black march.

I have a friend
At the end
Of the world.
His name is a breath

Of fresh air.
He is dressed in
Grey chiffon. At least
I think it is chiffon.
It has a
Peculiar look, like smoke.

It wraps him round
It blows out of place
It conceals him
I have not seen his face.

But I have seen his eyes, they are
As pretty and bright
As raindrops on black twigs
In March, and heard him say:

I am a breath
Of fresh air for you, a change
By and by.

Black March I call him
Because of his eyes
Being like March raindrops
On black twigs.

(Such a pretty time when the sky
Behind black twigs can be seen
Stretched out in one
Uninterrupted
Cambridge blue as cold as snow.)

But this friend
Whatever new names I give him
Is an old friend. He says:

Whatever names you give me
I am
A breath of fresh air,
A change for you.

-Stevie Smith

the pleasure of the text

Book cover designer - how amazing must this gig be?

One of my favorites:

The UK Vintage Classics cover. Couldn't you imagine falling in love with someone after seeing them reading this on the subway?


And an approximation:

René Magritte's La Château des Pyrenees, said to have graced the (original?) cover of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities.

kind of blue.

We got creative (read: cheap) with the (much, much needed) desk and it turned out just fine. Custom tinted stain from Home Depot made a plain Jane IKEA pine top work out pretty great for the blue-on-blue color scheme going on in the room.




The Caper chair looks like a good companion piece. Ergonomic enough for actually doing work, but not too big.

Now, the last decision is at hand: Baltic Blue, or Blue Fog?

February 2009 - the books. (and movies)

Books:

Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences, Lawrence Weschler
The Zanzibar Chest, Aidan Hartley
No One Belongs Here More Than You, Miranda July
Hard Boiled and Hard Luck, Banana Yoshimoto
An Iliad, Alessandro Barrico
The Book of Imaginary Beings, Jorge Luis Borges


Movies:

Annie Hall
Dr. Strangelove
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Persepolis
Blow Up
Man on Wire
Pollock
Broken English
I Like Killing Flies
LoudQUIETLoud
Winter Passing
Mostly Martha
Grey Gardens