Light and Shadow
Tuesday. Airborne has lost the firewall computer, which makes me think two things: First, if I'm not all that excited, maybe I should just cancel the order. Why spend the money? Buy the lens I've been thinking about. Put it in the bank. Put it in the mattress. Second, maybe I should upgrade the hard drive and add a CD writer and replace the order. I replaced the order. I obviously have no idea what I'm doing. Someone stole the Dell from Airborne in Oakland. Dell will send me another computer. Life will continue. It is Tuesday evening, home later than usual, watching the news, drinking the first of what I suspect will be two bourbon and waters. Which means the writing is going to get ragged.
I did start The Lives of the Muses last night. I read the introduction and the stories of two of the Muses: Charis Weston, a Muse - he had more than one - to Edward Weston, the photographer (what else?) and Hester Thrale, the Muse to Dr. Johnson. This constitutes more than one chapter read in a single evening and that's good. I don't know the work of Francine Prose, I heard an interview with her on public radio where she was flogging the book and thought, well, Muses, I need to know about Muses.
Wednesday. The two paragraphs that followed on Tuesday were interesting - more about Muses - but ragged, so they're saved for another entry. Maybe. I poured that second drink, you see, and then poured half of it in the sink when the brain went empty. This evening is my evening for a few drinks with my malcontent company friends across from the office and I've had three bottles of Guinness and some deep fried Calamari. With horseradish. And something else. I don't know what it was, but it was red and it was edible. The four of us, except two, were the only customers in the place, nice enough place, decent food, but I don't know how long you last with six customers who drink a few beers, have a few shots and eat two orders of fried Calamari after six on a Wednesday.
There are signs the layoff is progressing. They're going to hit middle and senior management as well as the proles. Messages and meetings to ensure all of the credit cards and laptops and cell phones and automobiles are accounted. Don't want to lose any German automobiles through lack of attention.
I did finish a roll of film this evening. One roll in however many weeks. Maybe I'll try something more ambitious this weekend, but I'm not betting on it. Tonight, sitting here, a buzz on, listening to the radio, thinking, maybe go to bed and read more about these Muses. There's another photographer's Muse: Lee Miller, Muse to Man Ray. Francine thinks she was foolish to play Muse to Man Ray. She probably was, foolish artist, foolish Muse, dancing their life's dance in light and shadow.
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