Saturday 24 February 2007

Tesoro 1





In Tesoro I want to write about my very special treasured places. This is Walden Pond.
It is one of my favourite lakes to swim in. The water is so soft and silky it is like swimming in wet velvety smoothe air. I am a passionate swimmer. The state of floating and being light out of gravity is bliss to me. For many years I swam in Walden Pond every spring, summer and autumn. Going there for a sunset swim and picnic was one of our most special treats.

Steven Jobs


Happy Birthday mate! Steve Jobs is on the right in top photo. Handsome nerds rule!?
Thanx for the whacky macky man.
As a caveat, I just learned that Steven and Joan Baez dated.

Tomoko Takahashi
















Tomoko Takahashi is a Japanese artist who lives and works in England as well as abroad.
Her solo show at the Serpentine gallery in London in 2005 was a smash hit! Kudos Tomoko!

Richard Hamilton born today in 1922




Happy Birthday to Jane Hirshfield


Jane Hirshfield at StAnza Poetry Festival in St. Andrews, Scotland in 2005

To Opinion: An Assay

Many capacities have been thought to define the human-
yet finches and wasps use tools; speech comes
into this world in many forms.
Perhaps it is you, Opinion.

Though I cannot know for certain,
I doubt the singing dolphins have opinions.

This thought of course, is you.

A mosquito's estimation of her meal, however subtle,
is not an opinion. That's my opinion too.

To think about you is to step into
your arms? a thicket? pitfall?

When you come rising strongly in me, I feel myself grow separate
and more lonely.
Even when others share you, this is so.

Darwin said no fact or description that fails to support an argument can serve.

Myoe wrote: Bright, bright, bright, bright, the moon.

Last night there were whole minutes when you released me.
Ocean ocean ocean was the sound the sand made of the moonlit waves
breaking on it.

I felt no argument with any part of my life.

Not even with you, Opinion, who drifted in salt waters with the bullwhip kelp
and phosphorescent plankton,
nibbling my legs and ribcage to remind me where Others end and I begin.

Good joke, I agreed with you, companion Opinion.

Friday 23 February 2007

W.E.B. DuBois 1868


African American civil rights leader, scholar; historian and sociologist, writer and teacher born today in 1868. I love the photo of him relaxing in a hammock.

Thank you, grazie, danke, merci, gracias, tack usw.

I want to say I appreciate the birthday information my reader friends share with me.
Thank you! I have always been interested in birthday dates and other significant ones as well.

Kasimir Malevich



Happy Birthday! K.M. in 1925

IKEA


Talking about meatballs, Swedish or not, this is one of the first IKEA stores ever and it has been at this location at Kungens Kurva ( Kings Bend) outside Stockholm since the sixties. My mother would take my brother and myself there and put us to play in the room full of coloured plastic balls which still exists today in fact! She would then go shopping and after we would go to the cafeteria and have a treat. Balls all around. This building is round also.

"You're never too old to become younger."

Mae West

Only the Lonely

To the big R O!
He wrote the song Only the Lonely in a car in his home hamlet of Wink in Texas. The only place he could be alone and sing through the night if he wished. It was a one road going to nowhere kinda place.

Thursday 22 February 2007

Why not have one?


Kamikaze koettbulle!


The war cry of a young Swedish boy jumping off a cliff into the lake!

What is it about Swedish meatballs? They are irresistable and oh so yummy, mums mums!
Impossible to be a vegetarian as long as they are around.
Noah took to them as well when he lived in Sweden.

Desert Island Discs

There is a weekly radio programme on the BBC called Desert Island Discs. I try to listen if I can.
Every week a person well-known in their field, be it science, art, politics, is interviewed regarding the 10 pieces of music they would take with them to a desert island. During the course of the programme they also talk about their life and work and most importantly the WHY behind each music choice.
I love listening and I get to hear such unexpected music. It is also an interesting way to get to know someone a wee bit.
I have already mentioned Nina Simone and Marianne Faithfull here in DJANG.
Which 10 pieces of music would you bring?

Luis Bunuel born today in 1900

Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Bunuel

Twenty years ago today


Andy Warhol died in NYC

Wednesday 21 February 2007

Lipsynch

Robert Lepage






The human voice is "the DNA of the soul, the unexplainable source of our being" according to Robert Lepage the director of Lipsynch currently performed at Northern Stage in Newcastle upon Tyne. A fantastical and riveting production woven around the story of an infant left orphaned by a young Nicaraguan mother who dies on a plane. We follow several of the characters involved through an intricate use of technology and metaphors of modern life. The human voice throughout is what holds it all together, the voice heard, remembered, imagined, repeated, recorded, lip read, sung, computer-generated and in all different languages. A piece truly of our time.
When it premieres at the Barbican in London in 2008 I recommend that you go and see it if you possibly can. We experienced the piece as a work in progres at 5 hours long and it was amazing!
PS These images are not from Lipsynch as none are availbale yet.

Guess who?- Answer


Robert Mapplethorpe.

Two friends guessed it almost simultaneously. Thanks for trying!

Meetings with the remarkable part 4


Maud Morgan
She was a painter and print maker and an artist in life. Read her auto-biography A Life in Art!
I met her when I lived in Cambridge, Mass. She was an important figure in the Boston art world and an inspiration to many. She had a great gift for friendship. At a certain point she established the Maud Morgan annual prize for a woman artist in mid-career. It was a cash prize and the MFA would also purchase a piece. The attention would truly help. I know some of the recipients, and the encouragement made a huge difference.
When I met her she was already coming up into her nineties. She was extraordinary. Despite illness she made collages up until the very end. Her life had been one long adventure which is probably what attracted me to her in the first place. Yet it was her person more than anything. She could laugh! She would be telling a story potentially quite sad and she would see the tragi-comic side of it and we would be laughing. She had a great gift for laughter which I wish I had!
She was another person in my life that died and I was a part of the process of her dying. I think sometimes that I have a role as a midwife to those I love in the transition from life into death. I have been there for my grandmother, Elka my "mother", Maud, Marti and Marianne. I will speak of them later.
Maud travelled widely and met the most interesting people of her generation and the generations after! She had stories to tell of fishing with Hemingway in Key West and living in Paris in the 30's.
At the end of her life she was pretty much housebound and yet there was a steady stream of visitors who came to see her every day. She was much loved. There is a Maud Morgan Visual Arts Center for the community in Cambridge in her neighbourhood. It is housed in a beautiful old coach house.
The main thing about someone like Maud is the gift of love. Not only the fact that they love you but that you can lavish love on them! Thank you Maud!

Marianne Faithfull




The Ballad of Lucy Jordan is an anthem!
Broken English is an album which is coming to the desert island as well!


Nina Simone 1933

Happy Birthday Nina! She is one of the artists I would bring to a desert island!

Tuesday 20 February 2007

Happy 80th Sidney Poitier!

The man himself with Harry Belafonte and Charlton Heston below Abraham Lincoln!

Robert Altman 1925

Happy Birthday! I saw McCabe and Mrs Miller when I was in gradeschool and absolutely loved it. After that I saw all of your films. Thank you master of film and the ensemble cast genre.

Monday 19 February 2007

Lucio Fontana 1899


Happy Birthday slasher!

SONIC YOUTH

I like this image of Sonic Youth a lot-it is so colourful!

Chocolat Choklad Chocolate Sjokolade Cioccolata


I LOVE CHOCOLATE! Especially the dark stuff. I like to drink hot cocoa with non-sugared whipped cream. I like to eat it, melt it, and clothe strawberries in it.
I have a theory that you can survive on chocolate, strawberries and champagne. It should cover the vitamins, minerals and protein and bubbles that you need!

Toblerone Toblertwo Toblerthree etc. is one of my favourite for weekday eating. Weekends is a different matter all together. Holidays is yet on another level!

So as a result I have a major collection of empty Toblerone boxes which I am saving to make an enormous art work.
Here are some cool images.

Carson McCullers 1917

Happy Birthday Carson!

Sunday 18 February 2007

"Guess who?"- Responses

In an earlier posting I showed a black and white photograph of a young man with very dark short hair and a wide-ish mouth.
I asked Guess who?, because it surprised me when I found out who it was.
I knew his face so well from later in his life and yet I did not immediatley recognize him.
So I was curious if anyone else would know who it was.
Some guesses have been: "Is it Manuel Noriega? or Che?" or "a young Noah?" "Is it Robert Smithson or Hugh Grant?"
I know it is a hard one. Please keep on trying and I will eventually tell all!

Toni Morrison 1931























Happy Birthday Beloved!

A Pulitzer prize winner and a Nobel prize laureate and a prolific writer and teacher. Here are some beautiful photos of her.
If you have not yet read Beloved, do so!