Travails: November 2010

November 30, 2010

Glow from Kitchen

Photo of glowing kitchen, viewed from the bedroom hallway, last night:

25 Railway Spike Praying Mantes

Completed last night. We had fifty but all the man-eating women manteses ate a male, as was natural.

From Chapter 2:

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

  "Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."

"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"

The brush continued to move.

  "Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

   That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect -- added a touch here and there -- criticised the effect again -- Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."

   Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

  "No -- no -- I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's awful particular about this fence -- right here on the street, you know -- but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and she wouldn't. Yes, she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done."

  "No -- is that so? Oh come, now -- lemme just try. Only just a little -- I'd let you, if you was me, Tom."

   "Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly -- well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it -- "

   "Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say -- I'll give you the core of my apple."

   "Well, here -- No, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard -- "

   "I'll give you all of it!"

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with -- and so on, and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles,part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a dog-collar -- but no dog -- the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.

He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while -- plenty of company -- and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn't run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.

...

Image via. Text from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer via

November 29, 2010

Palette Knife

Ice in pool:

November 28, 2010

Emerald Tablet

As Accounted by Apollonius of Tyana

It contains an accurate commentary that can't be doubted.

It states: What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one.

And all things sprang from this essence through a single projection. How marvelous is its work! It is the principle [sic] part of the world and its custodian.

Its father is the sun and its mother is the moon. Thus the wind bore it within it and the earth nourished it.

Father of talismans and keeper of wonders.

Perfect in power that reveals the lights.

It is a fire that became our earth. Separate the earth from the fire and you shall adhere more to that which is subtle than that which is coarse, through care and wisdom.

It ascends from the earth to the heaven. It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore the darkness flees from it.

The greatest power overcomes everything that is subtle and it penetrates all that is coarse.

10.

The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm.

11.

The scholars made this their path.

12.

This is why Thrice Hermes was exalted with wisdom.

13.

This is his last book that he hid in the catacomb.

via

"The reason that the Emerald Tablet was so valuable is because it contained the instructions for the goals of alchemists. It hinted at the recipe for alchemical gold, as well as how to set one's level of consciousness to a new degree." (via)

Alchemical Goat

From: How to Draw a Billy Goat in Five Illustrated Steps.

November 27, 2010

Kármán Vortex Street

Cloud vortices caused by Alejandro Selkirk Island.

Dafoe modeled Robinson Crusoe after Alexander Selkirk.

Image via NASA. Vortex Street wiki

November 26, 2010

The Inukshukification of Highway 69

Amidst the canyons blasted from the rock of Ontario, Highway 69 snakes it's way North. The opposing lanes seperated by the shattered granite backs of whales rising from the deeps, as of islands in the St. Lawrence, atop of which haphazardly stands an ever increasing number of small Inukshuk's. "Returning....from a recent trip south, I counted 93 [inukshuks] between the Georgian Bay Welcome Centre and [Sudbury]. That does not include mounds of rock where Inukshuks likely stood before. " (via) These inukshuks and mounds of rock are erected by "random" people who pull over and stop their cars (which were going 120km/h).

Prayer Flag covered steppes of Mongolia.

Shrine filled mountains of Kyoto.

Inukshuk filled Highway of Ontario.

Some are perhaps built to mark the end of a memorable camping trip, while others like the one built by Phil Andrews are built to commemorate. Mr. Andrews: "built his first Inukshuk last May after his Godfather's funeral:

After noting the creations for years with his family, Andrews said the solo drive back to southern Ontario was an appropriate time to build one of his own. “I had this ‘fill the dreams’ moment where I needed to stop and do it... following his godmother Ginny Farrell’s funeral, Andrews made another Inukshuk. The two structures can now be seen standing next to each other along the road. " (via)

Syllogism:

1.) The edges of Highway 69 are populated with Inukshuks (as well as Christian crosses and Canadian flags)

2.) The Inukshuks are built for various memorial purposes, which might include: memorials to loved ones, memorials to trips/vacations/drives, memorials to a funny collective moment, and circular amemorials

Therefore:

As we drive Highway 69 we drive a Songline -- as of Australia's Aborigines. Memories (memorials) accumulate upon the margins of the road and we create a path, navigated by reciting the story of each Inukshuk. "Are we there yet" she bawled infantilely. "No" you respond parently "we just passed the Farrell's Inukshuks, and are about to pass The Inukshuk That Fell Down Last Fall, so it will be 15 minutes". But, as the meaning and cause of each Inukshuk's existence is unknown, so the Songlines we create are relative: the stones embodying a completely different narrative for every car.

What we decry as 'image' and 'pastiche' from the outside (i.e in supllanting the traditional use/location of Inukshuks into Everywhere Canada) we must laud in the details: the pursuit of 'innocent whim' is a valid cultural move and contains subtle (true and universal) meaning, as of any historical icon or dogma, though it doesn't necessarily agree with the history (which they may or may not have been cognizant of). The motivation is not to use the 'image: inukshuk' as an image of itself, but to use the 'image' to embody an expression of themselves (a symbol).

And we conquer The Tyranny of Image, even as we profane our surrounding's, relentlessly saying: "history was more beautiful, more meaningful, more connected (Pax Romana, Athens and the Golden Age); the future will be more beautiful, more meaningful, more connected (Heaven, Nirvanha)". For Phil Andrews the Inukshuks along Highway 69 now represent a memory of his Godparents -- in building one you engage the collective act of building all Inukshuks, thinking: "Inukshuk = Godfather's Inukshuk = Godfather" -- and for him Highway 69 is understood more subtly and more sacredly.

Though in our era we can't have a doric temple because it is anachronistic (and "pastiche-y"), we can, and do, have perfectly smooth paths, 'worn' through the hard Ontario Rock, stretching across Ontario hills and over lakes and rivers, which hold quanitifiable meaning and visible divinity though they arose from our utilitarian (and for us culturally abnegated) logistic-material necessities. But it is precisely these practical necessities -- the collection of food, water, territorial boundaries, exchange of goods/ideas -- that resulted in the Songlines of the Australian's, celebrating their immutable presence in a landscape and it's presence within them.

Title and quotes via. Photo by Anna-Joy.

Monks of Mount Hiei

Also known as the Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei, near Kyoto, Japan.

"Only 46 men have completed the 1,000-day challenge since 1885. It takes seven years to complete, as the monks must undergo other Buddhist training in meditation and calligraphy, and perform general duties within the temple...

The first 300 days are basic training, during which the monks run 40km per day for 100 consecutive days. In the fourth and fifth years they run 40km each day for 200 consecutive days...

... In the sixth year they run 60km each day for 100 consecutive days and in the seventh year they run 84km each day for 100 consecutive days..."

Short Video:

The hiking trails of Ontario and Canada are maintained through a less codified worship of "Wilderness" as very dedicated people every year, build bridges and boardwalks through forests and bogs (the bogs of Northern Ontario are sublime, with long boardwalks and carnivorous pitcher plants). The places we pause at, just as the Monks, are waterfalls, cairns of stone, views down valleys, up mountains, collapsed log cabins and the rusty skeletons of logging camps.