Shade passed along a poem by Henry Reed, which I actually read awhile ago, but had completely forgotten about: Naming of Parts (.pdf + link).  In sequence, and by accident, I followed and found another part which I like even better.  Here’s the first part:

I. JUDGING DISTANCES

Not only how far away, but the way that you say it
Is very important. Perhaps you may never get
The knack of judging a distance, but at least you know
How to report on a landscape: the central sector,
The right of the arc and that, which we had last Tuesday,
And at least you know

That maps are of time, not place, so far as the army
Happens to be concerned—the reason being,
Is one which need not delay us. Again, you know
There are three kinds of tree, three only, the fir and the poplar,
And those which have bushy tops to; and lastly
That things only seem to be things.

It continues, and you can read it over here…

Is anything sacred? I love New York city trash and now, in addition to avoiding bed-bugs, I have to look out for GPS tracking devices.
This from a recent article in the New York Times Magazine:

And so in early November, a marketing agency’s “street team” began scattering a client’s products on the sidewalks of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The client was Blu Dot, a Minneapolis design studio and maker of furniture that has enjoyed the praise of the design press for some years now. The product: Blu Dot’s Real Good chair, a slim metal seat that comes in several colors and normally costs $129. Twenty-five were placed on sidewalks. They stood out visually, and about half of them came with something extra: a hidden global-positioning-system device. This allowed the object’s movement to be tracked and its new owner located and, ideally, interviewed for a video that will be shown in Blu Dot’s SoHo store on Dec. 14, marking its one-year anniversary in New York.

“I suppose in this day and age,” he observes, “it’s only a matter of time till something like this happens to each one of us.”

THE THING Quarterly is a periodical in the form of an object. Each year, four artists, writers, musicians or filmmakers are invited by the editors (Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan) to create an everyday useful object that somehow incorporates text. This object will be reproduced and hand wrapped at a wrapping party and then mailed to the homes of the subscribers with the help of the United States Postal Service.

I’m reading this book, Solution 9 : The Great Pyramid.  Touches on some of my favorite topics: death, memorials, architecture and forever.  The website for The Great Pyramid is pretty amazing as well.

The Egyptian pyramids were built for eternity but only for one single person. The new Pyramids we suggest, are open to every individual. As monumental as they are affordable, they serve as a tomb or memorial for those of all nationalities and religions: A MONUMENT FOR ALL OF US