geometry, currency, holography; or, everything is so much more real in winter!

Out of the illiteracy of summer (to which not all are susceptible, but I most certainly am), comes other, more volatile, obsessions. If I were in 18th century France, this might mean seduction and heresy, but here in the boonies, where our egos are kept in check by the lightning and alien rock formations, summer obsessions take on an altogether more inhuman character. At the moment, I cannot relinquish thoughts of:

1. Crystals- quite literally the ordering of flows. the science of how you get something geometrical to emerge from something which is not is clear, but this doesn't make the act of finding a crystal in the dirt any less astounding. The experience always has an extra-terrestrial tinge to it, as does everything, really, which reminds you that the earth is first and foremost a geological entity. Björk and Gondry, are, as usual, extremely adept at capturing this sublime strangeness.

2. Money- not the accumulation of it, but its endless, irrational coming and going. My current line of work puts me smack-dab in the middle of infinite arbitrary exchanges, and I have tried to explain to Madeleine time after time how hypnotic this becomes. I wonder, really, if this, and not the promise of reward, is what drives gamblers. For this reason I have also developed an unhealthy interest in the 2-dollar bill, which is rare enough these days that it seems to create jams and blockages whenever used as legal tender. This summer I have received two, a suitably clunky number.

3. The secret behind our pixelated reality! If only tabloids would run this kind of story. Come winter, doubtless, I will find this completely ridiculous and untenable. But, for now, I am a hologram.

By contrast

There are things that make me ashamed of America, like this inane and infuriating piece about why the world would be safer with more guns; and things that make me proud, like Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 3, parts I and II.

There are delightful examples of graphic design with minimal fuss, like these posters by Christian Jackson for children’s stories:

And examples of graphic design with minimal soul power, like this collection of default profile pictures. I want to know: why there are multiple hipsters and robots (not to mention the wailing baby), and (more importantly), why the defaults always seem to be male. Oh, that robot is a woman, you say? My mistake.

Aaaaaand: most exciting (but not necessarily obvious) list of books ever; most outrageously obvious scientific finding ever.

Things we like VIII

1) Superhero movies!! At least the ones that don’t suck, like Captain America (and unlike Thor, though it pains me to say it, as someone who considers Norse mythology her comfort literature and worships Branagh’s Henry V). Am also now super-excited for The Avengers next summer, since it will apparently involve inter-dimensional travel, eyepatches, requisite mad scientists, and, most importantly, more Tony Stark.

2) The way that manatees a) walk along the sea floor with their flippers and b) sleep. Also, whenever they aren’t eating up to 10% of their body weight, they’re sleeping. I would make an excellent manatee.

3) The Once and Future King by T.H. White. I’ve probably started this book five or six times in my life, always loved starting it, but never got around to actually finishing it. This time am utterly resolved. Currently 100 pages in and adoring it.

4) Proper nouns that sound like adjectives (why are they inevitably British?): e.g. Cavendish; Standish.

Things we like VII

1) Ataraxia, which is absolutely not my current state, and which therefore seems like a worthy goal;

2) English words of Anglo-Saxon descent:

3*) the fact that most anagrams of my name have to do with destruction and disease: Malady Rued, Lauded Army, Mauled Yard, Dreamy Dual.

* doesn’t really deserve to be included in “things we like”; would do better in “things we find amusing and mildly disturbing”

4) this incredibly sad letter from Marilyn Monroe to her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson;

5) Leonard Bernstein’s birthday card to Aaron Copland, 1967:

Dear A:

It’s two days before your birthday, but I’m already thinking hard and tenderly about you; and this note is your birthday present carrying with it such abiding love as I rarely if ever get to express to you in our occasional meetings. I don’t know if you’re aware of what you mean, have meant for 30 years, to me and my music and so many of my attitudes to life and to people. I suppose if there’s one person on earth who is at the center of my life it’s you; and day after day I recognize in my living your presence, your laugh, your peculiar mixture of intensity and calm. . . . I hope you live forever.

A long strong hug —

Lenny