Loveseat
August 08th, 20188/8/2018 Joseph Brodsky wrote about "switching off" and the way art can help to cope with the noise around one: "art is not a better, but an alternative existence . . . not an attempt to escape reality but the opposite, an attempt to animate it." Rachel Wiseman commenting on Brodsky's words continued: "(Art) can model independent thought and attentiveness, preserving not just the integrity of the self but also that of the culture one sees being degraded before one's eyes . . . Switching off is not about wallowing in silence or withdrawing into blissful ignorance; it is about making sure that the static doesn't deafen you to music." Given the climate of our time, our lives and our discourse need something to animate them. And attentiveness (paying close attention) to the music (art) in our lives is one way to do that . . .
August 04th, 20188/4/2018 I am thinking about a 2 week(!) bus tour of the Midwest. Plane travel is so god-awful that I thought I'd give this a try. I took such a tour (much shorter) to Savannah some time ago, and it was ok. I'd be traveling up through Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and into Michigan to Mackinac Island. Then on to the Wisconsin Dells and back through Illinois, Tennessee and home. It's during the peak of the hurricane season, so I might be able to bypass some of that . . .
August 01st, 20188/1/2018 I'm reading Robin Kelsey's book on chance in photography, and in one chapter he focuses attention on Julia Margaret's Cameron's allowing chance to show clearly in her work (he calls the chapter on her work "Julia Margaret Cameron transfigures the glitch." Chance certainly plays a (large) role in photography. Some time ago a barge became stranded on St Pete beach (the Gulf at low tide leaves a lot of beach just barely or not covered by water). I thought that might make an interesting image: I like old rusty hulks anyway so one stranded on the beach sounded like a good possibility. But when I got there, the tide was in and so instead of sitting on the sand, it was off in the distance. And yet . . . It's sort of interesting, I think. Especially with the strong waves and the light shining on the water—and the barely recognizable barge (and I think the other boat meant to pull it off the beach) there right on the edge between sea and sky. Not a "perfect" image perhaps, but still interesting perhaps because of "glitches."
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