Senses working overtime #242

1 God save the Queen

The freshest opening of parliament once again had the Queen as the star on show.

2 Poetry corner

Wish Please one more kiss in the kitchen before we turn the lights off W.S. Merwin (2016)

3 Christmas spirit anyone?

Try these adverts from UK giants!

4 Christmas music?

Vox has that covered too!

5 Year Of The Monkey

I've just finished this latest piece of writing from Patti Smith. I'll need to re-read this one - loads going on!

Overtime: Leadership lessons from Santa

Ho ho ho for another year!

Senses working overtime #241

1 Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker

It's finally here. Here's a great piece centred on JJ Abrams and then the final trailer.



2 Poetry corner

1: Have a Good Time

This is a poem. Take it. Pack it up
the mountain. You will meet a man
who says it is an ice-axe. Give it to him. Tell him

he should take it out to sea until
he meets a man who calls it a harpoon.
Follow. Watch them. Let them fight about it. 

Robert Bringhurst (1975)

3 50 Best TV shows of the last ten years

Mr Robot

According to Rolling Stone Magazine

4 Kiss

Why humans kiss

5 Scooter and the Big Man
Their last performance together. Rest in peace, Clarence.

 

Overtime: I hate being late...
and I'm married to someone who is often running late. She doesn't read this blog, but if she did she might enjoy this piece :-)

Senses working overtime #240

1 Social climbers

Excellent piece from GQ puts you up on Everest with these people!

2 Seek first to understand

Believing without evidence is morally wrong!

3 Poetry corner

The Devotee

This man, short, balding, in his forties,
approached me at a reading & asked if
I would sign his book. His hands shook.

I thought he had some kind of condition.
Three days later he sent this email:
“I was at your reading in Louisville.

I loved the way you limped to the stage.
Do you know you’re beautiful? Do you
feel beautiful during sex? What’s it like?

I bought your book, which is about,
you know, this topic. I deserve a reply.”
I looked out the window for the birds

& the deer other poets are always seeing.
I want to be another poet, I thought.
I want to be any other poet but me.

Jillian Weise (2011)

4 Liverpool v Everton

Gulf between these two clubs is huge right now, but I love this photo (Goodison Park on left, Anfield on the right).

5 A love story

An incredible story of how former lovers at Auschwitz met again after 7 decades!

Overtime: Mind bending perceptual illusions
The illusion below, created by the artist Victoria Skye, was one of the top entries in the 2017 Best Illusion of the Year Contest. Believe it or not, the horizontal lines are all perfectly parallel. To prove this to yourself, just squint at the image or look at it from the side.

More of these stunners here.

Senses working overtime #239

1 Another amazing Batman image 

2 December movies

Not long now before the new Star Wars movie (almost there, almost there) but it's not all about SW. Here are some others to watch for.

3 Poetry corner

Before Us

will we travel
to the city where
so much happened
before us     where once
you asked me    and I

couldn't    will we go
to a place   where the past
is new    tell me
this winter morning

where that past is hiding

Anne Michaels (2017)

4 The trick that made animation realistic



5 Black Widow

Looking forward to this one as well. Black Widow is one of my favourite Avengers.

Overtime: 21 best films of 2019
In keeping with the movie bias of this edition - here are the best movies of 2019 according to Vox.

Senses working overtime #238

1 Vinyl!

Delicious!!

2 Emma Stone

The ad is interesting but the critique is hilarious!!!

3 How Einstein learned stuff

A worthwhile read about Einstein's learning habits.

4 Movies for Christmas
Austin Kleon has curated an interesting site with movie recommendations for Christmas.

5 The Crown (Season 3)

We've just finished watching this season. Olivia Colman and the rest of the cast are amazing. Can't wait for season 4 and the Thatcher years.

Overtime 1: Austin wonders
I wonder, sometimes, when artists die, what happens to all the images and ideas they once received. (More here)

Overtime 2: C.D. wonders

My American Scrawl Increasingly indecisive, about matters both big and little, I have found that poetry is the one arena where I am not inclined to crank up the fog machine, to palter or dissemble or quaver or hastily reverse myself. This is the one scene where I advance determined, if not precisely ready, to do battle with what an overly cited Jungian described as the anesthetized heart, the heart that does not react. C.D. Wright

Senses working overtime #237

1 Boba Fett

Inside his world of cool!

2 Poetry corner

What I Didn't Know Before

was how horses simply give birth to other
horses. Not a baby by any means, not
a creature of liminal spaces, but already
a four-legged beast hellbent on walking,
scrambling after the mother. A horse gives way
to another horse and then suddenly there are
two horses, just like that. That’s how I loved you.
You, off the long train from Red Bank carrying
a coffee as big as your arm, a bag with two
computers swinging in it unwieldily at your
side. I remember we broke into laughter
when we saw each other. What was between
us wasn’t a fragile thing to be coddled, cooed
over. It came out fully formed, ready to run.

Ada Limón (2018)

3 SBW

Williams praying with All Blacks team-mate Ofa Tuungafasi

A very impressive New Zealander! I'm very proud of him.

4 How movies went from 15 minutes to 2 hours long




5 The lure of the sea

Apparently those who visit the seashore regularly have better mental health and are happier. I can see that.

Overtime: Bob Dylan - Oh Sister
This live version from the sublime Hard Rain album came on the Radio Wozza via the wozza-pod this morning and I hit repeat four times before I was done with it. An amazing song and a real sing-a-long with Bob moment on the chorus. 

Sadly that version (with different lyrics) isn't on YouTube so here's another live one - great great song!

Senses working overtime #236

1 Love and marriage, and divorce

This new movie, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, looks goooood! Looks like a return to Lost In Translation form for SJ. Fingers crossed.

2 Poetry corner

Suggested Donation In the morning I drink coffee until I can see a way to love life again. It’s ok, there’s no difference between flying and thinking you’re flying until you land. Somehow I own like six nail clippers and I honestly can’t remember ever buying even one. My sister came to visit and saw them in a small wooden bowl. I heard her laughing in the bathroom. I hope she never dies. There’s no harm in hoping until you land. The deer are awake. Is one pregnant? If they kept diaries the first entry would read: Was born Was licked Tried walking Then they’d walk away and no second entry would ever exist. I run the deer’s archive. It’s very light work. Visitors must surrender their belongings. Surrender to me your beautiful shirt. Heather Christle (2019)

3 Marks and Sparks get joyously jumpy!
I like this advert for M&S at Christmas!

4 Those fabulous sixties!



5 The Devil Next Door

Jacky and I watched this Netflix documentary about the man suspected of being Ivan The Terrible, from the Nazi death camps, in various stages of horror. So much drama at those eventual trials !

Overtime: Warren Ellis
This is becoming a regular feature but Warren continues to nail it in his newsletter sign offs. I love his positive approach and I'll continue to share them as long as they contain these sentiments:

Recognise that you carry your weight, and that you always turn out to be stronger than you think you are, and stronger than people tell you that you are.  Whatever the week brings, you're strong enough. Take time for yourself, take a breath, do what you need to do.  Weird as it seems right now, you'll figure it out.  Hold on tight. See you soon.

Senses working overtime #235

1 Holy homework

Only one way to start this week's jewels! This visual feast for the eyes is stunning.

2 Code breakers

Excellent piece from Maria Popova's blog about American women employed as code breakers during WW2.

3 A year from now... (from Seth)

Will today’s emergency even be remembered? Will that thing you’re particularly anxious about have been hardly worth the time you put into it?

Better question: What could you do today that would matter a year from now?

4 Star Wars: Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse

Gets a great review for the novel from Star Wars in the Classroom. Check it out here. Great name btw: Roanhorse!

5 David Mitchell

I'm a fan, thanks to the Observer and Would I lie To You? Nice article here!

Overtime: The return of Poetry Corner

I've been away from poetry many months and now I must rake leaves with nothing blowing between your house and mine Lorine Niedecker (1956)

Senses working overtime #234

1 Carrie

Interesting article on the last days of Carrie Fisher.

2 Advice on presentations

I read a lot of these 'learn the secrets to successful speeches', type pieces. This one is one of the best I've come across so far.

3 Why there is no such thing as a gifted child

An enlightening piece from some experts out standing in their field.

4 Cold hard truths about your workplace

Good light reading and you might even recognise yourself and your workplace here.

5 Why Warren doesn't get work in Britain!

Genius article by the great great Warren Ellis.

Overtime: And Warren's recent sign off message is inspiring too: 

Let's see what next week brings before we panic, eh?  Deep breath.  Feet on the ground.  Take a few minutes for yourself. Summon your powers.  Here we go.  Hold on tight. See you next week.