Neil Mackenzie

@nmackenzie

Books, music, technology. San Francisco, CA

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Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 14d

Bronze statue Etruscans exhibit Legion of Honor San Francisco, CA

A very thin, elongated statue of a man. It is covered in a greenish tarnish. It is Etruscan and dated to the early 3rd century BCE.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 16d

People said you couldn't go back. More than that, it seemed to him, you couldn't stay. He wondered if he had been trying to stay in a place that was no longer there. The suspicion of its absence made him question if it ever had been there. - William McIlvaney, The Big Man

Cover of the Canongate edition of The Big Man by William McIlvanney.

It features a deeply shadowed photo of two bare-knuckled boxers facing each other with their fists raised.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 19d

White fluff San Francisco, CA

A trail of broken-up white clouds in an otherwise bright blue sky.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 19d

Dolores Park San Francisco, CA

A bright blue sky hovers above the hordes of people sunning themselves in Dolores Park.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 19d

Sanchez Hill San Francisco, CA

The big grassy field of Dolores Park with many people sitting around. Beyond is a hill covered in trees with some houses poking through the trees. Above is a clear blue sky.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 20d

59°F San Francisco, CA Half the people are dressed for winter. The other half are in t-shirts and shorts.

Bright blue sky with a couple of tiny wisps of white clouds.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 22d

Chapman’s Homer

The Man, O Muse, informe, that many a way

Wound with his wisedome to his wished stay;

That wanderd wondrous farre when He the towne

Of sacred Troy had sackt and shiverd downe.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 22d

Scudding clouds San Francisco, CA

Clouds reflecting the bright light of the city in front of the dark blue night sky. Some trees are shadowed against the sky.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 23d

Venus and fog San Francisco, CA

Venus shines alone in the middle of a blueish twilit sky. The top of Sutro Tower pokes through an ominous dark fog bank. Below is a dimly-lit city street with a streetlight shining in the foreground.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 23d

Summer in the city San Francisco, CA

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 25d

The sharp-peaked houses in the front-left are still there today.

San Francisco view down Castro St from Hill St.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 25d

Orchid flower

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 25d

San Francisco Bay San Francisco, CA

The water in San Francisco reflects the dull grey of the sky. Offshore is a small detached dock. Two small rocks are visible in the water.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 25d

Baseball park San Francisco, CA

Looking across the water of McCovey Cove to Oracle Park. There are some small bushes on the small beach in front of the cove.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 26d

California Volunteers memorial San Francisco, CA

Shadowed outline view of a memorial to the California volunteers in the. Spanish-American war. Being shadowed against a bright background it is difficult to make out that there is a rider on a winged horse with a soldier standing beside the horse.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· 27d

Time passes, and we pass the time. They are enclosed together in a bell jar: Erika, her fine protective hulls, her mama. The jar can be lifted only if an outsider grabs the glass knob on top and pulls it up. Erika is an insect encased in amber, timeless, ageless. - Elfriede Jelinek

Cover of the Serpents Tail edition of The Piano Teacher, written by Elfriede Jelinek and translated by Joachim Neugroschel.

It features a still from the Michael Haneke film of the novel. It shows the stars, Isabell Huppert and Benoît Magimel, in a passionate embrace while sprawled on the floor of a bathroom.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jul 13

Is this happy? Is this sad? Looking back, the times when nothing was certain have a unique quality. When everything was up for grabs, when she couldn't even make a guess at how it would pan out, how the ending would unfold, that is how she remembers it. -Vigdis Hjorth, If Only Tr:Charlotte Barslund

Cover of the Verso Fiction edition of If Only, written by Vigdis Hjorth and translated by Charlotte Barslund.

The cover art is The Socialite by Anna Niemi. It depicts a woman sitting in a small bathtub looking at a replica of herself lying asleep in the same tub. The observer is dressed in a pink nightdress and wears a red woolen hat that has been destroyed. The replica is naked other than a red woolen hat. The bathroom is painted red and the outside of the bathtub is red.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jul 11

Blue, white, and green. San Francisco, CA

Looking across Dolores Park, with some scattered groups of people sitting around. Some are sitting under shades, hiding from the bright sun. The sky is a bright blue with some white, streaky clouds coming in from the west.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jul 8

Apple Weather statement in current temperature in San Francisco.

56°F
Feels like 50°
H: 65°
L: 53°

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jul 4

Pacific Ocean (Marine Layer version) San Francisco, CA

View of the Pacific Ocean from the top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Apart from a road and some houses in the foreground the view is completely obscured by a dense fog bank.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jul 3

William Gaddis - JR

Cover of the Penguin edition of JR by William Gaddis. It features a detail of a stock certificate for Associated Gas and Electric Company.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jul 3

Dolores Park San Francisco, CA

Looking down into an almost empty park. Skyscrapers are visible in the distance. Adobe is a bright blue sky with a thin trail of white cloud.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 30

In the soft blue glow of the morning, the sleepy moon, the moon of disappearance with the yellow rabbit on its face, father of all the yellow rabbits on the face of the dead moon, the saffron-colored mountains bathed in turpentine down to the valleys, and the morning star, the Nixtamalero. -Asturias

Cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Men of Maize, written by Miguel Angel Asturias and translated by Gerald Martin.

It features a painting by Ottoniel Chavajay named Harvesting Corn. It is a colorful overhead view showing the shoulders and heads of people completely surrounded by the corn plants from which they are picking the corn.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 28

This wind farm provides power to California. The chart below shows the current Cal ISO supply from renewables.

Cal ISO chart of renewable electricity supply currently.

Solar - 14.547MW (71.7% of total)
Wind - 4.325MW (21.3%)
Geothermal - 740MW (3.6%)
Biomass - 241MW (1.2%)
Biogas - 177MW (0.9%)
Small Hydro - 268MW (1.3%)

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 28

#pride pink triangle Twin Peaks San Francisco, CA

Distant shot of the top of Twin Peaks. Dominating the hillside is a pink triangle with pink-lit edges.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 28

Market St. San Francisco, CA

A rainbow-colored spectrum of light shines up into the sky from the far end of Market St. The light appears to fill the sky above the street. Tall buildings are visible on both sides. The head and tail lights of cars are visible on both sides of the street.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 27

San Francisco, CA

Photo from the top of Twin Peaks showing a bright blue sky over a jumbled mass of buildings in central San Francisco.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 22

It's not a joke. You'll either die or go blind reading. I've told you a thousand times. You don't seem to understand that you need tact more than knowledge to succeed. You're wasting your time studying—what's the point? Tell me, what's the point? There's none. - Miguel Ángel Asturias, Mr. President

Cover of the Penguin Classics edition of Mr. President, written by Miguel Ángel Asturias and translated by David Unger.

It features a James Steinberg illustration showing the head and shoulders of a man in a suit and tie with his face hidden by a white mask with a black mustache, eyebrows, and eyes. The background is solid red with yellow flames showing at the bottom.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 22

Solstice gloom San Francisco, CA

Photo of a city park with a few groups of people sitting around under a gloomy sky.

Neil Mackenzie@nmackenzie· Jun 20

John Gay wrote The Beggars Opera. Elizabeth Hauptmann translated it into German. Brecht, Weill, and Hauptmann then significantly modified that translation into The Threepenny Opera