Imperfectly Thirsty

May 30

“For me, technique is very important. Technique is really a repetition, repetition, endless repetition of a certain movement, whether you use a knife or whatever, so it becomes so engrained, so part of yourself that you can afford to forget it, because it’s there forever.” Eugene Eric Kim » Technique, Practice, and Craft, quoting Jacque Pépin on technique. (Have you seen the way that man takes a knife to a vegetable? The word “garnish” hardly does justice to the works of art that emerge.) This post is a good mid-year reminder of the importance of practice (and the way it will bolster your instincts in the moment).

May 27

I never tire of the sight of the Golden Gate. Happy 75th birthday to my beloved bridge! (via SFGate)

May 26

“One of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner, puts it like this: “Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” Listen to Your Life – Lindsay Feldmeth | iCadenza

May 25

“If you read one book a week, starting at the age of 5, and live to be 80, you will have read a grand total of 3,900 books, a little over one-tenth of 1 percent of the books currently in print.”

Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (via prettybooks)

And this is why I sometimes get very, very anxious when I’m in a library or bookstore. So many books, so little time.

(via 52projects)

May 24

Jacob spoke first. “I want to know if my hair is just like yours,” he told Mr. Obama, so quietly that the president asked him to speak again. Jacob did, and Mr. Obama replied, “Why don’t you touch it and see for yourself?” He lowered his head, level with Jacob, who hesitated. “Touch it, dude!” Mr. Obama said. As Jacob patted the presidential crown, Mr. Souza snapped. “So, what do you think?” Mr. Obama asked. “Yes, it does feel the same,” Jacob said. (via Indelible Image of Boy’s Pat on Obama’s Head - NYTimes.com)

Apr 30

eekim:

I totally agree with this. (via Is Instagram the Best Thing to Ever Happen to Photography?)

YES.

“However, I’m not obsessive about my obsessions, or I’m disciplined about them at least. I choose my obsessions carefully, simply because I know that I cannot possibly go deeply down all of the paths that interest me.” Eugene Eric Kim » DSLR vs Point-and-Shoot Cameras: Tools vs Craft, and the Nature of Obsession My brother is such a geek, but I’ll be the first (maybe the second?) to admit that it runs in the family. Also, his geekdom makes me the beneficiary of many a fine meal (mmm, homemade sausage). And you and I can also enjoy his excellent photography, which just keeps getting better.

Apr 23

“When I look back on my life, the parts that matter and sustain me, all I see is a series of chapels. They may be old or young, cracked brown or open space; they may be lectories or afterthoughts, hidden corners of a city or deserted spaces in the forest. They are as visible as people. But like people they have a stillness at the core of them that makes all discussion of high and low, East and West, you and me dissolve. Bells toll and toll and I lose all sense of whether they are chiming within me or without.” Utne Magazine I can’t express how powerfully this essay resonated with me, and how grateful I was to read it during a brief moment of respite toward the tail end of a frenetic day.

Mar 20

“

IN THE ATTIC

There’s a half hour toward dusk when flies,
Trapped by the summer screens, expire
Musically in the dust of sills;
And ceilings slope toward remembrance.

The same crimson afternoons expire
Over the same few rooftops repeatedly;
Only, being stored up for remembrance,
They somehow escape the ordinary.

Childhood is like that, repeatedly
Lost in the very longueurs it redeems.
One forgets how small and ordinary
The world looked once by dusklight from above…

But not the moment which redeems
The drowsy arias of flies—
And the chin settles onto palms above
Numbed elbows propped up on rotting sills.

—Donald Justice
from Collected Poems

” Little Epic Against Oblivion: Yes, how small and ordinary

Feb 14

(via Someone REALLY wants a taqueria on Clement Street | Richmond District Blog of San Francisco (richmondsfblog.com)) It would be nice not to have to schlep to the Mission every time we wanted a taco, huh, big bro’?

“

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott
(from Collected Poems: 1948-1984)

” Little Epic Against Oblivion: I Lurve You. — Happy Valentine’s Day

Feb 9

“My physician brother warned me that sitting still too long would make my blood congeal so I looked up articles on video gamers who died sitting in the same chair for three days. That would make a great short story. And then I realized that one of my characters was from the South so I made traditional red velvet cupcakes with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting (this took about 5 hours). My husband returned from work that evening and asked, “So how was the writing today?” How to Date a Writer | grub street daily From a former professor and great writer, Grace Talusan.

Feb 7

“The SPUR report offers a set of sound recommendations for City Hall. On the top of its to-do list is action on a long-considered mandate to retrofit “soft story” buildings - typified by a garage or storefront on the first floor. About 58,000 San Franciscans still live in soft-story buildings, even after the 1989 Loma Prieta quake - centered many miles away - showed their vulnerability to deadly collapse.” Quakes pose severe threat to S.F. housing stock I still remember the feature piece in the Chronicle magazine piece in April 2006 that projected in meticulous, gripping, and horrifying detail what would happen in San Francisco were the next “big one” to hit. One of the things that most struck me in that article was the description of these “soft story” buildings and how they would likely crumble like houses of cards in a major earthquake. The Outer Richmond neighborhood is filled with soft story homes. It is also quite close to the Pacific. Excellent.

Dec 31

“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there. -Henry Miller” A thought for the coming year « Between The Lines

Dec 5

“Young people must know that the prosperity they enjoy today is built upon the sacrifices of these forgotten people,” Ms. Lee said. “Forgetting is ingratitude, the worst sin.” Abductee’s Daughter Speaks of Korean War Kidnappings - NYTimes.com