Did you ever set down things that you would and wouldn't do and just shatter them? Not in a bad way, not in a wrong way, not in an upsetting way, but you just reach a point where those rules are irrelevant for whatever reason? It's been happening to me plenty, especially lately. I guess it's the whole transitional stuff in work and personal life and all that stuff. Opens you up to re-exploring priorities you have lain down for yourself. It's all such an interesting internal process to unravel.
New music--haven't really found much in the past few days. Will keep looking (and always open to suggestions).
New books: read (on strong recommendation and through a gift) both the perks of being a wallflower and The Little Prince in English (on top of an essay by J.B. Priestley entitled "The Hesperides Conference"). "The Hesperides Conference" should be read by anyone in diplomacy, politics, government, international relations or anything like that. It's about 5 pages long so it will take you no time, but it will give you a very accurate angle on what's out there. The other two books are intensely emotional and Le Petit Prince was more memorable line-by-line, sentence-by-sentence this time (as I had only read it in French before). Sentences like "anything essentially is invisible to the eyes" and "you'll have stars that can laugh" really come to life when you have a good translation and when you can retain them more easily in the language that they're being conveyed. My problem was that I read it in French very early on (as it's a children's book), so I wasn't at the point of being able to read literature as literature: I was able to understand the story but not grab the themes, the vision, the subtle links between segments, word choice and syntactical points--and i wouldn't have a lasting memory of any particular lines. Perks was a quick read and very itnense. The style and the character development were exceptional. The story bears all too much resemblance to so many unfortunate happenings in the lives of real children and adolescents. The confusion and the demands of society for children to grow up in an instant when they don't know what growing up means. Brutal initations into unknown social circles or the unspoken clubs that dichotomize "who has and who hasn't." And what it means to try to be a watcher and try to be normal amidst so much insanity. And how impossible it is and how we continue to mess up each new generation of children by hoisting our problems onto innocents....A tough but good read for sure.
I'm delving into some literary criticism with a critical edition of The Waste Land (yes, i look at it as more than a poem). Don't anticipate I'll find anything interesting to anyone but me--but we'll see.
And I have also taken to running. It feels so good. I missed a couple of days, but I'm hitting the streets again momentarily.
I'll also be bartending on Tuesday at 131 in College Point (131st and 14th Ave). Should be better than awesome.
New music--haven't really found much in the past few days. Will keep looking (and always open to suggestions).
New books: read (on strong recommendation and through a gift) both the perks of being a wallflower and The Little Prince in English (on top of an essay by J.B. Priestley entitled "The Hesperides Conference"). "The Hesperides Conference" should be read by anyone in diplomacy, politics, government, international relations or anything like that. It's about 5 pages long so it will take you no time, but it will give you a very accurate angle on what's out there. The other two books are intensely emotional and Le Petit Prince was more memorable line-by-line, sentence-by-sentence this time (as I had only read it in French before). Sentences like "anything essentially is invisible to the eyes" and "you'll have stars that can laugh" really come to life when you have a good translation and when you can retain them more easily in the language that they're being conveyed. My problem was that I read it in French very early on (as it's a children's book), so I wasn't at the point of being able to read literature as literature: I was able to understand the story but not grab the themes, the vision, the subtle links between segments, word choice and syntactical points--and i wouldn't have a lasting memory of any particular lines. Perks was a quick read and very itnense. The style and the character development were exceptional. The story bears all too much resemblance to so many unfortunate happenings in the lives of real children and adolescents. The confusion and the demands of society for children to grow up in an instant when they don't know what growing up means. Brutal initations into unknown social circles or the unspoken clubs that dichotomize "who has and who hasn't." And what it means to try to be a watcher and try to be normal amidst so much insanity. And how impossible it is and how we continue to mess up each new generation of children by hoisting our problems onto innocents....A tough but good read for sure.
I'm delving into some literary criticism with a critical edition of The Waste Land (yes, i look at it as more than a poem). Don't anticipate I'll find anything interesting to anyone but me--but we'll see.
And I have also taken to running. It feels so good. I missed a couple of days, but I'm hitting the streets again momentarily.
I'll also be bartending on Tuesday at 131 in College Point (131st and 14th Ave). Should be better than awesome.
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