#204 Quand l'heure sonnera

Venus de
Milo, hot-
air balloon,
sky/sea/sand—
writing down
the elements
doesn't have
the tension
of a painterly
arrangement

unless you
know the sub-
text. So. Some
clues. Start
with a child-
hood incident.
Continue with
de Chirico.

#203 Souvenir de voyage

There was a sea-
side somewhere,
but nowhere near
the sea. We walked
along it, kicking
at rocks, ignoring
strangers until
they'd passed. "Who
was that masked
man?" I asked.

#202 Perspective: David's Madame Récamier (2)

Assume a life-
line in reverse.

Death comes first.
Before that, head-

stone, interment,
mourning crowd,

laying out, the prep-
aration of the body.

Move forwards.
Miss Marx. Pass

through two
revolutions, a liberal

monarchy, literary
salons. Chateaubriand,

Mme de Staël amongst
the names. Napoleon.

Bring in Ingres, who
uses Magritte's posed

figure as basis for
La Grande Odalisque.

Which influences
David. Who does not

finish his painting
of Madame Récamier.

Was pissed when told
that someone else was

getting the commission.
But starts it anyway.

#201 The Master of the Revels

In Il Casanova di Federico
Fellini, a giant head of Venus
begins to emerge from the
Grand Canal. Set in the
rural French countryside,
the factory by the side of
the lake is small; but still
lives undergo critical changes
as water & land are con-
taminated. The head rises
creakily to eye level & a
cable breaks. I have an idea
that the ideal drop is equal
to the length of your leg. In
his infancy Pindar was fed
honey by bees as an augury
of supreme eloquence. The
crowd cheers as the master
of the revels extols the
goddess of love. Learn
to control that one footed
wobble & you'll find things
a whole lot easier. This page
contains notes I have been
collecting on walking the slack
wire. Much of it is contradictory.

#200 The Fountain of Youth

Last seen in
the Pyrenees.

Perched on a
peak. Small in

context but
omnipotent.

Now wraps its
wings around

a reed. Petrified.
Monumental.

#199 The Key to Dreams (1935)

.....& then
there are
those rare
times when
our dreams
speak to us
in a language
we can under-
stand.....

#198 La Trahison des images

En anglais cette
        fois, but it
  still won't give
you lip cancer.

#197 Perpetual Motion (1)

So far the circus
strongman has
eaten a tiger (&
now wears its
skin), Alice, Albert
Einstein, & Annie
Edson Taylor, the first
person to go over
Niagara Falls in a
barrel—the evidence
is all around. He
feels no shame, is
still able to hold
his head up high.

#196 Le Retour de Flamme

His immense shadow spreads out
Over Paris and the world.....
Robert Desnos: La Complainte de Fantômas

The world asleep &
dreaming out loud.

Emanations cohere;
fear personified. In-

stead of rain falling
sur les toits de Paris

it is the shadow of
Fantômas. Dressed

for his own on-going
opera, as large as the

life he lives in others'
dreams. They would

have him with a knife
in hand, but this is his

reality so he carries a
flower. It is a rose. They

would have him dead
but it is their dreams

that keep him alive. He
does not dream of them.

A THEATRICAL EVENT. Juve has been on the trail of Fantômas for quite some time. He crawls along the broken cobblestones of a mysterious passage. To guide himself he gropes along the walls with his fingers. Suddenly, a whiff of hot air hits him in the face. He comes nearer...His eyes adjust to the darkness. Juve distinguishes a door with loose boards a few feet in front of him. He undoes his overcoat in order to wrap it around his left arm, and gets his revolver ready. As soon as he has cleared the door, Juve realizes that his precautions were unnecessary: Fantômas is close by, sleeping deeply. In a matter of seconds Juve has tied up the sleeper. Fantômas continues to dream — of his disguises, perhaps, as usual. Juve, in the highest of spirits, pronounces some regrettable words. They cause the prisoner to start. He wakes up, and once awake, Fantômas is no longer Juve's captive. Juve has failed again. One means remains for him to achieve his end: Juve will have to get into one of Fantômas's dreams — he will try to take part as one of its characters. —René Magritte.

#195 The Spring Tide

The pre-
diction of
tides on an
a priori basis
is not possible.
Local conditions
apply. One works
from charts & tables—
how far the fall between
high & low, the positioning
of rocks, the shape of the sky.
What the weather is doing. Are
the Moon & Sun colinear with the
Earth? Do clouds collide with bells?

#194 The Poet Recompensed

Implied self-
praise, inflated
self-worth. Used
dragon imagery
in his poetry—the
dragon guardian
of gold, & gold,
believed the poet,
was suitable
recompense
for all his work. For-
got the bit about
fire-breath & flame.
The dragon didn't.