Something That Made Me Laugh

"It takes a lifetime to get an achievement!" - Raymond van het Groenewoud who got his Lifetime Achievement Award yesterday!

Espérance

Let it happen

"So circle and spiral correspond in my profession, and the progressus ad futurum connects with the regressus ad originem, and  I experience it all as tangent, and I, because I am erudite against my will and therefore luckless lucky (alternatively hapless happy - I cannot decide which is the better translation from of the German "glücklos glücklich"), I start believing that the progressus ad futurum and the regressus ad originem are one and the same." - Bohumil Hrabal, Too Loud a Solitude (my translation from the German translation ;)!)

Abstraction

Cooking it down to its essence - reduction

When all I am interested in is but the line or the transparency of a brushstroke because this is what it is essentially about - a kind of focus.

Self-Conscious

- utterly lost in the moment

The Rest is Silence

and admit it

Yesterday I've watched a great dialogue and its greatness was that its central element was silence. The words only seemed to  serve as a kind of framework.










There

A Gentle Stroke

The eye that is so impressed by what it gazes at that the cheeky eyeball almost threatens to drop out of its socket.

Terribly Beautiful

and the image of overwhelming youth

It blows my mind just thinking of it...

Kočár do Vídně

Draw!

One and Two

Beauty and Innocence

And suddenly in the darkest of all tales, there shines the light of innocence and beauty. - Kočár do Vídně

Geistige Armut/Mental Poverty

nonsensical and nonsensual

Go Ahead

No violence or even hostility implied - and no irony either

The Happy Struggle

So I'm not dead yet and to have a little skirmish from time to time is more than the spice of life. The encounter, in every sense of the word, is what makes life worth living ; and all is to be gained if you do not intent to win.

But spare me the nitpicking and nagging, for they suck up all energy.

ON CERTAIN WITS by Howard Nemerov
who amused themselves over the simplicity of Barnett Newman’s
paintings shown at Bennington College in May of 1958.

When Moses in Horeb struck the rock,
And water came forth out of the rock,
Some of the people were annoyed with Moses
And said he should have used a fancier stick.

And when Elijah on Mount Carmel brought the rain,
Where the prophets of Baal could not bring rain,
Some of the people said that the rituals of the prophets of Baal
Were aesthetically significant, while Elijah’s were very plain.

Defenceless

Besieged by gentleness, how is one to react?! When even being mad at somebody doesn't work.

So neighbours go hunting for their wife's good temper or fathers are making you laugh.


Surrender

Blinders

So it is allegedly misogynic to admire female beauty, to be inspired by it. There is "a classical patriarchal tradition in art, where women are only considered as muses, who inspire the male artist" and this is linked to the "sexual harassment, that women are subject to on a daily basis." And all this fuss about a wonderful poem that depicts a men admiring women, who walk by.

If this view catches on, poor men, poor women, poor world, for hearts will shrink. It used to widen my heart not only to admire men or women, but even, maybe more so, to watch people being caught off guard and admiring somebody or something. There even used to be somebody like Barnett Newman, who saw a poem as a more than appropriate reaction to his art, who was glad to inspire such response. For maybe this is the only true response to great art.

"Wie lange möchte uns das Schauen wohl noch erlaubt sein?!/ How much longer will we be allowed to watch?!"

Sanftmut - Gentleness

The gaze so gentle, I'm pretty sure that nobody is able to fake it.


So the thesis is that Shakespeare's (co-)authorship can be asserted by the culmination of the word "gentle" or "gentleness.

Feminine

the potential to conceive and give birth

listening
receiving
transforming
renewal

Look

 

Look

Chimney

Baron Ensor

Uncle Pepin

"I'm heading for the newborn, the urge is to be free..."

Doobidoo

I'm just at the beginnig but already there are brilliant thoughts and images: Classic literature is not threatened by political ideologies or a regime as much as it is neglected by the indifference of the throwaway society. At no point it is indicated that people are forced to hand in their books, providing Hanta with the opportunity of reading them.
Then there are the mice who are happy because they have got no recollection. From time to time they seem to notice the screams of their fellow mice, who happen to end up in Hanta's compactor, but then again they do not bother for they forget instantly. Too Loud a Solitude 

Prayer

Let's hope the struggle has always been a happy one and worth it...





no matter the outcome

Wondering

Watching the taping of Cyrano z Bergeracu, what makes me really wonder is the reaction of the audience at the end, which is generally calm, though there are some agitated faces to be seen. I'm generally a shy person, but if I had had the heart and had been there, I certainly would have considered to make an exhibition of myself wildly whistling and yelling at this effort.

Well, at least I've seen people doing this, but then those were actors themselves, I presume from judging the way they almost came too late for the performance and the way they half leaned on the balustrade like they owned the place, which happened to be the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. Love is My Sin!

WTF - To Hell With Pathos For This is Life

So I've treated myself with the help of a Finn residing in Prague.






Was ich an diesem Cyrano liebe und warum ich am Ende weinen mußte: Tatsächlich ist er hier als Künstler dargestellt. Und das wird mir am deutlichsten in der Schlußszene, wo er sich fast im Streit von Roxane trennt, weil diese ihn als Autor der Briefe erkennt und in ihm ihren Geliebten sieht. Er streitet sehr energisch ab und dies zu recht, denn die Briefe sind Ergebnis der unerwiderten Liebe und nur so bekam er die Möglichkeit diese Gefühle zu sublimieren. Und dann bleibt er Sieger, auch im letzten Kampf mit dem Tod, denn er hat sich nie seinen Feinden, z B der Dummheit oder Feigheit ergeben. Und dann fließen die Tränen, weil es schön ist und nicht weil es traurig ist.
PS: Und dann ist da noch die unglaubliche Freude und besoffene Beklopptheit der Verliebtheit und das Brechen des Herzens, aus dem die Poesie hervorbricht. Und die Derbheit und Kühnheit des erfahrenen Duellisten.

What I like about this Cyrano and why I had to cry in the end: He is actually portrayed as an artist here. And this became very obviuos for me in the final scene, when he almost breaks up with Roxane arguing with her because she recognizing him as the author of the love letters sees him as her true lover. He will have nothing of this, for he knows that probably oly his unrequited love for her brought forth these letters, he was given the chance to sublimate his feelings for her. And even further he remains the victor, even in his final battle with death, since he never gave in to his enemies, among which stupidity and cowardice. And this is the moment (my) tears start flowing, for it is so beautiful and not sad at all.
PS: And then there is the unbelievable joy and drunken insanity of infatuation and the breaking of the heart, from which the poetry bursts out. And the bawdiness and daring of the experienced duelist.

My notes on the DVD of the production of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Divadlo na Vinohradech in Prague, 1986

Test of Time II

Pavel's, the Slovakian sommelier's, remarks after the winetasting: "Women and men are like wine. The women are like white wine, you must drink it young. Men are like red wine, they will taste good up to fifty years. But then there is also women, who are like sweet white wine, and it does last forever."

The Test of Time

So would you rather hold on and love, or let go and become a cynic.


It will be worth it and you will be also!

Uncalcuable

Haunting and enigmatic

Bound

If You Tolerate This...

Rise II

or too

Rise

my Phoenix

2018

"The future is a beggar's hand." - dEUS, Slow

and yet we care - while wandering through the Alps -yet again