More than one Barnes post.
Reading SOMETHING TO DECLARE, by Julian Barnes. He is so eloquent, and so affectionate and so funny. I love his "French Letters", in essence him fanboying over his favourite artists/writers. About Mallarmé he starts off by saying how he led a pretty tame life compared with other 19th-century French writers ("No legend attached to him, there is no syphillis or bankruptcy, no exotic travel or homosexuality"), then goes on to make him sound like such a fabulous guy. Yeah he entered into a loveless/sexless marriage at 21, his idea of rebellion was "giving up the traditional family career in the Records Office and becoming a schoolmaster", and at 26 he declared, "And now, since I've reached the terrible vision of a pure work of art, I've almost lost my reason and the sense of the most familiar words," BUT he was also editor of a fashion magazine, once wrote to his friend Henri Cazalis on the superiority of the Venus de Milo to the whole of Poland ("Wouldn't it be preferable that Poland should fall rather than see the eternal marble hymn to Beauty lying in pieces?") (And Barnes writes: "Happily, such choices don't often arise (and if they did 21-year-old aesthetes would probably not be consulted). Polish freedom against the Venus de Milo? Shouldn't the Poles have a vote in it?") AND in 1867 he'd planned with Villiers de l'Isle-Adam to "write a book which the bourgeois would gobble up but then choke on (the scheme zooming off into metaphor already).. The idea that Mallarme and Villiers (of all duos) might come up with something to make the bourgeois auto-destruct with self-loathing must be filed in the most arcane section of the Department of Empty Threats." Lol!
And about his poetry? He writes: "Naming an object, he was to say in a newspaper interview of 1891, destroys three-quarters of the pleasure of poetry.. Poetry should be like cigar smoke: that's to say, our attention is directed not at the puffing, personalized, Hugolian smoker, or the glamorous, red-burning cigar-end, or the gathering ash, but metonymically at the curls and wisps of grey-blue sweet-smelling smoke," and "Poe made the distinction between obscurity of expression - the sin of novice poets - and the expression of the obscure. 'There must always be enigma in poetry,' Mallarmé (Poe's translator) wrote in 1891."
Now about another Barnes..
OF MONTREAL. 15TH MARCH 10PM. I WAS THERE.
B.P.'s adorable guitar! Going very well with his outfit:
No, not the one on the right! I know, she does look like she should be famous doesn't she!
We were right up to the front! Here, Kevin is dancing.
Here, he is touching himself semi-sexually, as he did not do frequently enough that night!!
In the background Jamey is I think kicking at Davey or something.
Everything was all fun and laughs, until the terrifying things started happening.
Buddha stripped down into Ninja, who continued to strip.
(Not a continuation of the previous act.) I think he's Kevin's brother, David.
Later he pulled fruits from his crotch area and bit into each one before tossing them into the audience.
Midway Kevin came out in his rat's fur costume, WITH A SMOKE MACHINE ATTACHED
A SMOKE MACHINE ATTACHED
Other people with bigger cameras took lovelier photos. But it's hard not to look awesome when you have A SMOKE MACHINE ATTACHED
Being helped out of his costume by Ninja in a gas mask.
Ninja and Tigerman had a showdown. I'm really disappointed no one climbed on stage to save Ninja :(
Behind you, Buddha!
Oh it's Ninja being sneaky!
And then this happened.
During Id Engager, the last song (before the encore).
Then, confetti and dancing!
Then Kevin was all, "I like you, Mr Piggy!" and "I like you too!" or something to that effect and I think the pig blew him a kiss. How is he straight? At one point they were about to start another song and he was like to Jamey, "Drummer boy~ you ready?"
Animals hijacked the stage before the band came on for their encore and chased them off.
Dottie's qt shoes!
Sartorially I expected a bit more from Kevin. OR RATHER, A LOT LESS. Really though, he's such an inspiration to me. Blue sequinned bomber jacket, amazing sneakers, INCREDIBLE purple ruffled, ruched, rosetted top, this all-round fabulous outfit..
And about his poetry? He writes: "Naming an object, he was to say in a newspaper interview of 1891, destroys three-quarters of the pleasure of poetry.. Poetry should be like cigar smoke: that's to say, our attention is directed not at the puffing, personalized, Hugolian smoker, or the glamorous, red-burning cigar-end, or the gathering ash, but metonymically at the curls and wisps of grey-blue sweet-smelling smoke," and "Poe made the distinction between obscurity of expression - the sin of novice poets - and the expression of the obscure. 'There must always be enigma in poetry,' Mallarmé (Poe's translator) wrote in 1891."
Now about another Barnes..
OF MONTREAL. 15TH MARCH 10PM. I WAS THERE.
B.P.'s adorable guitar! Going very well with his outfit:
No, not the one on the right! I know, she does look like she should be famous doesn't she!
We were right up to the front! Here, Kevin is dancing.
Here, he is touching himself semi-sexually, as he did not do frequently enough that night!!
In the background Jamey is I think kicking at Davey or something.
Everything was all fun and laughs, until the terrifying things started happening.
Buddha stripped down into Ninja, who continued to strip.
(Not a continuation of the previous act.) I think he's Kevin's brother, David.
Later he pulled fruits from his crotch area and bit into each one before tossing them into the audience.
Midway Kevin came out in his rat's fur costume, WITH A SMOKE MACHINE ATTACHED
A SMOKE MACHINE ATTACHED
Other people with bigger cameras took lovelier photos. But it's hard not to look awesome when you have A SMOKE MACHINE ATTACHED
Being helped out of his costume by Ninja in a gas mask.
Ninja and Tigerman had a showdown. I'm really disappointed no one climbed on stage to save Ninja :(
Behind you, Buddha!
Oh it's Ninja being sneaky!
And then this happened.
During Id Engager, the last song (before the encore).
Then, confetti and dancing!
Then Kevin was all, "I like you, Mr Piggy!" and "I like you too!" or something to that effect and I think the pig blew him a kiss. How is he straight? At one point they were about to start another song and he was like to Jamey, "Drummer boy~ you ready?"
Animals hijacked the stage before the band came on for their encore and chased them off.
Dottie's qt shoes!
Sartorially I expected a bit more from Kevin. OR RATHER, A LOT LESS. Really though, he's such an inspiration to me. Blue sequinned bomber jacket, amazing sneakers, INCREDIBLE purple ruffled, ruched, rosetted top, this all-round fabulous outfit..