Links - a few words

Under the heading of Links in the right hand column of this blog I have listed those links which I have found of interest over this past year. If you think you know some that may be interesting to me from what you can tell by looking at DJANG please do leave the link as a comment. See below. I can then look them up in my own time and possibly add them.
Most of the links are art related and I hope you enjoy browsing them!
The most recent are at the top.

Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag photographed by Peter Hujar.
She was born today in 1933 in NYC, although she grew up in Tucson, Arizona. She went to university in Chicago later returning to NYC.
Thirty years ago I read a great deal of SS when I was at art school/college; On Photography, Against Interpretation, Illness as Metaphor etc.
Later when I lived in NYC I saw her around; at the cinema, and the theatre, all downtown of course.
She was/is a very readable intellectual and I felt comfortable and stimulated with and by her books and ideas.
I am not "an intellectual" as such although I am interested in ideas.
Sontag, Bachelard, Daumal, Irigaray, Berger et al were the food for thought at the time I was a student. Sontag followed me through my continued life and I read and re-read her work until quite recently.
After she died I learned so much more about her personal life than when she was alive. I am not certain I wanted or even needed to know. Privacy is so rare to have and to keep these days. Not that it matters when you are dead I suppose. But it matters to me when I am left behind.
Is it knowing someone when you hear about their daily life or is it knowing someone when you read their work? Everyone has a day to day existence, not everyone writes good books. Although I am not saying it has to be mutually exclusive of course.
One thing I remember distinctly when she was interviewed by Terry Gross for NPR when her novel the Volcano Lover came out was that she said "Beauty was important to her".
Beauty as in beautiful people.
I thought about it for myself and realised beauty is very important to me also, but mainly in the landscape which surrounds me. That is very crucial to my well-being.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Below with son Dexter Scott.

Born today in 1929. Thank you for living your life like you did to the full.

Happy Sandy!

Today is Alexander Calder's birthday, I should probably write was. His work is so lively and imaginative. He seemed to have fun. Sometimes that is what it can all be about, simply "having fun"!
He was Sandy to his friends. I knew a woman who knew him in Paris and she had a lovely little mobile by him that he had given her.
He made things out of wire, and out of practically anything he could create a whole world e.g. the circus at the Whitney in NYC.
When I was growing up I used to ride the revolving sculptures the Four Elements outside the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. It was so exciting, and so scary at times...I am sure it was not allowed. Health and safety and all that...jazz.
He loved music which seems obvious, does it not?
Can't you hear it when you see his work?

More beauty

Isn't it gorgeous?

Bluefire jellyfish.

Jimmy Page

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin born today in 1944. I did not own many albums when I was a kid. My pocket money situation prohibited aquiring records. I had to wait for birthdays or Christmas. Led Zeppelin 3 was one of those few albums. I loved it listening to it over and over and over.

David and Stephen don't have today in common

Stephen Hawking's birthday is today and David Bowie's birthday is tomorrow.
But they DO have other things in common!