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Katexic Clippings (ARCHIVE)

XLV (Pablo Neruda)

XLV

Is the yellow of the forest
the same as last year’s?

And does the black flight
of the relentless seabird repeat itself?

And is where space ends
called death or infinity?

What weighs more heavily on the belt,
sadnesses or memories?

—Pablo Neruda (translated by William O’Daly)
—found in The Book of Questions (1974; this translation 1991)

xanthic

Yellow supernatural [enlarge for details!]

xanthic · /ZAN-thik/ · /ˈzanθɪk/. adjective. Yellow or yellowish in color. A class of organic acids containing sulphur. From Greek xanthós (yellow). See also: Xanthippe, Socrates’ wife, now generally a scolding, nagging woman; canary; saffron; flaxen; fulvous; flavescent.

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Links: July 12, 2020

  1. A great online exhibit → Creative Black Music at the Walker ※ Support Black artists: The Black Artist Fund
  2. A BLM protest goes bad → What Happened In Bethel, Ohio? ※ Ahmaud Arbery will not be erased ※ The Long Walk
  3. Fast but not fair is a good characterization → Why algorithms can be racist and sexist ※ For respite after that sobering read, here are some LOLfunny AI (well ML) examples from Janelle Shane:Court Cases // All your questions answered // Escape Rooms // Candle Scents + Candle Scent Descriptions
  4. Just watch Hamilton, even if you are allergic to all things hyped. I was fortunate to see it twice onstage and I can’t express how much I loved it → Hamilton on Disney+: Why we’ll never stop fighting about this brilliant, frustrating musical – Vox ※ Debating ‘Hamilton’ as It Shifts From Stage to Screen (NYT) ※ A fascinating exploration from an unexpected source: How does ‘Hamilton,’ the non stop, hip-hop Broadway sensation tap rap’s master rhymes to blur musical lines? ※ Everyone has a theory: Why Eliza Gasps at the End of Hamilton
  5. Why? → Why weed makes you laugh, according to science // Why time feels so weird in 2020 // Why a Struggling Rust Belt City Pinned Its Revival on a Self-Chilling Beverage Can // Why Literature Loves Lists // Why we can’t stop practicing physiognomy // Why Clocks Run Clockwise (And Some Watches And Clocks That Don’t)
  6. Boccaccio’s Decameron was a collection of 100 tales told in the voice of a group sheltering in place in Florence to escape the Black Plague. The New York times commissioned a modern day version with 29 authors writing short stories that are “inspired by the moment,” with authors from Margaret Atwood and Edwidge Danticat to Victor Lavalle and Rivers Solomon → The Decameron Project ※ ► Listen to two of the stories ※ Rivka Galchen on The Decameron
  7. Time for a typography walk → Letterforms / Humanforms // The Alphabet Lithographs of Jean Midolle // Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men // The Last Word on the Ampersand
  8. I’m not trying to police your language. I’m trying to do better with mine. Some of these surprised me → Everyday words and phrases that have racist connotations
  9. Variety Pack → Creepy Fungus (dead man’s fingers and jelly ears) // ‘Please Scream Inside Your Heart’ // LOL Antique Road Show // Endangered California condors in Sequoia National Park for the first time in 50 years // The International Eraser Museum // Thread “Typography”
  10. Today in 1960, the Etch A Sketch—originally called the “L’Ecran Magique,” or Magic Screen—that two-knobbed (though initially outfitted with a joystick), aluminum plotting wonder toy, is unleashed on the world by the Ohio Art Company. Still sold today, the National Toy Hall of Fame member Etch A Sketch has not only outlived a wealth of competing toys, but also its own younger, modernized siblings, the Etch A Sketch Animator and the Etch A Sketch Animator 2000, with their fancy built-in digital screens. ※ In what now seems like a much simpler time, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign was victimized by the Etch A Sketch, leading to a memorable commercial. ※ In Breaking Bad (the television show, not Romney’s campaign), Walter White used an Etch A Sketch to burn the lock off a door. ※ You haven’t seen Etch A Sketch drawings until you’ve seen the amazing art by Nicole Falzone and others.

Withheld: July 12, 2020

In the zeitgeist, but not here → The Harpers letter whingeing about cancel culture (because it doesn’t exist) ☡ The NYT and others now capitalizing Black when describing people (because duh…and the more interesting question is, should we capitalize White?) ☡ Coronavirus (because who needs more?) ☡ Trump’s Mask (because which one?) ☡ Kanye (because come on) ☡ TiKTok.

Responses: July 12, 2020

  • Reader B.: “Here is a link to a web page of poems that I have written around George Floyd’s murder, and the personal examination that the movement across this country has inspired in all white people.
  • Reader A.: “I wish I had something clever or witty to say about this serving of katexic, but just want to say how nourishing it is for my brain to wander through the links (spent longest time learning more and looking at the work of Milton Glaser, but also humbled how little I new of Arthur Ashe beyond my tv memories of seeing him win with class against that arrogant Jimmy Connors).”
  • Reader J.: “I’m glad you’re back l with your signature style of #flamflacockadoodle and feisty reality.” — I need to create something named #flamflacockadoodle!
  • A different Reader J.: “The idea that ‘Reality’ is constructed by your brain is false because it is a gross oversimplification. See this series of conversations about consciousness between novelist, essayist, and translatorTim Parks and philosopher, psychologist, and robotics engineer Riccardo Manzotti.”
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