Sunday, August 9, 2009

aaargh! more frigging needlework problems

i bought a hat

because i like the blue colour ...

because the real cotton is nice and soft ...

even though the brim was far too wide and silly ...

so then i set to with my little scissors and have only just discovered that the stitching on the brim is not concentric but spirals in or out depending which way you look at it

will this qualify me for free treatment as a fashion victim ?

Saturday, August 8, 2009

an unwillingness to believe three impossible things before breakfast

surely not ...


... the back side of my work trousers was disfigured by a split of san andreas proportions


... and the top button at the front had suddenly popped off


... and, with not even the slightest hint of compassion from the loved one, i had to repair the damage myself !


Tuesday, July 28, 2009

prospero's books


i've just found a couple of extracts from peter greenaway's film, prospero's books, on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j72jnYTePU8



i have difficulty in essaying a short description


at the core of the film is john gielgud delivering, or rather, exploring the text of shakespeare's tempest, the text so slowly and delicately phrased, with much joyful repetition, so that it gathers meaning with each newly heard utterance


the story is presented as if through a prism of the printed culture of the times ... in episodes that are presented as if coming off the pages of alchemical books in the enchanter king's library ... maybe it was greenaway's and gielgud's meditation on the lost riches of superstitious imaginings

it was certainly gielgud's last big statement on the beauty of words


to make thing even more enigmatic, and for me more enchanting, the whole performance progresses within a stately whirl of dance and music, much of it inexplicable, much of it exquisitely beautiful, everything being staged in what might pass for a polymath humanist's laudanum hallucination


i saw it several times in the early nineties but have never been able to acquire it on dvd, and i can't remember the last time there was an opportunity to see it in a cinema


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero%27s_Books

Prospero:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.

marina ginesta at the hotel colon, barcelona, 1936













... serendipitously discovered just now via the spanish blogger gastropitecus-gloton ...




window-shopping in new bond street ... what can you buy for the woman who has everything ?


Monday, July 27, 2009

they might as well have given a man with toothache a poke in the eye

























Having been, for nearly all of the last sixty years, pathologically impecunious, I've always felt uncomfortable in Oxford Street; one of the ugliest in London and thronged with shoppers who have no taste, so I avoid it at all costs.


Particularly dismal is the huge facade of Selfridges, a baleful temple, if ever there was, of commodity fetishism.


Then i learned that there is a clock above the main entrance designed by Gilbert Bayes, and so I went along with an open mind this afternoon after work, hoping to be pleased.


Not a bit of it. If anything, despite the masterly complexity of the accomplished craftsmanship, it seemed astonishingly drab in spirit ... somehow lacking Bayes' usual exuberance and/or tenderness ... two of the "must-have" qualities that i "demand" from artists.


Never mind ... i still like his stuff in the V& A, and on Shaftesbury Avenue.
POSTSCRIPT ... twenty minutes later, I found myself leaning across the railings to get a better view of an ancient ?Tang? camel, terracotta, partly glazed in yellows and ochres, proudly displayed in Eskenazi's window in Clifford Street. All my cares vanished.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Saturday, July 18, 2009

a hungry heron on clapham common


downtown sophistication on lavender hill


portrait of the "artist"


oh, really ? fortunately, most of the girls around here are too busy dancing on the tables ...



















Proverbs 31:10-31 (King James Version)

10Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

11The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.

12She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

13She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

14She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

15She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

16She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.

18She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.

19She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.

20She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

21She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

22She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

23Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.

24She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.

25Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

26She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

28Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

29Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.

30Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be
praised.

31Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.