Saturday, March 14, 2015

Moving right along





   Martin Filler has an article
   out, and I know, our first
   impulse is to tell him to
   leave it out. But then we
   couldn't talk about it, and
   I believe we should.























































Somebody said it was "pie" day






      I'd figured, fruit.
      I just didn't think
      of radii, at first.












     
      
      That's all right but
      there's a lot to do,
      today, and we'd best 
      make up a list. 


























Friday, March 13, 2015

Return wall radical






I don't pretend to
enunciate principles
of exhibition here,
and for that matter
some of my happier
spoofs have been of
such edicts and ukas-
es which proliferate
in places about rooms.

Still, I admire those
who ponder these mat-
ters, whereas I reduce
them shamelessly to in-
stinct.

Where would my radic-
als be appropriately un-
predicted and punctuat-
ing, to conserve the re-
freshing singularity or
spontaneity of their in-
congruous intervention,
if not on a short inter-
ior wall placed at right
angles to a long one, as
in an enclosed staircase,
fireplace, or partition?

I'm mulling it over. It
seems the real character
of my living spaces is
supported in inverse pro-
portion to the plinth of
its display, and the dis-
tance from which it is 
perceived. It isn't that
I design, it just happens.

round the same corner, 
once again, and this is
just enough to excite a
sense of mystery, to per-
This is the ultimate el-
ement for me, of the un-
predicted, the punctuat-
ing, the refreshing, the
singular, the spontaneous
and incongruous. Not ev-
erything has to be, for
this is not much space.


















  drawing/digital print
  fragment
2014©











Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thursday for the galleries






      A naïve and doubtful habit,
      which I'd wish upon anyone,
      I acquired right away. Who-
      ever supervised my develop-
      ment so poorly as to permit
      this, is owed my gratitude.

      I go to the symphony for my
      good. I go to galleries and
      museums to be aware, I play.





















Musée Nissim 
  de Camondo
Parc Monceau




Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Tidy sneakers





   One can read too
   little into things,
   it seems to me, as
   easily as too much.
   One of the things
   I'd not relinquish
   in photography, for
   all the misconsump-
   tion it permits, is
   its conservation of
   clues. Not to men-
   tion its alacrity.

   In Coralie Giroud's
   photograph the im-
   plicit intrusion ac-
   complishes nothing
   untoward, and saves
   the many resonating
   questions of a mar-
   velous moment.

   Good Brownie.
   
   












Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Racine iii







I trust I have done nothing to
lull the reader into any comfy
contentment with the spiralling
degeneration in the Party of A-
braham Lincoln, tough cookie as
he was, as its remnant is led a-
round by the nose by plutocrats
of sadistic cynicism. I should
not have wished to enrich its
widespread appeal to addicts of
violence, righteousness, greed
and intellectual malnutrition, 
by any despair conveyed here,
that they haven't finished yet.
As it is, we're all pinned for
valour, just to've been patient.





In their adventure, launched
with such gusto on the 3rd inst,
to destroy the power of a Pres-
ident to negotiate a peace, they
show signs of drawing nigh to a 
long-cherished objective, of
institutionalising the warfare
state on a permanent, and dare
one say profitable footing. What
even Lodge never intended, in
disabling Woodrow Wilson, these
unpresentable representatives
seemed poised at last to produce.

I detect an interference with
the happy flow of this page's
originating disposition and ex-
pectation. For all the stupefy-
ing sordidness of the Clintons'
humiliating governance, there
was always their compassionate
willingness to conceal what they
did. DoMA, for example, was sign-
ed at midnight. Who cared, who
moistened the nib?

Not so, the breastbeaters. We
must leave it to some Ph.D can-
didate to sift through the year-
books of Andover, to count the
snapshots of Bushes, bounding
about the sidelines with their
megaphones, to know if it's prop-
er to trace the new intrusiveness
to these puerile roots, entirely.
But it fits the case, to wonder.

Possibly, too, there are greater
infractions of decorum than mere-
ly trifling with the bonhommie of
blogging's helpless bystanders,
but I take my complaint to heart
and aim to do something about it.
To the best of my ability, I'm
going to insulate rmbl from fur-
ther attention to depredations of
which its readers must be aware.

I have been considering discon-
tinuing rmbl, churning a new page,
but I conclude that it's necessary
to allow that unpleasant influence
to be exhibited. If I should redis-
cover the native lark of the place,
it would be inaccurate to deny the
difficulty. Moreover, if others 
have come this way, it would only
be Clintonian to renounce them.

I used to enjoy this project, and
intend to do so again. Even then,
we can't expect this to be merry
news to restaurants. 
























iii  original posting
      2010




Sunday, March 8, 2015

Suddenly no change


Christopher






      Though Virtue is difficult,
      Once trued to the line,
      Even if life slips,
      The marvelous emblem of fame stands.






































Bacchylides
518 - 438 BC
Isthmian Ode
  for Argeius of Ceos
  [Boys' Boxing Match]
  fragment
Robert Fagles
  translation
op. cit.




Who's not been offered grandeur?






   I studied the marketing materials
   the other day for the notoriously
   glitzy apartment building in Man-
   hattan by de Portzamparc and sev-
   eral interior designers. There is
   a message in their offering. They
   promise shelter to the life seek-
   ing absolute assurance of matter-
   ing. Another place is bound to do
   the same, next season.

   An interesting strategem. We know
   Scotch which does it, restaurants
   and shotgun craftsmen. Monuments,
   routinely. Always there's someone
   who strives to be able to pay the
   going rate for mattering, who be-
   lieves he will believe he does. I
   remember when a folly was diminu-
   tive. Has anyone the heart to re-
   mark, their parody redeemed them?

























Antoine Watteau
The Italian Comedians
1720
Kress Collection
National Gallery of Art
Washington