"I am half distracted, Captain Shandy, said Mrs. Wadman, holding up her cambric handkerchief to her left eye, as she approached the door of my Uncle Toby's sentry box; "a mote, or sand, or something, I know not what, has got into this eye of mine; do look into it," said she.
I see him yonder, with his pipe pendulous in his hand, and the ashes falling out of it, looking and looking, then rubbing his eyes and looking again, with twice the good nature that ever Galileo looked for a spot in the sun.
In vain, for, by all the powers which animate the organ, Widow Wadman's left eye shines this moment as lucid as her right; there is neither mote, nor sand, nor dust, nor chaff, nor speck, nor particle of opake matter floating on it. There is nothing, my dear paternal uncle! but one lambent, delicious fire, furtively shooting out from every part of it, in all direction, into thine. "



very much enjoyed Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story yesterday, though maybe 5% less Steve Coogan & more Shirley Henderson would have been nice, but really good withal, certainly hope it helps to create a new generation of Shandeans, who are advised to start-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------here-------------
 

a fine oak by William Turner of Oxford in a nice set from the Art& Architecture wing of the Courtald Institute...
 

THE WAR ON HYPE

"What is the effect of this? For one, it creates a domestic state of war, a creeping authoritarian ethos that affronts the openness and relaxation of a liberal society richer and healthier than nearly any in history. This state of affairs might be acceptable if the threat were greater, but because most Americans are safe, it becomes show business, a set of policeman and analysts in every state that buy equipment and hold press conferences to announce the success of drills for disasters that will probably never come. "

The Kootenay School of Writing have a big new PDF of "W" up with work by Derksen, Robertson, Wah, Luoma etc and an essay on Billy Budd (as played by Terence Stamp above) by the late Charles Watts, who taught me how to sound out some of the rhymes in CLA-rel...


 

good luck tomorrow to our ladies team against Denmark, in the meantime I'll brush up on these animated Curling Basics
 

Europe's contempt for other cultures can't be sustained

"Europe has never had to worry too much about context or effect because for around 200 years it dominated and colonised most of the world. Such was Europe's omnipotence that it never needed to take into account the sensibilities, beliefs and attitudes of those that it colonised, however sacred and sensitive they might have been. On the contrary, European countries imposed their rulers, religion, beliefs, language, racial hierarchy and customs on those to whom they were entirely alien. There is a profound hypocrisy - and deep historical ignorance - when Europeans complain about the problems posed by the ethnic and religious minorities in their midst, for that is exactly what European colonial rule meant for peoples around the world. With one crucial difference, of course: the white minorities ruled the roost, whereas Europe's new ethnic minorities are marginalised, excluded and castigated, as recent events have shown..."

Seattle's Stranger has two pieces on glass artist Dale Chihuly--

"The Bridge of Glass is terrible. And I never wrote about it when I was in Tacoma because I was worried that someone would try to kill me. It has completely revolutionized downtown Tacoma, but as art it is a complete failure. It is a concrete slab with some art thown up on it. The art has nothing to do with its location. It's all recycled work. You're looking at a wall of Venetian vases, these bong-like things, and there's like 70 of them, so you end up with this kind of Baskin-Robbins mentality, like, Today I'll have that one. This is glass, outdoors, and it�s completely covered, with video camera surveillance, and air control so that no steam gets in there, because if steam gets in there you can't see the glass, but it's not outdoor work. The one piece that is outdoor work is this plastic thing that looks like giant aqua rock candy, so gift shops have been making and selling aqua rock candy as souvenirs. This is what downtown Tacoma is supposed to mean? After going through the humiliation of losing the railroad terminus to Seattle, and being the laughingstock of Puget Sound--this aqua rock candy is what represents the rebirth of Tacoma? I don't know what happened there. I think Dale just wanted to experiment with aqua rock candy looking shit, and no one talked him out of it, because no one is powerful enough to talk him out of it. Akron, Ohio, recently purchased some rock candy towers for their city from Chihuly Inc. The good thing is you can shoot them, and the bullets will just sort of glance off, the art won't break. So feel free to shoot them."