{"id":12066,"date":"2012-11-09T09:39:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=12066"},"modified":"2012-11-07T20:15:24","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T01:15:24","slug":"sculpted-in-smoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/sculpted-in-smoke\/","title":{"rendered":"Sculpted in Smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IsbI1GE4DGA?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"smalltext\"><em>[Video: <a title=\"Wikipedia, on Google Doodles\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Google_logo#Google_Doodle\" target=\"_blank\">Google Doodle<\/a> celebrating choreographer Martha Graham&#8217;s 117th birthday on May 20, 2011. For information about the Doodle&#8217;s construction, see the Google Doodles blog post <a title=\"About the Martha Graham 'Google Doodle'\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/doodles\/martha-grahams-117th-birthday\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. (I also came across a single large (2MB), frame-by-frame image of the animation, from start to finish; find a copy\u00a0<a title=\"Frame-by-frame breakdown of Martha Graham's 'Google Doodle'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/images\/googledoodle_marthagraham_framexframe.png\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.) The video&#8217;s uploader cleverly quotes for the &#8220;soundtrack&#8221; a brief phrase from Aaron Copland&#8217;s<\/em>\u00a0<a title=\"Earlier RAMH post, on the connections between 'Appalachian Spring' and 'Simple Gifts'\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/whats-in-a-song-simple-gifts-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Appalachian Spring<\/a><em> &#8212; which Graham choreographed.<\/em>]\n<p>From\u00a0<em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Do You Have Any Advice for Those of Us Just Starting Out?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave<br \/>\nyour house or apartment. Go out into the world.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s all right to carry a notebook but a cheap<br \/>\none is best, with pages the color of weak tea<br \/>\nand on the front a kitten or a space ship.<\/p>\n<p>Avoid any enclosed space where more than<br \/>\nthree people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware<br \/>\nany snow-covered chalet with deer tracks<br \/>\nacross the muffled tennis courts.<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.<br \/>\nAnd the perfect place in a library is near an aisle<br \/>\nwhere a child a year or two old is playing as his<br \/>\nmother browses the ranks of the dead.<\/p>\n<p>Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.<br \/>\nThe title, the author&#8217;s name, the brooding photo<br \/>\non the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray<br \/>\nbook on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher<br \/>\nit gets, the wider he grins.<\/p>\n<p>You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower<br \/>\nfalls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody<br \/>\nin the world frowns and says, &#8220;Shhhh.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Then start again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Ron Koertge [<a title=\"Library of Congress\/Poetry 180: 'Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?,' by Ron Koertge\" href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/poetry\/180\/007.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<em>whiskey river&#8217;s commonplace book<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. &#8230; No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Martha Graham [<a title=\"Martha Graham to Agnes de Mille (per Wikipedia), on the 'blessed unrest' that motivates creativity\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Martha_Graham#Quotations\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from\u00a0<em>whiskey river<\/em> (or its\u00a0<em>commonplace book<\/em>):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It&#8217;s hard for me to put into words, but qualities like &#8220;quiveriness&#8221; and &#8220;vulnerability&#8221; come to mind when I think of creativity. Maybe another image is something like the doping used in the manufacture of semiconductors. Introducing small bits of something that doesn&#8217;t belong there can dramatically change the structure of a large-scale array. It&#8217;s not really randomness that is the vital element in creativity, but rather the slight tint of the subtle truths that creativity finds that changes the random from white to pink. Michelangelo, standing before the marble that was to become David, had in his mind the image of a young man, but also allowed himself to be invaded by the block of marble, the whole universe itself. Creativity requires a sense of smell, a palate to taste the scents that make brilliance&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>A puff of smoke is sort of like a cousin of ours. Little eddies, the loosely coupled systems, shear and spin, and we can observe the gentle drift of the whole ensemble. Bubbling streams have this quality, as do breaking ocean waves. The boiling and roiling, the little pieces, each with his own life, each wavelet connected, interacting, and yet participating in the whole.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Randy Read, quoted by Douglas Hofstadter [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Metamagical Themas,' by Douglas Hofstadter\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=o8jzWF7rD6oC&amp;pg=PA630#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Suburban Pastoral<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Twilight folds over houses on our street;<br \/>\nits hazy gold is gilding our front lawns,<br \/>\ndelineating asphalt and concrete<br \/>\ndriveways with shadows. Evening is coming on,<br \/>\nquietly, like a second drink, the beers<br \/>\nmen hold while rising from their plastic chairs<br \/>\nto stand above their sprinklers, and approve.<\/p>\n<p>Soon the fireflies will rise in lucent droves&#8212;<br \/>\nfor now, however, everything seems content<br \/>\nto settle into archetypal grooves:<br \/>\nthe toddler&#8217;s portraits chalked out on cement,<br \/>\nmothers in windows, finishing the dishes.<br \/>\nChuck Connelly&#8217;s cigarette has burned to ashes;<br \/>\nhe talks politics to Roger in the drive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all someone can do just to survive,&#8221;<br \/>\nhe says, and nods&#8212;both nod&#8212;and pops another<br \/>\nbeer from the cooler. &#8220;No rain. Would you believe&#8212;&#8221;<br \/>\nsays Chuck, checking the paper for the weather.<br \/>\nAt least a man can keep his yard in shape.<br \/>\nSomewhere beyond this plotted cityscape<br \/>\ntheir sons drive back and forth in borrowed cars:<\/p>\n<p>how small their city seems now, and how far<br \/>\naway they feel from last year, when they rode<br \/>\ntheir bikes to other neighborhoods, to score<br \/>\na smoke or cop a feel in some girl&#8217;s bed.<br \/>\nThey tune the radio to this summer&#8217;s song<br \/>\nand cruise into the yet-to-exhale lung<br \/>\nof August night. Nothing to do but this.<\/p>\n<p>These are the times they&#8217;d never dream they&#8217;ll miss&#8212;<br \/>\nthe hour spent chasing a party long burned out,<br \/>\ngraphic imagined intercourse with Denise.<br \/>\nThis is all they can even think about,<br \/>\nand thankfully, since what good would it do<br \/>\nto choke on madeleines of <em>temps perdu<\/em><br \/>\nwhen so much time is set aside for that?<\/p>\n<p>Not that their fathers weaken with regret<br \/>\nas nighttime settles in&#8212;no, their wives<br \/>\nare on the phone, the cooler has Labatt<br \/>\nto spare; at nine the Giants play the Braves.<br \/>\nThere may be something to romanticize<br \/>\nabout their own first cars, the truths and lies<br \/>\nthey told their friends about some summer fling,<\/p>\n<p>but what good is it now, when anything<br \/>\nrecalled is two parts true and one part false?<br \/>\nWhen no one can remember just who sang<br \/>\nthat song that everybody loved? What else?<br \/>\nIt doesn&#8217;t come to mind. The sprinkler spits<br \/>\nin metronome; they&#8217;re out of cigarettes.<br \/>\nRoger folds up his chair, calls it a day.<\/p>\n<p>The stars come out in cosmic disarray,<br \/>\nand windows flash with television blues.<br \/>\nThe husbands come to bed, nothing to say<br \/>\nbut <em>&#8216;night<\/em>. Two hours late&#8212;with some excuse&#8212;<br \/>\ntheir sons come home, too full of songs and girls<br \/>\nto notice dew perfect its muted pearls<br \/>\nor countless crickets singing for a mate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Dave Lucas [<a title=\"Poetry Foundation: 'Suburban Pastoral,' by Dave Lucas\" href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poetrymagazine\/poem\/31447\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>___________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> If you visit the <em>RAMH<\/em> post I linked to in the video caption, about\u00a0<em>Appalachian Spring<\/em>, <a title=\"'Appalachian Spring,' by Aaron Copland\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/whats-in-a-song-simple-gifts-2#suite\" target=\"_blank\">you can listen to the complete suite<\/a>, about thirty-six minutes long. The portion quoted in the Google Doodle video starts at about 3:16, waking the opening up just like the sun coming over an autumn horizon. (As I mention in an aside there, the &#8220;spring&#8221; of the title is actually a little bit of running water, a stream or pool bubbling up out of the ground &#8212; not the season, although the latter is how most people interpret it.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Video: Google Doodle celebrating choreographer Martha Graham&#8217;s 117th birthday on May 20, 2011. For information about the Doodle&#8217;s construction, see the Google Doodles blog post here. (I also came across a single large (2MB), frame-by-frame image of the animation, from start to finish; find a copy\u00a0here.) The video&#8217;s uploader cleverly quotes for the &#8220;soundtrack&#8221; a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,74,274,5,251],"tags":[212,1886,1888,3254,3255,3256,3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-12066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-music","9":"category-cartoons","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"tag-creativity","13":"tag-appalachian-spring","14":"tag-martha-graham","15":"tag-ron-koertge","16":"tag-randy-read","17":"tag-douglas-hofstadter","18":"tag-dave-lucas","19":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-38C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12066"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12091,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12066\/revisions\/12091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}