The present never is in the sense of being observable, but it can be understood meaningfully to the extent that the past asserts its presence in it.
It murmurs rather than asserting its presence on one of those narrow, slanting streets in Greenwich Village that taxi drivers, spoiled by the relentless grid of so much of Manhattan, can never find.
However it's served, though, buckwheat sure asserts its presence.
Early in Joshua Cody's sprightly, manic cancer memoir, "[Sic]," the author pauses to explain the musical significance of the "golden ratio" — the moment, almost two-thirds of the way through a composition, when the work often "asserts its presence and opens up to take you in and it feels like the pilot has moved the throttle and you feel motion again".
The past asserts its presence in every moment and every exchange.
The Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, is responding by trying to assert its presence.
In a neighborhood awash in BMW's, Jaguars and Porsches, this sports car quietly asserts its presence.
"Untitled I" is a lengthy serpentine, ropelike braid that hangs from the wall and coils on the floor, asserting its presence in the gallery.
Unlike his friend Nobu's New York spot, Tetsuya's is quiet and unhurried, and the staff actually waits for your conversation to end before asserting its presence -- a welcome custom now out of fashion in most New York restaurants.
The brick pyramid is the museum's bid to assert its presence – we had "literally to fight to get some space for the needs of Tate" – and its material is intended both to cohere with the old power station and assert its difference.
