Mr Quill's photos from the Fake Wake were super high resolution, so I've been looking at our faces in close-up. Also, here's the song from Reading Rainbow slowed down:
James! How the heck are you?
Showing posts with label rainbows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rainbows. Show all posts
August 15, 2010
July 09, 2010
The Double Rainbow Admirer & His Admirers
You've probably already seen the double rainbow guy, which has been viraled everywhere in the last week, but just in case you haven't:
Anyway, I was impressed by how quickly several excellent knock-offs appeared. First, a perfect auto-tune song in the vein of the genius Symphony of Science people who've been auto-tuning Carl Sagan, &c:
Secondly, this KFC parody is pitch-perfect:
June 13, 2010
Art: This man has illustrated every page of Gravity's Rainbow
Speaking of quixotic Pynchon projects, this artist Zak Smith has created an illustration for every page of Gravity's Rainbow. (That's a dense, difficult 760 page postmodern novel, often displayed unread on college dorm room book shelves.) Here's Mr Smith's writer's statement:
So I illustrated Gravity's Rainbow-- nobody asked me to, but I did it anyway. Most of the pictures are drawings-- ink on whatever paper was lying around, but there are also paintings (acrylic), photos I took, and experimental photographic processes. I tried to illustrate the passages as literally as possible-- if the book says there was a green Spitfire, I drew a green Spitfire. Mostly, I tried to make a series of pictures as dense, intricate, and rich as the prose in the book. The entire project was shown in the Whitney Museum's 2004 Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary Art and is now in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
The index for the illustrations is here. For instance, page 666 is called "a chess bishop if you have seen him, running across the wet meadows in very early morning, with his red vestments furling and fluttering .a barbecue...got married...the lights failed...electrical tidal wave...a ceilingful of sooty, sterile eggs...lightning bolts...a whispering silhouette...homosexual prison-camp inmates."
February 26, 2010
Department of Five Word Poems: xvi.
89.
My elbow is on fire.
-F. Keith Wahle
-F. Keith Wahle
xvi.
Our rainbows manufactured in Albuquerque.
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September 29, 2009
Never on Sunday Song
Don't you know humongous jackalopes roamed Pangaea,
Yes, their fossils test our faith, my girlfriend, the restless feckless,
In her rich aunt's necklace, she looks like an old ornamented manataea,
Yes, & the jackalopes would have eaten that creature for breakfast.
Never on Sunday, she said, & wave your underpants in the wind
Like the Union Jack--, about my girlfriend I'll wind a lengthy vignette.
Winded from two too many hookah bowls last night, her voice sounds tinned
As she complains about the President, but the history's not in yet.
Time, gentlemen, please, to ask to shake a nation,
Long time, yes, & they missed the lost Zephyr train from Truckee to Sacramento,
Time to wait, eat a veggie burrito, & time for self-flagellation,
Yes, & if it comes, she'll be waiting by the tracks, now with several more babies to attend to.
Never on Sunday, I'm like a Remittance Man in a time of peace.
I'm a spy in the vestibule of my girlfriend's filthy caresses.
She left her locket unlocked in case you forgot your keys,
As a favor, rung-in & sung, every night when she undresses.
In the midst of a crooked & preverted nation,
Yes, even you, & my girlfriend, stand up, as lights of the world,
The restless feckless, she's what's left after nature's creation
Has been recalled, yes, & infidelity with angels, with all the right curves, & garlanded & laureled.
Never on Sunday, she said, sleeping like salvation never does,
The perfect day for mimosas & whores cloistered in pavilions,
My girlfriend is like a rainbow after the gay bar closes,
My girlfriend is like a lost lottery ticket worth millions.
Time, gentlemen, please, papers scattered from here to Samoa,
Curse the fin de siecle for its redundancy,
Repeat yourself & remember yourself & mispronounce tomatoa,
Yes, not once ask a nation for clemency, deeper than naivety but still not fancy.
Never on Sunday, I'm like a Remittance Man in the Pacific Theater,
After the terrific belligerents have gone home. Bear witness
Of that light, specific that light what shines on my girlfriend's dumpster-diving career,
Bear witness that this aperitif has undertones of mermaid foam--, but is otherwise hit or miss.
Don't you know the Colorado Locusts will return,
Yes, and then our farm subsidies will be dwarfed by my girlfriend's climax.
Lay up nearer, brother, ask nicely or she'll never learn,
Or about the humongous ancient mammals, yes, we're all vulnerable to mothership attacks.
Never on Sunday, she said, but who finds time to read the moon's latest runes?
Colonel Qaddafi can pitch his tent in my girlfriend's studio apartment,
Every enabler by his own standard, & Sunday Morning Cartoons,
Every conservative by his own camp, & never a camp misspent.
Time, gentlemen, please, finish your pints & find your graves,
My girlfriend, yes, her vocoder thru a groundhog tin-can hogphone,
Can't stomach another four years if the President misbehaves,
Yes, & echo back, in a tin room, like dating your own clone.
Never on Sunday, I'm like a Remittance Man up a Jackalope's colon,
But you will repeat me, you will remember me?
Never on Sunday, she said, well, what are we allowed to do for fun?
Manuia, gentleman-- remember me when the seagulls get seasick & declare victory.
May 13, 2009
Purple Flags? Part Three: Number Crunching
I've devoted several posts to the mystery of why there is no purple on any of the world's national flags. And posted pictures of some of the rare flags that contain purple (like the flag of Tokyo & a bunch from regions in Spain.) Google-searching about purple flags is the most common way that people find this site randomly on the internet, so I will continue to give the public more of what it wants. If I could somehow combine Miss Utah & Michael Jackson's testicles on a purple flag I could create an über-blog post which would be irresistible to even unrelated googling. People googling their ex-girlfriends would find themselves helplessly drawn to this weblog!Someone at a flag retail store named CRW Flags in Glen Burnie, Maryland, named Ivan Sarajcic, has crunched all the numbers for color frequency on national flags. (Perhaps there's a ton of down time if you work at a flag retail store?) Analyzing 192 flags, these are the statistics for how many flags have which color, & what percent of the total contain that color:Red - 148 - 77.08%White - 140 - 72.92%Blue - 102 - 53.13%Yellow/Gold - 89 - 46.30%Green - 87 - 45.31%Black - 59 - 30.73%Orange - 9 - 4.69%Brown - 9 - 4.69%Gray - 6 - 3.13%Purple - 2 - 1.04%Only two national flags contain any purple! Spain & Nicaragua! We've also learned that orange, brown & gray are neglected. And there's no pink - which is interesting, because pink has only recently been associated with girlyness, princesses, & frat boy business clothes, so there was plenty of time for it to become a national color before it acquired such unfortunate stereotypes. Mr Sarajcic also broke down the colors by how much is on the total area of the flags:Red - 30.30%Blue - 21.15%White - 19.12%Green - 15.33%Yellow/Gold - 8.6%Black - 5.13%Orange - 1.24%Brown - 0.11%Gray - 0.03%Purple - 0.001%Purple's portion is infinitesimal because the two national flags it appears on only have a tiny bit. Spain (0.10%) - that same lion from the Kingdom of León we discussed before!
& Nicaragua (0.04%) - purple snuck in thru the rainbow - 
Compared to colors like green, which gets 100% of Libya's flag - (Green was Muhammad's favorite color, which is why it's all over the flags of Islamic countries).All of Mr Sarajcic's fascinating report can be read at http://www.crwflags.com/FOTW/FLAGS/xf-csts.html.
Any more, world?
February 10, 2009
August 30, 2008
PLENTEOUS FRUITS
An early addition to my Western Harmony series of Shape-Note tunes, but new to the internet: this one is pretty conservative in arc & text, but with a few spicy Copland-esque moments. I believe I've managed to find some Isaac Watts poetry that hasn't been set to a shape-note song, but correct me if I'm wrong, it's from his same lovely arrangement of Psalm 65 that the Sacred Harp tune Rainbow uses - the three verses I use would be the middle three verses of Rainbow in some ideal long version. (There's evidence of it being set here: but I've never heard that hymn.)
Click on the (bottom of the) image to see it large & print a landscape-size page. To get a PDF file, go here.The morning light and ev'ning shade
Successive comforts bring:
Thy plent'ous fruits make harvest glad,
And flow'rs adorn the spring.
Seasons and times, and moons and hours,
Heav'n, earth and air are thine,
When clouds distil their fruitful show'rs,
The author is divine.
Those wand'ring cisterns in the sky,
Borne by the winds around,
With wat'ry treasures well supply,
The furrows of the ground.
I recommend you check back this website, like, all the time - because as soon as I fix my damn'd microphone, I'm going to sing you all beautiful home recordings of these songs.
July 01, 2008
Berkeley: Downloadable Shape-Note Score
Click on that image to see it larger, "landscape" printable size. I posted this text earlier as a teaser, hinting at my next big project. Now that it's slowly arriving, Here again, is:Berkeley
Oh, Jesus like a mountain faun across the verdant plain,
Oh, Jesus like a coming dawn, close as your jocular vein.
So long I've wandered down below, so long I've lived in pain.
That I will love my Lord above till only fossils remain.
Till only bones remain, My Lord, and all the plants are dead,
A mighty angel clothed in cloud, a rainbow upon his head.
So long I've traveled on this ground, so long I've died in dread,
Now I will come to you, my Lord, and live forever instead.
May 04, 2008
Berkeley
I've made four copies of my slow-builded cathedral, Prophecy & Doggerel, of which almost all of the nonsense poems can be found scattered across this website. Meanwhile, while I wait for the Nations of the Earth to heed it, my newest newer project is top-secretly being kept under wraps, until such time as its location can be disclosed, declassified. However! Bad at secrets, & without revealing the nature of its nature, I'll publish the text of a tune called "Berkeley".Oh, Jesus like a mountain faun upon the verdant plain,
Oh, Jesus like a coming dawn, close as your jocular vein.
So long I've wandered down below, so long I've lived in pain.
That I will love my Lord above till only fossils remain.
Till only bones remain, my Lord, and all the plants are dead,
A mighty angel clothed in cloud, a rainbow upon his head.
So long I've traveled on this ground, so long I've died in dread,
Now I will come to you, my Lord, and live forever instead.
April 30, 2008
Correspondences: Late April 2008
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What are your favourite hymns? I am trying to pick some for the service. The family hymn is Guide Me O Thy Great Redeemer, which is always a good sing, but I need two more. In particular, I would like one out of the three song-spaces we have to be occupied by something that might be recognised by a wider group than just the born-and-bred Anglicans. Trouble is it has to be played on a church organ in an 11th century church so anything other than timeless gets shown up for what it really is. And, if the song lacks a certain requisite dignity the organ ends up sounding like a mighty wurlitzer and half the congregation get the giggles. I like Will The Circle Be Unbroken but the lyrics are hardly appropriate.
Are you able to come? If you do will you bring a uke? There will be many opportunities to play it.
R
Are you able to come? If you do will you bring a uke? There will be many opportunities to play it.
R
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ps. I could hear you singing!
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I've been thinking about your quandary. My two thoughts are, my current favorite sacred harp tunes, with words by the immortal Isaac Watts, is a good positively eco-friendly text perfect for the summer solstice:
'Tis by thy strength the mountains stand,
God of eternal power;
The sea grows calm at thy command,
And tempests cease to roar.The thirsty ridges drink their fill,
And ranks of corn appear;
The ways abound with blessings still,
'Thy goodness crowns the year.
(We sang that on the radio, but it can also be really pretty - 344 Rainbow) The Poem:
http://books.google.com/books
http://www.fasola.org/indexes
My second thought is you should write your own appropriate lyrics for The Circle Be Unbroken, &C.
Happy May Day,
Sandy Hussein
"Now when I die don't bury me at all
Just place me away in alcohol
My forty four lay by my feet
Please tell them I am just asleep"
-Carter Family
________________________________________________________________
James, you fancy gentleman!Between You and Peter Zillmann
Hi Pete! Thanks for being my friend. The internet!
I'm doing fine. I work [...] jobs in the sf bay area. Life! Sometimes I play the my blue electric ukulele at open mics.
How are you?
Always,
James Welsch!
I'm doing fine. I work [...] jobs in the sf bay area. Life! Sometimes I play the my blue electric ukulele at open mics.
How are you?
Always,
James Welsch!
Ahh, the Intertubes. Is there anything they can't do?
I'm glad to hear you're doing well! [...] sounds wonderful. If you're going to do have a shitty job you may as well do it someplace wonderful like the Bay area. Good for you! I hope you love it there.
I don't think I've ever seen a blue electric ukulele. I'm glad to hear they exist and are in such esteemed custody. I've actually been considering getting myself a uke recently, though more the $30 trash variety than the investment-quality electric sort.
I'm well also. I work as a computer nerd at a small liberal arts college in southwest Michigan. I spend my free time traveling as much as my pocketbook allows. I've been doing state capitals for the past few years. 25 down, 25 to go. Didn't you live in Carson City once upon a time? Tiny little capitol building, Nevada has.
It's great to hear from you!
Yours,
Peter
I'm glad to hear you're doing well! [...] sounds wonderful. If you're going to do have a shitty job you may as well do it someplace wonderful like the Bay area. Good for you! I hope you love it there.
I don't think I've ever seen a blue electric ukulele. I'm glad to hear they exist and are in such esteemed custody. I've actually been considering getting myself a uke recently, though more the $30 trash variety than the investment-quality electric sort.
I'm well also. I work as a computer nerd at a small liberal arts college in southwest Michigan. I spend my free time traveling as much as my pocketbook allows. I've been doing state capitals for the past few years. 25 down, 25 to go. Didn't you live in Carson City once upon a time? Tiny little capitol building, Nevada has.
It's great to hear from you!
Yours,
Peter
Pete!
I was raised in Incline Village, NV, an hour from Carson City. It's true, you can walk right in the front door, down a hall, & right into the Gov's office. How many other states boast such intimacy?
No! Spend an extra hundred & order yourself a Fluke from Flea Market music - I am an unofficial spokesman for this wonderful company. Their ukes are magical.
http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/
For a couple hundred you can get electro-acoustic pick-up, perfect for open mics & playing with rock bands, or amplified hair-dryers, depending on what night of the week it is.
Here's some YouTubes of me playing my blue mountain uke:
I like your state capitol plan. I visited my fiftieth state, Alabama, last May.
James
I was raised in Incline Village, NV, an hour from Carson City. It's true, you can walk right in the front door, down a hall, & right into the Gov's office. How many other states boast such intimacy?
No! Spend an extra hundred & order yourself a Fluke from Flea Market music - I am an unofficial spokesman for this wonderful company. Their ukes are magical.
http://www.fleamarketmusic
For a couple hundred you can get electro-acoustic pick-up, perfect for open mics & playing with rock bands, or amplified hair-dryers, depending on what night of the week it is.
Here's some YouTubes of me playing my blue mountain uke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW88jSi6n54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsITMCW9_p8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NupAdUGhRiA
I like your state capitol plan. I visited my fiftieth state, Alabama, last May.
James
I haven't counted them all yet, but Wyoming was just about as welcoming. In the front door, make a right, and don't trip over the Governor. In many cases I haven't been able to actually enter the buildings themselves, as I'm usually traveling on weekends and politicians seem to love time off.
Nice youtubings! And what a lovely instrument! I am smitten with one of your comments in the "Across the Universe" thread, "My sombrero is also backwards."
Congrats on finishing off all 50 states! Alabama was a challenge for me as well; I had the Dakotas and three states west of them left to go, and lonely Alabama as the easternmost I hadn't visited, lost between Florida and Mississippi. I'll be visiting Idaho (#49) this summer, which is exciting. I had a free trip to Hawaii (#50) all but planned, and it disappeared a few weeks ago when ATA Airlines a splode.
You're not that far from Sacramento (at least not by midwestern standards), and it's a lovely one to visit if you're interested in starting.
And thanks for the uke advice!
Nice youtubings! And what a lovely instrument! I am smitten with one of your comments in the "Across the Universe" thread, "My sombrero is also backwards."
Congrats on finishing off all 50 states! Alabama was a challenge for me as well; I had the Dakotas and three states west of them left to go, and lonely Alabama as the easternmost I hadn't visited, lost between Florida and Mississippi. I'll be visiting Idaho (#49) this summer, which is exciting. I had a free trip to Hawaii (#50) all but planned, and it disappeared a few weeks ago when ATA Airlines a splode.
You're not that far from Sacramento (at least not by midwestern standards), and it's a lovely one to visit if you're interested in starting.
And thanks for the uke advice!
Sir-
I lived briefly in midtown Sacramento. You saw the capitol mall, with every California tree represented. Sacramento has more trees per capita than Paris, #2.
I received some nasty comments about backwards flag on youtube (I deleted the ones inappropriate for children). What's with the mean "unpatriotic" "un-American" accusations going all over the blogosphere? Seriously, flag-pin lapels? But enough, Happy May Day, man.
10-4
I lived briefly in midtown Sacramento. You saw the capitol mall, with every California tree represented. Sacramento has more trees per capita than Paris, #2.
I received some nasty comments about backwards flag on youtube (I deleted the ones inappropriate for children). What's with the mean "unpatriotic" "un-American" accusations going all over the blogosphere? Seriously, flag-pin lapels? But enough, Happy May Day, man.
10-4
______________________________________________________________
BJBetween You and Francis Gaskin
I think it's about time someone put an end to Boss Livingstone's corrupt and divisive brand of municipal socialism.
Sure, man! Copacetic!
This Boris character seems like a character. He's got my vote if you tell me to. Plus, doesn't appear that the Mayor of London is a spectacularly consequential office anyhow.
James
An excerpt from the New Yorker a few weeks ago:
This Boris character seems like a character. He's got my vote if you tell me to. Plus, doesn't appear that the Mayor of London is a spectacularly consequential office anyhow.
James
An excerpt from the New Yorker a few weeks ago:
"When I was traveling to a Boris Johnson campaign appearance one day by taxi, the driver told me that he'd like to meet Johnson. I assumed that he was an admirer: the drivers of what Londoners call black cabs, most of whom are white men of middling years, tend toward conservative political views [...] 'I'd like to ask him why he bumped into my taxi on his bicycle,' the driver went on. 'There he was, big black coat, blond hair, talking on a mobile. Ran right into me. Then he just rode away.'
“ 'Then you’re going to vote against him?' I asked.
“ 'Oh, no,' he said. 'I’d rather have George W. Bush for mayor than fucking Livingstone.'
“ 'You might want to give that one a little thought,' I said.
“I had been finding my way around London mostly by the Underground, despite Johnson's description of the system under Livingstone's management as 'armpit-nuzzling hell,' & I was astonished that when I finally climbed into a taxi it turned out to be the one taxi in London that Boris Johnson had hit with his bicycle. Then it occurred to me that, since Johnson is an inveterate cyclist who seems to have distraction as a default mode, he might have crashed into a majority of the taxis in London."
-Calivin Trillin, "Capital Fellows", The New Yorker, 14 April 2008
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