Thanksgiving Eve

I want to be Rilke

a god in my own right,
perched atop death and human experience

- as Thanos enthroned
upon a mound of gleaming skulls

eyes, glowing and smoking
like embers in a pipe,
well drawn...

eyes
with the stars
showing through them;

infinity reflected

inside
and out -

and in my posited Rilke-esqueness

(silk smooth,
wise
and resolute)

I'd shit
easter eggs of encapsulated existence,

and with assonant assertions

rise
whispering
from the depths
of archetype,

embed
myself
-entire-
in the collective
subconscious,

Id, ego, etc.
et al.

...of Behavior

Hanging at the office

Novel Idea

If I were ever going to write something, it might be about a 40's detective - champion of the people, with large hairy ears and a propensity for lupinism.*

Kidding. I'm a kidder. 

But sometimes its fun to just let the mind's tongue loose and see where it leads. 

Albinism, too, might play a part in this ism-esque foray. 

And If I were to write this novel, it would have to include threads of anti-elitism, though these days... 

Trump might be considered the champion of the anti-elitist by some. 

Which is not exactly the direction I was heading in, but sure, that's one way to go.

And that, in turn, reminds me of an NPR interview I recently heard.** Believe the dude's name was Hari, though I may've murdered the spelling just now. Anywho...***

He's done a movie, I believe, based on the character Abu, from The Simpsons, who, he points out, is a caricature. 

'Duh' you might say, to which I retort, yes, the use of caricature throughout the show is acknowledged in the interview, however...

Hari contends this caricature is put forth entirely by white folk - Matt Groenig, the writers, Hank Azaria - and will always lack the depth of other characters, who are occasionally fleshed out and even dip into underlying truths.****

And while the interview runs a tad bit PC-ish, he makes an excellent point at the end that stuck with me...

He'd tried to interview Hank Azaria re: Abu, but after no response, said (essentially):

Of course that conversation would be awkward. But we need to more conversations like that these days. 

Truer words were never spoken, at least from this old man's perspective.*****

So while my 40's detective might hang out - alternately - either at a bar or in the rooms of AA, so that Alcoholism too** might be added to the flavor of the mix, the most important part would be the ensuing conversations. 

Awkward little conversations that are not slick, composed, cool, tailored or what have you.******

Big pauses so long you could drive a truck through them, with plenty of time for character and reader to feel uncomfortable and just sit with it.*******

Yeah.

*Strangely, the photo above and this article have nothing in common. 
**Yes, I listen to NPR. No, I'm not an adherent. Humanist perphaps? Meanwhile... 

***My sister hates 'anywho' so this is somewhat of a back handed shout out. Yo!

****My words not his...

*****Turned 50 this year and while I feel fairly froggy, get a lot more 'sirs' and dismissive looks from the culture of youth than days of yor.
******All apologies to Elmore Leonard, and maybe Carl Hiaasen, dialogists extraordinaire.

*******Yeah, yeah - I realize books with large gaps in the action might be difficult to pull off - ooh! Maybe a blank page or 2? Anywho.... :)

Perspectivism

So...

I haven't re-posted or critiqued anything in forever -but- found the above artist particularly alluring.

Her name is Cecile Perra and at first I thought she was a he, which made me feel vaguely uncomfortable because I found myself wanting to hump the leg of whoever had created these playful, sometimes creepy, but always... authentic little figures.

Archetypal isn't quite the right term to describe them, but they have a certain... resonance.*

And yes, she uses similar elements currently popular among other peeps - old photos, bits of human faces in masks w/colored threads sewn in, etc - but time after time (whilst parsing Pinterest) I found myself drawn to her combinations of those elements vs. others. 

For me, it tied in a bit with Ram Das and "Polishing the Mirror" - which seems a ridiculous segue -but- something about Guru worship essentially being God and even self-adulation, with love and resonance being the common thread?

Basically, I hear the beat she's laying down. 

That, and the fact I'd been reading Ram earlier in the a.m., followed by a blissful siesta, and my first sighting of the artist...

Happenstance or synchronicity, you be the judge.

http://www.artperra.fr/?p=1751  

P.S. I'd be remiss to exclude Hanna Hoch, German turn of the century, Da-da-ist, who started me down the path of collage as High Art. If you don't know her, she's definitely worth a look see.

P.P.S. Should also mention that collage for me is the new Impressionism. Old bits of this and that  reconstituted with a hybrid vigor into something entirely new, at least to the mind's eye. Call it Perspectivism.