Without Lifting A Finger

Family Slowride Warning Retired Honor Roll   Roots, Etc.

Finished the book ( From the Book to the Book , translated by Rosmarie Waldrop) in Michigan (where blogging was last on the list and also hard to do, as I was laptopless), so very little of Jabes made it to Blogland. Still I couldn't resist e-fixing this wonderful paragraph (from a section titled Notebook) long after it was marked for MEMORABLE (the line of blue ink is somehow Hogarthian):      "The thinker is a seasoned fisherman," he said. "From the sea of the unthought he draws luminous thoughts--moonfish or globefish, pilotfish or flatfish--which, having swallowed the bait, wriggle for a moment between the blue of the sky and the blue of the sea before they stiffen, strangers, on the ground." 

Surprisingly--or maybe not so surprisingly--I pretty much started where I'd left off: I woke around 6 A.M., "Peeted," and took a typical Belmont Shore walk. Along 2nd St. I said hello to a white Pomeranian (largely as a consequence of finishing off Chekhov's "The Lady with the Lapdog"). I remembered the story fragment which seemed to summarize the whole: "an obstinate desire to snatch from life more than it could give." *** A few Michigan fragments (hardly capturing the whole): Holland Lighthouse The Undesirable Goby (Gullbreakfast on the Holland Pier) A Newly "Emerged" Cicada

Getting a little tired of sauna-esque Michigan. My girls have a "list" (places and things) and they've checked off most of the items. Most likely (bow to the gods of Standby) we will be returning to Long Beach tomorrow. Meanwhile I've again seen Chekhov in Michigan country life (sounds like the genesis of a poem or two). And that has inspired me again to put Quixote aside (about 150 pages from the finish line) temporarily. I finished off Edmond Jabes (the big book of everything), ping-ponged between Quixote and Panza (almost as if Cervantes is dragging it out for $$$), and then picked up (via Kindle) in succession: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya , and The Cherry Orchard.

Freeze a Tarkovsky film, shoot, and you've got near-museum pieces (contra Berger). Not saying my amateur clicks are that, but I'm sure a professional could get there. Anyway, these are just a few shots from Stalker :  

Antonello da Messina - Crucifixion , a photo by petrus.agricola on Flickr. Kicking around the Net looking for Berger's own art. Didn't find much but I'll keep looking. Is it Leger-esque--or at least taking Leger as a starting point? Reading Berger (thus far only "early Berger") you might expect so. Should art follow a projection? And what does the end of the rainbow look like? If its genesis is Leger I'm not sure I'll like it much. * Anyway, I found this painting (sometimes called The London Crucifixion) and Messina instead. Berger is on his way to see it in the National Gallery (London) and gets escorted out after dropping the f-bomb (I took only a light foray into the text). **Note: I think the Berger article is up at various websites, but I stumbled across it at PULSE:   http://pulsemedia.org/tag/john-berger/

373 - Peter Peri - 2 , a photo by A_O_G on Flickr. Another unique drawing by Peter Peri the "Younger"

Peter Peri, Intelligence of the Flowers (2005), at Counter Editions , a photo by rodcorp on Flickr. Peter Peri also has a grandson who's an artist. His name is also Peter Peri and he apparently lives and works in London. I found this intricate drawing of his on Flickr. I found a website that gives a bio and a little information re his art: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/A/art4/artist_peri.html

Buste de François Mauriac, Ossip Zadkine – Bordeaux, Jardin Public , a photo by Yvette Gauthier on Flickr. Same bust: Mauriac. This time in a garden in Bordeaux.

Buste de François Mauriac, Ossip Zadkine – Malagar , a photo by Yvette Gauthier on Flickr. Another piece by Zadkine: This is apparently "The Bust of Fracois Mauriac." Mauriac was a Catholic-French novelist.

Peter Peri in Leeds City Art Gallery , a photo by Briggate.com on Flickr. Another piece I found from Peri: "The Woman with Red Hair."