.jpg)
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Hot potatoes
.jpg)
Small pick ups appear in the autumn with a kind of tin pizza oven going in the back, to bake sweet potatoes in. They then crawl round the houses with a taped song-like chant belted out of a loud speaker: "Who will buy my sweet potatoes?" kind of thing. When I first heard this it reminded me of the call to prayer. I heard one the other night, in the distance - reminded me how easy it is to get the wrong message.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4gzmoUHrQ4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4gzmoUHrQ4
Picnic
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The other day we were walking back from the supermarket in the late afternoon autumn sun and decided to short-cut via the beach. There's a small children's playground just above and behind the beach, under the cawing Scots pines, sheltered from the wind rushing grasses - small children giggled on the see-saw rocking horse. We sat on the sunny bench and fished out a baguette, some camembert, a dozen cherry tomatoes, a piece of apple and cinnamon cake, and drank brandy from the cap.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The simple pleasures.
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I just walked down to the shop again, past the same waves and tinkling piano as the other night. I decided to come back a different way, down a sidestreet I'd never been down before, and found just a few metres down and round a corner a wonderful looking traditional restaurant in its own traditional garden. And I thought how we can have the same experiences with people, even ourselves. I mean, you think you know a place pretty well, but one day you discover some hidden gem just round the corner - an old shrine, some beautiful trees, or whatever - that you never knew about. People are a bit like that, or they can be.
It's such a clear night tonight, after the rain - the clearest I can remember. I can go to the sea wall and look right across the bay, all the way down the Izu peninsula on the other side, it must be 50 miles - all the twinkling lights as far as Shimoda, even the cars going up and over Hakone. In the summer we can't see any of it, they're lost in the haze - but they are all still there nonetheless, even if we can't see them. And there's another little lesson, a reminder. You may not think about someone for a while, but then something happens, and you are reminded of their constant presence.
I was also thinking about how we learn about each other - how we think we might know someone, but then something happens and we are taken by surprise by their reaction, for better or worse. We learn about ourselves in the same way - we only find out how courageous we are, for example, when we are pushed into a situation that demands courage. Perhaps we find out how wise we are when we can distinguish between courage and foolishness.
That's another point that came to mind on my evening stroll - the complexity of life. We want to make it simple - enjoy the simple pleasures, keep it simple. Complexity might involve difficulty. But it seems to me that we have to work quite hard to keep our lives simple. Maybe if we think life is simple then we don't really understand what's going on!
It's such a clear night tonight, after the rain - the clearest I can remember. I can go to the sea wall and look right across the bay, all the way down the Izu peninsula on the other side, it must be 50 miles - all the twinkling lights as far as Shimoda, even the cars going up and over Hakone. In the summer we can't see any of it, they're lost in the haze - but they are all still there nonetheless, even if we can't see them. And there's another little lesson, a reminder. You may not think about someone for a while, but then something happens, and you are reminded of their constant presence.
I was also thinking about how we learn about each other - how we think we might know someone, but then something happens and we are taken by surprise by their reaction, for better or worse. We learn about ourselves in the same way - we only find out how courageous we are, for example, when we are pushed into a situation that demands courage. Perhaps we find out how wise we are when we can distinguish between courage and foolishness.
That's another point that came to mind on my evening stroll - the complexity of life. We want to make it simple - enjoy the simple pleasures, keep it simple. Complexity might involve difficulty. But it seems to me that we have to work quite hard to keep our lives simple. Maybe if we think life is simple then we don't really understand what's going on!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Folded
You are old now
How suddenly you got old
So often there's space to the left -
so much left unsaid,
undone
- a rare flow to the right,
ahead,
And every now and then,
arms folded
There is no gate
that you pass through
but there comes a time
or times
when you realise
you're on the other side
How suddenly you got old
So often there's space to the left -
so much left unsaid,
undone
- a rare flow to the right,
ahead,
And every now and then,
arms folded
There is no gate
that you pass through
but there comes a time
or times
when you realise
you're on the other side
The Blinds (Cost of Living)
CGFC
Sometimes
I draw the blinds
when I don't want the world to see
the times when
I half-understand
the complex simplicities
What do you see
when the sun sets?
What is it that you see?
Is it freedom?
Is it knowledge?
Why don't you come down here to be with me?
FCGC
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come down here
and be with me?
CGFC
Sometimes I wake up in the dark
and I wonder
I think about the little things you said
A new day dawns and like
the distant thunder
remind me who the man is in your bed
Sometimes
I draw the blinds
when I don't want the world to see
those times
when I half-understand
the complex reality
What do you see
when the sun sets?
What is it that you see?
Is it freedom?
Is it knowledge?
Why don't you come down here and be with me?
FCGC
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come
and be with me?
And you know,
you know you're giving
when you know
the cost of living
And you know
you know you're living
when you know
that you're giving
Sometimes
I draw the blinds
when I don't want the world to see
the times when
I half-understand
the complex simplicities
What do you see
when the sun sets?
What is it that you see?
Is it freedom?
Is it knowledge?
Why don't you come down here to be with me?
FCGC
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come down here
and be with me?
CGFC
Sometimes I wake up in the dark
and I wonder
I think about the little things you said
A new day dawns and like
the distant thunder
remind me who the man is in your bed
Sometimes
I draw the blinds
when I don't want the world to see
those times
when I half-understand
the complex reality
What do you see
when the sun sets?
What is it that you see?
Is it freedom?
Is it knowledge?
Why don't you come down here and be with me?
FCGC
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come?
Why don't you come
and be with me?
And you know,
you know you're giving
when you know
the cost of living
And you know
you know you're living
when you know
that you're giving
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Creature Comforts
If you ever need cheering up, take a look at some of these:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-DWrM20lwA&feature=fvw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihhq5_2kaWQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFfK5vl5N5g&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvETCQiUCv4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv2tdCEBkKg&feature=related
Rooster
by Kawase Hasui
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Channels
I am lucky to have love in my life -
I wonder can I channel some around me?
I wonder can I channel some around me?
Kiss by Brancusi, 1907
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
On art and artists
"There is really no such thing as Art. There are only artists."
"... the beauty of a picture does not lie in the beauty of its subject-matter."
"Mickey Mouse does not look very much like a real mouse, yet people do not write indignant letters to the papers about the length of his tail."
"Children sometimes think that stars must be star-shaped, though naturally they are not."
"It is not easy to get rid of these preconceived ideas, but the artists who succeed best in doing so often produce the most exciting works. It is they who teach us to see in nature new beauties of whose existence we have never dreamt. If we follow them and learn from them, even a glance out of our own window may become a thrilling adventure."
Ernst Gombrich
The Story of Art
"... the beauty of a picture does not lie in the beauty of its subject-matter."
"Mickey Mouse does not look very much like a real mouse, yet people do not write indignant letters to the papers about the length of his tail."
"Children sometimes think that stars must be star-shaped, though naturally they are not."
"It is not easy to get rid of these preconceived ideas, but the artists who succeed best in doing so often produce the most exciting works. It is they who teach us to see in nature new beauties of whose existence we have never dreamt. If we follow them and learn from them, even a glance out of our own window may become a thrilling adventure."
Ernst Gombrich
The Story of Art
Enoshima at night
by Kawase Hasui
Back home
I just walked down the road for my evening shop -
on my left the ocean laps the soft sand in the dark -
on my right, from the light of an open window -
(it's a warm November night in mid-Japan)
an unknown someone tinkles the piano keys, alone -
practising her piece until her lover gets back home?
The eternal on the one side, the ephemeral on the other -
rhythm and melodies merge in a melancholic flood:
Now I'm walking up the track in the early evening sun -
the end of a day out working in the woods -
to the sound of my loved one, playing from within,
waiting for her man to come back home.
on my left the ocean laps the soft sand in the dark -
on my right, from the light of an open window -
(it's a warm November night in mid-Japan)
an unknown someone tinkles the piano keys, alone -
practising her piece until her lover gets back home?
The eternal on the one side, the ephemeral on the other -
rhythm and melodies merge in a melancholic flood:
Now I'm walking up the track in the early evening sun -
the end of a day out working in the woods -
to the sound of my loved one, playing from within,
waiting for her man to come back home.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Blindness
He's blind, in a way, plays the guitar upside down, and sings like a goddam angel:.
Like an ancient anthem for us all to join in.
There is an immense reassurement in his voice - a voice that speaks for millenia of our common existence - one of the oldest human voices. He reminds us that the beauty of humanity will always come through, despite the hardships - and in the case of his people, the barbarianism - the barbarianism of the so-called civilized European whites. No matter how hard things get, the beauty within us will shine through - artists remind us of this constant presence within ourselves - the pull towards beauty.
Treaty
Friday, November 6, 2009
I just looked around
Moms Mabley - "her version of "Abraham, Martin and John" hit #35 on the Billboard charts in the summer of 1969. At 75 years of age, Moms became the oldest person ever to have a US Top 40 hit." (wiki)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge32xtm23rQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnaaz75M4g&feature=related
The original is by Dion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge32xtm23rQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnaaz75M4g&feature=related
The original is by Dion.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Home
Maybe you forgot what home is -
more than four walls - a box -
a beating heart quickens as you enter -
maybe you forgot
more than four walls - a box -
a beating heart quickens as you enter -
maybe you forgot
Human race
You got friends this side -
You got friends the other side -
They're your friends whatever side -
But you got to be strong
You got friends the other side -
They're your friends whatever side -
But you got to be strong
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