Adhyayan

2012-01-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

City mouse and country mouse reference in the Aviator movie.

Make a story of a picture

2011-11-27T19:18:00.000-08:00

My friends from California brought Dixit game along with them. We played it last night.
The game is about describing your card in such a way that atleast one person guesses the card right from a selection each adds to as their intrepretation of your explanation.
I found myself stuck at the literal desciption. A person sculpting birds and butterflies out of clouds was 'Michelangelo with hurt knees'. A leafless, grey tree with a bouquet reminded me of the weeping willow story. A braid with a ring around it reminded me of highwayman poem with Bess's long hair.
A friend played his turns with very generic phrases which summed the pictures aptly.
From now on, I should give such phrases to everyday dreams.

Mary Kay

2011-11-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

When I looked at 'mary kay makeoover contest' in Parents magazine, I was reminded of the behind of a car that I saw yesterday with Mary Kay on it.

Warning sign

2011-10-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

In 'hard target' movie, Jean Claude Van Damme bites off the rattle of the rattlesnake saying, " I will leave a little surprise for my friends'.
When rattlesnakes shake their tail, its a sign to retreat.

Tests

2011-08-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

Venipuncture - Blood is sterile.
Varicella Zoster

Guthrie cards
Urine culture - urine is sterile.
Panel 083824 - looks for bodies response to HIV.
TSH and free T4

2011-05-15T21:37:00.001-07:00

Promise is a cloud, Fulfillment is rain

2011-05-15T21:21:00.001-07:00

The blue in the AC is a washable filter

Parks

2011-05-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

On our way to a park that I knew as a stop for coffee sips and word drips , I took an early turn and went through a bigger park with baseball fields. Boys in green and girls in red uniforms for a practice on sunday morning.
A big broad tree with leaves of a eucalyptus but the mental image of a skinny trunk not letting the tree in front of me be named. Broad trunk Eucalyptus.
Killdeer. gum. Xeriscaped garden across with a pathway that I want to take next time.

We stopped at a fountain in a pond too. Mallards with their heads looking purple when they come into sight and green when away. On the left side of the pond some birds are sunning themselve slike cormorants. We wait for them to move. Swallow kites by on the pond.

Beauty

2011-05-13T22:21:00.000-07:00

Legible handwriting
Steepless mountain
Shallow lake
seasoning
tea when hot

nature

2011-05-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Day before yesterday a hawk was circling low above the corner of a building. Its wing spread was all white underneath.

A teenager on a small bike with another standing behind her. A reminder of circus cyclists.

A ground bush raised like a cave.

2011-05-11T06:59:00.001-07:00

I was surprised to find a sparrow sitting on a hummingbird feeder trying to decode the entry to food treasure.

Two big brown dogs with trim belly like a lions.

Walk around the park

2011-05-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

A small lizard dead on the path. The ones that scurry. Now frozen. My husband recalled a saying that lizards are after you, even dead with the poison in them.
New shoots of eucalyptus.

The garbage truck turns around at the dead end with such speed that along with th wind, plastic bags swirl up in the air and land at neighbor's tree in the front yard.

Roly poly

2011-05-02T23:16:00.001-07:00

This weekend during birdwatching at Gilbert Water Ranch, a kid picked up an insect in his hand. The black bug curled up.

Catty neighbourhood

2011-04-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

A light colored cat with dark stripes sat along the patio wall compressed into itself like a sphinx. Outside is a bush hiding a shy black cat with a art green apple lying next to it like a toy that has just been dumped.

Bad at rinsing

2011-04-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today while trashing old milk gallon into the recycle, I noticed traces of flourescent green through the plastic of the bottle. The liquid seemed alien with its accusing color. Wonder what bacteria was at work.

Migration celebration

2011-04-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

A Swainson's hawk on a wooden perch. the top of the pole wound in rope. Just like the craft that simulates the caterpillar stage of a Monarch butterfly. It involves thin metal rods encased in furry colors as that of the caterpillar all rolled around a pencil.
Its surprising to find that this hawk eats grashoppers.
Poppy,Penstemon and deser blue bell seeds(porous)
Salome wilderness

Deposession

2011-04-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I came across the following lines
People who divest themselves of their closest possessions are people who are ready to die.
in an article.
There are times where I can give away some things without feeling anything. Then some where I manipulated so I could keep mine and once where I was mean and destroyed what belonged to others. Once I defended my homework.
A book in the library that I have been thinking about 100 things challenge. Pre book blog
Contrast this with a writing exercise that asks to write about 10 things in the restroom.

Expeditus

2011-04-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday on the back of a long notebook, I saw a picture. A female statue with a cross in the right and a palm leaf in the left.

bug

2011-04-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

In the hike today, I saw Black Beetle red head twice.

Healthmobile

2011-03-25T23:07:00.001-07:00

Bird dog

2011-03-22T08:36:00.000-07:00

I came across this word in Naming the world.
Looking at this morph, just yesterday I found the fox in the firefox logo.

Fake mouth

2011-03-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

If fish had tails that could be dropped at wish, they could avoid baits.

Les Murray

2011-03-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

Claire Weekes
Taller when prone

Volunteer vacations

2011-03-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

staying in a lighthouse, restoring castles

Art

2011-02-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

I am reading The Art of abstract painting. In that book, in the section 'from absttaction to reality', the author says that if we choose reality as the source of inspiration for abstract or abstracted work, there are two differnt ways of starting.
1. Starting from visual information.
2. Starting from mental information.

Land

2011-02-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

In Your life as story, Rainer asks to create columns for personal history and political and cultural events of contemporary history. Reading the article, I recall that my grandfather lost part of his land to the government for an exchange of job to his son.

Donations

2011-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Give a little
Soul of a citizen

Fruit spirit

2011-02-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

This morning, my shampoo with passion flower sunrise smelt of mango. May be the Pineapple spirit was passing by. Not only did I fantasise mango but the mango lassi too.

Self portrait

2011-02-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

My sketch never looks like me
They all look alike

Feline

2011-02-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

A cat scared like an owl.

In the Ratville, Greyhound was the mice with most friends as he had a blind cat as his charioteer.

Fishy smile

2011-02-20T20:43:00.001-08:00

A river ran over me - Lin Sutherland. When she says," the list of my sins is excruciatingly extensive:" at the end of a page, I missed the colon. And the next page is a big list. Eight or more embarassing situations this essay could save you from. Into this humor are mixed in the terms, tools and practices in fly fishing.

June 22,2010

In the end

2011-02-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

Usually the best of the books is in the front but I found these in the end.

Two must read poems:
Apple - Susan Stewart
I stopped writing poetry - Bernard Welt.

July 31, 2010

Correcting observation

2011-02-20T20:34:00.000-08:00

Today I drew a golf cart and goose without looking. My memory of the wheels of a golf cart in relation to the chassis is all wrong. I had the chassis elevated above the tires which is not the case. The steering wheel reaches out like a funnel. the goose it need a longer neck and tapering thighs?
I have noticed that a sketch of a ballet dancer in motion with her right knee in the front and her left knee with her leg pointing up and her hands high in air is liberating each time I see it.
Ballet sketches with their anatomical incongruencies bring a sense of lightness to the viewer. Case in point, the ballet still for a Rudolf Friml Waltz in youtube. a dancer in short round skirt with her right toe on the floor and her left leg right above her head.

Color books

2011-02-20T16:36:00.000-08:00

Blue book for AA
Red book for pianists

Taphonomy

2011-02-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

The first time I came acorss transubstantiation was when I read Elizabeth Dodd's In the Minds eye.
Interestingly enough Patricia Hampl credits her knowledge of the word to catholicism. I was curious to know if Dodd came to the word in the same way. Cant answer for sure. But she is a converted catholic.

Dodds poetry introduced me to another word, the title of this entry.

Rubbing alcohol

2011-02-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

The only alcohol in reach for AA
How intoxicating is rubbing alcohol?

Story cloth

2011-02-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

I came across story cloth in Encyclopaedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife

Story cloths that depict war experiences
That depict Ramayana
That are passed down from grandmothers to their grandchildren.

My grandmother gave me a handkerchief sewed with small flowers and leaves.

Dog breeds

2011-02-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

when I came across Springer Spaniel in The Florists daughter, I was curious to know if they were related to Cocker Spaniel

Some packing space

2011-02-18T07:27:00.000-08:00

On wednesdays we wore white canvas shoes with green soles

Olivine

2011-02-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

Olivine is soothing to look at.

I love books with maps

2011-02-17T06:37:00.000-08:00

When I started reading the book, at the line 'The Grand Bazaar itself begins on the other side of the Egyptian bazaar,..' .. I had to stop reading. I couldnt resume without fixing this place on map. Had I flipped through the next few pages, I would see this nice blown up map of the bazaar showing details of the kind of merchandise sold in the streets.

Descriptions of travelling merchants using the bazaar for safekeeping sent me imagining to the extent of seal done in lacquer.

Imagine a real procession.

Some pictures are like that of a minaret lying on a table, view of a local bazaar through a hatch grilled window(so much easier to draw) will make you want to know more about them.

Jul 25,2010.

Advantages of Google books

2011-02-12T15:52:00.000-08:00

1. You can use them as inspiration for your own writing
2. You can make up stories for kids using it as a starting board.

Fact and fiction

2011-02-12T15:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when I come across fiction and have read of a similar situation as a fact, I just think that let the fiction writers imagine, then they will show you the best and the worst possible of the world.

In 2009, we have heard of the sole survivor of a plane crash. I was reminded of this reading of Hatchet.

Reading a fictional story The Age of Analysis, I was reminded of Growing up Jung.

Apprehensions of a new sibling in Julius, the Baby of the world are not very different from that in "the wing Rocker and the Baby" in Discovery

How long is the spelling of your city?

2011-02-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was looking at a map and found a place called Truth or Consequences. Its long name kind of got me interested in it. Theres a story there. If you lie, you die?
Does anyone remember the town that changed its name to Google for a while.
But there are places with even longer names.

Sorry for the interruption

2011-02-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

I find it funny imagining the 'desrt rose' song being played when a radio has technical issues.

Good example of a bad lecture

2011-01-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

Not only is the content obvious but trying to state 'what not to do' to take up literature as vocation has been written in a very unreadable way.
The lecture has just been a way to vent out his frustration at having tor ead innumerable manuscripts. This lecture would have been an effective medium of communication had the lecturer just listed ten bullets of 'to do' or 'not to do' if thats what is convenient for him to write on like:
1. Have a style and one that is appropriate to the subject.
2. Stick to simplicity

Jun 4, 2006

Yesterday I read Andrew Lang's story from the Olive Fairy book.

Disappointed

2011-01-24T17:38:00.001-08:00

When I read 'The Artist of the Floating World'.. I was so taken by his style .. that I next read 'The remains of the day'.. and felt so rewarded for trying out new authors. 'Never Let me go' is definitely a disappointment with so highly built expectations. But with his style of taking events along without much dialogues makes him an artist of another world..

Nov 11, 2005

Must read for art lovers

2011-01-24T17:36:00.000-08:00

This is an excellent book. I am thoroughly enjoying it.
This book compares great painters 'Henri Matisse' and 'Pablo Picasso' works and the influence of each other and their works on the others art.
Henri Matisse with his keeping the painting simple and lively and Picasso with his cubism, drawing from imagination are 'artists of different worlds'. They have different painting styles and they paint at exactly opposite times.
The book goes through the works of each in the order one was done as a reacton to the other, sometimes one trying to beat the other at their own style.

CITES:
Baudelaire's essay- 'The Painter of Modern Life'.
Apollinaire's essay on Picasso's work.(also his 'La Poete assasine')
Picasso's play - 'Desire caught by the tail'.
Matisse - 'Notes of a Painter'.

May 23, 2006

Biological diversity

2011-01-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

The authors job description is funny.
If teachers want students to ask questions, then this should be your workbook. Something or the other is sure to catch one's fancy and out will come the questions like 'If you were a creator, where would you place the second jaw?' 'Following owl monkeys do nocturnal men take more care of their babies?'

Nov 24, 2009

Sportswriting

2011-01-23T15:52:00.000-08:00

If theres a book in the Best Am series that I might not be related by 6 or more degrees, that would have to be the sports one. But looks like it might not be so, after having read 2 very influential essays - Bill Plaschke's Fowled Away, Elizabeth Gilbert's Lucky Jim.

Jun6, 2010

Ask and you shall receive

2011-01-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

atleast information.

One morning, I was wondering why not give a person insurance worth what he/she paid for, once they are not covered for any reason. Listening about Yeshaswini, I learn thats not possible.

I was wondering on Friday if philosophy, opinion falls under fiction or non-ficton.

Philosophical Novel

Word talk

2011-01-16T10:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, while on a walk, I saw a car with 'WHATEVER' as its nameplate. In The way we talk now book, the chapter An Interjection for the age starts with a bit on the W word and moves on to identify the slang of each decade. He ends with a good word for wahtever that it opens the way to newer possibilities.

In Yadda yadda doo chapter, explaining how and why we catch and use phrases from TV and movies, he wrote about It seemed like a good idea at that time being picked from a 1931 movie The Last Flight. I was reminded of a book I read with the phrase as its title.

To the point

2010-12-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

After reading this book I am able to appreciate what Richard Mitchell means by 'since time and place mean nothing to an alien trying to understand humanity' in his book 'The Gift of Fire'.
It was interesting to read about the observed motion seen in a timescale of many years contrasted with human life's dot appearance. Now I understand what a professed utilitarian that I know was trying to say with why should humans think themselves superior compared to other animals.
I really liked the statement where Scott says imagine the cosmos is gone sort of things.. while in fantasy you see the existence of new worlds.. I think he is creative when he says forget about things we know itself for a while..
It was even more interesting to read his explanation of Gods Debris

Jan 10, 2007

Good writing with a purpose

2010-12-25T21:38:00.001-08:00

I like how the myths are woven into the story and prose. I cannot believe that what began as a funny account of a mother trying to make sure that her son does not take to drinking due to post war trauma ended up this way - telling the story of Laguna people, their attachment to the land and cattle even in the times of drought and vanishing land.

Aug4,2007

National Geographic Vol 179, No.5 May 1991

2010-10-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

Elephants find Lianas tasty. While the Aka people in the article are in Africa, another Aka community with an undocumented language has been found.
Forest elephants prefer Monocots
A tamarind tree is a dicot. I say that from tiny green grass like stalk that have two seed leaves. After rain they were more prominent on the ground. Fresh green.

Beneficiaries of the elephants bull dozing. ... crested mangabey monkeys

Treculia
Balanites
Cauliflory
dehiscent
exstipulate

In Chicago, old women made Varenyky for their church. The feature on Chicago had a good comparision with NY city style of anyone can make it here Vs if you can make it here..

Another Six questions

2010-10-09T14:52:00.000-07:00

This Socrates,Mr Philips, should have asked fewer questions. The questions in the beginning are in a realm, easily 'connectible to ' of a common man.
As you approach the middle of the book, one feels that as a very inquisitive present generation Socrates, he should have rephrased the questions or found answers relevant to the question. This disappointment is a show-stopper.
The answers in themselves deal with people of diverse backgrounds, as the discussions of philosophy are held in various parts of the world. You come to know of various cultures and their viewpoints.
A question on virtue just focusses on harmony, moderation on modesty. This steering of the answer to just one side, rather than a wider view could be partly due to a community's 'similar thinking'.
Even if just the first question was put to all the different groups, the book would have done the real job of exploring philosophy and its relevance to modern man.
One question well answered is better than any many questions that can be raised and never answered.

Aug 19 2005

Poet or not

2010-09-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

This book is for anyone who has ever had to think if they could/should write or not. On a general note, if anybody had to sit and think if what they are doing is what they really want to do , they could glean some inspiration that all the questions that arise will lead you to 'worth the effort' results , if pursued, that can make a difference to your and many other lives.

Sep 19. 2005

Books are for

2010-09-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

DHL has a very consistent way of writing. Each of his book only adds to the superset of his way of thinking.
This book has very few characters but strong ones at that. You can derive your philosophy from them. They can do the living at an abstraction which seems the most appealing to those who always look at the 'true core' of things. The characters will go through all the travails that are the outcome of an impossible living and finally descend back to the ground.
There are a gamut of feelings that can be felt by a man, its not possible to experience them all by ourselves and this book is one such, which lets you live the life of such intense people within the covers.
Miriam's character, as a person who draws life out of all things worth appreciating by vaccuming their essence into her, like say smelling the flowers so barbarously that they are devoid of their fragrance...
In today's life , where conversation cannot go beyond everyday needs, its hard to recognise such different traits in people. DHL's characters are so different. The feelings they have, the way they reconciliate to them.. how they realise that they go beyond the flesh and are more related in spirit .. making transactions in this not-ordinary space and then having the practicality to realise that life cant be lived like that .. the point abut how 'feeling life like souls' but 'need to live like humans'..
Oct 11, 2005

Push cart 2010

2010-09-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

I want to speak for just one essay - 'The Sutra of Maggots and Blowflies' by Sallie Jiko Tisdale.In the essayists words it is a rewrite of Dogen's Sutra of Mountains and Waters as a natural history of flies, in Buddhist terms. I read this essay last night. And today I could make something of a housefly. I saw the four stripes on its gray thorax. I saw the 'halteres'. If I can tell that much of a fly, it has to be a dead one with its limbs detaching at the slightest touch. The fly is on a path of decay. The essay not only leaves you with the knowledge of what happens to our bodies when we die but it goes into suffering identified by Buddha.
It is a long essay. If you cant get your hands on it, you should read the excerpts of it on 'Dharma Rain'. [...]. After reading this essay I was reminded of an essay 'Not found Not Lost' by Joel Agee.

Other essays that I liked and recognized from magazines: 'Time and Distance overcome' by Eula Biss and 'How to succeed in Po Biz' by Kim Addonizio

Jul 17,2010

A poem by its other name

2010-09-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

This poem with title 'race' had me guessing the end with some injustice. Race is such a high power word that it masks its homonymity.
Homonym

A summer day

2010-09-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

we felt a cool breeze
like we were by the beach
As unbelievable as the mirage
it did happen

poems

2010-09-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

Both these poems have been used as epigrams in Anne Lamott's 'traveling Mercies' book.

Another quote used in the same book.

Spider Monkeys

2010-09-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

I wasnt prepared for a shrunk image of monkeys at the Monkey Village. In 'Wild Justice', a study, it was interesting to read of one of the priviliges of affiliative behavior. A point that I liked in this book of two opposing concepts of Darwin's survival of the fittest and Kropotkin's Mutual Aid's role in evolution.
Phoenix zoo had whistling ducks too in the exhibit as both come from the same South America.
Unwanted Norway rats. Hanta Virus.

Listen to your author

2010-09-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between an accomplished writer and one who is interested in writing? For one, he can say what a novice only thinks he wants to say and two he can convince that it had to be said. He can write what he thinks and just call it a book. Although I would not call it a book in the regular sense, I would like to read what an author like him thinks. Is he the thinker who writes?
Moral of the story. Man has made a big mess of the earth. Not new to our knowledge. But authors writing on an issue in current life makes them so easy to relate to.
12.31.05

Yesterday's question

2010-09-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

Reading of a book in NYTimes, I wonder what might ethics in archaeology refer to. Terry Tempest in Refuge with her frequent digs, hints in pg 190 and I get that the excavators could appropriate the digs before they get into Museum Inventory Management System

sense and predation

2010-08-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

While deer evade us through their sense of smell, another set of life, mosquitoes find us through the same sense.

Smell is not the only sense that aids animals. What does heat sensing fall under? 'moment of Impact' video on PBS about snakes thermal mapping and woodpeckers with their flexible tongues that wrap around their skulls to handle the pressure while they tap at the wood made me wonder how todays generation can learn so much more.

In Remembering smell, in the 'smell, memory' chapter, author Bonnie says that, Memories are remade with each act of rememberance and its evolutionary purpose was to enable learning; thus it must be highly fexible and subjective.

Experimenting even when the lab shuts down. olfactory cuisine. Achatz survived tongue cancer.

Word book

2010-08-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Meaning of Tingo

This book has words from other languages for which there are no equivalents in English.
The words have been sorted into chapters with hello ( the first any one should know in any language),clothing,love,marriage,divorce and so on...in the order they occur.
There are boxed English words 'False friends' which mean quite something else in other languages.
It is extremely interesting to see some 20 odd words for camels, snow and Thailand's capital when spelled totally takes up three lines .

June 8, 2006

Essay series

2010-08-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Best American Essays 2007

Afternoon of the sex children - Mark Greif
Shakers - Daniel Orozco
Passion flowers in Winter - Molly Peacock

writing:

Dragon Slayers - Jerald walker
Disappointment - Richard Rodriguez

May 24, 2010

THL

2010-07-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

The History of Love
If escher's paintings left the easel and went through a typewriter, this is what would come out..
An author's last lap of life belting out a novel,who has already written his 'the novel' on his love in his life as 'The History of Love', A young girl named Alma's (after a character in this book)attempts to find out about the character she is named after, excerpts from the 'THL' novel itself, the story of the believed author of 'THL' and many more such yarns with coinciding story lines.
All this might sound like a jumble, if you are not used to the concepts of novel in a novel and more.
A cautious author would want to have a centralised control over the characters and just have one narrative. But Nicole seems to be very good at churning out as many narrators as the characters.Its one thing to have anarrator speak for each character and another to do what Krauss has done.

Jan 14, 2006

Wide Awake

2010-07-13T08:35:00.001-07:00

Watching this movie, you calmly wait to see in what form, Night's creativity is going to unfurl in front of you. Its a nice experiment.
The kid in search of God, trying to look at all other religions in the world is so trying to expand his consciousness at such a small age, which great artists are known to do at the age of 20 and more.
For all those in search of something, here is your 'The signs', that you should go on...

Aug 21, 2005

Margaret Atwood's

2010-07-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

the Blind Assasin

It is an amalgam of nested story lines. Unfortunately 'synergy' did not work to Atwood's favour.
The story of two sisters is very uninteresting. I still read on, to find out why the book is called so. The fictionary tale about the blind assassin's is worth the perseverance.
There is more suspense in the assassin's life than in the death of Laura Chase, the novelist.
I would have given a 5 star to this book, if it was TRULY JUST the story of 'The Blind Assassin'.

Aug 19, 2005

Diving

2010-07-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

In Ponape chapter, in Zinsley's book,The rapture of the Deep, he comfortably dons the role of a marine biologist introducing you to Tunicates that are a link between vertebrates and invertebrates and the move on to the customs of the Pohnpeiian. The anthropologist then winds up marvelling at the ruins of Nan Madol

I happen to be in the posession of Grays Anatomy, so here's the beginning of me waxing about the bones.

Bones - Long
short, flat
and mixed

Spiced

2010-07-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

Bourdain has already written on how a year just goes by in a kitchen in his confidential. Of burns too which will not elicit any balmy response from any of the coworkers. How different can a pastry chef's life be? The hours of kitchen call on you to be an automaton. That is how your success as a chef is measured, with the orders that you stack. It must be a welcome break to try perfect a new recipe to be on the menu for a while. Other breaks, when a national disaster brings in chefs and critics under one roof to send relief to the rescue teams. Then changes, when your workplace changes. You break into a place, everyone loves your work. After a while, the well of customers dries up. Time for new place, new recipe.

chocolate maki, Kalamansi Colada sure fire those dessert juices.

The book is well written and dispels the romantic chef image of ratatouille.

Silk Parachute

2010-07-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

'Silk Parachute' essay brought out a sense of disbilief as I was reading it.
'Spin right and Shoot left'- This essay's beginning didnt get me hooked into it, but I could connect more to it from the part where he mentions 'lax rats'(muggles of non lacrosse world) - another club member then.
'Checkpoints' - on fact checking at NYorker.

'My life list' was felt ronic compared to the birders list. Its kind of funny, the hundred kinds of tea he has in the wild. The point wouldnt have been driven home, if I hadnt read earlier in a survival-in-the-wild book about having pine tea. In this and the 'checkpoints' essay I noticed a similarity in the small sections being non -sequential - seeming like different takes on the whole run. A ploy to keep in mind for future writing.

June 6, 2010

Writing down the bones

2010-07-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

When you come across the writing techniques, at first most of them seem like they might not be of much help. Like for example, writing down the verbs and nouns and looking at new combinations. This activity can be appreciated only if something leads you to see the connection between writing in words and thinking from memories.
I like the way the author has put forward some concepts- Metaphors fit well when they occur to the writer in thinking process. One of her masters metaphor seemed ridiculous.
As a want-to-be-a-writer, if you had to deal with seperating and merging life and writing, she says writers live twice.
Read back your daily journals. You will know what she means by an idea bearing the stamp of the moment it was inspired and how each time you read it, your interpretation differs giving you more thoughts to write..

Nov 22, 2006

Story Machine

2010-07-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

The development of formalism to help Brutus, the story machine write a story using betrayal is interesting to read.
The story by Racter, a machine makes you see how mechanical a writing it is capable of.
The Bodenesque creativity definition will get you thinking about 'what is really creativity?'

June 8, 2006

Secret Life of Bees

2010-07-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

"Stingless bees tell other workers in the colony about a new food source by laying a scent trail between it and the nest."

(...)

While we are the workers at the nest, Sue Kidd is the 'talking bee' whose book ' The secret life of Bees' is the trail scent left to find the amazing food source , the book itself.

The novel has been excellently written, with stories rolling out of characters effortlessly. While I came across a line .. 'take everything T.Ray was not, shape it into a person, and you would get Walter Cronkite'.. I felt, I had already seen this usage in this book. Later on, I realised that I had come across it in Thomas Hardy's novel "The Return of the Native". But Kidd's style is very different and sweet like honey ... You will appreciate the author's success in coming up with a good style thats so easy to read.

Sep 3, 2005

Wallace Stevens

2010-07-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

Within reading the first few pages, one can feel the surge of guilt for the unjustice done to all the words we dont use anymore. Disuse of words defends the trashing.

Nov 23,2009

The Books that we cant read

2010-07-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

Having read a little on African art in the Menil collection, I found that some rituals in Things fall apart made sense. Proverbs and sayings of elders appear in more than smattering numbers. Further into the book the quoters are not restricted to elders. What is the fascination with using the sayings even after having got the point across? Thats what a set of Bon mot do.
With this in the recent past, Contemporary African writing caught my attention. I wanted to know more about it. But when my eyes caught some words of war and unrest, that did it for me. As the times of war or peace have an effect on the kind of writing, how can the search for literature be complete?

"Five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."- Orson Welles

Peace may not be essential for great works, but some can never be relished.
Angelas Ashes had a good style of writing, but I couldnt read on. About a person with alcohol problems. If it were by the alcoholic himself, it might have a different kind of appeal like in When Things Get Dark. This would (I had to desert this book too for the same unmeetable reasons) have adult perspective with damage to a knowledgable self and not others. Reading Frank Courts memoir through his childhood eyes comes with a bitter taste of swallowing your own tears.

I am not alone in turning my face away from Angelas Ashes. Adair Lara in 'Naked, Drunk and Writing' points that 'A number of people I know couldnt bring themselves to read Angela's Ashes because it was too grim: alcoholism, humiliation, poverty, dirt, disease, untimely death. But for me the dry humour throughout the book tempers the meanness and provides hope'.

Best American short stories 2009

2010-07-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Stories that made me find more about what spurred them.

A Shadow table - Alice Fulton. Should I come across her collection of stories - 'the Nightingales of Troy'- Big yes. Couldnt find if this was a real custom.

Now Trends - Karl Taro Greenfield. The elements of the story are as interesting as the real and vicious(reading) experiences its gathered from.

May 16, 2010.

Hidden life of deer

2010-07-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

The author makes it fun to be a deer and play Hide and Hide.

With the oaks going barren one year(they have a mind of their own just like one of the cats in the book) - helter skelter in the animal kingdom but a great opportunity at Thomas residence to do
back yard deer watching - their social behavior.

Reading about the effects of introduction of non native species to a place makes me wonder about how mysteriously evolution works. If here subspecies are lost, isolation breeds different species like in the Grand Canyon squirrels. Geography dictating breeding season.

Now who knew scats held facts in them. If someone got a look at the scats at Montezuma Castle in time, then they could tell the direction in which the cliff dwellers left in haste.

The concept of Predator urine was interesting.

All in all, there are so many things happening in the natural world that call for observation for comprehension, with some mishaps in the domestic world - hysterical macaws, hyper rats and passive cats.

snow mountain

2010-06-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

The clouds behind the superstition mountain in a higher cone like a shadow.

Evening

2010-06-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Eating samosa yesterday, aloo with the amchur taste. When we eat things, over many times, at different places, the sameness of the encounter of a familiar food on the buds, builds on and you havent had the samosa just that one time but over years, the affair has been going on, reliving it each time.
At the end of it, we would have had a huge samosa like the big biscuit ad of a car insurance company. Like how a bunch of candles fuse into one in the heat. In an imaginary funeral rite, it would be a mighty bolillo roll and a half chewed milk truck. Add to the list,Giant apple, orange like Roald Dahl's cherry.
Talking of which, a limo followed by many cars flashing their hazard lights on the highway, was the first time I saw it being used as the exit chariot.

Many Loves, a poem by Allen Ginsberg sung on A prairie Home Companion.

Seraphine

Books

2010-06-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

at the library book drop.
The Agony and the Ecstasy, a biographical novel of Michelangelo by Irving stone.
The Butcher boy

What lies ahead?

2010-06-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

on Berchtesgadener Hochthron mountain in North face movie, Kurz and Hinterstoisser look like they are at the edge of a ship. Mountains as look out points.

Azzannare (Italian)

2010-06-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

to sink ones teeth into

This has been todays motto until the visix Imaging software let 18 pictures of my teeth be mounted on it. If the xray machine could wonder, it wouldnt pass up thinking if the tube holder was focused on the right end of the dental patient. this patient would not mind if told that the teeth xray actually showed toes. Humors the dentist too. Whne I asked the assistant what the film holder was called.
'Rinn'1 she said.
'Wren' I heard.
Rinn expected a wide mouth. For a narrow mouth, resourceful assistant came up with a 'Snapper ray' which looked like a mix of clothespin with a sharp snap, geometry compass. Life saver.

Dental terms: Occlusal, Lingual, buccal, Overbite.

I saw a gray bird with black on the tail end. May be catbird. It played with the air for a while like it were dribbling.

1 Rinn

When they report

2010-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

All the media, newspaper and radio were trying to open my ears to the 'construction sounds' going on in the neighborhood, or wait is it in the world cup? I cant believe I bore that noise thinking that the sawing was going on at some building.
All in a click.

wordy distraction

2010-06-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

This morning between birdwatching and making a lunch appointment, I had some miscalculated time on my hands. I had books but I didnt have the space. When I took the via point as a starbucks in a safeway, I was hoping for a place to sit. There were places to sit with either too much sun light facing east or no natural light inside. Shade of a tree next to a bike rack was the pit stop. When I had enough sun that I could take, I shut off boston cream pie's chatter and went with Tiramisu cake. Before billing , what should catch my eyes, a shelf full of books under the reading tree program. So now I have a Collins Italian- English dictionary to pair with a websters Spanish-English one.
A Different Angle - Fly fishing stories by women -
Wild Animus - Rich Shapero
Free falling and other student essays
1989 Europe- Fielding guide
On the road with Charles Kuralt
52 Florida weekends - Janet & Gordon Groene.

That was aperfect distraction for a time that I would have suffered to spend inside missing the sun. I was so much into sifting the books that I missed an announcement about some cake, which my Tiramisu reminded a lady next in line.

During a dry spell of new non fiction

2010-06-18T20:12:00.001-07:00

Alive Day - Tom Sullivan
A blind man and his dog. Does the dog understand that his friend is blind? What about blind animals? Atleast for rats, rabbits and dogs there doesnt seem to be much future if they are blind in both eyes. Their behaviour has been reported in popular science monthly Nov 1902 - Apr 1903
(Science gleanings in Animal Life - John Gibson)
Blind fish in mammoth caves. Flat fish. Is there really a cap on snakes venom production?
Proceedings of the society for Experimental zoology and medicine is a very easy to read science book.

Older adults

2010-06-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Recently I heard that IV therapy was not recommended for an elder person. I did wonder why. The V in it has the answer. With varicose veins and complications of overfluiding and haematoma, it does sound like more trouble. Growing up, paediatric is a much loved subject, but geriatrics seems like a field on its own.

Under test

2010-06-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

I am undergoing a test now. Test for TB. I havent reached the quarter mark. An interesting day at the clinic. I learn a thing about my self. My left little finger does not pulse. Should I believe the Finger pulse oximeter? Mostly because its all bone. Its a pity that little fingers and toes get so undermined. Ever notice how the tiny toe gets squeezed and out of shape with no 'leg room'.
The doctor asked if I took BCG. If I were from my parents generation, I might have scars, the vaccination marks to tally. I just read of the small pox vaccination and the bifurcated needle. You dont want to know any more of it. If you thought this calls for the curtains, we should all throw a brownie party to whoever replaced
tine test with any other test. Why positively its like four dentists at work on your teeth. That experience is its own story.
I ask about BCG. I find it fascinating that there are ways to learn of vaccines administered, other than the marks. I have not thought much about vaccines other than that they need to be taken. But on careful pondering over it, it seems like staging a drill in your body for a fire or such adverse event. Its a watermark that stays in your body for as long as you live.

How about a scare tactic to make children learn their geography? BCG vaccine's efficiency varies with longitude.

A parent tried many visits to a government hospital for BCG to her kid, but they were always out of stock.

The Images we carry

2010-06-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

long narrow roll of paper, Rene used as a stethescope

Stop and smell the flower?

2010-06-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

is not a good idea for all
If a plant is on the left
on the lunch table and you
are leaning to the right,
with your nose suffused
with the natural smell
Now you know another reason
for the artifical in
the flower vase.

once for all you will know
to stop and smell the flower
or not
If the bees didnt swarm
the flowers, an allergic person
could help Solomon
sometimes bees swarm people

Gag gift

2010-06-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

A colleague once gave me a pack of wood shavings claiming it to be a mensa puzzle. As kids, we marveled at a perfect peeling of a wooden pencil with the sharpener, hoping it wouldnt break off.

Habitational Expressionism

2010-06-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

I came across this term in this book weird California. I have seen auto dealers offices each replete with a theme. One office was a mini Monroe museum. Another had a 5 feet model of an airplane hanging from the top. I am likely to store parts of a tree - seeds, pods, flowers - collected on walks.

Yesterday while taking the turn to Mission Viejo, I wondered what laguna Niguel on right had. This weird CA book had the answer. I heard of the annual event last July, but did not register the name of the place. In Old town San Diego, a look at 'Whaley House' had me thinking on the lines of what cuisine it might be while the building seems to be content haunted. Same is the case with Hotel del Coronado.

Whose claim

2010-05-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

Dido stole a flute as a kid. Herzog stole a camera as a young man. A grown up version of a ritual.

More drawing lessons

2010-05-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

Beginning this book with some 'before'sketches, what was to be a sketch of my grandmother turned out to be a young woman of a different race. If this were some shamanistic drawing, it would send me on a distant voyage to find my ancestors. when I drew a self portrait, my roomate thought I drew a hag. next time I am going to draw a distorted me to get it right. Some exercises in the drawing book seemed easy. Filling one side of the vases (which also form the face contours) looking at the other. I was using my left brain which I should not have for the purpose of letting the right brain kicked in. Recognising Einstein's from an upside down picture. Now that deserves a pat. The most interesting exercise of this book was drawing pictures upside down. That is a surprise. Another interesting one was drawing negative spaces. I now have a picture which looks like the opened mouth of an animal seized in time whose dentition should baffle any zoologist.

Stoke the Line

2010-05-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

While looking at
Old Tree and Horses in The Art of Book of Chinese Paintings, I recognised the horse. Well, I have drawn some of them which resemble cattle and beasts of burden. Ming Deng, the author of the book thinks its 'Zhao Mengfu's confidence in his painting skills shows in his willingness to use very simple lines to depict horses at difficult angles.'
These horses are from a picture in Rita Mae Brown's 'Animal Magnetism' book.

Map Literacy

2010-04-22T06:18:00.000-07:00

If you looked at this map, for a minute ignore the text, what would you make of the routes like tributaries reaching different places. You do not have the advantage of reading the title of the book, that I saw the map in.
Imaginary traveler, that I was already in Spain, so all I could make of the map was take the return routes of the pilgrim walk. Only when the author of the book started in France to get to this place, did I realise that all those roads have to be taken to the left to reach the talked of destination - Santiago de Compostela. It could be the reading from the left to right that we practise or taking in the simpler details first.

Brush with architecture

2010-04-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

While playing pictionary, I had to depict shingles. Now that without knowing what it means but misunderstanding that it is aural. In this book I came across stoughton house with shingles. In a while, I havent walked to the next door grocery store, blaming it on winter. Last weekend, when I was walking to the store, to get some ingredients for sour cream banana coffee cake, I realised that circle K has three rows of shingles running on the top along its facade. What a circuitous way of finding it!