Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, September 6
through
Saturday, September 12 2020
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It’s Saturday, September 12, 2020
Welcome to the 882nd consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Large field of corn (maize) completely flattened by the August 2020 Midwest derecho near Roland, Iowa.
Mike Zevenbergen - National Weather Service (Des Moines Office) - https://www.weather.gov/dmx/2020derecho
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2.0 Commentary
We’ve fallen below 1%.
In fact, we in Massachusetts are fallen below .8%.
Referring of course to the testing positivity rate.
Awesome.
Time for a personal health review.
My weight continues to plague me.
I can’t get up the energy to gird myself for a rigid diet.
I remain at an uncomfortable level
which by itself is not awful.
But it puts one in dangerous territory:
no room to slack.
Weight lifting is going well.
Slowly working towards my former levels.
Walking continues unabated although
as the cold weather arrives I doubt if I will go out nearly as much.
I know I won’t.
I am seriously considering renting a house or home in a warm climate for
a sizeable time period in the winter.
The injuries to my knees:
From the fall on the escalator near a year ago,
the bruising persists.
Slight but persistent.
The more serious injury,
the torn tendon in back of my knee,
is healing on schedule.
Almost completely healed in fact.
The election is 53 days away.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
I’ve finished compiling my past scribblings on a dream trip to Tuscany.
Next week I get the text on Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel.
Now I must return to my studies of the art we will be viewing.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Homosexuality in Russia is a crime and
the punishment is seven years in prison,
locked up with the other men.
There is a three-year waiting list.
~Yakov Smirnoff
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Thursday night a made a tuna salad.
Look at the recipe as being in two parts.
The first is the solids: lettuce, celery, tuna fish, red onion and a bit of dill pickle.
The second is the dressing: olive oil, mayonnaise, white wine vinegar, salt and freshly-ground pepper mixed together before adding the dressing into the tuna mix.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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The August 2020 Midwest derecho was a severe weather event that
took place from August 10–11, 2020, across the Midwestern United States.
The derecho caused notably widespread high winds, some extreme, and
spawned an outbreak of low-class tornadoes.
In addition, certain areas reported torrential rain and large hail.
Damage was moderate to severe across much of the affected area as
wind speeds of 70 miles per hour were prevalent,
often sustaining themselves for half-an-hour or more.
The greatest damage occurred in eastern Iowa, where
the highest wind speeds were recorded, and
northwestern Illinois, where most of the tornadoes touched down.
The highest measured wind speed was 126 mph,
while the highest estimated from damage was 140 mph equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane.
Both events occurred in Iowa.
The impact subjected millions to wide-scale utility disruptions, residential and commercial property damage, and significant to severe damage to the yearly corn and soybean crop in the area.
In the hardest hit areas, such as the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area,
the damage was catastrophic and cleanup remains ongoing.
The storm prompted widespread severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, and high wind warnings,
the latter of which are issued when sustained winds of 40–73 mph are expected.
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It’s Friday, September 11, 2020
Welcome to the 881st consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Fresco of a female figure holding a chalice at an early Christian Agape feast.
Catacomb of Saints Marcellinus and Peter,
Via Labicana,
Rome, Italy
Unknown author - http://liceokant.gioventudigitale.net/english/ss-marcellino/ssmarcellino.htm
Painting of a feast / Early Christian catacombs / Paleochristian art.
Fresco of female figure holding chalice in the Agape Feast.
Catacomb of Saints Pietro e Marcellino (Saints Marcellinus and Peter),
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2.0 Commentary
A random thought.
I never sleep on a plane.
Just can’t.
Jealous of those who can.
They boast, brag.
“I slept from the moment we took off to when we landed.”
Really.
Like I care.
Anyway.
I have learned to tough through any physical discomfort.
I arrive at my destination physically spent but
am pumped with adrenaline and ready to go.
I do have the ability to nap for ten minutes and feel refreshed.
That counts.
Imagine reimagine.
As in reimagine MBTA train stations.
We’ve got to.
If we’re going to live like reasonable creatures.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Finished gathering of notes from Florence.
Will try ‘Travel’ and then ‘Paris’
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
The reason gas prices are so high is because
the oil is in Texas and Oklahoma and
all the dipsticks are in Washington.
~Yakov Smirnoff
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5.0 Mail
My son Dom and I had a nice discussion.
We agreed that we loved the progress professional sports is making
towards social justice in America.
We talked about this and emerging from the conversation was the idea that
athletes should spend election day publicly moving through polling places in black neighborhoods.
So encourage people to register and come out to vote.
Swell the voting population.
Flaunt your celebrity.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Lauren and I had delicious dry-age steaks covered with broccoli rabe sauteed in garlic oil and
hot pepper.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Agape is a Greco-Christian term referring to love,
"the highest form of love, charity" and
"the love of God for man and of man for God".
The word is not to be confused with
philia, brotherly love, or
philautia, self-love,
as it embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance.
It goes beyond just the emotions to the extent of seeking the best for others.
The noun form first occurs in the Septuagint, but
the verb form goes as far back as Homer, translated literally as affection,
as in "greet with affection" and
"show affection for the dead".
Other ancient authors have used forms of the word to denote love of a spouse or family, or
affection for a particular activity, in contrast to
eros (an affection of a sexual nature).
Within Christianity,
agape is considered to be the love originating from God or Christ for humankind.
In the New Testament, it refers to the covenant love of God for humans,
as well as the human reciprocal love for God;
the term necessarily extends to the love of one's fellow man.
Some contemporary writers have sought to extend the use of agape into non-religious contexts.
The concept of agape has been widely examined within its Christian context.
It has also been considered in the contexts of other religions, religious ethics, and science.
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It’s Thursday, September 10, 2020
Welcome to the 880th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
The only known daguerreotype of Margaret Fuller
(by John Plumbe, 1846)
Josiah Johnson Hawes - https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2007.386
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2.0 Commentary
Our number one threat to controlling the covid?
It’s the T.
Yesterday’s article in the Globe re: the improvements on the T is well done.
Except, the takeaway, the T is ‘absolutely’ safe as per Governor C Baker, is dumb.
Dumb.
If the T is safe it’s because the ridership is way down.
As the cars get more crowded, riding the T will go from safe to risky to disastrous.
In the Globe article, not one mention is made of seat takeaways
as is done for restaurants.
Not one mention of a ‘safe’ number of passengers for the cars;
nor of a person assigned to protect against overloading;
nor of a way to keep crowds away from subway platforms where
panic and violence takes hold.
My friends in government,
stop the dance!
Governor Baker’s saying that riding the T is ‘absolutely’ safe is
the first bulls--t I’ve heard coming out of his mouth since the pandemic began.
This attitude will destroy the very positive and deserved image he has created for himself.
Please, Governor, for all of our sakes, change the spin to:
“We are rethinking crowd management and will have a trial redo ready to implement on October 15.”
Our number one threat to controlling the covid?
It’s the T.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
Since most of us spend our lives doing ordinary tasks,
the most important thing is to carry them out extraordinarily well.
~Henry David Thoreau
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Tuesday night Lauren and I had leftover roast chicken with
a vegetable antipasto for variation.
I took the time to prepare Rouille for Friday night’s dinner of
Bouillabaisse.
I will add most of this into the soup as a bit of a thickener ( a personal variation from the traditional) .
The rest I will fortify with extreme heat and garlic to be used to taste by each individual diner.
Tomorrow I will make the paste at the core of every successful broth.
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Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850) was an
American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and
women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement.
She was the first American female war correspondent,
writing for Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune, and
full-time book reviewer in journalism.
Her book Woman in the Nineteenth Century is considered the
first major feminist work in the United States.
Born Sarah Margaret Fuller in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
she was given a substantial early education by her father,
Timothy Fuller, who died in 1835 due to cholera.
She later had more formal schooling and became a teacher before, in 1839,
she began overseeing her Conversations series:
classes for women meant to compensate for their lack of access to higher education.
She became the first editor of the transcendentalist journal The Dial in 1840,
which was the year her writing career started to succeed,
before joining the staff of the New York Tribune under Horace Greeley in 1844.
By the time she was in her 30s, Fuller had earned a reputation as the best-read person in New England, ale or female, and
became the first woman allowed to use the library at Harvard College.
Her seminal work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, was
published in 1845.
A year later, she was sent to Europe for the Tribune as its first female correspondent.
She soon became involved with the revolutions in Italy and allied herself with Giuseppe Mazzini.
She had a relationship with Giovanni Ossoli, with whom she had a child.
All three members of the family died in a shipwreck off Fire Island, New York,
as they were traveling to the United States in 1850.
Fuller's body was never recovered.
Fuller was an advocate of women's rights and, in particular,
women's education and the right to employment.
She revolted against Boston-Cambridge’s learned professions because
she was barred from entering as a girl.
Fuller, along with Coleridge, wanted to stay free of what she called the
"strong mental oder" of female teachers.
She also encouraged many other reforms in society, including
prison reform and the emancipation of slaves in the United States.
Many other advocates for women's rights and feminism, including Susan B. Anthony,
cite Fuller as a source of inspiration.
Many of her contemporaries, however, were not supportive,
including her former friend Harriet Martineau.
She said that Fuller was a talker rather than an activist.
Shortly after Fuller's death, her importance faded;
the editors who prepared her letters to be published, believing her fame would be short-lived,
censored or altered much of her work before publication.
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It’s Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Welcome to the 879th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Southworth & Hawes - George Eastman House Collection General information about the George Eastman House Photography Collection is available at http://www.eastmanhouse.org/inc/collections/photography.php.
For information on obtaining reproductions go to:
http://www.eastmanhouse.org/flickr/index.php.
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2.0 Commentary
We had a nice day, Lauren and I.
Creating the blog to start the day for me.
Then a text to Lauren to share each other’s activities from the day before.
Deciding to hang out.
Meeting dear cousin @ Thinking Cup on Newbury St.
We drove to Hampton, NH to walk the beach there.
On the way Lauren realized two of her dear friends lived there.
We visited.
Nice.
Then we walked the beach.
Returning home we hung around the pool until dinnertime.
A terrific dinner.
A low-key, terrific day.
We spent a bit of time looking over week to come, including
a haircut, a LouLou visit, a Shazia visit, and,
a shortened week, tomorrow being Tuesday, not Monday.
With the holiday over, we wait the tabulation of the hurt of
close-quarter celebration throughout New England causes.
If it’s more than a very slight uptake, we’ll realize we may not
easily permit large gatherings in the near future.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Continue to find, read, and compile notes already printed.
Tedious but constructive.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
In 1848, Thoreau went to jail for refusing,
as a protest against the Mexican war,
to pay his poll tax.
When RW Emerson came to bail him out, Emerson said,
'Henry, what are you doing in there?'
Thoreau quietly replied,
'Ralph, what are you doing out there?'
~Henry David Thoreau
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from our dear Sally C.:
Dear Dom,
I'm as pleased as punch that you can indulge in beef of any kind for such prices. And why not, if you can afford it? It's not as if you're doing it every day.
On the other hand, I see you often indulging in some of the simplest culinary pleasures - cheesebuger, anyone? - with equal pleasure. Now that's what I call someone with broad tastes!😊
Mine are generally quite ordinary, primarily from lack of exposure or experience. But, no matter how fancy or plebian the dish, if it tastes good, it tastes good!
Being the frugal sort, I look to less expensive cuts of beef, preferring an 85/15 meat/fat ratio. The fat helps the keep it tender. We had chuck most often, growing up, and although it was rarely tender, the taste was phenomenal. These days Phillip and I really go for flat-iron steak - we've never been disappointed in flavor or tenderness. I only ever see it at the butcher shop, which I only get to once a month, and even then only about one time out of three, so I stock up when I find it.
Mmmm.....! I did pick up some rib eye steaks yesterday, which I shall broil tomorrow to celebrate our wedding anniversary today (35 years). (Today I'm working with my brothers on a family issue, so the steaks will wait until tomorrow. We rarely have time to celebrate anywhere near the actual date. September is always way too busy.)
As always, my friend, go well and go find that perfect steak with your name on it, whatever the price.
Sally
Blog Meister responds: Happy Happy Anniversary, dear Sally.
Family issues.
Don’t we all have them?
Love you.
Enjoy the cholesterol surge!
love
Dom
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Simple dinner of brilliant items:
fresh peas with bits of onion, tomato, chili, s/freshly-ground pepper, mint;
and roasted eggplant which Lauren made for the first time; and a simple
Roast Chicken. The best chicken and great execution.
All so simple.
All so good.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States.
A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and
while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual,
people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent.
Transcendentalism emphasizes subjective intuition over objective empiricism.
Adherents believe that individuals are capable of generating completely original insights
with little attention and deference to past masters.
It arose as a reaction,
to protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time.
The doctrine of the Unitarian church
as taught at Harvard Divinity School was closely related.
Transcendentalism emerged from "English and German Romanticism,
the Biblical criticism of Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schleiermacher,
the skepticism of David Hume",
and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and German Idealism.
Miller and Versluis regard Emanuel Swedenborg and Jakob Böhme as pervasive influences on transcendentalism.
It was also strongly influenced by Hindu texts on philosophy of the mind and spirituality,
especially the Upanishads.
Transcendentalism became a coherent movement and a sacred organization with the founding of the Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
on September 8, 1836,
by prominent New England intellectuals, including
George Putnam (Unitarian minister), Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Frederic Henry Hedge.
Other members of the club included
Amos Bronson Alcott, Orestes Brownson, Theodore Parker, Henry David Thoreau, William Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Convers Francis, Sylvester Judd, and Jones Very.
Female members included Sophia Ripley, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody, Ellen Sturgis Hooper, and Caroline Sturgis Tappan.
From 1840, the group frequently published in their journal The Dial, along with other venues.
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It’s Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Welcome to the 878th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
High-grade sliced Matsusaka wagyu beef
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1.0 Lead Picture
High-grade sliced Matsusaka wagyu beef
Schellack at English Wikipedia
Matsusake wagyu beef.
When I look at the beef I see amazing marbling that will produce to tender meat.
But fat has little flavor and so simultaneously produces beef lacking in the rich taste that we like from our sirloins.
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2.0 Commentary
Wagyu beef.
On three-day sale at Eataly.
I bought a bone-in rib eye steak, what I normally buy from Whole Foods.
The steak weighed 1.5lbs and cost 104.50.
One hundred and four dollars and fifty cents.
Then the discount: $52.25.
I was alone on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and thought it a good way to celebrate.
I prepared it the same way I prepare all steaks: slow roast and then sear.
The steak was more tender a sirloin than any in memory except
wagyu beef in a sushi restaurant.
But flavor?
Lacking.
When compared against the price?
Severely lacking.
The dry-aged sirloin from Whole Foods a mere $22.00 per pound.
And the combination of tender and flavor?
No comparison.
Whole Foods far superior.
Oh! Well!
It’s tuition.
The cost of education.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Have decided to gather the thoughts on my hoped-for trip to Tuscany that I’ve published so far.
I should have done it earlier.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
City life is millions of people
being lonesome together.
~Henry David Thoreau
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Sunday night, to accompany my steak,
I prepared fresh peas with bits of onion, chili, and heirloom tomatoes seasoned with mint and s/p,
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Wagyu "Japanese cattle", is any of the four Japanese breeds of beef cattle.
In several areas of Japan, Wagyu beef is shipped carrying area names.
Some examples are
Matsusaka beef,
Kobe beef,
Yonezawa beef,
Mishima beef,
Ōmi beef, and
Sanda beef.
In recent years, Wagyu beef has increased in fat percentage due to
decrease in grazing and an increase in using feed, resulting in larger, fattier cattle.
There are four breeds of Wagyu:
Japanese Black,
Japanese Polled,
Japanese Brown, and
Japanese Shorthorn.
Japanese Black makes up 90% of all fattened cattle in Japan.
Strains of Japanese Black include Tottori, Tajima, Shimane and Okayama.
Japanese Brown, also known as Japanese Red, is the other main breed.
Strains include Kochi and Kumamoto.
Japanese Shorthorn makes up less than one percent of all cattle in Japan.
The idea that practices such as massaging cattle or
feeding them beer could improve meat quality is a myth, the result of misunderstanding.
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It’s Monday, September 7, 2020
Welcome to the 877th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Dollar oysters
joanna, dom, and lauren on a labor day saturday evening
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2.0 Commentary
Saturday of Labor Day weekend.
When it appears that everyone is doing something terribly exciting except me.
But actually we had a terrific day.
Joanna, Lauren, and I walked the Great Meadow National Wildlife Refuge.
Returned to Boston for a dozen of dollar oysters @ Provisions, across from the Aquarium.
To the apartment where Joanna seasoned the ground meat and Lauren make a salsa/salad to use on the burgers.
Then with the burgers, to the TV to watch
The Agony and the Ecstasy.
Terrific burgers, terrific movie, terrific company, terrific Labor Day Saturday.
We’ve done it:
.9 positivity rate.
A barrier broken.
The force of the breakthrough now
the spearhead of the plunge towards zero.
One step at a time.
Cut out those large exposed gatherings!
Pound Danger! into the minds of our overly-enthusiastic college population.
Get control of the T which is beginning to fill; to overfill.
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting an essence
Working on listing the 37 Giotto frescoes that decorate the Scrovegni Chapel.
And gathering information on each fresco to use when we visit Padua.
So much fun.
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4.0 Chuckles and Thoughts
I went to the woods
because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life, and
see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not,
when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.
~Henry David Thoreau
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Saturday night we relished cold fresh oysters.
We seasoned 24oz of ground beef with a beaten egg, romano cheese, s/p, chopped parsley.
We lightly toasted deliciously chewy ciabatta rolls and had a cheese tasting,
each of us cutting our favorite pieces to melt over the burgers.
So simple.
So delicious.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Stitcher, Pinterest, Pocket Cast, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
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Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that
live in marine or brackish habitats.
In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape.
Many, but not all oysters are in the superfamily Ostreoidea.
Some types of oysters are commonly consumed cooked or raw, and
in some locales are regarded as a delicacy.
Some types of pearl oysters are harvested for the pearl produced within the mantle.
Windowpane oysters are harvested for their translucent shells, which are
used to make various kinds of decorative objects.
As a keystone species, oysters provide habitat for many marine species. Crassostrea and Saccostrea live mainly in the intertidal zone, while Ostrea is subtidal. The hard surfaces of oyster shells and the nooks between the shells provide places where a host of small animals can live. Hundreds of animals, such as sea anemones, barnacles, and hooked mussels, inhabit oyster reefs. Many of these animals are prey to larger animals, including fish, such as striped bass, black drum and croakers.
An oyster reef can increase the surface area of a flat bottom 50-fold. An oyster's mature shape often depends on the type of bottom to which it is originally attached, but it always orients itself with its outer, flared shell tilted upward. One valve is cupped and the other is flat.
Oysters usually reach maturity in one year. They are protandric; during their first year, they spawn as males by releasing sperm into the water. As they grow over the next two or three years and develop greater energy reserves, they spawn as females by releasing eggs. Bay oysters usually spawn from the end of June until mid-August. An increase in water temperature prompts a few oysters to spawn. This triggers spawning in the rest, clouding the water with millions of eggs and sperm. A single female oyster can produce up to 100 million eggs annually. The eggs become fertilized in the water and develop into larvae, which eventually find suitable sites, such as another oyster's shell, on which to settle. Attached oyster larvae are called spat. Spat are oysters less than 25 mm (1 in) long. Many species of bivalves, oysters included, seem to be stimulated to settle near adult conspecifics.
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It’s Sunday, September 6, 2020
Welcome to the 876th consecutive post to the blog,
existentialautotrip.com
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1.0 Lead Picture
Lamentation by Giotto
Lamentation by Giotto
in the Scrovegni Chapel, c. 1305
Giotto di Bondone - Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork
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2.0 Commentary
From exuberance to despair in .5 seconds.
A a handful of seconds remaining, score tied, the Celtics have ball possession.
Score!
Game virtually over with a two-point Celtics win,
their third win in a row over the defending champions, Toronto Raptors.
Game tied, they scored two,
took the lead, and,
with a hardly measurable .5 seconds on the game clock,
virtually took the game.
Setting an NBA record of seven playoff wins in a row.
But .5 seconds, enough to call the teams back onto the court,
the Celtics and their fans jubilant.
The enemy gets the ball down by two with a half second left.
Settle down a moment longer.
Think about it.
Half a second.
Took two seconds just to type it:
half a second.
The game clock isn’t activated until the ball touches a player.
The ball put into play by virtue of a very long, very high pass.
How can a long, heavy pass
hit your shooting hand,
the force push it back,
and still give you enough time to gain control of it and
throw the ball into the air towards the basket.
The camera recorded the shot leaving the hand with
the shot clock spinning very quickly down from 5-4-3-2 at which point
the ball cleared the hand,
at the moment the game clock registered .2 seconds.
So the three-point shot counts.
We watched
it go in.
The enemy winning by one.
Leaving us stunned.
Not comprehending.
We see the evil ones jumping up and down.
Jubilant.
Can it be so?
We just tallied win number three in a row.
OMG!
Gloom descending.
We lost.
What a great game!
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3.0 Tuscany, extracting its essence
Fun.
Getting to know the neighborhoods in Florence.
But also, separately, studying the art to be seen on the trip,
Friday beginning to look at Giotto’s art-shattering frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel.
Awesome.
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4.0 Chuckles/Thoughts
I make myself rich by making my wants few.
~Henry David Thoreau
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5.0 Mail
We love getting mail.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
A friend reports that a friend of hers tested positive.
She tested.
Received her response on Friday: negative.
Blog Meister responds: Thank goodness.
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6.0 Dinner/Food/Recipes
Last night enjoyed dinner with cousin Lauren and a male friend.
We had a vegetable antipasto, a delicious turkey soup, and a slow-roasted pork roast slathered after cooking with a gochujang sauce.
On the side I served a casserole with gnocchi, roasted eggplant, and fresh peas with a bit of Marinara Sauce.
Was good.
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7. “Conflicted” podcast
Conflicted, by Dom Capossela, is a spiritual/fantasy/political story about a sixteen-year-old mystic-warrior conflicted internally by her self-imposed alienation from God, her spiritual wellspring, and, externally, by the forces of darkness seeking her death or ruination.
The podcasts are also available on Sound Cloud, iTunes, Twitter, and Facebook.
Search: dom capossela or conflicted or both
Here’s the link:
https://soundcloud.com/user-449713331/sets/conflicted-dom-capossela
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11.0 Thumbnails
The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the
High Middle Ages to the Baroque.
After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and
his friends mourned over his body.
This event has been depicted by many different artists.
Lamentation works are very often included in cycles of the Life of Christ, and also form the subject of many individual works.
Giotto’s Lamentation shows the grief-stricken reaction of friends and apostles to Christ's death.
Some of the women tenderly cradle the rigid corpse, while
others observe events in shocked silence.
Each person is a carefully observed study in sorrow, while
above them ten angels are contorted with heartbreak.
Another two figures sit close to the dead Christ, with
their backs towards us, as if
to reinforce the privacy of their woe, and exclude outsiders like ourselves.
In the background,
a barren landscape offers minimal distraction, while
the slope of a hill directs the eye toward the head of Christ.
Giotto also took bold steps in foreshortening and
with having characters face inwards,
with their backs towards the observer,
creating the illusion of space.
The figures occupy compressed settings with naturalistic elements,
often using forced perspective devices so that they resemble stage sets.
This similarity is increased
by Giotto's careful arrangement of the figures in such a way that
the viewer appears to have a particular place and
even an involvement in many of the scenes.
That can be seen most markedly in the arrangement of the figures in the Lamentation in which the viewer is bidden by the composition
to become a mourner.
In contrast to Gothic or Byzantine artists
who tended typically to depict the death of Jesus as
an example of the eternal superhuman conflict between Good and Evil,
Giotto is far more down-to-earth.
His main preoccupation is simply to emphasize the sorrow and sadness of a person's death.
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