Bibliotecaphilia

Lento en mi sombra, la penumbra hueca
exploro con el báculo indeciso,
yo, que me figuraba el Paraíso
bajo la especie de una biblioteca.

—Jorge Luis Borges, "Poema de los dones"

Paradise

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

Vox Hunt: By My Favorite Artist

Show us something by your favorite artist.

Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) was, in my opinion, a brilliant painter, and a rather good sculptor, of the orientalist style. While I don't know that I can be said to have a single "favorite" artist, he is certainly one of those I most admire. Perhaps you may see why, seeing a few samples here of his work.

"The Bacchante", oil on canvas, roughly 18 5/8 inches across (47.5 cm); currently in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France.

"Markos Botsaris", oil on canvas from 1874, measured 27 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches (70 x 54 cm), but unfortunately, this gem is lost today.

"Portrait of a Lady". Oil on canvas, from sometime between 1866-1870. 21 1/4 x 14 1/8 inches (54 x 36 cm), in a private collection. I've always been fascinated by the detail and level of quality in the apparent texture of the dress, esp. in the lower and lower-left portion.

"The Teaser of the Narghile" aka "The Pipelighter". C. 1898, oil on canvas; 21 3/8 x 25 7/8 inches (54.6 x 66cm); currently in a private collection.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: Strike up the Band

Do you play any musical instruments?

Several, to varying degrees of competence. Bass guitar, fingerstyle acoustic guitar, psaltery, banjo, mandolin, violin, piano/keyboards, recorder, random and varied other things. Also create my own instruments in cSound and play and write for those.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: This is when I'm at my Best

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

By nature I prefer the night and, given the opportunity and the option, I'd certainly prefer to sleep by day and wake by night. These days, however, I tend to be awake most of both. Ordinarily I do my best work by night (it's why my music appears under the name of "Agrypnia"), but present obligations require a great deal of work by day.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: My Musical "Horoscope"

What's your musical horoscope? (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.)

Whole digitzed playlist: 16,988 tracks. Random tracks:

1. Howlin' Wolf, "What a woman!" (from The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions)
   "You tried so hard to kill me..."
2. Corrosion of Conformity, "Clean my Wounds" (from Deliverance)
   "...and myself, I'm slow and tired"
3. Ministry, "Lay Lady Lay" (Dylan cover from Filth Pig)
   "Why wait any longer for the world to begin?"
4. Flaw, "One More Time" (from Through The Eyes)
   "We never seem ready for this..."
5. Muddy Waters, "Champagne and Reefer" (from King of the Electric Blues)
   "Well, you know, shouldn't be no law 'gainst people that want t' smoke a little dope."
6. Meshuggah, "Aztec Two-step" (from None EP)
   "Listen!"
7. Leslie Howard playing Franz Liszt's arrangement of of the Allegro S565a of Schubert's D760, Op. 15, Wandererfantasie (from vol. 49 of the Hyperion Edition of the Complete Piano Works of Liszt)
   (instrumental)
8. Okkervil River, "The Velocity of Saul at the Time of his Conversion" (from Down the River of Golden Dreams)
   "While the angels stand by I get high as a kite."
9. Wolfsheim, "Upstairs" (from Dreaming Apes)
   "I'm the nightmare from upstairs and I'm coming down."
10. The Mountain Goats, "In Corolla" (from Get Lonely)
    "Here's hoping they have better luck than I had down here with them."

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: Speak to Me In...

How many languages can you speak? Which languages can you read or understand?

Ξέρω καλά ελληνικά, λατινικά, κοπτικά, ιταλικά, ρουμανικά, ρωσικά, γαλλικά, γερμανικά, πολωνικά, ισπανικά, πορτογαλικά, εβραϊκά, ουγαριτικά, αραμαϊκά, αραβικά, ουγγρικά, νορβηγικά, κινέζικα, ιαπωνικα, ισλανδικά και λίγα αγγλικά.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: I'm reading (or about to read)...

What books are on your nightstand?

Should memory ever fail me, I keep a copy of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep on hand for easy reference; for pleasure I've recently been rereading Robinet's Taoist Meditation.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: I Just Made That Up

Remember sniglets? Do you have any favorites? Have you ever made up your own word? (Now's as good a time as any.)

Yes, no, and yes; I am prone to logoleptic logodaedaly, and no I didn't make up either of those.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.

QotD: Number one with a bullet

What song was the number one song on the charts the day you were born? How about the day you turned 21? What do you think about the song?

The last #1 before my birth was Andy Kim's "Rock Me Gently"; the one right after was Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You"—to be perfectly frank, however, I don't care for either. My 18th bday was scarred musically by the fact that "End of the Road" by the orthographically challenged Boyz II Men was at the time in the midst of spending its three months at the #1 spot. My 21st suffered under Mariah Carey's "Fantasy".

It's no wonder I rarely listen to pop music or radio.

Imported from VOX due to its closing.