Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness.
George Santayana
**********************
Hello Stuart
*********************
Philosophy is a deep pit which once you fall into it you might not get out. But it's walls are painted with fabulous and beautiful scenes. There are strange objects to discover, precious jewels and lights in a vast array of colors, some of them very bright. One of those who left his gems down in the pit was the Spanish philosopher Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás (George Santayana , 1863 - 1952).
As a philosopher Santayana was also a prophet. He was a naturalist before it was popular. He was a multiculturalist before it was popular. And he believed in philosophy as literature which eventually became the style of many American philosophers.
He wrote on art:
"An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world."
"Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors."
"The degree in which a poet's imagination dominates reality is, in the end, the exact measure of his importance and dignity."
He wrote of knowledge:
"Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds."
"Knowledge is recognition of something absent, it is a salutation, not an embrace."
"I believe in general in a dualism between facts and the idea of those facts in the human head."
On living in general:
"Happiness is the only sanction of life; when happiness fails, existence remains a mad and lamentable experiment."
"Nothing can so pierce the soul as the uttermost sigh of the body."
"For gold is tried in the fire and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity."
--------------------------------------------
I love philosophy and philosophers. If you want to know where I am, I'm down in the pit picking through more of Santayana's gems of wisdom.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
***************************
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Sit Up And Take Notice
Music never repeats itself.
Daniel Barenboim
******************
Hello Holly
******************
Just as in nature it is almost impossible to find pure symmetry. Perhaps it can be found in a bubble, or can be seen in butterfly wings. But even in the repetitious scales of some reptiles the pattern changes with the changing anatomy and movements of the animal. So in art there are many things that have the appearance of repeating patterns and symmetry.
I have a photograph of a brick path. Along both sides of the path there are small trees in pots evenly spaced to provide an edge to the path. Though all the trees are the same height, no matter how much shaping and pruning the gardener does he cannot make them identical. To the casual observer they may all look alike, but to the careful eye of someone else, each tree takes on its own personality and beauty.
"Music never repeats itself." The musical notes on the page are always the same for any printed piece of music. But when it is put in front of a musician it will become even more alive than those trees. And whether he plays it ill or well its life is momentary. Every time he plays it the experience will be different. Even a piece of music that is recorded will have a different experience for the listener every time it's heard. You may even hear a difference when it is played on a different record player. And when the same piece is played by another musician the experience is new and different even though the notes on the page haven't changed. You may have a favorite recording of some music that you love and have taken for granted. One day you will stop and listen again because you suddenly heard something different you didn't know was there, some movement of a muscle in the music you thought you'd never heard before.
These things happen because music is the most basic human art form there is. There is a direct link between music and human thoughts and emotions.
But one can also have the same sit up and pay attention with art and poetry.
I have a favorite painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Whenever I went to the museum, for whatever reason, I always made it a point to go and spend some time with that picture, and whenever I did it had more to say to me, like an endless conversation that picked up where it left off even if a year had intervened. You may have such a picture hanging on your wall from which one day something will emerge that you never paid attention to before, that you thought you never saw.
I like to say that I don't read books, I eat them. I love going back over the same great literature I've read before simply because even though the words on the page, like the notes in a musical score, haven't changed, somehow it's a brand new book. Once through the book or poem is an adventure. The next time through is a different adventure.
The endless, ever changing life of great art is one of the joys of human existence.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
(never give up)
*****************************
Daniel Barenboim
******************
Hello Holly
******************
Just as in nature it is almost impossible to find pure symmetry. Perhaps it can be found in a bubble, or can be seen in butterfly wings. But even in the repetitious scales of some reptiles the pattern changes with the changing anatomy and movements of the animal. So in art there are many things that have the appearance of repeating patterns and symmetry.
I have a photograph of a brick path. Along both sides of the path there are small trees in pots evenly spaced to provide an edge to the path. Though all the trees are the same height, no matter how much shaping and pruning the gardener does he cannot make them identical. To the casual observer they may all look alike, but to the careful eye of someone else, each tree takes on its own personality and beauty.
"Music never repeats itself." The musical notes on the page are always the same for any printed piece of music. But when it is put in front of a musician it will become even more alive than those trees. And whether he plays it ill or well its life is momentary. Every time he plays it the experience will be different. Even a piece of music that is recorded will have a different experience for the listener every time it's heard. You may even hear a difference when it is played on a different record player. And when the same piece is played by another musician the experience is new and different even though the notes on the page haven't changed. You may have a favorite recording of some music that you love and have taken for granted. One day you will stop and listen again because you suddenly heard something different you didn't know was there, some movement of a muscle in the music you thought you'd never heard before.
These things happen because music is the most basic human art form there is. There is a direct link between music and human thoughts and emotions.
But one can also have the same sit up and pay attention with art and poetry.
I have a favorite painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Whenever I went to the museum, for whatever reason, I always made it a point to go and spend some time with that picture, and whenever I did it had more to say to me, like an endless conversation that picked up where it left off even if a year had intervened. You may have such a picture hanging on your wall from which one day something will emerge that you never paid attention to before, that you thought you never saw.
I like to say that I don't read books, I eat them. I love going back over the same great literature I've read before simply because even though the words on the page, like the notes in a musical score, haven't changed, somehow it's a brand new book. Once through the book or poem is an adventure. The next time through is a different adventure.
The endless, ever changing life of great art is one of the joys of human existence.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
(never give up)
*****************************
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
dumped
Today I spent several hours writing a piece about facing the future without regrets. When I went to post it the screen went blank. Back on again the entire piece was gone. The computer took all my work away with one click. It's too late to write it over. But I will live to write another day.
In the meantime here is a reprint from the summer of 2009.
Daring Do
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles de Gaulle
**********************
Star Trek
"The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see."
-----------------------------------------
Those who are given the opportunity and freedom to follow a line of study as far as it can take them are blessed with the possibility of discovering areas of unrevealed knowledge and understanding, what no one has ever encountered before, where no one has ever been. Mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, anthropologists, those practicing on the esoteric edges of science, architects, composers of music and, yes, also poets, when engaged to their utmost, may reach the end of the traveled path, step into an unknown territory of discovery, put down a marker for the future and try to describe what they find.
I don't know much about science, but I know something about art. The first and every time I see "The Piano Lesson" by Matisse I am taken gently by the hand and led into a world of painting I know little about yet.
I have heard Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" for string quartet many times and it is still a mystery to me. What was it that Beethoven saw in his deafness and what was he trying to tell us about it?
On what obscure mountain top was Shakespeare when he wrote "The mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things."? And what was he saying when he wrote to lead us there "Impossible be strange attempts to those who weigh their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be."?
The challenge has been made, the door has been left open for others to follow, for you and I to approach the mystery, to go one step beyond, to find another treasure, another magic stone on which is written a new name no one knows.
The air is thin and hard to breathe, the way is treacherous and the terrain frustratingly difficult to describe, but, though we may be standing on the shoulders of the great ones who went before us, the experience of our own genius can only be won by moving off of the shoulders and placing a foot carefully but steadily down onto a step we cannot see.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 14 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
In the meantime here is a reprint from the summer of 2009.
Daring Do
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles de Gaulle
**********************
Star Trek
"The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see."
-----------------------------------------
Those who are given the opportunity and freedom to follow a line of study as far as it can take them are blessed with the possibility of discovering areas of unrevealed knowledge and understanding, what no one has ever encountered before, where no one has ever been. Mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, anthropologists, those practicing on the esoteric edges of science, architects, composers of music and, yes, also poets, when engaged to their utmost, may reach the end of the traveled path, step into an unknown territory of discovery, put down a marker for the future and try to describe what they find.
I don't know much about science, but I know something about art. The first and every time I see "The Piano Lesson" by Matisse I am taken gently by the hand and led into a world of painting I know little about yet.
I have heard Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" for string quartet many times and it is still a mystery to me. What was it that Beethoven saw in his deafness and what was he trying to tell us about it?
On what obscure mountain top was Shakespeare when he wrote "The mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things."? And what was he saying when he wrote to lead us there "Impossible be strange attempts to those who weigh their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be."?
The challenge has been made, the door has been left open for others to follow, for you and I to approach the mystery, to go one step beyond, to find another treasure, another magic stone on which is written a new name no one knows.
The air is thin and hard to breathe, the way is treacherous and the terrain frustratingly difficult to describe, but, though we may be standing on the shoulders of the great ones who went before us, the experience of our own genius can only be won by moving off of the shoulders and placing a foot carefully but steadily down onto a step we cannot see.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up.
****************************
SUMMER QUESTION
Summer is moving along, people.
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
Only 14 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Monday, August 1, 2011
Art And Reality
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
President John Kennedy
************************
Whenever I experience an original work of art I want to be astonished. Whether it's a song, a dance, a picture or a story, I want the artist to take me someplace I've never been before, somewhere beyond knowledge, beyond my knowledge. I want to see even more perceptively than ever a challenge to the so-called authority of realism. I want existence redefined for me. I want to see a new world, or an old world in a new place. I want to see the stars rearranged. I want to see something that has never been become a reality.
Is such art possible? Or is it something beyond art? A new art perhaps. Will it be possible some day for an artist to eliminate the technically limited and create purely from imagination, to make the image become reality by the imagining of it? William James wrote "Human beings by changing the inner attitudes of their minds can change the outer aspects of their lives."
If so it could only be done by someone pure and innocent who can imagine only the beautiful and true. Such a one would be an ubermensch of an artist. I believe it is not outside of the realm of possibility.
As an artist I know, as every artist knows, there are moments when the creative process seems to be going on by itself, when the artist is merely an observer of it. Those are the moments when I feel that there is another character, another intelligence at work and it is between imagination and the art, having freed itself from the middle man, me, the artist, At those times it is interesting to ponder who or what is the real artist. the real creator.
Now ponder what that same mysterious process would be like in the realms of nation building, invention, exploration and discovery. That is a question that has puzzled some inspired philosophers over the years. Do we believe what we see or do we see what we believe? Is reality what we think it is or does it become what we think it is? And is it possible to change the reality we see, creating a new reality by how we imagine it. This all may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but so was going to the moon a few decades ago.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up
***********************************
SUMMER QUESTION
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
13 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
President John Kennedy
************************
Whenever I experience an original work of art I want to be astonished. Whether it's a song, a dance, a picture or a story, I want the artist to take me someplace I've never been before, somewhere beyond knowledge, beyond my knowledge. I want to see even more perceptively than ever a challenge to the so-called authority of realism. I want existence redefined for me. I want to see a new world, or an old world in a new place. I want to see the stars rearranged. I want to see something that has never been become a reality.
Is such art possible? Or is it something beyond art? A new art perhaps. Will it be possible some day for an artist to eliminate the technically limited and create purely from imagination, to make the image become reality by the imagining of it? William James wrote "Human beings by changing the inner attitudes of their minds can change the outer aspects of their lives."
If so it could only be done by someone pure and innocent who can imagine only the beautiful and true. Such a one would be an ubermensch of an artist. I believe it is not outside of the realm of possibility.
As an artist I know, as every artist knows, there are moments when the creative process seems to be going on by itself, when the artist is merely an observer of it. Those are the moments when I feel that there is another character, another intelligence at work and it is between imagination and the art, having freed itself from the middle man, me, the artist, At those times it is interesting to ponder who or what is the real artist. the real creator.
Now ponder what that same mysterious process would be like in the realms of nation building, invention, exploration and discovery. That is a question that has puzzled some inspired philosophers over the years. Do we believe what we see or do we see what we believe? Is reality what we think it is or does it become what we think it is? And is it possible to change the reality we see, creating a new reality by how we imagine it. This all may seem like the stuff of science fiction, but so was going to the moon a few decades ago.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
Never give up
***********************************
SUMMER QUESTION
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
13 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Monday, July 11, 2011
The Games I Play
Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz
***************************
Life is unfinished business. A rainy Sunday afternoon is a good time to start preparing for immortality. Of course, you can waste time like everyone else does by meandering around your mental meadow waiting for your life to start. Or you can get really involved in that crossword puzzle or the jig saw puzzle and tell yourself you're accomplishing something. You can watch the game (there's always a game) on TV. That'll be fun. It's all recreation, and there's nothing wrong with that. But is it really re-creation?
If you have folks around you to share the games, the puzzles, stories, laughs, good conversation, you're lucky. If not you have to be
inventive about how you spend (waste) your time.
When I was a youngster someone gave me a big box of games: checkers, chess, Parcheesi, Monopoly, and I don't remember what else. Since I had no one to play with I learned how to change all of them into solitaire games. I invented games.
I still do. I got tired of child's games. But an artist is always a child at heart, so I began to invent more serious, more creative games. They involved composing music, painting, writing and the performing arts.
I'm not an actor any more but on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or any afternoon, I will be at play, painting or writing my stories. And each thing I invent will go on the alter with a prayer for it's immortality and mine.
------------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
*************************
SUMMER QUESTION
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
8 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Susan Ertz
***************************
Life is unfinished business. A rainy Sunday afternoon is a good time to start preparing for immortality. Of course, you can waste time like everyone else does by meandering around your mental meadow waiting for your life to start. Or you can get really involved in that crossword puzzle or the jig saw puzzle and tell yourself you're accomplishing something. You can watch the game (there's always a game) on TV. That'll be fun. It's all recreation, and there's nothing wrong with that. But is it really re-creation?
If you have folks around you to share the games, the puzzles, stories, laughs, good conversation, you're lucky. If not you have to be
inventive about how you spend (waste) your time.
When I was a youngster someone gave me a big box of games: checkers, chess, Parcheesi, Monopoly, and I don't remember what else. Since I had no one to play with I learned how to change all of them into solitaire games. I invented games.
I still do. I got tired of child's games. But an artist is always a child at heart, so I began to invent more serious, more creative games. They involved composing music, painting, writing and the performing arts.
I'm not an actor any more but on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or any afternoon, I will be at play, painting or writing my stories. And each thing I invent will go on the alter with a prayer for it's immortality and mine.
------------------------------------
DB - The Vagabond
Never give up.
*************************
SUMMER QUESTION
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
8 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
What Is Art?
A concept is stronger than a fact.
Charlotte Gilman
*********************
I'm an artist who reads philosophy. Thus I'm faced with a complex dilemma, a group of questions that spray out and point in several directions like an open hand.
There is a branch of philosophy called Aesthetics, the study of Art in all its functions. I wouldn't want to see a philosopher or any thinker forced into the position of having to define Art. What is Art? That question is harder to answer, perhaps, than What is Science? Although there are similarities. To observe nature, make discoveries and articulate what you find could just as easily describe a poet as a scientist. The concept is the difference. That's all.
A fact is a simple thing, a goad to push us to discover more facts. A concept it a carrot dangling temptingly in front of us. It's a scientific theory, an artistic dream, an unanswered question, the source and fuel of all creative thinking.
So philosophers address themselves to questions such as, When is it art and when is it not art? or What is the proper process for observing and enjoying a work of art and how does that relate to the overall human experience? or How well does the work of art convey it's message? or How well has the artist conceived and articulated his ideas? This last question inevitably causes the philosopher to slip on the unseen banana peel and fall into the nasty world of criticism.
There are art critics, music critics, dance critics, restaurant critics, drama critics, even architecture critics and, of course, literary critics. That last is the only legitimate form of criticism is my opinion. A person who doesn't dance has no business being a dance critic. In my own experience I have had to groan through drama reviews written by critics who had no idea what they were writing about. Every respectable philosopher does well to stay out of the pit of criticism. Most philosophers tend to spend a lot of time criticizing each other, which is fine. That's exactly where they should be. It is in the statement, rebuttal and exchange of ideas that the vigor of philosophy exists.
The purpose of philosophy is to pursue and discover the truth, as it is with art and science, and should be but, alas, is not with other important human endeavors. Socrates considered philosophy to be the greatest of the arts. From that perspective then isn't the study of philosophy the same as the artistic experience, which brings me back to the beginning? Isn't Aesthetics truthfully the process of philosophy defining, describing and criticizing itself?
It is. And that's what makes it so interesting to me.
DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up.)
**************************
It's Summer. Time to give over the answers to the SPRING QUESTION.
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
---------------------------------------------
12 diverse and interesting answers.
-----------------------------------------
Do I think that NASA should send a two person mission to Mars. Absolutely not. It would serve no useful purpose and it would put the lives of those two people in unnecessary jeopardy.
I would think that a mission like this would cost many millions of dollars and at a time when many states are going broke, there are deep cuts to infrastructure, education, health, and community programs. The taxpayers are already on the hook to the tune of about 250 million dollars a day to fund the war in Iraq. All of that money has been siphoned away from funds that might have been available to create jobs, house and feed the homeless, stabilize towns and cities across America and provide a better future for both young and old.
We are not good stewards of our own earth and we have caused more problems here than we have fixed. There is absolutely no need to be spending money we don’t have in order to be exploring other planets. We need to get our priorities back in order.
-------------------------------
When it comes to Mars, I think that it is innate for man to explore and want to extend his reach. I am all in favor of the project and they could get the money by stopping the useless wars and invest in NASA.
-------------------------------------------------------
Good question! Since a year on Mars is nearly twice ours --and
elliptical-- the two planets get within 7-month's journey only every 2
Earth-years. So our astronauts would have to stay a year longer on
Mars. On top of this protraction, they would run out of food and have
to eat each other up, which would probably strain their relationship
afterward. I don't think they should do it.
--------------------------------------------
An unpopular view I'm sure.
Trip to Mars is wrong on so many levels, even, perhaps immoral.
We need the expertise, money, dedication, time, here on Earth. Fix things here, make Earth a better place. Don't go chasing waterfalls.
------------------------------------
Sure! Why not?
The travel time will reek havoc in their lives but the six months there will give them a ton of information to share..and perhaps experiments can be performed! :)
I have heard that people accomplish a lot in scientific experiments out in space!thanks! Interesting topic DB!
-------------------------------------
I think man has screwed up earth enough that he should leave the other planets alone and use the time and money spent going to Mars fixing all the damage he's done here on earth.
------------------------------------
Yes, because the highest mountain in the solar system is THERE.
---------------------------------------------
why go to mars when you can grow squash in your back yard, or at least
some chives in a window pot. All you can plant on mars is a flag.
Unless to go from Mars to `=7,./[]}#2 where all will be virgin
---------------------------------------------------
The human race, if it wants to continue to exist, has to solve its housing problem. In several million years our sun will go supernova and incinerate, during its expansion, the planet Earth. Then, when it cools down to a grey dwarf, what was planet Earth will be a cold rock of ice. Not a good place to live or vacation. We have to start flying around the Universe a la Star Trek and find other inhabitable planets if we wish to continue our future existence as a race. They better find a better propulsion system and more sophisticated means to harness energy, hopefully without hardware and make use of Warp Space (which are only time tunnels or Worms) for getting around more easily. It’s all in Star Trek, we’re just catching up.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Spring Question: Yes. Our greatest advances have come from pure science and discovery missions. We need to keep the ball rolling.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm going to respond to this purely from a "seems right" standpoint; that is, I know nothing more about the situation than what you've told me.
Anyway, I suppose traveling to Mars could be an utter waste of resources--time, money and energy that could be channeled toward solving some of our own planets problems instead of involving another. But, to be honest, even if we relocated the time, money and energy it may take to send two men to Mars, I can't bring myself to believe that it would certainly go to something like, for example, improving hospitals in Dhaka. So with all of that aside, every part of my being is screaming, "Why the hell not?! Go to Mars!"
But none of that is what I've really wanted to say to you. What truthfully came to mind when I read your question was this whole concept of mystery and wonderment, and all of these cliche ideas that still make me feel brave and strange and beautiful, regardless of their tendency to be overused in cheap literary settings. Visiting a different planet entirely, a place that authors and dreamers and children have fantasized about; a place that's so unknown, sometimes I feel as though its mass is more daydream than it is anything else.
Given not only the ability but the willingness and eagerness to explore, it would be a grand opportunity to waste. And not just for the intellectual gain either, which is, of course, very important... but for the experiences of the astronauts, the engineers and the planners, the people tracking the progress the whole year and a half it's happening, and for the people who tune in right at the end. These could be the kind of experiences, I think, that lead to understanding, empathy, introspection and perspective... not that experiences like that are necessarily farther away than the backyard garden, but they're valuable nonetheless, and, I think, are well worth a trip to Mars.
The potential there, the possibility, all of it reminds me quite a bit of how I felt when I finished reading A Wrinkle In Time in third grade. Childishly excited, maybe, but sincerely so.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Thank you all. Take a breath. SUMMER QUESTION is coming.
DB
******************
Charlotte Gilman
*********************
I'm an artist who reads philosophy. Thus I'm faced with a complex dilemma, a group of questions that spray out and point in several directions like an open hand.
There is a branch of philosophy called Aesthetics, the study of Art in all its functions. I wouldn't want to see a philosopher or any thinker forced into the position of having to define Art. What is Art? That question is harder to answer, perhaps, than What is Science? Although there are similarities. To observe nature, make discoveries and articulate what you find could just as easily describe a poet as a scientist. The concept is the difference. That's all.
A fact is a simple thing, a goad to push us to discover more facts. A concept it a carrot dangling temptingly in front of us. It's a scientific theory, an artistic dream, an unanswered question, the source and fuel of all creative thinking.
So philosophers address themselves to questions such as, When is it art and when is it not art? or What is the proper process for observing and enjoying a work of art and how does that relate to the overall human experience? or How well does the work of art convey it's message? or How well has the artist conceived and articulated his ideas? This last question inevitably causes the philosopher to slip on the unseen banana peel and fall into the nasty world of criticism.
There are art critics, music critics, dance critics, restaurant critics, drama critics, even architecture critics and, of course, literary critics. That last is the only legitimate form of criticism is my opinion. A person who doesn't dance has no business being a dance critic. In my own experience I have had to groan through drama reviews written by critics who had no idea what they were writing about. Every respectable philosopher does well to stay out of the pit of criticism. Most philosophers tend to spend a lot of time criticizing each other, which is fine. That's exactly where they should be. It is in the statement, rebuttal and exchange of ideas that the vigor of philosophy exists.
The purpose of philosophy is to pursue and discover the truth, as it is with art and science, and should be but, alas, is not with other important human endeavors. Socrates considered philosophy to be the greatest of the arts. From that perspective then isn't the study of philosophy the same as the artistic experience, which brings me back to the beginning? Isn't Aesthetics truthfully the process of philosophy defining, describing and criticizing itself?
It is. And that's what makes it so interesting to me.
DB - The Vagabond
(Never give up.)
**************************
It's Summer. Time to give over the answers to the SPRING QUESTION.
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
---------------------------------------------
12 diverse and interesting answers.
-----------------------------------------
Do I think that NASA should send a two person mission to Mars. Absolutely not. It would serve no useful purpose and it would put the lives of those two people in unnecessary jeopardy.
I would think that a mission like this would cost many millions of dollars and at a time when many states are going broke, there are deep cuts to infrastructure, education, health, and community programs. The taxpayers are already on the hook to the tune of about 250 million dollars a day to fund the war in Iraq. All of that money has been siphoned away from funds that might have been available to create jobs, house and feed the homeless, stabilize towns and cities across America and provide a better future for both young and old.
We are not good stewards of our own earth and we have caused more problems here than we have fixed. There is absolutely no need to be spending money we don’t have in order to be exploring other planets. We need to get our priorities back in order.
-------------------------------
When it comes to Mars, I think that it is innate for man to explore and want to extend his reach. I am all in favor of the project and they could get the money by stopping the useless wars and invest in NASA.
-------------------------------------------------------
Good question! Since a year on Mars is nearly twice ours --and
elliptical-- the two planets get within 7-month's journey only every 2
Earth-years. So our astronauts would have to stay a year longer on
Mars. On top of this protraction, they would run out of food and have
to eat each other up, which would probably strain their relationship
afterward. I don't think they should do it.
--------------------------------------------
An unpopular view I'm sure.
Trip to Mars is wrong on so many levels, even, perhaps immoral.
We need the expertise, money, dedication, time, here on Earth. Fix things here, make Earth a better place. Don't go chasing waterfalls.
------------------------------------
Sure! Why not?
The travel time will reek havoc in their lives but the six months there will give them a ton of information to share..and perhaps experiments can be performed! :)
I have heard that people accomplish a lot in scientific experiments out in space!thanks! Interesting topic DB!
-------------------------------------
I think man has screwed up earth enough that he should leave the other planets alone and use the time and money spent going to Mars fixing all the damage he's done here on earth.
------------------------------------
Yes, because the highest mountain in the solar system is THERE.
---------------------------------------------
why go to mars when you can grow squash in your back yard, or at least
some chives in a window pot. All you can plant on mars is a flag.
Unless to go from Mars to `=7,./[]}#2 where all will be virgin
---------------------------------------------------
The human race, if it wants to continue to exist, has to solve its housing problem. In several million years our sun will go supernova and incinerate, during its expansion, the planet Earth. Then, when it cools down to a grey dwarf, what was planet Earth will be a cold rock of ice. Not a good place to live or vacation. We have to start flying around the Universe a la Star Trek and find other inhabitable planets if we wish to continue our future existence as a race. They better find a better propulsion system and more sophisticated means to harness energy, hopefully without hardware and make use of Warp Space (which are only time tunnels or Worms) for getting around more easily. It’s all in Star Trek, we’re just catching up.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Spring Question: Yes. Our greatest advances have come from pure science and discovery missions. We need to keep the ball rolling.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I'm going to respond to this purely from a "seems right" standpoint; that is, I know nothing more about the situation than what you've told me.
Anyway, I suppose traveling to Mars could be an utter waste of resources--time, money and energy that could be channeled toward solving some of our own planets problems instead of involving another. But, to be honest, even if we relocated the time, money and energy it may take to send two men to Mars, I can't bring myself to believe that it would certainly go to something like, for example, improving hospitals in Dhaka. So with all of that aside, every part of my being is screaming, "Why the hell not?! Go to Mars!"
But none of that is what I've really wanted to say to you. What truthfully came to mind when I read your question was this whole concept of mystery and wonderment, and all of these cliche ideas that still make me feel brave and strange and beautiful, regardless of their tendency to be overused in cheap literary settings. Visiting a different planet entirely, a place that authors and dreamers and children have fantasized about; a place that's so unknown, sometimes I feel as though its mass is more daydream than it is anything else.
Given not only the ability but the willingness and eagerness to explore, it would be a grand opportunity to waste. And not just for the intellectual gain either, which is, of course, very important... but for the experiences of the astronauts, the engineers and the planners, the people tracking the progress the whole year and a half it's happening, and for the people who tune in right at the end. These could be the kind of experiences, I think, that lead to understanding, empathy, introspection and perspective... not that experiences like that are necessarily farther away than the backyard garden, but they're valuable nonetheless, and, I think, are well worth a trip to Mars.
The potential there, the possibility, all of it reminds me quite a bit of how I felt when I finished reading A Wrinkle In Time in third grade. Childishly excited, maybe, but sincerely so.
--------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------
Thank you all. Take a breath. SUMMER QUESTION is coming.
DB
******************
Monday, April 4, 2011
Let The Door Open
Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and unknowable.
Carl Sandburg
*******************
Hello Adelaide, Australia. Have a warm and happy day.
------------------------------------
Every work of art is an announcement, a declaration, the cry of a new born, the rattling of the prison gates, the sound of two stones being smacked together.
Sometimes art is pretty, but it usually isn't meant to be. Sometimes the things that grow out of the ground are pretty, but sometimes they are ugly and they are both doing the same thing for similar reasons.
Art happens because there is something missing, a hole in the fabric, a mess that can only be cleared up by the magical workings of art and the artist as obedient servant. Art is for healing, not the kind of healing the doctor is paid for, but the healing of the rend that separates us from the beatific.
Great art is not a decoration, it is an attack, a challenge, s weapon against all the inanity, pedantry, ignorance and chaos that surrounds the earth and its humans. It is the bird struggling against the library window trying to get out, as Karla Feinzig once wrote about. It is an alarm bell and a beacon shining down on those who are morally corrupt and who aren't smart enough to know it. Those who do know it are lost. Art can't help them.
The poet holds stars in his hand and he flings them one at a time against the door of hope and beauty behind which is the land of truth. One day the door will open.
DB - The Vagabond
*****************************
No fooling around, here is this week's puzzle.
These are all legitimate movie titles in translation.
Your task, if you wish to survive, is to translate them back into their original titles by the end of next week.
Several Saints
Uprising Over The Thanksgiving Dinner
How One Murders An Imitator
Swept Away In A Breeze
The Lion Is Burning It's Feet
What The Flute Makes
The Insects' Messiah
She Married The Monster
Mr. Summerfall Winterspring
The Chimpanzees Live There
Confessing When Drenched
He Paid Very Close Attention, Unfortunately
Boiling When It's Dark
Misplaced Religious Artifact Stolen
Trees Around The Little House
Leo's Secret Message
Ultimate Spanish Dance in France
Country In A Maternity Ward
Instructions In Stone
Creepy Creatures Aloft
The Bitch Is Domesticated
2 entries so far.
Good luck
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
4 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Carl Sandburg
*******************
Hello Adelaide, Australia. Have a warm and happy day.
------------------------------------
Every work of art is an announcement, a declaration, the cry of a new born, the rattling of the prison gates, the sound of two stones being smacked together.
Sometimes art is pretty, but it usually isn't meant to be. Sometimes the things that grow out of the ground are pretty, but sometimes they are ugly and they are both doing the same thing for similar reasons.
Art happens because there is something missing, a hole in the fabric, a mess that can only be cleared up by the magical workings of art and the artist as obedient servant. Art is for healing, not the kind of healing the doctor is paid for, but the healing of the rend that separates us from the beatific.
Great art is not a decoration, it is an attack, a challenge, s weapon against all the inanity, pedantry, ignorance and chaos that surrounds the earth and its humans. It is the bird struggling against the library window trying to get out, as Karla Feinzig once wrote about. It is an alarm bell and a beacon shining down on those who are morally corrupt and who aren't smart enough to know it. Those who do know it are lost. Art can't help them.
The poet holds stars in his hand and he flings them one at a time against the door of hope and beauty behind which is the land of truth. One day the door will open.
DB - The Vagabond
*****************************
No fooling around, here is this week's puzzle.
These are all legitimate movie titles in translation.
Your task, if you wish to survive, is to translate them back into their original titles by the end of next week.
Several Saints
Uprising Over The Thanksgiving Dinner
How One Murders An Imitator
Swept Away In A Breeze
The Lion Is Burning It's Feet
What The Flute Makes
The Insects' Messiah
She Married The Monster
Mr. Summerfall Winterspring
The Chimpanzees Live There
Confessing When Drenched
He Paid Very Close Attention, Unfortunately
Boiling When It's Dark
Misplaced Religious Artifact Stolen
Trees Around The Little House
Leo's Secret Message
Ultimate Spanish Dance in France
Country In A Maternity Ward
Instructions In Stone
Creepy Creatures Aloft
The Bitch Is Domesticated
2 entries so far.
Good luck
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest)
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
4 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A Tasty Dish
Philosophy is the greatest of the arts.
Socrates
*********************
As far as I'm concerned a person's philosophy isn't worth a dime if it doesn't have practical purpose, some positive effect on the world. It's the same with a person's religion. Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy certainly profoundly affected the French and others. Martin Luther's ideas transformed much of European religious thought. Socrates is still shaking up world thought.
It's fun, and probably therapeutic for some, to dream up fancy utopian ideas but what good are they if you can't put them into practice. "I will show you my faith by my works" wrote James, chapter 2. If it works, it's worthy of faith, if it doesn't work it's fruitless fancy.
Some may think I'm a philosopher. I don't think so. Many philosophers started out as mathematicians, or other scientists, some started out as priests. I wonder if there was ever a philosopher who started out as an actor.
Philosophy is certainly woven through the writings of the great playwrights from the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen and Shaw. Pope John Paul II started out as a playwright and became a priest.
To consider myself a philosopher I would have to become familiar with all philosophers from Thales to the latest one to publish. And considering that my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be and I have to read with a magnifying glass, that would be a very tedious task.
And many of today's philosophers spend too much time arguing with each other over semantic gravel like borderlines of borderlines, theories of vagueness, implicatures and secondary said-content. Try analyzing a sentence like "Even, unlike Picasso, Warhol was famous." Good luck.
The greatness of philosophy is the greatness of art and the greatness of science. Imagination, ingenuity, intelligence and a sense of humor. Mix thoroughly. Serve. Season to taste.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts
Part 4
Jimmy thought that after graduating from high school he would take a year off, find a job, make a little money and then try to enter City College, or maybe Brooklyn College, to study to become a scientist like his father. So he was very surprised when he got a phone call from the head office of the Brooklyn Hawks.
When he went to the appointment he met with a man who explained that they had been watching Jimmy for the past year and thought he would make a good ball player for the team. If he agreed he would be sent to the White Plains Aces, the Hawks farm team, for a few years and if it worked out he could move up to the majors. Jimmy never thought any one would pay him to play baseball. His Mom told him he should do what's in his heart.
When he went in to sign the contract he still wasn't sure. The man he had talked to before said that he would step out of the room for a few minutes and leave Jimmy alone to think about it.
Jimmy read the contract over carefully and sat staring at it. "Jimmy" a voice said. He looked up and sitting across the table from him was a man in a lab coat, glasses and a big warm smile. "Dad, what should I do?"
The man didn't speak, but just then a pen came floating out of a cup on the table, gently moved over to in front of Jimmy and hung there in mid air. He took it and singed the contract. When he looked up the man in the lab coat was gone.
(Part 5 tomorrow)
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
2 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Socrates
*********************
As far as I'm concerned a person's philosophy isn't worth a dime if it doesn't have practical purpose, some positive effect on the world. It's the same with a person's religion. Jean Paul Sartre's philosophy certainly profoundly affected the French and others. Martin Luther's ideas transformed much of European religious thought. Socrates is still shaking up world thought.
It's fun, and probably therapeutic for some, to dream up fancy utopian ideas but what good are they if you can't put them into practice. "I will show you my faith by my works" wrote James, chapter 2. If it works, it's worthy of faith, if it doesn't work it's fruitless fancy.
Some may think I'm a philosopher. I don't think so. Many philosophers started out as mathematicians, or other scientists, some started out as priests. I wonder if there was ever a philosopher who started out as an actor.
Philosophy is certainly woven through the writings of the great playwrights from the ancient Greeks to Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen and Shaw. Pope John Paul II started out as a playwright and became a priest.
To consider myself a philosopher I would have to become familiar with all philosophers from Thales to the latest one to publish. And considering that my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be and I have to read with a magnifying glass, that would be a very tedious task.
And many of today's philosophers spend too much time arguing with each other over semantic gravel like borderlines of borderlines, theories of vagueness, implicatures and secondary said-content. Try analyzing a sentence like "Even, unlike Picasso, Warhol was famous." Good luck.
The greatness of philosophy is the greatness of art and the greatness of science. Imagination, ingenuity, intelligence and a sense of humor. Mix thoroughly. Serve. Season to taste.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
The Ball Game
a story in 7 parts
Part 4
Jimmy thought that after graduating from high school he would take a year off, find a job, make a little money and then try to enter City College, or maybe Brooklyn College, to study to become a scientist like his father. So he was very surprised when he got a phone call from the head office of the Brooklyn Hawks.
When he went to the appointment he met with a man who explained that they had been watching Jimmy for the past year and thought he would make a good ball player for the team. If he agreed he would be sent to the White Plains Aces, the Hawks farm team, for a few years and if it worked out he could move up to the majors. Jimmy never thought any one would pay him to play baseball. His Mom told him he should do what's in his heart.
When he went in to sign the contract he still wasn't sure. The man he had talked to before said that he would step out of the room for a few minutes and leave Jimmy alone to think about it.
Jimmy read the contract over carefully and sat staring at it. "Jimmy" a voice said. He looked up and sitting across the table from him was a man in a lab coat, glasses and a big warm smile. "Dad, what should I do?"
The man didn't speak, but just then a pen came floating out of a cup on the table, gently moved over to in front of Jimmy and hung there in mid air. He took it and singed the contract. When he looked up the man in the lab coat was gone.
(Part 5 tomorrow)
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
NASA has planned to send a two man mission on an 18 month trip to the planet Mars. It would take 6 months for the astronauts to get there and after 6 months of exploration another 6 months to return.
Should they do it and why, and if not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
2 answers so far
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
******************
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wake Up Call
A myth is something which is not true on the outside, but is true on the inside.
Anonymous 4 year old girl.
****************************
Life is a journey through the jungle of the senses. I think the two most important activities of the human race are art and science. In fact, viewed in their essence, everything we do is a combination of those two things. There are many great, young ideas lurking in the corners wanting to be found. But how can humanity survive and reach it's full potential of perfection by accepting only the appearance of things?
The senses don't give us anything except closed doors. The poet knows that. Every flower is a prayer of desire and exaltation, pleading to the earth and the sun for life and embracing it. And the earth and the sun, globes like millions of others in the vast universe all circling around the invisible idea of existence.
Our lives are filled with myths. There are ancient and modern myths, all wanting to be understood and yet we stare at the myth instead of what it tells us. There are people today trying to figure out just what body of water Moses and the Israelites crossed on their way out of Egypt. Others are trying to locate the remains of Noah's ark. Still others are searching for the stones that once were the tower of Babel and the original Garden of Eden. To me that's like counting the beans in a pot instead of cooking and eating them.
Some people say that we never went to the moon. Did Neil Armstrong make his "one small step" on it's surface? Sure. But it was more than the achievement of centuries of science and technology and more than the culmination of centuries of poetic wonder. It was a mythic act, and it's real meaning is still lurking and wanting to be understood.
John Adams wrote "Politics are the divine science, after all." And yet when we look to politics what do we find? People yelling and insulting each other, fist fights, corruption, people grappling in a pit over issues that should unite us but that are dividing us, rage, hatred, fear. Where is the divinity? Why has it become impossible for anyone to see the moon walk of inspired human government? Here we are, like the flower, pleading for life and trying to embrace it but ignoring our own human spirit. We have become so enamored and confused by the hissing beasts and tangled vines of the jungle of our senses we forgot we were trying to go through it. We have accepted as true only the outside of the myth and discarded the inner truth.
There are those who cannot accept that time and space are human concepts and therefore malleable. What will be left when the doors of our senses finally open and the great waking up occurs, and where will we be?
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, swoon to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.
Which door do you choose? Why?
2 good solutions so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB
****************
Anonymous 4 year old girl.
****************************
Life is a journey through the jungle of the senses. I think the two most important activities of the human race are art and science. In fact, viewed in their essence, everything we do is a combination of those two things. There are many great, young ideas lurking in the corners wanting to be found. But how can humanity survive and reach it's full potential of perfection by accepting only the appearance of things?
The senses don't give us anything except closed doors. The poet knows that. Every flower is a prayer of desire and exaltation, pleading to the earth and the sun for life and embracing it. And the earth and the sun, globes like millions of others in the vast universe all circling around the invisible idea of existence.
Our lives are filled with myths. There are ancient and modern myths, all wanting to be understood and yet we stare at the myth instead of what it tells us. There are people today trying to figure out just what body of water Moses and the Israelites crossed on their way out of Egypt. Others are trying to locate the remains of Noah's ark. Still others are searching for the stones that once were the tower of Babel and the original Garden of Eden. To me that's like counting the beans in a pot instead of cooking and eating them.
Some people say that we never went to the moon. Did Neil Armstrong make his "one small step" on it's surface? Sure. But it was more than the achievement of centuries of science and technology and more than the culmination of centuries of poetic wonder. It was a mythic act, and it's real meaning is still lurking and wanting to be understood.
John Adams wrote "Politics are the divine science, after all." And yet when we look to politics what do we find? People yelling and insulting each other, fist fights, corruption, people grappling in a pit over issues that should unite us but that are dividing us, rage, hatred, fear. Where is the divinity? Why has it become impossible for anyone to see the moon walk of inspired human government? Here we are, like the flower, pleading for life and trying to embrace it but ignoring our own human spirit. We have become so enamored and confused by the hissing beasts and tangled vines of the jungle of our senses we forgot we were trying to go through it. We have accepted as true only the outside of the myth and discarded the inner truth.
There are those who cannot accept that time and space are human concepts and therefore malleable. What will be left when the doors of our senses finally open and the great waking up occurs, and where will we be?
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
WEEKEND PUZZLE
You're at the end of a dark tunnel.. There is no turning back. The way out is through one of three doors. Behind the first door is a pack of fierce hungry tigers that haven't been fed in a month. Behind the second door is a raging fire. In front of the door is a large bucket of clear liquid which is either water or gasoline. Behind the third door are a bunch of assassins with daggers, swoon to kill anyone who opens the door but they are all blindfolded. Once you open one of the doors you can't close it and change your mind.
Which door do you choose? Why?
2 good solutions so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB
****************
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
What Is Life?
The ways of the world are weird.
Walter Kaufmann
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
There have been great thinkers in the fields of Science. So why doesn't Science have all the answers? Our museums are filled with great works of art. So why are people still painting? We have been given inspired music. So why are people still composing? We have wonderful poetry to grace our lives. So why do poets still sing? The world is full of great books. So why do people still write?
While Science is still searching at the bottom of every cave or at the vast galaxies of the universe for a law that will explain everything, artists are looking into the same caves and at the same stars through the lens of imagination for the same law.
Why things are, is the big question. As irritating as it is the child will eventually get over the bad habit of peppering your life with the inane repetition of the word "why" but the question remains on the table nevertheless. That the answer to the question is "I don't know" is what sends people to the cave, the cosmos and the easel.
But there's another question lurking in the cave. A question with facets of wonder and dooubt: "What if?" What if there is no fundamental law of nature which explains everything? What if there is no ultimate achievement of wisdom from the exercise of rationality? What if there is no absolute beauty to be found by any artist? Does that mean there is no point to life, no meaning to our hopes, dreams, plans and actions, no value to anything we are or do? It's a question to be seriously considered by those who have the courage to think about it.
That brings me to another question. If it is true that life has fundamentally no meaning to it will that stop me from hoping, dreaming, planning and doing? Kaufmann also says "It does not follow that nothing is worthwhile if the world is not governed by a purpose."
It isn't enough to say that I do what I do because I want to. It's a step better to say I do what I do because I feel like it. The best answer is that I do what I do because I have to. A personal obligation, a personal duty, is the best justification for doing anything worthwhile. Think of the geologist who has a bit of moon rock under his microscope for the first time. Is there any doubt in his mind about the value of what he is doing? Or think of the ballet dancer who will undergo enormous physical effort to tell a mythic story of human legend by describing it in space with his own body.
Without negating anyone's perception and faith in deity, I keep returning to a humanistic philosophy in my thinking. We are capable of some of the most extremes forms of stupidity and destruction. But we are also capable of amazing beauty, greatness and genius.
Maybe there is no fundamental law of existence, but life is there to experience and to fashion for ourselves and others in the best way we can.
What is life? Who knows? I like this quote from Grandma Moses “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
ONE MORE DAY
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Walter Kaufmann
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
There have been great thinkers in the fields of Science. So why doesn't Science have all the answers? Our museums are filled with great works of art. So why are people still painting? We have been given inspired music. So why are people still composing? We have wonderful poetry to grace our lives. So why do poets still sing? The world is full of great books. So why do people still write?
While Science is still searching at the bottom of every cave or at the vast galaxies of the universe for a law that will explain everything, artists are looking into the same caves and at the same stars through the lens of imagination for the same law.
Why things are, is the big question. As irritating as it is the child will eventually get over the bad habit of peppering your life with the inane repetition of the word "why" but the question remains on the table nevertheless. That the answer to the question is "I don't know" is what sends people to the cave, the cosmos and the easel.
But there's another question lurking in the cave. A question with facets of wonder and dooubt: "What if?" What if there is no fundamental law of nature which explains everything? What if there is no ultimate achievement of wisdom from the exercise of rationality? What if there is no absolute beauty to be found by any artist? Does that mean there is no point to life, no meaning to our hopes, dreams, plans and actions, no value to anything we are or do? It's a question to be seriously considered by those who have the courage to think about it.
That brings me to another question. If it is true that life has fundamentally no meaning to it will that stop me from hoping, dreaming, planning and doing? Kaufmann also says "It does not follow that nothing is worthwhile if the world is not governed by a purpose."
It isn't enough to say that I do what I do because I want to. It's a step better to say I do what I do because I feel like it. The best answer is that I do what I do because I have to. A personal obligation, a personal duty, is the best justification for doing anything worthwhile. Think of the geologist who has a bit of moon rock under his microscope for the first time. Is there any doubt in his mind about the value of what he is doing? Or think of the ballet dancer who will undergo enormous physical effort to tell a mythic story of human legend by describing it in space with his own body.
Without negating anyone's perception and faith in deity, I keep returning to a humanistic philosophy in my thinking. We are capable of some of the most extremes forms of stupidity and destruction. But we are also capable of amazing beauty, greatness and genius.
Maybe there is no fundamental law of existence, but life is there to experience and to fashion for ourselves and others in the best way we can.
What is life? Who knows? I like this quote from Grandma Moses “Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
DB - The Vagabond
*********************
ONE MORE DAY
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 8 responses so far. Summer is about to close her gates. Get with it.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
Friday, August 13, 2010
Breaking The Rules
The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
Oliver Wendell Homes
************************
Yesterday I wrote about Charlie the director who came into rehearsal with a button saying "There are no rules." Of course there are rules. But the wise artist knows when to break them. And how.
When I was learning to draw one of my teachers was a grand old curmudgeon named Marshall Glazier. One day he came into the class before it had started and found me studying a book on anatomy, with pictures of bones. He said "My advice is to take a good course in anatomy and then forget about it." At the time I didn't understand what he was saying. After all we were attempting to accurately draw the human figure, why shouldn't we concentrate on learning the anatomy? I have since come to understand what he meant.
There are two famous artists who seem to have thrown the ideas of anatomy out the window. One of them is Amedeo Modigliani. In his paintings you can see that he does know the anatomy of the figure, but a part of it is extended: a long neck or an stretched out torso, thus creating an elegant picture. His purpose is not to paint a portrait but a work of art based on the human figure. It is as Matisse once said "I don't paint women. I paint pictures."
Similarly the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti show a definite understanding of the human figure even though the entire figure is stretched out and distorted. The various parts of the sculpture are in correct proportion to each other but the entire piece is an expression beyond the literal.
An artist will go to the drawing pad in the same way a musician will go to scales and finger patterns and a dancer will go to the barre. The artistry comes from there but is not frozen there.
In short, in any endeavor, a person should know the rules and know how and when to make exceptions to them, not for the sake of breaking rules but from the demands of imagination and necessity.
DB
========================
Weekend Puzzle
Sci Fi Story
(an easy one)
A man gets on a bus in Boston at 1:45 and travels for half an hour.
When he gets off the bus it's 1:15.
DB
Oliver Wendell Homes
************************
Yesterday I wrote about Charlie the director who came into rehearsal with a button saying "There are no rules." Of course there are rules. But the wise artist knows when to break them. And how.
When I was learning to draw one of my teachers was a grand old curmudgeon named Marshall Glazier. One day he came into the class before it had started and found me studying a book on anatomy, with pictures of bones. He said "My advice is to take a good course in anatomy and then forget about it." At the time I didn't understand what he was saying. After all we were attempting to accurately draw the human figure, why shouldn't we concentrate on learning the anatomy? I have since come to understand what he meant.
There are two famous artists who seem to have thrown the ideas of anatomy out the window. One of them is Amedeo Modigliani. In his paintings you can see that he does know the anatomy of the figure, but a part of it is extended: a long neck or an stretched out torso, thus creating an elegant picture. His purpose is not to paint a portrait but a work of art based on the human figure. It is as Matisse once said "I don't paint women. I paint pictures."
Similarly the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti show a definite understanding of the human figure even though the entire figure is stretched out and distorted. The various parts of the sculpture are in correct proportion to each other but the entire piece is an expression beyond the literal.
An artist will go to the drawing pad in the same way a musician will go to scales and finger patterns and a dancer will go to the barre. The artistry comes from there but is not frozen there.
In short, in any endeavor, a person should know the rules and know how and when to make exceptions to them, not for the sake of breaking rules but from the demands of imagination and necessity.
DB
========================
Weekend Puzzle
Sci Fi Story
(an easy one)
A man gets on a bus in Boston at 1:45 and travels for half an hour.
When he gets off the bus it's 1:15.
DB
Monday, June 14, 2010
Secrets There
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
John Dryden
***************
People are strange. They spend a lot of time and effort underestimating other people. I suppose it's the nasty habit of making comparisons that prompts people to do it. "He can't be as smart as I am. Can he?"
I was coming out of a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House one evening and saw a guy I knew somewhat. He said he was surprised to see me there. He didn't know I was an opera goer. I thought to myself, what would make him think I wasn't? What image did I project of myself which would convince anyone that I wouldn't enjoy the opera" He knew I was in the arts, why not an opera lover?
Another time I was working on an original play and after rehearsal I was having a beer with the author and discussing the play. I said that I thought the character was going through an obscure night of the soul. He said he was surprised that I would know that. Again I wondered what would make him think that about me. After all, one cannot live with going through an obscure night of the soul every now and then, those times when one is confused, things don't make sense and everything seems dark.
If you underestimate people you are in danger of patronizing and condescending. I try never to do it.
I was having a discussion recently with someone who said she never realized that a work of art was actually supposed to have a meaning. She referred to a particular painting of mine and asked if it was allegorical. She was seeing something in it that caused a personal response in her. I replied that all art is allegorical. But then I thought about it and revised my remark to say that all art is allegory.
I could have gone on to say that everything is. All is allegory, metaphor, parable. One doesn't need to go through live analyzing everything to get it to reveal its secrets. That would be an exhausting thing to do. It is enough to know that the secrets are there to be found if one wants to dive deeply.
Another play I was working on had a scene where the other character threw a fit on the stage. The director wanted to know what I was thinking about during it. I said I was trying to figure out the tactic. The other actor said there was no tactic and quoted "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." I said a cigar is always a cigar but on the stage it has a meaning and I want to know what it is even of your character doesn't know. He was surprised to think there was a meaning behind something that his character wasn't aware of.
One who is content to go through life with a smile and not much on their mind is in for a surprise, hopefully not a shock, when all of a sudden, like a flash of light, something opens up and reveals its mysteries. That is the first big step into wisdom. Pearls to be found.
DB
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
15 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
John Dryden
***************
People are strange. They spend a lot of time and effort underestimating other people. I suppose it's the nasty habit of making comparisons that prompts people to do it. "He can't be as smart as I am. Can he?"
I was coming out of a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House one evening and saw a guy I knew somewhat. He said he was surprised to see me there. He didn't know I was an opera goer. I thought to myself, what would make him think I wasn't? What image did I project of myself which would convince anyone that I wouldn't enjoy the opera" He knew I was in the arts, why not an opera lover?
Another time I was working on an original play and after rehearsal I was having a beer with the author and discussing the play. I said that I thought the character was going through an obscure night of the soul. He said he was surprised that I would know that. Again I wondered what would make him think that about me. After all, one cannot live with going through an obscure night of the soul every now and then, those times when one is confused, things don't make sense and everything seems dark.
If you underestimate people you are in danger of patronizing and condescending. I try never to do it.
I was having a discussion recently with someone who said she never realized that a work of art was actually supposed to have a meaning. She referred to a particular painting of mine and asked if it was allegorical. She was seeing something in it that caused a personal response in her. I replied that all art is allegorical. But then I thought about it and revised my remark to say that all art is allegory.
I could have gone on to say that everything is. All is allegory, metaphor, parable. One doesn't need to go through live analyzing everything to get it to reveal its secrets. That would be an exhausting thing to do. It is enough to know that the secrets are there to be found if one wants to dive deeply.
Another play I was working on had a scene where the other character threw a fit on the stage. The director wanted to know what I was thinking about during it. I said I was trying to figure out the tactic. The other actor said there was no tactic and quoted "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." I said a cigar is always a cigar but on the stage it has a meaning and I want to know what it is even of your character doesn't know. He was surprised to think there was a meaning behind something that his character wasn't aware of.
One who is content to go through life with a smile and not much on their mind is in for a surprise, hopefully not a shock, when all of a sudden, like a flash of light, something opens up and reveals its mysteries. That is the first big step into wisdom. Pearls to be found.
DB
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.
15 responses so far.
Answers will be published the first day of Summer.
Thank you.
dbdacoba@aol.com
DB - The Vagabond
*******************
Sunday, June 13, 2010
No Fooling
Journeys, like artists, are born and not made.
Lawrence Durrell
*****************
I suppose there are as many ways to be a fool as those who've done it, which pretty much includes everyone. We have all stepped in the mud piddle at least once in our lives, taken the wrong turn off the highway and forgotten to record a check we wrote.
I think one of the biggest foolish steps a person can take is to deny who they are, either by not sufficiently understanding themselves or by convincing themselves, or being convinced by others, to try being someone they are not.
I was doing a play in Virginia and on a day off another actor and I went to talk to some high school seniors who had seen the play. They were a smart, bright and lively group. One boy asked us what it took to be an actor. That's a question which requires a 400 page book to answer. So I turned the question back to him and asked if he was thinking about a life in the theatre. He said "Mildly." My colleague said "Well, if you're thinking about it mildly, don't think about it."
The boy was a little shocked, but I hastened to say that my friend was not being insulting, he was saying the truth, a truth about any endeavor in life that is important. I didn't want to dissuade the youngster from following a career in show business. But I wanted him to know that he should think earnestly and honestly about whatever he did, to investigate things that interested him and to keep an open mind. I told him that one day, maybe in 5 years, maybe in 5 minutes, a light would go on and he would know "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life" whether it's acting, science, business, sports or something else.
I distinctly remember when it happened to me. I was about the same age as that boy. I had been calmly contemplating off and on what road I would take in life. Suddenly, at one moment it came to me in a flash. I was an actor and had been an actor since the day I was born.
I call myself a vagabond because my life is a wayfaring one, a journey, as yours is, even if you never leave your house. My journey is particular to me. It has taken me through many experiences that all relate in some degree to my life as an artist and entertainer. It has been a risky journey, chocked with dangers, but totally necessary to be who I am to the best of my understanding and ability.
I have known those who have fooled themselves right out of the lives they should have. I know a man who refuses to give up his regular job to pursue a career. He would rather be sleep deprived than to give up the safety and security he thinks he has. He is denying himself the life of the fine artist he could be. What foolishness!
My own family eventually began to treat me with envy and scorn because they all turned their backs on the talents and abilities they were born with to take orthodox roads to the future, and I didn't.
Now more than 50 years since that moment of realization I can look back and see that I did a lot of foolish things and have a lot of regrets. But for accepting the journey I was given from the day I was born I have no regrets.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***********************
Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle
What? No contestant? Not one?
If I have to tell you the answers you are going to be ashamed of yourselves.
I've added two more questions at the bottom which should be major hints.
I give you the questions, you give me the answers.
Ready. Set. Strike up the band.
-------------------------------------
1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
13. What don't I know?
14. Who looks good on a tandem bike?
----------------------------
I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
*********************
Lawrence Durrell
*****************
I suppose there are as many ways to be a fool as those who've done it, which pretty much includes everyone. We have all stepped in the mud piddle at least once in our lives, taken the wrong turn off the highway and forgotten to record a check we wrote.
I think one of the biggest foolish steps a person can take is to deny who they are, either by not sufficiently understanding themselves or by convincing themselves, or being convinced by others, to try being someone they are not.
I was doing a play in Virginia and on a day off another actor and I went to talk to some high school seniors who had seen the play. They were a smart, bright and lively group. One boy asked us what it took to be an actor. That's a question which requires a 400 page book to answer. So I turned the question back to him and asked if he was thinking about a life in the theatre. He said "Mildly." My colleague said "Well, if you're thinking about it mildly, don't think about it."
The boy was a little shocked, but I hastened to say that my friend was not being insulting, he was saying the truth, a truth about any endeavor in life that is important. I didn't want to dissuade the youngster from following a career in show business. But I wanted him to know that he should think earnestly and honestly about whatever he did, to investigate things that interested him and to keep an open mind. I told him that one day, maybe in 5 years, maybe in 5 minutes, a light would go on and he would know "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life" whether it's acting, science, business, sports or something else.
I distinctly remember when it happened to me. I was about the same age as that boy. I had been calmly contemplating off and on what road I would take in life. Suddenly, at one moment it came to me in a flash. I was an actor and had been an actor since the day I was born.
I call myself a vagabond because my life is a wayfaring one, a journey, as yours is, even if you never leave your house. My journey is particular to me. It has taken me through many experiences that all relate in some degree to my life as an artist and entertainer. It has been a risky journey, chocked with dangers, but totally necessary to be who I am to the best of my understanding and ability.
I have known those who have fooled themselves right out of the lives they should have. I know a man who refuses to give up his regular job to pursue a career. He would rather be sleep deprived than to give up the safety and security he thinks he has. He is denying himself the life of the fine artist he could be. What foolishness!
My own family eventually began to treat me with envy and scorn because they all turned their backs on the talents and abilities they were born with to take orthodox roads to the future, and I didn't.
Now more than 50 years since that moment of realization I can look back and see that I did a lot of foolish things and have a lot of regrets. But for accepting the journey I was given from the day I was born I have no regrets.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***********************
Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle
What? No contestant? Not one?
If I have to tell you the answers you are going to be ashamed of yourselves.
I've added two more questions at the bottom which should be major hints.
I give you the questions, you give me the answers.
Ready. Set. Strike up the band.
-------------------------------------
1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
13. What don't I know?
14. Who looks good on a tandem bike?
----------------------------
I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
*********************
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Hard And The Soft
It is requisite for the ideal artist to possess a force of character that seems hardly compatible with its delicacy.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
**********************
To be an artist one has to be mildly schizophrenic, not in a clinical sense but in a social, mercantile sense. In any transaction involving a work of art there are three elements, the seller, the buyer and the piece. Initially the seller is the artist whether he sells to a gallery or an art collector. If the buyer is a gallery there is usually no money involved. There's an agreement instead. The gallery becomes the seller, collects the money, takes a commisssion and sends the rest to the artist.
When the artist is the seller it becomes a problem of possession. He is letting go of something that was once an all consuming part of himself, like sending off a daughter to be married. The artist has to completely believe in the work and in himself. And he has to be very good at coming to an agreement with the buyer that is satisfactory to both of them. Which means he has to be a good businessman.
I know an artist who was asked by a buyer how much he wanted for a painting. The artist said, let's say, $500. The buyer then asked how much it would be without the frame. The artist replied "$500, I don't sell frames."
It is very similar in the theatre world. When an actor auditions for an agent or a director he has to go in sure of himself, confident and prepared. But in the actors case the piece he is selling is himself. It's his talent, ability, artistry and craftsmanship that's up on the easel. Once he gets the role then he can put the salesmanship in his pocket and let the artist go to work.
So how is this done? A young artist asked me that once and here's what I said. It's like you have two heads, and here's where the schizophrenia comes in. One head is you the hard nosed businessman and vendor of wares and the other is you the imaginative, sensitive creator of beauty, vulnerable and delicate. When one head is out front you are holding the other behind your back. You know it's there, but for the time being you forget about it.
DB - The Vagabond
???????????????????
Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle
I give you the questions, you give me the answers.
Ready. Set. .
-------------------------------------
1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
----------------------------
I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
*********************
Nathaniel Hawthorne
**********************
To be an artist one has to be mildly schizophrenic, not in a clinical sense but in a social, mercantile sense. In any transaction involving a work of art there are three elements, the seller, the buyer and the piece. Initially the seller is the artist whether he sells to a gallery or an art collector. If the buyer is a gallery there is usually no money involved. There's an agreement instead. The gallery becomes the seller, collects the money, takes a commisssion and sends the rest to the artist.
When the artist is the seller it becomes a problem of possession. He is letting go of something that was once an all consuming part of himself, like sending off a daughter to be married. The artist has to completely believe in the work and in himself. And he has to be very good at coming to an agreement with the buyer that is satisfactory to both of them. Which means he has to be a good businessman.
I know an artist who was asked by a buyer how much he wanted for a painting. The artist said, let's say, $500. The buyer then asked how much it would be without the frame. The artist replied "$500, I don't sell frames."
It is very similar in the theatre world. When an actor auditions for an agent or a director he has to go in sure of himself, confident and prepared. But in the actors case the piece he is selling is himself. It's his talent, ability, artistry and craftsmanship that's up on the easel. Once he gets the role then he can put the salesmanship in his pocket and let the artist go to work.
So how is this done? A young artist asked me that once and here's what I said. It's like you have two heads, and here's where the schizophrenia comes in. One head is you the hard nosed businessman and vendor of wares and the other is you the imaginative, sensitive creator of beauty, vulnerable and delicate. When one head is out front you are holding the other behind your back. You know it's there, but for the time being you forget about it.
DB - The Vagabond
???????????????????
Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle
I give you the questions, you give me the answers.
Ready. Set. .
-------------------------------------
1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
----------------------------
I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
*********************
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Culture War
When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
John F. Kennedy
*********************
A few years ago a new CEO of a major international company was quoted as saying he never gives money to cultural causes and he's proud of it. Imagine the Chief Executive Officer of a large corporation not liking cultural events of any kind.
Well now, let's think about it. We would certainly save a lot if we dispensed with the symphony orchestras, opera houses and ballet companies in the country. They cost a lot of money to maintain and they certainly don't pay for themselves. Not only that but a lot of the time orchestra musicians sit around and do nothing. A dead waste of labor.
The publishers send out stacks of poetry and novels. Poetry is just a waste of time. Nobody reads that gunk and novels are just fiction, stories that have no value to real life whatsoever. Let's close down those glorified printing houses if they can't do better.
What's next? Well how about all those university and college departments: fine arts, music and drama (which are the devils workshops). Do you know there are classes where a person, usually a young good looking girl, maybe even your daughter. stands in the middle of the room absolutely stark naked while other people sit around and pretend to draw while they gawk and ogle. Disgusting!. Let's close down those nests of sin.
Art museums are another thing. What a waste of space. Nobody ever goes in them. Some of them are so big they could easily be converted into a sports arena or a factory warehouse.
Now about ballet. Have you ever been to a ballet dance. The boys all prance around with their bulges showing while the girls have skirts so short you can practically see everything. And modern dance? You never can tell what's going to happen with one of those. Those dancers are all homos anyway.
And actors? Don't get me started. They all just want to show off, sometimes with their clothes on, sometimes not. And those theatre companies all over the place are eating into our tax dollars something fierce. Films are the only things that actually make money and look at the junk Hollywood turns out. We should close down some of those studios, pronto.
Jazz, there's another waste of time and money. Who wants to listen to all that honking and rattling. Then there are the folk and pop singers. I say, if someone wants to play his guitar and sing let him sing gospel music and stop wasting my time.
And speaking of works of the devil, it's past time that we rid this hallowed land of the worst garbage that has ever been strewn on our pure paths. I'm speaking of that ear splitting, dope selling, promiscuity breeding, rebellion making, gang forming, dementia causing outrage know as rock and roll. If there ever was a reason to put our national foot down on the freedom of expression, those rock and roll (I hesitate to call them) musicians have sure provided us with more justification than we need.
No, I want to jog down the street in quiet and when I go to the football game I want to hear the high school band play Stars and Stripes. Now that's culture.
DB
****************
I'm glad to say that "Buffalo Gap" Part Two of Brian and Christine is now finished and posted on The Brian Saga, http://thebriansaga.blogspot.com/ I love my story.
*******************
Only one winner of the Weekend Contest
Paula of the Email Lions wins the autographed map of the world beach ball. for guessing the Secretaries General Of the United Nations.
1. T___ L___ Trygve Lie
2. D___ H___ Dag Hammarsjold
3. U T___ U Thant
4. Kurt W___ Kurt Waldheim
5. J___ P___ d___ C___ Javier Perez de Cuellar
6. B___ B___-G___ Boutros Boutros-Ghali
7. K___ A___ Kofi Annan
8. B___ K___-m___ Ban Ki-moon
Better luck next time. If there is one.
***********************
John F. Kennedy
*********************
A few years ago a new CEO of a major international company was quoted as saying he never gives money to cultural causes and he's proud of it. Imagine the Chief Executive Officer of a large corporation not liking cultural events of any kind.
Well now, let's think about it. We would certainly save a lot if we dispensed with the symphony orchestras, opera houses and ballet companies in the country. They cost a lot of money to maintain and they certainly don't pay for themselves. Not only that but a lot of the time orchestra musicians sit around and do nothing. A dead waste of labor.
The publishers send out stacks of poetry and novels. Poetry is just a waste of time. Nobody reads that gunk and novels are just fiction, stories that have no value to real life whatsoever. Let's close down those glorified printing houses if they can't do better.
What's next? Well how about all those university and college departments: fine arts, music and drama (which are the devils workshops). Do you know there are classes where a person, usually a young good looking girl, maybe even your daughter. stands in the middle of the room absolutely stark naked while other people sit around and pretend to draw while they gawk and ogle. Disgusting!. Let's close down those nests of sin.
Art museums are another thing. What a waste of space. Nobody ever goes in them. Some of them are so big they could easily be converted into a sports arena or a factory warehouse.
Now about ballet. Have you ever been to a ballet dance. The boys all prance around with their bulges showing while the girls have skirts so short you can practically see everything. And modern dance? You never can tell what's going to happen with one of those. Those dancers are all homos anyway.
And actors? Don't get me started. They all just want to show off, sometimes with their clothes on, sometimes not. And those theatre companies all over the place are eating into our tax dollars something fierce. Films are the only things that actually make money and look at the junk Hollywood turns out. We should close down some of those studios, pronto.
Jazz, there's another waste of time and money. Who wants to listen to all that honking and rattling. Then there are the folk and pop singers. I say, if someone wants to play his guitar and sing let him sing gospel music and stop wasting my time.
And speaking of works of the devil, it's past time that we rid this hallowed land of the worst garbage that has ever been strewn on our pure paths. I'm speaking of that ear splitting, dope selling, promiscuity breeding, rebellion making, gang forming, dementia causing outrage know as rock and roll. If there ever was a reason to put our national foot down on the freedom of expression, those rock and roll (I hesitate to call them) musicians have sure provided us with more justification than we need.
No, I want to jog down the street in quiet and when I go to the football game I want to hear the high school band play Stars and Stripes. Now that's culture.
DB
****************
I'm glad to say that "Buffalo Gap" Part Two of Brian and Christine is now finished and posted on The Brian Saga, http://thebriansaga.blogspot.com/ I love my story.
*******************
Only one winner of the Weekend Contest
Paula of the Email Lions wins the autographed map of the world beach ball. for guessing the Secretaries General Of the United Nations.
1. T___ L___ Trygve Lie
2. D___ H___ Dag Hammarsjold
3. U T___ U Thant
4. Kurt W___ Kurt Waldheim
5. J___ P___ d___ C___ Javier Perez de Cuellar
6. B___ B___-G___ Boutros Boutros-Ghali
7. K___ A___ Kofi Annan
8. B___ K___-m___ Ban Ki-moon
Better luck next time. If there is one.
***********************
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Through The Window
I don't take the movies seriously, and anyone who does is in for a headache.
Bette Davis
****************
It may be an old drum but it still resonates. So I'm going to keep beating it.
Let me put it to you this way. If you went to a concert and saw a man playing the guitar would you say that the man was the guitar? Of course not. He's not a guitar. He's playing a guitar. If you went to the ballet and the next day you saw the ballerina coming down the sidewalk, do you think she would be walking on her toes, doing leaps and pirouettes? Most probably not. If an artist paints a picture is he the picture or simply the one who painted it? If a novelist writes a story about someone is he writing an autobiography or a novel? Then why do people assume an actor is like the roles he plays?
I am currently putting the final touches on a long story about Brian Sims and his journey across the country. (http://db-vagabondtales.blogspot.com/) "Brian On The Road." I made such a journey myself in the same year, 1960. The story is based on my own journey but Brian is a different man, he's my invention. Some of the people, places and events are true, but not in the way I describe them, and some are not. It is simply based on my own journey. And that phrase "based on" is a very important one to remember.
I have a friend, an actor, who played one of the most villainous and despicable characters in a Hollywood film. There is nothing about my friend that resembles that character in the least. The role was a pure invention based on something: people he knew or read about perhaps. I remember discussing that with a young actress who claimed that there must be something to my friend that is like that character or he could never have played it so well. I asked her if she happened to get a role as a prostitute would she like it if someone said there must be something loose and promiscuous about her or she could never play it so well. She admitted that would not please her and changed her mind about my friend.
There's a recent motion picture, a war story, set in Iraq. Members of the military have complained about it, saying that it isn't true to life and doesn't happen that way. Well, of course it doesn't. The film is a work of art, a piece of fiction. It may be based on things that happen in Iraq, but it isn't about them. It's about itself.
If they want something that is true to life in Iraq then they should make a documentary. But that's a different product for a different audience. The film is fiction, just like a novel, just like a ballet. If you watch a film thinking the actors are really the people they are portraying then you're going to end up with a headache.
A work of art is an invitation, it's a window on to our own special lives.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Hold your breath, Spring is coming any minute
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have the Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
24 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
**********************
Any suggestions for a Spring Question?
Bette Davis
****************
It may be an old drum but it still resonates. So I'm going to keep beating it.
Let me put it to you this way. If you went to a concert and saw a man playing the guitar would you say that the man was the guitar? Of course not. He's not a guitar. He's playing a guitar. If you went to the ballet and the next day you saw the ballerina coming down the sidewalk, do you think she would be walking on her toes, doing leaps and pirouettes? Most probably not. If an artist paints a picture is he the picture or simply the one who painted it? If a novelist writes a story about someone is he writing an autobiography or a novel? Then why do people assume an actor is like the roles he plays?
I am currently putting the final touches on a long story about Brian Sims and his journey across the country. (http://db-vagabondtales.blogspot.com/) "Brian On The Road." I made such a journey myself in the same year, 1960. The story is based on my own journey but Brian is a different man, he's my invention. Some of the people, places and events are true, but not in the way I describe them, and some are not. It is simply based on my own journey. And that phrase "based on" is a very important one to remember.
I have a friend, an actor, who played one of the most villainous and despicable characters in a Hollywood film. There is nothing about my friend that resembles that character in the least. The role was a pure invention based on something: people he knew or read about perhaps. I remember discussing that with a young actress who claimed that there must be something to my friend that is like that character or he could never have played it so well. I asked her if she happened to get a role as a prostitute would she like it if someone said there must be something loose and promiscuous about her or she could never play it so well. She admitted that would not please her and changed her mind about my friend.
There's a recent motion picture, a war story, set in Iraq. Members of the military have complained about it, saying that it isn't true to life and doesn't happen that way. Well, of course it doesn't. The film is a work of art, a piece of fiction. It may be based on things that happen in Iraq, but it isn't about them. It's about itself.
If they want something that is true to life in Iraq then they should make a documentary. But that's a different product for a different audience. The film is fiction, just like a novel, just like a ballet. If you watch a film thinking the actors are really the people they are portraying then you're going to end up with a headache.
A work of art is an invitation, it's a window on to our own special lives.
DB - The Vagabond
********************
WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Hold your breath, Spring is coming any minute
Given the resources and opportunity, what one thing do you want to do in 2010 that you've never done before.
You have the Winter to answer. Answers will be posted on the first day of Spring.
24 responses so far.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
**********************
Any suggestions for a Spring Question?
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Deep Drinking
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking deeply sobers it again.
Alexander Pope
**********************
The Pierian spring, according to ancient Greek legend, was a fountain near Mount Olympus. Its waters gave knowledge of the arts and sciences. Pope barrows the phrase "Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring" from Petronius, a Roman writer and friend of Emperor Nero.
If there was ever a time in which we needed to drink deep it is these days. We are constantly intoxicated to the point of addiction with the shallow draughts of sound bites, flimsy interviews and shallow opinions. The average citizen of any nation hardly knows what his government is up to and it is impossible to find out in some cases and extremely difficult in others. Americans don't know what the Congress is doing and neither it seems do some Congress people.
When I first became aware of the fact that we were only told what the new laws were after the fact I started to subscribe to the Congressional Record, a large volume published daily by the U.S. Government Printing Office. It tells of everything that goes on there, all the legislation, debates and special papers submitted by the various members. It's so thick nobody reads it, but anyone has the right to. If you think you know what's going on in Washington reading the Congressional Record is quite a shock. There are juicy parts but you have to wade into deep waters to get there.
I have been guilty of "a little learning" in the past. Everyone is. But a couple of the good rules for life are: 1) Don't carelessly express an opinion about anything without sufficient knowledge of it, and 2) If you don't know what you're talking about, keep your mouth shut.
The reason for these two rules is that what we say impresses and affects other people's thinking. We see so much evidence of that today when people stand up for one side of an issue or another, without really knowing what the issue is. We are given a label and a brief description, usually geared toward one side or the other and on that basis we are expected to decide what we think. It's a joke. It's a disgrace.
It is even more hideous when we come to describing other people. "Oh, they're all alike." "They're homeless because they refuse to work." "You can't trust anyone over 30" they used to say. (Those who said that are now all over 30.) "Illegal immigrants are steeling our jobs." "There's no homosexuality in the Boy Scouts." "All Jews want to move to Israel." It's unsubstantial remarks like those that influence people to not see things clearly or find out the truth for themselves. As I have said before: Most of the authorities in the world aren't.
When I began to see my own shallow places I felt the need to sober up and fill them with some real learning. That's when I began to read everything I could find of interest about subjects I felt were important. I became a reading addict. About politics and social issues I wanted to know what people with some knowledge thought from the most liberal to the most conservative. As I learned what the real thinkers had to say I soon realized that the TV pundits don't know what they are talking about.
About the arts, I had tunnel vision because I was so involved in my own career as an actor I wasn't seeing and understanding what people in the other arts were doing. So I spent more time at galleries and museums, dance and music concerts. I talked with the artists and got to hear so many different points of view about their art. I was amazed.
I didn't realized how ignorant and biased I was about science until I began reading some scientific journals and meeting scientists who were passionate about their work. Now I read books on scientific subjects, particularly math and astronomy. Some of my actor friends think I'm nuts.
Having eschewed the esoteric world of philosophy as a dull, dry, boring subject, with a slightly snide sneer on my face I bought a book by Martin Heidegger and read it. That changed everything. I plunged into that Pierian spring of philosophy head first and since then have swallowed large sobering draughts of one of the world's most fascinating subjects.
I finally opened the seventh seal of religion. There I find a subject that is both catastrophically limiting and inexhaustibly cosmic. There is hardly any subject on earth with more shallow thinking and simplistic sound bites, things taken as truth and reality with nothing to back them up and yet with ideas and possibilities that range beyond human understanding and transcend the limitations of our mortal lives.
Now my life is deep drinking. The more I drink the less I talk.
DB - The Vagabond
***************************
Weekend Survey
There is a big birthday party for Janice and her friends and family.
A lot of people have come to it. The list includes Alice, Bob, Cathy and Charlie, Donna, Eugene, George and Janet, Lucinda, Mark, Nancy, Olivia, Rose, Ruth and Sam, Terry and good old Will.
Many of them have brought gifts.
1. A small package wrapped in white with a silver bow, Looks like it might have come from a jewelry store.
2. A medium sized rectangular box, wrapped in blue with a red ribbon, might be a book.
3. A large flat package in simple brown wrapping with a strings tied around it and a card stuck under the string. Some important documents maybe.
4 A large box wrapped in a many colored paper with a flower design on it. I wonder what that is.
5. Another rectangular box, thicker than the other one, beautifully wrapped in a gold paper with a black ribbon finished off in a perfect bow. Another book? Or a few books?
6. Hard to hide the plant sitting on the floor with green paper wrapped around it and some circular object at the base with a green plastic thing peeking out.
7. A larger rectangular box, fairly thick and light, looks like it might be clothes.
8 A square box in a striped blue and yellow paper wrapping, on top is a pretty red bow.
9. One very large box, apart from the rest, big enough to hold any number of electronic things. It's wrapped in Muslin.
10. A medium sized circular package, inside a bag, with a store name on it, which has been taped shut.
11. Another very large package, not in a box, but completely covered over with a wrapper left over from Christmas. A card is taped to the side of it.
Your assignment is to decide, in your opinion, which package Janet should open up first. Please leave the number of your choice on my email dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you
DB
Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking deeply sobers it again.
Alexander Pope
**********************
The Pierian spring, according to ancient Greek legend, was a fountain near Mount Olympus. Its waters gave knowledge of the arts and sciences. Pope barrows the phrase "Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring" from Petronius, a Roman writer and friend of Emperor Nero.
If there was ever a time in which we needed to drink deep it is these days. We are constantly intoxicated to the point of addiction with the shallow draughts of sound bites, flimsy interviews and shallow opinions. The average citizen of any nation hardly knows what his government is up to and it is impossible to find out in some cases and extremely difficult in others. Americans don't know what the Congress is doing and neither it seems do some Congress people.
When I first became aware of the fact that we were only told what the new laws were after the fact I started to subscribe to the Congressional Record, a large volume published daily by the U.S. Government Printing Office. It tells of everything that goes on there, all the legislation, debates and special papers submitted by the various members. It's so thick nobody reads it, but anyone has the right to. If you think you know what's going on in Washington reading the Congressional Record is quite a shock. There are juicy parts but you have to wade into deep waters to get there.
I have been guilty of "a little learning" in the past. Everyone is. But a couple of the good rules for life are: 1) Don't carelessly express an opinion about anything without sufficient knowledge of it, and 2) If you don't know what you're talking about, keep your mouth shut.
The reason for these two rules is that what we say impresses and affects other people's thinking. We see so much evidence of that today when people stand up for one side of an issue or another, without really knowing what the issue is. We are given a label and a brief description, usually geared toward one side or the other and on that basis we are expected to decide what we think. It's a joke. It's a disgrace.
It is even more hideous when we come to describing other people. "Oh, they're all alike." "They're homeless because they refuse to work." "You can't trust anyone over 30" they used to say. (Those who said that are now all over 30.) "Illegal immigrants are steeling our jobs." "There's no homosexuality in the Boy Scouts." "All Jews want to move to Israel." It's unsubstantial remarks like those that influence people to not see things clearly or find out the truth for themselves. As I have said before: Most of the authorities in the world aren't.
When I began to see my own shallow places I felt the need to sober up and fill them with some real learning. That's when I began to read everything I could find of interest about subjects I felt were important. I became a reading addict. About politics and social issues I wanted to know what people with some knowledge thought from the most liberal to the most conservative. As I learned what the real thinkers had to say I soon realized that the TV pundits don't know what they are talking about.
About the arts, I had tunnel vision because I was so involved in my own career as an actor I wasn't seeing and understanding what people in the other arts were doing. So I spent more time at galleries and museums, dance and music concerts. I talked with the artists and got to hear so many different points of view about their art. I was amazed.
I didn't realized how ignorant and biased I was about science until I began reading some scientific journals and meeting scientists who were passionate about their work. Now I read books on scientific subjects, particularly math and astronomy. Some of my actor friends think I'm nuts.
Having eschewed the esoteric world of philosophy as a dull, dry, boring subject, with a slightly snide sneer on my face I bought a book by Martin Heidegger and read it. That changed everything. I plunged into that Pierian spring of philosophy head first and since then have swallowed large sobering draughts of one of the world's most fascinating subjects.
I finally opened the seventh seal of religion. There I find a subject that is both catastrophically limiting and inexhaustibly cosmic. There is hardly any subject on earth with more shallow thinking and simplistic sound bites, things taken as truth and reality with nothing to back them up and yet with ideas and possibilities that range beyond human understanding and transcend the limitations of our mortal lives.
Now my life is deep drinking. The more I drink the less I talk.
DB - The Vagabond
***************************
Weekend Survey
There is a big birthday party for Janice and her friends and family.
A lot of people have come to it. The list includes Alice, Bob, Cathy and Charlie, Donna, Eugene, George and Janet, Lucinda, Mark, Nancy, Olivia, Rose, Ruth and Sam, Terry and good old Will.
Many of them have brought gifts.
1. A small package wrapped in white with a silver bow, Looks like it might have come from a jewelry store.
2. A medium sized rectangular box, wrapped in blue with a red ribbon, might be a book.
3. A large flat package in simple brown wrapping with a strings tied around it and a card stuck under the string. Some important documents maybe.
4 A large box wrapped in a many colored paper with a flower design on it. I wonder what that is.
5. Another rectangular box, thicker than the other one, beautifully wrapped in a gold paper with a black ribbon finished off in a perfect bow. Another book? Or a few books?
6. Hard to hide the plant sitting on the floor with green paper wrapped around it and some circular object at the base with a green plastic thing peeking out.
7. A larger rectangular box, fairly thick and light, looks like it might be clothes.
8 A square box in a striped blue and yellow paper wrapping, on top is a pretty red bow.
9. One very large box, apart from the rest, big enough to hold any number of electronic things. It's wrapped in Muslin.
10. A medium sized circular package, inside a bag, with a store name on it, which has been taped shut.
11. Another very large package, not in a box, but completely covered over with a wrapper left over from Christmas. A card is taped to the side of it.
Your assignment is to decide, in your opinion, which package Janet should open up first. Please leave the number of your choice on my email dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you
DB
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Quality Questions 9/04/09
A work of art is a creature which beckons, points and leads the way. But if we see it as merely a thing in itself we are still lost.
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Climb aboard.
____________________________
A CEO of a major American oil company was quoted as saying that he had never given a dollar to any cultural cause in his life, that he never would and he was proud of it. That man is truly lost.
Probably nothing and no group of people suffer from as much criticism, prejudice, misunderstanding, misinterpretation and maligning as art and artists do. I know I have written about the inane habit many people have of not being able to separate the actor from the role he plays. The man who plays the clarinet does not go around all day with a clarinet in his hands. Why should a man who plays a villain go around all day with villainy in his heart? It makes no sense.
Books have been burned or banned from library shelves, paintings have been taken off the walls, statues have been destroyed or covered up, not because of what they are but because of what an ignorant person or group of people think they are.
A work of art can be pleasing and enjoyable on a very simple level, but, yes, sometimes it can be dangerous. But the danger is primarily in its prophetic abilities.
When Pierre Beaumarchais wrote his trilogy of plays about Figaro in the 1770s the hero was a barber, a common man. The aristocrats came and laughed. They were so amused at the idea of a commoner being able to control a nobleman and his family, something they knew would never happen. But within a short time there were revolutions, and near revolutions, in which the common people took over the reins from the oppressive, conservative, aristocratic governments all over Europe and America. Did Beaumarchais' plays cause those revolutions? No. They pointed to them.
Plato says somewhere that when the modes of society change the modes of music always change first. When Arnold Schoenberg developed the twelve tone theory of music compostion in the 1920s in which equal importance was given to each tone of the scale it erased the traditional method of keys with their inner harmonic relationships. There were plenty of polemics about Schoenberg's music but was he preaching Socialism or predicting it?
In the 1940s New York City became the center of the art world with the rise of AbstractExpressionsism and artists such Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline and Hans Hoffman. And what was it telling us? The world had just been torn to shreds by the second world war, culminating in the massive destruction of two civilizations by atomic bombs. Life would never be the same. Painting became nonpolitical and nonobjective. A work of art no longer had to be about something. It became the reality of the artists' emotional and subconscious lives. It was a completely personal revolution, a modern version of the rise of the common man, his thoughts, feelings and experiences. It was now a true communication, as it had always been, but without the limitations of tradition, a communication from the artist to the viewer, one on one.
That revolution made it's way into poetry, theatre, music and dance. And I think that's where the finger was pointing. Freedom. Freedom of expression. Freedom of speech. Freedom from boundaries and limitations. You don't have to paint abstract art or compose twelve tone music. But you can if you want to. It's personal. Your choice. The revolution is still going on (but don't tell the aristocrats or that CEO).
Now there is electronics: computer graphics, electronic music or electronically altered traditional music (rock bands) and massive and complicated special effects in films. What is that pointing to?
The best way to view a work of art is to ask what it is saying to you. Don't make assumptions. Take time and let its message speak. Congratulate yourself. The artist is talking to you. YOU.
DB - The Vagabond
******************
I enjoy your hugs.
________________________
SUMMER QUIZ
This is not a contest.
A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.
Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?
You have all summer to answer if you wish.
20 responses so far.
DB
DB - The Vagabond
**********************
Climb aboard.
____________________________
A CEO of a major American oil company was quoted as saying that he had never given a dollar to any cultural cause in his life, that he never would and he was proud of it. That man is truly lost.
Probably nothing and no group of people suffer from as much criticism, prejudice, misunderstanding, misinterpretation and maligning as art and artists do. I know I have written about the inane habit many people have of not being able to separate the actor from the role he plays. The man who plays the clarinet does not go around all day with a clarinet in his hands. Why should a man who plays a villain go around all day with villainy in his heart? It makes no sense.
Books have been burned or banned from library shelves, paintings have been taken off the walls, statues have been destroyed or covered up, not because of what they are but because of what an ignorant person or group of people think they are.
A work of art can be pleasing and enjoyable on a very simple level, but, yes, sometimes it can be dangerous. But the danger is primarily in its prophetic abilities.
When Pierre Beaumarchais wrote his trilogy of plays about Figaro in the 1770s the hero was a barber, a common man. The aristocrats came and laughed. They were so amused at the idea of a commoner being able to control a nobleman and his family, something they knew would never happen. But within a short time there were revolutions, and near revolutions, in which the common people took over the reins from the oppressive, conservative, aristocratic governments all over Europe and America. Did Beaumarchais' plays cause those revolutions? No. They pointed to them.
Plato says somewhere that when the modes of society change the modes of music always change first. When Arnold Schoenberg developed the twelve tone theory of music compostion in the 1920s in which equal importance was given to each tone of the scale it erased the traditional method of keys with their inner harmonic relationships. There were plenty of polemics about Schoenberg's music but was he preaching Socialism or predicting it?
In the 1940s New York City became the center of the art world with the rise of AbstractExpressionsism and artists such Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline and Hans Hoffman. And what was it telling us? The world had just been torn to shreds by the second world war, culminating in the massive destruction of two civilizations by atomic bombs. Life would never be the same. Painting became nonpolitical and nonobjective. A work of art no longer had to be about something. It became the reality of the artists' emotional and subconscious lives. It was a completely personal revolution, a modern version of the rise of the common man, his thoughts, feelings and experiences. It was now a true communication, as it had always been, but without the limitations of tradition, a communication from the artist to the viewer, one on one.
That revolution made it's way into poetry, theatre, music and dance. And I think that's where the finger was pointing. Freedom. Freedom of expression. Freedom of speech. Freedom from boundaries and limitations. You don't have to paint abstract art or compose twelve tone music. But you can if you want to. It's personal. Your choice. The revolution is still going on (but don't tell the aristocrats or that CEO).
Now there is electronics: computer graphics, electronic music or electronically altered traditional music (rock bands) and massive and complicated special effects in films. What is that pointing to?
The best way to view a work of art is to ask what it is saying to you. Don't make assumptions. Take time and let its message speak. Congratulate yourself. The artist is talking to you. YOU.
DB - The Vagabond
******************
I enjoy your hugs.
________________________
SUMMER QUIZ
This is not a contest.
A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.
Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?
You have all summer to answer if you wish.
20 responses so far.
DB
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Qualified Quits 8/04/09
Sometimes the artist's main responsibility is to get out of the way.
DB - The Vagabond
************************
Welcome friend.
------------------------------
You should always expect good results when you enter into any sort of artistic expression. Sometimes those good results come before you know it or while you're still working to achieve them. That is also true in any important life endeavor. Conscientious effort focused on a worthy objective usually brings it into reality.
There are two principles about art that I remember. One is that when the work is done you're finished, so stop. And the other is that once you finish a work it is no longer yours, it belongs to the world.
As an actor I frequently observed in other actors and myself the temptation to keep going over the good parts of a performance to make them better when they were just fine and as good as they were going to get. It was other parts that needed to be worked on. We can congratulate ourselves for what's done well, but not for what's undone. And once the work is done, it's time to send it out into the world for the world to judge and get on with life.
I worked for a long time on a painting I call "The Eye Of The Storm." It's a non-realistic water scene with the colors of the setting sun reflected on it. One day my friend and excellent artist, Moses Hoskins, came to visit and look at my work. When I showed him The Eye I said that I was still working on it and didn't know where it was going he surprised me by saying "Stop. It's finished." So I did.
One of these day, when I learn how to post pictures, I'll give it to the world, and one of these days I'll get it framed.
Thank you Moses.
DB
************************
Think cool winter thoughts.
_________________________
SUMMER QUIZ
This is not a contest.
A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.
Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?
You have all summer to answer if you wish.
19 responses so far.
DB
Disorderly around trains for example to haul backwards most of art. (9)
DB - The Vagabond
************************
Welcome friend.
------------------------------
You should always expect good results when you enter into any sort of artistic expression. Sometimes those good results come before you know it or while you're still working to achieve them. That is also true in any important life endeavor. Conscientious effort focused on a worthy objective usually brings it into reality.
There are two principles about art that I remember. One is that when the work is done you're finished, so stop. And the other is that once you finish a work it is no longer yours, it belongs to the world.
As an actor I frequently observed in other actors and myself the temptation to keep going over the good parts of a performance to make them better when they were just fine and as good as they were going to get. It was other parts that needed to be worked on. We can congratulate ourselves for what's done well, but not for what's undone. And once the work is done, it's time to send it out into the world for the world to judge and get on with life.
I worked for a long time on a painting I call "The Eye Of The Storm." It's a non-realistic water scene with the colors of the setting sun reflected on it. One day my friend and excellent artist, Moses Hoskins, came to visit and look at my work. When I showed him The Eye I said that I was still working on it and didn't know where it was going he surprised me by saying "Stop. It's finished." So I did.
One of these day, when I learn how to post pictures, I'll give it to the world, and one of these days I'll get it framed.
Thank you Moses.
DB
************************
Think cool winter thoughts.
_________________________
SUMMER QUIZ
This is not a contest.
A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.
Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?
You have all summer to answer if you wish.
19 responses so far.
DB
Disorderly around trains for example to haul backwards most of art. (9)
Friday, July 10, 2009
Rich Revealing 7/10/09
Art is so much more significant than either economics or philosophy. It is the direct measure of man's spiritual vision.
Herbert Read
***********************
Hail.
-----------------------------
Imagine if one day you had a beautiful vision and you wrote it down as a poem upon an arrow and signed it, then strung a bow and shot that arrow into the sky so high and so far that it didn't fall to the earth for a hundred years in some far off remote place. And imagine that, after many years, someone was passing by that remote place, saw the arrow, picked it up and read the poem. And then suppose that he took the arrow home and copied out the poem. Then suppose he got the poem published so that other people could read it. And suppose some of those people memorized the poem and went around reciting it to other people. And suppose the poem was included in collections of poetry and college textbooks on poetry so that you and the poem became famous.
One of the most frustrating ironies of life is that works of art not only struggle to be born but then have to struggle to survive. The world has already prepared a large collection of blocks and holes for the genius of an artist to fall into or stumble over. The easiest thing for an artist to do is to give up. And many do. And when they do a special vision is lost to the world.
It takes an army to protect poetry from the unconscionable hatred of the limited, mortal world for anything that challenges it's supposed dominance over our lives.
A poet is one who sees beyond the observable, which holds it's ugly head up in arrogance, to the unobservable. Unobservable that is except by vision and inspiration. And as soon as he articulates what he sees the claws come out. The very heart, soul and spirit of a artist can be shredded by ignorance, arrogance, disrespect and dismissal.
So why do it? Why is there art? An artist is an artist because he has to be. It is a singular, solitary encampment against an indifferent enemy, It is a desperate love affair with the gossamer zephyrs. It is an agreement with an invisible partner who may be angelic or diabolic, the artist doesn't know nor care. But what he does know is that if the invisible partner ever leaves him he takes the meaning of the artist's life with him.
The future and the past are inextricably linked. The future and the past are dependant upon each other. The past becomes the future once it squeezes through the tight fisted grasp of the present, with its fads and prejudices. Every work of art is an arrow that has been shot, some near, some far, and thus became the future. Today is the day for the artist to string his bow.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
_____________________
Applaud the good stuff.
********************
SUMMER QUIZ
This is not a contest.
A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.
Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?
You have all summer to answer if you wish.
11 responses so far.
DB
Herbert Read
***********************
Hail.
-----------------------------
Imagine if one day you had a beautiful vision and you wrote it down as a poem upon an arrow and signed it, then strung a bow and shot that arrow into the sky so high and so far that it didn't fall to the earth for a hundred years in some far off remote place. And imagine that, after many years, someone was passing by that remote place, saw the arrow, picked it up and read the poem. And then suppose that he took the arrow home and copied out the poem. Then suppose he got the poem published so that other people could read it. And suppose some of those people memorized the poem and went around reciting it to other people. And suppose the poem was included in collections of poetry and college textbooks on poetry so that you and the poem became famous.
One of the most frustrating ironies of life is that works of art not only struggle to be born but then have to struggle to survive. The world has already prepared a large collection of blocks and holes for the genius of an artist to fall into or stumble over. The easiest thing for an artist to do is to give up. And many do. And when they do a special vision is lost to the world.
It takes an army to protect poetry from the unconscionable hatred of the limited, mortal world for anything that challenges it's supposed dominance over our lives.
A poet is one who sees beyond the observable, which holds it's ugly head up in arrogance, to the unobservable. Unobservable that is except by vision and inspiration. And as soon as he articulates what he sees the claws come out. The very heart, soul and spirit of a artist can be shredded by ignorance, arrogance, disrespect and dismissal.
So why do it? Why is there art? An artist is an artist because he has to be. It is a singular, solitary encampment against an indifferent enemy, It is a desperate love affair with the gossamer zephyrs. It is an agreement with an invisible partner who may be angelic or diabolic, the artist doesn't know nor care. But what he does know is that if the invisible partner ever leaves him he takes the meaning of the artist's life with him.
The future and the past are inextricably linked. The future and the past are dependant upon each other. The past becomes the future once it squeezes through the tight fisted grasp of the present, with its fads and prejudices. Every work of art is an arrow that has been shot, some near, some far, and thus became the future. Today is the day for the artist to string his bow.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
_____________________
Applaud the good stuff.
********************
SUMMER QUIZ
This is not a contest.
A young man out west just took home 88 million dollars from the lottery.
Whether you play the lottery or not, if you suddenly had 88 million dollars, or the equivalent of whatever your currency is, what are the first three things you would do with it?
You have all summer to answer if you wish.
11 responses so far.
DB
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