6.11.10
[picnic]
tape! imagine. anyway, laurie anderson,
b. d. wong, and uma's dad narrate the
audio version. highly recommended.)
5.11.10
grace & keith
"He did elaborate costumes, graffitized settings, and body-painting for her, sometimes without pay, 'because it was more important to do it - no one else I worked with made as much sense,' he told me in November 1986. Grace Jones led him to perhaps the most famous of all black discos of the middle '80s, the Paradise Garage in SoHo..." [R.F. Thompson]
some people [the redemptive quality of art]
remind us that blogs
can be an art form
and, like all art,
proof (it's amazing to think that 25 little pieces of paper stapled together can be so full wisdom and life and the keeper of so many splendid things)
well, not proof exactly perhaps
but as close as i need; yesterday,
i wanted to post about this book
i wanted to say something about
how important books are for
children, how important poetry
is for life, how important good
art is for the soul. how important
it is to make pudding out of pencil
shavings. i love this book; found an
old copy in campbell california in
1991 and gave it to someone i have
great respect for. kept loving it. more.
and the joy it contains means a small
world to me. so, this morning, seeing
it here (please go and comment, you'd
love a copy of your own, i think) it...
well, it just seemed to me that random
is never really random. here's the post
i meant to write, and here's a better
version. thank you, Burgin Streetman.
title quote: Burgin Streetman,
with love
4.11.10
is anything really random?
as i search for words and pictures today
i think of this
(and for me, random is not. ever.)
somehow, it is all of a piece. but it is the knowing
that eludes us (often) and the seeking which brings
such joy. in any seemingly random pattern there
lies the secret of a universe; and what can compare
with the frission of joy that again occurs when we
find a bit of the secret? there. right before our eyes.
[sending sunshine from california to you]
photos: vt
"If you know that someone is speaking badly
of you behind your back, and if you react to
that negativity with a feeling of hurt, then you
destroy your own peace of mind. One's pain is
one's own creation. One should treat such
things as if they are wind behind one's ear.
In other words, just brush them aside.
To a large extent, whether or not one suffers paindepends on how one responds to a given situation.What makes a difference is whether or not one istoo sensitive and takes things too seriously."
image: la maison de cocteau
1.11.10
dear friend,
what a stunning perfectly happy
moment to walk to my door and
see your gift waiting quietly in it's
dear brown box. what a joy it is to
receive! what thanks i have that
you gave. thoughtfulness like this
ripples through lives and changes
them. (it has happened that way
before.) thank you, gift-giver. always.
ALL images:
29.10.10
democratic truths of the soul
"The furniture is detailed in a refined Rococo manner, carved with gentle aristocratic curves and garlands of flowers. But as the eye moves towards the ground, something unusual comes into view. Where we might expect the chairs to meet a floor which resembled them in tone -- made of marble, perhaps, or highly veneered parquetry -- we instead find rough, unvarnished wooden planks, of the sort one might see in a hayloft...
The manor house proposes a new human ideal, in which luxury would entail neither decadence nor a loss of contact with the democratic truths of the soul, and in which simplicity could be synthesised with nobility and refinement.
If certain subtly balanced buildings touch us, it is because they stand as exemplars of how we might adjudicate between the conflicting aspects of our characters, how we, too, might aspire to make something beautiful of our troubling opposites."
Alain de Botton,
["A balanced building as a promise of a balanced life:
Skogaholm Manor, Närke, c. 1790"]
27.10.10
.jpg)
26.10.10
.jpg)
dear readers, i've been wrestling with a rather
stubborn head cold for the past week, and i
really think this just made me well again.
(well, maybe it is a vast quantity of
ginger lemon tea, vitamin c, zinc &
starting--24 hrs ago--antibiotics that
finally did it.) but, i swear, this place
could have healing powers. someone should
call them up and get one started, don't you think?
& not to be missed: their link to the eternal aesthete
25.10.10
24.10.10
Mr. Dahl
"The cleverest man in the world is called Mr Billy Bubbler. He can invent just about anything you want. He has a marvelous workshop full of wheels and wires and buckets of glue and balls of string and huge pots full of thick foaming stuff that gives off smoke in many colours. There are old motorcar tyres, baskets of carrots and electric machines and sewing machines and fizzy-drink machines and bath tubs and cow's teeth and rice puddings and old shoes and everything else Mr Bubbler needs to make his wonderful inventions."
roald dahl
(the october issue of
has a swell article called
mr. dahl's fantastic box.
written by donald sturrock,
photos by antony crolla.
read it if you can.)
image: here
23.10.10
22.10.10
a perfectly kept house is the sign of a misspent life
21.10.10
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