I haven’t read poetry for a while, but a couple of weeks ago I picked up Albert Goldbarth’s new collection, The kitchen sink : new and selected poems, 1972-2007, at the library.
Goldbarth was one of my favorite poets in high school and college because he writes very personal, very narrative poems that are both very easy to read and digest but also not at all shallow. I remember reading “The Library” when it was first published in The Iowa Review and falling in love.
A good little nugget of the poem that, while not my favorite part, demonstrates his beautiful writing and engaging use of syntax:
This book is filled with sheep and rabbits, calmly promenading in their tartan vest and bow ties, with their clay pipes, in their Easter Sunday salad-like hats. The hills are gently rounded. The sun is a clear, firm yolk. The world will never be this sweetly welcoming again.
This book is studded with gems that have the liquid depth of aperitifs.
This book, 1,000 Wild Nights, is actually wired to give an electr/YOWCH!
Go find this or any of his other work. Good stuff.
If you are in or around the Ann Arbor, MI, area and are so inclined, you could attend my much-belated birthday celebration this Friday.
And a Flash game designer has realized this.
Light Sprites appears to be simply saccharine and rainbow-themed. The objective is to match up the colored droplets with the matching targets on the various eco-systems that rise up from the bottom. Hit a target with the correct color and a happy, dancing little person or animal representing that region of the world will sprout. Hit all the targets on a particular surface and a little tableau complete with trees, houses, etc., sprouts.
The best part, though, is that when you hit a target with the wrong color droplet, you still get a little person. That little person, however, is then subjected to a death that involves sharks, eagles, lightning strikes, fire, ninjas, or some other amusing end.
Clicky clicky.
I’ve been playing around with photoshop a lot lately and I just made a pattern to make a beer bottle out of felt. I uploaded the image I’m going to recreate, as well as some pattern pieces, to Flickr.
The bottle is based on this image from Wikipedia Commons.
Original pre-move comment from mbr:
The headline led me to expect a different entry entirely. Oh well. I just read a book called THE JOY OF DRINKING, containing an appendix detailing plans to make your own still. Which, if you didn’t accidentally make methanol and go blind, would probably be a good time.
Original pre-move comment from me:
Sorry you were disappointed. Sadly, I have not set up a still. Although there is a great deal of unused, unattended space in the basement…
However, you will be interested to see friend Matt’s adventures in brewing: http://www.asstastic.org/blog/2004/03/explosion-at-teh-brewery
I haven’t been blogging lately, because I’ve been crafting. I have a ton of felt and have been making patches like the one displayed.
I was just sitting at home when I caught the sound of the rare wild trombone, right outside my window. I was lucky enough to capture the musical tones of this unique creature in its natural habitat.
marriedtothesea.com
I was at a party this weekend where the host asked if anyone wanted ice cubes for their drinks. No one did, provided the drinks were already cold, particularly since we were going to be sitting outside on a cool spring evening. The host exclaimed, in jest, “That’s so unAmerican!” When I thought about ice cubes, it is pretty silly that we have machines that make ice not for keeping our food fresh, but to make our drinks so damn cold you have to wait until the ice is melted and your drink is watery to do more than sip.
What are some other examples of unAmerican refusal of novelty goods and services you’ve encountered?
Original pre-move comment from srah:
I hate ice cubes. How about the unamerican refusal of plastic grocery bags?
Original pre-move comment from Imagine:
I’m a social outcast at work because I ride my bike rather than drive my car. Almost every day, somebody offers me a lift. It’s so weird.
Original pre-move comment from me:
That is weird. Especially in AA; there are so many bikers that I didn’t think biking to work would be that out of the ordinary.
