Wednesday, August 04, 2004


(I guess Holbein didn't do cats) Sir Henry Wyatt

"'He was imprisoned often; once in a cold narrow tower, where he had neither a bed to lie on, nor cloaths sufficient to warm him, nor meat for his mouth; he starved there had not God, who sent a Crow to feed his prophet; sent this his country's master, a Cat, both to feed him and to warm him ----------- it was his own relation from whom I had it -------- A cat came one day down into the dungeon unto him, and, as it were, offered herself unto him, he was glad of her, laid her in his bosome to warm him, and making much of her, won her love. After this she would come every day unto him in diverse times, and when she could get him one, bring him a pigeon; he complained to the keeper of his cold and short fare; the answer was, he durst not better it; but said Sir Henry, 'If I can provide any, will you promise to dress it for me?'. 'I may well enough' said the Keeper, 'are you safe for that matter' and for him from time to time such pigeons as his Acater (caterer) the cat, provided for him. Sir Henry in his prosperity would ever make much of a cat, and perhaps you will never find a picture of him anywhere, but with a cat beside him."

away from the Manse a few days, readers Posted by Hello

Sir Thomas Wyatt

Mine Own John Poynz


Mine own John Poynz, since ye delight to know
The cause why that homeward I me draw,
And flee the press of courts, whereso they go,
Rather than to live thrall under the awe
Of lordly looks, wrapp'd within my cloak,
To will and lust learning to set a law:
It is not for because I scorn or mock
The power of them, to whom fortune hath lent
Charge over us, of right, to strike the stroke.
But true it is that I have always meant
Less to esteem them than the common sort,
Of outward things that judge in their intent
Without regard what doth inward resort.
I grant sometime that of glory the fire
Doth twyche my heart. Me list not to report
Blame by honour, and honour to desire.
But how may I this honour now attain,
That cannot dye the colour black a liar?
My Poynz, I cannot from me tune to feign,
To cloak the truth for praise without desert
Of them that list all vice for to retain.
I cannot honour them that sets their part
With Venus and Bacchus all their life long;
Nor hold my peace of them although I smart.
I cannot crouch nor kneel to do so great a wrong,
To worship them, like God on earth alone,
That are as wolves these sely lambs among.
I cannot with my word complain and moan,
And suffer nought, nor smart without complaint,
Nor turn the word that from my mouth is gone.
I cannot speak and look like a saint,
Use willes for wit, and make deceit a pleasure,
And call craft counsel, for profit still to paint.
I cannot wrest the law to fill the coffer
With innocent blood to feed myself fat,
And do most hurt where most help I offer.
I am not he that can allow the state
Of him Caesar, and damn Cato to die,
That with his death did scape out of the gate
From Caesar's hands (if Livy do not lie)
And would not live where liberty was lost;
So did his heart the common weal apply.
I am not he such eloquence to boast
To make the crow singing as the swan;
Nor call the liond of cowardes beasts the most
That cannot take a mouse as the cat can;
And he that dieth for hunger of the gold
Call him Alexander; and say that Pan
Passeth Apollo in music many fold;
Praise Sir Thopias for a noble tale,
And scorn the story that the Knight told;
Praise him for counsel that is drunk of ale;
Grin when he laugheth that beareth all the sway,
Frown when he frowneth and groan when is pale;
On others' lust to hang both night and day:
None of these points would ever frame in me.
My wit is nought--I cannot learn the way.
And much the less of things that greater be,
That asken help of colours of device
To join the mean with each extremity,
With the nearest virtue to cloak alway the vice;
And as to purpose, likewise it shall fall
To press the virtue that it may not rise;
As drunkenness good fellowship to call;
The friendly foe with his double face
Say he is gentle and courteous therewithal;
And say that favel hath a goodly grace
In eloquence; and cruelty to name
Zeal of justice and change in time and place;
And he that suffer'th offence without blame
Call him pitiful; and him true and plain
That raileth reckless to every man's shame.
Say he is rude that cannot lie and feign;
The lecher a lover; and tyranny
To be the right of a prince's reign.
I cannot, I; no, no, it will not be!
This is the cause that I could never yet
Hang on their sleeves that way, as thou mayst see,
A chip of chance more than a pound of wit.
This maketh me at home to hunt and to hawk,
And in foul weather at my book to sit;
In frost and snow then with my bow to stalk;
No man doth mark whereso I ride or go:
In lusty leas at liberty I walk.
And of these news I feel nor weal nor woe,
Save that a clog doth hang yet at my heel.
No force for that, for it is ordered so,
That I may leap both hedge and dyke full well.
I am not now in France to judge the wine,
With saffry sauce the delicates to feel;
Nor yet in Spain, where one must him incline
Rather than to be, outwardly to seem:
I meddle not with wits that be so fine.
Nor Flanders' cheer letteth not my sight to deem
Of black and white; nor taketh my wit away
With beastliness; they beasts do so esteem.
Nor I am not where Christ is given in prey
For money, poison, and treason at Rome--
A common practice used night and day:
But here I am in Kent and Christendom
Among the Muses where I read and rhyme;
Where if thou list, my Poinz, for to come,
Thou shalt be judge how I do spend my time.  Posted by Hello

wonderful Sheet Music Covers

(via MetafilterPosted by Hello

Edward Said on Adorno & "The Leopard"

"This is the prerogative of late style: it has the power exactly to render disenchantment and pleasure without resolving the contradiction between them. What holds them in tension, as equal forces straining in opposite directions, is the artist's mature subjectivity, stripped of hubris and pomposity, unashamed either of its fallibility or of the modest assurance it has gained as a result of age and exile." Posted by Hello

Tuesday, August 03, 2004


more on Luchino Visconti  Posted by Hello

Claudia Cardinale (as Angelica with Alain Delon (Tancredi) in "The Leopard) discusses Visconti & Leone, etc. Posted by Hello

17 Portland Oregon Blogs--you sort 'em out Posted by Hello
never mind!
"Most of the al Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and authorities are not sure whether the casing of the buildings has continued, numerous intelligence and law enforcement officials said yesterday. "

Monday, August 02, 2004


Dark Aphasia Roast
"'If the word is unrelated then caffeine is still strengthening retrieval in the same way, but because it is unrelated to the word you want to find it is actually having a negative effect,' she said. " Posted by Hello

With that funny swinging walk they all have

" All that remains is to stagger through the clearcut, down the deactivated logging road, and into the creek by the car, where I try to scrub away some of the dirt and salt and sweat and try to puzzle out where the bear is that left the huge, still-steaming piles around the tent in my absence.

Down the road a kilometer or two, is the answer. A big one, too, jet-black and as tall as my shoulder. Maybe out looking for toads in the twilight. Doesn't hurry, even when I honk, just gives me a slow, Clint Eastwood-style appraisal and steps off into the woods, with that funny swinging walk they all have." Posted by Hello

Laurel Garland: Women of the Risorgimento
". . . these laurels, whose growth is not of earth, but heaven, were all around me: I had but to gather them from the intermingling weeds and briars, and to bind them into a garland, consecrated to women. " Posted by Hello

I Macchiaioli Posted by Hello

I Macchiaioli were a school of painters associated with Italy's risorgemento. I found out about them on one of the documentaries on the dvd of Visconti's Leopard.  Posted by Hello

Robert Aldrich's The Grissom Gang
"Slim laments a lie one of the victims has told to save himself. He's practically in tears at his vision of human failings when he says: 'Why you wanna lie like that? Didn't your folks teach you no better? Like Ma says, they're real punks.' " Posted by Hello

Sunday, August 01, 2004


oddsmaker Lisa Jarnot's Saratoga rundown--"Who would you pick-- Mayo on the Side or Sightseek? " Also:making Kevin Davies easier to spot. Posted by Hello

this also from Metafilter--English Accents and Dialects  Posted by Hello

The Lewis Walpole Library splendid searchable collection of satirical prints... Posted by Hello