I’m not referring to the shadow rabbits that have appeared here but the fact that somehow I have managed to magic up a good piece of work even though I have been really down today and barely able to do anything. It took a while to do and longer to find a way in to it and I wasn’t confident I would pull it off but it’s come out well in the end, very well.
I am quite tempted to let the printer problem develop further. I like the way this little wave of chaos is reasserting itself, just like a shipwreck or a cliff fall will alter the formation of a beach until the sea slowly sorts it out and gets it back neat like it wants. I also wished i had done some more experiments with printing things with the blocked nozzle last time. So we will see how it is tomorrow.
Then there is the back of the envelope and that is going in dangerously silly ways. I have always loved names (it is probably something to do with the rather pedestrian name I was graced with) and have” collected” place names at various times for their history, their humour, their story and so on. I have also made up place names, especially descriptive names for places along the route of my local walks. So many place names have been lost because of the breakdown of communities and the increase in roads as the main byways and highways. I like to redress the balance a little. I also like to make up people’s names. Had i chosen to be a writer I would never have been short of good names. So who knows where the back of today’s envelope will lead? Perhaps I will have to get a person’s name on the back? I am reminded of Joseph Heller’s “Is there anybody in the john, Milton?” (There is something willing me to go and fins the quote to see if I have the punctuation – well any of it – correct!!!)
That’s not true actually: it’s not the words that have failed me but my will. I have the words and I have the ability to string them together quite well but I just can’t be bothered. It is warm and sticky and I am tired and my enthusiasm for writing has wilted away. Luckily I did the art part earlier on else this would have had to carry an advisory on quality!
Today’s piece was created and posted in Birmingham (although the printed elements of the envelope were prepared yesterday in advance) and the picture above was taken in Victoria Square on the wall of the pool where some words from Burnt Norton, one of the Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot are carved:
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
But at present the cloud has permanently passed as the pool is drained and the fountains stilled presumably for maintenance:
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete
So there is a little touch of inspiration from Eliot and the light-hearted Brummie love of its public art. My picture of the Floozie says it all:
And of course behind and below the Floozie is Gormley’s Iron Man, a little of its magic rubbed off on me I hope, and round the corner is the Museum & Art Gallery with its great collection of Pre-Raphaelites amongst much else, though sadly I don’t think there are any Rauschenbergs there. And, of course, the stunning new library is not far away. I have been reading about Rauschenberg and looking at his work a lot recently. I think if I had become familiar with his work in the late 60s I might have studied painting rather than sculpture or perhaps I might have had the courage to be bolder in my sculpture. It is only today that I am really beginning to understand the very radical nature of his work and the interesting questions he has been asking through his career. His Erased de Kooning Drawing for example is intriguingly complex. Rubbing out Iron Man or TS Eliot is a little more difficult!
When I came to post No107 I was surprised to find the letter boxes at the Post Office had been painted white with no helpful patterns to educate you in how to post a letter.
And someone (is there anybody out there?) is bound to want to see the back of the envelope:
My trip to Birmingham means at least a couple of envelopes get a different postmark.
I’m off to Birmingham now so No106 will get posted somewhere far away today. I may not be able to post the actual posting tonight but will record it as usual.
As you can see the weird stuff is no longer getting printed on the envelope, though I can’t easily stop the smudging at each edge. It was the nozzles needed cleaning.
Well today was a scorcher. Yes the weather was hot too but I felt sad about putting today’s piece in the envelope.
If you read the back of the envelope you will see I felt there was a sense of the I Ching in the way I wrote, and then wrote a parody. When I came to title this post I felt the same thing and had to hold myself back from making it sound more Confucian!
I think I have said all I want to say on the envelope except to emphasise that I think the printer patterns have gone too far. I checked the drivers and printed – they are ok – and printed out a photgraph with interesting results, so it must be the nozzles. Watch out for tomorrow’s exciting installment!
Yesterday I pondered about how 100 and other round numbers have an unwarranted fascination for us but it could be said that 101 has more call to be celebrated. Room 101 was the torture chamber in Orwell’s 1984 and it has subsequently been turned into a kind of joke with the BBC shows of the same name. In the US 101 is used to denote the introductory or beginners’ level of anything – I hope I am past that now with #Letter365! 101 is the phone number to contact the Police with non-urgent matters and there is of course 101 Dalmatians, the Disney movie based on Dodie Smith’s book. I probably should say “movies” but the 1961 classic is so far ahead of the others it is in a different league – and there you have caught me out because to be honest I have not seen 102 Dalmatians but, however good Glenn Close might have been in it, it is rare that a sequel offers more than the original, except maybe more of the same. Talking of “more of the same” I hope you are enjoying today’s image of a letter being posted.
Here I am sort of celebrating reaching 100 consecutive days of this project, and yet I wonder why we put such a significance to round numbers? It has become anathema to me on the radio or in papers every time there is some spurious celebration to mark a centenary or more usually just a round number like 40 or 65 or 950. Mostly these numbers have no magical or symbolic significance – a notable exception being a jubilee – it’s just an excuse to sell something. If you have no ideas look up dates or create a top 10/50/100.
Anyway, it’s a pretty good piece and I am glad I used the idea I used rather than the one I originally had in mind. The one I didn’t use needs more consideration and probably more space.
