art

weekend reflections

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Nick Cave and Warren Ellis create film and theatre scores that are elegantly minimal, hauntingly beautiful and instantly recognisable as theirs alone. Full of light and shade, creeping dread and inconsolable yearning, these heavily instrumental sound paintings inject aching humanity into ghostly frontier towns, parched desert vistas and post-apocalyptic war zones. Most are built around the duo’s intertwined piano and violin melodies, with sporadic use of guitar, flute, mandolin, celeste, percussion and other elements. Vocals are rare and sparing. But even without lyrics, they are always lyrical.

tuesday photo challenge – dark

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Nikon D750   f/3.2   1/1,000 s    40 mm     ISO 100

A raindrop resting upon the fragile lace of goats beard, a pesky weed,  an amazing umbrella for Thumbelina. It has been told that an old widowed woman planted a seed given to her from a good witch and within the flower that grew from that seed was a little girl no bigger than the old woman’s thumb.  Fairy tales can be somewhat dark, but not the story of Thumbelina.

 

 

the journey begins

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You can learn about the pine only from the pine, or about the bamboo only from bamboo.  When you see an object, you must leave your subjective pre-occupation with yourself; otherwise you impose yourself on the object, and do not learn.  The object and yourself must become one, and from that feeling of oneness issues your poetry.  However well phrased it may be, if your feeling is not natural—if the object and our self are separate—then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit.

~ Basho*

Keith Kenniff is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic music producer. He composes ambient/electronic music under the moniker Helios and post-classical piano music under Goldmund.

tears

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tears

The Belgian composer Wim Mertens (born 1953) is an international recording and performing artist who has given countless concerts, as a soloist and with his ensemble, all over Europe, North and Central America, Japan, Thailand and in Russia. He initially studied at the Conservatory of Brussels and graduated in political and social sciences at the K.U. Leuven and Musicology at the R.U. Gent. In 1998, Mertens became the Cultural Ambassador of Flanders.

no trespassing

Again

I sneak into your garden

to eat arena berries.

(Please keep yourself hidden

until I go away!)

~Ryokan, cited in: K Tanahashi, Sky Above, Great Wind

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During a recent photo walk, I found myself ignoring a “no trespassing” sign while silently rehearsing innocent detail.  If I had not been somewhat oppositional, I would have missed this interesting chair being re-weaved by nature as well as a water lily pond and a kingfisher. Much the same as Ryokan, 190+ years ago, I found myself hoping the homeowners would keep themselves hidden until I went away.

Have you ever pretended things?

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Shadow Basketball

“Why, any one can make up things,” she said. “Have you ever tried?”

She put her hand warningly on Emengarde’s.

“Let us go very quietly to the door,” she whispered, “and then I will open it quite suddenly, perhaps we may catch her.”

She has half laughing, but there was a touch of mysterious hope in her eyes which, fascinated Emengarde, though she had not the remotest idea what it meant, or whom it was she wanted to “catch,” or why she wanted to catch her. Whatsoever she meant, Emengarde was sure it was something delightfully exciting. So, quite thrilled with expectation, she followed her on tiptoe along the passage. They made not the least noise until they reached the door. Then Sara suddenly turned the handle, and threw it wide open. Its opening revealed the room quite neat and quiet, a fire gently burning in the grate, and a wonderful doll sitting in a chair by it, apparently reading a book.

“Oh, she got back to her seat before we could see her?”

Sara exclaimed, “Oh course they always do. They are as quick as lightning.”

Emengarde looked from her to the doll and back again.

“Can she — walk?” she asked breathlessly.

“Yes,” answered Sara. “At least I believe she can. At least I pretend I believe she can. And that makes it seem as if it were true. Have you ever pretended things?”

~Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

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“Bodhi means being awake, and satttva means a living being, so bodhisattva means an awakened being.  All of us are sometimes bodhisattvas, and sometimes not.

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“Understanding is like water flowing in a stream. Wisdom and knowledge are solid and can block our understanding. In Buddhism, knowledge is regarded as an obstacle for understanding. If we take something to be the truth, we may cling to it so much that even if the truth comes and knocks at our door, we won’t want to let it in.”

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding