11 December 2007

down at the mill they got a new machine, formeman says it cuts manpower by fifteen.



I took advantage of the nice weather this afternoon and drove out for a couple hours to take photos. I ended up not taking many, but I did get the two above. The first one--with its red, yellow, and blue squares--brings Mondrian to mind. That's probably no accident, since the building looks to have been made in the 60's when the Art Deco/Bauhaus style was popular. While sitting here thinking about Mondrian, this James Tate poem popped into my head. There's not really much of a connection to Mondrian in the poem (other than it being about a painter), but the point it's making fits with photography, so I suppose it's at least tangentially connected. On more than one occasion I've had people question why I'm taking a photo of the corner of a building or a light socket or whatever. If an answer isn't immediately apparent, they sometimes get very distraught.

The Painter of the Night
-James Tate

Someone called in a report that she had
seen a man painting in the dark over by the
pond. A police car was dispatched to go in-
vestigate. The two officers with their big
flashlights walked all around the pond, but
found nothing suspicious. Hatcher was the
younger of the two, and he said to Johnson,
"What do you think he was painting?" Johnson
looked bemused and said, "The dark, stupid.
What else could he have been painting?" Hatcher,
a little hurt, said, "Frogs in the Dark, Lily-
pads in the Dark, Pond in the Dark. Just as
many things exist in the dark as they do in
the light." Johnson paused, exasperated. Then
Hatcher added, "I'd like to see them. Hell,
I might even buy one. Maybe there's more out
there than we know. We are the police, after-
all. We need to know."

Since the first photo brings Mondrian to mind, I thought about posting a video from the White Stripes' De Stijl or something from a more "abstract" band like Silver Apples, but while I was driving around today I was listening to early Rod Stewart (Sing it Again, Rod), so I've decided to go with him. Many people consider Stewart a joke along the lines of David Haselhoff or Celine Dion. If all they've listened to is "Do You Think I'm Sexy," I wouldn't necessarily blame them, but back in the late 60's/early 70's Stewart made some great music. As a solo artist and as part of The Faces, he managed to combine blues, rock, country, and folk in an organic way that many musicians strived for, but few achieved. This song, "I've Been Drinking (A Change is Gonna Come)," appears on the 1967 Jeff Beck Group album, Truth. Ignore the silver tight pants and preening poses (if you can), and give it a listen.

1 comment:

Karen said...

Celine Dion always makes me think of a dear friend of mine. He listens to her French albums and always seems to be in rapture at the sound of her voice.

I'm away from a computer for a few days, Mark, and you make post after post. The photos are good, but I miss the long, rambling writings that accompanied your earlier posts. I could hear your voice in them and that's something special.