new movie of ‘Trailer Park Boys’

“Kitties are not supposed to smell like cigarettes.”


(sadly not including any scenes of the "Trailer Park" Bubbles (above) meeting the one from "The Wire")

Beckett and André the Giant

"When André was young, he could not fit on a normal school bus and had to be driven to school. As his parents were unable to afford a car of their own, his neighbor, famed playwright Samuel Beckett, drove him every day..."

"The Barrier Gate of Shirakawa" from a fine hypertext version of Basho's The Narrow Road to the Deep North


"After many days of solitary wandering, I came at last to the barrier-gate of Shirakawa, which marks the entrance to the northern regions. Here, for the first time, my mind was able to gain a certain balance and composure, no longer victim to pestering anxiety, so it was with a mild sense of detachment that I thought about the ancient traveller who had passed through this gate with a burning desire to write home. This gate was counted among the three largest checking stations, and many poets had passed through it, each leaving a poem of his own making. I myself walked between trees laden with thick foliage with the distant sound of autumn wind in my ears and a vision of autumn tints before my eyes. There were hundreds and thousands of pure white blossoms of unohana in full bloom on either side of the road, in addition to the equally white blossoms of brambles, so that the ground, at a glance, seemed to be covered with early snow. According to the accounts of Kiyosuke, the ancients are said to have passed through this gate, dressed up in their best clothes.

Decorating my hair
With white blossoms of unohana,
I walked through the gate,
My only gala dress.

-- written by Sora..."

(via plep)

a New York Reliquary

"Nik Sokol, the Reliquary's resident geologist, enjoys excavating municipal sites in and around New York City. With his help, the "New Yorker's Geology" exhibits have grown to include bedrock core samples from four of the five boroughs, one of the 175 million bricks used to construct the 19th-century New Croton Aqueduct, stalactites, tap water samples, a cornice from Brooklyn Borough Hall, a Hearst Building baluster, and samples of floor tile from the TWA building at JFK.

The specimens sit like jewels in low glass cases under muted halogen bulbs. A row of vintage seltzer bottles twinkle on the wall. A curtain of yellowing Statue of Liberty postcards is juxtaposed with a mahogany china cabinet filled with statues raising their torches. One case holds first-edition books and records about New York. There are old MTA transfers, subway maps, train car doors, and vintage billy clubs. There are menus from forgotten restaurants and light fixtures from a defunct matzo factory. An enticing walk-in closet is devoted to burlesque and offers a mechanical hula dancer. Brass rings from Coney Island sit near Brooklyn-brand bubble gum and a chunk of paint from a subway station wall. A 2nd Avenue Deli sandwich pick shares velvet with a set of clay dolls from Chinese New Year and a glass ring handmade from the neck of a bottle by children on the Lower East Side, who methodically ground the edges against a curb..."

Foley & Me

"The religious conservatives in the GOP's base don't seriously believe that gay men can become straight. (Wanna stop a straight person from making the ex-gay argument? Ask him if he'd let his daughter marry one.) What they believe in—what they demand—are closeted homos, homos like Mark Foley, a single man who refused to answer direct questions about his sexual orientation. (Has any straight man ever refused to reveal his sexual orientation?) The religious conservatives in the GOP's base want all gays to be like Mark: deny who we are, live our lives alone, refuse to answer any questions about our sexuality. To them, Mark Foley was a good, closeted homo, deserving of every consideration.

The GOP was willing to cover for Foley because Foley, by being closeted, covered for them for years. So what if closet cases act out in sexually inappropriate ways? A few raped altar boys and skeeved-out pages are a price the gay-haters are only too willing to pay if it means fewer out homos..."

Scenes of Provincial Life presents a beautiful new Quicktime "Wednesday 27th Sept, about 7 PM: By Tram & Bus from the Midland Station to Broomhill"...

the PBS history of the Civil Rights movement, Howard Hampton's monumental Eyes on the Prize is being repeated on Monday nights..