MY FAVORITE POEM

Greetingth, Poetry Loverth! I thought I'd post my new favorite poem...if you can call it a poem...."The Rose of Sharon" from Song of Solomon 2:1, in The King James Bible. I'd have preferred a good dramatic reading on film, but I couldn't find any...nothing first-rate anyway. I couldn't find any masterpieces of painting to illustrate the subject, either. It's odd that one of the world's greatest love poems inspired no great art. I put up some only vaguely relevant pictures of Solomon above and below, and I guess they'll have to suffice. Oh, well...we have the text, and that's the important thing: << Song of Solomon 2 >> King James Version 1I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.2As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 3As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 4He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. [Note: The rose of Sharon? The lily of the valleys? Boy, this author has a knack for words that stick in the mind. "So is my love among the daughters" is so much better than the merely factual "So is my love among the young women." The metaphor of the apple tree is terrific, and so is "his banner over me was love." A couple of random points: some of the words in the body of the poem are italicized...I don't know why, since emphasizing them buggers up the sound. And if you're reading the poem out loud, I would emphasize the second syllable in "Sharon" because it sounds better that way.] 5Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. 6His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. 7I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. [Note: "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples" is pure word music. I assume that "sick of love" means something like "dizzy with love," which is a good thing. Charging by the roes and hinds is a brilliant formulation. It seems to acknowledge the magical  power and beauty of nature. Her command to the other women has great force because she summons nature to back her up.] 8The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 9My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 10My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 11For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 12The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; [Note: As a cartoonist, line 8 is skewered for me because I can imagine the way Don Martin would have drawn it. It's still a beautiful image, though. I forgive the "voice of the turtle" reference...turtles don't have voices, do they?...but why quibble?] 15Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 16My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. 17Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bethel. [Note: That's it, that's the end. I have no idea why the boyfriend wants to take vine-eating foxes with him, but the word music here is so powerful that it transcends literal meaning. I deleted lines 13 and 14 just to make the passage shorter. You can read the whole passage here:  http://kingjbible.com/songs/2.html (Forgive the weird spacing above...I'm having computer problems) A beautiful poem, huh? I wish poetry readings were sometimes done by professional actors reading classic poems like this one. If they were, maybe they'd be better attended. BTW: if you follow the link to the site that I stole this from, you'll discover that clicking on the blue line numbers in the King James Version will take you to a long list showing how other translators handled the same line. Boy, what a difference! If you're a student of good writing, I know of no better textbook than these comparisons! Also BTW:  Animation Insider just put up an interview of me on their site: http://www.animationinsider.com/2011/07/eddie-fitzgerald/

"THE POET"

Oh Man, I'm in heaven! Commenter and famed illustrator Kellie Strom told me how to recover this accidentally deleted photo story and the advice was good as gold! Here it is in all it's funky glory. I'm tempted to change a few things, and I wish I didn't look so fat in it, but I'll leave it as is, just to be safe.

The story:

"Now to write this thing...."


"Let's see....hmmm....Love...our love..."

"Our love is such that..."

"No, no....our love runs...runs and swims... "

"No... we swim into love with...we swim into the swimming hole of love...we swim..."

"Oh, the heck with it!"

GLURP! GLURP!

"We swim...we dive...we swan dive..."

"Blp!"

"We SWAN DIVE into the VOLCANO BURNING!!!!"

"We're CREATURES of FIRE..."

"Mingled male and female yearning..."

"Yearning for...for...YEARNING for THE HEAT!"

"For the SWEET EXPLOSION of DESIRE!"

"I SPLASH into the PLEASURE, all consuming..."

"A-l-l c-o-n-s-u-m-i-n-g..."

"...and now...and now... I'm happy...really happy...I'm..."

"I'm just incredibly happy...I'm um..."

"Blf!"

GAGORK! GAGORK! GAGORK!

GLURG! GLURG! GLURG! GLURG!

"I'm JOYFULLY INSANE...insane with...with..."

GLURGGLURGGLURGGLURGGLURG!!!!!

"...INSANE with KISSING your TENDER FEET!"

Yes, the TENDER FEET are REALLY NEAT!!!!"

"DONE!"

"Whew!"

"Now for the reward! I think I've earned a little nip!"

NOTE: This is a bowdlerized version of what I assume is a famous poem but I don't have the name at hand.

NOTE 2: Many, many, many, many thanks to Kellie for the much needed computer help!!!!!!!

Kellie's impressive blog: "Airforce Amazons":
http://airforceamazons.blogspot.com

GLOOM!!!!

Nothing today, I'm afraid. I've been having computer problems so I figured I'd buy some time by reposting one of my very favorite photo stories, the one where a poet writes a romantic poem (2007). I loved that story, even though I looked fat in it.

Well, Blogger just erased it (no, the back button wouldn't recover it).

Things like that don't happen with Blogger the way it's currently set up, but way back in 2007 it happened all the time. Blogger had real stability issues back then, and users who fiddled with a previously posted blog risked losing it. I should have known better than to mess with the old stuff.

I've gotta take a day off to mourn.

TIKI HOUSES

I just stumbled on a TV reality show called "Monster House," where a homeowner allows a friend to completely redo his house. In this case (above) the friend was artist Kim Larson (and company), and she decided to give the house a Tiki look.

She fashioned this fireplace out of chicken wire and insulating foam. I think she did all the work in this room in a day, which isn't bad considering that she wasn't used to the materials. She also changed the shower so it would deliver lots of mist rather than a steady stream of water. That's an interesting idea. Could you get clean that way? Would breathing all that mist be good for you? I'm not sure. I'd like to try it, though.

She also rigged up a mister and a big, Hollywood wind machine on the roof, looking down onto the pool. The idea was to simulate tropical storms. Fascinating!

Larson was apologetic about the fireplace sculpture. She wanted to do something more detailed like the green fireplace above, but had to settle for something that could be done fast. She only had five days to do everything.

The show made me curious to see what renovations other people did on a Tiki theme, so I googled it. What came up were mostly computer images like this one (above). It looks like the Tarzan/Swiss Family Robinson house at Disneyland. I love stuff like this! I even like the way it's on an island or a sand bar. Very nice as long as the weather's okay. 

Here's (above) another beach-style house built over water. Nice. Imagine a house like this built in the suburbs over an artificial deep pond. Imagine tunas swimming in the water. Not very realistic, but fun to think about.

Here's (above) a novel idea for a beach house...I think the caption called it a "Tahiti Wind House." Fascinating! I wouldn't mind a wind house if the furniture was weather proof and nailed down, and the structure was sturdy. Imagine sitting in your walless living room while a thunderstorm raged all around you. Imagine the waves smashing against the nearby rocks. Sigh! But it's impractical, I know.

I can't help thinking, though, that one day it will be possible. One day you'll be able to walk around your walless, temperature controlled house in your pajamas, and nobody walking by will be able to see you. All they'll see in the window slots will be black.

You, on the other hand, will be able to observe passersby as if there was no barrier at all between you and them. Total security, too. No one enters unless you want them too. How will all this be done? That's for the people after us to figure out.

Let them figure this one (above) out, too. A tree house offshore in the ocean! How do you tease a forest tree like this one to grow in the ocean shallows? I don't know. I figure that just about anything we can think of will become possible sooner or later.

DICK VAN DYKE: SLAPSTICK COMEDIAN

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I'm too sleepy to post now, but I thought I'd put up an interesting video as a placeholder: it's the first episode of the old Dick Van Dyke Show from the early 60s. There's no need to watch the whole thing...it was the first show and they didn't quite get the rhythm right... but you have to see Dick's drunk routine which starts at 19:45. Watch it even if you don't like drunk sketches. It's great!

I'm reading Dick's autobiography. It's not very revealing, and he doesn't talk about how he acquired that famous personality and rubbery slapstick technique, but that's par for the course for biographies. I did come across one interesting tidbit, though...he said Stan Laurel told him that he got that cool walk by having the heels removed from his shoes. Where are my shoes? I'm getting them modified!

One final thought: I said they didn't get the rhythm of the whole show right, and that's true. Even so, watch how expertly most of the entire party sequence is shot and cut. Watch how that sequence is paced and how well the music was laid in. PRO-fesh-ee-yon-nal!!!!

P.S. For some reason the YouTube video above isn't embedding. Here's a link to the site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIn8mPy5_jA

MORE EARLY NEWSPAPER STRIPS

Here's (above) a newspaper comic from 1896! I've blogged about this artist before, but I can't help doing it again...I guess I just can't decide whether I like him or not. Good technical draughtsmen were abundant in the 1890s, so the primitive drawing style must be deliberate. Maybe readers regarded this artist the same way we regard Edward Lear or Steinberg now, as primitive and sophisticated at the same time. 

Be sure to click to enlarge all the pictures in this post.

Ahhhh...refreshed at the fountain of Herriman (above)! Here he is caricaturing Opper's style.

Newspaper cartoonists back in the day must have been under a lot of pressure to come up with funny poses. This artist (above) doesn't seem to have a knack for that, but you gotta give him credit for trying. 

Slapstick was king in those days (above). I wish it was today. 

Herriman again (above). I love the guy in the white suit, who's standing in profile. I also like the guys on the lower left and right.  

I like the way this artist (above) lays out his page. He finishes the gag but still has space to fill at the bottom, so he ends the page with a bunch of random afterthoughts. Artists were free to pioneer new formats in those days. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. 

I'm amazed at how common plagiarism was in those days. How do you like the Dick Tracy rip-off above?

Here's (above) an interesting one. Helen Kane had just lost her lawsuit against the Fleischers (the judge claimed he couldn't see the similarity between her voice and that of Betty Boop), so she decided to stake her claim on her personna with a comic strip character of her own that looked just like Betty. It didn't do very well, and Helen Kane slowly slipped out of the public eye.

BTW: I heard a contradictory story, that Kane lost her lawsuit because it was determined that she had stolen her character from yet another singer. I have no idea what the truth is. 

Thanks to Allan Holz from "Stripper's Guide" for the comics. A link to his terrific blog can be found in the right sidebar.