Why This Is Rembrandt’s Masterpiece
Food4Thought 12/23/2019
True but Forbidden 24: Vulva Pillows and the Anatomy Lesson
In·ter·est·ing /ˈint(ə)rəstiNG/ : 1952 Chevy…
The Parable of the White Whale and the Good Ship…
Let's Review 50: Signs of the New Spring and the…
Strange Daze
Long Read of the Week: Why Speculate by Michael Crichton
Mirror Mirror“The weight of this sad time we must obey. / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.” — Lear
Real World Address
My Back Pages
“From a student radical/hippie/leftist of the Free Speech Movement/Vietnam Day Commitee era and a full-on Democratic Liberal in the decades after, I think I’ve evolved a politics that is neither right nor left but is, in its elemental nature, draconian. In the last 20 years, I’ve taken apart my beliefs with a sledgehammer. Now I’ve got to put the surviving parts back together with tweezers and other ‘shabby equipment, always deteriorating’.”
A Wicker Basket
Comes the time when it’s later
and onto your table the headwaiter
puts the bill, and very soon after
rings out the sound of lively laughter—
Picking up change, hands like a walrus,
and a face like a barndoor’s,
and a head without any apparent size,
nothing but two eyes—
So that’s you, man,
or me. I make it as I can,
I pick up, I go
faster than they know—
Out the door, the street like a night,
any night, and no one in sight,
but then, well, there she is,
old friend Liz—
And she opens the door of her cadillac,
I step in back,
and we’re gone.
She turns me on—
There are very huge stars, man, in the sky,
and from somewhere very far off someone hands me a slice of apple pie,
with a gob of white, white ice cream on top of it,
and I eat it—
Slowly. And while certainly
they are laughing at me, and all around me is racket
of these cats not making it, I make it
in my wicker basket.
— BY ROBERT CREELEY
Your Say
My Back Pages
Search American Digest’s Back Pages
The Vault
Fire Sale
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Black Burgers Matter
Just found out about this amazing new restaurant called “Amplifying Black Voices” where you can buy non-racist hamburgers and anti-fascist milkshakes. pic.twitter.com/0JA1mELnYg
— Titania McGrath (@TitaniaMcGrath) July 1, 2020
Comments on this entry are closed.
Nerdwriter may be a layman at art criticism, but he does get off some very good art videos. Rembrandt’s massive painting has lines, darks and lights, and movement. It exceeds the physical content of the painting, and unvarnishes the character of the Amsterdammer irregulars. Old Remmy wasn’t great because he could render and paint – he was great because he continued to innovate and loosen up. So much so, his career goes south on greased arquebus shot! He dies a debtor and is vilified by the city he revealed, and who at first loved him to fame.
That’s why I love Rembrandt. I love that he stuck a finger in their eye.
Thanks for posting this vid. A little story: years ago, when I worked in midtown Manhattan, on the occasional Friday evening immediately after escaping the office, I’d take the train uptown and walk over to the Metropolitan. My too-big-to-fail bank employer was a corporate sponsor for the museum, so employees could get in for free (or make a donation if they felt like it). Anyway, most of the time my whole point in going to the museum was to visit the rooms where a few Rembrandt’s were/are displayed. I do not claim to be anything but ignorant about the vast world of Western art, but I know what I like, and few things I know brought me the kind of joy and solace I took in sitting quietly for a while, staring at those too real portraits, almost believing that, at any moment, they would talk to me in Dutch. He and his contemporaries were brilliant. His paintings make me glad to be alive. Thanks, again.
Hi, Kerry!
I’ll be at The Met on Friday. I’ll say hello to a Rembrandt for ya!
Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” . . . ? What? Has this guy never seen Game of Thrones? Please. Give me a break! Also, I hate listening to nonbinary proletariats parroting Mrs. Hooper, my sophomore art appreciation teacher, when describing any, yes Any!, piece of art. Still, it is a pretty picture.
Thanks, Casey! If ANY of those portraits do, in fact, start a conversation with you, don’t tell me when you return. I’ll be so jealous! Har!
Have a wonderful time.