Welcome to Saturday ...
Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 04/04/2020 - 4:30am
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It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. ~ Claude Monet
Sunrise, 1872
~~~
Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don’t see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.
Fifty-four years before I could see
Rouen cathedral is built
of parallel shafts of sun,
and now you want to restore
my youthful errors: fixed
notions of top and bottom,
the illusion of three-dimensional space,
wisteria separate
from the bridge it covers.
What can I say to convince you
the Houses of Parliament dissolve
night after night to become
the fluid dream of the Thames?
I will not return to a universe
of objects that don’t know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent. The world
is flux, and light becomes what it touches,
becomes water, lilies on water,
above and below water,
becomes lilac and mauve and yellow
and white and cerulean lamps,
small fists passing sunlight
so quickly to one another
that I despair, my brush not being
long, streaming hair. To paint
the speed of light! Doctor,
our weighted shapes, these verticals,
burn to mix with air
and change our clothes, skin, bones
to gases. If only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim the world, blue vapor without end.
Monet Refuses the Operation ~ Lisel Mueller, 1982
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don’t see,
to learn that the line I called the horizon
does not exist and sky and water,
so long apart, are the same state of being.
Fifty-four years before I could see
Rouen cathedral is built
of parallel shafts of sun,
and now you want to restore
my youthful errors: fixed
notions of top and bottom,
the illusion of three-dimensional space,
wisteria separate
from the bridge it covers.
What can I say to convince you
the Houses of Parliament dissolve
night after night to become
the fluid dream of the Thames?
I will not return to a universe
of objects that don’t know each other,
as if islands were not the lost children
of one great continent. The world
is flux, and light becomes what it touches,
becomes water, lilies on water,
above and below water,
becomes lilac and mauve and yellow
and white and cerulean lamps,
small fists passing sunlight
so quickly to one another
that I despair, my brush not being
long, streaming hair. To paint
the speed of light! Doctor,
our weighted shapes, these verticals,
burn to mix with air
and change our clothes, skin, bones
to gases. If only you could see
how heaven pulls earth into its arms
and how infinitely the heart expands
to claim the world, blue vapor without end.
Monet Refuses the Operation ~ Lisel Mueller, 1982
~~~
Antibes in the Morning,1888
I am following Nature without being able to grasp her... ~ Monet
Port d `Amount Etretat, 1873
“Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.” ~ Monet
~~~
Comments
While visiting Monet's garden and studio,
I managed to meet Jamie Fox.
It was birds, flowers, paintings, streams, got a hug from Jamie Fox, and hilarious back and forth with him about Houston.
He is a very nice guy, was as gob smacked about the place as I was.
I love Monet.
For what it is worth, so does Jamie Fox.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Afternoon OtC, up all night
in sciatic pain. Damn, had it managed for a few good months, but, it's back with a vengeance.
Will grin and bare as going near a healthcare facility of any kind is forbidden.
Perhaps stress adds to its root cause, don't know, anyways, don't mean to be selfish in sharing this when folks have covid 19 to deal with, but the pain rules each movement.
On a positive note, each Spring wrens return to the same nest outside my downtown apt window, resting in the pocket of cable and phone line equipment on rear of building. Just a moment ago, i heard the first clear 'throated' and strong chirping for food. Brings a smile and comfort.
Every movie star needs a good attorney
Thanks for relaying that story.
Happy to read you can teleconference for the court. None of us should risk being out and about unless absolutely necessary.
Monet brought me peace and beauty around 3am this morning. Glad you love his work and visited his garden. Recall his saying he never met a rule he liked growing up and all he had acquired lives in his garden.
Be safe out there in Texas, keep those judges in line and have a couple of beers on me.
Pigeons.
White and beautiful in the paths in the garden.
Water lilies.
I was at some small café at the garden's edge. Some lady went to the take out window, said, "I am here to pick up Mr. Jamie Fox's order."
Well, that got me up and talking. She told me he would enjoy meeting me. I followed her to his limo, and he got out, talked about growing up in Houston, attending the High School for the Performing Arts...
He loved the gardens, the art, and speaking with someone who understood his youth, before all that fame and money poured on his head.
I am so sorry you are in pain. I have at least 4 friends on this site that suffer extreme pain almost constantly. I distract them from it all when I can.
Maybe my story about the movie star took your mind off of yours for a few seconds?
How about this: I snapped a picture of Mr. Bean in Dubai?
Or this: I grabbed Placido Domingo by the hand, escorted him away from that drunk woman who was trying to grab his balls in the Green Room?
I could go on, especially that time I was no more than 6 inches from Baryshnikov's body? I got past his body guards! lol!.
Gaah!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Cool beans, how's about my favorite theatre story:
Picture the matinee scene in Stratford-upon-Avon after an all night party across the street at The Dirty Duck during the second act of a play in repertory:
the stage goes silent, no actor moves or says anything, frozen, audience in anticipation hears backstage footsteps then the sound of pages of a script being rifled through followed by a faint whisper from backstage; still no actor moves or speaks; the backstage voice grows louder, nothing, louder, nothing, then at full volume... from center stage, Dame Judi Dench turns her head to stage left and says "We know the line love, we just don't know who says it!"
Good one!
I can't remember the opera, but Milnes was singing when the back drop fell to the floor.
He kept singing, didn't even get startled by the loud bang when it hit the floor.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Had that happen in Summer Stock, here's another one:
Drawing room set, Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud on stage, a backstage sound tech switches the phone to ring by mistake, Ralph and John pause, look at each other...Ralph walks over to the set-prop phone, picks it up, says hello, looks at Gielgud and says "Its for you."
Cheers for taking thee pain away.
focusing on the fuzz
rather than the divisions
great stuff!
thanks smiley
question everything
Agree, marvelous poem by Mueller, OMS, felt the
timeliness and wisdom learned from a lifetime in its reading.
Be safe out there.
Good morning
Monet is a fave, thanks smiley.
Spring cascades onward. So many colors of green as the trees leaf out.
So curious staying home and pondering the world's fate as we spin into economic collapse while the market gains and we throw what wealth remains at oil production in an effort to maintain the failed system. Then I go back to the garden and let the earth absorb the doubts and restore the wonder.
Frost's 'A Prayer in Spring"
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.
EDIT to add: 3 min visit to Monet's garden
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjWx2WNXFF4]
Have a good weekend everyone!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Afternoon Lookout,
Thank you for the Frost and video of Monet's Garden, splendid to witness the scenes he painted.
Oil reins as calves of gold; and damn the daylight pilfering of medical supplies by the Whitehouse, putting them into the hands of 'commerce,' brokers, for resale to the highest bidder; and apparently stealing form other countries to boot. Scum in charge, makes one sick.
Lede story in local paper today, our regional hospital system asking for donations of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. Damn, know they can't handle what's coming.
Photos of up top here on April fool's day:
Enjoy the gardening and be safe out there.
Thank You! Be still, my heart, those poems heal my broken spirit
n/t
https://www.euronews.com/live
My pleasure, mimi, be still and safe out there.
Thanks Smiley for the Monet this morning
Does make you look at the world from a different perspective. Am in Austin and my relatives backyard is shaded by some immense live oaks and a green belt behind them. We are receiving a lot of rain but in breaks eating or sitting outside and you can imagine sitting with you.
Brother in law has started a garden and we are getting some lettuce and spinach and things are coming up nicely.
Hope all have a wonderful weekend and can spend some time in Monet's garden.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Afternoon jb,
Thinking of you under those trees watching the green shoots burst from the earth and grow.
Austin must be gorgeous in Spring. We had snow the other day, but the green season tries to break through giving us little tastes of the beauty to come.
Best wishes and regards to your family and please be safe out there.
Good morning smiley
and all. Thank you smiley for the beautiful OT. I second the "great stuff" sentiment.
It is raining here in south central Tejas as jakkalbessie mentioned above. It's a soft, gentle, quiet rain and has been that way for days. The soil, the trees, the plants are all taking it in. The colors outside are gray with many variations of green and there is a blurry, hazy, indistinct, impressionistic, ephemeral feeling about it all.
I love the poem, and the art, and the people here, you guys are great stuff.
Afternoon randtntx,
We're there in your words.
Hey, forgive me, been meaning to write to you having missed replying to several wonderful comments you wrote on c99 these recent weeks.
Love your sensitivity, clear-headed thinking and special caring for others.
So fortunate to, as you say, have wonderful people here, you, sir, help make it so.
Please be safe out there.
Good morning smiley, thank you. Beautiful pictures and
poem. It is slated to rain later today, but is nice now. We're skipping farmers' market today and hence will putter about here on odds and ends and watching the antics of our avian friends in the yard. May post some tunes later in the day.
Thanks for providing such a wonderful start to the day.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Afternoon el,
Read an article from BBC about San Francisco sourdough this week:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20200402-why-san-francisco-does-sourdoug...
and thought of you.
Hope you found flour. Simple tasks a challenge with back and sciatic pain, even cooking. Doing the little things i can to ease this exacerbation, but if past is prologue, oh hell.
News stories of food banks fill our daily paper. Regional supplier to about 400 charities in the high country under pressure apparently. Mostly deserted, university, main street and old downtown, activity out in the shopping wally-world area.
Thanks for being here and be safe.
Ah, not so good. Familair with that, too, too familiar
I assume you're an old pro at the problem, like myself, and don't need suggestions and advice, so I won't go there. Do get better an do what you can to get there.
be well and have the best day and weekend that you can.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Beautiful OT
Your words and Monet’s colors set the tone while I muster up the energy to engage in the world around me today.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Afternoon Anja,
Does take an extra amount of energy in lifting this global weight made deep by the incompetence of thieves. Beauty does help universally.
Know you've additional concern working in the public sphere. Thank you. And i know you bring joy and peace to those you encounter.
Not lately
Hahaha!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
It is necessary to love.
It is the blurry view of things when you cry yourself to sleep
When you awaken to cry again
That waking moment of the day
When your eyes clear and you see life without love
Yet love softens the harsh edges
of your fleeting clarity
And you return to the blur, and the softness
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Touching and true, OtC, touching in love, Thank you.
smiley7,
I actually described my life as it is right now.
He is such a good man.
When our ships passed through the night, I abandoned mine, boarded his, and only he knows where he is steering, and where we will dock.
Well, no need to buy artificial tears!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I remember reading someone saying that Monet
was only an eye, but, oh, what an eye. I thought it was dismissive at the time. But after reading about his choice to keep his cataracts, it sounds true.
We never visited his gardens, but we did visit the Musee D’Orsay where the works of his eye and his heart glow with the light he loved.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Afternoon Lily O Lady,
Never tire of Monet's work. Happy we share in his passion.
Be safe out there.
You too smiley. I’m on the couch right now with
a heating pad on my sciatica. It can help quiet it. I do have 4 pain pills left in case I really over-do and need a little pain vacation. I have over 30 Salonpas lidocaine patches which can help too. I’m so sorry you had such a bad night. I hope tonight is better for you and sunrise brings you joy,
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Is anybody going to watch Jimmy Dore Live today?
His newsflash was that Bernie is dropping his call for MfA during the pandemic!
That was probably his only real chance to beat Biden.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Hola
This little book is magic. His exercises have saved me again and again over the years.
Treat Your Own Back: McKenzie, Robin A.: 9780959774665: Amazon.com: Books
https://www.amazon.com/Treat-Your-Back-Robin-McKenzie/dp/0959774661
Hope it can help. I have shown the simple exercises to many people over the years and generally makes a huge difference.
Be sage and feel better.
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'ello magi,
Thanks for the McKenzie book link. i do use a couple of his good exercises. You may have turned me on to him a couple of years ago as i recall asking the therapists of last year if they had studied his method. It is amazing how the simple repetitions when doing exercises correctly help. And were it not for covid 19, i would return to the wonderful therapist who guided me the last six months of last year. That's not going to be a reality for months, i imagine, making it more important for me to dutifully repeat McKenzie's drills along with others i've learned.
Good info, hope others in pain see this thread.
Worry about those fired adjuncts, having been fired, they most likely won't qualify for unemployment, so their bad situation made worse.
Thanks again and be safe in California.
BtW, the Wren chicks singing voraciously out the window today, reassuring notes.
maybe you can do a video
appointment with her. May be better than nothing. Yes, my experience is that they work. And also I often don't do them until I am in real pain. They still work but I would do better to head the early signs. Take good care.
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