WORK
“Against Surrealism”
On the road to Luang Prabang an elephant in chains stands on the flat bed of a truck shifting his weight at every bend over the river and under the trees where fox bats hang that in the market you can buy skewered on sticks grilled and dipped in a sauce of chilies and crushed limes next to river monitors living dragons their hind legs sewn together flicking blue tongues toward a stall stacked with bamboo cages the size of fists each with a swallow inside a gift for the New Year when you walk to the edge of the Mekong and make a wish opening the little cage like opening your fist your hand suddenly bursting with song.
—Joseph Stroud
—from Of This World: New & Selected Poems, 1966–2006
WORD
velleity /vuh-LAY-i-tee/. noun. A wish without the will; desire without effort; volition at its weakest. An inclination not strong enough to lead to action. Derived from the Latin velle (to wish). Also: the initial impulse in Nietzsche’s concept of will to power.
“He had no fixed intentions, only rebellious impulses, blind longings and velleities.” (J. A. Froude)
“—And so the conversation slips
Among velleities and carefully caught regrets” (T. S. Eliot)
Thanks to reader CH for today’s word!
WEB
Music Vault has released more than 13,000 high-quality live concert recordings featuring artists from Bob Dylan to St. Vincent, James Brown to Wilco.
A well-written piece following one lobster from sea to table. But it’s about more than that, of course. The characters along the way (and the economics) are surprising. For a surf-and-surf reading experience, pair with David Foster Wallace’s singular essay “Consider the Lobster”.
30+ years later and I still remember some of the fabulous photos of life in the womb in the book A Child is Born.
Toys Your Dad Played with as a Kid: an infographic.
Today in 1606, Rembrandt was born. You can’t do better than browsing, collecting and downloading high-resolution images at the Rijks Museum’s Riksstudio. Except maybe the Digital Met’s collection…wow.
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