231.4 lbs…

… up slightly… was hoping for a little loss, more walking, no alcohol… water weight?…

… the wind was borderline howling last night… supposed to have high winds today, gusts up to 65 miles an hour… knock you off your feet wind… will have to hunker down…

… internet is more spotty than usual… it’s never very good out here… the worst thing about being here…

… i am sitting here looking at an RBG mug M bought for H… i think, damn woman, why didn’t you retire during the Obama admin?… even you regretted that one…

… HCR a bit of a mishmash this morning… about the Canadian truckers… about the Durham investigation… about the right wing echo chamber… about tragic misinformation…

… i am sitting here, trying to think of something non-trivial to write about… nothing comes to mind… just the mundane shit that most of life is composed of… what is wisdom or profundity in a world of mundane shit?…

… i partially worked out my photography workflow for editing a set of images into an image poem… i am presently lacking the ability to reorder the photographs on Lightroom in the phone… an internet search is not helpful… i will figure this one out… need to do some research… maybe there is an app for that…

20220217-01

231.0 lbs

Up at 3:40 AM… pleasantly surprised by my weight… hadn’t been on the scale in a few days, hadn’t been particularly abstemious in what i ate, hadn’t been able to walk much, so was expecting to have gained a bit… instead i lost a bit…

… made a really nice turnip risotto last night… however, bought bacon to put in it and then forgot to… H and i agreed that bacon would have been a great addition… so, i have more turnips and i have bacon, we will revisit the recipe later in the week…

… one interesting thing about the recipe, it was meant to avoid having to stand at the stove and stir for half an hour, instead, using less water and adding an egg yolk at the end for faux creaminess… i thought to myself, what is the point of that? standing and stirring just isn’t that hard… i did it the traditional way, sans egg yolk and faux creaminess…

… as i sit here typing, Rubie cat is lying at my feet, kind of the way a dog might, which Rubie thinks he is… he was also lying on the top step outside our bedroom door when i came out this morning… he seems to crave our company and wishes he could be in the bedroom with us… dogs don’t generally permit it though… they chase him off immediately…

… full moon getting ready to set in the west… which makes me think of the series “For All Mankind”… i am not 100% on board with the conceit of the series, which is that the Russians won the race to the moon and that there ensued a much more lively moon exploration and colonization program with astronauts coming and going at regular intervals and a moon base that supports tens of individuals rotating to work on the moon… what is very good about the show is the exploration and depiction of the interactions of humans under normal and not so normal life stress conditions… very well written and acted… in particular, they seem to have grief and reaction to trauma down in a very realistic way…

… the routines are settling back in place, albeit their Block Island place… the dogs can’t just be let out the back door, they have to be leashed and taken out… i have to work on my iPhone, rather than my desktop computer… everything being done on the iPhone… the challenge will be when i attempt to produce a long form post (less difficult) and an image poem (more difficult) this weekend…

… H has started their bread baking operation again… they are doing sourdough without their stand mixer and proofing box… more rustic, requiring more intuitive skill… it looks like it is going well… i will need to clean out the cast iron combo cooker before i leave for my walk as they will want to use it while i am out walking…

… tried to walk on Dickens Farm Preserve yesterday morning but a sign indicated that this week, during the week, hunting is allowed… i didn’t hear any shooting but one does not tempt fate, even with blazing bright orange on their bodies, which i did not have… so, i will be contained to beach, roads and downtown this week and save the nature preserves for next week…

… J has booked tickets to Florida in early June so that C does not have to be alone for their birthday and anniversary… that’s a good thing though i get concerned with what they might talk C in to our out of while they are there… J has nothing but good intentions but she can be intense…

20220216-01

Turnip risotto, hmmm… better than you might think… in fact, delicious…

Boeuf Bourguignon, log on the fire, light of the moon, and thou!

… Valentines Day 2022…

20220215-03

… it seems it is the mundane crimes that will get you in the end…

Trump Really Could be Prosecuted for Destroying Documents

20220216-02

… we got to Block Island… trip was very easy… no traffic and, for the most part, no treacherous conditions… BI was on the higher side of the snow amounts… i don’t think i have ever been out here when there was snow… the dogs are beside themselves with the smells… it appears there is animal activity everywhere… or maybe something about the cold and snow concentrates the smells… whatever it is it makes them hard and almost pointless to walk… they are so distracted they don’t do their business quickly and it is cold and windy and the snow makes it hard to walk easily… argh… i miss having a backyard to let them out into already…

… the Boeuf Bourguignon was easy to reheat, as promised by the recipe, delicious and went over well… M & P like it a lot… they also like the Haikon chocolates… hard to believe we have a world class chocolatier in Beacon, but we do… an interesting fellow… he seems to have a very good memory… i am an infrequent visitor to the store but he has remembered me ever since our first meeting and knows i take pictures…

… it’s a small struggle to transition to being here… to re-establish routines in similar or altered patterns… i am hoping i can get the dogs to wait to come down until the sun starts coming up… the animals were a little restless this AM… Fiona pacing the room, Rubie meowing at the door at 3:00 AM… i was done for… that plus we sleep in a queen size bed out here… not enough room for us and the dogs… thankfully, there is a comfy lounge chair that one of the dogs can occupy…

… i must say, i am not looking forward to the morning walk… it is cold and there is a stiff wind… i can here it now, almost howling through the trees and around the house… oh god, the dogs want to get up… up, walked and treated… it went better than expected… both dogs peeing right away…

… as for the morning walk, i will do it because that is what i do… might have to be a shorter walk… that is the hard part of deep winter… can’t get my long walks in all the time…

20220216-01

Nothing quite like a fire on a cold winters night…

New cargo configuration… three dry bags, restraining net… working very well!…

…after two days of prep for a winter vacation on Block Island… winter intervened with an “overperforming” snow storm… we are in a holding pattern…

… in light of my earlier post on Francis Bacon and Bill Cosby…

The Dilemma of Brilliant Jerks, David Shaywitz, The Bulwark…

Perhaps, with the appropriate refinements, we can create the space for a new category of equally effective—and ideally, even more effective—transformative leader to emerge; this is the dream and what I’d wish for myself, my colleagues, my family.

But it’s also possible that, in our eagerness to minimize offense, we will instead condemn ourselves to anodyne leaders incapable of profoundly challenging the status quo. Worse still, such organizational stasis might even pave the way for a disruptive, malignant narcissist eager to step into the breach.

… i will set aside for the moment a question about whether the current ever growth goal of capitalism is a good thing, it is another interesting example of how genius walks hand in hand with darkness… is it possible or even desirable to have great creators that are as pure as the driven snow?…

20220213-06

The Beastliness of Bacon, Michael Glover, Hyperallergic

Francis Bacon, “Man with Dog” (1953), oil on canvas, 152 x 117 cm. Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1955. K1955:3 (© The Estate of Francis Bacon. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2021. Photo by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd)

… i had intended to share an image of a later work that seemed more visually compelling, but then i looked at Man with Dog and… after a moment… um, wow!… something really dark about the painting as, apparently, there was with Bacon himself…

… the idea that darkness of the soul is a frequent walking companion of genius is one that came up a day or two ago as H and i watched a news segment on the four part mini series We Need to Talk About Cosby, in which…

Writer/director W. Kamau Bell’s exploration of Bill Cosby’s descent from “America’s Dad” to alleged sexual predator. Comedians, journalists and survivors have a candid, first of its kind conversation about the man, his career and crimes.

… when a great creator turns out to have a parallel self that is a horrible self, what do we do with the creative legacy?… in Bacon’s case there were “sadomasochistic excesses” though there was no suggestion in the article that any of it was non-consensual… still, by most of our standards, there were demons in his psyche and those demons flowed out onto the canvas… psyche and creative output walked hand in hand… in the case of the alleged sex crimes of Cosby, one has the sense that psyche and creative are split, with the dark self a presence lurking outside a comfortable suburban home, peeping through windows, stalking its next victim…

20220213-03

February 12, 2022, Heather Cox Richardson

… about Abraham Lincoln and his leadership during a trying period for democracy in this country… in particular, she shares the cogent argument that Lincoln makes against the idea that there are intellectually and morally superior individuals who should command and organize life for everyone else… that there is ever good cause for some people to be masters and some people to be slaves, however you define slave…

In the 1850s, on a fragment of paper, Lincoln figured out the logic of a world that permitted the law to sort people into different places in a hierarchy, applying the reasoning he heard around him. “If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?” Lincoln wrote. “You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own. You do not mean color exactly?—You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own. But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest, you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.”

20220213-02

… snow predicted by the weather app has materialized… conditions are going to be at their worst at our anticipated start time and as we climb over the (not very tall, but tall enough for lower temps and freezing) mountains… i am weighing options and leaning towards aborting departure until tomorrow or next day when weather will be better… H will not be happy but, we do not work a day job anymore and there really is no reason for us to take risks… we should be able to reschedule our ferry reservation to the next couple of days, the timing of the snow is perfectly placed to be disruptive…

… i have reviewed the radar map and relative projections… the situation is more significant in Connecticut which is most of our journey…

… HCR with a nice piece on Abraham Lincoln… timely too… we are facing similar challenges to our democracy in the present moment… would love to have a leader such as Lincoln step forward…

… we lost a chicken yesterday… hawk brazenly feeding on it as i did the food and water… brazenly perching on top of the coup… i disable the auto door to the main coup… chickens will have to stay put… otherwise hawk will pick them off one by one… as B famously says, nature wants you dead, especially if you are a chicken… actually, death is simply a part of living… for creatures with predators, a premature end is always a risk of living…

20220213-01

Can i brag about my niece?

Any place that can post a flat roasted pig’s face on Instagram for a dinner special; name a prune juice/vodka/amaro cocktail the Poo Driver; and proudly own the beigeness of its menu — which resembles a public affair with secondary meats, cheese-gilded crepes, wobbly farm eggs and house baked scones — is all right with me. Not only do I want to eat there, I want to go often for the unpredictability of what chef-owner Shaina Loew-Banayan will cook next.

… read this glowing article about them and Cafe Mutton…

“Rest Behind the Curtain” by Photographer Michal Solarski, Anna, BOOOOOOOM!

Some really nice photos in this set and a nice set overall…

Photograph by Michael Solarski

20220212-03

Five Transcendent Films to Watch by Oscar Nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi, James Balmont, AnOther

In a 2021 interview with MUBI’s online magazine The Notebook, Hamaguchi spoke of a profound experience he felt while watching director John Cassavetes’ film Husbands in his twenties: “For some reason watching those people on the screen, I felt as if their lives were more real and vivid than my own.” I can scarcely think of a better quote to describe the works of Hamaguchi himself. And that is what makes him the most exciting “new” director to emerge from Japan in years.

… oh man… a three hour must see film, with subtitles… argh!… hard enough for me but with H’s poor eyesight, it’s really tough on her… but how exciting that a foreign language film actually has a chance to win not just Best Foreign Film, but Best Film award at the Academy Awards?…

20220212-02

As I look back over the past week in posts, I feel grounded, even if worried about the future. Grounded because having a daily practice of reading, writing, posting, then reviewing at the end of the week, helps to keep my sense of being in the world intact. Worried because I didn’t really expect to be confronting the possible collapse of Democracy in the United States as one of my ‘golden years’ planning scenarios.

In some ways I am bewildered it has gotten to this place, but, I saw the struggle and eventual crescendo years ago. I remember being in a local cafe and talking to somebody about the challenge to white patriarchy unfolding in the country. I am pretty sure this was during the early years of the Obama administration. A young white dude sitting nearby said he was studying that very thing in college and that I was right. He seemed surprised that an older white dude could be aware of it and name it. To what degree either of us white dudes was as enlightened as we felt ourselves to be in that moment is another question.

I am on the most comfortable ground when I am taking in the 360 degree view. I am a generalist. I am good at seeing big pictures, less good at developing detailed plans and seeing them through. The big picture to me has been, for a long time, the challenge of the multicultural promise of our democracy to hegemonic white patriarchal order.

Large numbers of white people, and we should resist the temptation to label them ‘white supremacists,’ favor white patriarchal control, either consciously or subconsciously. It is better understood, I think, as the privileged wanting to retain their privileges. Why wouldn’t they? It has been the state of things since the founding of the country. It has conferred a significant advantage to conducting their affairs which would be hard for any group to give up. It has been the foundation of their identity for as long as they have been living. Nobody likes to loose ground or the foundations of their identity, which is exactly what must happen to white men and women if the multiarchy (as I like to call it) is to emerge.

The entitlement and anxieties of white men and women are not new. They have reached crescendos in the past (Civil War anyone?). However, the present shift in demographics has brought white anxiety and insecurity to the surface in a profound way.

Good leadership could steer us through the transitional rapids to the multiarchy without overturning the boat of our democracy. Unfortunately, that is not what seems to be prevailing right now (though there have lately been some hopeful signs). Instead there is the leadership of desperate, mostly white, men and women who no longer believe in democracy because it won’t maintain their privileges. They are exploiting racial animus and resorting to minority rule tactics to maintain their position at the top.

I believe in the multiarchy. I will do what I can to help birth it, or at least not stand in the way of it. I have no idea which way this struggle is going to go. Some days I am in despair, on others I am hopeful. It’s a continuous effort to take each day as it comes and be grateful for it. Reading, writing and blogging helps.

230.4 lbs

Weight coming down, good!…

… preparations for departure to Block Island continue… we leave early AM tomorrow… most of the shopping complete… need to buy some wine, pick up my BP meds, put gas in the car… today will mostly be about containerizing what we will be taking and determining how many containers will fit in the trunk…

… the world careens towards war in Ukraine, truckers in Canada are clogging the arteries of commerce, HCR tells me that the past month saw a budget surplus as tax revenues were up (due to a booming economy) and expenses were down (who knows why that should be)… the point of the trucking protests, which are being conducted by a small group of truckers and are not supported by truckers in general, is to disrupt the economy and weaken government… there is indication that foreign troll farms are stirring the pot and Fox News is giving the truckers a lot of air time compared to other networks, with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity egging them on, calling for an American version of the protest… there are times when i wonder if speech should be so free…

… i have managed a long form, titled post for the second week running… it works to dedicate a morning of the week to it…

20220212-01

This is a really good album! music.apple.com

Thousands Pledge To Egg Jeff Bezos’s Mega-Yacht As It Passes Through Rotterdam Bridge, Sarah Rose Sharp, Hyperallergic

Oh the poor man!… crying big crocodile tears…

Here is a classic problem we can all relate to: Isn’t it the worst when you build your mega-yacht SO big that it can’t fit under bridges? Such are the pains of being Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who faces a conundrum about how to get his 417-foot boat, known as Y271, out to open water from the port city of Rotterdam, where it is being built. Standing in the way is the 144-year-old Koningshaven Bridge — known locally as De Hef — which cannot accommodate the three 229-foot masts atop the $485 million vessel.

… this brings to mind the movie Fitzcarraldo… didn’t Herzog actually drag a boat over the hills (mountain?), using local, indigenous labor and causing the deaths of many of them?… the article suggests a similar strategy for Bezos now that his route is blocked through the intransigence of locals…

20220210-06

The Worst Person in the World Is Among the Best Portraits of Modern Womanhood, Eileen G’Sell, Hyperallergic

Add this to my list of must see movies…

Like so many women her age seemingly basking in professional and personal freedoms of which earlier generations could only dream, these choices come with consequences that can prove more burden than boon. “The only way to learn is to make choices and live them through,” Reinsve reasoned. “Some of them will be really stupid, and you will regret them, but that’s what life is like.” In terms of what she learned about herself through playing Julie, Reinsve responded with touching candor. “By the end of making the film, I couldn’t really tell the difference between us,” she confessed. “At the start, Julie is not able to accept herself; she is so restless … but going through some really big, hard losses … she learns to surrender to the chaos of life. I learned a lot from that process — the value of finding peace, and being proud, by making choices that really make you happy. To have the courage to be in your emotions, even if they are fucked up and hard and complex. It’s the only way.”

20220210-05

Brenda Goodman’s Fearless Self-Portraits, John Yau, Hyperallergic

_ Brenda Goodman, “Self-Portrait 1” (1974), oil, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 inches_

Brenda Goodman has been defining a singular path in painting at least since 1973, when she had her first exhibition in Detroit. From the paintings done around this time, it is immediately evident that Goodman was uninterested in either aligning herself with any of the styles going on around her or in making polite, palatable views. That early testimony to her fearlessness — which is still going strong — is apparent in the eight works done between 1974 and 2006 in the exhibition Brenda Goodman: Self-Portraits at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (January 11 – February 12, 2022).

Love this woman’s work…

20220210-04

America Can’t Fight Authoritarianism on the Cheap, Shay Khatiri, The Bulwark

… The Bulwark is a center conservative publication so it is not surprising that they are pro military, perhaps a bit Hawkish… still, it looks like they advocate a large expansion of the military budget and one has to wonder, don’t we spend too much already?… apparently not… present expenditure is about half of peaks reached in post cold war years… and yes, i agree with the article that the threats are real and come from many directions…

One of the reasons President Biden has sought a “stable and predictable” relationship with Russia, and has been hesitant to respond to Russia’s destabilizing unpredictability, is that the United States doesn’t have the resources to confront both Russia and China at the same time. Yet, that’s exactly what it has to do.

… we already don’t pay for it all… how do we balance the budget, grow military spending and grow soft and hard infrastructure spending?… and all in the midst of our own lurch towards Authoritarianism?… something has to give…

20220210-03

231.4

… a longer walk yesterday, treacherous here and there but mostly not…

… as i am sitting here, i am listening to a newly developed humming of my external hard drive… hmmm… i have had it for a while… i wonder if it is on its way out?… i have multiple backup systems, so not worried about loosing anything… but… i look up the price of a new external HD… 6TB not too bad… raid array expensive… hmmm…

… not a bad day yesterday… began organizing for BI in earnest… ordered another duffel dry bag for top of the car… also a containment net… streamlining the cargo system… bought some meat, will probably buy a bit more… decided to make Boeuf Bourguignon for Valentines dinner… H is enthusiastically on board with that…

… ordered new glasses from Liingo… easy peasy, inexpensive… now, is the quality good?… we will see…

20220210-01