… in every location i find myself in i discover spots that channel primal things… on Block Island one of those spots is the tip of the island beyond the north light house… in this spot the land disappears under the water, diminishing to a narrow point before disappearing… the sound and the Atlantic meet each other here, waves coming from each direction, battling across the narrow spit of land…

… it is a wild place, albeit on a small scale… it has always been a preferred spot for seagulls… in recent years a colony of seals has made it their home…

… seals, i learned, are distantly related to dogs… they are curious and will hang out in the water watching you, looking like dogs waiting for something to fetch… they keep their distance mostly, but sometimes come in closer for a better view…

… the head of one bobs on the waves to the upper right…

… a walk to the North Lighthouse this morning… a slow going trek around a crescent beach of loose sand and rocks… small steps most of the way…

… on most days i scan the music reviews on Pitchfork… my rule is that most anything with an 8.0 or higher rating gets remembered for later listening with slightly lower bar for genres i like (Jazz, Rock, Folk, Folk Rock, Experimental, Etc) and slightly higher bars for generes that just aren’t my thing, most Rap or Hip-Hop for example, and really high for genres i really am not fond of, Heavy Metal for example…

… this morning there were three releases that warranted saving…

… Blue: Gene Tyranny: Degrees of Freedom Found…

_ The fearless work of the late avant-garde pianist is celebrated with a momentous new anthology, showcasing his immense talent and passion_¹

… Anthony Joseph: The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives…

the title alone on this one made it a no brainer…

_ Backed by veteran jazz musicians and newer players, the Trinidad-born, London-based poet summons spirits of the Caribbean diaspora to ask what it might take to build a better world._²

… Ski Mask: Pool…

… dance/electronica, not my thing, but rating high enough to give it a listen…

_ Compiling several years’ worth of material and spanning nearly two hours, the Munich producer’s first full-length since 2018 feels cohesive, virtuosic, and thrillingly physical._³

… i turn to the Haiku of Basho, Buson, & Issa for the centering spiritual start to my day… one by Basho catches my attention in particular…

the spring we don’t see—

on the back of a hand mirror

a plum tree in flower¹

… at first i read it as a comment on vanity, that we stare at our own reflections in the hand mirror, and fail to notice the flowering plum tree out the window… then i realize that the back of the mirror is likely to be decorated with an embossed or painted image of a plum tree in bloom… still, there is the issue of being more interested in our own reflections than the beauty on the other side of the mirror…

… i am developing the habit of waking with the birds, which happens between 4:00 and 4:30 AM on the island… could there be a nicer alarm clock?, except it’s not controllable, dawn is when it is…

… an interuption… some dog did there business in the living room, not sure which but Chas acting a bit guilty… mornings are a bit difficult as the dogs can’t just be let out the door, there is no yard containment and being hound dogs you might easily pick up a scent and run after it, therefore, they must be leashed and walked…

… notification that someone liked one of my posts on tumblr…

… continuing to work at connecting on Micro.Blog… it seems the platform has been around for a while… the recent hookup with Ulysses must have brought them a bunch of new users… at any rate, the process of developing connections is slow, the space seems mostly populated by computer nerds, most of them men…

… only one glass of wine last night and lots of hydration yesterday… seems to have made a difference in how i feel this morning…

First Thoughts

… Fiona being a pill, rambunctious, chasing the cat, wrestling with Chas, barking… it is too early for any of that, she will wake H up…

… there is definite wonkiness between my bluetooth keyboard and Ulysses… when writing on a sheet, there is no way to navigate back to the index and other sheets without closing up the keyboard… seems like something worth reporting to Ulysses…

… i am struggling to settle into a routine… i seem to be on the way to being that older person that depends on their routines and gets upset if they are altered the least bit… yup, that’s what i am become…

… still, the birds twitter, the dog chews her bone…

… i am starting to date these notes because i can’t rely on being able to post them as i make them which would allow Micro.Blog to date them… the internet is so freaking bad at the house… it’s not reliable that i can post from here…

Bob Marley and the Whalers

… we play an album of Whalers music during dinner which leads to a conversation about the connections we have not been able to make with black people… we have tried hard not to be racist, largely are not, accept that we have benefited from a racist system, but wish we could connect better with the black people we know…

… taking a break, sitting in the crook of a tree…

… turns out S and G are in Cannes, the film festival?… i may be jealous… i think of Haiku, which tell me everything you need is now, in this moment, what, then, is Cannes, relative to a Haiku?…

… Rodman’s Hollow…

… bird migration monitoring station…

… up with the birds… dogs walked, cat fed, meds taken, coffee made… i sit outside on the chez, thumb typing away… i am changing up the order of mornings, moving reading to later, walking earlier, allowing myself to sleep in a bit… i have felt the need to rest…

… i am getting tired of the news claiming legislators are afraid of 45, or that Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnel are shilling for 45… BS!… the individuals leading the Republican party are not interested in Democracy… they are interested in power in perpetuity… they are seizing the moment to try to bring that about…

… some shots from this morning’s walk…

… American Legion Post #36…

… first walk on BI… stop to rest my back…

… i discover the portable keyboard i bought is disruptive to necessary actions in Ulysses, making it impossible to get out of editing mode and back to index of pages… thumb typing it is then…

… her daily brief is depressing… one can decide whether to have a good or bad day based on reading her brief for the day… today, it is mostly about Republican refusal to compromise on anything, or, conduct an adequate investigation of the January 6 insurrection…

… frustrating morning… new environment, nothing terribly organized yet… stumbling around for routine… dog poops in living room, this after having been out already… no paper towels… not interested in cleaning up after dogs first thing in the morning… today, we organize get the routines going… but there is the fog, the sound of the birds, the sound of the ocean in the distance… there is the beauty and peacefulness of Block Island… there is my intention to rest and regenerate…

… we have arrived at Pt. Judith where we catch the ferry out to Block Island… some lunch at Champlin’s then we wait for the ferry…

03 My Photography:

Flattened Cans…

I have been collecting images of flattened cans for a number of years. They represent uniqueness out of homogeneity to me. They start as cohorts (particular brand, particular size) of perfectly shaped and, for all intents and purposes, identical industrial objects. When tossed into the environment (sadly, there is no end of subject material) they continue the entropic process of becoming unique and beautiful objects.

Every country’s past is contested to some extent. But there might be no country as extreme as Germany. To begin with, there is history that is largely uncontestable: World War 2 and especially the Holocaust. I added “largely” in that sentence because the contesting does happen, albeit at a different level (for example, members of the neo-fascist AfD party have been talking it down, claiming it doesn’t matter as much in the context of German history as a whole). But the basic facts stand, and denial of the Holocaust is a criminal offense.¹

… as i read this, it is not possible to avoid thoughts of all the denial of January 06, 2021 that is going on by right wingers… the idea of such denial being illegal is appealing… perhaps there ought to be laws that make lying to further fraudulent or destructive aims in public forums of any kind illegal… i don’t think speech should be free if it’s demonstrably false and destructive…

… JC is reviewing Ruckshaufehler by Eiko Grimberg… the book is dedicated to the symbology of the German State… it sounds like an effective critique of where things stand… nationalist/fascist sentiments are on the rise… attempts are being made to minimize the Holocaust… if it weren’t illegal to do so, there would of course be denial that it happened…

… human beings are an ugly species… the so-called rational mind has given us the capacity for duplicity and, i might argue, little more…

… JC gives the book a highly recommended thumb up…

… I look for a place to possibly purchase, i find this article by Brad Feuerhelm, who gives it his highest recommendation…

… the article attracts my attention, and this image is what pulls me in…

… it’s an image i would make, lots of people might make, and for that reason, becomes a touchstone of common experience between me and the photographer, who is queer and prefers they, them, their as pronoun…

… when i type the name Elle, i have a fleeting memory of an Alvin Ailey dance class on Time Square… i was trying to teach a young woman a dance movement we had learned in class… she was beautiful, her name was Elle… it wasn’t till later that i became aware of Elle, the model, and i was never quite sure if she were that Elle… it’s possible i taught Elle a modern dance move… we parted on the street outside the building where the dance class had taken place… i remember her fumbling to pull a cigarette out of her bag then out of a box… we parted… i never saw her again…

… there is something very attractive about this work… something honest, particular and universal both… deploying seascapes and landscapes to mediate between their experience and the experience of others… something brilliant about it…

… the more i read, the more i realize that Bell Jar is a feminist work, carefully outlining the options available to women in the day and setting the heroine up to choose among unappealing alternatives… we’ve had the fatherly doctor-to-be proposing marriage already… it seems to be a fantasy that Esther doesn’t want… now we are following her and Hilda to work… Hilda, who is busy being a store mannequin and looking at herself in every window that bounces back her reflection… Hilda seems to have settled on the fantasy she wants…

… a dramatic twist, a blind date, Marco, attempts to rape Esther… her last night in the city… it prepares to spit her out…

… ordered C a book and gift card for their birthday, happy birthday C!…

… we leave for Block Island today… i am looking forward to R&R… a glance at the weather indicates it will be much cooler when we get there… one would think that being semi-retired the R&R is redundant, but changing environment and having a different attitude about what needs doing during the day is significant…

… trying to make inroads into community on micro.blog, slow going, but signs i might be gaining traction… replies to posts would be the true sign, haven’t had any of those yet…

… Heather Cox Richardson trying to hold on to hope that Senator Joe Manchin will agree to something that moves voting rights legislation forward, even if a less ambitious reform… he apparently believes that the For The People Act is too partisan… the obvious elephant in the room is the Republican elephant which is busy enacting partisan voting rights legislation across the country… i am beginning to wonder if we are in that pivotal moment when democracy gets lost and it is authoritarian oligarchs from here on out… at present, the only firewall will be the determination of voters to overcome the barriers… while things feel so much better under the Biden/Harris administration, there is plenty of reason to be alarmed and concerned… hopefully, HCR is right about Manchin…

… dining out indoors for the first time in 18 months…