The Burn - Vasily Aksyonov
Link: Wiki on Vasily Aksyonov
In translation, by Michael Glenny, written 1969-1975, about an intertwined group of "intellectuals" in Russia. Absolutely brilliant - although perhaps a little overly long for my attention span, the 500+ pages written in stream of consciousness, meandering between characters, points of view, drunken, jazz, the mish-mash of Russian names, patronymic's, nick-names, make it nigh-on impossible to follow.
Reminding me - a bit of Thomas Pynchon in it's lucidity and breadth, of Master and Margarita in set and setting, it's an immensely personal narrative set against the background of Russia, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, against Soviet Era Communism, the same now, the same worldwide, not immediately the same, not the same cultural/socio/political influences, but - while under a different star, they are the same. Conform to a government of fools, to a system inherently corrupt and rigged, fly low and make no waves.
In thoughts I found him sympathetic, we're on the same page, of the same cloth, only perhaps he's better. Inspiring, probably not what I needed to be reading right now - but, enjoyable, very, very talented, a masterpiece.
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Kitty Glitter
Now, the point of this was to come up with a box advertising "Kitty Glitter", which would make cleaning out the litter box an adventure to be looked forward to by every young pet owner. My marketing strategy was simple, in every box of kitty glitter put some chocolate filled pieces of eight, maybe a pearl necklace, plastic gems, and let the kids screen for the treasures as they clean out the litter box.
Given the inevitable success of this I imagined we could come up with some "Prospector Boxes", wherein gold nuggets & various gems could be found, "Paleontological Boxes", wherein the kids could find dinosaur bones, and "Archeological Boxes", wherein the eagle-eyed shit-sifter could find some potshards from any one of a number of civilizations.
Anyways, plugged this into Dall-E: "A box of Kitty Litter, with a photorealistic one-eyed cat in a pirate costume. The title of the box: "Kitty Glitter", the bottom should read: "Now With Real Pirate Treasure!"."
And got this out;
Not bad, but I'm not going to be laying off marketing any time soon...
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Welfare Day at the Library
Today, a seasonal blip in an otherwise unseasonable winter, cold, and not so much the cold as the wind that tears up the sand from dry roads, spews grit into your face, eyes, turning your back to it circles and finds you again, another direction for this assault, it's only today, and yesterday, but tomorrow it will be fine.
Only it's today, and the library is filled with the homeless and their backpacks, sleeping bags, and every one of them is talking to their welfare case worker on their cell-phone, updating them as to their job search, housing applications, etc.
And so I bear it for an hour, but these voices, loud attempts at being quiet, it's maddening and you can't blame them, you can't be outside in this, but - I can't be here either.
Buy time at a quiet café, then head home to finish my book, 150 pages left, it's a masterpiece for sure, but I'll review it when I'm done.
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...the treasures of Aladdin
Well, no, but a couple of the more interesting finds from the last few weeks. The first, an old "commemorative" newspaper from Nelson, Circa 1961.
the second I spotted on a walk about the store, odd, I know, I usually don't walk around the shop so once in a blue moon there's a surprise.
This was it. An erotic carving of two naked women embracing, one, by the helmet some sort of Spartan, the other? Well, curious, and it's out of an old cow's shinbone.
Which makes it doubly curious. Currently priced at $20.00 in the silent auction, I might just have to bid...
...because, really, how have I lived this long without one?
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