Rain Check

Modernism: Deviation from the ancient and classical manner. A word invented by Swift. (Johnson) Not too shabby for 1755. That there already was modernism. This is the benefit of reading a dictionary straight through, I never would have looked up the word in Sam Johnson. Curator of the "Midwestern Modernism" dates it from the Chicago Expo 1893. Now I'm interested in where he used the word, and what it related to. Certainly adds an interesting sidebar to my docenting of that show, now I can bring old Sam out and brush him off. I've been spending my breaks and the rest of the lunch hour in the museum library, reading about the various manifestations of modernism; today realized what a debt Todd Reynolds (best of the local painters, by far) owed to Larry Rivers. Rivers is, by the by, quite good, as a writer, talking about art, and an interesting person. Janitor mode in the afternoon, K had mentioned corners. I'm frankly appalled at some things I scraped out of corners today. Dust bunnies formed into miniature tumbleweeds, dead bugs, a dime, a nickel, and two pennies, several preserved grapes, toothpicks, one button, something I take to be part of a dried shrimp tail, some bits of broken glass, and glitter. Goddamn I do hate glitter. The one purpose glitter serves is to really piss off the janitor. And feathers, I don't even want to go there. Movies are fine, but popcorn is a curse. From my point of view. Someone has to clean under the seats. You can guess who does that. It does stop raining long enough for me to get home and walk up the hill. Dinner is completely done, left-overs from last night; my left-overs are often really good, and this is one of those nights. I got a sharp cheddar to grate into the grits, some butter, goes without saying, a few grinds of black pepper. I was only doing this for myself, I can't believe you're still paying attention. We should talk about that later. When everyone's asleep. Have to draw the line, help me draw the line, I'm so blind. Talking Heads, "Once In a Lifetime", a great song.