Archive for the ‘elephants’ category
Friday Night With iTunes
March 25, 2011“National Velvet” (With Elephant)
March 24, 2011
With great affection.
Demise of the Asian Elephant
March 20, 2011
The above, which I admit is a little bathetic, is a response to terribly sad article by the Associated Press today, “Last Stand of the Asian Elephant,” about the struggle between Asian elephants desperate to maintain habitat (and already decimated in ways that destroy traditional social structures) and local inhabitants. Both sides are suffering; the elephants, amazingly crafty at times, wildly angry at others, have wrecked destruction and violent death, but, of course, human beings tend to excel at those sorts of things; an awful situation.
You Can Find Them Anywhere – Even with Pearl!
March 19, 2011
Naptime
Bad News, Writing, The Warm Fuzzy Blanket
March 16, 2011
I am so distressed by the situation in Japan that I am finding it difficult to think about other things.
The heartbreaking loss, the continuing catastrophes, the overload of uncertain information–all make the situation completely torturous.
Then again, torturous situations seem to abound these days–the onslaught of pro-Khadafi forces in Libya; the onslaught of the Republican Congress at home; the never-ending winter in Battery Park City.
I am not saying that these onslaughts are in any way similar; only that their combined force makes me feel like crawling under a blanket.
Which brings me to the subject of escapism.
And, since I am on the subject of escapism, writing.
How do you keep going as a writer when you feel like just crawling under a blanket?
In the face of terrible events in the world, in the face of personal obscurity, there can be an extremely strong sense that one’s writing really is pretty trivial.
This is an especial problem when your writing really is pretty trivial. There is a big part of me that would like to write profound, thought-provoking, English-language-expanding books. But the fact is that my mind tends towards the silly. (The verbal equivalent of cute little elephants.)
Right now, I am in the midst of a final, or next to final, draft of an extremely silly novel, a teen novel, no less.
I have given up at about this stage on other manuscripts. What’s different this time is I’ve enlisted the help of others–a young illustrator, and a young editor (more on them another time.)
Involving other people makes it a whole lot harder to just bunk off.
Still, that blanket lures me like a woolen Siren. What I’m trying to do at the moment is to just put it over my legs (a layer beneath my laptop) and not completely succumb.
Taking the Fragile Bull By the Horns?
March 16, 2011
There are a variety of lessons coming out of Japan right now–in disaster preparedness, the stalwart nature of the Japanese people, nuclear power back-up systems (and the possible futility thereof); lessons too about the incredible bravery of nuclear plant personnel.
One of the most immediate teachings concerns the fragility of life (a lesson that for me, at least, is oft-repeated but little-absorbed.)
Whoosh!
How quickly one’s agenda become detritus around one’s feet.
How suddenly the “put-off” becomes the “no longer possible,” all those fault lines beneath our plans turning out to be, in fact, faulty.
Time to re-examine priorities. (Oh sure.) To figure out the difference between all that onerous stuff one tells one’s self one has to do, and all that onerous stuff one really does have to do.
This is very hard. All those tasks feel like a bull we’ve got by the horns.
Do we really need to fight so hard? (You try letting go.)
Will we actually be gored? (Maybe.)
Can we tame it?
Hard to know. Harder still to appreciate the view through the horns.
PS- I just thought that one way to tell the difference between the onerous tasks one thinks one has to do, and the onerous tasks one really does have to do may be to substitute the word “honorable” for onerous.
No iPad 2 or Phone….
March 12, 2011
Interest in my household in the iPad 2
As an avid user of the Brushes painting app on the iPhone 4, I have waited eagerly for the iPad 2. (Finally, I could make little “paintings” without the constant zoom.)
I’m not normally a gadget-freak, but I really have been bitten by this painting app, so I was set to buy yesterday, launch day, March 11.
I’d reviewed the differences between wireless and 3G, the various gigabites, the types of dock.
My only point of indecision was whether to order online or go to an actual store (completely uncharacteristic of me), so I could get the stupid thing sooner.
Then I woke up Friday, as we all did, to news of the Japanese earthquake. My consumerist zeal crumpled so fast I didn’t even have time to be embarrassed of myself. How could I think of anything but the news, the wave, the reactor, the discipline and indominability of the Japanese people?
And yet, and yet–as the day moved on, I called Apple–not to actually place an order–I still didn’t feel up to that–but to ask more questions. Shipping times were up to two or three weeks by then.
Two to three weeks!
I checked out the lines at the stores. I even resorted, repeatedly, to Twitter trying to get current info.
I thought of getting up at 5 this morning and going to tbe Fifth Avenue flagship store. (I didn’t, which was just as well, since they were sold out of the model I wanted.)
In the midst of all this –how could I think of buying stuff in the face of the nuclear reactor explosion– I spilled tea on my iPhone.
It was only for a moment, it wasn’t boiling, but… yikes.
My addiction stared me in the face. As did the price tag of a new phone.
How could I even think of pencils and paper? Paint? An iPad 2?
Heat blowers, rice bowls, more heat blowers…. it seems to be working….
Aahhh…..
Dancing in the Dark (Pink Elephants)
March 10, 2011
Followers of this blog may notice that I’ve descended into the world of elephants and iPhone art over the last few months. (Those who disagree with my views on art and politics may consider this an ascension.)
I genuinely like elephants! (I’m guessing you’ve noticed.)
I’m also having a hard time writing blogs lately. Part of the problem is that the news feels almost as grim to me as the weather. The outbreaks of protest and democracy in the Middle East are pretty amazing, but there still seems to be a pall over much of the world, or, over this country at least–bifurcated clouds of threat and slog.
Of course, there’s always poetry! Fiction! Important loves (besides elephants.) However, in the face of a world of publishing which seems increasingly fragmented –divided between an impossibly crowded field of micro-sellers and a few celebrity blockbusters–even these have, for the moment, lost some of their glint/promise/appeal.
I tell myself: change happens! Transitions are messy! Dispiriting confusion is part of the mix!
Yes.
And too, there are elephants.
Which, when they are not stampeding, have a certain timeless sweetness.
In my book; on my iPhone screen; dancing, pinkly, through a (temporarily, I hope) darkened mind.
(PS – the elephant book is 1 Mississippi; the poetry is Going On Somewhere. Both are available on Amazon. Check them out!)
Old dog, night walk
March 10, 2011
My old dog, increasingly blind,
My old dog Pearl is increasingly blind, especially in darkness. The leash tends to provide reassurance rather than restraint. Sometimes, I find myself completely leading her on a walk, as if I were her seeing eye person. I have to be careful to avoid the bottoms of park benches, the sides of steps. (She frequently veers to one side, which leads her into such obstacles.)
Other times, scent takes over and she, with canine persistence, pulls me along, avidly reading a kind of olefactory hieroglyphic. I never am sure of what she actually sees, only that she knows exactly where she wants to be.
Unexpected Harbingers of Spring
March 8, 2011
Not exactly Robin's egg.
Many wonders–as in bare sidewalks, sun, snowdrops(!)–now to be seen in Battery Park City, NYC.
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