July | 2016 | another eye opens

Archive for July, 2016

Playlist: iTunes shuffle, 7/24/16

July 25, 2016

“Melrose,” Night Beds
“Klapp Klapp,” Little Dragon
“Wanted,” Max Hatt/Edna Glass
“Shame Is the Name,” Morrissey
“This Lamb Sells Condos,” Final Fantasy
“Right as Wrong,” Inara George
“Stop Performing,” the Roches
“Movement VI: Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges,” Sufjan Stevens

“Moves Like Jagger,” Maroon 5
“Outta Time,” Natalia Kills
“You Cheated Me,” Martha Wainwright
“Shadow,” Wild Nothing
“Old Ghosts,” Matt Alber
“Where Will I Be,” Emmylou Harris
“My Hallelujah Song,” Julianne Hough
“Touch Me,” Spring Awakening OCR
“Sorry or Please,” Kings of Convenience
“Tightrope,” Janelle Monae
“Let Me Be a Living Statue,” Jane Siberry
“Why Do You Love Me,” Adele
“Ash Wednesday,” Elvis Perkins
“Tourniquet,” Hem
“The Storms Are On the Ocean,” Richard Shindell
“If I Should Lose You,” Chris Connor
“Atom Dance,” Bjork
“One Dove,” Antony & the Johnsons
“Shirk,” Me’Shell Ndegeocello
“Sara,” Chad Van Gaalen
“Naked as We Came,” Iron & Wine
“Evaporated,” Ben Folds Presents the Newtones from Newton, Ma
“Sama,” Ishq
“Dust and Water,” Antony & the Johnsons
“Livin,” Nellie McKay
“Heads We’re Dancing,” Kate Bush

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Quote of the day: DIAGNOSIS

July 21, 2016

DIAGNOSIS

“Something”

The minute the doctor says colon cancer
you hardly hear anything else.
He says other things, something
about something. Tests need to be done,
but with the symptoms and family something,
excess weight, something about smoking,
all of that together means something something
something something, his voice a dumb hum
like the sound of surf you know must be pounding,
but the glass window that has dropped down
between you allows only a muffled hiss
like something something. He writes a prescription
for something, which might be needed, he admits.
He hands you something, says something, says goodbye,
and you say something. In the car your wife says
something something and something about dinner,
about needing to eat, and the doctor wanting tests
doesn’t mean anything, nothing, and something
something something about not borrowing trouble
or something. You pull into a restaurant
where you do not eat but sit watching her
eat something, two plates of something,
blurry in an afternoon sun thick as ketchup,
as you drink a glass of something-cola
and try to recall what the doctor said
about something he said was important,
a grave matter of something or something else.

–James Valvis

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Tags: DIAGNOSIS, james valvis, something

Photo diary: a weekend in New York

July 21, 2016

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Friday night: dinner in the West Village with Andy’s friends from the Dessoff Choirs and a twilight Highline stroll.

Saturday: a rare venture to Long Island City, so near and yet so far from Manhattan, full of architectural curiosities, striking juxtapositions, and street art. Andy gave his first public reading ever as part of the Queens Literary Festival in Gantry Plaza State Park, at the invitation of Bill Shunn, who coordinates a regular reading series called Line Break.

Sunday: I spent most of the day working as one of 20 volunteer massage therapists for the Jewish Community Center’s annual Spa Day for Wellness for women living with breast or ovarian cancer. In the afternoon Andy went for a run in Central Park. In the evening we met Ben and Tom for dinner at Porsena in the East Village and then saw the wonderful singer-songwriter Matt Alber‘s show at Joe’s Pub.

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Quote of the day: CHALLENGING

July 20, 2016

CHALLENGING

There is an important idea in Nietzsche of “amor fati,” the “love of your fate,” which is in fact your life. As he says, if you say no to a single factor in your life, you have unraveled the whole thing. Furthermore, the more challenging or threatening the situation or context to be assimilated and affirmed, the greater the stature of the person who can achieve it. The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.

–Joseph Campbell

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Photo diary: two weekends in a row

July 10, 2016

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We spent Fourth of July weekend at our friends Andy and Michael’s beautiful house in Bucks County, mostly sitting around the pool sunning and reading quietly. But the weekend began with a Sausage Fest for 16 gay men featuring 17 different varieties transported across state lines by Tom and Michael from DC. There were backyard fireworks. Saturday night we attended the local community picnic, band concert, and fireworks display. Sunday afternoon Mr. David Zinn drove up from Philadelphia to visit.

This weekend was even more chill. Aside from the farmer’s market, the main activity was a Sunday afternoon walk, stopping first to observe the tribute to Bill Cunningham in the Bergdorf windows, then taxiing up to the Met Museum for high-speed tours of three exhibitions on the second floor: “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World,” “Court & Cosmos: The Great Art of the Seljuos,” and “Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts — The Kronos Collection.” We meandered back on foot through Central Park and the always unpredictable staging area in front of Bethesda Fountain.