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podcasts and toil
Tuesday, September 22 2009
I installed the northwest corner post of the outhouse today, using three ropes tied to trees at ~120 degree intervals to hold it as plumb as possible. I then mixed up an eighty pound bag of concrete and shoveled it into the hole, throwing in a few native rocks as well ("hamburger helper" for concrete). Overlaying this work was the latest podcast from Sound Opinions, which included an interesting career retrospective on the band U2 and its evolution from post-punk to stadium rock.
It's only since moving to Upstate New York that I've had a lot of experience doing involved contractor-style projects while listening to informative podcasts on demand (starting with This American Life and expanding into other material only a year and a half ago). What I've noticed about working this way is the intimate connection these podcast narratives develop with the details of the work. From today on, for example, every time I reflect on tightening the rope so as to bring the northwest outhouse pole closer to plumb, I'll think of the point in U2's career when they finally learned to make fun of themselves and quit being so sanctimoniously serious.
This evening I finally resumed work on one of the paintings I'm doing for a children's book that Gretchen wrote earlier this summer. Gretchen has been nagging me for weeks, but artistic initiative, particularly when facing down a blank or deeply-unsatisfying canvas, can be a difficult thing to command.
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http://asecular.com/blog.php?090922 feedback
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