tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post1976602650699771901..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: The MagiUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-73698860357726973032012-12-25T06:58:30.965-08:002012-12-25T06:58:30.965-08:00Many thanks, Vassilis and Nin.
More than a bit w...Many thanks, Vassilis and Nin. <br /><br />More than a bit wet and wintery here today, wishing for one of those noteworthy necromantic enclosures.<br /> <br />(Lean too close and... Poof! your priestly turban's on fire!)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-66308699785218792762012-12-25T04:47:07.934-08:002012-12-25T04:47:07.934-08:00Merry Christmas! And yes, beautiful post. Thank y...Merry Christmas! And yes, beautiful post. Thank you Tom!Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-55962206211364099972012-12-24T23:17:43.031-08:002012-12-24T23:17:43.031-08:00“noteworthy enclosures”, indeed!
“noteworthy enclosures”, indeed!<br />vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-44846623841652406662012-12-24T14:35:50.166-08:002012-12-24T14:35:50.166-08:00gracias...igualmente para usted y familia Tom !gracias...igualmente para usted y familia Tom !Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-7170148421448401122012-12-24T14:27:03.084-08:002012-12-24T14:27:03.084-08:00Muchas gracias, Sandra. Y feliz Navidad a usted!Muchas gracias, Sandra. Y feliz Navidad a usted!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-74160945300732954002012-12-24T11:53:37.381-08:002012-12-24T11:53:37.381-08:00nice post...!!nice post...!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-49863787803345877882012-12-24T10:51:59.913-08:002012-12-24T10:51:59.913-08:00Thanks Steve, the world awakening now with familia...Thanks Steve, the world awakening now with familiar traffic rush of getting and spending, high pitched whine of leaf blowers & business as usual on the Avenue of Materialist Frenzy<br /><br />not to point at cloud<br /><br />version which may be a copy,<br />see concept of <br /><br />a fugitive bit of blue sky through overhanging redwood branch...TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86125448296652115192012-12-24T08:29:09.681-08:002012-12-24T08:29:09.681-08:00Tom,
Beautiful to recall "the long difficult...Tom,<br /><br />Beautiful to recall "the long difficult journey," see these scenes of those on a long ago journey toward a place below a star (Balaam's star, must have been a planet), read St. Mathew's Latin, Lancelot Andrewes' Sermon preached before King James, at Whitehall (490 years ago -- "time once again proving its strange magical reversibility"). All of it in this "season of materialist frenzy" as Hazan says, such seen/scene, my words also slurring as Wooden Boy says. <br /><br />And the storms of yesterday have moved on for now, planet up there this morning like that long ago star.<br /><br /><br />12.24<br /><br />light coming into sky above still black<br />ridge, silver of planet behind branches<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> one that in a certain sense,<br /> not to point at cloud<br /><br /> version which may be a copy,<br /> see concept of, count<br /><br />grey rain cloud against invisible ridge,<br />whiteness of gull on windblown sandspit<br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13960285018380557402012-12-24T07:42:39.463-08:002012-12-24T07:42:39.463-08:00There was a time, some half century ago now, when ...There was a time, some half century ago now, when I plodded about Europe visiting old churches, then often empty and unguarded and almost always sans tourists, to see some of the paintings here as well as many, many more. It did strike me then as now that the artists were often working in extremely cramped circumstances (Fra Angelico in the tiny cells of the Convento), or remote locations (toiling up that steep winding hill path in Assisi to the then unrestored and entirely empty church where Giotto had worked, I encountered exactly one human, a fellow running about waving what at distance appeared to be a badminton racquet, but at closer range turned out to be a butterfly net).<br /><br />The ideology or mythology or call it what you will that provided the text upon which such radiant and luminous art was created may be to very few people's taste now. That granted, still one might be tempted to ask, what is the secular text upon which "postmodern" "art" (contradiction in terms, that?) is so very precariously founded?<br /><br />If not, I mean, <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/curve.html" rel="nofollow">this</a>?<br /><br />And finally, getting back to chaos theory and solar religion, in trying to come up with an example of a latterday Mage inflamed with a nonideological, nonpolitical necromancy, I did recall another longago pilgrimage, to the extremely impressive, highly disciplined training school of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SsBtfuSDxw" rel="nofollow">this</a> man. Illumination perhaps need not contain a power component after all, though it certainly could never come easily or without some study. And nowadays, what with the rush of the festive season, who'd have the time?TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-41069292397789359422012-12-24T07:39:19.150-08:002012-12-24T07:39:19.150-08:00Such apt comments these, how dare one have the pri...Such apt comments these, how dare one have the privilege of such friends.<br /><br />Hazen as always addresses the nail with the hammer to create the pitch-perfect response, which I will indulge myself by repeating:<br /><br />"...perfect for this season of materialist frenzy in the guise of religion. You'd think it was Mammon’s birthday. In that first picture of the magi descending, the stylized Star of Bethlehem, lower right, has an eerie resemblance to a bullet mark. Maybe it’s an optic influenced by these times. Clearly, we’re in the process of losing our way ‘in the deep Syrian sands.’"<br /><br />WB,<br /><br />Any words not yet heard slurred probably ought to be. Perhaps then chaos theory might set in -- in lieu of any other useful prevailing mythology -- and much as Adam before the troubles, we might be perfectly understood not only by one another but perhaps more importantly by all the animals. As e.g. those exquisitely rendered, amazingly lifelike show-stealing camels of that great master of catholic (in the lowercase "good" sense) attention, Giotto.<br /><br />Or better still we might remember that in our higher (?) moments (are we still capable of those?) we remain, or at least retain faint traces of, actual biological animals ourselves?<br /><br />After several days of inundating rains, there came a lull between the vast climate change megastorm waves, late last night, and venturing tentatively out into the for once vacant streets (only sign of traffic, a few late-late shoppers, shiny fast cars laden with bulky shapes suggesting the predictable redundant imperial "holiday" cargo), I encountered not only a star above (portent? satellite?), but several actual animals, sprung from their fugitive coverts to browse among the sodden leaf waste for a possible bite to eat.<br /><br />A large doe, wary and frozen in her tracks by my presence, long before I saw her. And a busy, considerably less wary black-and-white-skunk. Beautiful the both of them. Would that they and their likes might inherit the earth, supposing there's anything left of it when the Bad Monkeys finally self-immolate for good and all.<br /><br />The Mages of course were neither saints nor happy wise men but members of a priest cult of great political power and no little regional influence. Strabo did not approve of them, and he must have known a bit. They busily slayed and were slain (hanging by the thumbs was one particularly vivid technique employed to put them in their place when necessary -- perhaps the Persian equivalent of our venerable custom of waterboarding), back then, in that stage of the historical dialectic -- the long seesawing of acts of brutality that always seems to go hand in bloody hand with the fatal involvement of religion and politics. In the one walkman earplug that has survived my brush with death by ideology (is not the automobile our pathetic answer to the imperial priestly camel?), the BBC was interviewing a China expert discussing the Dalai Lama's implicit encouragement of pyrosuicide as a political statement. (Time being short, there was no input from the NRA on this worried question, though one assumes their spokesman was waiting impatiently in an outer-studio chamber, chafing to poke his assault-weapon muzzle under the tent.) <br /><br />I do love the way the Autun angel has managed to awaken one of the three sleeping Mages, to get them up before first light and on their way, much like a helpful motel manager giving the wakeup call.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48848212006729334502012-12-24T07:20:29.259-08:002012-12-24T07:20:29.259-08:00The poem is quite fine, and perfect for this seaso...The poem is quite fine, and perfect for this season of materialist frenzy in the guise of religion. You'd think it was Mammon’s birthday. In that first picture of the magi descending, the stylized Star of Bethlehem, lower right, has an eerie resemblance to a bullet mark. Maybe it’s an optic influenced by these times. Clearly, we’re in the process of losing our way ‘in the deep Syrian sands.’Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-23524112566021407422012-12-24T06:01:13.997-08:002012-12-24T06:01:13.997-08:00"Seen" should have read "scene"..."Seen" should have read "scene" but there we are - those slurred words again.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-91856672451636237302012-12-24T04:39:43.164-08:002012-12-24T04:39:43.164-08:00discovered
time once again proving its strange mag...discovered<br />time once again proving its strange magical<br />reversibility.<br /><br />How Matthew plays with, relays and overlays time is something beautiful. Maybe a kind of revenge, given that "strange magical reversibility".<br /><br />Lancelot Andrewes: what it is to come to the seen that matters, the appointed time, with the vast indifferent bustle about us (as in the Brueghel.<br /><br />For us, for the most part, the slips in time, time gone awry, missed events.<br /><br />The relief from Autun is wonderful, the three of them snug beneath those exquisite folds.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.com