Saturday, November 7, 2009

dull sublunary lovers


i like this clifford harper drawing in today's guardian


there but for fortune go you or i ...






returning from last night's concert and crossing the thames reminded me of a famous verse ...
The Embankment
( The fantasia of a Fallen Gentleman on a Cold, Bitter Night)



Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,


In a flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.


Now see I


That warmth`s the very stuff of poesy.




Oh, God, make small


The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,


That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.


T. E. Hulme (1883 - 1917)
the picture is picture from ... http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091001.html

waiting for the girls to play us a bit of corelli in the norfolk room


competition time



































a double first question, indicative of the author's distasteful curiosity about the enigmatic gender:


about the lady who wore this dress ... might she have swayed ? or wriggled ?


and a question of taste for the aesthete:


which of these teapots from the same small room in the V&A might she have chosen for brewing the first cup of the day ?

Sunday, November 1, 2009

a good friend retires tomorrow ...


... so i've borrowed two of robert crumb's immortal images for this "cheapskate's card"


Saturday, October 31, 2009

mens' talk ... instead of thinking about the dishes, he's thinking "lucky arsenal !"


1001 uses ... anti-tilt storage mechanism


1001 uses ... safe storage of little pointy scissorzez


3BT, well maybe 2not-quite-soBT at the V&A last night

A Dickensian/Gothick tableau in the darkened cafe ... an actor face-painted in red personifying Death, sits down at long straight table with an imposing retinue of sinister companions, some of the men with tall hats, the women plumed or tiara-d, each one strikingly elegant and sinister in black.

In the Japanese gallery, a treasure house of joyfully aspirational marvels and perfections, a row of very young people, too young to properly know the tragic passions and the deadly sins, sitting cross-legged in eager anticipation to watch an old black-and-white fillum of the visceral Japanese ghost tale, Onibaba.

The luminous and never ending life-stream of interesting bodies and faces and fashions and fancy-dress entering this great museum as if it were their second home.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

the child that books built








i felt myself drawn to the open door of a charity shop which usually fails to entice ... i spotted this book immediately and remembered the author's name being favourably reviewed elsewhere in recent years ... it is deeply engaging and occasionally challenging ... what's more ... the bbc have archived the author's reflections on the writing of it in five very short talks totalling about twenty minutes

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

inside the oranges and lemons church, saint clement danes




rootin' around

i've been plodding through the internet thingy, trying to discover the name of a girl, or girls, who sang a reggae version of the cliff richard hit "the young ones" back in the early eighties

no luck so far

but i did stumble upon a theological critique of popular singing that shouldn't have taken me by surprise, but quite startled me

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1786&CATE=142

Monday, October 12, 2009

'ow vexatious !























i'm still perplexed by this painting, a multiple portrait of the saltonstall family

second wife is sitting at the right holding the new baby, detached, expressionless

first wife, deceased, lays on the bed with eyes open holding out her hand

the tate gallery say she is gesturing towards her children

but every time i look at the painting, i think he is about to drop that glove into the palm of her hand

and if he was, then what did the glove or the action signify ?

the artist, thought to have been david des granges, left no explanation

the tate gallery website carries two descriptions of the work ...

http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999968&workid=3821&searchid=15051

https://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=3821&searchid=10739&roomid=false&tabview=text&texttype=9

Maybe this item on the symbolism of gloves in Freemasonry offers a clue:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/sof/sof22.htm

... and this one by a glovemaker ...

http://www.glove.org/gallery/mirianna.php

Etc., etc.

So I've reached a point where I'm prepared to believe that both ladies are dressed in white to show their innocence before their "Maker", and that the glove itself may possibly symbolize the honest and legal transfer of their property when the ownership of various estates was changed by marriage.

Much, much later ... THINKS: possibly, the dead lady is gesturing a request that he continue to care for their children after his second marriage, and maybe  the white glove signifies his honourable assent.