Illustration Friday : Sail

Setting sail again for the ivory towers any time now.


www.illustrationfriday.com

Illustration Friday : Poof!

She looked down and Poof! Her lunch had appeared. Clever waiter.


(an excerpt from a sheet of MoMA sketches.)



www.illustrationfriday.com

Remember Micawber

We still miss you!

Feeling a little homesick for Princeton

www.smallworldcoffee.com

Judith and Tom

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Italy, summer 2005 : Donatello

David and St. George

The Pantheon, Rome

Illustration Friday : Enough

There's enough mystery for everyone.


front




back

Click on the images to enlarge.


www.illustrationfriday.com

A Poem by Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.

Pierre Reverdy was a French poet who lived 1889-1960.

Wings for Diana (a work in progress)

A Poem by Louise Bogan

From The Blue Estuaries

Illustration Friday : Fierce

Note: The figures are copied from a Mayan painting of masked actors partying together; the designs coming from the trumpet are riffs on Aztec and Mayan patterns found on sculptures.

www.illustrationfriday.com

Illustration Friday : Hoard

An accidental hoard of museum postcards, which need to be sent.



From the Ashmolean, Oxford


From the MoMA, New York City


From the MoMA, New York City


From the British Museum, London

detail from Lacoon and His Sons

Flowers

(Click on the images to open a better version.)

From exhibit about Milton at the NY Public Library

Copied from an old dictionary

Flower, mirror, filbert

Cufflinks

Distractions while cooking

The Plan

(You can click on the images to open a larger version.)

The Result

From the garden, last summer

The Plan

The Result

Last summer, at Pangaea

www.wolverinefarmpublishing.org

Sketch from an old postcard

May is Mary's Month

excerpt from "The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

WILD air, world-mothering air,
Nestling me everywhere,
That each eyelash or hair
Girdles; goes home betwixt
The fleeciest, frailest-flixed
Snowflake; that ’s fairly mixed
With, riddles, and is rife
In every least thing’s life;
This needful, never spent,
And nursing element;
My more than meat and drink,
My meal at every wink;
This air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.

(Read the rest HERE.)

Oh no, not funny--it's WITTY, or CLEVER.

Happiest of birthdays to Dorothy Parker!

"Dorothy Parker's Poetic Sneakers"

Life Stories, Books, and Links

A Class I'm Hoping to Take

COS 109 Computers in Our World

Computers are all around us. How does this affect the world we live in? This course is a broad introduction to computing technology for humanities and social sciences students. Topics will be drawn from current issues and events, and will include discussion of how computers work; what programming is and why it is hard; how the Internet and the Web work; security and privacy.

Prerequisites and Restrictions: Not intended for science/engineering/mathematics students.

"The Perfect Secretary"

"The perfect secretary should forget that she is a human being, and be the most completely efficient aid at all times and on all subjects. Her object is to coordinate with her employer's endeavor, and not make any intrusions which would be more likely to affect him as hurdles than as helps.
She should respond to his requirements exactly as a machine responds to the touch of a lever or accelerator . . ."

Emily Post's Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage; copyright 1945

Some subtitles from Emily Post's Etiquette

The Kitchen Finds Itself in Society
To You Who Are Mrs. Three-in-One
But No Shutters That Bang!
Bacon
Fashion and Fat
Have Silver That Shines or None
Favors Too Much Taken for Granted

"The Heart of the Whole Domestic Problem!"

"Whether a house runs smoothly or roughly depends entirely upon the personal adjustments made between the lady of the house and the one or many whom she employs. This is the heart of the whole domestic problem. I think we all have certain neighbors whose houses suggest the smoothness, the tranquility, and the beauty of a sun-dappled mountain brook. And we can also name others who live in a storm center of perpetual upheaval. We know, too, that wealth is not the important factor."

Emily Post's Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage; copyright 1945

When misogyny is sort of okay--except, you know, not.

Let us all greet the sun and rise in recognition of Ernest Hemingway's birthday. Ha!

Found Object

found in a copy of Great Books by David Denby

Found Object

found in a copy of Earthworks by Brian W. Aldiss

Questions from a Myers-Briggs Test

Are you more interested in
a) what is actual b) what is possible

Is it worse
a) have your head in the clouds b) be in a rut

Are you more comfortable in making
a) critical judgments b) value judgments

Are you more satisfied having
a) a finished product b) work in progress

Which appeals to you more:
a) consistency of thought b) harmonious relationships

Common sense is
a) usually reliable b) frequently questionable

Are you inclined to take what is said
a) more literally b) more figuratively

Do you value in yourself more that you are
a) reasonable b) devoted

Do you prize in yourself
a) a strong hold on yourself b) a vivid imagination

Are you drawn more to
a) fundamentals b) overtones

(One of the frustrating things about this test comes up when you think about the relative ambiguity of these terms. For example, one question asks whether you are more "practical" or "fanciful"--what on earth do those words mean? Practical from a personal point of view or from the view of the general population? . . . But that's probably just another part of the test.)

Edward F. Albee said

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.


Who is Edward F Albee?
No really, who is he?

Caring for your friendly neighborhood introvert.

In March 2003, Jonathan Rauch published this little bit of writing in The Atlantic Monthly. It is called "Caring for Your Introvert: The habits and needs of a little-understood group." Voila!

Livres d'Artistes . . .

. . . at the New York Public Library.

Here's also something nice by Max Ernst.

22 May 1859

Today is Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday.
It might also, therefore, be considered the birthday of the inimitable Sherlock Holmes himself.
I first read him when I saw a book at the library whose spine said, The Essential Boy's Sherlock Holmes (or something like that).
I read the title and said, "Aha! You sexists, I'll show YOU!" So I read the whole thing. And then I read the rest of the books in the Teen Section. Then I ventured into ADULT FICTION, stood on a chair, and day by week by month read all of the big dusty books off of that top shelf.
The Sign of the Four is one of my favorites. Ahhh, scratch that--they're all really good.
These people like him just as much as I do.

Hello, Boris.

The Reading of the Manifest.

The Fair.

Boris Kustodiev (Kustodiyev) painted these things.

He was part of the Mir Iskusstva (look here too).

This is a page of more images of his work.

Poetreeeeeee

I like these.

By Michael Drayton (1563-1631).

By Robert Browning (1812-1889). I was actually only given a cutting of this one at first, but I like the whole thing (even if I don't understand it).

By Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979). Trivia! Some of her unpublished poems were recently collected and published by Alice Quinn (look!). It's caused something of an uproar--if a poet had the chance to publish some of her work, and didn't, should people root through her things after she's dead and shove them in the public's face? The Denver Post had a nifty article about the problem. And here's something from The Atlantic Monthly (sigh) published in January.

Heaven help me.

This is what people actually do at the school I'm going to. And I hope that what he's wearing isn't an informal uniform.

I learned something new!

(Remember that bhajan that was called "Aiso Ko Udaar Jag Maahi"? Turns out that that line, which is the sthai, or primary theme, means "The Lord is all merciful.")

The story of Mira Bai feels similar to the stories of the Catholic saints--you know, we can visit Saint Catherine's house, but we don't know if she really loved God when she was three, or what exactly she was like. Historical facts get all mixed up with oral tradition, and literary tradition, and the beautiful ideas painters have long after the people are dead.

But we do know some things almost certainly--Mira Bai (Meera Bai) was a nobel woman in Rajasthan, an area in India. She was married to the king-to-be at thirteen, but the family didn't take to her and made trouble. And here's the good part, the not-necessarily-factual part: she said she couldn't really be a wife to the king, because she had already dedicated her whole heart to Lord Krishna. Her husband died, and she did not commit satti (also sati, suttee) but instead wandered Rajasthan, preaching and writing poetry and music. She is credited with at least 200 bhajans, though some attribute more than 1300 to her. Her writing is called a whole bunch of things--"mystical love poetry" or "love poetry" seem to be repeated the most. In any case, she had an overwhelming love for Krishna, to whom she devoted her life.

To learn more (IT'S SO INTERESTING!):
Here is a basic summary.
Here is a very comprehensive website, with good links to other respectable sites, where you can read her writing or listen to some of the bhajans.
Here is more, and here, and here is Wikipedia's take.
And here is an interesting one by a believer (like reading about St Catherine from a Catholic traditionalist).

To Use Instead of Ipecac:

Purchased at the library.

Published in 1945.

This is JUST the kind of information I need!

Please notice the name of the chapter.

I think this was my favorite.
I will take this to the scanner soon--there is so much hilarity yet to be discovered!

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!

Who is this man?

(bum bum bummm)

A Conversation in Each Bottle!

Check out these ads for Grand Marnier--

Who gets paid to come up with this?!??

I sure do love this man--

--Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Bear with me here, on behalf of this GENIUS:

Tom Faulkner writes about Garcia Marquez's short story "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings":

"The problem García Márquez presents us is not just What if angels were real? but What if they were real, and nothing like we expect them to be? He creates a tension between the old man's magical and human qualities, leaving us unable to fit the character into a comfortable mental category. The old man is far too human and decrepit to match our cultural image of angels: perfect, powerful, majestic, immortal. Nor does he appear to be a heavenly messenger, sent by God as a sign of momentous changes; his presence seems to be purely an accident of the weather, without purpose or meaning. Nonetheless, he certainly has his magical qualities, and is even credited with miracles (though, like everything else about him, they are disturbing, and fail to satisfy expectations). However miraculous his nature, origins, or abilities may be, he is stranded here, and relatively powerlessan exile from his former life, at the mercy of strangers. The villagers must somehow account for him, and because no one understands his language, he is unable (and apparently unwilling) to explain himself. Several possible interpretations arise, but most of them are clearly absurd, telling us more about the villagers' superstitions and beliefs than about the old man's true nature. They are rendered with playful humor, ensuring that the reader will appreciate the irrational and illusory basis of such folk wisdom. Yet our superior, conventional methods of logic and reason don't seem any more useful in reaching a secure explanation. The old man remains a stubborn, intriguing mystery, both magical and ordinary, impossible to decipher but undeniably there."

and,

"By combining factual and imaginative descriptions, and seeming to treat them with equal credibility, the author suggests that both ways of knowing are valid, perhaps even necessary to achieving a balanced understanding."

and,

"Works of magic realism are both praised and criticized for their childlike wonder, their depiction of a world of almost-infinite possibilities, where the supernatural and the everyday take on the same vivid intensity. But they are not fairy tales or two-dimensional fantasies; they offer no clear lessons, simple events, or sharp distinctions between reality and magic. Wondering includes both delight and confusion, the struggle to comprehend experiences that challenge our understanding, and don't fit our accustomed map of reality. Far more things are possible in the world of magic realism, including miracles, contradictions, and logical impossibilities but this also means that more meanings are possible, and that all meanings will be elusive and uncertain."

I know that's a lot of text, but c'mon!! Have you read One Hundred Years of Solitude?

If anyone thought that Kant was boring . . .

. . . prepare to change your mind. Turn the volume up really loud. Courtesy of Jenn.

I was reading, and I learned something new.

The bhajan is a traditional Hindu devotional song.

Most were written between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries as a result of the Bhakti revivalist movement.

This movement's center was the idea that to attain spiritual salvation a person had only to attain a pure and selfless love of God.

For some interesting discussion, see Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

For more on the Bhakti movement:
from Answers.com
from Wikipedia

To listen: Here (with RealPlayer) (I like the one labeled "Aiso ko udaar")

Psh.

Happy Birthday to Billy Shakespeare . . . goshdarned misogynist . . . .