David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


27 February 2009

THANK YOU

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Victoria's savage fire season continues. Five days ago it visited upon this district too, with an outbreak at Musk Vale, 5 kilometres south of Daylesford. This grab from The (Ballarat) Courier shows the initial plume as it rose over Daylesford's former projection-house, The Rex.


In a few hours it grew to more than 2000 hectares. Only by the Herculean effort of the many teams of firefighters, including aerial water bombers and fixed wing spotters, plus a great number of support bodies, was the fire officially contained before the predicted return today of another peak weather event.

It is now Friday night. Five days of 24 hour-a-day preparations have proven successful: so far today there have been no breakouts from any of the ongoing fires. The photos below show the window display of the Daylesford Pharmacy (to the left of the NewsAgency shown above) and the all encompassing THANK YOU that so many, including yours truly, very gratefully endorse.



21 February 2009

HOW TO...

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Today, a bLOGOS/HA HA special!
to inaugurate our new HOW TO... category.



Next time, .HOW TO... Build a Billboard

20 February 2009

_art

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On the occasion of the 100th bLOGOS/HA HA post,
this enlightenment-wish haiku for D and all :



from Wikipedia :

Alternative spellings
sparrowfart; sparrow fart; sparrow's fart

Etymology
Has the folk etymology of being the time of day when the birds (including sparrows) first wake up, and presumably fart.

It has sometimes been thought to have originally been an Australian expression, and 'A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English' by Eric Partridge and Paul Beale does list sparrow's crow as an Australian euphemism. They list sparrow-fart as both daybreak, in colloquial use since before 1910, and popularised during WWI. Also as used in James Joyce's Ulysses meaning an inconsequential person.

It is included in Carr's Craven Dialect (1828) as from Yorkshire, with the definition given as 'break of day', according to Nigel Rees in 'A Word In Your Shell-like'.

Probably originates from an incorrect translation from the Urdu sawayray, meaning early, as used by members of the British Army since time immemorial.

Noun
sparrow-fart
(Australia, slang) Very early in the day; dawn.

17 February 2009

PREVENT BUSHFIRES

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Have stayed away until now from any reference to Victoria's tragic bushfires of 7 February. It seems the day will be known as Black Saturday.

This morning, as I replaced in its envelope a courting letter my father wrote to my mother (Melbourne 4 Feb 1948), I noted the additional postal imperative: PREVENT BUSHFIRES

"I still wish you were with me my darling,
because I love you so much and always will."


14 February 2009

An Allegory of Mind

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From eighth Century Japan comes this image of a projection-space held at arm's length and a loaded brush at the ready.

The first character is a movement across then down.

The second mirrors the first: down and across.

Together they form a new double character variously known as two-by-two; the prisoner and the guard; projection-space; self-grasping; dualism; self and other and so on. As a character that shows no sign of its cause and appears to know (echo) only itself, it is also sometimes translated simply as ignorance.

The image above is a detail of a larger image in which a brightly garbed calligrapher looks at this character he has drawn.

The journeyman projectionist is mounted on a galloping horse. Distracted from the uncontrolled rush of his charge, he faces backwards and looks at his projection-space with painted double. His vehicle, meanwhile, gallops on with its wild determined look.

Bound in the distinctive red harness of afflictive emotions, the horse is the untamed mind. Rider and vehicle alike: wild, divided, distracted and unstable.

A white-robed bodhisattva looks with compassion at the horse and rider as they career by. He is diligent awareness, and carries a rope, symbol and reminder of interconnectedness. He offers the rope to the rider.

"Samsara is mind turned outwardly, lost in its projections;
Nirvana is mind turned inwardly, recognising its true nature."
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

11 February 2009

The Allegory of Regard (after Vermeer)

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Another label poem and photographic image from the LIFE archive :
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What a super-saturated stunner! The Allegory of Regard, maybe, after Vermeer's own favorite, The Allegory of Painting.




"Bring the mind home."

09 February 2009

projection-space travellers : within you without you

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Google is now hosting the entire photographic archive of LIFE, from whence comes this image, 'A Passenger looks at a picture of a plane', and the accompanying label poem.



We were talking - about the space between us all
And the people - who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion
George Harrison, Within You Without You

08 February 2009

"What the .... ?!"

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05 February 2009

Diamond Frame Auto Poematrix Works

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If not (diamonds) on the soles of our shoes, at least under our shoes. This diamond frame poem is from The (Melbourne) Herald, 14 December 1935, found some years ago amongst the insulating base of newspapers under the many layers of worn lino on the floor at "Bonzaview".


04 February 2009

Proscenium Debacle : Sporting Sam versus The Actors of Looking

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03 February 2009

Australia Day as projection-space : NGV and the Actor of Looking (again)

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O Attic shape! Fair attitude! this brede
__Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
This post of white and the trodden weed;
__Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity. Cold field o' play!
__When old age shall this generation waste,
____Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
__"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"---that is all
____Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

from Ode to an Aussie Ern (with apology to to JK)
(original at... )

01 February 2009

projection-space : f---

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A quote taken from a taped conversation of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is displayed by members of Theatre of the Actors of Looking during closing arguments in the impeachment trial being held in the senate chamber at the Illinois capital.



Presentation of the inverse option :



Reductio ad LOGOS/HA HA :



"Bring the mind home."



Thanks to TAL for also making available the original sketch for this work :


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