"There is nothing that gives more assurance than a mask." ~Colette

happy halloween.


original flickr photos to be found here: 1. Betty Grable, 2. clara bow halloween, 3. Virginia Welles, 4. Betty Grable

the moustache blog

at mustaches of the nineteenth century, all your mustache curiosities and desires will be satisfied.

its proprietor writes:

"Dear Gentle Reader,
Many of the following pages have graphic and clear images of the masculine mustache in all its forms, both sublime and grotesque. My intent is not to shock or titillate, but merely to inform on the subject. The Nineteenth Century gave us many things, but above all it was a hotbed of facial hair experimentation and this is but a poor sampling of those many lost forms."

this "daily celebration of the golden age of upper lip hair" will cheer anyone up.

too wonderful

videos for each of the swoonworthy songs on beirut's newest, the flying club cup.

the float and odor of october

1. Orchid, 2. birds, 3. Untitled, 4. flowers in autumn, 5. Untitled, 6. Sparks of leaving summer

"the mind factory, its give and take." ~finnegans wake

how fig trees are pollinated.

c'est une pipe

part of square america's "encounters with the other" series.

when was the last time you found a unicycle in your cereal box?

some pleasing memory triggers from the cereal box archive. forget that this stuff was pretty much absent of any nutritional value. besides, they say all nostalgia is is the desire for desire.

secrets of the sea

image found buried here in germ #5.

"because jim behrle has no sense of limits." ~stan apps

jim behrle makes me wish i had less of a sense of limits. his 'world's most innovative poets' series inspired by an argument he's having with stan apps is making him my hero.

emily dickinson on the importance of knowing how to make bread

"I am going to learn to make bread to-morrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, saleratus, etc., with a deal of grace. I advise you if you don't know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch."


photo from the website of one of our local treasures, della fattoria

the daily dress blog

i find myself wanting to be composed merely of pigment just so that i could wearthese dresses. thanks to simply photo for the link.

To Make Pie That the Birds May Be Alive In them and Flie Out When It Is Cut Up

- Make the coffin of a great pie or pastry, in the bottome thereof make a hole as big as your fist, or bigger if you will, let the sides of the coffin bee somwhat higher then ordinary pies, which done put it full of flower and bake it, and being baked, open the hole in the bottome, and take out the flower. Then having a pie of the bigness of the hole in the bottome of the coffin aforesaid, you shal put it into the coffin, withall put into the said coffin round about the aforesaid pie as many small live birds as the empty coffin will hold, besides the pie aforesaid. And this is to be at such time as you send the pie to the table, and set before the guests: where uncovering or cutting up the lid of the great pie, all the birds will flie out, which is to delight and pleasure shew to the company. And because they shall not bee altogether mocked, you shall cut open the small pie, and in this sort you may make many others, the like you may do with a tart.

~~ Epulario (The Italian Banquet), published in 1598

sweet

a few new york souvenirs (minus the morbid one)

sadly, i accidentally deleted all the pictures we took on the staten island ferry. it was a rather magical ride in which, as soon as we passed the statue of liberty, her torch lit up. then we turned around and manhatten had turned its lights on too. this trip had a sense of timing about it, as if everywhere we were was were we were supposed to be. ah. we were was where we were. this is somewhat what i mean.

never go to coney island without your pink umbrella

i know it's been quiet here but we were very much in new york.

more soon...

"the windows are normally independent of one another, although you may pass back and forth from one view to the other..."

"...this absurd interdependence is like a lark at break of day." ~barbara guest





"absurd interdependence". that so encapsulates what obsesses me, the kind of accidental interdependence of things that brings me the strangest solace whenever i encounter it in the world.



brilliant photo by sassy artz on flickr.

my first sonnet

one day not long ago i was taking a man's order at Fish. his shirt had a pattern of flying ducks on it that i liked, and i told him so. but between the moment that i gave him the compliment and the moment that he thanked me, i realized with a kind of dismay that the ducks on his shirt weren't flying. they were falling, tumbling out of the sky. he affirmed my observation by saying (as if his grin would reveal he had teeth missing, though he had all his teeth): "they're full o buckshot."

this moment inspired my sonnet. because it seemed an unlikely form for its subject, yes, but also because the form itself revealed to me my own deep and abiding hunting instincts.



sonnet full of buckshot


when a rhythm catches i will pluck
it out of thin air. hushfuls will founder
waylaid by the thunderclap, no time to duck
down. and fall through the sky's false bottom, rounder
than the theatrical notion of surprise,
the sudden and transitory expanse
triggered by duplicity in the guise
of a puddle duck, subtly enhanced
by the clarity it lends to the muddy.
i too am happy to wade hip-deep in ooze
for the chance to extract from the suddenly
soft finery of misconstrued music.

my aim is true, my intention to solder
the mat's soft yield to the wrestler's shoulder.





there you have it.

the sonnet as a form has been there all along and i have never filled it. it is like an exquisite chair i have never once sat in. i think i'm finally ready to pull all these lovely forms left behind for me out of the attic and furnish my life with them.

the todd colby voice mail message

have a listen to this message that daniel nester has been saving since 2005. todd colby is one of the poets i'll be reading with at the battle hill poetry festival next weekend, a fact that makes me want to start a glee farm all my own.

the sense of place

this is to be my last article for intowine.com. don't worry, i still like wine. in fact i love it more than ever. and home too. and the concept of home. and the idea of roots and years and geography.

who would have thought i'd ever love a meme?

so, bluewyvern had this idea for a meme which so appealed to me that i just invited myself to play. well, she invited anyone who wanted to, so i suppose i wasn't uninvited. her idea is this: construct an imaginary curriculum of classes you would like to take, she says 5-10, "courses you would take to fix your life." you choose one of the classes that the person who tagged you invented and include that. then you tag five people.

her "small talk workshop" is the one i'd like to take:

Small Talk Workshop: Advanced Techniques and Topics for Social Mastery
This practical course focuses primarily on in-class practice sessions guided by the instructor. Learn how to keep a conversation flowing seamlessly, ways to move beyond the weather, dealing with unpleasant people, social conventions, appropriate formulas for a variety of situations (polite refusal, soliciting favors, disengagement, etc.), networking, and more.

one of the people that bluewyvern tagged is maktaak, who has also been updating her blog with curriculum classes that her friends have responded with. some of my favorites:

Silence 101
Knowing when to shut up
A brief history of silence, techniques for keeping quiet, how to hold one's tongue, tact tactics, and the delicate art of being thought a fool rather than confirming it. No lecture: course is offered by correspondence and an in-person lab component.

CINE2313 – Film Name-Dropping for the Cinematically Challenged
Survey course for students who desire to extend their repertoire of film actors, directors, writers and other cast and crew in order to speak intelligently about cinema in mixed company. No films will be viewed during the course, as it is presumed that students have already viewed most of them, but simply cannot recall the individuals who contributed to each work. Upon course completion students will be able to give a convincing diatribe contrasting Hal P. Warren's use of frontier imagery with that of Sergio Leone's, and will be able to connect Toshiro Mifune to Kevin Bacon in only three degrees.


and maktaak's own:

Massage Collection Techniques 450
Ever wish you could effortlessly maneuver your shoulders under someone's fingers after a hard day's work? This course will teach you how to elicit sympathy massages from friends, family, even strangers on your commute. Learn how expert massage-getters groom themselves to invite shiatsu, hot stone, deep tissue and even aromatherapy massages from those who never considered themselves masseuses before. Taught by the Swedish prime minister.


so, this has utterly inspired me to make a few of my own:


How to Make a Silk Purse Out of a Sow's Ear 300
This course includes a complete overview of alchemical processes in addition to step-by-step instruction in three-dimensional sewing techniques. The class text, "A Throne is Only a Bench Covered with Velvet" must be purchased and brought with you on the first day of class, as it is an essential element of learning how to transform ordinary base materials into extraordinary fashion accessories.

The Art of Leaving Space Empty 171
You will learn both the value of capitalist restraint and the absence of comfort in this two part course. Class locations will be announced weekly, as we will arrange to gather in unfurnished rooms around campus as they become available. There are no textbook or supplies allowed for this course. Only students who have passed The History of the Lost Memory Arts 371 with a "C" or better may be enrolled. Though you will finish the class having acquired nothing, you will gain a great deal.

Listening as a Contact Sport 100
In this course we fathom the depths of the ear as a touch receptor, and cultivate in students the "hands-on" art of listening. What this course aims to do is help generate a new generation of fair and generous listeners, teaching strategies to ensure students become good losers and graceful winners in conversation. A portion of the class is devoted to self-defense techniques to prevent predatory behavior on the listener, such as outpourings of gossip, religious zealotry, and telephone solicitors, with another segment of the course focusing on the hidden physical dynamics and subsequent psychological impact of eavesdroppers and confession booths.




i only did three, so you who i tag only have to do a minimum of three. you are: andrea and chris, kay and sean, kate and maggie, chris, hillel, olivia and phil, bb, anne from finnegans wake, and miranda.

(and anyone else who would like to.)

sometimes i just let myself desire objects

i forget, who was it who said: "objects are frozen thoughts"?












chandelier by delusions of grandeur via
labour of heart.






poppy bobby pins by foundling at poppytalk handmade.

egg throne, wire feeder and shoe tree by bailey's home and garden. via a cup of jo.

in praise of housework

.."And so, when a poet rubs a piece of furniture, when he [she] puts a little fragrant wax on his [her] table with the woolen cloth that lends warmth to everything it touches, he [she] creates a new object... objects that are cherished in this way really are born of an intimate light, and they attain to a higher degree of reality than indifferent objects..." ~so says gaston bachelard














photos and cleaning objects of affection by bailey's home and garden.














don't you just want to mop when you look at this picture?

a plethora of animal adjectives

well we all know asinine means like an ass and canine means like a dog (though that adjective has evolved over time into a noun as well), but did you know that 'noctilionine' is like a bat and 'octopine' is like an octopus? i was so happy to come across such a wonderful list that i just had to share it with you.
go here to get the full and glorious list. and then tell me which one you feel like today. as for me, i'm just zebrine, thanks for asking.