are we still waiting--for a rebirth of wonder

a rebirth of wonder
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

am reminded of an Italian sports car whenever I try to type/say his name
he's said he is not a Beat Poet--they came after, that he is a 'lyrical' or was it 'lyric' poet


photo credit: bongos...Wikipedia...
Beat Poets were not necessarily Beatnik's tho of the Beat Generation
and for sure then did not all beat bongo's...tho there is that stereotypical image
of men slapping out rhythms on bongo's, they or another poet reciting lyrically, whilst women moved oddly (can it be called dancing) about in black leotards, perhaps snapping their fingers (yes, we have been influenced by the movie version--later I will read the poets of this generation...)


photo credit: © Soheyl Dahi, 2010
my favorite vision of the poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as shown in the documentary film
- found at this link of the Poetry Foundation...

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lawrence-ferlinghetti
(being from Louisiana now, first thing I thought of was--Whoa, wouldn't that make a great Mardi Gras Mask?!)


I had also never put the connection together the 1+ 1 = 2 before
until watching this documentary

City Lights - Bookshop - San Fran, Cali, USA

Shakespeare & Company - Bookshop - Paris, France

City of Lights - Paris, France

"Sometimes I think I'm surrounded
   by insects masquerading as men for
        some diabolical reason.” - Henry Miller



 

photo credits: above, all three taken by--me...at Shakespeare & Co in Paris, France...
(there is another of me hamming it up reading in a little stuffed chair somewheres in the back of the shop, followed by my friend at the stacks pointing to a book somewheres in the middle of the shop & one more of her browsing at a table taken thru the front window of the shop...)


as to these 2 founders, who didn't just know each other
they had both opened bookshops & had each intended to swap bookshops for a year at a time
but in the end, we are told via the documentary, via the relative/daughter (could it have been Sylvia they spoke with) of Shakespeare & Company's owner, George Whitman, that this did not happen because each of their shops got too big for them to leave them

now I have been in Shakespeare & Company in Paris, France (what other, really) at least twice if not three times--as that's how many times I have visited Paris & so must of wandered into this most famous bookshop I'm sure whenever I was close by

photo credit: one more by me (now am wondering who's upstairs with the window cracked...)
take note--just under the Shakespeare and Company sign, that's in Paris, France...
to the left..."City Lights Books" (a nod to Lawrence in SanFran, Cali??)

recall too that while living in Stavanger, Norway & planning the trip to Paris in order to visit/stay with a dear expat friend there (who was living in Paris near Pere Lachaise Cemetery & I was never jealous, because I was so happy to be able to go visit her...with that most famous cemetery nearby that I would visit for hours & take even more & more photos of--so much so I use to tease that her French husband & I should so make a book of nothing but?!)

back to it--I would make a list of Things to Do/Things to See while in Paris & there would first/ always be Madam Eiffel (as in the tower, esp at night when she glitters...) then there would be the Bookshop, as in "The" Bookshop of  Paris, which one internet search in particular brought up that upstairs at Shakespeare & Company there were not just Readings going on but Writing Classes you could take...I tried & tried to plan just the right dates to go there & stay during 'any' of these Writing Classes, but I could never do it...sigh...one day...(but now my Paris friend has moved to the South of France & so there will be no dear expat friend to stay with while I took a Writing Class at Shakespeare & Co...)

link to Shakespeare and Company Bookshop, Paris, France...
http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

"This is the creed of Hotel Tumbleweed
give what you can take what you need"

"Be not inhospitable to strangers
lest they be angels in disguise"

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I find this flyer, but not an old photo right off of him on the Shakespeare & Co webpage
it's full of photos/flyers/words...
as you click thru different sections they will change, if you click back they will change again
and you can click on the photos & the spread on the page will change
(go--put yourself to the test?!)

this one of Allen Ginsberg
as he happens to look in Lawrence Ferlinghetti's documentary


link to City Lights Bookshop - San Francisco, California...
http://www.citylights.com/

link to Bio, photo, list of books of/by Ferlinghetti on the City Lights Bookshop webpage...
http://www.citylights.com/ferlinghetti/



This is the book that I read of his
A Coney Island of the Mind...a kind of circus of the soul...1958...
(there is also a 50th Anniv edition for sale)





"...This special 50th Anniversary Edition comes with a newly recorded CD of the author reading the 29 poems of the title section of A Coney Island of the Mind as well as selections from Pictures of the Gone World."

(note: I may have to revisit this book, these poems & let the author Ferlinghetti himself read them to me...which I think is the best, to have 'the' author themselves read their works outloud?!)

Beat's I have read...

Allen Ginsberg
Howl, Illuminated Poems (illustrated by Eric Drooker*)

Williams S. Burroughs
The Yage Letters, Queer (I could not finish Naked Lunch)

Jack Kerouac
(hmm...did I read the Road trilogy...you know, On The Road/The Dharma Bums/Big Sur, or not--I no longer own these books so right now I don't remember, as college was a long/Long time ago in a land far/Far away...or thereafter when I took years of Creative Writing, again too many books read/too many words away...)

Peter Orlovsky
Straight Hearts' Delight...

Neal Cassady
(thought I'd read him, but maybe just 'about' him in these other's books/letters...as I've browsed thru his book list on GoodReads but don't recall any of them...)

*Eric Drooker - webpage link...
http://www.drooker.com/books/illuminated.html

link to the phrase the Beat Generation on Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_Generation

but I am sad to say I have 'not' read the Women Beat's...

"Women of the Beat Generation

The female contemporaries of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs were intimately involved in the creation of Beat philosophy and literature, and yet remain markedly absent from the mainstream interpretation of the most important aspects and figures of the movement. Further, the Beat writings of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs often portray female characters in flat, traditional gender roles most typical of an ideal 1950s American housewife. Rather than offering liberation from social norms, Beat culture actually often marginalized and further culturally repressed American women and, more specifically, many of the female writers of the time period. Although women are less acknowledged in histories of the first Beat Generation, the omission may be due more to the period's sexism than the reality.  

Joan Vollmer for instance did not write, although she appears as a minor figure in multiple authors' works. She has become legendary as the wife of William S. Burroughs, documented in Kerouac's novels, and killed by Burroughs in a drunken game of William Tell. Corso and Diane Di Prima, among others, insist that there were female Beats, but that it was more difficult for women to get away with a Bohemian existence in that era.

Notable Beat Generation women who have been published include Edie Parker; Joyce Johnson; Carolyn Cassady; Hettie Jones; Joanne Kyger; Harriet Sohmers Zwerling; Diane DiPrima; and Ruth Weiss, who also made films. Poet Elise Cowen took her life in 1963. Later, women emerged who claimed to be strongly influenced by the Beats, including Janine Pommy Vega in the 1960s, Patti Smith in the 1970s, and Hedwig Gorski in the 1980s."





link to Wiki about Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Ferlinghetti

link to Wiki about just this one book of his--A Coney Island of the Mind...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Coney_Island_of_the_Mind

3 sets of poems: 29 poems under same title as the book - 7 poems under title of Oral Messages (to be read aloud/accompanied by live jazz) - 13 poems from his 1st book of poetry: Pictures of the Gone World, 1955

link to YouTube - Lawrence Ferlinghetti actually reading his poems during Lunch Poems...15:25...
http://youtu.be/prJdq9BjAvQ
"why is there darkness at night..."

link to YouTube - Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Poetry Reading in the Cellar with Cellar Jazz Quintet - The Statue of St Francis...2:08...
http://youtu.be/nfZW-4LFGfw

 "I Am Waiting" & "Junkman's Obbligato" were both written (so says Wiki) for jazz accompaniment...

link to the poem - "Junkman's Obbligato" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti - from his A Coney Island of the Mind book of poetry...
http://www.angelfire.com/oh/BringUsAnotherBeer/junkman.html

link to documentary movie: Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder...2009...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1251754/
or the orig title: Ferlinghetti: A City Light
Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti
aka Lawrence Ferling

link to Ferlinghetti Film Trailer...2:26...
http://youtu.be/Vgec1sXIaiw

link to Trailer for documentary...2:36...
http://youtu.be/7loxs9m5YC4
a Dutch Rainbow Trailer, but there are as well 2 Trailer videos on IMDB--see link above...

link to Blog City Lights...Feb 6, 2013 post about...Trailer: Ferlinghetti, A Rebirth of Wonder...
http://www.blogcitylights.com/2013/02/06/trailer-ferlinghetti-a-rebirth-of-wonder/

What it says about the Director/Producer...

"Christopher Felver is a photographer and filmmaker. He’s maintained a longstanding friendship with Ferlinghetti, beginning with the collaborative book, Seven Days in Nicaragua Libre in 1984. Critic Peter Frank wrote, “Felver’s oeuvre has documented the American intellectual class – it’s thinkers, its writers, its artists, the people who have been shaping the higher discourse in our country since the 1950’s.” His latest book, Beat, is a collection of over 400 photographs and ephemera from his involvement with the Beat generation."

link to film's play dates on First Run Features...
http://firstrunfeatures.com/ferlinghetti_playdates.html
taking note--played in NOLA before coming to Lafayette at Cite des Arts...
other than that it's been in NY, MA, OH, VA & last on the schedule for this year IN

link to how teachers review the documentary movie for students...
http://www.studenthandouts.com/01-Web-Pages/Books-Films/Reviews/2009-ferlinghetti-a-rebirth-of-wonder-movie-review.htm

"We strongly recommend this film for illustrating the counterculture of the 1950s, and how it influenced future generations."

link to Cite des Arts - Calendar - April 13, 2013 - 8:00 pm film - for the Festival of Words shown by Cane Fire Film Series, along with a Silent Auction, Catering, Beat Poetry Readings prior to film...
http://www.citedesarts.org/Cite_des_Arts/Calendar_Tickets.html

link to Cane Fire Film Series - Facebook Page...
https://www.facebook.com/CaneFireFilmSeries

link to The Vermilion article by Corey Vaughn: Cane Fire Film Series Brings Indie Movies to Lafayette...speaking with Michael Scott Myers - the film series producer in August--after the Cane Fire Film Series started last year in May 2012...

http://www.thevermilion.com/cane-fire-film-series-brings-indie-movies-to-laf-1.2885366

(so far in the Series I've seen: A Cat in Paris, Nobody Else But You, A Royal Affair, Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder... this has been amazing that we've gotten these films here in Lafayette, LA - usually showing at the LITE Center, this last film due to the Festival of Words/Auction/Beat Poetry Reading was shown at the Cite des Arts in downtown Lafayette...)

link to The Ind article...Cane Fire Films Series Presents...Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder...
http://www.theind.com/a-a-e/arts-a-entertainment-stories/13483-cane-fire-films-series-presents-ferlinghetti-a-rebirth-of-wonder



and his hero--Charlie Chaplin...(ie: the hat, the bowler hat)

link to KATC - Channel 3 - Acadiana - Lafayette...
http://www.katc.com/events/fundraiser-for-festival-of-words-with-film-ferlinghetti-a-rebirth-of-wonder/

link to Acadiana Theatre Happenings - Blog - Fundraiser / Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder...
http://acadianatheatrehappenings.blogspot.com/2013/04/fundraiser-ferlinghetti-rebirth-of.html
by Brady McKellar (aka Wanderlust Theater)

link to NUNU Arts & Culture Collective...
http://www.nunucollective.org/
Casa Azul Fundraiser...Let's keep Festival of Words articulating...Screening of "Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder" ...at Cite des Arts in Lafayette...come out & help keep words going...




Nat'l Poetry Month...
but of course--so what a 'perfect' time for the Festival of Words, for a Beat Poetry Reading, for a documentary film to come to Cite des Arts - Lafayette, LA...
"Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder"
Ferlinghetti--a poet, among many another hat that he wore (activist, artist--painter, Charlie Chaplin fan...)

link to some/three poems by Jerry McGuire (PhD UL Professor English Dept) who headed up the beat poetry performances before the documentary & he read, at the end of the performance pieces, a poem of Lawrence Ferlinghetti that was not in the film entitled He...

http://hoboeye.com/2007/01/poetry-jerry-mcguire-lafayette-louisiana/

Two Dances - 1) Square 2) Triangle
Dreaming Wakes Me
(I know this blog post is dated 2007, but this is just a quick sample of his poetry/his poems)


Judith & Jerry
looked pretty much the same at the beat poetry reading/documentary film showing of Ferlinghetti
(except he's in a different jacket, a b/w striped one)


http://english.louisiana.edu/creativewriting/creative%20writing%20faculty%20jerry%20mcguire.html

"Much of his work is poetry and experimental fiction done in collaboration with musicians, dancers, and visual artists and designed for specific performance environments.."


(taking note I came at the end of the beat poetry performances this evening, so only heard 1other poem read by a girl with a nearly shaved head somewhat Sinead looking--that I liked a lot & should of asked afterwards about her/her poem...there were chimes in the background & some guitar sounds as well, while she held a circle of tamborine cymbals--a headless tamborine...that I've not seen before...almost a bracelet size circle...she mentioned her poem was in the fashion of someone else, that I'm guessing was also done as a performance type piece as this one was...)




Darrell Bourque, Louisiana Poet Laureate from years past, 2007-08 & 2009-11, was in the audience, but I'm not sure if he was one of the earlier beat poets reading or not during the evening--at the end of it all I do know that he & his friends, obviously great supporters of Festival of Words, walked away with a lot of the Silent Auction Art...including that recycle fish I bid on?! (He probably doesn't remember but in a time long ago during Deep South Writer's Conference earlier years, at USL then. I was there & I tried to write & I tried to write poetry & I took a Writer's Workshop for Poetry with him, remembering he was very kind at the time & imagine he still is as he's still teaching, only it's UL these days...)

link to Deep South Magazine--under Literary Events...
http://deepsouthmag.com/2013/03/literary-friday-edition-50/
(note: barely a paragraph...sigh...rather sad--but there was the Nat'l Poetry Month poster above, in the sidebar, so--that was something...)

~~~



link to Howl - 1955 - Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl
Pocket Poet Series from City Lights Publishing/Bookshop
co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti

line...
"who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue... the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertising"

reference...
"Ginsberg worked as a market researcher for Towne-Oller Associates in San Francisco, on Montgomery Street, not Madison Avenue.^"

(note: I find this hilarious...for more than one reason, but one of which is that I majored in Marketing in college & continually find that amusing..."fairies of advertising"...& so wanted to crack into Advertising that I considered a move to Houston, TX from Lafayette, LA--because I was told there was 'no' Marketing Jobs here..way Way back when...more amusement...)


photo credit: GoodReads.com Author Profile
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4261.Allen_Ginsberg

"Howl" Allen Ginsberg...27:00...
http://youtu.be/2p_kKhRmRkM
(he reads his poem, but you don't see him while he's reading...still...I have read this very long poem, but I had never heard him/the author reading it himself...)

"...forget your underwear we are free..."
Holy--hipsters?? did he say hipsters? curious--we still have them, but are they the same...hmmm...

link to the Wiki for the movie - Howl - Allen Ginsberg played by James Franco...2010...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl_(film)

...1957 obscenity trial of San Francisco poet and City Lights Bookstore co-founder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti who was the first person to publish "Howl" in Howl and Other Poems.

Andrew Rodgers played Lawrence Ferlinghetti in the movie

link to "Howl" the movie trailer - James Franco playing Allen Ginsberg...
http://youtu.be/Ba9yazkl0UE
love the last line of the trailer...
"there is no beat generation, just a bunch of guys trying to get published" (hah)

~~~
and other related...
at the Festival of Words Auction...

 

Trish Ransom - Artist
Recycle Art
Fish
Auction Fundraiser for Festival of Words
before the Beat Poetry Readings
before the documentary film screening
of Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder

link to her Artist's webpage & more of her fish...
http://www.debrisart.com/fish.html
(note: I did bid on this fish, but someone else came behind me & bid $5.00 more & got it...this too after I was teasing a writer friend who was suppose to come but didn't that I would then be the one to win this fish--even went so far as posting this photo, adding--this is my fish & a mwah hah hah I believe on top of that?! I shouldna known better...so in the end I did not bid $5.00 more dollars than that & did not win the bid, did not get to bring this fun recycle art/debris art home...which I have to add that since I'm a Pisces I like creative fish art in all forms especially...sigh...my only saving grace is that she does make more fish & she will be at local festivals again where I can find her/her fish again too...all for a good cause though will not be involved like this time for the Festival of Words Fundraiser--but it will still help the Local Arts/the Local Artist so that's gonna be OK too...)



Trish Ransom's Debris Art - Fish
Reading her Schedule I see she'll be at Festival International--so I'm set, less than 2 weeks away?!

link to Festival International - Marche des Arts/Vendors...
http://www.festivalinternational.com/site454.php
she's on the list...from Grand Coteau, LA--Debris Art

~~~
the 100th post
big round numbers get to me
they are markers
for what in this case--perhaps to say it's a Blog, a real Blog
or as writerly as I am able to get
until I move again to start another
Rain in Doha
Rain in Houston
Rain in Stavanger
Rain in Lafayette
Rain in ??
I just don't know nor will guess
curiously this 4th city/blog has 3 followers & 3 comments
which earlier ones had Zero to None, or maybe One?!
(3's tho have always been a lucky/fav number of mine)
but I am 'not' playing a numbers game here
just taking note it's One Hundred Posts on a Blog Today
and not taking note what that all might work out into pages for say, a book
if I were to be writing one & not posts in a blog on Blogger...



Women on Fire an Alchemy View or is it Art

Women on Fire
an Alchemy View
or is it Art

Like Water for Chocolate
a book in 1989 by Laura Esquivel
became a movie in 1992 by Alfonso Arau

link to the movie...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103994/
Original Title: "Como Agua para Chocolate"

"title refers to a colloquial phrase used by the Spanish that means an extremity of feeling.
It refers to a boiling point in terms of anger, passion and sexuality."

link to the book...
http://www.amazon.com/Like-Water-Chocolate-Installments-Romances/dp/038542017X



book cover in the USA


link to her other books...
http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Esquivel/e/B000AQ0UHC/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
(I think I'd like to read "Between Two Fires: Intimate Writings on Live, Love, Food & Flavor" a book of hers from 2001)

link to a book of essays about her fictions...
http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Esquivels-Mexican-Fictions-Chocolate/dp/1845194101
(edited by Elizabeth Moore Willingham...if you really/Really want to know more...as I've seen the price of this book from $44 up to $69?!)

link about the author...
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/13-fiction/8751-like-water-for-chocolate-esquivel?start=1
(from Lit Lovers...adapted from Wikipedia - am not sure why it dates the movie at 1994 when have read 1992, but then in other references in 1993...maybe something to do with in Spanish then in translated/subtitled...)

link to a bio about the author...
http://www.biography.com/people/laura-esquivel-185854

link to Wiki...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_Water_for_Chocolate

link to SparkNotes...
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/likewater/

link to Sunday Observer about Como Agua para Chocolate...
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2010/05/23/mon20.asp




author photo from articlea:
Boom & Beyond by Claudia Anderson

one more link to what Encyclopedia has to say about the novelist...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3433700032.html

Note: there is a younger TV girl named the same as the author only a different middle name so ignore all mentions of her if you can...

lastly the link to the recipes - because every chapter in Like Water for Chocolate begins with a recipe
http://www.kitchenlink.com/mf/15/1226
(taking note that even tho all the chapters are named after the months of the calendar, I'm told they don't necessarily follow the months of the year in the events in the chapters)

Christmas Rolls
Quail in RosePetal Sauce *a famous scene in the movie
Turkey Mole with Almonds & Sesame Seeds
Northern Style Chorizo
Champandongo
Chocolate & Three Kings Day Bread
Three Kings Day Bread
Cream Fritters


and here in 2013 on April 7, a Sunday
a lecture by the CG Jung Society of Lafayette
the speaker: Charlene Henry

a Jungian Psychotherapist
with a MSW, LCSW & currently a Diploma Candidate
at the Centre for Research & Study in Depth Psychology
according to CG Jung & Marie Louise Von Franz
in Zurich, Switzerland

link to the Research & Training Center for Depth Psychology according to C.G. Jung & Marie-Louise Von Franz...
http://www.centre-dp.org/index.php?id=2&L=2

link to C.G. (Carl Gustav) Jung Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung
(I think I may want to know more about Emma Jung, his wife, as she was a psychoanalyst & author...link to her Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Jung )

link to the CG Jung Society of Lafayette...
http://cgjunglafayettela.org/?page_id=2

link to another Jung talk by Charlene Henry on this same subject at Chapman Univ last year...
http://www.junginoc.org/2012-12-02.htm
(note: consider the drawing of the book cover Like Water for Chocolate on this webpage, different than any other I've seen so far)

link to a different talk at the CG Jung Society of Baton Rouge - on Synchronicity the CG Jung Society of New Orleans...
http://www.jungneworleans.org/images/BRFall08.pdf
(her talk entitled: "The Spindle, The Shuttle and The Needle: An Interpretation of the Tale by the Brothers Grimm")

regarding the Alchemy View

image from carl-jung.net webpage under Jung & Alchemy...
http://www.carl-jung.net/alchemy.html
(note: Charlene Henry in her lecture also used this same image among her many during her multi-media presentation of Like Water for Chocolate: An Alchemy View)

link to an Alchemy Website...
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/index.html

link to Wiki - Alchemy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy

link to a blog & more about Alchemy but especially the imagery used...
http://taicarmen.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/alchemy-an-allegorical-map-to-consciousness-transmutation/
(or as well Google Image Alchemy & see what all comes up... the 2nd image in this blog used was also one in Charlene Henry's lecture/multi-media presentation of Like Water for Chocolate: An Alchemy View)



Contemporary Artists influenced by Alchemy...
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/contemp_artists.html


Handout from the speaker - Charlene Henry - An Alchemy View - Like Water for Chocolate...

Alchemical Terms

Chaos - the state of confusion & disorder
Prima materia - is the basic material that arises out of the chaos & upon which the work is done
Opus - the work & the processes of alchemy
Laboratory - the place or setting where the work is done
Vas or Vessel - container which holds the prima material & in which the work is done
Elements - basics of all mater (system used from Green times thru the Renaissance)
All matter is a combination of these: Earth, Air, Fire, Water

Properties of Elements - cold, hot, wet, dry

Earth (cold, dry)
Air (hot, moist)
Fire (hot, dry)
Water (cold, moist)

*Hellenic Physics - there is a drawing of this, a square within a diamond shape & each triangle of each corner is the element & between them the properties...(see below)

States of Alchemy -

Nigredo (black) - the darkest phase
Albedo (white) - the purified stage
Rubedo (red) - the stage of adding blood & feeling
[my note: she excluded (yellow) Citrinitus...perhaps because it didn't pertain to this story]

Alchemical Operations - are the processes that prima materia goes thru
each operation had a specific function that can be looked at both materially & psychologically
they do not appear or occur in any particular order

1) Calcination - assoc w/fire
    M (material aspect) drying or burning things to ash
    P (psychological aspect) taking all emotions out of complexes

2) Solutio - assoc w/water
    M dissolving material to its undifferentiated form
    P a softening or dissolving of rigid patterns & ideas

3) Coagulatio - assoc w/earth
     M taking a fixed form or shape - ex: water becomes ice
      P something becomes concretized & attached to our egos (we get it & it becomes a part of us)

4) Sublimatio - assoc w/air
    M material turns into gaseous form
     P to move from concrete to symbolic way of seeing

5) Mortificatio - assoc w/rotting & death
     M decomposition of matter
     P dealing w/the shadow & evil, the death of the egocentric ego, precedes new life

6) Separatio - to divide or pull apart
     M dividing material into its component parts (H2O - oxygen, hydrogen)
      P discrimination, awareness of opposites - I - Other

7) Coniunctio - wholly new 3rd substance
     P a creative resolution of conflict thru the transcendent function
        a untion of the conscious & the unconscious

     Lesser Coniunctio - joining of 2 things that are not ready to be united
     this leads to mortificatio "back to the drawing board"
    
   Greater Coniunctio - the goal of the work
     out of the 2 comes something new which is the 3rd

Fire - 4 degrees of fire used:
1) Intense, powerful - Calcinatio (Aries)
2) Gentle - Solutio (Cancer)
3) Medium - Sublimatio (Libra)
4) Constant & Lukewarm - Putrefaction/aspects of Mortificatio (Capricorn) 

Basic Principles...at play - paradoxical & multi-faceted, they cross over

1) Salt - related to the body because it is a solid (Paracelsus)
    as soul it prevades all things (Jung)

2) Sulphur - "with its property of greasy, oily combustibility it mediates in the position of the soul"
   (Paracelsus/The Hermetic Museum p 28)
   as spirit it ignites (Jung)

3) Mercury - the fluid principle w/a tendency towards spirit the volatile intellect (Paracelsus)
    as body it is the prima material & "the stone" (Jung)



*
link to the full wiki where I found the drawing for the Hellenic Physics...
http://www.thefullwiki.org/Classical_element




(my note: find it interesting that there is mention this was made with the qualities of the Mediterranean climate by the Greeks, so perhaps in other areas there may not be these qualities to the elements)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a total aside re: women on fire...

Girl on Fire - Alicia Keys
http://youtu.be/J91ti_MpdHA

Fire Woman - The Cult
http://youtu.be/qavSfl1jATU


Women on Fire book
Women on Fire retreat
Women on Fire organization

The Girl on Fire
Hunger Games - Katniss Everdeen - that red dress aflame at her hem, after the chariot entrance w/flames behind her head...

YouTube by Hunger Gamz of the scene in the red dress...
http://youtu.be/S2sXXG3tTaI






woman holding fire sculpture from Burning Man 2009 - photograph - DeClan McCullagh...
http://www.mccullagh.org/photo/1ds3-3/woman-holding-fire-sculpture
(but who made this sculpture??)



link to someone else who went to Burning Man 2009 & took a photo of the Woman Holding Fire, but again no credit to the artist/s who made her...
http://ablogawayfromhome.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html

Brief Encounters of the Photography Kind

Brief encounters of a photographer/film makers mind
in small towns of Massachusetts/America that were made into a documentary
which just this past January showed in Houston, TX

at the MFA H
http://www.mfah.org/films/gregory-crewdson-brief-encounters/

and I missed it
I read this after the fact in March

in Culture Map Houston...
http://houston.culturemap.com/eventdetail/houston-premieres-screening-gregory-crewdson-brief/

when I found the webpage I then found out that it will not be showing in LA
(as in Louisiana) at all this year looks like - unless something changes

http://www.gregorycrewdsonmovie.com/

this makes me sad, I have missed it in TX & now no chance most likely in LA
I want this movie to come to LA, if not Lafayette then New Orleans (aka NOLA--no matter how that abbreviation drives locals mad I like it...)


photo credit from mfah.org webpage...courtesy of Zeitgeist Films

I haven't yet decided if it makes me feel like a David Lynch film does
or a "Norman Rockwell meets Norman Bates" image
(as his work has for real been described with this fitting phrase--think Psycho, the movie...)
or if I possibly question is it art? is it photography? is it surreal?
(when I read he doesn't actually use a camera, other folks now push that button)


photo credit: wikipedia 2007 on location in Pittsfield, MA

but I have questions--so I watched the YouTubes, I am still fascinated...
And I may one day flip thru the one Art book of his or I may one day see a gallery showing of a set of his photographs (he is afterall only 50 yrs old)

I am still perplexed how I can know about Diane Arbus & Norman Rockwell & David Lynch & yet...I don't think I've ever known about Gregory Crewdson & his photography--is it because I'm a Southerner that I missed out? I just don't know but it's curious when someone this (so said) big slips by you (even 'with' the internet...or that is until now?!)

Houston Premiers - Gregory Credson: Brief Encounters...
http://www.mfah.org/films/gregory-crewdson-brief-encounters/

"The meticulously composed, large-scale images of photographer Gregory Crewdson are stunning, psychological narratives of small-town American life. Shot over a decade, this documentary follows the artist during the elaborate process of staging his shoots using set-ups as complicated as moviemaking. Crewdson discusses his family background and his influences, who include Diane Arbus, Edward Hopper, and David Lynch. Speaking about his creative process, Crewdson observes, 'the whole act of making art is an act of faith.' "
 
“A brilliant new documentary about the work of one of America’s greatest living photographers.” —Flash Magazine (UK)

Gregory Crewdson Movie - Brief Encounters - Documentary by Ben Shapiro...
http://www.gregorycrewdsonmovie.com/
(a 10 year quest...time is in the eyes of the beholder...it says it's showing Nationwide & then going Global--Well, somebody doesn't think Louisiana is in the Nation then...nor Global, because nowhere on the Screenings list do I see it coming here--to Lafayette or New Orleans or where ever else nearby...)

Gregory Crewdson Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Crewdson
(one can only imagine what it must feel like to have a whole Wiki entry written about you)

YouTube - Gregory Crewdson Brief Encounters Trailer 2012 Photographer Documentary Movie...
http://youtu.be/FlU9yvu3u7A
Director - Ben Shapiro

29:48 radio interview of Ben Shapiro & Gregory Crewdson on BBox Radio - Nov 3, 2012...
http://www.bboxradio.com/filmwax-radio/1255-filmmaker-ben-shapiro-and-photographer-gregory-crewdson.html (that's Brooklyn Community Radio - Filmwax Radio #1255...the interviewer & Gregory went to summer camp together--jumping off Tushy Rock, skinny dipping...ah memories from like 40 yrs ago...)



YouTube - Gregory Crewdson by Close Up...
http://youtu.be/Z5hpPYabi94
(Keep watching after the beginning in a foreign language, think it's Dutch - also you can ignore the subtitles along the way too, as it's 53:02 min's long - have to wonder if this might be the whole documentary right here on YouTube?! no, looked that up--it's 79 min's the whole thing) #avrocloseup

what I gathered from watching the video...

some prints go for $125,000 a print - mentions that could be the cost of an Indie Movie for just one print

and he tries to long distance swim, curious, but then could it be just another form of meditation--instead of a walking meditation (which I've done at a Zen Center before) it's a swimming meditation...he mentions getting lost in a rhythm - which in regards to water I'll find at times in faucet water running as I wash a lot of dishes, you can get lost in the rhythm & it sends your mind off elsewhere (to your imagination, to images...) then it's good for ideas or when you're working something out (like it bubbles up to the surface, if you're distracted physically/bodily with some kind of activity...)

for him it sounds like it's definitely the devil's in the details, all the details, someone mentions could be a 1,000 details in one print/one shot, all of which he's made some decision about... (aka "marvilously obsessive" she says...) another would like to time how long folks will stand in front of one of his prints... (as I'm mesmerized by a tiny online photo of Beneath the Roses I can imagine I could also stand a long while in front of it for real..)

Beneath the Roses

dynamic between beauty and sadness

his photographs are grounded in a psychology...oddly enough, or not, his father was a psychoanalyst
so he understood the psychological power & urgency that a photograph could have...that sense of awe & terror...at 10 yrs old being taken to a gallery showing of Diane Arbus black & white photographs at MOMA by this father...

Diane Arbus Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus


photo credit: Wikipedia - Diane Arbus - Eddie Carmel & Parents

Diane Arbus Photography...webpage...where you can flip thru her black & white photographs...
http://diane-arbus-photography.com/
(pg 83 backyard family, maybe, man, woman, sunbathing, child, wading pool...would love to take that on as a writing exercise...tho Gregory Crewdson in his documentary mentions the Giant in the living room--pg 87...am guessing I can't copy/paste these other black & white photos that aren't over on Wikipedia...)

usually it takes 2 days to make his photos - at twilight - where they can use the lights - for his search for a 'perfect moment' in a way... that perfect 'still' moment...& in that instance he thinks his life makes sense...

The Speedies...Let me take your photo, photograph song...his HS/teen band...for a yr of NY success...then 25 yrs later HP uses it for a commercial (I've watched those on TV & never knew...)

Here you can watch the so called 'punk rock' band sing the song for yourself...from 1979--talk about a blast from the past...Let me take your photo...
http://youtu.be/x8XluynKckE

And someone guessing who the band/song was for the HP commerical...
http://www.palebear.com/let-me-take-your-photo-the-speedies-hp-commercial/2005/

(so then Gregory Crewdson was most likely Greg Zap...funny he didn't mention that tiny detail in current documentary/videos/interviews or that I've found, yet--we loved Frank Zappa at our house too, so can well relate to a shorter version of Zap...or was he after something totally different & more 'electric' or 'shocking' maybe...hmm...one will never know unless some crazed interviewer decides to go off the charts & 'not' talk about his current art/photographs/process & goes dig way/Way back when to ask him about his HS band stage/fake name while he was living in Brooklyn as a teen...)

About those HP Commericals...Pictures of You by the Kinks to start...or the You + hp campaign...included: Road Trip, while a women is dressed, which features The Speedies--Let me take your photo song...
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2006/hp-pictures-of-you/

And the YouTube of the HP Commercial--Road Trip...
http://youtu.be/5M4EoHdPCXI

never under estimate the power/pull of a girl...so the boy takes a photography class because she's into photography...

at Yale program of doc photogrpahy tradition while in NY galleries he was seeing Cindy Sherman/Laurie Simmons & others in galleries...using fictions & constructs...

then he watched the movie Blue Velvet by David Lynch (I've seen that movie & we're not talking that National Velvet/goodie two shoes kind of movie mind you either...)

to refresh yourself of David Lynch...the Blue Velvet trailer...teaser...1986...
http://youtu.be/fQA0OWJiios
(adore Isabella Rossellini...)

like Hopper returns to the same places over & over...look for the setting to tell one of his stories... location scouting--without a camera, keeps in his head...a vantage point...

my fav of Edward Hopper - Nighthawks...I know it's popular, but still am drawn in by it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks


photo credit: Wikipedia
Nighthawks - Edward Hopper - 1942

a haunted quality...to these small abandoned towns (like Lee, Pittsfield--MA...) that are captured in these photographs...

in a cabin around where he came as a kid during summers he's dreaming of floating--so he takes his perspective up, looking down from what I call a cherry picker (tho he didn't call it that) for a series of roads with what he calls intersections (but we're not talking crossroads here...)

cinematic quality to his photographs...starts messing with lighting...

33:15...a stop you in your tracks kind of photo...lady in her living room is floating...Ophelia...on a soundstage--for the first time...connecting photography & film...Hitchcock...an intersection of everyday life & some sense of theatricality...

writers like works that are narrative--Gregs work is narrative...

focus on that moment & make it as beautiful & mysterious as possible...

Brief Encounters...were not brief in the making of them by any calculation...

feels that every artist has one central story to tell...struggle...tell & retell that story...challenge...at the core that story remains the same...it's like the defining story of who you are...

YouTube 27:35 (they abound & not in any short versions it seems of this man's art work...) Gregory Crewdson's Photography Capturing a Movie Frame/Art in Progress/Reserve Channel...
http://youtu.be/S7CvoTtus34

YouTube 8:49 (finally a short one) Gregory Crewdson Speaks with Artist Profile...
http://youtu.be/uQy4uiS6iKw
Q&A:
What are you trying to convey thru your photographs?
What role does narrative play in your work?
Which artists, writers & filmmakers have most influenced you?
Can you take us through the process of creating your pictures?
Tell us about the relationship between the figure & the landscape setting?
What led you to make your most recent series: 'Sanctuary?'
What's next for you on the creative front?


YouTube 2:12 Gregory Crewdson Norman Rockwell Moment...
http://youtu.be/KaW9Cs6jn48
(at Norman Rockwell's museum showing comparing his paintings to his photographic sources...since Gregory Crewdson's work has been described as Norman Rockwell meets Norman Bates...)

I esp adore Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post Cover/painting/to be poster/so often used & reused..."Rosie the Riveter"...(tho mostly I remember "Rosie the Riveter" from the Westinghouse poster by J. Howard Miller famously entitled: "We Can Do It")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosie_the_Riveter

YouTube 6:00...Twilight (Photographs by Gregory Crewdson)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXkgpr6y5_I&feature=share&list=PLEFF7BB4AF3F18334
(one of the rare videos where it's just his photos set to music...his one art book has the same title--not ever to be confused with the sparklely vampire teen books/movies...sadly what that has done to the word: twilight...can I live long enough for it never to be remembered as only that first book of the vampire series?!)

YouTube 5:34 ...by DevelopPhoto...Ovation TV Closeup...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RywAfP4KFcY&feature=share&list=PLEFF7BB4AF3F18334
(comments...include: ...artsy fartsy...circus act...)




Amazon.com - Book - Twilight - Photographer: Gregory Crewdson - Author: Rick Moody...
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Photographs-Crewdson-Rick-Moody/dp/0810910039
(only $29.42...which for an Art/Coffeetable size book I'm guessing that this is it's then rather a surprise price...)

Publication Date May 1, 2002

"Crewdson's most recent series of photographs, Twilight, are created as elaborately constructed film stills, catching the mysterious moment of time between before and after, revealing unknowable or unimaginable aspects of domestic reality. A cow lies on its back on the lawn between two houses while firemen secure the area and a man searches the sky. Could the cow have rained down from above? In another image stacks and stacks of inedible slices of bread - bearing an odd resemblance to the mysterious monoliths at Stonehenge - are watched over by a gathering of birds. Both entirely foreign and oddly familiar, these images are carefully orchestrated events that challenge our very notions of familiarity, undermining our sense of certainty. These eerie and evocative photographs pair beauty with horror, obsession with disgust, and the real with the surreal, suggesting narratives open to endless interpretations. The book includes an essay written by fiction writer Rick Moody. The book and exhibitions are comprised of the forty images from his Twilight series which was begun in 1998 - these exhibitions and this book chronicle the completion of the series and mark the first time it will be seen in its entirety."

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