I spent and evening at work toying around with different design ideas. This is the last bit of published web design that I've done in the last year.
For those of you who've known me for the past year, this is ancient Sumerian news. With cobwebs and fossils and Melchizidek.
My job title evolved from designer to content desianager/resident potter So I've been doing some mockups of false websites to deliberately brush up.
Let's say I'm resurfacing in a way, maybe I'll even overhaul Serious Doors, I mean, this blog thing.
It was a productive day, the clouds moved faster than usual. Four clay guys, full of eggs and pancake mix, inspecting buckets of red, white, semi-white. Spraying stuff off. We had the hose out on a Saturday and I felt like we were missing a Slip 'n Slide. And we forgot that Chris was married.
The sun was higher, and my head fell back on my vacant childhood couch on Montis Drive...reading The God Who is There. My parents were gone for a funeral, left some blueberries. In the living room, empty 21 years back, where I yelled at three to hear my echo. Its probably still bouncing around in there, smaller than a pinhead. The run was good, mowed the lawn without the mulch bag, and realized I had missed the hickapple season, and it was the first time I didn't have to pick them up before mowing, first summer I didn't smell their vinegar.
Then the computer time, and it seemed to be better. Took a break after an hour. When I left there was a grey wall of cloud with an open wound of sun, and a orange scoop of cumulous further back, being awesome. Brannon was upstairs and we talked in the glow of too many monitors. Returned two hours later, but he wasn't there and his screensavers told me he had been gone for more than 15 minutes.
Went back to the clay studio, missing the moth we had grabbed the night before. Her name was Fol, I think, but she laid all her eggs in the bottle we shoved her in. She had rabbit fur and was dark blue and yellow. And a healthy wingspan with translucence. Intimidating. That's part of the reason we threw her in the bottle. She's free now, though.
I played piano with a friend. There was talk of funny stories. And it was good.
After the door was shut and the lights turned out, the buzzsaw cicadas yelling, the humidor on 10, I convinced two of my clay counterparts to drive to the Huddle House for a Patty Melt. It's a miracle we're not all buckled over this very moment in regret, having all eaten of the Hud Beef.
Our waitress, we discovered, had not slept since Thursday. And I thought she was just being rude.
Discussion was business, then fizzled...and we came up with this:
(Lines, not stanzas, go Me, Jon, Tim) Jon ended it so he could be awesome. It worked!
--------++++---------
there's a box full of broken glass
in the middle of a field of daisies
it's hidden in tall grass
on a wednesday afternoon
plane flies overhead
there are beetles trying to lift the pieces
five are black, five are red
bee on the daisy, pollenating
his friends stop working to watch the beetles
the drone of the plane fades out
a beetle upends a piece of glass
the white sillouhette of the plane, motion fades
in the reflection
The worlds is upside down
and backwards
a label clings to the glass
the beetle bats at it with it's claw
the label winces and withdraws
the piece shifts
The world backwards disappears.
----------++++------------
From the Huddle House, we moved forward.
i completely did not get that
Posted by: gwen at July 11, 2004 09:42 PMRead three more times.
Posted by: Kammer at July 11, 2004 11:19 PMBut it's so frustrating to read it again and not get it. Sometimes I think you hate us...
Posted by: heidi at July 12, 2004 05:52 PMIs the confusion sparked by the entire entry or the "poem"?
The Huddle House poem began with the box of glass in the field afterwhich three underslept mud-daubers indecently spoke out their lines in turn. The end result was the bees talking about the beetles and imagery that was probably better left unsaid.
Tonight we had Frostys but didn't partake of the SOConsciousness verse. We did partake of Bread, though, in thick doughy quantities.
That's an cryptic disclaimer to an equally cryptic entry. No more post 2:00 AM blogging....
after this morning.
Entire entry. (I understand bits and pieces but come away with distinct befuddlement over the specific point of your post. However, there might not be a specific point. If that's the case, than perhaps that's the problem--I want there to be one.)
I have to respect you, though, for writing for yourself and not your audience. Well not this part of your audience, anyway. Maybe I just need to stop reading your blog and then I won't feel as inferior.
I only explained myself because you asked.
Posted by: heidi at July 13, 2004 12:16 PMbread should only be eaten in thin, infrequent slices. It's a good thing we had the frosties to slick it all down!
Posted by: tim at July 13, 2004 04:15 PMan afterwhich?
like a mustard and peanut butter afterwich?
we must wear shoes with backs and shirts with ties.
Actually it's pumpernickel/smileyface afterwhich.
Afterwhich I will drink a tall glass of chocolate malt and fall prostrate into the nearest bean bag, cutting my face on the zipper.
Posted by: Kammer at July 13, 2004 04:25 PMwe aren't too keane on bread.
how's that for cryptic?
MWAH-HA-Ha-ha...
Posted by: tim and jon at July 13, 2004 10:30 PMthe images in the poem are amazing, like he said read it 3 times. as always Kammer never fails to deliever on clever rhymes, striking images, and the greatest sense of story telling.
i feel for your children at bedtime, those of you who don't "get it" because while they're hearing "hamster bingo and the amazing flying boswick brothers" for the FOUR HUNDREDTH TIME my children will dream to the tune of these amazing poems.
what i mean to say is Kammer is ingenious.
and maybe the audience isn't so important.
for me the beauty and value comes from the images i see when i read it, the clever rhymes, and inventive ideas.
it arrests and deserves your attention.
it takes unbelievable amount of ability and knowledge, creativity, and command of words to write things like this.
Anyone can write "See Jane Run" but who in the world cares.
Posted by: Cory at July 14, 2004 09:20 AMdon't jon and tim deserve a little credit for spontaeneous ingenuity, as well ? :o)
anyway, I don't know what it is about reading it three times, but it gelled--or started too, anyway--for me on #3. for something that was written by three guys high on Hud Beef, opertaing on the spur of the moment, I have to say the images really are startling, and the language more precise than it seems on first glance: aka, pretty darned interesting. what's great about it is that it has many layers and literary attributes, and the authors weren't exactly trying too hard (I;m guessing) and are probably laughing at anyone who takes it all that seriously (again, a wild guess?)
but i like it; i could hear the beetles, broken glass, and the plane.
still, i think those who don't get it or don't like it are entitled to their own opinions and artistic prferences...right?
Posted by: jd at July 14, 2004 02:01 PMJon and Tim will get their reward, the Scentipede post should be coming soon. Thanks for playing mediator.
And phantom JD, you're not Danielson, are you?
Posted by: Kammer at July 14, 2004 02:07 PMgood grief, Ben, I thought you wouldn't notice (lots of nail-biting here)...hope i'm not intruding on your space and circle of scarey but very cool, very thought-provoking and funny friends. anyway, i've really enjoyed peeking at your post now and then (as I've found many an interesting blog via BBH, thanks to a link on the blog of my friend in Germany.) It;s made me laugh and think, be solemn, be goofy, etc. ect.
you have a lot to say, for an otherwise quiet guy :o) i feel like i'm getting to the real Ben, and i kinda wish i'd gotten to know him a little better before now!
do me a favor... should you be harboring any memories of a certain mafia-mystery night out with Chi Delt or awkward, wedding-related moments on the coast of maine: do your best to draw a veil over them, or decimate them altogether via whatever means you deem necessary (i.e., large quantities of aforementioned hud beef, beef cubes and gravy, or those pumpernickel afterwhiches) and give me a chance to be cooler than i probably have seemed to you in the past; or at least, kinder and less self-absorbed.
of course, the fact that i needed to ask you to do that probably means i'm more self-absorbe dthan EVER, right? ;o)
keep up the good bloggin.'
Posted by: jd at July 14, 2004 02:40 PMi guess you could enjoy lighthouse paintings too.
;o)
Well, Jen, the comments are appreciated. It's a weird time for you to start, Paul Kelly was spotted roaming around the Press looking for me a couple weeks ago...
Posted by: Kammer at July 15, 2004 01:26 AMHe shows up in the oddest places...
Posted by: jd at July 15, 2004 08:39 AMJen Danielson!!!! AHHHHHH!!! What the stink is up??? Old roomie, Laura Korver, speaking.
Posted by: the korv at July 15, 2004 02:12 PMLaura KORVER??? Unbelieveable! I was thinking of you yesterday! I think I am psycho, I mean psychic...well, okay, maybe not; but, how are you? Are you a Kammer aquaintance? Isn't this a great blog? Do you have one of your own???? e-mail me!
Posted by: jd at July 15, 2004 02:56 PMYes, you are indeed psychic. Yes, I am also a Kammer acquaintance. Yes, this blog is great. Yes . . . what is your e-mail address???
Posted by: the korv at July 15, 2004 03:51 PMHud Poem: A Responsory
Barefoot through the field
On a Wednesday afternoon
Long, loose legs snap clusters of knee-high grass
Haphazard trail in my wake
Flower harvest beckons
Nimble fingers string daisy chains
Garlands assault the sky
Speck on the horizon
B-29 circles like a bloodthirsty buzzard
Engine drones
Shadow collides with mine
I fling headlong
I measure my length beneath a rising cloud of dust
Sharp pain
Shards of glass seize the sunlight,
Rippling over my foot like waves
of broken laughter
Thin red rivulets course down the sides of the box
Converge in a pool
Three dead beetles drift in slow circles
Seven others--black and red--hover in deferential silence
Equilibrium restored.
Thanks, I'll be sure to keep those in mind.
Posted by: George Sand at November 23, 2004 10:31 AMSpectacular. Let me reassure you that this has nothing to do with your Vegas romp.
Posted by: Kammer at November 23, 2004 11:16 AMYou must admit that your comprehensive--and, dare I add, highly suggestive--listing was non sequitur. I was hoping for a remedy for foot lacerations.
Posted by: the korv ;) at November 24, 2004 09:56 AMPlease note: Comments will not appear immediately. Your comment will appear upon approval by the blog's editor. We had to implement this to decrease the amount of spam that our site receives. Please forgive the inconvenience. We are looking into other, friendlier options.