How David Lynch pays the bills

Singing Ringing Tree

Singing Ringing Tree, an art installation near Burnley, Lancashire. Artists: Tonkin Liu.

Only later I realised what it reminded me - of course, Alexei Prasolov's lines

        Я услышал: корявое дерево пело,
Мчалась туч торопливая, темная сила...

Another Place by Antony Gormley

Installation on Crosby Beach: Another Place by Antony Gormley (of the Angel of the North fame).

Poetry with a whiff of mathematics, VIII

Le temps, l'étendue et le nombre
Sont tombés du noir firmament
Dans la mer immobile et sombre
Suaire de silence et d'ombre,
La nuit efface entièrement
Le temps, l'étendue et le nombre
Tel qu'un lourd et muet décombre,
L'esprit plonge au vide dormant
Dans la mer immobile et sombre.
En lui-même, avec lui tout sombre,
Souvenir, rêve, sentiment,
Le temps, l'étendue et le nombre,
Dans la mer immobil et sombre.

Villanelle by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818-1894). 

I first discovered Ivan Bunin's translation:
В ТЕМНУЮ НОЧЬ, В ШТИЛЬ, ПОД ЭКВАТОРОМ

Время, Пространство, Число
С черных упали небес
В море, где мрак и покой.

Саван молчанья и тьмы
Их поглотил без следа -
Время, Пространство, Число.

Тяжким обломком, немым,
Падает Дух и пустоту,
В море, где мрак и покой.

С ним, погруженным во тьму,
Тонут, рожденные им,
Время, Пространство, Число
В море, где мрак и покой.

27 ноября 1915 

Animation with a whiff of mathematics, II

Loop, A Snail Odyssey

Parrot to be fitted with a wooden leg

From Telegraph:

A one-legged parrot that keeps slipping off his perch is to be fitted with a 'wooden leg'. George, a ten-year-old African Grey, lost a claw after being attacked by a wild animal which broke into his cage a year and a half ago. The missing limb means whenever George tries to sleep, he slips off his perch, squawking "Bloody Hell!" in surprise. Concerned for her pet, the bird's owner Sheila Weare sought advice from experts at the University of Salford. Mrs Weare, from Crewe told the BBC: “You can tell by the way he fidgets that he's not comfortable and he has to bite the bars of his cage at night to balance." In the hope of giving bird and owner a good night's sleep, the perch will be fitted with a specially-moulded slot, into which George will be trained to insert his stump at night.

For the Russian reader, не могу не вспомнить загадку эпохи моего детства:

С когтями, но не птица, Летит и матерится.

Kitsch and Norman Rockwell

No discussion of kitsch is complete without mentioning Norman Rockwell (1894-1978).

Norman Rockwell, Courting Couple at Midnight, March 22, 1919. Source: Brewster & Co.

This painting caught my eye because of its description in the book 102 Favourite Paintings by Norman Rockwell (Crown Publishers, New York, 1978. ISBN 0-517-534487) , p. 20: ... She is living an eternal moment of romantic bliss... Therefore this post belongs to the thread on infinity, eternity and kitsch. I discovered the book on a coffee table in the house of my American colleague. As a coffee-table book, it is great, I have to admit that.