Enter the Secret Password

Print Man. I.D. please.

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I haven't posted in so long! Apologies. Been a lil' busy...

I'll write a real post in a week or so, but for now I have some things to share with you!

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One of my new favorites

http://mirandajuly.com/


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This place kind of intrigues me: http://www.thrillist.com/new-york/2009/07/28/der-schwarze-kolner

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Marc Steinmetz is pretty cool. As are these escape tools created by inmates:


http://www.marcsteinmetz.com/pages/fluchtstuecke/efluchtstuecke_minis.html

Although a little [extremely] shady, some of these creations are really impressive...

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Digging Pineapple Seed. Beautiful simplicity at a reasonable price. Some favorites:

http://pineappleseed.com/jewelry/scr04.html

http://pineappleseed.com/jewelry/icn10.html

http://pineappleseed.com/jewelry/scn11g.html

http://pineappleseed.com/jewelry/scr02.html

http://pineappleseed.com/jewelry/mecr01.html (men's)

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Create your perfect ice cream. Need I say more?


http://www.perfectflavor.com/mixer/list_bases

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So, I went to this [http://www.theenglishsurgeon.com/] last Friday and it was pretty incredible. This new documentary follows London’s foremost brain MD during a winter in Ukraine as he wrestles with mortality, small miracles, and the risks involved with going under the knife. Aside from almost throwing up and passing out at one point, I really enjoyed it. The director and surgeon were there at the end for a Q&A, which made it all the more rich. I would go on and on telling you what it's about, but check out the site and WATCH IT.

NYT review: http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/movies/24english.html

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More things I like:

http://shop.moxsie.com/all-black/hot-news.html

http://shop.moxsie.com/necklush/lush-oranges-and-red.html

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Man Booker business..."Wolf Hall" is actually our book, yay! Harper Collins- Fourth is the uk publisher.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1252

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Want to read:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312428596/artandlies-20

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Hilarious. Comparing your column about puppies to Joan Didion's masterpiece? I dont think so...

http://gawker.com/5324754/toward-bethlehem-with-joan-didion-and-jill-abramson

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Pretty flippin' cool:

http://seedmagazine.com/slideshow/mathematicians/

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YAY Michael Chabon! YES

Michael Chabon talks about his childhood of freely running around the outdoors, getting into scrapes and exploring. He fears that our new anxieties and desire to control children's lives to protect them from everything from sexual predators to germs is stunting their imagination, with possible ramifications on the future of literature.


http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22891

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More later!

Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree

[thanks to KB for this text...makes me miss the sweet VT summer]



trees are sanctuaries - herman hesse "wandering"


Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. The do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neighter here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.

A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one' suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts. Trees have long thought, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives that ours. The are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve and incomparable joy. Whoever has leaned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.

Infinity Years of Freedom

The Tangled Alphabet...

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And oh boy can it get tangled and mangled and jostled and jangled and mish-mashed to the point of being unrecognizable. It's malleable, it's fallible, it's every bit of existence is contingent upon other bits of its shifty self. But we love it. And we need it.

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Speaking of language, locavore, frenemy, and staycation make debut appearance in the new Webster's dictionary.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8pdiQ9jQsQwcu2YsiJrCp16vE_AD99ASRMG0


The article references this (http://www.amazon.com/Word-Myths-Debunking-Linguistic-Legends/dp/0195375572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247171978&sr=8-1) book, which I am now intent on getting.

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Give struggling authors a chance, Brother!

http://ideas.theatlantic.com/2009/07/bet_on_books.php

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I knew this was a bad idea...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/jul/08/trust-read-your-work

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Sooooo, Borders UK just launched an online dating service. Amazing. "Good day, chaps! Come get your books, greeting cards, and a nice lassie all in one online stop!"

http://www.borders.co.uk/borders-dating

Am I tempted to join under the pseudonym of Ursula B. Cartale? I just may be...I just. May. Be.

[have no idea where that name came from]

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Lineup for 2009 Book Festival has been announced. Exciting!


http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2009/authors/index.html

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This was a pretty fascinating interview. I only caught bits n' pieces of it, since it was on whilst I was running amuck in my apartment getting ready for work this morning. I remember early rumblings about this book from a few months ago though. Ah, if only I had that time-freezer machine and I could read EVERYTHING, muwhahahaaaa.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106388550

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Yet another book I must devour...


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/books/09maslin.html?_r=2&ref=global-home

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Geeks aren't born, they're made:


http://www.avclub.com/articles/pg-wodehouse,30148/

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Jay Parini (VT represent!) interviews Gore Vidal:


http://www.kwls.org/lit/podcasts/2009/07/gore_vidal_writer_against_the.cfm

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Rob Walker= The Man


http://significantobjects.com/

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D'accord, c'est tout pour maintenant!

Cinnamon

'till later...

Accidental Gifts

Kate and I met these little piggies last weekend on Little West 12th Street outside of Destination  (http://www.destinationny.net/)

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Day off today...will be full of exploration.  That is, once I stop being the laziest human alive and gather the gusto to part from my french press and put on real people clothes.

Oh yeah, have to retrieve my bike from the west side as well...crossing my fingers that it's still there.

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Was at my kitchen sink this morning, contemplating doing the dishes (which are still bathing in week-old water, for the record) and turned to the tiger figurine hanging out on the corner of the sink.  He's been there for about 5 months now.  I was walking back to my apartment at some ungodly hour in the morning in february and literally stumbled upon this guy.  He's beautiful, plastic, brave, wise, and about 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" of awesomeness.

This was especially exciting/noteworthy for me on that morning because there had been a sudden influx of tigers in my life.  Yes, real live tigers were suddenly roaming around everywhere.  I wish.

But really, for some reason tiger photos/images/signs/themes were surrounding me.  For a good month not a day went by where I didn't see a tiger something (note: this blog started around that time.  Hence the "teeming tigress".  I figured the universe was telling me that I am indeed a tiger).  Tigers on license plates, staring at me from bookstore windows, a photo emerging of my brother and I circa 1987 dressed as tigers, a friend randomly BBMing me a picture of a tiger at the zoo, and so on.  My point:  when I physically tripped over this tiger figurine, I was simultaneously stunned and not surprised at all.  Brought him home, gave him a dish soap bath, and now he guards my kitchen.

Anyway, so I am looking at him this morning and started recalling the cool things I have come across while roaming NYC sidewalks/floors/parks and beyond.

- Miniature eggplant magnet.  Found: 79th/York.  Now on my fridge, holding up a photo of my niece

-Tiny, tiny bell.  Found: on the 1st floor of MOMA.  Now in a little box of magical trinkets in my apartment

-Extremely sketchy/cool looking rubbery thing that, I swear, resembled a florescent dinosaur claw.  Found: Bleecker St.  Now: potentially still there; potentially reunited with its fellow dino claws; potentially consumed by curious dog.  I didn't touch it.  Something about it screamed "disease-ridden"...but it was pretty incredible, nonetheless

-Figurine of Raphael, the ninja turtle sans sai.  Found: Champs de Mars, Paris.  Now:  I have no effing clue.  He is with me somewhere though, perhaps back in VT.  He lived in my Parisian apartment with me for 5 months and then I carted him back to the states.  Maybe he ran away.  Maybe he's looking for his sai.  My friend and I gave him little toothpick sai, but I can see where that would be less than satisfactory.  Poor Raphael.

-Fortune cookie fortune.  Found: on the stairs up to my apartment.  Ok, finding one of these in NYC is far from rare.  But the weird thing?  All it said was: YOU.  So, you know, I picked it up and brought it along with me.  Figured the world was telling ME something.  Now: in one of my many moleskines...somewhere

-Tea bag tag that says: Travel light, live light, spread light, be the light.  Found: when I was working at Random House...in the kitchenette.  Now: on my fridge, of course.  I wanted to anchor it there with the eggplant magnet, but the magnet is too big and covered up the message.

...there's lots more, too!  That's a good list for now though.  I need to shower and delve into the day.

Wonder what I'll find out there!