Petrouchka

Dark things appeal to me, they always have. So when my dance appreciation teacher introduced us to Petrouchka, I immediately felt an affinity for the sad, mistreated clown with a crooked painted mouth who ends up getting hacked to death (!) by a Moore. I especially liked this photograph of a 1970 production of the ballet. If only it ended a little happier.

The Moral Calculus

"The most illuminating way to percieve the shoddiness of your own ideals is to witness someone else practicing them."

- William T Vollman, Rising Up and Rising Down

Today Is A Book Day

Three bought
Two borrowed
One stolen
Today is a book day

- Pliney the Dreamer

After a very long dry period, I now have a gloriously tall stack of books on my bookshelf waiting to be read. Some of them are being reread, some are being brought to a sick game of college show and tell, some are borrowed from the library, and some were bought there today (for $3 a piece!).

My sister and I have a special relationship...

Violet: [Sees Pliney looking up pictures of Janice the Muppet online] You're blogging about me aren't you!

The Gargoyle

"While I'm not claiming that I now feel great love for all people, I can state with some confidence that I hate fewer people than I used to. This may seem like a weak claim to personal growth, but sometimes these things should be judged by distance traveled rather than by current location."
- The Gargoyle

"I thought that common sense would prevail, but you can't argue with a monastery of elated nuns."
- The Gargoyle


One of those books that just gets better and better the farther into it you get until you realize it's just too good of a book to have a happy ending. But by then you're too sucked in to do anything about it. Knocked down to three stars out of five by virtue of its ending. But all in all, a very good book.

Geoff Benzing

"Porch Song"

"Rain Walk"

Goeff Benzing