Without Lifting A Finger

Another new poem of mine is also up at Right Hand Pointing . Sorry, no audio here. https://sites.google.com/site/rhpissue60/rex-swihart

My new poem "Surface Tension" is up at Pebble Lake Review . There's also an audio file of me reading it. Enjoy! http://www.pebblelakereview.com/archive/2012_v8_2_fall_winter/poem_SurfaceTension.html

I only see her on the way into work (I take a different route on the way home), so this isn't the best shot (I'm shooting diagonally from a stop sign on the other side). Will update with a better shot if and when I get it.     

Iron Solder , a photo by Via Kali on Flickr.

From Broch's Sleepwalkers : further, he would like to point out that the money for these lofty objects must be raised, and that in this connection an "Iron Bismarck," for instance, could be erected in the market-place, nails at ten pfennigs per nail,...   And a footnote explains: A wooden statue, into which the public were encouraged to hammer nails until the wood was covered.   *** Doesn't seem like the Bismarck statue ever existed, but the "nail men" were a historical reality and the most famous, according to Wiki, was probably the Iron Hindenburg (see image below).   Nail Men or Men of Nails ( German : Nagelmänner ) were a form of propaganda and fundraising for members of the armed forces and their dependents in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire in World War I . They consisted of wooden statues (usually of knights in armour) into which nails were driven, either iron (black), or coloured silver or gold, in exchange for donat...

It's all POV but I keep thinking: maestro with flailing arms. And his music is competing with the music of the streets. From the other direction (my homeward-bound view) I don't really get any impression. Yet. Two buses made it very hard to get a shot off but here's what I got:             

    

P1010405.JPG , a photo by Azlan Nache on Flickr. Not an easy photo to get, so this is pretty good.

P1010382.JPG , a photo by Azlan Nache on Flickr. I've never seen it in snow, but it's a wonderful place for a summer concert (e.g., Chopin).

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (13 March 1781 – 9 October 1841) was a Prussian architect, city planner , and painter who also designed furniture and stage sets. Schinkel was one of the most prominent architects of Germany and designed both neoclassical and neogothic buildings. [From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Friedrich_Schinkel ]

Near Antonin, Poland. Outside in the yard of Antoni Radziwill's hunting lodge (architect Friedrich Schinkel). This photo is somewhat inside-outside and surreal because of it. Hanging in my kitchen (a greenish bust of Chopin with lush green foliage behind), it caught the reflection of some blinds. Plus it's behind glass. After taking the photo I cropped it and gave it an "ivory" effect. Anyway:  

[Photo by Daniel Araya] Was looking for my own version of this sculpture (not sure of title). I know we were back (post-1994) and I shot this "bandaged head" several times. This photo has an eerie feel to it, with night and all. Like it. Mine, who knows where it is (can't place the album). Last time I was in Krakow I half-hoped to see Szymborska strolling around the town. Now it can only be her ghost.

From, I believe,  Summer of 1994. With something of a "finding Waldo" aspect about them.           

krakow's main plaza, "rynek glówny" , a photo by @stills on Flickr. I have plenty of photos of the Rynek "buried in the closet," but this photo is pretty good.

I've had this little piece hanging on my wall for almost 20 years. Never thought much about it (picked it up relatively cheap in a stall on the Rynek in Krakow -- didn't pay much, but then the exchange rate was much better then). I've always thought: acrobat, circus, quirky, perhaps "precarious." Just today (after all these years enjoying just looking at it, seeing what I wanted to see) I asked the Polka in the house if she could make out the Polish title. She says it's something like "Reinforced Authority." Not quite the way I'd been reading (seeing) it all these years, but I can see that. According to Google podbudowany autorytet = "encouraged by authority." Another conversation with the Polka (and rethinking the picture) produced the possibility that the title is something of a "dig" against communism. Anyway, I don't know who the artist is (was). Seems to have something like AG 84' scribbled in the lefthand cor...

Been very dry this winter. Had a real cold snap, but nothing compared to back east. Rain but nothing real big yet (hope not because of my patio drains). Very pleasant the last few days. Not much of a sunset tonight (over the lagoon), more like some pink dust scattered by Tinkerbell. By the time I'd gotten to the corner I'd lost sight of Modjeska and her twin (Saddleback is just below the trees).               

Been busy but I'll leave a few "tracks" (now with the Kindle App on my Nokia I can easily read in every nook and cranny of my life) before getting back to my "real work" (i.e., the work that pays the bills). From Broch's Sleepwalkers  (I'm well into the last chapter, really the last half of the text, but I've wanted for some while to put down the last short chapter of Part II: I love his abrupt endings, especially after a somewhat logorrheic chapter: IMHO, it works): Here's the entirety of Part II/Chapter IV:      When the theatre in Duisburg went bankrupt and both Teltscher and Ilona were once more left destitute, Esch and his wife put almost the whole of what remained of their means into the theatrical business, and soon they had finally lost their money. Yet Esch now secured a post as head book-keeper in a large industrial concern in his Luxemburg home, and for this his wife admired him more than ever. They went their way hand in hand a...

The Dory Fishing Fleet is a beachside fishing cooperative located in the city of Newport Beach , California . It was founded in 1891 at the base of what was then McFadden Wharf , now known as the Newport Pier . The Dory Fleet is a registered "historical landmark" and is the only one of its kind in the United States and is considered the last beachside cooperative of its kind in the United States . The day's fresh catch is hauled onto shore every morning around 9:00 AM and gourmet restaurants , shops and private citizens arrive to purchase the bounty. Newport Beach's Dory Fishing Fleet has a long history and tradition. The Dory Fleet Market had its beginning in late 1891 when an enterprising fisherman tired of selling his fish to the wholesalers began marketing to the public on the beach. [From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dory_Fish_Market ]

  Before we walked over to Charlie's for breakfast we strolled through the Dory Market (mostly empty except for a few crabs and shark steaks) and watched the surfers (beautiful day, the "king tide" was giving them a good ride).                               

  "Yes, Esch,--nailed to the cross. And in the hour of final loneliness pierced by the spear and anointed with vinegar. And only then can that darkness break in under cover of which the world must fall into dissolution so that it may become again clear and innocent, that darkness in which no man's path can meet another's--and where, even if we walk side by side, we will not hear each other, but will forget each other, as you too, my last dear friend, will forget what I say to you now, forget it like a dream."     

    

The band was making a great din, and Harry, leaning over the table so as not to have to shout, said mysteriously and in a low voice: "Love is a matter of distance; here are two people, and each is on a separate star, and neither can know anything of the other. And then suddenly distance is annihilated and time is annihilated, and they have flown together, so that they have no separate awareness of each other or of themselves, and feel no need of it. That is love."

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is a Roman Catholic chapel built into the mesas of Sedona, Arizona , which was inspired and commissioned by sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude . Richard Hein was chosen as project architect, and the design was executed by architect August K. Strotz , both from the firm of Anshen & Allen . The chapel is built on Coconino National Forest land; the late Senator Barry Goldwater assisted Staude in obtaining a special-use permit . The construction supervisor was Fred Courkos, who built the chapel in 18 months at a cost of US$300,000. The chapel was completed in 1956. [ 1 ] The American Institute of Architects gave the Chapel its Award of Honor in 1957. In the sculptor's words, “Though Catholic in faith, as a work of art the Chapel has a universal appeal. Its doors will ever be open to one and all, regardless of creed, that God may come to life in the souls of all men and be a living reality.” In 2007, Arizonans voted the Chapel to be one of th...

                                                              

San Francisco - Fisherman's Wharf: Musée Mécanique - Englehardt Orchestrion , a photo by wallyg on Flickr. Example of an orchestrion (built in 1915).

This musical instrument "plays a part" early on in part two: "The Anarchist": Between the two windows stood an orchestrion with its folding-doors open, showing its internal works and the roll of music. Actually the doors should have remained closed, and anyone who wished to enjoy the music should have inserted a coin in the slot.   *** An orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music and is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. Orchestrions may be operated by means of a large pinned cylinder or by a music roll and less commonly book music . The sound is usually produced by pipes, though they will be voiced differently to those found in a pipe organ , as well as percussion instruments. Many orchestrions contain a piano as well.  The first known automatic playing orchestrion was the panharmonicon , invented in 1805 by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel . Friedrich Wilhelm Kaufmann copied this automatic playing machine in 1808 and his family produ...

Surprisingly (not) Starbucks was open. Finished the first part of Broch's trilogy and moved onto the second. I delighted in the ending of part one and wouldn't be surprised if I steal it (but make it NEW) at some future point. The ending of part one is a separate and very short Chapter IV: Nevertheless after some eighteen months they had their first child. It actually happened. How this came about cannot be told here. Besides, after the material for character construction already provided, the reader can imagine it for himself.   * Part Two is titled "The Anarchist."