orange stone line
kopachuck state park dec2007
(since water seems to be a recent theme)
a line of stones into the bay
and the tide covering them
a short while later
which reminded me of this:
vilnia river line
oct2006
a line of stones into the river
on a rainy day in vilnius
Interesting article in the NYT about evolution and selection (using sticklebacks as the example). It was the photo, above, that caught my eye – differences in armoring between saltwater & freshwater sticklebacks.
This in the Guardian (article) – “vertical axis” wind turbines. These, it seems, solve some of the issues concerning scale since the center of gravity is low and they do not have to turn to face the wind.
It was the images that initially got my attention, interesting that both articles turned out to be about the evolution of design.
And they both relate to water.
And I like being able to tag something as both ‘fish’ & ‘technology’
Saw Krzysztof Kieslowski’s film ‘Camera Buff’ the other day (‘Amator’ in the original). Jerzy Stuhr is terrific as the blossoming filmmaker who eventually sees the more complex sides of his passion. Having known Kieslowski primarily through his later films (the ‘Three Colors’ trilogy and ‘The Double Life of Veronique’) it’s a joy to catch up on some of his earlier work, a lot of it finally available on DVD.
I’ve read some of the critiques of Kieslowski and while I can see where some of the issues might be, I find him incredibly moving. There are passages in ‘Blue’ & ‘Red’ (from ‘Three Colors’) that are haunting (as I’m sure, now, that some of these other films’ scenes will be). The images are very strong, and they accompany the memory, but I think it’s the emotion that he is able to attach to those images that really makes them hang on. Hearing of the way he worked it’s clear that it was not just serendipity. He knew what he wanted, found the actors who could do it, and worked with them until the right things appeared.
Another good freeze overnight (27°F/-3°C) and I was able to get the whole piece out this time. It was overcast though so I didn’t have that nice morning sun as a backlight.
25Jan2008
45°31′N 122°51′W
Temperature: 23°F/-5°C
Humidity: 81%
Dew Point: 18°F/-8°C
Wind: Calm
Pressure: 30.06 in/1018 hPa (Rising)
Visibility: 10.0 miles/16.1 kilometers
Clouds: Clear
24Jan2008
45°31′N 122°51′W
Temperature: 26°F/-3°C
Humidity: 56%
Dew Point: 15°F/-9°C
Wind: 7mph/11km/h from the East
Pressure: 29.74 in/1007 hPa (Falling)
Windchill: 18°F/-8°C
Visibility: 10.0 miles/16.1 kilometers
Clouds: Clear
‘Dime-Store Alchemy’ is a very nice little book by the poet Charles Simic. A collage, a collection, a consideration of Joseph Cornell (the alliteration was not purposeful, and actually makes me wince just a tad, but it is pretty much what I wanted to say, so, there it is). It’s quite brief and yet, like Cornell’s boxes, full of odd and unexpected gems.
‘At some point my need for a solution was replaced by the poetry of my continuous failure.’
‘As darkness fell, our host, the Prince, went to stand on the parapet of his palazzo with his beard on fire.’
‘…divination by the contemplation of surfaces…’
‘The world is beautiful but not sayable. That’s why we need art.’
Scratching himself with a revolver with an overly sensitive trigger,
M. Édouard B. removed the tip of his nose
in the Vivienne precinct house.
I’ve been reading a bit in ‘Novels in Three Lines,’ the Félix Fénéon collection translated and edited by Luc Sante.
‘Layered, ironic, amused, Fénéon’s voice is unmistakable … a little yo-yo of a narrative that gives pleasure no matter how many times it is flung’ (Marilyn Johnson in NYT review). I love that description. These are at turns funny, macabre and odd. They were all written in 1906 as part of a newspaper column for Le Matin. News items as haiku.
[Not long ago I came across another reference to Fénéon - in Jan Voss' diary entry, over at Boekie Woekie, pondering the style of writing he might want to pursue. I quite like these little synchronicities (probably not a true synchronicity but how often do you get to use that word?). ]
While thundering for the Republic,
a 300-year-old cannon exploded in Chatou,
but no one was hurt.
Scheid, of Dunkirk, fired three times at his wife.
Since he missed every shot, he decided to aim at his mother-in-law,
and connected.
An angry bull was dragging cowboy Bouyoux
toward Poissy by the tether. It broke.
So then the bull unseated cyclist Gervet.
Illustrations by Edward Gorey would’ve suited.
happy 1,000,045th
- more on this year’s piece
- last year’s sculpture
- a celebratory (and explanatory) site
I’m reading Yukio Mishima’s ‘The Temple of the Golden Pavilion’ right now and in the first 50 or so pages have run across the word pellucid twice. Not a word you happen upon often. And twice in so short a time is jarring. It tends to drop you out of the story and say to yourself, “pellucid, again?” I need to look up another translated version and see how those passages are handled. It doesn’t seem like a word that Mishima would use, at least not repeatedly.
This put me in mind of a post I saw recently on a favorite site, Moon River, about word frequency in texts called volumetric redundancies (and the link from there to the original post is pretty cool too).
t) west from newport, oregon
b) north across lac leman at 18:34
both photos from 2006
Worked over the past couple days getting a few videos together. Some were posted to fluxlist (via youtube – paper shake, audio tape and kizu to nara) and a few others, older ones, prepped for the website. Not especially a highlight of the day but I keep forgetting this blog thing is sitting here waiting to be fed. Now, well, not NOW, but a moment ago, I remembered. I could go on at length about Hillary, Barack, ‘gunboats’ in the straits, etc. I’d rather think about the sculpture that’s starting to happen in the (I saw this phrase the other day and quite liked it so I’m going to borrow it) atelier garage. Not a lot to say about it but nice to ponder. Pondering at length, I suspect, leads to minimal blogs. So it goes (another well-borrowed phrase).
Fairly mesmerized over the past while with a new (to me) video featuring Ivor Cutler. The video is called ‘Looking for Truth with a Pin’ and includes ‘Cutler’s Last Stand.’
[Unfortunately the video (DVD) is only available in Region 2 encoding (Great Britain, etc.). Fortunately I have a $30 DVD player from an office supply store that plays it just fine (my higher-end machine just scoffs but has avoided internal mucking about [read hacking] because of its cheaper companion).]
Mr. Cutler was a gem.
Musician, artist, poet, teacher, bicycle rider, hat wearer, sticker distributor, friend of eagles (eventually).
Thanks to my British friends on various art sites for the introduction awhile back. Mr. Cutler will be greatly missed but his work should not be.
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