Viewing: Nocturnes - View all posts
THE OUTCAST
The Outcast is a vagabond who walks the lonesome road. Whether despised, disliked, or feared, she wanders alone, rejected and abandoned by all. Will she find acceptance? Will she succumb to depression? Or will she grow strong in her solitude?
THE LUNATIC
Some say The Lunatic suffers from an affective disorder, since the full moon can cause sleep deprivation in light sensitive individuals. However, given that the moon's gravity exerts power over the tides, and the brain is mostly water, isn't it possible that the moon effects human behavior more than we realize?
THE MANIC
The Manic personality might unleash a torrent of creativity, terrify store clerks, drain bank accounts, woo strangers or drive away loved ones. She is at turns euphoric, desperate, energized, exhausted.
THE NOIR CITY
The Noir City is a mysterious labyrinth of smoky bars, lounges and nightclubs, blind alleys, abandoned factories, shadowy train platforms, fog-filled parks, austere detective agencies and darkened gambling dens. An ominous urban maze where it's always night and it always rains.
THE CREATIVE
The Creative disregards standard circadian rhythms, preferring to self-select light/dark [L/D] cycles which coincide with variable activity/rest [A/R]. Working in isolation and deprived of external time cues, he favors extended periods of extreme productivity, punctuated by intervals of despair.
RAIN TOWN
NONE MORE BLACK
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything, but it is wrong.
No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has
always gotten there first, and is waiting for it."
—Terry Pratchett
"If you only knew the power of the dark side!"
—Darth Vader
"It's like, how much more black could this be?
And the answer is none. None more black."
—Nigel Tufnel
TOM TRAUBERT'S BLUES ~ Tom Waits
BREATHTAKING NEW IMAGES OF THE MOON
LONESOME
"The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to."
—Carl Sandburg
"Lonesome. Lonesome. I know what it means.
Here all by my lonesome, dreaming empty dreams."
—Leon Redbone
"Great men are often lonely. But that same loneliness
is part of their ability to create."
—Yousuf Karsh
YOU'VE GOT A FRIEND
I HAVE BEEN ONE ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT by Robert Frost
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
NOCTURNAL ADMISSIONS
"The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of
superiority to the sleeping world."
~Leonard Cohen
"Shut your eyes and you'll burst into flames."
~Log Lady
"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."
~Bart Simpson
MY MAN
HAPPY EARTH DAY
In celebration of EARTH DAY I've posted 3 beautiful videos by the talented Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sørgjerd.
THE MOUNTAIN features Sørgjerd's stunningly beautiful time lapse photos of the Milky Way, captured earlier this month atop El Teide, the highest mountainpeak in Spain.
Set to music by Italian pianist and composer Ludovico Einaudi ("Nuvole Bianche" from his album Una Mattina), the video offers a view of our earth and heavens like none I've ever seen.
THE AURORA pairs Sørgjerd's images of a brilliant Aurora Borealis display over a national park in Norway with ethereal film music by Lisa Gerrard and Hans Zimmer ("Now We Are Free" from their collaboration on Gladiator).
Gerrard's otherworldly voice, as she sings to God in her invented language, seems to me the perfect sonic complement to the mysterious aurora.
THE MARKET juxtaposes video of the Maeklong and Damnoen Saduak markets in Thailand with Katie Noonan's cover of the Gnarls Barkley hit "Crazy."
I remember the floating markets from my travels in Thailand and Cambodia. It's intriguing to see one of them again through the eyes of a visual artist, especially when accompanied by music with such a fascinating provenance:
- The piece began as "Nel Cimitero di Tucson," an Italian movie theme created by the Reverberi brothers for a 1968 Spaghetti Western.
- Half a century later, Gnarls Barkley (the American duo of Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green) reinvents the piece, adding lyrics and a new hook.
- Their single "Crazy" becomes a spectacular international hit, spawning over 30,000 downloads in the United Kingdom, placement in popular films, and dozens of other versions by artists all over the world.
- Australian singer Katie Noonan puts her own spin on the song, and this recording is the version selected by the intrepid photographer from Norway to underscore his colorful footage from Thailand.
Follow Terje Sørgjerd on Twitter.
THE AURORA by Terje Sørgjerd, Music: "Now We Are Free" by Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
THE MOUNTAIN by Terje Sørgjerd, Music: "Nuvole Bianche" by Ludovico Einaudi
AT THAT HOUR ~ James Joyce
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico by Ansel Adams
At that hour when all things have repose,
O lonely watcher of the skies,
Do you hear the night wind and the sighs
Of harps playing into Love to unclose
The pale gates of sunrise?
When all things repose, do you alone
Awake to hear the sweet harps play
To Love before him on his way,
And the night wind answering in antiphon
Till night is overgone?
Play on, invisible harps, unto Love,
Whose way in heaven is aglow
At that hour when soft lights come and go,
Soft sweet music in the air above
And in the earth below.