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1000 results for “NearerAndFarther”

  1. A few weeks ago, a bag of "Flamin Hot Dill Pickle Crunchy Cheetos" was brought into our household by my wife.

    While we have no qualms about enjoying junk food - even the worst kinds of junk food - this was mainly meant as a joke, maybe a dare.

    But we are out of all other snacks in the house, and so I am currently eating Flamin Hot Dill Pickle Crunch Cheetos.

    AMA, my palate is an open book.

    #JunkFood #Snacks #Cheetos

  2. Omar - Tiny Desk Concert just dropped!

    youtube.com/watch?v=0e1ejLjjriw

    He's got a new album out this year, haven't listened yet -- good reminder.

    #Omar #TinyDeskConcert #NowListening

  3. More proof: an inventory of oversized items in the #ALA archives at #UIUC includes the KRS-One poster:

    files.archon.library.illinois.

    Also lists a lot of other READ poster stars including some surprises, like Mikhail Baryshnnikov? Huh.

    Fabio.

    Billy Dee Williams.

    So, now to find an actual copy of the KRS-One poster.

    #ReadPosters

  4. Finished this (*East of Eden*) this morning --- this was stellar.

    I mean, sure, it's a classic. But I was not planning to end 2025 and bring in 2026 with a 650 page, multi-generational epic that is about good and evil and our personal battles with each, and that is also about our familial/cultural/national inheritances, and also about national identity and difficult histories, and also about the very difficult thing that is family relationships even at their best...

    and also, is just one really long exegesis of Cain and Abel (and maybe all of Genesis)...

    but I am so glad I did.

    I think this and my recent reading of Cannery Row have made me a full-fledged Steinbeck fan.

    #Bookstodon #JohnSteinbeck #EastOfEden

  5. "The Salinas Valley is in Northern California. It is a long narrow swale between two ranges of mountains, and the Salinas River winds and twists up the center until it falls at last into Monterey Bay."

    -- #FirstSentences of John Steinbeck, *East of Eden*

    ---

    This is my first read of East of Eden.

    I am finishing the first Library of America volume of his novels, 1942-1952. Page numbers for these #ReadingNotes will reference that edition.

    #JohnSteinbeck #EastOfEden #Bookstodon

  6. "One morning, some years ago, like millions of other innocent men and women around the world, I found myself suddenly bombarded by miserable stories. They were stories of despair, cruelty, and evil. There was no escape from them. They came at me every minute, every second, without cease. [...] They'd been around for years, but now they appeared on my phone, on my laptop, on my desktop, as texts, as videos, every minute of every hour of every day and night, a vomit of stories spewed upon the world by the foul coupling of twenty-four-hour news cycle and the internet. Some of these stories were delivered to my phone. Some were delivered to my email. Some were told to me by friends [...] all of whom had been bombarded themselves. *Did you hear about this?* they asked. *Did you hear about that?*

    [...]

    *Feh* is the only story the news ever tells, and soon I could take it no more. I needed the barrage of contempt, criticism, and condemnation to end."

    p. 44

    #ShalomAuslander #Feh

  7. "That night [...] I wrote a story about a bug who woke up one morning to find himself transformed into a hideous Franz Kafka. He was in Franz Kafka's body, in Franz Kafka's house, in Franz Kafka's bedroom. Bug lay on his back and with great effort lifted his oversize human head to peer down at his hideous naked being: at his pigeon chest, his flabby belly, his spindly legs, a meager two now, when the night before he'd had a magnificent six."

    -- Shalom Auslander, *Feh* (p. 53)

    ---

    Started this last night and it's absolutely hilarious and heartbreaking, all at the same time. Also, hitting a little close to home at times -- but that can also be good.

    #ReadingNotes #NowReading #ShalomAuslander #Feh #Bookstodon

  8. I definitely did not need an end-of-year recap from #JimmyJohns to remind me of how many times I spent too much money on an overpriced sandwich bc I forgot to plan to feed myself during a long work day.

    Seriously.

  9. For the #HipHop heads:

    #GhostfaceKillah - "Rap Kingpin"

    youtube.com/watch?v=gvt5VF5WKM8

    Single from SC 2, out 8/22

    I did not have high hopes for this as Ghost's rapping has not impressed in a minute, but he went off on this track.

    Plus the lp has a #GZA feature.

    More details on the album here:

    pitchfork.com/news/ghostface-k

  10. #MorningListening was GZA's *Beneath the Surface*, and afternoon listening was *Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...*, and this is keeping up a week or so of steady listening to the Wu that came out of nowhere.

    I'm not complaining.

    Three random observations about Beneath the Surface, an album I've probably listened to top-to-bottom at least a hundred times, likely more:

    1) The album's sound isn't as cohesive/holistic as Liquid Swords - LS being 100% the RZA on production, BtS being a mix of Wu members & affiliates - but I am not sure there is a bad track on the thing. It doesn't hurt that neither LS or BtS suffers from the CD era's overstuffed-album-length problem. LS is the obvious classic but album for album, BtS is arguably just as good.

    1/2

    #GZA #WuTang #Music

  11. New #MenITrust record, "Equus Asinus," is crazy good!

    I was already in love with "All My Candles" but the whole album is a true keeper. And I think they are supposed to release a companion to this album later this year.

    This turned out to be a great #NewMusicFriday and I haven't even dug too far past the bigger names yet.

    But all four of these records will get a lot of play for a while (Japanese Breakfast, Previous Industries, No ID/Saba, Men I Trust).

    youtube.com/watch?v=E1zrvytvkF

  12. If you...

    1) like the producer/DJ Quantic, and/or

    2) like a range of Latin and Caribbean musics, and their related diasporas, and/or

    3) like mostly wordless but upbeat music to work to

    you should know that #Quantic released an edition of the DJ Kicks series this year that is slamming.

    quanticmusic.bandcamp.com/albu

    So good.

  13. @Neddyo Went to look this up on Tidal, excited to listen. While there, I saw that one of their recent singles had a cover image from a #DJKicks release I hadn't seen before, one from Quantic.

    Turns out that was released this past Friday.

    So bc of this post and a cover art snafu, I get some dope cumbia *and* a set from #Quantic --- thanks!

  14. Woke up a little crabby (headache) but I now have a biga fermenting for a loaf of pugliese, and dough mixing for my first-ever attempt at #Conchas, so I'd say things are looking up!

    #Baking #Bread

  15. I am familiar with Caputo's basic argument, and quite a bit of his other writings, but have not read this through before.

    I admittedly have a soft spot for Caputo's work, and for this vein of deconstructionist thought, so I expect to generally enjoy this.

    Less sure how much I'll agree/disagree, which is part of why I decided to give it a go. It's been a while since I've really engaged with #Derrida et al, who played a very big role in my (intellectual? philosophical?) journey.

    I'm as interested in my own response as I am in the book itself, I think!

  16. "It's refreshingly simple in design: a plastic rectangle with a hole punched out the middle, then split into two inward-curving hooks that keep the bag snug. When produced en masse, they're printed in an extraordinarily long row with small arms connecting the clips, then wound like a movie reel.

    [...]

    About twenty machines are scattered across the factory's cement floor. Colorful clips spiral out at an unimaginable speed, each hue corresponding to a specific day of the week--not for branding, but for efficiency. [...] It's impossible to comprehend just how many bread clips, nevermind the sheer variety in cuts and shapes, are being churned out around you in teh factory. In one year alone, Kwik Lok sells billions."

    from Nina Corcoran, "Consider the Bread Clip," in *Cake Zine* (Winter 2025)

    #Passages #ReadingNotes

  17. #HipHop folks -- there's a new #Raekwon album out today.

    Halfway through and it's really solid so far. Lots of different folks handling production, from big names (Justice League, Swizz) to less-known, but seems pretty cohesive.

    Features from much of a good chunk of the Wu, Griselda (Conway, Westside, Benny), and Nas.

    Definitely a priority listen.

    #WuTang #NewMusic2025 #NewMusicFriday

  18. oh geez this #NoID and #Saba record is going to be a problem

    collabs w/Raphael Saadiq, Kelly Rowland, Eryn Allen Kane, Madison McFerrin

    reminds me of the JID album two years back but a little more fun, a little less intense, and clocking in at a perfect 41 minutes

    definitely one to watch for 2025 #HipHop lists, really good feel and Saba's rapping his butt off

  19. Where my imaginary line
    Bends square in woods, an iron spine
    And pile of real rocks have been founded.
    And off this corner in the wild,
    Where these are driven in and piled,
    One tree, by being deeply wounded,
    Has been impressed as Witness Tree
    And made commit to memory
    My proof of being not unbounded.
    Thus truth's established and borne out,
    Though circumstanced with dark and doubt --
    Though by a world of doubt surrounded.
    THE MOODIE FORESTER

    -- "Beech" by Robert Frost

    ----

    I've been reading Robert Frost's *A Witness Tree*, the first full volume I've read of his (although as a volume, it's really quite slim).

    Thought I'd share a few reading notes here.

    #ReadingNotes #RobertFrost #Poetry #Bookstodon

  20. Oh, stormy stormy world,
    The days you were not swirled
    Around with mist and cloud,
    Or wrapped as in a shroud,
    And the sun's brilliant ball
    Was not in part or all
    Obscured from mortal view--
    Were days so very few
    I can but wonder whence
    I get the lasting sense
    Of so much warmth and light.
    If my mistrust is right
    It may be altogether
    From one day's perfect weather,
    When starting clear at dawn,
    The day swept clearly on
    To finish clear at eve.
    I verily believe
    My fair impression may
    Be all from that one day
    No shadow crossed but ours
    As through its blazing flowers
    We went from house to wood
    For change of solitude.

    -- Robert Frost, "Happiness Makes Up in Height for What It Lacks in Length"

    #TodaysPoem #Poetry #RobertFrost

  21. Snowscape with dog.

    Our morning walk was super quick this morning. Even Winchester was ready to call it quits after just a few minutes (and a few sniffs).

    #CentralIllinois #midwest #MorningWalk

  22. Wild storm line just passed through. Short but super intense. Now, in the next 6 hours or so, major temp drops and even stronger winds.

    (they've already been notably strong!)

    Crossing our fingers for no major damage, but won't be able to get out and check for a bit.

    #Midwest #Illinois #CentralIllinois

  23. Good morning Mastodon!

    Here's a #Barnscape from our #MorningWalk.

    Winchester desperately wanted to run in the snow, so we went up to my normal pic-taking spot. By the time I was done snapping this, he was ready to pack it in.

    Another pic tomorrow will probably look very different. We're expecting another 3 - 5 inches, I think? (Hard to tell, but already snowing in the pic.) And arctic temps to match beginning overnight. Brrr.

    #CentralIllinois #GoodMorning #Midwest

  24. #Barnscape, an un-barnscape, and chickens getting up to no good.

    The un-barnscape is taken from where I normally take my semi-regular barn landscape photos, but I'm turned around, 180 degrees.

    #MorningWalk #CentralIllinois #Midwest #ChickensOfMastodon

  25. Photo from our morning walk. Would love to grab my usual #Barnscape photo but the snow is to deep in that area! Will probably try and get out there later this afternoon, when the wind is supposed to be a bit less dreadful.

    Really struck by how the sky is nearly the same color as the snow.

    #MorningWalk #CentralIllinois #Midwest

  26. Snapped just off our driveway this morning, as I was taking care of morning chicken chores.

    #GoodMorning #Midwest #CentralIllinois

  27. Had to zoom way out to get the cool cloud cover this morning, so a bit of a wider shot (and way more field!) than usual.

    But between the dramatic clouds and the sun just coming over the horizon, was quite the scene for a few minutes!

    #Barnscape #MorningWalk #CentralIllinois #Midwest

  28. @isaaclyman Have you checked out #Kenji's book *The Wok*? Almost certain it has a few udon recipes and probably has really good technique tips that would be relevant here.

    There's someone on Mastodon that has been cooking through the book and sharing results, can't remember their handle off the top.