a mountain of gold

“And I laughed because everything was laughter. There was the smell of
fresh earth and yellow dust, and a great pile that was a mountain of
gold (like Pop is going to find); and the gold spouted downward from a
pipe in the sky, falling around my head, mounting above my feet like
golden sand, above my waist and shoulders. And I was looking into the
man’s eyes, far above, and he was looking down into mine, and I knew
that we were playing a game, that he was going to hide me beneath the
gold; and I could not understand why Mom came racing across the field
nor why the man’s teeth bared like a frightened dog’s. But I knew that
everything was good, and I laughed.”

—Jim Thompson, Now and On Earth, 1942.

until the sky was green

“[S]he’d saw away on that damn fiddle until the sky was green and you’d
sit with your eyes closed, tapping on the arm of your chair, and no one
dared to say a word. . . .”

—Jim Thompson, Now and On Earth, 1942.

a rainbow-haze of reds and yellows and blues

“The din was so terrific that the boys’ ears ached from it, but they
were too busy gawking to mind. The plant was one great seemingly
unbounded room, with steel rafters from which traveling cranes were
suspended. At one end of the room, the end which they were passing,
were the embryos of more than a dozen different types of farm
implements—the bare unpainted chasis of threshers, combines, mowers,
balers, and so on—drawn up in the manner of animals beginning a race.
(And indeed the men who worked upon them were racing.) Perhaps fifty
feet away was a parallel line, and here the embryos were a little
easier to identify for what they were, or would be. And beyond that was
a third line, and a fourth, and a tenth, each advancing the growth of
the implement by a step or two until it was finished.
     The last line was so far away that the men
were mere specks—bobbing bug-like fixtures, moving in what seemed to be
a rainbow-haze of reds and yellows and blues.
    Those were the spray-painters, Simpson explained,
and some of them made as much as seven dollars a day. He did not
explain that they had no teeth after six months, little eyesight after
a year, and that their occupational expectancy was about three years.”

—Jim Thompson, Heed the Thunder, 1946.

a man ought to laugh

“‘When a thing’s funny,’ said Sherman, ‘a man ought to laugh. You
hadn’t ought to hold in anything like that.’ His hard blue gaze struck
the clerk like a blow. ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘Laugh.’”

—Jim Thompson, Heed the Thunder, 1946.

I’ll set type by hand

“‘Seems to me I’d learn how to run one of the machines.’
    ‘I won’t! Never!’ Grant exclaimed so hotly that his
father almost looked upon him with favor. He liked a man with
principles, even if they were the wrong kind. ‘I’ll set type by hand,
like it was meant to be set, or not at all!’
    ‘Well, set it by hand, then,’ said Link. ‘There’s lots of papers that don’t have this Lin-o-type yet.’”

—Jim Thompson, Heed the Thunder, 1946.

the world’s an Eye

“For the world’s an Eye
And the universe is Seeing
Liquid
Rare
Radiant.”

—Jack Kerouac, ‘San Francisco Blues, 22nd Chorus’, from Book of Blues, 1995.

Kaleidoscope Eyes

I finished Lucy in the Sky friday night, and saturday I took it
to the Baton Rouge Gallery where I hung it and 9 other recent collages
for an exhibition that I call Kaleidoscope Eyes. Yes, this is what the frenetic collage-making of the last several months has been all about.
  The show, which also features exhibitions by Anne Boudreau, Mary
Lee Eggart and Mikey Walsh, will be up through July 31. The opening
reception will be held Wednesday, July 2nd, from 7 to 9pm. There will be food, there will be
wine, there will be beautiful people, and entertainment will be provided by vinyl-only DJs Neff,
Martini and Misc. If you’re in
the area, you won’t want to miss it!

Lucy in the Sky

Orange Crush

plasticated

“‘Can I have an orange?’. . .
 ‘Dat’s not a real orange, dear. All de fruit is plasticated. De flowers are plasticated also. I don’t believe the Lord meant me to spend de little housekeeping money I possess on perishable goods. Have some dates.’”

—Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2000.