And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said “All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them”– “Suzanne”, Leonard Cohen
Until the sea shall free them.
So I have spent all of this week listening to the extraordinary music of two bands from Tuva, deep in the steppes of Russia: Huun Huur Tu and Ya-Kha. Of the two, Yat-Kha is my favorite, they bill themselves as “Tuvan punk” … sort of. Imagine the polytonal throat-singing generally associated with Tibetan Buddhist chanting, then add traditional east European music, with the occasional electric guitar or synthesizer. But heck: Don’t just take my word for it; you can hear it at CDNOW .
In other news, I have learned some more things about XSLT which will make the maintenance of this site even easier than I thought. This may allow for breaking the XML into individual pieces, one per journal entry, thus making it possible to bookmark, save, and send each individual entry.
I am nearly finished with Blood Meridian . The writing is beautiful, but the subject is so terribly ugly. I feel a sustained sense of awe while reading it.