the year of the fish

yes i know the Chinese think it's the year of the dog, but in fact this past year has been One Year of Fish. as in, one year ago mysfit & i decided we needed a means of continuing our conversations across time zones.

the year since has seen the birth of the tourist, the chaos journals, the short life of the Fish of the Day, new ichthyologists & tourists & portraits & the ever-expanding blogosphere.

should we have gone with one of our many other possible titles for this space?

can we manage to avoid repeating ourselves?

Delirium.

what is the lifespan of the fish?

have we amused your minds, excited your spirits and warmed your bellies?

as a sort of bookend, or epigraph, or chapter header if you will, or for continuity purposes, etcetera, a photo of the current pope:

Pope Benedict XVI

this thing is definitely still on...

trivial fish

stolen from fm, who stole it from fence, who...um.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Jenn see!

1. Jenn see was the first Tsar of Russia.
2. Jenn see can clean her ears with her tongue, which is over thirty-nine inches long.
3. Most bottles and jars contain at least twenty-five percent recycled jenn see.
4. In Eastern Africa you can buy beer brewed from jenn see.
5. Jenn see can fly at an average speed of fifteen kilometres an hour.
6. Jenn see has three eyelids!
7. If you toss jenn see 10000 times, she will not land heads 5000 times, but more like 4950, because her head weighs more and thus ends up on the bottom.
8. During severe windstorms, jenn see may sway several feet to either side!
9. The moon is 400 times closer to the Earth than jenn see, and 400 times smaller.
10. A bride should wear something old, something new, something borrowed, and jenn see.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

in memoriam fish

20 years since the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

Challenger explosion, January 28, 1986.

there's no moon tonight, but go look at the stars or something.

mozart fish

the maestro.

happy 250th to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

now go listen to some of his pieces; it elevates the mind.
(you have to register for the archives there, but it's free albeit limited to 5 songs a day...)

good new for fishes, bad news for coastlines?

breaking newsflash: (yeah really)
Global warming will cause sea levels to rise up to 34 centimeters (11 inches) by the end of the century, causing increased flooding and coastal erosion...The study — published in this month's issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters — said global warming was expected to further heat up the world's oceans and cause glaciers in the Himalayas and ice sheets in Greenland to melt.

no kidding?

as i sit here in January with the windows open, it being 50 degrees outside...& our government says global warming may not be a problem.

i've been ranting & raving about this for awhile now, more so since i learned of a Princeton study (i.e. local) which found that "rising sea levels caused by global warming could shrink New Jersey by up to 3 percent in the next 100 years." ooh goody. bye bye Jersey Shore. of course, the people in charge of building there respond to the study with brilliant analyses such as "it almost sounds like science fiction."

not very comforting, considering:
Currently, a 100-year flood - about a 9.5-foot rise in the water level - would cover 6.5 percent of the state's land area. If the sea were to rise an extra 2 feet, storm-fueled floodwaters would cover more than 9 percent of the state.
Another way to look at it is that what is currently considered a 100-year flood would occur from three to 20 times more frequently. It would have to be relabeled a 30-year flood or even - in the worst case - a five-year flood.

sigh. my beaches!

resolute fish

so fishies, how're those resolutions for this year going?

i'm not required to answer my own questions you know.

anyway, tangentially to that (er, is it a tangent if it was my point in the first place? hmmm.) there's a new hardcover edition of Good Omens coming out--i've mentioned it before:

new edition cover art.

& in honor of that--i guess-- the authors have posted the new year's resolutions of the demon & the angel.

which made me giggle.
they're far more interesting than my own.

the cat made me do it.

meme my memeness!

i'm not tagging anyone, i've decided to let fate do its work.

but since it came up:
ahem:
"The Rules: The first player of this game starts with the topic "five weird habits" and people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next five people to be tagged and link to their web journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog or journal that says "You have been tagged" (assuming they take comments) and tell them to read yours."

or so they tell me...

so without further mumblings or disclaimers:
five weird things i do (only five???)

1. i persist in believing, for whatever reason, that if i just keep doing what i want to do, things will work out. somehow. i have no basis for this really, it's just one of them mystery of life things.

2. i procrastinate beyond all reasonable interpretations of the word. they should invent some sort of Path that studies the quantums inherent in my perception of time in terms of things that can be done tomorrow.

3. i daydream about the impossible. the really, really, really impossible. really.

4. i talk to my cat. this is pretty weird, even if lots of people do it.

5. i am extremely stubborn when it comes to befriending people. even if they don't want to be befriended.

not so weird, eh, i guess..."weird" is one of those things that sometimes requires an outside perspective. which means not in my head.
so go to, people. i'm sure i've missed many...

because i feel like it.

JABBERWOCKY

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
the frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the maxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

As in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came.

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack.
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"Has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Lewis Carroll (if you've been living in a hole, & didn't know that already.)

old-school fish

i have stolen this from f-machine because it had me snickering out loud*, & not just because we got an Atari Flashback console for Christmas.

seriously fishies, if you're a child of 70's or 80's, this will make you feel old.
but dammit it's funny anyway.

*read all the way through, believe me.

expression of disgusted fish

I.
am.
so.
sick.
of taking
COLD
SHOWERS.

it's affecting my health. & my brain. & other things too, i suspect.
i just had to share that.

grrrrbrrrrgrrrrrbrrrr.


ed. note: er, the water heater for my apartment is apparently busted with slim hope for repair.
just to um clarify. after reading this over several hours later. yeah.

no premeditation

hey,

if you ever skip over to the chaos journals, i wanted to take a moment to thank you for drifting thru my chaos - so to both those who comment and those who just read: Thank you and now's your chance.

thanks to jason evans and his Caroline, i have the urge to serialize a story but i can't figure out which one. so far there are 9 fiction excerpts from the chaos journals. if you like, take a look and let me know which one i should continue with, which one you want to find out what happens next.

-mysfit

galactic guitar

for oldben - proof that there really is music in the spheres

it's 4:19 am

do you know where your fish is?

i found a fish for mysfit

london whales

a Northern Bottlenose whale has gone swimming up the Thames.
which strikes me as a bad idea, whether you're a whale or not.

poe fish

celebrate that Edgar Allan Poe was born today, 197 years ago.

Spirits of the Dead

Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne'er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.

The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!

1827

you know the feeling - right fish?

it's not actually over for me me, not yet, but hey, i thought i'd share

well that's a relief

i've wondered, from time to time.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

another poem, a different fish

by Gregory Corso:

I AM 25

With a love a madness for Shelley
Chatterton Rimbaud
and the needy-yap of my youth
has gone from ear to ear:
I HATE OLD POETMEN!
Especially old poetmen who retract
who consult other old poetmen
who speak their youth in whispers,
saying:--I did those then
but that was then
that was then--
O I would quiet old men
say to them:--I am your friend
what you once were, thru me
you'll be again--
Then at night in the confidence of their homes
rip out their apology-tongues
and steal their poems.

the windowsill stole my writing career

begin:
it was all hot colors, that was the point.
she was awkward
inside the music, maybe lulled
by too many lures,
which is to say two,
which once was nothing but
now is one too many.

the mirror was a fine example
of a porthole, a portal, opening
the wall to a room
where we were the opposite of ourselves,
our reflections were ourselves, &
that was how everyone could see
how everyone saw themselves.

she wasn't in the mirror,
not really,
because someone always
remains outside to see it
when the interior is not itself.

she was here, in the heat
under a hat with
a ribbon in it, a feather.
horns.

end:
that was when we were saved
by a master of media,
armed with digital projections,
induced optic spasms or lucky charms
or whatever you call
that rainbow spread
of colors at the end
of the iris
spectrum.

from february 2005.

defensive fish

There's just no talking to some people.

one of the questions humans have never found a satisfactory answer to:

"What did I do with my pants?!?"

(oh yeah and Happy Friday the 13th

- be very very very very very careful today as it is also a full moon and the veil between worlds is thin. so thin that if you stretch a hand out at the right place and time with intent you may just find yourself in another world, in another life. be wary of your dreams today, both night-visions and day-images - you never know what will take substance and crawl, creep, limp or fly into this world. now is the time that those little gremlins and other faer-folk come out of the wood work - literally - to work magic and mischief again us big clumsy oafs...)

the gravitational mass of fish

my window is rattling in response to some vibration outside but when i lock it, it shifts to a subversively sonorous drone.

actually, i don't know where the vibration comes from; it could be anything.

it could be my cat stalking the Sailor Scouts, e.g.

here is a picture of right now.
or just then, as it probably is to you, by now.

i proclaim tomorrow (otherwise known as Thursday) to be Distraction-Free Day.
all random blogging, anime-watching, Dune-reading, re-organizing-of-the-kitchen-because-i-can't-take-it-anymore must be avoided at all costs.

i have to grovel to institutions & find bits of paper to prove the doctors wrong. i have to sticker my car. i have to shift the flower arrangements. i have to convince the cops to give me copies. all this & maybe a little bit of good v. evil as a nightcap. if i'm a good girl.

aha, it's almost a full moon, that's why everyone's all weird.

i was going to write about testing superstring theory (it involves black holes in the Alps) & perpendicular galaxies & the North Star's newfound friend & how long it takes to traverse a black hole (& my suspicion that they're missing out on some sort of infinity on that one) & the mouse that set a house on fire & the lions in Tanzania (but not about the one-eyed cat) but i wrote this instead.

this i just found i wrote almost exactly a year ago:

I notice the light first:

not at all green, rather gleaming & graywhite
as the sky's been,
slats & blurs of reflection off hardwood
shaded by swoops of transient curtain
which never draws but we see:

tree limbs like sticks in a winter bouquet
(there was mountain sage in the one I gave you)
the tenor dog has ceased its strangely-patterned communion
but the bass & bells of wet traffic
swell & ebb like a song:

the dog must be accents or
a reminder of rhythm.
in here the soundtrack is deliberately mythical,
the lyre of Orpheus inside windows,
mediocre coffee in a green marble mug:

deep green of seat cushions on white frames
& the licorice-green of wine bottles,
green iron & glass, spikes of organic green,
spiderplant, a young palm, basil vines:

in all that gray light, flecks of color
from a persona who gives me
green things with character,
who met in greens & greens
& Paris paintings in gray-green,

reflective green streets signs so
I know where I live
but where else is there green today?

1/13/2005

ah, it seems not much has changed since then.
but it has. & the coffee's better.

here is a message of joy from mysfit:

i have no idea how old this is but it still works for me.
(i have a bellybutton, um, i am a sunflower...damn! how did that go???)

now i'm going to rearrange my bedroom & get my eyes into some scifi while i still can.

ps: there's thunder & lightning here in New York.
lightning? in January? quoi?

& i started a website for portraits, which is the thing about photography that i most love & am least practiced at.
so yeah.

bankai fish

bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeach!!!

bubbles

as i sit here drinking a tall lovely mimosa with fresh raspberries, the natural result of a celebration last night (my love & i have been together longer than it seems...wheeeeee i love being in love. ok. giddiness subsiding for a moment...) i realize i have a few bubbles to share with the fishies...

(a fish in flowers...)

there's a strangely 80's-esque trailer out for Sophia Coppola's next effort, Marie Antoinette.

there're also trailers out for X-Men 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Superman Returns, & (sigh) The DaVinci Code, which was a crap book, but...the film's got a pretty killer cast, so...(sigh).
i have to twitch, though, when i hear they're considering re-making Easy Rider. why? & how? & with whom? twitch.

in other news, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is "defending freedom in the digital world", so that's okay then.

& some people have made Blogopoly. i dunno, methinks i'm a classicist myself.

the Guardian's published its list of the Top 20 Geek Novels, if you're interested in that sort of thing...er, & there's only 6 that i haven't read.

& i don't remember how we found it, or what we were looking for in the first place, but we found a kickass site on dinosaurs.

a friend of mine's been doing a comic with extremely ironic wolves. really.

& the lovely kate has been posting equally lovely tidbits from Japan.

& one of my photos is up for a photoshop contest at Worth1K. groovy! go get 'er, mysfit! i'll vote for you.

& if you love creepy cartoon children (mysfit? still paying attention?) then go watch any of the animated films up at children r skary. i always kinda wanted to be named Genevieve.

here's a guide to your legal rights as a photographer, including a pdf version to print out & wave in people's faces when they get cranky about you shooting them. yep.

& this is just weird, & don't remember why i have it.

but this might be the coolest internet radio ever, created by the Music Genome Project.

asking for it: New Jersey wants a new state slogan...(note: that photo that caps the story is really really local to me...sigh)

& sadly, Lou Rawls has died.

but hey! check out all that dark matter!

pop of the moment

so every couple of months i find a band via some arbitrary connection to the Great Music Machine in the Sky, & proceed to drive everyone around me slowly mad by constant airplay. as it were.

back in December i discovered the increasingly irresistible Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, a local-ish band (though they're off touring Europe at the moment. wish i could tour Europe.) from Brooklyn/Philly (a little of column A, little of column B?) via NPR's All Songs Considered.

it's like underwater guitars & the breakdown of language into vocal instrumentation with clever pop-culture-y lewis-carroll-eqsue lyrics & happy little driving drumbeats over deceptively familiar but surprisingly, er, surprising musical styles. a little slacker-jazz, a twist of beatles-y pop-psychedelia, a dash of geeky rock frothing up with a sudden urge to dance around shamelessly. variety is the spice of pop. yeah.

they've got a couple of songs up on the website (i dare you to resist listening to "young blood" while you're out driving in the evening) & some additional tracks on their mypace page, & i insist you give a listen. & if you can get it, the first track off the album is deliriously silly.
"oh beamish nephew" indeed.

from mysfit's adventures in the lone-star state

hell's angel - The Spider House Coffee Shop - Austin, Texas - Dec 05

at long last, i posted a few of the pics from my trip to Texas on the tourist. all these are from my last day there. we explored Austin a bit, which is a really nifty town. the Spider House Coffee Shop was my favorite. it was a little house that had been transformed into the coolest coffee shop ever. the back yard is populated with statues and creatures and college students and poets and there's even a little screen where they have small outdoor movie showings.

(i changed the link so that it now goes to just the pictures from texas. to go to the tourist home page click here - me)

enjoy!
mysfit

the fish is dreaming of:

"mommy, what's a pension?"

"oh pensions were myths that people in the 20th century believed in. they thought that the money taken out of their hard earned paycheck every week would guarantee that they'd be taken care of in their old age, when they no longer were able to work."
"and it didn't?"
"no dear. you see, people at that time also believed in corporations and governments when they said that all would be well."
"mommy?"
"yes dear?"
"why are people so stupid?"


i'm sorry, i just can't help myself. every time i turn around, some corporation or some CEO is selling their soul and cheating people out of the rest of their lives or another government official is being accused of some scandal and the government is funneling more money into fighting oversees instead of taking care of the people here at home that need it. (if our country goes to shit while we fight for "democracy" oversees, what is left for those soldiers to come home to?)

even if the corporate executives don't get away with it (because of those meddling kids), it's no consolation to those who will now have to work until they keel over and die. a lot of times, people's retirement money is all wrapped up in the company's stocks and when the company starts to crash, the corporate execs put a selling freeze on the stock in order to try to buoy the sinking ship - of course, execs who want to sell can do so if they like. and so these people watch helplessly as their lifesavings dwindle with their hopes any ability to support themselves in old age.

with the aging baby-boomers (set to start to retire in 2010) and the failure of corporations to be able to keep accounting books out of dumpsters, america is facing a pension crisis. but america is not the only country fearing difficulties in the up coming years as "fewer workers are having to support more retired people" because people are living longer and birth rates are in decline. click here to read how some other countries are dealing with the pension crisis.

but still america's corporations are sucking up whatever souls can be bought and finding that everyone has a price, especially the law. in the mid-1800's the corporation took advantage of a new amendment and emerged as a legal "person", but how can a corporation who's pure motivation is the bottom line feel the moral pressure of conscience? how can you try a whole corporation? what kind of person is a corporation anyways? i know i've brought this up before, but for a good look into these and more questions about the dominant institutions in US society, watch The Corporation - watch and be amazed.

but there's a new trend in corporate crime: "Corporations that commit securities and accounting fraud can now expect to get sweetheart deals from the Justice Department, and they don't face public exposure for their misdeeds." (from Crime without Conviction - Democracy Now!, Dec. 29th, 2005) as long as the corporation serves up a CEO or CFO or two, the corporation itself can get away scott-free. again corporate lawyers are twisting the deferred sentencing policy that the US Justice Department implicated mostly for juvenile crimes. and why not right? from a "legal person" to "not legally responsible" in a few fancy steps.

but hallelujah! i have found religion. brothers and sisters, follow your fish to Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop-Shopping! there is hope for this country afterall! take back your main streets from the malls and amusement parks! free your hearts from the cold grips of consumerism! realize that you encourage these corporations to take away your soul when you serve up your money apathetically on a platter!!

ASK QUESTIONS! GET INVOLVED! they will tell you that america's economy will crash if you don't support these huge mega-corporations. they will tell you that if you don't consume then you support terrorism and all sorts of horrible things! but look at these corporations you are supporting! look at the businesses that are gone because of these places that treat their own employees with contempt and their consumers with barely controlled amusement! and ask yourself if you believe what you are being told...

thank you
mysfit
(p.s. Happy New Year!!!)

happy new fish!