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.


26 September 2009

CATS WIN

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After a great AFL season a worthy Grand Final today : Cats by 12 points over The Saints.

This snap from 2006 as Half Cat walks among the long waiting faithful at Kardinia Park, Geelong.


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25 September 2009

The object is ...

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Last night's dream :
"The object is appearance in the form of emptiness".

I awoke, wrote the statement accurately and returned into the dream, seemingly for the remainder of the night, into to a flow of exegetic drawings none of which survived the awakening.


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23 September 2009

Shadow Play

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Continuing the ground, path, shoes and shadows theme is this recent addition to the bL heap. Bought online, it was titled or described there as MAN OBSERVES WOMENS SHADOWS. Theatre of the Actors of Looking presents "Shadow Play".

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22 September 2009

Ground and Path

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Man with shoe soles forward looks at camera

Shoe prints with red path_detail_ToAoL
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21 September 2009

Leonard Cohen 75 today

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Leonard Cohen, "Tower of Song"
I was born like this, I had no choice
I was born with the gift of a golden voice
And twenty-seven angels from the great beyond
They tied me to this table right here
In the tower of song
Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah"
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah Leonard, Happy Birthday. Herewith: my treasured old song book of yours from 1969, bought in the early 70's, strummed through and sung from and never tossed away.

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20 September 2009

Sophia Loren 75 today

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Self, light and other.
Photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1961.
LIFE Magazine caption: Actress Sophia Loren reading newspaper by candlelight while in costume for role in movie “Madame Sans Gene.”

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19 September 2009

Behold : Held To Be

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Shoes for Fastidious Walkers _Modern Mechanix  Jan, 1933
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18 September 2009

Head in the clouds, feet on the ground : someone looking at something...

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Shortly after posting the previous blog, with it's final image of a barefoot monk looking at a sky-scraper City, at Vanity Fair online I encountered this 1996 Josef Astor photograph of architect Philip Johnson.

PHILIP JOHNSON by Josef Astor_ 1996

Yesterday I travelled to Melbourne for the opening of three new exhibitions at West Space. It rained all day and the city appeared exceptionally gray.

2009.09.17_Melb City with fog and rain_400w

This seemed appropriate and auspicious :
Then back to west space that night to paint some walls... I'm going to paint the room a dark gray.
and later
(now) all I need to do is go and buy some cool down lights because the ones I have installed at the moment are too warm.

Kelly Fliedner, curator of someone looking at something...

Here is a photo of the lights and of the feet they show and the shadows they cast of someone looking at something...



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16 September 2009

Greetings EARTHonauts

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And why take ye thought for what to blog today (sic)?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Mathew 6 : 29, King James Bible

Doth morning mail and email not arriveth just as surely?

First today, sent overnight from New York, Eric Baker's
("Give us this day our daily bread") regular email bundle of recent gleanings. From these, I set aside this one tagged fullerkuppel, which translates as Fuller dome.


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In first year architecture (1970) bL learned about Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic dome. 'Bucky' was a pioneer of much that is of great import today.

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller (July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, author, designer, inventor, and futurist.

Fuller published more than thirty books, inventing and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres.

(from Wikipedia : more here )

Perhaps Fuller's interconnected system view, as represented by his triangular matrix, has been a seed of influence in bL's diamond matrix view. Here is Fuller, again.

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Then the mail arrived. It included this leaflet from the Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute. Voila! Is this not the same image, with the same view? In the foreground one who walks lightly on the earth/Earth, who looks with mindfulness upon the interdependent-arising that is City. Helicopters hover and at least one geodesic dome features in the mix.

2009_Maitripa Conference_Mindfulness&Psychotherapy
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14 September 2009

ICONOLOGOS/HA HA

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bL went to Castlemaine yesterday for lunch and a catch-up with KF prior to this Thursday's opening of the group show someone looking at something... at West Space. At the next table members of Punctum ; people on the street; cafes spilling out. All in all, Castlemaine seemed very buzzy.

At a secondhand book shop, bought another cover for my small Comic Depictions of Art/Artists sub-heap.

2009.09_popeye portrait cover
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Have been interested for yonks in the mythoLOGOS/HA HA of the one-eyed strongman Popeye. (Wikipedia on Popeye here )


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In particular, Popeye's 1933 self-portrait song "I Yam What I Yam" has exerted a special fascination.

I Yam What I Yam
(Lyrics from the 1980 soundtrack album of Popeye.)

[spoken]
You don't have to be no fish to tell when you're flounderin'
What am I? Some kind of barnacles on the dinghy of life?
I ain't no doctors but I knows when I'm losin' me patiensk
What am I? Some kind of judge, or a lawyers?
Aw, maybe not; but I knows what laws suits me
So what am I? I ain't no physciscisk, but I knows what matters
What am I? I'm Popeye, the sailor

[sung]
And I yam what I yam what I yam and I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam 'cause I yam what I yam

And I gots a lot of muskle and I only gots one eye
And I never hurts nobodys and I'll never tell a lie
Tops to me bottoms and me bottoms to me top
And that's the way it is 'till the day that I drop
What am I?
I yam what I yam!

I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam

I can open up an ockean I can take a lot of sail
I can lose a lot of waters and I'll never have to bail
I can pushk up Madagascar grab a whale by the tail
What am I?
What am I?
I yam what I yam!

I'm Popeye, the sailor
I'm Popeye, the sailor
I'm Popeye, the sailor
I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam
I yam what I yam what I yam what I yam
I'm Popeye the sailor man!

With a Judeo-Christian upbringing, to my ear Popeye's self-declaration has long echoed of another : Yahweh / YHWH

I Am that I Am (Hebrew: אהיה אשר אהיה‎, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh [ʔehˈje ʔaˈʃer ʔehˈje]) is a common English translation (King James Bible and others) of the response God used in the Bible when Moses asked for His name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. Hayah means "existed" or "was" in Hebrew; "ehyeh" is the first person singular imperfect form. Ehyeh asher ehyeh is generally interpreted to mean I am that I am, though it more literally translates as "I-shall-be that I-shall-be." (Wikipedia : more here )
The foundling Swee' Pea appears to view 0r interpret Popeye through the philosophical filter You Am What You Eat.

I'm Popeye the sailor man!
I'm Popeye the sailor man!
I'm strong to the finich,
'Cause I eats me spinach.
I'm Popeye the sailor man.


When young we were told " If you don't/eat your greens you'll be...

2009.09.14__ BABY+Spinach_RGB_CROPPED_423h
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