HUZZAH to the cameraman!
21 August 2022
Lifts.
[Poetry] awakens and enlarges the mind itself by rendering it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought. Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar; it reproduces all that it represents, and the impersonations clothed in its Elysian light stand thenceforward in the minds of those who have once contemplated them as memorials of that gentle and exalted content which extends itself over all thoughts and actions with which it coexists. The great secret of morals is love; or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, from "A Defence of Poetry"
Differ.
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and you—beside—
The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As sponges—Buckets—do—
The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—
Emily Dickinson
20 August 2022
Inscribed.
Wherever anything lives, there is, open somewhere, a register in which time is being inscribed.
Henri Bergson
17 August 2022
Released.
Miles Davis released Kind of Blue on this day in 1959.
Miles Davis Kind of Blue: Celebrating a Masterpiece ...
15 August 2022
High-Toned.
Rolling Stone on The Cars' 1980 high-toned dalliance with art theory ...
With the new album, the rift between the Cars and their critics has widened—though for different reasons. Panorama avoids most of the methodical mannerisms that befell Candy-O, but what it opts for instead is technopop: rigid, electronic rock & roll that favors machine-like exactness over heartfelt expression, and avant-garde minimalism over pop-based tunefulness.So far, the reviews have been mostly unflattering, with Rolling Stone describing it as “an out-and-out drag.” The unkindest cut, though, came in the Cars’ own backyard. Writing in the Boston Phoenix, an alternative weekly that was one of the first publications in the country to tout the group, Deborah Frost declared: “Certainly, some of their fans will think they’re really putting their necks on the line this time. Bullshit. If they are, it’s not because the music or ideas behind it are so brainy, but because this is a slapdash job.” Elsewhere, Frost concluded, “This year’s model is a lemon….”Yet, there’s a counterside to this wrangle. The Cars’ new music may not have the rock verve of Elvis Costello or Tom Petty, nor the experimental range of Talking Heads or Public Image Ltd., but it does, I think, represent a genuine advance for the group. On several tracks, Ocasek and crew have removed the melodic and harmonic core, paring the songs down to monorhythmic pulses and monochromatic arrangements. On cuts like “Panorama” and “Misfit Kid,” the end result can be grating and jerky, but in “You Wear Those Eyes” and “Touch and Go,” it proves tense, mordant and chilling.The question, though, is whether any of this constitutes a bona fide incursion of avant-garde music into the mainstream, or whether it’s just an artsy exploitation of other people’s innovations. In other words, is the Cars’ music merely a high-toned dalliance with art theory or a genuine revolution in rock aesthetics?
14 August 2022
Pleasure.
Cezanne, Houses in the Greenery, 1881
I have to keep working, not to arrive at finish, which arouses the admiration of fools. I must seek completion only for the pleasure of being truer and more knowing.
Paul Cezanne
Happy Birthday, Fidrych
Labels:
appreciation,
baseball,
documentary,
Fidrych,
heroes,
sports,
Tigers
Lucky.
The craft of stonemason James Preston ...
Stonemasons like to grumble about their industry. They cite the poor pay, the long drives, the contrast between the harried contractors and the unhurried in-house cathedral masons, of whom there are still a few groups. Despite his job’s shortcomings, though, Preston counts himself as privileged. On cathedral roofs, he sees grotesques put there for God’s amusement and nobody else’s; and seeing him climbing up spires like some sort of action figure delights and thrills his five-year-old son, Blake. "I think we’re lucky," he says. "I really do."
Thanks, Kurt.
13 August 2022
Released.
James Taylor released October Road on this day in 2002.
"September Grass"
Well, the sun's not so hot in the sky todayAnd you know I can see summertime slipping on away.A few more geese are gone, a few more leaves turning red,But the grass is as soft as a feather in a feather bed ...
Happy Birthday, Fogelberg
Dan Fogelberg, the original Mr.-Sensitive-with-a-Ponytail, was born on this day in 1951.
"The Reach" ...
12 August 2022
Thrive.
The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul.
Sir Thomas More
Happy Birthday, Biber
Seel, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, 1681
Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was born on this day in 1644.
Xavier Díaz Latorre plays the Passacaglia ...
Happy Birthday, Metheny
Pat Metheny was born on this day in 1954.
"(Cross The) Heartland / Airstream" with the Pat Metheny Group ...
11 August 2022
Hang.
"Hang care!" exclaimed he. "This is a delicious evening; the wine has a finer relish here than in the house, and the song is more exciting and melodious under the tranquil sky than in the close room, where the sound is stifled. Come, let us have a bacchanalian chant—let us, with old Sir Toby, make the welkin dance and rouse the night-owl with a catch! I am right merry. Pass the bottle, and tune your voices—a catch, a catch! The lights will be here anon."
Charles Ollier, from "The Haunted Manor-House of Paddington"
For best results, listen to this ... The Police, "When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around" ...
The euphony transformed me and inundated my soul in a roguish countenance, the likes of which I had know well in younger days. Such impishness soon drove out the complaints of the day.
Umberto Limongiello
Illegitimate.
From Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene VII ...
Enter MARGARELON.Margarelon: Turn, slave, and fight.Thersites: What art thou?Margarelon: A bastard son of Priam’s.Thersites: I am a bastard too; I love bastards: I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel’s most ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts judgment. Farewell, bastard. [Exit.Margarelon: The devil take thee, coward! [Exit.
Sean Bean's pronunciation ...
Mozart, Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165
Catherine Trottmann performs with the Orchestre du Palais Royal, under the direction of Jean Philippe Sarcos ...
Knowledge.
Jáuregui (attrib.), Cervantes, 1600
The knowledge of yourself will preserve you from vanity.
Miguel de Cervantes
Be.
Reynolds, Self-Portrait, 1780
Sir Joshua Reynolds
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