Calamari Press absorbs 3rd bed.

The Chico Enterprise-Record updates the fire damage. Now 72 houses destroyed. Staggering info here: "Those fighting the blaze totaled 3,826 people, 10 helicopters, eight airtankers, 22 bulldozers and 521 engines."

Highway 99 south

There have been significant fires around us here in Chico. A week ago twenty homes were destroyed about 30 minutes to the west of us. And this week the Humboldt Fire, ten minutes to the east, has created major damage. The last I looked there were 52 structures destroyed and over 23,000 acres of land burned. There were other fires in Santa Cruz and Vacaville last week, and one started recently in Paskenta. Lisa and I decided to volunteer at the Animal Rescue Facility this morning, and we were given the unfought-over task of laundering soiled pet bedding. We were aided by a retired female sheriff's deputy--"female" mentioned because we would find out from her that the force was only 10% female. She had some interesting stories about working during the San Francisco earthquake. The three of us hauled about 12 large contractor-grade garbage bags over to the coin laundry and spent about $90 of donated money cleaning and drying everything. When we returned three hours later, the amount of donations had seemingly doubled. There were pallets of dog food and, rather humorously, suddenly huge amounts of recently donated, clean bedding, next to which we placed our newly laundered towels, sheets, and pads.

Ralph Nader, talking about being told to not run for the presidency.

Missed this: New York Times article from April 20th, detailing the Pentagon's undercover campaign to promote the war through television military analysts.

Watched The Color of Pomegranates, directed by Sergei Parajanov. Intense, visually interesting, slightly surreal movie. Wholly imagistic, symbolic, dreamy. About the life of Armenian poet, Sayat Nova. Beautifully shot, superb costumes, set designs.

Then watched The Take, directed by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis. Well-done documentary on factory reclamation by workers in Argentina. It's a surprisingly active movement, involving 200 factories of worker-reclaimed factories. Features some non-mawkish, heartbreaking scenes, including the real effects of unemployment on the central family.

Began watching Oldboy, directed by Park Chan-wook. Only 20 minutes in, but already am hooked by this frenetic, well-shot and well-written film. Nightmarish, modern, Seoul. Looking forward to finishing this tomorrow night.

*

Mulholland Falls, viewed over the weekend, is a terrible film. I could explain, but I'd be wasting my life.

Reading Valerian Albanov's In the Land of White Death.

Also bought K2--The Savage Mountain by Charles S. Houston, M.D. and Robert H. Bates.

As far as I know, there are only four works of any serious length given over to homophonic translation. Four works in a space of 39 years. May there be many, many more to come.

Celia and Louis Zukofsky, Catullus, Cape Goliard Press, 1969. 116 of Catullus' poems get the treatment.

David Melnick, Men In Aida: Book One, Tuumba, 1983. 25 pages long.

David Melnick, Men In Aida: Book Two, Editions Eclipse, 2002.

My own Trilce, Calamari Press, 2006. All 77 poems in Vallejo's second book, Trilce, are treated mostly homophonically, but not fully.