mine that bird’s win at the kentucky derby on saturday was amazing to behold. unfortunately, if you were watching it in the states, chances are you got a horrible calling of the race, courtesy of nbc announcer tom durkin.

so here’s the UK announcer, and a split-screen track of the race. if you watch carefully, you can see the little gelding from new mexico slide up along the rail, from dead last.

a few posts back, i mentioned how i like hanging out with alejna because her academic/professional interests are very different than mine. i also offered to knit her a pair of socks in apology for not having let her know i was going to be in boston in a timely fashion. (the offer still stands; i’ve got a great pattern for warm winter socks that do really well in doc marten’s.)

then, another friend shared something on her RSS feed that struck me as the perfect synergy of the proffered apology and alejna’s passion for linguistics: a knitting machine that turns the frequency of the human voice into a binary code and pattern for a knit object. come to think of it, it would be pretty neat for alejna’s main squeeze, too. now to figure out when i can plan a trip to berlin…

batala performing at farragut square when i got off the bus this morning. as i stopped to listen, one of the performers came up and told me i should join. i laughed and told her i had no sense of rhythm. she told me i’d learn.

photos to follow, as soon as i can sort through the ridiculous number i took. but here’s where i was:

to i google you. my favorite lines:

And I’m pleased your name is practically unique
it’s only you and
a would-be PhD in Chesapeake
who writes papers on
the structure of the sun
I’ve read each one

and you can see amanda palmer performing the song on youtube.

(not the police, although it isn’t a bad song)

dull day in the doc review mines, so i cruise my iphone over to youtube to listen to some indochine (i could just use the ipod, which has comfier earplugs and almost all of the band’s studio releases, but the system is abysmally slow and this way i can watch the videos, too). someone has posted the 1988 coliseo amauta version of 3eme sexe, which tickles me because i was there.

and continuing to think about indochine, i open a page to wikipedia to see if there’s anything about the band. but before i can search, today’s featured article opens up: the wikipedia entry for peru.

synchronicity, i tell you.

(two different things)

first, the card. it rocks:¹

second, the tref. it’s awesome:

(click here, silly)²

and third (a lagniappe): it’s snowing! it’s been snowing all day! people don’t know how to handle it! yay!
_____________

¹ thanks, margot!
² hat tip: nick

the Most Wonderful Cabbie came through, having driven by the house not one, not two, but THREE times yesterday. three, presumably, because my house is hard to find despite enormous numbers on the front gate.

so, crisis on my phone averted. it’s baaaaack, it’s back in action, and i’m no longer a quivering puddle of anxious cell-less jello.

you go, mister cab driver guy.

(i called his boss to tell him how awesome he was. i hope he gets some good out of this.)

last night i had the great pleasure of attending a poetry reading and gossip session by an 83-year-old birmingham gentleman, a onetime BBC presenter. he ended the reading with auden’s “law, like love.” i was entranced.

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.

Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I’ve told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.

Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.

Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.

And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.

If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,

No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyvay:
Like love I say.

Like love we don’t know where or why,
Like love we can’t compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.

further proof that bruce campbell is, in all likelihood, god.

hat tip: james. note: please don’t watch this if you don’t have a sense of humor and/or do have a deep loathing of duran duran. it’s supposed to be cheeze, for goodness’ sake.