Saturday, July 26, 2014

PATCHWORK POST


Kicking off with a (slightly edited) patch from my 2008 archive:
Collective nouns can be fun and creative. For a collection of them, see here. From that list I like these deviations from the more common herd, flock, swarm: a congress of baboons, a scold of jays, an exaltation of larks, a nuisance of cats, an ostentation of peacocks, a murder of crows, a murmuration of starlings.

Just for fun, I've chosen twelve new collective nouns - one for each zodiac sign, for descriptive use in a natal chart where a cluster (collective noun = stellium) of planets appears in one zodiac sign; alternatively these could be used by followers of Sun sign astrology, to describe a group of people who share the same Sun sign.

A rush of Aries
An affluence of Taurus
A chatter of Gemini
A nest of Cancer
A parade of Leo
An exactitude of Virgo
An arbitration of Libra
A collusion of Scorpio
A magnification of Sagittarius
An institution of Capricorn
A current of Aquarius
A mirage of Pisces


And to pull together the whole caboodle:
A cadence of zodiac signs!



Whenever we're out and about, on the road, and notice an old decaying house, husband stops to take a photograph. There are several of these in his Flickr section "Rust and Ruin". Three such photographs inspired him to write a few lines of suitably melancholy prose, which I especially admire. He's not normally a melancholy guy, but gazing on the houses in his photographs, what other reaction could there have been?

Here they are:




We Moved Away

We built our house, we made our home;
Of laughing sounds and cookie smells,
Of warming thoughts and gentle touch.
We had such lovely plans to stay.
And then,
We moved away.





Time Was.

She sat quietly a moment longer. His gaze drifted to a shadowed corner of the room.
The summer air shuffled the sounds of the day through the open window, somehow adding to the awkward density of the moment, adding to the pale silence between them.

Finally she stood, her hands dutifully smoothing the wrinkles in her skirt. “I must leave now,” she said. “I must go.” She forced a smile and turned toward him.

He continued to stare at a faded spot in the wallpaper.

In her mind she was already walking away.




Another day.

Dusty sunbeams filtered through the uneven window blinds beside his bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with his palms. There was a dark and heavy pain inside him. It was the loneliness he knew would grow and consume him before day’s end. He hoped again that this would be the last day, just as he had hoped yesterday and the day before and the weeks before.

As the edges of his reality warmed to the day, he told himself to think of something else; anything else. But he was already thinking of her.




The 2014 entry on The Arrow of Time is up now - if you haven't seen this from my links in previous years, take a look now - it's fascinating, and sweet.




Cute!






While snooping around husband's Flickr page I noticed this vintage photograph from his collection - it reminded me immediately of a painting featured in yesterday's Arty Farty post on Maxfield Parrish:



 Ecstasy




What a clever idea for passing on important messages/lessons! I'm wondering what else, related to modern technology (and otherwise), could be passed using variations of this idea..






Final patch ~ How do you know you're shopping in Texas?



Oops!! In my love-hate affair with Texas, one of the things I love about Texans is their ability to laugh at themselves.

13 comments:

anyjazz said...

Good post. And thanks for the bump.

mike said...

Quite an enjoyable collage of topics today, Twilight, speaking as a chatter rising with a collusion!

Anyjazz' photos of old houses reminds me of my travels along less-traveled highways dappled with these structures nearing obsolescence. Occasionally, there is life by some visible sign occupying them...a reminder of poverty's impoverished. Anyjazz' last two poems could have been written for yesterday's Parrish post regarding Sue Lewin's departure from the compound after fifty years.

"The Arrow of Time" is quite a study in aging. A police officer in LA, CA, photographed methamphetamine users over a decade of mug shots - utterly horrifying what this drug does to a body. I recently saw an advertisement for a soon-to-be-released movie about a boy-man filmed over two decades...it is receiving great reviews.

How can you go wrong with kittens or puppies? I suppose that is how they have us humans trained to feed and care for them.

That's a wonderful Parrish-esque photo! Worthy of enlarging and having it nicely framed. Even the aging and staining lends an artistic touch and enhances the subject.

Got a kick from the VW-texting and "Shopping in TX" shorts. I would think that you and anyjazz would be quirky naturals as videographers. Do either of you make videos?

Is it as HOT & HUMID for you as for me here in the deep south? Misery loves company.

Twilight said...

anyjazz ~ Thanks - and thank YOU for the material. ;-)

mike (again) said...

"Boyhood is a 2014 American drama film written, co-produced and directed by Richard Linklater and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater and Ethan Hawke. The film was shot intermittently over a twelve-year period, as Coltrane grew from childhood to adulthood; filming began in the summer of 2002 and was completed in October 2013."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyhood_%28film%29

Twilight said...

mike ~ I'm glad to know you enjoyed the patchwork. My rush of current had me stitching rapidly. ;-)

The abandoned decaying houses - yes, the Parrish-Lewin affair would fit the tale nicely.

I'm fascinated by the Arrow of Time, especially by changes in the younger members of the family. Parents are holding up rather well I think.

Hadn't considered framing the old photo of the airman - will consult Himself on the matter.

Re videos - I used to play around with Windows Media Maker or whatever it's called now. That was simply making compilations of stuff, astrological or art-related + music or sound behind them though, not original material. I gave up doing it because I blamed a frozen shoulder on too much intense longtime manoeuvring on the mouse and keyboard.

Anyjazz occasionally produces a very short video using his photos, maybe a morphing exercise, or clip from his camera. Proper video making, while possibly within our ability-span with a bit of study, would be outside our combined attention spans these days, I suspect.

HOT? YES!!! Probably not as hot as for you down there in farthest south Texas, but far too hot for my northern blood, and this year's humidity is a new and most unwelcome addition. I've been trying to avoid using the air conditioner for as long as possible each day, usually have managed without it until mid-afternoon when the sun really hits the house, but today had to throw in the towel by 11 am.
Carbon footprinting my way to damnation, I suppose. ;-/





mike (again) said...

Re humidity...my favorite weatherman calls this "air you can wear".

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ thanks for the link on "Boyhood" - I shall make an effort to see that, one way or another.

I also read a GQ review of the film

http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/2014/07/boyhood-movie-review.html

I'd been going to mention similarity to the 7-UP British TV series, then saw that the GQ writer had already done so. I flicked to my 2013 post on 7-UP and see that you commented there and had seen some of the series.

http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-up-series-continues-56-up.html

I love productions of that nature, probably the reason I found Arrow of Time website so interesting to follow.

Humidity - also "air you can swear (at)" :-)

LB said...

Thanks, Twilight. That ad reminding movie-goers about the dangers of texting while driving was great, though I wonder how effective it will be - not very, I suspect.

As an aside, I haven't been to our local theater in years because of cell phone use during movies. It's way too distracting (and annoying), which is probably why there are signs posted that prohibit their use.

I really enjoyed Anyjazz' photos and poetry/prose.:) Sad as it is, that's life for a lot of folks.

It's been relatively hot and humid on the West Coast too, too hot for me.

Twilight said...

LB ~ LB ~ I guess the texting while driving issue will be like other dangers, to ourselves, and to others : smoking, drinking (and drinking before driving), over-doing anything at all that's likely to become addictive. It'll take a tragedy very close to home to ensure the message is loud enough to be heard and noted...in most cases.
Much the same applies (on a bigger scale) to the way government is all but ignoring climate change too.

Cellphones are a mixed blessing aren't they - a 21st century addiction. That old quote of Charlton Heston's about "cold dead hands" springs to mind.

Glad you like husband's pics and prose. I shall pass it on.

Too darned hot....yes indeed! At least another 5 or 6 weeks of the same are ahead of us too.

LB said...

Twilight ~ I think a lot of us (myself included) are ignoring a lot of issues, including climate change.

Related to the environment, did you happen to read "Two Realities: On Debating 'Growth' on a Finite Planet" by Richard Heinberg? It was on Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/07/23/two-realities-debating-growth-finite-planet

Twilight said...

LB ~ I've read several lately, but not that one - thank you for the link.

As Neil de Grasse Tyson has said, the ultra wealthy corporatists and 1% will begin to take notice soon because they'll start losing money. Maybe then something will be done. We can hope.

LB said...

Twilight ~ My husband just watched all three of the videos - he agreed, all very good! Thanks.:)

Twilight said...

LB ~ I'm glad - you're very welcome.
:-)