http://muttscomics.com/
Monday, April 22, 2013
"Blind"
In honor of National Poetry Month, here is "Blind."
Blind
by JEF
If I make this light,
clear the box while it’s green,
it will be a good day.
If I win this hand of solitaire,
my blood test will be negative.
I’ll live to be 82
like a Ouija board told me
when I was a child.
If there’s a rainbow after this storm,
my dad will pull through, heal, live.
If we don’t belong in the future,
the revelation will come not too late
but whenever it arrives.
We are all blind,
feeling our way,
groping for signs,
divining what we can.
We can’t see it all
coming at us.
This is what we do now.
We wait here
besieged by the future.
Let it come.
Let it come.
©JEF 2013
Blind
by JEF
If I make this light,
clear the box while it’s green,
it will be a good day.
If I win this hand of solitaire,
my blood test will be negative.
I’ll live to be 82
like a Ouija board told me
when I was a child.
If there’s a rainbow after this storm,
my dad will pull through, heal, live.
If we don’t belong in the future,
the revelation will come not too late
but whenever it arrives.
We are all blind,
feeling our way,
groping for signs,
divining what we can.
We can’t see it all
coming at us.
This is what we do now.
We wait here
besieged by the future.
Let it come.
Let it come.
©JEF 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
BEAUTY: Art--Susan Siegel
New York artist Susan Siegel knows how to get to my heart. Long time readers of "Oh, By The Way" will have deduced by now that I am a sucker for animals behaving and dressing as humans. I love fables, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and anything that shows an anthropomorphized view of creatures great and small. Siegel paints bucolic scenes of barnyard or farm animals, but in 18th century French country or court dress, à la Fragonard (she even has a cow on a swing!). In the 80s, there was a fantastic store in San Francisco called La Ville du Soleil which sold French housewares and objets, and every nook and corner of the store had life size mannequins with farm animal heads, all dressed like characters from a Mozart opera, just like a Siegel painting!
Her work reminds me of another artist I love, Sarah Higdon, previously here. Higdon's work is fairly clean, but I also love Siegel's very painterly, softly romantic, nearly Impressionistic style.
Top to bottom: Cow Swing; Family of Three; In Pink; Solitary Goat (Blue); untitled
More delightful images at her website:
http://susanlsiegel.com/
Her work reminds me of another artist I love, Sarah Higdon, previously here. Higdon's work is fairly clean, but I also love Siegel's very painterly, softly romantic, nearly Impressionistic style.
Top to bottom: Cow Swing; Family of Three; In Pink; Solitary Goat (Blue); untitled
More delightful images at her website:
http://susanlsiegel.com/
BEAUTY: Art--Trevor Young
Trevor Young's ode to empty urban spaces is reminiscent of other artists like Edward Hopper and Ed Ruscha who have been hypnotized by the inexplicable lure of these void-like places. His minimalist-realist approach to portraying these spots adds to the blandness of each landscape...
Top to bottom: Automated Convenience; Automatic Cut-Off; Beautiful Erection; Buttress 3; Caress; Claim Etiquette; Full Pump; Hire; Man In A Box
Watch Trevor Young explain "non-places" in this video interview... I think I have a new art crush: that hair, those sideburns, that smile, those eyes... that stubble! *swoon*
http://www.trevoryoung.net/home
Top to bottom: Automated Convenience; Automatic Cut-Off; Beautiful Erection; Buttress 3; Caress; Claim Etiquette; Full Pump; Hire; Man In A Box
Watch Trevor Young explain "non-places" in this video interview... I think I have a new art crush: that hair, those sideburns, that smile, those eyes... that stubble! *swoon*
http://www.trevoryoung.net/home
BEAUTY: Art--Aaron Smith
I can't believe I have never posted anything about Aaron Smith or his art... until now. He is all over the blogosphere for reasons other than his art (his tattoos, his nostalgic waxed moustache, his general masculine woofiness), but it is his images of Victorian and Edwardian gentlemen rendered in glorious, glowing gobs of paint, thickly applied with a palette knife thus looking more like cake frosting, that interest us here...
Top to bottom: 2 Beards (Czar Nicholas II and George V); Buck; Ginger; Kicker (Roger Casement); Left Handed Likely; Shirkster (Prince Albert Victor); Zhooshy (Prince Albert Victor)
And here is the man himself, along with his sexy tats and stache...down boys, he has a husband.
http://aaronsmithart.com/
Top to bottom: 2 Beards (Czar Nicholas II and George V); Buck; Ginger; Kicker (Roger Casement); Left Handed Likely; Shirkster (Prince Albert Victor); Zhooshy (Prince Albert Victor)
And here is the man himself, along with his sexy tats and stache...down boys, he has a husband.
http://aaronsmithart.com/
Friday, April 19, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Sigur Ros LIVE!
Last night, April 17, 2013, I finally got to see my beloved Sigur Ros in person! When they have rolled through Northern California in the past, the timing has never been right for me to see them, but the stars aligned this time, and their appearance at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco was, for me, a highly emotional spectacle. Seen from absolutely perfect seats, I must add...I couldn't have asked for a better vantage point.
They opened the show behind a scrim, on which was projected what looked like dark moving clouds...and a backlit Jónsi was seen intently bent over his guitar sawing away with his cello bow. But the scrim dropped during the next number to reveal a massive, panoramic projector screen which was alternately raised above the band and lowered to stage level, depending on the mood and lighting effects for each song. The film and graphics projected on the screen for each song included shots and clips from that song's accompanying video, if one was created. So, for "Sæglópur," for instance, we were presented with images of the young boy swimming underwater from the official video, seen here. In each instance though, the video was not shown in its entirety, but used as a way to evoke, and was mixed with sparks, clouds, rippling water, swirling galaxies, shooting stars, smoke, glittering dust motes, or other textural elements. Some songs that did not have an accompanying video were surprisingly even more beautiful: once, on a jagged, rocky landscape, tiny figures of people appeared, holding flashing beacons, but halfway through the song, the beacons rose up, floating over us in a moment of gentle emotional release, suggesting the possible release of the soul.
Strategically placed small golden lights on rods were scattered across the stage which, when illuminated, resembled twinkling fireflies or a sea of pulsing, glowing orbs. Special lights--sometimes emitting blinding flashes--aimed out at the audience added to the crescendos, and silhouetted the band along with the string and horn sections.
I must confess to a goose bump moment when I heard Jónsi start to sing the first song of the evening... I had to remind myself that I was actually hearing, in person, that voice that has the quality of a universal angel of compassion. His voice and phrasing are a brilliant counterpart to the often expansive, grand, shaking and shattering sound Sigur Ros can produce... a cosmic, transcendent sound that invokes at once creation and destruction. It was a marvel to experience these crescendos first hand, to hear them go on for five minutes or more, and just when one thinks the song is going to end, the crescendo gets ratcheted up so the crescendo gets a crescendo. Simply awe-inspiring.
They played all my favorite songs, like "Glósóli" and track one from their "( )" release. They even performed "Brennisteinn" as well as "Kveikur" (in English: "Quaker") from their forthcoming release of the same name. But most importantly, I got to hear the heart-stopping "Svefn-g-englar" or "Sleepwalkers" in English. This song was the first Sigur Ros composition I ever heard, more than a decade ago and it occupies a very special place in my heart. And for the gentle, lulling "Tjú" refrain (in Icelandic, the word "Tjú" is a comforting sound one makes to a baby), I was fascinated to watch Jónsi perform a little sonic trick: he raised his guitar and sang into it so the electric feed picked it up and brought it to the speakers sounding muffled and far away. Watch him do this in the video below (enlarge to full screen)... and notice the pulsing, glowing lights...
I bought a great tour tee of very soft grey jersey on which is printed, in highly reflective silver metallic, the name/logo of the band.
It was a lovely evening. Thanks to my friends Judy and Bianca for coming along, and thanks to my man for the tickets, an early birthday present!
http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/
They opened the show behind a scrim, on which was projected what looked like dark moving clouds...and a backlit Jónsi was seen intently bent over his guitar sawing away with his cello bow. But the scrim dropped during the next number to reveal a massive, panoramic projector screen which was alternately raised above the band and lowered to stage level, depending on the mood and lighting effects for each song. The film and graphics projected on the screen for each song included shots and clips from that song's accompanying video, if one was created. So, for "Sæglópur," for instance, we were presented with images of the young boy swimming underwater from the official video, seen here. In each instance though, the video was not shown in its entirety, but used as a way to evoke, and was mixed with sparks, clouds, rippling water, swirling galaxies, shooting stars, smoke, glittering dust motes, or other textural elements. Some songs that did not have an accompanying video were surprisingly even more beautiful: once, on a jagged, rocky landscape, tiny figures of people appeared, holding flashing beacons, but halfway through the song, the beacons rose up, floating over us in a moment of gentle emotional release, suggesting the possible release of the soul.
Strategically placed small golden lights on rods were scattered across the stage which, when illuminated, resembled twinkling fireflies or a sea of pulsing, glowing orbs. Special lights--sometimes emitting blinding flashes--aimed out at the audience added to the crescendos, and silhouetted the band along with the string and horn sections.
I must confess to a goose bump moment when I heard Jónsi start to sing the first song of the evening... I had to remind myself that I was actually hearing, in person, that voice that has the quality of a universal angel of compassion. His voice and phrasing are a brilliant counterpart to the often expansive, grand, shaking and shattering sound Sigur Ros can produce... a cosmic, transcendent sound that invokes at once creation and destruction. It was a marvel to experience these crescendos first hand, to hear them go on for five minutes or more, and just when one thinks the song is going to end, the crescendo gets ratcheted up so the crescendo gets a crescendo. Simply awe-inspiring.
They played all my favorite songs, like "Glósóli" and track one from their "( )" release. They even performed "Brennisteinn" as well as "Kveikur" (in English: "Quaker") from their forthcoming release of the same name. But most importantly, I got to hear the heart-stopping "Svefn-g-englar" or "Sleepwalkers" in English. This song was the first Sigur Ros composition I ever heard, more than a decade ago and it occupies a very special place in my heart. And for the gentle, lulling "Tjú" refrain (in Icelandic, the word "Tjú" is a comforting sound one makes to a baby), I was fascinated to watch Jónsi perform a little sonic trick: he raised his guitar and sang into it so the electric feed picked it up and brought it to the speakers sounding muffled and far away. Watch him do this in the video below (enlarge to full screen)... and notice the pulsing, glowing lights...
I bought a great tour tee of very soft grey jersey on which is printed, in highly reflective silver metallic, the name/logo of the band.
It was a lovely evening. Thanks to my friends Judy and Bianca for coming along, and thanks to my man for the tickets, an early birthday present!
http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/
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