We
By Bei Dao (Zhao Zhenkai)
lost souls and scattered spirits
holdings lanterns chase spring
scars shimmer, cups revolve
light's being created
look at that enchanting moment
a thief steals into a post office
letters cry out
nails o nails
the lyrics never change
firewood huddles together
searching for an audience to listen
searching for the heart of winter
river's end
a boatman awaiting boundless twilight
there must be some one to rewrite love
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Spent all morning and much of the afternoon waiting for a television repairman, who finally arrived, took apart the set, spent an hour working on it, discovered that it needs some kind of replacement video piece that Sony no longer makes but that may be available from someone who trades such things, put the set back together and said he'd call in a couple of days if he could track down the part. If he can, it's likely to be $150 or so to get the set fixed. It's a 15-year-old Sony Trinitron, 27", with a great picture. Should we replace it with a cheap Magnavox or something -- do the contemporary cheap Magnavoxes have pictures comparable to the 15-year-old Sonys? Should we pay to repair the Sony and hope nothing else goes wrong with it? (Please do not suggest getting a new flat screen or anything like that unless you would like to loan me several hundred dollars -- of course it would make the most sense to get a set we will love for years but we can't do that right now!)
Otherwise I listened to the Enterprise "North Star" podcast which was boring and inane like the episode, wrote an article about Patrick Stewart's planned production of The Merchant of Venice set in Las Vegas which makes me nervous immediately because Portia is described as "the daughter of a mob boss" (Stewart would play Shylock, wants to explore the homoeroticism between Bassanio and Antonio who at one time was rumored to be played by Ian McKellen), and John Logan is writing the screenplay which whether you love him from Gladiator, hate him from Nemesis or are ambivalent about him from The Aviator does not really make you say, "Whee, won't this be a great feminist production!" I find it impossible to root for Shylock -- I don't care if he is the token oppressed Jew, he is also the token patriarchal bastard -- and the idea of a modern setting in Vegas makes me squick even if I'm supposed to be all rah-rah, gay subtext. I wish someone would explore all the crazy subtext in The Two Noble Kinsmen which no one ever produces because its authorship is in that gray zone.
Kids both came home on the late side because younger son had Mad Science after school, they did homework, then older son had fencing after dinner. TV tonight was of course baseball playoffs with that astonishing last inning, followed by Monday Night Football though I have no idea of the score anymore (Indianapolis came back from 17 points down to have more than 40 points but I can't see from here). I am pissed off at Amazon.com because I ordered some stuff that they sent me a notice saying had shipped on October 12th, but when I went to track the package today, it says only that the carrier has received shipping information -- the books haven't even left the warehouse! Why do they claim things have shipped if they're planning to sit on them? Is this just to screw over customers using free shipping to make sure we don't accidentally get our books in a timely manner? Next time it's all books it's also all Barnes & Noble which delivers locally in a day!
This vendor produces candles and beauty products from the labor of those hardworking critters in the hive. At least they get their afternoon in the sun! See upper right corner of the hive awning!
This is the woman who made my son's banana slug dragon, though she is stuffing a different dragon in this photo.
And here is the aforementioned banana slug dragon, held in front of a favorite vendor sign at a ceramics stall.
Another favorite sign, a warning to shoplifters. (Anyone who has seen this week's Rome will know why this amuses me.)
Wood and gourd birdhouses -- homes for your tweetie!
As you can see, there is an armory just beyond the jousting arena. (Hey,
Hope everyone who is celebrating has a lovely Sukkot!
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