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hmmmm.... where to start... I just realized it has been a week since my last post. Horrid. Time flies. If you ever thought that being all by yourself all day long without telephone and with limited email would feel like all the time in the world, think again. Time flies even on sabbatical. Anyway, not complaining ;-) Just noting. Was just thinking about time the other day. Our ancestors' time was controlled by nature. Then, it was controlled by religion through ceremony and bells, and with the onset of the industrial age, time was controlled by machines. Being, that it takes about 100 years for a new scientific concept to sink in, and being that it has been about 100 years since the onset of quantum physics, maybe we will experience yet another step in the development of time in consciousness in the coming years.
Anyway... Just went to a local foundy the other day to drop off the first two sculptures I am hoping to cast in bronze (never did bronze before - mostly worked in steel). It was quite neat. If you have never seen a foundry, I would highly suggest that you check one out. Quite a process. Didn't get to take pictures inside as it didn't seem quite appropriate, but maybe when I will go back to pick up my sculptures... The picture to the right was taken outside the foundry - I just couldn't resist...
Took some more pictures and am getting to love my new digital camera (Nikon Coolpix 4100). Amazing little machine. Lovely pictures and interesting filters, it even makes little movie recordings with sound and also takes voicenotes for pictures (which has been an interesting language learning tool). Read on to get to the meat...
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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.” – John 1:1
It has been said that all that is, is vibration. Vision brought forth the will
to create, and through vibration, through sound, will created the world. Then
came things and at some point the “I”, the consciousness that we
claim and with it the perception of reality.
It is further claimed that we were created in the image of the creator, and
indeed, sound is the primary instrument of humans. Using our voice is the one
creative act that requires no additional materials or instruments. The sound
of the human voice is the most pure expression we have available. Every sound
we utter, every word we speak, and even every thought we speak silently with
our inner voice or repress in dark corners of our consciousness, is a creative
act.
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 yummo..... had some most delightful cheese fondue on Saturday. Can't even begin to describe the delight. Ate at a grotto (http://www.grottomulino.com) with Jesus and our friendly host Manfred, where they had a special room for fondue and raclette, which is another incredibly yummy treat, and which I also got to sample that night.
Apart from that, lots of reading-thinking-writing this weekend...
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 When I tell people that I live in Los Angeles, one of the questions I am typically asked is, whether I am afraid of Earthquakes. Well, not really. Actually, I love them (given that there is a destructive aspect to them and it's never a particularly great thing when people die in the context of one). When the earth suddenly shakes, all preconceptions suddenly go out the door, the body is confused, the senses are alarmed, and man-made structures are put to the test...
Last night, around midnight, I was having wine with Jesus and Marcello, another delightful sculptor who we went to visit in Milan a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly the room started shaking, the old heater rattling loudly, the floor moving and threatening to give in. My two artist friends - properly alarmed - were headed toward the door, while I was standing in the middle of the room, giggling and trying to surf the quake. Guess, one does not have to be in Los Angeles for earthquakes... It was not super strong one - a 5.3 on the Richter scale with its center at Lake Garda. It appears that Lake Garda is also a tectonic cesspool, so there might be more ;-) Grande!
For more detail information on the quake read on...
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Found out the name of the god who I mentioned in the prior post (here is a the info for the picture). His name is Silenus, a son of Pan, and he was the teacher of Bacchus, god of wine. It is not surprising that Bacchus turned out to be the god of wine, considering that Silenus reportedly was drunk most of the time as well.
My friend Ginger also just sent me a lovely poem on wine by Pablo Neruda which you can find if you read on.
Have been rediscovering wine myself. Used to drink white wine a lot when I grew up in Germany, but then switched to beer living in the U.S. (Californian wines are too heavy for me, too much Sulfur and it was hard to find simple French/Italian wines for cheap until I found Trader Joe's).
Since coming to Switzerland, I have rekindled with red wine. Apart from the purple lips and mouth one gets after a bottle or so, it's a rather delightful thing...
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 Had lots of opportunity to practice cognitive flexibility this weekend.... Christian and Raffaela, two scultptors from France who live in Carrara (famous for it's marble) came to visit Jesus this weekend. Did not get to see any of Raffaela's work, but Christian showed me some tiny little sculptures he had carved from an African Black Wood. They were utterly gorgeous, precious (and I don't use this work lightly), about 2" long on white marble beds (will have to get a better camera as my phone camera pictures really don't do justice to the beauty I am trying to capture). Nearly bought one, but then remembered that I am trying to avoid having things for a while ;-)
What was great about hanging with them was that neither of them spoke any English or German, only French and Italian. Speaking a mixture of German/English/Italian with Jesus and a mixture of French/Italian/Pseudo-English/Hand-Foot with them left me all mixed up in my head.... Have been studying Italian since I got here with a neat online course (www.rosettastone.com - un cavallo sta mangiando una carota), and know a bit of French (mostly through Fleur du Mal), but there were great stretches when I was just listening to the three of them talk in French/Italian feeling like a child trying to make sense of adults talking.
At the same time, we were able to have some interesting conversations. They told me about having heard about an old Abbey in France that was sold for 1Euro. Of course with the stipulation to renovate, but that would be no problem for a bunc h of artists who got to live there for free in exchange. Would also be neat to build it out with eco-technologies rather than traditional ones... Hmmmm.... Creative Centers in Abbeys ;-) Love it... Artists and Monks ;-)
Also on a gastronomical level, it was yet again a pleasure. Had some pasta cooked in a sauce of leek, dry sherry, white vine, spiced with curry and pepper, and smoothened with a bit of milk. And then also some delightful pork and bunny (yummy bunny) with really wild mushrooms. All in the presence of Bacchus' teacher (to the right) whose name got washed away with the different Italian wines we drank in his honor... dolce vita indeed ;-)
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 So I thought I was going to go hiking, but plans changed. Instead, Jesus and I went to a neighbouring town called Mendrisio to look for monkjuice (beer brewed by monks - my favorite is Chimay, which is brewed by Trappist monks - ora et labora, silence and beer brewing).
The place we went to did not have Chimay, but a jolly man named Luca, who ran the place, immediately turned into a most gracious host, selecting special and sacred beers for us and feeding us with salami, prosciuto, pâté. Luca was excited about the idea of my taking the bottles home to LA. They are nice Steins (see to the right next to a piece of art my mother made - she is quite an artist as well and at some point I will have to put together a site for her). Maybe I will take some Olive Oil or Vinegar home in those bottles ;-)
The only thing I regret is drinking the grappas Luca offered us toward the end of the evening. Really could have done without those...
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"The creative person is both more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive and more constructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.
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-- Frank Barron |
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