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. 

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.

I round the same corner, 

once again, and this is

just enough to excite a

sense of mystery, to per-

mit congenial surprise.

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.

Luke Edward Hall

  drawing/digital print

  fragment

2014©

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

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.
   
   

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

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