Graphite-grey

Back in August 2010, in a post about California Cedar’s revival of the Blackwing pencil, I wrote:

The old Blackwing has been described as charcoal-grey or smoke-grey, but I prefer to think of it as graphite-grey: the Blackwing has the shiny grey look of pencil lead itself.

Graphite-grey: I was (and am) very happy about hitting upon that phrasal adjective, which, as far as I could tell, had never been applied to the Blackwing pencil.

And now California Cedar has announced plans to produce a pencil that more closely resembles the original Blackwing. Here’s the description: “a replica styling of the original Blackwing graphite grey finish.” I’d prefer seeing the hyphen in graphite-grey. But hey, you’re welcome!

I’ll admit to a decided lack of interest in this replica. It’s not the real thing — and ain’t nothing like the real thing, as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell taught us. And the “pre-production” fiasco and subsequent subterfuge accompanying the Blackwing revival last year left me feeling pretty sour about throwing any money Cal Cedar’s way. But I’m sure the new Blackwing will find its way to happy writers.

A related post
The new Blackwing pencil

Red Cross (help Japan)

You can donate online, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

ShelterBox (help Japan)

ShelterBox, an international disaster-relief charity affiliated with Rotary, looks like a good choice if you want to do something for Japan: “We have aid pre-positioned locally and a member of the ShelterBox Response Team stationed in the Philippines enabling an immediate response.”

ShelterBox responding to Japanese earthquake and tsunami (ShelterBox)

What an ancient Greek looked like

An eleven-year-old girl (via Coudal).

The Sharpie Liquid Pencil

Stephen at pencil talk has an excellent review of the far-from-excellent Sharpie Liquid Pencil. I bought a few SLPs last year and was utterly disappointed: this pencil, so-called, writes like an uncooperative ball-point pen, skipping and blobbing. Says Stephen, “It is hard to understand how this product was released to market.”

A related post
Liquid graphite pencils

Yesterday’s vote in Wisconsin

WisconsinEye has video of yesterday’s vote on Special Session Assembly Bill 11. What the newspaper accounts I’ve read don’t make clear is that the vote took place as Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said, repeatedly, that the meeting was a violation of law. Seeing, sad to say, is believing.

Not so fast

Wisconsin State Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller:

In thirty minutes, 18 State Senators undid fifty years of civil rights in Wisconsin. Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten. Tonight, 18 Senate Republicans conspired to take government away from the people. Tomorrow we will join the people of Wisconsin in taking back their government.

Wisconsin State Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill (TPM)

A related post
Boycott Koch

Recently updated

More details on Van Dyke Parks’s forthcoming single releases.

Word of the day: aegis

The word-of-the-day from Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day is aegis (EE-jis):

noun: Protection, support, guidance, or sponsorship of a particular person or organization.

From Latin aegis, from Greek aigis (goatskin), from aix (goat). Aigis was the name of the shield or breastplate of Zeus or Athena in Greek mythology. It was made of goatskin. Earliest documented use: 1704.

The aegis makes a dazzling appearance in Odyssey 22, where it drives those suitors yet unkilled into a terrified frenzy. It appears again in a quieter way at the poem’s end, when Odysseus and the dead suitors’ male relatives come to terms:

ὅρκια δ᾽ αὖ κατόπισθε μετ᾽ ἀμφοτέροισιν ἔθηκεν

Παλλὰς Ἀθηναίη, κούρη Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο,

Μέντορι εἰδομένη ἠμὲν δέμας ἠδὲ καὶ αὐδήν.

Do you see the aegis at the end of line three? “Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο” — that’s aegis-holding [αἰγίοχος] Zeus. Pallas Athena [Παλλὰς Ἀθηναίη] has borrowed the keys to the aegis from Dad. In Robert FItzgerald’s 1961 translation:

Both parties later swore to terms of peace
set by their arbiter, Athena, daughter
of Zeus who bears the stormcloud as a shield —
though still she kept the form and voice of Mentor.

A new Van Dyke Parks project

The guy’s on a roll: Van Dyke Parks plans to release five singles, each a collaboration with a visual artist: Frank Holmes (who did the cover art for the Beach Boys’ never-released SMiLE), Sally Parks, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Art Spiegelman, and Billy Edd Wheeler. Says Parks, “We’re calling it Nouveau Niche."

[I know: that’s six artists.]

Update, March 9: Some more information, from Van Dyke Parks: there will be five 7"-vinyl singles released in 2011. The first: “Dreaming of Paris,” b/w “Wedding in Madagascar,” with art by Ed Ruscha. Another song title: “Katrina,” with art by Sally Parks. A concert at the London Islington Union Chapel (May 16) will launch the series.

[“Backed with,” “b/w”: an expression from the analog past.]

Some recent Van Dyke Parks posts
Van Dyke Parks at Daytrotter
Van Dyke Parks in Chicago (1)
Van Dyke Parks in Chicago (2)
Van Dyke Parks and Clare and the Reasons, on the radio
Van Dyke Parks and Clare and the Reasons, on the radio again