Paul Attinello

Author: paulattinello

  • Babylon

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    paulattinello
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    Apparently ancient Babylon has been damaged by the war… no surprise. Yet more barbarians. I've never been much at memorizing; the only passage I ever learned by heart was from Shelley, one quoted in Eliot's The Cocktail Party. I still remember it: "… Ere Babylon was dust,The magus Zoroaster, my dead child,Saw his own image…

  • Distance

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    paulattinello
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    A television commercial with rather gentle falling chord sequences on orchestral instruments, in long held notes: very like the wistful Northern California minimalism of the 1980s. I wonder sometimes why it was so necessary for me to leave San Francisco, with no apparent way of getting back. I know why everyone died, of course –…

  • Better

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    paulattinello
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    With cooler weather, I'm feeling a bit more normal: not energetic, but not as drained, disoriented, worried, as I've been for much of the last week. There may be a slightly embarrassing unpredictability about my more volatile reactions which may be slightly out of my control… I do wonder if the stroke has had any…

  • Dis/orient

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    paulattinello
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    A day that was fairly normal at the surface, if incredibly tiring: I actually went to the corner store – three bags of food, much needed but almost more than I could carry, changed the bed and did the laundry, took a shower. As that all tailed off this evening… and just before the neighbors…

  • Existential

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    paulattinello
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    Very tired and weak today; and a certain amount of confusion, trying to negotiate with messages and phone calls from family and friends. Some of their confusion (as opposed to mine) is understandable; when I was in the hospital a number of my colleagues visited me, and I was talkative and cheerful – at least…

  • Stroke

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    paulattinello
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    So: the news is – I never had the flu; I had, of all things, a stroke. A stroke which fortunately left me with very little damage; for about two days I had trouble understanding and remembering things, but that has cleared up completely (as far as anyone can tell); and now there is a…

  • …

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    paulattinello
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    A technician told me my test results at the hospital today: distinctly bad. Which has various implications for the future. In the kitchen, much of the fruit seems to be going straight from underripe to rotten, with nothing in between….

  • Thessaloniki

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    paulattinello
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    I don't know where I got the idea that Thessaloniki was known for being the home of witches in ancient Greece. I read it somewhere, but can't find any reference to it. My mother's family was from Thessaloniki, from a small town called Pentalofos ('Five Peaks') north of the city of Thessaloniki itself. My mother…

  • Carnivale

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    paulattinello
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    Another amazing television show, which Bennett and Merrie told me to see: Carnivale. A shame it ran for only two years before cancellation (but no wonder, either, it was so expensive and elaborate). There's a great deal to say about it, of course – a Gnostic battle of good and evil, brilliant characterization and complex…

  • —

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    paulattinello
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    Summer day. Reading in the heat of noon I grow sleepy, put my head On my arms and fall asleep. I forget to close the window And the warm air blows in And covers my body with petals. Yuan Mei, 1716-1797, translated by Kenneth Rexroth