L.08.8: (self-portrait) Dale

I’m going to claim that this was taken in response to our resetting our self-portraits in terms of famous photographs/paintings.  It’s a Rembrandt self-portrait, see?

Actually, this is in the restroom of Café Lily in Decatur, where we went to celebrate Ginny’s birthday.  I liked the look, and quite frankly, I liked the way I looked, so I took a photo.

It’s a nice portrait, I think, although usually I despise self-portraits with the camera in the mirror.

Taking a Moment: David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace hanged himself:

The article does not mention he also played competitive tennis in his teens.  My one impression of him from a Charlie Rose interview was of affable intensity and a desire to reveal a genuine thinking indecisiveness in his responses.  I don’t know if anything can be gleaned from that observation.

I think it’s important for our survival as Lichtenbergians that we not be so quick to slip this one under the rug.  America’s youngest monumentalist (I may have just coined that one) author is dead by his own hand.  One can only wonder at this point.  The peak looming in the background of our insignia is looking a bit more shadowy at present.  A darkness we may need to feel our way through for a while.

Meeting & Assignment L.08.9

Next Saturday, September 20, I need my fellow Lichtenbergians to assist me in Contemplation of the Labyrinth.  You can read about my dilemma here.  As Herodotus tells us, whenever the Persians had an important decision to make, they’d get drunk and chat it over.  Then, if their solution still made sense the next morning, they went with it.  7:00ish, shall we say?  Yes, Jeff, we can call it a Committee of the Whole meeting of the Joseph Campbell Roundtable.

The Assignment: design and execute a candle-holder for the labyrinth.  It can be funky, it can be mysterious, it can be beautiful.

Some examples:

Ginny found this one on Tybee Island, made by a hippie artisan.  He takes random metal objects, in this case a champagne glass (?) and welds tubes to them.  Then you drive rebar into the ground and stick the object on it.  Clever, and it admits of all kinds of possibilities.

See how simple this can be?  A travertine paving stone with three tealights arranged on it.

This was a planter we picked up in a junk shop.  The glow from the candles in the pots is quite lovely.  I’ve extended this idea by taking citronella candles, transferring them to clay pots, and burying the pots in the ground.  I also have a dozen of the small pots which I keep rearranging.

We had this old tin wall sconce hanging about, so I screwed it to a bit of 2×2 and planted it over in the ivy.  What I want to do is tile it with bits of mirror.

Keep thinking: dead tree limbs with platforms—hanging lanterns—elaborate standing devices—folk art manqué—anything goes.  You can make something for the periphery of the yard, for the table, for the labyrinth itself. Use the meeting to get some ideas of the area and what might be interesting.  The only requirement I have is that lighting and replacing of candles needs to be easy.

Let’s make this assignment due at the Annual Meeting, December 20.

An ape’s attic antics…

So I was wallowing and wandering in my archival attic as I put off my daily line C2020-703 learning session, and I came across a theme that might do nicely to hold together some of our ongoing Lichtenbergian concerns:  Everything from the challenges of self-representation to seeking out criteria for artistic credibility can find a lip tickle orbit for discussion.  It’s a link.  Go there: C2040-408

http://www.lacunagroup.org/marc/?p=26#more-26

So as we continue with our current assignment, I thought it might also be rewarding to riff on this theme of the Ape.