#518 La Victoire (2)

Winning opens a
door; & shows that

nothing at all has
changed. The same

sand, the same sea.
A fresh cloud, per-

haps. But that will
blow away shortly.

#517: Le Leçon des Ténèbres

i. Between Light & Darkness

"Within the liturgy of the Catholic Church there is a long tradition of singing the Lamentations of Jeremiah during Holy Week, based on a parallel being drawn between the text’s description of the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the death of Christ. By the time of Couperin and de Lalande, a practice had been established in which the text was divided into nine ‘lessons’ sung over three days, with one candle of a special candelabra being extinguished after each lesson, until ‘tenebrae’ or darkness was achieved on Good Friday.

"Some of the finest examples of the genre are the three Leçons by François Couperin, composed for the royal monastery of Longchamp c. 1714. (Couperin at one time referred to a full set of nine lessons, but only the three for Holy Wednesday are known today.)" ¹

ii. The Encounter

Bare. No diacritics. In a report of the precedings of a 2013 estate tax challenge between the Estate Of James A. Elkins, Jr., Deceased, & the Commisioner Of Internal Revenue it is noted that the Deceased owned undivided fractional interests in 64 works of contemporary art. Within that list, sandwiched between Pierre Soulages & Joseph Albers, is item 13, with an assessed value of $550,000, "Magritte, Rene, La lecon des tenebres, 1964 (Gouache on paper, 13-1/2" x 21-1/2")." ²

iii. The Lessons of Darkness

As soon as fruit is taken
from the tree, it loses life

& light. The further from
its place of origin, the

greater the degradation. In
a stone cellar it petrifies,

darkens to become one
with its surroundings.

Outside the light remains.
Here endeth the first lesson.



______________
¹ From the catalogue of BIS Records.
² From CourtListener, a project of Free Law Project.

##516: skate / parked / bored

Sweet Jesus. Le fils de l’homme
as a skateboard. What would 
Foucault have made of this, 
especially since the constructors 
insist ceci n’est pas un skateboard? 

The accompanying text describes 
it thus: an "edition of artwork 
intended for decorative purposes...
with one wall mount per deck to 
hang it on your wall, just like a 

painting." It also points out that 
you could skate on it if you wanted 
to; but doesn't mention that if he 
had wanted to, Magritte could  
have incorporated it quite easily as 

replacement for the object in a numb-
er of his paintings. Perhaps le skateur 
perdu, perhaps le skateboard volant.
CO2 neutral, with the wood sourced
from sustainable forests. Bonus!

#515: La Saveur des Larmes (c.1938 )

Sinatra offscreen. An Oscar-
winning song. Sammy Cahn
lyrics. Oops, there goes another
rubber tree plant even though
Anyone knows an ant can't
Move a rubber tree plant. Maybe
that's what the caterpillars are
singing as they start to demolish
the giant synecdoche that towers

over the river, over a house full of
lights which foreshadows the final
work of the painter, over a bridge 
which seemingly comes from & 
goes to nowhere. The caterpillars 
chew away. It is a painstaking task. 
It is a painful task. One thing dies 
for another to live. They weep; &
hate the bitter flavor of their tears.

#514 Pour devenir un fort soldat / To become a strong soldier (1918)

 


What would you do if your team mate gets injured & there is no medic near?

O   Find the nearest veterinary clinic & make an appointment 
O   Select an optimal key for both to sing the Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive in
O   Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross
O   With no other indicator, choose to give up & respawn instead

Are you focused & calm in awkward situations?

O   Only when the wind is blowing from the sea
O   I have no fear of snowstorms in my dreams
O   Later she would walk down to the lagoon to look for the politicians
O   Not when I bring someone with me whom I sometimes agree with

Which rifle action is your favourite?

O   What constellation is the moon currently passing through?
O   Something different from the same old bolt-action system
O  Depends on whether I'm hunting hares or humans
O  What does the sensei say?

Are you fat?

O   Could you be more specific
O   I'm a small-town stud who wants to go to Nashville to be a big country star
O  so much depends / upon / / a red wheel / barrow
O  I do not reflect upon or on my body image

How do you reload a pistol?

O   Hand over fist
O   Head over heels
O   Mind over matter
O   Apples or oranges?

Are you accurate?

O  Show me a bull's-eye!
O   What is a bull's eye?
O   What is a bull?
O   Beauty is in the eye of the bullholder

Are you good at parkour?

O   I can always choose the perfect outfit to wear 
O   I've never received a parking ticket, so does that count?
O   Only when there are clouds involved
O   Is MacArthur's Park melting in the dark?

Have you ever shot with a rifle?

O   Never. My sperm count isn't high enough
O   Once, when I was a windy boy & a bit
O   Twice. For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction
O   Thrice. But has a rifle ever shot with me?

What is a shotgun?

O   Being born during a Rolling Stones' recording session
O   A Mirrorball on Main Street
O   The latest manga, The Youngest Son of a Conglomerate
O   A person meditating on madness

What is an FN Ballista?

O   The first cyclone of the season
O   The Last Hurrah of the Golden Horde
O   Ceci n'est pas une pipe
O   Close, but no cigar

#513 Strange, dear, but

true, dear. The Cole Porter song enters
my morning mind as if it had every 
right to be there, as if it lived there & 
was returning home after a night out. 
But not simply the song, a specific rend-
ition of it. k.d. lang's, first heard on the
Red Hot + Blue tv special & subsequent 
album compilation. What is stranger is 

how to interpret the locus of the singer, 
of the mindsong. In the video, k.d. lang
sings as if she is person who is being
sung to; & in my mind, it is also as if I 
am the recipient. To personalize, it is the 
not-I singing to the other which is me. It's
a tableau that has a logic only because
of its similarity to that Magritte painting

La reproduction interdite in which a man 
is looking into a mirror in which his re-
flection is thrown back, but as if seen 
from the back. Twenty years ago I wrote
of this painting: "Shown from the back
the image is androgynous — think k.d.
lang in her man's suit phase." & here she
is again. Strange, dear, but true, dear.

#512 Le Masque Vide

Many believed that politeness
was just a mask, that what was
said may not be what was meant
or thought: or, from the other
side, thought to mean, though
the politeness was reciprocated.
Not quite the bland leading the
bland, but close enough. What
we have here acknowledges
those rules but is much more an-
gular, abrupt, an elbow to the
ribs. All politeness torn away:
the mask is empty; but the words
that hide behind the words be-
hind the mask are now exposed.
A pity we cannot see them all.

#511 La Gravitation Universelle

The wall is artifice, is illusion,
a masque to keep the forest
at bay — at least it seems that 
way until the hunter gets his 
arm stuck in it & Newton's

law of universal gravitation
kicks in. Or, equally, kicks
out. Allegorically, this could be
a depiction of the "first great 
unification," a realization of

the attraction of particles. Or,
if you're so inclined, another 
allegory, where Isaac Newton
is the hunter, presenting the 1st
Book of his Principia to the 

Royal Society, & Robert Hooke 
is represented by the wall, ac-
cusing Newton of plagiarism 
&, as punishment for the theft, 
attempting to take his hand off.

#510 The Emergence

 
"Put it into perspective," the
fado singer says as the white
bird wheels away & takes
the daytime with it. "Except
for the stars, the sky will be 
empty now for several hours; 
& though having a supposed 
symbol of hope around might 
at first seem comforting, grief 
is best left to emerge when one
is in the open or beside the sea. 
Clean, simple. No melodrama."

#509 La Porte Ouverte

The painter, flushed with
pride from the achievement
of turning Venus de Milo in
to flesh before he posed her

in a meadow, finally recog-
nizes his hubris when the
shadow that has started
following him everywhere

makes him aware that any
statue can stand still for
long enough to have a beard
& mustache painted on them.

#508 The Childhood of Icarus

We lived in a house full of
models for, & details from,

paintings. Inside & out. My
father showed me how to

use the wings he built by
teaching me how to ride a

a horse & wield a whip. 
Everything so large when I

was young, save for the Sun
which seemed so far away.