Friday, February 09, 2007

Bits

What I'm thinking about:
Margaret Atwood's take on arts funding. If you haven't read it already, do. And check out the dirty little debate over it at Bookninja, where, if one must take sides, I'd be trumpeting merit over financial need. Not that any of this affects me personally, apart from my being a citizen-consumer of "art."

Atwood starts her piece hinting at a kind of art-brain-drain, a problem that might indeed be helped by having money thrown at it. But she doesn't go anywhere with that grain for an argument, and no one else is pecking at it, which has me thinking, more than anything, that my comprehension skills are defective and deficient.

What I'm puzzling over:
How to translate "twunt."

What I'm dreaming about:
Sex in space.

What made me sad:
Solveig Dommartin died.

What I'm reading:
I'm in the final stretch of China MiƩville's Un Lun Dun. At some point this evening I'll retrieve from my go-everywhere bag Firmin, by Sam Savage, the opening pages of which had me laughing out loud on the metro earlier this week.

A week into February and I haven't cracked a chunkster — I'm leaning toward Powers' Goldbug Variations, it being the shortest of my options and thus seemingly perfectly suited to this shortest of months for my one-a-month plan. But I just don't know yet.

I never figured I was susceptible to the February blahs, but the last few years would give evidence to the contrary. This year, so far, so blah. Reading, blah. Blogging, blah. Cat puking all over my bed, blah. Helena home sick, blah.

What I'm listening to:
Thelonious Monk.

What I'm going to do next:
Nap. Me and Monk and MiƩville, with the kid and the cat.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oy, tell me about the blahs. What is it with this year? The blahs cling to me like a dull headache.

And that 'discussion' re: Peggy's views on Bookninja. Oy. I definitely have nothing against funding for the arts, but what the heck is wrong with questioning the system, and perhaps looking into more efficient ways of dealing with the money? And the fact that cartoonists got a bad rap in that conversation? Grumble and blah...napping is definitely a good idea.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if this is why I've been thinking about "Wings of Desire" so much these past few weeks?

The winter blahs have hit our household rather hard this year. At least Daylight Savings Time is coming earlier now!