2.6.10















Make room for more WHITE paper + sharp pencils.

78
One of these December nights, I was awakened by the jazz station I listened to for white noise. The man behind the microphone was crying and stuttering. I couldn't understand what was happening. Was it a sleepy fog of twisted sound or a disaster at the radio station? I peered below, over the edge of my loft bed just as Guffrie jumped up from his cot to his 6’6” height.
“Oh, my god...” He reeled with his hands to his head as the TV crawler announced the assassination of John Lennon.

Walking up to Central Park the following Saturday you would have merged with other overwhelmed city dwellers.Talk became hushed tones. A bitter cold was blowing in. At the band shell Imagine played and a memorial silence was obeyed. Afterward, the paper had Yoko saying she had seen John’s face smiling down from the sky. She can see things like that. On the walk home it began to snow and a lightness filled the air.

jahh / Script for a practicing artist + an unfinished life.

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...and as a custom he always took an uncharted street home.
He was entranced with radio games and truck gimmicks. Colored glasses that turned the landscape into a novelty scene. What is most vague? What is most uninteresting? One late afternoon he rode half way across Kansas with a set and clear conscious. He passed that peculiar water tower with obscure graffiti. As it shrank from life size to a spec in his rear view mirror he felt himself mentally backing up.

Plan ‘C’ found him being assistant to an artist. Tedious. He was entrusted to stretch and make ready canvas. This yoga-monkey-man task left him mental time with cunning thoughts. While sizing fabric he would under paint geometric shapes with gesso. Perhaps a large X, stripes, or a single block letter. After the applied final coat of white paint was dry and ready for the artist’s paint, a hint of his mark remained. This was subtle graffiti at its most tasteful.

jahh /  Parallel Chances Tend to Neglect

19 comments:

  1. the first vignette was quite stirring...the second did give me a smile.

    happy tt!

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  2. The wonderful thing about Theme Thursday is how it can conjure up little gems and string them together with a thread so fine it can be but a single word.

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  3. Oooh...nice! I use a fan for white noise when I sleep.

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  4. I live in a suburb...everywhere I go is a lot of white noise! ;)

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  5. I remember watching a documentary on Lennon and being rather surprised that it was Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football who was the first to announce the shooting. It was truly a powerful collision of worlds.

    And I must ask what Plans A and B were. ;)

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  6. Wow, that first piece really took me back! A sad day.

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  7. Lonnie, that is the nice YFB, yes?

    Jeff, Was 8Dec'80 really a Monday? I cannot remember...
    I just remember the heaviness of the city for days after.
    'B' was creating male stripper costumes... And I'll let you guess what plan 'A' was! -J

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  8. Just amazed and inspired by your creativity here.

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  9. your snippets always leave me guessing...someday i suppose we'll see more.

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  10. I enjoyed this very much. So many lives lost in stupid acts. Great way to leave your mark (artist) even if your the only one who knows

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  11. Ah. . I didn't give a shit about Elvis but Lennon was another story. I long for mental time with cunning thoughts. Wonderful imagery. My brother looks like him. . really.Were you there?

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  12. Tom,; Both of these are from finished larger writing work.

    Baino; I was going to school in NYC when Lennon was assassinated. Tragic.

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  13. That first piece was particularly moving. Thank you for visiting my blog.

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  14. White is the new Graffiti.....

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  15. such an interesting juxtaposition and truly evocative

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