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.


14 April 2014

A Night at the Lepid-Opera


With his powerful moth-like wings,
John McCaughey conducts the Astra Choir and Mothicians, including Michael Kieran Harvey,  
at Saturday's Arts House world premier of  
The Lepidopters : A Space Opera



Punkasila, emergent, with Rachel Saraswati also on the wing.


          
Astra at one end...           ...at the other Punkasila

between them and among them
the Sedulur Gamelan ("Gamelan Sisters") of
Slave Pianos



Above us all, Logos the Speaker, the actor Richard Piper, who...



...at work's end descends from his loft, circles the gamelan and finishes the tale ...as a moth lands upon and sounds a single piano key
      
       
Bravo! Bravo! 
        

        
P.S.  The actors Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood of  
2001 : A Space Odyssey were also in Melbourne these last few days ('AGE' article here) through the season of The Lepidopters : A Space Opera
     

     
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ... 

LOGOS/HA HA