July 11, 2008

  • The 7/11 Alignment:

    De Haut en Bas
    continued from July 3

    "I say high, you say low,
    you say why,
    and I say I don't know.
    Oh, no.
    You say goodbye
    and I say hello."

    -- Hello Goodbye *

    Thanks to NBC Nightly News tonight for a story on the following:

    Manhattanhenge     is an evening when "the Sun sets in exact alignment with the Manhattan grid, fully
    illuminating every single cross-street...."

    Full Sun on grid:
    Friday, July 11--
    8:24 PM EDT

    Related material from the late
    Tom Disch on St. Sarah's Day:

    Saturday, May 24th, 2008

    9:15 pm

    What I Can See from Here

    I face east toward the western wall
    Of a tall many-windowed building
    Some distance off. I don't see the sunset
    Directly, only as it is reflected
    From the facade of that building.
    Those familiar with Manhattan know
    How the evening sun appears to slide
    Into the slot of any east/west street,
    And so its beams are channeled
    Along those canyon streets to strike
    Large objects like that wall
    And scrawl their anti-shadows there,
    A Tau of twilight luminescence
    At close of day. I've seen this
    For some forty years and only tonight
    Did I realize what I had been looking at:
    The way god tries to say good-bye.

    -- Tom Disch

    * Stanley Cavell, in The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy, has a note on the song "Hello Goodbye"--

    "189. The extra-long coda... was referred to as the 'Maori finale' from the start...."