Why does bacon sizzle

 "We don't have a theory of something being easy to do or of things going according to plan, things working out. Theory means something is difficult."

            "I wonder why bacon sizzles in the pan. What is it that's vibrating? I understand why the drum head vibrates and moves the air inside, but not the bacon." 

                            "There is a theory of poetic language, it might be wrong or right, but there is a theory of it, or several. But we have no theory of language not being poetic, the absence of whatever that is that is 'poetic."

                            "Why do we need that? We only need to know about the difficult cases, like the bacon. I literally do not know why it sizzles, yet it seems dumb to ask. When we understand, we move on, or so I'd thought."

                    "That what I'm saying, we have it wrong. Easiness is difficult to understand. We don't know how those easy things occur."

               

You're boring

 I saw a video where they asked some tennis players what the most interesting thing about them was. These were the top people, like Nadal.  They couldn't come up with anything. It's because they are famous for one thing, being able to to hit a tennis ball with a tennis racket, and I guess running to get to the next ball they have to hit. Without that, you wouldn't know who they are in the first place. They aren't interesting; they didn't go to college, or if they did, they went to play tennis. Their outside interests aren't likely to be very well developed either. 

Maybe being interesting, then, is a bit overrated.  That single-minded passion of hitting a ball with a stick or club might be enough.  The other stuff, even if interesting, seems like a self-indulgence.  

FU

 I'm eager to see if fancy university who recruited me to apply last year hired anyone for the position. So far, their web site doesn't have anyone new. Senior searches often are not successful; people have a hard time deciding on candidates, or the person chosen does not choose to accept.  I guess I'll feel semi-vindicated if they end up with nobody at all.  

Favorite word

Chopin waltz abandoned on music stand

until it is not: I return to it. I wonder why

my fingers feel free playing "Bemsha Swing" but not 

Chopin.  

            If you ask someone their favorite word

they will say love, not their favorite word 

at all (if you ask me) but some pet idea; 

they will never say naif or another

word quirky or fun to pronounce. 

The same with sentences, they will 

offer you a sentence that they endorse

but not one that has an interesting ring to it

like Beckett's "Je dors peu, et le peu que je dors,

je le dors le jour."

                                The idea that

if you could just adopt the proper attitude

toward everything, find not just terminology

but the right tone of voice to say those words,

that would settle things. Tweak your damn verbiage 

and you'll do fine! 

                    A recitation of a poem 

is a musical performance, I read in a book on

Arabic Poetics. If so, what bad musicians you are,

poets and literary critics, actors.  

***

Zen cured my earworm: there are still tunes

rattling around in the rafters, but they aren't

bothersome. Anxiety, too,

is just a normal emotion waxing 

and waning. An anxiety

disorder is just giving too much importance to these

ebbs and flows. Is insomnia just

the fear of insomnia? Nothing in itself?  

The relief at falling asleep can only be felt 

on waking up, refreshed,

if even then: often the waking will be groggy. 

Often, I'll only know I've slept

if I have also dreamt. That is my measuring rod. 

***  

I think of the absurdly detailed instruction manual

for the new water bottle, in several languages. My instruction

would be "fill, drink."  

***

Why does prosaic mean dull? Where does my fear

of "flat" language come from? Why does bacon

sizzle in the pan? 

***

I don't like those little "lyrical moments" but often I have wondered

why bacon sizzles in the pan. What is vibrating, exactly? I understand 

the vibrating drum head, how it moves the air, but not

the bacon, yet it seems dumb to ask.   

                                        I wonder

why I don't like most poetry I read. I wait for packages to arrive,

books I've ordered myself. Many are disappointments,

nobody's fault.

                My observational skills aren't great,

I've noticed. I don't have little epiphany puffs

just sometimes a funny phrase will pop into my head.   

        

  

Waltz

Chopin waltz abandoned on music stand

until it is not: I return to it. I wonder why

my fingers feel free playing "Bemsha Swing" but not 

Chopin.  

        Sound of Wave in Channel by Stephen Ratcliffe 

arrives today. Package left outside a door I rarely use

but they send me photo of this half-assed delivery

and I go down and get the package, on top of someone's 

delivery of tissues:

 

 

 

Gibson

Ian Gibson resumes his attack on the Lorca family. He calls Laura García Lorca "Laura García de los Ríos," not the name she has always used, and pleads with her to tell us where the poet is buried, evoking the specter of the far right, as though they would gain more votes somehow if his side in the controversy does not prevail. He resurrects theory that the family conspired with Franco to exhume the body and bury it somewhere else. Supposedly, they know where Lorca is, then. There is no evidence for this theory; it's just sort of word-of-mouth gossip, so I'm not buying into it. I don't think even Gibson believes; he just wants to continue the feud with the Lorcas. 

Using the wrong name is not "passive aggressive," as I first wanted to write, but aggressive aggressive. Laura's mother was Laura de los Ríos, daughter of Fernando de los Ríos, so by conventional naming rules she would be "Laura García de los Ríos," but she has always chosen to be García Lorca.   

EARWORM

Zen cured my earworm: there are still tunes

rattling around in the rafters, but they aren't

bothersome. Anxiety, too,

is just a normal emotion waxing 

and waning. An anxiety

disorder is just giving too much importance to these

ebbs and flows. Is insomnia just

the fear of insomnia? Nothing in itself?  

Why does prosaic mean dull? Where does my fear

of "flat" language come from? Why does bacon

sizzle in the pan? 

The Relief

The relief at falling asleep can only be felt 

on waking up, refreshed,

if even then: often the waking will be groggy. 

Often, I'll only know I've slept

if I have also dreamt. That is my measuring rod.   

***

I think of the absurdly detailed instruction manual

for the new water bottle, in several languages. 

If I could cut through that bullshit, then maybe

other kinds, too, would be vulnerable 

to my keen intelligence? Alas, no.   

                         

I've been reading some letters and poems

 I've been reading some letters and poems exchanged between Barbara Guest and Stephen Ratcliffe. It's a delightful book, just out from Chax books, and it's inspiring me to write a new kind of poem. By mistake they first sent me the Selected poems of Rachel Blau DuPlessis. Also a wonderful poet, but a kind of writing I don't relate to personally in the same way.  They generously allowed me to keep that book too.  

I think the way Ratcliffe writes allows certain things to get into the poem that I am not allowing into my poems.  I won't imitate his style or procedure, those being unique to him; even less his tone of voice. 

I don't like those little "lyrical moments" but often I have wondered

why bacon sizzles in the pan. What is vibrating, exactly? I understand 

the vibrating drum head, how it moves the air, but not

the bacon, yet it seems dumb to ask.   

                                        I wonder

why I don't like most things I read. I wait for packages to arrive,

things I've ordered myself. Many are disappointments,

nobody's fault.

                My observational skills aren't great,

I've noticed. I don't have little epiphany puffs

just sometimes a funny phrase will pop into my head.   

Acting White

 Someone on the department's DEAI survey wrote that people in our department "act white." This was defined as being friendly and professional, and then back-stabbing. Of course, I'm going to act white, because I don't have much choice in the matter, aside from pretending to be someone I'm not, or being unfriendly / unprofessional on purpose.  Of course, the survey is going to increase, rather than decrease divisions.  Of course, we are a crew of prickly people, as I am too, I am sure.  

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WATER BOTTLE

 Fill with water

Drink  

Who is stealing your lunch?

 Some state AGs are suing because the Biden administration is ruling that states that don't adopt the new definition of Title IX won't get federal money for school lunches.  

Left wing media say that states want to deny lunches to gay kids.  

Right wing media say Biden is denying school lunches to kids.  

Title IX will now cover gender identity, so a state that didn't allow trans girls to compete on girls sports teams, for example, could run afoul of title IX. It seems to me that we should debate that issue, who gets to play on the girls' team, rather than making the false statement that these states want to deny lunch to gay and trans kids.  If Biden takes away school lunches from an entire state, then nobody gets fed, gay or straight. 

10 Touchstones for Lorca and Music

These are the ones that I came up with. Not necessarily the best music associated with Lorca (though some is), but rather the points of reference that most indispensable.  

1) The Concurso del cante jondo, Granada, 1922. Lorca was part of the instigation for the event. He gave a lecture, wrote his first poetic masterpiece in connection with this event.   

2) Canciones españolas antiguas, recorded by Lorca and Argentinita in 1931. People constantly go back to these 10 songs, and to a few others associated with Lorca but not included in the 10. 

3) Silvestre Revueltas, Homenaje a FGL, 1937.  The first musical homage to Lorca after his death. Performed in Spain during the Civil War. Sets a precedent for instrumental works involving Lorca. It is also an amazing piece of music.  

4) The entire career of Germaine Montero, the person who did most to promote Lorca in Spain and record both Lorca material and Spanish folksongs.  

5) George Crumb, the composer most devoted to Lorca. His early song cycles like Ancient Voices of Children. 

6) Paco Ibáñez's Lorca/Góngora record, established Lorca in the singer-songwriter genre.  

7) Camarón's La leyenda del tiempo, the album that established Lorca in "new flamenco."  

8) Leonard Cohen's Take this Waltz, a song that inspired Enrique Morente to look Lorca's New York poetry.  

9) Morente's Omega.  Reincorporates Cohen into the Spanish flamenco tradition.  Opens Lorca up to hybrid musical approaches. 

10) I don't know about #10.  I think you have to leave a "listener's choice."  Then, if someone accuses you of leaving something out, you just have them add it themselves.  

Verde que te quiero verde in Carmen?

 I am watching a DVD of Carmen, in a production by the Antonio Gades company. (Gades is not in it, since it is his company, but after his death.) Most of Bizet's music disappears, ceding to flamenco guitar. It is more Mérimée than Bizet, then; it is a ballet, not an opera.  

What I thought was interesting was putting Lorca's "Romance sonámbulo" in this work. The "verde que te quiero verde" motif appears at more than one moment.  

Gades was a protegé of Pilar López Júlvez, who is the younger sister of Encarnación (Encarna, "La Argentinita."). I'm sure Pilar instilled in him a good degree of Lorquismo.  Bodas de sangre is one of the things that Gades is best known for, in the Saura film version.  

The Gades company also has a version of Aynadamar, by Golijov, added to the repertory after Gades's death. 

I'm kind of coming to a thesis about the ubiquity of musical homages to Lorca. They feel almost compulsory.  I still haven't seen the Fuenteovejuna DVD that came with the set I purchased. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some Lorca smuggled in there too.

Now I realized I hadn't heard Carmen [the opera] all the way through, so I have to listen to that too. Of course it is all recognizable, but I don't really know the opera as a whole.  

Fetish

 I  bought a CD on the Gran Vía of Granada because it was recorded on Lorca's guitar. Luckily, it was on my carry-on luggage, since Iberia lost my suitcase on the way back. !!%#@#!  I don't know who the worse fetishist is, me for buying it, or the guitar player, Samuel Diz, who recorded it. Everyone who goes through Lorca's house, Huerta de san Vicente, like Bob Dylan, etc... gets to play it (if you are famous, I guess).

 Seriously, the album is dedicated to María Teresa León and is pretty cool.  

The fetishism, though, to know every house Lorca lived in, worship his guitar and piano, is something key to Lorca studies. I spent the mornings in Granada in the Lorca library, spent 4 evenings attending concerts featuring Lorca's poetry, and parts of weekends visiting Lorca shrines, the places where he was imprisoned and killed, his houses in Valderrama and Fuente Vaqueros, iconic sites in Granada itself.  At night I dreamed of Lorca too, how could I not?  

La guitarra de Lorca vuelve a sonar: El País (2020)