Phy-d'eau

Last Little Fascination

Joshua Chalifour — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:53:20 +0000

Hot sun and oh, a band of round rubber! There on the ground, stretching I, down and I can reach it. Another rubber band for me. This hot day would’ve broken it. The edges, on days like this, get cracks if they’ve ever been rained on. And then it will stop being elastic. When I stretch it, it won’t snap back to its oval—it will stay and then break apart. I won’t stretch … Continue →

The Dealer’s New Life

Joshua Chalifour — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:12:53 +0000

The young dealer looked at his bread, lunch crumbling under the weight of haikus, and realized he'd have a better life in another city. He charmed a burning home out of the rain and glowed in her gaze. With the sparkle of a new suitcase, they left for the seaside where life would continue happily ever after. . . . Continue →

Little Bang Theory

Joshua Chalifour — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 21:27:00 +0000

Your evening merits being suspended in the tale that is the Little Bang Theory performance (as I was, last night at Theatre Aujourd’hui). You, whoever you are reading this, if you’re in Montreal you still have a chance to see it. Little Bang Theory’s current project consists of a sensually magnetic two-person dance (choreographed by Hanako Hoshimi-Caines with Louise-Michel … … . . . Continue →

Montgolfières

Joshua Chalifour & Heather McLaughlin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:00:11 +0000

Peek of Exchange While trees cite sky and sky golds, surrender, solar abandon, to beatitude! Behold below, the escaped blue arboretum! Departing Dimensions Toward vertex, a vapour marble rides its chimera of fibrous wind and heroic solitude. Clearing of the Lucid Balloon Whether nighttime rises or falls, between its borders echo … Continue →

The Pear Bell

Joshua Chalifour — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 01:07:53 +0000

The creek’s water stopped flowing arcing to reach outside its bed and up against the pear tree, Ringing the pears where bells lacked place. The tree vibrated and convulsed, its fruit chiming like the touch of ice to ice and clanging as brass to brass, and the noise gushed to the ground, flooding the lands around, twinkling a sweet chaos of pear bell rivulets … Continue →

An Impromptu Circus

Joshua Chalifour — Sun, 03 May 2009 11:45:22 +0000

A triangle of trees were lassoed with tough ropes. Each trunk, encircled with a padded harness, held itself stoically to the ground. Two men bounced, wobbled, and periodically traversed the rope between trees with grace. One floppy, determined child tried. Outside the triangle of tightropes, a woman practiced spinning a large hoop in a series of tricks. Sometimes she … … . . . Continue →

Tip of My Fingers

Joshua Chalifour — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:28:33 +0000

Last night I discovered I can taste through my fingers. I brewed some tea from boldo leaves, green tea, and kombucha. While waiting for it to cool to a drinkable temperature, I passed my left hand through the steam. I like the downy accumulation of dampness, the almost-burn of heat. I relaxed my eyes, letting the focus blur with the steam passing around my fingers. My … Continue →

Acquiring Knowledge: A Great Shallow Breadth Over Depth

Joshua Chalifour — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:05:32 +0000

Has our approach to acquiring knowledge moved from the deep end of a continuum to the broad but shallow end? I think, in general, we acquire knowledge via a great shallow breadth of sources over acquiring it via single deep sources. We’re developing an acceptance that acquiring knowledge via a great shallow breadth delivers an equivalent fulfillment of knowledge and … . . . Continue →

Direction Giver

Joshua Chalifour — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:16:57 +0000

I jaywalked diagonally from one sidewalk to the other. At 7:30 in the morning traffic is light. But I hadn’t noticed others on the sidewalk. Except for a well-bundled family, which walked up the hill I was going down. A tall husband, wife, and their two children. The man made eye contact with me and said “Monsieur, monsieur.” I stopped and looked at him, realizing he’d … Continue →

Montreal Roof at 7, Réveillé

Joshua Chalifour — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:23:15 +0000

Redless black morning chimney mount;
a two-dimensional relief
stamped on white-blue sky.

With ventilated hat,
in brick composure
the ragged outline of domestic industry
stands upright, dormant

while altocumulus float beyond,
sunrise igniting their pink.

Available: A Very Good Day for Turtles

Joshua Chalifour — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:43:38 +0000

A Very Good Day for Turtles is a fantastic children’s story, which is now available for purchase from Lulu. Wondering why turtles don’t hurry anymore? Mr. Clark’s poetic fable of a few precocious turtles offers an answer. The illustrations, a Gomez/McLaughlin collaboration, enhance the story with their imaginative light and leave the lasting impression of playful myth. I’m … Continue … . . . Continue →

Aesthetic Transformation

Joshua Chalifour — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:30:37 +0000

“Ugly! Eyesore! How could people think it was a good idea?” A giant slab of concrete in the middle of the outer edge of the park. For shame, city! This was no sculpture, I thought. Why preserve and move the edge of a utilitarian-designed building to the park? If the rest of the building had been demolished, why save this? What a hoax this artist made. Every … Continue →

Politician’s Lament

Joshua Chalifour — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:29:53 +0000

I got something the other day. After a glass of x knows what and four men had to haul the logs out of the corner, we all might say we got something— But really, it was I, I got it. It started when the king fell over. “No way to play chess” I said, referring mostly to myself. But I hadn’t pushed him and indeed not a single other game had finished, so … Continue →

Thirty-Four Twenty-Threes

Joshua Chalifour — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:17:56 +0000

Starting this project, I had no idea where it would go. Yet on days like today, I joke that I’m almost there. No doubt I’ll make it, once almost there won’t be. Happy birthday, me. … Continue →

What is a Thinking Organism?

Joshua Chalifour — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 23:21:36 +0000

Thinking organisms are, as the name implies, organisms that one creates purely as thinking. The term does not refer to organisms that think, rather “thinking” is used as a gerund. Thinking organisms remain “within” one’s mind where they grow and evolve as an organism might, were it physical. I came up with the notion for these in 1995, writing my … . . . Continue →

Relatives of Thinking Organisms

Joshua Chalifour — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:57:06 +0000

The following might be considered relatives to thinking organisms. These should not however, be confused for thinking organisms. These may engage a person in similar sorts of thinking or even result in similar insight or awareness, however each of these function in their own distinct ways. Thought Experiments The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy defines a thought … Continue →

Five Propositions about Death

Joshua Chalifour — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:47:27 +0000

1. Caught in a substance imperceptible to humans, like a spider-spun web (as their web substance certainly must be to insects). We go about our lives. One day Bill walks into the substance (the web) scarcely perceiving it. Months pass and he notices his struggle with increased workplace stress. It’s uncanny his desire for fried fat-laden food, ever greasier. Some … . . . Continue →

Interpersonal Telescopic

Joshua Chalifour — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:05:46 +0000

Starting off in the distance, where the gelatinous ocean rose in spots and dipped in others, waves rolled. Each following another as it finally dispersed itself into the fine sandy shore. One wave followed another but each grew again in the same place. It was impossible to follow one and not feel it also somehow slipped back to where it started–rolling like stripes on … Continue →

Midnight Lost its Magic, #1

Joshua Chalifour — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:17:02 +0000

Midnight lost its magic.
The parties decease without happiness
		just Boredom.

A skinny, unwashed boy yells at
	the wrong windows.

He'd serenade her if he
could find her.

Doesn't matter that he can't
since any other window'll do

Inexpertise

Joshua Chalifour — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 05:40:01 +0000

I am not an expert at the following ten items. I am unlikely to become an expert at these because I bear no desire for expertise at these, much less much else. Slavery without adhesive Collecting litres of mud Pirate ideas Prognosticating the colours of life or the wailing songs thereof Forgetting all the unwanted premonitions Ice impermeable to slippery … . . . Continue →

Type Write

Joshua Chalifour & Heather McLaughlin — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:32:46 +0000

Ever thought about a typewriter? The kind of thinking where you separate it all out, making it type writer. Then go on with type, just on its own. Type, type is what you see right here, in front of you. It’s a type of type too. Times, probably. Times type. What type of thinking is that? The type you think all the time. The type that differentiates. Two verbs go with it. … Continue →

Motivating Anti-IP Activism in Canada

Joshua Chalifour — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:30:28 +0000

In the scheme of things, few people have the interest (or is it patience?) to delve deeply into the concept of “intellectual property” (IP). I think that is why IP regulation is among the most under-considered issues in public political discourse today. It’s difficult, in the snap of a soundbite, to make an easily understood and appropriately deep point regarding … . . . Continue →

Two Fellows Disagreeing over Reconciliation

Joshua Chalifour — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:37:32 +0000

Two fellows argued near a phone. One of them, greying hair, a turpentine diluted blue cardigan, gestured with both hands. The other rolled his eyes up and tilted his head sideways. He made fleeting eye contact and though not the elder, he was the taller. They spoke urgently, probably not clearly but I was too far away to hear. Their urgencies pushed through different … Continue →