I remember / je me souviens

I remember / je me souviens

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For those limbic bursts of nostalgia, invented by Proust, miniaturized by Nicholson Baker, and freeze-dried by Joe Brainard in his I remember and by Georges Perec in his Je me souviens.

But there are no fractions, the world is an integer
Like us, and like us it can neither stand wholly apart nor disappear.
When one is young it seems like a very strange and safe place,
But now that I have changed it feels merely odd, cold
And full of interest.
--John Ashbery, "A Wave"

Sometimes I sense that to put real confidence in my memory I have to get to the end of all rememberings. That seems to say that I forego remembering. And now that strikes me as an accurate description of what it is to have confidence in one's memory.
--Stanley Cavell, The Claim of Reason

Monday, August 10, 2009

I remember Embassy Florists (where we got flowers for my grandmothers) and Morris Brothers, which always reminded me of my downtown grandfather, both because of his Americanized first name (Morris) and because of the kind of jackets and slacks they got me there.

posted by William 11:29 AM
. . . 1 comments

Friday, August 07, 2009

I remember hearing on the radio, as my grandfather drove me uptown, pretty much as we were passing Columbia, about the hundreds of thousands descending on Woodstock, and that they were letting everyone in. That was the first I heard of it. Then later, in the Hampton Arts Theater, there were all sorts of things posted about it, I think when the movie came out. Hugh C., connoisseur of large effects, was firm about there being over 500,000 people there. My father was very impressed at the movie by Richie Havens singing "Freedom" and playing guitar so fast and furiously. I liked the glimpses of nakedness. I did think it was Crosby, Stills and Nash's first gig, and that they were beside themseves with anxiety. ("This is our first gig, man, and we are scared shitless.") I'd known their version of the song already; and afterwards I got their albums and loved them beyond words. Partly, I think, because I had no idea they were a supergroup; I thought of them as the frail and nervous but beautifully committed hippies I'd mistaken them for (not entirely) in the movie. I loved the Country Joe song on the album too, though I'm not quite sure why now.

posted by William 10:39 PM
. . . 0 comments

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