Art – Page 3 – Michael's Musings

Common sense

September 25, 2019September 18, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Art

This blog could almost be called Common Sense. I’m not really giving novel ideas. Some may be in a form uniquely “me”, but there’s not much here that couldn’t be said by someone else.

I’m reminded of Thomas Paine, and his Common Sense.

“In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense: and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.”

Sometimes it’s all about getting the idea out. It may not be about who’s receiving the idea as much as it is the idea bubbling up and out of you until you cannot possibly contain it.

There are days when ideas seem to have completely left the building. There are days when one singular idea is all that you can see – blocking out every other item in such a way that you must concentrate solely on it.

And then there are the common sense ideas – ones that mean much to you and, you hope, at least one other person.

The awards show

September 24, 2019September 23, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Film

I caught a bit of the Emmys on Sunday night. It’s been DVRed, but finding time to watch it this week will be tough. Easier instead to read the rundowns posted yesterday, either from NYTimes or Vulture, or from Twitter feeds and other social postings.

Two years ago, roughly at this time – following the Emmys, I posted on awards shows. It’s funny to think that again the Emmys prompts a post. After rereading my post from two years ago, I’m happy to say I’ve made some forays back into the entertainment business. Small steps.

But the awards show is an interesting animal. We’re watching the congratulations of people who likely enter our home at some point during the year, when otherwise we’d be watching the shows which they are on. The ratings were a record-low on Sunday, which may have something to do with the abundance of that other that we could be watching. We also are much more involved during the year with celebrity gossip thanks to social media.

So is there a place in the cultural consciousness for award shows? Should they even be televised? I’m sure that the question will continue being thought about among television executives trying to decide how best to sell to advertisers.

What I’ve Read

September 11, 2019December 8, 2021 by MAÔ, posted in Reading

Time frame…?

Books Bought:

Plato: Complete Works – Edited by John M. Cooper
NORTH: Finding Place in Alaska – Julie Decker, editor
Raven Steals the Light – Bill Reid & Robert Bringhurst
Travels in Alaska – John Muir
Nature Writing – John Muir (Library of America edition)
100 Tough Questions for Japan – Itasaka Gen

Books Read:

Tools of Titans – Tim Ferriss (unfinished)
Wilderness Essays – John Muir (unfinished)
How to Watch a Movie – David Thomson (unfinished)
On National Parks – John Muir (unfinished)
Lycanthia; or The Children of Wolves – Tanith Lee (unfinished)
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
The Eye Never Sleeps: Striking to the Heart of Zen – Dennis Genpo Merzel
Emerson: Essays and Lectures – Ralph Waldo Emerson (unfinished)
The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco

Well, who knows. It seems like April was the last time I wrote about my book purchases and reading. So… Here’s a list. It is probably incomplete. I look at a lot of books.

During the months of May-July, my work was highly demanding. But not the real work. Just the work for a paycheck. And the pay wasn’t even that good. Sometimes it’s about trying things – picking them up, seeing if you like them. If not, you put it down and walk away.

Highlights – Alaska was the big one. I purchased two books in Alaska: Raven and NORTH. The latter was published by collaboration with the Anchorage Museum and University of Washington Press. It includes works of art in the museum collection and essays about the Last Frontier.

To say that I was moved by Alaska would be an understatement. It was magnificent, and I think living there for a time may be in my near future.

I like to pick up books when I travel. They’re not the lightest souvenir, but I’ve always had a connection with books. In Ireland, I purchased a used copy of On the Road. In Germany, a Lutheran hymnal. While in Prague, I got a handmade notebook.

Raven Steals the Light is a collection of Native myths from the Haida people. The Raven is a trickster, and a spirit, and a god. “The Raven, who of course existed at that time, because he had always existed and always would…” It recounts many native tales of the beginnings of things, and reasons for things.

I had a lot of false starts with books. Oscar Wao, for one. I tried, but couldn’t quite bring myself to read it. Same with Emerson. Same with Lycanthia. With Muir and Thomson. I just could not bring myself to read much.

Partly I think it’s owed to my having a lot on my mind. Hence I’ve been reworking my routines. I have now been reading each night before bed, settling into Name of the Rose for about 30-45 minutes a night. Sometimes less, if I’m really tired. Umberto Eco is interesting. I remember trying to read this book shortly after graduating high school, while sitting in a wing backed cushioned chair at Barnes & Noble. I didn’t get all that far into it.

It throws you Latin, and Italian, and maybe a splattering of French. Monastic terms I’m only vaguely familiar with, and some that I’ve never heard. Under all of that though, there is mystery and intrigue. A young monk has died mysteriously. If suicide, how did the window close behind him? If murder, is the assailant man (and thereby monk?), or something infernal? The Sherlockian monk William of Baskerville will use all his reasoning to get to the bottom of it.

It led me to discover the Italian mini-series, so I’m trying to find somewhere to watch that – with subtitles, preferably.

I added the two Muir books to my collection – I had been reading some essays by him before going to Alaska. I hope to finish at least one collection of his this year. Also the writings of Plato. I found this book used, and the fact that it was edited by Edith Hamilton caught my attention. I had done some myth research two years, reading over Hamilton as well as Joseph Campbell, and I wanted to see what sort of commentary was included in this book. I haven’t gotten around to opening it though.

I did just pop open Tools of Titans. I had picked it up on sale in December, and was just reading about Ferriss’s compulsion to record data.

I’m a compulsive note-taker. To wit, I have recorded nearly every workout since age 18 or so. Roughly 8 feet of shelf space in my home is occupied by spine upon spine of notebook upon notebook. That, mind you, is one subject. It extend to dozens. Some people would call this OCD, and many would consider it a manic wild goose chase. I view it simply: It is the collection of my life’s recipes.

I too take many notes, and have amassed a pile of notebooks. Not like Ferriss – not to that extent – but I’ve been jotting things down since I was in high school, and I’ve got notebooks with varying degrees of use on my shelves, in the garage, and in storage. If I had my way, this is what my house would look like:

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Maybe my next house…

The wanderlust

September 5, 2019September 2, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Thoreau

It seems that many today are driven to explore. I know that many in the past have shared that desire. Is it our separation from nature that breeds wanderlust?

The further we get from our connection to the land, it seems the more we lose.

“We should read history as little critically as we consider the landscape, and be more interested by the atmospheric tints, and various lights and shades which the intervening spaces create, then by its groundwork and composition.”

-Henry David Thoreau

The High Cost of Education

July 22, 2019December 8, 2021 by MAÔ, posted in Reading

(I started this post before doing a monthly reading list, of which I am tardy on this month. But I left this sitting in drafts. My goal over the next month is to complete every draft that I’ve started and get it published on the blog. What you’ll see is that I have a problem with spending money on books, I have a lack of space with which to house all of my books, and I have a lack of time with which to read all of my books. So, about the same as any other book-lover all over the world.)

I’ve paid for an education on credit. No, not the degrees that I’ve eared (though the debt I’ve accrued in earning those is substantial), but I specifically speak about my love of books, or bibliophilia. And what an education. I can’t help but peruse the stacks at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, or the countless used bookstores that I frequent. The musty smell, a fragrance that only holds a hint of the words of thousands-upon-thousands of women and men, just waiting to be re-released into the world.

So I stack books on shelves, on top of each other, on the floor. I try and read as many as I can, though I usually only finish one per week, though if it’s particularly gripping I’ll get through it in a little less time. The point I’m making, though, is that I find it difficult to leave a bookstore without some acquisition (or two or three, etc). My collection on philosophy, metaphysics, logic and esoterica is growing just over the past year (2017 – I was contemplating enrolling in a PhD Philosophy program, but have set that on the back burner for now).

I keep one bookshelf in a room, just to store the current interests. I’ve got books from Karl Ove Knausgaard, Alan Watts, Neil Gaiman, and Joseph Campbell. There are books on writing, time management, chakras, meditation, and philosophy. An entire shelf is made up of journals and notebooks – some blank, some partially written in, and others full of my scribblings. And every day, multiple times, I find myself just looking at the book shelf.

It may be impossible to read through everything I’ve purchased, but as John Waters said, “Nothing is more important than an unread library.”

Creating content

July 8, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Art

Where does content come from? There is so much being published in the internet. One hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second. Blogs, podcasts, artwork – all flying around digitally.

How do you sort?

As a consumer, what are the important pieces?

As a creator, are you reaching your audience?

No matter how much you’re creating, or posting, or consuming, it all starts one at a time.

Hadestown for the win

June 11, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Theatre

Take a classic Greek tragic myth – the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Create a modern retelling, throw in some jazz swing style musicians on stage with the performers, and take it to the Great White Way. What’s the result? Tony Award for best musical, obviously.

I may get a chance to see it in September, but for now I’ve only listened. I like it okay, but it’s probably not the type of musical I generally go for.

The myth aspect is great, but the songs for me aren’t the most singable. And that’s often how I become attracted to musical cast recordings – songs I can sing along with.

All five musicals seemed to be worthy of the nomination, and I had it down to Hadestown or The Prom, though my money was on The Prom to win.

But I was wrong. Congrats Hadestown!

Good Omens 2

June 9, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Film

Finished the show last week. Today I may head out to Disney, weather-permitting (and if I’m not too tired).

For Good Omens, I will day it was an enjoyable, albeit somewhat frenetic, watch. I believe the book itself was also frenetic, so it followed right along.

In one of Gaiman’s interviews I recall him saying how much he wanted the show to follow the book, so as to respect the memory of coauthor Terry Pratchett. In that regard, it was a success.

The cast was good, and it was fun. It had a BBC/Doctor Who feel to the film-making and storytelling, right down to the aliens. I’d watch it again, some time down the road.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

June 8, 2019 by MAÔ, posted in Film, Writing

I’m a fan of the radioactive lizard. I had several on VHS and watched the battle against Mechagodzilla over and over again. So it was with some excitement that I went into this movie.

And, I left feeling… meh. Rodin, Mothra, Ghidora and Godzilla looked good. They were used in effective ways. The human characters were not quite as fleshed out.

I wanted to feel more remorse when leading characters died than I did over Mothra getting injured by Rodin. But the storytelling focused on the Titans, and not the mortals. Still, I’ll add the Bandai toys to my collection for this movie.