“Why should I feel lonely? is not our planet in the Milky Way?”—Henry David Thoreau My brother asked me through a facebook comment, are you spending the weekend alone? And I wasn’t sure what the question meant, whether or not it contained a sub-text of surprise or dis-belief: really, on your birthday, you wantContinue reading “#188: On A Birthday Weekend Alone”
Author Archives: michaeljarmer
#187: On the Difficulty of Getting Here
Friday afternoon, trying to prepare for a cabin retreat, a birthday weekend of solitude and reflection and writing, I stepped in a pile of leaf camouflaged dog shit in the driveway. I didn’t realize I had done this until I proceeded to go into the house with shit all over my shoe. I removed theContinue reading “#187: On the Difficulty of Getting Here”
#186: On Writing Retreat
On Writing Retreat, December 5, 2015, L. L. Stub Stewart State Park, Buxton, Oregon It’s raining so hard here, it would be unthinkable to go outside for a walk. So I am stuck in this cabin without internet access and there’s only a few things to do: listen to music, meditate, read, eat, or, theContinue reading “#186: On Writing Retreat”
Notes Toward A Musical Autobiography: Volume VIII, Bowie Binge Thanksgiving
As many of you know if you’ve been hanging around the jolly old blog site of yours truly, I’ve been listening to a lot of music. I’ve been attempting to rescue my languishing compact disc collection by listening to a single cd from every artist or band represented on the shelves in alphabetical order and thenContinue reading “Notes Toward A Musical Autobiography: Volume VIII, Bowie Binge Thanksgiving”
#63: Pilgrims at the Table
Originally posted on michael jarmer:
The fiction Pilgrims at the Table I understand that on the first Thanksgiving there was no meal between Pilgrims and Indians, there was no peaceful gathering around a turkey or anything in particular having to do with corn, but rather, John Winthrop’s declaration of a “day of thanksgiving” when he…
#185: The American English Teacher Crosses Off All The Items From His To-Do List
He does it. He crosses off all the items from his to-do list. Many of the things he crosses off were things he actually did, others, not so much. But he wants them off the list so he crosses them out. Some of those unfinished-crossed-off items will end up on other to-do lists. Some othersContinue reading “#185: The American English Teacher Crosses Off All The Items From His To-Do List”
#184: The American English Teacher Makes A To-Do List
The number and the analogy may have been different, but I swear I said to at least two of my colleagues today, “Do you ever feel like a web browser with 2,879 tabs open?” And both of these colleagues said the same thing: “All. The. Time.” If I could make a catalogue of allContinue reading “#184: The American English Teacher Makes A To-Do List”
#183: Brain Blimp
Brain Blimp I have painted a painting of you, a portrait, so to speak. I have painted your brain, or rather I have made a painting of your brain. It’s on the wing, so to speak. I’ve portrayed it not as bird but as blimp, powered by rocket box adorned with an eyeball andContinue reading “#183: Brain Blimp”
Melt The Guns
For those of you who have been following my project of listening to my music collection from A to Z and writing reflections on each album: no, I am not jumping ahead from D to X. Instead, inspired by a friend of mine posting this tune in Facebook on the day we learned of yetContinue reading “Melt The Guns”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume VII, Letter D
Ahh. The letter D. D is for Dali’s Car. D is for Miles Davis. D is for Death Cab for Cutie. D is for the Decemberists, Deerhoof, Destroyer, Devo, Neil Diamond, Thomas Dolby, The Doors, and Mike Doughty. Taking up only two small shelves, four little cubbies of the ikea compact disc cabinet, the DContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume VII, Letter D”
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