Song of rememberance

Fellini of Rimini #91

2007-11-16T05:22:00.000-08:00

Rimini is the native town of Federico Fellini. This town has been a major influence in the director's work. Fellini's films are impregnated with his nostalgic souvenirs of Rimini. He even expressed it in one of his many masterpieces, "Amarcord".

Visiting Rimini, you stumble into the maestro's tracks at every street turn.

Here is the Malatesta temple, the beautiful building designed by Alberti to the glory of Sigismond Malatesta. Inside is one of the most beautiful frescoes from Piero dela Francesca.
Fellini described the temple as a cuttle-bone.

Here is the Fulgor Cinema which fascinated the young Fellini, there is now a permanent exhibit of his drawings in the windows of the theatre.

The Grand Hotel is also one of the haunted places of Fellini's, facing the sea it is a witness of what the Italians call Liberty style. Fellini died in this very hotel.

His grave is an allegory of his film "E la nave va..".

People in Rimini remember the man with the red scarf and the town has opened a museum.

Art_4 : the wise aristocrat #90

2007-08-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

This painting is from 1694, one century younger than the portrait depicted in Art_1. I found it in an Antique fair and was immediately stuck by the blue eyes of the character. He must be a noble man as his coat of arms is painted in the upper left corner of the painting. I have tried to identify the family which owned that coat of arms, without success for the moment, the French armorial is so huge that only luck would lead me to the right name. The man seems wise, looks calm and thinking. But his eyes are bright and look around for ever...

Some garden in Normandy #89

2007-08-07T07:16:00.000-07:00

Near Granville, by the sea, is the house and garden of Christian Dior, fashion designer of what used to be called "New Style".

The young Christian who spent his youth in this house was always remembering the pinkish colour of the building as well as the grey nuance of the loose gravel of the alleys.

This influenced him to the point that it became the trademark of his logo, pink and grey.

The gardens are exquisite, worked out with perfect taste. Here a small pond is surrounded by hedges and is a small garden in the main one.

Flowers are everywhere dispatched with some small desks on which one can smell one of the fragrances of Dior's perfumes. They are all there, from opium to Poison and Miss Dior.

The Villa Barbarigo Gardens #88

2007-07-10T04:55:00.000-07:00

England is famous for its landscape gardens, France has classical gardens and Italy developped philosophical gardens. Symbolic meaning and thinking are some of the keys to the Barbarigo gardens set in Venetia between Padova and Venezia.

Along the river, the boats used to reach the place there..

Behind the large arch, the gardens are spread up to the villa. The visitor cannot help thinking about life while drifting along the alleys and the fountains which are declining the different ages of human beings.

The maze is there to remind how entangled and intricated human life ways can be.

The statue of Times which holds on its taking off symbolizes transcendency as well as human elevation to ecstatic revelation. The statue is looking over the main path to Rabbit Island..

Obviously, Times can see with all these rabbits on the island that he is defeated there by the never ending continuity of generations

And I did not even write that the Barbarigo Gardens are a beauty and that one can stay thinking and dreaming there for hours ... because Times really stops to keep going in an enchanted place like this one.

Art_3 : Surrealism is about dreams #87

2007-06-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

This painting by Chamar caught my eye at an auction sale one year ago. Its title "Reve surrealiste" sounded redundant. I was fascinated by the weird balance of the egg caught between rocks, the impossibility of going there in the first place as the two rocks are narrower above. The blue sky had a Magritte taste.. I was lucky as most people bidding were not interested at all in this work, they had in mind more abstract paintings and I had no difficulty to get this one. It is endlessly taht I can look at it, the egg reminds me of a similar curious egg which hangs in some Piero della Francesca painting.

Lucca in Tuscany #86

2007-06-04T06:51:00.001-07:00

A beautiful town full of surprises as this tower where oak trees grow..

Towers used to be this way, and the shade on the top is some enjoyable pleasure after a long climbing up the stairs.

Those towers are everywhere over Tuscany .. they were some evidence of wealth .

Or this place built on the remains of a roman amphitheatre. The structure of the old building is still visible.

I will tell more about towers and pits soon and gardens as there are gardens as beautiful as English ones though totally different. Here philosophy is at work when English gardeners wished to create the ultimate landscape.

Art_2 : Hokusaisan #85

2007-04-27T05:04:00.000-07:00

The second piece of my personal collection is a woodblock print from Hokusai depicting a Japanese landscape in Winter. The usual features of the master's works are present like the little arched bridge, fishermen in their boats, hills and trees, the specific element here being snow covering everything in a very soft way like a fur. The small variety of colours used here enhances Winter grey light which reflects on the white carpet.

I was lucky enough to purchase this print at the London Liberty store. Nearby Carnaby street, William Morris and his friends from the Arts and Craft movement, in the Pre-raphaelite following became the designers of objects and ornaments one could find in this elegant store dedicated to new art, fashion and tendencies at the very end of the XIXth century. Soon the "Liberty style" would be famous all over the world.

This store had from the beginning a section dedicated to art pieces coming from Japan. But everything changed during the 90's... A revamped shop was designed to enter year 2000 and all what was the uniqueness of the place was washed away, the Japan section after one century was shut down. Huge sales were going on and that is when I could choose and buy my Hokusai print at a ridiculously low sales price.

Art_1: an intriguing portrait #84 -

2007-04-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

When I bought this painting some twenty years ago in an antique shop, it was sold to me as the portrait of a 16th century gentleman. In fact there was written on the top right the date 1593

followed underneath by AET. XXVI, meaning that the character painted there was 26 years old when his portrait was done

On the back of the wooden piece, as it was painted on wood, were attached two small written papers. The first one was dated from 1920 and mentwas signed by a then known art critic. It said that the picture was probably the work of Dumonstier and that the other old paper was describing the paintings. In fact the old paper was written in black ink in a rather old fashioned style. It mentions the date on the top right of the painting and also another piece of writing in the bottom right which is impossible to read as being too dark.

I went through different art encyclopedias finding that there was a dynasty of painters in the 16th and 17th centuries by the name of Dumonstier, there are at least four of them. I could not decide which one did actually this painting.
Then I looked at the undecipherable writing. It was difficult to read though I could make out the beginning as "Mr. le...". Using a strong light and projecting it on the painting at very low angle to enhance the contrast I manage eventually to read the title which was "Mr le docteur".
I have tried to find out who that doctor could be at the time of Catherine de Medicis but without success for the moment.

The painting itself is beautiful to my taste, the eyes of the character seem alive, the beard is very delicately painted and I can spend one hour looking at this face and admiring its delicacy. It is easily more fascinating than whatever you can watch on a tv set.

Sadness #83

2007-03-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

The REAL KIDS must be the symbolic band of Boston in the same way as the Ramones for NYC. Their story is not as successsful as the New Yorker musicians'; in fact it is full of dismay, disappointment and lost virtues.

Live @ CBGB's -2004- All kindsa girls, the definite teenage anthem

John Felice the charismatic frontman and guitar player of the band is nevertheless such a perfect rock icon. His look with long hair and rebel attitude, his cleverness in writing beautiful songs, all these assets are washed away once in a while by the stupid behaviour some musicians imagine could be the one of a rock star. During the last three years the Real Kids missed three times their appointment with Europe, having to cancel their tours at the last moment.

Common at noon, a nostalgic ballad about the Boston park

Why is it that talent is always falling against the hands of ruffian dealers, unresponsible tasteless thieves who sacrifice generous bands by addicting them to substances and blankening the minds of the musicians. They are erasing true rock in the same way as fanatics would burn libraries. John Felice is another casualty and I feel so sorry for him that it makes me infinitely sad.
Bad to worse

Along the Brenta...#82

2007-03-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Between Venice and Padova is a canal, the Brenta, along which wealthy Venitians used to have beautiful mansions or manors.

They were leaving Venezia during Summer to avoid the mephitic fragrances rising from the filthy canals, they were spending the warm season in those houses which were called "villegiatura".

The trilogy of "La villegiatura" are among the most beautiful theatre plays ever written. It is totally modern though created during the XVIII century by Carlo Goldoni. Nowhere else can one find the true sense of the villegiatura. The laziness, the vacuity, and also jealousy, lust and gambling, the human comedy in its most harsh description.

I love those houses, many of them built by the genius architect Palladio. I had read books about these works but I had to be standing in front of these buildings, visit them to understand that they were a true philosophical eigenstate.

A central cube on top of which is set a circular dome and four smaller cubic structures on each side of the main one. The entrance is typically inspired by classic Greek architecture. Palladio's genius manifests itself in the perfect proportions used, a true revisitation of the purest classic art. The square ground design is the usual symbol of the earth while the circular dome symbolises the elevation of the mind towards spirituality, the building itself being the medium.

A machine to think..

The most famous Palladian villa is the Rotonda where Joe Losey shot his beautiful "Don Giovanni", it is a masterwork. When you are there, life seems beautiful and nothing really matters, you get lost in another dimension. this is how beauty affects us. Look at this picture and dream with me...

Waiting for the photon beam #81

2007-03-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

Here I am in the experiment counting house waiting for a photon beam. Photons are grains of light which can be processed continuously as a beam, or a ray. From X rays to sunlight, all these are photons of different frequencies. "Waiting for the sun" was an underestimated album by the Doors, and curiously it was their most sincere yet. Funny the fascination they had for photons, "Light my fire", "Moonlight drive", and the keyboard player first name was Ray, no coincidence !

I am not interested anymore in the Doors music nowadays, lyrics are too embarrassing to listen too, especially when I am waiting for the physics sun.

In the South, where I am staying presently I have discovered the music of Peg Leg Sam a bluesman who died in the seventies , who played the harmonica and had a wooden leg due to an incident he had with a train. His music reflects his missing leg in an admirable way, it transcends his voice. I will post a clip soon..

Jefferson Avenue #80

2007-03-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

"Orange skies" was an Arthur Lee song for Love ... today at dawn I understood some of what Arthur meant. This is just the America I like, the one which is always like out of the textbook: the campers shop yard, the traffic lights and the highway, Jefferson Avenue in Newport-News Virginia..
On the radio it is not Love which is played but Gene Vincent singing "Bird doggin'". Which makes me think of the Byrds, it is so obviopus. When I am looking at this photo, the music which seems consistent with it would be a Byrds song, "Lady friend" maybe and its beautiful harmonies which would be the perfect counterpart to "Orange skies".
Those clouds are like the lace of the sky, silky touch, inducing dreams and joy.
dreams same red as ....the style it takes
style is all, it is terminal.

Eclipse #79

2007-03-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

My writing on this BLog went through an eclipse for a while.

The word eclipse says more than one would dream of ... a clip in se .. lips kissed by ec and e

Tonight was a total moon eclipse, the first one I could actually admire in its full cycle, it was magic, the light was gone and reemerged later with a rose and turquoise blue reflection,

as I am writing this, "she cracked" by the mighty Modern Lovers is played on the radio, Boston radio of course.. objective hazard definitely.

Virginia clouds #78

2007-03-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

The clouds over the glassed roof are showing the way..

From nowhere to eternity, I wonder
Is there a way, black lines and shady white cotton
some feeling of dangerousness
there...

Murph the surf #77

2007-01-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

Elliott Murphy has got a new CD out which is just perfect, as my friend Patrick says, "no fillers, just a killer"...

Groovin Flames vs Flamin Groovies #76

2006-09-20T23:11:00.001-07:00

Here is Chris Wilson and his Groovin' Flames singing "when I heard your name", a song which always gets me goosebumped on the arms when I hear it.

Chris Wilson 2006

In 72, Chris was fronting the classic line-up of the Flamin Groovies with Cyril Jordan, Danny Mihm, James Farrell and George Alexander. They were like the new light of rock shining around the gloominess of prog-rock . Here they sing their timeless nugget, "Slow death". Never forget the Groovies !!

Death of a genius..#75

2006-08-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

Arthur Lee died last week-end, his contribution to music has been essential. With his band Love, he made the perfect album of the sixties, Forever changes .

Love - Your Mind and We Belong Together (Promo Film)

Arthur was a maverick and always released unusual but very personal songs..

Le Chateau de Groussay #74

2006-07-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

Back after some months of peregrinations, and some delusion losses too. I am keen on English gardens and will comment on some of their French counterparts...

This place, Groussay, is to me a French equivalent to England's Stourhead, the most beautiful gardens of northern Europe. Le chateau de Groussay and its gardens have been exquisitely restored and are full of surprises.
"Folies" are everywhere in the gardens... here are some of them..

The Pyramid , interesting entrance with a square and round stone system "a la Ledoux". The huge fountain shell below has been inspired by the neoclassicist school.

The Tatar tent and the obelisk, directly from the utopian dreams of the XVIII century. Inside, the tent is covered with ceramics from Deft, signaling that Marcel Proust could have loved that place.

Personally, I love the Venitian bridge, its Palladio like design and its right proportions, nearby is some column in a circle of trees, like the reminds of some frogotten celtic cult.

there are Le temple de l'Amour and the Observatory..

there is even a small and cosy private theatre, inside the castle

and coincidence or not, litterature blew back when I picked up the golden scarab right like in Edgar A. Poe's story.

The treasure was there...

In search of the real Venezia #73

2006-04-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

The Serenissima, an aristocratic republic... this is where everything starts and fails.. what is it that oozes so cruelly from those water canals ? .. I realized while being there that Venezia is the real centre of Europe. It is the spot where resurection comes from culture.
Proust was aware of this to an extreme level, there he understood about his interior quest as well as bout the meaning of our world.

San Marco piazza is mainly beautiful at night when the tourists are less numerous, when the pigeons have deserted the place and it becomes the kingdom of flickering lights.

Some lightnings are reminding the wanderer that Ruskin and Turner understood a few things here and the moving waters are always dancing, everyone does here.

Those perky breasts are dancing in the wind, the girl points them in a demanding catleya way.
In Proust's writings, the Serenissima is the main character. "Childhood is the genuine time, passions are the mandatory experience of past time and Venice is the recovered time".

The boats are dancing nearby the jetty, morning is coming on the campaniles, erected mausolees of the power of the doges, they redistribute the power of the past centuries, whispering the name of Byron who elected the city as his definitive spiritual mistress.

Venice as some revelation of the life who was and who will be, a world inside a world.

Venezia #72

2006-04-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

This is where all things start and will eventually save us in those
violent times...

Excluded due to litterature #71

2006-03-16T04:25:00.000-08:00

One day I have met the then last living surrealist, he had been a writer, a journalist but mainly he was a poet. This is what he said to me, that he wished his poems would be remembered. His name was Philippe Soupault, he had been "excluded from the surrealist group in 1922 due to litterature".
Somewhere he wrote that " la litterature est l'un des plus tristes chemins qui mene a tout.." (litterature is one of the gloomiest trails leading anywhere). He had found in 1917 one original sample of "Les chants de Maldoror" in an old books shop for a ridiculous price , but Lautreamont was then totally unknown.
While sipping his glass of red wine, he had told me about Proust whom he had known, the qualities of that author, his flawless taste and its crucial importance in modern litterature.
We spoke about feelings, emotions, love. He was explaining me that it is not love which destroys friendship, it is ambition.
Here is a small poem from Soupault called "Mélancolie, Mélancolie"

Mélancolie, Mélancolie (Melancholy, melancholy)
Quel joli nom pour une jeune fille (What a pretty name for a young girl)
Neurasthénie, Neurasthénie (Neurasthenia, neurasthenia)
Quel vilain nom pour une vieille fille (What a mean name for an old maid)

Je cherche un nom pour un garçon (I am looking for a name for a boy)
Un nom d'emprunt, un nom de guerre (A borrowed name or a nickname)
Pour la prochaine et la dernière (For the next and last war)
Pour la dernière des dernières (For the very last one)

Espoir ou peut être Agénior (Hope or maybe Agenior)
Ou singulier ou Dominique (Or singular or Dominique)
Un nom à coucher dehors (A name to sleep outside)
Au temps des bombes atomiques. (In the times of atomic bombs).

Karen, a perfect pop song #70

2006-03-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

In 1978, the Go-Betweens released their first single on which was featured what I consider today as a perfect pop song, it was called "Karen". Another perfect pop song is the Kinks "Waterloo sunset".

A friend of mine, then in Australia, and whose favourite musicians were Jonathan Richman and the Go- Betweens, told me that the song had been named after a friend of hers who actually knew Robert from the Go-Betweens. The song was sort of dedicated to a real Karen. Here are the lyrics :

I just want some affection
I just want some affection
I don't want no hoochie-coochie mama
no back door woman
no Queen's street sex thing
I want a tiger, a bengianese
with all the kindness of the japanese
I just want some affection
I wish I heard voices
Wish I was a telephone

Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah                                 
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah yeah
I said yeah, oh Karen!

I know this girl,
this very special girl
She works in a library, yeah
standing there behind the counter 
willing to help 
with all the problems I encounter

Helps me find Hemingway
Helps me find Genet
Helps me find Brecht
Helps me find Chandler
Helps me find James Joyce,
she always makes the right choice

She's no queen,
she's no angel,
just a peasant from the village
She's my god, she's my god
She's my g-o-d, she's my god, yeah, yeah
She's my g-o-o-d, yeah
She's my god now

Oh, she's my god now   Yeah!
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah
Karen yeah-yeah, Karen yeah-yeah yeah
I said yeah, oh Karen!

She stands there in the library 
like a nun in her church does
like a nun in her church does
She stands there all alone
She gets me something that I
just can't get now anywhere else
cause the girls that I see
walking around, yeah the ones I see
walking on the street
are so damn-da-da-da-damned cold
Cause they must have eskimoe blood in their veins
Yeah the one that I want
I just can't see
I can't see a bear
I can't see anywhere

Alright! 

Oh Karen yeah-yeah... 
Karen, Karen, Karen, Karen, Karen, Karen!

From the choice of authors to lines like the one about "eskimoe blood", these are winning
factors to me. I am listening to it endlessly those days...

About fragility of life #69

2006-02-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

Sebastien Stosskopf painted in Strasbourg around 1640. His works are characteristically filled with empty crystal glasses.

In the painting featured above, the light basket contains those tall glasses, sheer and very present at the same time. The country pie nearbye is plump looking and juicy in contrast with the dry austerity of the glasses.
Stosskopf is showing us an allegory of life which is fragile like the glasses and tasty as the pie. The pleasures of flesh are enjoyable but connected to the ground while the elevation of the mind which links the soul to the gods is depicted clearly by the straight transluscent silhouettes of the glasses in the basket.
This kind of painting is called a vanity, you realize how true this is when the fragility of life or the truth of death is yelling after you.

The Duke of Gloucester at the dog bar yacht club #68

2006-01-10T07:07:00.000-08:00

When visiting the Boston area, I got the impression something had shifted and I understood that this uneasy feeling was related to the contrast between the names of some districts which sounded so jolly British like Sommerville, Amhurst, ... Gloucester while others were definitely american as Natick, and Massachusetts spoke for itself.
I imagine my sweet friend Ms Xqwizite reading these lines and not able to repress a leer while raising her eyes to the sky. "Hilaaaarious !" would be the statement, but ... Ms X got nostalgic about Boston lately and I cannot resist reiterating a post about a genius from the local rock scene on which I got so ludicrously keen.

Willie Alexander had been living in Gloucester for a long time now but last year he went back to Mass. Ave. with the original Boom Boom Band.
This extraordinary vintage group has just released a new immaculate CD (" The dog bar yacht club ").

Look at these 2 pictures, 25 years are the gap between the two albums but the attitude is the same. Willie loco and the Boom Boom band look determined and enjoy themselves. The music is great and the songs just like in the old times. "Gravelly Hill" is a beautiful starter, "Who Killed Deanna" is one of these archetypal Willie street movie song about Somerville neighborhood, "Telephone Sex" is the old boom boom gaga style !!
Willie "loco" will be in Paris at the end of the month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of New Rose Records . Paris and Boston will get connected once more and I bet there will be many of us to attend Willie's concert.

Another band from Boston #67

2006-01-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the mighty Neighbourhoods ? I was introduced to them by the ever so precious Ms. Xqwizite who kept on raving about this band from Boston, "which were kings of kewwwwwwl ..."(to quote her).

Through my Bostonian acquaintances I had previously noticed the band on the DIY Mass. Ave. compilation cover and also heard them on the Ace of Hearts label compilation cd. But it was quite impossible to find anything recorded though they released some LP's. Ms. Xqwizite, did I mention that she is irresistible ? she is actually, had also warned me to be cautious as the last incarnation of the band at the end of the 80's did not please her as much, their musical direction having shifted to more metallic shores. I did not care really as there was nothing to listen to.. and now some fan has produced a site which is already a treasure, dedicated to the band..
There are lots of live recordings from the very beginning, a perfect way to rediscover a sadly underrated band which should have made it but blah blah blah...

Go to this site at : http://www.thehoodsonline.com/home.htm
This band used to rule just as Ms X told me .....