Jacob Siefring
@jsief.bsky.social
public library worker. editor @ the empyrean series. translator of books (FR>EN). ottawa, ontario. | jsief.com
these & other lines of the same poem were famously used as code in WW II re: D-Day planning
February 3, 2026 at 8:46 PM
these & other lines of the same poem were famously used as code in WW II re: D-Day planning
“Throughout the Zhou dynasty, the Chinese had a practice of burying slaves and wives alive with their deceased husbands and masters; this practice was known as ‘the living sepulture‘.”
Max Massa in the notes to the Niu Sengru book
Max Massa in the notes to the Niu Sengru book
February 3, 2026 at 3:02 PM
“Throughout the Zhou dynasty, the Chinese had a practice of burying slaves and wives alive with their deceased husbands and masters; this practice was known as ‘the living sepulture‘.”
Max Massa in the notes to the Niu Sengru book
Max Massa in the notes to the Niu Sengru book
An obscure nephew known as “Head-biter”; a ghost that can‘t be crushed; the etymology of “thing“ in Chinese, used originally to designate a “piebald cow”; the “dusty world” as the realm of sensory, illusory experience.
Highlights from the notes to ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’, tr. Massa.
Highlights from the notes to ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’, tr. Massa.
January 30, 2026 at 8:45 PM
An obscure nephew known as “Head-biter”; a ghost that can‘t be crushed; the etymology of “thing“ in Chinese, used originally to designate a “piebald cow”; the “dusty world” as the realm of sensory, illusory experience.
Highlights from the notes to ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’, tr. Massa.
Highlights from the notes to ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’, tr. Massa.
my spouse in the snow
January 29, 2026 at 11:59 PM
my spouse in the snow
A wonderful graf in ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’ by Niu Sengru, a writer from 9th century China (Tang Dynasty). Translated & commentated by Maxwell Massa, 356pp
A nobleman attended by faerie children with fly whisk & scepter of rhinoceros horn
Out in May. asterismbooks.com/product/an-a...
A nobleman attended by faerie children with fly whisk & scepter of rhinoceros horn
Out in May. asterismbooks.com/product/an-a...
January 29, 2026 at 6:26 PM
A wonderful graf in ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’ by Niu Sengru, a writer from 9th century China (Tang Dynasty). Translated & commentated by Maxwell Massa, 356pp
A nobleman attended by faerie children with fly whisk & scepter of rhinoceros horn
Out in May. asterismbooks.com/product/an-a...
A nobleman attended by faerie children with fly whisk & scepter of rhinoceros horn
Out in May. asterismbooks.com/product/an-a...
[grimacing] “Free AI training for all!”
We try not to call attention unduly to one’s personal appearance, but this government official is indeed wincing & grimacing for the entirety of this video. Amazing, really
We try not to call attention unduly to one’s personal appearance, but this government official is indeed wincing & grimacing for the entirety of this video. Amazing, really
January 28, 2026 at 5:54 PM
[grimacing] “Free AI training for all!”
We try not to call attention unduly to one’s personal appearance, but this government official is indeed wincing & grimacing for the entirety of this video. Amazing, really
We try not to call attention unduly to one’s personal appearance, but this government official is indeed wincing & grimacing for the entirety of this video. Amazing, really
when a long out-of-print work gets reprinted & is the subject of a publicity campaign, you may enjoy a sublime aloofness from having the old, rarefied edition already on yr shelves
January 26, 2026 at 9:17 PM
when a long out-of-print work gets reprinted & is the subject of a publicity campaign, you may enjoy a sublime aloofness from having the old, rarefied edition already on yr shelves
can anyone ID this hawk i spotted in Ottawa earlier today?
January 26, 2026 at 6:15 PM
can anyone ID this hawk i spotted in Ottawa earlier today?
my memory has been vaguely jogged in this other direction
January 24, 2026 at 1:33 AM
my memory has been vaguely jogged in this other direction
revisiting Jeremy Taylor via the Oxford/Clarendon Press anthology of 1930. Marvel at the delicacy, the outrageousness, the lushness of this description of a rose. Witness the rhetoric of eyewitness testimony.
“But so have I seen a Rose newly springing from the clefts…”
“But so have I seen a Rose newly springing from the clefts…”
January 23, 2026 at 2:57 PM
revisiting Jeremy Taylor via the Oxford/Clarendon Press anthology of 1930. Marvel at the delicacy, the outrageousness, the lushness of this description of a rose. Witness the rhetoric of eyewitness testimony.
“But so have I seen a Rose newly springing from the clefts…”
“But so have I seen a Rose newly springing from the clefts…”
it probably came in these sterno looking cans back then!
January 9, 2026 at 1:20 AM
it probably came in these sterno looking cans back then!
unbidden, seemingly from nowhere, fond memories of Schlitz beer return to me, its many slogans, its delicious silica gel
"When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer"
"There's just one word for beer, and you know it"
"No One Does It Like the Bull"
"When it's right, you know it"
"When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer"
"There's just one word for beer, and you know it"
"No One Does It Like the Bull"
"When it's right, you know it"
January 9, 2026 at 1:10 AM
unbidden, seemingly from nowhere, fond memories of Schlitz beer return to me, its many slogans, its delicious silica gel
"When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer"
"There's just one word for beer, and you know it"
"No One Does It Like the Bull"
"When it's right, you know it"
"When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer"
"There's just one word for beer, and you know it"
"No One Does It Like the Bull"
"When it's right, you know it"
At my blog, a brief statement on the past & the future of the Empyrean Series, which will turn 5 years old this April
jsief.com/2026/01/05/s...
jsief.com/2026/01/05/s...
January 5, 2026 at 2:56 PM
At my blog, a brief statement on the past & the future of the Empyrean Series, which will turn 5 years old this April
jsief.com/2026/01/05/s...
jsief.com/2026/01/05/s...
just dipping into the PKD exegesis casually, as one does
January 1, 2026 at 2:47 PM
just dipping into the PKD exegesis casually, as one does
just dipping into the PKD exegesis casually, as one does.
![[124] Premise: things are inside out (but will at the "Apocalypse" assume their real shape). Therefore the right place to look for the Almighty is, eg., in the trash in the alley. And for Satan: in vast cathedrals, etc. Through en-antiodromia they will "on that day" assume their rightful shapes — the great reversal. The ester in the tarot deck is the real King; the King card is the deranged one, the witless one. Ubik in its commercials and final theophany shows this reversal process. USA 1974 is really Rome c. 45 C.E. Christ is really here; so is the kingdom. I found my way into it once. The long path is the short path - ponderous books of philosophy won't help me;
Burroughs' Junky will. That "thieves and murderers" 17th century poem of Herbert's will. Stone rejected by the builder; the edifice is discarded; the true edifice is invisible - disguised as rubble (plural constituents). That fly grooming himself - they (the divine powers) have to reveal the kingdom to you; you can never on your own pin it down. So to search at all is to miss the point. Tricks, paradox, illusion, magic, enantiodromia. The apparently harmless Xerox missive was my death warrant. The Al voice says the secret stolen has been successfully smuggled to me; I have it. But what is it? My worst book, Deus Irae, is my best. God talked to me through a Beatles tune ("Strawberry Fields"). ("Nothing is real. Going through life with eyes closed?) A random assortment of trash blown by the wind, and there is God. Bits and pieces swept together to form a unity.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c43pxuwco5wdaoeoxsjirabo/bafkreia5t2jfm3i4qkpndzcuiefrdogmfrj4chq27d534orfay42rnjnsm@jpeg)
December 29, 2025 at 6:49 PM
just dipping into the PKD exegesis casually, as one does.
kind of dumbstruck to see that, in citing walter j ong’s ‘orality & literacy’, the author of this recent MIT Press publication provides a link to an illicit pdf (hosted at monoskop) of said book. a regrettable approach imo
December 25, 2025 at 11:45 PM
kind of dumbstruck to see that, in citing walter j ong’s ‘orality & literacy’, the author of this recent MIT Press publication provides a link to an illicit pdf (hosted at monoskop) of said book. a regrettable approach imo
to my knowledge there is not a single waffle house in canada, but i will have those hash browns at any cost (first attempt)
December 25, 2025 at 9:49 PM
to my knowledge there is not a single waffle house in canada, but i will have those hash browns at any cost (first attempt)
one of my more successful woodworking designs: a nightstand for books & things
December 23, 2025 at 2:55 PM
one of my more successful woodworking designs: a nightstand for books & things
some sparse comments at my blog on some of the highlights of my reading this year. jsief.com/2025/12/22/t...
December 22, 2025 at 6:32 PM
some sparse comments at my blog on some of the highlights of my reading this year. jsief.com/2025/12/22/t...
Clyde Stubblefield:
“What influenced me mainly was sounds. Train tracks. Washing machines. I just put patterns against natural sounds, and that's what I do today. I could be walking down the street in time and put a drum pattern against it while I'm walking and say, Wow!'”
BACKBEATS, p. 116
“What influenced me mainly was sounds. Train tracks. Washing machines. I just put patterns against natural sounds, and that's what I do today. I could be walking down the street in time and put a drum pattern against it while I'm walking and say, Wow!'”
BACKBEATS, p. 116
December 15, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Clyde Stubblefield:
“What influenced me mainly was sounds. Train tracks. Washing machines. I just put patterns against natural sounds, and that's what I do today. I could be walking down the street in time and put a drum pattern against it while I'm walking and say, Wow!'”
BACKBEATS, p. 116
“What influenced me mainly was sounds. Train tracks. Washing machines. I just put patterns against natural sounds, and that's what I do today. I could be walking down the street in time and put a drum pattern against it while I'm walking and say, Wow!'”
BACKBEATS, p. 116
@johnlingan.bsky.social’s BACKBEATS is as an amazing work of music criticism, illuminating the percussionist’s brilliance on dozens of tracks i’ve often heard but never noted. like Hal Blaine’s inspired ideas (see img). or Maureen Tucker’s assimilation in VU of African drumming as an early influence
![photograph of a page in a book, text as follows:
And if the monster kit didn't have the right sound, he [Hal Blaine] could save the day with anything. He played an iconic tinkling backbeat to Dean Martin's "Houston" on a glass ashtray. He created the enormous thwack in the chorus of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" by playing a snare at the bottom of an elevator shaft, then hit a cement floor with snow chains to add a dramatic flourish to the end of "Bridge over Troubled Water." The latter won Record of the Year at the 1971 Grammys, and though he didn't get to stand onstage, the industry knew that Blaine had some kind of magic touch: "Bridge" was the sixth consecutive Record of the Year winner to feature him on drums. Starting in 1965, he played on Herb Alpert's "A Taste of Honey," Frank Sinatras
"Strangers in the Night," then alternating songs by the 5th Dimension and Simon & Garfunkel: "Up, Up and Away," "Mrs. Robinson," “Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In," and now the duo's faux-gospel epic.
Blaine played on eight Record of the Year winners altogether](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c43pxuwco5wdaoeoxsjirabo/bafkreiefmbqkekc3fsja3hh25vlhq6t3tqoqks2ujjyg7mxptgq2v4ieqq@jpeg)
December 14, 2025 at 9:32 PM
@johnlingan.bsky.social’s BACKBEATS is as an amazing work of music criticism, illuminating the percussionist’s brilliance on dozens of tracks i’ve often heard but never noted. like Hal Blaine’s inspired ideas (see img). or Maureen Tucker’s assimilation in VU of African drumming as an early influence
michael hofmann (translator, writer) has seemed to me like an ass before, and yet again:
“But these are translators: take away their originals and their dictionaries (and their lazy cognates) and they have nothing.”
(latest LRB, review of Margaret Jull Costa’s Vallejo translations)
“But these are translators: take away their originals and their dictionaries (and their lazy cognates) and they have nothing.”
(latest LRB, review of Margaret Jull Costa’s Vallejo translations)
December 13, 2025 at 6:45 PM
michael hofmann (translator, writer) has seemed to me like an ass before, and yet again:
“But these are translators: take away their originals and their dictionaries (and their lazy cognates) and they have nothing.”
(latest LRB, review of Margaret Jull Costa’s Vallejo translations)
“But these are translators: take away their originals and their dictionaries (and their lazy cognates) and they have nothing.”
(latest LRB, review of Margaret Jull Costa’s Vallejo translations)
reading @johnlingan.bsky.social’s BACKBEATS for the gritty & arcane lowdown on the history of rock drumming. like the time Sam Lay’s gun discharged midsong & shot off a testicle. what
December 13, 2025 at 6:37 PM
reading @johnlingan.bsky.social’s BACKBEATS for the gritty & arcane lowdown on the history of rock drumming. like the time Sam Lay’s gun discharged midsong & shot off a testicle. what
“One teenager is fifty thousand units of raw orgone! I’ve measured it!”
Hobtown Mystery, The Cursed Hermit
Hobtown Mystery, The Cursed Hermit
December 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
“One teenager is fifty thousand units of raw orgone! I’ve measured it!”
Hobtown Mystery, The Cursed Hermit
Hobtown Mystery, The Cursed Hermit