reasons to believe

why have any religions at all? i can think of good and bad reasons. good includes socials and nice music. soaring, glorious music; what of the fact that soaring music encourages dissociation? is that the enduring state that all religion leads to?

now, yes-- all the religions are different; Buddhism and Catholicism couldn't be more different, could they? we are told that Buddhism doesn't even sanction believing in anyone. Buddha is not a godhead.

but they are the same in brandishing ritual and rules: anything to break you from everything you know. but from there, because that break may just be the best thing for you, don't they take you in exactly the opposition direction from where they claim to be leading you? to the truth?

we might say that the truth lies within you; then why do each of these rule that possibility out? a theory occurred to me yesterday. religion as panacea for a ubiquitous OCD. how few of us unfurl complete confi- dence every day? religion gives you an approving voice at all time, as long as you pay the dues. and raw energy is dispersed in endless, mindless ritual.

'opiate for the masses,' yes. "Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again." temper this by the fact that it could also be zoloft or pel mells, or GTOs or viagra, or baked potatoes with sour cream: anything that tells you, in a very gentle voice, how okay you really are.

just think: if you really believed that, they could sell you nothing. nothing! not Lutheranism nor betty crocker nor anything else. and your terrors would all belong to you again, and
your salvation.

all that jazz

PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ

Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air

High hats and narrow collars
White spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

Now, if you're blue
And you don't know
where to go to
Why don't you go
where fashion sits

Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a daycoat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat
Perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper
Super-duper

Come, let's mix where Rockefellers
Walk with sticks or "umberellas"
In their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

Tips his hat just like an English chappie
To a lady with a wealthy pappy
Very snappy

You'll declare it's simply topping
To be there and hear them swapping
Smart tidbits

Puttin' on the Ritz

1929 Irving Berlin

all this by way of saying congratulations and warm wishes to john textile blog hopper for his new carpet index blog!

travelling through music and light

in some cases i've found, dow did take the photo before making the print (or painting) of the same place. but nine years before! did the places stay that identical? did he use the photos as guides. you know what? we will never know (unless i dig up something from his diaries).

thanks to the smithsonian, some dow stuff is making it onto the internet, but there's so much i just can't find. that's part of the reason i feel compelled to put up some of this stuff myself. like a timeline (you know i like those).

1857 born, ipswich, massachusetts.

1880 studys art with anna k freeland, who was an historical and portrait painter in worcester.

1882 studys art with james m stone, also an historical painter, in boston.

1884 goes to paris to study at the academie julian under boulanger and lefebvre

1885 summers in pont-aven.

1889 returns permanently to ipswich.

1891 meets ernest fenollosa and 'discovers' japanese woodblock prints. teaches art in boston, then opens school in ipswich.

1893 marries minnie pearson; becomes assistant curator of japanese arts at the museum of fine arts in boston.

1895 first exhibition of his own woodblock prints, in the japanese area of the mfa; begins teaching at the new pratt institute in new york city.

1899 publishes composition.

1903 travels around the world. lectures in kyoto.

1904 becomes the director of the art department at the teacher's college of columbia university.

1908 publishes theory and practice of teaching art; publishes by salt marshes in collaboration with his friend everett stanley hubbard, who writes the poetry.

1911 travels to the grand canyon and to california with alvin langdon coburn.

dow's publications are online. (some things aren't. i'm still hunting for the words of a speech or two.) i've had a tough time trying figure out how to present the teachings, but that's what i'd like to try next.

okay, i'll admit it. that last painting is not by dow. it's by robert henri. maybe he was channeling dow. but i love finding these rest, watching the same artist expressing the same things with different 'voices,' a composer listening to his music on all number of different instruments.