(marginalia vitae)
so, the time is ripe for fried green tomatoes. thus, the conversation in the local farmers’ market: — excuse me, are those green tomatoes? — these are green tomatoes. did you want tomatoes that are green, or green tomatoes? — i wanted green tomatoes, not tomatoes that are green. — these are green red tomatoes, […]
Read More an annual event of colour discriminationthis month will have changes in it. i am changing my habitat to the more urban Sarkandaugava. i am sorry for the birds, i’ll miss them, and i’m sure they’ll miss me i am not sorry for the people of the flat i rented the room in. let them [eat] drink and [make merry] fight, […]
Read More changesthis is a translation from “Dīvainā karaļvalsts” (The strange kingdom) by J. Rubenis. i kinda found it a little bit inspiring. especially the bird part. PUTNU SARUNA Reiz divi putni pils dārzā savā starpā sarunājās. “Bruņinieks saprot putnu valodu un ir nelaimīgs, jo viņš arī grib būt putns,” teica viens. “Vērojot putnus, viņš ir iemācījies […]
Read More a little bit about birds and gardensthis is as far as ‘ethnic’ cooking goes in my case. this, and another recipe of soup (which i might share slightly later in the year) are very specific to the place i grew up. even if the ingredients look exotic and incompatible at first, the result is quite edible, and i believe, even delicious. it is […]
Read More the fish soup like they make it at my end of the worldthey sometimes ask me – is there anything you cannot do? yes, there is. i am awful with humans. and i cannot make a sauce, even if my life depended on it, and i followed the recipe literally.
Read More another side thoughtapparently, translation has some features of addiction about it. because i am doing it again. it looks like i am embarking upon a translation of wizard’s first rule by Terry Goodkind. it is one of the really cool books of the past century. regardless of what some people who do not read might say. and also, i will be watching the […]
Read More apparently it is an addictionHad some fun looking for orchids. loverly. just don’t mind the spiders and the caterpillars, they were loverly, too.
Read More some orchids and other trophiesmidsummer has come, and gone, like every year. they say, the summer has started. isn’t it funny, summer starting at midsummer? but this post is not about that. i actually do not know what it is about, lol. maybe, about memories. not particularly about actual midsummers, rather about… yes… hmm.. the theme of this post is […]
Read More midsummer memoriesmy good friend Bob once remarked, passingly, that the kids in the Harry Potter films never trusted the adults to take care of things. but that actually happens, because the adults (more in books than the films, hollywood does not do it justice, really) just do not listen, they are preoccupied by ‘what is’, ‘what always has been’, […]
Read More a little thought of harry potter, children and actionsopening eyes, the green, the pale, the white, juice running, every breath a choice of salt and paper. little dots of grey, spicy, too fragrant, the water transformed, waiting, passing by, consumed by attraction. flurry of packing, slashing, knife clacking, broken china, sweep, sweep, change, vinegar in the air, the smell of dill. the cool […]
Read More cucumbers (remembering gertrude stein)looking into the quiet white night full of fragrances, looking at the wild-roses, i think. i think of plants. and i think in rhetorical questions. the worshippers of progress write in their books that plants are primitive. they do not move, and they do not talk, or do any of the things the ‘sophisticated’ or […]
Read More how all the complex things strive for simplicity, and the simple cannot be called primitivethis night, battling the asthma, i did some thinking of what i have observed in poland and also here, in this city. and this came to my mind’s eye: tha diggaz. they are exactly that – diggers. they have human shapes of various sizes and height, and are recognisable by the yellowish-green (sometimes up to […]
Read More tha diggazlast night i thought: yes, this is my favourite season: it is cool – not chilly, just cool; thru the open window by my bed i see the black silk of the star-strewn sky, framed by treetops. it all is still. and i am still, like this time of the summer gone and autumn arriving. […]
Read More the august nights when the stars are so closeone of songs of experience (no reference to william blake here). one of the songs i really could not dig when i was, probably, having the experiences mentioned here. i still have them, of course. (translation of the lyrics below) I am rich – I own all that has ever happened to me.// The hours […]
Read More one song about riches (what cannot be taken away)i opened my eyes, pain looked out into the world. i opened the pain, the world looked into me. i walked on, and i was perplexed, frightened, in love, confused. and the grass, and the ivy covered my footprints.
Read More grass (or when it really comes to what happens when there are no mirrors)my recent paths have been quite logical, yet unbelievable. and this is what i think: just like on the jurassic plain, where some limestone is left standing, and some has been washed away, there are some things in life that are washed away and some that remain standing. those then serve as either support for […]
Read More what remains (metaphorically speaking)so, there is this huge forest. really huge. in this really huge forest, there is a fairly large marsh. sort of wetlands. so large you cannot see across it on a clear day. in the middle of the wetlands, there is a pretty little elevation. a few metres square. more-or-less in the centre of that […]
Read More this is what comes to my mind when i listen to the news for too longInspired by Zarina on design clash blog, i thought – why not? so, what’s on my creative zen player? music Ella FitzGerald – Duke Ellington’s songbook Peter, Paul and Mary – Lemon Tree Elizabethan & Jacobean Consort Music There were Three Ravens All The King’s Horses – Knights, poets &lovers 2 albums of Apokaliptica Chinese […]
Read More what i have on my zen playersome time ago i was asked a very interesting question by stripesknitted. the question, in translation, was this: is harry potter a wizard (a person who does magic), or not? i have great respect for stripesknitted, and use the question here only as an initial quote for a broader discussion of certain cultural tendencies. so, […]
Read More the magic of harry potterthe annual ‘lux perpetua’, etc etc post. i can forget. no problem with forgetting. but my body does not. the annual dissonance. clench the teeth, cook something complicated like chicken tikka masala (in this country one has to spend hours hunting the ingredients), clench the teeth, hide. the dead walk in my dreams, and i […]
Read More et lux perpetuathus, i have escaped, in great hurry, from the place i used to call home. the place is ok. there is nothing wrong with the place. the lake and forest and all things are, actually, quite nice. but the last four days clearly showed that place alone is not enough. not enough for one to […]
Read More escapedso, here we have harry potter and the deathly hallows part two. about twenty – twenty-five minutes into the film, the heroes fall into a lake (don’t ask me why). they get out and try to change into sth dry. they do it in a particular fashion: the boys take off the shirts and put […]
Read More so much for equalityi was walking on some cobblestones, and there they were – a whole colony. bright sand cones on the greyish stone. wonderful. i have always liked the digger wasps (genus Sphex) and their creative approach to procreation.
Read More digger wasp nestsoutside the window the sky is patchy; treetops glitter green on golden; and the starlings have come for a stop in transmigration. inside the window books are trapped within knowledge; instruments sharpened, a vivisection in progress: dead worlds cutting a living soul.
Read More the glassit is the second half of july. of course, the juneberries are just in season. i have had my annual grazing in the bushes, competing for the juicy pleasure with sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds and starlings. luckily the human denizens of the city of riga revel in their ignorance about how wonderfully tasty the berries are. so – […]
Read More juneberries