Apologies, but I've been kept busier than a three legged cat on a frozen pond, not with Christmas activities per se, but with some big personal events. For instance, getting our 18 year-old-son off to Europe by himself, and buying a house, a process which we have now - finally - completed. We are proud owners of our own nest in the woods. Just in time for Christmas.
Light blogging, probably, until after the new year.
God bless you all with the warmth of the presence of His Son.
Like I indicated in my last post, I've been doing a number of commissioned portraits, lately, and this is one. It is work I enjoy a lot.
I was so glad that the customer let me paint this particular image (from a photo). She had submitted several, but this had a wonderful atmosphere to it. The others would have turned out well, but this has a little something extra that makes it a work of fine art as well as a commercial portrait. The little girl seems so serene, lost in her own thoughts... and importantly, she is not looking at the viewer, so it seems much more like a painting and less like a painted copy of a posed photo.
I have had some others that I have been very pleased with, and that the customers were very pleased with, but this is one for the portfolio.
These have kept me busy and have generated some needed income and, as I say, I enjoy the work. Between this, church and family activities and The League of Bearded Catholics... I'm kept hopping.
I'm not the first Catholic blogger to discover the music of Pomplamoose (hat tip to Mark Shea on that), but I want to share one of their videos that I found lately, and which I've added to my list of Christimas songs.
Pomplamoose (French for grapefruit) are the musical team of Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. I think it's fair to say that they are what used to be called song stylists. They have hammered out a sound and a style (which is not easy to do, by the way) and they apply it to well-known songs from other artists (these used to be called "standards") as well as to their own material. You either like them or you don't. On the whole, I and my whole family have been delighted with their covers of other artists and I have enjoyed their original songs, as well.
Pomplamoose have also made clever use of video and editing. Jack is a fairly accomplished and versatile instrumentalist and arranger, and Nataly has a vocal style that lends itself well to rich, layered harmonies. My first taste of their work was a cover of the old Chordettes song Sandman, which is difficult and which they made sound pretty effortless and joyful. Their arrangements are uncluttered and in general very successfully re-tool and update older songs for modern ears, while respecting the original. That's not easy to do, either.
When I first played their version of O, Come, All Ye Faithful, the opening measures made me think I wasn't going to like it. Nataly has a great voice, but there are certain songs wherein her particular style can sound flat or wooden. Their version of Michael Jackson's Beat It left me cold, for instance (...well, no one hits a home run every time, but I don't know what they were thinking trying to cover that one). I was thinking for a few seconds that this was going to be a very dull and maybe even unpleasant version of one of my favorite Christmas carols.
But it got better quickly. I can't speak for anyone else, but I find it a real Christmas treat. And, it's actually a Christmas song about Christ, as well. Who'd have thought?
Then, I find the video below just kind of fascinating. Here's John Lennon giving his thoughts on overpopulation. Makes you wonder what he might have thought of Global Warming.
Lennon has always bugged the hell out of me, but it's hard to hate the guy. One got the sense he was sincerely trying, even if he was sincerely wrong on a lot of things. He always seemd to be gracious and charming, as he is in this video. He sensed the absurdity of his own fame, and he was able to detect the odor of bullsh*t around the Overpopulation Myth. But sometimes, you just want to shake him by the shoulders to loosen up more of that common sense that was rattling around in his head with all the pop philosophy and fashionable Eastern mysticism.
If ever we needed our ruling class to be impotent and ineffectual, it is now.
Both the U.S. Senate (who we elected) and the U.N. Climate Witch Doctors (who were elected by no one, and who's names would, in fact, be recognized by almost no one) are in a great rush to pass sweeping legislation in answer to crises which don't exist.
Which is why they are in such a hurry. Resistance takes a while to coordinate, and they want to strike while the iron is hot, before too many of their subjects figure out what is going on; a colossal and unprecedented power grab by statists of the elite ruling class, and a consolidation of internationalist influence. They are determined to tell us all what we may do, and when.
I don't know what active and effective resistance to these new self-granted state (and trans-state)powers would look like, but - especially in the case of Climate Rescuing policies and the Carbon Credit fraud - civil disobedience may be necessary soon, and maybe uncivil disobedience, at some point.
It's chilly, today. Seems like a good day for a fire in the fireplace.
The U.N. can have my carbon when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
One thing and another has kept me from still life painting for a while (doing commissioned portraits, mainly), so I'm glad to be back at it, at least in a small way. This is 8" x 10", oil on panel, and destined for a gallery.
At least in terms of composition, this is headed toward where I want to go. I have always liked the idea of objects that pass beyond the picture boundary, and I think some of my best pieces have been composed that way. The self-contained central tableau of much traditional still life I find a bit confining, now, and a little artificial. Too tidy.
Besides, this gives the sense that the main subject of the painting is just part of a much larger universe, which is the truth of any depicted scene, even if it appears to be complete in itself. Allowing objects to pass out of the picture (cutting them off, as it were) reminds the artist and the viewer that what appears in the picture is only a tiny, briefly captured sliver of the world.
It also makes for more interesting composition in an abstract sense.
Let's have a political party! A third party. We could call it the 33⅓ (thirty-three & a third) Party. It would exist only as an alternative to the other two American parties, the Elephants and the Donkeys. We would never debate politics or "issues", apart from the conviction that the other two parties suck and have sold us collectively down the river.
We could save a lot of money on our presidential primary by just picking five people at random from the phonebook. Then we could vote for the one with the best LP record collection, or maybe the one who could hold his/her breath the longest (a handy skill when visiting Congress), or some other trivial inanity.
If we won, I propose that our empty suit candidate could not be worse than what we have suffered through in our last few chief executives.
Surprise! the Episcopal Communion in Los Angeles (otherwise known as "Let's Play Church!®") has elected another gay pretend Bishop. This must be a source of some conflict for Gene Robinson, who had the category all to himself for a while (look for a new book from Robinson soon, with a title something like "I Was First! Me! Gene Robinson! Meeeeee!!!!!").
They may as well just raise rainbow flags over all the Episcopal churches and get it over with. Purple vestments, year round! There may be some internal struggle, though, to see whether gay men or gay women will gain ascendancy among the Episcopal clergy. I guess it depends on who does a better job officiating at pretend marriages.
"Two different standards will appear in ordinary morality, and even
in ordinary society. Instead of the old social distinction between
those who are married and those who are unmarried, there will be a
distinction between those who are married and those who are really
married." G.K. Chesterton
I have seen more articles like this lately than I can count, announcing that the recession may have bottomed out, that recovery may be on the way, that the economy may soon head in the right direction... unless it doesn't.
This also marks the second or third time that I have seen in print the idea that Americans may ruin everything by being too frugal, by holding on to their money.
That's nuts, frankly. Saving is good. It is good for families, and if it is good for families it is good for the country. Period. Corporate princes sucking at the Black Friday teat can go hang. America would be immeasurably better off with smaller, simpler and more joyful Chritsmas celebrations, more centered on faith and family than mammon.
Eric Scheske posts some wonderful Christmas poems (more like songs in search of a tune) that capture the spirit admirably;
Christmas time is come, hang on the Pot
Let Spits turn round, and Ovens be hot;
Beef, Pork, and Poultry, to provide
To feast thy Neighbors at this Tide;
Then, wash all down with good Wine and Beer
And so with Mirth conclude the year.
- Virginia Almanack, 1765
Now Christmas comes, ’tis fit that we
Should feast and sing and merry be
Keep open House, let Fiddlers play
A Fig for Cold, sing Care away
And may they who thereat repine
On brown Bread and on small Beer dine.
-Virginia Almanack, 1766
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