May 26

There are no further explanations for the color burlywood, other than that it is a sandy brown color. How subtly do we introduce color into our vernacular such that there there is no trace of their injection or conception?

A friend performed the ter Veldhuis today, and for as shocking and contemporary as it was, I suspect Blake would have approved of this remediation. “The Garden of Love” was supposedly written as part of Blake’s exploration of sexuality and religious oppression of it. Curiously enough, though he writes about things he “had never seen,” the poem comes from Blake’s Songs of Experience, not Innocence. I often associate newness with innocence, unfamiliarity with curiosity, not experience.

I made dumplings with a friend of mine today, and have never felt more distant from my motherland, tongue, and culture. My mother would have been horrified by the skins. Much to her credit, upon seeing a photo of my complete dumplings, she simply said, “Well, as long as they are eatable [sic].”

look: Fernando Amorsolo, “Woman cooking in the kitchen”
listen: Jacob ter Veldhuis, Garden of Love
read: Han Kang, The Vegetarian