My time capsule article has now given birth to two works of art. The above was made by Will Alsop - he forgot to meet my deadline and this was by way of compensation as well as being a time capsule list and a fine birthday present. Meanwhile, John Ashbery, having said he could think of nothing, changes his mind in this exquisite email.'On second thought (and it may be too late for your deadline), I thought of contributing a ChapStick to the time capsule. Do they exist in England? It's a lip salve in the form of a lipstick, has a pleasant medicinal smell, is available everywhere (in the US) for a dollar or so, and is always there to soothe one's aged dry lips (unlike those who flee me now who sometime did me seek). In other words, to use the blurbists' hallowed formula, it "fills a long-felt need."'
A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
Ashbery is clearly barking mad. A chapstick? Why not go the whole hog and leave one of his poems. That would really confuse them.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Anonymous -- you've got me laughing!
ReplyDeleteBut count on a poet to throw in the famous "they flee from me that sometime did me seek" line. Whenever I think of that poem I think of deer (he must reference deer, or some creature he's handfeeding bread or something -- and why can't I remember who the poet is now? Because I had three aperitifs at a fabulous French bistro (Parc, on Rittenhouse -- you Brits who get to Philly, this is the real deal; you'll think you're in Paris)? Flee from me, arms long and small, strange forsaking... not Fulke-Greville. Who the hell...?) and then of this completely bizarre novel by John Updike where the narrator has an affair with a prostitute named Deirdre who morphs into a deer. There's an incredible scene of this narrator having sex with the deer and her hooves crashing into things.
"Towards the End of Time" is, I think, the name of the novel. Sorry. I am buzzed and a bit barking myself tonight, but have laptop, will type....
Wyatt! I remembered.... g'night all. forgive me my wanderings
Waiter - I'll have what she's having....
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