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Thomas Hart Benson (1889 – 1975)
The Race

Thomas Hart Benson was an American scene painter known
for his murals and portraits depicting everyday life,
particularly in the Midwest.  He was also a teacher
and his most famous student, Jackson Pollock said
Benton's traditional teachings gave him something to rebel against.

Christies the auctioneers give the Race the following blurb:
“Benton’s treatment of this subject matter points to an
underlying social commentary on the tension between rural
and city life and the disparity between idealized imagery
and harsh reality.”

but really it is a simple comment on progress.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/cT9igju.jpg?1[/img]

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Sanity
By Caroline Bird

I do kind gestures. Remove my appendix.
I put my ear to a flat shell and—nothing.
I play the lottery ironically. Get married.
Have a smear test. I put my ear to the beak
of a dead bird—nothing. I grow wisdom
teeth. Jog. I pick up a toddler’s telephone,
Hello?—No answer. I change a light bulb
on my own. Organize a large party. Hire
a clown. Attend a four-day stonewalling
course. Have a baby. Stop eating Coco Pops.
I put my ear right up to the slack and gaping
bonnet of a daffodil—. Get divorced. Floss.
Describe a younger person’s music taste as
“just noise.” Enjoy perusing a garden center.
Sit in a pub without drinking. I stand at the
lip of a pouting valley—speak to me!
My echo plagiarizes. I land a real love plus
two real cats. I never meet the talking bird
again. Or the yawning hole. The panther
of purple wisps who prowls inside the air.
I change nappies. Donate my eggs. Learn
a profound lesson about sacrifice. Brunch.
No singing floorboards. No vents leaking
scentless instructions. My mission is over.
The world has zipped up her second mouth.

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In memory of John Prine who passed away a year ago this month
a great singer/songwriter

Long Monday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OkLnIu0pVM

[img]https://i.imgur.com/o9KMdHQ.jpg?1[/img]

Come on baby, give me a kiss it will last all week

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No.62

A lumbering old lecher called Frank
With the ladies was drawing a blank
They all said the same
Pay-per-fuck is the game
So he logged off and went for a wank.

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Juliette Recamier (1777-1849) by Francois Gerard (1805)

There are all sorts of generalisations about Mme Recamier
known for being a Parisian socialite, a great beauty and
“icon of neo-classicism” (what rot)  her best description
comes from the memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne …

“Mme Recamier was a true type of womanhood as made by
the Creator for the happiness of man (no comment, this was
written mid-19th century)  She had all the charm, virtue, the
inconsistency, and the weakness of the perfect woman.  If she
had been a mother her destiny would have been complete;
the world would have heard less of her, and she would have
been happier.  … she was obliged to find compensation in society.

Mme Recamier was the incarnation of coquetry; her talent in this
respect amounted to genius, and she was the admirable leader of
a detestable school.  Every woman who attempted to imitate her
has become an object of scandal or disgrace, whereas she always
emerged unscathed from the furnace into which it was her
delight to plunge.  The fact is not to be explained by any coldness
of heart, for her flirtations were actuated by kindness and not
by vanity.  She was much more anxious to be loved than to be
admired, and this sentiment was so natural to her that she always
had some affection and much sympathy to give her numerous
adorers in exchange for the admiration which she strove to attract;
hence her coquetry avoided the usual accompanying selfishness,
and was not absolutely barren, if I may use the term.”

[img]https://i.imgur.com/GMj5UZW.jpg?1[/img]

“Every one has praised her incomparable beauty, her energetic
benevolence, and her gentle courtesy; many people have praised
her lively wit.  But very few were able to discover beneath the
easy manners of her social intercourse the loftiness of her mind
and the independence of her character, the impartiality of her
judgement and the accuracy of her intuition.  I have sometimes
seen her dominated; I never knew her to be influenced.”

[img]https://i.imgur.com/FSipkzb.jpg?1[/img]

She is bound to have had real love affairs but was far too
discreet for anyone to know.

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Sometimes I feel like I'm falling
Falling fast and falling free
She said “My darling you're not falling,
Always looked like you were flying to me.”

Passenger  Rolling Stone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVj9FA-xcGA

[img]https://i.imgur.com/kEvSEJW.jpg?1[/img]

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We all need someone we can lean on
And if you want it, you can lean on me

Rolling Stones  Let It Bleed (1969)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ucKFdNv-I

[img]https://i.imgur.com/1jqUkOB.jpg?1[/img]

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(for an itinerant power-tool gardener)

No.61

A lazy chain-sawrer called Bertie
Was also incredibly shirty
he always was moaning
complaining and groaning
So Bertie's now known as Gertie !

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The Dead Tongues    Pale November Dew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHzOjGVZGiA

[img]https://i.imgur.com/glZIpsZ.jpg?1[/img]

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Please forgive a second poem by Turgenev.
This person thinks highly of it and so takes
a liberty and posts it.

The Fool
Ivan Turgenev

There lived a fool.

For a long time he lived in peace and contentment; but by degrees rumours
began to reach him that he was regarded on all sides as a vulgar idiot.

The fool was abashed and began to ponder gloomily how he might put an end
to these unpleasant rumours.

A sudden idea, at last, illuminated his dull little brain…. And, without
the slightest delay, he put it into practice.

A friend met him in the street, and fell to praising a well-known
painter….

'Upon my word!' cried the fool,' that painter was out of date long ago …
you didn't know it? I should never have expected it of you … you are
quite behind the times.'

The friend was alarmed, and promptly agreed with the fool.

'Such a splendid book I read yesterday!' said another friend to him.

'Upon my word!' cried the fool, 'I wonder you're not ashamed. That book's
good for nothing; every one's seen through it long ago. Didn't you know it?
You're quite behind the times.'

This friend too was alarmed, and he agreed with the fool.

'What a wonderful fellow my friend N. N. is!' said a third friend to the
fool. 'Now there's a really generous creature!'

'Upon my word!' cried the fool. 'N. N., the notorious scoundrel! He
swindled all his relations. Every one knows that. You're quite behind the
times.'

The third friend too was alarmed, and he agreed with the fool and deserted
his friend. And whoever and whatever was praised in the fool's presence, he
had the same retort for everything.

Sometimes he would add reproachfully: 'And do you still believe in
authorities?'

'Spiteful! malignant!' his friends began to say of the fool. 'But what a
brain!'

'And what a tongue!' others would add, 'Oh, yes, he has talent!'

It ended in the editor of a journal proposing to the fool that he should
undertake their reviewing column.

And the fool fell to criticising everything and every one, without in the
least changing his manner, or his exclamations.

Now he, who once declaimed against authorities, is himself an authority,
and the young men venerate him, and fear him.

And what else can they do, poor young men? Though one ought not, as a
general rule, to venerate any one … but in this case, if one didn't
venerate him, one would find oneself quite behind the times!

Fools have a good time among cowards.

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Some N'Awleenz music    (New Orleans)

Leyla McCalla  The Capitalist Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kHnUXHOo0

[img]https://i.imgur.com/EjHOndn.jpg?1[/img]

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Of Haitian parents she relocated to New Orleans from NYC
intending to busk with her cello in the French Quarter
fell for the creole culture and fiddle playing which style
she tried on the cello.  Her songs are in English, French
and Haitian Creole.

Leyla McCalla    Lavi Vye Neg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiIHN_qmqks

[img]https://i.imgur.com/O5x3OD9.jpg?1[/img]

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Steve Earle  Galway Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lcnvd8BNFE

[img]https://i.imgur.com/f8WFIrk.jpg?1[/img]

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Kiana Ledé  Take It All

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkUDy8R67vo

[img]https://i.imgur.com/eiNzNBE.jpg?1[/img]

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Kaia Kater    Saint Elizabeth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceprCSzU_xk

[img]https://i.imgur.com/8AMeYR3.jpg?1[/img]

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