Saturday, June 27, 2009

Il commence à faire très chaud.




"I read him all I had written in my journal about June. What is happening? He is deeply moved, torn apart. He believes. 'It is in that way I should have written about June. The other is incomplete, superficial. You have got her, Anaïs.' But wait. He has left softness, tenderness out of his work, he has written down only the hate, the violence. I have only inserted what he has left out. But he has not left it out because he doesn't feel it, or know it, or understand (as June thinks), only because it is more difficult to express. So far his writing has only issued from violence, it has been whipped out of him, the blows have made him wail and curse. And now he sits and I confide in him completely, in the sentient, profound Henry. He is won.

He says, 'Such a love is wonderful, Anaïs. I do not hate or despise that. I see what you give each other. I see it so well. Read, read--this is a revelation to me.'

I read, and I tremble as I read, up to our kiss. He understands too well.

Suddenly he says, 'Anaïs, I have just realized that what I give you is something coarse and plain, compared to that, I realize that when June returns...' " (86).

"In the thick of such complex science, it's important to step back and appreciate that the goal, at the end of the day, is simply to make a better form of fat. You need fat in a cake to make it tender, light, and delicate, and, as in all foods, to carry flavors and nutrients. Butter may have better flavor, but it doesn't leaven as well as our favorite heavily processed soybean product.

The primary advantage of shortening is that its high melting point and crystalline structure ensure an airy cake or a flaky crust. But shortening offers another advantage: it makes cakes tender by coating the flour proteins with oil, keeping them from absorbing moisture, and 'shortening' (hence the term) the gluten strands. Try tearing a piece off a crusty boule of peasant bread, which has plenty of gluten, and compare the heroic effort with the effort needed to tear off a piece of cake. Twinkies are so tender, the hardest thing to tear off is the wrapper" (102).

45 comments:

Σφιγξ said...

Whitehaven, Mississippi, William Eggleston.

Σφιγξ said...

Is it not the point of risking, to be the last one inscribing this? Signifying the frustration and dormant longing that came before into a new synthesis? This is much of what I thought then, but I often find that there were then many inroads into your specialty and my impressions.

Σφιγξ said...

You are correct in pointing out that the suggestion of July has been a point at which receding lines of perspective converge.

I did not know then how it would figure, but the thought of the first page of The Lover (1984), of being ravaged, or being too late to realize it, is unbearable.

Σφιγξ said...

http://www.eli-lsmerchantile.com/blog/2013/05/01/Thoth-Deck-Tarot-TWO-OF-CUPS-LOVE.aspx

Still resonant, and we would be happy in any case.

Due to precession, the "manger" of the constellation of Cancer appeared to the ancients on the ecliptic between Gemini and Taurus.

Σφιγξ said...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/wellbeing/5125678/Foot-reading-what-your-toes-say-about-you.html

Σφιγξ said...

Wow. Were we looking at the same picture?

Liz Wright:

http://artwey.co.uk/images/galleries/5/504.jpg

Plants set to their best advantage: Michael Kidd and David Inshaw.

http://www.redraggallery.co.uk/limited-edition-prints-top10prints.asp

Σφιγξ said...

The Bridge

Leaves burn green
Over the stupid little wooden bridge.
Almost the same swan
Feeds at the pond's edge.

The sun is high. The shadow of my head
Floating blank in its flame-dusty halo
Lets me so down through it to a bed
Or mire inert and pale

That all at once this outlook, cross-plank, rung
And worn handrail,
Is wrong, is wrong
To seem unchanged—have / been faithful

To what I came here with
Less than one love ago?
Hush. At my feet a diabolic wraith
Remains obscurely so.

Not quite out of the blue A asks B, for when it must end between them, to help them to behave nicely. Her whole face beams—as if he could ever not be nice! Weeks pass. He tries a new tack: "Don't burn our bridge. Whole families, feelings, habits, etc., still use it every day." But C has all along been using B, so there is only the usual way out. At the park gates A pauses. Inside are thickets, mazes. mirrors charred & croaking, which he will never again visit after dark alone.

The sun is low. A golden fleece
Drowns the toy water.
Boys call their boats in. It is more and less
Than they had set out after.

And at the zenith of the bridge somebody
Else is enduring
With shut eyes, like a god,
That bounced-from-below uppouring

Of rapid pulses, ripple, flash,
Whose drunken script
Scrawls on the scene, on the seer's very flesh,
A message undecipherable except

For its tone of buoyant impatience
With anything downcast —
Long sad truths let fall misshapen
By one and all, to skitter in the dust.

All but that one. His shadow melting, flowing
Upwards into the green and azure blue, fire-pale.
At the stake, but smiling unharmed, he is not going
To die, no, no. He has put wind into sail

Designed never to bear his weight and mass;
And now, having seen this last of many float
To a white standstill on the burning-glass,
Will not recoil, feeling the deck grow hot.

1962-66

This made me think of Kiki Smith's animals in glass, and how Shelmerdine is a "wild goose" flying in, on dura-aluminum aircraft in the novel, and rather than dying, it is a return.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jyNHV5MGx5dm1KWEU/view?usp=sharing

Σφιγξ said...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jyN1N0blpEc3Z6SkE/view?usp=sharing

Σφιγξ said...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jyUzV2OU9sczVBVTg/view?usp=sharing

Σφιγξ said...

Yes, something wonderful has already happened in July.

I will take some more flattering pictures soon.

I am being receptive to what happens next, without forcing things about my path.

Σφιγξ said...

Twinkies, by the way, do not make it on my go-to list of junk. Firstly, I am afraid of the fructose. Secondly, I am a salt/umami binger, so confections do little for me. If I could just manage it, with adequate rest, and fairly innocuous to-go sauteed mushrooms and kimchi.

I am not sure that I would classify any selfie as flattering, but to reciprocate:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jySmFUeUpqVHliVUU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jyT0FwSUNFcFhKT0U/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jyeWZ0TzE3UVJXTWc/view?usp=sharing

Σφιγξ said...

http://library.samford.edu/about/sc/treasure/2014/pliny.html

Σφιγξ said...

I have not related to June 2009 for nearly seven years. Aside from the Eggleston photo, I regret not erasing much of the Henry and June bit. I am not prudish, but the scenario is largely unrelatable and always demoralizing.

Σφιγξ said...

Yes, I did listen to 'Times Square' from an album that I found fortuitously in an Art Deco building I have never before entered this afternoon. It was a rare place, with albums in various formats to peruse and study. The reference is located in the lacunae here.

There is this store with ephemera discarded en masse from childhood homes; the things expected to be held in time, like the croquet sets and comic books. The perception applies, for all the disencumbering lots sent off for short sale are slowly, but surely bought back.

Σφιγξ said...

I meant to tell you that I had the predilection of collecting wallpaper books for handmade endpapers and miniature interiors. Was I seven at the time?? I remember using WILLOW 210382 (1874) on Slate on several occasions. Unfortunately, the books that I made did not survive the last move.

Σφιγξ said...

https://schabrieres.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/roberto-juarroz-tout-vient-de-loin-1991/

Σφιγξ said...

For posterity:

"Nowhere was it sweeter, perhaps, than at the investment firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Company, which spent $186 million in cash to buy some of Hostess’s snack cake bakeries and brands in early 2013.

Less than four years later, they sold the company in a deal that valued Hostess at $2.3 billion. Apollo and Metropoulos have now reaped a return totaling 13 times their original cash investment.

Behind the financial maneuvering at Hostess, an investigation by The New York Times found a blueprint for how private equity executives like those at Apollo have amassed some of the greatest fortunes of the modern era.

Deals like Hostess have helped make the men running the six largest publicly traded private equity firms collectively the highest-earning executives of any major American industry, according to a joint study that The Times conducted with Equilar, a board and executive data provider. The study covered thousands of publicly traded companies; privately held corporations do not report such data."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/business/dealbook/how-the-twinkie-made-the-super-rich-even-richer.html

"Survey research conducted by economists Lawrence Katz of Harvard University and Alan Krueger at Princeton University shows that from 2005 to 2015, the proportion of Americans workers engaged in what they refer to as 'alternative work” jumped from 10.7% to 15.8%. Alternative work is characterized by being temporary or unsteady—such as work as an independent contractor or through a temporary help agency.

'We find that 94% of net job growth in the past decade was in the alternative work category,' said Krueger. 'And over 60% was due to the [the rise] of independent contractors, freelancers and contract company workers.' In other words, nearly all of the 10 million jobs created between 2005 and 2015 were not traditional nine-to-five employment."

http://qz.com/851066/almost-all-the-10-million-jobs-created-since-2005-are-temporary/

Σφιγξ said...

Yes, I will sometime delve into the palash tree, a type of flame tree, like the Royal poinsiana.

Σφιγξ said...

https://books.google.com/books?id=BsEiDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=Naming%20Thy%20Name%20Elaine%20Scarry&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=Naming%20Thy%20Name%20Elaine%20Scarry&f=false

Σφιγξ said...

End of February 2018, the 25th, I believe, I will sit for my licensing exam. I am thinking about everyone, and how best to maximize the outcome. I love you.

Σφιγξ said...

The February date is protracted with other checklists, but mid-spring, I will have completed the requirements to sit for the exam.

Σφιγξ said...

I am still trying to get around why one references this. It perplexes me, the June bit. If I find myself unable to fulfill the requirements for full employment, i.e. adult life, I will say so. I have to subordinate my desires right now, for something unpleasant, but it will be over, and I will work toward the next professional project.

Σφιγξ said...

https://youtu.be/xB0aRJxUYQU

Σφιγξ said...

Someone sent it to me, neuro, neuron, moron.

Σφιγξ said...

Yes, I was just as surprised to find John Tunnard's 1945 work, "Colchicum" in view of the context.

Σφιγξ said...

https://youtu.be/Brpk26Oq4aE

Σφιγξ said...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3DfyJRIT4jyQmltNUZGQklobm8/view?usp=sharing

Σφιγξ said...

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/rail

Σφιγξ said...

I am entering this into the record, when I am going off the rails. I always think it will never happen each month.

http://dilbert.com/strip/2006-07-06

Σφιγξ said...

https://youtu.be/2zw3Z8HLCNQ

Σφιγξ said...

http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/126321/william-eggleston-memphis-american-negative-about-1965-1968-print-1980/

https://books.google.com/books?id=PrtFDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA27&dq=Farsighted%20Johnson%20%22when%20your%20heart%20conflicts%22&pg=PA27#v=onepage&q=Farsighted%20Johnson%20%22when%20your%20heart%20conflicts%22&f=false

Σφιγξ said...

This what I imagine to be the case.

Σφιγξ said...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwLalvH-b0

Σφιγξ said...

https://youtu.be/0mk9_Ndly2I

Directionally accurate, given Earth's wobble.

https://bathastronomers.org.uk/2016/12/19/cancer/

Σφιγξ said...

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/mysterious-fear-learner-locus-coeruleus/

https://www.neuroscientificallychallenged.com/blog/know-your-brain-locus-coeruleus

Σφιγξ said...

https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2015/10/story-behind-minnesota-s-official-state-photograph/

It just happens that I was thinking of using bóveda as a future terminal item, and there is a humidor company based in Minnetonka.

https://books.google.com/books?id=mqklRxQqivcC&pg=PA292&dq=Elizabeth+Bishop+Sestina+Marvel&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX_d3qn6_nAhWvgXIEHe7_DTcQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=Elizabeth%20Bishop%20Sestina%20Marvel&f=false

https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/119045830/civil-warera-witch-bottle-may-have-been-found-on-us-highway-archaeologists-say

Σφιγξ said...

I will put Exercise 87 here.

Σφιγξ said...

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsA4BY25Ql_1lVzO3vOFdrlnzI4J

Late entry.

I found another copy of J.D. McClatchy's The Vintage Book of Contemporary Poetry (1990), and I turned to this, and thought, someone will ask why did it take so long?

https://books.google.com/books?id=x1-7lreY7_cC&pg=PA14&dq=%22A+card+table+in+the+library+stands+ready+/+To+receive+the+puzzle+which+keeps+never+coming%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwji1L_t1__pAhXBl3IEHccGAbgQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=%22A%20card%20table%20in%20the%20library%20stands%20ready%20%2F%20To%20receive%20the%20puzzle%20which%20keeps%20never%20coming%22&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=a6l_j820i8YC&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=rilke+palme&source=bl&ots=MBFcYM6tvp&sig=ACfU3U0z42-9silf8oHjMcfglS_hPsz70g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi38fqw2P_pAhVISDABHZehBp8Q6AEwAnoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=rilke%20palme&f=false

Σφιγξ said...

Paume, palme.

*Some exhibitions since 1991 inception of the of the Galerie de Jeu de Paume.

Σφιγξ said...

I will reread it tonight before I collapse in exhaustion. I love and miss you, and have to be reminded about a lot, at times.

Σφιγξ said...

"After helping his neighbor, Avraham made some pudding himself, and found that she was right: up to a point, the more viscous he made it the sweeter it tasted. Sixty years later, he began to wonder whether the best way of reducing sugar was not by replacing it but by reformatting it. Sucrose is delivered to the taste receptors on our tongues by saliva, as sugar crystals dissolve in our mouth, but only about a fifth of the sugar in a typical bite of cookie actually connects with a receptor. The rest of it is washed down into our bellies—calories we consume but never taste. 'Statistically, it goes everywhere you don’t want,' Eran told me.

Searching for a way to tickle the sweet receptors more effectively, Avraham tried blending pure sucrose with various carriers. Eventually, he hit on the idea of mixing sugar with tiny grains of silica, a common ingredient in the food industry. (Silica passes through the human digestive system without being metabolized.) Each silica grain is less than a fiftieth the diameter of human hair—invisible to the eye and undetectable on the tongue. DouxMatok’s production process embeds them throughout each sugar crystal, like blueberries in a muffin.

Even though the resulting crystal is ninety-nine per cent sugar, the addition of silica has two outsized effects: the bond between the silica and the sugar comes apart in the mouth, exposing a vastly expanded surface area of sucrose to the liquefying powers of saliva; and the sucrose immediately surrounding each silica grain changes form. The atoms in a sucrose molecule are usually stacked in a well-ordered lattice, but when this structure becomes what scientists call 'amorphous,' its atoms frozen in random chaos, it dissolves on the tongue much more quickly. Incredo’s exponentially more soluble structure rapidly saturates your taste buds, delivering an intense hit of sweetness. The best analogy is cotton candy: melting sugar into an amorphous state and spinning it into a tangle of fine strands produces a confection that seems much more cloying than chocolate or soda, despite containing a fraction of the sugar.

Once Avraham had a prototype, he enlisted Eran, who is an entrepreneur rather than a scientist. (He started out in show business, producing theatre collaborations between Israelis and Palestinians, and then moved on to urban lighting projects, including illuminating the walls of the old city of Jerusalem.) They secured patents on the technology, consulted with venture capitalists and major food companies, and, in 2014, founded DouxMatok. The name means 'double sweet'—or, at least, it does if you know that matok means 'sweet' in Hebrew and that doux, the French for 'sweet,' sounds like the Hebrew du, which means 'double'" (Twilley, 2020, p. 21).

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/28/the-race-to-redesign-sugar

Σφιγξ said...

Exercise 91 will go here.

Σφιγξ said...

The being in the garage is awaiting the pair that merits his birth. Maybe this life, maybe another life.

https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/william-eggleston-on-the-music-that-made-him-a-photography-legend/

https://www.artnet.com/artists/william-eggleston/untitled-boy-in-red-sweater-yuSSqwK_xvtgM1rz7E79vQ2

Σφιγξ said...

https://condenaststore.com/featured/john-obrien-together-ideas-for-couples.html

Σφιγξ said...

Any overture I make is met with skepticism or silence. It is exhausting to be inspired one moment into thoughts of complete unity, and then to be received as an acquaintance.

I do not know what inspires you to be awake at 4:45, and look here.