Takeoff

It's going on 2AM right now, but I'm so excited. In a few hours' time I leave for Japan to see Katy and the Orient. Mark, Christoph's friend, who is charming and kind, has given me his copy of Jorge Luis Borges' "Collected Fictions." Mark and I once had a conversation about our mutual interest in living nomadic lives. His note accompanying the book reads, "AK, the stories of Borges grace the explorers of mind and earth with the occult on their journeys. Feynman was never far behind." We had earlier discussed Richard Feynman's work, "QED," which we published, and which I recently sent him. What a nice thing to do -- I've never met a guy who gave me a serious and thoughtful book of this calibre before a trip. Mark is pretty neat. 

Other stuff has been happening in the past week, but it's hard to recall. I attended an amazing jazz concert with the Princeton jazz ensemble and the Julliard Jazz Orchestra. They performed the Duke Ellington Far East Suite, and the Julliard kids were just brilliant -- they actually got a standing ovation, and I was one of the first to rise. I went to a reading of Elizabeth Bishop's poetry in the area - the entire Princeton Creative Writing Program staff came out to read, which was amazing. For such an odd school, they have a superlative program in this particular discipline. Was supposed to go to the Heeb party but bailed. All of this is so scattered...I'm going to the far side of the world! I'm on vacation! Crikey.