Image: Coaster #5

Poem: December 31, 2000

 

In a bus line

in the heart of the city,

in a hailstorm thrusting silver shards of icy glass

deep into the concrete earth,

a woman holds a little Japanese baby

the colour of Cadbury’s

Dairy Milk Chocolate.

 

Asleep in peace,

his little fingers wave in the air like

undulating undersea fronds.

Beneath the coloured threads and protective fibres

of his logoed rainsuit,

no fever shakes the young child’s bones,

no distrust disturbs the sleep of purity,

no threats or worries fly about

in his head so full of wonder and learning.

 

In this child’s dreams lies the promise

Of the new year.

 

 

Night Music: How?

 

A genuine masterpiece.

Image: Business of Fishing

Night Music: Now That You’re Gone

Movie Posters Of 2018

The always reliable Creative Review has posted their list of the best movie posters of the year.

This is an excellent vehicle to publicise lesser-known films as well as more popular examples of modern design.

City boy to the core, I found myself drawn to this poster for L’Empereur de Paris which was previously unknown to me.

Image: City Abstract #4

Night Music: Hallelujah Chorus by the Silent Monks

Image: Sky Diving

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

 

 

Night Music: Fairytale of New York

Poem: Forward

 

The forked tongue of the future lies ahead

Beckoning us forward.  Advance!  Progress!

Regardless of the perils and our dread

 

Of failure, ever onward must we tread.

And no matter how much we feel the stress,

The forked tongue of the future lies ahead.

 

And whether we fly the black flag or red,

The same indignations we must address

Regardless of the perils and our dread:

 

The starving masses, children barely fed;

And even for those who have even less

The forked tongue of the future lies ahead.

 

So throw away your doubts; let us instead

Rejoice in future’s coming, and impress —

Regardless of the perils and our dread —

 

Our generation’s mark.  Let it be said

We lived, loved, built, and understood that, yes,

The forked tongue of the future lies ahead

Regardless of the perils and our dread.

Image: Library Exterior #6

Night Music: River

Image: Puerto Vallerta Sunset

Night Music: A Forest Version of Bach

Image: Rope #1

Van Gogh For The Winter

As we get ever closer to the longest and darkest nights in this part of the world we can spend the time to explore some subject or another in detail.

For example, I am going to put some of those dark hours to the blazing light that Vincent Van Gogh brought to his art.

The Van Gogh Museum has digitized 1,439 canvases, drawings, and sketches, and made all of them available online.

It is a wonderful opportunity to take a deep dive into his work.

Night Music: History of a Boy Scout

On The Map

A review of a wonderfully entertaining book called “On The Map” by Simon Garfield.  In 450 or so pages it covers a gloriously broad history of cartography running all the way from Ptolemy to Google Maps and beyond.

This is not a scholarly volume like Jerry Brotton’s wonderfully deep “A History of the World in Twelve Maps” that I read earlier this year.  But I suspect that I learned even more from Garfield’s chatty account.  And Garfield certainly covers a wider field — from all the important maps covered by Brotton and plenty more besides, to treasure maps, maps of celebrity homes, games with maps, a history of guidebooks, the making of globes, and people who steal and deal in maps.

According to his interview on the Colbert Report, this is the author’s favourite map:

To quote Garfield, maps have a power

“to fascinate, excite and provoke, to affect the course of history, to serve as the silent conduit to the compelling stories of where we’ve been and where we’re going.”

The whole thing is wonderfully illustrated with a couple of hundred images that are well-chosen and assist the flow.  However, I am bound to note that the index is severely flawed.

I really didn’t want this book to end and I encourage everyone to give it a read.