Welcome to Saturday ...

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 4:27am

Pause, labour on this

Space left by a melting block of glacial ice

Virginal decorations.
The pain of countless upside-down candles.
The branches and flowers of transparent trees.
The rumble of infinity’s mirror
and the sudden spasm of house windows.

My whole body.
In the fossilized water that brightens day by day
my desire still swims.
I, bastard child of the giant chandelier called the blue sky.
No one calls me the sphinx of love.

In a jasper fable, my dream
glittered all the more blue.

The Fish’s Desire ~ translated from the Japanese by Mary Jo Bang and Yuki Tanaka

~ Virtue is not a chemical product...it is a historic product, like language and literature; and this means that if we cease to care about it, cease to cultivate it, cease to transmit its funded values, a large part of it will become meaningless, like a dead language to which we have lost the key. ~ Lewis Mumford

Guatemalan migrant Ledy Pérez embraces her son, Anthony, while praying to ask a member of the Mexican national guard to let them cross into the US, as seen from Ciudad Juárez.
~ José Luis González

Man's Chief purpose is the creation and preservation of values; that is what gives meaning to our civilization, and the participation in this is what gives significance, ultimately, to the individual human life. ~ Mumford

Rejecting social norms is a process of destruction: refusing to be defined primarily by what others think you should be, how you are supposed to act, and the choices you are supposed to make. Partying can involve a similar act of destroying such expectations, as well as expending time, money, food, drink and brain cells. Some might call this a waste, but what are we saving ourselves for? A good life isn’t always a long one, and a long life isn’t necessarily a happy or fulfilled one. Rather, what’s important is to embrace life passionately. Existence is a process of spending ourselves, and sometimes requires leaving our former selves behind to create ourselves anew, thrusting forward into the future, disclosing our being into new realms. We do this by opening ourselves to, and playing with, possibilities. https://aeon.co/ideas/being-and-drunkenness-how-to-party-like-an-existen...

We must give as much weight to the arousal of the emotions and to the expression of moral and esthetic values as we now give to science, to invention, to practical organization. One without the other is impotent. ~ Mumford

Today's feature photo:

Today's sculpture ~ Olafur Eliasson

Tour de France photo ~ The Guardian

Tags:

Open Thread

Vote

Comments

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 6:13am

All the heroes came to the show and after party,

in rapid-fire scenes we greeted each other in indulgence fair, smiling ,.. sweet dreams.

"The sun comes up, i think about you."

Have a great one.

Submitted by QMS on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 8:09am

Happy Saturday smiley

Imagine you are doing real good. The painting of the of the open ~~mind~~ mine reminds one of the descriptions of the quarry guy in Atlas Shrugged.

Some might call this a waste, but what are we saving ourselves for?

living like there is no tomorrow.

—

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 11:06am

Good morning, QMS,

@QMS

Some might call this a waste, but what are we saving ourselves for?

Found Skype C Cleary's article Being and drunkenness: how to party like an existentialist roused my senses this past week, indeed, what are we saving ourselves for? According to aeon, she is the author of Existentialism and Romantic Love (2015) and coeditor of How to Live a Good Life (2019). She is the lead editor of the Blog of the American Philosophical Association and teaches at Columbia and Barnard College.

A little more from the article:

De Beauvoir wrote of her wartime parties in occupied Paris: they saved up food stamps and then binged on food, fun and alcohol. They danced, sang, played music and improvised. The artist Dora Maar mimed bullfights, Sartre mimed orchestra-conducting in a cupboard, and Albert Camus banged on saucepan lids as if in a marching band. De Beauvoir wrote that: ‘We merely wanted to snatch a few nuggets of sheer joy from this confusion and intoxicate ourselves with their brightness, in defiance of the disenchantments that lay ahead.’ These were small acts of rebellion in the face of real fears for the future.

Happy day to you, too.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 12:46pm

Fantastic. Sounds like a great article and policy. I love the

@smiley7
description of De Bouvier's parties.

—

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 --

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 12:53pm

me, too. :)

@enhydra lutris

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 8:45am

Good morning

smiley. Thanks for your interesting OT. I'm musing over it in my disjointed confused way but it's knocking my brain around and I can't quite figure out why.

The poem is beautiful, especially;

branches and flowers of transparent trees...
rumble of infinity’s mirror... sudden spasm of house windows.

It makes me want to dive in, but fish wants to dive in the other way...or does he?

I have not read Mumford (I know you referenced him before) but (finally) I looked him up...
amazing...now I want to read him. This Mumford quote caught my eye as I was scanning through his bio:

In the suburb one might live and die without marring the image of an innocent world, except when some shadow of evil fell over a column in the newspaper. Thus the suburb served as an asylum for the preservation of illusion. Here domesticity could prosper, oblivious of the pervasive regimentation beyond. This was not merely a child-centered environment; it was based on a childish view of the world, in which reality was sacrificed to the pleasure principle.[13]

This seems to me to aptly describe a certain group of people today, now, while we teeter on the brink of disaster (deep breath).

When we juxtapose the above described illusion with the photo of Ledy Perez and her child, the wisdom of your Mumford quote is clear.

We must give as much weight to the arousal of the emotions and to the expression of moral and esthetic values as we now give to science, to invention, to practical organization. One without the other is impotent. ~ Mumford

The Italian rappers? What a beautiful language, I wish I could speak it, understanding it would be nice as well. I hope you will clue us in and tell us what they are saying.

Funny 'Tour' picture. Twenty miles uphill today, through the Alps. Hail yesterday with a delay, mudslides possible today? I catch bits and pieces of it and watch it with no sound, can't abide the talking heads.
Best to you smiley.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 11:27am

Hi randtntx,

@randtntx

Glad you enjoyed the poem; having spent many hours of my life in water communing with fishes; i think i would enjoy trading places at times.

Yes, to reading Mumford; incredible thinker, i humbly owe much to having studied him, though much i learned has atrophied. His works stand the test of time and the bedrock in values he often points to comes to us through hundreds of generations pouring blood in arriving at good places today. Often overlooked in history and social studies, the sacrifices made by those long gone which informs societies today.

Wish i could understand the language, too, in the Primo Maggio artist's videos; I ran across them in autoplay and being mesmerized, i included them today because of the energy, costumes and tones of the festival; i felt instantly as though they are rapping for me; took a risk that they aren't spouting some bull. Sorry i don't know the lyrics.

Yea, the Tour de France photo makes one ponder, doesn't it?

Thank you for reading and responding, written in hopes you've a marvelous day and productive week.

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 9:30am

Your painting of the quarry...

looks like a Thomas Hart Benton to me.

Here's one of a miner's strike...

https://thomashartbenton.org/artwork/

He is one of my faves. I love his murals.

Great wading pool shot today...
Thanks for the OT and poetry

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 11:39am

Good morning, Lookout,

@Lookout

Yes, the painting is from a WPA artist and i'm trying to identify the artist, maybe a c99er will chime in.

Thanks for the link to the great Benton.

Doing a series on WPA artists and the underlying imperative that we launch a renewed or new WPA effort to build and educate community in all things lives in the recesses, finding the time to do a decent job of it seems to be in my way; waiting for the wall to fall, the day-today challenges to subside, and so on...plunged in a little today; hopefully, more to come.

Fantastic, heaven weather graced us these past days; hope your mountain benefited from the cool as well.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 7:15am

I thought I might toss this in very late.

@smiley7 @smiley7 @smiley7 @smiley7 The labor, WPA painting reminds me of some of the WPA paintings hung in Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, Oregon.

http://friendsoftimberline.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/FotArtBrochure...

WPA art of Timberline Lodge

PDF. But easy. It looks like a number of artists worked in a similar block style.

Edit to add:

https://clackamasartsalliance.org/event/timberline-lodge-self-guided-art...

My DH and I were married there, in the Raven's Loft. Huge timber and stone building. We walked in and out to a piper. The sound in those great halls was awe inspiring. One of my BILs said if he was in a battle and heard pipers coming, he'd have run.

—

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 9:01am

Beautiful memories, Dawn, anything

@Dawn's Meta
about glorious Oregon floods my heart with days in the Park in Ashland with toddling son. Thank yo for the great links, I see "The Importance of Being Earnest is playing in Lake Oswego; great fun for any actor and audience.

Been skiing there, but missed going to Timberline; maybe in future i can journey there.

It's easy to imagine the cultural significance FDR's WPA Art's project made on citizen's thinking; this is what we need again, a wholesale country-wide effort to revive the conversation of what it is to be human, and imo, no one does that better than artists.

Thanks for reading and contributing and hope it's cooling down for you folks.

Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 10:26am

We've been following Le Tour de France...

@smiley7 The country has been blanketed by quite severe T-Storms depending where you are. The cool down has been really a relief, although the hail and wind with fast downpours has caused problems.

The first ever abandonment of a stage and shortening of the race because of mountain gushers and landslides along with hail (grêle) like snow.

Very late cool and wet Spring into early Summer; followed by sudden intense heat, 10C above average, has us in whiplash.

Hope one of those artists relates to your painting. Thanks for your wonderful compilations.

—

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 9:41am

Morning smiley. Fantastic lead-off picture, thanks. The usual

Saturday routing is beginning to slowly unfold. It's the end of my week to cook, so my wife is mostly in charge of today's farmers' market except for the salmon and sides for tonight. Getting my office a tiny bit organized and de-cluttered as a result of having to replace my printer. How one thing leads to another is frightening sometimes. Plus all my instinctive reach and grab moves now come up empty or get the wrong stuff. Heh. There's a metaphor for life in there somewhere.

Bern roasting down here, though not like back east I see. Foggy this am reminds me that we're 4 weeks out from next camping trip, up to foggy, cool/cold, blustery Mendo coast with forested cliffs overlooking the ocean. Starting internal mantra/reminder "pack warm" triggering early prep plus crazy questions like "take the monster coat?". First have to get thru today and this week, however, so up and at them, as they say.

Have a great day and weekend.

—

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 --

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 11:53am

Good morning, el,

A long day yesterday, drove a great, friend, my sidekick, ski-bum, instructor of our vintage over into East, TN. His old Dodge pick-up hit the dust so we went shopping for a good used 4x4 heavy duty pickup for him, a hard to come by inexpensively vehicle, in these environs, at least.

We found one, A 2005, with only 68,000 miles on it and purchased it at less than it's wholesale value, returned to home after dark, a real outing and thankfully with a good ending.

Hope to camp out with my son and daughter-in-law in a few weeks, looking forward to their company.

Busy looking for a set of tires; appears, it's best to order online, have them shipped and mounted locally.

All's well that ends well, someone said; anyways thanks for reading and have a wonderful day and week.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 1:18pm

Tires

@smiley7

it's best to order online, have them shipped and mounted locally.

Just went through that for our little travel trailer. No real options. Early ultra-light so oddball size not readily available. Local ma and pa RV parts, supplies and light repair plae ordered them for me, and I had a regular local tire place mount them. Satisfactory all the way around.

—

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 --

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 12:29pm

thank you smiley, you reminded me how beautiful

Italian music can be. When you follow the news here (Germany), you don't get that side. It is all 'the ugly Italians' now. So, I don't follow any news anymore, nowhere.
Let me know when 'the ugly man' over there is gone. May be then I will come back to bother for the news again.

Have a wonderful day, a cool breeze and some temperatures around the 80 F.
Be well.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 12:41pm

Hi mimi,

@mimi

Hope the heat is subsiding for you all in Europe.

Happy you enjoyed the videos. Thanks for being here and have a great one.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 4:45pm

mimi,

@mimi

Submitted by Shahryar on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 1:24pm

Bill Haley - anti-union?

The original by Little Richard talks about the "shag on down by the union hall". Here, Bill Haley specifically changes it to "by the social hall". I say "specifically" because there's no way Haley could have misheard Little Richard's lyric.

The offending change is at 31 seconds.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdlfZ4213zM]

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 2:51pm

Good catch, Shahryar,

@Shahryar

Don't know the answer to "is he anti-union." Remember the "Shag" though.

Thanks for reading and and sharing the vid; hoping you two have a wonderful West Coast afternoon and week.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 1:36pm

Immediately catches the eye

The contrast, both in the starkness of the landscape and the visceral power of the first painting you included is just brilliant. Is there any back ground, or attribution for that painting?

The feeling the painting conjured up reminded me of a similar experience. Many years ago while visiting the Detriot Institute of Art, I stood mesmerized by a series of frescoes from the Mexican artist Diego Rivera.

Painted in 1932-1933, and commissioned by one of the curators of the museum, the murals were meant to depict labor and industry at the Ford Motor Company. But what Rivera created, to my eye and soul anyway, depicted so much more.

Hope everyone is doing well. I have an ambitious weekend ahead. Will need to aggressively flea treat the house and all the cats, as well as tailor a onesie for Pierre to wear as an alternative to the recovery collar before she loses the will to live. Yesterday I found her "resting" in her litter box. Very disturbing.

Please send good thoughts to Pierre and me. We need them.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 2:59pm

Love Diego Rivera, Anja,

@Anja Geitz

Thanks for sharing the work; sorry the painter still eludes my searching. Very happy folks appreciate this magnificent WPA work. Perhaps our art friend will come by and inform us.

Sending good vibes to you and Pierre. May the spirits protect and guide you.

Submitted by mhagle on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 5:47pm

Thought provoking OT and comments . . .

I enjoyed the Italian rapper as well.

This quote moved me "what's important is to embrace life passionately":

Rejecting social norms is a process of destruction: refusing to be defined primarily by what others think you should be, how you are supposed to act, and the choices you are supposed to make. Partying can involve a similar act of destroying such expectations, as well as expending time, money, food, drink and brain cells. Some might call this a waste, but what are we saving ourselves for? A good life isn’t always a long one, and long life isn’t necessarily a happy or fulfilled one. Rather, what’s important is to embrace life passionately. Existence is a process of spending ourselves and sometimes requires leaving our former selves behind to create ourselves anew, thrusting forward into the future, disclosing our being into new realms. We do this by opening ourselves to and playing with, possibilities.

Some may enjoy this Oprah interview with David Brooks, a conservative NYT columnist. I don't know if he calls himself conservative anymore as he has undergone quite a transformation since 2013.
[video:https://youtu.be/ISion517BDU]
The full podcast interview is here.
[video:https://youtu.be/ov_tkLoe8xA]

It inspired me.

Thanks for everything!

—

Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 6:53am

David Brock had a lot of different faces

@mhagle
so this video with Oprah (didn't know she still does those, as I never watched her own network), isn't really a surprise. It might be touching to you, to me it is just another edition of Oprah and Brocks 2.0 or something. That may be harsh and of the rail, but then I can't watch US TV in Germany. So, I am out of the game.

Chacun son goût.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by mhagle on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 7:23am

You might like some of her stuff . . .

@mimi

Really. You might like some of it. These Super Soul Sundays have interesting people and she is a great interviewer. It is not all spiritual. Mostly practical.

—

Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Submitted by smiley7 on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 9:09am

Hi Marilyn,

@mhagle

Thank you for contributing the videos. A pleasure to see Brooks tempering his position on all things Republican; now if more with powerful pens and camera faces follow suit and realize that Bernie offers us an opportunity of a lifetime to take on the machine.

Always a pleasure to see you posting, thanks for being here ... onward.

Submitted by magiamma on Sat, 07/27/2019 - 7:17pm

late afternoon howdy, smiley

Thanks for the poems and the pics. I agree that we have to keep our souls fed and alive. More so now than ever.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_yxtaeFuEQ]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_ZnJCMQqwo]

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8ZWXfYLwUU]

Be well and have a good evening...

—

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Submitted by smiley7 on Sun, 07/28/2019 - 9:20am

Your 'Splendid' music greated the day with fresh Kona

@magiamma
coffee which arrived from Hawaii yesterday. The combo makes my Bedroom in Arles a castle. It's a beautiful day in the mountains, going to get out into the wilderness this afternoon.

Bookmarked this article for you: Trees share water to keep this dying stump alive: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/trees-share-water-keep-dying-stu...