Month: September 2018

Charles Williams: “The Forest Itself Has Different Names”

The Forest Path

“The image of a wood has appeared often enough in English verse. It has indeed appeared so often that it has gathered a good deal of verse into itself; so that it has become a great forest where, with long leagues of changing green between them, strange episodes of poetry have taken place. Thus in one part there are lovers of a midsummer night, or by day a duke and his followers, and in another men behind branches so that the wood seems moving, and in another a girl separated from her two lordly young brothers, and in another a poet listening to a nightingale but rather dreaming richly of the grand art than there exploring it, and there are other inhabitants, belonging even more closely to the wood, dryads, fairies, an enchanter’s rout.

The forest itself has different names in different tongues- Westermain, Arden, Birnam, Broceliande; and in places there are separate trees named, such as that on the outskirts against which a young Northern poet saw a spectral wanderer leaning, or, in the unexplored centre of which only rumours reach even poetry, Igdrasil of one myth, or the Trees of Knowledge and Life of another. So that indeed the whole earth seems to become this one enormous forest, and our longest and most stable civilizations are only clearings in the midst of it.”

― Charles Williams

Rebloggend with thanks to https://gaymenofnature.tumblr.com

Royal Flycatcher

Royal Flycatcher: Onychorhynchus coonatus

The Royal Flycatcher is widespread, with a range that extends from southern Mexico to the Atlantic Forest of southeaster Brazil. It inhabits the lower levels of humid evergreen or deciduous forests. The Royal Flycatcher exhibits notable geograhic variation across this range, with four species recognized. The most notabl e feature is the long ornate crest, which is red to orange with black and blue spotting.

Calendar: September 23

A Year: Day to Day Men: 23rd of September

The Lure of Nature’s Forests

September 23, 1806 marks the return of Lewis and Clark Expedition to the city of Saint Louis.

The Corps of Discovery Expedition, known to history as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. It was a selected group of US Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Its commission by President Thomas Jefferson was to explore and map the new territory of the Louisiana Purchase and establish an American presence in the territory.

Merwether Lewis had no formal education in his early years; but he became a skilled hunter and outdoorsman in the Broad River Valley of Georgia, developing a life-long interest in natural history. In 1793, Lewis graduated from Washington and Lee University. In 1795 Lewis joined the US Army, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, rising to the rank of Captain in 1800 and ending his service in 1801. When President Jefferson began to plan the exploration of the newly purchased Louisiana territory, he chose Lewis, then at the age of 28, to lead the expedition. Meriwether Lewis recruited his close army friend William Clark, then age 33, to share command.

Meriwether Lewis spent the year of 1803 in study for preparation for the trip. He was sent to Philadelphia to study medicinal cures under Benjamin Rush, a physician, and was further educated by Andrew Ellicott, an astronomer who instructed him in the use of the sextant and other navigational instruments. At Monticello, Jefferson possessed the largest library in the world on the geography of the North American continent; and Lewis had full access to it.

The Corps of Discovery met their objective of reaching the Pacific, mapping and establishing their presence for a legal claim to the land. They established diplomatic relations and trade with at least two dozen indigenous nations. The Corps was not successful in finding a continuous waterway to the Pacific Ocean but located an Indian trail that led from the upper end of the Missouri River to the Columbia River which ran to the Pacific Ocean.

The Corps gained information about the natural habitat, flora and fauna, bringing back various plant, seed and mineral specimens. They mapped the topography of the land, designating the location of mountain ranges, rivers and the many Indian tribes during the course of their journey. The Corps also learned and recorded much about the language and customs of the American Indian tribes they encountered, and brought back many artifacts, including bows, clothing and ceremonial robes.

Sebastiano Ricci

Sebastiano Ricci, “Bacchanal”, Date Unknown, Oil on Canvas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque School of Venice, An elder contemporary of Tiepolo, Ricci represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting. He painted many works while under the patronage of Duke Ranuccio II, Farnes of Parma, Italy.

Tonic of Wildness

The Tonic of Wildness

“It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.”
― Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

A Compilation of Tales

The Life of One Man: A Compilation of Tales

“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course, but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards… And they will say: “Yes, that’s one of my favourite stories.”

‘It’s saying a lot too much,’ said Frodo, and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart. Such a sound had not been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle-earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Machado Silvetti

Machado Silvetti, “Asian Art Study Center”, 2016, Terra-Cotta Facade, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida,

The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, is famed for its ornate Venetian-Gothic mansion named “Cà d’Zan”, meaning “House of John” referring to John Ringling, one of the famed owners of the Ringling Brothers Circus, who resided in the mansion with his wife. Construction started in 1924 on the mansion that was designed by New York architect Dwight James Baum. Baum’s design embodied the palazzos that line the Venice canals, emulating the Italian decor that the Ringlings fell in love with on their many trips to the Mediterranean.

The Boston firm Machado Silvetti used the showpiece structure of the mansion as a precedent for their design for the museum’s extension of the Asian Art Study Center. This new project included the conversion of approximately 18,000 square feet of preexisting gallery space from a temporary exhibition area to permanent galleries. Catering to the museum’s developing Asian collection, the scheme also included a gut renovation of the west-wing galleries, located to the southwest.

The most visually striking aspect of the project is the shimmering terra-cotta facade of the new addition. Asked for a monumental entrance to museum, Machado Silvetti created something unique to the site. More than three thousand jade-colored tiles clad the elevated extension, the color a nod to the  natural surroundings but in opposition to the original pink Italian buildings. The facade with the tiles’ large mass helps combat heat gain while also acting as a barrier wrapping the extension from the elements.

Edwin Austin Abbey

Edwin Austin Abbey, “Sir Gahahad Becomes King of Sarras”, Panel from “The Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail”, 1895-1902, Mural with Fifteen Panels, Abbey Room, Boton Public Library

Edwin Austin Abbey was an American muralist, illustrator and painter He flourished at the beginning of the golden age of illustration. Abbey is best knwon for his drawings and paintings of Victorian and Shakespearean subjects. His most famous set of murals was his work “The Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail”, which adorns the walls of the Boston Public Library.

Edwin Austin Abbey was a young, highly regarded illustrator for “Harper’s Monthly” magazine, but had never completed any work in oil paint when he was approached for the mural commission. In 1890, Abbey and John Singer Sargent dined with Charles Follen McKim, Stanford White, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens in New York, where architect McKim convinced him to consider painting a mural cycle in the Boston Public Library’s Book Delivery Room.

Upon visiting the library during its construction with McKim, Abbey agreed to undertake the project and signed a contract to complete the work for $15,000 in 1893. Abbey selected a subject of “legendary romance” in The Quest for the Holy Grail, basing his work upon Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s version of the Arthurian tale. It took Abbey eleven years to complete al the murals for the project.

Calendar: September 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of September

Red Atop of Gray

September 22, 1885 was the birthdate of director, actor and producer Erich von Stroheim.

Erich von Stroheim is considered one of the greatest directors of the silent era; he created films representing both a cynical and a romantic view on human nature. His style of directing was known to be dictatorial and demanding on the actors. Stroheim’s best remembered work was his adaption of Frank Norris’ period novel “McTeague”, released in 1924 under the title “Greed”. It originally started as a project with Goldwyn Pictures, which later during the filming, Merged with Loew  and became MGM,

“Greed” was intended to be a highly detailed version of the book, shot at the actual locations in the book. Scenes with actors in period dress and Silent movie make-up were shot amidst a modern day San Francisco, with its automobiles seen in many scenes. The Death Valley scenes in the book were shot on location in the heat of summer, the first feature-length film shot at the location.

The original print of “Greed” ran for ten hours. Stroheim and director Rex Ingram, after cutting more than half of the footage, edited it into a four-hour version that could be shown in two parts. Metro- Goldwyn Mayer, tired of Stroheim’s attempts to cut the film to less than three hours, removed him from control and gave the film to head scriptwriter June Mathis with instructions to cut it further. Mathis gave the print to a routine cutter, who reduced it to two and a half hours in length. In what is considered one of the greatest losses in cinema history, a janitor at the studio destroyed the cut footage. Stroheim disowned the released version which became a commercial failure. 

Erich von Stroheim’s unwillingness or inability to modify his artistic principles for the commercial cinema, his extreme attention to detail, his insistence on near-total artistic freedom and the resulting costs of his films led to fights with the studios. As time went on he received fewer directing opportunities. In 1929, Stroheim was dismissed as the director of “Queen Kelly” after disagreements with star Gloria Swanson and producer Joseph P. Kennedy over the mounting costs of the film as well as Stroheim’s introduction of indecent subject matter into the film’s scenario.

Stroheim played the role of producer Max von Mayerling in Billy Wilder’s 1950 “Sunset Boulevard”, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award fo Best Supporting Actor. Excerpts from Stroheim’s previous work “Queen Kelly” were shown in the film. His “Sunset Boulevard” character had lines stating that he used to be one of the three greatest directors of the silent era. These lines reflected the actual humiliations and trials Stroheim had actually suffered through his career. Erich von Stroheim, paralyzed from cancer in his body, passed at his chateau near Paris on May 12, 1957 at the age of 71.