Not all those who wander are lost
I was much affected seeing David in Florence when I was a teenager.
Ever since, sculpture has been my favourite art discipline from the past.
Unveiled 1504.
Leonardo da Vinci was the great master at the time. Michelangelo the young upstart genius. it’s said the two were very competitive.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Though I’ve visited many of the best art galleries and museums around the world, I’m not actually much of an Arts buff.
What I like most is sculpture.
Also the Impressionists and post-Impressionists (Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Seurat.
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Jerry Saltz won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2018.
Since 2006 he’s been senior art critic and columnist for New York magazine.
Astonishingly, he was a long distance truck driver until age-41.
One of the very LAST words I’d use to describe myself is artist. Yet even I found this book useful in my quest to become a more artistic video creator.
Click PLAY or listen to an excerpt on YouTube.
I’ve never really got into short stories. Nor Chekhov.
But I was convinced by Phillip Pullman that this short story is a masterpiece.
You can listen to it on The Guardian.
Chekhov’s genius lies in the way he manages to convey with such apparent effortlessness a profound sense of the mystery of beauty, and of the sadness of those who observe and think. The narrator of this apparently inconsequential tale fixes on exactly the right details, from a myriad of possible ones, to strike at the heart. It’s a masterpiece of minimalism.
A schoolboy is accompanying his grandfather as they drive in their carriage along a dusty road across the steppe on a sultry August day. They stop for refreshment at the house of an Armenian friend of the grandfather. The boy, the grandfather and their Ukrainian driver are all struck by the beauty of the Armenian’s daughter.
Some years later, now a student, the boy is on a train that stops for some minutes at a country station. He gets out to stretch his legs, and sees a girl on the platform talking to someone in one of the carriages. She is very beautiful.
It’s about as spare and empty of plot as a story could be; two impressions that barely even amount to anecdote.
Like Waiting for Godot, it’s a story in which nothing happens, twice
Who has not fallen in love at first glance of a stranger?
6 months ago I still had a low opinion of those trying to make a living on YouTube.
It seemed a juvenile race to the bottom. I did not watch any of the top YouTubers. Not even my friend’s son, Cody Ko, who has 5 million + subscribers.
BUT — even then — I did follow a few favourite vloggers on HIKING and TECH.
Fact is, young people on YouTube and now TikTok are in the midst of a video editing revolution. Most future great film and TV directors are currently doing their own thing on social media.
Peter McKinnon, for example. In this fantastic 7 minute edit he pays tribute to the art form.
McKinnon is as skilled at video editing as anyone.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Every tourist visits Prague Castle.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, it’s the largest ancient castle in the world, sprawling across the hill above Charles Bridge.
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Built and expanded over hundreds of years, it’s an architectural Frankenstein.
At the start was a memorial to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Very interesting.
It takes a few hours to tour walking top to bottom. For a quick first look. The highlight is the Cathedral of St Vitus.
The main nave is massive.
Our very enthusiastic guide insisted that the BEST museum in Prague was here in the castle – the Lobkowicz Palace.
Original manuscripts from Mozart and Beethoven as well as the oldest and largest privately owned art collection in the Czech Republic.
As we stood outside the front door a distinguished gentleman entered. And returned. It was Prince William Lobkowicz himself, who grew up in Boston. He gave some gifts to our guide saying he had never overheard any other more accurately description of the collection. Our guide had tears in his eyes. It was an emotional moment for him.
The tour finishes with a walk downhill to the Charles Bridge.
An excellent half day.
I hadn’t realized how tourist-swarmed Prague has become. I visited in October, low season, yet everything was packed.
My hostel — Mosaic — was superb. Best breakfast I can recall.
To get oriented I took one of many available free walking tours: Wenceslas Square, Old Town Square, Astronomical Clock, …
Guides on free tours are paid by tip. They only survive if they are very good at the job.
My group had one awkward moment at the Jewish District when a tourist brought up the Palestinian cause … An important issue, but standing on ground where Nazis had murdered 90% of the Jews was wrong time, wrong place. We shut him down.
There are quirky, unusual attractions at every turn.
Wandering Prague at night with a flask of red wine was even better than daytime.
Yep. I hung out around the Charles Bridge every evening.
I’m not sure I can recommend this 2010 novel.
It’s well written, but something is odd. It doesn’t reflect any kind of Steve Martin humour.
The book by follows the New York art world climb of Lacey Yeager, a beautiful and dislikable young woman.
Too ambitious. Too much an opportunist.
The only reason to read this book would be to learn about the NY art scene.
