delighted to look at the calendar today and see enough time has elapsed for one of these. the first week or so was listening to glenn gould's rendition of bach's bagliatelles while i inhaled lispector's agua viva. the experience of reading that was supremely restful and inspiring, enough that it's now on my wishlist to own a physical copy. i feel like my mind's really opened up to the idea of non-traditional narratives; picked up a copy of finnegan's wake that i'm struggling through as some kind of ill-planned before-bed reading.

speaking more on reading; besides agua viva most of my time has been taken up by sir thomas more's utopia. there'll be a blog post later about my thoughts on that particular book. the two of these books gave me four new delicious words: cantabile, gallimaufry, onerous and metheglin.

watched only one old movie, bette davis's dark victory, which made me sob. no progress on any of my multimedia projects, but gathered several new recipes that have been immediately put into the weekly rotation (kitchari, baked eggs in tomato cream sauce, fruit-filled pierogi --- and pickled tarragon i hope to use in some wonderful later-on soup).

got from chapter 12 to chapter 15 before falling into a deep rut where i despised looking at my own writing. started doing at home ballet barre, except with a antique chair i picked up from near the dumpster last year instead of an actual barre. realized i had been sticking too close to my outline and not letting my characters breathe and act the way they wanted, which was creating a mental block when i tried to put any more words to paper. now back on track with chapter 16.

i wonder how other writers do it. the chapters i'm doing right now are leaning (slouching and slipping, more like) toward horror. this is the most exciting stuff to write so far, but also the hardest; i can't do it in chunks. i need to be in one spot and let myself be afraid and doubtful with my narrative character. which, even though i'm a very 'face bad feelings head on' type of creature, is still difficult. its funny, its against natural sense but to do it any other way would be to reject natural impulse. i'll have to pick up more writing on writing and see whether this is common.

note to self and reader: visit your local library and gauge the reference section. pick up one book you can open every so often for three weeks or so. non-fiction is just as delightful as invention.

that's all for now. see you when i gather my thoughts on utopia. ciao ciao.