With thanks to Liam, who reminded me of this poem. Happy Solstice, all.

from Toward the Solstice
by Adrienne Rich

...If history is a spider-thread
spun over and over though brushed away
it seems I might some twilight
or dawn in the hushed country light
discern its greyness stretching
from molding or doorframe, out
into the empty dooryard
and following it climb
the path into the pinewoods,
tracing from tree to tree
in the failing light, in the slowly
lucidifying day
its constant, purposive trail,
till I reach whatever cellar hole
filling with snowflakes or lichen,
whatever fallen shack
or unremembered clearing
I am meant to have found
and there, under the first or last
star, trusting to instinct
the words would come to mind
I have failed or forgotten to say
year after year, winter
after summer, the right rune
to ease the hold of the past
upon the rest of my life
and ease my hold on the past.

If some rite of separation
is still unaccomplished
between myself and the long-gone
tenants of this house,
between myself and my childhood,
and the childhood of my children,
it is I who have neglected
to perform the needed acts,
set water in corners, light and eucalyptus
in front of mirrors,
or merely pause and listen
to my own pulse vibrating
lightly as falling snow,
relentlessly as the rainstorm,
and hear what it has been saying.
It seems I am still waiting
for them to make some clear demand
some articulate sound or gesture,
for release to come from anywhere
but from inside myself.

A decade of cutting away
dead flesh, cauterizing
old scars ripped open over and over
and still it is not enough.
A decade of performing
the loving humdrum acts
of attention to this house
transplanting lilac suckers,
washing panes, scrubbing
wood-smoke from splitting paint,
sweeping stairs, brushing the thread
of the spider aside,
and so much yet undone,
a woman's work, the solstice nearing,
and my hand still suspended
as if above a letter
I long and dread to close.

meep

Some Organizations Pander Artlessly

You don't have to be a nerd to understand that SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, in real life) is a bad, bad thing for the internet. Not least because many legislators don't understand what they're voting on. Or this.

According to wikipedia, "The bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who requests the court orders, the actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites."

Block. access. to. a. site.

Got a can of coke in your hand in that facebook profile pic? Could be a felony conviction, up to 5 years in jail. Not kidding. (And that's two copyright infringements right there!)

 From boingboing:

How SOPA will break DNS: In case you were trying to figure out how broken the Internet will be if SOPA passes, have a look at this article and this article from DynDNS, one of the world's leading DNS providers.

If you think this is all a bunch of goldarned hooey, contact your legislator and tell them so. You can tell them I sent you.

Oh, facebook

So I actually went out on Friday night to the artwalk, which isn't something I do all the time... Although when I do, it always seems to be winter. The truth is I don't like crowds, and getting tipsy on free, cheap wine is actually something to be weighed against the hangover that comes from free, cheap wine. My, how times have changed.

I had read about this facebook project, and was kind of excited to be interviewed for part of it (although really I did it to get yet another awkward picture of me posted online) at the artwalk last week. My photo (awkward!) is up on the facebook page of the facebook project, but none of my lengthy "one or two sentences" answer is attached yet.

I have been trying to figure out whether the project is completely masturbatory, or if it's the kind of sociographic-ish thing I'm into, and I haven't made up my mind. In its favor, I like art that is participatory, and I get really excited about anything that has the vaguest whiff of radio about it, which the recorder that was used to capture my half-formed ramblings about facebook friendship did. I'm looking forward to see where this project goes.