Home
Rainer Maria Rilke - Sonnets to Orpheus
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 2011
Only he who has also raised
his lyre among shadows
may find his way back
to infinite praise.
Only he who has eaten with the dead
from their stores of poppy
will never again lose
the softest chord.
And though the pool’s reflection
often blurs before us:
Know the image.
Only in the double realm
do the voices become
eternal and mild.
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnet IX, from Sonnets to Orpheus, trans. Edward Snow
Reading, finding it strangely affecting. It hardly needs my recommendation...
Tipping the Doorman
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2345
Bored, the nephew persuaded me to go out, he wants to go out bad, this life in the burbs is wearing on him, he can't take it...I'm tired, can't be bothered to party, not tonight, notwithstanding the weather I have to dig some holes on my day off and don't want to be too wrecked before it starts...
Outside the club, having a cigarette, the doorman complaining to somebody in line that he doesn't get tipped. Alright then. I'll bite. I give him $50. Let's see what tipping the doorman does for one...I'm curious...he tells me he's straight, not to go expecting ...., no, no, I reassure him, I'm just curious, what do you get out of tipping the doorman? A red carpet? Expedited line-up? Reduced cover? Fairy tales are rife with the unexpected consequences of good deeds, we'll see...
The Process of Elimination
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1909
"I have not failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work." - Edison
Meaning that while the weather has been, to say the least, adversarial, the day will be spent off digging a few more holes. I need to take bigger samples, process more dirt, even if they're there I won't find them in the first few buckets, I'll have to commit to moving a few meters of dirt a day, and every place I look is another star on the map, it's the process of elimination, I don't need to find them, just find where they're not...
Don't Breathe
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1989
The daughter today, film and dinner at NoTables. Dinner, good, surprisingly she's not so familiar with finer dining. The boy's been privileged in having a far better education, so far, she's enjoying catching up...
The film, well, I thought a good pick for a teen-age girl. Don't Breathe. Don't all teenage girls like horror flicks? Maybe she did and just wasn't telling me...it would be like her...
The film, good. A bit long, for a while there it began to feel like I was trapped in that god-damned house as well. Horror done well, without the invocation of dark supernatural forces, well written, possibly (but not likely) low budget (no reason to spend a lot of money on this), well timed, thought out, and while I didn't find it "enjoyable" - it was a horror film, after all, it was a good film and had a few completely fucked up moments where it both adhered to and defied conventions...
Good, I'd say. I like film, not necessarily Horror, but this was well done.
Page 510 of 878