In Case Of Actual Death

Currently Reading

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:27:00 -0500

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Nightlight by The Harvard Lampoon
Bang Ditto by Amber Tamblyn
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Put Your Head In My Lap by Claudia Smith

I want to quit my job and read. But then I could not afford the late fees.

Dogfish - Mary Oliver

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:41:54 -0500

A repeat. Because this never gets old.

Dogfish

Mary Oliver

Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing
kept flickering in with the tide
and looking around.
Black as a fisherman’s boot,
with a white belly.

If you asked for a picture I would have to draw a smile
under the perfectly round eyes and above the chin,
which was rough
as a thousand sharpened nails.

And you know
what a smile means,
don’t you?

*

I wanted the past to go away, I wanted
to leave it, like another country; I wanted
my life to close, and open
like a hinge, like a wing, like the part of the song
where it falls
down over the rocks: an explosion, a discovery;
I wanted
to hurry into the work of my life; I wanted to know,

whoever I was, I was

alive
for a little while.

*

It was evening, and no longer summer.
Three small fish, I don’t know what they were,
huddled in the highest ripples
as it came swimming in again, effortless, the whole body
one gesture, one black sleeve
that could fit easily around
the bodies of three small fish.

*

Also I wanted
to be able to love. And we all know
how that one goes,
don’t we?

Slowly

*

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

*

You don’t want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it’s the same old story - - -
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.
And nobody, of course, is kind,
or mean,
for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to
swim through the fires to stay in
this world.

*

And look! look! look! I think those little fish
better wake up and dash themselves away
from the hopeless future that is
bulging toward them.

*

And probably,
if they don’t waste time
looking for an easier world,

they can do it.

Lake Memphremagog

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:39:37 -0500

We loaf in our gray boat in the sunshine.
The Canadian Pacific freight following the shoreline sends a racket of iron over Lake Memphremagog.
The children cast, the fishes do not bite.
They leap into the water and splash, the Memphremagog monster does not bite.
In the center of Newport, the train blows, one after one, all its five horns.
I think I astonished my cheeks with the amount of tears one child can cry.
Those nights now lie almost farther away than memory goes.
All the elsewheres, as the train’s cries fade, fade.
Our boat lies very still in the Memphremagog water, and it’s still.
Here everybody is OK.
I am fifty. The children are just little ones.

—Galway Kinnell

Album cover

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:16:41 -0500

Album cover

Photo

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:15:57 -0500

Potluck Mania Mania

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:04:00 -0500

My copy of Joanna Vaught’s new zine arrived yesterday and I give it 2 soygan thumbstitutes up. A bunch of excellent-looking Thanksgiving recipes to try, plus some other mind-blowing stuff mixed in (BREAKFAST CRISP: the name alone whispers kiss me kiss me).

Plus Joanna is super funny, so it doesn’t read like a cookbook, at all. Like, don’t keep a copy of this in the kitchen, keep a copy in the bathroom. And then your guests will come out of your bathroom like “OK I couldn’t stop myself it just looked so interesting!” And you know it’s something special when your guests will admit to reading it in the bathroom.

I encourage you to check it out.

Also: Magcloud! Interesting.

So as I alluded to earlier I think I want to have an email newsletter thing. I tried 6 different...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:05:36 -0500

So as I alluded to earlier I think I want to have an email newsletter thing. I tried 6 different options before I found one that didn’t feel like it was hassling me. I wanted to make it seamless and be all beautifully integrated with the rest of my site, but with the php and mysql, forget it. It’s a mess but it’s working.

Anyways you can see it hopefully doing its thing here at kevinfanning.com.

I set it up so that I don’t know if people subscribe or unsubscribe, so come and go, or don’t, as you please.

I know that a lot of people make their scrip on the internet complaining about how much email they have, but that’s never been something that kept me up nights. Maybe there are others like me, who knows.

And besides, anyways, this will be for EVENTS, like if I have a new book out. Actually that’s really the only thing I’m likely to use this for. Maybe if someday I was giving a reading? I might announce that? But I’m not, and those are the only situations I envision. I see this being used 4 times/year, tops.* Certainly not for “I have a new blog post!” situations. God. Who cares. Not me.

*Although honestly I do have this fantasy where I delete all my websites and then whenever I write something new I just send it out to the 20 people on this list and that’s it, the end, just our little thing, forget the whole rest of the internet.

iateabee: Wonderful photos of now-lost Cliff House. (Via BLDG...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:20:53 -0500

iateabee:

Wonderful photos of now-lost Cliff House.

(Via BLDG BLOG.)

Have You Read Kottke.org Today?

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:22:52 -0500

h: uhhh
h: THAT WOULD BE YES
m: cool
m: what about daringfireball?
h: oh yeah
h: you know how we do
m: merlin
m: ?
h: pretty much,
h: yeah
m: did you read 37sigs
h: yes I did
m: did you read the morning news
h: yes
m: what about
m: facebook, did you read taht
h: yeah
m: did you read the one about design?
h: fffound?
h: or under consideration?
m: the second one
h: yeah.
h: i read both.
m: ok.
m: cool

"If it sounds terrifying to step into an enclosed space, close a hatch, and be surrounded by..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:29:48 -0500

“If it sounds terrifying to step into an enclosed space, close a hatch, and be surrounded by darkness, that’s because it is. For the first minute or two, my heart was racing and my claustrophobic ass wanted out. I thought of Buffy’s resurrection and then thought, “You are not in a coffin, and you can leave if you really want to, and season six was a difficult but ultimately transformative time for Buffy anyway.” That calmed me, and I focused on breathing slowly while my body slowly drifted around the tank.”

- avt: Jet black to the center

Gilpin & Marigold Fly In A Hot Air Balloon

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:42:26 -0500

Every year Jasper County has a huge hot-air balloon festival. People come from all over to see the balloons soar across the sky. It is a wondrous and magical sight.

You don’t have to just stay on the ground and watch the balloons, however. It’s also possible to go for a ride! That’s why Gilpin and Marigold had traveled to Jasper County from the city. They had always wanted to go for a ride in a hot-air balloon.

They were in for a shock once they got to the fair, though: the prices were outlandish!

“Sweet Mary McGillicuddy!” Gilpin exclaimed. “$350 for a half-hour? What chicanery is afoot here in Jasper County? Would these mountebanks deprive the common people of the joys of floating delicately above the treetops, enjoying the countryside’s patchwork quilt of farmlands? Rarely have I encountered such a loathsome coalition of blackguards!”

Marigold totally agreed.

“It’s good that we came here today, Marigold,” Gilpin continued. “Let us mete out sweet justice, and help the citizens of Jasper County loose the financial chains that keep them bound to the soil!”

The two cats spied a group of balloons tethered to the ground nearby, and leapt into action at once. Gilpin and Marigold pounced on the owners, pinning them to the ground.

“Free balloon rides for the proletariat!” Gilpin bellowed in a mighty roar. “In rising up against the oppressor, the soul takes flight!”

The crowd, stirred on by Gilpin’s words, surged forward and climbed into the baskets in orderly groups of two or three. As the baskets filled, the cats used their razor-sharp claws to slash the tethers, releasing the balloons up into the great blue sky.

Gilpin and Marigold jumped into the last basket, just as an angry mob of balloon owners was amassing. They sneered and shook their fists as the cats sailed up over their heads, into the safety of the clouds.

“History books will tell of the wrongs righted this day,” Gilpin said as they wafted gently toward the horizon. Marigold made a very happy purring sound and tried to steer the balloon closer to some birds that were flying by.

(Story from sometime in 2003, but found on an old disc today. Image by Maggie.)

Parts of the Internet I Am Enjoying Lately

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:02:53 -0500

Blossom Dearie - Manhattan Pterodactyl’s post made me...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:50:42 -0500

Blossom Dearie - Manhattan

Pterodactyl’s post made me think about what the best NYC song is. It is this one. There are different versions of this song, but Dearie’s version captures the winter night-time lights version of the city, which is my favorite version of the city.

Blossom Dearie died earlier this year. She was still performing right up to the end.

kfan, boye.

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:35:57 -0500

milkcarton:

these past two days, i’ve been to kfan dance clinics and they’re so much fun :3 i really wanna get in now. i hope they don’t cut me T__T

the bad thing is that i’m really sore from MOVE/MEANT, my daily stretching routine, and from kfan. my whole body is sore & i have volleyball tomorrow. i can’t wait, yeeah!

¬_¬

devilhumper: Okay I just watched these Scream Awards at Sydney’s place. First off, I’m not sure if...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:54:20 -0500

devilhumper:

Okay I just watched these Scream Awards at Sydney’s place. First off, I’m not sure if I can stand Johnny Depp anymore. I mean yeah, I am excited to see Alice in Wond. And I like other shit he does. But I do not fucking understand why he has to look like Richard Brautigan. I believe I have made this complaint before a time or hundred. But my GOD. What is he trying to tell me with the gigantic floppy CUFFS? I feel like he sits around quoting from the Beats in that affected accent. And gets wine-drunk and sits around cross-legged in bare feet with strands of hair hanging in his face. I feel like he slithers around doing a soulful dance-walk while wine-drunk. Like a kind of hands-out-to-each-side, balance beam-walking walk. While he says parts of poems and namedrops about all the crusty old men he idolizes, like Burroughs and Keith Richards. He loves them because he values authenticity.

What are those necklaces? Mementos of some spiritual adventures? I think if the cuffs weren’t so fucking in my face I’d get over it. And the accent put me over the edge.

Now on to the real terror of the evening. I honestly think this guy got caught in some really bad situation totally naked, in a house where he didn’t know what was happening, and none of the clothes he found fit him, so he just put on the sole blouse he could find that would actually fit around his body.

I cannot tell you how bizarre this looked. It was like he had a triangular pillow across his stomach area, and this blouse was straining to open the whole time. I’m so confused by this. We thought that since he was giving an award to George Romero, they were going to do a “stab in the stomach” or “erupting from stomach” gag that would explain the excess padding. But I guess it is just his shape and he likes to wear clothing made for ladies who have super smaller and just different shapes than he does.

The entire Battlestar cast was there. Katee Sackhoff lost an acting award to Megan Fox—that totally makes perfect sense, right? That’s how you would have voted, for sure.

Additionally, His Royal Hotness showed up with a gaggle of midgets.

What is a good option for managing a mailing list? Something simple and free. Something where people...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:01:13 -0500

What is a good option for managing a mailing list? Something simple and free. Something where people can subscribe or unsubscribe without me ever seeing it or knowing about it or having to do anything to facilitate. This is a serious question that I need answers to. No need for humorous answers. Is Notifylist still the best bet or has the technology improved since 1999?

Z-Trip & Supernatural - Down Under Freestyle

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:55:18 -0500

Z-Trip & Supernatural - Down Under Freestyle

meghanagain: Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a song from his...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:39:58 -0500

meghanagain:

Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a song from his upcoming Alexander Hamilton concept album, The Hamilton Mixtape. At the White House, he performs it. I am barely holding back a swoon. How soon can I hear this album, Lin-Manuel! How soon can I hug you! (Transcript.)

(Liz sent this to me, because she understands me, truly.)

HIP HOP. SASHA FRERE-JONES WAS WRONG. DO NOT WRITE THAT OBIT YET.

Duran Duran - Save A Prayer Mind blowing: I still love this song...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:31:44 -0500

Duran Duran - Save A Prayer

Mind blowing: I still love this song exactly as much now as I did the first time I heard it, 27 years ago.

Other K. Fanning Update

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:08:00 -0500

Other K. Fanning has won a FREE Happy Hour at Duffy’s! In case she doesn’t remember, she gave them her (our) email address. This party includes free domestic draft from 6:30 to 8:30 for as many friends as she’d like to bring along! There is also an upgrade option for $10 per person if she wants to access the premium beers on tap! Or for $20 she can add a food buffet and well-brand cocktails until 10 pm! All she has to do is contact Duffy’s to set this up! They look forward to hearing from her!