Days In – Seb Palmer

27 October 20238 February 2024

ART/ILLUSTRATiON: The Rainbow Goblins, Ul de Rico (1978)

I first drafted this post in September or October, 2022. But I’ve only now finally gone back to and finished it!

If I’m honest this isn’t my normal mug o’ Java. But I’ve been softened up for it by Masayoshi Takanaka’s wonderful double-album of the same name, that’s both based on the story, and uses Ul de Rico’s art on’t the packaging.

Sometimes getting an entry into something this way – so, the fabulous Takanaka album predisposes me to being more receptive to the artwork/story that inspired it – widens one’s aesthetics. If I’d only seen the book, I might’ve rejected it out of hand.

Some of the artworks, such as the one that adorns Masayoshi’s album cover, or the one directly above this paragraph, really do draw me in, and seduce me. Others, like the one directly below, I’ve grown to love.

And this in turn leads me to dig stuff like this:

And in the end I’m won over, and full of admiration for the simple charms of the story, and the intensity of the artworks. How about this for endpapers:

Flowers melt into a marbled ink pattern.

Ul de Rico did a follow up, called The White Goblin. And Masayoshi Takanaka followed suit! I’m listening to the latter right now. I’m not as immediately smitten by it as I was by his Rainbow Goblins project. It’s a bit more mainstream rock/pop.

But, truth be told, I feel myself being sucked in and won over. Seduced ever further from my own usual aesthetics. In the end, it feels to me as if I’m relaxing and letting Ul de Rico and Masayoshi Takanaka take me, one by each hand, into their visual and sonic worlds.

And I think that’s a good thing…

12 May 202313 May 2023

HAPPY HOME: Teresa’s Birthday!

Today was Teresa’s 55th birthday. My how the time flyeth!

I bought her some pink roses. And her workplace gave her some other flowers. We combined these, and it resulted in the rather fulsome bouquet, pictured above. This provided enough flowers for four different smaller displays throughout the house.

Polishing off breakfast in bed, with bucks fizz.

Breakfast in bed for ‘the other half’ is a tradition with us. Usually accompanied by a bucks fizz. Teresa likes two croissants, with bacon, fried onions and tomatoes, and a fried egg. Tea and plain orange juice round out the food and drink.

After a relatively lazy morning – although I did do a bit of tidying round the house – it was time for lunch. Lunch was moules mariniere, with garlic bread, and salmon and spinach on olive bread. Mmm… dee-lish!

Table, cluttered with flowers, pressies, etc.

Simple but hearty and tasty fare. The flowers, a candle, and other pressies make the rather cluttered table look pretty. Beady eyes might also spot some big reference tomes. I got those earlier in the week, off Freecycle.

In the afternoon we went to Ely, to have a wander round Waterside Antiques (a tradition for Teresa’s recent birthdays). I got her some earrings and a pretty little brooch, of her own choosing.

And to bring the main action of the day to a happy conclusion, dinner at The Lamb Hotel, in Ely. We traditionally eat at Prezzo in Ely on my birthdays. And Teresa almost booked us in there this time. But it turns out she could’nae ha’ done that, as it’s closed, permanently! Bummer.

The Lamb is a nice old fashioned Hotel with attached pub/restaurant. We’ve eaten there many times. I was going to have pasta. But Teresa persuaded me to join her with bangers and mash. And I’m glad. ‘Twas ver’ ver’ noice indeed!

Neither of us managed to polish off the whole meal. A glass of house red and a jug of water washed it all down. There was no room for dessert! Particularly as we had chocolate cake waiting ‘back at the raunch’.

‘Sparkles, spangles, Her heart will sing,
Wearing baubles, Bangles and beads.’ Blue was the theme for this little lot. Really pretty!

The blue theme continued at home, with these cute miniature glasses, that Teresa bought years ago at an antiques place in Market Deeping.

Rounding off the day with a hand of rummy.

After a long and fun-filled day. It’s up the wooden hill to Bed-fordshire, and a few hands of rummy, before lights out and off to snoozeville.

‘Did you have a good birthday, my love?’ ‘I had a brilliant birthday.’ Fab! Job done.

10 April 202311 April 2023

POETRY: Classroom Crush?

I’m following Kurt Vonnegut’s advice, as per my previous post, and writing a poem. Here it is:

Classroom Crush

She’s a beauty
And no mistake 
Long brown hair
A fine filly
With a luxuriant mane
Just enough jewellery 
To suggest sophisticated decadence
Sat with her peach of a derrière 
On the edge of her desk. 

A green velvet jacket
A colourful batik silk scarf
Enchanting hazel eyes
A voice that’s refined
Commanding obedience
Oh so willingly given
Long elegant fingers
Rest on a copy
Of Sirens of Titan.

Oh, Mrs Martin
Your Mona Lisa smile
Always baffled and beguiled 
I wonder how many
Boys hearts you quickened
Or maybe broke?
Sat in the ranks
Of hideous brown plastic chairs
I secretly loved you.

10 April 202310 April 2023

CULTURE: Kurt Vonnegut on The Arts

KV. A terrific writer. With some great insights.

I have to thank a secondary school English teacher (Mrs Martin?), for introducing me to Kurt Vonnegut. Truth be told it was her sex appeal – a bright and beautiful young woman, with a fascinating looking book – as much as the literary appeal that first took me. Ah, Mrs Martin, where are you now?

Well, today, on FB, he was quoted by one of those weirdly intrusive ‘you might like this’ meme-things. I reproduce the quote below, keeping the bit about homosexuality that they omitted:

‘If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I’m not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.’

According to online sources this quote comes from Man Without A Country. I must get/read that!

9 April 20239 April 2023

ART: Caravaggio

Wow! Such a powerfully beautiful composition!

Mention of Caravaggio in a recent post set me to poring over a couple of art books we have on this incredible artist. I recently mentioned in another post having sketched a pencil version of The Conversion of St Paul years ago. But I’d like to try and paint it, as well.

But whilst perusing Gilles Lambert’s Taschen 25th title on Caravaggio just now, it was Saint Matthew and The Angel that really clocked me one upside the head. What an incredible composition! Flat and empty to the point of being almost frieze like. Yet rich with light, shade, colour and volume.

The rendering has the strength of sculpture. And yet is richly vibrantly colourfully alive. Caravaggio’s eye and aesthetic sensibility imbue his art with an intensity that I can only reach for poetically: chestnuts, leather, velvet, red wine, red meat, incense, lace or muslin, the scent of candle wax and smoke.

In both St Matt and The Conversion the pictorial space, whilst rendered with surreal photo-realist clarity, remains so shallow as to be effectively flat. I love that! It’s simultaneously modern, and timeless. It lives in the present.

As many have said, including my hero, Picasso, the best art of any era is most potently alive in whatever ‘present’ the viewer sees it. Great art loosens the shackles of short-lived fads, or era-specific parochialism/opacity, and rises above time!

Some of Caravaggio’s stuff looks, to my eyes, very blatantly homo-erotic. Check St Paul’s torso in the painter’s two versions of The Conversion. When the subjects are young male nudes of a childlike appearance, that can sit rather awkwardly with current social mores, and indeed laws.

Victorious Cupid is a bit icky, to me. I call it Cupid Scratching His Arse! But it’s still an amazing artwork. And just look at the detail in the lower part of the painting. The musical instruments, armour, and textiles, are like a somber symphony in paint!

Anyway, it’s great to be nourished by fabulous art. I am very grateful for the luxury of being able to indulge in such a hedonistic yet refined pursuit!

8 April 202310 April 2023

HOME: Malfunctioning Gas Hob Ignition

Oh, but when it rains, it doth pour, eh? Today our gas hob suddenly decided to start clicking constantly, which I suppose is a continual triggering of the ignition(s)?

Sometimes all four hobs were sparking continually, sometimes one or another. But the clicking was, more or less, constant, from around midday or lunchtime, till now (9pm)

Of course I first tried solving it myself. This has happened once before. On that occasion I switched off everything (electric and gas*), and cleaned all the hobs. Cleaning can involve liquids, and liquids can short the spark circuitry! But I got everything as dry as I could. And, lo! Everything worked just fine.

* Or so I thought! Turns out I only knew how to switch the gas off for the hobs. The fuse on the main fuse board only switches off the oven and grill, not the hobs! More on this shortly.

Did the same this time, albeit ultimately spending much, much, much more time cleaning, but no dice. No change whatsoever! Clicking and firing continued unabated. Every now and again it’d lessen or stop. Only to start all over again.

World’s most thrilling video… awesome!

Anyway, having gone back and forth, Googling the issue, and trying very hard to really clean out all the parts – the hobs comprise three components, plus the little (ceramic?) ignition ‘nipples’ – hoping it all might eventually dry out or summat, and stop firing, it was all to no avail.

I called a Gas Safe engineer at about 8.30pm. He arrived around 9.20pm. He determined we had no gas leaks. He also helped me identify the correct power socket for the hobs. I thought I’d done so. But apparently not. Whatever it was I’d found, it was the wrong power outlet!

Once the right power source had been identified, it became apparent that it did (the other lead/wall socket didn’t) have a switch. Mercifully, when this was flipped, the eternal and infernal clicking finally stopped.

I have strong memories of recently packing away another four-hob cooker top. I think with a view to eventually installing it in our mooted Hobbit Hole guest accommodation? I tried to locate that today. But failed! We have way too much stuff, and way too little storage, so most of our stuff is in a cluttered state of disarray.

I wonder, should I find it, would it even fit?

8 April 20238 April 2023

ART: 17th C. Dutch Genre Painting – Baburen, The Procuress

When I found these two art works recently, whilst putting yet more stuff into our attic, I brought them down, to have a fresh look at ‘em. And I’m pleased with how they look.

The pencil drawing was my first look at reproducing Dirck van Baburen’s The Procuress. I actually chose to leave the Procuress herself out of the picture, which also changed the overall format of the piece (from off square to a portrait type rectangle). Instead we have just the young dandy and his lute-plucking lady.

A terrific book! And the source of this project.

I found van Baburen’s The Procuress in this rather lovely book. It’s an old’un, but a good’un! My mum had a copy back when’s he did her degree. I think I’ve posted about this book here before? But I’ve not found that post, so can’t link to it yet!

Here they are individually, for a bit of a closer look. The pencil drawing is finished. But the oil stalled before completion. So I need to finish that off.

These two pieces are both for sale, should anyone want either. The pencil drawing for £89, and the oil painting for £239. That’s unframed. I can frame them as well, if required. Or a buyer could do it themselves.

I’m planning to do more in this line, as I enjoy it, and it teaches me a lot. I have a few favourite paintings I’ve long wanted to reproduce, such as Vermeer’s Woman Holding Balance, and Caravaggio’s very theatrical St Paul.

Caravaggio’s dramatic vision of St Paul.

The first three pics of my efforts, further up this post, were taken outside in the sunshine. These last were shot indoors. But all the pics in this (and almost all my blog posts) are taken on my iPhone. So, hardly pro/ideal! But hopefully they get the idea across?

4 April 20236 April 2023

TECH: iPhone Apps are Doing My Head In!

Gaaah!!!

So, not only do I have some weird conflict between WordPress and Jetpack, that’s stopping me from posting here as I normally would. I also have issues with apps on my iPhone.

What happened was that I wanted several apps that were in folders just out on ‘the desktop’, so to speak. I used the ‘remove folder‘ function. This appeared to suggest that the folder would go but the apps would stay.

Uh-uh. Both folder and apps (or at least app icons) disappeared. So I re-downloaded one of these apps, an FTP thing. But although it shows here:

… it doesn’t show on any of the several screens worth of what I’m calling my ‘desktop’:

If anybody should chance upon this post who knows what’s gannin’ on, leek, could they enlighten me… pretty please!?

4 April 20234 April 2023

ART: Josep Palau i Fabre & Picasso

I posted about this dude and his passion for Picasso quite a while ago (read that here if interested). And I find myself wanting to post about this pairing again.

As per my previous post, I have three of the four ‘whoppers’ i Fabre published. And I really want to get hold of any more there might be. I’m aware of just one more, as things stand. Which, alas, seems both rarer, and consequently more expensive.

This is one version of the book I don’t yet have.

I’ve learned, thanks to my search for the cheapest way to buy this book, that it can be bought brand new, for €150! From Poligrafa, the Spanish publishers responsible for all these fabulous books. And in English (or Catalan!), as well as Spanish.

Second-hand editions of this title are all more expensive. But sadly anything at all, let alone say £20-30 (roughly what I paid for the third volume in this series), is way too expensive for me right now.

I exchanged some emails with a chap called Carlos at Poligrafa today, thereby learning of the newer/cheaper buying option. But thanks to me not speaking Spanish, or quite following all his English, I’m none the wiser as to whether any more posthumous (to i Fabre’s passing, that is) volumes are in the pipeline.

3 April 20233 April 2023

ART/HEALTH & WELLBEING: Home Alone, Bed- & Book-bound

Today I’m mostly confined to bed. By my own decree. Teresa’s at work. And I am on Easter break. Although it may be a bigger hiatus? That’s partly why I’m in bed!

I woke when Teresa got up, at 5.30am (mad!). But most of the time between about 9am and 3pm I’ve been in a 50/50 mix of resting/dozing, and outright sleeping. Snooker, with Kieran Wilson thrashing Ali Carter, on the Tour Championship, is helping on all fronts with rest and sleep!

But around 2pm, after a second long chat with the alphabet soup brigade (the bouillabaisse of acronyms for mental-health organisations), I felt I needed an injection of culture and inspiration. So I hoyked a few art books off the shelves.

Angst meets beauty, in mixed media on canvas.

Having resumed a long derelict interest in making art, I thought I’d also resume the act of feeding on the soul food that art can be. Hence getting these tomes offa the shelves. Turner and The Sea, Guston, and de Kooning. Endless hours of fun and nourishment!

And to keep my furrowed brows at the correct elevation, something a bit ‘Felix’ lighter!

And of course, Viz. Thanks to the Viz Team I nearly died laughing last night.