haircut

unemployed, i went downtown
for a thirty-two dollar haircut
stopped into nordstrom to use the men's room
my former boss was there, browsing, waiting for a table at the cafe
he looked right through me then waved at a shirt-folding clerk

dream

had a dream about my ex-boss: his gray hair was grown out to a fashionable length and dyed mostly black; he had big muscles. he was making everyone fill out a scantron form that would determine who would be in the next round of layoffs; during the assessment i left the room to get some water and there he was sleeping peacefully in a huge bed...

All the action is elsewhere...

I've been pouring my blogging energy into the People's Parking Lot these days so sorry I haven't been updating this dead zone. Real quick though, I'm almost done with David Foster Wallace's first novel, The Broom of the System. I believe this is book 245 for the year but who's counting, right?

I'm also neck deep in Bachelard's The Poetics of Space and Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence, the latter of which everyone with an interest in cultural history should read. It's a 900 or so page tome but it's worth it, at least from my vantage point (about 200 pages in).

But, seriously, the real action is on the People's Parking Lot

Another Video

Muckraking

Books 10-12

I just realized that I shorted myself a book...

Book 10 should have been number 8. The title is Cradle to Cradle and it's a sort of "pop" environmentalism/consumerism book that I read for class. I consider it "pop" as opposed to academic because it is meant for the general reader, which is, in this case, a good thing. The book itself is waterproof and made from a synthetic material (no trees!) that can be recycled as a plastic. The content of the book pushes for a sort of harmony between industry and the environment that could lead to eco-friendly consumers' paradise. And while I don't necessarily condone such a result, I do agree with many of their assertions. For example, they urge manufacturers to consider not only what goes into a product but how the used product is disposed/recycled/returned to the earth. Seems easy enough, right?

Books 11 and 12 were Maurice Merleau-Ponty's The World of Perception and Saul Bellow's first novel, Dangling Man. The former is a transcript of a series of M-P's lectures that were broadcast on French radio in 1948. He's a phenomenologist and argues for a return to understanding the world through our senses rather than depending on science to describe the essence of things. Bellow's book relates to M-P in that it is written as a journal of a man who is out of work and waiting to be drafted into the army during WWII (hence the use of the word "dangling"). The protagonist, Joseph, is very much aware of the world around him and is constantly searching out the meaning of his existence, much like Roquentin in Sartre's Nausea.

I previously wrote that these sorts of tales don't sit well when one is in my current state of "waiting," but I take it back after reading Bellow. As always, he connects to a world that I know and don't know; a time and place (early mid-century Chicago) that I miss even having never experienced it. The feelings of his 28 year-old narrator are familiar and the depth of his (protagonist/author) knowledge make me envious.

At this pace I may get back on track by the end of the month. As always, we'll see.

Wild Man!

So, when my son asks how he responded to changing out of his hospital clothes and into civilian attire, I'm going to show him this photo.



As you probably know if you're reading my site, this is Saul William; he was born on Monday, 4/6/09, at 8:46 PM, and tipped the scale at almost 9 lbs. He trimmed down to 8 lbs, 11 oz by day two but is currently eating about every hour and a half, in an attempt to pack the pounds on. We'll get him in the gym next week to pack on some lean muscle.

So far his likes include mama and sleeping; he doesn't care to be swaddled -- he responds via kicking and punching -- nor does he like to be changed. His first night, he seemed enamored with the strip of light coming from the hospital bathroom and I feel like he's always looking at he pictures on the wall; of course this means that he is fascinated with light and color and will therefore be a painter. Similarly, his hand movements evoke images of Leonard Bernstein, so maybe conducting will be the avenue he pursues?



Regardless of his career path, I'm going to do all I can to make sure he's caring and open-minded, critical and well-rounded, friendly, loving, well-mannered, gentle, strong, honest, fun-loving, interested, passionate, idealistic, and that he likes good music. On that note, his first CD is lullaby versions of Radiohead.