"You were really asking for it" (Seattle anonymous)

I love the way in which (some) Seattleites tell you flatly, without irony, that "You really WERE asking for it" when you take a risky. unpopular, but principled stand.

It sounds like something staff at The Stranger could have come up with.

(Or has this something to do with the oft-mentioned "passive-aggressiveness," or "Seattle Cold"?

And, yes, we all know that James Paroline, the Traffic Circle gardener in Rainier Beach (and decorated Vietnam War veteran) "was asking for it" when he refused to move his hose (as a result of which he was suckered-punched, his head hitting the cement sidewalk, causing a mortal brain concussion.

"Two drag queens had more courage than the entire staff of The Stranger." (Lily H.)

"Two drag queens had more courage than the entire staff of The Stranger." (Lily H.)

-from a review of Seattle's Establishment "alternative" newspaper:
http://lilliansblog-d.blogspot.com/2013/06/updated-review-of-seattles-alternative.html

Alternatively, the quote could have been
"Two drag queens had more courage than the entire staff of Yelp (in San Francisco)."*

Requiescat in pace, Danny Vega

*Yelp.com, which doesn't mind making millions of dollars in annual revenues on the backs of its thousands of unpaid writers and reviewed businesses, from which it allegedly extorts considerable sums...

"All the things you are..." (Oscar Hammerstein II)

You are the promised kiss of springtime

That makes the lonely winter seem long.

You are the breathless hush of evening

That trembles on the brink of a lovely song.

-Oscar Hammerstein II, "All the Things You Are" (music by Jerome Kern)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srvOsegThJA

"Somehow I always get separated from the herd"...Lily H.

Somehow I always get separated from the herd.

"The Stranger manages each time to place a fig leaf on the belly-button...and I thought fig-leaves were only for little old ladies and prudes."

"You've got to conceal the race/ethnicity of a violent predator if s/he is black.  Pretend the perpetrator could be white or Asian."

from a censored review of The Stranger:

"The writer of this article goes into detail about his horrific experience, noting the physical appearance  of the thugs:   age, gender, number, what they were wearing ("black hoodie"), speech (as in "Do you want to get shot, motherfucker?").  

But he puts a fig leaf on the race/ethnicity belly button.

A couple of weeks ago, DRAG QUEEN Robbie Turner had more courage in identifying the race of her attacker on Capitol Hill.  So did Danny Vega (another cross-dresser) in Rainier Valley a year ago."

http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-stranger-seattle#hrid:OC2xU-jZd9fCjasdqGLdWA

http://www.thestranger.c…

"We ought to learn from animals."

We ought to learn from animals:  They do not and cannot lie.

Therein lies their effortless charm.

When I observe the animal world, I am touched with a truth that human beings rarely, if ever, make me feel.

"They may text, twitter, tattle..." Lily H.

They may text, twitter, tattle, tease, or yelp--but the truth, methinks, they do not speak.

(They are too busy...)

Lily H.

The story of the ship: "...that the bed would gradually become a boat that would cradle, lift, and transport him to worlds other..." Lily H.

Every night before he fell asleep he was vaguely aware that the bed would gradually become a boat that would cradle, lift, and transport him to worlds other than the one he knew.   So he looked forward every night with a sense of adventure to where he might go, both in time and space.

He had not much interest, or patience, for "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings."

His own dreams were vastly more fascinating, to him at least, than anything he had seen at the cineplex.

"Is the present moment all that truly exists?" Lily H.'s koan

Zen master:   "There is only the present.  There is only the present
                                                                                                    m o m e n t
                                                                                                                       and no other. "

Student:   "Then shall I give up all hope of eternity?"

L'ange au sourire de la cathedrale de Reims.  (La statue originale datait de 1236-1245).

"What has changed are the names, not the dance." Lily H.

Danse de le vie humaine (Dance to the music of time).

(Nicolas Poussin, 1640. Wallace Collection, London).

"Invitation to the dance. What dance? And Why?" (Anonymous)

 Invitation to the dance.

(Michaelangelo Merisi, 1598.  Uffizi, Florence).

What dance?  And why?

" I Didn't Know What Time It Was" (Lorenz Hart)

I didn't know what time it was
Till I met you.
Oh, what a lovely time it was,
How sublime it was too!
I didn't know what day it was
You held my hand.
Warm like the month of May it was,
and I'll say it was grand.
Grand to be alive, to be young,
to be mad, to be yours alone!
Grand to see your face, feel your touch,
hear your voice say I'm yours alone.

I didn't know what time it was
then I met you.
Oh, what a lovely time it was,
How sublime it was too!
I didn't know what day it was
then you hold my hand.
Warm like the month of May it was,
and I'll say it was grand.
Grand to be alive, to be young,
to be mad, to be yours alone!
Grand to see your face, feel your touch,
hear your voice say I'm all your own. 

I didn't know what year it was
life was no prize.
I wanted love and here it was
shining out of your eyes.
I'm wise,
and I know what time it is now.
I'm wise,
and I know what time it is now.
I'm so wise,
and I know what time it is now.




                        Lorenz Hart (1895-1943)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_rXXnYENVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Op5qL1CvGs

"L'amour..." anonyme, attribue a Lily H.

L'amour c'est le pouls de l'univers entier.

-attribue a Lily H.

"Bows and flows of angel hair..." (Joni Mitchell)

Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all...


http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/joni+mitchell/both+sides+now_20075289.html

"Bewitched, bothered and bewildered..." (Lorenz Hart)

I'm wild again

Beguiled again

A simpering, whimpering child again,

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I.

http://www.lorenzhart.org/bewitchedsng.htm

detail of "Judith and Holofernes" by Michaelangelo Merisi dit "Caravaggio" (1599), oil on canvas, Palazzo Barberini in Rome.

Victor Hugo,"La nuit etait sans etoiles..." de Les Miserables (fin)

La nuit était sans étoiles et profondément obscure. 

Sans doute, dans l’ombre, quelque ange immense 

était debout, les ailes déployées, attendant l’âme.

ange du cathedrale de Reims

Baudelaire, "Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir."

Harmonie du soir

poème de BAUDELAIRE

dans

 ‘’Les fleurs du mal’’

(1857)

                             Voici venir les temps où vibrant sur sa tige

                             Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir ;

                             Les sons et les parfums tournent dans I'air du soir ;

                             Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige !

                             Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir ;

                             Le violon frémit comme un coeur qu'on afflige ;

                             Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertige !

                             Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir.

                             Le violon frémit comme un coeur qu'on afflige,

                             Un coeur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir !

                             Le ciel est triste et beau comme un grand reposoir ;

                             Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige.

                             Un coeur tendre, qui hait le néant vaste et noir,

                             Du passé lumineux recueille tout vestige !

                             Le soleil s'est noyé dans son sang qui se fige...

                             Ton souvenir en moi luit comme un ostensoir !