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2013-06-16 22:34:42 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 27 +1s)

The wave breaks
And I'm carried into it.
This is hell, I know,
Yet my father laughs,
Chest-deep, proving I'm wrong.
We're safely rooted,
Rocked on his toes.

Nothing irked him more
Than asking, "What is there
Beyond death?"
His theory once was
That love greets you,
And the loveless
Don't know what to say.

Poem by Mark Jarman

2013-06-16 21:37:32 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Opening at the Japan Foundation in Toronto, through to October 6. Looking forward to seeing this!

Photographs of Tohoku taken by nine individual photographers and one photographers' group. Teisuke Chiba and Ichiro Kojima photographed Tohoku in the 1950s and 1960s. Hideo Haga, Masatoshi Naito, and Masaru Tatsuki have recorded festivals and folk religious rites throughout the region. Hiroshi Oshima and Naoya Hatakeyama have combined their personal histories with the landscapes of their home regions. Meiki Rin turned his camera toward the beautiful natural environment. Nao Tsuda searched for the source of the Japanese spirit in relics and artifacts of the Jomon period. A group of photographers led by Toru Ito have created the Sendai Collection, a series of photographs of anonymous scenes in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture. 

Tohoku - Through the Eyes of Japanese Photographers
more »

2013-06-15 14:51:33 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 31 +1s)

"Lost" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

Poem "Lost" by David Wagoner

Original GSV from Vail, Colorado: http://goo.gl/maps/HPJLJ enhanced in Silver Efex and Alien Skin Snap Art Crayon.

2013-06-09 22:22:05 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 23 +1s)

Escargot and two Painted Ladies in Grimsby Beach

2013-06-09 22:21:47 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

Escargot goes to Grimsby Beach to visit the Painted Ladies

2013-06-08 16:06:54 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 23 +1s)

"Snow Trail" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Musical accompaniment by Esmerine, "Snow Day for Lhasa" in which Montreal-based visual artist Brad Todd created a series of minimal looped video pieces projected during Esmerine's album launch concert in Montreal in June 2011, using found footage of owls as his source.

"Snow Day For Lhasa" is the centerpiece of Emserine's La Lechuza album. The record is dedicated to Lhasa de Sela (1972-2010) -- it snowed gently and constantly for 4 days in Montreal following her death on New Year's Day 2010. Lhasa loved owls.

Esmerine- Snow Day For Lhasa

Original GSV at http://goo.gl/maps/8zn4K in northern Sweden.

2013-06-08 15:49:40 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

"Anywhere on this Road" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

You've travelled this long 
You just have to go on 
Don't even look back to see 
How far you've come 
Though your body is bending 
Under the load 
There is nowhere to stop 
Anywhere on this road 

Music: "Anywhere on this Road" by Lhasa de Sela from "The Living Road"

lhasa, anywhere on this road

Lhasa de Sela: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lhasa_de_Sela

Original GSV at http://goo.gl/maps/FmLDV in northern Sweden.

2013-06-08 15:06:00 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 20 +1s)

"Lost in the Forest" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Lost in the forest, I broke off a dark twig
and lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,
a cracked bell, or a torn heart.

Something from far off it seemed
deep and secret to me, hidden by the earth,
a shout muffled by huge autumns,
by the moist half-open darkness of the leaves.

Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind

as if suddenly the roots I had left behind
cried out to me, the land I had lost with my childhood---
and I stopped, wounded by the wandering scent. 

Poem: "Lost in the Forest" by Pablo Neruda
Original GSVat ht... more »

2013-06-08 14:07:10 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 17 +1s)

"Marsh and Mountain" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Driving in the rain near Vassijaure in Sweden's northland. 

Original GSV at http://goo.gl/maps/Cxu4g

Godspeed, my friend.

2013-06-07 12:01:11 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Back atcha, +Jesko Zabel !

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/06/long-exposure-photographs-of-fireflies-in-the-forests-of-nagoya-city-by-yume-cyan/

2013-06-07 03:12:44 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 27 +1s)

"Stockholm County Road" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

One thing that I love about my part of the world (the south coast of Canada) is driving in the country in autumn. I wish it could be autumn all year long. 

Original GSV from Sweden: http://goo.gl/maps/bUOKL

2013-06-07 02:41:44 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

I don't ever do stuff like this but, as a fan of Jon Gnagy (oh, this is dating me), I just had to. h/t +Lynne Goodwin from The Other Place, and poke my buddy +Rob Robinson (ducking and running now for sure).

Jon Gnagy, for those who are old enough to qualify for... um ...discounts:

http://redstarcafe.wordpress.com/2007/10/14/learn-to-draw-with-jon-gnagy/

2013-06-07 01:38:24 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 16 +1s)

larssons wife
A few years ago, at Skansen—the great park just outside of Stockholm where they have collected so many wonderful things—there lived a little old man, named Clement Larsson. He was from Hälsingland and had come to Skansen with his fiddle to play folk dances and other old melodies. As a performer, he appeared mostly in the evening. During the day it was his business to sit on guard in one of the many pretty peasant cottages which have been moved to Skansen from all parts of the country.
for +Artistic Google "Sverige" with +Jan McCartney +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood  +Patrick Sheeran
GSV here : http://goo.gl/maps/H9ORL

2013-06-02 21:36:32 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 24 +1s)

"Storm" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Kalmar County back road in Sweden. Storm's a-comin'. Outdoor dogs begin to bark.

Original GSV at http://goo.gl/Qj2os

2013-06-02 19:17:57 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 29 +1s)

"Red Huts" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Near Onsala, Sweden. I was thinking of +Mikko Tyllinen's colourful digital paintings when I created this from Google Street View (after removing the car).

Original GSV at "Red Huts" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Near Onsala, Sweden. I thought of +Mikko Tyllinen's colourful digital paintings when I did this one, after removing the car that blocked the fishing huts.

Original GSV at http://goo.gl/maps/kRxO3

2013-05-28 01:16:41 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 31 +1s)

"Big Sky, Sweden" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

O Kanada, how we love Sweden!  Here we are in the north, near Abisko National Park. Practically SOOC with just a tiny bit of colour and contrast pop, because Sweden is beautiful as is. Ah, this reminds me of X-country skiing in Quebec. Just as socialist. Just as breathtakingly beautiful.

Original GSV at http://goo.gl/maps/8sBTT

2013-05-26 21:19:35 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

Blues in the Vineyard

Among the vines at the Hillebrand Estates Winery jazz and blues fest.

2013-05-24 14:29:58 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 19 +1s)

Salvador Dali illustrates Alice in Wonderland. h/t Brain Pickings dot org

http://goo.gl/dQtCx

Image: Down the Rabbit Hole

2013-05-22 15:19:50 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 18 +1s)

"More Human Than Human"

Tyrell:  More human than human is our motto.
Gaff: It's a shame she won't live - but then again, who does?

Blade Runner mannequin at East York Town Centre.

2013-05-15 20:02:45 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 19 +1s)

Ramblin Dan in Boston Public Gardens

2013-05-15 02:29:18 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 16 +1s)

"Don't Leave Home Without It" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

No day at the beach is complete without texting your pals non-stop. It's apparently a universal phenomenon.

Original Google Street View at a lush beach on the Baltic Sea at http://goo.gl/maps/GLnZf

2013-05-14 02:24:09 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

"Most Łazienkowski" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Łazienkowski Bridge is a five-span steel bridge across the Vistula in Warsaw, Poland. The name refers to Łazienki Park and Łazienki Palace, located to the south-west of the bridge. But in this capture, we just see the idyllic manicured expanse of trees on the banks, punctuated by a geometric vertical in the style of Jack Chambers, Edward Hopper or possibly +Eric Fredine.

Original Google Street View at http://goo.gl/maps/424X4

2013-05-14 01:55:37 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 9 +1s)

"Inside Warsaw" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Underground, beside the Wisla (Vistula) - the longest river in Poland, which winds its way from the Beskidy mountains of southern Poland, through Krakow and Warsaw and up the the bay in Gdansk to the Baltic Sea.

Original Google Street View at http://goo.gl/maps/1Gr67

2013-05-13 19:07:05 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Richter absolutely owns Chopin's Nocturne in E minor op. 72 no. 1

If Classical 96.3 had been playing this today, I would have had to pull over. Possibly my favourite Nocturne.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
 Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
 of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
 You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
 High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
 I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
 My eager craft through footless halls of air....

 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
 I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
 Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
 And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
 The high untrespassed sanctity ofspace,
 - Put out my... more »

2013-05-13 17:57:46 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Welcome back, Chris Hadfield!

Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing left to do...

Space Oddity!

2013-05-13 17:26:39 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Written in 1849 as Chopin passed away, the Consolations divulge a slightly gloomy Liszt, almost sad. As he was writing a book in tribute to his Polish colleague, Liszt seems to have adopted his deceased friend's language, especially in this third consolation, probably the most popular of all six pieces.

This is what Classical 96.3 was playing as Escargot and I skimmed along the sunny/cloudy Queensway this afternoon. 

The cello truly plucks at the human soul, as in the first video interpretation of this beautiful piece:

Franz Liszt, Consolation No.3, Guido Schiefen (cello), Eric Le Van (piano)

In the second video, Sylvain Blassel performs this third Consolation, S.172, on a gothic styled, twisted column Erard harp from 1907!

Franz Liszt - Consolation No. 3 - Sylvain Blassel, harp

And in the third, of course, Horowitz has well over a... more »

2013-05-12 18:27:41 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 20 +1s)

A new star burns bright in Canis Major.

Image: from the Seattle lantern festival
http://vimeo.com/16567779

2013-05-12 18:03:06 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 17 +1s)

Kyoto
September 29, 1997 - May 12, 2013

Cherry trees bloom en masse in early spring in Japan, but the white-to-coral petals shed and die very quickly and the peak bloom is only a week or two. There is a celebration called hanami associated with the peak bloom, which often entails picnics and drinking with old friends under the cherry trees.

Sakura season is a highly visible sign of spring, the beauty of nature, renewal of life, and first love…but can also represent the transience and fragility of beauty, life, and love.

Sakura evokes both the new beginning of spring and the transience of passing from one stage of life to another.

Godspeed, Cherry Blossom Princess.

2013-05-14 02:46:51 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 28 +1s)

"Ocelot Road" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me. Somewhere near Kitimat, B.C.

With a nod to +Eric Fredine for the vertical theme and to graphic designer, Saul Bass, who was celebrated in the Google Doodle this past week. This had the makings of "Vertigo" (James Stewart, Kim Novak) before the twirling began.

http://ucarochester-cgartsandanimation.blogspot.ca/2012/10/cgaa-design-saul-bass.html

Google Doodle:  http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/05/08/saul_bass_google_doodle_celebrates_graphic_designer_s_birthday_iconic_title.html

Original Google Street View at http://goo.gl/maps/eQkXS

2013-05-10 00:30:55 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

"Kitimat" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

In the style of Alex Colville's "Horse and Train":

http://canadianarthistory.wikispaces.com/Alex+Colville,+Horse+and+Train

Colville turned to existentialism in his art work after World War II. Existentialism tends to focus on the question of human existence. It is up to humans to create personal responsibility for themselves outside of any branded belief system. Existentialists seem to embrace existence and seek to find and create meaning in life. For Colville, existentialism provided a way for him to understand the Second World War and investigate his experiences. Colville reflects his experiences of the Second World War into his paintings of the 1950s by trying to present to the viewer a feeling of sadness. During the 1950s, Colville’s artwork w... more »

2013-05-07 00:47:43 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Not a photographic statement, just a brag about Escargot, my ice silver Mini Cooper S that I picked up on the weekend. Born in Oxford, England, with some BMW styling thrown in. Our first trip was to Paris (Ontario). Riding through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair. Priceless. Eat your heart out, Lucy Jordan. No housework planned for the foreseeable future.

Marianne Faithfull - Ballad of Lucy Jordan

For my friend, +Jim Marsh who told me this car would be a lot of fun, and he was right.

2013-05-02 02:04:00 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

"Bear Glacier" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood and +Patrick Sheeran 

Ice once filled all of Bear River Pass. In the 1940's, Bear Glacier began to retreat and Strohn Lake formed in the exposed basin. Acting as an ice dam, the glacier prevented the lake from draining down the Bear River Valley. If enough water collects behind an ice dam, a glacier may begin to float. Water flowing under the ice quickly creates a large tunnel. The lake empties, the ice dam resettles, and water again begins to collect until another flood is triggered. Five times between 1958 and 1962 Strohn Lake emptied underneath its ice dam in a catastrophic tumult of muddy water, rock and ice. This type of flood is known by the Icelandic term "jokulhlaup." In 1967, Bear Glacier melted away from the valley wall and Strohn Lake was no longer dammed. The threat ofsudd... more »

2013-04-30 01:22:30 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

"Yellowhead Highway" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Late summer on the Skeena River, northern British Columbia, heading inland. You always pass these railway bridges. The air is the cleanest on this earth and it is cool on your face, cool on your soul.

Original Google Street View at http://goo.gl/maps/mLGNp

2013-04-21 22:12:50 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Artistic Google Tour Recap - (Mediterranean Sea Cruise, April 8-21,  2013)

After two fantastic weeks cruising the idyllic islands of the sunny Mediterranean, we want to share our community's photo album with you all. We thank everyone who submitted work for this theme. We love seeing the world through your eyes.

A warm welcome to +Dorothy Pugh who has joined us!

The first person to submit an image was +Rita Pinto who won the Album Cover prize for "Carretera Coves de s'Ermita".

Our Tour in Review

Ah, those of us in the northern hemisphere needed some sunny warmth as we await a belated spring! So we were thrilled when the +Artistic Google Magic Bus transformed itself into a luxury yacht for two weeks. All things are possible on AG!

Any island in the Mediterranean was game. We were treated all 50 shades ofblu... more »

2013-04-21 16:55:14 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 22 +1s)

"Cours Napoléon, Porto Vecchio, Corsica" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Early morning, heading out from the hotel just as the silent town is awakening. Already the sun is warm on the Corsican streets.

Original Google Street View at http://goo.gl/maps/x1xUH

2013-04-16 00:27:26 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Such few words, but many prayers. #prayersforboston  

2013-04-14 16:03:15 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 51 +1s)

"Porto Vecchio, Corsica" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Tree shadows against a stone wall in the old town.

Original Google Street View at http://goo.gl/maps/8jp8E enhanced in Nik HDR Efex and Color Efex.

2013-04-12 03:43:35 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 14 +1s)

"Venice Mask Shop" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Following Patrick in search of the orange dots in Google Street View, here we are in the Venetian mask shop. I thought of Tissot's painting of the Parisian shop girl so tacked her on at the left. Not quite Impressionist, but a departure from the Academy style of the time. On the right, though, we enjoy Venice at dusk and the ghosts of Carnivale passing by.

Tissot's "Shop Girl" painting depicts a young woman standing inside a shop selling ribbons and dresses. In one hand she holds a wrapped package of newly purchased items. With the other she holds open the door to the store for the viewer to depart. The shop is filled with piles of ribbons. Outside a busy Parisian street scene is visible through the shop windows. A well dressed man stares inthro... more »

2013-04-12 02:53:06 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Gayageum (Korean zither): Luna channels Jimi Hendrix on "Voodoo Chile"!

Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna!

2013-04-11 01:41:54 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 18 +1s)

"The Slow Lives of Stones" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

For my pantheistic friends:

I suppose that nothing living had moved among those great stones for centuries.
They lay toppled against each other like fallen dolmens.
The huge stones were beasts, I used to think, of a kind that man ordinarily lived too fast to understand.
They seemed inanimate because the tempo of the life in them was slow.
They lived ages in one place and moved only when man was not looking.
Sometimes at night I would hear a low rumble as one drew itself into a new position and subsided again.
Sometimes I found their tracks ground deeply into the hillsides.

From Loren Eiseley, How Natural is “Natural”

And now here they are, uprooted from their natural environment and regimentedin a corp... more »

2013-04-11 00:44:31 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

"Garden Cart"

An image from my Leaside Gardens album, documenting the small community garden patch in the heart of a heartless industrial wasteland. One of my first images, taken with my little Coolpix in 2011, has a brown sky. I'd just met +Gary Pritchard on Google+ (he of some of the most achingly beautiful scenes of Stirling and Scotland) and he'd just been criticized for an image with a sky that was "too brown". I liked it, though, and went foraging in Nik HDR Efex to do the same.

Check out Gary's work and circle him. This image is definitely not representative of the wonderful work you'll find on his page. It just has a brown sky.

2013-04-11 00:34:50 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Thanks to +Kat Tehranchik, I started an album of images taken in Leaside Community Gardens, a small oasis for the soul in an industrial wasteland. The Big Smoke is blessed with ravines from the Ice Age that are of no use to the condo developers. Ravines like the one in Leaside are fine for hydro corridors and plots of land that the locals can use to grow vegetables and flowers. 

I look forward to spending the summer there at lunchtime with my trusty portable little Coolpix, enjoying the gardens as they grow and thrive, and meeting the gardeners. At least, as long as I'm in the tiger cage.

2013-04-10 02:45:17 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 28 +1s)

"Mother and Son"

For +Kat Tehranchik, a reshare of a photo from Leaside Community Gardens taken ... last year ... the year before?

The reference is to the 1997 dreamlike Russian film directed by Aleksandr Sokurov, depicting the relationship between an old, dying mother and her young son. It was Sokurov's first internationally acclaimed feature film, and is the first volume of a trilogy whose subject matter is the study of the drama in human relationships. The film is slow moving and not for everyone, but then neither is the Steppenwolf's Magic Theatre.

From Rotten Tomatoes:

With a visually stunning, quiet intensity, director Alexander Sokurov awakens the senses to the world of nature, human relationships, and death in this film about the poignant last hours of a dying mother and the son who cares for her.

The film begins before the... more »

2013-04-10 02:21:03 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 22 +1s)

"Birdhouse"

This rustic birdhouse in Leaside Community Gardens sits on the edge of the ravine delineating small plots of land that are gardened for produce and flowers every summer, and an industrial hell. The gardens sit within the hydro corridor. Waste land for building condos and suburbs, but a perfect oasis for the gardeners that are preparing to seed their tiny plots. And this one photographer who Rages Against The Machine.

2013-04-10 02:02:46 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 23 +1s)

"Crowd of Sounds"

Again, Adam Sol, from "Blind", my favourite poem in his collection, "Crowd of Sounds".

Where is there room for colour
in this crowd of sounds
that I know as the world?

The Leaside Community Gardens provides more than plots for people in the area to grow their lettuce and sunflowers. It is a little oasis in the middle of an industrial wasteland in a hydro corridor, across from Hell's Kitchen where cement trucks rumble down the road every few minutes. 

In between the trucks and tractor-trailers, I caught a lone cyclist and a tree, viewed from this little piece of heaven in the middle of hell. The gardeners are already preening their plots for the spring planting. A lovely, shy man explained to me in broken English on Monday that he hoped to start his garden next week. 

Taken with my li'lN... more »

2013-04-11 00:54:31 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

"Teatro Politeama Garibaldi" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

I have been unable to get "Va Pensiero" from Verdi's opera, Nabucco, out of my mind for the past two days so I went looking for a suitable image on Google Street View to create a 1950s style toy camera snapshot.

This is the Teatro Politeama Garibaldi in Palermo, Sicily.

On March 12, 2011, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome was the site of a dramatic moment which not only electrified a nation, but changed the course of the government.

It was a performance of Verdi’s Nabucco, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Italian unification.

The opera recounts the plight of the Jews in captivity in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon as they pine for their lost homeland. Written in 1842, Verdi’s work is often creditedwith helping ... more »

2013-04-09 01:04:33 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

"Pape"

After the subway station was torn apart for renovations and before the new artistic tiles were installed, the writing was on the wall. Indecipherable but for the enigmatic white capitals.

we the curious and hungry for meaning are refused access
we must remain out here inspecting the surface
the faint swirls and incisions and repairs
under the museum white light
alongside strangers

The poet is Ken Babstock, winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize for his book, "Methodist Hatchet".

In a recording for the Art Gallery of Ontario, he describes the rivetting tarpaulin wall hangings by the late Betty Goodwin. I thought of Goodwin when I saw the Pape station walls temporarily bared.

Her Tarpaulin Series, created in the 1970s, always leaves me breathless. Like scarred and repaired kimonos, the pieces are concerned with... more »

2013-04-09 00:28:47 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 16 +1s)

"fotoromanza" for +Artistic Google curated by +Rob Robinson +Chee Yow +Jamal Masood +Patrick Sheeran and me.

Cycling down the road faster than grease on a griddle as the Google Street View Guy records every indiscretion, real or imagined.

Original Google Street View from the idyllic isle of Procida, off Naples: http://goo.gl/maps/j1mXp

Musical accompaniment: Dr. John - "How Come My Dog Don't Bark When You Come 'Round" Dr. John - How Come My Dogs Don't Bark - 10.wmv

2013-04-07 17:46:10 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 25 +1s)

"Nautilus" for +William Mazdra who inspires me daily

Where is there room for colour
in this crowd of sounds
that I know as the world?

tell me about your seeing

Excerpt from Adam Sol, "Blind" from his slim volume of poetry: "Crowd of Sounds" at http://goo.gl/JlaFC
Image: Looking up through the staircase at Art Gallery of Ontario where, momentarily, one can remove oneself into a silent world of wonder.

2013-04-06 14:55:52 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

[silver cathedral]

broken planes of silver
slip past me without regard
the kind of silence
familiar amidst the restless
the bells of dissonance
that ring in this empty lectern
this laughable mess of dreams
this cathedral in my head