Peg Duthie's Blog, page 29
September 5, 2015
transitions
Some of the trees in my yard are already shifting from green to brown. I'm heading in the other direction, but first I'm going to enjoy a day or two between the bleaching and the dyeing:
In the meantime, fresh balloonflowers are keeping company with those gone to seed...
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In the meantime, fresh balloonflowers are keeping company with those gone to seed...
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August 31, 2015
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August 23, 2015
August Moon: it's coming in your direction
August Moon Day 10 prompt: I love the power of music to lift the spirits. I head to the stereo and put on...
...Candi Staton singing "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," a forty-six-year-old song when I first heard it in The Jam Coffeehouse back in 2012. It may have been Madeline Bell's take on it, or Renee Geyer's -- or, this being Nashville, who knows, someone here in town with a good set of pipes. None of the versions I've listened to since quite match what I remember, but I wasn't paying close attention to the cafe stereo in the first place, which made it all the more annoying several weeks later when I realized the chorus was still in my head.
I find the lyrics of the entire song pretty creepy, truth be told, and most of the melody doesn't grab me either. But that first/third line of the chorus: Just four notes. Maybe three measures? Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes I sing along with the mp3 on my computer, and sometimes that line leaps out of my lungs at random -- a bolt of attitude between deadlines or destinations. (And sometimes I get super-silly and sing "dog dog-dog dog-dog-dog dog doggggg /dog dog dog / dog dog dog" at Miss Abby.)
"Lift the spirits" isn't quite the right phrase for me. I have been known to turn up Alkan's piano concerto when I'm upset, but I don't associate "comfort" with "lift." Left to my own devices, I'm likely to turn to myself music [hello, Freudian typo!] not for uplift or lightening up, but to provide whatever I'm in the throes of -- anger, ambition, gratitude, grief, nerdiness, nostalgia -- with company and fuel.
This gingerbread jukebox was on display in Asheville a few years ago. Speaking of intense... :-)
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...Candi Staton singing "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," a forty-six-year-old song when I first heard it in The Jam Coffeehouse back in 2012. It may have been Madeline Bell's take on it, or Renee Geyer's -- or, this being Nashville, who knows, someone here in town with a good set of pipes. None of the versions I've listened to since quite match what I remember, but I wasn't paying close attention to the cafe stereo in the first place, which made it all the more annoying several weeks later when I realized the chorus was still in my head.
I find the lyrics of the entire song pretty creepy, truth be told, and most of the melody doesn't grab me either. But that first/third line of the chorus: Just four notes. Maybe three measures? Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes I sing along with the mp3 on my computer, and sometimes that line leaps out of my lungs at random -- a bolt of attitude between deadlines or destinations. (And sometimes I get super-silly and sing "dog dog-dog dog-dog-dog dog doggggg /dog dog dog / dog dog dog" at Miss Abby.)
"Lift the spirits" isn't quite the right phrase for me. I have been known to turn up Alkan's piano concerto when I'm upset, but I don't associate "comfort" with "lift." Left to my own devices, I'm likely to turn to myself music [hello, Freudian typo!] not for uplift or lightening up, but to provide whatever I'm in the throes of -- anger, ambition, gratitude, grief, nerdiness, nostalgia -- with company and fuel.
This gingerbread jukebox was on display in Asheville a few years ago. Speaking of intense... :-)
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August 22, 2015
August Moon: luminous
August Moon Day 9 prompt: In that moment I felt luminous.
Erm. When this first showed up in my in-box, I thought, Pass. Celestial I am not. When people call me a goddess, it's usually in reaction to a meal I've cooked or some deadline I've met or something I'm wearing with a low neckline or high hem. I've been described as earthy. Grounded. Driven. Terrifyingly pragmatic. I'm the woman who, after two rounds (whisky, neat), goes back to work or practice if I don't go straight to sleep.
But then I remembered what it sometimes feels like when I'm singing Handel or Josquin or Praetorius, or sight-reading something new:
I wasn't actually feeling luminous at all when this video was shot, as I had the flu and was thus singing most of the night through clenched teeth (aka trying to suppress a coughing fit). But it's what's near to hand at the moment. It's a link to how I've felt in the car or on the porch now and then these past few weeks, singing bits of this or that as I get my higher notes ready for the new season. It's a reminder that in the course of fumbling my way toward competence and reliability, I've managed to learn a few things here and there: Use what you have. Showing up matters. Time at the keyboard matters. What or how you feel is not necessarily material (thank God!) to what you are called to say or sing.
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Erm. When this first showed up in my in-box, I thought, Pass. Celestial I am not. When people call me a goddess, it's usually in reaction to a meal I've cooked or some deadline I've met or something I'm wearing with a low neckline or high hem. I've been described as earthy. Grounded. Driven. Terrifyingly pragmatic. I'm the woman who, after two rounds (whisky, neat), goes back to work or practice if I don't go straight to sleep.
But then I remembered what it sometimes feels like when I'm singing Handel or Josquin or Praetorius, or sight-reading something new:
I wasn't actually feeling luminous at all when this video was shot, as I had the flu and was thus singing most of the night through clenched teeth (aka trying to suppress a coughing fit). But it's what's near to hand at the moment. It's a link to how I've felt in the car or on the porch now and then these past few weeks, singing bits of this or that as I get my higher notes ready for the new season. It's a reminder that in the course of fumbling my way toward competence and reliability, I've managed to learn a few things here and there: Use what you have. Showing up matters. Time at the keyboard matters. What or how you feel is not necessarily material (thank God!) to what you are called to say or sing.
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August 21, 2015
August Moon: parting from the leaves
August Moon day 8 prompt:
I sat outside and told my secrets to the moon. This was her reply: ....
The sun was high in the sky when I rose
and yet cannot melt
tiaras into bullets
or bullets into bedpans
or bedpans into spades
nor coax fresh fruit
from smothered seeds.
Who are you to despair
at stones not turned
and leaves no longer new
when you stand but a step
and a hinge-life away
from a sky with different answers?
~pld
Both photos were taken earlier tonight.
I took a break between stanzas to walk some magazines around the corner. There is already the scent of burning leaves in the air.
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August 20, 2015
August Moon: the curtain
August Moon Day 7 prompt: I pull back the curtain and I see...
...a game between strangers
who see each other often
but not away
from the courts
or the parties
just as I blink
stumbling into someone
out of their Sunday best
as I exit a shower
-- yes, a fig leaf
would fool me.
My garden is thick
with saplings
so green
they would smother
an angel's sword
with all
of their wayward
veinglory.
~pld
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...a game between strangers
who see each other often
but not away
from the courts
or the parties
just as I blink
stumbling into someone
out of their Sunday best
as I exit a shower
-- yes, a fig leaf
would fool me.
My garden is thick
with saplings
so green
they would smother
an angel's sword
with all
of their wayward
veinglory.
~pld
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August 19, 2015
August Moon: something about twilight
August Moon prompt: There is something about twilight that makes me feel...
... like I've barely begun
to study the roses
and that I'll still feel
I've barely begun
my life
twenty-four summers hence
should I be
so lucky
to grow
past my prime
~pld
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... like I've barely begun
to study the roses
and that I'll still feel
I've barely begun
my life
twenty-four summers hence
should I be
so lucky
to grow
past my prime
~pld
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August 17, 2015
August Moon: what kind of net
August Moon Day 4 prompt: So I had a conversation with my shadow...
... where she asked me what kind of net
I would want to knot
cast
cradle
mend
were time no object
and money no limit
I said to her, I
am both oil and water
whip and trench
slipper and shard
caper and crutch
I'll meet you at the corner
where the wind
has been whisking
shreds of tealeaves
past the lost screws
of stray sunglasses.
~pld
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... where she asked me what kind of net
I would want to knot
cast
cradle
mend
were time no object
and money no limit
I said to her, I
am both oil and water
whip and trench
slipper and shard
caper and crutch
I'll meet you at the corner
where the wind
has been whisking
shreds of tealeaves
past the lost screws
of stray sunglasses.
~pld
comments
August 16, 2015
some things I brought home from Montréal
1. The urge to create a version of the mushroom-and-cheese "nem" (spring roll) at Boris Bistro.
2. Jars of confiture from Maison Christoph Faure.
3. A program and ticket stubs from this year's Coupe Rogers tournament, where Jeremy Chardy saved about 70,000 match points vs. John Isner, Kei Nishikori scored a tweener lob against David Goffin, Karlovic aced Raonic a bunch of times, and Mikhail Youzhny earned a standing ovation after winning a spectacular point during his loss to Rafael Nadal. We also saw two Djokovic matches, as well as Andy Murray in both singles and doubles.
4. A Rodin exhibition catalogue. So much to revisit and to write about...
5. A list of places for next time -- costume institute, marchés, parcs...
6. A longing to improve my French skillz...
7. as well as my photography and lettering chops, what with being surrounded by so much art inside the hotel as well as on the street and in cathedrals, shops, and galleries...
8. and stories to spin, someday, about jazz in the square across from organ practice in the basilica:
9. An ocean-scented facial mask from a hostess at the Chinese restaurant where we'd just consumed spicy jade tofu and sauteed sweet pea greens. I couldn't help wondering if I really looked crazy-haggard, but I suspect she just couldn't resist the possibility of future sales ("If you like it, come back..."). My companion did in fact enjoy the greens so much that we discussed returning to the restaurant again, but that plan got hosed (so to speak) by rain delays at Stade Uniprix the next afternoon.
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2. Jars of confiture from Maison Christoph Faure.
3. A program and ticket stubs from this year's Coupe Rogers tournament, where Jeremy Chardy saved about 70,000 match points vs. John Isner, Kei Nishikori scored a tweener lob against David Goffin, Karlovic aced Raonic a bunch of times, and Mikhail Youzhny earned a standing ovation after winning a spectacular point during his loss to Rafael Nadal. We also saw two Djokovic matches, as well as Andy Murray in both singles and doubles.
4. A Rodin exhibition catalogue. So much to revisit and to write about...
5. A list of places for next time -- costume institute, marchés, parcs...
6. A longing to improve my French skillz...
7. as well as my photography and lettering chops, what with being surrounded by so much art inside the hotel as well as on the street and in cathedrals, shops, and galleries...
8. and stories to spin, someday, about jazz in the square across from organ practice in the basilica:
9. An ocean-scented facial mask from a hostess at the Chinese restaurant where we'd just consumed spicy jade tofu and sauteed sweet pea greens. I couldn't help wondering if I really looked crazy-haggard, but I suspect she just couldn't resist the possibility of future sales ("If you like it, come back..."). My companion did in fact enjoy the greens so much that we discussed returning to the restaurant again, but that plan got hosed (so to speak) by rain delays at Stade Uniprix the next afternoon.
comments
August 8, 2015
photo challenge: 100 untimed books - 10
Prompt 10: criminals
The manga I mentioned in the previous entry, FAKE, is mainly about the antics of and relationship between two NYPD cops:
comments
The manga I mentioned in the previous entry, FAKE, is mainly about the antics of and relationship between two NYPD cops:
comments
