An Honest Description of Myself with a Glass of Whiskey at An Airport, Let Us Say, in Minneapolis, by Czesław Miłosz

My ears catch less and less of conversations, and my eyes have weakened, though they are still insatiable.

I see their legs in miniskirts, slacks, wavy fabrics.

Peep at each one separately, at their buttocks and thighs, lulled by the imaginings of porn.

Old lecher, it’s time for you to the grave, not to the games and amusements of youth.

But I do what I have always done: compose scenes of this earth under orders from the erotic imagination.

It’s not that I desire these creatures precisely; I desire everything, and they are like a sign of ecstatic union.

It’s not my fault that we are made so, half from disinterested contemplation, half from appetite.

If I should accede one day to Heaven, it must be there as it is here, except that I will be rid of my dull senses and my heavy bones.

Changed into pure seeing, I will absorb, as before, the proportions of human bodies, the color of irises, a Paris street in June at dawn, all of it incomprehensible, incomprehensible the multitude of visible things.

(translated from the Polish by Robert Hass and Czeslaw Milosz)

My favorite Mahler recordings

I'm posting this in celebration of Mahler's birthday (July 7th, 1860). These preferences change all the time; and there's a lot of Boulez here because the series he recorded over the last decade or so made things so CLEAR. They are great 'study' recordings. With age I seem to prefer the clarity.

Bernstein's recordings are an old preference from discovering Mahler in my teens. And a few years ago I picked up his full cycle with the Vienna Phil that was recorded between his two cycles for Columbia/Sony and DG - I think it's a great cycle, in addition to getting to watch him perform.

Sunday, 4 A.M., by Elizabeth Bishop

An endless and flooded
dreamland, lying low,
cross- and wheel-studded
like a tick-tack-toe.

At the right, ancillary,
"Mary" 's close and blue,
Which Mary? Aunt Mary?
Tall Mary Stearns I knew?

The old kitchen knife box,
full of rusty nails,
is at the left. A high vox
humana somewhere wails:

The gray horse needs shoeing!
It's always the same!
What are you doing,
there beyond the frame?

If you're the donor,
you might do too much!
Turn on the light. Turn over.
On the bed a smutch -

black-and-gold gesso
on the altered cloth.
The cat jumps to the window;
in his mouth's a moth.

Dream dream confronting,
now the cupboard's bare.
The cat's gone-a-hunting.
The brook feels for the stair.

The world seldom changes,
but the wet foot dangles
until a bird arranges
two notes at right angles.

- Elizabeth Bishop
 

Seafood Gumbo (Silver Palate's "The New Basics")

This is a simple dish to prepare, but the plentitude of seafood used makes it very impressive (and a bit expensive.) It's been a hit at a few Christmas parties (where I double or triple the recipe.)

Seafood Gumbo

8 ounces kielbasa or Cajun sausage, cut into 1-inch slices
1/3 cup olive oil
1 pound okra, stems removed
2 cups diced onions
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 cup coarsely chopped red bell pepper
5 cups chicken stock
1 cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 cups chopped plum tomatoes,
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper slightly crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
12 ounces sea scallops
12 ounces Maine cooked lobster meat
8 ounces lump U.S. crabmeat, cartilage removed
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

In a large pot or Dutch oven, saute the sausage over medium heat until brown, about 15 minutes. Remove it from the pot and set aside.

Add half the oil to the pot. Then add the okra and cook over medium heat until slightly soft, about 15 minutes. Add the remaining oil, onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Stir, and cook another 10 minutes.

Add the chicken stock, tomatoes, cumin, cayenne, salt, black pepper and bay leaf. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Add the shrimp and scallops to the gumbo and simmer another 5 minutes. Then add the lobster, crabmeat, and parsley, adjust the seasonings, and heat through, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

System of a Down

System of a Down

This is a metal group that both of my sons (Josh and Sam) have been enjoying. They stand out from a lot of the metal that my son, Sam, is into - maybe it's the humor of their lyrics, or the fact that everyone in this Southern California based band is ethnically Armenian - and that certainly flavors their sound.

Don't get me wrong - while there's some alternative sounding moments, this is contemporary metal which is a lot harder than the metal of the 80's. (Some of the other metal bands Sam is listening to - Fear Factory, Disturbed, Stone Sour and Stratovarius.)

For more on System of a Down, here are links to iTunes, Amazon, and AllMusicGuide.