Iconic

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose..."

(Click on Lady Liberty & sing along)

Totemic

I was going to post this the other day after my PEI blog as a test of your powers of observation but decided to take other axetion. This morning, however, I received a sign from the blogiverse

that all things totemic are the topic of the hour so here it is.

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Somehow, I feel this exerpt from "Death of a Lady's Man" is fitting:

"I saw the dove come down, the dove with the green twig, the childish dove out of the storm and flood. It came toward me in the style of the Holy Spirit descending. I had been sitting in a café for twenty-five years waiting for this vision. It hovered over the great quarrel. I surrendered to the iron laws of the moral universe which make a boredom out of everything desired. Do not surrender, said the dove. I have come to make a nest in your shoe. I want your step to be light."

The Dove

L. Cohen

Axe to Grind

I found the perfect New York City souvenir but thought I might have some trouble getting it through the baggage check.

PEI Skies

Seagull nests.


Petrified hay bales (it's the salt air that does it).


Out standing in his field.

Cross roadless.

Church yard garden.

Blogs can be like pictorial conversations. Someone over on someone else's blog said something about PEI and this reminded me of some images I've gathered from various trips to the Island.

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Just taking a little blogging breather from my fantastic voyage to the beautiful concrete jungle of NYC. Breathe along with me...big breath in...hold it, hold it... and sigh it out... aaaahhhh

But Is It Art?

While doing the gallery run in Chelsea recently, I was taken with the local graffitti. Frankly, it was better than some of the stuff I saw in many of the galleries. I expected to see graffitti in NYC and that these examples were hanging about outside formal galleries on otherwise unremarkable walls and doors made it all seem very acceptable. My new best-blogger-friend, Owen, has a posting about graffitti as well so I thought I'd slam my own collection up sooner rather than later. What's not posted here are two examples of graffitti art gone mainstream: 2 articles of clothing sporting Basquiat drawings that C & I bought at the Soho branch of the trendy Japanese clothing store Uniqlo . So when is graffitti "art" and when is it just defacement...and who decides? I guess if you came by with a can of spray paint and doodled all over my house I'd know what to call it!

Portrait of the Artist?

What are the odds that this is the signature of the graffitti artist? What is the significance of the bandaged, stitched, elongated neck? Does it suggest being wounded from having stuck one's neck out? And what's with the red claw? More lobster symbolism??

Repent!

(Click on image for Leonard Cohen's "Repent")

This is the visual aid for my Sunday sermon to you. Learn more at today's Church of Arteologie.

Welcome To Your Stay

Waterwall of entrance way. (Girl being beamed down from starship)

Lobby of moderne.

Bouquet of welcome.

A View With A Room

This is the view from where we stayed in NYC, on the 30th floor of a 32-storey apartment building. We slept with the windows open, lulled to sleep by the gentle roar of countless engines and siren songs.

I am particularly fond of the conical rooftop structures. I wonder how much they rent for?

The Big Time

Hey, kids, what time is it?! Time to take a little tour around some big buildings. Come along with me...

Seeing The Sights

Trumped!

Would Superman be able to leap it in a single bound?

C. believes Gandalf lives here.

Who does the windows?

I think the Flatiron got to these.

Usually when I'm walking along, I tend to look at the ground. I might be minding my step or I might be looking for unexpected treasure (eg. I found 11 cents today!). But in NYC, one simply has to look up...look waaaaaay up...to the point of developing a crick in one's neck.

Which reminds me, in Vancouver many years ago, there was a character I nicknamed the Umbrella Lady. She had a physical deformity that caused her to walk in a permament twisted sort of backbend with one hand raised over her head, invariably clutching a closed umbrella. I'm not sure whether the umbrella helped her to keep her balance or if she carried it just because she lived in Vancouver and always expected rain...not that she'd be able to actually open the umbrella. At least, I never saw her with it open. But my point is, this lady would have fared very well in New York as she would have seen all the sights and blended in nicely with the sky-gazing tourists.

Landmarks

The Georgia O'Keefe Monument


Mixed bag of building blocks.


Holy Empire, Batman!

The Big Squeeze.

Flat-out American Patriotism.

The Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Flatiron Building; kind of hard to miss--though if you turn sideways you might not see the Flatiron.

Rock on Weekend!

This used to be my favourite dish-drying tune, back in the day when we dried dishes.

(I think the blonde in this video might be the mother of the girl in the buggy in the post below)

Keepin' Cool

I caught these dudes chillin' in the Big Apple a few days ago.
As for me right now, I'm about to take my extra-dry cider on the rocks, with side of kettle-cooked potato chips, and enjoy the late afternoon rays of 33 Celcius sunshine out in the old wooden glider swing. Wish you were here!

(Do you think the girl tried to write "help" on the side of the buggy?)

The Cat Is Out Of The Bag

Clueless in...

Some clues as to my whereabouts these past few days...

Magical Mystery Tour

Well my Lovelies...I'm off on a trip for awhile. Here's a hint of my destination--can you guess? Miss me!

To Let

I have had some enquiries about the habitability of our Raccoon Hotel. In the spirit of full disclosure, here is a photo of the back entrance/kitchen/living area. I find the combination of designer colours and collage-like textures particularly inviting.

In fact, I think it compares favourably with this fine example of Italian outdoor plumbing that I came across in Calabria.

Another Day Another Lobster

I think they're starting to hire at the fish plants now...

Some Maritime Flavour

What is the symbolism of calling one's boat "Rant & Rave" I wonder.


"Have ye ever been to sea, Billy?" I'd say not recently.


All settled in for the night.


Les cages aux folles?


A perfect opportunity to take a long walk off a short pier.

We went to visit friends in Alma (home of the highest tides in the world, apparently) two weekends ago. The lobster traps were still on the pier there. This weekend, we were forced to eat lobster as they were on sale for $6.99/lb. (live ones were $5.77!) We couldn't eat all we bought so have frozen leftovers to make seafood chowder in the near future. My Acadian friends tell me they used to try and trade their lobster sandwiches at school for the baloney ones the anglos had, and that lobsters were spread on the front lawns as fertilizer. I like lobster well enough, as long as someone cracks it for me and serves me the juicy parts. Don't touch that green stuff, though!

Sensible Shoes?

I bought some shoes. Their brand name is "Alegria." Alegria is also the name of one of the Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas. So Pierre is now referring to my new shoes as my circus shoes. Do you think he's trying to tell me I look like a clown in them? As I've been known to say on my arteologie blog, "If the shoe fits..."

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

with love from Lynne

Diamonds and Rust

(Click on image for Joan Baez's "Diamonds and Rust")

What I was reading at 4 this morning:

"In Tibetan there's an interesting word: ye tang che. The ye part means "totally, completely," and the rest of it means "exhausted." Altogether, ye tang che means totally tired out. We might say "totally fed up." It describes an experience of complete hopelessness, of completely giving up hope. This is an important point. This is the beginning of the beginning. Without giving up hope--that there's somewhere better to be, that there's someone better to be--we will never relax with who we are."

Pema Chodron, "When Things Fall Apart"

Grave Sights

Hangin' with Jesus.

What is the hidden message of this touching tribute to a Dearly Departed? With what sort of knick-knacks would your loved ones decorate your grave site?