Thursday, November 27, 2003

Martinis

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
After four I'm under my host.
..........Dorothy Parker

Martinis son como las tetas de una mujer
Una no es bastante
Tres son demasiado
Pero dos? -- es sufficiente!
..............Jose Espino
The mind is its own place, and in itself
it can make a heaven of hell,
or a hell of heaven.

-- John Milton

Quote courtesy of Basil of Canada

Monday, November 24, 2003

I have begun Don Quixote: but first:

From Michael Blowhard's Blog:

It's OK not to get some great art. This is art, after all, not science or history, and doin' the art thing is as much about exploring your own responses as it is about exploring the world.

I had a few subpoints in mind too: 1) You don't have to love everything you're told is great, 2) You don't have to claim greatness for everything you love, and 3) You don't have to dispute the greatness of the works and artists you dislike. Explore a lot of great art, give yourself the experience of it, have whatever response you have to it -- and then let it all go. What does it matter, really, whether you agree with the so-called experts? (I can get vexed when I see people try-try-trying, oh so very hard, to "appreciate" a work in exactly the way they've been told to. Why do they strain with such determination to have a particular great experience? Why not have the experience they're having instead, whatever it is?) It matters only that you give the work a try and take note of what the experience was like for you. But don't be such a self-pleasing fool that you avoid what's been deemed to be great. That's crazy too. Hey, it's cool and fun to challenge yourself.

Anyway, the rules of this game:



You aren't disputing the greatness of the artist or the artwork.

You can see the point of the work or the artist, and you understand what's there to be gotten.

You understand the greatness of it too -- the range of its influence, what other artists have taken from it, etc. It's impressive, and you're impressed.

And you've given the work or the artist a decent and earnest try.

But you've found that when you look at it, or you listen to it, or you read it -- the magic evaporates.

To kick things off, here's a modest Michael Blowhard "It ain't happenin' for me" list: Henry James. Dostoevsky. "Citizen Kane." Bob Dylan. "The Waste Land." Euripides. Mahler. Miles Davis.

Perfectly content that all these artists and artworks are deemed great. I got no problem with that at all. They just don't -- alas -- do a thing for me.

(Between you and me, I'm excluding much 20th century art and architecture because I'm betting that the 20th century's "greatness" list is going to be revised in the fairly near future. I'd bet, for example, that in 25 years Faulkner and Joyce -- both of whom I generally like -- will be largely forgotten. And don't get me started about "great" modernist architecture.)

What indisputably great art do you blank out on? Eager to hear from visitors too, of course.

Best,

Michael

Sunday, November 23, 2003

I don't believe in studying something because I am told that something is important--I believe in studying that which has "caught" me. Joseph Campbell.

Monday, November 17, 2003

ONE ART


The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.


--- Elizabeth Bishop, 1976.
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Export Free Traders mek

Sunday, November 16, 2003

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same....Oscar Wilde, of course

Thursday, November 06, 2003

Universal Draft --Selective Service


As you know the government is looking for volunteers for the draft board. I am thinking about volunteering and have listed the following pros and cons.

Con
Assists the government in an unholy endeavor.

Pro
Help to assure that the conscription not be limited to a single class. Making the selection certain of white, middle-class youth.

Preventing the escape of service by the children of the wealthy and powerful.

Making sure that all citizens be included and enrolled along side the white underclass and other classes such as blue-collar, Latinos, patriotic, and African-Americans, and other minorities thus ensuring a democratic and better educated armed force.

Help prevent a Junker class from evolving by assuring the cross-class, democratic selection of members of the armed forces.

Ensuring that in the future fewer members of Congress or the executive would be able to vote for war without having actually served themselves.


Your comments are solicited.

Gratwicker@aol.com


Golden Mean = 1.618

Wednesday, November 05, 2003