#515: La Saveur des Larmes (c.1938 )

Sinatra offscreen. An Oscar-
winning song. Sammy Cahn
lyrics. Oops, there goes another
rubber tree plant even though
Anyone knows an ant can't
Move a rubber tree plant. Maybe
that's what the caterpillars are
singing as they start to demolish
the giant synecdoche that towers

over the river, over a house full of
lights which foreshadows the final
work of the painter, over a bridge 
which seemingly comes from & 
goes to nowhere. The caterpillars 
chew away. It is a painstaking task. 
It is a painful task. One thing dies 
for another to live. They weep; &
hate the bitter flavor of their tears.

#514 Pour devenir un fort soldat / To become a strong soldier (1918)

 


What would you do if your team mate gets injured & there is no medic near?

O   Find the nearest veterinary clinic & make an appointment 
O   Select an optimal key for both to sing the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive in
O   Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross
O   With no other indicator, choose to give up & respawn instead

Are you focused & calm in awkward situations?

O   Only when the wind is blowing from the sea
O   I have no fear of snowstorms in my dreams
O   Later she would walk down to the lagoon to look for the politicians
O   Not when I bring someone with me whom I sometimes agree with

Which rifle action is your favourite?

O   What constellation is the moon currently passing through?
O   Something different from the same old bolt-action system
O  Depends on whether I'm hunting hares or humans
O  What does the sensei say?

Are you fat?

O   Could you be more specific
O   I'm a small-town stud who wants to go to Nashville to be a big country star
O  so much depends / upon / / a red wheel / barrow
O  I do not reflect upon or on my body image

How do you reload a pistol?

O   Hand over fist
O   Head over heels
O   Mind over matter
O   Apples or oranges?

Are you accurate?

O  Show me a bull's-eye!
O   What is a bull's eye?
O   What is a bull?
O   Beauty is in the eye of the bullholder

Are you good at parkour?

O   I can always choose the perfect outfit to wear 
O   I've never received a parking ticket, so does that count?
O   Only when there are clouds involved
O   Is MacArthur's Park melting in the dark?

Have you ever shot with a rifle?

O   Never. My sperm count isn't high enough
O   Once, when I was a windy boy & a bit
O   Twice. For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction
O   Thrice. But has a rifle ever shot with me?

What is a shotgun?

O   Being born during a Rolling Stones' recording session
O   A Mirrorball on Main Street
O   The latest manga, The Youngest Son of a Conglomerate
O   A person meditating on madness

What is an FN Ballista?

O   The first cyclone of the season
O   The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde
O   Ceci n'est pas une pipe
O   Close, but no cigar

#513 Strange, dear, but

true, dear. The Cole Porter song enters
my morning mind as if it had every 
right to be there, as if it lived there & 
was returning home after a night out. 
But not simply the song, a specific rend-
ition of it. k.d. lang's, first heard on the
Red Hot + Blue tv special & subsequent 
album compilation. What is stranger is 

how to interpret the locus of the singer, 
of the mindsong. In the video, k.d. lang
sings as if she is person who is being
sung to; & in my mind, it is also as if I 
am the recipient. To personalize, it is the 
not-I singing to the other which is me. It's
a tableau that has a logic only because
of its similarity to that Magritte painting

La reproduction interdite in which a man 
is looking into a mirror in which his re-
flection is thrown back, but as if seen 
from the back. Twenty years ago I wrote
of this painting: "Shown from the back
the image is androgynous — think k.d.
lang in her man's suit phase." & here she
is again. Strange, dear, but true, dear.