I thought I’d never find a painter whose work I’d love more than that of John William Waterhouse. But Edward Robert Hughes might be the one.
Watercolor.
William Holman Hunt’s “Lady of Shalott,” 1905
Oil on canvas, completed with collaborator Edward Robert Hughes.
Alexandria, Virginia, Train Station, October 2016
The first two pictures of the Alexandria train station here are quite poor, but I’m running them anyway. The first photo shows a falcon perched in a tree just outside the building. (He kinda surprised me by launching himself up from some shrubbery just 12 feet away.) The picture just doesn’t do him justice. He was huge.
The second photo shows the headquarters of The Motley Fool, even though you can read its sign in white letters only if you squint. It was a weird surprise for me as I milled about, waiting for a train that was delayed for three hours. The Motley Fool website is a favorite for my finance-type friends in the New York metropolitan area.
The structure in the third photo should be recognizable to anyone who takes the metro north — the 333-foot George Washington Masonic National Memorial. It stands atop Shooter’s Hill, which was considered by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson as a possible site for the nation’s capitol. It doesn’t date from the Revolutionary period; it was built in 1922.
It’s an odd, foreboding looking building, if you ask me. Its design seems schizoid — it can’t decide if it wants to be an ornate cathedral or a nondescript, staid looking modern bank. It was supposedly designed after the legendary Lighthouse of Alexandria in ancient Egypt.
Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With A Pearl Earring,” circa 1660
Leesylvania State Park, Virginia, October 2016
David Souter on “civic ignorance.”
From the MSNBC Facebook page:
Cats in need of a good home.
Hey gang, I found out tonight that Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine is having a sale this weekend on both its 2016 Anthology and all of its back issues — check out its Facebook page right here for details: https://www.facebook.com/PeekingCatPoetry/.
If you follow this blog, then you know I’ve been lucky enough to see my own work selected for many issues, as well as the Peeking Cat Anthology 2016. And I can personally guarantee that there is always a roster of terrific poets sharing their voices there.
If you’re looking for some thoughtful Autumn reading and you’d like to support indie lit, then consider picking up a copy or two.
Arnold and Jacob Pander’s cover for “Grendel” #7, 1987
Colors by “Grendel” creator, writer and artist Matt Wagner. This was the original artwork for the “Devil’s Legacy” storyline first published by Comico; Wagner completed the cover art for Dark Horse Comics’s reprints in 2000.
Nerdiest accidental cosplay fail ever?
You buy a “Punisher” t-shirt just for kicks, and because they’re apparently out of the “Daredevil” designs. Then you throw on your dark overcoat without thinking.
The result is an inadvertent and extremely pathetic attempt at emulating Frank Castle.
Yeesh.
“Weep no more but pity me, Fleet persistent shadow cast …”
“Postscript” (From W. H. Auden’s “The Sea and the Mirror”)
(Ariel to Caliban, Echo by the Prompter)
Weep no more but pity me,
Fleet persistent shadow cast
By your lameness,
caught at last,
Helplessly in love with you,
Elegance, art, fascination,
Fascinated by
Drab mortality;
Spare me a humiliation,
To your faults be true:
I can sing as you reply
…I
Wish for nothing lest you mar
The perfection in these eyes
Whose entire devotion lies
At the mercy of your will;
Tempt not your sworn comrade, – only
As I am can I love you as you are –
or my company be lonely
For my health be ill:
I will sing if you will cry
…I
Never hope to say farewell,
For our lethargy is such
Heaven’s kindness cannot touch
Nor earth’s frankly brutal drum;
This was long ago decided,
Both of us know why,
Can, alas, foretell,
When our falsehoods are divided,
What we shall become,
One evaporating sigh
…I
Giulio Aristide Sartorio’s “The Siren,” 1893
