I woke up with a spot of blood
over my eye. A scratch
halfway across my forehead.
But I'm sleeping alone these days.
his hand
against himself, even in sleep?
It's this & similar questions
I'm trying to answer this morning.
As I study my face in the window.
— Raymond Carver, "The Scratch"
Web version, updated:
http://www.recollectionbooks.
LORD BYRON
Wit, dandy, into incest & man-boy love. Died fighting
for Greek freedom & romantic ideals. Good poet, too.
SNAKES RETURN TO IRELAND DAY.
WORLD WEEK FOR LABORATORY ANIMALS.
Protest the torture & killing of animals during
"scientific experiments."
______________________________
1824 - British romantic poet Lord Byron, dies, 36, of malarial
fever contracted in a rainstorm in Missolonghi, Greece, where
he was drilling troops seeking liberation from the Turkish
Empire. His heart & lungs are buried in Greece, his body in
England.
What is the end of fame? 'Tis but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapor;
For this men write, speak, preach, & heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their "midnight taper,"
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, & worse bust.
— from "Don Juan", Canto 1, stanza 217
It was Byron who declared,
"You may call the people a mob,
but do not forget that a mob often
speaks the sentiments of the people".
1854 - Charles Angrand (1854-1926) lives, Normandy. French
Impressionist, Pointillist painter & libertarian illustrator.
Influenced by Van Gogh, associated with Seurat, Cross, Luce &
Signac & other anarchist illustrators & Jean Grave's "Les
temps nouveaux".
http://recollectionbooks.com/
http://recollectionbooks.com/
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1861 - The US Civil War claims its first fatalities: four
Union soldiers are stoned to death by a Baltimore mob.
1909 -- France: In Paris, Jean Goldschild, with Almereyda
(Eugène Vigo, father of the filmmaker Jean Vigo; his adopted
name, Almereyda, is an anagram: Y'a la merde), Rene de
Marmande, George Durupt, & others, are part of a group of
friends who form the "Fédération révolutionnaire" qui
préconise l'emploi de "l'action directe" for "La destruction
radicale de la société capitaliste et autoritaire".
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1916 -- US: Benefit banquet for Emma Goldman at the Hotel
Brevoort is attended by notable artists, writers, socialists, &
doctors, including John Cowper Powys, Alexander Harvey,
Robert Henri, George Bellows, Robert Minor, Boardman
Robinson, & Rose Pastor Stokes.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1943 -- Poland: 50,000 Jews remaining begin the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising: thousands of Jews rise in armed struggle against
Nazi deportations to extermination camps.
On May 10th, some 75 survivors escape through
the city's sewers.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1945 -- France: Louis-Ferdinand Céline is in deep doo-doo:
he faces arrest for collaborating with fascist Vichy
government.
"Round up the usual suspects ........"
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1948 - Costa Rica abolishes its army. Pretty weird...
1957 -- Ian Heavens lives (1957-2000); Scottish
libertarian, co-founder of the punk/samba band Bloco Vomit.
A cofounder of the online Spunk Archives.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1968 - Sexy Sadie, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone...
1971 - US: Several hundred Vietnam Veterans Against the War
begin an encampment on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. Launch
"Operation Dewey Canyon III" (April 19-23).
1993 - US: Tax Dollars at Whork? Whacko Federal agents attack
whacko Branch Davidian compound near Whaco, Texass,
whacking or incinerating over 80 women, men, & children.
1995 - Bombing of Federal Building in Oklahoma City kills 168.
The bombing wrongly sets off a hunt for "Arab terrorists" &
Muslims. Results in new laws suspending due process for
non-US citizens. The crapshoot Constitution & Bill of Rights
are again under attack in 2001-2, with Arabs & Muslims being
arrested & held incommunicado without evidence or trial.
2001: Ethiopia: In a brutal attack by police, 39 people are killed &
over 250 injured on the second day of violent clashes in Addis
Ababa. Young demonstrators were supporting of a student boycott
of lectures. "Addis Ababa looked like a city under siege as mobs
of youths clashed violently with police, creating anarchy all over
the capital." (BBC News)
2009 -- Author J.G. Ballard dies at 78. Famed for novels such as Crash
& Empire of the Sun. Susan Sontag called him "one of the most important,
intelligent voices in contemporary fiction."
His first book was The Drowned World, in 1961. His acclaimed 1984 novel
Empire of the Sun was based on his prison experience under the Japanese
during WWII.
http://www.jgballard.com/
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