 The Catalpas in winter look like morel mushrooms. I stare out the window a lot. Tree Writing by Aaron Walker. *** Rebecca Solnit writing about Orwell’s retreat from London from An Inventory of Pleasures in Orwell’s Roses: “Some called his migration to this remote location suicidal or masochistic, and many who have written about him seem to consider living in London an eminently reasonable thing to do and living out on a Scottish island unreasonable. They seem to assume that reasonability meant eking out as long a life as possible rather than living it as fully as possible. Orwell all along had tended to choose the latter over the former. And the air of London, filthy with coal smoke, was itself deadly in ways rarely acknowledged in his lifetime, particularly for someone with his underlying pulmonary conditions.” “As the Rose-Hip to the Rose” is more beautiful writing. *** This is how I describe what I’m doing right now. I spend most of my days sifting through the municipal-sized dump that is the internet, searching for small shards — photos, quotes, death notices, anything adjacent. Here’s what I’ve learned from sifting: 1. The tech collaborators have turned Google into an Amazon mall. 2. Image search is a vast wasteland, thanks to Pinterest and Alamy. 3. The app quenching my bibliography thirst is Zotero. That I have access to so much is a miracle. Tech is good up to the point of hyperbole. Those bros know how to write a press release. I’m grateful for what I can find online, but increasingly, it has limits. There is more out there beyond the reach of wireless. Who doesn’t like a library or archive? Or visiting a spot you’ve read about to add a geographic and cultural layer to your knowledge? The tip of the iceberg poking out of the water is the writing after. There are many days when I think I’m not doing any of it right. Sometimes for good reason. Still sifting for shards and my true voice. *** I’m in my broccoli, pea shoots, oyster mushroom, sushi rice, and eggs phase of life, There’s an occasional can of tuna or sardines in olive oil and lemon from Spain with a side of Finnish crackers and a now-and-then bowl of pasta. I make Hooni Kim’s Chojang with extra garlic and ginger. It is capital F fresh. You want his cookbook. I’ve made enough from it to recognize a labour of love. I’m sure that has a great deal to do with the collaboration with Aki Kamozawa. It’s a healthy practice to purchase books and cookbooks through a local bookstore. Or test-drive it through a library. Step outside and go for a stroll. The first smell of spring is on the far-off horizon — still a few more storms to come. *** Nathaniel Rateliff and Gregory Alan Isakov sang me full of hope on Wednesday night — more roses. Thinking about American farmers and the Gulf of Mexico. A young John Cougar Mellencamp in what we call up here a Canadian tuxedo kicking around a butterweed field with a good band backing him. 20251983Comments are closed.
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