BETWEEN THE TWO CONCEPTIONS

Haller smiled apologetically.  “When you reach my age you sometimes think of the approach of death.  I thought this afternoon how much I would have liked to have seen the Parthenon just once more.  I doubt if I shall have another opportunity of doing so.  I used to spend hours standing in the shade by the Propylæa looking at it and trying to understand the men who built it.  I was young then and did not know how difficult it is for Western man to understand the dream heavy classical soul.  They are so far apart.  The god of superlative shape has been replaced by the god of superlative force and between the two conceptions there is all space.  The destiny idea symbolised by the Doric columns is incomprehensible to the children of Faust.   For us . . .”  He broke off.   “Excuse me.  I see we  have another passenger.  I suppose he is to sit here.”

Note:  I don’t know.  Painted BMW “art” race car aside (static, sclerotic junk), it is difficult to see the god of superlative force in Jeff Koons’ work.  That being said, its enfeebled nature has had the power to enrage me from the moment I first set eyes on it all those years ago.

 

Text:  Eric Ambler, Journey Into Fear (1940).

Top: Frederick Edwin Church, Parthenon (1871).

Next:  Jeff Koons, Woman in Tub (1988); Magenta Swan (2004-11); BMW "Art Car" (2010).

The Smiths: Meat Is Murder (Link)

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING (TAKE IT AWAY, MORRISSEY)

  This year I am deeply thankful for the earthly lives of my cats Eddie (l) and Felix (r) (nb., short “e” sound on Felix; he was named by Brazilians).   We "lost" these two family members earlier this year, but that’s not how it really works.  Eddie was in many ways the best and closest friend I ever had.  Felix was Jane’s best friend and guardian.  You couldn’t ask for finer companions with nobler characters.

  Andy, pictured below/right with Edie, is doing well a year after his last back surgery.  He is coming back all the way, I think, slowly but steadily and surely.  With everything he’s been through, he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself or overdo things.  It’s a smart decision. 

  The rationality and good character of our so-called pets – our cats, dogs, birds and fish – astounds me.  They are a round-and-round-never-ending drama-comedy event rivaling all the news, science, pseudo-science, art & literature, and mysterioso conspiracy theory websites combined.  Everything good in and for our family resides in this all-of-us-together place, and as far as the bad & the sad go, we need perforce to take the bitter along with the better.  Things once seemed easier, I think I recall, but I’m pretty certain they’ve also been more difficult.  

  Happy Thanksgiving.

  Take it away, Morrissey (Link)

and Andy Mackay: A Four-Legged Friend (Link)