Someone Has Beaten A Giant

What better way to spend a rainy Saturday than with The Princess Bride? Scott, feeling like death warmed over (verbatim) is sleeping off the fever, the bird is sleeping, and the cat. Thanks to everyone who did the rain dance; it feels like home again. Gutters overflow; a small, harmless intimation that nature can frustrate all our works. This cheers me up, for some reason. If something's going to wipe me off the surface of the planet ever, I'd rather that impartial force than some malign or careless machination of man. This is probably a good attitude for someone who lives more or less on top of the Seattle fault.

Is this a kissing book?

A.D. hates the word "juxtaposition" and takes issue with the ridiculous American method of punctuation as regards quotation marks. I realize I've been using whatever punctuation made sense at the time around quotation marks for years. Join the revolution! On the other hand, I rather like "juxtaposition". It's "proactive" (not really a word) that ruffles my feathers. Gotta love that corporate newspeak. A guaranteed way to drive a former co-worker into a frenzy was to say "Kris, you've got to think outside the box".

You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.

Charles got to see a wonderful dance. One of the most beautiful things I ever saw was an impromptu dance between two dance instructors after the lesson was over. It was in a old schoolhouse refurbished into a community center; high ceiling, wood floor, late afternoon sun. They did a slow waltz to Cirque du Soleil's Il sogno di volare. Totally spontaneous, in jeans. Just one of those moments when the planets align, you know?

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Kelli has this marvelous tidbit. I love the Krylon Sub-Lieutenant, or whatever. Aside from the unfortunate damage to the painted surface of the museum wall, what a wonderfully benign subversion.

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

Peter offered this, about quality vs. quantity in artistic endeavor. If you make a thing enough times, a few of them will be brilliant. Is this practice, or luck, or tapping in to something beyond yourself? All of the above? Does it just work with concrete objects, or also with writing, where the medium is symbol/representation, not "reality"? What about music? I don't know any answers. We were watching "Chihuly Over Venice" the other night. I think it was in Sweden, they were blowing component parts for one of the chandeliers, and Dale wanted each piece done within the four-minute window before the glass cooled too much to be worked ... no reheating. So there wasn't much time for finesse -- just get it done. If it breaks, do another. I wonder if this produced more interesting shapes than would have resulted from a more deliberate, intentional process. And I wonder again, can this be applied to writing.

But you must have known I was not a great fool; you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me.


Note to self: Let C. Dale choose the wine at AWP.

No more rhymes, now! I mean it!
Anybody want a peanut?

And Rebecca is posting good poems and talking about bowling.

Have fun stormin’ the castle.