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FRIENDSHIP
REMEMBERING PETER FALK
"If we can keep our minds out of it and our thoughts out of it,
maybe we'll come up with something original."
"I've been able to play one of the richest characters in the history of television. Why would anybody think that I would be tired of hearing about it? I feel like I'm the luckiest guy on the face of the globe."
"Ah, just one more thing, sir, I almost forgot. A small thing -- probably not important -- just something that bothers me..."
THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE
On this day in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in the New York Harbor, a gift from the people of France, designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.
The statue became a symbol of hope, welcoming immigrants to the USA.
On her pedestal is inscribed "The New Colossus" by American poet Emma Lazarus:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
It's interesting to contemplate this sonnet today.
Here in Anglozona, where I make my home, immigration remains a divisive and hotly debated issue as we approach the centennial of our statehood.
The word "immigrant" carries a strong negative connotation around these parts. Apparently, we palefaces forget that we are the aliens. Our claim to this territory is quite recent, and dubious at best.
I don't know the Tohono O'odham or Apache name for the white man's arrival, but I don't believe we were "greeted as liberators."
I do know that the shameless land-grabs of northern Mexico, which our history books disguise with convenient euphemisms (treaty, purchase, Manifest Destiny), are referred to in Mexican texts as The North American Invasion.
Nevertheless, it's 2011, and here we are.
And there stands Lady Liberty, lifting her lamp, welcoming immigrants.
I'm celebrating her anniversary by seeing the movie Green Lantern, which opens today.
It seems fitting.
My favorite comic book from childhood, Green Lantern is an inspirational superhero space opera.
It tells the story of myriad aliens, coming together in teamwork and harmony, heroically using their creative imaginations, strength of will and light to overcome the evil, destructive power of fear.
ICARUS ALSO FLEW
FAILING AND FLYING by Jack Gilbert
Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody
said it would never work. That she was
old enough to know better. But anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Like being there by that summer ocean
on the other side of the island while
love was fading out of her, the stars
burning so extravagantly those nights that
anyone could tell you they would never last.
Every morning she was asleep in my bed
like a visitation, the gentleness in her
like antelope standing in the dawn mist.
Each afternoon I watched her coming back
through the hot stony field after swimming,
the sea light behind her and the huge sky
on the other side of that. Listened to her
while we ate lunch. How can they say
the marriage failed? Like the people who
came back from Provence (when it was Provence)
and said it was pretty but the food was greasy.
I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,
but just coming to the end of his triumph.
MY MAN
SEE YOU THERE
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 MARKET by Terje Sørgjerd, Music: Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" as performed by Katie Noonan
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.
BEYOND CATEGORY ~ DM on Great Artists
Explorers by nature, great artists rarely
concern themselves with labels or limits.
KINDNESS by Naomi Shihab Nye
Migrant Mother 1936
by Dorothea Lange
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
"It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience,
one loses one's youth."
~Vincent Van Gogh
"What one has not experienced, one will never understand."
~Isadora Duncan
"You live and learn. At any rate, you live."
~Douglas Adams
LET NO ONE'S WORK EVADE YOUR EYES
"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."
~Paul Gauguin
"The secret to creativity is
knowing how to hide your sources."
~Albert Einstein
"Good composers borrow.
Great composers steal. I rent."
~George Colligan
THE FUTURE IS OURS
WHAT I LEARNED FROM SUPERHEROES
Like many who grew up before the era of personal computers and video games, I spent countless hours in my youth reading the adventures of superheroes in comic books.
Here are 12 of my favorites and what I learned from each:
1. SUPERMAN — Rise to the occasion. Be courageous, respectful, honorable and selfless. Your strength comes more from your character than your talent. Remember that even the greatest of us has an achilles heel, and sometimes needs solitude. Usually, however, it's possible to hide in plain sight!
2. SPIDER-MAN — With great power comes great responsibility.
3. GREEN LANTERN — Your imagination and willpower are the only real limits to what you can create.
4. BATMAN — Childhood trauma can be a source of strength. Facing your fears can be transformative. And having the right equipment is half the battle.
5. X-MEN — Evolve! Celebrate diversity.
6. WONDER WOMAN — Strong women are sexy.
7. IRONMAN — Dress for success. Clothes make the man. There will be setbacks, but don't let your flaws define you. And innovate! A better version is always possible.
8. FANTASTIC FOUR — There is power in teamwork.
9. THE FLASH — Be the best at what you do.
10. THE HULK — Never judge a book by it's cover. You can't know what a man is capable of simply by looking at his appearance...especially what he might be capable of if he gets angry.
11. CAPTAIN AMERICA — Know your mission. Be willing to take a stand, even if it's unpopular.
12. THOR — Remember your birthright, but don't seek glory. If you do the job right, you'll get it anyway.
~DM
IMAGINATION + WILLPOWER
HENRI MATISSE & MILES DAVIS
SELF PORTRAITS OF VINCENT VAN GOGH
GOTCHA
LEGACY
"Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it." ~Maurice Sendak
PLAN B ~ DM on Contingency
Given the current state of the economy,
I've decided that I should play music for a living
until I can find gainful employment as a superhero.
LEARNING TO DANCE
Change is neither good or bad, it simply is.
It can be greeted with terror or joy.
A tantrum that says ‘I want it the way it was,’
or a dance that says ‘Look, something new.’
~Don Draper, MAD MEN
It can be greeted with terror or joy.
A tantrum that says ‘I want it the way it was,’
or a dance that says ‘Look, something new.’
~Don Draper, MAD MEN