Khayyam’s “Ah, My Beloved”

I sent a poem to my wife with an e-card yesterday complete with this poem I found on-line:

Ah, My Beloved
by Omar Khayyam

Ah, my beloved, fill the cup that clears
Today of past regrets and future fears;
Tomorrow? Why, tomorrow I may be,
Myself, with yesterday’s sev’n thousand years.

And that’s it. Four lines and yet it says so much. The economy of language is wonderful! The insight over the importance of the here and now… Wow.

In the vein of living in the now I sat down with Karen after supper and we watched the first half of one of our favourite mini-series, the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice which I purchased for Karen at Christmas. All the acting is superb especially that by Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Susannah Harker (while pregnant apparently), Benjamin Whitrow, David Bamber and Barbara Leigh-Hunt.  Us time and in the now!  Hopefully we’ll do the second half tomorrow.

Metu of Vos on Ice

Metu of Vos, a great Idiot of Lirda,
complained again of the heat.
His wife told him to go for ice.
And so off he went.
He walked out of Vos.

And journeyed for days and days.

He walked without pause
fell down when spent
A year later he approached for advice,
a man in North Peat
“It’s too cold here: you only need ice in Lirda”

-Anonymous,
a traditional Lirdan mirror poem on the famous Idiot of Vos

Creative Commons

I heard an interview with an author (Cory Doctorow) who was describing the Creative Commons and how he used their licensing for publishing, freely, his work. This is an interesting idea. I downloaded one of Cory’s books and in the preamble he talks about the Creative Commons and uses this Woody Guthrie quote:

This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright # 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.

This is very cool and from someone whose life I found fascinating. And I can see how it applies to Guthrie’s music. But a book? I would argue that isn’t the same thing. Guthrie wanted his songs yodeled to bring about the political changes he wanted. Now what is the motivation of those using the Creative Commons?
Cory tells us he’s making enough money on his print books that he has no problem simultaneously releasing his books electronically into the Creative Commons. He likes the ideal. He also says that many who start reading the electronic version of a book go and buy it if they like it. I can see that… I prefer a real book any time.
I’ll say it again, the idea is interesting and I applaud it. You can read more about the organization here while I see what Cory’s book does for me.
I like the idea of getting work out there. For a new author who hasn’t had much published and isn’t getting anywhere with publishers this may be a great alternative (as long as they can make their living in other ways). I, for example, might think about using the Creative Commons. I can certainly agree with Guthrie in that I write for myself first. And the audience? Well the audience will have to wait.

Cherish

This movie written and directed by Finn Taylor in 2002 was a complete surprise to me (thank’s Brian for lending me your copy!) I had not heard a thing about it, I’m sorry to say, and that is sad.  It really deserves viewing once and then twice to pick up on all the stuff you missed. You’ll enjoy it.
The acting of Robin Tunney as Zoe and Tim Blake Nelson as Daly is excellent and their growth as characters seems very genuine (a combination of their skill and Finn Taylor’s excellence). It’s good to see a love story that doesn’t involve the typically Hollywood plastic faces and acting. Ricardo Gil is very believable and funny. Jason Priestley is hilarious as he makes fun of his star appeal. I also enjoyed Brad Hunt as the bad guy; really scary.
Worth every minute!

Drifting Snow

Driving snow
the civilized
roadway
2 dark ribbons
and
nervously
low fast currents of snow
obscure
and the feel of the road
through
the tires & suspension, tie rods, steering column, powered steering wheel
is just
not there.
enough.

Easy to freak out.
Easy to wipe out.

Easy to leave
that comfort
and journey into
the difficult
the real
the world outside our
manufactured
reliance.

Reliance hah!
Re: Lie

Trick
and of course there is one
is to relax
is not to over
analyze
to

to believe

I believe

in our great civil
ization yes it’s s
o there for me &
can’t lose faith!!
Can’t lose faith!!

Relief floods
as I return from
windswept country roads
to the city
to the supernatural anesthetist

Yes back home
liquor store so soothingly
on the way
gas bar only a few blocks
away

And those icicles need
to be broken off with
that broken hockey stick
and the driveway plow clog
needs addressing
but first some warmth
and
no, son, sledding can wait,
we’ll go tomorrow.
I promise.
I need to get warm
need that Pina Colada

Maybe I’ll just write
something first.

-2007/02/03-

An old love

In the winter I often have to change my route for getting into work because of the heavy snow on the trail. I can still use the trail but it is slower and so I have to take another route. I still try to avoid as much traffic as I can but I do have to stick to roads. On this quick route I often see an older couple walking in the crisp winter mornings down by Waterloo Avenue and Yorkshire Street. They are at least 60 and he wears this fluorescent orange vest. I say hi whenever I pass by them and they are friendly enough to say ‘hi’ back. It leaves me with a good feeling and hope that my marriage of 21 years and our health continues as long as theirs.

Rope

The movie Rope, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948, was astonishing. And it is especially so when you add the fact that it based on a true story. Woah! The concept of murder as an art or intellectual form is so bizarre. We’re used to seeing crimes of passion in our Hollywood and Cable daze but to see a murder done so cold blooded? Again, woah!  It’s so well done even if the screenwriter had interesting criticisms of it in the special features.
Karen wasn’t sure if Jimmy Stewart was right to play the ‘intellectual father’ of the crime Rupert Cadell but I don’t know. It’s weird to see him in a role where he isn’t the nice guy he was type-cast in usually. Perhaps that’s another reason why Hitchcock was such a genius. He could see beyond the Hollywood gloss. This was the first of 3 collaborations between these 2 giants. Rear Window and Vertigo were to follow which are the more famous and both of which I’ve seen and been impressed by. This earlier work was new to me.
One thing that struck me was one of the special features on the DVD. Apparently Hitch spent some time in Germany working in the German film industry in technical capacities which seems to be left out of his wikipedia entry. I hadn’t heard that before but the point they were trying to make was that Hitchcock’s film-making was imbued with much more than directorial genius… he was a veritable cinematic polymath. He knew everything to do with the movies.