tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48499826857296906852024-03-18T20:35:16.051-04:00The Hammock PapersA forest of things.Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.comBlogger25579125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-62188188824664676382024-03-18T20:12:00.001-04:002024-03-18T20:32:00.449-04:00Obligation.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://d2cbe6qj96hbor.cloudfront.net/puzzles/TZTK709RAV43ROVJ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1533" height="267" src="https://d2cbe6qj96hbor.cloudfront.net/puzzles/TZTK709RAV43ROVJ.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Neil Gaiman, from <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming" target="_blank">"Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading, and Daydreaming"</a></b></div><div></div><blockquote><div><i>We all – adults and children, writers and readers – have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><div><i>Look around you: I mean it. Pause, for a moment and look around the room that you are in. I’m going to point out something so obvious that it tends to be forgotten. It’s this: that everything you can see, including the walls, was, at some point, imagined. Someone decided it was easier to sit on a chair than on the ground and imagined the chair. Someone had to imagine a way that I could talk to you in London right now without us all getting rained on. This room and the things in it, and all the other things in this building, this city, exist because, over and over and over, people imagined things.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>We have an obligation to make things beautiful. Not to leave the world uglier than we found it, not to empty the oceans, not to leave our problems for the next generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves, and not leave our children with a world we’ve shortsightedly messed up, shortchanged, and crippled.</i></div></div></blockquote>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-87854608337809412262024-03-18T16:30:00.002-04:002024-03-18T16:30:00.126-04:00Right.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NukLqB1LljQ/YMTI6Kxw-vI/AAAAAAAAM9k/wgohSl9g1kkmihmNDtc9EnBhJC7jIC5CgCLcBGAsYHQ/s512/TheRightThing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="512" height="243" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NukLqB1LljQ/YMTI6Kxw-vI/AAAAAAAAM9k/wgohSl9g1kkmihmNDtc9EnBhJC7jIC5CgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h243/TheRightThing.jpg" width="387" /></a></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-83271708775508299482024-03-18T15:58:00.000-04:002024-03-18T15:58:00.127-04:00Decide.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/722300699-d0e13088386f683118902941007604e5d6ef8ada46b469231420e28fbf999b8a-d?f=webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="225" src="https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/722300699-d0e13088386f683118902941007604e5d6ef8ada46b469231420e28fbf999b8a-d?f=webp" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Ari Weinzweig on <b><a href="https://us15.campaign-archive.com/?u=858c7ef03cbd569eea7171812&id=48400b1b38" target="_blank">the importance of dignity in the workplace</a></b> ...</div><div><div></div><blockquote><div><i>The idea of a revolution in the workplace may, to cynics, sound overstated or maybe even wholly irrelevant, in a world where we all have a million things to do. I’d like to say the stakes are small. After all, what’s one more bit of philosophical framing or another “organizational recipe” in a company like Zingerman’s that already has an abundance of both? And yet, I have become convinced that dignity would make an enormous difference.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>I am not alone in this belief. Twenty years ago, Wendell Berry published an essay entitled “Imagination in Place”:</i></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-small;">We are destroying [our country] because of our failure to imagine it. … This is a terrible thing to know, but it is not a reason for despair unless we decide to continue the destruction. If we decide to continue the destruction, that will not be because we have no other choice. This destruction is not necessary. It is not inevitable, except that by our submissiveness we make it so.</span></blockquote></div><div><i>Dignity, learned from the courage of people in Ukraine resisting the Russian invasion, has given me a new way to “imagine it.” The idea of a revolution of dignity in the 21st-century workplace is my attempt to offer, and adopt, a different and much more positive path forward. The choice, as Berry says, is ours to make. In the Epilogue of the pamphlet, I share this quote from Anastasia, one of the protestors on the Maidan in Kyiv in 2013-4, as shared in historian Marci Shore’s wonderful book, The Ukrainian Night: </i></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-size: x-small;">Everyone needs to decide… It’s necessary to believe and it’s necessary to act. Today it seems to me a time of responsibility for every person, every person concretely. Every person is responsible for our future. Every one. Every person needs to decide.</span></blockquote></div><div><i>If we don’t make that decision, it seems clear that, as Wendell Berry has written, we will be destroying so much of what we have created and failing to fulfill what we could become. It is, after all, a dearth of dignity that leads to misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, malice, and maliciousness. Whenever dignity is absent, antipathy is sure to follow.</i></div></blockquote><div></div></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-10344743044362684842024-03-18T05:11:00.001-04:002024-03-18T05:11:00.138-04:00David Gilmour, "5 A.M."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ydwtPWBdtmA" width="400" youtube-src-id="ydwtPWBdtmA"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-21629112717121918812024-03-17T16:04:00.001-04:002024-03-17T16:04:00.234-04:00Happy Birthday, Gorham<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.knac.com/images/pages/scottgorham1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="216" height="499" src="https://www.knac.com/images/pages/scottgorham1.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Scott Gorham was born on this day in 1951.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thin Lizzy, "Rosalie" ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cSo9CC2wKVI" width="400" youtube-src-id="cSo9CC2wKVI"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-25457943954052473252024-03-17T14:01:00.005-04:002024-03-17T14:01:54.529-04:00Happy Birthday, Oudry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Oudry, <i><b><a href="https://www.paintingsbefore1800.com/PaintingsJ5/assets/images/jean-baptiste-oudry-still-life-hare-duck-bottles-bread-and-cheese-1742..png" target="_blank">Still-Life with Hare, Duck, Wine, Bread,and Cheese</a></b></i> (detail), 1742<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.paintingsbefore1800.com/PaintingsJ5/assets/images/jean-baptiste-oudry-still-life-hare-duck-bottles-bread-and-cheese-1742..png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1341" height="271" src="https://www.paintingsbefore1800.com/PaintingsJ5/assets/images/jean-baptiste-oudry-still-life-hare-duck-bottles-bread-and-cheese-1742..png" width="387" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
Jean-Baptiste Oudry was born on this day in 1686.</div>
Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-79389110825996157622024-03-17T07:58:00.000-04:002024-03-17T07:58:00.125-04:00Quality.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://jeremyberg.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/db-1.jpg?w=365&h=365&crop=1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="365" height="366" src="https://jeremyberg.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/db-1.jpg?w=365&h=365&crop=1" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><i>We are witnessing the leveling down of all ranks of society, and at the same time the birth of a new sense of nobility, which is binding together a circle of men from all former social classes. Nobility arises from and exists by sacrifice, courage, and a clear sense of duty to oneself and society, by expecting due regard for itself as a matter of course; and it shows an equally natural regard for others, whether they are of higher or lower degree. We need, all along the line, to recover the lost sense of quality and a social order based on quality. Quality is the greatest enemy of any kind of mass-leveling. Socially it means the renunciation of all place-hunting, a break with the cult of the "star", an open eye both upwards and downwards, especially in the choice of one’s more intimate friends, and pleasure in private life as well as courage to enter public life. Culturally it means a return from the newspaper and the radio to the book, from feverish activity to unhurried leisure, from dispersion to concentration, from sensationalism to reflection, from virtuosity to art, from snobbery to modesty, from extravagance to moderation.</i><div><br /></div><div>Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from <i>Letters from Prison</i></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-76838083262506388632024-03-17T07:57:00.001-04:002024-03-17T07:57:00.133-04:00Rani.Hania Rani in a live performance of music from her album, <i>On Giacometti</i> ...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="314" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0NTVXaxHBQQ" width="400" youtube-src-id="0NTVXaxHBQQ"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-1594820828443541332024-03-17T07:56:00.000-04:002024-03-17T07:56:00.231-04:00Done.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md13ryaomj1rolsbao1_500.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="500" height="499" src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md13ryaomj1rolsbao1_500.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Done and done.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thanks, <b><i><a href="https://walkersarms.tumblr.com/post/745100004573757440" target="_blank">Walker's Arms</a></i></b>.</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-27395019166824843642024-03-16T10:49:00.006-04:002024-03-16T10:51:42.673-04:00Echo & The Bunnymen, "My Kingdom"Forty years ago ...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-rQoR7LGtwQ" width="400" youtube-src-id="-rQoR7LGtwQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">William Alfred Sergeant is, indeed, a god.</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-52212853535318944522024-03-16T10:37:00.001-04:002024-03-16T10:40:53.378-04:00Abstractions.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvlg26axdQSwdEFJlf9X_Z4b9Qnb_-h3XFf3q72CGMCv9NF6MPu1DSARImSklL4JNUePWXuJoRE-G6zcekeJAgvrng7LVOrf59ca_eA53jWRvZ536afdUEkHlNwuPzmz9sWtH_0mwbo8mvcDNtoPFuxFE0ILtuWUQ9isOYfRmh9r4U9ZwleMMB7xIKAHc/s780/Screenshot%202024-03-16%2010.31.42%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="610" height="499" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvlg26axdQSwdEFJlf9X_Z4b9Qnb_-h3XFf3q72CGMCv9NF6MPu1DSARImSklL4JNUePWXuJoRE-G6zcekeJAgvrng7LVOrf59ca_eA53jWRvZ536afdUEkHlNwuPzmz9sWtH_0mwbo8mvcDNtoPFuxFE0ILtuWUQ9isOYfRmh9r4U9ZwleMMB7xIKAHc/w313-h400/Screenshot%202024-03-16%2010.31.42%20AM.png" width="387" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>William Deresiewicz on <a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-pseudo-intellectualism-ruined" target="_blank"><b>how</b> </a><b><a href="https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-pseudo-intellectualism-ruined" target="_blank">a dose of working-class realism can save journalism from groupthink</a> ...</b></div><div><i></i></div><blockquote><div><i>“Now we’re not only a college-dominated profession,” wrote David Brooks not long ago, citing a study that found that more than half of writers at The New York Times attended one of the 29 most selective institutions in the country; “we’re an elite-college-dominated profession.”</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The result is that contemporary journalists have a relationship to ideas that is more or less the opposite of the old school’s. It begins before they even get to campus. Students at elite colleges are drawn overwhelmingly from the upper classes, with roughly two-thirds coming from the top 20% of the income distribution. (Given the kinds of starting salaries that journalism pays, it’s fair to assume that those who go on to join the field skew even more heavily toward the higher end of the scale.) They grow up not only having little contact with ordinary people, but amidst the class of experts. Their parents—and their friends’ parents and their parents’ friends—are doctors, lawyers, bankers, executives, policy professionals, professors: people who work with abstractions and symbols, not things. They learn to see the world from the point of view of experts, to have faith in expertise, to speak its language and accept its values. Their epistemology is top-down: they start with ideas and come to tangibilities, to concrete facts, only later, through their lens.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Then comes college—and not just college, but the college of today. The college of Critical Theory and “studies” departments. This isn’t liberal arts school, either. You do not start with texts, with philosophy and literature and history, and see what they have to teach you. You start with theories and impose them on texts. You do not argue and debate; you write down what the teacher says. (If you ever do “debate,” you are careful to do so within the parameters laid down by Theory, by the ideology.) You do not think; you are handed a set of abstractions—patriarchy, intersectionality, late capitalism, and so forth—and let them do your thinking for you. Your institution’s goal is to teach you to be not a skeptic, an intellectual, but an activist.</i></div></blockquote><div><i></i></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-85290009158556821982024-03-16T10:20:00.001-04:002024-03-16T10:20:10.127-04:00High-Agency.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://factzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/img-fz/birds/osprey-fishing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="504" height="325" src="https://factzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/img-fz/birds/osprey-fishing.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>In our class, we often use the analogy of baby birds for passive approaches to exploration and discovery, the goal being to leave the reliance of the nest and become independent, intellectual raptors.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kurt points to <b><a href="https://culturaloffering.tumblr.com/post/745111724949176320" target="_blank">the importance of high-agency</a></b> in navigating <b><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/negative-capability" target="_blank">negative capability</a></b>.</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-36770219323880223092024-03-16T09:35:00.004-04:002024-03-17T08:02:05.072-04:00Changer.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJni6pbAfdUrCUjI-EZhq5stfLZxUH68c3ryvvvlobWwkLBI1VA6QEXmMjfQmZau7AxXHDrArKsAVCnu77pJb3h19rhgbgNGD0s3GP2KmsSeHt0ZIQNpmcEjBS87HNB_laZhG_CbiHN5PpN6uU-NaYizFN3UroyM-StBdhEEbzBHy3wPbazT8mJiW4tY/s858/IMG_2473.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="856" data-original-width="858" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqJni6pbAfdUrCUjI-EZhq5stfLZxUH68c3ryvvvlobWwkLBI1VA6QEXmMjfQmZau7AxXHDrArKsAVCnu77pJb3h19rhgbgNGD0s3GP2KmsSeHt0ZIQNpmcEjBS87HNB_laZhG_CbiHN5PpN6uU-NaYizFN3UroyM-StBdhEEbzBHy3wPbazT8mJiW4tY/w400-h399/IMG_2473.jpeg" width="387" /></a></div><p><b><i><a href="http://www.execupundit.com/2024/03/the-danger-of-sovereign-individual.html" target="_blank"> Execupundit</a></i></b> on relationships ...</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>Here's a rule of life: you have to be there. You have to listen and laugh and argue and comfort the people around you in a multitude of exchanges where life's mystery means you may not know just which exchange was the most important.</i></p><p><i>I can recall off-hand conversations from long ago that seriously affected my life and even my world view.</i></p><p><i>You never know, but that raised eyebrow, that quiet reassurance, that brief pat on the back may be another person's life changer.</i></p><p><i>Don't hide away. Get out among 'em.</i></p></blockquote><p>There is a student in our school, Clementine, who stops by my classroom every single morning for a brief chat before heading upstairs to her homeroom. We aren't in any classes together, but in the past I've had her siblings, Ruby, Olive, and Violet (no joke). Clementine makes my day with her smiles, her corny jokes, and the fact that she usually brings a friend in tow, a student that, most likely, I'd never have gotten the chance to meet. Some of Clementine's friends have begun Clementine's routine on their own, so now I'm meeting drama club kids, skater kids, kids who cook, new kids who don't speak a word of English, kids whose siblings are classroom legacies, kids who teach me dances, handshakes, and suggest good books I should read.</p><p>This year, walking the hallways is quite a different experience. Kids rule!</p><p>(Oh! I've been told by these kids that saying "Good morning" to students I don't know is creepy and they won't respond [this happens]. Instead, they've taught me to say, "'Sup" [it works]. We often discuss what I call "reading the room"; they call it "matching energy." We're both learning.)</p><p>Thanks to Clementine and Mr. Wade.</p>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-41638363495291482792024-03-16T08:50:00.006-04:002024-03-16T08:51:46.694-04:00Excellent.An excellent album ...<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.discogs.com/qh2tmv9cBKa_4Vt9S8quoGJyH6E3wWtguMj6MRgQyO4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTczNTQy/MjEtMTQzOTYzNDU3/OC0zNTg4LmpwZWc.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="599" data-original-width="600" height="387" src="https://i.discogs.com/qh2tmv9cBKa_4Vt9S8quoGJyH6E3wWtguMj6MRgQyO4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTczNTQy/MjEtMTQzOTYzNDU3/OC0zNTg4LmpwZWc.jpeg" width="387" /></a></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-44382386523491586152024-03-16T08:47:00.003-04:002024-03-16T08:47:45.532-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://img.texasmonthly.com/2020/10/jerry-jeff-walker-gruene-hall.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=jpg&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1250" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1720" data-original-width="1250" height="533" src="https://img.texasmonthly.com/2020/10/jerry-jeff-walker-gruene-hall.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=jpg&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1250" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Jerry Jeff Walker was born on this day in 1942.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Contrary to Ordinary" with John Inmon in 1984 ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DMcNetLFqj8" width="400" youtube-src-id="DMcNetLFqj8"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-77437008009823393272024-03-16T04:52:00.001-04:002024-03-16T04:52:00.240-04:00Find.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://urbanologie.com/media_cache/inner_slider/media/London/FrancisMallmann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://urbanologie.com/media_cache/inner_slider/media/London/FrancisMallmann.jpg" width="387" /></a></div></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>There was something heavy in me. I wasn’t doing the right thing. I was just trying to copy exactly everything I had learned. And I think that happens in every craft in life. You’re young. You have a master. You want to emulate them, do what they do. But at some point in life, you have to turn around and say I have to find my own way in my own language.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Francis Mallmann</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to <b><a href="https://andersonlayman.blogspot.com/2024/03/redefinitions.html" target="_blank">Steve</a></b> for pointing me in this direction.</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-23144974760220142222024-03-15T16:35:00.001-04:002024-03-15T16:35:00.249-04:00Thin Lizzy, "For Those Who Love to Live"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hc7kbrYTd4s" width="400" youtube-src-id="Hc7kbrYTd4s"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-11577628273834730362024-03-15T11:23:00.005-04:002024-03-15T11:45:28.718-04:00Beyond.O'Keeffe, <i>Tent Door at Night</i>, 1916<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://vitruvius.museumseven.com/render/600-600@2/dp-473567-22.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://vitruvius.museumseven.com/render/600-600@2/dp-473567-22.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>I feel that a real living form is the result of the individual’s effort to create the living thing out of the adventure of his spirit into the unknown—where it has experienced something—felt something—it has not understood—and from that experience comes the desire to make the unknown—known. By unknown—I mean the thing that means so much to the person that wants to put it down—clarify something he feels but does not clearly understand—sometimes he partially knows why—sometimes he doesn’t—sometimes it is all working in the dark—but a working that must be done—Making the unknown—known—in terms of one’s medium is all-absorbing—if you stop to think of the form—as form you are lost—The artist’s form must be inevitable—You mustn’t even think you won’t succeed—Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant—there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing—and keeping the unknown always beyond you—catching crystallizing your simpler clearer version of life—only to see it turn stale compared to what you vaguely feel ahead—that you must always keep working to grasp—the form must take care of its self if you can keep your vision clear.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Georgia O'Keeffe</div></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-87023514845389571392024-03-15T11:18:00.001-04:002024-03-15T11:46:03.297-04:00Indespensible.<div>Friedrich, <i>The Monk by the Sea</i>, 1810</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1200/1*lrpRd3ScluScV3ehzBmwrQ.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="763" data-original-width="1200" height="254" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1200/1*lrpRd3ScluScV3ehzBmwrQ.jpeg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><div><i>I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am. Solitude is indispensible for my dialogue with nature.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Caspar David Friedrich</div></div><div><br /></div><div>It's sandwich time.</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-76897708204765289772024-03-15T07:04:00.002-04:002024-03-15T07:04:43.371-04:00Beware.<div><div>Poynter, <i>The Ides of March</i>, 1883</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net/w800h800/collection/GMIII/MCAG/GMIII_MCAG_1883_18-001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="589" height="533" src="https://d3d00swyhr67nd.cloudfront.net/w800h800/collection/GMIII/MCAG/GMIII_MCAG_1883_18-001.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div></div><div><div>[Music.]</div><div>SOOTHSAYER.</div><div><i>Caesar!</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CAESAR.</div><div><i>Ha! Who calls?</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CASCA.</div><div><i>Bid every noise be still.--Peace yet again!</i></div><div>[Music ceases.]</div><div><br /></div><div>CAESAR.</div><div><i>Who is it in the press that calls on me?</i></div><div><i>I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,</i></div><div><i>Cry "Caesar"! Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>SOOTHSAYER.</div><div><i>Beware the Ides of March.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CAESAR.</div><div><i>What man is that?</i></div><div><br /></div><div>BRUTUS.</div><div><i>A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CAESAR.</div><div><i>Set him before me; let me see his face.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CASSIUS.</div><div><i>Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CAESAR.</div><div><i>What say'st thou to me now? Speak once again.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>SOOTHSAYER.</div><div><i>Beware the Ides of March.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>CAESAR.</div><div><i>He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass.</i></div></div><div><br /></div><div>William Shakespeare, from <b><i><a href="https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/julius-caesar/read/" target="_blank">Julius Caesar</a></i></b></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-78688716748740221102024-03-15T06:52:00.006-04:002024-03-15T06:52:51.571-04:00Beware.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3d8934f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2106x2957+0+0/resize/1584x2224!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.scpr.org%2F122933_bf5a5437c0812fbbe9eda695d916712a_original.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1459" height="533" src="https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3d8934f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2106x2957+0+0/resize/1584x2224!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fa.scpr.org%2F122933_bf5a5437c0812fbbe9eda695d916712a_original.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><br /></div><div><i><b><a href="https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/a-mans-guide-to-drinking-by-jim-harrison-w200810#:~:text=Meanwhile%2C%20one%20must%20beware%20of,try%20to%20piss%20in%20it." target="_blank">One must beware of the gaggle of amateur therapists</a></b> who have recently come to life. Whether it’s your alcohol, cigarettes, or food, they are going to try to piss in it.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Jim Harrison</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-83063134807814349942024-03-15T06:35:00.001-04:002024-03-15T06:35:09.776-04:00Beware.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://reallearningforachange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/churchill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="636" height="225" src="https://reallearningforachange.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/churchill.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><i>We must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>Sir Winston Churchill</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-27311424737293836592024-03-14T18:17:00.000-04:002024-03-14T18:17:07.687-04:00Dexter Gordon, "Loose Walk (or Walk Loosely)"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7Msqw94XfKk" width="400" youtube-src-id="7Msqw94XfKk"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-65205364242334489892024-03-14T18:09:00.000-04:002024-03-14T18:09:11.676-04:00Released.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61XtlOzd8UL._SY300_SX300_QL70_FMwebp_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="300" height="387" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61XtlOzd8UL._SY300_SX300_QL70_FMwebp_.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Encomium</i> was released on this day in 1995.</div><div><br /></div><div>That summer I was playing this album in a bar I managed and an old, grizzled Ian Anderson-looking guy came up to me and said this is the greatest bar album ever.</div><div><br /></div><div>G'on an' argue 'at, too.</div><div><br /></div><div>STP, "Dancing Days" ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ki9WtdZPsRY" width="400" youtube-src-id="Ki9WtdZPsRY"></iframe></div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4849982685729690685.post-28426701702777321682024-03-14T17:58:00.002-04:002024-03-14T17:58:46.256-04:00Introduced.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Def-Leppard-On-Through-The-Night-album-cover-web-optimised-820.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="820" height="387" src="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Def-Leppard-On-Through-The-Night-album-cover-web-optimised-820.jpg" width="387" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The world was introduced to Def Leppard on this day in 1980 (<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHNBxd4LnDs" target="_blank">one more album</a></b> and then it was all over).</div><div><br /></div><div>Side One, Track One ...</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iMNVVQXHaek" width="400" youtube-src-id="iMNVVQXHaek"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Resolved: Def Leppard, Cheap Trick, and Scorpions were ruined by MTV.</div>Rob Firchauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13040497478077480467noreply@blogger.com0