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November 27, 2022
Make Yours Moxie, Kids.
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Saint-Denis
Basilique de Saint-Denis, north side, built 1137-1281
Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2022
Jean-Francois Millet, The Gleaners, 1857
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November 22, 2022
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 - November 22, 1963)
Today marks the 59tjanniversary of President Kennedy's assassination in downtown Dallas, Texas. He was 46 years old. Below is my favorite photograph of him, likely taken in late 1942. He’d have been 25. Even Kennedy’s harshest critics and GOP stalwarts who had worked hard for his opponent Richard Nixon in the 1960 election would admit a few things about Kennedy the man. He wrote and spoke well. He was witty and sophisticated. He was charismatic. He carried himself effortlessly and with a remarkable poise. I love watching videos of his 1961-1963 press conferences. A natural class and self-deprecating humor. I think he really liked being president.
A stick in me hand and a tear in me eye
A doleful damsel I heard cry,
Johnny I hardly knew ye.--from "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye", popular Irish anti-war song written in early 1800s.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2022
Speakers' Corner, London: "Happy Friday, you daft bastards.”
Since 1866, Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park (northeast corner near Marble Arch) has been important in Britain's demonstrations, protests and debate. In 1872, the area was specifically set aside for those purposes. Here are among the best and most eccentric daily shows in London. Marx, Lenin and Orwell all spoke at Speakers' Corner there on Sundays, the traditional speaking day. But most speakers you hear there are obscure, animated and marvelously quirky. Any subject is fair game. For the dark history of this area of Hyde Park as the execution place know as Tyburn Gallows for nearly six centuries--everyone condemned to die could make a final speech--see the website of the Royal Parks. Below: uncredited photo from a Sunday in 1930s.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:02 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2022
301 Flowers, Duke University
The Daily Chronicle, est. 1905
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November 14, 2022
Botticelli's Venus and Mars, c. 1483.
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November 10, 2022
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)
Thank you for Free Verse, young Arthur Rimbaud.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:27 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2022
Bring Back Real Women: Sigourney Weaver.
I need a woman about twice my height.
Statuesque.
Raven-tressed.
A goddess of the night.--John Barlow and Bob Wier, "I Need a Miracle"
Patrician. Five foot eleven. Stanford and Yale. 72 years old.
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Susan Alexandra Weaver in 2008
Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Heroes: Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr.
When I step out I'm gonna do you in.
--Gibbons, Hill and Beard
Man in Full: Tom Wolfe. Prince of journalism, risk-taker, Virginian, original. "Every girl crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man."
Posted by JD Hull at 02:59 AM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2022
William Carlos Williams: A New Mind.
Without invention nothing is well spaced,
unless the mind change, unless
the stars are new measured, according
to their relative positions, the
line will not change, the necessity
will not matriculate: unless there is
a new mind there cannot be a new
line, the old will go on
repeating itself with recurring
deadliness.
William Carlos Williams in Paterson, Book 2 ("Sunday in the Park")
Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)
Gustave Courbet, Chillon Castle, 1874
Posted by JD Hull at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2022
Jack London
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
--Jack London (1876-1916)
Posted by JD Hull at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2022
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Day of the Dead, 1859
Posted by JD Hull at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
November 01, 2022
Allhallowtide Day 2: All Saints’ Day
Allhallowtide is a big deal. Celtic. Pagan. Catholic. A celebration-observance of Everything. Seasons. Fear, Harvest. Having enough food. Druids in the moonlight. Changes. The love of family. The Cosmos. Turning your enemies into newts. This is Day 2 of 3. Modernly, All Saints’ Day, a Christian observance begun in the 4th century to honor the lives of saints, most of them famous, and quite a few martyrs. The day however is not just for Roman Catholics. Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists and a few other quasi-civilized Protestant groups at least recognize. All Saints’ Day on November 1 comes the day after All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve, aka Halloween. Tomorrow, Day 3 of Allhallowtide, is All Souls’ Day. We turn our thoughts and prays to the regular people who’ve died.
“The Church Militant and the Church Triumphant,” Andrea da Firenze, at the Santa Maria Novella church, Florence, Italy, fresco, 1365.
Posted by JD Hull at 05:45 AM | Comments (0)