Flex Mentallo

Another great cover! I've always loved Chandler and devoured all his novels long ago. How does Woolrich compare?

The Eighth Elegy With all its eyes the creature-world beholds the open. But our eyes, as though reversed, encircle it on every side, like traps set round its unobstructed path to freedom. What is outside, we know from the brute’s face alone; for while a child’s quite small we take it and turn it round and force it to look backwards at conformation, not that openness so deep within the brute’s face. Free from death. We only see death; the free animal has its decease perpetually behind it and God in front, and when it moves, it moves into eternity, like running springs. We’ve never, no, not for a single day, pure space before us, such as that which flowers endlessly open into: always world, and never nowhere without no: that pure, unsuperintended element one breaths, endlessly knows, and never craves. A child sometimes gets quietly lost there, to be always jogged back again. Or someone dies and is it. For, nearing death, one perceives death no longer, and stares ahead—perhaps with large brute gaze. Lovers—were not the other present, always spoiling the view!—draw near to it and wonder. . . . Behind the other, as though through oversight, the thing’s revealed . . . But no one gets beyond the other, and so world returns once more. Always facing Creation, we perceive there only a mirroring of the free and open, dimmed by our breath. Or that a dumb brute’s calmly raising its head to look us through and through. That’s what Destiny means: being opposite, and nothing else, and always opposite. Did consciousness such as we have exist in the sure animal that moves towards us upon a different course, the brute would drag us round in its wake. But its own being for it is infinite, inapprehensible, unintrospective, pure, like its outward gaze. Where we see Future, it sees Everything, itself in Everything, for ever healed. And yet, within the wakefully-warm beast there lies the weight and care of a great sadness. For that which often overwhelms us clings to him as well,—a kind of memory that what we’re pressing after now was once nearer and truer and attached to us with infinite tenderness. Here all is distance, there it was breath. Compared with that first home the second seems ambiguous and draughty. Oh bliss of tiny creatures that remain for ever in the womb that brought them forth! Joy of the gnat, that can still leap within, even on its wedding-day: for womb is all. Look at the half-assurance of the bird, through origin almost aware of both, like one of those Etruscan souls, escaped from a dead man enclosed within a space on which his resting figure forms a lid. And how dismayed is any womb-born thing that has to fly! As though it were afraid of its own self, it zigzags through the air like crack through cup. The way the track of a bat goes rending through the evening’s porcelain. And we, spectators always, everywhere, looking at, never out of, everything! It fills us. We arrange it. it decays. We re-arrange it, and decay ourselves. Who’s turned us round like this, so that we always, do what we may, retain the attitude of someone who’s departing? Just as he, on the last hill, that shows him all this valley for the last time, will turn and stop and linger, we live our lives, for ever taking leave. Rainer Maria Rilke (translated from German by J.B. Leishman and Stephen Spender)

Great stuff Cat! More please!

Great post Pat! Rilke is one of my favourite poets. His Duino Elegies in particular. I didnt know the one you just posted - but it is beautiful - thank you. Regarding the Woolrich book cover above - Is this a story literally about a female vampire?

...and this is quite stunning: Faramir at Osgiliath

I really like his work. They reminds me a little of Caspar David Freidrich

Definitely more "dreamlocked" than dead. I like this one as I'm a sucker for mermaids. (Anyone know any mermaid comic covers by any chance?)

Fantastic!

Many thanks on behalf of my fellow posters for the kind words, from you and many others. (Apologies to anyone we havent already personally thanked - but all the comments have been warmly appreciated.) Speaking for myself, this has been a hugely enjoyable project as my current work situation rarely allows me time to think about what fascinates me. It is a bottomless well. I already have at least a dozen ideas for topics to catch up with, many of which will recursively echo previous stories. Not to mention what fellow contributors may bring to the fore. (I'm just as happy to spectate as post, which I have less free time for anyway, now Christmas is behind us.) However, the direction this thread is not by any means pre-planned. You never know where it might take us. And as Cat helpfully pointed out - everyone is free to post what interests them! "Harem Women Feeding Pigeons in a Courtyard" by Jean-Léon Gérôme

That's an impressive collection you have there! I'm particularly struck by this one - is there a story behind thr image? Do you know more about the artist? It puts me in mind of a certain "school" of contemporary realist painting that isnt quite as it appears. [font:Times New Roman]Ah, yes I do. Among his other accomplishments Donato is an art instructor and gallery artist accomplished in many genres. He's been involved with numerous high profile art projects that include Lord of The Rings to a series of Joan of Arc gallery paintings. I'm not sure that I would describe the breadth of his work as contemporary realist although that description would certainly apply to some of his more poignant gallery work. More biographical information on Donato from his website... http://www.donatoart.com/news.html#joanofarc Back in November Donato visited our home while in the Metroplex as featured GOH at FenCon (an area SF convention)... (L/R: Brad's wife Cindy, artist Brad Foster in back, myself, Donato Giancola; unfortunately, my wife was the only one left to take the picture or she'd be in there too.) A photo of Donato with his magnificent interpretation of Captain America (this shot was taken in what I like to call The War Room)... [/font] That is an amazing circle of friends you have there! Thank you for sharing. Regarding Donato, I'm just curious, how do the Captain America painting and the painting of the young (drowned?) woman fit into his oeuvre?

I've not seen that one., but it sounds fascinating. Of course it doesnt rank as the greatest theft in art history, just the one that is top of the unsolved list. The Theft of the Mona Lisa Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: The Mona Lisa''s fame was emphasized when it was stolen on 21 August 1911.The next day, Louis Béroud, a painter, walked into the Louvre and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years. However, where the Mona Lisa should have stood, he found four iron pegs. Béroud contacted the section head of the guards, who thought the painting was being photographed for marketing purposes. A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the section head of the museum, and it was confirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid in investigation of the theft. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down," came under suspicion; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire tried to implicate his friend Pablo Picasso, who was also brought in for questioning, but both were later exonerated. At the time, the painting was believed to be lost forever, and it was two years before the real thief was discovered. Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen it by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed.[8] Peruggia was an Italian patriot who believed Leonardo's painting should be returned to Italy for display in an Italian museum. Peruggia may have also been motivated by a friend whose copies of the original would significantly rise in value after the painting's theft. After having kept the Mona Lisa in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was finally caught when he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence; it was exhibited all over Italy and returned to the Louvre in 1913. Peruggia was hailed for his patriotism in Italy and served six months in jail for the crime As to it's value, when it toured the USA, it's insurance valuation was greater than that of the french ocean liner that transported it. Mona Lisa, securely fastened in her temperature-controlled, custom-built container, boarded a French ocean liner and set sail. When the ship docked in New York, Mona Lisa was loaded into an armored vehicle and travelled to Washington, D.C., with an armed guard. For several weeks, the painting waited in a security vault while final preparations were made for the exhibition. Among the distinguished guests attending the private ceremony set to open the exhibit were every member of President Kennedy’s cabinet, all siting U.S. senators and congressmen, and all nine Supreme Court justices. The following day, the exhibit opened to the public—and The National Gallery was overwhelmed with visitors. In just 27 days, more than 518,000 visitors filed past the painting. A month-long exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,drew more than a million people. At one point during Mona Lisa’s Met stay, an overhead pipe burst in the special storage room that housed the painting each night. For more than an hour, water poured down on the precious piece, which was saved from permanent damage by the special bullet—and water—proof glass that it had previously been encased in. Before the 1962–1963 tour, the painting was assessed, for insurance purposes, as valued at $100 million; the insurance was not bought. Instead more money was spent on security. $100 million in 1962 is approximately $720 million when adjusted for inflation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_theft

Vrooooooom!!!!!! ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!! O - sorry I just like planes Nnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyeeeeeeerrrrrrrroooooouuuuuunnnnnngggggggggg

The Astronomer

The Geographer

The Love Letter

Mistress and Maid

Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid

A Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window