connections between the ancient and the recent in addition to foregrounding the obvious connections (theatre as religious rite, e.g.).  Truly, there is nothing new under the sun. 

The original cast included Morgan Freeman as the Messenger, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and Soul Stirrers with the groups representing individual characters as well as a chorus.  Reviews almost always mention a clumsy-feeling book that pales in comparison to the music.   But as Frank Rich puts it, "the considerable spoken text... can never fully upstage it."  With numbers such as "Stop! (Do Not Go On) " "How Shall I see you Through my Tears" and "Lift Him Up," it's easy to see how it it has inspired a suprising range of artists, including John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.

Getting Lost

in Strange Maps.

The Thin Man

You walk into the room

With your pencil in your hand

You see somebody naked

And you say, "Who is that man?"

You try so hard

But you don't understand

When you get home

Because something is happening here

But you don't know what it is

Do you, Mister Jones?

A May Term's Worth of Definition...

... in a single blog post.  Matthew Baldwin of Defective Yeti passes on the difference between "noir" and "hardboiled." 

Truisms

Truisms outside of their native environment.  What I like about Jenny Holzer's work is that each sign, each pencil, each  fortune inscribed on a paper weight is a commodity that speaks, or seems to, even when it has only platitudes to offer.  It is about messages and the things with which we imbue them.  When collected in one space, however, as they are here or on the printed poster, it loses the feeling of fetish - i.e. an object that speaks to you. 

In college a writing instructor gave me a pencil inscribed with one of the truisms, and I regret that I no longer have it, nor can I really recall it; it may have been "You are guileless in your dreams" which echoes or is echoed by "Innocent When You Dream"  from Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits. 

Convergence

   

When I grow up, I want to be Lawrence Weschler.

Puprle Hearts

A striking, shocking and moving wedding photo.    Backstory for the photo, which ameliorates some of the tumult, may be found here.  Finally, some additional photos, some  from before the war. Via Metafilter.

Like Refrigerator Magnets

From Metafilter, a link on the best homework ever turned in leads to a blog entry on having letter-color synaesthesia.