kick start your rock & roll heart

Seth & I were kids together at school in Japan; he played the trombone his cheeks were always ruddy pink. And even though it's been almost a decade since I last saw him, I've followed the swell of his musical talent over the years.

Finally! Tonight! he & his band Anathallo are playing at the Rock & Roll hotel -- mere steps away from where most of you live. Anathallo makes dreamy, beautiful music that sounds a little bit how you might expect a childhood in Japan to sound. A good way to spend a Thursday night for sure.

See you there, perhaps?

Daisies

It is possible, I suppose that sometime
we will learn everything
there is to learn: what the world is, for example,
and what it means. I think this as I am crossing
from one field to another, in summer, and the
mockingbird is mocking me, as one who either
knows enough already or knows enough to be
perfectly content not knowing. Song being born
of quest he knows this: he must turn silent
were he suddenly assaulted with answers. Instead
oh hear his wild, caustic, tender warbling ceaselessly
unanswered. At my feet the white-petalled daisies display
the small suns of their center piece, their - if you don't
mind my saying so - their hearts. Of course
I could be wrong, perhaps their hearts are pale and
narrow and hidden in the roots. What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example - I think this
as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch -
the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daisies for the field.

Mary Oliver

le subjonctif

If you come over we will sit on the floor. I will be a little shy until you tell me a story about kissing a girl a foot taller at summer camp and how your glasses fell off on Space Mountain in 8th grade and you spent the rest of the day wandering around the Magic Kingdom blind as a bat. Or something like that. You know how to make me laugh, real laughter. When the kettle whistles we settle on mint tea because half way into the process, after I've found two mugs clean & handles intact, you open the fridge and discover the milk that isn't there. So mint it is. And oatmeal cookies soft & with just enough chocolate chips. We will talk for hours, sitting on the floor, maybe stretching out to lay on our stomachs, maybe reading quietly to ourselves, looking up & over from time to time to smile shyly or share a sentence. For awhile Rachmaninoff will play in the background but when I switch over to Beirut's first album you will whisper how much you love accordion music & gypsies. You will understand when I'm able only to nod in agreement, so overcome by the music & by you; how lovely & surprising you are, the longing trumpets carry in their thin high notes.

If you come over we will sit on the floor.

life, homonymically

WE are paired first by our eyes.

Buy me a pear, say aye.

You say bye and I am pared.

sometimes we learn our lessons

1st period - Geography

Beirut
Paris
Buenos Aires
Reykjavik
Havanna
Denver

2nd period - Mathematics

1/2 divided by 1/2 = 1

(How can broken parts end up whole?)

3rd period - English

"Teach us to care and not to care. Teach us to sit still"
- from "Ash Wednesday" by TS Eliot

4th period - Science

Newton's first law of motion:
An object at rest tends to stay at rest
and an object in motion tends to stay in motion
with the same speed and in the same direction
unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

5th period - History

History repeats itself.
We have been here before. We will come here again.

6th period - P.E.

Keep your eye on the ball. And then, if it helps, pretend the ball is his head.