By Constantine P. Cavafy
Translated by George Barbanis
When one of them passed through the market place
of Seleucia, toward the hour that night falls
as a tall and perfectly handsome youth,
with the joy of immortality in his eyes,
with his scented black hair,
the passers-by would stare at him
and one would ask the other if he knew him,
and if he were a Greek of Syria, or a stranger. But some,
who watched with greater attention,
would understand and stand aside;
and as he vanished under the arcades,
into the shadows and into the lights of the evening,
heading toward the district that lives
only at night, with orgies and debauchery,
and every sort of drunkenness and lust,
they would ponder which of Them he might be,
and for what suspect enjoyment
he had descended to the streets of Seleucia
from the Venerable, Most Hallowed Halls.
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After a quiet morning, the majority of our Friday afternoon was taken up with a looooong wait at the orthodontist, for which we consoled ourselves afterward with bubble tea and I took advantage of Bath & Body Works' sale on antibacterial gel which the kids need anyway ($5 for 5). Then I was going to pick up a bunch of sheet music books from a Freecycler, but there was construction literally everywhere (couldn't turn left at Nicholson Lane off Rockville Pike, couldn't get onto the Beltway turning left off Democracy...it just got worse and worse). Finally gave up, came home so the kids could go to the pool before it got any later, and wrote a review of "A Matter of Time" -- not one of Next Gen's finest moments, though it has tough competition in the fifth season.
The triumphant Little Pig with Jack and the Beanstalk in the cornfield behind his brick house at Clark's Elioak Farm.
Outside one of the farm buildings, Little Miss Muffet, her spider and her tuffet...
...inside, Enchanted Forest's Sleeping Beauty and her prince.
The Little Red Schoolhouse...locked nowadays, but one can see through the window that the education goes on.
The Merry Miller's House, from which the Miller plays music that can be heard throughout this area of the farm...
...with Little Toot the tugboat docked amidst the bullfrogs in the pond behind it.
Near the end of the maze in the pine trees behind the cornfield, the hare...
...and the tortoise, triumphant.
We had dinner with my parents, then came home and watched most of the Neil Diamond concert on CBS -- my kids know the appropriate moments to BAM BAM BAM during "Sweet Caroline" thanks to Jonathan Coulton -- and all of Woodstock: Now & Then on VH1. But my kids, apparently, are Woodstocked out -- Adam complained that there wasn't enough music and there were too many people on weed (it didn't help that they've seen quite a bit of the footage already this past week in the Woodstock film and the short documentary at the Newseum). We need to show them some proper documentaries about the '60s for context, Berkeley and Monterey and MLK and RFK and Kent State. The social upheaval was always my main point of interest, not stoned Joe Cocker croaking out Beatles lyrics, though Grace Slick and Janis Joplin are still utterly awesome.
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