Saturday, July 19, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
poor eyesight and plain text ... an aesthetic approach to reading swann's way
plutarch, ( diligent scholar, lucky bleeder ! ), told me that he is reading proust from one end to the other ... YET AGAIN
then why not try it yerself, i thort !
the first volume, swann's way, is available on the internet via the marvellous gutenberg site
but their typeface is rubbish ... and my eyesight is nuffink to brag about ... so i've been using microsoft word to make it more legible on my screen ...
there are zillions of spurious carriage returns in the gutenberg version, so whilst i delete them one-at-a-time, as if mending the broken paragraphs, i get the opportunity to read each sentence as slowly as this most exquisitely thoughtful author deserves, instead of skimming it like a schoolboy who can't wait to get out and play on the street before it gets dark
of course, i'm frequently tempted to re-write whole passages in the style of enid blyton, but i'd better read all twelve volumes first ...
then why not try it yerself, i thort !
the first volume, swann's way, is available on the internet via the marvellous gutenberg site
but their typeface is rubbish ... and my eyesight is nuffink to brag about ... so i've been using microsoft word to make it more legible on my screen ...
there are zillions of spurious carriage returns in the gutenberg version, so whilst i delete them one-at-a-time, as if mending the broken paragraphs, i get the opportunity to read each sentence as slowly as this most exquisitely thoughtful author deserves, instead of skimming it like a schoolboy who can't wait to get out and play on the street before it gets dark
of course, i'm frequently tempted to re-write whole passages in the style of enid blyton, but i'd better read all twelve volumes first ...
martin creed's co-mmission at tate britain
by great good fortune, i was able to finish work soon enough to watch some of martin creed's runners strut their stuff through the old tate gallery this afternoon ... this sort of thing gives us beginners a great opportunity to mess around with the picture editor when we get home ... instead of hoovering and dusting and polishing our medallions
Monday, July 14, 2008
the early worm experiences the moment
and sometimes, our stiff old necks discourage us from looking straight up to the zenith
michael wesch ... marshall mac luhan would have loved this ... the web is us
is it time to brush up and update your perspective on hyperspace ?
these two videos, one short, one long, are a good place to starthttp://youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g
and you might as well skim this bit, too, or i'll feed your supper to the dog
Sunday, July 13, 2008
had you been an english-speaking fly on the wall in our place this morning, you might have heard ...
She: “Are you collecting post-it notes at the moment ?”
He: “Not really .. it’s a kind of disorganized organization.”
He: “Not really .. it’s a kind of disorganized organization.”
genius
During a Tokyo festival in 1804, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be 600 feet long using a broom and buckets full of ink.
Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting.
Hokusai's painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint.
He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competition.
"From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention."
Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting.
Hokusai's painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint.
He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competition.
"From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention."
"At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie."
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
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