Tess+Jacobson

I spend most of my waking hours listening to, playing, or thinking about music (mostly turn-of-the-century romantic composers, rock, jazz, and indie folk, but I'm also undeniably loyal to the Spice Girls). I've been a musician for 12 years.

I have many, many pairs of shoes.

I do research at a physics lab in NYU on soft-matter rheology.

I love Vonnegut, Bradbury, cummings, Plath, Crane, and Poe. Also, Arrested Development and Flight of the Conchords.

Humanity obliges us to be affected with the distresses and Miserys of our fellow creatures. Friendship is a band yet stronger, which causes us to feel with greater tenderness the afflictions of our Friends. And there is a tye more binding than Humanity, and stronger than Friendship, which makes us anxious for the happiness and welfare of those to whom it binds us. It makes their Misfortunes, Sorrows and afflictions, our own. Unite these, and there is a threefold cord — by this cord I am not ashamed to own myself bound, nor do I believe that you are wholly free from it. -Abigail to John Adams, 11 August 1763

XXIII Places among the stars, Soft gardens near the sun, Keep your distant beauty; Shed no beams upon my weak heart. Since she is here In a place of blackness, Not your golden days Nor your silver nights Can call me to you. Since she is here In a place of blackness, Here I stay and wait

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">XXIV <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">I saw a man pursuing the horizon; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Round and round they sped. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">I was disturbed at this; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">I accosted the man. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">"It is futile," I said, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">"You can never-" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">"You lie," he cried, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">And ran on. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">-Stephen Crane, from //Black Riders and Other Lines//

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px;"> III <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; padding-bottom: 0px;"> Always before your voice my soul <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">half-beautiful and wholly droll <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">is as some smooth and awkward foal, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">whereof young moons begin <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">the newness of his skin,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">so of my stupid sincere youth <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">the exquisite failure uncouth <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">discovers a trembling and smooth <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Unstrength,against the strong <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">silences of your song;

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">or as a single lamb whose sheen <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">of full unsheared fleece is mean <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">beside its lovelier friends, between <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">your thoughts more white than wool <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">My thought is sorrowful:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">but my heart smote in trembling thirds <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">of anguish quivers to your words, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">As to flight of thirty birds <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">shakes with a thickening fright <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">the sudden fooled light.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">it is the autumn of a year: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">When through the thin air stooped with fear, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">across the harvest whitely peer <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">empty of sunrise <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">death’s faultless eyes

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">(whose hand my folded soul shall know <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">while of faint hills do frailly go <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">The peaceful terrors of the snow, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">and before your dead face <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">which sleeps,a dream shall pass)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">and these my days their sounds and flowers <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Fall in a pride of petaled hours, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">like flowers at the feet of mowers <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">whose bodies strong with love <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">through meadows hugely move.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">yet what am i that such and such <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">mysteries very simply touch <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">me,whose heart-wholeness overmuch <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Expects of your hair pale, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">a terror musical?

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">while in an earthless hour my fond <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">soul seriously yearns beyond <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">this fern of sunset frond on frond <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">opening in a rare <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">Slowness of gloried air…

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The flute of morning stilled in noon— <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">noon the implacable bassoon— <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">now Twilight seeks the thrill of moon, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">washed with a wild and thin <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">despair of violin

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Futura,'Century Gothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">-ee cummings, from //Tulips and Chimneys//