Slavko Sez: Snow!

Hi John, Many greetings from Milna, hope you're doing well and sound! Look what I've found this morning on our doorsteps, for a long time didn't snow like this, so I took the chance before it's gone!

Slavko

Seasons Roll 'Round and 'Round

I've got the orchard down at the farm pruned once again . . . (actually, I paid someone to do it for us!) . . . still the seasons roll . . .

Desert vacation and Back Home in the Snow!

Here and there . . .

Avoiding the snow back home...we stay another two days...

I bicycle out into the desert hills . . . about 6 miles in I discover that I have two flat tires.....desert thorns have punctured each . . . the sun is hot . . . I think of the "storm of decades" at home in Seattle . . .

Chaz: First Half of New Chapter

New Chapter:  Picasso, Nietzsche & Hitler

Will to Power Will

Nietzsche's Book, The Birth of Tragedy, exploded onto the literary scene in 1870 and profoundly changed how the western world conceptualized values and morals and art.  While Nietzsche was a philosophical scholar this book was monumental in paving the way for Modern Art.

Nietzsche's bold idea was that the values for the modern world should be reset to the thinkers of the Pre-Socratic era of Ancient Greece where good and evil were not seen as opposites but as both having equal value and importance in the gestalt of our world view.  God was dead and we had killed him.

Instead of our morals being dominated by the Christian ideal of good winning out over evil and evil being banished to the underworld.  Good and evil, for Neitzsche co-exist on the same moral plane much as the ying and the yang in Chinese philosophy.

Good is seen as the Appolonian ideal of structure, classical form and light and the Dionysian ideal is seen as the irrational, chaotic and dark form.  Both ideals are indeed one whole and not opposites.

In Nietzsche's mind Western Philosophy and Art had been greatly compromised by Socrates over his valuation of the sacred search for truth and then later Art and Spirituality are crippled by the Christian morality of Good conquering Evil.

John Richardson, the eminent Picasso biographer and full time purveyor of Modern Art, has told us that Picasso read Nietzche and was greatly influenced by these notions of good and evil being one of the same whole.  Many of Picasso's best friends were writers and no doubt they discussed Nietzsche's ideas with Picasso.

Picasso was well aware of his place in the traditions of Western Art. Picasso was also an intrepid explorer of African, Asian, Indian and many other strands of World Art form.  Picasso's interests ran from New Guinea to North and South America to the Iberian coast of Spain.  Picasso needed a value system to integrate all of this World Art into his own painting style and Nietzsche's concept of how good and evil, Apollo and Dionysus coexisted with each other was the perfect ordering system for Picasso to integrate all the elements of these different artistic modalities into his own personal vision.

Form, geometry, light, chaos and fury were always elements of Picasso's Art.  All of these elements worked together in his artistic system thanks to his understanding of Nietzsche.  And above all else Picasso was at one with Dionysian energy and frivolity and understanding the moral value of Bacchanalian activities which freed Picasso to pursue his Art with more being and abandon.  Dionysus was always welcome at Picasso's beach says John Richardson.

Nietzsche was also a proponent of the great man rising above the low-life of the common man through the power of the will.  A great man's biggest hurdle was actually overcoming civilization itself in order for him to be able to achieve anything of value.  Nietzsche felt the late 19^th century was a time of great moral change as the older Christian values and morality were no longer appropriate to guide civilization into the Modern Age.  God was dead and the voice of the great man needed to be heard.

Picasso listened and heeded this call to power and will to make Art with the iron determination of the Great Man.  More important to Picasso than life itself was being able to make Art at all costs.  Picasso understood his calling as a Great Artist in the traditions of Art and he understood how he was guiding Modern Art in his lifetime.  Picasso used his extraordinary will to power, which was enhanced by his reading of Nietzsche, to create over 20,000 objects of Art.  Picasso produced enough Art for at least five Artists in his life time.  Nothing deterred Picasso's need to create. 

In the late 1920's Picasso bought an old chateau outside of Paris where he would paint and sculpt and where Olga would enjoy being out of the city.  There was no electricity wired into the buildings and Picasso could not stop what he was doing in the studio long enough to hire an electrician to wire the property for electrical power.  Picasso painted in the old horse stable on the property and when it got dark in the studio Picasso had his chauffeur Marcel drive the trusty Hispano-Suiza touring car up to the front door of the studio and turn on the car lights to illuminate the studio.  So much for Picasso needing that special Northern light or even natural light to paint by.

Picasso hardly traveled in his life other than to the South of France or back to Paris.  To travel would take away from his time to work in the studio and create Art.

Even Picasso's collector's, friends and women had to wait for Dionysus while he worked.

Hitler was another man called to the power of the will.  

-- Charles

 

Hiking the San Andeas Fault

On the fault

Palms, desert, mountains

Are you sure this is the way?

Hiking up the wash

pictures

The book needs pictures.... got any?

The book needs about 50 photographs of nazis, artists & spanish republicans & women & tanks & communists.

The photos need to set the mood for the book.  

The frame and structure of how the story works.  What am I talking about?

I am writing the last chapter of the book which is about, Picasso, Nietzsche & Hitler, tonight.

 Very interesting.  A man can be thought of by others more than one 

way from Friday. 

 I am going to write about the Birth of

Tragedy and Thus Spake Zarathrustra

and compare each book's personality. 

 For the first time in my life I am grasping the idea of Beyond Good & Evil. 

 Beyond Good & Evil is the existence of being.

We are alive.  Anyway that's what I am up to. 

Charles



(Ed:  John says:  Here, you can use this one!!!)

Ah, Pablo, you shouldn't have . . .

Or maybe:

Spencer says: "I made that!"

Beautiful and yummy!

From Chaz:

Like I said pretty great

Fwd: De Kooning

I went back to view De Kooning again and I was all wrong, in fact I was all wet believing he was not much of a talent. De Koon is fabulous I was an idiot! Rivera is pretty good with the Calla Lilies as well.

Charles Sent from my iPhone

Out for a Walk

. . . on Christmas Day, near Eliot and Kyra's . . . the abdominal . . . I mean, abominable . . . snowman!!!!!!

Slavko: Happy Holidays

Wish you all the best for this coming holiday season, we got a small Christmas tree ready, along with some wheat and orchid that doesn't seems to stop blooming. Business as usual, have some sunshine, but it is a winter definitely (Nada's longing for the summer now)! Two good news for the coming year, back road is being paved, Berica's working with all the equipment, and new catamaran stop is under construction across St.Nikola's church, at Vlaska. And, by Berica store one section of riva is rebuilding. It feels better with the work going on!

Best wishes to you, Julia and the family from Nada and Slavko

Chaz sez:

My car wouldn't start last night after work and then I hit a cement post with Melanie's car later in the evening. I used up most of my AAA tows for the year in less than 4 hours.

Charles 

Solstice

I am drinking Pacifico,
smoking cigars,
listening to Sarah Vaughan,
almost
as if it were summer.

Happy Birthday, Philip K. Dick!

Last Part of Booke

THE BATTLE OF PARIS

General Leclerc , De Gaulle's favorite French tank commander, of the French 2^nd Army had been attached to the American General Patton and was overanxious to take his men and aide the uprisings of the French Resistance against the Nazis in Paris beginning on August 19^th.

LeClerc went to Patton and demanded that he be allowed to drive his men to Paris and begin the liberation of the city.  Patton was indifferent to this demand and told LeClerc it made no difference to him who liberated Paris.  Finally after much cajoling from De Gaulle Eisenhower finally gave the permission for LeClerc to head his troops in the direction of Paris.  Some observers say that LeClerc had already left by the time his orders arrived.

The Allied command was reluctant to help the French 2^nd Army but as the liberation of Paris ran into modest resistance from the Nazis they sent in divisions of the 3^rd American Army to help out.  The Americans were worried that the liberation of Paris might turn into the Battle of Stalingrad all over again but the heroics of the French Resistance in those days went a long way toward the surrender of the German commandant Dietrich von Cholitz.

On August 19^th the French Resistance began to blockade the streets of Paris and attacked the German garrison on the Isle St. Louis.  This led to conditions of general mayhem in the city and the German commander even tried to negotiate a cease-fire with the Resistance fighters but the French smelling blood would not have it.

Hostilities in the streets grew, as there was a general strike called by Resistance, which severely limited the Nazis from managing the city anymore.

Hitler had demanded that von Cholitz wire the famous landmarks of Paris and its bridges with enough bombs to level the city.  Hitler wanted Paris left in a heap of rubble on the way out of town.

While von Cholitz had been a loyal Nazi general in his career and had committed many acts of cruelty and violence he could not bring himself to destroy one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  While von Cholitz joked with his men that he was going to blow up the Eiffel Tower and use it as a foot bridge to cross the Seine he knew in his heart that he did not want to be known as the man who destroyed the city of light.  The city of Paris.  And besides von Cholitz knew that Hitler was now losing the war and to follow his commands to letter was a risky venture.

After much fierce fighting, Leclerc and his 2^nd Army and the French Resistance liberated Paris on August 24^th with the loss of 1500 Resistance fighters and 100 soldiers dead.  Over 5,000 German soldiers surrendered along with General von Cholitz.

The French people rushed out into the streets because they were so ecstatic that the Nazis had finally been defeated.  They were put in great harm thought by isolated German snipers lodged in the top floors of apartment buildings and on the rooftops of commercial buildings.

When De Gaulle entered the great Cathedral Notre Dame on the 25^th after his march down the Champs Elysee he was nearly gunned down as strode into the church by German snipers.  De Gaulle did not flinch a bit and he went on to deliver his famous speech about French liberty.

Pariee est liberte!!

The Battle for Paris is especially fierce near Picasso's home that he often said a bullet went by his head one morning, as he opened a window, and lodged itself into the wall of his bathroom.  Marie Therese lived on the Isle St. Louis where the German garrison was under attack so Picasso went to her apartment to stay with her and their daughter Maya.

On August 25^th, 1944 General Leclerc swept into Paris and forced the Germans to surrender the city back to the Free French.  Later that day the 3^rd American Army followed right behind.

Ernest Hemmingway was a journalist traveling with the American 3^rd Army and on the day Paris is liberated from the Nazis he boasted that he liberated the bars at Crillon and Ritz Hotels and he that let enough champagne flow out to liberate all of the streets of Paris.  Hemingway loved a story.

Later that same day Hemingway visited the Shakespeare and Company bookstore and asked Sylvia Beach what he could do for her.  Sylvia complained about the German snipers on the rooftops across the street shooting down on passer bys on the sidewalks.  Hemingway said no problem and went outside and spoke with the American soldiers traveling with him about the snipers.  Within 15 minutes the snipers had been dealt with. 

Hemingway's next stop was Picasso's place.  When Hemingway arrived  Picasso was not home but the concierge of the building asked if Hemingway would like to leave a present for Mr. Picasso.  Hemingway thought for a moment and then went back to his jeep parked on the street.  Hemingway returned with a case of grenades and told the concierge that, "Please tell Mr. Picasso that these are a gift from Mr. Hemingway.

Picasso returned to his studio on Grandes Augustine's once the fighting and sniper fire was subdued and once he found that Picasso was now the most famous and beloved man in all of France.

Because Picasso outlasted the cruelty of the Nazi's without giving in to their offers of better treatment all the world looked to him as a beacon of hope.

Picasso's home became the most popular spot on the tourist map for American soldiers on leave.  Francoise Gilot told stories about how every day after the liberation for weeks and weeks that there were American soldiers sleeping all over the vast studios.  The soldiers had all come to be with a hero.

By waiting out the Nazis with Hitler's proclamations and believing in deep in his sense of inner being and to keep on working in spite of the terror Picasso had won the war with the Nazis over life, liberty and art and the freedom to make Art as you believe.

In May of 1945 while Hitler is having himself and Eva murdered by an SS agent and then ordered to be burned like Sigfried; Picasso is living in gay Paris and starting a whole new chapter of his creative life with the intelligent and shapely twenty three year old Francoise Gilot. 

The Question goes out to the reader, "Who won that contest?"  

Charles Grimes 2011

What a weird year.

A Typical Office Christmas Party Conversation??

2011 Office Party
by: jhurd

The God Particle

Well, as you know, CERN today announced "tantalizing hints" of the Higgs Boson -- the "god particle" that gives things -- other particles -- mass. Physicists need to find this particle to confirm the Standard Theory of sub-atomic particle interaction. They believe they should be able to confirm it, or rule it out, in the next few months. If ruled out, this would force a radical rethink of 'the way things are.' The video above explains the Higgs field and Higgs boson.

Fwd: BOOK

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charles Grimes <charlesgrimes9@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 12:08 PM
Subject: book
To: JRH <jhurd@qsoup.net>

Thanks for your support.  I am reaching a point of mental fatigue as I search for the end of this phase of the book.  I know I will need to add more sections to get the book to 150 pages.  I have thought of two sections.  Mythologies is one chapter and Racisim is the other.  Racisim is what allows your mind to damage and murder other peoples so easily.  A Rascist believes he is culturally and mentally superior to those he plunders.  Kinda deep.

 

I think I have stumbled upon what I need.  The Nazi vision goes up in flames so a sense of renewal by fire there.  Picasso finds a sense of renewal in his attraction to Francoise.  She is young and beautiful and he can shape her into his new muse of life after near death at the hands of the Gestapo.  Picasso's trust in his belief of self and working in the face of terror and believing in his mythology outlasts the Nazi government beliefs (there are still Nazi who personally believe) and their work and mythology.  With the liberation of Paris Picasso is the number one celebrity of the Liberation and he did not even fire a shot.  Even DeGaulle had comprimised himself during the Occupation but Picasso's belief in sticking out the Occupation and being himself made him the uncomprimised hero.

 

His women would see this another way but History remembers only the victors.  While Hitler is having himself and Eva murdered in his bunker Picasso is starting a new life of celebrity and fame with a 20 year old babe.

 

Something like that.

 

I have been watching all of these documentaries of the Battle of Stalingrad.  The German soldiers were so hungry and cold that in the last days of the battle they would bury themselves in the rubble to stay warm and at the end of the fighting the Russian soldiers had to dig the Germans out of the ruble because they were too weak to do it themselves.

 

I am just starting to dig into the material about the last days of the German occupation where Hitler tells his commander in chief in Paris that if Hitler cannot have Paris then no one will have it.  Leave Paris in a heap.  Destroy everything.

 

Charles

Dateline Detroit: Chaz and Diego

Chaz gets to see Diego Rivera's 'Detroit Industry' murals (1932) Detroit Institute of Arts.  An Edsel Ford legacy . . .

"Notes the Washington Post, "Rivera was hired by the Ford Motor Co., and his series of politically charged fresco panels was called 'Detroit Industry.' Ultimately, Edsel Ford allowed that it was acceptable for an artist to displease his patron; the work is now recognized as one of Rivera’s masterpieces." "

Julian Visits the Old Folks back in Ann Arbor

Oh, "Merely" that . . . well, that's a relief . . .

"By Pepe Cortes

PALENQUE, Mexico | Fri Dec 2, 2011 10:06am EST

(Reuters) - If you are worried the world will end next year based on the Mayan calendar, relax: the end of time is still far off. So say Mayan experts who want to dispel any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse next year.
The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012 which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation.
Author Jose Arguelles called the date "the ending of time as we know it" in a 1987 book that spawned an army of Mayan theorists, whose speculations on a cataclysmic end abound online. But specialists meeting at this ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico say it merely marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another. . ."

(Ed:  Bold and italics are mine . . .)

Dateline Winthrop: Ice, Snow, Beauty

We are at our cabin in Winthrop for a week or two -- just in time to catch the first 6" of beautiful powdered snow and the single digit temperatures at night, driving back country roads through Ponderosa Pines, a full moon now waning and the Milky Way!

Tim and The Paris Review

A picture of Unkie Tim inspecting galley proofs for The Paris Review. They are in today for press tests in advance of their next issue printing.

He says this is "Always a fun day."

(Ed:  Tim looks so fresh and relaxed.  It's hard to believe he is at work! and the Paris Review, of all things . . . wow!)

Chillin' in Winthrop

Julia and Olivia cross-country above Winthrop.

John, in denim and sage . . .

Looking up the Methow Valley . . .

Go ahead, ask him anything . . .

 . . . anything at all! 

Check out Spencer's great "design-and-friends-and-neat-stuff" blog.
http://designhurd.tumblr.com

Still Painting into November

A well insulated studio!!!!  Second "Bri" painting in work.  Cigar smoke in the air.  Heater ablaze.

And a Happy 35th, Eliot!

November 6, 1976

From Brac Seeds

The blossoms on our hollyhock from Brac lasted into November this year.

Uli Day Writes on the Adventure of Quilting

Moorish quilt tiles by Uli Day

See her colorful blog here:  http://uliday.blogspot.com/

Picasso and the Nazis

Introduction

By the middle of the 1930's Picasso was the most popular living artist in the entire world.  If you didn't know his work you certainly had heard his name.  Picasso had his way with women, the art world, intellectuals, investors who wanted to purchase his art and most of all with the spirit of Modern Art.  Picasso had the perspective.

            The Nazis had a different perspective.  They despised modern art and wanted to eradicate modern art and modern artists in order to create space for their idealized vision of romantic art to flourish.  Hitler gave an important speech in 1937 where he basically said there were only two reasons why artist's painted abstract paintings.  Either the artists were mentally ill and needed to be castrated so they wouldn't reproduce or that the modern artist was a devious terrorist who needed to be exterminated.  There are not too many good choices out there for you, if you are a modern artist, and if Hitler should be driving his army over the borders of your country and into your neighborhood.

Charles Grimes

(Ed. -- This is the intro to a fun, fanciful and factual book on 'Picasso and the Nazis' that Charles has been working on.  So far, he has about 8 out of 9 chapters roughed out.)

Happy 60th, Unkie / Bro'

Just call him "Mister" Tim!

Spencer Writes: 'Liquor Literature'

(Ed:  This is cross-posted from Spencer's new blog at http://designhurd.tumblr.com . . .
This is a product of the weekly Trivia group that he participates in, "Tequila Mockingbird")

Liquor Literature


Todd: Liquor Literature

Todd: Let’s make a big list cause I want to do a poster series.

James and the giant Peach Schnapps
Tequila Mockingbird
A Pitcher of Dorian Grey Goose
Fahrenheit 151
Catcher in the Mai Tai?
Huckleberry Gin?

Niels: The Old Man and the Seagram’s
Alan: Hah. Good ones...

Maybe a few more-

Mad Straw Dogs 50-50
Se7en & 7
Dirty Martini Harry

Spencer:

100 beers of solitude
Slaughterhoused 5
for whom the wells toll ( this is a stretch maybe .. )
The Grapes of Wrath ( no change? )
Yeast of Eden

Spencer: Another,

Lord of the Ryes

Alan:

 Catcher in the Rye (needs no modification)
The Gin and I
Everclear and Present Danger
Taming of the Brew

Happy Birthday, Arthur

20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891


Morning of Drunkenness

By Arthur Rimbaud

Translated from the French by John Ashbery

O my good! O my beautiful! Atrocious fanfare where I won’t stumble! enchanted rack whereon I am stretched! Hurrah for the amazing work and the marvelous body, for the first time! It began amid the laughter of children, it will end with it. This poison will remain in all our veins even when, as the trumpets turn back, we’ll be restored to the old discord. O let us now, we who are so deserving of these torments! let us fervently gather up that superhuman promise made to our created body and soul: that promise, that madness! Elegance, knowledge, violence! They promised us to bury the tree of good and evil in the shade, to banish tyrannical honesties, so that we might bring forth our very pure love. It began with a certain disgust and ended—since we weren’t able to grasp this eternity all at once—in a panicked rout of perfumes.
      Laughter of children, discretion of slaves, austerity of virgins, horror in the faces and objects of today, may you be consecrated by the memory of that wake. It began in all loutishness, now it’s ending among angels of flame and ice.
     Little eve of drunkenness, holy! were it only for the mask with which you gratified us. We affirm you, method! We don’t forget that yesterday you glorified each one of our ages. We have faith in the poison. We know how to give our whole lives every day.
     Behold the time of the Assassins.

Barrel Racing in Granite Falls

Lori and Allie at Granite Falls

 Julia and I went to see Lori barrel race in Granite Falls last Sunday.  Lots and lots of people at a small arena and horse farm there.   It was a chilly day and Lori was just getting over the flu.   I'm not sure how many contestants there were but I know it was more than 50.  Lori placed 4th.  It was kinda funny . . . there were 13 riders before Lori rode.  They all did ok, but when Lori came out, wow. . .  she was in a totally different class.  There was no comparison between her and the riders before her.  Even I  - knowing nothing about riding and racing -could see that plainly.  They all had sorta muddled through, riding just fine, but Lori was precise, serious, professional, smooth and fast.  It was pretty amazing to watch!

UPDATED: All Buttoned Up

View of new arrangement and painting of Brianna in work

Underneath studio:  R-19 covered by plastic and lath

The ceiling:  Functional, not so charming

Entry:  still charming despite R-13 in walls!

Got the studio wrapped tight in insulation . . . buttoned up, rearranged, and ready to paint.....

Chaz Shares: Fall at Lake Michigan

Melanie at Lake Michigan in the Autumn Sunshine.

Slavko Laughs: Stolen Picasso

Ha- ha, looks like Serbs have two stolen Picasso's from Swiss!

Slavko Sends a Milna Webcam Greeting!!

"It's on the house just below the cemetery.

This September was the hottest ever from the time records run, and I can
tell you it's pretty annoying, can't wait next week when's supposed to
cool down."

(Click here or on image to go to webcam.)

Help!

1400 square feet of insulation to put up (and down) in my studio . . . 

Eternal Struggle Against Entropy

Lori displays world-class trophy waterline she caught

The second water line leak on the farm in two weeks.  Tough to find these things.  Dug up and replaced one 24 foot length of pipe with six separate splices already on it . . . 24 clamps! . . . still leaking . . .