More river.

Today, we did another piece of the Jordan River walk, between 4800 South and 3900 South and back. Because the historian rides along the river all the time, he knows what are the charms of each segment, and he did not recommend this bit highly. "It's right up against some apartments on one side," he said, "and on the other side there's some industrial stuff."

But in this project, I am a little bit literal minded. I want to walk all the parts, pretty or no. I want to see the whole thing, preferably in order. So off we went.

It reminded me a little bit of the L.A. River, the part we walked when we were there last May, by the Glendale Narrows. Industrial/railroad on one side, residential on the other, big deep culvert with hardly any water for a lot of it, but the parts with water, deep down in the culvert, were so beautiful, and the more beautiful for where they were situated. The river today was high, so there were no dry parts as in L.A. It rushed and poured in between the apartments and the warehouses, and there were some gorgeous meanders and plant life, and a few birds.

The historian is right about this segment, but it also seemed to have its beauties.

 

O! Library!

Well, ever since the new year, when all the old leaves became irrelevant and it was nothing but new-on-new, in terms of leaves, and I was just turning them over and over, the leaves, nothing but good intentions!, I have been checking books out of the library like a madwoman (so that I could "Read all the time," or whatever the resolution was, exactly). Checking books out of the library, as readers of this blog know, is of late made super-cinchy because of the library robot and its machinations, now deliverable entirely through the interwebs. So first I saved up my lists of books, to wit:

• Jo Nesbo bookery. Recommended by several.
• A Karin Fossum book--Norwegian, policery, good if it's as good as the others. 
• Another Scandinavian police procedural, picked up entirely on the merits of its Scandinavian author and its cover.
• An entire John le Carre suite of Smiley books.
• The first of the Mist-Born series, on Middlebrow's recommendation.
• Game of Thrones. What? Is it trashy? I don't know.
• The beginning book of a series by Sjodahl and Wahloo, recommended by Radagast.

And then I ordered the library robot to find and deliver them to my local branch library (library robotics part 1). And then I crept into the library like a ninja and checked them out without talking to NO ONE (library robotics part 2).

(Not my library's actual robot.)

Now: of the above books, I have completed, as in "read":

• one Nesbo.

I am also partway through 

• another Nesbo. 

In my defense, first I had to read some books of poetry for my book group, and that one French detective novel, and that one English detective novel, and also Mindy Kaling. And also Diane Keaton.

I am now receiving notices from the robot (library robotics part 3), reminding me that some of my books might be coming due, to wit: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which I had every intention of reading before I saw the movie, but whoops, too late. And there's the Nesbo middle, which I am still in! So I can't really start a whole other spy novel, especially when I have already seen the movie. I'm sure you see my dilemma.

Let me pause to deliver a short discourse on scarcity and excess: 

A Short Discourse on Scarcity And Excess.

Sometimes there is not enough of things, such as when I wander from room to room and say, "When will Fred Vargas/Arnaldur Indridasen/etc. write another book so I can read it?" This is scarcity, and it is intolerable, or nigh unto.

And sometimes there is more than enough of things, such as when someone says, "You should really read X," and I say, "Wait a minute while I dial up the library robot!" And as a consequence of the robot-dialing, there are piles of X, I mean books, the titles of some of which I am sure I'm forgetting, and I'm not sure where all of them even are in my house! and I have already seen the movie of some of them! That is excess, and I am in the middle of it, and don't even get me started on how much I may need or not a pair of pink ballet shoes, to go with my other ballet shoes, including my other pink ballet shoes, but not this particular color of pink. That is also excess, and I am (always already) in the middle of it. And it too is intolerable, or nigh unto.

Well, anyway, I am going to go dive back into the middle of Nesbo, because I finally got a running start at it and it's kind of exciting at the moment. At the moment, there is the exact right amount of Nesbo, and it is very good.

Artifact.

So that, above, is how it went down today--we all made broadsides, and talked about the history of broadsides. I'm having the same, lucky experience I had last time I taught this class, which was also the first time: massive nerves before each three-hour session, and something close to exhilaration afterward. This time, I have the luck of having Dr. Write and another colleague, Kati Lewis, with me as compatriots.

After teaching, I came home, but not before losing my cell phone at Target (found and retrieved). I hung up a bunch of clothes I had heaped in the closet-in-all-but-name that is, essentially, the rest of our bedroom, and took a short nap. We saw A Dangerous Method tonight, which I loved.

Somehow, this weekend I need to squeeze in about three times more stuff than I have actual time to do it in. Huzzah for expandable weekends!

Tomorrow we will be talking about and making broadsides in Publication Studies.

from the National Library of Scotland (1821)

from the National Library of Scotland (1719)

from the Poetry Foundation For the Fridge Archive 

from the Library of Congress Printed Ephemera Collection

from On the Walls and In the Streets: American PoetryBroadsides from the 1960s, James D. Sullivan

Paint.

Key facts.

• My favorite kind of reading glasses

routinely break like brittle china.

• Ergo, I order a pile of them. So I have more when they break. Perhaps I should consider a new style/brand/Lasik? I don't know. They are my favorite.
• It is the historian's birthday today. He has a cold. Is that fair? I ask you.
• We are watching the Australian Open. Rod Laver and Roger Federer are talking. It's kind of great.
• My classes were awesome today. Sometimes it feels like, if you set things up right, your courses turn into little centers of industry, with all kinds of good things happening, humming along. Or, y'know, things could fall apart tomorrow. But I don't think so.
• Today this book arrived at my house: 

Vatnasafn/Library of Water
Roni Horn

it is awesome.

• Even though it was a birthday, it was a work day. Where is the birthday cake? I ask you. I guess that's why birthdays last a week. They do, don't they?
• Okay. Time to get you a little more DayQuil, honey.

(happy birthday to the historian, the best of the best of the best, sir! he is above the system, and he makes it--everything--look good.)

Prognosticator.

The Academy Award nominations are tomorrow! Here's a list of films that might get nominated in the big fat categories (I put a * by what I think should get nominated, and a # by what I think will get nominated):

 (image: NYTimes via Getty images)

Academy Awards NOMINATIONS

best pic

Melancholia * (foreign? English-speaking...)

Midnight in Paris #

The Tree of Life *#

X-Men: First Class *

Bridesmaids *

The Help #

Rise of the Planet of the Apes *

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows *

Hugo *#

The Artist #

War Horse # (haven't seen it) 

Take Shelter * [not a chance this will get nominated, but I thought it was beautiful, maybe my favorite film of the year, so I'm putting it on the list anyway.]

best actor

Christopher Plummer, Beginners *# (or is this a supporting performance? probably)

Brad Pitt, Moneyball *#

George Clooney, The Descendants *#

Michael Shannon, Take Shelter ** (the only thing as good as this was J. Dujardin, and maybe also Brad Pitt in Moneyball)

Ryan Gosling, Drive *#

Paul Rudd, Our Idiot Brother *

Brendan Gleason, The Guard *

Jean Dujardin, The Artist ** (I was not in love with this movie, but I thought this performance was sublime)

Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar ? (haven't seen)

Michael Fassbender, Shame #

best actress

Vera Farmiga, Higher Ground *

Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene *

Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia *#

Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn #

Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo *#

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady # (haven't seen)

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs # (haven't seen)

Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids *

supporting actor

Ryan Gosling, Crazy, Stupid, Love (or The Ides of March) * (in C, S, L, I thought Gosling was pretty much brilliant)

Michael Fassbender, X-Men/Jane Eyre * 

Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes *#

Matt Damon, Contagion * (of a pile of great performances, this was one of the greatest)

Jeremy Irons, Margin Call *#

John Hawkes, Martha Marcy May Marlene *#

Armie Hammer, J. Edgar # (haven't seen)

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn * (this performance gave me such joy--so funny)

Albert Brooks, Drive * (pretty great performance)

Ralph Fiennes and/or Alan Rickman, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

supporting actress

Viola Davis, The Help *# (deserves every possible acting accolade--she is brilliant--and is this a lead performance?)

Octavia Spencer, The Help *#

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids *#

Jessica Chastain, everything she was in *# (literally: brilliant in everything.)

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia *

Carrie Milligan, Drive and/or Shame #

director

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris #

Martin Scorsese, Hugo *#

Terence Malick, Tree of Life *#

David Fincher, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo #

Michael Haznavicius, The Artist #

Lars von Trier, Melancholia *#

David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method ? (not here yet, haven't seen)

Steven Spielberg, War Horse #

Alexander Payne, The Descendants *#

Bennett Miller, Moneyball *

special note for Jude Law, who was fantastic in Sherlock Holmes blah blah blah  and also in Contagion.

p.s. I loved this list.

p.p.s. happy birthday Amelia!