September 2007 – hexachromatic

a thousand red flambeaux

“‘Yow!’
The boy’s ‘Yow!’ echoes across the field like the sound of a horn. They build a snowman and riddle it with snowballs, and now dusk is coming and March sky is mad and lowering with angry, purple clouds. In a moment the sun is going to break through and flame in all the windows of Galloway, the mill windows will be a thousand red flambeaux, something will slant across the skies and over the river.
‘Yow!’”

—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.

a big black dance

“The streetlamp at the corner-store sways shadows in a big black dance, the store sign swings and creaks in the wind, leaves fly, apples thud to the ground in the orchards, the stars are blazing in the somber sky—everything is raw, smoky, and terrific.”

—Jack Kerouac, The Town and the City, 1950.

Earth Noir

bw.erth.jpg
“Way back in the mysterious Hadean eon, the Earth would have appeared essentially colorless, or more specifically grey. . . . At this point, chromatically, the Earth would have looked a whole lot like our moon looks today. . . .
Over time . . . with the evolution of bacteria and algae and parrots and gay pride parades down 5th Avenue the Earth transformed into the spectacularly rich and varied Technicolor extravaganza we love so well today.”

—a great essay (and a nice illustration, too) from The Nonist.

Vernacular Baton Rouge 2

All of these shots were taken are along Highland Road, north of the LSU campus. I have long admired the TV Service wall. . . .

What worries me now

“What worries me now is what the regime is doing behind closed doors, at night, to the monks, to the people in jail.”
—Burmese diplomat.

Government forces carry away body

In Burma, an unknown number of people were killed by soldiers yesterday, including a Japanese photographer who continued to take pictures as he died. Thousands of monks and ordinary citizens are in detention. Today, there are reports of people defying and confronting the soldiers, and also reports that some of the troops are refusing to obey orders. The split in the military may go all the way up to the top two leaders. The government shut down the internet yesterday, but news is still making its way out of the country. Cllck here (down here, on the caption) for the latest news I can find. I have been to Burma, it is a real place, and they are beautiful but terribly oppressed people!

Minerva nerveless in Nirvana

“. . . Oh say can you see in the dark you
observe Minerva nerveless in Nirvana because
Zeus rides reindeer thru Bethlehem’s blue sky.
It’s Buddha sits in Mary’s belly waving Kuan
Yin’s white hand at the Jang-tze that Mao sees,
tongue of Kali licking Krishna’s soft blue lips.”

—Allen Ginsberg, Holy Ghost on the Nod over the Body of Bliss, 1966, from Collected Poems 1947–1997.

on a red stage

“Six women dancing together on a red stage naked
The leaves are green on all the trees in Paris now
I will be home in two months and look you in the eyes”

—Allen Ginsberg, Message, 1958, from Collected Poems 1947–1997.

a fine prospect

“‘I like a fine prospect, but not on picturesque principles. I do not like crooked, twisted, blasted trees. I admire them much more if they are tall, straight and flourishing. I do not like ruined, tattered cottages. I am not fond of nettles, or thistles, or heath blossoms. I have more pleasure in a snug farm-house than in a watch-tower and a troop of tidy, happy villagers please me better than the finest banditti in the world.’”

—Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 1811.

hexachromatic

respect the Chromatic scale