japonisme: on the first day

01 January 2009

on the first day




first, yes. i know this is the same song as yesterday. but it's the version i wanted off this very wonderful tribute to joseph spence cd that i have called "out on the rolling sea." since it's all music from the bahamas, i thought the singers were from there too. uh, nope. blue murder.

second-- i and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of folks here in berkeley followed our annual new year's day ritual: we went shopping for calendars at the pegasus bookstore annual calendar sale: 3 for $10! what a great lot of calendars i found there yesterday. now this one from the carl larsson calendar -- what is that pink thing??! in front of the lamp.

i also found one of 'impressionist photographers'! this gertrude kasebier is hanging on my wall at this moment, and if i lean my head just a little to the left i see her there.

while i was poking around in the piles and piles of calendars, i started talking with a woman about design. turns out her father did this, among numerous other WPA posters! one of my favorites! wouldn't it be cool if our obama puts artists to work as part of new deal redux?

now, a couple of days ago, you know, the one with the crescent moons, i had an image i was going to use till i suddenly remembered it was new, as opposed to the 100 years old that it looks.

his name is john martinez.

these are both images from a long series he did about operas.

look how amazingly he manages to meld jugendstil, art nouveau and other japonisme styles.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Willym said...

Great posts - two days in a row. Love this particular version of the song.

Hope you don't mind if I make a suggestion I was going to e-mail it to you but couldn't find an e-mail address.

With such great music it would be wonderful to hear it while looking at the incredible pictures you post. Simply adding the tag: target="blank" will display the full picture in another window as the music carries on. Sorry you may already have known that - its a bit more extra work but given the quality of what you post ...

If I can get the time to get another Sharing post up these two are going to be included.

All best wishes for 2009 from Roma

Willym

02 January, 2009 13:50  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

wow willym! thanks! what a brilliant idea! where and how would i put that tag? thanks again,

lily

02 January, 2009 14:29  
Blogger Neil said...

Joseph Spence - my dear! The CD you get this great version from - not that I've listened to this, I have the sound turned off on my computer - is a beautiful tribute to this great guitarist and singer. Though I have to say that the original field recordings, and the tribute re-recordings, are a lot more fun to listen to than later live records. I have a recording of Joseph Spence trying and failing to perform a song he believes is called 'The serpent is unbroken'...

02 January, 2009 15:09  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

oh that's dear--and also sounds familiar! i must have heard it on the radio at some point. there used to be so many world music shows on various bay area college stations, and i had them all memorized so it must have been on one of theirs.

i wonder what of the field recording is online. doesn't the smithsonian have that stuff now?

and happy ny neil!

02 January, 2009 17:19  
Blogger Roxana said...

what an extraordinary ny ritual! calendars... I love them so much. and thinking that this fabulous gertrude woman is next to you, makes me envy you :-) my god, such beauty. you know, that is how I'd love my pictures to be :-) yes, terribly unmodern of me.

04 January, 2009 01:18  
Blogger las palabras mágicas said...

These images are gorgeous! I didn't know about this artist

04 January, 2009 03:34  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

hi roxy--happy new year! -- you know, as i was typing that i was a little afraid maybe every town had a bookstore that did that, so i do guess we're pretty lucky!

you could do far worse than the pictorialists being your teachers--if you follow my photography tag, you'll find a whole lot more, of her's and those of her friends.

04 January, 2009 13:10  
Blogger Neil said...

I'm not sure about availability on the net, but both discs of field recordings of Joseph Spence and the Pinder family, made by Peter K. Siegel and Jody Stecher in Nassau in 1965, are available on a single CD, The Real Bahamas (Nonesuch Records). Wonderful music.

05 January, 2009 08:38  
Blogger lotusgreen said...

thanks, neil! i'll check it out.

05 January, 2009 11:34  

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