Or, Notices: 06/01/2009

6.30.2009

Fürchtet Euch nicht!

The Damage Done: Vacation Reading Revealed

Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy
John Krakauer, Into the Wild (After reading Lucy, I was immediately compelled to purchase this at Hastings Bookstore in Maryville, TN and read it to see if it might also work for a syllabus I'm imagining. It works!)
Maggie Nelson, Jane: A Murder
J. Hector St John de Crèvecœr, Letters from an American Farmer
Derek McCormack, The Show that Smells
H. G. Wells, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (To wash off the delicious stink of Derek's book, I longed for a 19th century novel by Hawthorne or Gissing; without those on hand, I opted for the Wells, figuring it was the book I was least likely to pick up in the coming year. Really, it's a lovely work. Wells and Derek share a passionate delight in language, though the passions lead to vastly different results, different kinds of roller coasters.)

All are highly recommended. Thank heavens for books like 3 & 5 (and the first half of 6)-- books which demand to be devoured at as quick yet responsibly attentive a pace as possible. Also 2, though it requires little to no responsible attentiveness.

Currently reading: D. R. Woolf, The Idea of History in Early Stuart England: Erudition, Ideology, and 'The Light of Truth' from the Acession of James I to the Civil War
(At present, I wouldn't highly recommend it, but not because of any flaw on Woolf's part. If you've a reason to read this book, then I'd recommend you do so.)

Also currently reading The Blithedale Romance-- "How cold an Arcadia was this!"

6.29.2009

From This Weekend's Market

6.28.2009

Kenneth's gorgeous photos of a slide of his grandfather Herbert in the
Smoky Mountains-- near Cades Cove, Spence Field, Gregory Bald.

6.27.2009

Kenneth's gorgeous photo of a slide of his father Gerald

6.26.2009

Vacation Luncheon: Tuna Melt

I consulted Joy of Cooking just to make sure.

6.25.2009

Self-Portrait with the peach roses

6.24.2009

What it said: "Help is on the way."
How I remembered it: "Nowhere to turn."

6.23.2009

Kenneth's gorgeous photo of a slide found in Townsend

6.22.2009

During our 2-week vacation in Townsend, TN, Kenneth participated in a bit of graveyard tourism, visiting and photoing graves of his relatives. He blogged a little about it here. Looking through Kenneth's photos, I'm struck by the beauty of this daisy dappled swatch of graveyard adjacent to his family's land. I can't stand the notion of being stuck in some weirdly manicured lot dotted with baskets of faded plastic flowers (or, worse yet, brilliantly colored ones): Incinerate and scatter! This spot, though, makes grave burial almost appealing-- a place where I could rest.

6.21.2009

6.20.2009

The Regular - enroute to the table

6.19.2009

I'm a nerd. I'm a gay.

b/c once was not enough.

6.18.2009

with loves to hi5ive Gary and loves and huge thanks to bruise. i dream of coordinating an event for which i can invite & put up these AcTioN FiGurES and ask them to do whatever they want, dance wherever they want.

6.17.2009

Books packed for vacation

Aphra Behn, The Works of Aphra Behn Vol. 5: The Plays, 1671-1677
E. F. Benson, Miss Mapp
Elizabeth Bishop, The Collected Prose
Donald Bond, ed., The Spectator, Volume 1
J. Hector St John de Crèvecœr, Letters from an American Farmer
Daniel Defoe, The Storm or, A Collection of the most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters Which happen'd in the Late Dreadful Tempest both by Sea and Land
James Hogg, Altrive Tales: Collected among the Peasantry of Scotland, and From Foreign Adventures by the Ettrick Shepherd
Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy
Derek McCormack, The Show that Smells
Maggie Nelson, Jane: A Murder
Lois Potter, Secret Rites and Secret Writing: Royalist Literature, 1641-1660
André Leon Talley, A.L.T.
H. G. Wells, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman
D. R. Woolf, The Idea of History in Early Stuart England: Erudition, Ideology, and 'The Light of Truth' from the Acession of James I to the Civil War

(mind you, i'll never read them all during the 2 weeks. correctly guess which ones i read from, and i'll send you a prize. guess that plus the order in which i read from them, and i'll send you a SUPER prize. hint: i've begun rereading Lucy prior to departure.)