Oui! Oui! Oui! Mais non...

I am so overjoyed at the French doing the right thing at the polls (and surprised, to boot, as I never pass up the opportunity to lower my expectations of the Franco-Gallic people), that, in honor of the vote that should derail the evil mess of an EU Constitution, the Keilholtz household will speak exclusively French for the next day (with, of course, Italian, the rightful language of large parts of so-called France, always being allowed).

And, to mark this historic occasion, the German language is going to be banished for the next 24 hours (or until Amalia really gets my goat to the point that I am reduced to hollering in German), in favor of French.

No, it is not April 1, but sometimes the French do the right thing, besides creme brulee, that is. They always do that right. I wish I could say the same for croissants, but this modern age has seen such a decline in the small patisserie, that I am more confident in my ability to find a good croissant in Oakland than I am in Paris (which is part of the cultural trends the French people are resisting).

So, Francois*, if you happen to be reading this, part of this act of Francophilia will mean that I will not call you "Maginot," "Frosch," "Grenouille," "Frankreich," or "Dirty Slug Eater" for the next 24 hours. Don't get used to it, though.

Now, you guys have got to do something about your Mohammedan problem...

*Francois was my roommate in college (Freshman year). He used to drive me crazy, so I kept him in line by shouting at him in German and talking about the Maginot Line. Then I realized that he was baiting me, and that by getting irate, I was giving in to his merde. I was contemplating killing him, but then the year was up, and I did not have to be his roommate any more. We remain good friends to this day, although I keep finding excuses to not go hear his band play.

Better than Ever!

We just got back from seeing Tony Bennett in Sonoma. While his voice isn't quite as strong as it was in the mid-1990's, which is what I identify as his peak, he still sings like no one else, has great stage manners, and puts on an incredible show. He is in full command of his voice, and his phrasing has become better with age. It also helps that he can hire top notch musicians for his band. Anyway, it is late and I have a story due first thing in the morning, so my review boils down to this: if Tony Bennett comes to a venue near you, go see him.

Movies

I don't have the time right now to really comment on this, but here is the Time Magazine Top 100 Films of All Time list.

The first thing that pops into my head is:

OK, give me a break. Crap like Schindler's List and Casablanca are on the list, but Birth of a Nation isn't? I understand that feathers might be ruffled, but let's be honest here.

Also, how could one possibly include ET: The Extraterrestrial and exclude Dersu Uzala?

First, if you have to put some Spielberg piece on there, Raiders of the Lost Ark is his only decent film. The rest is barf.

Of course, what do you expect from a reviewer who cannot tell the difference between Munich and Berlin?

Architecture, Mosaics, and Rodia

In the comments box below, Stephen asks a very good question: what would Pacific Rim architecture really entail?

I have been thinking about this all day. Of course the first thing that comes to mind is a sort of East meets West syncretism, except that more often than not, that approach fails and looks cheap. Also, that sort of dialog generally posits the Pacific Rim as being the United States and China/Japan, ignoring the Southern part of the Pacific Rim.

But, this sort of pick and choose menu of architecture is almost a guarantee for cornball, so a Pacific Rim architecture must have something much more interesting as a foundation.

Then it dawned on me: first, the Pacific Rim is a European creation. Before Europeans hit the area, communications, commerce, and the general exchange of ideas accross the Pacific were rare to non-existant. Thor Heyerdahl aside, the most that really happened was the occasional Chinese ship blown off course, but there was never settlement or anything that even remotely treated the Pacific Rim as a region. That happened later.

Second: The Pacific Rim has a lot of seismic activity. You want volcanos? We've got 'em! Earthquakes? Just felt one a week or so ago!

Third: Any architecture, to sing of its region, must draw from the materials of the region. Nowadays you only find redwoods in California, a little part of Oregon and China (although it is a different variety than our two). However, redwood used to cover much more of the Pacific Rim (at least the northern part). To make redwood even more attractive for use in Pacific Rim architecture, it flexes and makes remarkably earthquake resistant buildings.

Fourth: It certainly does some good to go looking at the similarities found in the architecture around the Pacific Rim, and I think it is safe to say that the Pacific Rim emphasizes horizontality. From the Longhouses of the Indians of the Pacific Northwest to the architecture of China and Japan, to the Polynesian buildings, I think of our architecture as tending towards the horizontal, which makes sense in the event of seismic activity.

So, for something to start with: Combining redwood with horizontality to create broad masses. Then, to use regional stone and other timbers. Reference to Spanish and other European roots in the form of ornaments, tile roofs, etc.

Now, I have mentioned in the past on this blog that I am getting very interested in mosaics. I work with another sculptor who does the metal work, and then I am in charge of the cement and mosaic, and other such elements. Since he lives in San Diego, it makes things a little tricky, but slowly we are working out the details of logistics.

I have always liked mosaics, but in the course of learning more about the medium I am finding that I probably have Rodia-like tendencies. I am not going to build mystical towers in the backyard, but I can't say that the idea doesn't appeal to me.

For some reason I could easily see myself building one of those concrete gardens full of glued together bric-a-brac. I have been reading about some of the folk artists who have embraced this aesthetic, and I find it strangely appealing. In the meanwhile I am making some small pieces, testing out techniques and designs for use in bigger pieces. Keep your eyes on this space (or hopefully a new website, just to show art work and to keep the blog free of too many images) for more details, but I will probably be letting them go for somewhat reasonable prices.

I am always on the lookout for interesting mosaic pieces, so if know of one, particularly in a surprising place, please let me know. I am particularly interested in works that started as private obsessions, only becoming public later.

The Oakland Cathedral

Welcome, readers of the Curt Jester. I stumbled on this link just a few minutes ago, and am, naturally, caught unprepared (on a morning after a long bullfight, nonetheless). So, here goes:

My first inclination when I saw the plans for the Cathedral were: that monstrosity looks like some giant turbine.

However, the more I look at the renderings, the more that I think it is a fine building... to showcase one of the better pieces in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Air and Space. All of that light, the high ceiling, the glass, the steel.

And then it dawned on me: this is a Protestant church. And it was designed by one of the followers of the Real Absence (I believe that the architect is a member of that dismal cult called the Anglican Episcopal Church or A Bunch of Poofters and Priestesses in Cahoots with a Druid or whatever it goes by this month. Ooooh. The Ecumenically thenthitive will get their noses out of joint at that one! Hoo boo. The Ecumenically thenthitive have gone away from this place a long time ago).

Then I saw the internal rendering and started to giggle. Church in the round. Oh lovely. That is the reason that I do not step foot in Our Lady of Lourdes on the other side of the lake (well, that and icons to the heresiarch Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Dorothy Day (hey, at least she's Catlick!), and the wretched liturgy, the heresy preached (often by nuns), the dismal downcast priest, who embodies the permascowl generation...).

So, I really hope that the Cathedral sits empty. It is about the only time that I like to see sparsely attended masses: when activists seem determined to hijack the liturgy to prove points. Maybe the Diocese can this sell this Turd to the Chabot Space and Science Center, who should turn it into the downtown station for a really cool cable car to take tourists up to the observatory in the hills.

Now, as to the revivalist pastiche that I have seen floating around as an alternative: it is better, but not much. It has all the marks of student work, and would be much better suited to some place that is completely devoid of character. I won't be so mean as to mention which state(s) I am thinking of, but they ain't Alta California.

What we need is an architect who has walked around Oakland, Berkeley, etc. and understands this place. Someone who loves the traditions of arts and craftsmanship that have flourished in Oakland. Someone who is smitten with the native woods (Redwood and California bay laurel and madrone) and minerals (serpentine!) of our land. Someone who is not so stuck on their own traditionalism to realize that tradition is a living breathing thing (I am increasingly lowering my expectations from what shall come from Duncan Stroik and his students, which is a shame since they certainly demonstrate a lot of talent, judging from the stuff on the internet. Too bad it is being driven towards such insipidity).

Somewhere in the past I proposed a direction for the Oakland Cathedral. You can search the archives.

Now, note that I do not fault Bishop Vigneron, who was stuck with this project.

Let's just hope that the Diocese sells it and uses the money to build a good Cathedral.

As for good modern church architecture: look to St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco (and I mean in person, not just in pictures). Go study it, walk around it, go to mass in it, and you will see what I mean.

Some Odds and Bits...

I did not get home from the bullfight until very late, so I am more inclined towards three dot writing...

Ouch. This is not something I usually like to do...

Har Har har...

Anyway...Why would I trust a website to deliver good medications when they use deception to lure visitors to their website? Ditto mortgage brokers and double ditto laywers.

Oh yeah. Dot dot dot...

Is it just my imagination or are the Turlock forcados looking pretty sad? They have courage and determination, but it seems that their group work is suffering. Of course those were monsters last night: lots of prime rib came through the toril.

Now, this in no means indicates that Artesia is looking much better. I think everyone, including the diehard Turlock enthusiasts, felt for them last night and admired their willingness to go back over and over again to the same ungrababble toiro.

Dotdtootododooootttt

How about Alberto Conde? I don't think I had ever seen him before. He has style, grace, and established good control of his bulls, even the second (rather difficult) bull. One thing that I liked about him is that when he was dealt a difficult bull he made sure to first and foremost torear. Then, once he established his mastery over the bull, he tried some fancy moves. Pedro Franco bombed his second bull because he kept sinking lower in lower in his attempts to cover up his inability to control the bull by trying (and missing) increasingly fancy moves.

First, he should have quit when he failed to place the two smaller darts. Coming back with a banderilla was pathetic. Second, he should have had the cojones to refrain from coming back into the ring for honors. He and the forcado, who also failed, should have made their salute from the gate and gone back to the callejon. The forcado had that decency, why not the horseman?

DOT DOT DOT (DASH DASH DASH DOT DOT DOT - and quick, before this entry gets even worse)

I get to see Tony Bennett on Thursday night! I left my heart... in...San...Fran...Cisco. Yeee haw!

Dot (oh stop it already!)

Anyway, I have little to do and a lot of time. No. Reverse that. So I might or might not post my risotto nero recipe. If not today, then tomorrow. Certainly not yesterday.

Check your brains at the door!

Thanks to all who have contributed ideas to the Lepanto League Mackerel Snap. Some of the ideas that will definitely be incorportated into the festivities (including some that were already on the schedule):

1. Snapping mackerel. At around $2 a pound, how can you go wrong? Recipe? Grill them over a smokey fire with lemon slices, garlic, salt, pepper and a bit of olive oil. When they are done:

2. Burning wet or dry straw to announce the fact.

3. A brain check at the door.

4. Venerating statues.

5. Repetitious prayers in a dead language.

6. Taking orders from a foreign potentate in Rome.

7. Since it is a food event, men will take center stage and cook, leaving women to the minor roles.

8. Drinking, smoking, perhaps some gambling.

9. Foreign priests who will perhaps give the benediction with their backs turned to the rest of us.

10. No one shall bring in a Bible in the vernacular.

11. Heretics will be properly identified and denounced to the proper authorities.

12. Irish will be allowed in (this goes against my better judgement, but I am outnumbered, particularly by my half Irish wife), particularly since the author of distinction for this event is James Joyce (Catholic bad boys being the year's focus). Of course they can always be counted on to resort to pious superstitions, so this will be OK.

13. We do not want to specifically brand anyone as an "old lady," so we will generally encourage wearing o' the black, muttering o' the rosary (click them beads, natch), and the like from everyone.

14. On Monday, a field trip to see a bullfight.

15. Etc.

I will report on the event afterwards, after filing the required report with proper Ecclesial Authorities!

More Fun Lottery Fraud

Not that interesting, I just post it so that potential victims who Google it find this and can be assured that it is, indeed, a fraud. Sorry to dash your hopes, but better that than you sending your hard earned money to some Nigerian scam operator:

ELGORDO LOTERIA PRIMITIVA INTERNATIONAL
www.loteria.com
CALLE AVENIDA DE ALFONSO,
MADRID 20058,
SPAIN.

FROM: THE DESK OF THE DIRECTOR PROMOTIONS,
INTERNATIONAL PROMOTIONS/PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT,
REF: GUPL/76-A18FYU125
19/05/05.

ATTENTION WINNER,
NOTIFICATION; FINAL WINNING NOTIFICATION

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement
of the winners of the LOTERIA PRIMITIVA
INTERNATIONAL held on 12-03-05. Your email address attached
to ticket number 4589, with serial number A025-09 drew the
lucky numbers 6-10-12-27-33-45, and consequently
won in category 6.You have therefore been approved for a
lump sum pay of Euro302,803.00 in cash credited to file REF
NGUPL/76-A18FYU125.This is from total prize money of
Euro908,401.00 shared among the international winners
in the category 6. All participants were selected through a
computer ballot system drawn from more than 100,000
companies/individuals from Middle East,Australia, New
Zealand,America,Asia, Europe and North America as part of
our International Promotions Program, which is conducted
annually.

CONGRATULATIONS! Your fund is now deposited and insured in
your email address.Due to the mix up of some numbers and
names,we ask that you keep this award strictly from public
notice until your claim has been processed and your money
remitted to your account. This is part of our security
protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by
participants of this program.

We hope with a part of your prize, you will participate in
our end of year high stakes Euro25million International
lotto.To begin your claim, please contact your claim agent
immediately:

MR. JAMES PACKER
CLAIM MANAGER,
STANDARD TRUST SECURITY COMPANY
EMAIL:eslgordoclaimage@netscape.net

For due processing and remittance of your prize money to
designated account of your choice. Remember, you must
contact yourclaims agent not later than 25th of May.After
this date, all funds will be returned as unclaimed.

NOTE: In order to avoid unnecessary delays and
complications,please remember to quote your reference
number in every one of your correspondences with your
agent. Furthermore, should there be any change of your
address, do inform your claims agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations again from all our staff and thank you for
being part of our program.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Sandra Fernadez,
THE DIRECTOR OF PROMOTIONS.
(ELGORDO LOTERIA PRIMITIVA INTERNATIONAL).

N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the
Winners will result to disqualification. contact your
claims agent immediately through the above e-mail address.

Favorite Painting in America and Favorite American Painting

Tyler Green is talking about his favorite painting in American and his favorite American painting.

Hmmm. That is an interesting thought. I am not sure that I can answer either, because as soon as I come up with a "yup, it's that one" then I remember "oh, yeah. That one, too."

My favorite American painting is probably one of Ed Corbett's Provincetown paintings, or a late Frank Lobdell. But then again, what about Richard Diebenkorn's Seawall, and then there is the whole question of Guston, and what about Robert Ryman, and... you see the difficulty?

I really don't think I can answer that.

As to my favorite painting in America, that would probably be one of the Bonnard's, but I am not sure. Sometimes Matisse grips me more, sometimes I have to go with Diebenkorn.

Too broad a field, and I am far too moody when it comes to art. Sorry.

Actually the one all-time favorite painting of mine is the one that I am going to paint next. It really is the culmination of all the ideas I have been working with recently, will be perfectly executed, etc. But then it becomes the most recently finished painting of mine, which is the painting I detest most, becuase I know what it was supposed to have been and where I accepted which compromise, and blew which color choice, etc.

Alas.

St. Anthony of Padua Institute

I can't believe that I did not already put this one in my links.

I certainly hope that you have read something about the St. Anthony of Padua Institute. If not, go here and read all about it. If you have questions, feel free to ask me, as I am one of the co-conspirators in this little venture.

If you live in the Bay Area, why not participate in one of our programs?

For instance, on Tuesdays, at 7:30 in the evening at the The National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi, we are holding a film series. Right now we are watching Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Dekalog, which will keep us going into early July. After the film we have discussions. It is free, interesting, and a lot of fun.

Also, on Wednesday nights at the same place and time, the North Beach Lectura Dantis is reading Don Quixote. We are up to chapter 21, but it is a fast read, and you can get up to speed easily in a week or two.

Two things...

First, there are some great Catholic stereotypes popping in at the Mackerel Snap post below. Keep 'em coming.

I do find it funny that when I ask for folks to contribute stories of how they grew in their art appreciation I get a barrage of, well, silence. C'est la vie, as those people over there say. Or perhaps they c'est it. I dunno. Remember that horrid song "Say, Say, Say" (and bully for you if you don't)? Perhaps we could do the French version and call it "C'est, C'est, C'est." Or perhaps not.

Also, I am really overdue in updating my links. There are many people I read daily or at least weekly, who should be there (sorry, TSO). However, these things take time, so I am doing a little here and a little there. Right nowish would be the right time to pester me if I have cruelly forgotten you.

One long neglected person is Edouardo Costa. Costa is not a blogger, probably because he spends his time perfecting his riding and horsebreeding. He is the most exciting of the Californian Portuguese bullfighters, has a great style on horseback, and breeds beautiful horses. I should have linked to him a long time ago.

So, without further ado, be sure to check out Costaslusitanos.com, especially if you are interested in fine horses, bulls, or the like. Also, I highly recommend checking Costa out in performance. He is really quite good. It is too bad that he is not in Portugal where he would have more opportunities, but their loss is our gain.

Let the stereotypes flow...

This weekend the Lepanto League is having a Mackerel Snap, during which we will snap mackerels, worship statues with repetitious prayers in dead languages, call a man "Father" and take orders directly from foreign potentates in Rome.

If we can drum up interest we might play a little bingo. Certainly there will be some drinking and smoking going on, as well.

So, in the combox, please list your favorite stereotypes of the Romish mackerel snappers. Perhaps we will incorporate them into the festivities!

Too bad local regulation prevent us from burning heretics at the stake, though.

Himmel Uber Berlin

Well, last week I went into the Borders with Amalia to get a coffee and a bottle of water before going to Pac Bell Park (I refuse to call it STD Park or whatever the initials are. And yes I still make out the checks for my phone bill to Pacific Bell. They cash 'em) and did my customary glance at the sale DVD's.

Imagine my great surprise and delight (that phrase is an inside joke for people who listened to KQED (more on the old Bloated Pig of a Public Radio Empire later) a few years ago. Say it with an Indian accent) when I found a copy of Wem Winders's Wings of Desire for ten bucks!!!

I have only watched it once since buying it, but I have also watched the deleted scenes and the little mini documentary on making the film. At some point this week I will watch it with the commentary turned on.

One thing that bugs me is the subtitling. Since we speak German and French in Haus Keilholtz, they are not essential, except that there is that scene in the club where Damiel listens to the thoughts of the Japanese girl. In the old version it was subtitled. Now all we get is Damiel's chuckling. I remember the comment being something along the lines of "I wonder if there are angels listening."

Does anyone have the old version or speak Japanese who knows the answer?

Also, why are Peter Falk's lines put into subtitles? I am talking English to English here. Was the translator practicing to be a court reporter and had the lines done already, so, hey, why not? Perhaps the Japanese subtitlist was protesting something and decided to translate Falk from English to English to make a point.

Anyway, the film is still absolutely gorgeous after all these years (going on twenty now, which is hard to believe). It still ranks among my top five films

OK. here are the rest:

The Night of the Shooting Stars
8 1/2
Singing in the Rain
La Strada

OK, sometimes it is not La Strada. At least it always makes the top ten cut, but sometimes it is in the top five list, othertimes it loses out to other films.

Watch out. In a really goofy mood I might put The Party on the list. Imagine my shock and horror. Birdy num num!

Gerhard Richter

Tyler Green notes that Richter has a bullfight painting.

Ah, Richter!

For the life of me, I could never figure out why I did not like his paintings. When I took a long look at them, I realized that he is a good painter with some interesting ideas (although I hate using that word in regards to painting, as it has come to imply non-painting ideas. Here I use it only to refer to ways of puting pigment and binder on a substrate), but he did nothing at all for me.

I realized that this is one of those cases where the deficiency in the relationship between the viewer and the painting had to lie in the viewer, sort of like my long indifference to Dexter Gordon, a fine tenorman who I had very little use for other than to appreciate as a great player.

When I realized that there was indeed something to Gordon, I went out and bought a CD of his, on the recommendation of Berrigan Taylor, the proprietor of a fine Jazz record store in Oakland. Gradually I got inside of the melodic inventiveness of Gordon and got to actually like his playing. I will admit that Dexter Gordon still does not have a place on my Desert Island list, but perhaps he should.

So, with that in mind I have been taking long looks at Richter, whenever the chance arose. Like the music of Dexter Gordon, Richter's painting is still not in my list of favorites, but I am finding that I LIKE it more. I have always admired it, but now I actually am starting to enjoy looking at it.

One of the big problems with arts appreciation in our modern age is that too many people cannot accept that something they don't like might be quite good, and that something that they like should be held as a guilty pleasure, depending on a variety of external factors that don't make the work one iota better (you can take my Howard Jones CD when you pry it from my cold dead fingers).

The very notion of learning to like a great piece of art strikes many as absurd. Their tastes, they feel (not think, or at least think too deeply), are a part of their identity, and should be clung to at all costs. Too bad. Arts appreciation should hone our tastes (oh no, Keilholtz is being anti-relativistic again). We should work at conforming our likes and dislikes to what we intelligently discern as the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

I am curious as to whether any of my readers have had similar experiences of realizing that a work one disliked was actually good, and went about learning to like it?

Bullfights and Art

A discussion is beginning on Mundo Taurino, the International Taurine Email list, about a couple of famous paintings that feature the fiesta brava. It has made me think of artists who used the bulls as subject matter or who had an interest in the bullfight:

Manet
Goya
Picasso
Still
Diebenkorn
Oliveira
I guess I will list Conrad and certainly Fulton, although Conrad was even less of an artist than he is a writer. Fulton was good at times, though.

I am sure that there are others. It is late, and Melanie is sound asleep in the bedroom, where most of my art books are (and Amalia is asleep in her bedroom where the remainder are, as well as my bullfight library), so I will not be able to dig around until tomorrow. But, if any of you can think of any examples or anecdotes of bullfight-related art, please share.

And speaking of bullfights, we are in the thick of the California Bullfight Season, so if any of you are interested in going one of these Monday nights, holler. I am thinking that the 23rd is a definite for me, although the 16th might be good, too. I don't think I will be going this Monday, and certainly not tomorrow, as much as I would like to.

Anyway, the calendar is at bullfights.org, so you can see for yourself what is scheduled.

With the rain that we have been having, I imagine that several of the bullfights have been cancelled. I have not talked to anyone in the Valley, so I don't know. I also don't know if there are any plans to reschedule missed ones.

Vamos al toros!

New Foodie Destination: Fremont

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be raving about the culinary scene in Fremont, I would have taken him for a nutcase.

Fremont, if you have never seen it, is a prosaic mess of suburban sprawl, the most Southern Californian feeling place in the Bay Area (note that I only marginally call Fremont the Bay Area. Once you are in Millipede or San Jose, et al, you have left the Bay Area). Wide streets lined with tall date palms, ugly post-war architecture. Each house has a lawn in the front, and almost all business is conducted in strip malls.

Granted there are several neat downtown areas (I can think of three, each the result of smaller towns being eaten up by the expanding Fremont: one of which, Niles, was the movie capital of California before Hollywood. Charlie Chaplin made several films there. Now it is a withering downtown with lots of antique stores, the weakest of Fremont's downtown areas), and lovely hills surrounding the town (I did say that it was a lot like Southern California).

However, the upside of Fremont's lack of charm has been that it was an affordable place for immigrant workers in the Sillycon Valley to settle, and that has resulted in a plethora of good, inexpensive ethnic restaurants (and a really unlikely little place called Pearl's that is a true gem of Bay Area fine dining). I have had outstanding rustic Afghani food, great Indian food, outstanding Korean soft tofu bowls, and so on.

Alright, some of these places might have been in Newark, but I have difficulty telling where one begins and the other ends.

Tonight I reviewed an outstanding little hole in the wall Lebanese restaurant. Not only was the food great, but they offer a decent Lebanese red wine (Cabernet, Cinsault, and Syrah, I think) from the Bekkaa Valley, a fertile area that was once settled by Romans who built magnificent temples and the sort of stuff that Romans generally liked to leave behind.

It is getting to the point where I really look forward to reviewing restaurants in the market area of our Fremont paper. I never got that feeling when I had to go out to San Mateo, which is not really much farther. I just felt that I was driving for miles to eat mediocre food.

But not in Fremont. In fact, if any of you are thinking of doing a food and wine tour of California, you should plan at least one lunch or dinner in Fremont. It is fantastic what is going on there in terms of food.

The Highwayman and Traveler

A Highwayman confronted a Traveler, and covering him with a firearm, shouted: "Your money or your life!"
"My good friend," said the Traveler, "according to the terms of your demand my money will save my life, my life my money; you imply that you will take one or the other, but not both. If that is what you mean please be good enought to take my life."
"That is not what I mean," said the Highwayman; "you cannot save your money by giving up your life."
"Then take it anyhow," the Traveler said. "If it will not save my money it is good for nothing."
The Highwayman was so pleased with the Traveler's philosophy and with that he took him into partnership and this splendid combination of talent started a newspaper.

-Ambrose Bierce

Glass Blowing

Yesterday I did a profile on a glass blower, and it reminded me of how visually interesting the whole process is.

The first time I saw this art was in Italy as a little one, and I still remember watching the glowing orb of glass expand when the glass blower blew on the pipe.

The artist I interviewed yesterday created a gigantic platter, starting with a multi-layered orb of glass, which he blew into a basketball-sized globe, then opened into a bowl, used a different color for the lip, then spun it into a plate.

There is something really exciting about watching about seven pounds of molten sand (around 2000 degrees) being spun at the end of a five-foot-long stainless steel pipe into a platter.

Anyway, if you have never watched glass being blown, particularly art pieces, it is definitely worth a trip to your local glass studio.

Welcome Ft. Wayne Readers!

Naturally, when the Contra Costa Times article gets reprinted in the Fort Wayne newspaper, I am asleep at the wheel and have a paucity of posts going.

Well, I have not been asleep at the general wheel, only the blog wheel, being under a bunch of deadlines for the CCT's competitor!

So, welcome new readers. I wrote a post welcoming the Contra Costa Times readers last month, and you can read it in the archives. Hopefully I will have more and more interesting (hah!) posts for y'all to read later this weekend. Perhaps a good recipe, perhaps a screed on art (I will be seeing a show of Rubens oil sketches at the Berkeley Art Museum, so perhaps something blogworthy will come of that).

Dizzy with Fighting Heresy!

"Hey Pete, Let's Eat More Meat!"

No, that is not a line from some dumbed down translation of the Acts of the Apostles, but is a song by John Birkes "Dizzy" Gillespie.

So, if you want to do your part in fighting the neo-Cathari, then go to the nearest butcher, get yourself a few pounds of beef, and read my latest article on Spero Forum.