Search Results : books

• Techno-Lust Satiated: For Now

  Posted on December 26, 2007 4:48 pm by Charles Comment

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  A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions–as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.
    – Friedrich Nietzsche

  2007 saw the Ellis-Olson household become late adopters in two of the more dynamic techno-revolutions abroad in the land.  Last month we got a, wait for it, second cell phone!  That means we now have, like many, three phones: A daddy phone, a mommy phone and a just because we trust Qwest so much phone.  Then, this morning I went over to Ultimate Electronics and after some back and forth over price bought a plasma TV, a receiver, five speakers and an HD-DVD player.  Due to some weirdness about Money Market checks it will be a week or so before it arrives in our house, but then it will be 24/7 movie watching for this electro-cowboy.  Of course, that conflicts with all those hours I spend writing and working out and giving tours and eating and such, so I’ll have to pick something to give up.  Sleep, maybe?

  Next post will comment on an interesting article, Twilight of the Books, a New Yorker piece on the decline of reading and the rise of what they author calls, the second orality.  Some disturbing implications.

  
  

  📂This entry was posted in General 📎and tagged technology

• Art and Snow at the Beginning of Winter

  Posted on December 22, 2007 4:23 pm by Charles Comment

                               

  A Winter Solstice shot by Jim Johnson from the plains near Hecla, South Dakota

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                            Winter began at 12:08 AM this morning

  A bit of refinement on the arts and literature ideas from yesterday. The overarching idea is this:  some works of art included literature, usually poetry but not always.  In those instances it is clear that for the artist the written material had critical importance to the piece, otherwise, why include it?  In other instances, the image or sculpture gives form in print, painting or three-dimensions to a specific moment, either in story or in history.  Again, for the artist the textual base for the piece has to inform the work, so knowing the work, especially as it was known in the artist’s time and to the artist seems as important as understanding the piece itself.  Also, painting and sculpture and prints were never the only art form of their day; insteady they existed in an artistic milieux that not included fellow workers in the plastic arts but also poets, novelists, musicians, architects.  We often see reference to architecture in art history books, but very little reference to literature.  This last point becomes even more important as we move into the impressionist era and beyond when artists often wrote proclamations, began to intentionally blend their work with poetry and some moved into performance.

  These are ways in which literature is important to the field of art history and therefore our job as docents.  The use of other books, about artists and movements and particular works, is another intersection between art and literature.

  A light snow.  The snowblower moved out of the garage with its usual growl and eagerness to eat snow, then throw it.  Temperatures have begun to trend down again after a brief warmup.  I’ve done some additional moving, but I think today, certainly tomorrow will see the end of the bookcase/exercise equipment reshuffle.  That means I’m ready to move onto learning about hydrponic gardening and planning the vegetable gardens for next year.  Looking forward to it.

  
  

  📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture General 📎and tagged Art and Culture Literature Poetry snow

• What is the Great Work?

  Posted on November 13, 2007 3:59 pm by Charles Comment

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  Thomas Berry, an ecological visionary and Passionist monk, has written several books concerning the way forward to a healthy planet.  He summarizes his ideas in The Great Work. In this wide ranging, readable book, Berry, a cultural historian, defines a great work.  The Greeks had a great work in applying reason to the natural order.  The Romans had a great work in bringing order to their known world.  The Chinese have a great work that has created a humane and human scale culture.  Native Americans have a great work in their symbiotic relationship with the natural world in which they live.

  Our Great Work, the work of our generation, lies yet before us.  It is this:  create a  relationship between human beings and the planet in which our presence is at least benign and at best a positive good.   I have begun work, in fits and starts, on this, because in the end it has to be each of us, acting in concert, who will call this new world into being. 

  There are many actions we can take, but they need to move beyond recycling and buying green products at the grocery store.  Here a few I’m trying to work into my life:  being a locavore (eating food grown in our region), rationing trips by car and plane, planning for a hybrid car as our next purchase.  In the main though I believe I need to become political again, working on my old issues of economic justice, but this time in a way that will move a double agenda forward, justice for those left behind captialism and rethinking our economic order so that it develops positive signals for ecologically friendly business decisions.  More on this at another point.

  
  

  📂This entry was posted in Great Work 📎and tagged ecology economic justice Great Work

• Chicken Soup for the Body

  Posted on November 8, 2007 10:41 pm by Charles Comment

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  A quiet night.  Kate came home early.  A good thing since she was sick, a cold.  I made her chicken noodle soup.  Had to rely on my concoction since none of the cookbooks had anything similar to what I usually make.  My recipe of choice is on Golden Plump chickens and I bought Tyson chicken at Costco.  Came out ok anyhow.

  Feels strange to use this other process for putting up entries, but I’ll get use to it.  It will be awhile before I have the hang of the whole deal.  It’s complex, but, so far, reasonably straightforward.  After Bill put my stuff into Word Press in the first place.  Thanks, Bill.

  He’s coming over  on Saturday to help me finesse certain aspects of the site.  A good friend.

  
  

  📂This entry was posted in General 📎and tagged Cooking wordpress