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Alternatives
An unusual analysis session today… I had five or six dreams for us to discuss, three fairly substantial and complete, three or four more fragmentary and partially remembered. All the dreams had familiar elements and settings strewn through them – a southern California parking lot and a suburban office building, a southeast Asian grocery with…
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Globes
Working tonight on a program note for an old piece of mine – as it happens the final composition I ever wrote, in 1986 – Seven Last Haiku, which will have its premiere by the students in late March this year. One or two pianists are looking at it, and we have a cellist (Bennett…
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History
Over the past few days, Mubarak's reign in Egypt has finally collapsed; a remarkable video of a song that appeared just before he gave up and left the country. I don't know a translation, but it hardly matters – you see the faces, some of which look tired (it has been a long vigil) and…
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Biochem
Interesting to observe the mild chaos of my body's reactions, chemical and behavioral, as those pills start to drain from my system. I'd forgotten that there are also (brief) side effects to stopping the medications – my biochemistry that has rebalanced to handle the toxic garbage being ingested and injected for the past few months…
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The wind rises
An absolute favorite line by Valéry, which I think Prévert quoted with small changes after the war: "the wind rises, let us try to live." A phone call from the nurse just before she left at the end of the day: the medications have failed (not unexpected news), so I have just spent a finicky…
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Much sleep the past week, hard to wake for more than a few hours at a time. I have spoken before about the memoir of Lady Sarashina – one of those ninth-century Japanese Heian women writers, but very unlike Murasaki or Shonagon, all we have of her is a late, not long attempt to put…
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Paul Attinello 