Happy Hour

[Christophe]

What? There's only one discussion going on in the Pub?

That's definitely not enough. Barman! Another drink for me and the boys!

In the meantime I'll choose a song from the Jukebox:

www.youtube.video

[Joseph Camosy]

Out taking photos this weekend, here's the result of a several hours of walking and some Strong Bow hard apple cider

Florida Renaissance Festival 2/21/15

[Ambo Suno]

wicked photos, joe.

[Balder]

Yes, great photos, Joe.

Now, for more HAPPY hour...

[Ambo Suno]

Mein Gott, Bruce - what has happened? Another nail in the coffin of sanity and post-weirdness stasis/non-stasis.

In a significantly less unglued form, yet in a reshuffling of some everyday realities, there is a novel I just finished. Here might be as good a place as any to mention this integralesque detection mystery by retired psychologist/writer Jonathan Kellerman. He has been crafting quite tight and tidy and intelligent crime-thriller type stories for a while, as has his wife Faye Kellerman.

He just teamed up with his writer son, Jessie, and they opened a can of reality whoop-ass. They are Jewish, and in a parallel storyline that cracks open genesis, old-testament and Torah referenced understanding and narrative, cruising alongside and artfully interweaving with a contemporary whodunit, they allow the skeins of normal world knowledge to stretch in mental-equIlibrium-perturbational ways. In other words, WTF - wha happened to you guys?

Mildly milder than these last two visuals of yours, nonetheless, I have felt refreshingly unhinged, riding a wave to places I haven't seen, at least momentarily. The Golem of Hollywood.

[Ambo Suno]

A sort of burning,
a type of cramping
of throat.

Sinuses and nose
moist.

Pressure behind the eyes
not quite tears.

Frozen sobs
wanting liberation
and gaining none.

Stephen Hawking story,
Theory Of Everything.

[Balder]

Hi, Ambo, is the title of the book you're describing, "The Golem of Hollywood"?  If so, I'll check it out.  I believe Kellerman used to write detective stories set on the Navajo/Dine' reservation?  I read a few of those (as airport books, while traveling) a number of years ago and really enjoyed them.

I'm also guessing your poem is in response to watching the new movie on Hawking?  I haven't seen it yet, but I can imagine an increasing sense of suffocation as his mind is confined within a less-and-less responsive body.  One likes to imagine that, at some point, a threshold is crossed, and the mind is freed to soar in an intensified inner space without the need to focus on what to do with the body, moment by moment.  But maybe that never happens.

[Ambo Suno]

Hi Bruce - close. The writer you're thinking of his Tony Hillerman. I too read his novels about the four corners area of the southwest USA. It was home to the Hopi and Navajo. His plots were slightly on the simple side compared with modern mystery/crime/suspense, with plenty of affective/mood space, mirrored by the landscape and residual indigenous pace. As you recall, one was carried somewhat into the cultural worldspace. There were rituals, customs, shamanic ceremonies and hints at mystery. And more, eh :) Recently his daughter began writing about his main characters Jimmy Chee and Joe Leaphorn, picking up where father left off before he passed on. She does a plenty decent job.

Johnathan Kellerman's are very different, and The Golem of Hollywood could be an extraordinary read for you anyway. Thanks for reflecting on it and Hillerman, one of my main favorites from decades past, as well.

Yes, as you say with the Hawking story - great losses that we can imagine into and project upon. Yes, perhaps, substantial anxiety around suffocation of the respirational sort and of the proprioceptive/kinesthetic/movement/stimuli sort.

Hollywood of course really knows how to hit the notes in most of us.

There were some other more personal associations for me, including someone close to me who had severe cerebral palsy and yet developed his intellect quite far as a writer. He was characterized in a movie called Music Within, with Michael Sheen playing his part (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Within). "Art", greatly contracted into malformation similar to Stephen, also got married and had meaningful relationships in spite of his culturally aversive condition. Sometimes handicapped people develop in unusual and advanced ways.

What was the name of the zen-like Buddhist who was quadriplegic (?) and explored his inner realm and space - he had a French name, I think?

This life, eh.

[Balder]

Oh, Hillerman - that's right!  Thanks for clarifying.  I haven't read anything by Kellerman yet.  But the review and summary of The Golem of Hollywood I looked at earlier this morning was quite enticing.  Have you read anything by Neal Stephenson before?  I haven't yet, but his books sound similarly mind-bending and philosophically rich (I'm curious about his forthcoming book, Seveneves).

[Ambo Suno]

B, I want to add about the mostly physically described feelings expressed in the poem, those also arise from something's like poignancy, fullness of feeling, ambiguous beauties, gratitudes, value resonances and fleeting joys. A difficult to describe brew-ing within.



"I'm also guessing your poem is in response to watching the new movie on Hawking?  I haven't seen it yet, but I can imagine an increasing sense of suffocation as his mind is confined within a less-and-less responsive body.  One likes to imagine that, at some point, a threshold is crossed, and the mind is freed to soar in an intensified inner space without the need to focus on what to do with the body, moment by moment.  But maybe that never happens."

[Ambo Suno]

B, regarding Golems, I should read some reviews too - see what people say.

I don't know what Stephenson has written lately, but up to 10-15 years ago, I had read most of what he had written. The trilogy Baroque Cycle is very rich on early science in Europe. He mixes science, technology, high and basic, humanities, plot, and a little woowoo. I trusted his historical accuracies generally, though as fiction he took liberties.

One of my favorites was the first one I read which was Snowcrash. I wasn't skateboarding then, but now that I do I am tempted to retread it. The book opens with some extraordinary, mildly sci-if skating - I smiled then and I still smile at the thought of it.

Cryptonomicron (sp?) was also a rich science and tech-dense imagining.

Neal, by my memory, is an amazing writer. I hope you get time to enjoy some fiction :)



Have you read anything by Neal Stephenson before?  I haven't yet, but his books sound similarly mind-bending and philosophically rich (I'm curious about his forthcoming book, Seveneves).

[Joseph Camosy]

Was at the faire again this weekend practicing my recreational hobby.  After drinking a hard apple cider, I then ran into a friend who insisted on buying me another. 

Here was the result:  Sunday 3/1/15

[Balder]

Really excellent, Joseph.  Drink more of that hard apple cider!