Haruomi Hosono – N . D . E

because what if we were all just majestic and mystical horses

save me dorky butch in her mid thirties w big arms

Woodstock's birdhouse

And I worked with a man called Squidward. And he was a Protestant man, but we were the best of friends. But by God, he was crabid as a bag of cats. He was an auld grump. And he'd be big into the flutes and the Oboes and things like that. He lived in a big stone head.

you really do have to watch the video, it's everything

wished a customer happy new year yesterday and he responded “happy new moment! you get as many of those as you’d like :)” so we’re all gonna be okay

year of the horse

> you will never meet diplodocus or pet his kind gentle head

why live

i’m so bad at chess it makes me insane.

— Marie Howe, Boston University’s 2016 Theopoetics Conference  (via mothersofmyheart)

Marie Howe:

I ask my students every week to write 10 observations of the actual world. It’s very hard for them.

Ms. Tippett:

Really?

Ms. Howe:

They really find it hard.

Ms. Tippett:

What do you mean? What is the assignment? 10 observations of their actual world?

Ms. Howe:

Just tell me what you saw this morning like in two lines. I saw a water glass on a brown tablecloth, and the light came through it in three places. No metaphor. And to resist metaphor is very difficult because you have to actually endure the thing itself, which hurts us for some reason.

Ms. Tippett:

It does.

Ms. Howe:

It hurts us.

Ms. Tippett:

You naming something.

Ms. Howe:

We want to say, “It was like this; it was like that.” We want to look away. And to be with a glass of water or to be with anything — and then they say, “Well, there’s nothing important enough.” And that’s whole thing. It’s the point.

Ms. Howe:

It’s the this, right?

Ms. Howe:

Right, the this, whatever. And then they say, “Oh, I saw a lot of people who really want” — and, “No, no, no. No abstractions, no interpretations.” But then this amazing thing happens, Krista. The fourth week or so, they come in and clinkety, clank, clank, clank, onto the table pours all this stuff. And it so thrilling. I mean, it is thrilling. Everybody can feel it. Everyone is just like, “Wow.” The slice of apple, and then that gleam of the knife, and the sound of the trashcan closing, and the maple tree outside, and the blue jay. I mean, it almost comes clanking into the room. And it’s just amazing.

Ms. Tippett:

In some basic level, what they’ve done is just engage with their senses.

Ms. Howe:

Yeah, and have been present out of their minds and just noticing what’s around them, which is — we don’t do. And again, not to compare it to anything. They’re not allowed. And that’s very hard for them. And then on the fifth or sixth week, I say, “OK, use metaphors.” And they don’t want to. They don’t know how. They’re like, “Why would I? Why would I compare that to anything when it’s itself?” Exactly. Good question.

So then you think, why the necessity of a metaphor? Why do you have to use a metaphor now? Not just to do it to avoid it, but to do it to make it more there. And it’s very interesting.

2005 Nintendogs plush keychain

Louise Bourgeois, Maman, 1999

I noticed yesterday that I apparently don't have a master thread of all the Lemuria pieces from Phase 1, so here they are again as a refreshes to see how far we've come since the Cretaceous.

Coral reefs

Rudist reefs

Carbonate Platform

Coasts

Rivers

Central Lake (shallows)

Central Lake (deep)

Wetlands

Hot steppe

Desert

Open Woodland

Rainforest

Temperate forest

Leaf litter

Subterranean

Cold Steppe

Mountains

the designs on these keychains from nhteak

Sergey Shabohin