Logophile

100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Tout-Fait: Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal

Why Teeny's Hair?
by Hart, Grant
(with audio)
(Vol 1, 2003)


Flag of Ecstasy
by Rael, Chris
(with audio)
(Vol 2/ Issue 5, 2003)


Somewhere between Dream and Reality:
Shigeko Kubota’s Reunion with Duchamp and Cage
by Chen, Ya-Ling
(with video and audio)
(Vol 2/ Issue 4, 2002)


A Musical Happening or 33333333
by Shambroom, Donald
(Vol 2/ Issue 4, 2002)


Chance Operations / Limiting Frameworks:
Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions
by Betancourt, Michael
(with audio)
(Vol 2/ Issue 4, 2002)


Orchestrating the Nude Descending
by Chen, Ya-ling
(with audio)
(Vol 1/ Issue 3, 2000)


Le Picadilly by Erik Satie (1866-1925)
by Chen, Ya-Ling
(Vol 1/ Issue 1, 1999)


Erratum Musical, 1913
by Chen, Ya-Ling
(Vol 1/ Issue 1, 1999)

Humor Train

Free Library of Philadelphia: Book To Reserve When Available

The Law of Strings by Steven Gillis

Physics, gravity, string theory, attraction, and repulsion are all at play throughout The Law of Strings, a collection of short stories by Steven Gillis. The book’s theme and tone are reminiscent of early Thomas Pynchon — bizarrely clever tales that are as much about human relationships as they are about the frontiers of speculative science. Hints of Samuel Becket and contemporary author Max Barry are also present, as in a short story titled “What We Wonder When Not Sure,” which finds a pair of businessmen working for a company whose purpose is largely unknown to all it employs, but which promises to reveal itself eventually.

Other stories find characters struggling to make the best of situations that range from the improbable to the impossible, usually with comic effect, and never with ease: A couple frees the denizens of an overcrowded dog shelter only to realize that they haven’t thought the situation through as thoroughly as they might have. A man with the power to levitate meets a woman whose density renders her immobile. A bookstore owner discovers a mysterious door at the top of a flight of stairs while trying in vain to convince his girlfriend that they should take their relationship to the next level.

What emerges as the stories pile one upon the next is the intimation that life can be flawed, maddening, and nearly inexplicable but ultimately and unquestionably worth living.

-- Small Press Review by Marc Schuster

Food: Patrick's Cookery Corner

1969 - 1970: The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

Frank & Ernest by Thaves

Constructor Theory

Video Link: A Conversation With David Deutsch

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Potpie

Ingredients

Crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour, divided
3 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable shortening


Filling:

3 cups Chicken Stock, divided
2 1/3 cups cubed red potato (about 1 pound)
1 cup (1/4-inch-thick) sliced carrot
2 teaspoons butter or stick margarine
1/2 cup chopped shallots or onions
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 cup frozen petite green peas
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Dash of black pepper
Cooking spray
2 teaspoons 1% low-fat milk


Preparation

To prepare crust, lightly spoon 1 cup flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 1/4 cup flour, ice water, and vinegar in a small bowl. Combine 3/4 cup flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl; cut in shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add vinegar mixture; stir just until moist. Press mixture gently into a 5-inch circle on heavy-duty plastic wrap; cover with additional plastic wrap. Chill for 15 minutes. Roll dough, still covered, into a 13 x 10-inch oval. Place dough in freezer 5 minutes or until plastic wrap can be easily removed.

Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare filling, bring 2 1/2 cups Chicken Stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add potato and carrot; cook 2 minutes. Drain mixture in a colander over a bowl, reserving cooking liquid.

Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add shallots; cook 3 minutes. Lightly spoon 1/2 cup flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup Chicken Stock; stir with a whisk. Add to skillet. Stir in potato mixture, reserved cooking liquid, chicken, peas, 3/4 teaspoon salt, thyme, and pepper. Cook 10 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Spoon chicken mixture into a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Remove 1 sheet of plastic wrap from dough. Place dough on top of chicken mixture, pressing to edge of dish. Remove top sheet of plastic wrap. Cut 5 slits in top of crust to allow steam to escape. Gently brush crust with milk. Bake at 400° for 45 minutes or until golden. Let stand 10 minutes.


Yield: 6 servings

 

Donald in Mathmagic Land

via: theoretical girl (twitter)

The Museum of Modern Art: Immediate Response for Art Collections

MoMA has issued Immediate Response for Collections, a document that offers guidelines for dealing with art damaged by flooding. It offers step-by-step measures that can be taken to conserve artworks in a variety of mediums, including library and archive collections, which have been damaged by water. It also includes a list of suppliers and emergency services that can provide some of the services listed in the document.


Note: Click Title Link for PDF

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story / Todd Haynes

Marcel Duchamp: Musical Erratum + In Conversation

The Creative Act (April 1957) 7:23
A L'Infinitif (1967 recording) 4:02
Interview #1 (1959 recording) 11:03
Interview #2 (1959 recording) 21:20
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 1) 1:02
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 2) 6:59
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 3) 1:17
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 4) 3:39
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 5) 0:18
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 6) 1:08
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 7) 1:28
Musical Erratum: La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même (Pt. 8) 1:23

Released: Nov 2007

Label: LTM Recordings

JF Ptak Science Books

Reference Tool Link: A Short & Handy Timeline of Quantum Mechanics, 1900-1962

The Paris Review Daily

Arts & Culture

Ancient Manuscripts, Now Online

 by Sadie Stein

 

Google is working with the Israel Antiquities Authority to put a number of ancient manuscripts online. Texts available at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library include the earliest known copies of the book of Deuteronomy and part of the book of Genesis.

Genesis fragment: creation of the world.

Ten Commandments fragment

The Book of War, fragment

Tags antiquities, Bible, Book of Genesis, Google, manuscripts, Old Testament, primary sources

The Eagle Has Landed

MoMA Gains Treasure That Met Also Coveted

The stuffed bird is ultimately the reason "Canyon" by Robert Rauschenberg is being donated at all. The presence of a bald eagle — a bird protected by federal laws — means that the work cannot be legally sold or traded. So when the Sonnabend children, Nina Sundell and Antonio Homem, inherited “Canyon,” five years ago, their appraisers valued it at zero. The I.R.S., however, insisted this masterwork was worth $65 million. It demanded they pay estate taxes of $29.2 million plus another $11.7 million in penalties.

Note: Click Title Link for complete NY Times article by Patricia Cohen

 

When God Returns (Postcard)

FOUND by Kelly in Haubstaudt, Indiana

Agitation Propaganda: Tears of Gaza

$1,000,000​.00 USD

to undisclosed recipients

10:01 PM (15 hours ago)

Dear Sir/Madam

This is my seventh time of writing you this email. My wife and I won a Jackpot
Lottery of $11.2 million in July and have voluntarily decided to donate the sum
of $1,000,000.00 USD to you as part of our own charity project to improve the
lot of 5 lucky individuals all over the world.

If you have received this email then you are one of the lucky recipients and
all you have to do is get back with us so that we can send your details to the
payout bank.

You can verify this by visiting the web pages below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/11/AR2010111102637.html

Good-luck,
Allen And Violet Large.

Smash Hits1986: Pop singer Samantha Fox reviews The Fall

via: FallNet

 

Misfit Monks

Medieval Monks

Our typical image of monks is of pious men diligently transcribing text on vellum -- which indeed was part of their ascetic duty. But underneath that image lies the truth that monks were often the dregs of medieval society. Here we find Poggio Bracciolini, a former papal court official whose interests led him to search the monasteries of Europe in search of ancient Roman manuscripts in the early 1400s, and whose opinion of monks was less than favorable:

"Poggio did not like monks. He knew several impressive ones, men of great moral seriousness and learning. But on the whole he found them superstitious, ignorant, and hopelessly lazy. Monasteries, he thought, were the dumping grounds for those deemed unfit for life in the world. Noblemen fobbed off the sons they judged to be weaklings, misfits, or good-for-nothings; merchants sent their dim-witted or paralytic children there; peasants got rid of extra mouths they could not feed. The hardiest of the inmates could at least do some productive labor in the monastery gardens and the adjacent fields, as monks in earlier, more austere times had done, but for the most part, Poggio thought, they were a pack of idlers.

"Behind the thick walls of the cloisters, the parasites would mumble their prayers and live off the income generated by those who farmed the monastery's extensive landholdings. The Church was a landlord, wealthier than the greatest nobles in the realm, and it possessed the worldly power to enforce its rents and all its other rights and privileges. ...

"With his friends in the curia Poggio shared jokes about the venality, stupidity, and sexual appetite of monks. And their claims to piety left him unimpressed: 'I cannot find that they do anything but sing like grasshoppers,' he wrote, 'and I can­not help thinking they are too liberally paid for the mere exer­cise of their lungs.' Even the hard work of monastic spiritual discipline seemed paltry to him, when set against the real hard work he observed in the fields: 'They extol their labors as a kind of Herculean task, because they rise in the night to chant the praises of God. This is no doubt an extraordinary proof of merit, that they sit up to exercise themselves in psalmody. What would they say if they rose to go to the plough, like farm­ers, exposed to the wind and rain, with bare feet, and with their bodies thinly clad?' Their whole enterprise seemed to him an exercise in hypocrisy. ...

"The Benedictine Rule had called for manual labor, as well as prayer and reading, and it was always assumed that this labor could include writing. The early founders of monastic orders did not regard copying manuscripts as an exalted activity; on the contrary, as they were highly aware, most of the copying in the ancient world had been done by educated slaves. The task was therefore inherently humiliating as well as tedious, a perfect combination for the ascetic project of disciplining the spirit."

author:	Stephen Greenblatt
title:	The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began
publisher:	W.W. Norton & Company
date:	Copyright 2011 by Stephen Greenblatt
pages:	36-37
If you use the above (title) link to purchase a book, delanceyplace.com proceeds from your purchase will benefit a children's literacy project. All delanceyplace.com profits are donated to charity.

Photographs: Classics in Lego

Balakov (Mike Stimpson) - Classics in Lego (Richard Avedon’s ‘Nastassja Kinski
and the Serpent’)

Link Via: The Dust Congress

................................................................................................................................................


Jocelyne Grivaud: Barbie As Famous Works Of Art

Half Baked (Cooking Column)

The Awl: How To Make Perfect Risotto by Eric Spiegelman

Marcel Duchamp - The Creative Act

1) The Creative Act - 7:25

2) Some Texts From A L'Infinitif (1912-20) - 4:04

3) Erratum Musical - 1:40

4) An Interview By George Heard Hamilton - 11:07
5) An Interview By Richard Hamilton - 21:20
6) Erratum Musical - 1:39

Released: July 2007

Label: Sub Rosa

 

Man Pronounces the Longest Word in the World

Talking Heads :: Stardust Ballroom – Los Angeles, Sept. 28, 1979

1. Artists Only
2. Stay Hungry
3. Cities
4. Paper
5. Mind
6. Heaven
7. Electric Guitar
8. Air
9. New Feeling
10. Buildings On Fire
11. Found A Job
12. Psycho Killer
13. Life During Wartime
14. Take Me To The River

Clean Plate: Coffee Crusted Chicken

You have not logged in. Please click here to login. By Casey Ann Francis (The Fishtown Spirit Newspaper - Philadelphia) Like a good percentage of most average Americans, coffee plays a very important role in my daily life. It’s practically ritualistic and routine, but never taken for granted. While there is an aspect of my morning tradition that does prevent caffeine withdrawal, I mostly drink a huge cup first thing because I enjoy the flavor. Other than water, it is the one thing I consume constantly so I invest in the good stuff. My coffee of choice is the Reading blend from Old City Coffee in the Reading Terminal Market. It is the perfect combination of a French blend and their namesake Old City Blend, producing a deep, smooth, toasty mix. I prefer it black, as to not dilute the delicious notes with cream or sugar. While there are practically a million ways to take your morning beverage, most wouldn’t realize the grounds could serve as the perfect ingredient in a rub for most meats. This savory recipe appealed to my appreciation for coffee and opened my eyes to other ways I can get it in my system. Coffee Crusted Chicken 5 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans 6 tablespoons butter, softened 5 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons garlic powder 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon ground black pepper 2 teaspoons salt 1 (6 – 7 lb.) whole chicken Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together coffee, butter, sugar, garlic powder, pepper and salt. Arrange chicken, breast side up, in a shallow roasting pan and spread rub all over to coat completely. Pull skin from meat and rub mixture between the two. Roast chicken, basting every 20 minutes or so with pan juices, until skin is deep golden brown and crisp and meat is cooked through, about 2 hours. Set aside to rest 10 minutes then transfer to a cutting board, carve and serve hot.   We’re big fans of whole chickens, whether it’s a recipe we make on our own or a pre-cooked rotisserie from the grocery store. If on the smaller side, two of us can eat one for dinner with a veggie side but, if it’s larger as in this recipe, we can continue with leftovers for lunch. There’s also something about a chicken in its entirety that correlates to home-style meals, and with dark and white meat there is something for everyone. The same can be said for the coffee rub; while the brown sugar adds sweetness and aids the mixture in crusting as it cooks, the garlic powder and black pepper add the savory properties and invite the coffee to do the same. The grounds become a deep, rich highlight and while one would think they would be gritty, they practically dissolve with the rest of the spices in your mouth. The hint of cinnamon rounds out the rub and connects the dish as a seasonably appropriate recipe. While the coffee is the most interesting aspect, the butter works magic keeping the meat moist. Not only was this a great opportunity to experiment with one of my favorite flavors, it made me happy to see non-coffee drinkers appreciate and enjoy the dish. I was so excited that I could barely sleep after eating it. Or perhaps I had just exceeded my coffee limit for the day.

Culture: Prometheus In The Desert

The Verge: From Atom Bombs to Radio Astronomy, New Mexico's Scientific Legacy
 

Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut

And Kilgore Trout said at the clambake, with Laurel and Hardy in a rowboat only fifty yards offshore, that young people liked movies with a lot of shooting because they showed that dying didn't hurt at all, that people with guns could be thought of as "free-lance anesthetists."

He was so happy! He was so popular! He was all dolled up in the tuxedo and boiled shirt and crimson cummerbund and bow tie that had belonged to Zoltan Pepper. I stood behind him in his suite in order to tie the tie for him, just as my big brother had done for me before I myself could tie a bow tie.

There on the beach, whatever Trout said produced laughter and applause. He couldn't believe it! He said the pyramids and Stonehenge were built in a time of very feeble gravity, when boulders could be tossed around like sofa pillows, and people loved it. They begged for more. He gave them the line from "Kiss Me Again": "There is no way a beautiful woman can live up to what she looks like for any appreciable length of time. Ting-a-ling?" People told him he was as witty as Oscar Wilde!

Understand, the biggest audience this man had had before the clambake was an artillery battery, when he was a forward spotter in Europe during World War Two.

"Ting-a-ling! If this isn't nice, what is?" he exclaimed to us all.

I called back to him from the rear of the crowd: "You've been sick, Mr. Trout, but now you're well again, and there's work to do."


pgs. 240-241
Putnam Publishing Group (1997)


.....

January 2013: Thought For The New Month

"We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones."

-- Jules Verne