Last night I watched Three Days of The Condor. It's a good premise, seemingly partially plot-mined by the more recent film, Syriana. Max von Sydow is wonderful as always, Cliff Robertson turns in a nice performance as the straightfaced doubledealer. The romantic connection between Faye Dunaway and Robert Redford was ludicrous, but I just decided to not think about it too much, which made the movie rather entertaining. The ending is perfectly pitched in grimness.

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Tonight: Gemini

Gaston Chaissac

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Here's the link to the pieces in the new Fascicle.

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I will be reading with Suzanne Stein at Pegasus Books in Berkeley on Saturday, June 2nd, at 8 p.m.

From a footnote by the editor John Bakeless to a journal entry by Clark (October 1, 1804):

*The Rees or Rickarees were the Arikaras. Indian pronunciations differed, and so did white men's ability to imitate their words. Some white men did not hear the initial "A" or it was not pronounced clearly. Hence the variation in the white men's names for various tribes. Thus the Mahas, Omahas, and Mahars were all one tribe; some white men did not hear the initial "O." Clark, being a Virginian, obviously did not sound his "r"; hence he usually wrote "Mahar"--and even "squar" (squaw). What happened is clear enough, but in the journals it can be rather confusing.

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I've long been interested in mishearing as a means to report facts, that the thing is never really being described, but it's agreed upon nonetheless. The best part of the communication of "facts" occurs when people become absolutely convinced of the truthfulness of what they're saying.

Seemingly spiderwebs, but never a web, but the appearance of one. There is no real connection, the spider's a figment.

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I have meant to say for some time now that there is actually a Responses area to these posts. The little pound sign below the post is where it's at. If you click on that, it'll bring up the response box. Someone named Blue Hole just commented, and I remembered I should mention this finally.

From the Journals of Lewis and Clark, one finds out that potatoes were called "ground apples"--might apples then be called "air potatoes."

Amazed at the amount of animals all around. Here is Clark's account from September 9, 1804:


Set out at sunrise, and proceeded on past the head of the island, on which we camped. Passed three sand and willow islands. The sand bars so numerous, it is not worth mentioning them. The river shoal or shallow. Wind S.E. Came to and camped on a sand bar on the L.S. [larboard side/port side of the boat]. Captain Lewis went out to kill a buffalo. I walked on shore all this evening with a view to kill a goat or some prairie dogs. In the evening after the boat landed, I directed my servant, York, with me, to kill a buffalo near the boat, from a number then scattered in the plains. I saw at one view, near the river, at least 500 buffalo. Those animals have been in view all day, feeding in the plains on the L.S. Every copse of timber appears to have elk or deer. D. killed 3 deer, I killed a buffalo, York 2, R. Fields one.

From The Journals of Lewis and Clark, edited & w/ intro by John Bakeless (of Elbowroom Farm (?), Great Hill, Seymour, Conneticut--I'm surprised he didn't name the room in the Farm as well--

[Clark]


June 17th, 1804

George Druilliard, our hunter, and one man came in with two deer and a bear, also a young horse they had found in the prairie. This horse had been in the prairie a long time and is fat. I suppose he has been left by some war party against the Osages. The party is much afflicted with boils, and several have the dysentery.

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Speaking of dysentery, Is anyone concerned about the state of movie-making in Hollywood? More comicbook movies coming out this summer, Stiller and Cruise as The Hardy Boys? What did Gore Vidal once say about Americans? Oh, yes, here it is, from his blurb to One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding--a fine book, by the way: "I hope this book will be read by every adolescent in the country, which is most of the population."

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Preparing for a wedding is nearly annoying enough to call off the wedding. "You must have a preference! What do you mean you don't care? Everyone cares."

I watched Ten last night, the one by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. He's simply one of the great directors of our time. I love his way with letting silences creep in and recede. "The human condition" achieves an uncheap poignancy at these moments that I've never really seen filmed before. (It's different than the kind seen in Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy.) It's a consistent element in his A Taste of Cherry as well.

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Also watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Well, it's everything that everyone has said. An unbelievable explanation of what humans have done to the planet, what will continue to happen on Earth if changes aren't made immediately--not five or ten years from now. The graphs that show weather and population through history make an incredible case, as well as the slides from around the world, which clearly show the drying of lakes and rivers, the receding snowlines on mountains that were covered just thirty years ago, why we're seeing so much flooding around the world, why the hottest years on record have happened in the last ten years. This documentary should be shown in classrooms and boardrooms across the globe--it is that important. The United States and European countres are causing most of the problem, but coal burning in China is causing significant problems as well. In the end, Gore's lifelong interest in the health of the world comes across so powerfully. I can only imagine what a decent man like him would have done as our president.

Received from Suzanne Stein, from her press Taxt, the chapbook Autoimmunity by Eleni Stecopoulos. Really a very nice job in the poetry and the presentation. A swirling, echoaic poetry--smart, earnest without showing too much earnestness, humorous, lyrical, justifiably angry.

Stay silent but think to yourself
we are immune to invasion
Stay silent but think to yourself
help is on the way
When time is suspended we can win Christian battles
When romance is insatiable elections may be held

Watched yet another buddy road picture--Transamerica. True, the buddies are odd. A pre-op dad and his sudden son. We had to fastforward through much of the grueling cheap humor (easy, dopey stuff you'd hear in supermarkets) to the parts with the parents, which finally caused some uplift, however faint. The mother of Bree steals the show, though there's really not much to steal. Like stealing stale bread.

Also watched Word Wars...a documentary about Scrabble enthusiasts preparing for the Scrabble championship in San Diego. Some wonderfully wacky insights from beautiful oddballs. Very nicely done.

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Meanwhile, as a believer in morphic resonance, I call upon all people of the world to utter the following into the universe: "US out of Iraq NOW". You can whisper it, if you'd like. The key is to verbalize it, get it out into the universe, where it will mingle and resonate with all the others. This is a small way to create change. It's not wacky. It's not idiotic. It works.