Skip to content

Ecce Signum

Immanentize the Empathy

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Published Works and Literary Matters
  • Indexes
  • Laboratory
  • Notebooks
  • RSS Feed

Category: Life

Weekly Round-up, May 24, 2025

2025-05-242025-05-24 John Winkelman

A large hawk, perched on a power line, holding a robin fledgling in its talons.

[A hawk, having just caught one of the robin fledglings from our back yard.]

Not much to say the week. I was crazy-busy and also got sick, so there wasn’t much to do other than try to stay awake and watch the country continue its rapid slide into fascism.

I found the time and energy at the end of the week to work in our backyard garden. That was when I heard a sudden commotion from the local robins, and looked up to see a large hawk had just caught one of the local fledglings. Better luck next incarnation, little fella.

Reading

Jack Hirschman. William Gibson. Dyrk Ashton and David Estes.

Writing

Nup’m.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Robots, Super Powers
Setting: Ocean
Genre: Literary Fiction

Listening

Robert Plant, “In the Mood”, from his album The Principle of Moments.

Interesting Links

  • “Debating Trump “Ambush” of South African President With “White Genocide’ Lies” (Naked Capitalism) – Emasculated, senile, and impotent white nationalist (but I repeat myself) Donald J. Trump failed to intimidate and humiliate the South African president, and was called out on the absolute lie that is the cowardly false narrative of “white genocide”. Basically, everyone who believes that “white genocide” or “the great replacement” are real needs to be purged from the human race. And the sooner, the better. The world is better off without those racist white trash morons.
Posted in Life comment on Weekly Round-up, May 24, 2025

Weekly Round-up, May 17, 2025

2025-05-172025-05-17 John Winkelman

A Robin fledgling perched on an unused tomato cage in the middle of a patch of weeds next to the foundation of a small garage.

[A Robin fledgling perched on an unused tomato cage in the middle of a patch of weeds next to the foundation of a small garage.]

Spring has definitely sprung here in West Michigan. After a week off from work I am re-acclimating myself to the daily grind. Work was busy, as was life, and everything was made busier by the schedule disruptions of a new crown on one of my teeth, a meeting of the Grand River Poetry Collective, a meeting of the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Convention, and a severe thunderstorm which blew through Thursday evening, which brought almost four inches of rain in an hour as well as several tornadoes.

But other than that, everything was business as usual.

Reading

I read Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, and am now going through Jack Hirschman’s Front Lines, which I am quite enjoying. This is me making up for not having the mental capacity to enjoy poetry during National Poetry Month.

I just started reading Kraken Rider Z by David Estes and Dyrk Ashton. I know Dyrk from ConFusion, and have previously read his excellent Paternus Trilogy, so I have high hopes for this one. A hundred pages in, and it is pretty good!

Writing

Along with a return to reading poetry, I am writing a little more than usual, which is not difficult because anything more than “none” is more than usual.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Kaiju
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Technothriller

Listening

Simple Minds, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, from the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club. This was the #1 song in the USA this week in 1985.

Interesting Links

  • “Why the Democrats are still stuck in the past” (Paul Rosenberg, Salon)
  • “Documenting the Damage: 100 Harmful Policies from the First 100 Days of the Second Trump Administration” (Brett Heinz) – Well-researched list of the many ways in which the guillotinable and compostable President Donald Trump, with the full-throated support of every conservative in the USA, is dismantling democracy and turning the country into a fascist oligarchy. This is what all American conservatives – especially the Christians – have wanted since the day America won its independence from England.
  • “Trump can’t do ANYTHING for his base” (Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic)
  • “They Looted Companies — Now They’re Looting the Government” (Lynn Parramore, Institute for New Economic Thinking)
Posted in LifeTagged ConFusion, Grand River Poetry Collective, Simple Minds comment on Weekly Round-up, May 17, 2025

Weekly Round-up, May 10, 2025

2025-05-102025-05-10 John Winkelman

A partly-cloudy sky, reflected in the water of a bog at the edge of Loda Lake.

[A partly-cloudy sky, reflected in the water of a bog at the edge of Loda Lake at the Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary.]

I was on vacation last week. I worked on projects around the house. I read a lot. I took some naps. I walked in the woods. It was a good, quiet time.

Reading

I picked up Jack Hirschman’s Front Lines and Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems from The Book Nook in Montague. They are my current porch-sitting reads, and they are most excellent.

Writing

I didn’t accomplish much other than a single poem to close out my most recently-filled journal. It has promise.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Portals, Empire
Setting: Ruins
Genre: Horror

Listening

Ringo Starr, “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Please, remember peace is how we make it
Here within your reach if you’re big enough to take it

Interesting Links

  • “The Half Life of Empire” (Blair Fix, Economics From the Top Down)
Posted in LifeTagged Ringo Starr comment on Weekly Round-up, May 10, 2025

Weekly Round-up, May 3, 2025

2025-05-032025-05-03 John Winkelman

The Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids, Michigan, viewed from the east bank, just south of the dam.

[The Sixth Street Dam in Grand Rapids, Michigan, viewed from the east bank, just south of the dam.]

This past week was the first in several months in which I worked less than 45 hours. But I had many other tasks outside of work, which kept me quite busy. I have the next week off from work, and have no plans, other than the plan to not plan anything for the week.

Reading

I am slowly reading through Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing, a collection of short stories by Robin McLean. They’re pretty good.

Writing

Nothing to report on this front.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Aliens, Language
Setting: Border Town
Genre: Solarpunk

Listening

Billy Idol‘s “The Dead Next Door,” from his superb 1983 album Rebel Yell. I have had a snippet of an earworm stuck in my head for a few days, and while it is not this song, “The Dead Next Door” came up while I was searching.

Interesting Links

  • “A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students” (Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica) – Because MAGA is a hate group which views education as a threat, and views anyone who isn’t a straight white man as less than human.
  • “China Leapfrogging the U.S. in Tech Innovation” (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism)
Posted in LifeTagged Billy Idol, Robin McLean comment on Weekly Round-up, May 3, 2025

Weekly Round-up, April 26, 2025

2025-04-262025-05-01 John Winkelman

Lilac blossoms

[Lilac blossoms on a small lilac tree I pass on my morning walks to the office.]

Spring, it appears, has arrived here in West Michigan.

As my workload eases slightly I have been listening to some of the recordings at the Naropa Poetics Audio Archive. In particular, a series of lectures from a 1991 workshop called “Beat and Other Rebel Angels,” run by Joanne Kyger at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.

In the first of eight lectures from the workshop, Kyger talks extensively of Jack Spicer, of whom I recently became aware when reading the Evergreen Review Reader, 1957-1966 earlier this year. Spicer had significant interaction with Richard Brautigan, and now I think I need to seek out more of his work.

Reading

I finished my Brautigan book, which included Trout Fishing In America, The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, and In Watermelon Sugar. My brain is now wonderfully twisted.

Writing

I managed another poem or two this week, but most of my creative energy went to writing code.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Reincarnation, Portals
Setting: Wilderness
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Me & You vs. the World” by Space, from their 1996 album Spiders.

Interesting Links

  • “China Sends Strong Message to “Global South” (and US) Via Its Embassy in Argentina” (Nick Corbishley, Naked Capitalism)
  • “Pluralistic: Every complex ecosystem has parasites” (Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic)
  • “Trump ‘Alarmists’ Were Right. We Should Say So.” (Toby Buckle, Liberal Currents)
Posted in LifeTagged Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Joanne Kyger, Space comment on Weekly Round-up, April 26, 2025

Weekly Round-up, April 19, 2025

2025-04-192025-04-20 John Winkelman

A bumblebee sunning itself on a sandstone block.

[A bumblebee sunning itself on one of our steps, after presumably being drenched in a recent thunderstorm.]

The particular insanity has sublimated into my life and become indistinguishable from the general insanity which permeates society like background radiation or herpes.

Reading

Having finished The City and the City, I am now focused on Frantz Fanon‘s The Wretched of the Earth during the day, and Richard Brautigan‘s Trout Fishing in America in the evening. I finished Trout Fishing in America, which is the first of three volumes in my only book of Brautigan. Next up therein is the poetry collection The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. After that is his surrealist text In Watermelon Sugar.

The first poem in The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster is “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”. I think we can safely say at this point that the machines watching over us are doing so with neither love nor grace.

Writing

I have so far this month written around seven poems and poem fragments, which is outstanding considering *gestures at the world*.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Dreams, Addiction
Setting: Labyrinth
Genre: Horror

Listening

“Butterfly Wings” by Machines of Loving Grace, from their 1993 album Concentration. Seemed appropriate.

Interesting Links

Posted in LifeTagged Machines of Loving Grace, Richard Brautigan comment on Weekly Round-up, April 19, 2025

Weekly Round-up, April 12, 2025

2025-04-122025-04-12 John Winkelman

Poe, enjoying herself in the spring sunshine.

[Poe, enjoying herself in the spring sunshine.]

While it may be a stretch to say that warm weather has arrived, seasonably-appropriate weather has arrived, and compared to the recent cold snap, it feels warm. In other words, we are getting historically-average weather which, compared to the past years of excessive heat, feels unseasonably cold.

My partner and I just finished starting several dozen seeds. We were a couple of weeks late in this task, but given the extended growing season, thanks to the aforementioned global warming, it shouldn’t affect our yield.

Work landed on me with both feet this past week, and I ended up working some extremely long days, and as this post goes live late Saturday afternoon, I am still working. Thus my creative output was much diminished.

Reading

I am more than halfway through The City and the City, which I am still quite enjoying. I haven’t made much progress in Trout Fishing In America or The Wretched of the Earth, but I hope to change that in the upcoming week.

Writing

Nothing to report. This has been a busy week.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Robots, Music
Setting: Ruins
Genre: Romance

Listening

David Bowie, “The Man Who Sold the World”, from the album The Man Who Sold the World.

Interesting Links

  • “Pluralistic: Tariffs and monopolies” (Cory Doctorow)
  • “Trump Administration Debuts Legal Blueprint for Disappearing Anyone It Wants” (Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, via Portside)
Posted in LifeTagged David Bowie comment on Weekly Round-up, April 12, 2025

Weekly Round-up, April 5, 2025

2025-04-052025-04-05 John Winkelman

Garlic plants showing signs of life.

[Garlic plants showing signs of life.]

The new work project kicked off this week and so far, so good. I am rebuilding my ServiceNow skills which fell by the wayside since the end of my previous project using the platform. It’s good to be back in this particular saddle.

It is good that I am still gainfully employed, because this is shaping up to be quite an expensive year. The most recent money sink is part two of waterproofing the basement. Last September a crew came in and wrapped the uphill side of the house foundation in something a lot like swimming pool liner. In past years, and with increasing frequency, the basement walls on the uphill side of the house would show dampness, and sometimes actually leak water into the basement. Our neighborhood is built on an old brickyard, and the ground is basically a gigantic pile of sand.

The effects were immediately noticeable in the basement as a significant drop in the pervasive moist and humid feel. Since then we had not had any days with heavy precipitation by which we could put the waterproofing to the test.

That all came to an end a week ago, with a hard, drenching downpour which covered my basement floor with several gallons of sandy water. I found a place where the water seemed to be bubbling up through a crack in the floor, so I called the crew who had waterproofed the exterior wall and said that the thing that they had predicted – water finding its way in UNDER the house – had come to pass, and it was time to implement part 2 of the project: Dig a drainage trench around the interior perimeter of the foundation, and install a sump pump which would tie in with the previously-installed exterior drainage.

Then last weekend we had another deluge and I again had water in my basement. This time I found the exact place where it was coming in through the intersection of floor and basement wall. It was a small spot, barely an inch across. And water was coming in like the house was built on a natural spring.

When the company representative came over to assess the situation, I pointed out places where the basement floor had been heaving (upward buckling and occasional cracks) over the past five or so years. I was worried that this might crack the foundation, but the rep calmly pointed out that (1) in old houses, the basement floor sits INSIDE the foundation; the foundation doesn’t sit ON the basement floor. And (2) the floor, which I thought was at least six to eight inches of concrete, was actually somewhere between one and three inches thick. Old Michigan houses like mine (built in 1905) originally had dirt floors, and the current basement floor was simply a layer of concrete poured on the dirt and left to harden. Thus the floor cracking and heaving, while inconvenient, was far from catastrophic. And also reasonably easy to repair, should the need arise.

The other new money sink is a new stove. The old one, a thirty-year-old Magic Chef, finally gave up the ghost. The stovetop burners still worked, but the oven portion no longer heated anything.

I suppose it is a sign of my age that I am excited to have a new stove, and now I want to cook ALL THE THINGS! But I am also excited that a crew is going to jackhammer a big trench in my basement floor. Age ain’t nothing but a number.

Reading

Continuing on from last week, I have three books open – The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon, Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan, and The City and The City by China Mieville. They should keep me occupied for the first couple of weeks of the month.

Writing

April is National Poetry Month, and so far I have managed to pump out a rough draft of a poem each day this week. I am also plugging away at the short story from last week. I expected to complete the draft this past weekend, but the mundane world intruded. I can’t complain – I am writing again.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Spiritual Beings, Music
Setting: Urban
Genre: Literary Fiction

Listening

Dave Van Ronk singing “Luang Prabang”. Given the rise in imperialistic fervor instigated by Elon Musk, Musk’s catamite Donald Trump, and Trump’s MAGA brownshirts and bootlicks, now is a good time for some old protest songs. Empire is always bad, in all places, in all contexts, and there is nothing heroic about dying for oligarchs.

Interesting Links

  • “Private-sector Trumpism” (Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic)
  • “Bracing for the Fallout from Trump Tariff Delusions” (Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism)
  • “Being Non-Transactional: Beyond ‘What’s in it for me?’” (Aurelien) – This is a very good essay on individual vs. collective ethics, and how the gap between the two, or an absence of the latter, makes collective action difficult.
Posted in LifeTagged Dave Van Ronk comment on Weekly Round-up, April 5, 2025

Weekly Round-up, March 29, 2025

2025-03-292025-03-29 John Winkelman

Poe, enjoying a rare warm afternoon on the front porch.

[Poe, enjoying a rare warm afternoon on the front porch.]

The current state of things is a constant mental tinnitus eating up valuable brain space which could be much better put to use reading, writing, and appreciating the small moments of beauty which surround us. I have a great many, very negative thoughts about the current state of politics and economics, but those will have to go into their own posts. For right now, the weekly updates will be more about creative pursuits and simple pleasures.

Reading

I have three books open right now: Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America, and China Mieville’s The City and the City. All three of them are blowing my mind in different ways. I can see that I will need to switch from concurrent to consecutive reading if I am to make it through them and retain something of what I have read.

Writing

Much to my surprise, I wrote something this week! As of this writing, I have most of a short story based on a writing prompt from a couple of weeks ago. It’s called “The Other Up” and I think it has legs. We will see when I finish the draft, hopefully this weekend.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Politics, Dreams
Setting: Battlefield
Genre: Adventure

Listening

They Might Be Giants, “Your Racist Friend” from their 1990 album Flood. Seems apropos of the times.

Interesting Links

  • “The Dark Enlightenment: the Tech Oligarch Ideology Driving DOGE’s Destruction” (Thom Hartmann, Common Dreams)
  • “This is China Discusses Feudalism & Technofeudalism” (Karl Sanchez, karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium)
  • “CONSPIRACY” (Contrapoints) – Superb video dissecting how conspiracy theories work and how people can be susceptible to believing conspiracies.
Posted in LifeTagged They Might Be Giants comment on Weekly Round-up, March 29, 2025

Weekly Round-up, March 22, 2025

2025-03-222025-03-22 John Winkelman

Red Maple buds against an overcast afternoon sky.

[Red Maple buds against an overcast afternoon sky.]

Another hectic week. Not a lot accomplished outside of work and working out. I spent what little down time I usually have helping my partner set up a new office, which will allow her to move her business supplies out of the storage unit where they have gathered dust for the past two years. That, and some unexpected house maintenance tasks, filled my days and my mind.

Reading

Immediately after acquiring Melissa Wray’s poetry collection Small Gestures, I read it, and it was beautiful! Next I read Portuguese writer Maria Judite De Carvalho’s Empty Wardrobes, which I received a few years back, when I had a subscription to Two Lines Press of the Center for the Art of Translation. Money and space are tighter now so I had to let that subscription lapse, but I still have over a dozen books from Two Lines Press which I have not yet read. And a pile of books from Deep Vellum, and another from Open Letter, and another from Ugly Duckling Presse, and a large pile from And Other Stories, which is the only publisher to whom I have a subscription.

Friday morning (yesterday, when this is posted) I treated myself to an early morning at Scorpion Hearts Club, where I drank two delicious lattes and cracked open Frantz Fanon‘s The Wretched of the Earth, which I picked up a few months ago from Black Dog Books and Records. Only a dozen pages in, and this book is blowing my mind wide open.

Writing

One day I will have the time, energy, and attention span together to write something creative and good, but today is not that day.

Weekly Writing Prompt

Subject: Revenge, Fae
Setting: Small Town
Genre: Noir

Listening

Yes, “Leave It”, from their 1983 album 90125.

Interesting Links

  • Restored CDC – an archived version of the CDC website from before the Trump/Musk/Kennedy death cult started scrubbing it of life-saving information.
  • “Armed Madhouse – The Last Dreadnoughts” (Haig Hovaness, Naked Capitalism)
Posted in LifeTagged Frantz Fanon, Maria Judite de Carvalho, Melissa Wray, Yes comment on Weekly Round-up, March 22, 2025

Posts navigation

Older posts

Personal website of
John Winkelman

John Winkelman in closeup

Archives

Categories

Posts By Month

May 2025
S M T W T F S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Apr    

Links of Note

Reading, Writing
Tor.com
Locus Online
The Believer
File 770
IWSG

Watching, Listening
Writing Excuses Podcast
Our Opinions Are Correct
The Naropa Poetics Audio Archive

News, Politics, Economics
Naked Capitalism
Crooked Timber

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2025 Ecce Signum

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: x-blog by wpthemespace.com