Sunday, August 12, 2012

LISTEN TO YOURSELF ~
( RY COODER )









'Social media is Orwellian' … Ry Cooder.
Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian




MIKE'S DAY ~






Mike Luster & Essie "the Blues Lady" Neal


I'll Fly By The Seat Of My Pants by King Creosote on Grooveshark







Happy Birthday, Mike!
Aug 12, 1952







FINISH ~








Paul Eluard

Back Road Chalkie
translated by Samuel Beckett


_____________________


The downpour the other evening almost washed the chalkboard clean, despite its roof, and its location underneath the towering and protected tamarack, but Eluard remained. This is one of Samuel Beckett translations from his Collected Poems. Some of the most stunning love poems Eluard ever wrote.





photo © bob arnold




Friday, August 10, 2012

"OKAY, I'M TAKING OVER
Bobby-boy's Birdhouse for a day
or so to showcase this Birthday
Anthology Tribute, please read on!" ~








PLEASE LINK HERE FOR EVERYONE'S BIRTHDAY GREETING







© susan arnold





Thursday, August 9, 2012

TERROIR ~










AS ONE



I remember walking in a field,

so young the black-eyed Susans stared

me in the face, the air so bright

that every flick of grass was clear

and leaves seemed magnified. The flowers

stood tall and swayed — the daisies, Queen

Anne's lace, the Susans, yarrow — thrilled

the day and kept me company;

all level as a yard of water,

and made me feel as one of their

exploding fierce community.





COW PISSING


First the tail begins to stiffen

at its root. The thick base rears and

a warp runs out the length of the

appendage to the dirty hank

and the whole is lifted slightly

to the side, exposing the gray

puckered pussy. But it's how the

back arches up that startles, how

she humps as though bracing against

and backing into something hard,

pressing to release a valve or

tip a cask open. And the stream

that starts comes as though from a hose

not round but flattened by her lips.

Shot on the pasture dirt, the jet

wears out a basin that overflows

into tracks and sprays gold mist on

hooves and grass, shivering rainbows.

When the blast lessens and scalds down

to tatters and drips and is done,

she whips the tail a few times to

knock off the last drops and walks on

to graze. The puddle glistens like

gold wine in the sun, and crackles

as it soaks into the splash track.

The grass sparkles many colors

where the growth will be less for the

libation a while, and then more.





IRONWEED


There is a shade of purple in

this flower near summer's end that makes

you proud to be alive in such

a world, and thrilled to know the gift

of sight. It seems a color sent

from memory or dream. In fields,

along old trails, at pasture edge,

the ironweed bares its vivid tint,

profoundest violet, a note

from farthest star and deepest time,

the glow of sacred royalty

and timbre of eternity

right here beside a dried-up stream.



_________________________


Terroir
Robert Morgan

Penguin Books, 2011










click onto image to enlarge









Wednesday, August 8, 2012

EARTH ~



[ yesterday ]








[ today ]


ELEGANCE



Log trucks pass in a sparkle

Through the redwoods



Empty trailer folded up in half

Every thing polished clean



No rust




[ BA ]







[ clean ]













Tuesday, August 7, 2012

SPHERE ~











photo ©
bob arnold




STINK ~







Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation Sheldon Adelson, center, watches a lion dance at the opening ceremony of Sands' Cotai Central in Macau on April 11, 2012.
(Aaron Tam/AFP/Getty Images)




please read on:

http://www.propublica.org/article/inside-the-investigation-of-leading-republican-money-man-sheldon-adelson



http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/embracing-sheldon-adelson/?hp







BLACK & BLUE ~









Rain will be here in 5 minutes










photos : © bob arnold
sugarloaf




Monday, August 6, 2012

SHAKE SUGAREE ~




Beasts---Handout

Quvenzhané Wallis
Beasts of the Southern Wild



for J.D. who gifted us the tickets to ride

To be honest, I didn't want to know too much about this film. No previews thanks, see the film poster, 92 degrees out, duck into the air-conditioned theater and hideaway on water and islands and a little girl's dreams and nightmares and listening powers in Louisiana, with my own sweetheart. Both of us could detect Zora Neale Hurston's "Tea Cake" from one of her classic tales, none of it related at all but it's all related, and it's all just as powerful in this film. And by the way, there is no film like this one. Ever before. (We know, we film-fanatics). Even though "Wink" and "Hushpuppy" tell us all "No tears!" (don't cry), hang tough, life can be rotten and we've got to make it through etc. We all cry in this film. I cried through the entire film. So did my Sweetheart, and she cried later when she tried to explain why she cried. No need to explain. Even Marx and Engels would have cried, as they once described to us what a world this film is all about : "If man is shaped by his environment, his environment must be made human," from The Holy Family. If you don't get that, you don't get anything.


Go see this film if you can and don't even think to wait to catch it on DVD at home. It must be seen large and be able to roar in your ears. It must be seen with the world, meaning the people around you, weeping, stunned, sitting in their seats until every bit of the film credits roll on by. There is nothing magnificently cinematic about the film. It's far beyond the Woody Allen and Wes Anderson sort of films being hip and postured in other parts of the small multiplex theater. This film headlines no star names. Heralds no hype. It's just about the Earth — your last home.




Shake Sugaree by Elizabeth Cotten on Grooveshark





Elizabeth Cotton
( great grandchild Brenda Evans is singing )

_____________


"Someone’s ability to bake doughnuts or laugh loud is just as good a reason to make them a dolly grip as their ability to push a dolly. I want to fill my life and my films with wild, brave, good-hearted people. Whatever amount of chaos and disaster that leads to doesn’t matter, because you’re going through it with the people you love, and in the end, no matter what, the movies come out wild, brave, and good-hearted; and that’s more important to me than smooth dolly moves.

This concept extended to every part of the process making BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD. My approach to making movies is about crafting an energy, a feeling, and a way of life that the people that make movies with me can live. It’s about inventing a reality and populating it with the best people I know. Most gloriously, in our casting process—where we chose Dwight Henry, from the bakery across the street, and Quvenzhané Wallis, from Honduras Elementary School to take charge of our heroes, Wink and Hushpuppy. Neither of them had any previous experience acting, but when you look in their eyes, you see fearless warriors, and you know they can do anything. Even though you then revise the script as you learn from the actors and settings along the way and change everything about your approach, it doesn’t matter, because those elements were superficial in the face of accurately capturing the fierce spirit that the film needed to articulate. That principle was applied to every decision. Are we going to create an interior water set? Or are we going to sea? Do we dress an accessible location to look like an island at the edge of the world, or do we go to the edge of the world? Do we dress an 11 year-old to look like she’s six? Or do we cast a six year-old? We tested the strength of the story and family that made it against every element that would try to break it.

In order to survive she has to find the strength of South Louisiana at the age of six. I put all the wisdom and courage I’ve got into her. She’s the person I want to be.

I got hooked on South Louisiana because this mentality is everywhere. I showed up for a short visit six years ago and I’ve been there ever since. It’s the home of the most tenacious people in America—an endangered species. And that fierceness was how I came to this story. With the hurricanes, the oil spills, the land decaying out from under our feet, there’s a sense of inevitability that one day it’s all going to get wiped off the map. I wanted to make a movie exploring how we should respond to such a death sentence. Not critiquing the politicians who have caused it, or calling to arms for environmental responsibility, or raising awareness of suffering, or any of that.

The real question to me, is how do you find the strength to stand by and watch the place that made you die, while maintaining the hope and the joy and the celebratory spirit that defined it? I found the answers in the ferocious people I cast in the film, and I found an incredible articulation of that story in my dear wonderful friend and co-writer Lucy Alibar’s play “Juicy and Delicious” —an apocalyptic comedy about a little boy losing his father at the end of the world. From the two of us, and with the spirit of Quvenzhané Wallis, came Hushpuppy. She’s a little beast who, in order to survive, has to find the strength of South Louisiana at the age of six. I put all the wisdom and courage I’ve got into her. She’s the person I want to be."

—Benh Zeitlin, Director/Co-writer

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD



Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Screenplay by Lucy Alibar, Ben Zeitlin
Featuring: Quvenzhane Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Jonshel Alexander, Marilyn Barbarin, Kaliana Brower, Joseph Brown, Nicholas Clark, Henry D. Coleman, Pamela Harper, Kendra Harris, Amber Henry, Gina Montana
Cinematography by Ben Richardson
Film Editing by Crockett Doob, Affonso Goncalves
Original Score by Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin
Country Of Origin: USA
Language: English
Running Time: 91 Minutes


http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/travel/the-filmmaker-benh-zeitlins-impressions-of-the-bayou.html?src=dayp




There Is a Happy Land by David Bowie on Grooveshark






David Bowie







Sunday, August 5, 2012


Bob! For Your Birthday Today!

posted by SEA




( please click onto image to enlarge )



a limited print edition anthology from Woven for Bob! 5 August 2012
gathered by Susan
& many many thanks to the contributors

FROM SUSAN

Hello everyone!

Thank you again to everyone who has contributed. It has been a wild July-August between both our birthdays. And so many people answered requests to be here for Bob's birthday party anthology ... I plan to have the anthology active and online by our anniversary on 28 August. I hope you can all wait around to enjoy it. Love, Susan



&




"susan, this is for the 5th / Gerard"







&




"Happy Birthday for my Dad, Love Carson"



Carson Arnold Sweet Surrender 3 by Carson Arnold on Grooveshark



&



for Bob,



Fair and Tender Ladies by Gene Clark on Grooveshark



&



love, Susan


Never Ending Song of Love by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends on Grooveshark













photo: Bob Arnold


Saturday, August 4, 2012

SARAJEVO ~







Semezdin Mehmedinović





SPIRITUALITY


In the evening we wait for

the moment forms open:

the sky is still in darkness

from the radiance of earthly things —

and then the buildings become like models

blackened by the shadow of their surfaces

and the torrid sky appears

as the moon begins to shine amidst the war —



That instant everything —

and my son looking out the window —

casts a divine smile

on the domesticated power of the elements






CROWS

I remember a reading one night. Miroslav Toholj, my friend at the time, had just come from Bor (where he had also been on literary business), and was still filled with impressions of his trip. He told us of a town in which "the crows didn't survive." Just like that, ecologically beside himself, he spoke of death as if it wasn't a natural phenomenon. This was right before he read a section of Heartmaster, a novel of his that had just come out.


At my house early the next morning, my mother was making us breakfast when my son, still drowsy, appeared at the door in his pajamas. Toholj slipped a pencil and a notebook into his hand in which there was a single sentence written: "Bor is a city in which crows can't survive." And, while my son was drawing potato head people, the owner of the notebook brushed his fingers through my son's hair.


The whole incident would be completely irrelevant if the scene hadn't repeated itself today: I'm sitting next to my son, completely engrossed in his drawing, and brushing my fingers through his hair.


After everything that's happened in the meantime, the repetition of this situation — and even my recollection of what took place six years ago — is almost comical. There was real warmth in Miroslav Toholj's gesture, a man who, not long after that visit, would fully devote himself to the expulsion of a whole people. That's what time was like, along with the things occupying it, that it made the feelings connected to any memory seem worthless.


Now, when I think of the Serbian novelist Miroslav Toholj, I am deeply aware that people aren't deserving of tragedy because existence is exalted in and of itself, and brings its own consolation. But people don't deserve consolation. Comedy is closer to the truth, since it at least shows the meaninglessness of things.


From this perspective, knowing that there is a town in which crows can't survive is truly absurd.


And look how the story ends: sitting with my son and brushing my fingers through his hair, I discover a detail that, at first, makes me smile — like when you see a kid wearing the boots of a grown up. As I slowly brush my fingers through my ten year old's hair, I find strands of grey.









GETTING THINNER


War is a time of crisis for the male gender. No one can convince me otherwise: war is spurred on by the asexual, the emotionally disturbed. Love offers deliverance from the tyranny of the ego: a sexuality — combined with heavy political control — can only result in criminal perversity. I see young women change several times a day and, with make-up on, walk the empty streets of Sarajevo in which not even a single cafe is open. I know women who, in only two months, have lost so much weight so quickly, that they've also lost any sense of the erotic. And this too is a horrible result of the war: the Serbian leaders' tyranny of the ego reproduces itself in whatever space they make their presence known through war — they want to create an asexual world, no matter what the cost. I watch a famous actress hanging out with some young soldiers, defenders of the city. She's clearly having a good time and, every now and then, she delays her departure. Finally, though, they leave: the carefully chosen, refined words of the young defenders are exchanged for common jokes. Such consolation.




Sarajevo Blues

Semezdin Mehmedinović
translated from the Bosnian by Ammiel Alcalay
City Lights Books, 1998





Semezdin Mehmedinović was born in Tuzla, Bosnia in 1960 and is the author of ~
Modrac 1984
Emigrant 1990
Sarajevo Blues 1998
Nine Alexandrias 2002
Transatlantic Mail 2009, Semezdin Mehmedinović and Miljenko Jergovic
Soviet Computer 2011
Self-portrait With a Messenger Bag 2012.







Friday, August 3, 2012

HARRY ~






Harry Hoogstraten






Once In Vermont films
© bob arnold





Wednesday, August 1, 2012

GUN SMOKE ~







R.G. Armstrong


(1917 ~ 2012)



If you grew up with 50s-60s television & film westerns
then you grew up with R.G. Armstrong ~
dying with his boots on last week
in Studio City, CA. at age 95









top film still from Sam Peckinpah's
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
R.G. Armstrong as
"Deputy Sheriff Bob Ollinger"
ditto the lower photo w/ Kris Kristofferson,
or turn over the jacket of your Dylan album
with the same title and see it there




QUEEN ~






Kitty Wells & Johnnie Wright



A bunch of us (well, "30") lost power last night when a thunder & lightning storm from hell and highwater came about just as we were finishing preparing corn on the cob from the Williams Farm (the best in the world, good people) and power went and stayed went long enough for us to walk and walk outdoors in the wind and light rain and listen to the river rise and rise all muddy and nice (there's been little rain) that we decided to go to bed. . .so Kitty Wells never got onto the Birdhouse with the other four I had slipped on for Wednesday. She was meant for Wednesday, even though it's 6 o'clock in the morning now and Thursday. Today we'll call the power co and ask, "Why is it every time the power goes out the only ones without power are the same "30"? Maybe there's a problem to solve where those same "30" reside?


Kitty Wells (
Ellen Muriel Deason) was born 92 years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. She passed away a few weeks ago in Tennessee with one of the longest "celebrity marriages" ever, 70 years to Johnnie Wright, who died in 2011. I believe she was also the first woman country singer to have an album all her own. Back in the dark ages when such things never happened. She was the queen of country, everyone said so. One of her popular songs is below and maybe because of the electric storm last night I'm choosing an electric version of it.



It Wasent God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells on Grooveshark








INVISIBLE ~







Chris Marker


"I chose a pseudonym, Chris Marker, pronounceable in most languages, because I was very intent on traveling. No need to delve further.”



Born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve on July 29, 1921, (and may have passed away this year on his birthday, or the day after, ed.) Mr. Marker hid many aspects of his biography. He once claimed he was born in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, though some sources have cited his place of birth as the Parisian suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine. He granted few interviews and typically refused to be photographed. Information about his survivors was not immediately available. But in his work, at least, Mr. Marker was not anonymous so much as he was playfully evasive.
(NYTimes)


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/movies/chris-marker-enigmatic-multimedia-artist-dies-at-91.html?ref=obituaries

_______________________


Filmography

Olympia 52 (1952)
Statues Also Die (1953 with Alain Resnais)
Sundays in Peking (1956)
Letters from Siberia (1957)
Les Astronautes (1959 with Walerian Borowczyk)
Description d'un combat (1960)
¡Cuba Sí! (1961)
La jetée (1962)
Le joli mai (1963, 2006 re-cut)
Le Mystère Koumiko (1965)
Si j'avais quatre dromadaires (1966)
Loin du Vietnam (1967)
Rhodiacéta (1967)
La Sixième face du pentagone (1968 with Reichenbach)
Cinétracts (1968)
À bientôt, j'espère (1968 with Marret)
On vous parle du Brésil: Tortures (1969)
Jour de tournage (1969)
Classe de lutte (1969)
On vous parle de Paris: Maspero, les mots ont un sens (1970)
On vous parle du Brésil: Carlos Marighela (1970)
La Bataille des dix millions (1971)
Le Train en marche (1971)
On vous parle de Prague: le deuxième procès d'Artur London (1971)
Vive la baleine (1972)
L'Ambassade (1973)
On vous parle du Chili: ce que disait Allende (1973 with Littin)
Puisqu'on vous dit que c'est possible (1974)
La Solitude du chanteur de fond (1974)
La Spirale (1975)
A Grin Without a Cat (1977)
Quand le siècle a pris formes (1978)
Junkopia (1981)
Sans Soleil (1983)
2084 (1984)
From Chris to Christo (1985)
Matta (1985)
A.K. (1985)
Eclats (1986)
Mémoires pour Simone (1986)
Tokyo Days (1988)
Spectre (1988)
L'héritage de la chouette (1989)
Bestiaire (three short video haiku) (1990)
Bestiaire 1. Chat écoutant la musique
Bestiaire 2. An owl is An owl is an owl
Bestiaire 3. Zoo Piece
Getting away with it (1990)
Berlin 1990 (1990)
Détour Ceausescu (1991)
Théorie des ensembles (1991)
Coin fenètre (1992)
Azulmoon (1992)
Le Tombeau d'Alexandre aka The Last Bolshevik (1992)
Le 20 heurs dans les camps (1993)
Prime Time in the Camps (1993)
SLON Tango (1993)
Bullfight in Okinawa (1994)
Eclipse (1994)
Haiku (1994)
Haiku 1. Petite Ceinture
Haiku 2. Chaika
Haiku 3. Owl Gets in Your Eyes

Casque bleu (1995)
Silent Movie (1995)
Level Five (1997)
Un maire au Kosovo (2000)
One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (2000)
Le facteur sonne toujours cheval (2001)
Avril inquiet (2001)
Le souvenir d'un avenir (with Bellon 2003)
Chats Perchés (2004) - a documentary about M. Chat street art
Leila Attacks (2006)



Film Collaborations

Nuit et Brouillard (Resnais 1955)
Note: In a 1995 interview Resnais states that the final version of the commentary was a collaboration between Marker and Jean Cayrol (source: Film Comment)
Les hommes de la baleine (Ruspoli 1956)
Note: under the pseudonym "Jacopo Berenizi" Marker wrote the commentary for this short about whale hunters in the Azores. The two would return to this topic in 1972's Vive la Baleine (Film Comment).
Le mystere de l'atelier quinze (Resnais et Heinrich 1957)
Note: Marker wrote the commentary for this fictional short (Film Comment).
Le Siècle a soif (Vogel 1958)
Note: Marker wrote and spoke all the commentary for this short film about fruit juice in Alexandrine verse (Film Comment).
La Mer et les jours (Vogel et Kaminker 1958)
Note: Marker present commentary for this "somber work about the daily lives of fishermen on Brittany's Île de Sein" (Film Comment).
L'Amérique insolite (Reichenbach 1958)
Note: Marker was eventually credited as a writer for this one, apparently, he wrote the dialogue (Film Comment)
Django Reinhardt (Paviot 1959)
Note: Marker narrated this one (Film Comment)
Jouer à Paris (Varlin 1962)
Note: This was edited by Marker - essentially, this film is a 27-minute postscript to Le Joli Mai assembled from leftover footage and organized around a new commentary (Film Comment)
A Valparaiso (Ivens 1963)
Note: This gem was written by Marker. It feels like a Marker film.
Les Chemins de la fortune (Kassovitz 1964)
Note: Marker apparently helped edit and organise this Venezuela travelogue (Film Comment)
La Douceur du village (Reichenbach 1964)
Note: Edited by Marker.
La Brûlure de mille soleils (Kast 1964)
Note: Marker edited this (mostly) animated science-fiction exstentialist short and (possibly) collaborated on the script (Film Comment)
Le volcan interdit (Tazieff 1966)
Note: Marker narrates this volcano documentary
Europort-Rotterdam (Ivens 1966)
Note: Marker did the textual adaptation (Film Comment)
On vous parle de Flins (Devart 1970)
Note: Marker helped film and edit this short (Film Comment)
L'Afrique express (Tessier et Lang 1970)
Note: Marker wrote the introductory text for this film under the name "Boris Villeneuve" (Film Comment).
Kashima Paradise (Le Masson et Deswarte 1974)
Note: Marker collaborated on the commentary on this documentary about the destruction of Kashima and Narita (Film Comment).
La Batalla de Chile (Guzman, 1975–1976)
Note: Marker helped produce and contributed to the screenplay for this, perhaps the greatest of all documentary films (Film Comment).
One Sister and Many Brothers (Makavejev 1994)
Note: Marker tapes Makavejev circulating among the guests of a party in his honor as much jovial backslapping abounds (Film comment)



Bibliography (self-contained works by Marker)

Le Cœur Net (1949, Editions du Seuil, Paris)
Giraudoux Par Lui-Même (1952, Editions du Seuil, Paris)
Commentaires I (1961, Editions du Seuil, Paris)
Coréennes (1962, Editions du Seuil, Paris)
Commentaires II (1967, Editions du Seuil, Paris)
Le Dépays (1982, Editions Herscher, Paris)
Silent Movie (1995, Ohio State University Press)
La Jetée ciné-roman (1996 / 2nd printing 2008, MIT Press, Cambridge; designed by Bruce Mau)
Staring Back (2007, MIT Press, Cambridge)
Immemory (CDROM) (1997 / 2nd printing 2008, Exact Change, Cambridge)






AUGUSTAN ~







Gore Vidal



“There is not one human problem that could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.”








Eugene Luther Gore Vidal Jr. was born on Oct. 3, 1925, at the United States Military Academy at West Point
Died July 31, 2012 at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles




CLEANSER ~








"Love, schmuv." ~







William Bronk



William Bronk (1918-1999) was born in Hudson Falls, New York, where he lived, mainly, his entire life, in the same house where he was raised, burning coal which was sold in the family coal & lumber business. Sidney Cox was a major influence on Bronk while at Dartmouth College. He served in the Army during World War II after some graduate work at Harvard and taught briefly at Union College, Schenectady. His first book of poems, Light and Dark, was published by Cid Corman's Origin Press in 1956. William Bronk received the National Book Award in 1982. His many books have been published by Origin, New Directions, North Point, The Elizabeth Press, Talisman, and others.



At Home In the Unknown, An Interview with William Bronk (image of Bronk's house)
by Mark Katzman









Tuesday, July 31, 2012

PHOTOGRAPHER ~






Francesca Woodman


Francesca Woodman (1958-1981) a life gone to suicide at the age of 21, this opulent volume attempts to capture the nine years of a life's work by this compelling photographer.


Beautifully presented with none of the mystery, immediacy, or harrowing edges of the photographer's eye lost to the immaculate layout. The text is informative and wise, but gladly, over 3/4 of the book depth is given to her photographs.



Francesca Woodman
edited by Corey Keller
w/ essays by Jennifer Blessing and JuliaBryan-Wilson
San Fransico Museum of Modern Art
D.A.P. (2011)





Once In Vermont films
© bob arnold









Monday, July 30, 2012

SUMMER CLOUD ~











atop Sugarloaf
Deerfield, MA.
29 July 2012
7:15 pm


photo © bob arnold



He takes her in his arms
Bright gleams for a second playing
On the shoulder-blades the shoulders and the breasts
Then hidden by a cloud


PAUL ELUARD
trans. SAMUEL BECKETT