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Category Archives: Exercises

Gyroscope: Definition

gyroscope |ˈjīrəˌskōp|noun a device consisting of a wheel or disk mounted so that it can spin rapidly about an axis that is itself free to alter in direction. The orientation of the axis is not affected by tilting of the mounting; so gyroscopes can be used to provide stability or maintain a reference direction in navigation systems, automatic pilots, and stabilizers.

Posted 25 January 2008 † Yuletide § ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

14 Pieces of Music, 14 Lines of Text

Ear to thorax, hearing the sounds from a world to which we are outside, I know the essence of life and its living…. Unabashedly, we look into the furnaces that forged this people from the ore of time in the bowels of the earth, in all our glorious good and hideous evil.

Posted 21 January 2008 † Yuletide § Multimedia ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: , ,

10 Sentences for 10 Images I Wish I’d Taken

Walking on Clouds by Gilad Benari In Absentia by ilSilenzio Little Fish by SeaFairy Shadows of Dismember by Caroline Traitler

Posted 20 January 2008 † Yuletide § Multimedia ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

10 Sentences I Wish I’d Written

Sentence 1: “The sidewalks of St. Charles Place have been cracked to shards by through-growing weeds.”

Posted 20 January 2008 † Yuletide § Multimedia ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

Some Stranger Stranger Studies

Draped over his chair is a gray North Face fleece, like the one I left at home for its resemblance to ones like this…. The headphones are separate, attached to each ear, but appear to be squeezing his head like in those old Gushers commercials when people’s heads turned into fruits upon biting into the acid-filled fruitsnacks.

Posted 15 January 2008 † Yuletide § Shorts § Writing ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: ,

Un-Braided Essay

I’ve played music since I could read: piano, clarinet then sax then guitar and back to piano…… Even on guitar, once I was finally playing music I loved, I would learn pieces here and there, or play the whole song from written music.

Posted 11 January 2008 † Yuletide § Braided § Creative Nonfiction § Shorts § Writing ‡ Comments (1) °

The Wall of Atwater Hall B: Perspectives

The stones were cut by some poor soul who spent all his living hours slaving over a pile of rocks, probably sitting in an excavator or something…. I stared up at the innumerable hewn stones, each fitting impossibly into the next, leaving not even a ledge on which to grasp.

Posted 10 January 2008 † Yuletide § ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Responding to Kafka

Personally, this quote seems to be getting at a truth that many other writers have also quoted; that is, that writing is not the destination, or the final truth, it is a means of drilling through the layers of bullshit and all that, to get at what we really want to say, but don’t know it. The image of the author, standing on the surface of his own frozen sea, hacking away furiously, at times maniacally, is actually pretty hilarious.

Posted 10 January 2008 † Yuletide § Reading ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged: ,

In-Class Exercises: Found Objects and Marco Polo

5 minute short, “Boxes” Constraints Navy block letters, lined in white a la found object (a scarf for FC Bayern München) From found writing: Reading the great works, Knows someone from Boston Something related to the game MASH et al…. Closer narrative distance I once read that, “Marco [Polo] devoted his prison time to composing his book.”

Posted 07 January 2008 † Yuletide § ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

10 Images

Deference:

Future:

Individuality:

Complication:

Fragility:

Serenity:

Secure:

Surreal:

Forboding:

Commiseration:

Puzzlement:

Posted 07 January 2008 † Yuletide § Multimedia ‡ Comments (5) ° Tagged: ,