Category: Uncategorized

A Mental Photograph

Nada GordonLeave a comment

Thanks to Ben Friedlander for this Facebook meme from the nineteenth century, by way of Sidney Lanier (best known for The Boy’s King Arthur), who was tagged in the winter of 1874 by a Miss Anne Perot of Baltimore, Maryland. For Lanier’s answers go here:

http://ampoarchive.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/mental-photograph-sidney-lanier/

WHAT IS–

1. YOUR FAVORITE COLOR?
paisley

2. FLOWER?
roses, roses, roses

and meat flowers
and frangipani

3. TREE?
of life (Indian bedspread)

4. OBJECT IN NATURE?
the fact that the “separability” of so-called “objects” in nature is temporary. this fascinates me.

5. HOUR IN THE DAY?
dusk (duh)

6. SEASON OF THE YEAR?
autumn for its orchestral lugubriousness

7. PERFUME?
roasting green tea

8. GEM?
those on the fake nightingale

9. STYLE OF BEAUTY?
convulsive: blllaaaggghhh

10. NAMES, MALE AND FEMALE?
tarzan
jane

11. PAINTERS?
elephants

12. MUSICIANS?
gamelan players

13. PIECE OF SCULPTURE?
the large glass

14. POETS?
you
15. POETESSES?
you

16. PROSE AUTHORS?
bloggers

17. CHARACTER IN ROMANCE?
Lucifer in Paradise Lost

18. CHARACTER IN HISTORY?
Elizabeth 1, although she was an imperialist. still.

19. BOOK TO TAKE UP FOR AN HOUR?
oh, too many of these

20. WHAT BOOK (NOT RELIGIOUS) WOULD YOU PART WITH LAST?
swoon

21. WHAT EPOCH WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO HAVE LIVED IN?
Heian-era Japan (as an aristocrat) or Edo-era Japan (as a regular person)

22. WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?
Bali, Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Brooklyn, Bolinas (and some yet unvisited places)

23. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE AMUSEMENT?
dress-up

24. WHAT IS YR. FAVORITE OCCUPATION?
writing

25. WHAT TRAIT OF CHARACTER DO YOU MOST ADMIRE IN MAN?
grace and intensity and a way with words

26. WHAT TRAIT DO YOU MOST ADMIRE IN WOMAN?
a way with words and intensity and grace

27. WHAT TRAITS OF CHARACTER DO YOU MOST DETEST IN EACH?
dullness, vulgarity, meanness

28. IF NOT YOURSELF WHO WD. YOU RATHER BE?
a much-loved housecat

29. WHAT IS YR. IDEA OF HAPPINESS?
correspondence

30. WHAT IS YR. IDEA OF MISERY?
disconnection, also chronic pain

31. WHAT IS YOUR BÊTE NOIR?
restriction (constriction)

32. WHAT IS YOUR DREAM?
time

33. WHAT IS YR. FAVORITE GAME?
flarf

34. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE TO BE YOUR DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC?
hair

35. IF MARRIED, WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE TO BE THE DISTINGUISHING
CHARACTERISTICS OF YR. BETTER HALF?
funny joking

36. WHAT IS THE SUBLIMEST PASSION OF WHICH HUMAN NATURE IS CAPABLE?
I know, but I’m not going to tell you.

37. WHAT ARE THE SWEETEST WORDS IN THE WORLD?
marzipan? praline? honeycomb?

38. WHAT ARE THE SADDEST WORDS?
don’t know and don’t want to know.

39. WHAT IS YOUR AIM IN LIFE?
to write baroque poetry that no one understands

40. WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO
Everything is material for poetry.

HAIR FETISH

Nada GordonLeave a comment

I was just walking down the street thinking that my next movie should be a HAIR FETISH movie when a guy pushing a trash can said to me, “beautiful hair.” So that confirms it: hair fetish it will be. Now I know all kinds of creepy people will find this post because they were searching “hair fetish.” But so be it.

Today’s and Yesterday’s Ensembles: hello autumn

Nada Gordon1 Comment

A teacher needs some gravitas on the first day of school, so I wore these burgundy suede platforms, which weigh at least a pound each. The result: mild shinsplints. Worth it, I think:

IMG_6780

Feathers bedeck the skirt as an obvious contradiction to sought gravity: peacocks’ to keep me performative and hawks’ to keep me vigilant. Pale mauve backpack filled with first day lunch, notebook, and necessities.

That was yesterday. Today I felt almost secretarial, a little autumnal, although most people were far more autumnal than me today, in sweaters and boots already! So eager! But the season has changed like a stage backdrop as it always seems to in this city, only this time it is so awfully soon.

Teal blouse with smocked waist and neckline from Forever 21. Now I wish I’d bought one in all three colors (there were gray and raspberry as well, and they were cheap) (as are all things made in sweatshops). I watched part of Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle on UbuWeb Saturday night, and what do you know, it made me want to go shopping. I was like, “Guy, I keep doing all these detournements faithfully, but to no avail. The anomie is still intense. Or is it just because I’m menstrual?” Anyway, a good haul, and ever-so-temporarily therapeutic, as the collocation goes.

IMG_6792

Autumn is my season, my end of the spectrum, my symphonic excess, my cornucopia of heavy muchness. Hello autumn.

IMG_6763