Saturday, July 31, 2010
My Diary
I mentioned in yesterday's blog post that I am building a website for my brother's business. In a discussion yesterday I mentioned that he probably wanted to get a paid Google account for the site so that hs site would come up early in searches. I told him we can put the site up and it can look perfectly professional but it doesn't do him any good if no one visits.
You've perhaps also noticed my last two entries in the "Excerpt" category have come from the book I began yesterday, Elizabeth Bowen's Death of the Heart. The opening sequence involved a discussion between a woman (Anna) and a male friend in which she discloses coming across her husband's teenage half-sister's diary and found the girl had written horrible things about everyone in the family, especially Anna herself. The male friend, a writer, tries to make Anna feel better by talking about the act of writing in general, and of keeping a diary. Read the two "Excerpts" immediately below for more elaboration.
I put these two thoughts together while walking this morning. I keep my own sort of diary - you're reading it right now - and it's out in a public space but it may as well be under lock and key. No one reads it. But that's okay. Like the second Excerpt quote says, "a diary, after all, is written to please oneself – therefore it’s bound to be enormously written up. The obligation to write it is all in one’s own eye..." I keep this blog for my own pleasure, in order, as I've said before, to work out my own thoughts. And I do feel an obligation to keep it up, especially so being so far into the endeavor. I dropped blogging for four or fives months earlier this year but I am back now and enjoying it. Writing makes my mind work in ways that it doesn't when I'm not writing. I start seeing associations between things that I wouldn't otherwise. It expands my though processes. The world opens up.
So, while I would like to have regular readers, it's not necessary for my main purpose here. I have not yet reached the point of Joseph Epstein, whom I quoted in a blog post a few years back about his own habit of keeping a journal:
- but almost.
You've perhaps also noticed my last two entries in the "Excerpt" category have come from the book I began yesterday, Elizabeth Bowen's Death of the Heart. The opening sequence involved a discussion between a woman (Anna) and a male friend in which she discloses coming across her husband's teenage half-sister's diary and found the girl had written horrible things about everyone in the family, especially Anna herself. The male friend, a writer, tries to make Anna feel better by talking about the act of writing in general, and of keeping a diary. Read the two "Excerpts" immediately below for more elaboration.
I put these two thoughts together while walking this morning. I keep my own sort of diary - you're reading it right now - and it's out in a public space but it may as well be under lock and key. No one reads it. But that's okay. Like the second Excerpt quote says, "a diary, after all, is written to please oneself – therefore it’s bound to be enormously written up. The obligation to write it is all in one’s own eye..." I keep this blog for my own pleasure, in order, as I've said before, to work out my own thoughts. And I do feel an obligation to keep it up, especially so being so far into the endeavor. I dropped blogging for four or fives months earlier this year but I am back now and enjoying it. Writing makes my mind work in ways that it doesn't when I'm not writing. I start seeing associations between things that I wouldn't otherwise. It expands my though processes. The world opens up.
So, while I would like to have regular readers, it's not necessary for my main purpose here. I have not yet reached the point of Joseph Epstein, whom I quoted in a blog post a few years back about his own habit of keeping a journal:
Keeping a journal or diary, once begun in earnest, becomes more an addiction than a habit. I cannot now imagine abandoning mine. I continue to scribble each morning, living my life at a second remove, with nothing in it quite real until it has been scrawled out in my increasingly poor handwriting. “When all is said and done,” Siegfried Sassoon wrote, “a good life is better than a good diary.” No doubt, but please note that Sassoon makes this observation in his diary. You may think this essay has at last come to its conclusion, but it will really only be done tomorrow morning, when, in my journal, I write, “Finished essay on journals and diaries. Am, as usual, uncertain of its quality.”
- but almost.
Excerpt
"Style is the thing that is always a bit phony, and at the same time you cannot write without style. Look how much goes to addressing an envelope - for, after all, it's a matter of set-out. And a diary, after all, is written to please oneself - therefore it's bound to be enormously written up. The obligation to write it is all in one's own eye, and look how one is when it's almost always written - upstairs, late, overwrought, alone..."
Elizabeth Bowen, Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen, Death of the Heart
Interlude
My favorite Emmylou Harris song. I've loved it since I was a teenager:
[audio:BoulderToBirmingham.mp3]
NOTE: Discerning readers will notice I changed the "Quote of the Day" category to "Excerpt". Here I am modifying the "Song of the Day" to "Interlude".
[audio:BoulderToBirmingham.mp3]
NOTE: Discerning readers will notice I changed the "Quote of the Day" category to "Excerpt". Here I am modifying the "Song of the Day" to "Interlude".
Friday, July 30, 2010
Excerpt
"You've got to allow for style, though. Nothing arrives on paper as it started, and so much arrives that never started at all. To write is always to rave a little - even if one did once know what one meant, which at her age seems unlikely. There are ways and ways of trumping a thing up: one gets more discriminating, not necessarily more honest."
Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen, The Death of the Heart
Life, Mad Men, and America
Life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately, and that's a good thing. I've been busy at work not only with normal duties but also studying up on data warehousing concepts, the reason for which will be forthcoming. In my sparetime I've moved the blog from Blogger over to Wordpress, hosted by Dreamhost, and have been happily learning all the new capabilities for audio, photos, posts, etc., to try to make it look more professional. I've also started a photoblog, still in its infancy, and am building a web site for my brother's business, which is still a work in progress but should be ready soon. I'm enjoying these endeavors immensely - it's fun. One of my upcoming projects, I've decided, is to become expert at javascript and php so I can develop my own websites from scratch. I'm fairly well-versed in HTML - I built a bunch of websites for our group back at my old job but the layout and formatting of them was pedestrian at best. I want my stuff to look professional and the only way to ensure that really is to dig in. Which is no problem. That's when I have the most fun at work, when I'm learning something new, testing it, learning it, becoming expert at it. It's something I look forward to.
We also visited Mom and Dad down in Florida this past weekend, a quick trip but very enjoyable. I've always loved my mother's company. We started talking about her childhood just before we had to leave for our flight back and I pretty much decided then that I need to get her talking about these things on tape. I don't want to lose those stories before it's too late. Not that there is any rush. My mom is in about as good a shape as someone her age can be. She still has lots of energy and is as sharp in in mind as always - and that's pretty sharp. Plus she has her interests - she's a world-class, award-winning quilter, and she teaches quilting classes down there.
I've had almost no time for reading or other sorts of entertainment. The book I'm reading currently is wonderful and normally I would gobble up something so good in a couple of sittings over a couple of days. Alas, a month later and it is still unfinished, though I am determined so sit and relax with it today and finish it up.
I did watch the fourth season opening episode ("Public Relations") of Mad Men. And I loved it. Things have certainly changed and the show had a different feel to it than the previous seasons, and I think that's a good thing. The times are changing (it's almost 1965), the workplace is new, Don is divorced and Betty is now married to Henry - it's right that the show has a new feel because life has a new feel. The opening question, "Who is Don Draper?" is something that may never be answered, though by the end of the episode it's clear Don has decided the future of the new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, will be shaped by him. He throws out potential clients who don't want to do things his way and he sets up an interview (a previous one having failed due to his reluctance to talk about himself) with a Wall Street Journal reporter in which he brags about himself and his new agency. Not that anyone minds Don taking charge. It's expected of him. Roger, Bert, and Peggy all indicate their reliance on him at different points in the episode (Peggy: "We're all here because of you, you know. All we want to do is please you.")
While Don takes charge at the new agency, his personal life is less settled, to say the least. The publication of the initial failed interview characterizes him as a 'cipher' and this may be close to the truth. He has reinvented himself, taking on a new name and leaving the past behind, but there's no there there once he steps outside the professional side of Don Draper. He knows how to sell products and he knows how to sell the character he's created named Don Draper, but once he's alone and on his own, when there's nothing to sell, there's nothing left to the man. So he indulges himself with prostitutes, whom he pays to play out his sexual impulses ("Hit me. Harder.") As Mad Men reinvents itself for season four, as Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce introduces itself as a new, hip, agency with Don Draper the master at the helm, perhaps we should also keep a watch out for what becomes of Don Draper the cipher. Can he find value and fulfillment in his private life? Or is it too late? There are hints that he may be able to remake himself in his relationship with his children (will Sally and Bobby be his salvation? He's clearly a better parent than Betty.) But watching it play out, with no idea what's ahead, is a lot of the fun.
So what else is new? It's still to be determined if we are seeing a sea-change in attitude towards the government or if this is a passing thing. By "this" I mean the tea-party movement, the idea that America is being buried under a mountain of debt that we'll never dig out of if something doesn't change soon. It does seem that it's part of the zeitgeist, the feeling that we're in trouble and something needs to be done. I expect the mid-terms will be a disaster for the Democrats - don't rule out the Republicans will take over the Senate along with the House - but whether this will be the necessary spur to change is still a question. Things will change, yes, but will they change enough? We need drastic transformation, a remaking of government from the top down, large cuts in expenditures, a rollback of the Obamacare and other atrocities, a commitment to balanced budgets and pay down of the debt, and none of these things will be easy. Obama can veto any proposed change he doesn't like for the next two years and by then will the passion we're seeing now among the rank-and-file have died down? Add that to the near inevitability the newly elected will go native once they arrive in D.C. and count me skeptical that a change is gonna come. Still, I hold out the hope that if ever there was a chance for transformation, the time has never been riper.
We also visited Mom and Dad down in Florida this past weekend, a quick trip but very enjoyable. I've always loved my mother's company. We started talking about her childhood just before we had to leave for our flight back and I pretty much decided then that I need to get her talking about these things on tape. I don't want to lose those stories before it's too late. Not that there is any rush. My mom is in about as good a shape as someone her age can be. She still has lots of energy and is as sharp in in mind as always - and that's pretty sharp. Plus she has her interests - she's a world-class, award-winning quilter, and she teaches quilting classes down there.
I've had almost no time for reading or other sorts of entertainment. The book I'm reading currently is wonderful and normally I would gobble up something so good in a couple of sittings over a couple of days. Alas, a month later and it is still unfinished, though I am determined so sit and relax with it today and finish it up.
I did watch the fourth season opening episode ("Public Relations") of Mad Men. And I loved it. Things have certainly changed and the show had a different feel to it than the previous seasons, and I think that's a good thing. The times are changing (it's almost 1965), the workplace is new, Don is divorced and Betty is now married to Henry - it's right that the show has a new feel because life has a new feel. The opening question, "Who is Don Draper?" is something that may never be answered, though by the end of the episode it's clear Don has decided the future of the new agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, will be shaped by him. He throws out potential clients who don't want to do things his way and he sets up an interview (a previous one having failed due to his reluctance to talk about himself) with a Wall Street Journal reporter in which he brags about himself and his new agency. Not that anyone minds Don taking charge. It's expected of him. Roger, Bert, and Peggy all indicate their reliance on him at different points in the episode (Peggy: "We're all here because of you, you know. All we want to do is please you.")
While Don takes charge at the new agency, his personal life is less settled, to say the least. The publication of the initial failed interview characterizes him as a 'cipher' and this may be close to the truth. He has reinvented himself, taking on a new name and leaving the past behind, but there's no there there once he steps outside the professional side of Don Draper. He knows how to sell products and he knows how to sell the character he's created named Don Draper, but once he's alone and on his own, when there's nothing to sell, there's nothing left to the man. So he indulges himself with prostitutes, whom he pays to play out his sexual impulses ("Hit me. Harder.") As Mad Men reinvents itself for season four, as Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce introduces itself as a new, hip, agency with Don Draper the master at the helm, perhaps we should also keep a watch out for what becomes of Don Draper the cipher. Can he find value and fulfillment in his private life? Or is it too late? There are hints that he may be able to remake himself in his relationship with his children (will Sally and Bobby be his salvation? He's clearly a better parent than Betty.) But watching it play out, with no idea what's ahead, is a lot of the fun.
So what else is new? It's still to be determined if we are seeing a sea-change in attitude towards the government or if this is a passing thing. By "this" I mean the tea-party movement, the idea that America is being buried under a mountain of debt that we'll never dig out of if something doesn't change soon. It does seem that it's part of the zeitgeist, the feeling that we're in trouble and something needs to be done. I expect the mid-terms will be a disaster for the Democrats - don't rule out the Republicans will take over the Senate along with the House - but whether this will be the necessary spur to change is still a question. Things will change, yes, but will they change enough? We need drastic transformation, a remaking of government from the top down, large cuts in expenditures, a rollback of the Obamacare and other atrocities, a commitment to balanced budgets and pay down of the debt, and none of these things will be easy. Obama can veto any proposed change he doesn't like for the next two years and by then will the passion we're seeing now among the rank-and-file have died down? Add that to the near inevitability the newly elected will go native once they arrive in D.C. and count me skeptical that a change is gonna come. Still, I hold out the hope that if ever there was a chance for transformation, the time has never been riper.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
What You're Doing
I listened to The Beatles during my workout the past two mornings, something I hadn't done in quite some time, perhaps six months. That may seem a short time to some but it may be a record for me - I grew up on The Beatles and for the first twenty years plus of my music-listening life I listened to them more than anyone else, rarely going a more than a few days or a week without putting them on the stereo. Dylan took over in the-most-listened-to category for awhile and then (and still) Van Morrison but I have always gone back to them often and with pleasure. I can report back the answer to the question "Can you still love the music you listened to as a child nearly fifty years later?" is yes, definitely, so long as it's The Beatles. It's not just nostalgia. They were great. Great singers (John Lennon in his prime, circa 1963-1965, was the greatest rock and roll singer of them all) and great songwriters, they did nearly nothing that was worthless, little that was banal or ordinary. They were consistently great, from 1962 until they disbanded (though their final single, "The Long and Winding Road" was perhaps evidence that their time was up - it may be their only really boring song.)
You can blame Lennon and McCartney for my insistence that a great song must have a great melody for that is what stands out about The Beatles' songs to me now: they were master melodists. Of course Lennon and McCartney wrote the bulk, and the greatest, of the songs, but George Harrison had nothing to hang his head about. All told, their list of great songs seems never-ending (I've got 77 Beatles songs on my iPod though I could easily have 177) and are too numerous to mention. I don't really have to, do I? Unless you grew up in a cave far from civilazation you must know some of them. Add to their perfect melodic touch the great vocals, the soaring harmonies, George Martin's productions, and Ringo's perfect drums, and you dozens and dozens of little gems. They were indeed the greatest rock and roll band of them all. They were worth listening to in 1964 when I first heard them as a six year old boy, and they are worth listening to now as I approach old age. I don't expect that will ever change.
I just mentioned Ringo's drums. Please don't tell me Ringo Starr was not a great drummer, as many sophisticates like to do. Sure, he wasn't as technically adept as Charlie Watts let alone Keith Moon but he was the perfect drummer for The Beatles. The simple technique, the steady beat, the ability to stay out of the way of the vocals, his fill-in riffs (listen to the drums on "Ticket to Ride", perhaps his finest moment) - he was as much a part of the team as the others. And that was the key. For a few years these supremely talented men were put their egos aside for the good of the music. As has often been said, they melded perfectly together to become more than the sum of their parts. They were the perfect musical collaboration. It couldn't last and it was perhaps inevitable that it would all come to a bad ending, full of accusations and recriminations. But while it lasted, boy were they something. The music still fills me with something akin to glee.
The bitter end is chronicled in this recent book, Peter Doggett's "You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup", which I've heard good things about. Click on the book's cover to get to the Amazon page.
[abp:0061774464]
And finally, for your listening pleasure, one of my favorites, and the title of this post. Ringo's drums are great here too. I'm also using it as my song of the day. Enjoy:
[audio:WhatYoureDoing.mp3]
You can blame Lennon and McCartney for my insistence that a great song must have a great melody for that is what stands out about The Beatles' songs to me now: they were master melodists. Of course Lennon and McCartney wrote the bulk, and the greatest, of the songs, but George Harrison had nothing to hang his head about. All told, their list of great songs seems never-ending (I've got 77 Beatles songs on my iPod though I could easily have 177) and are too numerous to mention. I don't really have to, do I? Unless you grew up in a cave far from civilazation you must know some of them. Add to their perfect melodic touch the great vocals, the soaring harmonies, George Martin's productions, and Ringo's perfect drums, and you dozens and dozens of little gems. They were indeed the greatest rock and roll band of them all. They were worth listening to in 1964 when I first heard them as a six year old boy, and they are worth listening to now as I approach old age. I don't expect that will ever change.
I just mentioned Ringo's drums. Please don't tell me Ringo Starr was not a great drummer, as many sophisticates like to do. Sure, he wasn't as technically adept as Charlie Watts let alone Keith Moon but he was the perfect drummer for The Beatles. The simple technique, the steady beat, the ability to stay out of the way of the vocals, his fill-in riffs (listen to the drums on "Ticket to Ride", perhaps his finest moment) - he was as much a part of the team as the others. And that was the key. For a few years these supremely talented men were put their egos aside for the good of the music. As has often been said, they melded perfectly together to become more than the sum of their parts. They were the perfect musical collaboration. It couldn't last and it was perhaps inevitable that it would all come to a bad ending, full of accusations and recriminations. But while it lasted, boy were they something. The music still fills me with something akin to glee.
The bitter end is chronicled in this recent book, Peter Doggett's "You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup", which I've heard good things about. Click on the book's cover to get to the Amazon page.
[abp:0061774464]
And finally, for your listening pleasure, one of my favorites, and the title of this post. Ringo's drums are great here too. I'm also using it as my song of the day. Enjoy:
[audio:WhatYoureDoing.mp3]
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