Om bhur bhuvah svah
tat savitur vareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi
dhiyo yó naḥ pracodayāt

Marvelous rising sun
I bask in your light
May you inspire me*

Happy Solstice, people! Browsing a little popular physics this morning, thinking of the sun god and why I have to get over my annoyance at god-botherers (and accept my own ( Read more... )

Went to the de Young today without having purchased a ticket in advance and got into the Post-Impressionist exhibit without incident, after I saw the permanent collection. I forgot they had three Diebenkorns, and I didn't remember at all encountering Nicholas Oliveira's "Walking Mime," which is just marvelous! (Can't find an image online that isn't ( Read more... )

I walked to my polling place this morning, which is across the freeway and in what counts as an industrial zone in SC. A mixture of businesses, but relatively few homes: Costco, the main Goodwill receiving and distribution center, a homeless shelter (the main one for families in SC), Plantronics, Graniterock and its tower. Not very many sidewalks, ( Read more... )

BUN: William Hazlitt: Melvin Bragg spent a worthy hour on him a few months ago, and you can get his On Poetry In General at audible. Edited later: nevermind about the audiobook, it's worse than a wikipedia entry.

SHOE: My favorite new podcast KunstlerCast, during which you overhear a really awesome conversation that just keep going on and on and ( Read more... )

I remember a scene in an Indian film, I think it was from the 50s or 60s, and I think it was Ray, a very long take of a dusty road, either from the point of view of the back of the moving truck viewing the receding landscape, or from someone in the landscape watching the truck recede (can't remember which, though I think it's a small boy who's ( Read more... )

Take a tour through Detroit native Neil Greenberg's insanely detailed and imagined Fake City in this fascinating 2008 radio piece, "Fake City, Real Dreams." (Via Third Coast, which has more Detroit-related radio goodness)

Says the piece's producer Zak Rosen, Point to any area or intersection and Neil will seamlessly delve into the history of that ( Read more... )

Again foul weather shall not change my mind,
But in the shade I will believe what in the sun I loved.Thoreau ( Read more... )