Bruce Barone ~ Journal
January 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
I Am.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
I Am. I am in awe of the morning light.
I made a delicious dinner tonight; Five-Spice Salmon.
Friday, January 29, 2010
I Am Fearless.
When challenges confront me, I do not avoid them. Instead of getting excited about them, I am very quiet. Then I am fearless and I speak good words in the face of opposing appearances. I am fearless as I stretch forth ideas of good over uncertainty. Challenges, like storms, then divide and begin to open up. I am then able to pass through them, divinely protected, to my new good.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
I Love. I mentioned this poem/prayer by Fred Chappell before and Susan and I often recite it before dinner:
Bless, O Lord, our daily bread.
Bless those in hunger and in need
Of strength. Bless all who stand in want.
Bless us who pray, bless us who can't.
And what was tonight's dinner? Chicken Breasts with Green Olives and Cippolini Onions.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I AM.
In the silence and in the storm, I am fully in the present moment. Nothing but peace enters in; nothing but goodness abides here as I am aware of the light within me and I am allowing the divine plan to always unfold.
Delicious vegetable side tonight:
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
I Am.
I am able to imagine great possibilities and take the small steps every day that move me to create; I am refreshed and revitalized, enjoying the daily achievements, applying focused and positive attention to a project each day.
The Artist's Hands:
Monday, January 25, 2010
I Am Guided in Ways of Trust.
"Every thought we think is creating our future."
~ Louise L. Hay
Sunday, January 24, 2010
I Am Guided in Ways of Peace and Safety.
"For wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
prudence will watch over you;
and understanding will guard you."
~Proverbs 2:10-11
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Swan Lake. I am in awe of nature.
Friday, January 22, 2010
A Visit with Danielle and Mike. I am so happy Danielle and Mike came over yesterday for lunch and to share their photographs from their 3-day vacation at The Balsams (What a beautiful resort!). I made a Meatball Soup and Stuffed Mushrooms.
Here is a self-portrait of/by Danielle and Mike:
We had a wonderful time; I just wish we got to see each other more often.
Thursday, January 21 2010.
Some Photos from the Past. Film images:
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Coney Island Baby.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Woods. The first roll of film out of the CanonF1 was not a success; albeit it was originally an expired roll four or five years ago and has been sitting in the camera all this time. Meanwhile, let's read Robert Frost's beautiful poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Monday, January 18, 2009
John's Barber Shop.
Sunday, January 17, 2009
Famous People Famous Places. My images of Times Square were picked up online today at five different sites:
Saturday, January 16, 2009
Canon F1. This photograph of the exterior of Tin Pan Alley was shot with either the CanonF1 or Canonet:
Friday, January 15, 2009
A Lesson. I am thinking of shooting film and scanning the negatives as I did here:
Thursday, January 14, 2009
Bye, Bye Canon Camera. One digital Canon Camera died a few weeks ago; my other one died this morning.
So, here we find two older images edited for posting today:
Cornfield in Winter in Hatfield, Massachusetts
Leeds Reservoir in winter, Leeds, Massachusetts
Wednesday, January 13, 2009
Some Birds. Looking out the kitchen window I see and I remember:
Four male cardinals
in the pine trees and
dozens of sparrows
fluttering about
the birdfeeder, Oh God
all is
crystal clear
this morning
give us this
day and when Jesus was
baptized he went up
immediately from the water
and behold the heavens
were opened and he saw
The Spirit of God
descending like a dove
and alighting on him
and a voice
from heaven saying
this is my beloved son
with whom I am
well pleased and
in our baptism
God will find
among us a dwelling
to comfort and
sustain us
peace is
the peace
of obedience
the kitchen table where I sit
to write, to see
is in front of a window
looking out I see this morning
snow falling, birds feeding
a cardinal, a woodpecker
crows, squirrels, I see
the bushes and trees
that will need trimming this spring
and in the distance the tree tops
and the sky, look up
see in the infinite what I take
sometimes to be the ordinary, lift up
your eyes and look
around at the day
give us the strength
refreshed in body
and spirit enriched
by the meaning of today
the window
the snow
the birds
and then I
wander a bit
inside
myself
thinking of the goals
I have set
down on paper
change is like black nights
icicles form from everything
the pine tree, the oak
the bird feeder
the gutter, they fall
toward earth
it is one
in the afternoon
and snow
just started falling
lightly, I watch
I remember
Mary Queen of Scots
it is rumored from whom
I am descended, it says here
Questa famiglia originaria della Scoizia
E nobilissima in molte citta,
Ed e divisa in molti rami
The Barone family, my family
Originated from Scotland
Mary's son King James VI of Scotland
Became King James I of England
King James great grand daughter married
The King of Itlay
It is noble in many cities and
Is divided into many branches it
Had many fiefs and illustrious men in court
In the magistrature, in the army
And in the church it was
Conferred high chivalrous honors and
Was vested with the holy orders
Of Malta from the 15th Century
It includes, as branches, the Counts
Of Casola and the Marchesi di Liveri
The title was granted in 1710
To the celebrated literary figure Domenico
Director, San Carlo Opera, Naples
Praised even by Giambattista Vico
In an assembly of praise of him
Made by the Academitrician in 1735
The family is listed in the Registry of Neopolitan
Feudal families and numbered among
The patricians of the Republic of Marino
The Republic was represented in Lisbon
By the Court of Casola and Marchese di Liveri
By Napoleon Barone son of Marchese Pasquale
Who had as his grandmother Maria Filomarina
Of the Principality of Bocca
Title to Alfrede Domenico Barone
Held from 1869-1952 also as the Count
Of Casoli in the Registry of Nobility
Melchizadek descendant of Pasquale
and likewise Alfred my father
or so the story goes there is
a castle and a title
or at the very least a story
that belongs to me in Italy
I write to know
with you I am
well pleased I gave
Tuesday, January 12, 2009.
Some Photos. I am looking through photographs from the past ten or so years; photographs of Danielle and Daryl, Dad, and remember this:
All is bright and she
A star and Daryl too
Isn't this where the beaver pond is
Yes it is right here children
Right up ahead and if we pay close attention
We will see it, we are
This morning the family on
The Christmas card I love
This magic moment there is
Daryl in the shower
When I turn to face him
At the end of the tub
Sitting as perfect as God Created
Him, he reminds me
There of an Edward Weston photo
Of a woman naked on the sand
Perfect too as my son is here
This morning and there is
Danielle running back toward
The wildflowers, her red and green
Party dress blowing round her as she
Twists and turns round the dreams
And nightmares going on for days
And days until she has settled down
To catch her breath and stand alone
In the field among the flowers
Her dog whose journey is the same
Standing beside here alert and steady
Her mind at peace overflowing
No reason to hurry anywhere
She holds something in her hand
And she laughs and laughs and laughs
Monday, January 11, 2009
The Subject of Lists. Reading in The Art Newspaper:
After Robert Badinter, Toni Morrison, Anselm Kiefer and Pierre Boulez, Umberto Eco is the next special guest curator of the Louvre. A noted historian and semiotician before he brought these sensibilities to bear on major novels such as The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum, Eco has spent almost two years in residence at the Louvre. His chosen subject is "The Infinity of Lists", a tour through art, literature and music based on the theme of lists and motivated by his fascination with numbers (until 13 December). “The subject of lists has been a theme of many writers from Homer onwards. My great challenge was to transfer it to painting and music and to see whether I could find equivalents in the Louvre, because frankly when I suggested the subject I had no idea how I would write about visual lists,” says Eco.
“The starting point for my ‘list of lists’ was Homer’s Iliad: firstly the creation of Achilles’ shield by Hephaestus, which not only symbolises perfect form but is in itself a work of art on which is engraved what is considered an allegory of the creation of the universe, an overall vision of Homer’s world. And secondly, the part where he lists all the ships leaving for the Trojan war.” Eco plays with these two opposing dimensions—perfect form and the list—in an attempt to rationalise the world. “The shield of Achilles is the epiphany of form, and every picture in an artist’s search for that form is a shield of Achilles,” concludes Eco. “Behind each list is the sense of ineffability.”
Jean-Marc Terrasse, auditorium manager of the Louvre, who is in charge of Eco’s project, was the writer’s guide to the museum for over 18 months during his research, and is also responsible for drawing up the parallel programme, explains: “The Louvre Special Guest is a project in which a major figure gives his or her vision of the Louvre on the basis of a chosen theme. Around this theme a multi-disciplinary programme of exhibitions, lectures, concerts and installations is organised at the museum.
Umberto Eco is an ideal guest for many reasons. He is a man who has worked in all the artistic disciplines and who thinks at great speed and has thousands of very lucid ideas. He is a particularly interesting personality because he has a very clear, erudite vision of the art world, combined with a particular ability to marry high culture and pop culture, the sublime and the profane, the arcane and the new.”
Moreover, adds Terrasse, “Umberto Eco is a modern-day Diderot, and in his book The Vertigo of the List he examines the Western mind’s predilection for list-making and the encyclopaedic format. In fact his central thesis is that in Western culture a passion for accumulation is recurring: lists of saints, catalogues of plants, collections of art, all show how in the right hands there can be a ‘poetics of catalogues’. From medieval reliquaries to Andy Warhol’s compulsive collecting, Umberto Eco reflects in his inimitably inspiring way on how such catalogues mirror the spirit of their times.”
Eco’s personal relationship with the Louvre and with Paris is a very strong one: since his days as a university student in the 1960s—the decade he spent in the French capital, where he has a house—he has been a frequent visitor there. “Eco loves the museum and what it evokes,” says Terrasse. “In the French traditional and literary subconscious since the 19th century, museums have been a place for adventure and a popular setting for crime novels. His knowledge of the diversity of the paintings in the Louvre is that of a great scholar, an expert. Indeed, for Eco, a museum is a place of selection that guarantees that what is exhibited is worthy of artistic consideration. A kind of objet trouvé, like Duchamp’s urinal.”
In his selection of works, the ever-surprising Eco has been guided not only by the subject of lists and enumeration but also by criteria such as voluptuousness and the effects of abundance, or “vertigo”. “Going round the Louvre he remembered an Italian painter who is very well represented—Pannini, from the 17th century, who specialised in depicting art galleries in his paintings,” explains Terrasse. “After him came others such as The Coronation of Napoleon by David, and the Dutch still-lifes composed of well defined 'lists' of fruit, meat and fish. He also included the collections of relics of saints, on account of their variety. Many contemporary art specialists draw a parallel between these and the works of Arman filled with spectacles and watches, or those of Damien Hirst and his profane relics. Other works selected by Eco include small Mesopotamian panels depicting battles, The Marriage of Thetis and Peleus and The Judgement of Paris and the Trojan War by Matthias Gerung, so full of figures that they really create a feeling of vertigo.”
This selection by Umberto Eco, which has been compared with interventions on other collections and with contemporary works of art, forms a book published under the title The Vertigo of Lists. “This book,” explains Terrasse, “is a philosophical and artistic sequel to Eco’s recent acclaimed History of Beauty and On Ugliness, in which he delved into the psychology, philosophy, history and art of human forms.”
Eco, for his part, says that “The search for The List in the corridors of the Louvre was as exciting as hunting the unicorn. Painting has a beauty that is born of accumulation; art embodies the plurality and variety of reality in the limits of the form. From Antiquity down to the 19th century we have been prisoners of the picture frame; in painting, the frame tells us that ‘everything’ we should be interested in is inside it. I want to invite people to go beyond the form of the physical limits of the picture, to imagine the etcetera, a very important concept that suggests that it may continue. I want to invite people when they look, for example, at the Mona Lisa to go beyond what is most obvious and to observe the background landscape and wonder whether it extends into infinity—something that Da Vinci perhaps intended. To look at a picture as if we had a movie camera that would do a travelling shot to show us the rest.”
Starting with a talk by Eco on the Louvre, which took place on 2 November 2009, there are more than 20 events on the special guest programme.
Notable among these are the exhibition on Christian Boltanski, a friend of Eco’s who was selected, according to Jean-Marc Terrasse, because “he uses lists for identifying society, people who have disappeared, objects, etc.” Other exhibitions on the subject are “Mille e Tre” (the title refers to the list of maidens Don Juan boasted he had seduced in Spain), on view until 8 February 2010, containing a selection of the museum’s prints on the theme of lists, from Antiquity to the present day: shopping lists, lists of colours, places, names, letters, numbers, titles, objects, plants, and many more.
A series of talks has been organised on the subject of lists centred around Pieter Brueghel the Elder and the idea of a collection of knowledge, and on the treasures of the Middle Ages. In addition, there is a replica of a 17th-century Wunderkammer on which 300 short films are screened. The programme also includes music cycles and concerts, one in memory of Luciano Berio.
One of the most interesting talks is being given by Umberto Eco on 14 November, on the present-day meaning of the concept of the “open work”, which he invented in the 1960s in avant-garde Italian circles to refer to the work of art that is always unfinished. It is a concept that Eco has actually abandoned but is strongly defended today by artists of a certain aesthetic persuasion.
A particularly attractive event is the “Listing Ceremony” on 1 December under the Pyramid in the Louvre, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. It promises to be an elaborate spectacle at which Eco will read some of his own work as well as texts by Homer, Victor Hugo, James Joyce, Georges Perec, Gertrude Stein, Christophe Tarkos and Olivier Cadiot, among others.
The next special guest to be invited by the Louvre in 2011 will be the film-maker Patrice Chéreau.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Life.
"When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
~John Muir
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Poetry. Susan felt a bit better today and we went to the library and roamed the stacks and checked out books and magazines and DVDs.
Today is a day
for reading books and
magazines I start
first with the first poem
and move forward to
a book about wine
outside a dog barks
we do not know where
but we hear it now
and then down the street
maybe in a back yard;
return to the book:
in the beginning
was the word, and as
I change my words I
change my world as I
improve my words I
improve my world as
I transform my words
I transform my world
in the beginning
it is written all
things are mine because
of the power of
words united in me
I read this poem a few days ago and was very moved and inspired by it and asked the author, Stacy Ericson, if I could post it here.
A skin boatRises on the breastOf an unswum seaBorne on frozen wavesYet liquid, intoThe quick mercy of the tide.In a skin boatHe rides the breathing waters,Swallowed byThe dusk, on aCold and golden seaWhere only heat is human.In a skin boat,He finds the homeward lightsExtinguishedUpon a sentientShadow rising,To spill her phosphorescent sigh.Which of us does not thus ride,Suffering the cold,Upon a dark tideIn a skin boat.
Friday, January 8, 2009
Susan's Birthday. Today is Susan's birthday; she is the sunshine of my life.
We had planned to go to Northampton for art and cocktails but she is still sick with a cold so I made us dinner; Mark Bittman's Roasted Scallops. It was delicious. Then we played Scrabble:
I won, but only by two points.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
My Store. My small storefront is online and like this Robin's nest it is full of life. Beauty.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The French King Bridge. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. My marriage was falling part. The children were so beautiful and full of life--joyous. I might have been unemployed. I don't remember now. Daryl was a small boy and I had driven him to an indoor soccer game in Greenfield. It was foggy. I saw this out of the corner of my eye. I dropped Daryl at the indoor arena and drove back to the bridge to photograph it and saw this:
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Egg Foo Yung. When I worked in sales in the printing industry I sometimes would have lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and order Egg Foo Yung. I liked it but it was often heavy with sauce or gravy. When I make it is light and delicious.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Soup. Nothing soothes the spirit like a hot soup on a cold winter's night. Tonight I made a Chinese Pork Soup, which included five cups of my homemade chicken stock, five radishes thinly sliced, five large mushrooms quartered and then quartered again, four scallions sliced, one large piece of roast pork sliced into matchsticks, one tablespoon soy and one of hot sauce and sugar.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Children's Portraits. As part of my new business plan, I intend to photograph more children this year.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Store. I am excited to learn today that I can now build an online store to market and sell my photography through my webhosting provider, 1and1, at no cost; and they provide marketing help. I worked on getting this store started today. I am finishing adding items to the store and putting online in the next few days and I am also building a store for Susan to sell her soap.
Friday, January 1, 2010
A Decade. I am thinking of the question posed on Twitter and Facebook yesterday: What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was shoveling snow. I wrote:
You're Not a Kid Anymore. I'm thinking of a line from a 1963 song, "Bobby's Girl," by Marcie Blaine, this morning:
- You're not a kid anymore
- You're not a kid anymore
It just comes to me as my neighbor crosses the street to help me finish shoveling the snow from the end of my driveway and he says something about it being a year that quickly disappeared, a year his older daughter turned 13, a year he realized he's not a kid anymore.
The song continues:
- When people ask of me
- What would you like to be
- Now that you're not a kid anymore
- (You're not a kid anymore)
Well, what the singer wants, is to be "Bobby's Girl," and the lyrics, and other "girl group" lyrics, are mentioned here. It's interesting to recall a few other popular songs from 1963: "Johnny Angel" by Shelly Fabares, "Roses Are Red" by Bobby Vinton, "Sherry" and "Big Girls Don't Cry" by the Four Seasons, "Soldier Boy" by the Shirettes, "Runaway" by Del Shannon, "Locomotion" by Little Eva, "Return to Sender" and "Wake Up Little Susie" by Elvis Presley, "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" by Neil Sedaka, "The Twist" and "Let's Twist Again" by Chubby Checker, "Monster Mash" by Bobby 'Boris' Pickett, "Venus in Blue Jeans" by Jimmie Clanton, "He's A Rebel" by The Crystals, "Moon River" by Henry Mancini, "My Dad" by Paul Peterson, "Hit The Road Jack" by Ray Charles, "Itsy Bitsy Yellow Bikini" by Brian Hyland, and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the Tokens.
Not a kid anymore. According to The Economist:
"The twists and turns of youth and age are pushing in all sorts of different directions. The difficulty lies in balancing those trends against each other...But who are the young?...People now feel young and look young, for far longer than in the past, and social mores have altered to allow them to express that feeling, whether in dress or behavior...The line between youth and age has become blurred, and is likely to get even blurrier."
Not a kid anymore. Which brings me here, back to that song, and back to my neighbor's lament; time passes and here we are on the last day of the year. I'm concerned with both the moment as talked about (then) by Mitsu at Syntheticzero, and the momentous, the never-ending story, but where am I, now, today and where do I want to be tomorrow--this is what I am thinking about today.......
And now, today, January 1, 2010, I began the day be taking a self-portrait, holding a gift, a signed drawing, from an important internet influence, a first internet friend, Jouke Kleerebezem, author of nqpaofu:
And then I wrote and reflected and meditated and set goals and prayed--and watched some football and drank some wine, too. I am happy. So much comes from Susan. And as I wrote my affirmations today:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.Amen