Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste: coffee black Sight: a sleeping dog; the view from New Horizons’ telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) Sound: Public Service Broadcasting : The Race for Space, Sputnik, Gagarin, Valentina, Go!; thunder Smell:  baking pizza dough Touch: his arm, firm and smooth Extra: "And then sometimes, there are days like this when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt." — U.S. President Barack Obama ; "I remember the first time that I looked towards a horizon. I saw the blackness of space, and then the bright blue Earth. And then I noticed right along the horizon it looked as if someone had just take a royal blue crayon and just traced along Earth's horizon. And then I realized that that blue lines, that really thing royal blue line, was Earth's atmosphere, and that was all there was of it. And it's so clear from that perspective how fragile our existence is. It makes you appreciate how importa...

Taste: teriyaki tofu, white rice Sight: sunlit red rose; bathing blackbird; rainbows at The White House, Niagara Falls, Disneyworld, The Empire State Building, The World Trade Center Sound: IAMX, " Happiness " Smell: lighter fluid Touch: 80 degrees with wind Extra: personal record 12:34, 3200m, May 14, 1987; 5:47.25,1600m, April 30, 1987; 2:19.19, 800m, May 2, 1987; patriotism Grateful for: the Affordable Care Act, marriage equality, living in these United States

Taste: corn grits Sight: Sunjammer Solar Sail; the fat woman chews; he touches her face, kisses her lips; a shiny black Corvette Stingray Sound: Medic One sirens; a clacking cane Smell: waffle cone Touch:  matted and sleek fur Extra: "There were times he saw, when not knowing was the biggest truth, and you had to stay with that." —  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry , Rachel Joyce "He saw that people would make the decisions they wished to make, and some of them would hurt both themselves and others, and some would pass unnoticed, while others would bring joy."— The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry , Rachel Joyce  Grateful for: novelists, poets and nonfiction writers; my job

Taste:  white rice Sight: a silky, shaggy, wind-swept dog rides by in a truck; a gleaming white dog points his nose out the passenger seat window Sound: Ukranian folk music blaring at the construction site; crunch Smell: hyacinth and jasmine Touch: razors and barbed wire; crisp Extra: a dream of a library; "...every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that way sometimes, but it's true."     — The Martian , Andy Weir Grateful for: summer sun, bright blue sky, light green trees

Taste: jack fruit tacos; mint; sage Sight: Scion IQ Sound: VNV Nation Resonance ; pant-hoot - the distinctive sound each chimpanzee makes; Lohengrin, a Romantic opera by Richard Wagner Smell: burnt flesh, charcoal Touch: shaking with rage Extra:  "The meaning of life is that it stops.” — Franz Kafka; horror show; "a wedding is Lohengrin played sweet and low"; "That would be her choice. How happy, if one's death coincides with one's death choice!" — Memoirs of a Space Woman , Naomi Mitchison "Occasionally, even, in an attempt to rock personality, young people try the experiment of becoming temporary carnivores. I never did that myself, but then, I am greedy, very much aware of the taste and texture of what I eat. Besides, I think a communications girl would be bound to find it impossible; there is no edible life in Terra which cannot evoke some slight empathy for any of us." — Memoirs of a Space Woman , Naomi Mitchison The B...