May 9

Gainsboro is the name of a number of different places (mostly Europe and Canada, I believe) and people (again, England). It is also a chair, a hat, a horse, a crater, a ship, and a plant. While most other colors I’ve read about seem designated through Pantone, it exists in the X11 color domain, which basically means it’s used in a software that separates different parts of a display system. Paul Raveling bemusedly described it as a color “copied from several Sinclair Paints color samples” – all this time, and I am still baffled by how color enters our vocabulary.

I have long been fond of the color – it has appeared in my poetry more than once, usually in conjunction with an electrical chirrup or sound. Most recently, airplanes and technology. I hate how the world feels when I’m outside in the midst of all that grey, but I think it’s beautiful to look at. I think it must be the sound and shape of the word; it seems to fit its color unusually well.

look: Shu Lea Cheang, UKI- etrashville 
listen: TheAtlanticTech, Bakersfield
read: David Hoon Kim, Sweetheart Sorrow