Thursday Poem: Walt Whitman

Facing West From California’s Shores

Facing west, from California’s shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western Sea—the circle almost circled;
For, starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia—from the north—from the God, the sage, and the hero,
From the south—from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands;
Long having wander’d since—round the earth having wander’d,
Now I face home again—very pleas’d and joyous;
(But where is what I started for, so long ago? And why it is yet unfound?)

-Walt Whitman

The NYC Waterfalls: Another “World Art” Piece Or Something More?

This is the most favorable angle I’ve seen of the one under the Brooklyn Bridge (there are four):

Apparently, a lot of tourists went to see Christo’s “The Gates” so Bloomberg wants to repeat the success.  For him, it’s a pretty pragmatic decision: bringing in money for the city and giving people something to talk about.  It might not hurt his image either.

Here are some of the artist’s thoughts and ideas (he certainly has a lot…too many?).

There are many reasons to be skeptical (you expect more from art, a few government dollars may have been used, they kind of look like scaffolding with water pouring out).

Will they grow on New Yorkers?

A Goya Tour Of Madrid At The NY Times

Full slide show here.

“Fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters: united with her, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of their marvels.”

See Also:  Goya’s Fight With Cudgels and Goya’s Colossus.  A very good Goya page here.

Roger Scruton In The City Journal: Cities For Living–Is Modernism Dead?

Full article here.

Paris has something that Scruton admires.  It’s not just an aversion to central planning (and perhaps the political and social philosophies associated with it) that makes Paris special, but also a resistance to modernism, and even postmodernist architecture.  Visitors will:

“…quickly see that Paris is miraculous in no small measure because modern architects have not been able to get their hands on it.”

Modernism may even have a lot to do with a certain aesthetic totalitarianism, a desire to grant the architect the ability to see all in his vision, and plan other peoples’ lives accordingly.

“…a later generation rebelled against the totalitarian mind-set of the modernists, rejecting socialist planning, and with it the collectivist approach to urban renewal. They associated the alienating architecture of the postwar period with the statist politics of socialism, and for good reasons.”

In modernism’s place (souless airports, blank modern facades speaking only to themselves) Scruton suggests Leon Krier’s New Urbanism and a return to more Classical architecture. New England towns might not be a bad place to start, but also:

“The plan should conform to Krier’s “ten-minute rule,” meaning that it should be possible for any resident to walk within ten minutes to the places that are the real reason for his living among strangers.”

Well, minus the car anyways.  Are you persuaded?

First National Bank of Houlton, Maine

Some of Le Corbusier’s work here, examples of Modern Architecture here.

See Also: Brasilia: A Planned City and Review Of Britain’s “Lost Cities” In The Guardian

 

Camille Paglia Makes Hillary-Hating An Art Form

Full piece here at Salon.

“It’s what Hillary’s campaigning has come to: a monotonous exercise in showboating solipsism…”

Also mentioned: Simone de Beauvoir, Shirley Maclaine, Vince Foster, many past Clinton sins, David Koresh, Gloria Steinem’s goddaughter, “Robocop,” Tracy Lord…

by Ann Althouse

See Also: Should You Bother To Get A Liberal Arts Education? Allan Bloom, Camille Paglia and Anthony Kronman

 

Highbrow Timewaster

1.  American poet Wallace Stevens looks at clouds:

On The Manner Of Addressing Clouds

Gloomy grammarians in golden gowns,
Meekly you keep the mortal rendezvous,
Eliciting the still sustaining pomps
Of speech which are like music so profound
They seem an exaltation without sound.
Funest philosophers and ponderers,
Their evocations are the speech of clouds.
So speech of your processionals returns
In the casual evocations of your tread
Across the stale, mysterious seasons. These
Are the music of meet resignation; these
The responsive, still sustaining pomps for you
To magnify, if in that drifting waste
You are to be accompanied by more
Than mute bare splendors of the sun and moon.

2.  Which might remind you of Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold. 

3.  Which could possibly remind you of this disturbing eccelesiastical fashion show from Fellini’s Roma:

4.  Which might perhaps remind you of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor Scene  from the Brothers Karamazov.

which might remind you of…

…Nietzsche’s proclamation that God is Dead?  Christianity is empty in the middle?  21st century art needs some new ideas?

A non-existent prize for your best suggestion.

David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer A ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’

Full article here.

David Mamet, the playwright, has a interesting article about finally questioning his belief that people are inherently good, while republicans and corporations are bad, and the ideas that provide the backdrop for such beliefs.  He even praises the Constitution.

Some artists may suspect that this means Mamet’s giving up his art; or at least questioning the deeper ideas he never questioned while producing his art. I’m reminded that William Butler Yeats held seances with Madame Blavatsky, and of course, we don’t remember Yeats for the seances.

Is this somehow a failure on Mamet’s part as an artist? an awakening as a thinker? or maybe just failure of leftist thinking to provide a backdrop to his art?

I’d suggest Mamet keep a keen eye on Christopher Hitchens, the reformed marxist who now advocates a set of anti-religious arguments with particular, perhaps, almost ideological zeal.

You don’t just change decades of habits, ideas, and ways of thinking overnight.

Addition:  Merely a ploy (comments) to get people talking about his new play?  Even though Mamet now seems to understand the wisdom of a different set of ideas (the other side, for him), I’m not sure what he’s driving at to claim so publicly. 

The Independent has more.

Tuesday Poem: Wallace Stevens-Of Mere Being

Of Mere Being 

The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor,

A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down.

-Wallace Stevens

I admire him for going to the edge of his song and looking out, and down; and this giving of himself.

But maybe that’s not all there is to it…

A New Breed Of Artist In Seattle?

From the AP wire…

…perhaps you haven’t heard of John Billings, but you may be hearing from him soon.

Billings is on the leading edge of a group of Seattle performing artists “exploring social justice with acts of creative defiance” at the Lumnik gallery this spring.

“I try to bring the dissonance of cultural diversity into my work,”  the 33-year old, bearded Billings said as we toured his installation.  “I try and find the spaces, the gaps society overlooks…so I can explore and identify the tonal landscape.” 

Billings and a group of four others are self-procaimed “fartists,” who are just now emerging into the mainstream.

Their multimedia show is scheduled to run until June 4th at the Lumnik gallery which has agreed to temporarily bill it’s left wing…a ”fart museum.” 

“We’ve heard it all” jokes Billings, I especially like ‘”artsy-fartsy.”‘  

While the show itself is mostly silent, it’s deadly serious and getting rave reviews, having toured the UK and Austria with high ticket prices gallery-goers seem willing to pay.

The central piece,”Black 24″ is a multimedia exhibit consisting of a block of wood with a tin horn attached to the side.  Inside is a loop tape of the various farts of different races and genders:

“I think of malaise,”  Billings mused, “a lament at the price we pay for conformity.”  He went on: ”it’s an attempt to recreate this mood of melancholy restraint, to defy the taboo.  I want to point out the joy all of us must take in that which won’t last…”

Can this be real?

No, it’s not, but if you think you can do better…I throw my hat into the ring…

Visualizing Music: From Maps To Stars

Strange Maps has a map of the world with the borders of countries and landforms arranged as musical notes.  In the comments there’s a link to someone who’s played it.

Do you remember the comedian Steven Wright; balding with a monotone delivery, deep and off the wall insights?

Watch the 1st minute of this video as he plays the stars.

In the spirit of Steven Wright, I’d like to point out that women often use music to connect with men; for intimacy and to get them to open up.  This often bothered me because I felt I was inside the creative imagination and achievement of some other guy.  Jealousy? 

See Also:  The Music Animation Machine’s visualization of Bach.