Sunday, October 29, 2006
Lost in Bleak House, and Other Recent Scenarios
Hey, I'm lost in Dickens's Bleak House. There is only one paper (8-15 pages) assigned for my Modernists/Victorians class, and I've chosen to focus on the novel's Inspector Bucket as archetypal detective character. It's an immense text, with plenty of corners to get lost in, and I've promptly become disoriented in attempting to free-write my way into a cohesive argument. Not helping matters is my manic attempt to ingest everything written about the establishment of police squads in Victorian England, not to mention critical essays that treat my topic probably better than I will ever achieve in the next month of writing it, which has further obfuscated any semblance of a concrete thesis or argument. And yet I have six pages of garbled essay somehow cobbled together, comprising random close readings and several successive layers of revised fragments wantonly laid next to each other. Help!
What is more amusing is that I can't read or watch anything that contains a detective character without triggering the torrent of half-formed thoughts seeking completeness. Last night, Amanda and I watched The Exorcist, and I was quite distracted from the more lurid elements in the film by the minor character Lt. Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb). Ack! Vomit! Head-spin!
That's one scenario. Elsewhere, I should mention that I'm two-rehearsals committed to a band. Friends Josh and Lola having a going concern, Buffalo Bison, and I've found my way into the drumming role. We had a fantastic practice here at the house in the basement I decorated especially for the occasion. Amanda's and my friend Dan came by with his bass, and it now seems we have a foursome. The music is folk-rock with a sinister aesthetic, sort of a mixture of country Neil Young and Will Oldham. We have three shows booked in Manhattan in the next month or so, the reality of which still astounds me. One is in a really swell bar/lounge across the street from what was until recently CBGB's. When and if some of our recordings make it online, I'll surely link them from here; Josh writes some excellent tunes.
Otherwise, I'm busy parsing through the Middle-English poetry of Cleanness in one class, and refining my annotations of Wallace Stevens's "A Duck for Dinner" in the other. Stevens has grown into my favor immensely as a result of digging deeply into his references and revealing the complexity and wit of his poetry. The cartoon/comic strip element of the poem has me once again fascinated by early 20th century pop-culture, as the cartoons linked below can attest to.
Amanda and I carpool together 2.5 days of the week, which is advantageous in that it both allows us time together in the midst of our hectic schedules and provides a substantial and nutritive dose of schadenfreude as we cruise by in the HOV lane lines of stunted traffic on the LIE. Suckers! We've also managed to keep a lively rotation of meals in play for dinner, alternating between homemade goods and takeout treats. We can do Shepherd's Pie, ravioli/pasta with jarred sauce (or on some occasions jarred sauced enhanced by the addition of meat over simmering heat for several hours), re-heated mass-produced chicken bricks (a la senior year at Colgate) with instant rice, re-heated Waldbaum's quiche with oat-nut toast, meatloaf, and Amanda's Specialty -- breaded/baked chicken cutlets. Mmmm. Takeout favories include Tomo sushi, Casa Buono's killer garlic-knot pizza, the trusty Baja Grill wraps, Lotus East Chinese food, and Ben's premium kosher.
Recent Reading: Jude the Obscure, The Portrait of a Lady, Cleanness & Patience (the Pearl-poet), L'Amante Anglaise (Margeruite Duras), loads of criticism, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Recent Viewing: Curb Your Enthusiasm (season 4), The Exorcist, The Portrait of a Lady, Premiership Football on FSC, Cheers (season 5), Born Into Brothels, Born Rich, California Split, Old Joy.
Recent Listening: Paul Butterfield Blues Band S/T, Boy Dylan Biograph (especially "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" and the live version of "I Don't Believe You"), early Carter Family recordings, Carl Perkins, Muddy Watters, and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.
Time goes swiftly.
Hey, I'm lost in Dickens's Bleak House. There is only one paper (8-15 pages) assigned for my Modernists/Victorians class, and I've chosen to focus on the novel's Inspector Bucket as archetypal detective character. It's an immense text, with plenty of corners to get lost in, and I've promptly become disoriented in attempting to free-write my way into a cohesive argument. Not helping matters is my manic attempt to ingest everything written about the establishment of police squads in Victorian England, not to mention critical essays that treat my topic probably better than I will ever achieve in the next month of writing it, which has further obfuscated any semblance of a concrete thesis or argument. And yet I have six pages of garbled essay somehow cobbled together, comprising random close readings and several successive layers of revised fragments wantonly laid next to each other. Help!
What is more amusing is that I can't read or watch anything that contains a detective character without triggering the torrent of half-formed thoughts seeking completeness. Last night, Amanda and I watched The Exorcist, and I was quite distracted from the more lurid elements in the film by the minor character Lt. Kinderman (Lee J. Cobb). Ack! Vomit! Head-spin!
That's one scenario. Elsewhere, I should mention that I'm two-rehearsals committed to a band. Friends Josh and Lola having a going concern, Buffalo Bison, and I've found my way into the drumming role. We had a fantastic practice here at the house in the basement I decorated especially for the occasion. Amanda's and my friend Dan came by with his bass, and it now seems we have a foursome. The music is folk-rock with a sinister aesthetic, sort of a mixture of country Neil Young and Will Oldham. We have three shows booked in Manhattan in the next month or so, the reality of which still astounds me. One is in a really swell bar/lounge across the street from what was until recently CBGB's. When and if some of our recordings make it online, I'll surely link them from here; Josh writes some excellent tunes.
Otherwise, I'm busy parsing through the Middle-English poetry of Cleanness in one class, and refining my annotations of Wallace Stevens's "A Duck for Dinner" in the other. Stevens has grown into my favor immensely as a result of digging deeply into his references and revealing the complexity and wit of his poetry. The cartoon/comic strip element of the poem has me once again fascinated by early 20th century pop-culture, as the cartoons linked below can attest to.
Amanda and I carpool together 2.5 days of the week, which is advantageous in that it both allows us time together in the midst of our hectic schedules and provides a substantial and nutritive dose of schadenfreude as we cruise by in the HOV lane lines of stunted traffic on the LIE. Suckers! We've also managed to keep a lively rotation of meals in play for dinner, alternating between homemade goods and takeout treats. We can do Shepherd's Pie, ravioli/pasta with jarred sauce (or on some occasions jarred sauced enhanced by the addition of meat over simmering heat for several hours), re-heated mass-produced chicken bricks (a la senior year at Colgate) with instant rice, re-heated Waldbaum's quiche with oat-nut toast, meatloaf, and Amanda's Specialty -- breaded/baked chicken cutlets. Mmmm. Takeout favories include Tomo sushi, Casa Buono's killer garlic-knot pizza, the trusty Baja Grill wraps, Lotus East Chinese food, and Ben's premium kosher.
Recent Reading: Jude the Obscure, The Portrait of a Lady, Cleanness & Patience (the Pearl-poet), L'Amante Anglaise (Margeruite Duras), loads of criticism, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Recent Viewing: Curb Your Enthusiasm (season 4), The Exorcist, The Portrait of a Lady, Premiership Football on FSC, Cheers (season 5), Born Into Brothels, Born Rich, California Split, Old Joy.
Recent Listening: Paul Butterfield Blues Band S/T, Boy Dylan Biograph (especially "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window" and the live version of "I Don't Believe You"), early Carter Family recordings, Carl Perkins, Muddy Watters, and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.
Time goes swiftly.
