Posted on: October 31, 2008
I didn’t make it to all the way to the Falls. Was within half a mile or so before time ran out. Someone turned out the lights on the great painting in the sky.
I still found some green and blue peace and more. I found a vision and learned how certain cameras can not handle what comes out of that great painting in the sky. One has to prepare for such things and I didn’t. Next time.
How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! — Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J.S. Cooper, 1880
I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. — John Muir, 1913.
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Posted on: October 28, 2008
The Flight of the Red Balloon
Just watched Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s wonderful film, The Flight of the Red Balloon. Set in a glowing, shadowy, geometric and abstract Paris, it stars Juliette Binoche as Suzanne, and Simon Iteanu as her son Simon. Simon’s nanny, a young film student from China, is played by Song Fang. I’m not sure who plays the red flotation device.
The film is a homage to Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 classic, The Red Balloon, but doubles and echoes and adds new layers. The nanny shoots film footage in Paris, incorporating her new charge, Simon, and his hovering red friend and we see both the internal and the external. We watch the film within the film and think about what that hovering balloon may be pointing to. The freedom, the joy, the hope of childhood and the things we can’t reach.
Nearly every frame is an abstract painting in and of itself.…
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Posted on: October 27, 2008
Vienna Teng.
One of my favorite recent discoveries is the music of Vienna Teng. I love the name. She chose it. It fits. A Taiwanese-American singer/songwriter from California, Vienna has a gorgeous, angelic voice that exudes intelligent sweetness, but is never saccharine.
She has called her music “Chamber Folk”, which rings true. Influenced by Classical, Jazz, Folk and Pop, Vienna Teng sings on the edge of discovery. She flies higher, but doesn’t overreach. When she is not singing, just talking, she sounds more than down to earth. She seems relaxed about her place on the surface of this planet. But music lifts her off that surface again and again and again.
From her myspace page:
Influences: My parents’ record collection: Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Mozart and Beethoven, 60s Mandarin pop. That’s what I started with and it’ll never leave me. Later on, pianist-songwriters: Elton John, Billy Joel, Tori Amos.
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Posted on: October 23, 2008
Yongzheng Emperor and Deer. China. 1723 – 1735
Want to point to the new poetry below by
Aleksandar Novakovich and a return visit by
Desi Di Nardo. Strong poets from the Balkans and Canada, respectively. Please comment on their works and let them know your impressions.
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Now, for that digression. Albeit brief. I recently heard an interesting fact on the radio. Deer like the grass on the side of the road because it is more loaded with certain kinds of nutrients they need. It’s loaded with that nutrition primarily because we mow the grass along side our roads continuously. Deer are attracted to that grass, and can’t really judge the speed of cars on the highway. Hence the accidents. In addition, the months of October and November is their time to get ready for the Winter, to fatten up, to prepare.…
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