Moments
Phone behind bars. Aldi in Ballina (I think)
“Ickle” pencils. My kitchen table.
Stairway to what? Heaven? Vancouver, 2014
River of rain in 5 mins. Vancouver, 2014
Signage in Cork. What was and what will be?
MERS: Calling for rapid development of a safe and effective MERS vaccine
“To date, however, the interest and enthusiasm of the global public health community in both MERS and a MERS vaccine could be described as ambivalent. “
The geographic spread and rapid increase in the cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) caused by a novel coronavirus (MERS-CoV) during the past two months have raised concern about its pandemic potential. Here we call for the rapid development of an effective and safe MERS vaccine to control the spread of MERS-CoV.
July
There have been a number of curious weather events this week. Hurricane Arthur made landfall and another storm was reported to me from France. I have been unable to devote my usual level of attention to the bursting winds because I am busy busting out sentences. Here we had a brief rain event which was an absolute affront. She sprang on us! I talked with another woman beside me on the pavement as the rain destroyed us and we agreed it was Top of the Pops affront. Where did it come from?
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The other theme this past week has been the body. I read a science paper on the eye blinking patterns of unmedicated schizophrenics which left me pondering the voluntary and involuntary notions of movement in the body and the role of the brain therein and what it can provoke. I can’t find the paper. But it came to mind again this morning at a storytelling workshop organized by the Indian Summer Festival where Sharada Eswar demonstrated and taught us how consonant sounds create Konnakol — a music based on vocal percussive sounds and rhythm. Russell Wallace demonstrated First Nations story telling through the physical body (dance) and music. The consonants particularly fascinated me how the tiniest adjustment in a sound and an increase and decrease in its rhythm could change so much meaning and intention. The same can be shown in relation to the brain and the body. I continue to find pondering the physicality of language rewarding.
Global collaborations
I appreciated this global seisun collaboration. What are the prospects for this same approach to be applied to literature? The remix? The one word submitted poem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZARxiWJGAaU
I was at a trad session this week and sat between the button accordion and concertina. The fiddle was opposite. It was curious to be in immediate proximity to the sounds beside me and hear the response or interplay across the table. I heard long concertina notes that I never noticed in pieces when listening to them as a whole complete recording. Also, it was great hearing the players start a tune one knew and the others didn’t and hear them figure out their parts. As my pal said “sometimes you don’t know a tune & yet you know a tune.”