Brrrrrr....

 

5 pm....and I'm already under the covers, to watch the latest NOVA episode.......in 'old guy' mode.......then, at 3 am, will be ready to play, as the Nation sleeps......I noticed some daring wrens, gathering twigs and tufts.......so, soon, Spring will be in Atlanta, and I will come out of hibernation mode......we hairless humans have not evolved to play in the cold!

A LITTLE HIGHTOWER IS A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS THING FOR A DULLED BRAIN, HUNGOVER FROM A SINGLE BEER LAST NIGHT

6:30 .....awaken the dead....so much for my plan to get a 'good night's sleep'.......caffeine and pastry fix.......with some arduous 'hands adjustments' on some antique vest pocket watches.....distracted, easily enough, by a 1951 adaptation of Patricia Hightower's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY......and, some Gabriel Yared and Nat King Cole.......wafting from the kitchen radio.....toppling dominos of not quite random poetic juxtapositions........

I felt particularly fragmented after re-reading some Hightower ....... Fragmentation seems to be a Theme of her novels; consequentially, I made a rather unflattering self-portrait of myself as one of her pathetic characters...

seque into abstraction.....reflecting on Patricia Hightower's studies of personality fragmentation......before returning from the Twilight Zone to the rising sun on a cold morning......10 am....time to 'get it together' for more mundane preoccupations......but first......another cup of java, I think, before burning some useless books in the fireplace......."431" on the new baking thermometer... I've not lost my Mind......Just letting it ramble about in its bony cage for a while, before the rather dull and disincentive organization of stacks of Paper......

....."A Day Without Television Or Internet".....

Would "ADWTOI"* result in thoughtful changes, creativity and some meaningful changes in personal perspectives? OR, would it suggest that most of the World would react like addicts, after instant withdrawal from the source of many of its problems and conflicts? How about 3 days? (!) Would that lead to the stress of inter-family communication, combativeness and War, the total collapse of World Economy.... The perceived, even actual, loss of 'meaningfully' shallow, twittering relationships? Telephone lines would be clogged, for sure; perhaps, not with intelligent dialogues, but with millions... calling their 'service' providers in desperate panic modes..........Try a single day without 'electronics'.......Discover the creature that lives within, beneath the skins of social posturing, collusive complacence and collaborative accordances.......

(and This is in addition to Mobile Phone and Internet Access Charges............

Ongoing monthly bill*

$19176    And, this is JUST for some basic TV viewing.....  )   

The LONG TERM PALETTE......

when asked to combine, into one, three painters.....I chose Jackson, Mark and Clyfford, in 1965.....not, then, realizing that I was just a slave to Fashion....I immolated the last of 'this', in my parent's outdoor charcoal cooking apparatus, and ground the black ash into a pile of dust and tossed it into a hole in the woods.......This single painting persists, because it was stuck behind some boxes in a closet.....A victim of the 'Tastes of the Times'.......rather than meritorious 'Art'.......

ANOTHER DOZEN HAVE JOINED THIS LIST OF 'THE DEAD' .....FROM MY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATING CLASS........

Jim Lancaster, Sonny Laughmiller, Linda Marsh, Larry McBride, Eddie Monks, Fredna Mott, Wilfred "Bushy" Mrazek, Sandra Myers, Antje Neubert, Ellis “Pete” Overton, Thomas Payne, Hans Palaoro, Arlen “Buster” Petty, Jody Pilling, Paula Price, Miriam Reynolds, Mike Rothe, Dottie Sayers,Hartwig Schulze, Charles Shannon, Don York,"Sparky” Sparks, Linda Spier, Wanda Stewart, Billy Stevens, Randy Sublett, Charles Taylor, Chloe Walling, Virginia Wilson, Craft Wood, Don York, Gerry Allen, Butch Anderson, George Apostolos, Jurgen Arndt, Lesley Ayers, Linda Barksdale, Larry Beach, Walter Bennett, Edwina Bibb, Cecil Bishop. Norman Bradley, Ronnie Bright, Dian Broadway, Janice Brown.........and even more, that had dropped 'off the radar".......kids that I grew up with, went to schools, summer camps, college, dance classes, took basket weaving with, skated on Saturday mornings with, 'made out' at the 'drive-in' with, ran, swam, played hop scotch, tennis and badminton with, kicked the flag and stole the banner with, and graduated from High School with......are all dead now!.......I just received yet another 'uplifting' list of 'the dead' from our High School Alumni Leader.......I was going to "X" out these 'kids' from the old Pierian High School Annual.....but thought better of that! How depressing! When we were 18, we all thought we would live forever.....alas, that was utter fantasy and denial, wasn't it?

going through stacks of notes........a single, dingy, double-sided page, bearing my notes and instructions for filming one of my oddly philosophical/psychological studies.......the films are all gone with the wind....and most of my directorial notations.......this single page seems very remote, now....I wish that I had made notations that would be still meaningful....that I'd not tossed the old film and early VHS recordings.......The page seems like some relic from a dig into ancient, tombed parchments..........the paper, crumbling in my hands...... Anyway, it is just a memory....a souvenir... of the process that sets future destinations for thought and doing......