mostly i'm silent

december 11, 2010

"where do the ducks go in winter?"

december 11, 2010

december 11, 2010

ho ho ho

this made me laugh a lot more than i thought it would.
(thank you, t. and jibjab)

read a good poem: depression glass

photo © anita aguilar

Depression Glass

It seemed those rose-pink dishes
she kept for special company
were always cold, brought down
from the shelf in jingling stacks,
the plates like the panes of ice
she broke from the water bucket
winter mornings, the flaring cups
like tulips that opened too early
and got bitten by frost. They chilled
the coffee no matter how quickly
you drank, while a heavy
everyday mug would have kept
a splash hot for the better
part of a conversation. It was hard
to hold up your end of the gossip
with your coffee cold, but it was
a special occasion, just the same,
to sit at her kitchen table
and sip the bitter percolation
of the past week’s rumors from cups
it had taken a year to collect
at the grocery, with one piece free
for each five pounds of flour.

--by Ted Kooser via the poetry foundation

dc 2010: the doubles (mon dieu!)

FRANCE def SERBIA - 3-6 6-7(3) 6-4 7-5 6-4

arnaud clement, left and michael llodra...

photo: darko vojinovic/ap, via tennis.com

michael llodra (l) and arnaud clement.

photo: darko vojinovic/ap, via tennis.com

magnifique.

(how nervous is gilles simon now?)

happy holiday

it's national cookie day...

thomas keller's chocolate chip cookies

if you're curious how i made these (and if you want to make them, too) visit me here.

***

photos © anita aguilar

tie's up...(france v serbia)

photo © anita aguilar

predictions

tale of the tie

link to live audio (for those of you stuck at work, like me)

***

official photos, via the davis cup website:

detour

at the start of every work day, i step off the 5th floor elevator, say hello to shawn, our receptionist, tap my picture id on a small, square black pad by her desk, and swing through our office's glass double doors. i take a several rushed steps. my eyes are always drawn to the wide windows on the right, windows that overlook union square park. i might smile a bit every day because of them.

but i always make a left, down a high and long, artificially bright corridor, to my dim, windowless cubicle. those front windows--all that sky, sometimes the sun-- tease me all day, every day. from time to time, on my way to or from a meeting in our conference room, i'll stop and have a lookout. (it's fun to be the one towering over the trees. i like seeing how we new yorkers move.) but i don't allow myself time every day to enjoy it. i'm not sure why. i should never be too busy to appreciate that view.

i stopped tonight:

with the g10. union square park, dec 2, 2010.

not a great picture, but a good idea.

will stop again, soon.

who's that girl (photographer)?

there's one person in the world that can make me feel marginally okay about the fact that nadal lost to federer last sunday morning, and this (he?) in turn, allows me to look at photos from the tournament without pain.

admire them, even.

nov 26, 2010. kristy wigglesworth/ap

nov 26, 2010. kristy wigglesworth/ap

nov 27, 2010. kristy wigglesworth/ap

nov 28, 2010. kristy wigglesworth/ap

nice, no? i can feel what it was like to be behind the big fat lens for these.

as you'll notice from the credits, they were all taken by a woman, kristy wigglesworth of the associated press. or maybe her name is kirsty? not often enough do we see the work of women photographers in the sports pages.

naturally, i was intrigued. wanted to know where/if she studied photography, where she's worked, how long she's been at the AP. maybe even what camera and lenses she favors.

and i found this:

ms. kirsty/kristy getting choked by a british tv news reporter after she accidentally bopped her with her lens.

i haven't been involved in any fisticuffs since the 7th grade, when dina romeo wanted to duke it out behind the library after school. (how jersey is that.) actually, that never came off (she was a no-show), so i'd have to go back all the way to 5th grade...

jesus. i'd better toughen up.

***

and this is for my sister.

you like his colors, but what of the socks?

nov 24, 2010. alastair grant/ap.

read a good poem: chaplinesque

fdr drive. nov 21, 2010. © anita aguilar

***

the resonant, true (and not outrageous) thing i read yesterday about the wikileaks:

The quality of the conversation is determined by the level of trust.

(via david brooks)

i spent part of last evening, then, reading poems on the idea of trust.

but i eventually found my way here (not sure what it may mean to you, but hope you like it)

****

Chaplinesque

We make our meek adjustments,
Contented with such random consolations
As the wind deposits
In slithered and too ample pockets.

For we can still love the world, who find
A famished kitten on the step, and know
Recesses for it from the fury of the street,
Or warm torn elbow coverts.

We will sidestep, and to the final smirk
Dally the doom of that inevitable thumb
That slowly chafes its puckered index toward us,
Facing the dull squint with what innocence
And what surprise!

And yet these fine collapses are not lies
More than the pirouettes of any pliant cane;
Our obsequies are, in a way, no enterprise.
We can evade you, and all else but the heart:
What blame to us if the heart live on.

The game enforces smirks; but we have seen
The moon in lonely alleys make
A grail of laughter of an empty ash can,
And through all sound of gaiety and quest
Have heard a kitten in the wilderness.

--Hart Crane (via the poetry foundation)

"king" of the moment

nadal, photographed by alastair grant/ap, during his match against tomas berdych. the O2 arena, nov 26, 2010.

i woke up this morning, really excited, thinking about...tennis.

there was a fantastic semifinal match yesterday, between my maximum favorite player and andy murray. it might have been one of my favorites of the year, and quite possibly the best indoor tennis match i've seen since 1982 (when mats wilander went down to john mcenroe in the longest match in davis cup history, a 6 hour - 22 minute grind that scarred my heart for years).

nadal defeated murray in three sets.

you know me--i couldn't rattle off the score, or remember significant points without looking at notes or a news report. but i won't forget the faces, the expressions of either player. tennis players are not an undemonstrative bunch--in between the vamoses and the come ons, they'll grimace or frown, raise an eyebrow (in the case of nadal). or he may look like he's about to choke the life out of his... racquet (murray). and then sometimes they say nothing--nerves, fear, doubt, exhaustion can be read in their eyes for a half-second between points, when they catch the eye of someone on their team. and then they shake it off. and hit a winner. not sure if there are any still photos to evidence this (probably because photographers are tethered to the sidelines). but believe me, the match was full of those moments from both players. it was exquisite, fun tennis.

i also thought of one pose after he earned the win--a few photographers got this shot.

nadal has a couple of victory moves in his repertoire (usually he's dropping down, flat on his back). i wondered after this one, how he'd celebrate. but his simple victory smile was entirely appropriate for the tone of the match and respectful of his relationship to murray and murray's home crowd. it's one of the things i like most about him--his sense of place, his sense of a moment. he seems more often than not to understand things wider than himself, even when the moment is "his." it was true when he was younger (i'm recalling his matches against agassi during the andre summer farewell tour) and as he was establishing his dominance over federer (at the australian open a couple of years ago). a few suggested he seemed almost too good?

i wonder if that will change, if someday he will change with more titles, more money, more adulation. who could blame him, i guess, if it all went to his head? i suspect it will not, but there is no way to know.

so for now, enjoy...

nadal d. murray 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6). london, uk. nov, 27, 2010.

photo: kirsty wigglesworth/AP