Music of the day: Aimee Mann. She came after Aerosmith but before Alanis Morissette.
Book of the day: I referenced pages in both Special Topics in Calamity Physics and The Historian for another writing project today.
Comic of the day: A new Astonishing X-Men (vol. 3 no. 19) has been released, but as for older works, I recommend Sam Kieth’s Zero Girl. Those who do not read comic books might remember Kieth’s work from the short-lived Maxx animated series on MTV back in the 90s. In addition to a distinctive style to his figures, which is expected from all such artists these days, Kieth is skilled at page and panel layout, at the important aspects of visual story-telling, and his composition and imagery if not his character style are things I would be interested in emulating.
Webcomics: I still get my daily dose of Sluggy, Ozy & Millie, and and Questionable Content, and I think they will remain my comics for 2007
Links of the day:
- Subtraction: a nicely minimalistic but professional blog layout … I haven’t actually read anything on that site, but I like how it looks.
- Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t: a relatively interesting but overly verbose discussion of free will in light of contemporary science. It is unfortunately rather light on concrete arguments.
- Seeing the light — of science: a salon.com interview (by Steve Paulson) with University of Wisconsin historian Ronald Numbers … it’s informative, but as usual the “letters” section following (attached to) the article is full of self-important dogmatism and the intellectual subtlety of Andre the Giant at a midget convention.
- Mad Cow Breakthrough? Genetically Modified Cattle Are Prion Free: moo?
I spent several hours in the library this afternoon, mostly writing, and after six I finally left. An old guy kept wandering in and out and around the Asian Studies Reading Room on the 4th floor, where I was set up with my laptop and books. I never saw him sit down or read, and only a few other people came in over the course of the afternoon. The quiet was disconcerting, and eventually I left for coffee and a fritter at Fair Trade, which was similarly empty.
Behind me small group of young men and women gathered to discuss and organize some sort of road trip — at one point they mentioned Boise, but as if often the case, pronounced it Boyz-ee. Their main activity seemed to be looking up motels online and then calling with a cell phone to check for details, prices, reservations, etc. I doodled a bit but my hand was not steady and I could not draw with any subtlety or precision.
Let me finish with one of the more gentle poems contained within the standard collection of Expressionistic poetry, Menschheitsdämmerung. Ein Dokument des Expressionismus. (edited by Kurt Pinthus, 1920):
“Winter”
Geduldig ist der Wald,
Behutsamer der Schnee,
Am einsamsten das Reh.
Ich rufe. Was erschallt?
Der Widerhall macht Schritte.
Er kehrt zurück zu seinem Weh:
Das kommt heran wie leise Tritte.
Er findet mich in meiner Mitte.
Warum hab ich den Wald gestört?
Vom Schnee ward nichts gehört.
Hat sich das Reh gescheut?
Wie mich das Rufen reut.–Theodor Däubler
