Phantasmagoria - your benevolent sky and likewise smile

Deep within the heart of me I will always prefer those comedies and comedians that know that best comedy is achieved by playing desperately on the tragic potential of its issue, and those tragedies and tragic actors that also work out the silly aspects that often bring about the tragic ending...

 

By Chance Today

By chance and promise I came across this one:


When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes
I alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friend possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope
With what I enjoy contentended least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising
 Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
                                              Like to the lark at break of day arising
                                              From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate
                                              For thy sweet love rememb'red such wealth brings
                                              That then I scorn to change my state with kings



Though Michael might be right and you would rather like to remain obscure, I cannot quite get myself to grant this wish...
Happy Birthday !

Die Eintagsfliegen in der Festung

"Ein Schwarm Eintagsfliegen gelangte zu einer Festung, ließ sich auf den Bastionen nieder, nahm im Handstreich den Hauptturm, besetzte den Wehrumgang und die Türme. Die feingeäderten, durchsichtigen Flügel schwirrten zwischen den steinernen Mauern.
"Vergebens bemüht ihr euch, eure filigranen Glieder zu strecken", sagte die Festung. "Nur wer zum Dauern geschaffen ist, kann behaupten, zu sein. Ich dauere, also bin ich; ihr nicht." - " Wir bewohnen den Luftraum, wir skandieren die Zeit mit dem Vibrieren unserer Flügel. Was sonst hieße denn sein?", antworteten die zarten Geschöpfe. "Eher bist du doch bloß eine Form, hingestellt zur Bezeichnung der Grenzen des Raums und der Zeit, in denen wir sind."- "Die Zeit geht über mich hin: Ich bleibe", beharrte die Festung. "Ihr streift nur die Oberfläche des Werdens wie den Wasserspiegel der Bäche."
Darauf die Fliegen: "Wir huschen durchs Leere so wie die Schrift übers weiße Papier und die Flötentöne durch die Stille. Ohne uns bleibt nur die allmächtige und allgegenwärtige Leere, die so schwer ist, daß sie die Welt erdrückt, die Leere, deren vernichtende Kraft sich mit kompakten Festungen überzieht, die massive Leere, die nur aufgelöst werden kann durch das Leichte und Schnelle und Feine." (Italo Calvino, Die Eintagsfliegen in der Festung aus Gesammelter Sand)

C'est la Diffèrance et encore et encore...

A short while ago the question was raised of what is the difference between a selfportrait by Dürer (in fact exactly this one) and art devised by Gerhard Richter. My view was and is that in contrast to Richter Dürer actually meant whatever he produced. If I behold one of Dürer's works this is it, content and form are in union, whereas in Richter's case my general response is that though the design is masterful, he does not understand a single iota of what he is doing or what he could be doing once he had the tiniest grasp of what he is messing with (I would not mind so much if this attitude would only taint his own works, but in reversal it also taints the works of those artist who took/take the content more seriously). This goes btw also for other forms of art, like e g performing or acting. When some time ago I dared to call actors professional liars, this overt damnation was meant to be rather provocative, but in most cases only too true. The more grateful I am though to come across more and more people of this profession who actually take their task to create (and understand) very seriously...

Private Goes Public

Sometimes when strangers meet under a benevolent spirit hovering over the place, the private or personal goes public to the extent that these total strangers share their deepest emotions and stand crying in the face of each other...

"Private? What kind of infernal stuff is this yet again?!"

There Is Just One Idiot ;)

"We shall never make anything of democracy until we make fools of ourselves. For if a man really cannot make a fool of himself, we may be quite certain that the effort is superfluous." G K Chesterton