Son House - Grinnin' in Your Face

Came upon the rock-umentary "It Might Get Loud" while channel surfing. Jack White singled this song out as his favorite song. I'd never listened to Son House before. I love it when serendipity delivers you to the sublime. Please give this a listen.

George Steiner: "I summon up remembrance of things past"

We have always known of the close affinity of music and poetry, but, asks George Steiner, in his new book, The Poetry of Thought:

Is there in some kindred sense "a poetry, a music of thought" deeper than that which attaches to the external uses of language, to style? . . . Where philosophy and literature mesh, where they are litigious toward one another in form or matter, these echoes of origin can be heard. The poetic genius of abstract thought is lit, is made audible. Argument, even analytic, has its drumbeat. It is made ode.

Although I have not yet finished reading this extraordinary book — and I suspect I will be reading it for the rest of my life, over and over again — I wanted you to see this video. A review will show up on this blog at some point in the not-too-distant future. I will be moving slowly, however. This is a book to savor, to ingest. Watch this video, and you will know exactly to what I refer.

Like this song:

http://www.franklinbruno.com/musicfiles/Free_To_Organize.mp3

Blog Name?

Librarians (among my favorite people and not just because they're sexy) use the term "shelf monkey" to refer to those folks whose job it is to constantly shelve and reshelve books. Although I'm a retail prole, I feel some solidarity with my public sector kin. Hence, the first part of the blog name.

As to the second part, I have generally been unable to quiet and focus my monkey mind. My coworkers have discerned my problem, commenting, on more than one occasion, that they would prefer that I not incessantly mumble to myself. Perhaps this blog will help.