The desire of knowledge, like the thirst of riches, increases ever with the acquisition of it.
~ Laurence Sterne
This struck me because I just sent away for my transcript from my time at City College. I didn't even remember what years I was there, & didn't remember or didn't know I was on the Dean's List. I earned a total of 46 credits! I did go to college!
The Double Dragon Chinese restaurant in the next block from me closed abruptly a couple of weeks ago. Apparently the two small buildings next to it are going to be torn down & something (hideous) built in their place. The sign went too & I'm trying to remember what was BET(ter?) before Double Dragon. I know it opened since I've lived here. Was that where the bakery was? It was so great to go up to their door, which was open but gated, late at night & get a fresh hot roll or two, often for free. They've been gone for decades. The vegetable stand was in the next block, I think, & the Army-Navy surplus store was on the corner ~ two corners, in fact, 3rd & 4th. Amazing that we supported two identical stores. I wish I had documented the street more thoroughly.
Meet Alaska & Niko, my neighbor's 9-month-olds. Still men. She's been camping in Vermont so I've been hanging out with them this week. Cats are so easy to love.
When we moved into a new house in Sioux Falls (across the street from our old one), the girls who lived there before us left a pile of .45s. The girls were Corky & Cindy Winter, who were a couple years older than me. Corky was the homecoming queen of my high school. One of the records was "Cocaine Blues," I think by someone other than Johnny Cash.
OK, I knew what a shot of whiskey was & so "I took a shot of cocaine" didn't faze me. But this line stumped me: "I thought I was her daddy but she had five more." I spent a lot of time pondering it.
Why did I never ask anyone when I had questions like that?
Thinking yesterday about "sun on the beach" made me remember how enthralled I was with the line from Song of Songs (Shir haShirim): The voice of the turtle is heard in the land. I puzzled over that line a lot. Isn't the turtle silent? (Mine have always been.) So nothing is heard? Was it a more gloomy line than it seemed? The explanation was simple ~ it's turtledove, the bird not a reptile ~ but the line remains beautiful & evocative.
I can remember other confusions....
One more photo from Sunday beach training. This reminds me of a movie my family saw when I was little.
A man staying in a guesthouse says something about "sun on the beach" & almost gets kicked out by his prim hostess. I remember not understanding what was wrong with saying sun on the beach.
The movie was called, I believe, Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation. ... Checking... Yes! I'm sure that was it. Stars James Stewart & the gorgeous Maureen O'Hara.
To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind.
~ Théophile Gautier (1811-72), French poet & critic
Nothing to say. it's nice & possibly meaningless or poorly translated. But I like this kind of tidy mobius strip of a comparison.
One of my favorite Seido events. We leave at 4 & meditate till sunrise. Traditionally, the Japanese honor loved ones who are no longer with us, something I do plenty of. Then we work out. This year was fantastic ~ great weather & as always, the morning (which ends by 8) is capped off with watermelon.
Zack Berger & I each translated half a dozen poems by each of us into Yiddish & Norwegian, respectively. So there also a Yiddish version but I have to get his permission to post it.
Tiny Instructive Poem
Between the cat & the fat
the claws & the jaws
all my clothes
are full of holes
Lite lærerikt dikt
Mellom katten og fettet
klørne og kjevene
alle klærne mine
er fulle av hull
with complaining about my health
which is fine.
From here on in I rag nobody
is the great last line from the great novel Bang the Drum Slowly
I used to reread every winter when there was no baseball news
but I haven't read it for a while.
Pretty sure I can lay my hands on my copy.
How great to hear my old friend Rachelle & her terrific three-woman band Vicki Kristina Barcelona in a neighborhood park last night. Perfect weather & they are great. They sing Tom Waits songs in three-part harmony, with accordion, washboard, & many more instruments. All three have fantastic & distinctive voices; together they are way more than the sum of their parts.
Turned in articles, sent in invoices, & had a few hours without obligations. Spent most of that time deleting open emails. I don't know how many there were, & still are. I don't know how to keep up with them. It's been months since I had zero unopened in my inbox. I delete as fast as I can but there's always more. No wonder I don't know where I am in time. I mean, I know it's 2023 but it is also 1985 & 1967 & for all I know, 1885 as well. The weird simultaneity that only becomes apparent when you've been an adult for a few decades. It seems so random what I remember to the day (August 2, 1987) & what I can only guess "the 90s?" about. This is often triggered when I see an unfamiliar photo of myself from ages ago, when it's obvious that I'm no longer her, except that I absolutely am.
One belongs to New York instantly.
One belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.
~ Thomas Wolfe
I can't believe I never say this quote before. It's exactly what happened to me, although I think it might have been 10 minutes. I had never been to New York (or any city, really) & then, snap, I was a New Yorker. That first trip I asked someone who lived in Brooklyn for their area code (which at the time was the same as Manhattan's) & he said, You've been here 1 day & you already know that Brooklyn isn't New York. I loved that. I was a New Yorker. Instantly. I never once wanted to live anywhere else once New York found me.
Why didn't I make notations on photos? Why didn't I date my poems? I guess I expected to remember everything. Here, Janet & I are goofing around. Why all the sunglasses? Where were we? I think I loved that sweater but whatever became of it? If I had to say, I'm thinking mid-80s, Maine or maybe Nova Scotia. My hair is tucked away ~ that was a good clue for many years: it was calico, creamsicle, magenta, blond.
I don't usually go to Houston Village Farms on 1st Ave & 4th Street because they were overcharging ("profiteering") during the pandemic but last night Johnny wanted ice cream & it was too hot to walk over to Ave A or 2nd Ave. I was with June & not paying close attention & when the ice cream ($7.99 for a pint + $3.50 for an individual for June) came out to $12.93 I put it on my credit card rather than pay cash.
When HVF emailed my receipt I discovered that they had charged $1.44 ~ 12.5%! ~ for "tax & fees." I went back this morning & politely told them that "only government agencies, educational institutions, utility companies and rental establishments can charge credit card convenience fees" on AMEX and that New York prohibits credit card surcharges and convenience fees, except for a purchase under $10. I didn't even get to the fact that even if a fee is legit, it's capped at around 3%.
Nope, they said they could charge whatever they want, it was my fault for not noticing the fee, that I could return my purchase (fat chance! long gone!). Absolutely refused to refund my piddling $1.44. Or give their names for that matter.
I feel a little sorry for them now. Not only did Amex kick it back right away, but I filed a complaint with the NYC Dept of Consumer Affairs. Turns out their license expired in 2019.... For a really small amount of money, they are likely about to be in big trouble.
Although truth be told, I would probably still have filed a complaint if they had fallen all over themselves apologizing & refunded the whole $12.93, let alone the $1.44.
Our beautiful new reclining lounge chairs, on the roof of the Pound. But the other day someone took? stole? trashed? the table, TV & other chairs. They're not out back & don't seem to be in the dumpster so I don't know what happened to them.
It is brutally hot today & I may never get up from in front of my fan.
As the Sun said to Frank O'Hara, "you ought to look up more often." I ought to widen my gaze, and here's something the James Webb telescope brought back: worlds in formation.
This photo shows "sun-like stars being born in Rho Ophiuchi, the closest-star-forming region to Earth. Webb spotted around 50 young stars, many close in mass to our star, giving us a glimpse into the early life of the Sun and allowing us to better understand our own origins."
I too sometimes believe I live in a concrete jungle, but really, plants, trees, flowering bushes, flowers are everywhere.
This is across the street from me.
Fatherland: A memoir of war, conscience, and family secrets is this New Yorker writer's well-written & moving account of coming to grips with the life of his grandfather, a Nazi functionary. Like all too many, both in that war & at any given time, he was part-hero, part-dupe, & part all the other things that make any of us normal human beings. Better than we could be, worse than we wish we were. Recommended: I was forced to think of Nazis as (somewhat) sympathetic, or at least think through their actions with a more open mind than I usually have on this topic.
A new restaurant is opening up the block, Memphis Seoul, "Southern cookin' with a Korean kick." Yeah, hmm, maybe when Willis is here. Much as I love a traditional "meat & 3" restaurant, not sure I'm ready for this. It's not open yet so I have time to get my stomach & mouth lined up...
Meet Alaska & Niko, the newest cats on the 4th floor of the Ezra Pound. That makes 5 on our floor, all male, although these two are more male, at least at the moment, than Lefty, Harry & Jojo, if you know what I mean. They are 9 months old & it sure is fun to play with kittens & watch them learn things. I took care of them for a few days last weekend. Should I make every Friday Catday? What's a blog without cute kitties, after all.
My practically brand-new computer is wonky. I spent an hour on the phone this morning with the tech people & it didn't really help & in fact there's new issues, like weird jabs of color when I type in Chrome (like now). Broken letters that filll themselves back in. Damn! I don't have time for the rest of the week to address this.
Some are my cousins because they are my aunts & uncles' kids.
One is my cousin because her mom is almost related to my sister.
One is my cousin because when we were traveling together in our 20s, it was easier to explain than "just friends."
One is my cousin because I didn't want the guy I had a crush on to think he was my boyfriend.
Cousins are the sweet spot between family & friends, the best of both.
After spending 5 months cleaning my house, I found a corner I hadn't touched ~ for almost 20 years, judging by the half dozen magazines that were leaning up against a wall on a shelf next to the bed. The best find in that stack was an assignment from a class at City College circa 1980 that I believe it was on half a dozen 19th-century writers & thinkers. I'm sure we were supposed to in some way compare one of the novelists with one of the thinkers (Dickens? Nietzsche?). My 11-page essay: "Jude the Obscure by Karl Marx." The professor called it "charming and delightful," pointed out a "similar historical sensibility in Hardy & Marx," and gave me an A.
Side note: The paper I typed it out on is so thick I doubt it could even go through my printer, & the plastic binder is likewise a lot more heavy-duty than is available today.
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
I'm in a rut, a trough, a slough. It's tough to climb out of the familiar. Someone needs to push me off a cliff or my wings will atrophy.
Out of the blue, I got a message from someone named Ma Yongbo, who is a Chinese translator & poet. He has translated 3 anthologies, Moby-Dick, & lots more. He sent me images of some of my poems. One is about baseball. Is that familiar in China? Yes, there is a small but genuine interest, it seems. China had a professional league from 2002-2018. Still, does it translate? Another baseball poem of mine (or possibly the same one) was translated into French for an anthology there & my fluent friend made many corrections of nuance & fact. Anyway, it's pretty cool that people in China have access to a little of my work!
A tough & protective & guileless man, a designer & artists, a good friend & karateka. Died in Maine, not clear exactly what happened. Drowned? We'd been talking about Maine a few days earlier. Go to the Farnsworth, I insisted. He loved the lake, & wasn't sure he would leave it, even to see great art. We started our outdoor karate review when he was going for a promotion a couple of years ago & we've kept it up ever since. It's become such a tight family-within-the-Seido-family & he was still very much a part of it. A good guy.
She stuck needles in my ear, & my hip loosened up, & I slept hard. Is she a witch? No, an acupuncturist.
As Member 16,394 of the Cloud Appreciation Society (there are at least 3x as many now), I almost can identify this cloud. Cloud watching is the least demanding hobby I can imagine. All you have to do is look up once in a while. I'm fine not knowing the names of the clouds. Like them, I drift along mild & aimless.
At last a breezy day when we could sit on the roof. The nice thing about my new reclining chair is seeing so much sky while I'm comfortably stretched out. Today it's back to intense heat & humidity. Oh well, one glorious day was worth a whole summer of gasping.